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 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 BY 
 JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
 
 Secretary of the American Board 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "the missionary and his critics," "the unfinished 
 task of the christian church," etc. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 BOSTON 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO
 
 Copyright, 1908 
 By James L. Barton 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, IT. S. A.
 
 M. O the revered memory of that noble company 
 of men and women of all races and creeds who 
 have toiled and sacrificed and died that Turkey 
 might be free, this volume is dedicated.
 
 SftLF' 
 
 URL' 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 THIS book was not written in order to catch popular 
 favor at this time of revolution in the Ottoman 
 empire. All except the concluding chapter was pre- 
 pared some time before the 24th of July, 1908, and the 
 entire work was at that time nearly ready for the press. 
 Much of the material had been used in the Hyde Lecture 
 Course at Andover Seminary and in the Alden Lecture 
 Course at the Chicago Theological Seminary. The chapter, 
 "Turkey and the Constitution,"''' was written since the over- 
 throw of the old regime, and appeared as an article in The 
 Outlook in September, 1908. The book does not pretend 
 to be an exhaustive study of the Turkish empire and its 
 problems. Such a work would necessarily be encyclopedic 
 in its size and scope. 
 
 The purpose from the beginning has been briefly and clearly 
 to set forth the various historical, religious, racial, material, 
 and national questions having so vital a bearing upon all 
 Turkish matters, and which now reveal the forces that have 
 had so much to do in changing Turkey from an absolute 
 monarchy into a constitutional and representative govern- 
 ment. Reformations have never come by accident, and this 
 moral and political revolution in Turkey, the most sweeping 
 of all, is no exception. To one who traces the entrance and
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 development in the Ottoman empire during the last century, 
 of reformative ideas in the religious, intellectual, and social 
 life of the people, the present almost bloodless revolution 
 presents no mysteries. It is but the fruit of the seeds of 
 intelligence, of righteousness, and of holy ambition, sown in 
 good soil and now bearing fruit after their kind. 
 
 J. L. B. 
 Boston, December, 1908.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. The Country 13 
 
 II. Its Resources 21 
 
 III. History and Government 29 
 
 IV. The Sultan, the Heart of Turkey ... 39 
 V. Race Questions and Some of the Races . 49 
 
 VI. The Armenians 63 
 
 VII. Moslem Peoples 71 
 
 VIII. Turkey and the West 83 
 
 IX. A Strategic Missionary Center .... 91 
 
 X. Social, Moral and Religious Conditions . 99 
 
 XI. Christianity and Islam Ill 
 
 XII. Early Pioneering and Explorations . . . 117 
 
 XIII. Established Centers 135 
 
 XIV. Beginnings in Reform 147 
 
 XV. Leaders, Methods, and Anathemas . . . 155 
 
 XVI. Results 169 
 
 XVII. Intellectual Renaissance 179 
 
 XVIII. The Printing-Press 195
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XIX. Modern Medicine 205 
 
 XX. Standing of Missionaries 211 
 
 XXI. Completed Work 221 
 
 XXII. Industrial and Religious Changes . . . 231 
 
 XXIII. American Rights 239 
 
 XXIV. Religious Toleration 247 
 
 XXV. The Macedonian Question 259 
 
 XXVI. General Political Situation 265 
 
 XXVII. Constitutional Government 273 
 
 Index 289
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Galata and Pera and the bridge of boats connecting 
 
 with Stamboul, Constantinople .... Frontispiece 
 
 A group of official Turks in prayer for the Sultan upon 
 
 his birthday 42 
 
 A Koordish chief of Southern Koordistan . ... 68 
 
 An Armenian Ecclesiastic 68 
 
 A mountain village in Eastern Turkey 94 
 
 The Bosporus, Constantinople 94 
 
 Robert College, Constantinople 184 
 
 Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, Syria 184 
 
 A class of native students, graduates from the American 
 
 College for Girls, Constantinople 224 
 
 The illustration on the front cover shows the ruins of the Arch of 
 Constantine, Salonica, Macedonia.
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
 One of the obstacles which lie in the path of the European when he 
 wants to arrive at the true opinion of the Oriental is that the European, 
 especially if he be an official, is almost always in a hurry. If, he thinks, the 
 Oriental has anything to say to me, why does he not say it and go away? 
 I am quite prepared to listen most attentively, but my time is valuable and I 
 have a quantity of other business to do ; I must, therefore, really ask him to 
 come to the point at once. This frame of mind is quite fatal if one wishes to 
 arrive at the truth. In order to attain this object, the Oriental must be 
 allowed to tell his story and put forward his ideas in his own way ; and his 
 own way is generally a lengthy, circuitous, and very involved way. But if 
 any one has the patience to listen, he will sometimes be amply rewarded for 
 his pains. 
 
 I once asked a high Moslem authority how he reconciled the fact that 
 an apostate could now no longer be executed with the alleged immutability 
 of the Sacred Law. The casuistry of his reply would have done honor to a 
 Spanish Inquisitor. The Kadi, he said, does not recognise any change in the 
 Law. He would, in the case of an apostate, pronounce sentence of death 
 according to the Law, but it was for the secular authorities to carry out the 
 sentence. If they failed in their duty, the sin of disobeying the Law would 
 he on their heads. Cases of apostasy are very rare, but during my tenure of 
 office in Egypt, I had to interfere once or twice to protect from maltreat- 
 ment Moslems who had been converted to Christianity by the American 
 missionaries. 
 
 The reasons why Islam as a social system has been a complete failure 
 are manifold. 
 
 First and foremost, Islam keeps women in a position of marked inferi- 
 ority. In the second place, Islam, speaking not so much through the Koran 
 as through the traditions which cluster round the Koran, crystallises religion 
 and law into one inseparable and immutable whole, with the result that all 
 elasticity is taken away from the social system. If to this day an Egyptian 
 goes to law over a question of testamentary succession, his case is decided 
 according to the antique principles which were laid down as applicable to the 
 
 Erimitive society of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. — 
 fORD Cromer in "Modern Egypt."
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 NO other country is so hard to understand, in its 
 political, intellectual, industrial, and religious con- 
 ditions, as the Turkish empire. This difficulty is 
 augmented by the fact that no one of these conditions can 
 be even measurably understood without a knowledge of the 
 others. It is this which accounts for the widely divergent 
 opinions expressed by casual travelers, and makes well-nigh 
 impossible an explanation of Turkish phenomena to one 
 who as yet knows nothing of the country and people, of 
 actual conditions and the reasons for them. 
 
 Turkey differs in almost every respect from all other 
 countries. Its government has no parallel either in funda- 
 mental principles of organization or in methods of admin- 
 istration. It is unique in its religious beliefs, unexampled 
 in its educational conditions, and incalculable in its deal- 
 ings with moral and religious questions. We entertain 
 notions of right and wrong that are generally accepted by 
 the nations of Christendom as well as by many others not 
 so classed. These conceptions constitute the fundamental 
 principles of international usage and form the basis for 
 what we call International Law. To conclude, however, 
 that these generally accepted principles will command rec- 
 ognition in Turkey as the basis for its international rela- 
 tions is to invite disappointment. Turkey recognizes no 
 such law as having force in its empire. 
 
 In the dealings of one nation with another it is custom- 
 ary to regard the verbal pledge of a sovereign or cabinet 
 minister as worthy of credence, and a basis for negotia- 
 tions, at least, if not for final adjustment. This notion 
 
 fu]
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 must be laid aside as purely academic and visionary, in 
 dealing with Turkey. 
 
 In view of such facts, it is plain that no phase of Turkish 
 life or affairs can be clearly understood without consider- 
 able knowledge of the country and its history, the govern- 
 ment and its administrative processes, the diversified reli- 
 gions of its people, and their interdependence. Such a 
 knowledge is especially necessary to anything like an intelli- 
 gent comprehension of the problems and methods of mis- 
 sion work in the empire of Turkey. 
 
 All the chapters of this book except the last were written 
 as they stand, some months before the promulgation of the 
 Constitution on July 24, 1908. A reading of this manu- 
 script suggests no alterations in the light of recent facts 
 except the addition of a statement of the immediate events 
 that led to the overthrow of the old regime and the inaugu- 
 ration of the new order. Obviously only the transitions 
 can be recorded here. The new constitutional government 
 has yet to demonstrate its stability. 
 
 [12]
 
 THE COUNTRY
 
 In attempting to understand this motley field, two principles of the 
 empire must always be kept in mind. One is the Mohammedan principle, 
 which allows non-idolatrous peoples to retain their religion on payment of a 
 poll-tax, at the same time freeing them from military duty. The other is the 
 Turkish principle, which allows different nationalities to remain distinct, 
 but requires them to be represented before the sultan by a political or reli- 
 gious head. There is no assimilating power tending to unify these many races 
 and religions, like that of the British, or even the Mughals, in India. The 
 consequence is that all these separate units form a conglomerate state, bind- 
 ing religions and nationalities together in a repellent contact ready to fly 
 apart into fragments the moment the external fettering bond snaps. — 
 Edward A. Lawrence in "Modern Missions in the East."
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 I. THE COUNTRY 
 
 WHEN the Turks laid siege to Vienna in 1529 it 
 was the period of their greatest prosperity. If 
 at that time the entire Ottoman empire had been 
 enclosed by a modest wall it would have taken a large army 
 of workmen from that day to the present to tear down the 
 old boundaries and reerect them upon the new lines. A 
 most interesting feature of this constant change is that it 
 has been almost uniformly a decrease in the area of the em- 
 pire. At that time it was the most powerful realm in the 
 world. It included all the states bordering upon the Medi- 
 terranean except Spain, France, Italy, and Morocco, the 
 entire Black Sea coast, and nearly all that of the Red Sea, 
 as well as the lower Danube district. Gradually province 
 after province and state after state have slipped from the 
 grasp of the sultan. The decline became decided in 1606 
 beginning; with the treaties of the Sitavorok. With the 
 treaty of Carlowitz in 1699 it amounted to actual dismem- 
 berment. The epithet, " The sick man of the East," was 
 applied to the sultan, after this loss of prestige from 
 which he never recovered. The retrograde movement con- 
 tinued through the seventeenth century. While the Otto- 
 man empire had been the object of extreme fear upon the 
 part of the nations of Europe up to the beginning of that 
 century, each of them vying with the rest in seeking the 
 favor and good-will of the reigning sultan, at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century Turkey had reached a point
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 where it was protected by its relative weakness. It no 
 longer inspired fear in the hearts of European rulers, 
 while its impotency and the mutual antagonism of its sub- 
 ject non-Moslem races rendered aggressive national action 
 practically impossible. Parts of its territory became 
 wholly lost, like the Danube provinces, the Caucasus and 
 Tunis, while other sections became semi-independent like 
 Bulgaria, Cyprus, Crete, and Egypt. 
 
 The Turkish empire may now be defined as covering 
 Macedonia in Europe, extending west to Greece, northward 
 to include Albania, Bulgaria, and Adrianople, — all of 
 Asia Minor to the Russian and Persian borders upon the 
 east, Syria and Arabia, with two small sections of Africa 
 and a few islands in the Mediterranean. It exercises no 
 actual control of Egypt, while its hold upon parts of 
 Arabia is constantly contested by the people themselves. 
 
 The size and population of territory under direct con- 
 trol of Turkey are: 
 
 Europe 65,350 sq. miles; 6,130,200 inhabitants 
 
 Asia 693,610 A " 16,898,700 
 
 Africa 398,900 " " 1,000,000 
 
 1,157,860 24,028,900 
 
 Under indirect control: 
 
 Bulgaria and Eastern 
 
 Roumelia . . . 37,200 sq. miles; 3,744,300 inhabitants 
 
 Bosnia, etc 19,800 " " 1,591,100 
 
 Crete 3,330 " " 310,400 
 
 Cyprus 3,710 " " 237,000 " 
 
 Samos 180 " " 54,840 
 
 Egypt 400,000 " " 9,820,700 
 
 cc 
 
 464,220 " " 15,758,340 
 
 cc 
 
 This makes a total area covered by both the immediate 
 and quasi possessions of the sultan 1,622,080 square miles, 
 
 fiel
 
 THE COUNTRY 
 
 with a population of 39,787,240. These are the figures 
 given by the Statesman's Year-Book, the best attainable 
 authority upon the subject; but even these must be taken 
 largely as estimates and not as the results of a careful and 
 reliable census, — something that never takes place in 
 Turkey. 
 
 It may be said, therefore, that at the present time the 
 sultan of Turkey actually rules over only Constantinople, 
 the Macedonian provinces in Europe and Asia Minor 
 to the borders of Russia and Persia, extending south 
 through Syria and into Arabia. Tins includes an area of 
 about 704,000 square miles, and a population of about 
 23,500,000. 
 
 These countries directly and indirectly governed by the 
 Turkish empire command the interest of the Biblical, clas- 
 sical, and historical student beyond any other part of the 
 earth. No other land possesses so many antiquities of such 
 priceless worth. Turkey is the stage upon which many of 
 the best-known characters of literature and history have 
 lived and acted. It is the battle-field where, for more than 
 thirty-five centuries, contending civilizations and hostile 
 religions, under ambitious leadership, have met in bloody 
 conflict. There is hardly a section of it that has not been 
 connected directly with some well-known historical per- 
 sonage or race or that has not given the setting to some 
 event of world-wide renown. This is true from Salonica 
 on the ^Egean Sea to Persia upon the east, and from Trebi- 
 zond upon the Black Sea at the north to Aden at the 
 southern point of Arabia. The ruins of massive castles and 
 fortresses, moats and walled cities, that tell of former 
 strength, of pride and of conflict, are found in almost every 
 part of the empire. Inscriptions in many languages adorn 
 the cliffs or are built into walls now crumbling to ruin. 
 
 [17]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Fragments of ancient roads with arches of bridges and 
 of aqueducts still standing, as old as our Christian era, 
 tell of the engineering skill of the early possessors of the 
 land. 
 
 In the soil thrown up beneath one's feet are found gold, 
 silver, bronze, and copper coins, with dates varying from 
 six hundred years before our Christian era to the coin 
 of the present ruler of the realm. 
 
 The ancient city of the Trojans, for ten years defended 
 by Priam against the finally successful assaults of Aga- 
 memnon and his Greeks, was upon what is now Turkish soil. 
 Many of the scenes pictured in the Iliad and the Odyssej 7 
 have their staging in what is modern Turkey. Assyria and 
 Babylon and Nineveh there arose into prominence, wielded 
 their power, and passed into ruin. Darius and Xerxes 
 crossed and recrossed this country ; and Cyrus met his 
 great defeat and Xenophon made his immortal retreat and 
 all within Turkey. Alexander the Great, born in Mace- 
 donia, conducted many of his brilliant campaigns, fought 
 with Darius and defeated him, occupied Sidon and annexed 
 Babylon and Nineveh to the throne of Greece, and died in 
 Babylon while planning the conquest of Arabia; all in 
 territory now subject to Sultan Hamid II. 
 
 At the time of Christ much of Asia Minor was a Roman 
 province. Ruins of Roman roads and Roman bridges, in 
 many parts of the country, extend to the northern borders 
 of Mesopotamia, while Roman coins and Latin inscriptions 
 are too common to attract special attention. It is safe to 
 say that there is no other part of the world which presents 
 so much of permanent interest to the student of classic 
 literature and life as the territory now covered by the 
 Turkish empire. 
 
 The same is true in no less striking measure of the litera- 
 
 [18]
 
 THE COUNTRY 
 
 ture and life recorded in the Bible. Probably all Old 
 Testament history, except that part which was enacted in 
 Egypt, belongs to the geography of Turkey ; and Egypt, 
 until recent years, was a part of that empire. The Tigris 
 and Euphrates rivers rise and flow throughout their length 
 upon Turkish soil. Chaldea, Haran, Mt. Moriah, Sinai, 
 the Wilderness, Nineveh, and the Promised Land are a 
 part of the present Moslem empire. Turkey includes the 
 land of the prophets and kings of Israel, and from what is 
 to-day her domain the Hebrew poets sang ; there, too, the 
 temples were built, the chosen race was scattered, enslaved, 
 and restored. 
 
 Except for one brief sojourn of our Lord in Egypt, his 
 entire life was passed on what is now Turkish territory. 
 With few exceptions the apostles lived and labored and 
 wrote and died in regions now ruled over by the sultan of 
 Turkey. The great foreign missionary, Paul, spent but 
 little time outside this country, while the site of the seven 
 churches of the Apocalypse is in Turkish territory. The 
 most of our Christian Scriptures were written in the same 
 country, passing from there to the west. 
 
 The land of Turkey may well be called the cradle of 
 classic and Biblical literature of the Jewish and Christian 
 religions as well as that of Islam. All this, however, be it 
 not forgotten, refers only to the territory covered to-day 
 by the Turkish empire and not at all to the empire itself. 
 
 [19]
 
 ITS RESOURCES
 
 The dominion of the Ottoman clan, which should have been a mere 
 passing phenomenon, like the similar dominion of another Tartar clan in 
 Russia, owes its continuance, as we read its history, to three causes, two of 
 them inteUectual. The first is the extraordinary, indeed the absolutely un- 
 rivalled force displayed through ages by the descendants of Othman, the 
 Tartar chief from Khorassan. The old line, "An Amurath, an Amurath 
 succeeds," has been substantially true. Sprung originally from a stock welded 
 into iron by the endless strife of the great Asiatic desert, mating always with 
 women picked for some separate charm either of beauty or captivation, the 
 sultans, with the rarest exceptions, have been personages, great soldiers, 
 great statesmen, or great tyrants. Mahmoud the destroyer of the Janissaries, 
 who only died in 1839 — that is, while men still middle-aged were alive — 
 was the equal in all but success of Amurath I, who organized, though he did 
 not invent, that terrible institution; and even the present sultan, in many 
 ways so feeble, is no Romulus Augustulus, no connoisseur in poultry, but a 
 timid Louis XI, who overmatches Russians and Greeks in craft, who terri- 
 fies men like his Ottoman Pashas, and who is obeyed with trembling by the 
 most distant servant of his throne. The terrible emir of Afghanistan, whose 
 satraps, while ruling provinces and armies, open his letters "white in the lips 
 with fear," is not regarded with more slavish awe than Abdul Hamid, the 
 recluse who watches always in his palace against assassination or mutiny. 
 We have only to remember what the Hohenzollerns have been to Prussia, to 
 understand what the family of Othman, defended as they have been against 
 revolution by the Mussulman belief that "when Othman falls Islam falls," 
 has been to a fighting clan. — Meredith Townsend in "Asia and Europe."
 
 II. ITS RESOURCES 
 
 THE countries under Turkish rule are lands of real 
 resource, and yet a superficial view of the greater 
 part of the Turkish empire gives one the impression 
 of extreme poverty. Throughout most of the country 
 the hills have been denuded of timber, and trees are found 
 only where they are cultivated. There are still some forest 
 lands bordering on the southern shores of the Black Sea, 
 especially towards the east. In Armenia, the region in 
 which the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have their rise, 
 even the roots of the scrub-oaks that grow upon the low 
 mountains and high plateaux are dug up for fuel. The 
 crops, in large part, are raised by the most primitive 
 methods of irrigation, although in the western part of 
 Asia Minor, as well as in other sections, considerable high 
 land crops are produced. These are uncertain, owing to 
 frequent failure of the rains. There are other large sec- 
 tions, like the plains to the north of the modern city of 
 Diarbekr — the ancient city of Amida upon the banks of 
 the Tigris — where for lack of surface water a large area 
 of the richest arable land lies waste, except as flocks and 
 herds roam over it during the rainy season in the spring. 
 
 Yet there are few countries in the world that can boast 
 of richer or more productive soil than can Turkey. There 
 are desert regions in Arabia, but these are not as extensive 
 as we have been wont to suppose. Turkey exports more 
 foodstuffs than she imports, although her agricultural re- 
 sources are but slightly developed. The method of farm- 
 ing is entirely antiquated, the same primitive plow being in 
 constant use to-day that was employed by Abraham in the
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 fields of Haran. In spite of this fact, wheat of excellent 
 quality, barley, rice, millet, cotton, tobacco, the opium 
 poppy, and almost all kinds of vegetables, as well as grapes, 
 plums, cherries, olives, quinces, oranges, lemons, figs, and 
 pomegranates are produced in great abundance. The mul- 
 berry-tree flourishes in many regions. Sheep, goats, and 
 a stunted breed of cattle and the water-buffalo, donkeys and 
 horses thrive in most parts of the country, while as beasts 
 of burden the camel and mule are found in all sections of 
 Asiatic Turkey. 
 
 The country is also rich in minerals, but the mines are 
 undeveloped. By the laws of the land, all minerals belong 
 to the government, hence no private mining enterprises are 
 permitted. Coal is found in many parts of the country, 
 but being a mineral, by government classification, it cannot 
 be mined except officially. Copper, silver, and lead abound, 
 but the few mines worked by the government have not been 
 paying enterprises except to the official in charge. 
 
 In a word, Turkey is naturally a rich country, with 
 boundless resources now largely undeveloped, with un- 
 dreamed-of possibilities of increased production under 
 modern methods of agriculture and mining. It is prob- 
 ably true that the empire includes some of the very richest 
 land and ore deposits in the world. 
 
 Exportation from Turkey is limited to the coast borders 
 and to the proximity of the few railways that exist. Rail- 
 roads are confined to the European district and the eastern 
 section of Asia Minor, with a short line reaching to Tarsus 
 and Adana from Mersin and one from Joppa up to Jeru- 
 salem. New lines are under construction intending to con- 
 nect Damascus with Mecca. Railroads cannot long be kept 
 out of the interior of the country. There are but few made 
 wagon roads, nearly all of which have been constructed 
 
 [24]
 
 ITS RESOURCES 
 
 since the Crimean war in 1854. One of the most noted of 
 these few roads over which wheeled vehicles can pass ex- 
 tends from Samsoun upon the middle southern coast of the 
 Black Sea, through Marsovan, Tokat, Amasia, Sivas, Ma- 
 latia, Harpoot, and Diarbekr, ending at Mardin, a dis- 
 tance of nearly six hundred miles. Some of the bridges 
 planned were never built, and many were washed away soon 
 after construction. Another highway of a similar nature 
 extends from Trebizond to Erzerum. Others have been re- 
 cently built in Northern Syria. These roads never fail to 
 be in poor repair. But the ordinary roads are worse, 
 being in all parts of the empire mere bridle-paths, often 
 worn deep in the solid rock by the hoof-beats of the cara- 
 vans of fifty centuries. 
 
 These conditions necessitate in the interior the transpor- 
 tation of all freight by horse or camel, thus discouraging 
 commerce and trade, increasing the price of imports and 
 making export practically impossible. This explains why 
 a famine may prevail in one part of the country when at 
 the same time, less than three hundred miles away, the crops 
 are abundant. A good system of railroads would revolu- 
 tionize everything. There is an abundance of foreign cap- 
 ital ready to construct such roads. Some fifteen years ago 
 the plan was practically consummated to build a railroad 
 from Samsoun through Asia Minor down across northern 
 Mesopotamia to Bagdad. At the last moment the plan was 
 thwarted by the sultan himself. In conversation upon this 
 matter with an intelligent Mohammedan official who had 
 been educated in England and France, the writer asked him 
 if he did not understand that such a road would bring much 
 wealth into the country, and at the same time develop far 
 more wealth in the country itself. He was asked if he had 
 studied the railroads of America and Europe and observed 
 
 [25]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the great value they were in every way in those countries. 
 His reply was characteristic. It was in substance, " I know 
 well that all that you say of the value of railroads to a 
 country is true. You have not overstated it. At the same 
 time I know, and so does my master, the sultan, that every 
 dollar of foreign capital that comes into this country under 
 concessions as an investment, curtails by so much the au- 
 thority of the sultan in his own domains. Such capital 
 always brings with it foreign protection. If his imperial 
 majesty should change his mind, as he has full right to do 
 at any time, in regard to any of these concessions, he is 
 at once confronted by the protests of that country to which 
 the capital belongs, demanding that he adhere to the orig- 
 inal agreement or pay damages. The ruler of the Ottoman 
 empire will never willingly submit to such humiliation. 
 When railroads are built through Turkey, his majesty will 
 construct them himself." 
 
 This explains why foreign capital is not building rail- 
 roads, developing mines, and constructing factories in that 
 country. It explains why, in this respect, Turkey is still 
 in the depths of the dark ages. 
 
 The telegraph system of the country is entirely in the 
 hands of the government and reaches every city of any 
 considerable size. This became necessary to the sultan 
 in order to carry on the processes of government. Tele- 
 grams are carefully censored ; cipher despatches, when 
 known to be such, are not accepted except from ambassa- 
 dors and from foreign powers to their chief at the Porte, 
 or vice versa. The postal system is antiquated, irregular, 
 and uncertain, reaching only the large towns upon the 
 limited cross-country routes. Telephones are strictly 
 prohibited. 
 
 In Constantinople and in several of the port cities like 
 
 [26]
 
 ITS RESOURCES 
 
 Smyrna, Trebizond, etc., there are foreign post-offices sup- 
 ported and conducted by foreign countries and using for- 
 eign stamps. These became necessary because of the 
 unreliability of the Turkish offices. The local government 
 has made several attempts to abolish the sale and use of 
 foreign postage-stamps in the country, but has failed of 
 accomplishing it because the representatives of the leading 
 foreign powers are unwilling to trust their mail to Turkish 
 supervision and control. 
 
 [27]
 
 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
 
 Even now, when we all talk of the Turkish empire as moribund, it is 
 doubtful if it will perish under any decay from within. The subject races do 
 not grow stronger, as witness recent scenes in Armenia, where a single tribe, 
 with only tolerance from the sultan, keeps a whole people in agonies of fear. 
 The Arabs, full-blooded and half-caste, who might succeed in insurrection, 
 find the strength of civilized Europe right across their path, and are precipita- 
 ting themselves, in a fury of fanaticism and greed, upon the powerless states 
 of the interior of Africa. The European subjects of the sultan are cowed, 
 and without foreign assistance will not risk a repetition of Batouk. The 
 army for internal purposes is far stronger than ever, the men being the old 
 Ottoman soldiers, brave as Englishmen, abstemious as Spaniards, to whom 
 the Germans have lent their discipline and their drill. No force within 
 the empire outside Arabia could resist the reorganized troops or hope to 
 reach, as no doubt the first Mahdi if left alone might have reached, Con- 
 stantinople itself. The financial difficulties of the treasury are great, but the 
 sultans have recently risked and have survived complete repudiation, and the 
 revenue is enough, and will remain enough, to keep the army together and 
 supply the luxury of the palace. — Meredith Townsend in "Asia and 
 Europe."
 
 III. HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 WE cannot trace here the story of the rise and 
 spread of Islam from its cradle in Arabia to the 
 period of its greatest virility in 1529, when all 
 Europe trembled at its onward sweep and conquest. We 
 can speak only of the rise of the Ottoman empire that 
 has been perpetuated in unbroken succession to the present 
 time. 
 
 Near the middle of the thirteenth century a tribe of 
 Turks, not Suljuks, left their camping-grounds in Khoras- 
 san, urged on by the Mongol invaders, and wandered into 
 Armenia. This tribe was divided into four sections ; one 
 of these, led by Ertogrul, went into Asia Minor, and 
 there became allied with Aladdin the Suljukian, sultan of 
 Iconium. He settled upon the borders of Phrygia and 
 Bithynia and there his son Othman, or Osman, who became 
 the founder of a dynasty and an empire, was born and 
 nurtured. The name " Ottoman Empire " or " Osmanli 
 Turks " came from him. The name " Othman " signifies 
 " bone-breaker." 
 
 The young man succeeded his father as the head of the 
 tribe. He united in his character the traits of shepherd, 
 freebooter, and warrior. Osman's ambition was fired by 
 a dream of conquest that seated him upon the Byzantine 
 throne. He was upon the border of the decaying Greek 
 empire to the west, and back of him were the vast, restless 
 populations ready to enlist under any leader of strength 
 and action. He invaded Nicomedia July 27, 1299, from 
 which time his reign is usually dated. This was parallel 
 with Edward I of England, Philip the Fair of France, and 
 
 fill
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Andronicus Palasologus the elder of Constantinople. Slow 
 encroachment was made upon the imperial domains of the 
 Greek empire, while at the same time his authority was ex- 
 tended over considerable districts in the north and west of 
 Asia Minor, including large parts of Phrygia, Galatia, 
 and Bithynia. Prusa (Brusa) was captured and became 
 the residence of Othman, and was the seat of his govern- 
 ment when he died in 1326. 
 
 Othman was succeeded by Orchan, his son, who extended 
 the boundaries of the infant state with marked rapidity. 
 He took Nicam, the rest of Bithynia, the greater part of 
 Mysia, and was the first Turkish ruler to pass over into 
 Europe. He coined money in his own name, and assumed 
 the prerogatives of royalty, and began the systematic or- 
 ganization of his government. A permanent military force 
 was established. One of his strongest military organiza- 
 tions was composed of the children of conquered Chris- 
 tians who were reared in Islam, inured from their youth to 
 the profession of arms. These became the famous Janis- 
 saries perpetuated in the conquests of the Turkish govern- 
 ment until the middle of the nineteenth century. They 
 were distinguished for their valor and fanaticism. 
 Through more than three centuries, marked by a long 
 series of great battles, they experienced only four signal 
 reverses. One of these was by Tamerlane, in 1402, and 
 another by the Hungarian general, John Huniades, in 
 1442. The present methods of administration of the 
 Ottoman empire are due in no small measure to the despotic 
 nature and fanatical character of the Janissaries. Their 
 assumption finally reached such a state that it became 
 necessary to extirpate them by the sword to prevent their 
 exercise of authority over the sultans themselves. This 
 was accomplished by Mohammed II in 1826. 
 
 [32]
 
 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 Amurath I succeeded Orchan in 1359. He began at 
 once to make advance against the Greek throne, which was 
 much weakened by its schismatic separation from the 
 Roman church. In 1361 he took Adrianople in Europe 
 and made it his official residence, and the first European 
 capital of the Ottoman power. His successor, Bajazet I, 
 changed the title of " Emir " for that of " Sultan," which 
 name has been perpetuated. He set the example, followed 
 so repeatedly since, of putting his only brother to death 
 in order that he might not aspire to the throne. He ex- 
 tended his domains east to the Euphrates and north to the 
 Danube. He boasted that he would yet feed his horses on 
 the altar of St. Peter's in Rome. He was captured by 
 Tamerlane in 1402, dying the following year in captivity. 
 Tamerlane held undisputed sway over Asia for a few 
 years. A son of Bajazet, Mahomet I, restored the empire 
 of his fathers in its integrity. It was during his reign, 
 1413—21, that the first Turkish ambassador appeared 
 abroad. He was sent to Venice. The sultan himself paid 
 a visit to the emperor Manuel at Constantinople. 
 
 Without dwelling upon the successive sultans and the 
 advances made by each, it is sufficient to record that most 
 important of all the victories, the capture of Constanti- 
 nople, the capital of the Greek empire, by Mohammed II, 
 the seventh in succession from Othman, on May 29, 1453, 
 in the second year of his reign. This terminated the Greek 
 empire, 1123 years after Constantine the Great had re- 
 moved his imperial throne to Byzantium, changing its 
 name to Constantinople. Consternation prevailed among 
 the European nations, especially in those immediately con- 
 tiguous to the Mohammedan empire. 
 
 From that time to the present day, Constantinople has 
 been the residence of the sultans ruling over the Ottoman 
 
 ~ [33]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 empire, and the seat of the Turkish power. Much of the 
 machinery of government now in use was organized and 
 put into operation by Mohammed II. The administrative 
 departments were constituted in what was then called " The 
 Porte," while the head of the department was given the 
 well-known name of " Sublime Porte." This name came 
 from the metaphorical resemblance between a state and a 
 house or tent. The most important part of the tent was 
 the entrance in which the chiefs sat for the administration 
 of justice, as well as for the performance of other duties. 
 
 Mohammed died in 1481. Succeeding sultans for a 
 century seriously threatened the institutions of Western 
 nations. In the religious conflicts of the sixteenth century 
 the pope of Rome was undecided which to fear the more, 
 the Protestants or the Turks. 
 
 The Ottoman empire reached the zenith of its power 
 under Suliman, the tenth sultan, whose reign was the 
 longest in the annals of the empire, from 1520—1566. He 
 is often known in Europe as Suliman " the great " or " the 
 magnificent," but Moslem writers name him " the law- 
 giver." In 1525 the French ambassador appeared at 
 the Ottoman court. The first European states to stipulate 
 regular capitulations with the Porte were Genoa and 
 Venice, which accomplished this in 1453 and 1454 respec- 
 tively. These were confirmed and enlarged by succeeding 
 sovereigns to 1733. France next secured capitulations 
 in 1528, which were afterwards amplified, renewed, and 
 confirmed down to 1861. The first treaty relations of 
 England with Turkey were in 1579. Other European 
 nations followed in orderly succession, until the United 
 States concluded its first treaty at Constantinople, May 
 7, 1830, which was ratified at Washington, Feb. 4, 1832. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Otto- 
 
 [34]
 
 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 man empire covered Europe, Macedonia, Adrianople, 
 Greece, and the greater part of Hungary, while in Asia 
 it held all of Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, Daghestan, 
 the western part of Koordistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cy- 
 prus, and the chief part of Arabia. In Africa, Egypt, 
 Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers acknowledged allegiance to the 
 sultan at Constantinople; and the khanate of Crimea, 
 the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transyl- 
 vania with the republic of Ragusa were vassal states. 
 Diplomatic and commercial relations had been established 
 between the Porte and the leading European nations. 
 From that time the great power then possessed began to 
 wane. 
 
 Fundamentally the laws of Turkey are based upon the 
 teachings of the Koran. The only restraint upon the acts 
 of the sultan are the accepted truths of Islam as laid 
 down in the sacred book of the prophet Mohammed. Next 
 to the Koran the authority is a code of laws formed of 
 the supposed sayings and opinions of Mohammed, and of 
 sentences and decisions of his immediate successors. These 
 are called the " Multeka," and are binding upon both the 
 sovereign and his subjects. Beyond these the will of the 
 man who occupies the throne of the Ottoman empire is 
 absolute and must be unquestioned by every subject. 
 
 The sultan, therefore, is at the head of every depart- 
 ment of government, amenable to no laws except the law 
 of the Koran. He appoints two high dignitaries, — the 
 grand vizier, to be the nominal head of the temporal gov- 
 ernment, and the Sheik-ul-Islam, to be the head of the 
 spiritual government. The Sheik-ul-Islam presides over 
 the " Ulema," a body made up of the Mohammedan clergy, 
 the great judges, theologians, and jurists, as well as the 
 noted teachers of Mohammedan literature and science. 
 
 [35]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 There is no constitution to exercise directing influence 
 over either the sultan or his subordinates. The grand 
 vizier is nominally at the head of the government and 
 represents the sultan. At the present time he has come to 
 be only the agent of the sultan in carrying out his wishes, 
 having little authority to act independently. The privy 
 council, over which the grand vizier presides, is composed 
 of the following officials or cabinet officers: 
 
 Sheik-ul-Islam 
 Minister of Justice 
 
 " War 
 
 " Marines 
 President of the Council of State 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 
 " the Interior 
 
 " Finance 
 
 " Pious Foundations 
 
 " Public Instruction 
 
 " Commerce and Public Works 
 
 The whole of the country is divided into vilayets or 
 states, and these are subdivided into sanjaks or provinces, 
 which, in turn, are also divided and subdivided. The 
 ruler in a vilayet is a vali or governor-general, who re- 
 ceives his appointment directly from the sultan, and who, 
 with the assistance of a provincial council, is master of 
 the vilayet. He has power over the inferior officers of his 
 district, whom, theoretically at least, he appoints and re- 
 moves at will. There are eight of these vilayets in Europe, 
 eleven in Asia, five in Armenia, three in Mesopotamia, six 
 in Syria, two in Arabia, and two in Africa, making thirty- 
 seven in all. The man at the head of each one of these 
 states, averaging a population of about 700,000 souls 
 each, is accountable to the sultan alone for his position 
 and to him he makes constant secret reports. These valis 
 are frequently recalled and more frequently changed from
 
 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 
 
 place to place by orders issued directly from the throne. 
 In this way the sultan controls all parts of his dominions 
 and personally determines the character of the adminis- 
 tration. All policies carried out in any part of the 
 empire are his own and cannot be otherwise under present 
 conditions. 
 
 [37]
 
 THE SULTAN, THE HEART OF TURKEY
 
 The general tendency of Islam is to stimulate intolerance and to engender 
 hatred and contempt not only for polytheists, but also, although in a modified 
 form, for all monotheists who will not repeat the formula which acknowledges 
 that Mohammed was indeed the Prophet of God. Neither can this be any 
 matter for surprise. The faith of Islam admits of no compromise. The 
 Moslem is the antithesis of the pantheistic Hindoo. His faith is essentially 
 exclusive. Its founder launched fiery anathemas against all who would not 
 accept the divinity of his inspiration, and his words fell on fertile ground, for 
 a large number of those who have embraced Islam are semi-savages, and 
 often warlike savages, whose minds are too untrained to receive the idea that 
 an honest difference of opinion is no cause for bitter hatred. More than this, 
 the Moslem has for centuries past been taught that the barbarous principles 
 of the lex talianis are sanctioned, and even enjoined by his religion. He is 
 told to revenge himself on his enemies, to strike them that strike him, to claim 
 an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Islamism, therefore, unlike Chris- 
 tianity, tends to engender the idea that revenge and hatred, rather than love 
 and charity, should form the basis of the relations between man and man ; 
 and it inculcates a special degree of hatred against those who do not accept 
 the Moslem faith. "When ye encounter the unbelievers," says the Koran, 
 " strike off their heads until ye have made a great slaughter among them, and 
 bind them in bonds . . . O true believers, if ye assist God, by fighting for 
 his religion, he will assist you against your enemies; and will set your feet 
 fast; but as for the infidels, let them perish ; and their works God shall render 
 vain. . . . Verily, God will introduce those who believe and do good works 
 into gardens beneath which rivers flow, but the unbelievers indulge them- 
 selves in pleasures, and eat as beasts eat ; and their abode shall be hell fire." 
 It is true that when Mohammed denounced unbelievers he was alluding more 
 especially to the pagans who during his lifetime inhabited the Arabian 
 Peninsula, but later commentators and interpreters of the Koran applied his 
 denunciations to Christians and Jews, and it is in this sense that they are now 
 understood by a large number of Mohammedans. Does not the word 
 "Ghazi," which is the highest title attainable by an officer of the sultan's 
 army, signify " one who fights in the cause of Islam ; a hero; a warrior; one 
 who slays an infidel" ? Does not every Mollah, when he recites the Khutbeh 
 at the Mosque, invoke Divine wrath on the heads of unbelievers in terms 
 which are sufficiently pronounced at all times, and in which the diapason of 
 invective swells still more loudly when any adventitious circumstances may 
 have tended to fan the flame of fanaticism ? Should not every non-Moslem 
 land be considered in strict parlance a Dar-el-Harb, a land of warfare? 
 When principles such as these have been dinned for centuries past into the 
 ears of Moslems, it can be no matter for surprise that a spirit of intolerance 
 has been generated. — Lord Cromer in "Modern Egypt."
 
 IV. THE SULTAN, THE HEART OF 
 
 TURKEY 
 
 THE present sultan, Abdul Hamid II, is the thirty- 
 fourth in direct male succession from Othman and 
 the second son of Sultan Abdul Medjid. He suc- 
 ceeded to the throne upon the deposition of his brother, 
 Murad V, August 31, 1876, at the age of thirty-four. 
 By the Turkish law of succession the crown is inherited 
 according to seniority by the male descendants of Othman 
 springing from the imperial harem. All children born in 
 the harem, whether from free women or slaves, are legiti- 
 mate and possess equal rights. The sultan is succeeded 
 by his eldest son, in case there are no uncles or cousins of 
 greater age. The present heir apparent to the throne is 
 the oldest brother of the sultan, who outranks all of the 
 five sons of Abdul Hamid as heir to the throne. It is 
 not the custom of the sultans to contract regular mar- 
 riages. The harem is kept full of women by purchase, 
 capture, or voluntary offering. Most of the inmates come 
 from districts beyond the limits of the empire, largely from 
 Circassia. 
 
 The sultan is, without question, the most phenomenal 
 person sitting upon any throne to-day. Educated within 
 his own palace, having passed but once beyond the bor- 
 ders of the land in which he was born, he is able to out- 
 wit and outmatch in diplomacy the combined rulers of 
 Europe. He has administered his widely-extended and 
 varied empire in accordance with the unmodified Moslem 
 principles of the Middle Ages, and has successfully defied
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 all attempts upon the part of Christian nations to change 
 his policy. Without a navy he has succeeded in averting 
 repeated threats of attack by the strongest navies of the 
 world. With depleted and diminishing resources he has 
 held his creditors at bay, capitalized his indebtedness, and 
 continued to live in lavish luxury. It is true that his re- 
 fusal to comply with the demands for reform have at times 
 in the past led to the loss of some of his possessions, still 
 he does not seem to have learned therefrom any permanent 
 lesson. 
 
 Turkey as a whole has never been so unrighteously gov- 
 erned as it is to-day, and, in spite of the pressure of 
 European governments, there is little prospect of radical 
 reforms so long as the present sultan sits upon the throne. 
 While he is an astute and unprincipled diplomat and a tire- 
 less sovereign, he is not a reformer in any sense of the 
 word. So long as he is sultan, he proposes to be master, 
 preferring to lose entire provinces rather than to share 
 the administration with any. He yields only when subter- 
 fuge fails and the policy of delay is rej ected ; after he has 
 yielded, he devotes himself to vitiating the advantages his 
 subjects might gain by his concessions. 
 
 Personally timid and fearful, he astonishes the world 
 by the boldness of his strokes at home and his stubborn 
 resistance to pressure from abroad. Himself profoundly 
 religious, he horrifies all by the wholesale murder of his 
 subjects through his lieutenants acting upon direct orders 
 from the palace. This he has done repeatedly, and it is 
 a part of his method of administering his home affairs and 
 keeping his subjects properly subdued. 
 
 The present political, social, economic, and religious 
 problems of Turkey center in the sultan. Few countries 
 in the world would respond so quickly to the influence of 
 
 [42]
 
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 THE SULTAN, THE HEART OF TURKEY 
 
 good government, and few people would so appreciatively 
 welcome a firm and righteous administration as the people 
 of Turkey. 
 
 The sultan exercises his power through his army and 
 his appointees to office. The Turks make perhaps the best 
 soldiers in the world. They are strong, inured to hard- 
 ship, uncomplaining, and practical. To them all war with 
 non-Moslems and rebels — and they fight with no others 
 — is holy war. Only Mohammedans are enrolled in the 
 army, and all such, over twenty years of age in the coun- 
 try, are liable to military service until they are forty. The 
 empire is divided into seven army administrative districts, 
 in each of which is located an army corps. These are 
 Constantinople, Adrianople, Monastir, Erzerum, Damas- 
 cus, Bagdad, and the Yemen, with the independent divisions 
 of the Hejaz and Tripoli. The infantry are armed with 
 Mauser rifles. The effective war strength of the Turkish 
 army is 987,900 men. The navy possesses no fighting 
 power. 
 
