Volume 1

A full and just account of the present state of the Ottoman Empire in all its brances: with the government, and policy, religion, customs, and way of living of the Turks, in general ... from a serious observations, taken in many years travels thro' those countries / By Aaron Hill.

Aaron Hill

Date:: 1709

Credit: A full and just account of the present state of the Ottoman Empire in all its brances: with the government, and policy, religion, customs, and way of living of the Turks, in general ... from a serious observations, taken in many years travels thro' those countries / By Aaron Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

404/418 page 330

$_ ----- The Trejent State of ^Ethiopia, Egypt, which runs fix Daps withfuch amazing Breadth, and rapid Violence.of an Im¬ petuous Current, that by driving down the very Stones, and Sand, o1tv which it rolls, it renders it impoffible for Mortal Courage, Strength, or Artifice, to com pafs Means of pa fling it, but on the Sabbath Day, at which time all the Waters fall Miraculoufly, for the (pace of Four and Twenty Hours, leaving dry, and paffable the Sandy Bottom. The sixth* Mr. William Pen, in the Account, he gives of Penfilvania, tells us. Opinion. J he believes the Natives of that Place had no Original, but from the Jennfb Tribes, and arms the Arguments, he ufes on this Subjed, with the following Obfervations* Its Reafons. THAT God cou’d point them out with eafe a Paflage to America, from the Eafiern Parts of A ft a, and that, fince they were Ordain’d to be remov’d to an VniilPd, even UndifcovePd Country> ’tis highly probable, that the Weft- Indies was the Place, fince that was then the only unknown Quarter of the Habitable Univerje. c. ' ^ Ait * • 1 « i « AND that they rather Peopled Penfilvania, than the other Parts of the Weft-Indies, lie imagines not unlikely, fince the Natives of that Country fa refemble Jews, in Features and Deportment, that they feem diftinguifhabiy Mark’d by God, as the Pofterity of that Unhappy Nation. ’jfwifl) Cu- AGAIN, their Feafts, Fafts, Sacrifices, and all other Rights, and Cere- rtoms in Ptn- m0nies, with the great Affinity, their Language bears to Hebrew, and a- iuvtma. bundance more concurring Circumftances in their ways of Life, agree fo evidently with the Jewijh Inftitutions, Government, and Cuftoms, that he judges it a very reafonable Notion, to conclude they are defeended from the long Loft Race of the Subverted Ifraelites. . h BUT having mention’d thtforegoing Notions, now mofi Common in the Opinion** Eaftern World, 1 will proceed to let youTee, how probable it is, that all the Turks are of the Jewifh Race, and that the Ten above-nam’d Tribes, at leaf! the greateft Remnant of them, now refide in Tartary, and are the People fo Notorious for their Inhumanity, fo Formidable in their Government, Un¬ known in their Condition, and fo jo Illy Dreaded by the oft Invaded World, who only know them by the Name of Tartars. The TurksDe- I ffiow’d the Reader in my Entrance on the Book, that Anciently the feended from Turks were an huge Body of Ungovernable Wandring Scythians, or Tartars, who the j-evs. f0rf00k their Country for lbme unknown Caule, and over-running Turco- fnania, and a Boundlefs Traft of Fertile Land, became a People, formidably Numerous, and fwell’d in time to that fnrprizing Pitch of Arbitrary Sway, they boaft at prefent. I T hence appears ’tis Univerfally allow’d, as an Undoubted Certainty, that ’tis from Tartary thtTurks firll took their Origin ; It only then remains to prove, that thole, we now call Tartars, may be rationally thought the True Pofterity of the Ten Tribes of IJrael, which the Conquering Salmane- £er carried with him Captive, asaforefaid, which I fhall endeavour to per¬ form, as Briefly as is poffible. ri.e Etymo- AND ftrfl, the Reader may obferve, that Tarut-Har, or Tartar, in the logy of the Syrian Language, fignifies the Remnant, or Remainder of a People, which tho7 v-ord t»ut. a]onean Argument, of nofmal\ weight, is ftrongly aided by the following Particulars. MED I A.$