The Greek Manuscripts in the Old Seraglio at Constantinople

indefinitely until their demands were conceded, as they had plenty of food and supplies. I saw them buying bread and cigarettes. Many, as I have said, were able to get drunk, and some were buying revolvers and small pistols for hand-to-hand fighting. The money seems to have come from the Softas Muslim theological students., who are themselves a miserably poor class; but where did the Softas get it? There seems to be little doubt that the high ecclesiastical authorities were not the source; the Sheikh-ul-Islam The highest religious official in the Ottoman Empire. was not even particularly pleased at the turn events took, and he was not a wealthy man. I do not think there can be much doubt that the money came through underground channels from Yildiz The Sultan's palace complex. itself; if this is the case, much that would otherwise be mysterious becomes explicable.

The day before the mutiny broke out, the Sultan openly sent £10,000 to troops being disbanded in Asia Minor, and I think it is almost certain that he devoted an even larger sum to the soldiers in Constantinople itself. It is true that his civil list The amount of money allocated for the monarch's personal expenses. had been significantly reduced since the days of the Constitution, but he must have possessed immense reserves from the time when the public treasury and his private accounts were one and the same. I imagine that he took his share of every Turkish loan before the money reached its destination. He certainly held large investments in most countries of the world; it would not have been disproportionate to his resources to provide every private soldier with fifteen shillings or so—a fortune to them—with non-commissioned officers receiving more in proportion. His position was temporarily improved to a great degree by the mutiny. Without having to abrogate the liberties of his subjects—at least those liberties they deserved—he regained a considerable amount of power. He had the skill to recognize the right moment: the moment when the clergy were becoming exasperated by the neglect of sacred law, and the citizens were furious at the murder of an editor, which was—rightly or wrongly—attributed to the Committee The Committee of Union and Progress, the political organization behind the Young Turk Revolution. because he had attacked them in the press and criticized their undeniably high-handed and unskilled proceedings. The unanimity of the outbreak must