 The governing force of the empire is strictly Moham- 
 medan. The army is indeed a church militant with no 
 unbeliever among its officers or men, except as European 
 military experts are employed to drill and discipline the 
 troops. The entire administration of both civil and mili- 
 tary affairs is a religious administration. Men of other 
 religions are asked to take part in civil affairs only when 
 Mohammedans cannot be found to do the work required. 
 Many high positions, even in the cabinet, have been credit- 
 ably filled by Armenians and Greeks, but this is the excep- 
 tion and not the rule. Turkey agreed some time ago to 
 admit Christians to her army, but has never seen her way 
 clear to carry out the agreement. At the center of this 
 Mohammedan administration sits the sultan, Hamid II, 
 
 [«] ~ —
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 with his valis or governors at the head of affairs in every 
 province, in close and constant communication with him- 
 self and carrying out his imperial will. These local gov- 
 ernors are sustained by the Moslem army, commanded by 
 officers who also receive their instructions directly from 
 the palace on the Bosporus. 
 
 This is the system of administration that has become 
 established in the Ottoman empire, and that must be borne 
 in mind as we proceed with the study of the country, the 
 people, their economic, social, and religious conditions. 
 
 The position of Turkey and of the Ottoman empire is 
 unique among the countries of the world. For centuries it 
 has stood before the world as the one great Mohammedan 
 temporal power, with its laws and usages built upon the 
 tenets, traditions, and fanaticisms of Islam. Every civ- 
 ilized definition of a government fails when applied to 
 Turkey, and every conception of the duty of a govern- 
 ment to its subjects is violated in the existing relations 
 between the Turkish government and the people of that 
 empire. Under these conditions, much worse now than 
 they were two generations ago, mission work is carried on. 
 
 While there are many Turkish officials who keenly de- 
 plore the evils of the system, and would change if they 
 could the untoward relations of the government to its 
 oppressed subjects, they are powerless to act and must 
 even conceal their dissatisfaction for fear of being branded, 
 as many have been, as traitors to the existing rule, for 
 which charge the penalty is banishment or death. There 
 is a general feeling that no reform can be inaugurated or 
 carried out so long as the present monarch sits upon the 
 throne. 
 
 A distinguished Orientalist, intimately acquainted with 
 affairs at Constantinople, has recently written upon the 
 
 144 ]
 
 THE SULTAN, THE HEART OF TURKEY 
 
 sultan and his diplomatic methods in the following terms. 
 For obvious reasons the identity of the writer is concealed : 
 
 Rarely has a young sovereign been in a more desperate and ap- 
 parently hopeless position than Abd-ul-Hamid occupied in the third 
 year of his reign, 1878. His armies had been utterly beaten in a 
 great war. His people had no confidence in their country, or their 
 future, or their sultan. Prophecies were widely current about 1878- 
 1882 identifying him as the last sultan of Turkey and the consum- 
 mator of its ruin. The treasury was almost bankrupt. He himself 
 had, and still has, a dislike and fear of ships, which paralyzed his 
 fleet during the war that had just ended, and has ever since left it 
 to rot in idleness, until there is at the present day, probably, not a 
 Turkish ship of war that could venture to cross the iEgean Sea in 
 the calmest day of summer. 
 
 The sultan alone in Turkey did not despair. He alone saw how 
 the power of the sultans could be restored. And twenty-eight years 
 after he seemed to be near the end of a disastrous and short reign 
 he is still on the throne, absolute autocrat to a degree that hardly 
 even the greatest of the sultans before him attained, in close com- 
 munication with the remotest corners of the Mohammedan world 
 from the east of Asia to the west of Africa, respected and powerful 
 in Moslem lands where the name of no former sultan was known 
 or heeded, courted by at least one leading Power in Europe and by 
 the great American republic. 
 
 The last fact is, perhaps, the most remarkable of all in this strange 
 history. The diplomatists of America, so strong and self-confident 
 in their dealings with the greatest of European Powers, so accus- 
 tomed to say to them all, "This is our will and intention," have for 
 many years been the humblest and most subservient of all the Chris- 
 tian Powers in their attitude to Turkey, aiming always at imitating 
 the German policy and being on the friendly side of the Turks, but 
 forgetting that Germany has that to give which America has not, and 
 that America has interests to protect in Turkey of a kind which 
 Germany has not. 
 
 The sultan had the genius or the good fortune to divine almost from
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the beginning of his reign what only a few even yet dimly compre- 
 hend, — the power of reaction and resistance which Asia can oppose 
 against the West. He formed the plan of consolidating the power 
 of the entire Mohammedan world, and placing himself at the head 
 of this power, and he has carried the plan into effect. The sultans 
 had always claimed the position of khalif, but this had hitherto been 
 a mere empty name, until Abd-ul-Hamid appealed from his own 
 subjects, who rejected him, to the wider world of Mohammedans, 
 won their confidence, and made them think of him as the true Com- 
 mander of the Faithful. 
 
 One naturally asks whether this result was gained through the 
 strength of a real religious fervor or through the clever playing of 
 an astute and purely selfish game. While there may have been some- 
 thing of both elements, I do not doubt that there was a good deal of 
 religious enthusiasm or fanaticism; the first idea could never have 
 been struck out without the inspiration of strong religious feeling. 
 
 It used to be said about 1880 by those who were in a position to 
 know best — no one has ever been in a position to have quite cer- 
 tain knowledge in Constantinople — that the sultan was a Dervish 
 of the class called vulgarly the Howling, and that when (as was often 
 the case) the ministers of state summoned to a council had to wait 
 hour after hour for the sultan to appear, he was in an inner room 
 with a circle of other Dervishes loudly invoking the name of Allah 
 and working up the ecstatic condition in which it should be revealed 
 whether and when he should enter the council. I do not doubt that 
 the great idea of appealing to the world of Islam was struck out in 
 some such moment of ecstasy. At the same time, Abd-ul-Hamid 
 has had a good deal to gain from the success of this policy. 
 
 Europeans who have been admitted to meet the sultan in direct 
 intercourse are almost all agreed that he possesses great personal 
 charm and a gracious, winning courtesy. On the other hand, min- 
 isters of state used to speak with deep feeling of the insults and abuse 
 poured on any, even the highest, who had the misfortune to express 
 an opinion that did not agree with his wishes. 
 
 An official in the palace described very frankly — it is wonderful 
 how freely and frankly Turks express their opinion ; this seems in- 
 
 [46]
 
 THE SULTAN, THE HEART OF TURKEY 
 
 separable from the Turkish nature — to an Englishman whom he 
 knew well the situation in the palace at the time when an ultimatum 
 had been presented, and before it was known what would be the 
 issue; how the sultan was flattered up to believe that he had only 
 to go into Egypt and resume possession, and that the English would 
 never resist. The Englishman remarked, " But you know better 
 than that, and of course you give better advice when the sultan asks 
 your opinion." " God forbid," was the reply, " that I should say to 
 the sultan anything except what he wishes me to say. No ! when 
 he asks me, I reply that of course the master of a million of soldiers 
 has only to enter Egypt and it is his. And it is not for nothing that 
 I do this. The sultan is pleased with me, and signs some paper that 
 I have brought him, and it may be worth 10,000 piastres to me." 
 
 The sultan hates England with a permanent and ineradicable 
 hatred; this feeling dominates and colors his whole policy; it is 
 only for that reason that he tolerates Germany, which otherwise he 
 dislikes. England has always been the friend of the Reform party 
 in Turkey; and the sultan is the great reactionary who has trodden 
 the Reform party in the dust. But, worse than that, England, pre- 
 tending to help Turkey, took possession of Cyprus, nominally to 
 enable her to guarantee Turkey against Russia in Asia Minor, but 
 really (as it seems to the Turks) by pure theft, because all pretence 
 of using Cyprus as a basis of operations against Russia in Asia 
 Minor was abandoned in 1880, and yet England kept Cyprus. 
 
 Now to the sultan the sting lies in this, that Cyprus was his private 
 appanage, and not part of the State. The whole revenue of Cyprus 
 went to the sultan's privy purse. But worse still : at first the Eng- 
 lish paid over the Cypriote revenue, about £95,000 a year, to 
 Constantinople, but after the Gladstonian government came into 
 power, in 1880, this revenue was diverted to pay interest on the 
 Turkish debt, emptying the sultan's private purse into the lap of the 
 European bondholders. 
 
 The sultan, therefore, welcomed the German intervention, for 
 the Germans encouraged him to govern as he pleased. They even 
 persuaded him that railways were necessary for military efficiency, 
 and showed that the Hedjaz Railway must be the foundation of his 
 
 [¥]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 khalifate. Yet the railways that he has made, and the Moslem 
 schools that he has founded, are the surest means of educating his 
 people, and education is the inevitable enemy of autocracy. 
 
 The German policy has seemed to be very successful in promot- 
 ing German interests in Turkey. But, after all, the ground fact is 
 that the German policy was an opportunist policy, and the English 
 policy, ignorant and ill-managed as it has been, was founded on 
 deeper principles. History will record hereafter that the former 
 proved a failure, and that the hatred of a people more than com- 
 pensated for the favor of an evanescent tyrant. The same struggle 
 is going on in Turkey as in Russia — the educated part of the people 
 on one side, a tyranny resting on bureaucracy and obscurantism on 
 the other. Whatever may be the faults of Abd-ul-Hamid, his worst 
 enemy must place him on an immensely higher level than the czar 
 on any point of view, humanitarian or patriotic, personal or political. 
 But for England in Turkey the greatest danger is that she be tempted 
 to Germanize her policy from experience of the apparent German 
 success. Her policy has been, on the whole, the wiser, but it has 
 been carried out with an ignorance of Turkish facts that is appalling. 
 
 [48]
 
 RACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF 
 THE RACES
 
 The rigidity of the Sacred Law has been at times slightly tempered by 
 well-nieaning and learned Moslems who have tortured their brains in devising 
 sophisms to show that the legal principles and social system of the seventh 
 century can, by some strained and intricate process of reasoning, be consis- 
 tently and logically made to conform with the civilized practices of the 
 twentieth century. But, as a rule, custom based on the religious law, coupled 
 with exaggerated reverence for the original lawgiver, holds all those who 
 cling to the faith of Islam with a grip of iron from which there is no escape. 
 "During the Middle Ages," it has been truly said, "man lived enveloped in a 
 cowl." The true Moslem of the present day is even more tightly enveloped 
 by the sheriat. 
 
 In the third place, Islam does not, indeed, encourage, but it tolerates 
 slavery. " Mohammed found the custom existing among the Pagan Arabs ; 
 he minimised the evil." But he was powerless to abolish it altogether. His 
 followers have forgotten the discouragement, and have very generally made 
 the permission to possess slaves the practical guide for their conduct. This is 
 another fatal blot in Islam. 
 
 Lastly, Islam has the reputation of being an intolerant religion, and the 
 reputation is, from some points of view, well deserved, though the bald and 
 sweeping accusation of intolerance requires qualification and explanation. 
 The followers of the Prophet have, indeed, waged war against those whom 
 they considered infidels. They are taught by their religious code that any 
 unbelievers, who may be made prisoners of war, may rightly be enslaved. 
 Moreover, sectarian strife has not been uncommon. Sunni has fought 
 against Shiah. The orthodox Moslem has mercilessly repressed the followers 
 of Abdul Wahab. Further, apostasy from Islam is punishable with death, 
 and it is not many years ago that the sentence used to be carried into effect. 
 On the other hand, the annals of Islam are not stained by the history of an 
 Inquisition. More than this, when he is not moved by any circumstances 
 specially calculated to rouse his religious passions, the Moslem readily 
 extends a half-contemptuous tolerance to the Jew and the Christian. In the 
 villages of Upper Egypt, the Crescent and the Cross, the Mosque and the 
 monastery, have stood peacefully side by side for many a long year. — 
 Lord Cromer in "Modern Egypt."
 
 V. RACE QUESTIONS AND SOME 
 OF THE RACES 
 
 A LL questions relating to the internal government of 
 /-\ the Ottoman empire would be greatly simplified 
 "*■ and much more easily comprehended, were the 
 
 people of Turkey substantially of one race like those of 
 China or Japan. But this is not the case. As the Mos- 
 lems overran Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Asia 
 Minor, they conquered peoples of other races than them- 
 selves and of other religions. In their wars of conquest 
 the Mohammedans revealed a degree of toleration which is 
 to be commended. All conquered people were asked to 
 embrace Islam. If they persistently refused, they were 
 conceded the right to live upon the payment of an annual 
 tribute per capita. The acceptance of this condition was 
 an outward recognition that the Moslems were their 
 masters, while the money thus obtained enabled the con- 
 querors to extend their conquests. Whoever declined to 
 accept Islam and refused to pay the life tax was put to the 
 sword. This left within the conquered districts only two 
 classes, the Mohammedan rulers and those who, by annual 
 tribute, confessed themselves to be a conquered people, 
 permitted to live from year to year by virtue of the money 
 paid. 
 
 It is most natural that this distinction, perpetuated for 
 thirty generations, should lead to aggravated relations of 
 conqueror and conquered. It was inevitable that the 
 Moslems should become imperious and the other people 
 depressed and subservient.
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 In order to understand certain governmental and reli- 
 gious phases of the Turkish empire, it is essential that we 
 look a little in detail into the history and characteristics 
 of these divergent elements of its population which to- 
 gether make up the populations of that country. It is a 
 subject preeminently of races and religions. Within the 
 empire there is only one unifying force and that is Mo- 
 hammedanism. All who embrace Islam, irrespective of the 
 race from which they sprang, become an integral part of 
 the governing body. Such begin at once to use either the 
 Turkish or the Arabic language and to bear the name 
 " Turk." 
 
 Besides this one unifying force, there is no tendency to 
 bring together the different races or to amalgamate them. 
 There is little intermarriage. Each race has its own lan- 
 guage and its distinct religion. To them all religion is 
 racial, or, as they call it, " national." A man without a 
 religion is beyond their conception ; and under the laws 
 of the empire he can have no place in any community or 
 possess any rights that others are bound to respect. Each 
 man, woman, and child must be registered upon the rolls 
 of some national church. There his name stands, and in 
 that record his rights inhere until he changes to Islam. 
 Turkey allows few rights or privileges to one not a regis- 
 tered member of a religious community. 
 
 We will consider briefly a few of the old historical and, 
 in some cases, once powerful races, now found in that 
 empire, and among which mission work is carried on. 
 Only by acquaintance with these races can we understand 
 the real factors in the problem. 
 
 There are the many non-Moslem races of Syria, the 
 country first overrun by the Moslem invaders as they 
 pushed their way northward. The races who occupy that 
 
 [52]
 
 RACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE RACES 
 
 country in connection with perhaps one million Mohamme- 
 dans are the Nusairiyeh, the Maronites, Greeks and Ar- 
 menians, Jacobites, Druses, and Jews. The three men- 
 tioned here especially peculiar to Syria are the Nusairiyeh, 
 the Maronites, and the Jews. 
 
 THE NUSAIRIYEH 
 
 The Nusairiyeh number a quarter of a million souls or 
 more and are perhaps the most degraded of all of the races 
 in Turkey. They are also most difficult to classify reli- 
 giously or ethnologically. Their religion is a mixture of 
 ancient heathenism, the survival of certain Gnostic beliefs, 
 tinged strongly with Mohammedanism. The Moham- 
 medans claim them, as they do the Koords and Albanians. 
 They dwell in the mountains north of Syria and along the 
 Mediterranean coast as far north as Cilicia. Their origin 
 is lost in obscurity. At present they are decidedly a 
 mixed race. Their name comes from Nusair, who led them 
 in their separation from the Shiites, of which they were 
 a branch. The Nusairiyeh are most reticent upon the sub- 
 ject of their religion. It is regarded as an unpardonable 
 sin to reveal their religious beliefs and rites. They wor- 
 ship the moon, which they think is the throne of Ali, and 
 the sun, which is the throne of Mohammed. They also 
 worship fire, the waves of the sea, and anything that mani- 
 fests power. They believe in transmigration of the soul, 
 progress being upward or downward according to the life 
 of the individual. 
 
 It is, in short, a rude, primitive, rough, and ignorant 
 race, absolutely under Turkish sway and terribly op- 
 pressed. Little progress has yet been made in the line 
 of mission work among them. The Turks guard them with 
 
 [BS]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 a jealous eye, and the severest persecutions await all who 
 profess Christianity, and every effort is made to prevent 
 their education and general enlightenment. 
 
 THE MARONITES 
 
 The Syrian Maronites number not less than 250,000 and 
 are scattered all over the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon 
 ranges. They are found in largest numbers in the north- 
 ern districts of Lebanon and there they have control of 
 local affairs. They are also found as far south as Mount 
 Hermon in the country of the Druses. The hostility of 
 these two races led to the massacres of 1860 in which thou- 
 sands of the Maronites were slain. They take their name 
 from John Maron, their first patriarch and political leader, 
 who died in 701 a. d. They were mixed up with the 
 Monophysite controversy in the sixth and seventh cen- 
 turies. In an attempt to reconcile them, John Maron, a 
 Monothelite (one will) leader, at the time of the Moslem 
 invasion, conducted them into the high mountains of the 
 Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, where for five hundred years 
 they maintained their independent existence in the face of 
 every attempt to subdue or dislodge them. They devel- 
 oped qualities of manly strength and industry. Their 
 language was the Syrian and their government a simple 
 feudal system. They had a patriarch with Episcopal 
 dioceses at Aleppo, Balbek, Jebeil, Tripoli, Ehden, Da- 
 mascus, Beirut, Tyre, and Cyprus. 
 
 This interesting people was discovered to the world by 
 the Crusaders and through them were brought under the 
 wing of the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of 
 Florence in 1445. They adopted the Arabic language but 
 retained their old Syriac ritual. They are to-day rec- 
 
 [54]
 
 KACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE RACES 
 
 ognized as followers of the Church of Rome with a form 
 of worship somewhat modified to meet their special condi- 
 tions. The Jesuits and forces of the Catholic Church have 
 made every effort to prevent the Protestant missionaries 
 from getting a foothold among them. Much, however, has 
 been done for them by both the Presbyterian Board North, 
 and the Free Church of Scotland. The Irish Presbyterian 
 Church of Damascus is reaching the Maronites in that part 
 of the country. Education is greatly transforming the 
 race and through this they are becoming more and more 
 responsive to evangelical religion. 
 
 THE DRUSES 
 
 The Druses are a smaller sect numbering probably not 
 more than 100,000, possibly less, and occupying the Leba- 
 non and Anti-Lebanon in touch with the Maronites. They 
 are found as far north as Beirut and as far south as Tyre, 
 extending even to Damascus. Their chief town is Deir-el- 
 Kamor, about fifteen miles southeast of Beirut. They are 
 decidedly a mixed race with the blood of the Crusaders 
 mingling with that of native and invading peoples. They 
 are a people of an unusually high order of intelligence and 
 outward refinement. They are an offshoot of the Moham- 
 medans through the fanatical, if not insane, leadership of 
 one of the caliphs of Egypt who began to reign in 996. 
 One Darazi who made known the claims of the caliph to 
 divine incarnation led these people into the mountains of 
 Lebanon and is supposed to have given them his own name. 
 
 They believe in one God and in a fixed number of human 
 souls that can never be increased or diminished. This re- 
 semblance to the religions of India is probably due to Per- 
 sian teaching. They recognize the claims upon them of no 
 other religion, and yet with manifest indifference they join 
 
 [55]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 in the prayers of the Mohammedans in their mosques 
 and sprinkle the holy water of the Catholic Church with 
 the Maronites, according as expediency may require. 
 They have seven commandments: 
 
 1. Speaking the truth (only between Druses, however). 
 
 2. Combination for mutual defense. 
 
 3. Renunciation of all other creeds. 
 
 4. Social separation from all who are in error. 
 
 5. Recognition of the unity of Hakim with God. 
 
 6. Complete resignation of the will. 
 
 7. Obedience to orders. 
 
 They believe in free will and reject the fatalism of the 
 Mohammedans. 
 
 When the Mohammedans inaugurated the massacre of 
 the Maronites to check their growing strength under Chris- 
 tian enlightenment, the Druses joined with the Turks as 
 the enemies of Christianity. It was this massacre which 
 led to the intervention of Europe, resulting in the ex- 
 clusion of Turkish officials from the Lebanon and the es- 
 tablishment of a special government for that district with 
 a Roman Catholic governor and a mixed council under a 
 constitution drawn by the European Powers. This has 
 made a great change in the Lebanon, affording the people 
 of that vilayet larger freedom of action and greater exemp- 
 tion from Turkish persecution than are enjoyed in any 
 other part of the Turkish empire. The Druses and 
 Maronites live on terms of harmony. They are a brave, 
 fine-looking and enterprising people, living mostly by 
 agriculture. 
 
 THE JEWS 
 
 The Jews are too well known in both ancient and modern 
 history to demand space here. While they are found in 
 
 [56]
 
 RACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE RACES 
 
 considerable numbers in Syria, possibly as many as eighty 
 thousand, they do not hold an important position in rela- 
 tion to the government of that country, or in the mission 
 problems. While the Jews in Russia are always at the 
 front, in Turkey they seldom appear. The Turks seem to 
 have no fear that they will interfere in any way with the 
 affairs of state. 
 
 They do not command the prominence commercially in 
 Turkey that they do in most other countries. In the city 
 of Constantinople it is estimated that there are seventy-five 
 thousand Jews, and in the other large cities of the empire 
 they exist in smaller numbers. They are an inoffensive 
 people, attending to their own affairs and not interfering 
 with the other races, all of whom look down upon them 
 as inferior. In many places in the interior where they 
 appear in small numbers they are, for the most part, ex- 
 tremely poor. 
 
 SYRIANS OR JACOBITES 
 
 There is probably no distinct race in Turkey that may 
 be called Syrian. Dwelling in Syria and extending north 
 into Mesopotamia and east towards Persia are Christian 
 peoples who do not belong to any of the races mentioned, 
 but who are the direct descendants of the early Christian 
 Church. This country has been the great meeting-ground 
 of nations, over which have swept from time to time Egyp- 
 tians, Greeks, Armenians, Persians, Mongols, Koords, and 
 Europeans of every name and race. The presence of the 
 sacred places of the Christian faith has called forth pil- 
 grimages and given occasion for conflicts. It was here 
 that the early Christian Church was named, and here have 
 dwelt some of the greatest of the fathers of the early 
 Greek Church, such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Jerome. In those earlier days missionary influences went 
 out from that land to other regions and countries. 
 
 Under the special effort of Constantine and his mother, 
 Helena, pilgrims began to turn their steps towards Pales- 
 tine, and monasteries sprang up all over the country. 
 When Chosroes of Persia swept over that land, he slaugh- 
 tered Christian monks by the thousand. Then came the 
 Arabs with Mohammedanism, who converted some of the 
 churches into mosques, but left others for the service of 
 the Christians. Many Syrians accepted Islam and the 
 strength of the Church waned. At the time of the crusades 
 there were not more than five hundred thousand Christians 
 in the country, according to some estimates. To win these 
 the Roman pontiff had made prodigious efforts, but for 
 the most part they refused to acknowledge the supremacy 
 of the pope. 
 
 The Syrian Church, therefore, is the remnant which 
 remains from the conflicts and persecutions of the last 
 eight centuries. It does not represent a single race or 
 people, but is able to trace its pedigree as a church back 
 to the very beginnings of Christianity. The remnants of 
 this early church are found throughout Palestine and 
 northern Syria, including Damascus. They are found 
 also in Mosul, Mardin, and northern Mesopotamia in con- 
 siderable numbers. In the northern regions they are some- 
 times called Jacobites. There are many strong men among 
 them and in some places not a little of the pride and glory 
 of the old church remains. Some of their old churches 
 and monasteries contain valuable manuscripts in the Syriac 
 language of ancient date. The spoken language of these 
 people is now, for the most part, Arabic. 
 
 They have suffered much persecution from the Moham- 
 medans, especially from the Suljuk Turks, which had 
 
 [58]
 
 RACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE RACES 
 
 much influence in arousing the knighthood of Europe to 
 enter upon the crusades. After the failure of the crusades 
 these Christians were again subject to Moslem misrule at 
 the hands of the Mohammedan sultans of Egypt and in- 
 vaders from Turkey. The whole land was conquered in 
 1517 by the Ottoman Turk, Selim I. Except for the brief 
 period (1832-1841) when Syria was held by Ibrahim Pasha, 
 this country and this church have been under the rule of the 
 sultan who sat upon the throne in Constantinople. 
 
 As the manuscript Bibles, liturgy, and church books 
 were in Syriac, while the common people spoke and under- 
 stood only the Arabic, Christianity became largely a 
 matter of form from which the spirit had departed. The 
 same conditions prevailed here which we shall discuss later 
 in the Gregorian Church. 
 
 THE GREEKS 
 
 The Greeks claim that they have the oldest Christian 
 Church, since they are the heirs to the old Byzantine 
 empire at Constantinople, and use even now in their wor- 
 ship the Greek of the apostles and the liturgy of the early 
 fathers. They constituted the majority at the first seven 
 ecumenical councils, dominating in no small degree by 
 their philosophy and thought the doctrines there estab- 
 lished. They contend with the Syrian Church over pri- 
 ority of origin. The political history of the Greek Church 
 began with the conversion of Constantine in 312 a. d., 
 when persecution ceased and Christianity became the state 
 religion. 
 
 We do not need for our present purpose to trace the 
 history of the Church of Constantinople down to its sepa- 
 ration from the Church of Rome in 1054, and the capture 
 of the city by the Turks in 1453.
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 During this period the Church conducted a vigorous 
 missionary propaganda. Cyril and Methodius went into 
 Thessalonica and Bulgaria and there did substantial fun- 
 damental Christian work. Russia was also reached from 
 this center and the czar was baptized and the nation be- 
 came Christian. 
 
 In government, the Greek Church is Episcopal. The 
 temporal power centers in the patriarch. There are sev- 
 eral of these, the chief of whom resides at Constantinople, 
 although the patriarchs at Antioch, Alexandria, and Jeru- 
 salem have nominally the same authority. Under Turk- 
 ish rule the office of the patriarch has been exalted into 
 practically the head of the Church, the bishops exercis- 
 ing spiritual authority alone. This arrangement is the 
 same that exists in the Gregorian Church, as we shall 
 see later. The general synod, made up of the bishops of 
 the surrounding provinces, is presided over by the patri- 
 archs, whom they are supposed to elect, but whose elec- 
 tion must always be confirmed by the sultan of Turkey. 
 The authority by which the patriarch acts comes from 
 a firman or charter granted by the sultan. 
 
 In 1833 the branch of the Greek Church now included 
 in the kingdom of Greece severed itself from primary 
 dependence upon the patriarch at Constantinople. The 
 Church of Russia, up to the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, was holden to the Constantinople patriarch to con- 
 firm the primate of Moscow. Peter the Great in 171& 
 curtailed the authority of this primate, putting in his 
 place the Holy Synod, over which the czar is supreme. 
 These changes left the patriarch at Constantinople with 
 authority over only the Greek churches within the bounds 
 of the Turkish empire. The Greek Church of Roumania 
 and Servia soon became independent and in 1870 the 
 
 [60]
 
 EACE QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE RACES 
 
 Church of Bulgaria withdrew and reunited under one 
 chief bishop called the Bulgarian exarch. 
 
 One prominent fact that must be constantly kept in 
 mind is that after these churches had separated from the 
 mother Church and become independent of her control, they 
 constituted what is virtually another Church. Relations 
 one with the other were completely severed, and often vio- 
 lent hostility prevailed. In 1905 a severe and bloody con- 
 flict was waged in Macedonia between officers of the Greek 
 Church who claimed allegiance to the Synod at Athens, 
 and officers of the same Church who recognized as their 
 head the Bulgarian exarch. Hostility was as severe and 
 bloody as between Moslems and Christians. Church build- 
 ings were captured, the one from the other, and loyal sub- 
 jects fought to the death in resistance of these attacks. 
 This is a fact that must be taken into consideration as 
 the various Churches and Christian sects in that part of 
 the world are studied and their relation to Mohammedanism 
 and the Turkish empire weighed. 
 
 We are not especially concerned here with the peculiar 
 beliefs of this Church. We are not dealing with the ques- 
 tion from a theological standpoint, but from the general 
 standpoint of its relations to the government of Turkey 
 and to the other coreligionists within the empire. 
 
 The most of the adherents of the Greek Church within 
 the Turkish empire are Greeks. They are a strong, hardy, 
 vigorous and intelligent race. Many of them are direct 
 descendants, without doubt, of mighty men of valor who 
 held their own in the face of overpowering odds in the early 
 days of Greek chivalry. In Constantinople, where some 
 175,000 live to-day, they stand first among the bankers 
 and leading merchants. Greeks figure largely in Smyrna 
 and in fact in all of the cities of western Asia Minor, while
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 they are found as far in the interior as Marsovan, Caesarea 
 and Sivas. As one goes still farther east, Greeks for the 
 most part disappear and their place in trade and commerce 
 is taken by Armenians. It is an interesting fact that along 
 the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where mines exist, 
 in many instances there is a colony of Greeks close by. 
 Tradition reports that these are descendants of the men 
 left behind in the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand 
 across that country to Trebizond upon the Black Sea. 
 
 These Greeks, while citizens of Turkey, it may be, for 
 fifty generations, not infrequently refer to the king of 
 Greece as " our king George." Along the borders of 
 Macedonia towards Greece they cause the sultan much 
 trouble by their sympathy with that kingdom rather 
 than with him. For the most part, throughout Turkey 
 they are quiet and give little trouble by revolutionary 
 propagandism. 
 
 In educational institutions the Greek youth show su- 
 perior intellectual ability and unusual eagerness. In com- 
 mercial affairs they rank second to no other race and as 
 merchants they have already gone into all the earth. 
 Destitute of the intense national feeling of the Armenians, 
 they have not given the Turkish government the trouble 
 and anxiety that the Armenians have caused. As their 
 fatherland is outside the borders of the present Turkish 
 empire there is no fear upon the part of the Turkish 
 rulers that they will attempt to set up an independent 
 government. They have not, therefore, suffered the per- 
 secution that has been laid upon the Armenians. 
 
 [62]
 
 THE ARMENIANS
 
 When I was in Constantinople I felt the restless tossings of long en- 
 thralled nationalities awaking to the new destinies that might be theirs — 
 Armenians thirsting for their lost country and dispersed people ; Bulgarians 
 panting and striving for freedom in a Greater Bulgaria ; Egyptians claiming 
 independence ; Jews praying for a return to the land of David and Solomon ; 
 Greeks dreaming strange dreams of a greater and united Greece, yes, even 
 of an eastern empire restored to them, with Constantinople as its centre. I 
 saw the Turk, still defiant but apprehensive, dimly conscious that the end is 
 near at hand, lamenting the sins of his people — such sins as that the women 
 do not wholly veil their faces, that the men do not slay the infidels. I discerned 
 the subtle plotting of diplomacy to guard or gain the Queen City, and so the 
 empire of the East. Everything seemed then, as now, uncertain. It might be 
 peace, it might be war; but all were sure that the old was breaking up, 
 whether to make way for inrushing floods of destruction, or for better days and 
 nobler nations, none could tell. Then I went to the most sacred and vital 
 spot of Stamboul, not to St. Sophia, which, with all the lights and prayers of 
 Ramazan, testified only to the degradation and defeat of the purer by a 
 coarser faith, which had become God's scourge. I went to the Bible House, 
 and there first, while all was shaking about, I felt that I stood upon a rock, 
 the very Rock of Ages. The old city had fallen because it was built upon a 
 shut Bible; this city was about to fall because it was built upon the Koran. 
 But here on the open Bible was being reared a city which hath a foundation 
 whose builder and maker is God. — Edwakd A. Lawrence in "Modern 
 Missions in the East."
 
 VI. THE ARMENIANS 
 
 OF all the races and sects of the Ottoman empire, 
 none except the Turks are so closely identified with 
 the country, its progress and present conditions, 
 as the Armenians. They have been preeminently the 
 means and occasion for prosecuting missionary work there, 
 and the Armenian question has been discussed in the par- 
 liaments of all Europe and even now is far from solution. 
 
 The Armenians constitute one of the two distinct Chris- 
 tian peoples in the empire, the other being the Greeks. 
 They stand with the Greeks, a keen rival for the honors of 
 antiquity, while from the Christian standpoint they hold a 
 position entirely unique. Their antiquity, racial strength, 
 intellectual alertness, large numbers, and importance in 
 that empire all demand a more extended consideration. 
 
 There are two distinct sources from which account of 
 them comes, — one, their own historians, and the other, 
 contemporary historians. According to the former, they 
 are the direct descendants from Noah through Japheth, 
 who was the father of Gomer, the father of Togarmah, 
 who begat Haig, the father of the Armenian race. It is 
 a fact to be noted here that they always refer to them- 
 selves not as Armenians but as Haiks, and to their coun- 
 try as Haiasdan. They find no little difficulty in pro- 
 nouncing the word " Armenia." The name " Armenians " 
 was applied to the race by outside nations because of the 
 exploits of one Aram, the king of Haiasdan, the seventh 
 removed from Haik, who made many conquests and im- 
 pressed the power of his arms upon the weaker people 
 about him. To these people the Haiks were the followers 
 
 5 [65]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 of Aram and so were called Armenians. The Armenians 
 claim that their present language, except for the changes 
 that have crept in through the centuries, was spoken in 
 the ark. Their traditions blend in the third and fourth 
 centuries before Christ with many facts of Assyrian, 
 Median, and Greek history, so it is impossible to differen- 
 tiate precisely where legend ends and history begins. 
 
 There is no doubt that during the Assyrian and Median 
 period there was in Armenia, which included the mountains 
 of Ararat, and the upper Araxes, Euphrates and Tigris 
 rivers, centering perhaps in the region of Lake Van, a 
 well-organized and powerful monarchy. The ancient As- 
 syrian records show that this people had to be reckoned 
 with in all plans for campaigns in the Ararat country, 
 and not infrequently the invaders were compelled to retire 
 in apparent haste. Well-preserved inscriptions are found 
 upon the cliffs at Van and in the same language across 
 the country six hundred miles or more to the east, which 
 show the presence there (700 b. c.) of a powerful and war- 
 like people. Whether these were the progenitors of the 
 present Armenian race or whether they were conquered 
 by some stronger invading force, which completely domi- 
 nated the country, is not as yet clear. 
 
 The last of the Haig dynasty, Vahe, formed an alliance 
 with Darius III against the Macedonians. He was de- 
 feated by the forces under Alexander and was slain. The 
 people were without a leader for one hundred and thirty 
 years, and were trampled upon and plundered by invad- 
 ing armies from every side. About 190 b. c. two Armenian 
 nobles arose who divided the kingdom and ruled over it. 
 This divided kingdom was again united under Tigranes 
 (Dickran II) in 89 b. c. In 67 b. c. the Armenians be- 
 came an ally of Rome, and in 30 b. c. were made tributary. 
 
 [66]
 
 THE ARMENIANS 
 
 For two and a half centuries thereafter the entire country 
 was again in turmoil and political disorder. From that 
 time to the present the Armenians have never represented 
 a political power that needed to be reckoned with. Their 
 people were scattered with no uniting force, without a 
 commanding leader or a distinctive country. 
 
 A little Armenian kingdom in Cilicia in the Taurus 
 Mountains maintained an existence until 1375 a. d. Since 
 that time Armenians have had no political existence what- 
 ever. They have been, and are still, a people without a 
 country, a nation without a government. 
 
 As soon as the Mohammedan invasion took place they 
 had no alternative but to yield to their conquerors or die. 
 It was but natural that they should scatter from the old 
 ancestral haunts to all points of the compass, in search 
 of more liberty and a better opportunity to secure a 
 living. They have gone into every city, if not into nearly 
 every village of size in the empire. Before the massacre 
 of 1895-96 there were nearly a quarter of a million Ar- 
 menians in Constantinople alone. Their energy and enter- 
 prise and industry give them prominence in trade, in the 
 professions, and in the cultivation of the soil. They have 
 gone far beyond the borders of Turkey, and are found 
 to-day in nearly every country in the world. Many hold 
 high and honorable positions in foreign lands. 
 
 Armenians exist in larger numbers still in their old 
 haunts about Lake Van, where they constitute perhaps a 
 majority of the population. In all the cities of Eastern 
 Turkey, extending from the Black Sea south into northern 
 Mesopotamia, westward to the Euphrates river, and be- 
 yond, they hold a prominent place, although they are 
 upon the whole a minority. The rest of the population 
 are mostly Turks, the ruling body, and the Koords. These 
 
 [67]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 races, especially the Turks and Armenians, live in the same 
 towns, but never intermarry. The Koords live more by 
 themselves in the mountains. As we pass on into Asia 
 Minor, the Armenians decrease while the Greeks increase 
 in numbers and in the importance of the positions they 
 command. 
 
 The Armenians are also numerous in northern Syria, 
 especially in the region near their last Cilician kingdom. 
 Adana, Tarsus, Marash, Aintab, Hadjin, Oorfa and many 
 other cities in that region have a large Armenian popula- 
 tion. Their language is Turanian, constructed upon the 
 Greek model, and is especially rich in its power of ex- 
 pressing Christian truths and sentiments. The most of 
 the Armenians speak this tongue, but some in the moun- 
 tains of Koordistan speak only Koordish, while the Ar- 
 menians in northern Syria use the Turkish language. 
 Turkish is spoken by nearly all Armenians, as well as 
 by all the races north of Syria. 
 
 Religiously, the history of the Armenians is full of 
 interest. Their histories claim that at the time of Christ 
 their king Abgar, called by Tacitus the king of the Arabs, 
 resided at Urfa in northern Mesopotamia. He is reported 
 to have had some communication with Christ, who, at 
 his death, through the apostle Thomas, sent Thaddeus 
 to preach to the Armenians. The king and his court were 
 baptized. His successor apostatized from the faith, and 
 so Christianity was lost to the race until the fourth cen- 
 tury. At the beginning of this century St. Gregory the 
 Illuminator preached at the court of Armenia with such 
 effect that from that period to this Christianity has been 
 the national religion. The Church has held the race to- 
 gether. It is known as the Gregorian Church, after St. 
 Gregory, while the people themselves always refer to their 
 
 [08]
 
 THE ARMENIANS 
 
 church as Loosavorchagan, derived from Loosavorich, 
 meaning " The Illuminator." As this is the national 
 Church, all Armenian children are baptized in infancy and 
 become members. 
 
 At first the Gregorian Church took part in the ecu- 
 menical conferences, but for some reason they had no rep- 
 resentatives in the council which met at Chalcedon in 
 451 a. d. In a synod of Armenian bishops in 491 the 
 decisions of the council of Chalcedon were rejected, and 
 at a later synod they declared openly for the Monophysite 
 doctrine. This led to their complete separation from the 
 Greek Church. 
 
 Their church government is Episcopal, with the same 
 form of patriarchal control which dominates the Greek 
 Church in Turkey. The bishop of the main body of the 
 Armenians resides at Etchmiadzin, their holy city, now in 
 Russia, not far from the Turkish borders. There is also 
 a bishop on the island of Octamar in the lake of Van, 
 and another at Cis in Cilicia, each with a small following. 
 The bishops have authority over the spiritual affairs of 
 the Church, like the ordaining of priests and vartabeds, 
 while the two patriarchs, one at Jerusalem and one at 
 Constantinople, control its temporal affairs. As these 
 patriarchs, and especially the one at Constantinople, are 
 in a measure the appointees of the sultan, and as he repre- 
 sents his people in all their government matters, the office 
 is largely political and secular. The importance as well 
 as the delicacy of the position is greatly increased during 
 the times of political unrest. 
 
 At its beginning, the Church was as pure in doctrine 
 and practise as was the Greek Church at Constantinople. 
 It was an important branch of the Church of Christ on 
 earth. The location of the unprotected Armenians, in a 
 
 [69]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 country swept by invasion and persecutors of every kind, 
 made the position of the Church a most trying one. As 
 illiteracy increased, the spoken language of the people 
 underwent marked changes. The Church possessed most 
 sacredly guarded manuscript copies of the Scriptures 
 and beautiful liturgies, all in the then spoken language 
 of the people. These were read at all church services 
 and sermons were preached by the officiating clergy. As 
 the spoken language changed during the last ten cen- 
 turies, under the blasting influence of Mohammedan rule, 
 the sacred books of the Church ceased to speak to the 
 people. The priests read the words of the ritual, but 
 neither they nor the people understood it. The church was 
 too holy a place in which to make use of the vulgar ver- 
 nacular, so the sermon was discontinued because there 
 was no one to preach in the classic tongue of the race. 
 Under these conditions the Christianity of the Gre- 
 gorian Church became, for the most part, a religion of 
 form, from which the spirit had departed. Thus bereft of 
 the true power of Christianity and subject to the tempta- 
 tions and persecutions of the Moslems among whom they 
 dwelt, it is not strange that the Christianity of the Gre- 
 gorian Church lost its vital power. 
 
 [70]
 
 MOSLEM PEOPLES
 
 What was said above concerning Islam as the hereditary faith of the 
 Ottoman Turk does not hold true of the other Moslem races of Turkey. 
 Koords, Circassians, Albanians — nearly half as many, all together, as the 
 Turks — are, at best, but half Mohammedan. To a large extent the profes- 
 sion of Islam by Koords and Circassians is purely outward and formal, while 
 their esoteric faith is a mixture of Mohammedanism, Christianity and 
 heathenism. In grouping and generalization we cannot go farther than the 
 statement just made. Take the Koords alone. There is almost infinite 
 variety in their religious beliefs and superstitions. It is well known that there 
 are whole villages among them ready to declare themselves Christians, could 
 they be assured of protection in so doing. The Moslem Albanians — some- 
 what more than half the race — are more bigoted and violent Mohammedans 
 than the Turks, just as the Janissaries, likewise of Christian origin, who were 
 compelled from childhood to embrace Islam, out-Heroded Herod in the 
 fanaticism of their anti-Christian zeal. 
 
 With the exception of the Albanians, Islam has, in all the centuries of the 
 reign of the Ottoman Power over these lands, made very slight gains from the 
 Christian races. The number of Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, Roumanian, 
 Servian, Bosnian, or Montenegrin Mohammedans is insignificant. Of these 
 seven races, for hundreds of years under Moslem sway, the number to-day 
 free from Ottoman control is nearly equal to the entire population, Moslem 
 and Christian, now directly under Turkish domination. — From " The Mo- 
 hammedan World of To-day."
 
 VII. MOSLEM PEOPLES 
 
 THE KOORDS 
 
 BESIDES the Turks and Armenians, no race in Tur- 
 key has commanded more attention during the past 
 two decades than the Koords. They have attracted 
 the notice of the world by their large part in the Armenian 
 massacres in 1895-96 as well as by their relations to the 
 sultan himself through the organization and arming of 
 the Hamidieh cavalry within the last quarter of a cen- 
 tury. They were almost unknown and unheard-of except 
 locally until they came into prominence at the time of the 
 siege of Erzerum by the Russians in 1876, when the Koords 
 were used by the Turks in defense. They rendered little 
 real service, however. 
 
