TWO EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPTSON THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE LEVANT

GEORGE SALT

A MANUSCRIPT on my bookshelves contains a collection of geographical and other notesrelating to Greece and Asia Minor. It has no title, and is unsigned. It was written during aperiod of years beginning before 1739, probably before 1733, and continuing at least until1749. Among its contents are about a hundred Greek inscriptions. Some of theinscriptions attracted the interest of Professor R. Stroud, of Berkeley, when he visitedCambridge in 1977-8, and he intends to publish an article about them. For that purpose itis desirable to know what authenticity they command, in short, who wrote the manuscript.This paper records an enquiry into the question.

Salt MS. 62' has two principal parts separated by a short middle section. The first part,comprising fols. 5-75 (with contemporary pagination 1-140 + 2), is an annotated cata-logue of 'Citys Towns Rivers Mountains and Lakes', giving their ancient and modernnames and brief notes of their situation and history. It seems to have been written at firston the recto sides of the leaves only, but most verso pages carry supplementary informa-tion, and there are very many marginal and interlinear additions in the same hand. Anindex to the foregoing catalogue occupies fols. 76-84' ; fol. 84' has the heading 'A Journalof a Journey from Aleppo to Constantinople in 1738/39'; and fol. 86' is headed 'GreekInscriptions at sundry Places, beginning as follows, / Thyatira'. That middle group ofleaves, fols. 76-86, has no contemporar\ pagination. The second part of the manu-script, fols. 87-142, can be described as a commonplace book of geographical andantiquarian notes. Besides many entries of journeys, both classical and recent, with detailsof routes and distances, it includes numerous items of commercial interest, for instance,estates, revenues, currencies, and trade. I think that the whole manuscript was written byone man.

The crucial first step in my search for that man was made possible by Dr. SusanSkilliter, Lecturer in Turkish at Cambridge. She kindly drew my attention to a paper byHasluck,- which lists manuscripts in the British Library relating to travel in the Levant. Init, under the year 1739, is a reference to Sloane MS. 4824 (properly designated Add. MS.4824) and a note that on fols. 11 o-12 the manuscript contains 'Arthur PuUinger, Journal ofa journey from Aleppo to Constantinople'. Through the kindness of Miss J. M. Backhouseof the British Library I have been able to examine Add. MS. 4824 atid my own manuscriptside by side.

.Add. MS. 4824 consists oi" 114 leaves of paper, mostly about 335 x 225 mm. With fewexceptions onl> ihcir recto sides are written on. The text occupying fols. 2-109 '̂ ^transcript of the basic text of fols. 5 75 of my manuscript, that is, the text without themarginal and interlinear additions. On fols. 110 12, written in the same hand, is 'AJournal ofa Journc\ from Aleppo to Constantinople in 1738/9', copied from fols. 84^-85^of Salt MS. (u. The transcription throughout is imperfect; and the nature of the differencesbetween the two manuscripts shows that Add. MS. 4824 was copied from Salt MS. 62, andnot the reverse. Thai view is confirmed b\ the fact that the copyist leii many gaps where hecould not read what he was cop> ing; tbe words omitted, usually Turkish place-names orwords in Greek, were inserted untidily, perhaps impatiently, in another hand. The twohands found in Add. MS. 4824 arc both different from the small neat band of Salt MS. 62.

Four pages of Add. MS. 4824- the recto sides of fols. i and i [3 and both sides offol. 114—were not written by the copyist. On fol. i is a title, written quickly, with noattempt at formal lettering but spaced as for a title-page. It reads: 'Antient / Geography /C.oUcctcd By , Arthur Pullinger / Late Merchant / In / Aleppo / About The Year / 1740'.The satne hand is recognizable in the heading of fol. 113, 'Greek Inscriptions In Athens onthe seats of the Theater of Bacchus / or above them', and of fol. 114, 'Initial lines ofinscriptions / At Thyatira'. The latter three pages (fols. 113, 114^ and 114^) are largelyoccupied by Greek capital letters, altogether sixty-four lines or part lines of them, and it issignificant that they were obviously written at speed, by someone thoroughly accustomedto writing Greek and not over-careful about the formation of his letters. The place-namesand other words written in gaps left in the text by the principal copyist, and ratherextensive notes on the verso sides of seven leaves (fols. 3, 37, 68, 76, 83, 103, 107, wherewere copied some of the larger collections of inscriptions in Salt MS. 62), are in the hand ofthe w riter of these four pages.

