Usbek to Ibben in Smyrna
As soon as an important person dies, people assemble in a mosque, and they deliver his funeral oration, which is a speech in his praise, by which one would be hard pressed to determine truthfully the merit of the deceased.
I would like to ban funeral ceremonies : men should be mourned at their birth, and not at their death. What good are the ceremonies and the all the dismal paraphernalia placed before a dying man in his final moments,1 even the tears of his family, and the grief of his friends, except to exaggerate to him the loss he will suffer ?
We are so blind that we do not know when we should grieve or rejoice : almost all our sorrows or joys are false.
When I see the Mogul,2 who goes foolishly every year and steps onto a scale to be weighed like an ox3 ; when I see people rejoice that their prince has become more material, in other words less able to govern them, Ibben, I pity human extravagance.
Paris this 20th day of the moon of Rhegeb 1713
For administration of extreme unction.
“Mogol, or the empire of the Great Mogol, also called Indostan, containing the most part of the continent of the Indies” (Collier 1701).
According to Tavernier, describing the anniversary festivals for Aureng-Zebe (livre II, ch. viii, vol. II, p. 267), and François Bernier, who specifies : “On the third day of the moon of the festival the king is very ceremoniously weighed, and after him several Omrahs, with a great scale and weights said to be solid gold.” (Voyages de François Bernier, contenant la description des états du Grand Mogol, Amsterdam : Paul Marret, 1711, vol. II, p. 55.)