 Whatever else may be said, this race has now to be 
 reckoned with in all plans for propagating Christianity 
 in any form in Eastern Turkey and western Persia, as 
 well as in all questions of order in that region. Some- 
 times they are in open conflict with the Turks, and troops 
 are mobilized and sent against them in their mountain 
 fastnesses. Again they are provided with arms by the 
 government and sent out to subdue and suppress revolu- 
 tionary bands of Armenians who are more ambitious than 
 discreet in their endeavors to obtain liberty. 
 
 Little is known of the origin and history of this wild 
 and most interesting people. They probably are the 
 direct descendants of the Karduchi, who occupied the 
 same plateaus and commanded the same mountain passes 
 that the Koords now hold. It is probable that they are 
 
 Pre]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 not a race by themselves, but a collection of tribes with 
 little among them all that is common except their hardi- 
 hood, roughness, and tendency to plunder. One chief, 
 whom the writer knew, declared that his ancestors came to 
 the upper waters of the Tigris from Mesopotamia some 
 eight centuries ago, and, after conquering the region, 
 ruled it as feudal lords. That form of government is in 
 existence among them even at the present time. Undoubt- 
 edly the word Koord, Kurd, Gutu, Gardu, or Karu, has 
 been promiscuously applied to any mountain race, clan, 
 or tribe occupying the upper waters of the great rivers 
 in that part of the empire, if they were not already 
 claimed by another race. 
 
 There are some marked distinctions between the peoples 
 called Koords. Some are nomadic and pastoral, taking 
 their flocks into the north of Armenia as the summer ad- 
 vances, and returning to the warmer regions of the south as 
 it recedes. These live almost entirely in black tents, and, 
 while they steal, are not generally robbers. Others settle 
 in villages and the men devote their time usually to robbing 
 traders and caravans passing through their country, and 
 levying blackmail upon the Armenians who dwell upon 
 their borders. It is this class who cause both the Turkish 
 government and the Armenians the most trouble. A chief, 
 whom the writer knew personally, and at whose castle 
 he has often passed the night, boasted that he owned 
 nearly four hundred villages with the adjacent land, and 
 could throw, within two days' notice, two thousand armed 
 horsemen into a fight anywhere within the bounds of his 
 territory. He said that he had over three hundred armed 
 men out upon the road most of the time. His castle had 
 dungeons, and was, to all intents and purposes, a fort. 
 
 These various Koordish leaders not only have little 
 
 [74]
 
 MOSLEM PEOPLES 
 
 in common, but they are frequently in open conflict one 
 with another. Could these people unite under a bold leader 
 and form an alliance with the Arabs of the south, nothing 
 in Turkey could stand against them. Many renowned 
 leaders from among the Koords have appeared from time 
 to time. Saladin, a noted ameer at the time of the cru- 
 sades, was a Koord. 
 
 They occupy the mountainous regions throughout East- 
 ern Turkey, reaching far down the Tigris to Mosul and 
 into Mesopotamia, extending into Persia upon the east and 
 coming west as far even as Anatolia. The mass of the 
 Koords dwell within this area, but not a few are found out- 
 side. An estimate given of their numbers places it as high 
 as 3,000,000. 
 
 Their languages are unclassified. There are two of them, 
 neither of which ever was put into writing except within the 
 last generation, so that the spoken tongues of those pro- 
 fessing to speak the same language greatly differ in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country. Their speech is rough, like 
 the life they live, and resembles in no small degree the 
 barren cliffs amid which they dwell. 
 
 Some years ago Sultan Hamid II conceived the idea 
 of subduing the Koords in the eastern part of his do- 
 minions by calling the chiefs to Constantinople and making 
 them each commander of a body of their own people, giv- 
 ing this troop his own name as a special honor. The 
 chiefs were to provide the men and the horses and the 
 sultan furnished the equipment. The proposition was most 
 acceptable to the Koordish nobles, for it provided them 
 with modern equipments of warfare and at the same time 
 stamped their acts, even of depredation, with official author- 
 ity. Under the new dispensation, whoever offered resist- 
 ance to a Koord armed with a government rifle, by that 
 
 [75]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 very act put himself into open rebellion against the gov- 
 ernment. These conditions prevail at the present time 
 in the Erzerum, Bitlis, Diarbekr and Van vilayets along 
 the Russian frontier. Much of the trouble of the last 
 fifteen years in these regions is due to this fact. Were 
 it not that the Koords are urged by the government to take 
 aggressive measures against the resident Christian popu- 
 lation, conditions there would be better than they are at 
 the present time. 
 
 It is often stated that all Koords are Mohammedans. 
 The Turks take this ground, as they do regarding the 
 Albanians of Macedonia. The fact is that few of the 
 Koords are good Moslems. They do not hesitate to put 
 out of the way a Turkish tax-collector who makes himself 
 obnoxious. The fact that he is a brother Moslem inter- 
 poses no obstacle. Many of them observe few of the rites 
 and customs of Islam, and one tribe, at least, living along 
 the upper waters of the Euphrates openly declares that it 
 is not Mohammedan. The writer, in conversation with a 
 leading man of that tribe, said, " You are a Mohammedan." 
 With great indignation he spat into the air, and, beating 
 upon his breast, he said, " I am a Koord ; Moslems are 
 dogs." They have certain religious rites which greatly 
 resemble some of the Christian customs, as, for instance, 
 they have a service in which bread dipped in wine is put 
 into the mouths of the kneeling participants by their 
 religious leader. These people often tell the Armenian 
 Christians that their sympathy is with them rather than 
 with the Turks. 
 
 Owing to the claim of the Turks that all Koords are 
 Mohammedans, missionaries have not been able to inaug- 
 urate special work among them. Throughout the country 
 called Armenia and where the Armenians are the most nu- 
 
 [76]
 
 MOSLEM PEOPLES 
 
 merous, there also the Koords are found in the largest 
 numbers. Frequently they reside in the same city, side 
 by side, but more often the Armenians dwell in the plains, 
 where they are the cultivators of the soil, while the Koords 
 live higher up the mountains. A study of the regeneration 
 of the Turkish empire cannot be complete without giv- 
 ing large consideration to this ancient, wild and violent 
 people. 
 
 THE TURKS 
 
 In Turkey the word " Turk " is used only to designate 
 a Mohammedan. A Greek who had accepted Islam would 
 at once be called a " Turk." It would be said of him that 
 " he had Turkofied himself." In its ordinary use, therefore, 
 in Turkey it signifies a religious belief and that alone. 
 The same may be said of the other names for nationality, 
 such as Armenian, Greek, Jacobite, Yezidi, Koord, etc. 
 Instead of using the word " Mohammedan " at this point 
 we will consider this part of our subject under the title 
 " The Turks," thus keeping the national and religious 
 parallel intact. 
 
 The Turks of Turkey comprise every race that has 
 ever lived within its territory and has accepted Islam. 
 As the people of the different races embrace Islam, they 
 come at once into the Mohammedan body and are in a 
 large measure unified with it by the common customs 
 imposed upon them through the government and by their 
 religion. These assimilated races marry and intermarry 
 so that to-day, outside of Arabia, where the race has been 
 kept more free from mixture, it is difficult to find among 
 the Turks a clear racial type. 
 
 The original Turkish people were invaders, coming into 
 the country from the north and east for plunder and con-
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 quest. As soon as these conquering hordes accepted Islam, 
 every victory over a foe meant new women for the harem 
 and added men who chose Islam to tribute or death. When 
 the country had been overrun and Turkish rule was es- 
 tablished, there was exhibited the spectacle of a Moham- 
 medan body of officials from every race of the East, 
 scattered over all parts of the empire, except possibly 
 some sections of Koordistan and Arabia, administering a 
 government over the other races dwelling among them. 
 The Turks alone could hold office, serve in the army, col- 
 lect the taxes, and control affairs. In Arabia the rulers 
 or Turks (not so called there, however) comprised the 
 main part of the population and so had things their own 
 way. In all other sections of the country, other races, 
 and not infrequently races of strength and energy who 
 had occupied that same territory for generations before 
 Mohammedanism arose, looked upon the Turk as an in- 
 truder and were not slow to make him aware of the fact. 
 These were, for the most part, disorganized, and, by 
 Turkish law, disarmed, so that little could be done to 
 change local conditions. 
 
 The Druses of Syria, the Koords in Eastern Tur- 
 key, and the Albanians of Macedonia were reckoned as 
 Mohammedans by their rulers. As these people had few 
 religious convictions of any kind, and as the Moham- 
 medan yoke placed upon them did not seem heavy, they 
 fell in with the idea in so far as it seemed to conserve 
 their interests to do so. Even at the present time, 
 it is not clear how sincerely these races are Moham- 
 medan. It is thought by many who have been among 
 them that their Mohammedanism is largely in name. 
 During recent years, undoubtedly influences have been 
 brought upon the Koords which bound them more closely 
 
 [78]
 
 MOSLEM PEOPLES 
 
 to the sultan, although this is not true of all classes of 
 Koords. 
 
 Years of Turkish rule, by which the non-Moslem sub- 
 ject is looked down upon as a " Raja " who has no rights 
 that a Mohammedan is bound or expected to respect, has 
 made the Turk selfish and cruel, while it has hardened the 
 Rayas, and made them hate the government. It has come 
 to be generally understood that the government exists 
 only for the Turks, to serve whom the Rayas are per- 
 mitted to live. Through several centuries of Turkish rule, 
 when the Raya subjects of the Turks were in grossest 
 ignorance and widely scattered in the country, they came 
 to accept in stolid silence the situation as divinely or- 
 dained. Something of the fatalism of their masters seemed 
 to settle down upon even the Christian subjects and, with 
 little complaint, almost human slavery was accepted. 
 
 If the immediate possessions of Turkey include a popu- 
 lation of about 24,000,000, probably 6,000,000 of these 
 are nominal Christians, and perhaps 1,000,000 are neither 
 Christians nor Mohammedans. 
 
 It should be said that among the Turks are found men 
 of great strength of intellect, and not a few of high char- 
 acter. Every one who has been in the country speaks of 
 men of this class whom he has met. All would probably 
 agree with the statement that the Turk as a whole is far 
 better than his government. 
 
 It should also be stated that in recent years the Turks 
 themselves have been more boldly open in expressing their 
 intense dissatisfaction with the methods of government 
 administration, especially in the eastern part of the 
 country. The New Turk Party, so called, has no one 
 knows how many followers, but undoubtedly it represents 
 the modern spirit of unrest and progress. 
 
 [79 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 OTHER RACES 
 
 We need not speak at length of the Circassians, who in 
 some respects are the most interesting race in Asiatic 
 Turkey. These are Mohammedans who came into Tur- 
 key in large numbers after the Russian conquest of the 
 Caucasus. Their business is primarily robbery. They are 
 a race which must be reckoned with in the northern half 
 of Asia Minor. We must pass over the Turkmen, or Tur- 
 komans, who can be traced back at least eight centuries. 
 These are also Mohammedans and nomads in their habits. 
 They are found in considerable numbers, scattered mainly 
 over the southern half of Asia Minor. There are also the 
 Albanians in the western part of European Turkey, able 
 to substantiate their claim of being one of the purest 
 and oldest races in Europe. These number perhaps 
 two million souls, and are more united as a race than either 
 the Circassians or the Turkomen. All three of these 
 peoples are nominally Mohammedans, and from them have 
 come some of the ablest and best of the Turkish officials. 
 
 The Bulgarians have a government of their own, prac- 
 tically independent of Turkey. Many of these, however, 
 dwell in Macedonia, together with Turks, Albanians, and 
 Greeks, and so constitute an important part of the Mace- 
 donian question. These are Christian and were originally 
 a part of the Greek Church, with headquarters at Con- 
 stantinople. They are a sturdy, vigorous, and intelligent 
 race. 
 
 Space forbids the mention of other minor races like the 
 Yezidis, neither is there call for a description of the 
 Arabs who dwell in Arabia and northward. 
 
 It is sufficient to say that all these divergent, crude, 
 and often hostile races, each with a religion differing 
 
 [80]
 
 MOSLEM PEOPLES 
 
 from that of all others, together constitute the people 
 of the Turkish empire. The dominating class is the Turk, 
 representing the Mohammedan faith, but far from har- 
 monious even among themselves, except as they are prac- 
 tically united in a common hatred of the Christians and in 
 a common purpose to keep them from gaining supremacy 
 in wealth, number, intelligence, or influence. 
 
 Outside of the large coast cities there are but few people 
 in Turkey who are not native to the country. Turkey has 
 offered little attraction to people of other countries for 
 colonization. Far more are seeking to leave that country 
 than are attempting to enter it. The exactions of the 
 government upon all who dwell within the empire, the 
 insecurity of the protection afforded to life and property, 
 and the risks which gather about trade and commerce 
 are not calculated to attract foreign capital or induce 
 natives of other lands to immigrate there. 
 
 [81]
 
 TURKEY AND THE WEST
 
 Only last year the Arabic paper, Es-Zahir, published in Egypt, said: 
 " Has the time not come yet when uniting the suppressed wailings of India 
 with our own groans and sighs in Egypt, we should say to each other, Come, 
 let us be one, following the divine words, 'Victory belongs to the united 
 forces'? Certainly the time has come when we, India and Egypt, should 
 cut and tear asunder the ties of the yoke imposed on us by the English." 
 On the other hand, Mohammed Husain, the editor of a paper at Lahore, 
 wrote a treatise on Jihad (1893), stating: "The present treatise on the 
 question of Jihad has been compiled for two reasons. My first object is that 
 the Mohammedans, ignorant of the texts bearing on Jihad and the conditions 
 of Islam, may become acquainted with them, and that they may not labor 
 under the misapprehension that it is their religious duty to wage war against 
 another people solely because that people is opposed to Islam. Thus they, 
 by ascertaining the fixed conditions and texts, may be saved forever from 
 rebellion, and may not sacrifice their fives and property fruitlessly nor un- 
 justly shed the blood of others. My second object is that non-Mohammedans 
 and the government under whose protection the Mohammedans live, may 
 not suspect Mohammedans of thinking that it is lawful for us to fight against 
 non-Mohammedans, or that it is our duty to interfere with the life and prop- 
 erty of others, or that we are bound to convert others forcibly to Moham- 
 medanism, or to spread Islam by means of the sword." 
 
 So the question of "religion and the sword" is still an open one among 
 Moslems. It must needs be so long as they obey the Koran and tradition, 
 for Mohammed said, "He who dies and has not fought for the religion of 
 Islam, nor has even said in his heart, ' Would to God I were a champion that 
 could die in the road of God,' is even as a hypocrite." And again, still more 
 forcibly, " The fire of hell shall not touch the legs of him who is covered with 
 the dust of battle in the road of God." In spite of cruelty, bloodshed, 
 dissension and deceit, the story of the Moslem conquest with the sword of 
 Jihad is fuU of heroism and inspiration. — S. M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S. in 
 "Islam."
 
 VIII. TURKEY AND THE WEST 
 
 SELIM III, sultan of Turkey from 1789-1807, more 
 formally and openly displayed the spirit and pur- 
 pose of reform than had any of his predecessors. 
 He had been carefully educated, and conceived the bold 
 design of becoming the regenerator of the empire. He 
 erected a printing-press at Scutari, welcomed intelligent 
 foreigners, employed Christian workmen, and, among 
 many other things, changed the system of taxation. He 
 also called in European generals to train his army, and 
 sought advice from the European residents of his capital. 
 In the meantime, the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon had 
 stirred up the passions of the populace of Constantino- 
 ple, and the sultan with his unpopular reform measures 
 tottered upon his throne. Russians marched into the Dan- 
 ubian provinces, while a British fleet passed the Darda- 
 nelles and anchored at the mouth of the Bosporus. The 
 Janissaries mutinied in 1807 and Selim's rule ceased. These 
 internal imbroglios had attracted the attention of the 
 world to Constantinople and Egypt, if not to all Turkey. 
 
 After the brief reign of Mustipha IV, Mahmud II 
 ascended the throne in 1808. He possessed extraordinary 
 energy and force, and warmly espoused the reform meas- 
 ures of Selim. Resisting Russia's demand that all Greeks 
 in Turkey should be placed under the immediate pro- 
 tection of Russia, he was soon at war with that country. 
 Napoleon prevented the occupancy of Constantinople by 
 the Russians, but most of the Danube province was lost. 
 A Hellenic revolution was later fermented which broke into 
 
 ' [85]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 open conflict early in the beginning of mission work in 
 Turkey. 
 
 Turkey as a government and as a factor in the relations 
 of Russia to Europe was thus brought to the attention 
 of the West. At the same time there was a revival of in- 
 terest in the Jews, both in Europe and in the United 
 States. There was a restudying of history and prophecy 
 with new interpretations, which led to the formation of 
 societies to circulate among them the New Testament and 
 to preach to them the gospel of Christ. Naturally, Pal- 
 estine and Syria came first of all to be recognized as a land 
 that had peculiar claims upon Christians. There was 
 a wide-spread belief that the Jews were about to return 
 to their ancestral home, and that such return would be 
 limited only by the obstructions put in their way by the 
 Ottoman government. Levi Parsons, the first American 
 missionary to Palestine, said, in 1819, just before sailing, 
 " Destroy the Ottoman empire and nothing but a miracle 
 will prevent the Jews' immediate return from the four 
 winds of heaven." It was natural that, in their judgment, 
 missionaries ought to be there to receive them when the 
 Ottoman empire, then apparently in its death struggle, 
 tottered to its fall. 
 
 Moreover, the Turkish empire embraced the lands of 
 the Bible. There was in the minds and hearts of American 
 Christians not a little of the spirit of the crusaders of 
 the middle ages. Why should the soil trodden by the 
 feet of the prophets and apostles, yes, even by the Lord 
 himself, remain a stranger to the voice of the preacher 
 of righteousness and untouched by the feet of the modern 
 apostle? The instructions given to the first missionaries 
 to Turkey dwelt upon this impressive and moving fact, 
 as did the early letters of the missionaries. Unlike the 
 
 [86]
 
 TURKEY AND THE WEST 
 
 crusaders, these aimed at a purely spiritual conquest, but 
 it included the Christian subjection of all races and 
 peoples. 
 
 As a part of this same impulse may be placed the 
 interest in the historic Greek and Syrian Churches. Stu- 
 dents of Church history were profoundly moved as they 
 learned of the decadence of vital Christianity in these 
 Churches, and they were thrilled with the desire to inaug- 
 urate among them a revival that should restore them to 
 their former prominence and power. The purpose to 
 reach Mohammedans does not appear prominent in the 
 earlier documents of this period, although it is not by any 
 means entirely wanting. 
 
 In view of these facts and also since Turkey was the 
 most accessible to America of any Asiatic country, it is 
 not strange that in 1819, with unusual enthusiasm, two 
 missionaries, Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk, were set apart 
 for work in Turkey by the American Board of Com- 
 missioners, with special reference to the Jews in Palestine. 
 
 As a strategic center in which to begin to prosecute 
 missionary work, few countries are more attractive than 
 Turkey. It lies along the southern border of Russia 
 throughout its entire length, except as separated by the 
 Black Sea. Upon the east it borders upon Persia, and 
 constitutes almost the only approach to this country of the 
 shah, as well as to the Caucasus possessions of the czar. 
 Arabia, Egypt, and North Africa all border upon the same 
 Mediterranean Sea, and many important islands like Cy- 
 prus and Crete lie but little off its coast. 
 
 Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman empire, 
 occupies the most strategic position of any city in Europe 
 and dominates both the European and Asiatic sides of 
 the Bosporus. To this center all the great and historic 
 
 [87]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 cities of Turkey look for political direction, and to it 
 come sooner or later representatives of every tribe and 
 race in the empire. All traffic from the Black Sea to 
 the outer world and even from Persia and southern and 
 eastern Russia must perforce pass through Constanti- 
 nople and the Dardanelles. It stands upon the highway 
 and at the crossroads of commerce and travel. As a base 
 for missionary operations, not only upon Turkey but upon 
 adjacent countries as well, it is unexcelled. Smyrna upon 
 the Grecian Sea, with immense populations behind it, by 
 the strategic force of its location, commanded the early 
 attention of those sent out to explore for location. Beirut 
 in Syria attracted for the same reason the attention of 
 the missionaries to Palestine. 
 
 There is an advantage in carrying on missionary work 
 among sturdy races. When such are converted, they be- 
 come a force in the work of the Church, the conduct of 
 Christian institutions, and the propagation of the gos- 
 pel. No country in the world could present such an array 
 of ancient, historic, and hardy races as Turkey. Race sur- 
 vival there was under the law of the survival of the fittest. 
 None but the invincible remained. Some had proven them- 
 selves invincible by arms, others had conquered by superior 
 intelligence, strategy, and cunning. Each race remained 
 because, in some particular, it had an advantage over its 
 natural and persistent antagonists. The very fact that 
 these races had kept themselves apart, resisting gradual 
 absorption while repelling open attempts at conquest, and 
 all for twenty centuries or more, testifies to their sturdy 
 worth. 
 
 Some of these, like the Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and 
 Arabs, had been masters of an ancient and proud civiliza- 
 tion, in which learning had high place and religion was 
 
 [88 1
 
 TURKEY AND THE WEST 
 
 supreme. There was no ground for questioning native 
 ability to grasp the principles of Christianity when once 
 these peoples were enlisted. A modern Church and a modern 
 civilization built upon such historic races, and propagated 
 by such men, could not fail to become an irresistible force 
 in that needy land. It is no wonder that the officers of the 
 American Board of Missions early concluded that the 
 Ottoman empire was a strategic point in which to plant 
 modern Christianity and the institutions which it fosters 
 and propagates. 
 
 While the sultan represents one sect of Mohammedanism, 
 namely, the Sunni, and the Persians another, the Shiah, 
 between whom there has existed great and often bloody 
 hostility, yet the Persian Mohammedans make their pil- 
 grimages to Mecca, pray towards that holy of holies, and 
 reverence the sacred relics in the keeping of the sultan. 
 However much the shah may bluster, he listens when the 
 sultan speaks. His country can find outlet in the West 
 only across Turkey, and much that comes from the outside 
 world comes through some part of the Turkish empire. 
 As the Nestorians and Armenians are found upon both 
 sides of the line, and constitute the chief non-Moslem 
 populations of Persia, it was most natural to connect the 
 mission work of Persia directly with that in Turkey. Such 
 a connection holds to the present time. In many respects 
 Turkey was the key to Persia and is to-day. 
 
 At the beginning of mission operations, Russia was 
 especially open to the circulation of the Scriptures in the 
 vernacular. It was hoped and expected that soon the 
 entire country would be accessible for direct Christian 
 and educational operations among the millions of that 
 empire. The whole Caucasus region can be easily ap- 
 proached by no other route than the Black Sea. The 
 
 [89]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Armenians dwell in large numbers in that section of the 
 country and are constantly passing back and forth in trade 
 and commerce. Constantinople lies at the crossing of 
 all roads from the Black Sea regions and beyond to the 
 outer world and the West. 
 
 The Balkan peninsula and Macedonia, lying to the north 
 and west, also center in the capital of the Ottoman em- 
 pire. As the seat of government for Macedonia and the 
 province of Adrianople, all political influence and move- 
 ment are that way. For generations it was the capital of 
 the Balkan provinces and even yet it is the great metropo- 
 lis to which merchants, students, and workmen go for a 
 longer or a shorter period of residence abroad. There is 
 no other center so well calculated to be the base of opera- 
 tions upon all that region. 
 
 The American Board was organized in 1810 and its 
 first missionaries were sent out in 1812. These went to 
 the farther East, to India and Ceylon. It was not the in- 
 tention of the Board to confine its foreign operations to 
 these two countries. Christian leaders in America were 
 surveying the world for the purpose of finding other 
 countries in which to establish Christian missions. Ex- 
 plorations into the western parts of our own country 
 resulted in beginning work among the Indians as early as 
 1816. It is not surprising that in their survey of the 
 wide world, its special needs and promising openings, 
 attention should have been early called to Turkey. 
 
 [90]
 
 A STRATEGIC MISSIONARY CENTER
 
 In Constantinople one does not fail to meet Greeks and Armenians who 
 are bright and entertaining and obliging, or Mohammedans who are noble 
 and courteous, and thoughtful enough to make their acquaintance an ac- 
 quisition. But every study of the people in mass is a revelation of arrested 
 development, absence of initiative, and general uselessness by reason of 
 narrow selfishness. The city, and with it the millions to whom the city is 
 model, seems hostile to what is best in the world's work. High-sounding 
 phrases of lofty principle are heard in the city. Custom provides for this 
 much of concession to the sensibilities of others. But the centuries seem to 
 have frayed off the last semblance of meaning from the words. To quote a 
 remark of a sage official in India which applies to the whole of Asia, " Whilst 
 the mouth is proclaiming its enlightenment and progress, the body is waddling 
 backward as fast as the nature of the ground will permit." The bane of 
 Constantinople is not solely poverty of resources; it is poverty of ideals. — 
 Henry Otis Dwight, LL. D. in "Constantinople and its Problems."
 
 IX. A STRATEGIC MISSIONARY CENTER 
 
 WHILE the political and commercial importance 
 of Constantinople is supreme, when considered 
 in relation to the Powers of Europe and the 
 far East, this is insignificant in comparison with its re- 
 ligious importance in relation to the Mohammedan world. 
 So far as we can learn, this fact did not receive large 
 consideration at the time missions in Turkey were begun. 
 The truth is that it did not then hold the commanding 
 relations to the Mohammedans of other countries that it 
 holds to-day. The present reigning sultan, Hamid II, has 
 done more than any of his predecessors to secure for him- 
 self recognition by all the faithful as the one supreme 
 head, the caliph of Islam. He has sent presents with 
 messages of sympathy and encouragement to Mohamme- 
 dans in India, China, and Africa, and these have been 
 received as from the great living head of the Moslem 
 faith. When our government found itself in possession 
 of a country in which a Mohammedan ruler was enthroned, 
 it found it convenient to carry on negotiations for sub- 
 mission through the sultan of Constantinople. There are 
 probably 230,000,000 Mohammedans in Turkey, Europe, 
 Persia, Africa, India, China and other countries, who 
 look upon the sultan of Turkey as the representative on 
 earth of their revered prophet Mohammed. As such, he 
 does not possess or assume temporal authority, or even 
 well-defined spiritual prerogatives, but he does command 
 an influence that has been secretly discussed in many 
 European cabinets, and which has been taken into con- 
 
 foil
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 sideration in dealing with Moslem races and in admin- 
 istering ultimata to the head of the Ottoman empire. 
 The sultan clearly represents a temporal and a religious 
 power. The strength of the temporal influence lies in his 
 relations religiously, not only to his own mediate and 
 immediate subjects, but to all followers of the prophet 
 Mohammed, whatever language they speak and in whatever 
 land they dwell. 
 
 The official title of the sultan is padishah, father of all 
 the sovereigns of the earth. This is the name exclusively 
 used by the Turks in official communications. He is also 
 called Imam-ul-Musselmin, the supreme pontiff of all Mus- 
 sulmans or Mohammedans ; Zilullah, the shadow of God ; 
 and Hunkiar, the slayer of infidels. By these and other 
 similar titles he is known as far as the Mohammedan 
 religion has gone. No one else claims such honors and to 
 him they are conceded. Destroy his religious power and 
 he would be the most impotent of monarchs, but with it 
 he has defied for three generations the efforts of the 
 Powers of Europe to secure some degree of justice and 
 freedom for his oppressed subjects. 
 
 The sultan holds his religious power through two im- 
 portant facts. The first is that the two sacred cities of 
 Islam in Arabia are within his empire and under his con- 
 trol — Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet, and Medina, 
 which contains his tomb. This sacred territory is pro- 
 hibited to infidels, but is the goal for tens of thousands 
 of Moslem pilgrims each year. There is no faithful fol- 
 lower of Mohammed who does not dream of the time when 
 he will be so blessed as to kiss the black stone of the Kaaba, 
 drink of the well of Zemzem, or have a part in the prolonged 
 ritual which shall entitle him during the rest of his life to 
 the honored name of Haji. 
 
 [94]
 
 THE BOSPORUS, CONSTANTINOPLE 
 
 A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE IN EASTERN TURKEY
 
 A STRATEGIC MISSIONARY CENTER 
 
 The Mohammedans believe that the black stone came 
 down from heaven and was connected with all the patri- 
 archs and prophets, beginning with Adam. This is 
 the great destination of all pilgrimages, as well as the 
 earthly center of the Mohammedan world. To this 
 point all faithful Moslems turn five times each day when 
 they pray, and the lips which are permitted to kiss 
 it are thrice blessed. Around this have grown up the 
 Kaaba, the enclosing mosque, and other accessories 
 too many even to name, all together constituting the 
 holy temple of Islam where no infidel foot is permitted 
 to tread, and upon which no vulgar Christian eye may 
 look. 
 
 Medina, which contains a mosque supposed to cover the 
 burial-place of Mohammed, is some seventy miles away. 
 All faithful Moslems should visit Mecca once during their 
 lives, but to add a visit to Medina increases their merit 
 in the world to come. Outside of these sacred precincts 
 all may travel, but woe be to the bold investigator who 
 seeks to penetrate to the holy of holies of Islam. For the 
 protection of these sacred cities the sultan of Turkey 
 makes provision. He guards their sanctity against in- 
 fidel invasion, and provides, as occasion may demand, a 
 holy carpet for the holiest place. His soldiers safeguard 
 the pilgrims, and his name is constantly appealed to as 
 the slayer of infidels and shadow of God. The pilgrims 
 from Africa, from Mindanao, from China and India and 
 Ceylon, all return from these shrines of their faith in- 
 delibly impressed with the mighty power of him who rules 
 at Constantinople. 
 
 The other fact which gives the sultan power over all 
 Mohammedans is his custody of the Hall of the Holy Gar- 
 ment, which is next to the Kaaba, and perhaps upon a 
 
 [95]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 parity with it for sanctity. This hall is in the seraglio, 
 upon the point of old Byzantium, which projects out into 
 the Bosporus, dividing it from the Sea of Marmora. 
 In it lie the mantle of the prophet Mohammed, his staff, 
 his saber, his standard, and other relics. Among these, 
 enclosed in a casket of gold, are two hairs from his beard. 
 The sultan is supposed to make an annual visit to these 
 sacred relics, of which he alone is keeper and guardian. 
 The standard of Mohammed is the standard of Islam, 
 consisting of a green silk flag about two feet square, em- 
 broidered with the inscription " There is no God but Allah 
 and Mohammed is his prophet." It is said to have been 
 carried by Mohammed himself and has since been re- 
 garded as the sacred standard of the entire Moslem world. 
 If publicly borne by the sultan in the great mosques of 
 Constantinople it would, it is said, be the signal for a gen- 
 eral religious war. It is thought by many that should the 
 sultan choose to use the power he possesses in this standard 
 he could with it summon to his assistance all true Moslems 
 and hurl them in fanatical zeal and fury against any 
 infidel force. It is known everywhere that this standard 
 and these relics are in the possession of the ruler of the 
 Ottoman empire, and thus the sultan stands almost in the 
 place of the prophet himself. 
 
 When Moslems pray they pray towards Arabia under 
 the rule of the sultan, and when they think of their holy 
 prophet their minds turn to the relics at Constantinople. 
 In the face of these facts, it requires no demonstration 
 to show that Constantinople and the Turkish empire con- 
 stitute the political and religious center of Islam. Other 
 countries may be important, this is supreme. Mecca and 
 Medina cannot yet be entered, but Constantinople and all 
 the rest of the Turkish empire is, by treaty, accessible 
 
 [96]
 
 A STRATEGIC MISSIONARY CENTER 
 
 for residence to the Christian of every race and name. 
 To begin mission work here was to start at the fountain- 
 head. 
 
 The fact that Christian preachers and teachers are per- 
 mitted to reside at Constantinople and freely preach their 
 faith, cannot but have favorable influence over intolerant 
 Moslems in remote parts. They all have faith in the power 
 of the sultan as well as in his supreme wisdom. If he 
 permits this, why should they object? In several instances 
 in India, when the writer was conversing with Moham- 
 medans, it was almost amusing to see the keen interest 
 they manifested in the progress of Christianity in Turkey. 
 They were ignorant but were ready to listen, and un- 
 doubtedly went away to ponder upon what they had heard. 
 Evidently one thing that impressed them was that while the 
 sultan of Turkey is a mighty ruler he does not prohibit 
 the teaching of Christianity, even within the Throne City. 
 If he does not prohibit it, perhaps it is not so bad a re- 
 ligion after all. 
 
 It is also of no little value to print and send out from 
 Constantinople large quantities of Turkish literature, and 
 from Beirut, Arabic literature, the two languages which 
 are most widely read by the Mohammedans. Every volume 
 thus printed bears the stamp of approval by the govern- 
 ment of his imperial majesty the sultan, assuring all who 
 read that the book was issued with his sanction and author- 
 ity. Under these circumstances a publishing house at 
 Constantinople is calculated, by its very location, to reach 
 millions who might otherwise refuse to read what is 
 printed. In Arabia an Arabic Bible, at first rejected 
 because it is an infidel book, is later accepted because 
 it bears upon its title page the authoritative permission 
 of his imperial majesty. As a strategic center for Chris- 
 
 "7" [ 97 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 tian work, calculated directly and indirectly to reach the 
 two hundred and thirty million who bear the name of the 
 prophet of Arabia, there is no place that can compare with 
 Constantinople, resting upon two continents and swaying 
 the most mighty religious empire on earth. 
 
 [98]
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS 
 CONDITIONS
 
 The second cause of the continuance of the Ottoman dominion has been 
 less accidental. Like the early caliphs, and indeed all able Mussulman 
 dynasties except the Persian, the ruling house of Turkey has for all these 
 centuries maintained unbroken the principle that, apart from creed, ability 
 is the only qualification for the highest service. Outside the navy, a Turkish 
 grandee must be a Mussulman; but that granted, there is no obstacle of 
 birth, or cultivation, or position standing in any man's path. Even slavery is 
 no barrier. Over and over again, a sultan apparently at the end of his 
 resources has stooped among the crowd, clutched a soldier, a slipper-bearer, 
 a tobacconist, a renegade, given him his own limitless power, and asking of 
 him nothing but success, has secured it in full measure. Equality within the 
 faith, which is a dogma of Islam, and next to its belief in a "sultan of the 
 sky," its grand attraction to inferior races, has in Turkey been a reality as it 
 has been in no other empire on earth, and has provided its sovereigns — 
 who, be it remembered, fear no rival unless he be a kinsman, an Arab, or a 
 "prophet" — with an endless supply of the kind of ability they need. The 
 history of the grand viziers of Turkey, were it ever written, would be the 
 history of men who have risen by sheer force of ability — that is, by success 
 in war or by statesmanship, or, in fewer instances, by that art of mastering an 
 Asiatic sovereign and his seraglio in which fools do not succeed. The sultans 
 have rarely promoted, rarely even used, men of their own house, — which 
 is the Persian dynastic policy, — have hated, and at last destroyed, the few 
 nobles of their empire; and capricious and cruel as they have been, have 
 often shown a power of steadily upholding a great servant such as we all 
 attribute to the founder of the new German empire. This equality, this 
 chance of a career of great opportunities, great renown, and great luxury, 
 brings to Constantinople a crowd of intriguers, some of them matchless 
 villains ; but it also brings a great crowd of able and unscrupulous men, who 
 understand how to "govern" in the Turkish sense, and who have constantly 
 succeeded in restoring a dominion which seemed hopelessly broken up. 
 Every pasha is a despot, an able despot is soon felt, and he has in carrying 
 out the method of Turkish government, which is simply the old Tartar 
 method of stamping out resistance, an advantage over Europeans which is 
 the third cause of the continuance of the Ottoman empire. He is tormented 
 with no hesitations in applying force as a cure for all things. The man who 
 resists is to die, or purchase life by submission. — Meredith Townsend 
 in "Asia and Europe."
 
 X. SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS 
 
 CONDITIONS 
 
 THE moral and religious condition of the people of 
 Turkey, especially the non-Moslems, was, and still 
 is, without a parallel in any country in the world. 
 
 Since Mohammedanism never encourages progress and 
 education, and since the principles of Moslem rule in all 
 countries and in all times have been based upon force, 
 ignorance and fanaticism, it is not difficult to judge of 
 the condition of these subject peoples, especially after 
 many generations of oppression. 
 
 The most of the races that refused to embrace Islam 
 and elected to pay a regular tribute for the privilege of 
 continuing to live, were Christians, such as the Copts 
 of Egypt, the Syrian Christians of Syria, the Jacobites of 
 Mesopotamia, the Armenians of Armenia and sections of 
 northern Syria and Asia Minor, the Greeks of Asia Minor, 
 and the Bulgarians of European Turkey. While all these 
 were Christians by profession, they had no ecclesiastical 
 relations with each other. Each race and Church stood 
 by itself, entirely independent of all the rest, fostering 
 no sympathy the one with the other except in a common 
 cause against a dominant race. 
 
 Under Moslem rule all education among the so-called 
 Rayas was discouraged, and some of the Moslem customs, 
 like the veiling of their women, were adopted. The low 
 estimate placed upon womanhood by the conquerors was 
 accepted in a measure by these races, and some of the 
 worst of the vices of the Moslems became common among 
 the Christians. 
 
 fioT]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 With these surroundings, the Christianity of the ear- 
 lier days so deteriorated that little remained except the 
 name and the outward observances of the Church. Be- 
 cause of the absence of modern literature and general edu- 
 cation, the spoken language of the common people changed 
 to such a degree that the Bible and the rituals of the 
 Church in the ancient language in which they were writ- 
 ten became an unknown tongue to the masses. Their 
 religion became a religion of form, and the Bible a closed 
 and sealed book. Surrounded as they were by all the 
 vices of a Moslem society, dominated by Moslem rulers, 
 the character of the Christianity among them did not at- 
 tract their Mohammedan neighbors, while there was no 
 hope for reform from within. 
 
 Jealousies and discords sprang up between the Christians 
 of various sects whenever they came into contact, like that 
 between the Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia, and the 
 Greeks and Armenians in Asia Minor, and the Syrians and 
 Armenians in northern Syria. The reigning sultans have 
 not been slow to note these jealousies and to take advantage 
 of them in dealing with the various sects. Had the Chris- 
 tians of Turkey during the last century been united, they 
 might have accomplished much by way of securing privi- 
 leges for themselves. But even the people of a single 
 national Church have not been able to agree upon many 
 important questions, so that the sultan and his subor- 
 dinates have not found it hard to control these superior 
 races, superior in themselves in many respects to their 
 masters. If any one seemed to be giving more trouble 
 than usual, methods were found to divide still more, and 
 so weaken and subdue them. The same methods have been 
 constantly employed with the various religious bodies of 
 his empire that have been successfully used with the Euro- 
 
 [ 102]
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 
 
 pean nations who have caused him trouble by interfering 
 with his peculiar views of government or unjust methods 
 of administration. He has usually succeeded in playing off 
 the jealousies and cupidity of one against another so that 
 concerted action became impossible and he has been left to 
 work his own will in his own way. While the sultan has 
 learned cunning by these conditions and gained no little 
 advantage to himself, neither the subject Christian races 
 of his empire nor the European nations outside have seemed 
 to learn a lesson which is of service to them in changing 
 existing conditions. 
 
 Under these circumstances, religion to most of the people 
 of the country became but a form and a mark of nation- 
 ality. No conversion, in the ordinary sense of the word, 
 was required for admission to the Greek, Armenian, Bul- 
 garian, or any of the Oriental Churches. All children were 
 baptized in infancy and so grew up within the Church, 
 with no religious instruction except as to fast and feast 
 days and the proper forms to be employed in the ritual ob- 
 served in the Churches. In all services the language used 
 was no more understood by the people as a whole than 
 Latin would be comprehended by an ordinary country audi- 
 ence in England or America. There was no educational 
 or moral test for the priests except that they should be able 
 to pronounce the words of the regular Church services 
 and find the proper places from which to read. The writer 
 once asked an Armenian priest where he studied. He said 
 he was a" baker and when he decided to become a priest he 
 went to a monastery and studied for forty days. That 
 comprised all of his schooling, except that he knew how to 
 read simple narrative when he began. I asked him if he un- 
 derstood the ritual and the Scriptures that he read. He 
 replied, " How should I know? This is the ancient Arme- 
 
 [103]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 nian." Even as late as fifteen years ago it would have been 
 difficult to find a Christian priest of any kind or class in 
 the interior districts who clearly understood the ritual of 
 the Church or the Scripture read in the service. Ordi- 
 narily the selection of priests was not based upon special 
 ability, education, or moral worth. There were, of course, 
 noble exceptions to this most general rule. 
 
 The priests being such, and some of them most grossly 
 ignorant and unfit, and there being in the Churches no 
 religious instruction, it is easy to understand how the moral 
 tone of these Oriental Churches sank rapidly under the 
 rule of the Turk, with no power in themselves to rise above 
 these conditions and institute a reform. A Church without 
 a Bible, with an ignorant priesthood, with a ritual beautiful 
 in itself but dead to the people, with no religious instruc- 
 tion and no test for church-membership, could not be ex- 
 pected in any land or in any age to keep itself unspotted 
 from the world. Under these conditions Christianity came 
 to be largely a name and the practises of religion only a 
 form. 
 
 The resisting power of the Oriental Churches in Turkey 
 was largely vitiated by the lack of the true spirit of Christi- 
 anity within. At the same time, it was surrounded by evil 
 influences and by open persecutions heavy to bear even by 
 a living, vitalized Church. The pressure of the Moham- 
 medans, both individually and as a government, was di- 
 rected to force all professing Christians to abandon their 
 ancestral faith and become Moslems. The heavy hand of 
 the government was constantly upon them, while faithful 
 Moslems were not slow to let the persecuted ones know 
 that, should they become Mohammedans, their burdens 
 would become lighter. Under these conditions there has 
 constantly been more or less apostatizing from Christian- 
 
 [ 104 ]
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 
 
 ity. In times of unusual persecution the number of these 
 has increased. 
 
 At the same time, in order to avoid attention and thereby 
 avert conflict, the Christians, in many cases, conformed to 
 the outward practises of their Moslem masters. Their 
 women veiled themselves when in public and covered their 
 mouths at all times. Efforts to provide a general educa- 
 tion for their children were largely abandoned and wide- 
 spread illiteracy prevailed. The vices of the Mohammedans, 
 some of them the vilest known to men, were practised by 
 many of the Christians, and falsehood was so common that 
 truth came to be almost a curiosity. To cheat or deceive 
 a Turk was considered in itself almost a Christian virtue. 
 In the conflict with Islam, Christianity, in its ignorance, 
 was driven to the wall and lost nearly everything except 
 its ancient Bible and most excellent ritual, with houses of 
 worship, a hierarchy and a form to which it adhered with 
 most commendable tenacity. 
 