Examination of Add. MS. 4824, then, has revealed the name of the man we seek. On itstitle-page the text, copied from Salt MS. 62, is attributed to 'Arthur PuUinger LateMerchant In Aleppo'. There is no reason to doubt the attribution. It is consistent with theinterest in commercial matters shown by entries in the commonplace part of mymanuscript, the part which was not copied in Add. MS. 4824. I'hc writer of the originalmanuscript knew some Turkish, as is evident from his occasional translation of place-names (e.g. fol. 84 \ 'Curtculla, A Wolfs Far'; fol. 85, 'Oxshahar, White City', 'Eski-Shahar, Old City', and 'Kirkcuoslu or Forty Eyes'), and that knowledge would beexpected in a merchant of Aleppo.

Moreover, the attribution of Salt MS. 62 to Arthur Pullinger does not rest solely on thetitle-page of Add. MS. 4824. The journal of the journey from Aleppo to Constantinople inMarch 1739 on fols. 84'-85' of my manuscript clearh records first-hand experience. Itgives the number of times the traveller changed horses and the number of hours he tookover each stage, and it contains remarks on the topography, scenery, and produce of thecftuntry he is traversing in terms that are clearly personal although not in the first person.Any suggestion that the journal could tievertheless have been copied is ruled out by thealterations in it, both changes of phrasing and interpolations, all in the same hand. They

152

show that the writer was emending his own account. Now, in the second, commonplace,part of the notebook (fol. 119), where the writer was attempting to reconcile the place-names and distances recorded by several travellers, he tabulated the route and distancesbetween Aleppo and Constantinople under the small and inconspicuous heading'PuUingers Acct'. That, in effect, signs the 'Journal of a Journey'.

I think it cati safely be concluded that the compiler and writer of Salt MS. 62 wasArthur Pullinger. A number of facts still to be mentioned are all compatible with thatidentification.

But who was Arthur Pullinger.^ Our only clue—that he was a merchant in Aleppo-leads straight to the records of the Levant Company, because English trade with AsiaMinor in tbe eighteenth century was a monopoly of the 'Turkey Merchants'. In thoserecords he has already been found: an interesting account by R. Davis' of the Radcliffctamily, English traders in the Levant, mentions him and incidentally provides thefollowing information about his commercial activities. Arthur Pullinger was one of thefactors at Aleppo of the London house of H., J., and T. March. In 1725-6 he was partnerof Charles Beverley in the firm of Beverley & Pullinger; and he presumably became asenior factor in due course, for in 1733 another merchant, Richard Stratton, wrote of'Messrs. PuUinger'. Still later he received Samuel Medley as his junior, and theycontinued to represent the March interests in Aleppo until 1738, when the firm ofPullinger & Medley went bankrupt.

The dates to be found in Pullinger's notebook fit that time-scale, and extend it; but theyare few, and it is uncertain whether all of them refer to his own activities. His book is acollection ot notes, some based on personal experience, others copied, and the twocategories are not explicitly distinguished. For instance, on fol. 51 is written, 'The follow-ing Inscriptions were taken from thence the Year of our Lord 17^^', followed by adescription ot the site which seems from its colloquial wording unlikcK to have beencopied from anything in print, and from its form and detail to be original. If it can be reliedupon as a personal observation, Pullinger visited Ephesus and copied inscriptions there in1733- ^^ know that he travelled to Constantinople in 1739, and I think that he thenreturned to England. A table on fol. 132 headed 'Computed distance from Constantinopleto London by Sea' lists the length in leagues of thirty-five stages; eight of them arebetween the Lizard and London, which suggests an Englishman's personal interest. Fromevidence of another kind, to be given below, it is probable that Pullinger was in England in1741-2. But I think he went back to Aleppo later, for on fol. 119' of his notebook isdescribed a journey from Aleppo to the river Euphrates in 1747 which appears to beoriginal. The latest date in the manuscript is that of a letter from Consul Purnell inLatachia written in January 1749 and copied into the notebook on fol. 87''; but there isnothing to indicate where Pullinger was when he copied it.

