Illustration of an Caramanian Soldier, 1818, Print

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This print is from 'The Military Costume of Turkey. Illustrated by A Series of Engravings. from Drawings made on the … Read more This print is from 'The Military Costume of Turkey. Illustrated by A Series of Engravings. from Drawings made on the Spot. Dedicated by Permission to His Excellency the Minister of the Ottoman Porte to his Britannic Majesty.' London, Published by Thomas M'Lean, Haymarket, (1818). Folio. One of 29 fine handcoloured aquatint plates . Very light offsetting from plates. The original accompanying text of this print is as follows: Caramania is a considerable province of Asiatic Turkey; its civil and military jurisdiction is administered by Waiwods, or officers, who purchase the right to oppress the commonalty. The bad effects of such a system, is no where more conspicuous than in Caramania, where immense districts exhibit the consequences attendant on bad government, ruin and depopulation. The spirit of the inhabitants, being subdued by the precarious nature of their existence, they have neither interest or pride, in opposing the inroads which time is ever making on the works of ancient art and grandeur, by which they are surrounded: they quit their dwellings at that time of the year when the sun becomes oppressive, leaving them open to all intruders, and journey towards the mountains, where they remain until the fertility of their old neighbourhood induces them to return. The accompanying print represents one of the guards of the Waiwod, he is armed with a handjar, pistols, and a club of hardened wood, jagged, or serrated, at the weighty end. The back-ground shows the style in which the hovels in Caramania are constructed. Illustrated by a series of engravings, from drawings made on the spot. Dedicated, by permission, to His Excellency the Minister of the Ottoman Porte to His Britannic Majesty. Published By Thomas McLean, London, 1818. See less