 These untoward conditions were aggravated by the fact 
 that, in Turkey, the Church came to be a political organi- 
 zation, presided over by an appointee of the sultan, who 
 was capable of being dismissed by him if he chose to exer- 
 cise his power. Each Church with its political patriarch 
 at Constantinople constituted a little state within a state. 
 Every Church represented a separate race or nation whose 
 rights within the empire were vested in the rights of the 
 Church, directed by the patriarch. At the patriarchate 
 were recorded — and it is true to-day — all births, mar- 
 riages and deaths. Individual existence in the empire 
 was recognized only through the Church. The Christian's 
 sole representative at Constantinople to speak for him in 
 case of injustice, or to secure a privilege, or to obtain his 
 legal rights, was the patriarch of his own peculiar Church. 
 
 [ 105 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 The political organization extended down through the 
 different provinces and included in its last analysis each 
 individual church. Under the injustice endured by the 
 Christians of Turkey during the past five hundred years, 
 it is most natural that not a few of the members of the 
 Church, if not a great majority, should look upon the or- 
 ganization, not primarily as a spiritual temple, but as a 
 means of securing redress for wrongs suffered, or for ob- 
 taining privileges from the Porte. Under the laws of 
 Turkey the Church must exercise political functions. Un- 
 der the practise of the people, it came to be primarily 
 political, the spiritual being relegated to the background. 
 
 General education never existed in that country, but 
 under the sway of the Moslem all education was dis- 
 couraged. The schools of the Moslems consisted of classes 
 in reading the Koran in Arabic, accompanied by tradi- 
 tional stories of Mohammed and comments upon his teach- 
 ings. Among the Christians there was little except the 
 instruction of a few youths in monasterial schools where 
 men were trained for Church orders. It is true that now 
 and then among the Greeks and Armenians some bright 
 and inquiring mind far exceeded the ordinary bounds of in- 
 digenous scholarship and became conspicuous for learning. 
 But these were rare exceptions. The masses of the people 
 of all classes and religions were in gross ignorance. Even 
 within the last twenty-five years the writer has been in many 
 Armenian villages in which not a person except the priest 
 knew how to read and write, and even his accomplishments 
 ceased with the bare ability to read the ritual of the 
 Church. A leading priest once asked a student who had 
 studied one year in a mission school, " What remains for 
 you to learn after studying an entire year? " Under such 
 a leadership in the Church, and with open opposition to 
 
 [106]
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 
 
 general education among the Turks, it is not surprising 
 that ignorance among the masses became almost universal, 
 with little or no impulse to change. 
 
 If the above is true with reference to the education of 
 the men, what could be expected for the girls and women? 
 It is natural that, among the Mohammedans, who accord 
 to women a low place in society and religion, it should have 
 come to be believed in wide areas in the interior of Turkey 
 that women were incapable of learning to read. Among 
 them the vital question calling for early discussion was 
 not, " Shall education be afforded to girls? " but it was, 
 " Can girls learn to read? " This question has been hotly 
 discussed within the last fifty years in the interior of 
 Turkey, with the missionary contending that they can, 
 while leading men of the country have contended with 
 vehemence that the idea was too preposterous to consider. 
 Conviction came only by actual demonstration. 
 
 Under such circumstances it is not difficult to imagine 
 the general conditions of society and the deplorable life 
 of the Church. These conditions were more or less modified 
 in the large coast cities like Constantinople and Smyrna, 
 but even in these places, while more educated men were 
 found than in the interior, there was dense ignorance among 
 the masses, and no provision for the education of girls. 
 The entire empire had few newspapers or periodicals of any 
 kind in any language, and the state of education stimulated 
 the production of no great literature, even had there been 
 those capable of producing it. The beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century, apart from the revival of learning among 
 the Greeks of the West, may be called the dark age for 
 literature, learning, and religion in the Turkish empire. 
 
 Constantinople and Syria were the two centers for Chris- 
 tian work in Turkey among the Oriental churches, because 
 
 [107]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 these were the centers of control for all of these churches. 
 The chief patriarch resided at the Porte and was in close 
 touch with his majesty the sultan, while the secondary 
 patriarch resided at Jerusalem, cooperating with his su- 
 perior at the capital. These churches could best be reached 
 and influenced for evangelical Christianity from the same 
 points. 
 
 Missionaries were sent to the ancient churches, not to 
 attack them either in their doctrines or in their practises, 
 but to cooperate with their leaders in organizing a system 
 of education and in creating a sentiment that should de- 
 mand for the Church an educated and morally upright 
 clergy. It was expected that the Church would accept the 
 modern version of its own Scriptures and encourage its 
 circulation among the people. For the best conduct of a 
 work of this character, the missionaries needed to be in 
 close contact with the centers of ecclesiastical power in all 
 of these churches, that from them the ordinary lines of 
 communication might be utilized in reaching the remote 
 interior districts. 
 
 In order that misunderstandings may be cleared up, it 
 should be stated here that missionaries to the Armenians 
 and Greeks were not sent to divide the churches or to sepa- 
 rate out those who should accept education and read the 
 Bible in the vernacular. Their one supreme endeavor was 
 to help the Armenians and Greeks work out a quiet but 
 genuine reform in their respective churches. The mission- 
 aries made no attacks upon the churches, their customs, or 
 beliefs, but strove by positive, quiet effort to show the 
 leaders how much they lacked and to help them bring about 
 the necessary changes. 
 
 For twenty-six years this quiet work went on with no 
 separation, in accordance with the desire of the mission- 
 
 [ 108]
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 
 
 aries, as well as in harmony with the purposes of the Board. 
 When the separation did come, it was in spite of every 
 effort of the missionaries to prevent it. For the successful 
 accomplishment of such a purpose only the centers of ec- 
 clesiastical power and influence were available. Only their 
 own leaders could be expected to inaugurate and carry 
 into execution a reform movement which would permeate 
 the Church throughout the empire. 
 
 [ 109]
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
 
 The mind of the true Eastern is at once lethargic and suspicious ; he does 
 not want to be reformed, and he is convinced that, if the European wishes to 
 reform him, the desire springs from sentiments which bode him no good. 
 Moreover, his conservatism is due to an instinct of self-preservation, and to a 
 dim perception that, if he allows himself to be even slightly reformed, ah the 
 things to which he attaches importance will be not merely changed in this or 
 that particular, but will rather be swept off the face of the earth. Perhaps he 
 is not far wrong. Although there are many highly educated gentlemen who 
 profess the Moslem religion, it has yet to be proved that Islam can assimilate 
 civilization without succumbing in the process. It is, indeed, not improbable 
 that, in its passage through the European crucible, many of the distinctive 
 features of Islam, the good alike with the bad, will be volatilized, and that it 
 will eventually issue forth in a form scarcely capable of recognition. "The 
 Egyptians," Moses said, "whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again 
 no more for ever." The prophecy may be approaching fulfilment in a sense 
 different from that in which it was addressed to the Israelites. 
 
 Look, moreover, not only to the spirit of the lawgivers, but to the general 
 principles on which the laws are based. The tendency in all civilized Euro- 
 pean States is to separate religious from civil laws. In Moslem States, on the 
 other hand, religious and civil laws are inextricably interwoven. 
 
 Look to the consequences which result from the degradation of women 
 in Mohammedan countries. In respect to two points, both of which are of 
 vital importance, there is a radical difference between the position of Moslem 
 women and that of their European sisters. In the first place, the face of the 
 Moslem woman is veiled when she appears in public. She fives a life of 
 seclusion. The face of the European woman is exposed to view in public. 
 The only restraints placed on her movements are those dictated by her own 
 sense of propriety. In the second place, the East is polygamous, the West is 
 monogamous. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the seclusion of women exercises a baneful 
 effect on Eastern society. The arguments on this subject are, indeed, so 
 commonplace that it is unnecessary to dwell on them. It will be sufficient to 
 say that seclusion, by confining the sphere of woman's interest to a very 
 limited horizon, cramps the intellect and withers the mental development of 
 one half of the population in Moslem countries. An Englishwoman asked an 
 Egyptian lady how she passed her time. "I sit on this sofa," she answered, 
 "and when I am tired, I cross over and sit on that." Moreover, inasmuch 
 as women, in their capacities as wives and mothers, exercise a great influence 
 over the characters of their husbands and sons, it is obvious that the seclusion 
 of women must produce a deteriorating effect on the male population, in 
 whose presumed interests the custom was originally established, and is still 
 maintained. — Lord Cromer in "Modern Egypt."
 
 XI. CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM 
 
 FROM the day of its inception until the beginning of 
 the last century, Mohammedanism never came into 
 close, continuous contact with a pure Christianity. 
 Its very beginning was a protest against a Christianity 
 that, in its worship, had all the appearance, at least, of 
 idolatry. The Mohammedan leaders then, as well as in 
 subsequent generations, saw nothing in Christians which 
 made them believe that Christianity could be better than 
 their own religion. The Christianity with which Islam was 
 in conflict was not such a manifestation in the lives and 
 practises of its followers as to compel the intellectual ap- 
 proval of Moslems or even to command their attention. 
 All the churches of Syria, Armenia, and Asia Minor had 
 become worldly and formal, from which had departed the 
 gentle spirit of their Lord, who exalted meekness, truth, 
 purity, and righteousness. As the Mohammedans passed 
 on towards the north and west in their victorious progress, 
 not once did they encounter the strength of Christianity 
 displayed in quiet meekness and forgiving love. In Europe 
 they met the Church in arms and saw in it nothing to com- 
 pel their respect. 
 
 Wherever Mohammedanism has penetrated, it has not 
 come into vital touch with living Christianity. All that the 
 Mohammedan knew of the practical teaching of Jesus 
 Christ, up to the beginning of the last century, he had 
 obtained from observing the Christians whom he conquered 
 and controlled. It is no wonder that he concluded that his 
 own religion was superior, when he saw the intemperance 
 of even the leaders in the Church, and when he took note 
 
 8 [113]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 of what seemed to him to be the worship of pictures and 
 idols. He could not see that the Christian was more truth- 
 ful, or honest, or pure, than himself; hence he naturally 
 concluded that the Christian religion was no better at least 
 than his own faith. 
 
 A traveler in the interior of the empire, and putting up 
 at a caravansary kept by a Mohammedan, asked him if 
 it would be safe to leave his luggage in the outer court. 
 The Mohammedan replied with great earnestness, " Cer- 
 tainly it will be safe, for there is not a Christian living 
 within a three hours' journey of here." This incident re- 
 veals the opinion of at least one Moslem regarding the 
 power of Christianity to make men honest. 
 
 The Mohammedans have never had an adequate opportu- 
 nity of knowing Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Lord and of 
 becoming his true disciples. They have never seen the true 
 Christ in the face and life of his followers. They have had 
 only a distorted vision of him, dwarfed and disfigured and 
 marred, and in that vision they have seen no form of comeli- 
 ness and no beauty that they should desire him. It is only 
 in comparatively recent years that an effort has been made 
 to bring to the attention of Islam the fruits of the true 
 Christian life. It is not possible nor is it expected that the 
 experiences and prejudices of twelve hundred years will be 
 overcome in a single generation or even in a century. Such 
 deep-seated convictions can be changed only by prolonged 
 fasting, prayer, and sacrifice. Modern missions in Turkey 
 are an attempt to show to all in that country what true 
 Christianity means in the individual, in the family, and in 
 society. It is not an attempt to convince the Mohammedan 
 by argument that Mohammed is the false prophet and that 
 Jesus Christ is God. Such an attempt would result only 
 in failure. The Mohammedan must be made to see in the 
 
 [114]
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM 
 
 lives of the true followers of Jesus that which will give him 
 a clear vision of the Son of man, and lead him to cry out, 
 " My Lord and my God." I repeat, Mohammedanism has 
 never yet had an opportunity to accept Christ and that we 
 may not expect it to become Christian until the Christian 
 world has demonstrated to it the beauty, love, purity, and 
 power of the true Christian life. 
 
 These facts regarding Turkey and the various peoples 
 who comprise its population were not fully known to the 
 early missionaries nor to the officers of the Mission Boards. 
 The country was largely unexplored and the vast in- 
 terior was almost a terra incognita. Mohammedanism was 
 vaguely understood. There was a clear knowledge of the 
 conditions and needs of the Greek Church, but the Arme- 
 nians and the other races in the remoter interior were but 
 partially understood and only by a few. The most of our 
 knowledge of Arabia, Syria, Eastern Turkey, and the in- 
 terior of Asia Minor, the customs, beliefs, and lives of the 
 people who dwell there, is the heritage which has come to us 
 from the investigations and reports of missionaries who 
 have traversed in every direction all parts of the country, 
 except sections of Arabia. Many of these, by living among 
 the people for a generation and mastering their language, 
 have been able to speak with the highest authority upon 
 what they have seen and known. We are approaching this 
 question, not with the doubtful knowledge or even gross 
 ignorance of eighty years ago, but with all the light that 
 has come to us from fourscore years of mission operations 
 which now cover practically the entire country. 
 
 Never in the history of modern missions has a more diffi- 
 cult and complicated work been undertaken. The questions 
 which entered into the mission problems of the Turkish 
 empire were legion, assuming new phases at every turn 
 
 fTisl
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 and every phase presenting a new difficulty. The one dom- 
 inant note that runs through it all is the fact of Moham- 
 medan rule. This fact in all its length and breadth must 
 be taken into consideration. Add to this the antiquity of 
 the old churches, the form of Christianity, from which the 
 spirit has fled, the race hatreds, the poverty of the country, 
 the uncertainty of everything that pertains to the govern- 
 ment, except that it never fails to be superlatively bad, the 
 conviction of the Moslems that they have seen true Chris- 
 tianity and know it to be as bad as their own government, 
 and we have a few of the difficulties which confronted the 
 early missionaries. On the other hand, there were the 
 encouraging features of the reverence of the Oriental 
 churches, all of them, for the Holy Scriptures, their allegi- 
 ance to the Church, and their respect for ecclesiastics, to 
 which must be added their superior intelligence, eagerness 
 to learn, and capability for great advancement. Surely 
 Turkey presented a varied scene marked by high lights and 
 dark shadows. Without hesitation, men and women of 
 unusual intellectual and spiritual capacity and breadth, and 
 of indomitable courage, entered this country to win it for 
 Christ and for Christian civilization. 
 
 [116]
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND 
 EXPLORATIONS
 
 The elevating influence of the missionaries in Turkey cannot be over- 
 estimated. It is the most hopeful of all the influences which are at work in 
 the empire to-day. Most people at home think of the missionary as a propa- 
 gandist whose chief endeavor is to win converts to his creed, but on the field 
 he appears as a very different character; he is an educator, a physician, a 
 scientist, a peacemaker, a neighbor, and an example of civilized living. 
 Judged by the numbers added to Protestant churches from the population 
 of the Turkish empire, missions there might be counted a failure, or, at the 
 most, but a partial success; but the making of Protestants is the smallest 
 part of a missionary's work. 1. The missionary elevates the whole standard 
 of Christian living and thinking. There are in Turkey churches hoary with 
 age — Greek, Armenian, Syrian — in which ignorance, barbarism, supersti- 
 tion, and low morality hold sway. To retain their members in the face of the 
 missionary, these churches find intelligence, purity, spirituality, and civiliza- 
 tion necessary, and have been greatly elevated by missionary enterprise. 
 2. In countries like Turkey, where medical skill is beyond the reach of the 
 mass of the people, the preventable suffering and death are appalling. How 
 eagerly the villagers bring their sick to any stranger in the hope that he may 
 be a physician, almost every traveler can testify. The brightest spots in the 
 country are the missionary medical centers, where untold sufferings are 
 allayed. These range all the way from the village dispensary to the Medical 
 College at Beirut, where one of the world's best surgeons not only helps the 
 suffering, but teaches others to do it too. 3. The most important phase of 
 missionary work in Turkey is, however, the educational. From humble 
 schools scattered widely through the villages to colleges like Robert College 
 and the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut (which are the fruit of missionary 
 enterprise) most successful efforts are being made, by broad-minded, un- 
 denominational methods, to train the young to think, and to induct them 
 into modern science and civilization. The effect of this is already widely 
 apparent, and it is clear that if the day ever comes when Turkey is able to 
 take her place among the nations as a state which appreciates the laws of 
 humanity sufficiently to be trusted, as Japan is now trusted, to control the 
 lives and property of foreigners resident within her limits, it will be because 
 of the civilizing influence of these educational institutions, combined with 
 the lessons in integrity taught by the missionaries' simple Christian fives. 
 Apart from their work for Turkey, the missionaries have contributed much 
 to science. Archaeology owes them large debts in every part of the empire, 
 and, to mention no other fields, the only authoritative work on the botany of 
 Syria is by a missionary. The missionaries are in my opinion working more 
 directly than any other class of men to complete the social evolution of 
 mankind, and to make possible the peaceable federation of the world. — 
 George A. Barton, Ph.D., Professor of Semitic Languages in Bryn Mawr 
 College, Director of the American School of Oriental Study and Research in 
 Palestine, 1902-1903.
 
 XII. EARLY PIONEERING AND 
 EXPLORATIONS 
 
 IT was no light task to plant missions in a country so 
 little known and extensive as was the Turkish empire 
 at the beginning of the last century. Of the races 
 which made up its large population little was understood 
 except a general knowledge of the Jews and Greeks, and 
 there was much less information regarding the Turks. In 
 accordance with the policy already adopted by the Ameri- 
 can Board, the early missionaries were sent out to investi- 
 gate and explore before deciding upon the location of mis- 
 sions and stations and before fixing the exact nature and 
 methods of work. 
 
 The instructions given the earlier missionaries to Turkey 
 seldom failed to emphasize the importance of fully exam- 
 ining the different parts of the country and becoming 
 acquainted with the character, beliefs, and characteristics 
 of the different races and peoples which comprise its popu- 
 lation. In some cases particular unexplored regions were 
 named as demanding immediate attention. All the early 
 missionaries were directed to report to headquarters, in full 
 detail, the results of their researches and observations. 
 
 In the instructions given in 1819 to Pliny Fisk and Levi 
 Parsons, the first missionaries appointed to Turkey, the 
 following passage occurs: 
 
 "You will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and 
 classes which dwell in that land and in the surrounding countries. 
 The two grand inquiries ever present in your minds will be, 'What 
 good can be done ? ' and ' By what means ? ' What can be done for 
 
 fiu]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the Jews ? What for the pagans ? What for the Mohammedans ? 
 What for the Christians ? What for the people in Palestine ? What 
 for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Armenia, in other countries to which 
 your inquiry may be extended ? " 
 
 This single quotation demonstrates the spirit of them all, 
 and reveals the deliberate and far-seeing policy of the 
 Board in inaugurating its missions in Turkey as well as 
 in other countries. Men of the highest ability and broad- 
 est vision were selected for missionary appointment and 
 upon them was placed the responsibility of selecting the 
 location of the missions and stations, and deciding the 
 policy and methods of work. 
 
 The archives of the Board are rich with the early reports 
 of those first missionaries, who explored with fearlessness 
 and zeal, and observed with discriminating care and pre- 
 cision. They were conscious of the fact that much in the 
 future depended upon the thoroughness of their work and 
 the accuracy and fulness of their reports. 
 
 Messrs. Fisk and Parsons landed at Smyrna early in 
 1820 and at once began the study of modern Greek. They 
 explored the sites of the seven churches of the Apocalypse 
 and noted their conditions and needs. Careful and minute 
 journals were kept of all their labors and observations. 
 In order to facilitate the work of exploration, Mr. Parsons 
 went on alone to Palestine, where he arrived in February, 
 1821. One of his chief objects there was to get into touch 
 with the Christian pilgrims who flock to the holy city in 
 great numbers. The Greek revolution drove him back to 
 Smyrna after several tours in Palestine, and from there he 
 went to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died Feb. 10, 1822. 
 Mr. Fisk was j oined by Jonas King, who left his studies in 
 Oriental literature at Paris for that purpose, and early in 
 
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 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 January, 1823, the two set out for Jerusalem by way of 
 Alexandria and Cairo. They ascended the Nile as far as 
 Thebes, distributing everywhere Bibles and tracts in Arabic. 
 With a caravan made up of Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and 
 Armenians, they made the overland journey to Jerusalem 
 and from there went down to Beirut upon the coast. Here 
 they separated, Mr. King taking up his residence in the 
 Lebanon mountains among the Druses, where he was most 
 hospitably received, in order that he might the better study 
 the Arabic language and the people. By this time, these 
 men were using with much freedom Arabic, modern Greek, 
 and Italian. 
 
 The tours of these first missionaries covered Tripoli, the 
 Lebanon, Baalbec, Jaffa, Hebron, Damascus, Antioch, and 
 Latakia, thus bringing them into close personal touch with 
 the desert tribes as well as with the Druses, Maronites, 
 Turks, Greeks, and other races. Mr. King returned to 
 Smyrna overland from Tarsus, and Mr. Fisk died at Beirut 
 Oct. 23, 1825, two years after the arrival there of Mr. and 
 Mrs. William Goodell. 
 
 These pioneer operations were accompanied with great 
 hardship and even peril. The difficulties were increased 
 at this early period by the efforts of the Roman Catholics 
 to drive all Protestants from Syria. In 1824 the mission- 
 aries in Jerusalem were apprehended, at the instigation of 
 the Catholics, and brought before a Moslem judge, charged 
 with distributing books which they declared to be neither 
 Jewish, Moslem, nor Christian. Attacks by robbers were 
 of no infrequent occurrence and fanatical uprisings were 
 constantly to be expected. The Greco-Turkish war 
 brought many personal perils and hardships, but did not 
 result in the loss of missionary lives. 
 
 These experiences and subsequent investigations led to 
 
 [121]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the choice of Beirut as the missionary center for Syria 
 and Palestine, contrary to the previous expectation that 
 Jerusalem would be chosen. Jerusalem was carefully tested 
 and its climate was found to be unfit for the permanent 
 residence of American missionaries. Beirut was upon the 
 sea, and at the same time in such relation to the Lebanon 
 mountains that, during the heated time of the year, the 
 missionaries could withdraw into the mountains without be- 
 coming entirely separated from the people and their work. 
 
 The matter of healthfulness was most wisely taken into 
 consideration in selecting the location for permanent mis- 
 sion stations. Not that this was the solely decisive feature, 
 but it was given due place in the weighing of arguments 
 pro and con. Subsequent experience has proven that it is 
 the poorest and most wasteful policy to permit missionaries 
 to reside permanently in cities that are found to be un- 
 healthy, or to plant in such places central institutions. 
 Beirut has been occupied to the present day as the great 
 mission center for Syria, and the wisdom of its choice 
 eighty years ago has been abundantly justified. In select- 
 ing other stations in different parts of Turkey the same 
 wise, careful method was followed. 
 
 During the ten years from 1820 to 1830 the explora- 
 tions made in that country by missionaries of the Board 
 were extensive, embracing, as has been stated, the site of the 
 seven churches, the shores of the Nile as far as Thebes, the 
 whole of Palestine, and the greater part of Syria. Cap- 
 padocia had been entered from Smyrna ; while the Pelopon- 
 nesus, the more important of the Ionian and iEgean 
 Islands, as well as Tripoli and Tunis upon the north coast 
 of Africa, had also received missionary visits. These care- 
 ful and scientific investigations had brought to the atten- 
 tion of the Western world the religious beliefs and practises 
 
 [ 122 ]
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 and the moral condition of the Copts, the Maronite and 
 Greek Churches, as well as the condition and needs of other 
 races dwelling in that wide extent of territory. 
 
 Vast regions in that empire were still unexplored and 
 peoples like the Armenians, Nestorians, Chaldeans, as well 
 as Turks, Turkomans, Koords, and Persians, dwelt in the 
 far east of Turkey and in Persia and about them little 
 was known. The conditions and needs, and how best to 
 meet these needs, could not be determined until all parts of 
 the empire, all its peoples and their interrelations, were 
 fairly well understood. 
 
 Owing to the Greco-Turkish war, which involved some of 
 the European nations, it became necessary in 1828 to with- 
 draw from Beirut, the center of the Syrian and Palestine 
 work, to Malta, and for two years Beirut was unoccupied. 
 Towards the close of 1828, Rev. Rufus Anderson, then 
 Assistant Secretary of the American Board, was sent to 
 Malta to meet and confer with the brethren and later to 
 make personal investigations in Greece and the Levant. 
 This conference led to the location of Mr. Bird in Beirut, 
 and in sending Dr. Goodell to Constantinople. 
 
 At the same time the Prudential Committee decided to 
 send Rev. Eli Smith and Rev. H. G. O. Dwight upon an 
 extended tour of investigation across Asia Minor, Ar- 
 menia, and Koordistan into Georgia and Persia. Mr. Smith 
 had learned Arabic in Syria and was also somewhat familiar 
 with the Turkish language, besides being an experienced 
 traveler and a close and accurate observer. Mr. Dwight 
 was just entering upon his missionary career and was full 
 of energy and pluck. 
 
 These two men proceeded from Malta to Smyrna in 
 March, 1830, and from there to Constantinople, overland, 
 in April. Before beginning the journey, they placed them- 
 
 [123 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 selves under the protection of a chief of the Tartars, who 
 witnessed the seal of the Tartar guide to a document 
 acknowledging responsibility for the safe delivery at Con- 
 stantinople of the persons and property of the missionaries. 
 Beds, bedding, clothing, cooking utensils, dishes, writing 
 material, books, food, etc. were carried in waterproof 
 leather bags upon the backs of horses. They clothed them- 
 selves in the flowing native dress of the country so as to 
 attract as little annoying attention by the way as possible. 
 They were also supplied with passports from the govern- 
 ment and official letters of introduction. 
 
 While travelers had repeatedly penetrated the regions 
 to which they were to go, none had made careful, scientific 
 investigation of the people and of the religious and moral 
 conditions. There was not even a map in existence upon 
 which dependence could be placed. 
 
 After obtaining at Smyrna and Constantinople all the 
 information possible regarding the Armenians and the 
 country through which they were to pass, these two mis- 
 sionary explorers set out from the latter place on the 
 twenty-first of May, 1830, under their Tartar guide, for 
 the remote interior of the country. The carefully kept 
 journal of this memorable tour is a classic of its kind. 
 Later accounts and fuller knowledge of the region trav- 
 ersed by them and of the people they met give occasion 
 for little change in the story they told to bring it up to 
 date. 
 
 At Tocat they visited the grave of Henry Martyn who 
 gave up his life there eighteen years before. On the thir- 
 teenth of June they entered the city of Erzerum and found 
 it in the possession of the Russians and the headquarters of 
 their army. The most of the Armenian population had fled. 
 After remaining there for a few days, they pushed on east- 
 
 [ 124 1
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 ward, creating astonishment wherever they went. Their 
 knowledge of Turkish made it possible for them to converse 
 freely with the people, while all were puzzled to explain the 
 fact that their own language was known by foreigners 
 from beyond the sea. None of the inhabitants could under- 
 stand the purpose of their inquiries, for to all classes a 
 mission solely for the sake of the people was incomprehen- 
 sible. From here they faced still eastward, visiting Kars, 
 where they met large numbers of Armenians. They con- 
 tinued on through Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiad- 
 zin, and Khoy, a distance from Constantinople of more than 
 fifteen hundred miles. When they arrived at Shoosha in 
 the middle of August they were nearly worn out with the 
 extreme fatigue of a journey, in itself most trying, while 
 accommodations at night were often unfit even for a horse. 
 They were also in the midst of cholera which had recently 
 carried off over seventy thousand people. 
 
 They passed two and a half months in Shoosha with 
 some German missionaries, which gave an opportunity to 
 recuperate and study more closely the people, country, and 
 languages. On the way to Tabriz, Persia, Mr. Smith was 
 taken seriously ill when seventy miles from the city. Had 
 it not been for the prompt and kindly response of the 
 gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz it is doubtful 
 whether he would have survived to reach the city. 
 
 Hitherto they had been studying the Armenian espe- 
 cially. At Tabriz they were in contact with the Nesto- 
 rians, to investigate and report upon whom a special com- 
 mission had been given them. They were here nearly two 
 months, and then passed on to Salmas, Persia, where they 
 came in contact with the Chaldeans, a class of Nestorians 
 who became Roman Catholics two hundred and fifty years 
 before. From Salmas they continued to Urumia, still 
 
 [ 125 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 in Persia, and were warmly received by the Nestorian 
 leaders. 
 
 They returned by way of Erzerum and Trebizond, tak- 
 ing ship from there to Constantinople and Malta, arriving 
 at the latter place July 2, 1831, after an absence of fifteen 
 and a half months. In that time they had traveled over 
 one thousand miles by water and twenty-five hundred miles 
 by horse through a wild country beset with robbers and 
 perils of every kind. Except when entertained by mission- 
 aries or representatives of foreign governments, a rare 
 occurrence upon all this journey, they were compelled to 
 occupy Oriental stables or even worse places as caravan- 
 saries and endure multifarious privations and hardships. 
 They returned well, bringing a rich store of accurate 
 knowledge regarding the country, people, and religions, 
 which later proved to be of inestimable value in planting 
 missions in all those regions. Their " Researches," con- 
 sisting almost entirely of the journals they kept, cover 
 every phase of the life and customs of the people and the 
 conditions of the country. These were printed in two 
 volumes, aggregating nearly seven hundred pages, and for 
 their scientific value to the student of races, religions, 
 geography, and language were at once recognized to be a 
 classic. By this tour and the publication of their " Re- 
 searches in Armenia," all that region was opened to the 
 world as a proper field of operation for the Christian 
 missionary. 
 
 As a direct result of the work of Messrs. Smith and 
 Dwight, Mr. Perkins was sent to Tabriz in September, 
 1833, but owing to the unusual difficulties of the way, 
 among which were various warring tribes of Koords, he 
 did not arrive until nearly a year after leaving Boston. 
 In November, 1835, he with Dr. Grant removed from 
 
 [ 126 1
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 Tabriz to Urumia, and both these places have been the 
 seat of mission work since. In 1835 Trebizond was occu- 
 pied as a mission station, and four years later mission- 
 aries were located in Erzerum. Trebizond is upon the 
 Black Sea and was the port of entry for all that part of 
 the country. It is at the terminus of the great caravan 
 route from Persia to the West, and ever since Xenophon 
 took ship there for Constantinople, with his retreating 
 ten thousand, has held an important place among the 
 ports upon the coast. Erzerum is a week's journey in- 
 land upon the caravan route to Persia and is one of the 
 most important cities in Eastern Turkey. It is situated 
 upon a high plateau nearly six thousand feet above the 
 sea and in the midst of a large population of Armenians, 
 Turks, and Koords. 
 
 Dr. Asahel Grant was appointed a missionary in 1835 
 with the expectation that he would go to Persia. He 
 proceeded to Urumia by way of Trebizond, Erzerum, and 
 Tabriz. It was expected that Dr. Grant, the first mis- 
 sionary physician to enter that country, would investi- 
 gate the conditions and needs of the mountain Nestorians 
 who occupy the high lands of Eastern Turkey and west- 
 ern Persia. His allotted task demanded extensive jour- 
 neys amid the wildest, least known, and most dangerous 
 portions of the Ottoman empire. In addition to repeated 
 tours up and down the country, his most important ex- 
 plorations were made in Koordistan and among the head 
 waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. From 1839 to 
 1845 Dr. Grant visited Van, Diarbekr, Harpoot, Mar- 
 din, Mosul, and many other towns of importance, living 
 among the people, studying their life, winning them by 
 the depth and sincerity of his love for them, and planning 
 to reach them by permanently organized missionary op- 
 
 [1^7]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 erations. Upon a part of these journeys he was accom- 
 panied by Mr. Holmes, while much of the time, except for 
 native servants, he was alone. 
 
 They reached Diarbekr in July, 1839, and found it in 
 a state of anarchy. Robbery and murder were the order 
 of the day, with a general hatred of all Europeans. They 
 withdrew to Mardin, fifty miles south in Mesopotamia, 
 accompanied by an escort of thirty horsemen sent for their 
 protection by the Turkish pasha. In Mardin their lives 
 were openly threatened. Almost by a miracle were they 
 spared, for a mob suddenly formed and killed the gov- 
 ernor in his palace and attacked the lodgings of the mis- 
 sionaries, who were providentially outside the city at the 
 time. The city gate, closed to keep them inside for 
 slaughter, barred them out and so saved their lives. 
 
 From here Dr. Grant went on alone to Mosul, upon the 
 Tigris, two hundred miles below Mardin, while Mr. Holmes 
 returned to Constantinople. It is an interesting fact that 
 the house in which he found lodging in this important 
 city of the far interior was but a few feet from the place 
 that was yet to be his grave. 
 
 From Mosul he started alone in the fall of the same 
 year for an extended tour through the unexplored moun- 
 tains of Koordistan. He soon came into contact with 
 the Yezidis, who are worshipers of Satan and more friendly 
 to the Christians than to the Moslems. He took pains 
 to call upon the chiefs of the country and make friends 
 with them for the sake of the missionary work yet to be 
 developed. He found many of the Koordish chiefs inclined 
 to be friendly. 
 
 By means of his medical skill he was able to command 
 the respect if not the love of all. He attended profes- 
 sionally the emir of a large area of country in Koordistan, 
 
 [128]
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 who gave orders a few years previously for the murder of 
 the scientist Schultz. This tour covered eight months. He 
 was so much changed by his native dress and rough ap- 
 pearance that he was not recognized by his associates at 
 Urumia upon his arrival there. 
 
 Repeated journeys were made back and forth through 
 that country with Urumia and Mosul as points to which 
 he occasionally returned. The work of exploration was 
 made much more hazardous and difficult by the hostil- 
 ity to each other of the Nestorians, Koords, and Turks, 
 a hostility often manifesting itself in open war. At one 
 time Dr. Grant was charged with being an ally of the 
 emir and again with being a Turkish spy. His great tact, 
 absolute fearlessness, and most winning Christian char- 
 acter overcame all obstacles, and under the protecting 
 hand of God preserved him from violence. 
 
 The careful journals of Dr. Grant, even though they 
 had to be kept in absolute secrecy to prevent the arousing 
 of suspicions, contain some of the very best information 
 extant to-day regarding the character and conditions of 
 these savage but sturdy people of Eastern Turkey. In 
 nearly all that wild country to have been caught writing 
 would probably have resulted in his immediate death. Such 
 an act would have stamped him as a spy or necromancer, 
 both of which were regarded as worthy of death. While 
 Dr. Grant was still alive, and largely by him, the atten- 
 tion of the American Board was emphatically called to 
 the great needs of that country, and to the possibilities 
 of inaugurating among the mountain Nestorians a direct 
 evangelistic work. Many of them were Roman Catholics, 
 nominally, but a large number were not. No special plans 
 were then made for direct work among the Koords, as at- 
 tention up to that time had been directed more to the nomi- 
 
 9 [ 129]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 nal Christian races. Dr. Grant, however, pleaded that a 
 mission might be established " to Assyria and Meso- 
 potamia " rather than to any particular sect or race. 
 
 Dr. Grant died in Mosul, April 24, 1844, after a life 
 brief in years but long in the extent of country covered 
 by its influence, and thereby opened to his successors for 
 missionary operations. Mr. Layard, the well-known As- 
 syriologist, who later traversed Koordistan, said he had 
 heard Mussulmans speak of Dr. Grant in the highest 
 terms of praise, while the Koords repeatedly referred to 
 him as " the good doctor." Few missionaries have done 
 more in so brief a time to open to the world a country 
 filled with savage, hostile, and warring races, and thus to 
 lay the foundation for permanent missionary occupation. 
 At least six places visited by him subsequently became 
 missionary stations, all of which are now maintained. 
 
 EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE UPPER EUPHRATES 
 AND TIGRIS RIVERS 
 
 In 1850 Rev. and Mrs. Dunmore were appointed mis- 
 sionaries to the city of Diarbekr, which had been previ- 
 ously visited by Dr. Grant and others. This city, known 
 in classic history as Amida, is an ancient walled town 
 upon the Tigris river located at the northern extremity 
 of Mesopotamia. It was nearly a year before they reached 
 their destination, having stopped for a time in Aintab 
 and Urfa to study the Turkish language. The city was 
 hot with persecution when they arrived, so that repeatedly 
 the life of Mr. Dunmore was in peril. He was openly re- 
 fused protection by Turkish officials and so became the 
 common prey of all who were opposed to the hated Protes- 
 tants. Mr. Dunmore was bold but tactful, and succeeded 
 
 [130]
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 finally in gaining a foothold in the city, although dire 
 persecution was meted out to those who identified them- 
 selves with him. After the work had become fairly well 
 established there, he began explorations into the popu- 
 lous, prosperous, and little known regions lying to the 
 north. He went as far as Erzerum, visiting Mardin, 
 Arghuni, Haine, Harpoot, Arabkir and many other towns 
 of importance — in fact including in his tours nearly every 
 city of influence in all those extensive regions. 
 
 Near the close of 1852 he was at Harpoot, and wrote 
 most enthusiastically of the character of the Armenians 
 he met there, and also of the strategic location of the city. 
 He says : " The city overlooks a vast, rich plain studded 
 with three hundred and sixty-six villages, of from one hun- 
 dred to five thousand inhabitants each, nearly all Arme- 
 nians, and all within a few hours' ride of the city. It 
 presents, therefore, the richest country and the most in- 
 viting and promising missionary field I have seen in Tur- 
 key." He went on at length to describe the people, the 
 climate, the accessibility of the vast populations on all 
 sides. He urgently pleaded for missionaries to occupy the 
 city. He not only reported upon that city, but upon many 
 other places from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty miles 
 away, all in the same general Euphrates river basin, pre- 
 senting such a glowing account of it all that within two 
 years two new missionary families were on their way to 
 occupy the field. It is an interesting fact that every large 
 place visited by Mr. Dunmore became, not many years 
 later, either the residence of missionaries or a center of 
 Christian operations under trained native workers. 
 
 Mr. Dunmorc's gentle firmness and absolute fearless- 
 ness made a profound impression upon all whom he met. 
 He did much to prepare the minds and hearts of the
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 people for the coming of those who followed him; as, for 
 instance, after enduring stonings and revilings and open 
 threats of assassination at Diarbekr, he went boldly to the 
 Turkish governor with a complaint against a wealthy 
 Moslem who had greatly wronged him. The governor 
 gave little heed, and at once exonerated the Moslem. Mr. 
 Dunmore announced his purpose to appeal to the British 
 Embassy at Constantinople, even to make the journey in 
 person, in order to secure justice. The governor, after 
 some deliberation, reversed his decision and put the Moslem 
 in prison for two days. When he was released he called 
 upon the missionary, begged his pardon, and announced 
 his personal friendship. A little later, another Turk 
 threatened Mr. Dunmore's life and was put in jail for it. 
 This seemed to be what was required in order to give the 
 cause standing before the community, for the attitude of 
 the Turks changed at once, and many began to inquire 
 about the truth which the missionaries were teaching. 
 
 Wherever Mr. Dunmore went, as was also the case with 
 Dr. Grant, the way was remarkably prepared for the 
 missionaries who were to follow them. These men opened 
 all Eastern Turkey to its first knowledge of Americans 
 and for the residence of missionaries. 
 
 In the early missionary explorations no attention was 
 given to Arabia. At that time there seems to have been 
 little thought about the conversion of the Mohammedans, 
 and even had there been, the other parts of the Turkish 
 empire afforded a sufficient number upon which to begin. 
 Arabia seems to have been considered a remote and un- 
 known land to which no missionary turned his tours of 
 investigation and to which no committee at home com- 
 missioned one to preach. Arabia was indeed a remote 
 country before the Suez Canal was opened and when 
 
 [ 132 ]
 
 EARLY PIONEERING AND EXPLORATIONS 
 
 Bombay was reached by sailing-vessels going around the 
 south of Africa. Of the country itself little was known, 
 and for the most part it has never come under the full 
 control of the sultan of Turkey or of any other country. 
 Of the six million inhabitants of Arabia not more than 
 one million two hundred thousand are confessedly subjects 
 of the sultan. While he lays claim to the whole country 
 he has not been able, up to the present time, wholly to make 
 his claims good. 
 
 In Hejaz and Yemen, regions under the sultan, no 
 Christian is permitted to reside or travel, and in the rest 
 of the country the ruling emirs or imams readily inflict 
 the death penalty upon Moslems for departure from the 
 faith. Long after the English took control of Aden, at 
 the extreme southwestern part of the peninsula, a mis- 
 sion was opened there which is called the Keith-Falconer 
 mission, and which is now carried on by the United Free 
 Church of Scotland. In 1889 an independent inter- 
 denominational mission was opened upon the western shore 
 of the Persian Gulf. Members of this mission have pene- 
 trated into the interior of the country and have given to 
 the world much valuable information regarding this land 
 of mystery and its inhabitants of ancient name and fame. 
 This mission was adopted by the Board of the Reformed 
 (Dutch) Church of America in 1894. 
 
 It is remarkable that this cradle of Islam, lying so close 
 to the great highway between the West and the far East, 
 should still remain practically untouched by modern edu- 
 cation and the fundamental truths of Christianity. It 
 cannot long maintain its barriers against the onrush of 
 modern thought and life. 
 
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 ESTABLISHED CENTERS
 
 So far as Americans are concerned, the missionary work in European 
 Turkey and Asia Minor is and long has been almost exclusively in the hands 
 of the American Board. In no part of the world has that Board or any Board 
 had abler or more devoted representatives to preach the gospel, to conduct 
 schools and colleges or to establish and administer hospitals. Their original 
 aim was to infuse new life into the native Armenian and Greek churches, to 
 rescue them from mere formalism, and to imbue them with the spirit of a 
 pure and active Christianity. Circumstances compelled them in due time to 
 organize independent churches on which the old churches at first looked with 
 unfriendly eyes. But of late years in many places a more friendly and sym- 
 pathetic spirit has been manifested towards them by the clergy of the old 
 order, and the life of some of the native churches has been quickened by the 
 example of the missionary churches. 
 
 The excellence of our schools has been so manifest that its stimulating 
 effect has been felt by not only the Armenian and Greek schools, but also by 
 the Turkish schools. 
 
 The medical work of our missionary physicians has also widely commended 
 itself to men of all faiths and has awakened a decided interest not only in the 
 religion which so humanely brings its generous hospital treatment to all who 
 desire it, but also in the rational system of medicine and surgery which it 
 illustrates. Even the Mohammedans who are generally inaccessible to the 
 approaches of our missionaries cannot but have some appreciation of the 
 benevolent and Christlike work of our physicians. 
 
 Wherever an American mission is established, there is a center of alert, 
 enterprising American life, whose influence in a hundred ways is felt even by 
 the lethargic Oriental life. — Prof. James B. Angell, LL. D., University 
 of Michigan, Ex. U. S. Minister to Turkey and China.
 
 XIII. ESTABLISHED CENTERS 
 
 SMYRNA was the first station of the Levant occupied 
 by American missionaries. This was an important 
 city of Turkey and, until Constantinople was better 
 understood, was considered the most important city to hold 
 as the central station of the missions to Turkey. Since 
 1820 this place has been one of the stations of the Amer- 
 ican Board and the residence of one or more missionary 
 families. This was regarded as a good starting-point for 
 work among the Greeks, as well as other races centering 
 there in large numbers. 
 
