150 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. riMit of having disputes with their fellow-Yenetians decided only by their own authorities, the right to have questions be- tween Venetians and Ottoman subjects decided only in pres- ence of a Venetian dragoman or interpreter, exemption from harach, the tax imposed on Christians in lieu of military ser- vice, and the right of the republic to name its own baily or magistrate in Constantinople. These privileges were embodied in the capitulations with Their mod- Fraucc in 1536, and though this treaty has been era form. often redrawn and embodied in many treaties with each European power, its provisions still remain the essential articles of the capitulations under which foreigners now live in the Ottoman empire. The system which was thus formu- lated in the French capitulations has not materially changed from that day to this. Each nation has now its treaty with the Porte. But as each treaty contains a most-favored-nation clause, the whole of the treaties or capitulations form a body of law which constitutes the capitulations under which for- eigners live, and under which their governments exercise ju- risdiction in the Ottoman empire.' In the best days of the Byzantine empire something ap- Reasonswhy pi'oacliing a fusiou or welding together of the va- fSd iuTur- i*i^"s races into one people had taken place. But ^^^- the influx of new-comers into the empire during the century immediately preceding the Latin conquest formed a population of so many different races, languages, and man- ners, that the process of fusion stopped. As soon as the city came under Moslem rule, fusion became impossible, and has been so ever since. The Mahometan is forbidden by his re- ligion to grant equality to unbelievers. Christian subjects are rayahs, or sheep. Hence, as might have been expected, 1 The treaties under which foreigners reside in the Turkish empire are usually called capitulations, because their contents are arranged under heads. They assume sometimes the form of letters patent or concessions, by which the sovereign has granted certain rights to the subjects of an- other power. At other times, and more usually, they are in the form of treaties, by which the sovereign of each country grants certain privileges to the subjects of the other.