This is no place to attempt even a brief biography of Arthur Pullinger, but a fewremarks are necessary if his manuscript and the Greek inscriptions in it are to be seen ina proper background. English merchants in the Levant in his time lived in quartersresembling small forts, in all-male communities which reminded Ambrose^ of monastic or

153

academical institutions. Mosl of them passed their exile, usually of eight to ten years, intrivial pursuits; a few took ihcopportunities afforded by the region to develop antiquarianinterests. Wood'̂ mentions several factors who at various times collected orientalmanuscripts, ancient coins, statuary, and other antiquities, with which they enrichedI'.niilish museums. .Arthur Pullinger was clcarl> a man of that sort, but he remainsunktiown because liis collections were not objects but observations, and he did not publishthctii. 1 lis name docs not appear in ihc I).N.B. or among thcgraduatcsof the seven Britishuniversities of the linic; but his transcription of Greek and Latin with evidentappreciation, his knowledge of classical geography and history, the wide range of hisinterests, and, in general, the way he went about making his notes are convincing evidencethat he was an educated man. Let tis notice in passing that the Greek letters in his notebookwere fiirmcd caretulh, drawn rather than written, as by one acquainted with Greek butnot much in the habit ol" writing it.

Examination of Add. MS. 4S24 provides another name. On its modern binding isstatiipcd in gold 'Bequeathed by Rev. R. Pocock, D.D.'. Having doubts about the spellingof tbe surname and the Doctorate in Divinity, I appealed for information about theacquisition of" the tnanuscript to Dr. 1). P. Walcy, Keeper of Manuscripts at the BritishLibrary. He kindh informed me that it'was part of the collection bequeathed to the British.Museum b\ Dr. Richard Pocockc, Bishop of Mcaih (d. 1765), and transmitted by hiscousin and executor Jeremiah Milles on 5 June 1767'." That identification is especiallygratifying because it bears directly on the motive of this enquiry: Richard Pococke was notonly a bishop, a traveller, and an antiquarian, he was also the author of a catalogue ofGreek inscriptions."

Richard Pocockc" received the D.C.L. of Oxford University in 1733, but in his booksused the abbreviation LL.D. He was made Bishop of Ossory in 1756, and of Meath in1765, 'ind ma) have become a Doctor of Divinitv but, if so, neither the D.N.B. norI'oster's . l/ninni Oxonicnscs mentions it. I le is chiefly known as a traveller and antiquarian.His travels in Fgypt, Asia Minor, and Greece are described in two folio volumes, of whichPat t I nf ihc sccotul \olunic' especially concerns us here. Sailing from Fgypt on 10 March1738 (p. 2), he landed at Joppa and, after travelling in Palestine for about four months, leftDamascus for Aleppo on 15 Jul\ 1738 (p. 137). On the way, at Surmecnon 25 July, he wasmet by 'my friend at Aleppo' (p. 146), and he reached Aleppo in his friend's company on29 July (p. 150). Pocockc made excursions in the district, including a journey to theEuphrates which occupied two weeks, and finally left Aleppo for Antioch ('I took leave ofmy friends at Aleppo, from w hom I had received all manner of civilities') on 20 September1738 (p. 169). He spent the next two years in Cyprus, Egypt, Crete, the Aegean islands,Phrygia, and Greece, and eventually sailed from Patras for Messina on 20 October 1740..After further travel in Europe, he returned to London on 30 August 1741.'"