 Beirut, after an attempt to locate in Jerusalem, was 
 occupied as a station three years later. While the original 
 plans for work in Syria had the Jews most distinctly in 
 mind, attention was quickly diverted to other races more 
 alert and promising. 
 
 It was inevitable that Constantinople should early be- 
 come the headquarters of missions in the Ottoman empire 
 as it was the political capital and commercial metropolis. 
 The climate is healthy, and being partly in Europe and 
 partly in Asia, the city partakes in part of the character 
 of both continents. 
 
 There was also another strong reason for making 
 Constantinople the headquarters of work in Turkey, 
 namely, the fact that it was the headquarters of every 
 important religious sect in the empire. Opposition to mis- 
 sion work must emanate from that center and difficulties 
 could best be overcome right at their beginning. As it was 
 also the seat of government from which governors and 
 civil officers were sent to every part of the empire, this 
 
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 made it still more important that a strong mission force 
 should reside here, in order that these men should not 
 receive the impression that Christian missionaries are ad- 
 vancing upon the empire only through remote interior 
 districts. The capital was occupied as a mission station 
 of the Board in 1831, and has since been the base of opera- 
 tions for the work of the American Board in the country. 
 Tours of exploration made in Asia Minor and into Koor- 
 distan and Persia started from this center. 
 
 Preliminary explorations had been made by various 
 scientific societies, as for instance that of John M. Parker, 
 F.G.S., F.R.G.S., under the auspices of the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society and the Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge, in 1839-40. They went overland from 
 Constantinople to Caesarea, Malatia, Diarbekr, Mosul, 
 Koordistan, Bitlis, Marash, Erzerum, Trebizond, and 
 thence back to Constantinople. The report of this ex- 
 tended tour through Asia Minor, northern Mesopotamia, 
 Koordistan, and Armenia, published in two volumes, under 
 the title " Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopo- 
 tamia, Chaldea, and Armenia," was of great value to the 
 missionaries in planning their locations. These researches 
 were made largely from the purely scientific standpoint 
 and in some cases needed to be supplemented by mission- 
 ary observations. 
 
 The establishing of mission locations over the vast 
 areas of Asiatic and European Turkey was not hastily 
 carried out. The country was well mapped and explored 
 before the stations were opened, and then only such places 
 were chosen as promised to be central to large popula- 
 tions and healthful for missionary residences. The policy 
 seems to have been early adopted to set the stations far 
 apart, with two or more missionary families in each of 
 
 [138]
 
 ESTABLISHED CENTERS 
 
 them. The success of this plan has proven its wisdom, and 
 even now the tendency is to greater consolidation in im- 
 portant centers rather than to a scattering of forces. 
 
 A few, and but a few, places early opened as stations 
 were later abandoned. Three of these were Mosul, Diar- 
 bekr, and Arabkir. The former place proved to be exceed- 
 ingly unhealthy and was made an outstation of Mardin, 
 while the two latter places were within one hundred miles 
 of Harpoot and were made outstations. The carefulness 
 and foresight with which the early stations were chosen 
 are proved by the test of over fifty years of successful 
 occupancy. 
 
 Trebizond, upon the southern shore of the Black Sea 
 towards its eastern extremity, was occupied as a station, 
 as already stated, in 1835. It is a large city of great 
 influence, with a Greek, Armenian, and Turkish population. 
 
 In 1839 a missionary family was sent to Erzerum, one 
 hundred and ten miles into the interior to the southeast of 
 Trebizond. As soon as these stations were opened they 
 became the centers of exploration for securing and for- 
 warding information to the headquarters of the missions 
 in Constantinople and to the Board in Boston. 
 
 Aintab was opened in what was then called " Southern 
 Armenia," in 1849, and became the center for operations 
 upon a large population dwelling in northern Syria, ex- 
 tending from Urfa on the east into the Tarsus moun- 
 tains upon the west, and including the important cities 
 of Marash, opened in 1855, Adana, Aleppo, Tarsus, 
 Hadjin, Antioch, Kilis, and many other towns of less im- 
 portance. Later this became the center of what came to 
 be known as the Central Turkey Mission. This region is 
 approached from the Mediterranean and is inhabited 
 chiefly by Armenians and Turks. In this section of coun- 
 
 // 
 
 [139]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 try the Armenians have lost, for the most part, their 
 native tongue, and speak only the Turkish language. As 
 the Koords and more savage races live in remote regions, 
 the people have not endured the persecution here that their 
 brethren in the north and east have been called upon to 
 pass through. 
 
 In 1850 an investigation of the condition of the Jews 
 in Salonica was made, which resulted in the opening of 
 that station for work, especially among the Jews. There 
 seems to have been no thought of reaching from that 
 station any other races. They found the Jews there 
 extremely ignorant, and divided between the Rabbinicals 
 and the Mohammedans. The unhealthy condition of the 
 city led in 1859 to the transfer of the station to 
 Smyrna. 
 
 The more interior stations, like Marsovan, Caesarea, 
 Sivas, Harpoot and Bitlis, were occupied in the '50s, 
 while Van, the most eastern mission station in Turkey, 
 was made such in 1872. From Constantinople the mis- 
 sionaries had been gradually reaching out, Nicomedia and 
 Brusa having been made stations in 1847 and 1848, 
 respectively. 
 
 The languages used in these missions were the Arabic 
 and Syrian in the Syrian field with its center at Beirut ; 
 the Turkish language in the Central Turkey region with 
 its center at Aintab ; the Armenian language in the 
 Eastern Turkey district with its center at Harpoot; 
 while Arabic was the language of Mardin, Mosul and 
 Arabia, and the Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian and Tur- 
 kish languages in the Western Turkey mission including 
 Trebizond. Various plans were tried at first of grouping 
 these various stations for purposes of control and adminis- 
 tration. They could not all be classed together owing to 
 
 [ 140 ]
 
 ESTABLISHED CENTERS 
 
 the long distances separating them and the difficulties of 
 travel in a country with no roads and no public convey- 
 ances. Finally the above outlined arrangement of the 
 stations was adopted and each separate mission became 
 a little republic in itself, holding its annual meeting, in 
 which delegates from all the stations belonging to it met 
 and legislated for it as a whole. In 1872 the European 
 Turkey mission also became separate from the Western 
 Turkey mission and has since been conducted as an entirely 
 distinct organization. 
 
 The great extent of territory covered by these missions 
 can best be understood by the fact that but few stations 
 anywhere were less than one hundred miles apart. The 
 nearest station to Harpoot in Eastern Turkey was distant 
 one hundred and fifty miles, a six days' journey by the 
 ordinary mode of conveyance. To reach some of the in- 
 terior stations like Bitlis, Harpoot and Mardin required 
 an overland journey on horseback of from three to four 
 weeks from the Black Sea coast. Thus the country was 
 dotted by mission stations which became at once centers 
 for direct, aggressive, educational, philanthropic and 
 Christian work. In no case was one opened except upon 
 the urgent invitation of a large number of the people 
 themselves. A station meant then, as it means to-day, a 
 center in which missionaries reside. It was understood 
 also that this residence was permanent, and to make this 
 clear to all, houses for the missionaries were purchased 
 or erected and other arrangements completed for a life- 
 work. This fact in itself made a profound impression 
 upon the people of all classes and religions. When it was 
 charged that the missionary movement would prove to be 
 short-lived, no one was able to answer the question, "What 
 mean these residences owned by the missionaries? " Cer- 
 
 [141 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 tainly, if it was the purpose to carry on only a temporary 
 work, houses would have been leased. Another fact, which 
 gave the appearance and impression of permanency, was 
 that the missionaries came with their wives and set up 
 their homes there. These two facts had much to do in 
 giving stability and strength to the earlier work. The 
 three men and their wives who occupied the Harpoot 
 station in 1858 were there together in that same station 
 until after the massacres of 1895, when owing to broken 
 health and the destruction of their homes four of them 
 were compelled to come to this country. Three of the six 
 are still living, two of them at Harpoot. The policy of 
 married missionaries permanently located in central sta- 
 tions and from there working together as a unit the large 
 adjacent field, has proved itself to be a wise and efficient 
 policy for all parts of Turkey. This policy necessitates 
 the wide use of trained native pastors, preachers, evange- 
 lists and teachers who occupy the outstations and push 
 the work into the remoter districts. 
 
 Each station became a social settlement, in which the 
 Christian home was the center and from which wholesome 
 Christian influences were exerted upon all with whom the 
 missionaries came in contact. The plan involved the 
 elevation and purification of the entire social fabric of 
 the country, and, judged from our modern standpoint, no 
 more effectual way of accomplishing this could have been 
 devised. It is no small thing for devout philanthropists 
 in England and the United States to give up their com- 
 fortable homes and establish their residence, as many have 
 done and are still doing, among the downtrodden and op- 
 pressed in our great cities. It is well known, however, that 
 this change of residence is not permanent and that, in cases 
 of sickness, the old home and friends remain, to which re- 
 
 [ 142 ]
 
 ESTABLISHED CENTERS 
 
 turn can be made. With those missionaries the case was 
 different. Their homes in America were broken up. They 
 took up their abode in the interior cities of Turkey for life. 
 In times of sickness they remained. No friends from home 
 visited them, and in case of their death, their bodies were 
 buried in the soil of the land. There were their children 
 born, and in multitudes of cases, because of the severity of 
 the climate and the lack of proper facilities for safeguard- 
 ing their health, there also were they buried. Herein lie 
 many elements of moral strength which appear in the 
 foreign missionary movement. It is this feature which has 
 made a profound impression upon the races of Turkey and 
 which is now reshaping its social system. 
 
 In 1860, after forty years of exploration and study in 
 the Turkish empire, so far as her people and their moral 
 and spiritual needs were concerned, missionary work had 
 been outlined for at least five different races. Interest in 
 the Jews had been continued, and a missionary, Dr. 
 Schauffler, intended exclusively for work among them, had 
 been maintained, not at Jerusalem but at Constantinople. 
 He was working in harmony with the three English and 
 Scottish societies, each of whom was maintaining mission- 
 aries to the Jews, with headquarters at Constantinople. 
 The work done was quiet, exciting apparently less interest 
 among the people of Turkey than among the organizers 
 of societies in the United States for work among this race. 
 Undoubtedly, during the first generation of work in the 
 Ottoman empire, the people of the United States and 
 England were more stirred by appeals for work among 
 the Jews than by any other appeal which was or could 
 be made. 
 
 The work for the Greeks was promising in Smyrna and 
 Constantinople. Owing to Greece obtaining her freedom 
 
 [143]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 from the rule of the sultan, Greeks still living in Turkey 
 were drawn away in their sympathies and interest to 
 Greece, and the spirit of patriotism was strong in holding 
 them to the national Church. 
 
 Among the Syrians a hold was obtained in spite of the 
 intense opposition of the Roman Catholics who claimed all 
 Syrians as belonging to them. The severest opposition 
 during the first twenty-five years of mission effort in 
 Turkey came not from the Turks but from the Roman 
 Catholics, who did not stop at the employment of any 
 measure which would tend to banish the printing-press 
 and curtail the work of the Protestant missionaries. 
 
 The Mohammedans commanded early attention. They 
 were drawn to the missionaries by the fact that no pictures 
 or images were used in Protestant worship nor gaudy 
 display made in any public services. Repeatedly Turks 
 said to the missionaries, " You are like us, you are good 
 Moslems." As acquaintance increased, interest deepened 
 in this dominant race. Conditions were such that little 
 directly aggressive effort could be wisely made for their 
 immediate enlightenment. Much was done in the way of 
 private conversation and through the preparation and 
 publication of a Christian literature adapted to their 
 needs. 
 
 It may be said, however, that the Armenians most com- 
 pletely commanded both the interest of the missionaries 
 and the attention of the constituency at home. The most 
 of the stations in the country were established especially 
 for this race. They were found at every center. Even in 
 Syria and in all of the interior stations, Armenians and 
 Turks were the chief people with whom the missionaries 
 constantly came in contact. Interest in Armenians was 
 strengthened by the intense persecutions through which 
 
 [ 144 ]
 
 ESTABLISHED CENTERS 
 
 the evangelicals passed in the early '40s, at the hand of 
 their own ecclesiastics. They were open-minded, able, and 
 devout, and presented a wide opportunity for sowing the 
 seeds of intelligent belief. At that time little had been done 
 for the Bulgarians in European Turkey and Macedonia. 
 The more remote Asiatic field had proved to be so large 
 and so interesting that there had been scant pause to look 
 into the conditions and needs of the people so near at hand, 
 occupying the southeastern corner of Europe. 
 
 Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk, writing from Smyrna to 
 the Board rooms in February, 1820, said, " In all the 
 populous Catholic and Mohammedan countries on the 
 north and south side of the Mediterranean there is not a 
 single Protestant missionary. In all the Turkish empire, 
 containing perhaps twenty million souls, not one mission- 
 ary station is permanently occupied and but a single 
 missionary besides ourselves." This one man did not long 
 remain. Besides the English work among the Jews and 
 Turks in Constantinople and Palestine, the evangelization 
 of the Turkish empire was left from the first to the Amer- 
 ican Board. In later years the Disciples of Christ and 
 the Seventh Day Adventists have sent a few missionaries 
 into the country, but their work has been almost exclu- 
 sively among the Protestants and has resulted only in 
 dividing churches already organized. The Church Mis- 
 sionary Society of England has had some work in Bagdad, 
 and a Scotch society in Aden and the Reformed Church 
 of the United States has recently begun operations upon 
 the southern coast of Arabia. With a few other minor 
 exceptions, the Turkish empire north of Syria has been 
 generally conceded to be the distinctive mission field of the 
 American Board of Missions. 
 
 When the division of fields took place in 1870 between 
 
 [145]
 
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 the American Board and the newly organized Presbyterian 
 Board of Missions, southern Syria and Persia were as- 
 signed to that Board, while the American Board retained 
 northern Syria and all the rest of Turkey. In European 
 Turkey the same Board is in sole charge of all the evan- 
 gelical work for and among the Bulgarians south of the 
 Balkans, the Methodist Episcopal Board of the United 
 States having a work among the same people north of the 
 Balkans. Thus Macedonia and Bulgaria south of the 
 Balkans, Asia Minor, Armenia, Koordistan, northern Syria 
 and northern Mesopotamia are left the sole field of the 
 American Board, with the few exceptions mentioned above. 
 This has put upon it a responsibility and placed before it 
 an opportunity such as few mission agencies in modern 
 times have had to face. 
 
 [ 146 ]
 
 BEGINNINGS IN REFORM
 
 I had occasion some years ago to visit a considerable part of Turkey, 
 from Constantinople and Beirut to Mosul and Bagdad, and everywhere I 
 paid particular attention to missionary conditions and the influence of mission 
 work upon the people. This is a land assigned almost wholly to American 
 Missionary Boards, and the influence is everywhere marked and excellent. 
 The late Premier Stviloff told me in Sofia that but for young men educated by 
 American teachers in Constantinople, Bulgaria when it became independent 
 would have had to depend on Russians for administrative officers. He was 
 himself, like so many other distinguished Bulgarians, a graduate of Robert 
 College. In Syria a native physician, graduated at the Syrian Protestant 
 College, said to me, "We say, 'After God, van Dyke.'" In the interior cities, 
 such as Marash, Aintab, Urfa, Mardin and Diarbekr, the American schools 
 and the large self-supporting churches were evidences of the new evangelic 
 spirit and culture which had put new heart into those ancient seats of in- 
 tellectual decay. About Harpoot there were thousands who had learned 
 English, and hundreds have come from there to this country believing it to be 
 a very paradise. The contrast was sad enough when I came into the towns 
 south from Mosul where American missionary influence had not reached, and 
 scarce any signs of intellectual or material improvement were to be found. 
 I am convinced that the work of devoted, intelligent, broad-minded mission- 
 aries is far more effective in lifting a people out of ignorance and social decay 
 into enlightened civilization, than all the influences of commerce or mere 
 governmental policy. Our missionaries bring the motive of faith as the 
 example of unselfish service which nothing else can supply. — William 
 Hayes Waed, LL. D., Editor "New York Independent."
 
 XIV. BEGINNINGS IN REFORM 
 
 DURING the first generation of missionary opera- 
 tions in Turkey there were few tangible results ex- 
 cept among the Armenians. The Mohammedans 
 were by no means entirely hostile and revealed much friend- 
 liness and often open sympathy. The Jews presented 
 almost a solid wall of stolid opposition to the effort for re- 
 form among them, while the Syrians and Greeks, under the 
 leadership of the Roman Catholics, were often violent in 
 their open attacks and secret plottings to thwart every at- 
 tempt of the missionaries to gain a foothold in the country. 
 The people in all the empire who seemed to have been espe- 
 cially prepared to receive and profit by evangelical teaching 
 were the Armenians, who were not distinctly in mind when 
 mission work in Turkey was first contemplated. In fact, 
 almost nothing was then known of these people in the 
 world at large and among the Christians of the United 
 States who were supporting the cause of foreign missions. 
 While the American Board contemplated extending its 
 missions in the Levant to the shores of the Black Sea and 
 especially into Armenia, no mention whatever seems to 
 have been made of the Armenians in connection with the 
 beginning of the first " mission to Palestine." 
 
 Not long after Rev. Levi Parsons arrived at Jerusalem 
 in 1821 and upon his first visit there, he came into contact 
 with some Armenian pilgrims with whom he had conver- 
 sation upon the subject of missions to their people and 
 country. These expressed themselves as eager to have 
 missionaries sent to them. Mr. Fisk at about the same 
 time, writing to Boston from Smyrna, recommended the 
 
 [ 149 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 appointment of missionaries to Armenia. From this time 
 the idea of work among the Armenians enlarged and 
 deepened, although the " mission to the Jews " was kept 
 persistently at the front. 
 
 There had been a vast deal of preparation of the 
 Armenian people for a work of reform, emanating from 
 sources quite outside of the Board and, in fact, consider- 
 ably anterior to its organization. Somewhere about 1760, 
 an Armenian priest, who was burning with the desire to 
 reform the Armenian Church, appeared in Constantinople. 
 He saw and deeply felt the gross errors of the Gregorian 
 Church, and wrote a book exposing them. He was an 
 educated man and seems to have been more or less familiar 
 with the work of Martin Luther, of whose Reformation he 
 heartily approved. He constantly referred to the Bible 
 and to this high standard he mercilessly brought his 
 Church and its clergy. The inconsistent life of the priests 
 and bishops, and the gross superstitions of the people at 
 large, greatly troubled him. He lacked, however, true 
 spiritual enlightenment and power, and failed to see divine 
 truth in its breadth and purity. His book was never 
 printed, but copies were kept in various places which were 
 brought to light and repeatedly referred to later. This 
 effort had wide influence in revealing the errors of the 
 Armenian Church, and did much to prepare the way for 
 the genuine reformatory movement. 
 
 In 1813, six years before the American Board appointed 
 its first missionary to Palestine, the British and Russian 
 Bible Societies made strenuous efforts to provide for the 
 Armenian people a Bible in their own tongue. An edition 
 of an old fourth century Armenian version of the entire 
 Bible was commenced in that year at St. Petersburg by 
 the Russian Bible Society, and at about the same time 
 
 [150]
 
 BEGINNINGS IN REFORM 
 
 another edition of the same Bible was put on the press by 
 the Calcutta Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society. The Russian edition of five thousand copies was 
 out in 1815, and the British edition of two thousand 
 copies appeared two years later. The Russian Society 
 issued a separate edition of two thousand copies of the 
 Ancient Armenian New Testament. 
 
 In their report of 1814 the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society said that the printing of the Armenian Testament 
 had aroused much interest among the Armenians, espe- 
 cially those in Russia. Emperor Alexander at that time 
 took a keen interest in the work of the Russian Bible 
 Society and therefore the cause itself became popular 
 among all classes. The Armenian Catholicos, the spir- 
 itual head of that Church, with residence at Etchmiadzin, 
 now in Russia, bordering upon Armenia, was elected one 
 of the vice-presidents of the society. He wrote a letter 
 to its president commending the work of the society, and 
 approving of the plan to supply his own people with the 
 Word of God. The Armenian archbishop of Tiflis con- 
 tributed six hundred roubles for that purpose. 
 
 In 1818 the British and Foreign Bible Society pur- 
 chased one thousand five hundred copies of the Arme- 
 nian New Testament from the Armenian Catholic College 
 located on the Island of St. Lazarus, Venice, for distri- 
 bution among the Armenians. Later, a still larger number 
 was purchased and distributed in the same way. In 1823 
 the same Bible Society published at Constantinople an 
 edition of five thousand copies of the Armenian New Testa- 
 ment and three thousand copies of the four Gospels alone. 
 These books were rapidly distributed by agents of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society and by Mr. Connor of 
 the Church Missionary Society, at that time in Constan- 
 
 [151]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 tinople, among the Armenians of the Trans-Caucasian 
 provinces in Russia and in Turkey. 
 
 These facts have an important bearing upon the prepa- 
 ration of the Armenians for a reform movement. Hitherto, 
 while they had the Bible in its entirety, it was mostly in 
 manuscript form, and inaccessible to the people. These 
 valuable copies of the Holy Scriptures were kept in the 
 monasteries or in the larger churches, carefully guarded 
 by the priests or other custodians, who usually were them- 
 selves unable to read or understand the writing. All the 
 Armenians everywhere accepted the Bible as the divine 
 and inspired Word of God. 
 
 The name of the Bible is Astvadsashoonch, or " The 
 breath of God" With joy they welcomed the printed 
 word that could be kept in their houses, handled with their 
 own hands, and perused at their leisure. Hitherto they 
 had been permitted only to kiss its silver adorned covers 
 at the close of the formal services of their churches. 
 
 It was soon found, however, that the ancient Armenian, 
 the language of all the manuscripts of the Bible and 
 rituals of the Old Church and also of the Bibles and Testa- 
 ments recently printed, was not understood by the common, 
 uneducated people. As the educated were few, the number 
 of intelligent readers was greatly limited. This number 
 was confined practically to the higher clergy, a few priests 
 and vartabeds, and the teachers in the schools. In order 
 to reach the common people, the Russian Bible Society 
 issued in 1822 and 1823 a New Testament translated into 
 Turkish and printed with the Armenian character. As a 
 large proportion of the Armenians understood Turkish 
 this version brought to them the Word of God. 
 
 Hitherto the Armenian ecclesiastics had made little or 
 no opposition to the circulation of the Bible among the 
 
 [ 152 ]
 
 BEGINNINGS IN REFORM 
 
 people, while some of the most prominent seemed to favor 
 the work. In 1823 the agents of the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society at Constantinople endeavored to secure the 
 sanction of the Armenian patriarch for the printing and 
 circulation of the New Testament in the modern, spoken 
 Armenian tongue, the home language of most of the 
 Armenians in Turkey. They were met with the severest 
 opposition, and with threats of prohibiting the reading of 
 the book if it should be issued. 
 
 Without attempting to follow the course of Bible pub- 
 lication, upon which depended the plan of reform for both 
 the Armenian and Greek churches as well as for all the 
 other races dwelling in the empire, suffice it to say that 
 the hostility of the Armenian clergy, called forth by the 
 publication of the modern Armenian version of the Scrip- 
 tures, started a conflict, which waged throughout the 
 country for more than a generation, as to whether that 
 version was the true Word of God. The ancient Armenian 
 Scriptures were translated from the Septuagint and the 
 Latin Vulgate while the modern versions were made from 
 the Hebrew and Greek. For this reason there were many 
 discrepancies between the two versions which were dis- 
 cussed everywhere. This drove the people to a careful 
 study of the Bible. If it could be once established that the 
 modern version was also the " Word of God," there could 
 be no hesitation upon the part of the Armenians in ac- 
 cepting it as such. This phase of the controversy passed 
 fully forty years ago, and throughout the country this 
 version is now accepted as Astvadsashooncli or the ver- 
 itable Word of God. It was, however, for many years a 
 vital question which commanded the attention and energy 
 of the strongest men of the race. 
 
 The work of Bible translation and publication has con- 
 
 [153]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 tinued under the patronage of the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society and the American Bible Society until the 
 entire Bible is now available for all Turkish, Arabic, 
 Syrian, Persian, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Greek speaking 
 peoples, and parts of the same are available for the 
 Koords and Albanians. Nothing in the line of reform in 
 Turkey has been more potent than the Word of God in 
 the spoken languages of its many-tongued people, put up 
 in cheap form and in convenient sizes and widely distrib- 
 uted in all parts of the empire. The Bible is not only 
 welcomed by nearly all classes, but it is eagerly sought 
 by many who are remotely informed of its contents but 
 who are eager to investigate for themselves. It is an inter- 
 esting fact that wherever the Bible, and especially the 
 New Testament, has been most widely read, there the 
 people have been the more determined to have modern 
 educational facilities for their children and better prepared 
 to welcome the better forms of Western civilization. 
 
 [ 154 ]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS
 
 I must frankly confess that when I first went to Turkey I was somewhat 
 prejudiced against the missionaries there and missionary work, to this extent : 
 As what, I suppose, you might call a high Anglican, I looked with a certain 
 esteem and regard upon the old churches of the East and it seemed to me 
 theoretically that the proper method of missionary enterprise was to try to 
 cooperate with those churches, helping them to educate and evangelize 
 themselves. As a result of contact first with the Congregational missionaries 
 of the A. B. C. F. M., this prejudice very speedily vanished. I found those 
 men not only most earnest and devout Christians, but, so to speak, thoroughly 
 Catholic and non-partisan, and I found that they had profoundly influenced 
 for good the ancient Christian churches where they had come in contact with 
 them and, in fact, regenerated (I think the term is not too strong) the Arme- 
 nian Church. They themselves were men not only of culture and refinement 
 and earnest religious devotion, but of broad, statesmanlike views, an unusual 
 group. 
 
 At Constantinople I was also brought into close contact with the men and 
 women conducting the two great colleges, Robert College at Roumelia Hissar 
 and the Woman's College at Scutari, and had some opportunity to estimate 
 the value of that work and its profound influence as a civilizing agent on the 
 community at large. Later I was brought into contact with the Syrian 
 Protestant College at Beirut, and with the Congregational and Presbyterian 
 missionaries through Syria, and the favorable impressions made at Con- 
 stantinople were confirmed and strengthened. My travels into regions 
 touched by American missionaries, and beyond the confines of those regions, 
 enabled me to form an estimate of the real influence of the missionaries on 
 the country at large. It has been enormous. One thing, especially, the 
 missionaries have given honor everywhere to the American name, so that to 
 be known as an American almost anywhere in Turkey, is to ensure the con- 
 fidence of the people. That name is the synonym of honest and disinterested 
 service of one's fellow men. I wish that the name American carried in every 
 country the meaning which American missionaries have caused it to bear in 
 Turkey, and 1 may add in Bulgaria. 
 
 But 1 must not be too lengthy. I am apt to wax enthusiastic when I speak 
 on this subject, and am sometimes afraid my language may seem extravagant. 
 It is difficult to comprehend how such a relatively small body of men, with 
 such a relatively small expenditure of money, has made so profound an 
 impression on the life of the people of the empire as has been made by the 
 American missionaries and the American schools and colleges. They have 
 been the great means of uplift, both directly and also indirectly, in causing 
 the establishment by other nations and by the Turks themselves, of schools 
 and the like, thus diffusing still further education. 
 
 I wish I had time and space to speak further of the great needs of the 
 people of Turkey which must be met, if at all, through missionary agencies 
 and of the great opportunities which the field presents in spite of all hindrances 
 and difficulties. — Prof. John P. Peters, D. D., ScD., Explorer.
 
 XV. LEADERS, METHODS, AND 
 ANATHEMAS 
 
 IT should be stated at the outset that the purpose of the 
 American Board in its efforts for the Armenians was 
 not to weaken the old Gregorian Church or to prose- 
 lyte from it. There was no desire to form among the Ar- 
 menians an evangelical or Protestant Church. There was 
 no purpose to form any organization among them, but 
 simply to introduce the New Testament in the spoken 
 tongue of the people and to assist them in working out re- 
 forms in their old Church and under their own leaders. 
 
 The first missionary sent to Constantinople by the 
 Board was the Rev. William Goodell, transferred from 
 Beirut by way of Malta to open a mission at the capital 
 of the empire with a view to reaching the Armenians there. 
 In his work of translating the Bible into Armeno-Turkish 
 at Beirut he had been ably assisted by two prominent 
 Armenians, one a bishop and one a learned vartabed, who 
 had fully accepted the modern Bible and were firm be- 
 lievers in the necessity of reform for the Armenian Church. 
 Dr. Goodell may be called the father of the Armenian 
 mission and the shaper of its policy. He was a man of 
 great intellectual ability, clear spiritual insight and prac- 
 tical wisdom. After familiarizing himself with the situa- 
 tion at Constantinople he wrote: 
 
 "In almost every place individuals are found who are so far 
 enlightened as to see and feel that their churches are abominably 
 corrupt, and who do sincerely desire a reform. We ourselves at 
 this place have nothing to do with the Church, its dogmas, cere- 
 monies and superstitions, nor do we ever think of meddling with
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the convents, the priests, the celibacy of the clergy, etc. In fact, 
 we stand nearly as far aloof from ecclesiastical matters as we do 
 from political matters. We find no occasion to touch them. We 
 direct men to their own hearts and to the Bible. Nor do we make 
 any attempt to establish a new Church or raise up a new party. We 
 disdain everything of the kind. We tell them frankly, 'You have 
 sects enough among you already, and we have no design of setting 
 up a new one, or of pulling down your churches, or drawing away 
 members from them in order to build up our own.' No, let him 
 who is a Greek be a Greek still, and him who is an Armenian be an 
 Armenian still." 
 
 In another place he wrote, " The less that is said and 
 known about our operations so much the better. A great 
 deal can be done in a silent, harmless, inoffensive way in 
 these countries, but nothing in a storm." Again he said, 
 " Our kingdom is not of this world, we are building up no 
 Church here, nor forming any ecclesiastical organization 
 whatever." 
 
 These utterances of Dr. Goodell, which might be greatly 
 multiplied, are enough to show the plan he had worked 
 out for mission operations among the Oriental churches. 
 The attitude of the officers of the Board in Boston was in 
 full accord with this purpose and method. In a word, the 
 aim of missions to the Oriental churches was not to organ- 
 ize a separate Church but to give them the Word of God 
 in their own spoken tongue, help them to understand its 
 teachings, and then to cooperate with them in organizing 
 and carrying out such measures of reform as might seem 
 wise and practicable to their own leaders. In carrying 
 out this plan no separate meetings were begun. The only 
 distinct religious services carried on in Constantinople by 
 the missionaries in all these years of beginnings were pri- 
 vate worship in English for themselves, their children, and 
 
 [153]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS 
 
 other English speaking people in the city who chose to 
 join them. Apart from this, their time was given to 
 personal conversation with individuals, dwelling largely 
 upon the interpretation of the Scriptures. Men who felt 
 they must separate from the old Church were persuaded 
 to remain within the Church and to work there for gradual 
 reforms. These purposes and plans were talked over 
 freely with the patriarch, with the priests, bishops, and 
 leaders of the Church, and met with their hearty ap- 
 proval. The missionaries attended the services of the old 
 Church upon the Sabbath and on special occasions at 
 other times, and frequently took part, as they were invited 
 so to do. The contemplated reforms had nothing to do 
 with the ecclesiastical systems or ritual then dominating. 
 There was no desire to change these. The one aim was as 
 declared in the expression frequently used, " To build up 
 truth." When truth prevails error will depart. 
 
 It was plain to all, and to none more than to the 
 Armenian leaders, that no permanent reforms could be 
 wrought out within the Church without schools for the 
 education of priests. It was apparent that, so long as 
 the ministers in the churches were for the most part 
 untaught, ignorant, and often coarse, the Church could 
 never be lifted from its low intellectual, moral, and spir- 
 itual plane. Because of the general ignorance of so many 
 of the clergy, the cause of education among the Arme- 
 nians had everywhere gone into decadence. Fully recogniz- 
 ing these conditions and needs, and at the same time aware 
 that the situation was delicate, Dr. Goodell and his as- 
 sociates, instead of starting mission schools, persuaded 
 the Greeks and the Armenians to establish schools of their 
 own, proffering missionary assistance as it might be 
 called for. 
 
 [159]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 At about the time mission work began in Turkey, the 
 system of schools organized by Joseph Lancaster of Eng- 
 land was attracting much attention, not only in that 
 country but in the United States. This was a monitor 
 system requiring few trained teachers, no text-books, and 
 seemed to command popular interest wherever tried, and 
 undoubtedly afforded a quick and superficial exhibit of 
 progress in the pupils. Lancasterian schools were having 
 a period of great popularity in Greece. They spread to 
 Constantinople and were at once adopted by Greeks, 
 Armenians, and Turks. These had the effect of arousing 
 the popular mind, and awaking a desire for an education. 
 These schools were, for the most part, religious, but not 
 sectarian. They were not long continued by either the 
 Turks or the Greeks, but the seed of learning fell into 
 especially fruitful soil among the Armenians. 
 
 Another influence had been operating at the capital 
 leading towards this same end. When Jonas King left 
 Syria he wrote a farewell letter dwelling at length upon 
 the needs of reform in the Oriental churches, with many 
 Scriptural references to prove his position. An Armenian 
 bishop, Dionysius, translated this letter into Armenian, 
 and in 1827 a manuscript copy was sent by him to some 
 of the more influential Armenians in Constantinople. The 
 effect of it was remarkable. A meeting was called in the 
 Armenian Patriarchal Church at which the letter was read 
 and the Scriptures referred to examined. By common 
 consent it was there agreed that the Church needed re- 
 forming. The well known school of Pashtimaljian was the 
 direct outgrowth of that meeting. It was there decided 
 that no Armenian priest should be ordained in Constan- 
 tinople who had not completed a regular course of study 
 in that school. 
 
 [160]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS 
 
 This school exerted a strong influence in preparing the 
 minds of a large body of young men to receive the truth 
 and later to become leaders in the movement towards re- 
 form. Pashtimaljian himself was an Armenian of remark- 
 able ability and strength. He was an accurate scholar and 
 a critical student of the Armenian language and literature, 
 and, although a layman, was well versed in Eastern theol- 
 ogy and Church history. He was equally accurate and 
 thorough in his study of the Bible. His leadership was 
 recognized by the Armenians. He was a friend of the 
 missionaries, but for fear of exciting the suspicions of his 
 race carried on his work independently of them. While 
 evangelical in his beliefs and thoughts he did not, to the 
 day of his death, in 1837, openly declare himself to be an 
 evangelical. But up to that time there had been no break 
 with the old Church and no persecution of those who were 
 studying the Word of God. 
 
 In all cases where the word " Evangelical " is used in 
 connection with the Armenians, Greeks or Syrians it re- 
 fers to those who are recognized as regular readers of the 
 New Testament in the vernacular. The " Evangelicals " 
 among the Armenians were those who persisted in adhering 
 to their right to read the New Testament and to follow 
 its manifest teachings even in the face of the disapproval 
 of their ecclesiastics. Under the fire of anathemas and 
 persecution the word came to be applied to those who 
 were cast out of the Gregorian Church because they would 
 not discontinue Uie practise. In Turkey the word has 
 only its original meaning, derived from the " Evangel " 
 of Christ. 
 
 In 1833 the missionaries at Constantinople were invited 
 to be present in the Patriarchal Church at the ordination 
 of fifteen Armenian priests, trained in Pashtimaljian's 
 
 ~TT [ 161 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 school. These men were largely emancipated from the 
 superstitions of the old Church and alert to the needs of 
 radical reform. When the break between the Gregorians 
 and the Evangelicals actually took place, several years 
 later, the leaders of the Protestants were for the most 
 part men who had received their training under Pashti- 
 maljian, who was always independent of missionary super- 
 vision and who was highly esteemed and honored by the 
 ecclesiastics of the Gregorian Church. 
 
 With all these forces at work upon this able and alert 
 people, advanced ideas rapidly spread among all classes 
 at the capital, and through constant intercourse with the 
 chief cities in the interior, aroused there also the spirit of 
 inquiry. The patriarch at Constantinople and some of 
 the bishops in interior towns seemed in hearty accord with 
 the revival of Biblical study and of true learning. The 
 missionaries endeavored to have the Armenians themselves 
 open and conduct all the schools, and ventured themselves 
 to do anything of the kind only when they failed to get 
 the people to act. 
 
 The steady progress of the reform movement was hin- 
 dered by great fires in the city, by cholera and plague, and 
 by civil war. Even to the present these distracting and 
 disintegrating forces have always been present in some 
 parts of the Turkish fields, presenting many obstacles to 
 continuous advance. 
 
 The Roman Catholics were openly opposed to the cir- 
 culation of the Bible among the people, and used their 
 influence to check the movement for a revival of right- 
 eousness and learning. By constant effort, even in the 
 days of Pashtimaljian, they cast suspicion upon the move- 
 ment into the minds of some of the leaders among the old 
 Church people. An anti-reform party was gradually 
 
 [ 162 ]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS 
 
 formed, led largely by uneducated ecclesiastics, who saw 
 that if only educated men were to be ordained to the priest- 
 hood and were to exercise a leading influence in the Church, 
 their power would soon be destroyed. They succeeded in 
 exalting to patriarchal power in 1839 an astute and 
 bigoted man from the interior of the country. He began 
 at once to arrest and throw into prison some of the 
 leading men in the evangelical movement. Some even were 
 banished into the interior for the sole crime of reading 
 the Bible. 
 
 The Armenian Evangelical Union, a secret organiza- 
 tion, had in 1839 some twenty-two members. It was an 
 organized company of intelligent, advanced thinkers, who 
 came together to plan and pray for the reformation of 
 their Church and of the country, and for Bible study. 
 They carried on secret correspondence with men of en- 
 lightenment throughout the empire. None of them were 
 separated from the Church nor did they contemplate such 
 a step nor encourage it in others. They were planning 
 solely for the salvation of the Gregorian Church. These 
 unions were continued and multiplied in the country, but 
 not as a secret society after the organization of the 
 Protestant churches. 
 
 On the third of March, 1839, a patriarchal bull was 
 issued by Hagopos, adjunct patriarch, forbidding the 
 reading of all books printed or circulated by the mission- 
 aries, and all who possessed such books were ordered to 
 deliver them up. A few days later the sympathetic and 
 gentle patriarch Stepan was deposed and Hagopos was 
 installed in his place. Spurred on by the same Romanists, 
 the Greek patriarch issued a similar bull to all Greeks 
 against the books of the missionaries. The reign of terror 
 thus begun raged in the capital and throughout the interior 
 
 [ 163]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 of the country for many years. April 28th, 1839, the 
 Armenian patriarch issued a new bull threatening terrible 
 anathemas, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost, against all who should be found communicating 
 with the missionaries or reading their books. Arrests and 
 imprisonments were of constant occurrence. The native 
 evangelicals were at their wits' end and the missionaries 
 could see no way of deliverance. 
 
 Most fortunately for them, at that time the sultan was 
 at war with Mohammed Ali of Egypt, and he called upon 
 all the patriarchs to provide him with recruits for his 
 broken army. The defeat of the sultan, his death, and the 
 succession of his son, Abdul Medjid, with the loss of 
 the Turkish fleet, threw all into consternation and made 
 the most violent bigots forget for the moment to persecute. 
 A fire in Pera which destroyed between three thousand and 
 four thousand Armenian houses tended to produce a 
 softening of heart against the persecuted. 
 
 While this condition of affairs prevailed at the capital 
 the mission was pushing its advanced posts into the in- 
 terior of the country where considerable numbers were 
 found eager to procure copies of the Bible. Ecclesias- 
 tical warnings sent from Constantinople to the Arme- 
 nians remote from the capital were given little heed. 
 Violence had so subsided at Constantinople that the 
 evangelical movement again began to accumulate momen- 
 tum and force. A boarding-school for boys was opened 
 in November, 1840, at Bebek upon the Bosporus, some 
 five miles above Constantinople. This was under the su- 
 perintendence of Cyrus Hamlin, against whom and his 
 school all the fury of the papists and the Greek patriarch 
 was directed, the Armenian patriarch refusing to join 
 them. The demand for books increased. By 1841 it was 
 
 [164]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS 
 
 evident that a great reform movement was in progress 
 which was destined to spread over the empire". Some of 
 the leading persecutors were astute enough to see that an 
 invisible but irresistible force was moving the Armenian 
 nation. The spirit of reform swept over the country, 
 awakening intellects, arousing consciences, and demand- 
 ing intellectual freedom. 
 
 This continued for five or six years, during which time 
 there was no separation of the " Evangelicals," as they 
 were called, from the old Church. The missionaries 
 always urged them to remain, exerting their influence not 
 against the Church but against its abuses and super- 
 stitions. For the most part they attended public services 
 in the old Church, and were recognized as members in good 
 standing. The missionaries had no thought of changing 
 these conditions, had they imagined it was in their power 
 to do so. Hitherto the movement had been one towards 
 reform within the Armenian Church and largely led by 
 Armenians who were themselves loyal members. In per- 
 secuting, the Church was doing violence to its own. 
 
 In the beginning of 1846 the patriarch, alarmed at the 
 extent as well as the power of the reform movement, in- 
 augurated more coercive measures. On Sunday morning, 
 January 25, at the close of the regular service in the 
 Patriarchal Church, darkening the house and drawing a 
 great veil in front of the main altar, a bull of excision was 
 read against Priest Vartanes, an evangelical, and all of the 
 followers of the " modern sectaries." Heaping every con- 
 ceivable epithet of condemnation upon him he was expelled 
 from the Church and forbidden as " a devil and the child of 
 the devil to enter into the company of believers." All the 
 faithful were forbidden to admit him into their dwellings 
 or to receive his salutation or to look upon his face.
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 A wild spirit of fanaticism reigned. This most thorough 
 and fanatical persecution began to search out the evan- 
 gelicals, who were ordered to repair to the patriarchate 
 and recant, or be forever cast out from society, from every 
 social privilege, and from the Church. On the following 
 Sabbath, with passions still more inflamed, a second ana- 
 thema was read in all the churches, accompanied by the 
 most violent denunciations by the patriarch, the bishop 
 and the vartabeds. All of the evangelicals were pro- 
 nounced " accursed, and excommunicated, and anathema- 
 tized by God, and by all his saints, and by Matteos 
 Patriarch." The patriarch not only cursed those who 
 were readers of the Bible and believers in its teachings, 
 but grave malediction was hurled against all who should 
 harbor them or communicate with them. Printed copies 
 of the last two anathemas were sent to every part of 
 Turkey to be read in all the churches. Even to this point 
 the evangelical Armenians had made no move to form a 
 community separate from the old Church. 
 
 On the 21st of June, 1846, a day of solemn festival in 
 the Church, the patriarch issued a new bull of excom- 
 munication and anathema against all who remained firm 
 to their evangelical principles, decreeing that it should 
 be publicly read at each annual return of this festival in 
 all the Armenian churches throughout the Ottoman em- 
 pire. By this act the Protestant or evangelical Armenians 
 were completely cut off from any lot or part in the 
 Gregorian Church. There was no hope of their being 
 received back again except by their repudiating every 
 principle of reform. This, of course, they could not do. 
 
