SCUTARI (Turkish, Üsküdar), anciently Chrysopolis, a seaport town of Turkey in Asia, on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, opposite Constantinople (see plan, vol. vi. p. 305), of which it is regarded as a suburb. Climbing the slopes of several hills in the form of an amphitheatre, its houses generally painted in red, distinguished by a number of mosques adorned with numerous minarets, possessing some fine bazaars and public baths, and merging farther inland into burying-grounds, gardens, and villas, Scutari presents a very picturesque appearance, especially when viewed from the bridge of the Golden Horn or approached from the Straits of Constantinople right in front of its most prominent point. The inhabitants are largely engaged in the manufacture of saddlery and silk, muslin, and cotton stuffs; the town also contains granaries and is prized as a fruit-market, more particularly for grapes, lemons, and figs. The population is estimated at 60,000 (entirely Mohammedan, with the exception of some Jews). The streets, especially the main street leading from the pier to the barracks, are in general much wider than those of Constantinople. The city includes eight mosques. Behind the landing-place is the Büjük Jami (great mosque), surmounted by a cupola and a minaret and presenting terraces mammillated by small leaden domes. The centre of the square is adorned by a fountain of simple architecture. The mosque of Selim III., farther in the interior of the city, is likewise flanked by two minarets and surmounted by a cupola. The most elegant mosque, however, is the Valide Jami or mosque of the dowager sultana, surmounted by two minarets, built in 1547 by the daughter of Solyman. Another prominent mosque, on the right of the main street and south of Büjük Jami, is Jeni Jami ...(new mosque). Other noticeable buildings are the barracks built by Selim III., forming a handsome and vast quadrangle surmounted by a tower at each angle, and whose corridors, &c., are calculated to have an aggregate length of 4 miles; an old large red building now used as a military hospital, and during the Crimean War as a hospital for the English sick and wounded; a seraglio of the sultans; a convent of howling dervishes, a simple wooden structure of two stories fronting a small cemetery. Other business quarters of the town deserving mention are Jeni Mahalle (new quarter) and the Dohanjilar Mejdani (tobacco merchants’ square). The most characteristic feature, however, of Scutari is its immense cemetery, the largest and most beautiful of all the cemeteries in and around Constantinople, extending over more than 3 miles of undulating plain behind the town. In the centre of the ground rises the magnificent dome, supported by six marble pillars, which Sultan Mohammed erected in memory of his favourite horse. Close to the barracks, on the Bosphorus, the scene of Miss Nightingale’s labours, 8000 English dead are overshadowed by a large granite obelisk. Immediately behind the town is the mountain of Bulgurlu clad in evergreen savins and red beeches, one of the plateaus of which is a favourite holiday resort. Its summit commands a very extensive view. In the plain of Haidar Pasha close by, between the cemetery and Kadikoi (judge’s village, anciently Chalcedon), the English army lay encamped during the Crimean War. In front of Scutari, on a low-
lying rock almost level with the water and about a cable’s length from the shore, rises a white tower 90 feet high, now used as a lighthouse, called “Leander’s Tower,” and by the Turks Kiz-kulessi, or the “Maiden’s Tower.” The first printing press in Turkey was set up at Scutari in 1723.
Its ancient name Chrysopolis most probably has reference to the fact that there the Persian tribute was collected and reposited, as at a later date the Athenians levied there too a tenth on the ships passing from the Euxine. Its more modern name of Üsküdar, signifying a courier who conveys the royal orders from station to station, commemorates the fact that formerly Scutari was the post station for Asiatic couriers, as it is still the great rendezvous and point of departure of caravans arriving from and destined for Syria, Persia, and other parts of Asia, and the spot whence all travellers and pilgrims from Constantinople to the East begin their journeys.
SCUTARI (Turkish, Scodra ; Slavic, Skadar), the capital of North Albania, at the south end of the lake of the same name, with a population of 24,500 in 1880 (mostly Mohammedans). There is only one street with any pretensions to regularity. The straggling town is built on the low flat promontory formed by the Bojana, which takes off the waters of the lake to the Adriatic, and the river which flows into the lake after crossing the plain between Scutari and the mountains of Biskassi. In winter the town is often flooded by the Bojana. The mosques and minarets are insignificant; the handsomest of the churches is the Catholic church at the north-east end. In the background is an old Venetian fortress perched on a lofty rock. The town is favourably situated for commerce, being connected by the Bojana with the Adriatic, whence its boats carry the products which descend by the Drina to the mountaineers in exchange for their wool, grain, and dyeing and building woods. There are some manufactures of arms and of cotton stuffs. In 1884 330 ships of 123,923 tons entered the port and 325 ships of 123,713 tons cleared.
Livy relates that Scodra was chosen as capital by the Illyrian king Gentius, who was here besieged in 168 b.c. , and carried captive to Rome. In the 7th century Scutari fell into the hands of the Servians, from whom it was wrested by the Venetians, and finally, in 1479, the Turks acquired it by treaty. Early in 1885 a beginning was made with the construction of a highway from the roadstead of San Giovanni de’ Medici to Scutari.
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