Pococke's itinerary in the summer of 173S has been set out in some detail because itshows that he went to Aleppo while Arthur Pullinger was living there. PuUinger is notmentioned b\ name in Pococke's book, but neither is anyone else. Many friends, hosts,servants, English gentlemen, consuls, and pashas are acknowledged as having helped him

154

in his travels, but not one of them is named. At the time of Pococke's visit to Aleppo, therewere 'not above six or seven English houses here at present' (p. 151); during the eightweeks Pocockc spent in and about Aleppo he must have met most members ot so small acommunit), and it is incredible that he should not have met a man who had interests sosimilar to his ow n. Indeed, it seems to me extremely likely that Pullinger was 'my friend atAleppo' who rode out from the city to meet Pocockc at Surmccn on 25 July (p. 146) and towhose house in Aleppo Pococke retired after calling on the consul (p. 150). That friendpresumably had antiquarian interests, for he accompanied, perhaps guided, Pocockc onvisits to Kuph (p. 146), Elbarraw (p. 147), and Rouiah (p. 148) during the three days aftertheir meeting at Surmeen. Pullinger, the writer of Salt MS. 62, undoubtedly had thatqualification.

It is almost certain, then, that Pococke and Pullinger were in each other's company atAleppo for eight weeks during July, August, and September 1738. Was Add. MS. 4<S24copied from Pullinger's notebook at Pococke's behest during" that period? A copyist couldeasily have written it in the time; but several lines of evidence indicate that it was writtenlater, and in England. The journal of the journey from Aleppo to Constantinople in March1739 is included in the cop). The title-page describes Pullinger as 'Late Merchant InAleppo', implying that when it was written he was no longer there. The copy was writtenin an English hand, on paper with a British watermark, and by a copyist who was notfamiliar with Greek letters or Turkish place-names but was proficient in English;therefore probably in England. The cop) must surely have been written for Pococke(further evidence is given below), but he did not return to England until 1741. Thecollection of notes (not the copy) is said on the title-page to have been made 'AboutThe "^ear 1740', a form of words that would be used of time past. These bits of evidencesuggest that Pococke had the copy made in England, after he returned but before he w rotehis book, perhaps in the second half of 1741 or in 1742. If so, Pullinger's notebook musthave been in England then; and Pullinger, 'Late Merchant In Aleppo', was probably herewith it.

Add. MS. 4824 contains only about a quarter of the contents of Salt MS. 62, forPullinger doubled the size of his first part b) adding marg;inal and interlinear notes afterthe cop) was written, and his second part, if an) of it then existed, was not copied. He notonly added to his original text, he also altered it. F'or instance, on fol. 85 he struck out somewords and wrote a replacement in the margin. The original words are illegible althoughthe descenders of a/> and a^and the top of a Tcan be made out. Add. MS. 4824 has here'passing by a Town', which must have been copied before the words were cancelled. Someof the additional notes were probably added after Pullinger had read Pococke's book,published in 1745. For instance, on fol. 46 one of the interlinear additions reads'Po])chna p.|crhapsj Biramitch which Dr Pocockc mentions amongst the Villages nearTroy see Page 76' (The reference is to his own page 76 (fol. 43') where a note reads '. . . aVillage called now Biramlich may be Polychna'). Biramitch is mentioned on p. 107 ofPart II of Pococke's second volume. This process of emendation and addition seems tohave gone on fora long while. Add. MS. 4824 was probably written in a short space of time

155

and wuhiii the years 1741 2. Pullin^cr's notebook was the intermittent work of several\ears, probabl) from belore 173̂ ,̂ cerlainl\ irom 1730, until 174().