 These excommunicated brethren immediately requested 
 help from the missionaries. A meeting was held in Con- 
 stantinople, made up of delegates from the different mis- 
 
 [166]
 
 LEADERS, METHODS, AND ANATHEMAS 
 
 sion stations in Turkey, at which Dr. Pomeroy, later one 
 of the secretaries of the American Board, was present. 
 At that meeting, plans were drawn up for an organiza- 
 tion among the evangelical Armenians of Constantinople. 
 Consequently, on the first day of July, 1846, they came 
 together and were organized into the First Evangelical 
 Armenian Church. The church numbered forty members, 
 of which thirty-seven were men. One week later an Ar- 
 menian pastor, a former student in the school of Pash- 
 timaljian, was ordained over the church. A pamphlet in 
 Armenian was issued, containing their confession of faith 
 and setting forth the reasons why, through the compul- 
 sory measures of the patriarch, they had been compelled 
 to organize themselves into a separate body. 
 
 During the same summer, similar Armenian churches 
 were formed in Nicomedia, Adabazar and Trebizond. The 
 Mohammedans showed themselves sympathetic. A Moslem 
 judge before whom some of the evangelicals had been haled, 
 said, " We cannot interfere to protect you from excom- 
 munication, but so long as you abide by the declaration 
 you have made we will protect you civilly. Your goods 
 shall be as our goods ; your houses as our houses ; and 
 your persons as our persons. Go in peace." 
 
 All subjects of the Turkish empire were registered as 
 members of some recognized religious community. Each 
 various Christian community like the Armenian, the Greek, 
 and the Roman Catholic, had its recognized head at the 
 Porte and through this head individual rights were pro- 
 tected. Every non-Moslem was compelled to claim his 
 rights at the hand of his religious political head. If his 
 claim were there denied, he had no redress. The Armenian 
 patriarch was the recognized political superior of the Arme- 
 nians. He had violently excluded all evangelicals from
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the Church and from all their inherited rights as Arme- 
 nians. He no longer recognized such as members of his 
 race, and not only refused to protect them and secure for 
 them justice but he devised methods to direct a bitter per- 
 secution against them. These excommunicated " Protes- 
 tants," as they were sometimes called, were the legal 
 possessors of no rights or privileges in the empire that 
 any one was bound to respect. 
 
 Conditions became intolerable, when through the inter- 
 vention of the British legation the grand vizier issued in 
 November, 1847, a firman recognizing the separate Prot- 
 estant community with all the rights and privileges be- 
 longing to others in the empire, and declaring that " no 
 interference whatever shall be permitted in their temporal 
 and spiritual concerns on the part of the patriarch, monks, 
 or priests of other sects." This firman protected the evan- 
 gelical Greeks and Jews as well as the Armenians. As this 
 charter was only ministerial in its scope and authority, in 
 1850 a new charter was granted the Protestants by Sultan 
 Abdul Medj id, " completing and confirming their distinct 
 organization as a civil community, etc." 
 
 This phase of mission work in Turkey has been dwelt 
 upon at length in order to correct the impression which 
 prevails in many quarters that the missionaries in Turkey 
 aimed to divide the old Churches there and to separate 
 out therefrom a body of Protestants. History makes it 
 clear that every effort was made to prevent separation, and 
 only after this had taken place, by the repeated and official 
 action of the highest ecclesiastical authority, were any 
 steps taken to organize a separate community, and even 
 then this was done primarily to secure protection for the 
 excommunicated Christians. 
 
 [168]
 
 RESULTS
 
 I have had occasion to revert to the work of the accomplished and devoted 
 band of American missionaries and teachers settled in these districts. In a 
 thousand ways they are raising the standard of morality, of intelligence, of 
 education, of material well-being, of industrial enterprise. Directly or in- 
 directly every phase of their work is rapidly paving the way for American 
 commerce. Special stress should be laid upon the remarkable work of the 
 physicians, ordained or unordained, who are attached to the various stations. 
 They form a steadily growing network, dotting the map of Asia Minor at 
 Ceesarea, Marsovan, Sivas, Adana, Aintab, Mardin, Harpoot, Bitlis, and 
 Van. At most of these points well-equipped hospitals are in active operation. 
 From the very nature of their occupation they come more easily and rapidly 
 into touch with the Turkish population and quickly gain their confidence. 
 
 Taking all in all, I regard the results following the foundation of this in- 
 stitution (Euphrates College) as among the most important and noteworthy 
 secured by American effort in foreign lands. The whole work appeals most 
 strongly to one whose chief duty is to aid and further the entrance of American 
 wares in this land. I know of no import better adapted to secure the future 
 commercial supremacy of the United States in this land of such wonderful 
 potential possibilities than the introduction of American teachers, of American 
 educational appliances and books of American methods and ideas. — Prof. 
 Thomas H. Norton, Ph. D., United States Consul at Harpoot and Smyrna, 
 Turkey.
 
 XVI. RESULTS 
 
 WHILE these troublous scenes were being enacted, 
 the missionaries were engaged in preparing and 
 sending out evangelical Christian literature in 
 the form of the Bible in the vernacular Armenian, Ar- 
 meno-Turkish and Greek languages, and by fostering edu- 
 cational operations. As early as 1836 a school for 
 Armenian girls was opened in Smyrna. A boarding-school 
 for Armenian boys opened in Bebek in 1840 was so prom- 
 ising that in 1843-44 Secretary Anderson, upon a visit 
 to Constantinople, recommended that this institution be 
 strengthened. At that time it was decided to discontinue 
 the special work to the Greeks and to open a high school 
 for girls at the capital. The purpose of the seminary 
 at Bebek was to train able and devout young men for the 
 gospel ministry, that the newly organized churches might 
 have proper leaders. In 1848 the seminary contained 
 forty-seven students. 
 
 In 1847 some Christian literature found its way into 
 Aintab in northern Syria. During that year and the 
 next, missionary visits were made to the place. In 1849 
 Mr. Schneider took up his residence there, and Aintab 
 became a regular mission station. In the midst of per- 
 secution the work spread with great rapidity. Preachers 
 and colporters were forbidden by the Armenian primates 
 to visit the neighboring towns, so evangelical tradesmen 
 began a systematic visitation to outside places, plying 
 their trade and preaching the gospel. The spirit of in- 
 telligent faith and religious liberty spread in all direc- 
 tions until the entire region was affected. In 1861 the
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 church in Aintab had nearly three hundred members and 
 the Sabbath congregation often numbered more than one 
 thousand souls. The Sabbath-school then had nearly two 
 thousand members. In 1855 Marash was occupied as a 
 mission station, and these two places have since been the 
 two central stations of that mission. 
 
 For nearly a generation after the separation of the 
 Protestants took place there was more or less hostile feel- 
 ing between the two bodies, although the number of the 
 evangelicals rapidly increased. The spirit of inquiry was 
 abroad among the Armenians and nothing could satisfy 
 it but the truth. Travelers into the interior and visitors 
 to Constantinople from the interior carried this spirit 
 into the most remote sections of the country. The anath- 
 emas which had been communicated to the churches of 
 the inland towns and cities had stirred up many ques- 
 tions and aroused alert minds to seek the cause. On the 
 whole, the evangelical movement was most materially 
 helped by these rude and bungling endeavors to suppress 
 it by brute force. Wherever missionaries went they were 
 met by a group of men, naturally among the most en- 
 lightened in all the community, who sought aid in the 
 interpretation of the Scriptures, and who were eager to 
 receive literature explaining evangelical truth. 
 
 Mission stations all over the country rapidly multiplied, 
 and the number of Protestant churches increased. In 
 1860 forty Protestant churches had been organized, 
 mostly among the Armenians, and twenty-two stations at 
 which missionaries resided were in full operation. At 
 nearly all of these stations, schools for boys and, in cases 
 not a few, schools for girls, had been opened and these 
 were well patronized. The printing-press was moved from 
 Malta to Smyrna in 1833. The press always has been 
 
 [172]
 
 RESULTS 
 
 and is still one of the most active and effectual agents for 
 reform in the empire. During the first forty years of 
 the work, from five to ten million pages of Christian 
 literature were issued from the press each year, in five 
 different languages. 
 
 In no part of the Turkish empire has the work of the 
 missionary been more difficult than in Syria. Owing to 
 papal supremacy there, winch called to its service both 
 Turkish and French political aid in its endeavor to thwart 
 the missionaries and the evangelicals, no separate church 
 of native Christians was organized until 1848 at Beirut, 
 two years after the formation of the Evangelical Armenian 
 Church at Constantinople. There was in that field no 
 intellectually and morally dominant race to receive and 
 extend the gospel as there was in Asia Minor and the 
 greater part of the Turkish empire, while the races occu- 
 pying Syria were for the most part hostile to each other 
 and always mutually suspicious. 
 
 In 1858 direct work for the Bulgarians was begun by 
 opening a station at Adrianople, which was . followed by 
 a station at Philippopolis and Eski-Zagra within the next 
 two years. The Bulgarians were longing for political 
 freedom and welcomed the missionaries with their new 
 literature and education as calculated to strengthen them 
 as a nation. For fourteen years the work among the Bul- 
 garians was considered a part of the Armenian mission. 
 In 1872 the European work was set off by itself as the 
 European Turkey mission, which is almost exclusively for 
 the Bulgarians. The condition of the old Bulgarian 
 Church was similar to the Armenian Church, so far as need 
 of reform was concerned. 
 
 The churches which were organized in 1846, among 
 those cast out from the old Gregorian Church, were se- 
 
 [173]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 verely plain and simple in their form and ritual, as well 
 as in their articles of faith. In the reaction from the 
 rigid ritualism of the Church from which they had been 
 driven, these evangelical Christians went to the other ex- 
 treme, putting the emphasis of the service upon the sermon. 
 Prevailing conditions demanded direct positive instruc- 
 tion in Christian living rather than new forms of worship. 
 Had these people not been rudely excommunicated from 
 the Church there is no doubt that they would have clung 
 fondly to much if not all of the rich service of the old 
 Church. Much place was also given to the reading of 
 the Scriptures in the modern spoken language of the 
 people and to congregational singing. The people were 
 so eager for the sermon, and especially in the expository 
 form, that large numbers who repudiated the name of 
 evangelical, and who were among the persecutors of the 
 Protestants began to demand that the priests of the old 
 Church also expound the Scriptures. Few of them were 
 able to accomplish this with any degree of success. Dr. 
 Goodell published a volume of sermons in Armenian which 
 were eagerly bought by the priests and preached by them 
 to their people. Although the evangelicals had been vio- 
 lently thrust out of the Church, the spirit of reform in 
 considerable measure remained. 
 
 During the first bitter years, when feelings were stirred 
 up and controversy was rife, there was a wide breach be- 
 tween the Gregorian and Protestant Churches. After dis- 
 cussions all over the country, extending to nearly every 
 village of importance, had settled the question that the 
 modern version of the Bible in the vernacular was the un- 
 questioned Word of God, there was actually no ground for 
 continued separate existence. All Armenians accepted 
 the modern Scriptures as the revelation of God to men 
 
 [174]
 
 RESULTS 
 
 and an infallible guide to faith and practise. Neither 
 did they have any scruples against the Bible being put 
 into the hands of the people. Hence, as one might expect, 
 the breach between the old and the new began gradually 
 to heal. The spirit of bitterness, little by little, passed 
 away until now it does not exist upon the old grounds 
 which led to the separation. 
 
 In many places the Protestant pastors are now asked 
 to speak in the old churches, and the children of both 
 Gregorian and Protestant parents meet in the same Chris- 
 tian schools and upon exactly the same footing. In the 
 theological seminaries of the missions there have been 
 and now are students who are not Protestants and who 
 are preparing for ordination as priests in the old Church. 
 Many ecclesiastics of the Gregorian Church received the 
 major part of their training for that service in the mission 
 schools. During the last twenty years there has been 
 little separation from the old Church. The missionaries 
 have generally exerted their influence against it. Some 
 Gregorians have tried to keep the controversy alive by 
 claiming that the Protestants are not loyal to the race, 
 but that charge has been so fully proven untrue that 
 it is now little used. 
 
 In no instance have the missionaries for any length of 
 time been the pastors of the native churches. At the 
 first the policy was clearly settled that the only true and 
 effective pastor of an Armenian church is an Armenian. 
 The missionaries preach, and they have always been preach- 
 ers, and some of them of great power, but this is quite 
 different from being the settled pastor of a church. The 
 rapid increase in the number of evangelical churches, each 
 one of which demanded its own native pastor, compelled 
 the missionaries to redouble their efforts to raise up and 
 
 [175]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 train an adequate number of worthy young men for these 
 high offices. The seminary at Bebek produced men who 
 have left the stamp of their piety, earnestness and ability 
 upon the reform movement in Turkey. Some of these 
 men came from the far interior of the country, and re- 
 turning became the leaders in the new movement. 
 
 This seminary was ultimately moved to Marsovan, while 
 other similar institutions sprang up at Marash and at 
 Harpoot, in the eastern part of the country. A similar 
 training-school became necessary also at Mardin, where the 
 spoken language is Arabic, while in Beirut, Syria, a large 
 training-school flourished. A whole educational system 
 grew up out of the necessities of the work. This will be 
 considered later when discussing the work of education in 
 the empire. 
 
 The evangelical Churches were not denominational in 
 any ordinary sense of that word. Their creed was the 
 Bible in the language of the people and this was taken as 
 the guide of their life. While the missionaries, because of 
 their superior knowledge and experience in such matters, 
 were constantly sought for advice, they did not exercise 
 ecclesiastical control. These Churches were early advised 
 to form themselves into Associations or Unions, as they 
 were more generally called, for the purpose of mutual 
 help. One such union was formed in the vicinity of Con- 
 stantinople, and later one in Aintab and vicinity and at 
 Harpoot and elsewhere. In these organizations mission- 
 aries could be only honorary members without a vote. 
 They were composed of pastors and delegates from the 
 churches, and held an annual meeting, with more frequent 
 meetings of standing committees with varying functions. 
 In some parts of the country these unions ordain to the 
 gospel ministry and examine worthy candidates and grant 
 
 [176]
 
 RESULTS 
 
 them licenses to preach. It is not a Congregational sys- 
 tem, neither is it Presbyterian, but it has worked well in 
 developing native talent and directing it into right chan- 
 nels of action. 
 
 The development and strength in the evangelistic work 
 in Turkey is due perhaps more to the leadership of a few 
 individuals who seem to have been sent into the empire at 
 a time most opportune. Dr. William Goodell, the first 
 missionary of the Board to Constantinople, lived and 
 labored there for forty-three years, or until 1865. With 
 rare wisdom, patience and firmness did he direct the work 
 through the period of fiery persecution and of organiza- 
 tion of the Church and the Protestant community. Men 
 are now there in the work, both missionaries and others, 
 who were colaborers with him and who have helped to 
 carry out the wise measures devised by him for the true 
 reform of that people. Time would fail us to speak of 
 Schneider, Dwight, Thompson and Riggs, of Post and 
 the Blisses, of Wheeler, Farnsworth and a great multitude 
 besides who gave their lives to build in the Turkish em- 
 pire the pure, intelligent Church of Jesus Christ, to say 
 nothing of the equally faithful and able company who are 
 still there among perils and difficulties not less severe, but 
 who know they are doing the Lord's work, and that they 
 are in the place where he has called them. 
 
 At the present time the nearly two hundred evangelical 
 Protestant churches in the empire, with some twenty 
 thousand church-members, do not begin to tell the tale of 
 what has been accomplished. The story is written in the 
 awakened intellect of all classes and races, in new concep- 
 tions of what Christianity demands of its followers, and in 
 a changed atmosphere affecting the life and character of 
 nearly all the youth born in the last generation, and is 
 
 12 [ 177 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 destined to affect the empire still more vitally as the years 
 go on. The seed of intelligent belief and of right liv- 
 ing has been sown and it is finding soil in which to ger- 
 minate. The fruit thereof shall be for the healing of the 
 nation. 
 
 [178]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 

 
 Education has accomplished more toward the regeneration of these lands 
 than anything else. While it has been very broad, especially in the higher in- 
 stitutions, it has likewise been thoroughly permeated with Christianity. 
 Though Robert College is not directly connected with any missionary society 
 it " has exerted an incalculable influence for Christian life all over the empire. 
 Among its graduates are many of the most prominent men in Bulgaria, and 
 it is perhaps not too much to say that the nation really owes its existence to 
 the influence exerted by President George Washburn and his associates. 
 Its students have included representatives of twenty nationalities, and its 
 Young Men's Christian Association is unique among the college associations 
 of the world in that it is divided into four departments according to the 
 prevailing language spoken, — English, Greek, Armenian and Bulgarian." 
 The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut is likewise independent, though in 
 closest sympathy and cooperation with the Presbyterian Board, North. 
 Concerning the college, Mr. John R. Mott writes: "This is one of the three 
 most important institutions in all Asia. In fact there is no college which has 
 within one generation accomplished a greater work and which to-day has a 
 larger opportunity. It has practically created the medical profession of the 
 Levant. It has been the most influential factor of the East. It has been and 
 is the center for genuine Christian and scientific literature in all that region. 
 Fully one-fourth of the graduates of the collegiate department have entered 
 Christian work either as preachers or as teachers in Christian schools." In 
 less degree the same results noted in the case of these two institutions are 
 furnished by the records of the American Board's colleges at Aintab, Harpoot, 
 Samakov, Marsovan, and of its colleges for girls at Marash and Constanti- 
 nople, as well as of the less ambitious Bishop Gobat School of the Church 
 Missionary Society and the Beirut Female Seminary of the Presbyterians. — 
 Prof. Harlan P. Beach, F.R.G.S. etc., in "Geography and Atlas of 
 Protestant Missions."
 
 XVII. INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 IT has already been stated that in 1820 throughout 
 the Turkish empire there was practically no modern 
 education. The few schools which did exist were 
 almost entirely ecclesiastical, maintained for the purpose of 
 teaching a few men to conduct religious services. This was 
 largely true of all schools, whether Armenian, Greek, or 
 Turkish. Nowhere in the country were there schools for 
 girls, the idea prevailing generally that girls could not 
 learn to read, even if they were worth educating. The 
 great mass of the people were unable either to read or 
 to write. Ignorance even in the capital was dense, but it 
 was much greater in the interior cities and towns. Often 
 a large group of villages possessed not one person who 
 could write or read a letter. 
 
 Argument is not required to show that no real reform 
 could be introduced into the country without inaugurating 
 some system of education. There must be produced readers 
 and a literature if the intellectual and moral life of the 
 people was to be raised. If the old Gregorian Church was 
 to become enlightened in its belief and practise, there must 
 be educated leaders as well as an intelligent laity. For 
 this reason the missionaries began with an effort to 
 awaken the intellects of the people. The Lancasterian 
 schools that were so popular for a period in the capital had 
 their value and exerted a good influence. The school of 
 Pashtimaljian sprang from the aroused desire of the people 
 for education and the conviction of the leaders of the 
 Church that only educated leaders could be wisely trusted 
 and followed. There were other schools supported and
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 directed by the Armenians themselves, but springing 
 largely from the persistent effort of the missionaries. 
 Until 1839 it was hoped that all the work of modern 
 education among the Armenians would be carried on by 
 the Armenians themselves, so that the missionaries need 
 not open schools of any kind. 
 
 As the zealous ecclesiastics became more and more sus- 
 picious, restrictive measures were applied. It was observed 
 that those who studied in the schools were among the 
 leaders seeking to reform the errors which were destroy- 
 ing the spiritual influence of the Church. It soon became 
 evident to the missionaries that they must take a direct part 
 in the work of education. In 1840 Bebek Seminary for 
 training the young men was opened. The head of this 
 school was Cyrus Hamlin, who the year before had arrived 
 at Constantinople, designated to this work. He was a man 
 of rare qualifications for the task assigned him, knowing no 
 fear, never disheartened in the face of insuperable obstacles, 
 of tireless industry, practical wisdom and unbounded re- 
 sourcefulness and devotion to the cause to which he had 
 given his life. 
 
 The seminary at Bebek was begun just as the persecu- 
 tion of the evangelicals at the capital was becoming acute. 
 Early in his career Dr. Hamlin was impressed with the 
 fact that the school must succeed in the face of direct op- 
 position from Russia. During his first year in the mis- 
 sion, while he was learning the Armenian language, his 
 teacher was suddenly seized at the order of the Russian 
 ambassador and deported to Siberia. Dr. Hamlin and 
 Dr. Schauffler repaired to the Russian embassy and pro- 
 tested against the high-handed proceeding. The ambas- 
 sador haughtily replied, " My master, the emperor of 
 Russia, will never allow Protestantism to set its foot in 
 
 [182]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 Turkey." Dr. Schauffler, bowing low to the ambassador, 
 gave the reply which has become historic, " Your excel- 
 lency, the kingdom of Christ, who is my Master, will never 
 ask the emperor of all the Russias where it may set its 
 foot." From that day to this, the covert as well as open 
 opposition of Russia to missionary work in Turkey and, 
 most especially, to all educational work, has been unre- 
 mittingly experienced. Consistently has Russia adhered 
 to the policy thus outlined and the opposition from that 
 source to-day is as bitter as at any other period. 
 
 Dr. Hamlin threw himself into the work of the seminary 
 with all his intense and resourceful energy. Thwarted at 
 a hundred points, he immediately changed his plans and 
 appeared even to his persecutors to have gained the vic- 
 tory. For twenty years the work proceeded with emphasis 
 upon industries when industrial persecutions were crush- 
 ing the people, but always strenuous, and always supremely 
 Christian and evangelical. He saw that a vernacular train- 
 ing was not sufficient for the full equipment of the young 
 men under his care to prepare them for positions of largest 
 leadership. The Jesuit schools taught their pupils French 
 so that all their graduates knew a European language. 
 As yet the Armenian literature was very circumscribed and 
 most inadequate to meet the intellectual and spiritual re- 
 quirements of intelligent directors of a great national 
 reform movement. 
 
 This was the opinion of Dr. Hamlin, shared, as he felt, 
 by the great mass of the Armenian people. But he was 
 not fully sustained in it by his colleagues in the mission. 
 The American Board, under the leadership of its secre- 
 tary, Dr. Anderson, had declared as its policy that mis- 
 sion schools should not teach English or any other 
 language than the vernacular to their pupils. To Dr. 
 
 [183]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Hamlin this seemed such a backward step that he resigned 
 from the Board and began to work and plan for higher 
 education among young men. The story of the building 
 of the now famous Robert College under an imperial irade 
 from the sultan, and upon the most commanding site 
 along the entire length of the Bosporus, is now so well 
 known that it need not be repeated. 
 
 The college became a reality and the scheme of education 
 conceived by Dr. Hamlin and carried out in Robert Col- 
 lege represented, within forty years of the time of his 
 resignation from the Board, the fundamental policy of 
 all the higher educational work in the empire carried on 
 in both missionary and independent institutions. For 
 nearly a generation, however, in mission schools little was 
 done in European languages, and most of the education 
 given was imparted through the spoken language of the 
 people. 
 
 As early as 1836, four years before the seminary at 
 Bebek was begun, a high school was opened in Beirut in 
 which both Arabic and English were taught. This school 
 was apparently a great success, but four years later the 
 pupils, because of their practical knowledge of English, 
 became so useful to the English officers, then quartered in 
 Beirut on account of political troubles, that the school 
 was broken up. No doubt this unfortunate experience had 
 much influence in leading the Board to endeavor to ex- 
 clude English from mission schools. In 1848, a seminary 
 upon the purely vernacular basis was opened in Beirut 
 with a view to training its students for useful service 
 among their own people. This school was continued until 
 the change in policy by the Board and the mission, when 
 the English language again took its place in the 
 curriculum. 
 
 [ 184 ]
 
 ROBERT COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE 
 
 SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE, BEIRUT, SYRIA
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the place 
 of English in the educational system of Turkey, there 
 was practical unanimity in the belief that reform in the 
 empire demanded the creation and maintenance of a sys- 
 tem of schools which should include all grades, beginning 
 with the primary. It was necessary to begin with the 
 most rudimentary teaching before higher institutions could 
 be sustained. The seminaries already referred to were not 
 by any means colleges. They taught many studies of the 
 lowest grades. As most of the pupils were mature in 
 years, they made speedy progress and often astonished 
 their teachers by their rapid advancement and clear grasp 
 of abstruse subjects. 
 
 At every station where missionaries settled, schools 
 sprang up and were at once widely patronized. In the 
 large centers like Erzerum, Harpoot, Aintab and Mar- 
 sovan, where the people were unusually intelligent and 
 eager for an education, there was marked development and 
 a rapid rise in the grade of the central schools. Colleges 
 were not then developed, for there were no natives quali- 
 fied to teach the studies of college grade, while there 
 were no preparatory schools fitted to train students for 
 college work. At that time the country itself was not in 
 a condition to demand a college education. In the mean- 
 time Robert College was taking the lead in the higher edu- 
 cation of men, although its work was then far inferior to 
 the courses it now offers. Educators throughout the em- 
 pire were closely watching the new institution upon the 
 Bosporus, which became the pioneer and leader for the 
 entire country. 
 
 When Dr. Hamlin was in the midst of his efforts to 
 organize and construct a college for Turkey, the Rev. 
 Crosby H. Wheeler, also from the state of Maine, was 
 
 [185 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 sent into Eastern Turkey as a missionary, and with desig- 
 nation to Harpoot. Dr. Wheeler, with energy similar to 
 that of his fellow laborer, stopped upon his way at 
 Constantinople and became acquainted with the educa- 
 tional work there developing. He took direct issue with 
 Dr. Hamlin upon the subject of the value of English, but 
 agreed with him upon the place of education in the work 
 of reform. Some years later, when the educational work 
 at Harpoot was well established, Dr. Wheeler felt so 
 keenly upon this subject that he gave public notice in the 
 seminary, of which he was the principal, that any student 
 who was known to be studying English, even by himself 
 or by the aid of one or two resident Armenians who had 
 studied at Constantinople under Dr. Hamlin, would be 
 summarily expelled from the school. 
 
 Dr. Wheeler, with his keen vision and unconquerable 
 energy, while an evangelistic missionary of unusual power, 
 became the pioneer of education at Harpoot. Under his 
 leadership, strongly seconded by Rev. Dr. H. N. Barnum, 
 the seminary for young men at that place rapidly devel- 
 oped until in 1878 it was merged into Armenia College, 
 afterwards changed to Euphrates College. It did not re- 
 quire many years for Dr. Wheeler to see that no broad 
 education could be given in Turkey without the use of the 
 English language, so that he became one of the most ener- 
 getic and enthusiastic supporters of an English education 
 for all students in the higher institutions of learning in 
 the country. The other high schools in the eastern part 
 of Turkey became preparatory schools for the college, 
 which was heartily endorsed by the people themselves, as 
 appears from the wide patronage it received. 
 
 The same process of growth that has been noted at 
 Harpoot took place also at Aintab, which is distant some 
 
 [186]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 eight days' journey from Harpoot, upon the south side of 
 the Taurus Mountains. In the meantime, the educational 
 work at Beirut had made rapid strides, developing into a 
 college which later became the largest and most influential 
 educational institution in Syria and one of the most im- 
 portant in the Levant. This school early in its growth 
 became detached from the mission Board and came under 
 the control of a separate Board of Trustees in New York, 
 and assumed the name of the Syrian Protestant College. 
 
 Space will not permit the mention in detail of Anatolia 
 College at Marsovan, St. Paul's Institute at Tarsus, and 
 the International College at Smyrna. The last two named 
 are of comparatively recent elevation to the grade of col- 
 lege, while the former has had a record of college work of 
 a quarter of a century. The school for the Bulgarians 
 was established at Samakov, which is now in Bulgaria. It 
 is called the Collegiate and Theological Institute, and is 
 calculated to do for the young men of Bulgaria and Mace- 
 donia what these other institutions are doing for Asiatic 
 Turkey. 
 
 The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut was begun as 
 an institution of higher learning in 1866 by Rev. Daniel 
 Bliss. What Dr. Hamlin was to Robert College and Dr. 
 Wheeler to Euphrates College, and Dr. Tracy to Ana- 
 tolia College, Dr. Bliss has been to this college in Syria. 
 To-day with a campus of over forty acres, with five de- 
 partments including medicine, pharmacy and a commer- 
 cial course, and some seven hundred students in attendance 
 from not less than fourteen nationalities, including Druses, 
 Jews and Moslems, drawn from all parts of the Levant, 
 from Persia and the Sudan, this college stands among the 
 first in the empire for equipment and influence. 
 
 Educational work for girls started more slowly and 
 
 [187]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 did not make such rapid progress as the work among 
 young men. There was not at the beginning a manifest 
 demand for the education of girls. Among all classes in 
 the country was an inherent prejudice against the intel- 
 lectual or social advancement of women. Intelligent men, 
 not a few, were ready to argue that girls were incapable 
 of learning to read, much less of acquiring a general ed- 
 ucation. It became necessary, therefore, to educate the 
 men up to the idea that girls could learn and that it was 
 worth while to educate them. In 1836 a school for girls 
 was opened by the missionaries at Smyrna, then the most 
 enlightened and advanced city in the empire. This passed 
 out of the hands of the mission very quickly, being taken 
 over with its forty pupils by the Armenian community. 
 It was soon disbanded. In Constantinople, while no regu- 
 lar school had been opened for girls, a few of the most en- 
 lightened parents were providing instruction for their 
 daughters by engaging as teacher for them one of the 
 evangelical Armenians. 
 
 Under the impulse of the reform movement it was im- 
 possible to keep out schools for girls. These multiplied 
 in the large cities first and then extended into the interior 
 until they became almost as popular as the schools for 
 young men. The Mission School for girls in Constanti- 
 nople became the foremost institution of its kind in the em- 
 pire. After passing through several changes, all in the line 
 of progress, it became, nearly twenty years ago, the Amer- 
 ican College for Girls in Constantinople. It is to-day 
 the most advanced school for the education of women in 
 the Levant. Euphrates College at Harpoot has also a 
 female department, while in Central Turkey at Marash 
 there is now a collegiate school for young women as well 
 as a similar institution at Smyrna. These schools, for 
 
 [188]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 both boys and girls, are overcrowded with students and 
 have been from the beginning. It has been impossible to 
 keep pace by enlargement with the increasing desire on 
 the part of the people for the education of their children. 
 
 The collegiate institutions are well scattered over the 
 length and breadth of the country. The two colleges for 
 boys which are the nearest together are St. Paul's Insti- 
 tute at Tarsus and Central Turkey College at Aintab, and 
 yet these are some four days' journey apart. The students 
 in Beirut speak Arabic for the most part ; those in Marash 
 and Aintab use Turkish; those at Harpoot, Armenian; 
 at Marsovan and Smyrna, Armenian, Greek and Turkish; 
 and those at the American College for Girls and at Robert 
 College, both in Constantinople, use about all the lan- 
 guages of the empire. English is taught in all, and 
 constitutes, in some of the institutions, the only com- 
 mon tongue; as, for instance, in Robert College there are 
 seldom less than a dozen nationalities and languages 
 represented among the students. The only language they 
 all wish to master is English. This becomes, then, the 
 common linguistic meeting-place of scholars in the Otto- 
 man empire. 
 
 All but three of the American colleges here mentioned 
 are incorporated under the laws of either New York or 
 Massachusetts, and so are distinctively and legally Amer- 
 ican institutions. All of them have some kind of official 
 recognition from the Sublime Porte or from the sultan 
 himself. Below the colleges are schools for both boys and 
 girls of a grade which admits to the collegiate courses. 
 This is true of schools remote from any college where the 
 pupils who cannot go to a distant part of the country for 
 an education are numerous. 
 
 Including the preparatory departments, there are not 
 
 [189]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 less than six thousand pupils studying in connection with 
 these collegiate institutions, and all under Christian train- 
 ing. The grade in many respects, if not in all, is equal 
 to that of the ordinary American college. In languages 
 they all give the broadest courses. In Euphrates College, 
 for instance, there are from six to eight languages taught, 
 at least six of which are compulsory. The courses of study 
 are adapted to the needs of the country and with a view 
 to training the students for the highest service to their own 
 people. The college at Beirut has a medical department 
 which is of great value to the country, drawing its students 
 from every race. 
 
 When the direct collegiate work was entered upon, in 
 every instance the theological schools were made separate 
 departments or were entirely set apart by themselves. 
 There are at the present time six distinct training-schools 
 in Turkey which have for their object the preparation of 
 young men for the gospel ministry. Two of these, namely 
 the schools at Beirut, and at Mardin, in northern Meso- 
 potamia, train their pupils for work among Arabic 
 speaking peoples ; the one at Harpoot, for work among 
 the Armenians, where the Armenian language is chiefly 
 used, although some of its pupils speak Turkish; the one 
 at Marash for Turkish speaking peoples ; the one at 
 Marsovan for those who speak Armenian, Turkish and 
 Greek ; and the one at Samakov, Bulgaria, for Bulgar- 
 ians alone. Attempts have been made to unite this theo- 
 logical work, but the long distance separating the schools 
 and the time and cost of the journey to and from them, 
 the barriers of the different languages, and the restric- 
 tions put upon all native students in travel, have made 
 it impracticable to do so up to the present time. 
 
 In these institutions, by far the largest number of 
 
 [190]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 teachers are natives of Turkey, some of whom, after taking 
 a course of study in their own country, have had post- 
 graduate work in Europe or the United States. In each 
 case, the president is an American who is usually assisted 
 by one or more Americans. It is the policy of all these 
 institutions to employ as many thoroughly equipped native 
 teachers and professors as can be secured consistent with 
 maintaining the high intellectual and moral tone of the 
 schools. 
 
 In no case are these free schools. The students are 
 charged tuition, room rent, and board, and they also pur- 
 chase their own books and supplies. Some of these 
 colleges secure from fees and payments by the pupils 
 nearly three-fourths of the entire cost of conducting the 
 institution. This is true of Robert College at Constanti- 
 nople and Antolia College at Marsovan, and others. In 
 addition to the fees paid, the people of the country have 
 contributed in some cases most liberally for the college 
 plant. Aintab College is a marked instance of this. In 
 recent years the early students who have prospered in 
 business have given freely for the endowment of their 
 Alma Mater, as in the case of Euphrates College at Har- 
 poot. The willingness of the people to contribute for the 
 support of these higher educational institutions demon- 
 strates most unmistakably belief in their value. 
 
 Such numerous collegiate and theological institutions 
 necessitate a large and ever increasing number of schools 
 of lower grade all over the country. These have sprung 
 up in nearly every village and are found in every town of 
 size. They are for the most part entirely supported by 
 the people themselves. The great value of the educational 
 work done in Turkey by the missionaries does not lie alone 
 in the schools of different grades now controlled and
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 directed by them ; it also appears in the thirst for educa- 
 tion which manifests itself in independent village, paro- 
 chial, and city schools, with more or less modern equipment, 
 and stretching from Persia to the Bosporus, from the 
 Black Sea to Arabia. There is much yet to be desired in 
 this respect, but much has already been accomplished. 
 
 This educational work has made no perceptible im- 
 pression upon the Jews, for whose special awakening 
 mission work in Turkey was first undertaken. The Greeks 
 have slowly responded and many young men from that race 
 are found in Robert College at Constantinople, in the Inter- 
 national College at Smyrna and in Anatolia College in Mar- 
 sovan. The race as a race, however, in Turkey has not 
 taken up the cause of modern education with vigor and 
 pressed it with moral earnestness. It is the Armenian race 
 that has responded most fully to the call of modern learn- 
 ing. By far the largest number of students of any one race 
 in the schools in Turkey are Armenians. They constitute 
 as large a proportion of the pupils of Robert College as 
 that of any other race. While they number probably less 
 than one-tenth of the inhabitants of the empire, they fur- 
 nish a large proportion of its student body. 
 
 These modern educational institutions in Turkey are 
 a mighty force in reshaping the life, thought, customs and 
 practises of the people of that country. Men and women 
 from these schools are taking leading positions there in 
 the learned professions as well as in commerce and trade. 
 Large numbers of former students in the mission schools 
 are now prosperous merchants and business men in Europe 
 and America. Through these men of modern ideas 
 Western machinery and the products of our factories are 
 finding their way into that part of the East in increasing 
 quantities while the products of Turkey are in exchange 
 
 [ 192 ]
 
 INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE 
 
 brought to us. It is probably true, as has been frequently 
 stated, that the money given from America for the estab- 
 lishment and support of American colleges in Turkey is 
 far more than returned, with large interest, in the form of 
 increased trade with that country. 
 
 While the Turks have not largely attended any of the 
 schools mentioned, nor have they seemed awake to the needs 
 of a modem education, nevertheless, through the influ- 
 ence of so many advanced schools in the country they 
 have been compelled to improve their own schools. It is 
 an interesting fact that recently a far greater number of 
 Mohammedan pupils are applying for admission to these 
 schools. Few of the Turkish schools have as yet been 
 thoroughly modernized ; still, their entire educational 
 system, if system it may be called, has felt the influence 
 of the foreign schools. There have now and then been 
 attempts at the organization of a Mohammedan college. 
 These have for the most part proven egregious failures 
 from the lack of preparatory schools to train students for 
 the college and of teachers with proper training to carry 
 on college work. They have also in cases, not a few, 
 opened and conducted schools for girls, thus demonstrat- 
 ing their acceptance, in a measure at least, of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine of the equality of the sexes and the worth 
 of womanhood. Many Moslem young men have been 
 aroused to seek education in England or France. 
 
 13 
 
 [193]
 
 THE PRINTING-PRESS
 
 I cannot mention the American missionaries without a tribute to the 
 admirable work they have done. They have been the only good influence 
 that has worked from abroad upon the Turkish empire. They have shown 
 great judgment and tact in their relations with the ancient churches of the 
 land, Orthodox, Gregorian, Jacobite, Nestorian, and Catholic. They have 
 lived cheerfully in the midst, not only of hardships, but latterly of serious 
 dangers also. They have been the first to bring the fight of education and 
 learning into these dark places, and have rightly judged that it was far better 
 to diffuse that light through their schools than to aim at a swollen roll of 
 converts. From them alone, if we except the British consuls, has it been pos- 
 sible during the last thirty years to obtain trustworthy information regarding 
 what passes in the interior. — Hon. James Brtce, British Ambassador to 
 the United States.
 
 XVIII. THE PRINTING-PRESS 
 
 THE entire plan and purpose of missionary work in 
 Turkey involved the printing-press. Only a little 
 more than two years after the first missionaries 
 to Turkey arrived upon the field, a press under the care 
 of a missionary of the Board arrived at Malta, com- 
 missioned to print for the use of the Palestine and Turkish 
 missions. At that time hostilities between Greece and 
 Turkey were in progress and no port upon the Medi- 
 terranean was safe for the American press. Malta was 
 under the English flag, and so proved for the time the 
 best base for the literary operations of the mission. 
 
 Undoubtedly the earlier publications were too imprac- 
 ticable to meet the needs of the people of Turkey. The 
 missionaries assumed ability in the untrained Oriental 
 mind to grasp the thoughts of the West. In the list of 
 what was printed at Malta during the first ten years are 
 found such works as " Serious Thoughts on Eternity," 
 " Guilt and Danger of Neglecting the Saviour," " Scott's 
 Force of Truth," " Content and Discontent," " Inspira- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures." A great variety of books 
 was prepared, for the most part, by those who knew 
 practically nothing of the thought and life of the people 
 who were supposed to read them. 
 
 In 1833 the political atmosphere had so cleared that 
 the press was removed from Malta, the Arabic equipment 
 going to Beirut in Syria, while the Greek, Turkish, and 
 Armenian outfit was set up in Smyrna. During the ten 
 years at Malta, over twenty-one million pages were 
 printed in four different languages, namely modern Greek,
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Italian, Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic. The largest amount 
 by far was in Greek. No printing in Armenian was done 
 until the press was set up in Smyrna and, previous to 
 1837, less than 175,000 pages had been printed in that 
 language. 
 
 In 1829 it was decided to do more in the way of 
 providing much needed books for elementary schools. One 
 of these books was so popular that 27,000 copies were 
 sold in Greece alone. In 1831 the Armeno-Turkish New 
 Testament, translated by Dr. Goodell, was printed. That 
 same year over five million pages of modern Greek were put 
 out from the press. Nearly all of this was circulated 
 about as rapidly as it could be run off. 
 
 The publication work in the Turkish missions outside 
 Syria was carried on at Smyrna until 1853, or for about 
 twenty years. The last and one of the most important 
 works published there was the modern Armenian Bible 
 translated by Dr. Elias Riggs. This one book has ac- 
 complished more to fix, unify, and simplify the modern 
 spoken Armenian language than all other influences com- 
 bined. What the King James version has done for the 
 English speaking peoples, and Luther's Bible for the 
 Germans, this scholarly and accurate translation has done 
 for the Armenians all over the world. 
 
 Besides the Bible and strictly Biblical works, a large 
 number of school-books of almost every grade as well as 
 translations of choice parts of English literature were 
 printed and sold. The eagerness of the Greeks and 
 Armenians, and especially the latter, for a literature 
 suited to their aroused intellectual condition made it pos- 
 sible to sell at cost much that was published. After the 
 organization of the Evangelical Protestant Church, hymn- 
 books in various languages were prepared and printed. 
 
 [198]
 
 THE PRINTING-PRESS 
 
 It would be impossible in the limits of this discussion to 
 give even a classified list of the publications issued from 
 the mission presses of Turkey since printing began. The 
 output upon the average from 1833, even to the present 
 time, has been at the rate of from twelve to fifty million 
 pages each year in not less than ten languages, including 
 Bulgarian and Koordish. In some years this has been 
 exceeded. 
 
 At Beirut in 1906 there were printed on the American 
 press 152,500 volumes of distinctively Biblical literature, 
 with a total of 47,278,000 pages. To this was added 
 nearly 9,000,000 pages of other Christian and educa- 
 tional books, making a total of 56,000,000 pages of 
 literature from this one press alone in a single year. 
 
 For the Bulgarians and the Armenians the missionaries 
 practically created their new literature in the spoken 
 tongue. Of the first one hundred books printed in the 
 modern Bulgarian, some seventy were the product of the 
 missionary press. The first grammar of the modern 
 Armenian language was printed by the missionaries. The 
 Koords had no literature of any kind, while their language 
 is even yet unclassified. The New Testament was trans- 
 lated into that tongue, written with the Armenian char- 
 acters, and in that language it was printed. Parts of the 
 Bible have also been printed in the Albanian tongue. 
 
