Domenico Sestini (1750-1832) was Italian scholars who spent much of his life traveling across Europe, the Balkans, and the Levant to pursue his numismatic research. While staying in Constantinople in the summer of 1778, Sestini wrote a number of letters that were later published in his "Lettere del signor abate Domenico Sestini..." The letter of 31 August 1778 is particularly interesting because Sestini describes Turkish epithets for the various peoples. Original Italian text can be accessed here, pages 104-108.
When the Turks wish to offend the Hebrews, they call them Cifud, a word corrupted from Jahud, which properly signifies a Jew.
The Persians are insulted by tKizil-Basce, or red heads because these people really wear a red cap, which is their kalpak.
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They ridicule the Armenians, by giving them the epithet of bogh-gi, that is “night-men” [i.e. men who collected/removed the waste] in because during a war, which laid waste their country, that is to say the environs of Erzerum, about one hundred years ago, some Armenians betook themselves to flight, and sought shelter at Constantinople. As this nation were poor and miserable, and knew not how to subsist, they began at first to follow the meanest occupations, cleaning the common sewers to procure bread. By industry and economy they at length amassed some money, with which they completed a fund; and by this means were enabled, in time, to quit their vile and contemptible employment. Several of their body became very rich by trade, and it is affirmed, that, for sixty years past, the Armenians have not exercised the nightly office. It appears, that if their chiefs had united, by the intervention of their patriarch and their bishops, the latter might have forbid them to follow such a profession, however wretched their condition, because they were continually insulted, and which sometimes still happens. For these reasons, the Armenians never use their own language, for the most part speaking Turkish, to conceal their origin.
The Georgians are called Beit-gi, that is to say, eaters of lice, because these people are much tormented by these vermin; it is said that while sleeping, they angrily pick lice and use their teeth to crush them since they unable to employ their nails in the dark.
The Turks call the Tartars and the Scythians Lesce-yeigi or eaters of carrion, because they really eat the flesh of their dead horses.
The Indians, who live like missionaries and preachers, and who consequently always beg, are, perhaps, not very improperly called Dilengi, or beggars.
The Arabs are called Siccian-yeigi, which signifies rat-eaters. The Turks also name them Akylsiz or fools, men without judgment.
The Greeks, who are the rajas of the Turks, that is to say their subjects, receive a very humiliating epithet, that of Boinuz Siz Coyun or [in Italian] Becchi-scornati, which means goats with broken horns because they were so easily subdued when their empire was attacked.
The people of the continent are despised here and the Turks give them the epithet of Arabagi that is to say, carters and carriers. For the most part they live in the country, and keep some of those carriages called, in the Turkish language, araba: some use them for giving people an airing, and others for transporting provisions.
The Turks ridicule the Albanians by calling them Giergi, which signifies sellers of lungs because they go through the streets carrying long sticks on their shoulders, to which the intestines of sheep are suspended, and exposed for sale
The Moldavians are also despised, and distinguished by the epithet of Bogdani-nadan, that is to say, inhuman. And the Bulgarians, and the Serbians, are called Haidud, meaning robbers.
The Ragusans are styled as giausus, that is to say, spies.
The Bosniacs [inhabitants of Bosnia] are called Potur, or the highway assassins.
The Russians are distinguished, but very improperly by the epithet Rusimen Kius, which signifies a worth-less soul.
The Turks insult the Poles by calling them Fodul Ghiaur, that is men very vain, conceited with themselves, unfaithful, and arrogant.
The Germans are characterized by the words Gurur Kiafir or haughty blasphemers, because the Turks find the German language harsh and disagreeable to the ear…
To the Venetians they apply the epithet of Balik-gi, that is to say the fishers, because their city is built in the middle of the sea.
The Italians, and all the Franks, are styled Firengh hezar rengh, or people of many colours, on account, perhaps, of their manner of dressing, but in another, and more true, sense - as deceivers.
The Turks call the French Ainegi, that is to say, cunning and deceitful.
The Dutch – Peinirgi, which signifies cheese-mongers because they bring a great quantity of that article to Constantinople;
The English are called sciokagi or cloth manufacturers because those people transports to the Levant abundance of all kinds of drapery goods.
The Spanish are distinguished by the epithet of Tembel, that is to say, lazy.
The inhabitants of the Morea, and all the islands of the Archipelago, are derided by the word Tausciani, which means hares because when the Turks seized not only the Morea but also the different islands in the Archipelago belonging to the Venetians, the terror of the inhabitants was so great that they did not make any resistance, and fled to the mountains like hares.
Generally speaking, all nations who do not profess the Mahometan religion are continually despised and insulted by the Turks, who give them the denomination of ghiaur or unfaithful.
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