One further point has been investigaletl. Il was mentioned above that four pages ofAdd. MS. 4824 were noi written by the copyist, and that the many Greek inscriptionsrecorded on three of tbem had obviously been written at speed, by someone accustomed towriting Greek. Since the manuscript is known to have belonged to Ricbard Pococke, whoafterwards published a catalogue of Cireek inscriptions, it would be natural to suppose thathe wrote those pages himseli. An opportunit) to examine that supposition was offeredwhen l)r, W ale\ kindl\ lold me of manuscripts in the British Library which were writtenor corrected b\ Richard Pococke. I have compared the writing in Add. MS. 4824 with thatin Add. MS. 22995 (catalogued as being in Pococke's hand) and with the corrections inAdd. MS. 22998 (catalogued as having corrections in Pococke's hand). The comparisonlca\es no doubt in my mind that fol. i and fols. 11 v 14 of Add. MS. 4824 were written byRich.ud Pococke, and thai it was he who filled the gaps left in the text by the copyist andw ho copied the inscriptions from Salt MS. 62 on to the verso sides of seven leaves of Add.MS. 4824 (fols. 3, 37, 68, 76, 83, 103, 107). Together w ith circumstantial evidence alreadymentioned, this observation strongly supports the idea that Add. MS. 4824 was copiedfrom PuUinger's notebook on Pococke's behalf.

To what extent Pococke used Pullinger's geographical notes when he described his owntravels would be difficult to estimate in general, but in one instance his debt is clear. A longfootnote on pp. 83-4 of Part II of his second volume begins, 'As the road from Aleppo toConstantinople passes through this country, I shall give some account ot that road, whiehI recci\ed from a friend who tra\elled twice that way, as it will give an opportunity ofexplaining many things relating to the geography of Asia Minor'. There follows anaccount in about 1,250 words, of which the matter and many of the phrases are taken fromPullinger's journal of his journc\. The footnote ser\cs to tell us that PuUinger made thejourney twice, and that Pococke considered his observations valuable in explaining thegeography oi the region. It also tells us something about Pococke. Me may perhaps beexcused for leaving nameless those who helped him on his travels, because they were somany, but there is something niggardly in his failure to mention a man who providedinformation he used in his book. A satisfactory result of this enquiry is to bring forward thename of Arthur Pullinger as a traveller and antiquarian.

1 Sa i l M S . 62 . In E n g i i b h , on p a p e r , 142 II., 300 X and Travel', .hiiunil of the British School at185 mm., generally 40-50 lines to a page but .////c^.v, \ii (1905 6), pp. \()h-2\z,.with many interlinear additions in the same } Ralph IXnis, Aleppo und Devonshire Squareneat cursive. Five engraved maps pasted in; (London, 11)67).a few diagrams lo illustrate architecture; 4 G. Ambrose,'English Traders at Aleppo 1658-numerous Greek inscriptions, some copied from I75^''i Economic History Review, iii (1931),epigraphs. PP^ 248-67.

2 I. \\ - Hasluclv, 'Notes on Manuscripis in the 5 Alfred C. Wood, A History oj'lhe Levunt Com-Hritish MusLuni relaiing 10 Levani Geography /)(/»)'(Oxford, 1^5), p. 242.

6 This and further information about Add. MS. lo According to the D.N.fi., Pncocke rciurned to4S24 is now available in the Cutdlojiiu- of Add 1- I'.ngland in 1742. Mis travels after he left Crelctions to the Manuscripts 17SO-1282 (London, are obscurely dated, without reference to theu)77)- year, but in the summary of his travels in Europe

7 Richard Poeocke. Jnscnptioitum .hitu/iiuriiiii (Part 11, pp. 272-3) Pococke gives the date ol hisGraec. et Latin. Liber (London, 1752). arrival in London as yo Aug. 1741. This is cor-

8 DtctionaryoJNatioii(ilBiograptiy{iH()(}),\o\.\]\\, toborated in Add. MS. 2Zi)(.)H, where lhe finalPP- 12-14. letter is addressed from Dover on 2tj Aug. 1741.

9 Richard Pococke, .1 Desinption oj the Hast andSome Other Countries, vol. ii (London, 1745).

157