 The Bible has been translated into Arabo-Turkish, the 
 language read by all the educated Moslems in Turkey 
 north of Syria and is printed and widely circulated. This, 
 with the Arabic and Syriac versions printed at Beirut, 
 puts the Bible into the language of all the Moslems of 
 Turkey, except the Koords and Albanians. As yet the 
 former have only a part of the Bible, and the latter a very 
 poor and fragmentary version, in their own language. 
 
 i ■! i ■ • 
 
 [ 199 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 However great the influence of the press has been in 
 the preparation of books and tracts, it has probably 
 reached and permanently moved more people still by its 
 periodical publications. Papers have been printed for 
 more than a generation in Armenian, Greek, Armeno- 
 Turkish, Greco-Turkish, Bulgarian, and Arabic which 
 have had wide circulation among all classes, but especially 
 among the evangelicals. These papers while religious, 
 have also been newspapers, carrying into the remote 
 hamlets of the interior information of the great outside 
 world of which the masses were profoundly ignorant when 
 mission work began. The influence of these papers can 
 best be measured by the fact that when the cholera was 
 approaching any section of the country, the missionaries 
 were accustomed to publish detailed instructions regard- 
 ing the best methods to prevent contracting the dread 
 disease and what to do as soon as the symptoms appeared. 
 Those who read the papers took great care to follow 
 directions, and so the Protestants who usually knew how 
 to read seldom suffered from the scourge. 
 
 When the cholera was raging with unusual virulence 
 in Aintab, taking for the most part the Moslems and 
 ignorant Gregorians and leaving the Protestants almost 
 unscathed, a learned Moslem asked a missionary if God 
 spread a tent over the Protestants that the cholera should 
 pass them by. Through the periodicals in the various 
 languages, the missionaries and leading Armenians have 
 been able constantly to speak directly to the most in- 
 telligent classes of people in the entire empire. 
 
 When the missionaries began work in Turkey in 1820 
 there was no newspaper worthy the name in the country 
 in any language and the number of books was but few. 
 Printing was not left, however, entirely in the hands of 
 
 [ 200 ]
 
 THE PRINTING-PRESS 
 
 the missionaries, for, after a time, to meet the demands 
 of the different religious communities other presses were 
 started. These were small in output and power and did 
 not amount to much until within the last twenty-five years. 
 During this time the Armenians have prepared and pub- 
 lished some excellent text-books, many of which have been 
 and still are in constant use in Protestant schools. They 
 also have started a few periodicals that for the most part 
 have little permanent value. The Moslems have done but 
 little in the way of printing books or periodicals of any 
 kind. They do not allow the Koran to be translated into 
 the vernacular of the people, and it is their policy to ex- 
 clude from their subjects, as far as possible, all knowledge 
 of the outside world. The Moslem press has produced 
 little of real value to the people. 
 
 Great freedom to the work of the press was given in the 
 earlier days, all of which has changed during the last 
 thirty years. While the Turks were never favorable to it, 
 they tolerated it under a silent protest. Gradually the 
 opposition became more and more open and violent. Un- 
 doubtedly all this originated among the Roman Catholics 
 and the Jesuits, who even in the early days of the mission 
 fought against the circulation of the Bible and Protes- 
 tant books. They did much to stir up opposition to 
 Protestant books, among the Greeks first and later among 
 the Armenians, always assuming that the Bible is a 
 Protestant book. There is no doubt that this hostility 
 was helped on also by the representatives at the Porte 
 from Russia. The Turks were not so much concerned with 
 what they regarded as sauabbles between the various 
 Christian sects. 
 
 About 1878 Dr. Wheeler, President of Euphrates 
 College, imported a printing-press into Harpoot, where 
 
 [ 201 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 he set it up and ran it with great industry for several 
 years. Only a local work was done there, while the general 
 publication operations of the missions were carried on at 
 Beirut and Constantinople. In the eighties the Turkish 
 government began to put severe restrictions upon the 
 press. The one at Harpoot was silenced and has so re- 
 mained to this day. 1 Strict rules were promulgated to re- 
 strict printing in the empire. Formal permission must be 
 procured in order to own a printing outfit, and strict rules 
 were formulated for its conduct. All matter to be printed 
 must first be submitted to a royal censor whose stamp of 
 approval upon every article is necessary before it is put 
 upon the press. The same stamp of approval which car- 
 ries with it the sanction of the sultan must be printed 
 upon the first page of every book, otherwise its issue, 
 circulation, or even possession by a subject of the empire 
 constitutes a crime. This approval must be obtained for 
 every edition of the same book. It is almost as difficult to 
 secure permission to-day to print a new edition of the 
 Bible as it was after the appointment of the first censor- 
 ship to print the first edition. Permission to print a 
 book like the Bible carries with it no authority to print 
 separately any part of the same. These rules have 
 greatly hampered the work of the press, but have not by 
 any means been able to stop the constant output of useful 
 books and periodicals in the leading languages of the 
 country. 
 
 There is no department of missionary effort which has 
 done more to open the eyes of the people and stir in them 
 new desires and ambitions than this work of publication, 
 taken in connection with the general educational opera- 
 tions. Many English books and periodicals find their way 
 1 This press began operations again in September, 1908. 
 
 [ 202 ]
 
 THE PRINTING-PRESS 
 
 into these schools and are included in the libraries of the 
 teachers and students. These too are subject to all the 
 restrictive laws which hamper the press. The tendency 
 is more and more to exclude all foreign books and period- 
 icals and to have it almost a crime for a subject of 
 Turkey to have in his possession a library of any kind. 
 Many an Armenian has been arrested and thrown into 
 prison for no other crime than the possession of a few 
 harmless English books. No one has yet been bold enough 
 to confiscate from the libraries of the missionaries the 
 books which they possess, but this step has been repeatedly 
 threatened. The officials, however, intercept many books 
 in the mails or in transit by freight. 
 
 In all work of reform which marks the history of mis- 
 sions in that country this agency has been supremely 
 potent. Undoubtedly to-day there is no more vitalizing 
 force in the empire affecting the intellectual and religious 
 life of the Moslems than that which is exerted not only 
 through the Bible and especially prepared literature, but 
 through books on science. These contain startling rev- 
 elations to the old-school Moslem, since modern science 
 runs counter to nearly every teaching of the Koran. 
 He cannot deny their truth forever, and when he yields 
 he has already met with a mighty intellectual and religious 
 evolution. 
 
 [203]
 
 MODERN MEDICINE
 
 In the Turkish empire a remarkable impetus has been given to the material 
 development of Asia Minor and Syria, which may be largely traced to the 
 quickening influences of American missions. Mission converts are proverb- 
 ially men of affairs, alert and progressive, and in full sympathy with modern 
 ideals of progress. The change in their personal environment, and in the 
 temper and spirit of their lives, testifies to new impulses, higher ambitions, and 
 an enlarged and increasing sympathy with modern progress. As long ago 
 as 1881, an incident of commercial significance was reported in The Mis- 
 sionary Herald. It was announced that through missionaries at Harpoot 
 nearly five hundred sets of irons for fanning-mills had been ordered from the 
 United States, native carpenters having been taught to make the necessary 
 woodwork which would render them available. Since then the introduction 
 of American agricultural machines has increased, in spite of the difficulties 
 and heavy cost of transportation. The German government has interested 
 itself in securing concessions for a railway through Asia Minor to Bagdad 
 and Busrah, with the evident expectation that German trade will find in 
 those regions a profitable field of exploitation. If it should prove true that 
 Mesopotamia may become a source of supply for the grain which Europe 
 needs, there is good reason to expect that American agricultural implements 
 will find a new market in Asiatic Turkey. Owing to the large emigration of 
 Armenians to the United States, and the long residence of American mis- 
 sionaries in Turkey, no foreign country is better known or more admiringly 
 regarded by the entire Christian element of Armenia than the United States. 
 Mr. Charles M. Dickinson, Consul- General of the United States at Constanti- 
 nople, regards even the material returns of American mission work in Turkey 
 as justifying in large measure the outlay. His opinion is expressed in the 
 following paragraph: 
 
 "In all our efforts to extend American commerce, in the hard struggle to 
 establish and maintain direct steam communication with New York, the 
 opening of American expositions and agencies, and the introduction of new 
 articles of manufacture, many of the missionaries have been willing pioneers, 
 blazing the way for American exporters, and doing valuable introductory 
 work through their knowledge of the local languages and their influence with 
 the people. From every standpoint, therefore, I do not see how the American 
 missions in Turkey, as they are at present conducted, can fail to be of dis- 
 tinct advantage to the commerce and influence of the United States." — 
 James S. Dennis, in " Christian Missions and Social Progress."
 
 XIX. MODERN MEDICINE 
 
 THERE was no purpose or plan at the beginning 
 of missionary work in Turkey to make special use 
 of the physician. Whenever a man was appointed 
 as missionary who had taken a full course of medicine he 
 was not sent out especially as a medical missionary, but 
 went as did the others, with the understanding that he was 
 an evangelistic missionary and was to use his medical skill 
 as an auxiliary force. The outfit of the early medical 
 missionaries, like Dr. Grant and Dr. Asa Dodge of Syria, 
 was exceedingly circumscribed, consisting of a few stand- 
 ard remedies and simple instruments and appliances. 
 There was no suggestion of a hospital or even a public 
 dispensary. The medical missionary was able to transport 
 the major part of his equipment upon a horse and apply 
 his art at any point along the way. After the days of 
 pioneering were passed and the various mission stations 
 were well established, the medical missionaries began to 
 prepare for a broader and more thorough work. 
 
 The country had no modern physicians when the Board 
 began work there and no schools for medicine. The people 
 submitted to the most loathsome and cruel methods of 
 treatment at the hands of heartless old women and un- 
 skilled men who traded upon their sufferings. From the 
 beginning the fullest confidence was placed in the American 
 physician. He was deemed by the ignorant and needy 
 masses as little less than a worker of miracles. His repu- 
 tation gave not only himself but his missionary associates 
 standing among all classes in the country. His presence 
 often proved in times of stress to be a large element of 
 safety for all members of the station. The Turkish 
 
 [ 207 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 officer and persecuting ecclesiast did not care to injure 
 the man into whose hands their lives might soon be placed 
 by disease or accident. They thought it good policy to 
 keep on fairly good terms with the doctor. 
 
 Medical work in the empire took its earliest and strong- 
 est hold upon Beirut and Aintab. In the former place a 
 hospital was erected and a medical school was in operation 
 in the '70's. Aintab took the same step ten years later, 
 but finally, for want of funds, gave up the medical school 
 but continued the hospital. The next mission hospital 
 to be erected was at Mardin. Until the last decade these 
 constituted the main mission hospitals in the empire. 
 Hospitals have followed at Caesarea, Marsovan, and Van, 
 while others are contemplated at Harpoot, Sivas, Erze- 
 rum, Adana, Constantinople, and elsewhere. 
 
 Many Greeks and Armenians have qualified themselves 
 for medical practise in Turkey by taking a course of 
 training either in the medical department of the Syrian 
 Protestant College at Beirut or the medical schools in 
 Europe or the United States. The laws of Turkey are so 
 stringent in regard to the practise of medicine, or rather 
 so oppressive, that it is almost impossible for a subject 
 of Turkey to win great success in it. The law permits 
 the arrest and imprisonment of a physician upon the com- 
 plaint of any one that he did not correctly treat a case 
 which ended fatally. When once he has been imprisoned 
 it costs a round sum to secure release. This process re- 
 peated destroys practise and eats up profits. Many a 
 well-trained Armenian doctor has been compelled to give 
 up the effort and return to the United States. There are 
 several Armenian physicians enjoying a good and honor- 
 able practise in this country. The foreign physician 
 enjoys the extra territorial privileges of his country and, 
 
 [ 208 ]
 
 MODERN MEDICINE 
 
 although often annoyed, is not seriously disturbed by 
 restrictive measures. He practises under a license granted 
 by an official medical board at Constantinople. 
 
 Medical missions in Turkey have opened the eyes of all 
 classes to the value of scientific medical practise. Were 
 it not for the restrictive measures of local officials, every 
 town of considerable size in the country might now have 
 its native physicians, the most of whom were trained in 
 Christian schools. Until that time arrives the American 
 missionary physician will have large place in the life of 
 the country. His importance there is due to this fact, 
 and also because of the confidence reposed in him by the 
 higher Turkish officials. They regard the work of the 
 medical missionary as supremely Christian. It commands 
 their admiration. Not a little of the hold which the 
 missionaries now have upon the country is due to his 
 presence and work. In imitation of the missionaries, the 
 Turks themselves have attempted, at different places, to 
 maintain hospitals of their own for the care of soldiers 
 and officers, but these have usually been of little value 
 unless the physician in charge was a European or a man 
 trained by the missions. 
 
 Medical work in Turkey is probably nearer self-support 
 than that of any other missionary country except Japan. 
 The people are willing so far as able to pay for medicines 
 received and for services rendered. Wealthy officials 
 often make a handsome present to the missionary phy- 
 sician treating them, thus making it possible to treat 
 many poor without pay. The hospital at Mardin, for 
 instance, receives in fees and in payment for medicines 
 enough to meet all expenses except the salary of the Amer- 
 ican physician in charge. The hospital of Aintab receives 
 little money from the Board. 
 
 14 [ 209 1
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Medical missions in Turkey are less hampered by offi- 
 cialism and hindered by opposition than any other form 
 of missionary work. Physicians are more generally wel- 
 comed and their benefits more widely appreciated than any- 
 thing else the missionaries do. While the other depart- 
 ments cannot be and ought not to be curtailed, much less 
 abandoned, in view of all the conditions that prevail there 
 with the constant scourges of pestilential diseases and the 
 recurrence of violence and massacre in different parts of 
 the country, there is an unlimited field for the operations 
 of the Christian missionary physician who commends the 
 gospel which he preaches to all with whom he comes in 
 contact. At the same time, this work, compared with the 
 extent of its influence, costs perhaps less than any other 
 form of purely missionary service. 
 
 Missionary physicians, their medical schools, hospitals, 
 dispensaries, and practise among the people have been a 
 mighty force not only for alleviating suffering, but for 
 breaking down the superstitions of all classes of people. 
 The Arabs, the Koords, the Turks, as well as other 
 Mohammedan races, have found their belief in kismet, or 
 fate, greatly shaken by the practises of men who seemed 
 successfully to set themselves against the will of God. 
 They have seen the scourge of cholera stayed in its ravages 
 by the application of modern scientific methods, and dis- 
 eases which were regarded as almost universally fatal 
 become little feared, and they are compelled to inquire if, 
 after all, " whatever is, is ordained by Allah." Perhaps 
 the medical work of the missionaries in Turkey has ac- 
 complished more in breaking down that benumbing belief 
 in fatalism among the Mohammedans than all other 
 phases of mission work together. 
 
 [210 ]
 
 STANDING OF MISSIONARIES
 
 My purpose is twofold: first to show the American people the kind of 
 work in which the missionaries in Turkey are engaged, and second to assure 
 them from personal observation that these missionaries do not encourage 
 revolutionists or the revolutionary spirit. I am surer of nothing than I am of 
 this. If you could see them at their somewhat thankless tasks you would 
 regard them as the most consecrated men and women on the planet, as far 
 removed from fostering rebellion as heaven is from earth, making the sacri- 
 fice of life and of all social and even domestic relations, and doing it with a 
 cheerfulness which must command not only our respect but also our 
 admiration. . 
 
 The price to be paid for the enlightenment of the nation is very heavy, but 
 these noble men and saintly women are willing to pay it, and I, for one, feel 
 that my poor life amounts to nothing in comparison ; so with a full heart, a 
 heart with a big ache in it, I cry, " God bless them ! " 
 
 The missionaries are the Sir Knights of modern times, their weapons are 
 no longer swords, but ideas. They are to be found in all quarters of the globe, 
 and they are always surrounded by ambushed perils. They are the represent- 
 atives of a high civilization and of the best religious thought of the age, and 
 are the little " leaven" which in good time is to "leaven the whole lump." I 
 do not hesitate to say that they are doing more for the Turkey of to-day than 
 all the European Powers combined. — George H. Hepworth in "Through 
 Armenia on Horseback."
 
 XX. STANDING OF MISSIONARIES 
 
 AT the beginning of work in Turkey all classes were 
 suspicious of the missionaries. Experience with 
 the representatives of the Roman Catholic and 
 Greek Churches had led the Mohammedans and others to 
 fear that their errand was not wholly religious. At the 
 same time, it was impossible for one brought up in the 
 atmosphere of Turkey not to confound religion with 
 nationality. The American missionaries had one great 
 advantage, for few even of the educated in Turkey ever 
 heard of the United States. So there was not much 
 alarm at the prospects of missionaries from the United 
 States gaining political supremacy in Turkey. So far 
 as the Turks understood, the country back of them was 
 without strength or repute. This fact allayed the other- 
 wise inevitable suspicion that they were political agents. 
 
 It required more than fifty years of residence in that 
 country, accompanied by a life of constant devotion to 
 the interests of the people, to remove the impression that 
 the missionaries were there for what they could make out 
 of it. The following conversation, which actually took 
 place, illustrates fairly well the attitude of inquiry and 
 doubt. The parties to it were a missionary and an intel- 
 ligent Armenian in the interior of the country: 
 
 " You must receive a pretty large salary to lead you 
 to leave your home and friends in America and endure 
 here among us the hardships of this country." 
 
 " Quite the contrary," replied the missionary ; " I 
 receive what all American missionaries receive and no more, 
 that is my bare living with no surplus." 
 
 [213 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 " Then," the Armenian quickly replied, " you must 
 expect, after you have learned the language, to receive 
 some government appointment at a large salary." 
 
 The missionary answered, " Few missionaries have ever 
 given up missionary work for a government appointment, 
 and I have never seen one who would consider such an 
 appointment, or who would remain in the country at all 
 for diplomatic or consular service." 
 
 " There can be little doubt, then," said the questioner, 
 " that in your country the missionary is held in high 
 honor by all the people, so much so that it is worth all 
 it costs to win it by a period of severe hardship in a land 
 like this." 
 
 " You are wrong again, my friend," said the missionary, 
 " for most of the people in the United States think a mis- 
 sionary is a fool to throw his life away in a strange and 
 hostile land; and, besides, the missionaries enter upon the 
 work for life ; therefore they have no time left to go home 
 and enjoy the honors that an admiring people might wish 
 to thrust upon them." 
 
 " What are you out here for, anyway? " asked the dis- 
 couraged guesser. 
 
 " We missionaries have come out here only to help the 
 people of this country to establish worthy Christian insti- 
 tutions and to become better men and women." 
 
 " Surely there is some other reason," said the man as 
 he walked away. " Who would ever bring upon himself 
 such hardship and trouble for that? " 
 
 The true Christian motive that considers others' needs 
 ahead of self-interest was little understood, and it re- 
 quired generations of missionary labors to bring the people 
 to begin to understand it. 
 
 Times of great national distress like war, massacres, 
 
 [ 214 ]
 
 STANDING OF MISSIONARIES 
 
 famine, and plague, had given the missionaries unusual 
 opportunity to prove to the people that they were there, 
 not for their own personal comfort but to bind up the 
 broken heart and give cheer to the downcast and the dying. 
 Every added missionary grave, and they dot the country 
 from Arabia to the Black Sea and from Persia to Salo- 
 nica, was an added argument which no Oriental could 
 answer, that the missionaries were there to minister and 
 not to be ministered unto, and to give even their lives for 
 others. 
 
 Through many vicissitudes and misunderstandings and 
 misconceptions the missionaries have quietly continued 
 their labors until, without doubt, it would be hard to find 
 an intelligent man of any race or creed in the empire who 
 does not believe them to be earnest, sincere, altruistic in 
 their life and work. All classes have learned that in times 
 of trouble the missionary is their best friend, no matter 
 how much they may have abused him in times of pros- 
 perity. They know that he will always do what he believes 
 to be for their best good, even though there may be a 
 difference of judgment as to what is the best good. 
 
 In the midst of Oriental duplicity, the missionaries 
 have established the reputation for speaking the truth. 
 At first this was one of the severest puzzles to the Turks 
 in the dealings of the missionaries with the government. 
 They could conceive of no reason for telling the truth 
 under such circumstances, so they were completely misled. 
 The missionaries applied to the government, in an interior 
 city, for permission to erect a schoolhouse. All school 
 buildings were at that time opposed by the Turkish 
 officials. The governor asked, " For what is the building 
 to be used? " " A school," replied the missionary. " What 
 are you going to keep in it ? " asked the governor. 
 
 [215]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 " Scholars and teachers," was the reply. " Why do you 
 want so large a building? " was the next question. " Be- 
 cause we are going to have many teachers and many 
 pupils," said the missionary. " What are you going to 
 manufacture there when it is done? " was asked. " Schol- 
 ars," was the answer. The missionary was dismissed and 
 for hours the council discussed the question. Not a man 
 present believed that the proposed building was to be a 
 school. They said, " Surely if he were building a school 
 he would not have acknowledged it; it must indeed be 
 something else." It was afterwards learned that they 
 thought the building was to be an armory for manufac- 
 turing guns. 
 
 When Dr. Hepworth of the New York Herald took his 
 famous journey through Armenia in 1896, he was given, 
 by a Turkish governor, a letter of introduction to one of 
 the American missionaries, Dr. H. N. Barnum at Harpoot, 
 with the added statement, " He knows more about the 
 conditions of the interior of Turkey than any living man, 
 and you can depend absolutely upon what he says." 
 
 There is no class of people so trusted by the Armenians 
 in Turkey, as well as by all other races, as are the Ameri- 
 can missionaries. Men who have been hostile to mission- 
 ary work bring their daughters to the missionay boarding- 
 school because, they say, " We know they will be safe here." 
 All classes take the word of a missionary as absolutely 
 true and without question. Money is put into their hands 
 by the people for safe-keeping or for transmission to some 
 other part of the country or out of it, without hesitation 
 and without asking for a receipt. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Turkish officials, even though 
 for reasons known to themselves they may oppose the 
 erection of buildings for school or hospital purposes and 
 
 [216]
 
 STANDING OF MISSIONARIES 
 
 hamper the missionaries in their general evangelistic work, 
 have long since ceased to regard them in any other light 
 than as men and women of unquestioned integrity and 
 purity of life. Much testimony might be adduced to show 
 the confidence that officials repose in individual mission- 
 aries. They may not like the higher educational institu- 
 tions the missionaries have established there, which are 
 leading an increasing percentage of the people to think 
 for themselves, yet they do not now attempt to destroy 
 them or their influence by making personal charges against 
 the missionaries themselves. 
 
 Many Turkish officials of high rank have, in times of 
 special stress, sought the counsel of missionaries, who had 
 resided in the country many years, and who were gener- 
 ally reputed to have a wide knowledge of local affairs. It 
 is interesting to note that in many instances the counsel 
 obtained was acted upon, and later sincere gratitude was 
 expressed. 
 
 After the Armenian massacre in 1895-96 the Armenian 
 patriarch at Constantinople called the treasurer of the 
 American Board at Constantinople and asked him to take 
 complete charge of a considerable sum of money collected 
 for relief. " For," said he, " I have no means of distrib- 
 uting this fund with assurance that it will, in any large 
 part, reach the needy people, but I know that through 
 the missionaries every dollar will go to the suffering 
 poor." 
 
 The absolute integrity of the life and dealing of the 
 missionaries with the people has done perhaps as much in 
 that land of deceit and dishonesty to commend the simple 
 gospel of Jesus Christ to all classes as any other single 
 phase of the missionary work. It has come to be believed 
 that a Christian of the missionary type must be true, 
 
 [217]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 honest, upright, and pure. This has great significance 
 in a land like Turkey. 
 
 While Turkey has suffered but little from general 
 famine or from plagues that have been sweeping in their 
 character, still the missionaries have been compelled to 
 devote much time and strength to the distribution of help 
 to the starving and homeless, owing to oft-repeated polit- 
 ical disasters amounting occasionally to open massacres. 
 These began in 1822 at the time of the Greco-Turkish war 
 when in Chios it was reported that fully fifty thousand lives 
 were lost. The next great movement of the kind occurred 
 in the Nestorian mountains when some ten thousand 
 Armenians and Nestorians were said to have been put to 
 death. In 1860 in the Lebanon and at Damascus about the 
 same number of Maronites and Syrians were destroyed 
 by the Turks and Druses. In 1876 occurred the well 
 remembered Bulgarian massacres where some ten thousand 
 Bulgarians were reported to have lost their lives. The 
 last great and concerted movement of this kind occurred, 
 as we all remember, in 1895—96, which extended from 
 Persia to Constantinople and in which it is impossible to 
 state with accuracy how many thousands of Armenians 
 were massacred. The number has been placed at one 
 hundred thousand, though this is undoubtedly too high. 
 
 In addition to these marked cases of violence and murder, 
 the same process has gone on upon a much smaller scale 
 for the last thirty years, causing terror, distress, and 
 poverty, and calling for comfort and assistance. In the 
 last three instances of general massacres reported above, 
 the missionaries were upon the ground, facing no little 
 of the peril and hardship with the people, and afterwards 
 acted as agents for the distribution of relief to those who 
 were left in abject destitution. Hundreds of thousands 
 
 [ 218 ]
 
 STANDING OF MISSIONARIES 
 
 of dollars have passed through their hands for this pur- 
 pose. With this money they have procured and distrib- 
 uted food and clothing to the starving and naked, while 
 many lines of industry were opened to afford means of 
 prolonged self-help. 
 
 The missionaries in Turkey have taken the lead in the 
 application of principles by which, in the distribution of 
 charity, much more can be accomplished, without im- 
 poverishing the recipients, by devising means whereby the 
 aid received can be earned, at least in part. This same 
 principle has been also carried out in the support of the 
 large number of orphans saved from the massacres of 
 1895. 
 
 They have purchased and distributed seed for planting 
 when famine conditions had exhausted the supply. In 
 severer cases when their cattle had died or had been taken 
 from them, missionaries have purchased oxen and loaned 
 them to the farmers for putting in their crops. The 
 policy of aid practised at all times has been to help the 
 people to help themselves. 
 
 The missionaries in these and other lines of eleemosynary 
 operations have demonstrated that they are the friends of 
 all without reference to creed or religion. While these 
 disasters have been terrible to contemplate and have 
 brought immeasurable hardship and care upon the mis- 
 sionaries, they have yet opened new opportunities of 
 approach to the people and have revealed the sincere 
 desire to relieve them in their supreme distress. All classes 
 have learned to trust the missionaries, and in times of 
 trouble, all races appeal to them for assistance. 
 
 [219]
 
 COMPLETED WORK
 
 What is in the future no man can tell, but the growth of pure religion 
 in whatever form of church organization; the development of freedom of 
 thought; the attainment of civil liberty, and that not merely for Armenia, 
 but for Greek, Nestorian, Jacobite, and even for the Turk himself, depends 
 upon the continuance of the influences for a higher life that have been at 
 work during the past sixty years, and that depends upon the missionaries 
 being supported at their posts. Theirs is no sectarian work. They stand as 
 the friends of Gregorian Armenians, Roman Catholic Chaldeans, Nestorians 
 and Jacobites as well as of those in closer affiliation with the Protestant 
 Churches of Europe and America. America should stand by them and 
 demand their full protection. It is our right by treaty ; it is our right by the 
 duty we owe humanity, by the duty we owe to our tradition as a liberty- 
 loving nation. We have no political ends to serve; we want not a square 
 foot of the sultan's domains; but we stand, as we have always stood, for 
 freedom for the oppressed, for the right of every man to worship his God in 
 the light of his own conscience. — Edwin Mtjnsell Bliss, in " Turkey 
 and the Armenian Atrocities."
 
 XXI. COMPLETED WORK 
 
 IN order to understand the methods employed in plant- 
 ing missions in Turkey and the permanent results 
 following, one must have a clear idea of what the 
 missionaries were attempting to accomplish. Perhaps we 
 make the subject clearer by stating first some of the 
 things they were not attempting to do. 
 
 They were not attempting to plant American churches 
 in Turkey over which the missionaries should preside as 
 pastors and which should be under the control and direc- 
 tion of the mission. 
 
 They were not attempting to transport into Turkey 
 American churches, and American schools, and American 
 customs and dress or anything else that is American. 
 
 They were not attempting to plant churches or schools 
 or any other line of Christian work which should be per- 
 petually dependent upon contributions from America for 
 their maintenance. 
 
 What then, to speak positively, were some of the things 
 the missionaries were attempting to do in Turkey? It 
 should be stated at the outset that no settled policy was 
 clearly in the mind of any one missionary at the beginning 
 of the work. When missionary work began in Turkey no 
 one, not even the officers of the Mission Board, had 
 framed such a policy in detail. All had one vague desire 
 and purpose, namely to preach the gospel of Christ to the 
 people who dwell in the Turkish empire. At first, as has 
 been stated, there was no intention of organizing churches 
 separate from those already in existence there. It was 
 expected that the missionaries upon the ground would 
 
 [ 223 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TUEKEY 
 
 shape and adopt their measures as necessity demanded. 
 Men of broad culture, deep piety, and sound common sense 
 were appointed to the fields, and to them was entrusted the 
 responsibility of evolving a policy for themselves. 
 
 When independent Protestant churches were organ- 
 ized in 1846 it seemed the only natural step to ordain over 
 them pastors from among their own people. There were 
 several able and well-educated Armenians whose fitness for 
 this office was unquestionable. At any rate, there were 
 not enough missionaries upon the ground to fill these posi- 
 tions. Perhaps this last fact helped materially in settling 
 the policy of a native pastor for a native church. Be this 
 as it may, there was a speedy recognition of the right of 
 the native church to have a pastor of its own from among 
 its own race. This was early recognized as good policy, 
 and was put into operation. 
 
 It does not, however, seem to have occurred to the 
 missionaries then that the native churches had the same 
 right to support the pastor thus ordained over them. The 
 missionaries were there to see that the Christian work was 
 carried on, and, to their minds, a most important part of 
 it was to provide for the expense of the churches they had 
 been agents in forming. In the annual reports of that 
 period we find no allusion to payments by the people them- 
 selves for the support of their pastors. That was regarded 
 as a part of the service missionaries were to render, and 
 the people seemed perfectly willing to have it so. 
 
 In 1856 Crosby H. Wheeler was sent out as a mission- 
 ary and in 1857 he was assigned to Harpoot in Eastern 
 Turkey. He had received a thoroughly practical train- 
 ing in business and as a pastor in Maine before going out. 
 While profoundly earnest in his purpose to Christianize 
 the people of Turkey, he had little sentiment in his make- 
 
 [224 ]
 
 COMPLETED WORK 
 
 up and was eminently practical in all he undertook. He 
 soon discovered that the churches in Turkey were re- 
 garded by the people as belonging to the missionaries, 
 since the missionaries paid all the bills. Many who at- 
 tended felt it to be a favor they were conferring upon the 
 missionaries. A church in the city of Arabkir, some two 
 days' journey northwest of Harpoot, was in need of a 
 stove. Dr. Wheeler ordered one from America, paid the 
 bill, even for transportation to Arabkir. One of the 
 deacons of the church received the stove and set it up, and 
 then sent a bill for his services to Dr. Wheeler. This 
 turned the tide. Dr. Wheeler from that time became the 
 champion of self-support for native churches, as a funda- 
 mental principle of self-government and self-propagation. 
 
 The people, for the most part, did not welcome the 
 change. They were Orientals, and could not see why the 
 American Christians should not have the privilege of 
 supporting their pastors and meeting all the cost of their 
 churches if they so desired. Dr. Wheeler, by pen and 
 voice, advocated the policy with great energy and force. 
 The wisdom of it was recognized by the officers of the 
 Board. It gained general approval from most of the 
 missionaries in Turkey, but many of them hardly dared 
 to apply it vigorously in their own immediate community. 
 It required no little courage to adopt and put through 
 so unpopular a measure. The principle was a right one 
 and could not but prevail. The wiser Armenians and 
 Greeks saw that only in this way could they secure for 
 themselves liberty and independence of action befitting 
 their ability. While their desire for money inclined them 
 to cling to the old custom, their love of freedom forced 
 them towards self-support. 
 
 The same principle was applied to the missionary 
 
 15 [ 225 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 schools. At first they also were free, but in the Orient no 
 real value attaches to that which costs nothing. Schools 
 that are free can be attended or not as the pupil sees fit. 
 Books given away are easily lost or destroyed and are 
 never valued. To command respect for the schools and 
 insure regularity of attendance it became necessary to 
 charge the pupils tuition. A pupil for whom tuition had 
 been paid could be depended upon to be present when not 
 seriously sick. Books and slates when purchased were 
 cared for and used. Dr. Wheeler once spent several hours 
 in persuading a man to purchase a two cent slate for his 
 boy in school. The contest was for the principle, not the 
 two cents. It is needless to say that Dr. Wheeler carried 
 his point. 
 
 This principle is now a well-established policy through- 
 out the Turkish missions. Native churches, as soon as they 
 become financially able, assume the entire expense for them- 
 selves. No missionary is the pastor of a native church. 
 The weaker churches pay what they can, the missionaries 
 supplementing with the understanding that the mission's 
 aid shall diminish as their financial strength increases. 
 
 Many Protestant schools in Turkey to-day receive no aid 
 from mission funds. The people assume that an education 
 has a real value for which they are willing to pay. Some 
 of the colleges receive in tuition fees as much as three- 
 fourths of the cost of conducting the institution. With 
 others differently situated the proportion is less but all get 
 no small part of their income from the students. Probably 
 the higher educational institutions in Turkey secure as 
 large if not a larger part of their running expenses from 
 the pupils than do similar institutions in any other coun- 
 try in the world. 
 
 The same principle applies also to literature and to 
 
 [ 226 ]
 
 COMPLETED WORK 
 
 medical treatment. The people pay liberally for all the 
 products of the press, whether it be in the form of period- 
 icals or books and tracts. Missionary physicians early 
 learned that they could accomplish more good by charg- 
 ing fees for service and for medicine in all cases where the 
 patient is able to pay. The patient who receives medicine 
 free when he has money to pay for it is apt to defy all di- 
 rections, or even not take it at all unless he likes it. Medi- 
 cine that has been paid for is pretty sure to be taken. 
 Some of the hospitals in Turkey, apart from the salary 
 of the missionary physician in charge, are practically self- 
 supporting, the fees of the patients and the sums paid for 
 medicine being sufficient to meet the cost of attendants, 
 supplies, and the care of the hospital. 
 
 The deserving poor, however, are not turned away. In 
 schools methods of self-help are provided for students 
 who have no funds with which to pay tuition, so that their 
 self-respect and independence are not destroyed. In the 
 same way provision is made for books. In cases of sick- 
 ness, no one who is worthy is ever refused treatment by the 
 missionary physician because he has no money to pay. 
 
 This principle of self-support has become a fixed part of 
 the work in Turkey. The people are now thoroughly com- 
 mitted to it. They recognize that the mission is not there 
 to transplant institutions from abroad, but to sow seed 
 from which institutions may grow in the soil of Turkey, 
 watered by Turkish showers, warmed by the Turkish sun, 
 cultivated and cared for by Turkish hands. Much greater 
 progress would have been made in self-support had it not 
 been for many overwhelming disasters which have swept 
 over the empire at intervals since missionary work began 
 there. First it was devastating wars with Greece, with 
 Egypt, and with Russia. Then came famine and massacre, 
 
 [227 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the latter paralyzing trade, killing the wage-earners, and 
 driving many of the most enterprising from the country. 
 Had the Greeks and Armenians in Turkey been free from 
 these terrible disasters for the last generation, .it is safe to 
 say every missionary church, school, hospital, and press 
 would be to-day entirely independent of financial aid from 
 this country. There would probably be need of mission- 
 aries for some time to come, and money from this coun- 
 try might still be called for to open new sections of 
 the country, as, for instance, in Koordistan, and Albania, 
 and Arabia, but in the old fields ample financial support 
 would easily be supplied by the people themselves. In 1907 
 in spite of their poverty and distress the people connected 
 with the American Board missions alone paid for their 
 own churches, schools, and missionary medical attendance 
 over $128,000, — a sum far in excess of what was paid by 
 the Board to support the same work. We may confidently 
 expect that if a new imperial policy should be put into 
 operation and Turkey afford safety to life and property 
 and liberty of conscience and judgment to all her subjects, 
 there would be a marked advance in the support of all 
 Christian and educational work in the country, and a rapid 
 enlargement of all such institutions. 
 
 Much has also been accomplished in the line of self-prop- 
 agation and aggressive Christian work. Various organi- 
 zations of native Christian leaders, like the Bithynia Union 
 of Western Turkey, organized in 1864, the Harpoot 
 Evangelical Union organized in 1865, the Cilicia Union of 
 Central Turkey, and similar organizations in Marsovan 
 and in Bulgaria, as well as in other places, have rendered 
 loyal sendee in the work of evangelization. These Unions 
 have cooperated with the missionaries in aggressive op- 
 erations as well as in the direction and supervision of the 
 
 [ 228 ]
 
 COMPLETED WORK 
 
 churches already organized. Their annual meetings have 
 been marked events in the history of the churches. In 
 these the missionaries are only honorary members, the 
 native brethren taking the burden of responsibility. In 
 some of the Unions, as at Harpoot in Eastern Turkey, a 
 committee is annually appointed to cooperate during the 
 year with the missionaries in looking after and directing 
 work in the churches and schools as well as in planning 
 and executing general evangelistic movements. 
 
 What the native churches are doing in the line of ex- 
 pansion is best exhibited in the Koordistan Missionary 
 Society which had its beginning nearly forty years ago in 
 the Harpoot Evangelical Union. This society was formed 
 for the purpose of carrying the gospel and the advantages 
 of a Christian education to the Koordish speaking Arme- 
 nians who dwelt in the heart of Koordistan between the 
 Harpoot, Mardin, and Bitlis stations of the Board. Funds 
 were collected, visitations made, and promising Koordish 
 speaking students from that country were brought to 
 Harpoot and educated at the expense of that society and 
 later returned to their people as teachers and preachers. 
 As the work enlarged, evangelical churches in other parts 
 of the country joined in the enterprise until it has come 
 to be recognized as a work belonging to evangelical Arme- 
 nians wherever found. Many Armenians in the United 
 States have liberally contributed to sustain this society. 
 The Armenians give freely for any Christian work that 
 appeals to their national pride or that takes hold upon 
 their sympathies. 
 
 In more recent times the alumni and students of Eu- 
 phrates College who have gone to England or come to this 
 country have contributed for providing scholarships in 
 that institution for the education of poor but deserving 
 
 [ 229 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 students. While some are endowing scholarships, others 
 propose to provide permanent professorships in the col- 
 lege. All this is additional evidence that, the Armenians 
 once assured of safety to life and property, the Christian 
 educational work in Turkey will speedily become largely, 
 if not entirely, self-supporting. The Greeks, among whom 
 much less work is carried on, would not fall behind in self- 
 support. 
 
 [ 230 ]
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS CHANGES
 
 In the year 1860, in a public address in the city of London, the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury paid the following tribute to the character of the American 
 missionaries in Turkey : — 
 
 "I do not believe that in the whole history of missions; I do not believe 
 that in the history of diplomacy, or in the history of any negotiations carried on 
 between man and man, we can find anything to equal the wisdom, the sound- 
 ness, and the pure evangelical truth of the body of men who constitute the 
 American mission. I have said it twenty times before, and I will say it again 
 — for the expression appropriately conveys my meaning — that ' they are a 
 marvelous combination of common sense and piety.' Every man who 
 comes in contact with these missionaries speaks in praise of them. Persons in 
 authority, and persons in subjection, all speak in their favor ; travelers speak 
 well of them ; and I know of no man who has ever been able to bring against 
 that body a single valid objection. There they stand, tested by years, tried 
 by their works, and exemplified by their fruits ; and I believe it will be found 
 that these American missionaries have done more toward upholding the truth 
 and spreading the gospel of Christ in the East, than any other body of men 
 in this or in any other age." 
 
 Mr. William T. Stead once said, " How many American citizens, I won- 
 der, are aware that from the slopes of Mount Ararat all the way to the shores 
 of the Blue iEgean Sea, American missionaries have scattered broadcast over 
 all the distressful land the seed of American principles. When General 
 Mosseloff, the director of foreign faiths within the Russian empire, visited 
 Etchmiadzin the Armenian patriarch spread before him the map of Asia 
 Minor, which was marked all over with American colleges, American churches, 
 American schools, American missions. They (the American missionaries) 
 are busy everywhere, teaching, preaching, begetting new life in these Asiatic 
 races." — From "Memoirs of Wilb'am Goodell."
 
 XXII. INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS 
 
 CHANGES 
 
 INDUSTRIALLY Turkey was ages behind even at the 
 beginning of the last century. Practically nothing 
 modern had entered the country from without and 
 found acceptance there. The agricultural implements in 
 use were of the same primitive character as those of two 
 thousand or more years before. The plow of Abraham's 
 day, made of the branch of a tree and only scratching the 
 surface of the soil, was the only plow known, and it is not 
 by any means extinct. The winds of the plains winnowed 
 the grain, and the old threshing instruments with teeth still 
 performed its ancient service upon the threshing-floors of 
 earth. 
 
 In some respects the people were more jealous to guard 
 their methods of work than they were their beliefs. It 
 was found, however, that when a man had enlarged the 
 horizon of his thinking, he was far more susceptible to 
 suggestions as to his method of living and working. 
 
 Little by little new tools were brought in and made use 
 of by native carpenters. Winnowing-mills for cleaning 
 up threshing-floors, after years of opposition, won favor 
 and are now found everywhere. In some sections cotton- 
 gins run by water-power have brought a blessing to the 
 farmers, while now and then a modern plow and other im- 
 proved implements are finding acceptance. The sewing- 
 machine is found in almost every town of importance, and 
 the kerosene lamp has completely changed the character 
 of multitudes of homes and greatly multiplied the pos- 
 sibilities of intellectual improvement and social reform.
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 The first electric telegraph instrument ever set up and 
 operated in the empire was exhibited to the sultan of 
 Turkey by Cyrus Hamlin, the missionary. The potato, 
 the tomato, and other vegetables have been introduced 
 into various sections, and in many cases have become regu- 
 lar articles of diet and staples in the market. Space for- 
 bids mention of the many industrial, mechanical, and 
 economic improvements which have entered the country 
 through the influence and even by the direct exertions 
 of the missionaries. 
 
 All this in the earlier years was incidental to the mission 
 work. During the last twenty years deliberate plans to 
 teach industries have been made by the missionaries in some 
 of the leading schools. While this industrial instruction 
 was begun for the purpose of affording an opportunity to 
 worthy but needy students to earn their way through 
 school, the experiment proved that there was still another 
 advantage not second to this in importance, and that was 
 the educational value of practising an industry, as well as 
 an economic value to the student and to the country. In- 
 dustrial plants have been attached to some of the higher 
 educational institutions like Anatolia College at Marsovan, 
 where the results have amply justified the effort. It is 
 surprising to see how rapidly new industrial ideas are 
 disseminated from such a school. 
 
 At the time of the massacres of 1895-96 a large number 
 of orphan children, both boys and girls, were taken in 
 charge by the missionaries. These numbered many thou- 
 sands. Their presence and needs forced the adoption of 
 methods by which they could earn a part, at least, of their 
 own support. Various industries sprang up wherever or- 
 phans and widows were found gathered into homes superin- 
 tended by the missionary. These activities include cabinet 
 
 [234 ]
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS CHANGES 
 
 work, carpentry, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, baking, em- 
 broidery, lace-making, with many other trades, besides silk 
 culture and farming. As the children are bright and quick 
 to learn the use of tools and remarkably good at imitation, 
 marked progress is made. It is inevitable that out of 
 these industrial plants will come new ideas and new indus- 
 trial and mechanical impulses. Many of the young men 
 who have come to the United States have learned trades 
 which they will carry back to their own country as soon 
 as they are satisfied that liberty is given them to return 
 in safety. Probably industrial reform has not taken hold 
 of the country as yet with the same force as other re- 
 forms. One prominent reason for this is that all industries 
 are discouraged by the government. We can expect but 
 moderate results until there is a change in this respect 
 in the policy of administration. 
 
 Many changes in the construction of houses have taken 
 place in the interior of the country. Wooden floors are 
 rapidly coming into use, and windows admitting light 
 and often with a few panes of glass are found even in 
 remote villages. The one-story buildings in agricultural 
 villages in which the family and the cattle during the win- 
 ter occupied one room, are having a second story added 
 for the family with pure air and with plenty of light. 
 This one change alone is of inestimable value in lifting up 
 and improving a people. Whitewash made with lime is 
 freely used upon the inside of the living rooms and much 
 pride is exhibited in the surroundings of the home. All 
 this indicates a decided advance in family life and in the 
 desire for what is civilized and wholesome. Every step 
 forward is permanent. The industrial advance goes hand 
 in hand with the introduction of comforts in the home. 
 The possibilities for rapid enlargement of these reform 
 
 [235 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 measures are innumerable as soon as freedom of action and 
 safety to life and property are assured. 
 
 Enlightened by education, chafing under the restric- 
 tions which crushed all enterprise in that country, and 
 knowing about the large freedom and the wider oppor- 
 tunities open to all in the United States, a large number of 
 Armenians have left their homes in Turkey for this country. 
 Emigration began largely from Harpoot, but has ex- 
 tended now to all parts of the country, until it is estimated 
 that there are now in the United States more than thirty 
 thousand Armenians, with perhaps as many Greeks, Bul- 
 garians, Albanians, Turks and Syrians. Many of these 
 have become prosperous business men, worthy and loyal 
 citizens of the United States. Others are farmers, profes- 
 sional men, and laborers in factories. Some have returned, 
 but the Turkish government is suspicious of all, and espe- 
 cially of Armenians who have been in this country, and is 
 likely to deport them if they succeed in passing the guards 
 at the frontier. In proportion to their numbers, the Protes- 
 tants in Turkey have furnished by far the largest num- 
 ber of emigrants. They were the first to come into closest 
 contact with the American missionaries and to catch the 
 spirit of modern education. It was most natural that they 
 should be the first to turn their attention to this country 
 as the land of the greatest opportunity. Many have come 
 here to secure more education for work among their own 
 people at home, but the severity of Turkish rule has hith- 
 erto kept the most of these here. Many Armenian Protes- 
 tant churches and congregations have been formed in this 
 country, at points from Boston to California, and in every 
 case the pastors and preachers were trained at mission 
 schools in Turkey. If it prove true that old restrictions 
 are removed and safety and freedom assured to these exiles 
 
 [230]
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND RELIGIOUS CHANGES 
 
 from their fatherland, no doubt the greater part of these 
 will return with joy, carrying back with them not only 
 the capital they have secured, but the enterprise and skill 
 they have acquired in their experience here. Many of these 
 men may soon become a great force in aggressive com- 
 mercial Christian and educational enterprises for their own 
 people. 
 
 The missionaries set out to aid the Armenians and other 
 races in Turkey to an intelligent and reasonable faith and 
 practise. Separation from among the Armenians was 
 forced upon the evangelicals, as we have already seen, but 
 the line that divided the Protestants from the old Grego- 
 rian Church did not mark a cleavage between those who 
 seriously thought upon religious matters and those who 
 were blind followers of the Church. Many thoughtful men 
 remained in the old Church, and the discussions that pro- 
 duced so much disturbance outside were carried on in 
 greater quietness, even among the clergy. There were 
 two reform movements proceeding at the same time; one 
 through the propagandism of the Protestant or evangel- 
 ical body, separated in 1846 from the old Church by the 
 action of the Church itself, and the other a much less 
 marked but no less sincere spirit of investigation and in- 
 quiry continuing within the old Church. The general 
 reform movement had been too rapid and aggressive for 
 the conservative elements of the Church, but after the 
 withdrawal of the most active leaders the reform spirit 
 continued to develop and exert its influence. 
 
 These two widely divergent parties of sixty years ago 
 have now drawn toward each other. There are probably 
 to-day more intelligent evangelical believers within the old 
 Gregorian, Greek and Syrian Churches than comprise the 
 entire Protestant body. Separation no longer takes place 
 in any marked degree. The same men preach occasionally 
 
 [237 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 in both Protestant and Gregorian churches. Evangelical 
 teachers are engaged without dissent to teach Gregorian 
 schools, while in many instances there are more Gregorian 
 than Protestant pupils in Protestant schools. 
 
 Gregorian young men preparing themselves for orders 
 in their Church are welcomed to the Protestant theo- 
 logical schools where they stand upon precisely the same 
 footing as the Protestant youth with that ministry in view, 
 while missionaries are invited to give lessons in Gregorian 
 theological schools. 
 
 The Gregorian Church, as a whole, while yet far from 
 the goal reached by many of its strongest supporters, is 
 making advance towards an intelligent faith and practise. 
 No longer do the leaders believe that there is virtue in the 
 forms of worship or salvation in submission to the demands 
 of the priesthood. They believe that true religion con- 
 sists in true belief and right living and to this end they 
 strive. 
 
 It is also evident that the Mohammedans have been 
 perceptibly affected by reading the New Testament ; thou- 
 sands of copies have been sold them. Whereas heretofore 
 they had interpreted Christianity by the lives of the people 
 among them who bore that name, they are now studying 
 the sources and see that between the two there is a wide 
 gulf. They have been compelled, in self-defense, to search 
 their own religion for fundamental truths of high character 
 in order to prove to the reformed Christians that Islam 
 is not as bad as it appears in the lives of many of its 
 adherents. 
 
 In a word, all classes in the empire are learning that 
 religion is a matter of conviction and life, and not of form, 
 and that it manifests its true character in the acts of its 
 followers, and not in the boasted declarations of its leaders. 
 
 [238 ]
 
 AMERICAN RIGHTS
 
 It has been stated by American officials in 1895 and 1896 that the mis- 
 sionaries, having forced themselves into Turkey against the will of the govern- 
 ment, had no legal rights there and no claim to protection. The officials 
 who made these statements must have been wilfully ignoring the facts of 
 recent history. The missionaries were supported and encouraged by the 
 three sultans, Mahmud the strong, Abd-ul-Medjid the weak, and Abd-ul- 
 Aziz the weaker. They stand on a firm basis of treaties, special enactments, 
 and concessions, — a basis in which the present sultan, with all his acute- 
 ness and his hatred of mission work, could find no flaw. Had it been pos- 
 sible to argue with a shadow of plausibility that the mission was against the 
 law, or that it was not guaranteed by enactments inviolable even by a sultan 
 protected by the six Powers, the property would have been destroyed and 
 the mission silenced. The attempt was made, but failed; and the action 
 of officials who destroyed mission property at Kharput, etc., was ostensibly 
 disowned. 
 
 Further, the action of strong, free American life in Turkey must always 
 tend to strengthen the movement there towards that freer and more elastic 
 order which belongs to all the English-speaking peoples. But, though the 
 mission work has, undoubtedly, exerted a great influence on the political 
 situation in Turkey, the mission policy has studiously and consistently been 
 non-political, and has zealously inculcated the doctrine of non-resistance and 
 obedience to the existing government. — Prof. W. M. Ramsay, D. C. L. 
 in Preface of " Impressions of Turkey."
 
 XXIII. AMERICAN RIGHTS 
 
 THE right to exercise their functions as a class pos- 
 sessing special privileges had been granted to 
 ecclesiastics of Christian nations by the voluntary 
 extension of the Edict of Toleration of 1453 given by the 
 Ottoman government after the fall of Constantinople. 
 Turkish usage for nearly four hundred years was the 
 warrant for the entrance of American missionaries into 
 the country and their assurance of immunity from official 
 molestation. 
 
 They entered without diplomatic negotiations between 
 the United States and Turkey. Not, indeed, till ten years 
 after American missionaries had begun work in Turkey 
 was the first treaty between the United States and that 
 country concluded. Previous to that time the missionaries 
 were protected by England, which had treaties with the 
 Ottoman government conceding extra-territorial rights to 
 all British subjects. The Sublime Porte did not seem to 
 recognize any difference between an English subject and 
 an American citizen for all were " Frank Christians " to 
 him, hence the protection afforded was ample. 
 
 It cannot be predicted as in the case of most countries 
 how many and what ordinary international rights will 
 be conceded to foreigners by the Ottoman government. 
 Rights in Turkey are based not upon any principle of in- 
 ternational law usually prevailing between Christian na- 
 tions but upon special treaties which bear the name of 
 " Capitulations " and " Concessions." Intercourse of the 
 Christian world with Mohammedan countries does not pro- 
 ceed according to the law of nations. International law 
 
 16 [ 241 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 as practised by the civilized nations of Christendom is 
 an outgrowth from the communion of ideas existing be- 
 tween them and rests upon a common conception of justice 
 and right. Between the Mohammedans and the Christian 
 nations of Europe and America there exists no such 
 common idea or principle from which could result a true 
 international law. Relations one with the other have, 
 therefore, to be regulated by special " capitulation " or 
 " concession " granted by the ruler of the Mohammedan 
 country. 
 
 For this reason, even to the present time, the law of 
 nations as known and practised throughout Christendom 
 has not been applied in the relations existing between Tur- 
 key and the Christian Powers. But ever since the Sublime 
 Porte, under stress of circumstances, began to abandon 
 most reluctantly and by slow degrees its ancient usages 
 towards other nations, and imperfectly to adopt those of 
 Christendom, its rule of international conduct has gradu- 
 ally approached that of Europe. 
 
 A capitulation on the part of the Turkish empire is 
 regarded by the sultan and his associates as a concession 
 to foreigners, which they have a right at any time to annul 
 or destroy if, in their judgment, such annulment or de- 
 struction is for their advantage. The sultan does not 
 wish to consider a capitulation as imposing a perpetual 
 obligation upon him or his officials. It is a privilege ren- 
 dered foreign powers which can be withdrawn without 
 notice and without explanation. Only in view of these 
 facts can the treatment of missionaries and other for- 
 eigners by the officials of Turkey be understood. 
 
 The Porte has agreed at various times to exercise no 
 preference towards any of the states with which it has 
 treaties, but to make them all share alike in the benefits 
 
 [ 242 ]
 
 AMERICAN RIGHTS 
 
 of the provisions contained in the treaties it has entered 
 into with each. In all its treaties of commerce since 1861, 
 the expressed statement is, " That all the rights, privileges, 
 or immunities which the Sublime Porte now grants or 
 may hereafter grant to the subjects, vessels, commerce, or 
 navigation of any other foreign power, the enjoyment of 
 which it shall tolerate, shall be likewise accorded and the 
 exercise of the enjoyment of the same shall be allowed, to 
 the subjects, ships, commerce, and navigation of the other 
 powers." It is evident from this quotation that every 
 nation holding treaty with Turkey has equal rights and 
 privileges with those of any nation treating with the Otto- 
 man government. 
 
 Without dwelling at length upon the various treaties 
 and the steps which led to their formation, it will suffice 
 to say that these include, among many other things, the 
 following privileges: 
 
 Permission to foreigners who come upon Moslem ter- 
 ritory freely to navigate the waters and enter the ports 
 of the same, whether for devotion and pilgrimage to the 
 holy places, or for trading in the exportation and impor- 
 tation of every kind of unprohibited goods. Exception 
 is made, however, with reference to the Hejaz Province 
 in which the two holy cities of Islam are located. 
 
 Freedom to follow on Moslem ground one's own habits 
 and customs, and perform the rites and fulfil the duties 
 of one's own religion. 
 
 Right of foreigners to be judged by the ambassadors 
 and consuls of their respective governments in suits both 
 civil and criminal, between one another, and the obligation 
 of the local authorities to render aid to the consul in 
 enforcing his decision and judgment concerning the same. 
 
 Inviolability of foreigners' domiciles and, in event of 
 
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 urgent necessity for arresting a delinquent, obligation of 
 government officials not to enter the dwelling-place of a 
 foreigner without having previously notified the ambas- 
 sador or consul, and unless accompanied by him or his 
 deputy. 
 
 These statements are sufficient to show that merchant, 
 traveler, and missionary in Turkey are there as foreigners, 
 and as such they and their domiciles are under foreign 
 protection. They have the privilege of holding property 
 and of buying and selling the same. Mission Boards and 
 foreign companies, being foreign corporations, cannot hold 
 property in the empire. All property real and personal 
 is held in the name of an individual. Exception is made in 
 the case of the schools which have a firman (imperial 
 irade) or which have obtained formal recognition from the 
 sultan, in which case the institution itself holds the 
 property in its own name, being a recognized chartered 
 institution. 
 
 It is well that the missionary and merchant have been 
 and still are independent of the Turkish officials, for, with 
 the ignorance of those in the interior and their readiness 
 to play into the hands of every rival or persecuting agency, 
 there would be constant liability to arrest, imprisonment, 
 and even deportation. In spite of the extra-territorial 
 laws, missionaries and merchants repeatedly have been 
 put under arrest for imaginary charges, and otherwise 
 officially annoyed. These difficulties have been met in 
 quietness and overcome without loss of position or prestige. 
 In no instance has a missionary been arrested for an actual 
 crime or misdemeanor. The usual charge against them 
 is that they are plotting against the government, and 
 the officers make attempts to search their houses for docu- 
 mentary evidence and for arms. These various evidences 
 
 [ 244 ]
 
 AMERICAN RIGHTS 
 
 of hostility have not seemed to strain the generally friendly 
 relations existing between the missionaries and the local 
 governments. 
 
 Perhaps it should be stated here that all foreign capital 
 invested in the country is held in the same way and has 
 the same foreign protection. This is true of all Catholic in- 
 stitutions, Russian churches, monasteries, and schools, Ger- 
 man orphanages, and mercantile warehouses, English resi- 
 dences, and stores, — everything that belongs to foreigners 
 representing foreign capital is under foreign protection. 
 
 At the same time it is recognized that the school, 
 hospital, or church which occupies one of these foreign 
 buildings is a foreign institution and as such has, according 
 to the Turkish capitulations, special immunities and privi- 
 leges. All dealings with the Turkish government, even to 
 the present time, are based upon this supposition. This 
 does not seem strange or unnatural to the Turkish gov- 
 ernment, which permits the English, German, French, 
 Austrian, and other governments to have their own post- 
 offices at Constantinople, Smyrna, and other ports, in 
 which they sell only their own postage-stamps and conduct 
 all the postal business they can procure. 
 
 Under treaty rights above quoted, every concession or 
 privilege granted by the sultan to the schools, churches, 
 hospitals, or institutions belonging to England, France, 
 Russia, or any other country, belongs by right to Ameri- 
 can institutions. The fact that America was discriminated 
 against in this respect for many years, and that American 
 institutions were thus deprived of privileges and conces- 
 sions which had been conceded to similar institutions of 
 several European powers, is well known, both at Constan- 
 tinople, and in the United States. Happily these matters 
 have now been adjusted. 
 
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 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 After seven years of negotiations, in 1907 the sultan 
 finally conceded in a formal manner the same rights and 
 privileges to American institutions in his dominion which 
 had already been granted to similar institutions of France, 
 Russia, Germany and other countries ; but as yet in most 
 cases this concession exists largely in form, while the actual 
 enjoyment of the privileges is withheld. At the same 
 time insuperable obstacles are thrown in the way of the 
 purchase of real estate by Americans and they are even 
 forbidden to improve property which they have already 
 acquired. It is only by eternal vigilance that American 
 interests in Turkey can be safeguarded. 
 
 [ 246 ]
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION
 
 One distinctive feature of Islam in Turkey — and this applies to nearly 
 all Moslem races in the Ottoman empire except the Arabs — is that the Turk 
 does not know the language of his sacred book. The Koran is as much a 
 sealed book to the Turk as the Bible is to the peasant Roman Catholic of 
 Central Europe. He knows, even if he is a peasant, many Arabic words 
 and phrases, but although he may read the Koran, he cannot understand it ; 
 and it is, to the Mohammedan, a greater impiety to attempt to translate the 
 Koran from the Arabic, than it was, till recent years, in the eyes of the faithful 
 but ignorant Romanist to translate the Latin Bible into French or German. 
 This ignorance of Arabic is a fact even among the more or less educated 
 Turks of the capital and coast cities. It is very rare to find one who can read 
 Arabic intelligently, and who speaks it correctly. Some years ago, when 
 
 K Effendi, a learned Arab Koord, who had embraced Christianity, was 
 
 called before the highest Mohammedan court, his perfect knowledge of the 
 Arabic, of the Koran and of Mohammedan law and traditions completely 
 confounded and silenced those who would have been his judges. — From 
 "The Mohammedan World of To-day."
 
 XXIV. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 
 
 AT the beginning of mission work in Turkey the gov- 
 ernment and high officials seemed indifferent. They 
 looked upon missionaries as only another sect of 
 Christians. It apparently did not occur to them that 
 Christians would attempt to present the claims of their re- 
 ligion to Moslems, or that there was the least probability 
 that any Mohammedan would listen to a Christian upon 
 the subject of religion. For centuries no Christian in 
 Turkey had made any such attempt. Indeed, the lives of 
 the Christians there exhibited little that was attractive 
 in the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Turks, therefore, appeared to assume that the mis- 
 sionary movement was an effort to reform the Christians 
 or to divide and weak n them. To either of these purposes 
 or results the sr\an and his officers saw no objections. 
 To the Turks all who are not Moslems are infidels, and 
 it mattered little to them what these believed since they 
 denied faith in Mohammed. 
 
 Contrary to expectations, observing Moslems were at- 
 tracted by the fact that the Protestants made use of 
 neither pictures nor images in their worship, and demanded 
 purity of life, honesty, temperance, and truthfulness in 
 their adherents. This was to them a new phase of Chris- 
 tianity, one that accorded more with the Mohammedan 
 ideas than the practises of the Catholic and Oriental 
 Churches with which they were familiar. Among the early 
 inquirers there were many Mohammedans. In 1835 Dr. 
 Goodell of Constantinople wrote, " Almost every day I 
 am visited by Mohammedans. I could very profitably 
 
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 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 devote my whole time to them." In cases not a few, in 
 the early days, the Turkish officials were not slow to shield 
 the evangelical Christians from the persecutions of the 
 officials of the old Churches. As it did not occur to the 
 sultan that there was any danger that Moslems could 
 look with favor upon Christianity, he was the more free 
 to grant full religious liberty under the importunity of 
 Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the British ambassador. 
 
 It was not, therefore, a difficult matter for Sultan Abdul 
 Medjid to issue, November 3, 1839, an imperial rescript 
 named the Hatti Sherif of Gul Hane, promising to protect 
 the life, honor, and property of all his subjects irrespec- 
 tive of race or religion. At that time the sultan was eager 
 to enlist and hold the sympathy of European rulers, and 
 believed that such a concession would materially help 
 toward it. This directly pledged the protection of the 
 imperial government to every subject of the empire in the 
 exercise of his rights as a citizen, without regard to reli- 
 gion or sect. It was the first declaration of the Turkish 
 government putting Christians upon a parity with Mo- 
 hammedans before the law. It was a long forward step 
 in the way of administrative reform. 
 
 In August, 1843, an Armenian youth, some twenty years 
 of age, was beheaded in the streets of Constantinople and 
 his body exposed for three days, because he had once de- 
 clared himself a Moslem and then later recanted. It seems 
 that through fear of punishment this young man had ac- 
 cepted Islam and left the country. Later he returned 
 and resumed the practises of his former religion. In 
 spite of threats and promises, he adhered to his ancestral 
 faith with the above results. Sir Stratford de Redcliffe 
 did all in his power to save his life, but without success. 
 
 This execution aroused the ambassadors of England, 
 
 [ 250 ]
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 
 
 France, Russia, and Prussia, who united in a formal de- 
 mand upon the sultan to abolish the death penalty for a 
 change of religion. Hitherto, there had been full liberty 
 to change any and all non-Moslem religions, and for any 
 one to abandon the faith of his fathers and to embrace 
 Islam, but the right had been denied to a Mohammedan 
 to depart from that faith. 
 
 Under pressure brought to bear by the four named am- 
 bassadors, led by the British, the sultan on the twenty- 
 first of March, 1844, gave a written pledge as follows: 
 " The Sublime Porte engages to take effectual measures to 
 prevent, henceforward, the persecution and putting to 
 death of the Christian who is an apostate." Two days 
 later Abdul Medjid, in a conference with Sir Stratford, 
 gave assurance " that henceforward neither shall Christian- 
 ity be insulted in my dominions, nor shall Christians be in 
 any way persecuted for their religion." The giver of these 
 pledges was not only the sultan of Turkey, but he was also 
 the caliph of the Mohammedan world. The year 1844 is 
 memorable in Turkey and among the Mohammedans for 
 this record of concessions in the interests of religious 
 liberty in Turkey, and for all races, including Moslems. 
 
 In 1847 the Protestants had no standing in the Turkish 
 empire. Nominally they were under the protection of the 
 patriarch at Constantinople, but in fact they were without 
 protection since their formal excommunication from the 
 Old Church in the previous year. When their separation 
 had been made complete, it was necessary that some recog- 
 nition be secured for them from the sultan himself in order 
 that they might continue to live in the empire. Through 
 the British ambassador negotiations were carried on which 
 resulted in the issuance of a firman by the grand vizier 
 declaring that " Christian subjects of the Ottoman gov- 
 
 [ 251 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 ernment professing Protestantism shall constitute a sep- 
 arate community with all the rights and privileges 
 belonging to others," and that " no interference whatever 
 be permitted in their temporal or spiritual concerns on the 
 part of the patriarch, monks, or priests of other sects." 
 This Protestant charter of 1847, as it was called, covered 
 all Protestants who should change from the ancient 
 Churches, but seemed studiously to avoid giving recogni- 
 tion to the possibility of Moslems accepting Protestantism. 
 This charter was not issued with the imperial authority 
 of the sultan, but only under the ministerial authority of 
 the Porte. It was, therefore, liable to appeal at any time 
 by either the sovereign or any succeeding ministry. In 
 November, 1850, the reigning sultan, Abdul Medjid, 
 granted an imperial charter to the Protestants confirming 
 their distinct organization as a civil community and guar- 
 anteeing them religious rights and privileges equal to 
 those granted all other religious organizations. 
 
 This secured in perpetuum to the Protestants the right 
 to choose their own political chief, to transact business, 
 to worship, to marry, to bury, and to perform all the 
 functions of a religious organization under imperial pro- 
 tection. This was the Magna Charta of Protestantism 
 in Turkey, and is called " The Imperial Protestant Charter 
 of 1850." This was supplemented in 1853 by an imperial 
 firman which was sent to all governors in the provinces, 
 as well as to the head men of the Protestant communities, 
 requiring that the charter of 1850 be strictly enforced. 
 The above were issued in the interests of the Protestants 
 alone. 
 
 Besides the written pledge of the sultan given to the 
 ambassadors in 1844, there was no charter in Turkey 
 insuring religious liberty to Mohammedans, except as the 
 
 [ 252 J
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 
 
 above mentioned Protestant charters admitted of such an 
 interpretation. That was indefinite and, it was feared, 
 did not guarantee safety to a Mohammedan who should 
 change his faith. The European nations had demanded 
 that the death penalty for Moslems upon changing their 
 religion should be abolished. 
 
 In February, 1856, Sultan Med j id issued what is called 
 the Magna Charta of religious liberty in Turkey. It is 
 entitled the Hatti Sherif (Sacred Edict) or Hatti Huma- 
 youn (Imperial Edict). It was regarded at that time as 
 guaranteeing full religious liberty to all Turkish sub- 
 jects of every creed and faith. One sentence reads, " No 
 subject of my empire shall be hindered in the exercise of 
 the religion that he professes, nor shall he be in any way 
 annoyed on this account. No one shall be compelled to 
 change his religion." Lord Stratford assumed in his 
 correspondence with his government that hereafter no one 
 was to be molested on account of his religion or punished 
 " whatever form of faith he denies." 
 
 This imperial charter was recognized by Great Britain, 
 France, Austria, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey, through 
 their representatives who met in Paris in the same year 
 to form the Treaty of Paris, to which body it was com- 
 municated by "His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan" and 
 as " emanating spontaneously from his own will." How- 
 ever, it was clearly understood that no right was conceded 
 to the above named Powers " to interfere either collectively 
 or separately in the relations of His Majesty, the Sultan, 
 with his subjects nor in the internal administration of his 
 empire." This left Turkey the only interpreter of the docu- 
 ment, and as sovereign in the administration of her own 
 internal affairs, including the actual granting of religious 
 liberty. 
 
 [ 253 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 The acts of government and the behavior of Turkish 
 officials at that period gave the impression that the Porte 
 meant to recognize and enforce the principles of religious 
 liberty. Many Mohammedans began openly to purchase 
 copies of the Turkish Bible and to examine the claims of 
 Christianity. In September, 1857, officials of the govern- 
 ment in Constantinople carefully examined a Turkish 
 gentleman, Selim Effendi, and his wife, and gave a certifi- 
 cate that they had become Christians without compulsion, 
 and that " it was the will of His Majesty, the Sultan, that 
 every Ottoman subject, without exception, should enjoy 
 entire religious freedom." The spirit of inquiry spread 
 and a converted Turk was employed as an evangelist in 
 Constantinople and was unhindered in his labors among his 
 countrymen. 
 
 In 1858 religious meetings were held with Turks and 
 Koords in Eastern Turkey. In 1859 it was reported that 
 the Turkish governors of Sivas, Diarbekr, and Csesarea, 
 after considering cases of the conversion of Moslems to 
 Christianity, declared publicly that a Mohammedan who 
 became a Christian would not be molested. In I860 cases 
 were reported from the Taurus Mountains of converted 
 Moslems, and of others who were attendant upon Chris- 
 tian services. One of these was a member of the gover- 
 nor's council. In the vicinity of Aintab, at that time, some 
 thirty Mohammedans were in attendance upon Christian 
 services at one outstation. There were conversions of 
 Turks reported at Diarbekr, Harpoot, and Caesarea, fol- 
 lowed by baptism, and without disturbance. 
 
 Up to 1860 fifteen Moslem converts had been baptized 
 at Constantinople. One of these was a Turkish imam or 
 preacher. In an examination before the Minister of War 
 this imam declared that there were forty Turks in the city 
 
 [ 254 ]
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 
 
 who believed as he did. This spirit of inquiry was wide- 
 spread and continued until 1864. There was no doubt 
 that Christian ideals were spreading rapidly among the 
 Turks, and it is thought that the government formed the 
 opinion that a considerable number of Mohammedans were 
 desirous of reforming their own faith. Sultan Abdul Aziz 
 became suspicious and fearful, and set spies to watch the 
 missionaries. On a Sunday morning in Pera, Constanti- 
 nople, Selim Effendi, a Turkish evangelist, and some 
 twenty Turks were arrested as they emerged from their 
 places of worship and were cast into prison. Without trial 
 some of these men were sent into exile. 
 
 The official French paper, the Journal de Constantinople, 
 in its issue of August 4, 1864, published a leader supposed 
 to emanate from Ali Pasha, the grand vizier, in which the 
 arrest of the Christian Turks was charged to the alleged 
 fact that the zeal of the missionaries in making converts 
 amounted to a " veritable war," and that in this work 
 of proselyting seductive arts were employed. These 
 charges were investigated by the Minister of the United 
 States, and by the British ambassador, and not only were 
 the missionaries exonerated from all blame, but Earl Rus- 
 sell, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Great 
 Britain, strongly defended the missionaries and demanded 
 of Turkey that she maintain in her dealings with her 
 subjects the observance of the true principles of religious 
 liberty. Upon the demand of the English government 
 the exiled Turks were permitted to return. 
 
 It was at once understood by the Moslems that for them 
 there was no liberty to change their faith. It is true that 
 none were arrested upon the open charge of changing their 
 religion, but every conceivable pretense was trumped up 
 against them, to substantiate which any number of Moham- 
 
 [ 255 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 medan witnesses could be procured, and the Christian Mo- 
 hammedan was sent into exile, languished in prison, or 
 disappeared from view. Frequently missionaries attempted 
 to follow up a case of manifest persecution, but they 
 usually came upon a medical certificate that the man had 
 died in prison from fever or some other natural cause, or 
 lost all traces of the prisoner through frequent transfers 
 to distant parts. Some men are known to have been shot 
 by their guard in the transfer. 
 
 In the Treaty of Berlin, entered into in 1878 by Eng- 
 land, Austria, Russia, France, Italy, and Turkey, Arti- 
 cle 2 states that absolute religious liberty is to exist in all 
 the various territories mentioned in the preceding article 
 " including the whole Turkish empire." The sixty-second 
 article begins, " The Sublime Porte, having expressed its 
 willingness to maintain the principle of religious liberty 
 and to give it the widest sphere, the contracting parties 
 take cognizance of this spontaneous declaration." Then 
 follow specifications of how the sultan is to carry out these 
 principles. 
 
 In spite of these reiterated declarations, it is evident 
 that the Turkish government does not and never did in- 
 tend to acknowledge the right of a Moslem to become a 
 Christian. A high official once told the writer that Turkey 
 gives to all her subjects the widest religious liberty. He 
 said, " There is the fullest liberty for the Armenian to be- 
 come a Catholic, for the Greek to become an Armenian, 
 for the Catholic and Armenian to become Greeks, for any 
 one of them to become Protestant, or for all to become 
 Mohammedans. There is the fullest and completest re- 
 ligious liberty for all the subjects of this empire." 
 
 In response to the question, " How about liberty for 
 the Mohammedan to become a Christian ? " he replied, 
 
 [ 256 ]
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 
 
 " That is an impossibility in the nature of the case. When 
 one has once accepted Islam and become a follower of the 
 Prophet he cannot change. There is no power on earth 
 that can change him. Whatever he may say or claim 
 cannot alter the fact that he is a Moslem still and must 
 always be such. It is, therefore, an absurdity to say that 
 a Moslem has the privilege of changing his religion, for to 
 do so is beyond his power." For the last forty years the 
 actions of the official and influential Turks have borne 
 out this theory of religious liberty in the Ottoman empire. 
 Every Moslem showing interest in Christian things takes 
 his life in his hands. No protection can be afforded him 
 against the false charges that begin at once to multiply. 
 His only safety lies in flight. 
 
 17 [ 257 ]
 
 THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION
 
 Mb. G. B. Ravndal, until recently United States consul at Beirut, Syria, 
 is an intelligent and sympathetic witness of the progress of events in that part 
 of the Turkish empire. He writes, with special reference to the commercial 
 aspects of missionary advance, that " the Syria of to-day cannot be compared 
 with the Syria of twenty-five years ago. Education is working wonders, 
 raising the standard of living, multiplying and diversifying the requirements 
 of the people, developing the natural resources of the country, and increasing 
 the purchasing capacity of the individual. Illiteracy is on the wane, inde- 
 pendent thought is in the ascendant. We have printing-presses, railroads, 
 carriage-roads, bridges, postal and telegraph routes. Trade is increasing in 
 volume and variety, and the United States is getting a larger and larger share 
 of it. Our country, owing primarily to the efforts of our missionaries, is near 
 and dear to a large portion of the population, not only of this country, but of 
 the entire Levant — nay, even of Persia and the Sudan. Through our college 
 (at Beirut), with its School of Commerce and museums, through the mission 
 press, the industrial academy, and the experimental farm, missionaries have 
 become ambassadors of American trade, and as the foreign commerce of the 
 Levant swells into larger proportions — it is yet in its infancy — the United 
 States is getting a surer foothold in the near East." He also speaks of his 
 gratification in witnessing the increasing introduction of American machinery 
 into Syria, such as reaping, threshing, and milling machines, and expresses 
 his confidence that " Western Asia will before long become a market for our 
 agricultural, irrigation, and other machinery, which no manufacturer at 
 home will despise or ignore." He refers to the School of Commerce recently 
 established in connection with the American College at Beirut, with its 
 students drawn from a widely extended region, reaching from Trebizond on 
 the north to Khartum on the south, and from Albania in the west to Teheran 
 in the east, as an enterprise which is destined to " play a leading part in the 
 economics of the Levant." There is a business ring to testimonies like these 
 just quoted from men of official position in the East, which surely cannot be 
 credited to missionary partiality or misjudgment, and as such we are glad to 
 have the privilege of presenting them. — James S. Dennis, in "Christian 
 Missions and Social Progress."
 
 XXV. THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION 
 
 THE Albanians in Macedonia have been for more 
 than a generation a source of terror and a tower 
 of strength to the Turkish government. They num- 
 ber perhaps two million in the country and occupy a 
 region remote from the capital, and difficult to control. 
 They have never been fully loyal to the sultan or any other 
 ruler, and, occupying as they do the fastnesses of the 
 mountains along the western borders of Macedonia, they 
 have enjoyed unusual liberty. They have been referred 
 to as the least civilized of the European races. They are 
 warlike by inheritance and profession, and cling with an 
 intense devotion to their Albanian tongue. 
 
 They claim that they are direct descendants from the 
 ancient Pelasgi and are proud of their lineage. An Al- 
 banian prince told the writer not long since that he was of 
 the same race that gave Alexander the Great to the world. 
 They call themselves Skipeter or " the Eagle People." 
 The majority of the race have outwardly accepted Moham- 
 medanism but in most cases this is largely in form only. 
 As the Koran is permitted to circulate in Turkey only 
 in the Arabic tongue, and as few Albanians are acquainted 
 with that language, they have little knowledge of Islam, 
 and perhaps less love for it. Many of them are nominal 
 members of the Greek Church. 
 
 On the other hand, the Turkish government, through 
 the love of the Albanians for war, has brought many of 
 them into direct service to the state. Some of the best 
 and bravest officers in the Turkish army are Albanians. 
 Mohammed Ali Pasha, who reformed Egypt and founded 
 
 [ 261 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 the present khedival house, was an Albanian. They have 
 risen to the highest positions of influence and power in 
 the empire, not a few of them serving in the sultan's cabi- 
 net. This reveals the native strength of this people, and 
 the reason why the sultan jealously guards the race in 
 his attempt to hold them true to Mohammedanism and 
 loyal to himself. Their very strength of character makes 
 them bold and fearless in the fastnesses of their remote 
 mountain home, and hard to subdue ; but when they declare 
 allegiance to a cause or a person they cannot be diverted 
 by fear or favor. 
 
 This sturdy people with high codes of honor in their 
 dealings with each other and with strangers number about 
 one-tenth of the Mohammedan population of the Turkish 
 empire. Until within a few years they have been regarded 
 as inaccessible to the missionary and to the Christian 
 worker. Recently mission work in Macedonia has come 
 into contact with them and a few have embraced Chris- 
 tianity. Nearly twenty years ago a school for girls was 
 started in Kortcha, one of their chief cities, conducted 
 by Albanian Christians, and in the Albanian language. 
 Some of the chief men gladly put their daughters in the 
 school, but were later compelled by the sultan to with- 
 draw them. 
 
 The Albanians constitute one of the vital race problems 
 of Macedonia. They are eager for modern education and 
 are restless under the restrictive and oppressive rule of 
 the Porte. If they become, as a race, members of the 
 Greek Church, as many have already become, their influence 
 will be cast against the rule of the sultan and in favor of 
 outside protection. If the Turks can hold them to a ser- 
 vile Mohammedanism, they will greatly strengthen the 
 power of the throne at Constantinople. Upon the other 
 
 [ 262 ]
 
 THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION 
 
 hand, if they insist upon a modern education for their 
 children, and enter upon an impartial investigation of the 
 merits of Protestant Christianity, there is no standard 
 for measuring their influences on the other races of Mace- 
 donia. Albanians in large numbers are coming to the 
 United States, and here they seek education for themselves 
 and plead eagerly for assistance that they may be able 
 to give greater educational and religious privileges to their 
 children at home. 
 
 This race is but a part of the Macedonian question 
 which has been agitating Turkey and Europe for the 
 past few years. If the demands of the European Powers 
 are acceded to, the hold of the sultan upon Macedonia 
 will be weakened, although not broken. It has been well 
 known for the last twenty years that, with every weakening 
 of the sultan's power, strength has never returned to it. 
 Should there be a withdrawal of Turkish rule from Mace- 
 donia, including Albania, it would remove all restraint 
 from the Albanians and give them full freedom to educate 
 their children and to worship God according to the dic- 
 tates of their consciences. Under these circumstances few 
 would probably remain Mohammedans for any length of 
 time. To Turkey these conditions contain mighty possi- 
 bilities, nor are they without deep significance to the 
 entire Moslem world. It may be that we are to-day wit- 
 nessing a break in the Moslem ranks that have hitherto 
 presented a solid wall of opposition to every Christian 
 approach. There is no phase of the present Turkish ques- 
 tion which is more important or significant. 
 
 Besides the Albanians, Macedonia has three most dis- 
 cordant national elements consisting of Turks, Bulgarians, 
 and Greeks. The Bulgarians are eager for the extension 
 of the Bulgarian principality south to the sea, while the 
 
 [ 263 ]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 Greeks desire the extension of the kingdom of Greece 
 eastward to include that part of Macedonia in which a 
 large number of Greeks dwell. The Turks represent the 
 government and are strenuously opposed to both these 
 tendencies, and they express their opposition in every kind 
 of repressive measure known to the Porte. To this is 
 added the rivalry and hostile jealousies existing between 
 the Greek and Bulgarian churches in the country, and 
 the resultant condition of affairs is about as bad as well 
 can be. 
 
 Marauding parties, formed and armed in many in- 
 stances upon the Bulgarian side of the border, have pene- 
 trated into Macedonia, terrorizing all classes and clashing 
 with the Turkish troops. These have operated for several 
 years. The object of these expeditions apparently was to 
 arouse the attention of the world to the misgovernment 
 of the country and so secure outside intervention, and con- 
 sequent reform. Their purpose has been offset by the law- 
 lessness of the Turkish soldiers, and between the two the 
 innocent citizen and peasant are ground almost to powder. 
 There are also Greek bands of marauders who strike terror 
 to the regions in which they operate. 
 
 It is to restore some degree of order and to prevent the 
 country from running into absolute lawlessness, that the 
 European Powers have endeavored to unite and secure 
 for Macedonia a systematic and safe administration. If 
 the Powers succeed in this effort, we may reasonably hope 
 that the hold of Turkey upon Macedonia will soon begin 
 to break and that ultimately all that section of Europe 
 will be free of Turkish rule. The sultan will not yield 
 those rich and fertile provinces of his empire willingly, 
 but he is powerless to resist the demands of the combined 
 Powers of Europe. 
 
 [264 ]
 
 GENERAL POLITICAL SITUATION
 
 There are no indications of the presence of the "Young Turk" secret 
 organization, but there is a growing discontent with the present regime. This 
 is caused (1) by individual dissatisfaction with injustice, increased taxation 
 and harsh military service; (2) by the racial ambition of Arabic-speaking 
 Moslems who regard the Turk as a barbarian and of doubtful orthodoxy, 
 and are restive under Turkish rule which allots them few positions, civil or 
 military. Many Arabs wish the caliphate assumed by one of their race and 
 would bring the capital of Islam near if not into Arabia, its cradle. This 
 politico-religious aspiration is ascribed to Midhat Pasha and has been fostered, 
 since his day, by pamphlets widely scattered and by secret societies. (3) Dis- 
 content also results from impotent rage at the waning political power of Islam 
 under Turkish leadership. Moslem supremacy has been lost in Mount Leba- 
 non, in most European provinces, in part of Asia Minor, in Cyprus, Crete, 
 Egypt, and is now imperilled in North Africa. (4) Another cause of discontent 
 is realization of the fact that universal corruption is sapping the vitality of the 
 empire and dissipating its resources. (5) To these causes is added knowl- 
 edge that other lands have secured improved material conditions and equable 
 justice without interference with religious observances. This embitters by 
 contrast their present situation. Emigration, which has taken tens of thou- 
 sands of Christians from Syria, has lately begun to draw from the Moslems. 
 The letters of the absent and the influence of those who have returned are 
 factors of unrest. That any or all of these elements of political ferment will 
 produce any revolt is improbable. No leader could expect success with an 
 unarmed and poor set of followers nor could he unify and harmonize hostile 
 sects. — From "The Mohammedan World of To-day."
 
 XXVI. GENERAL POLITICAL SITUATION 
 
 THE political situation in Turkey can well be summed 
 up as " A fifteenth century Oriental government 
 in conflict with modern civilization." This con- 
 dition is aggravated by the existence of European rivalries 
 and jealousies and Mohammedan fanaticism. The combi- 
 nation of these forces is hard to analyze and its results 
 even more difficult to forecast. 
 
 The first, and in some respects the most evident, diffi- 
 culty especially manifest to those who reside in the empire, 
 is the intellectual, social, and moral upheaval caused by 
 the influence of Christian civilization upon the people as 
 a whole. New and, to that country, startling ideas of 
 religious freedom, human rights, and the true functions of 
 a government, have taken hold upon large numbers out 
 of every nationality and religion. So long as the govern- 
 ment of Turkey is conducted according to Oriental fifteenth 
 century ideals, it is inevitable that there must be a conflict, 
 trying both to the government and to the governed. So 
 long as the people were densely ignorant, knowing little 
 of the world outside and far less of the principle that 
 governs civilized people, they made little complaint. As 
 enlightenment came to them from various sources, it was in- 
 evitable that unrest should also come. Had Turkey been 
 able to adjust herself to the new situation and move for- 
 ward in her administrative methods, keeping pace with 
 the growing intelligence of her subjects, she might have 
 become one of the strong, compact, and thrifty nations 
 of the East. 
 
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 She chose otherwise and began early to devise and put 
 into execution plans for the suppression of general edu- 
 cation. At the same time, the press was throttled by a 
 severe censorship and all who were suspected of thinking 
 for themselves came under a ban. Turkey, in her feeble 
 way, attempted to follow the lead of Russia in this respect, 
 and did so undoubtedly under Russian advice. The fail- 
 ure to protect property has discouraged the investment 
 of capital. Industries languished and have almost died 
 out. Inevitably enterprising men would seek to emigrate. 
 When once outside the country few incline to return so 
 long as present conditions continue. In fact, the govern- 
 ment discourages the return of any who have been abroad, 
 fearing the new ideas they acquired in Europe and the 
 United States. At the present time the government prac- 
 tically forbids the return to Turkey of all who have been 
 in civilized countries, endeavoring to maintain a wall of 
 seclusion against all ideas of modern civilization. Turkey 
 calls such people dangerous characters and throws them 
 into prison as revolutionists. 
 
 This dangerous class includes Albanians, Turks, Greeks, 
 Syrians, and Armenians. In most respects among these 
 are found the most enlightened people of the country. 
 Some of the educated Turks have obtained their new ideas 
 from sources within the country, while others have studied 
 in Europe. Many of them have come into more modern 
 ideas of a government and its functions, and would gladly 
 see changes made which would bring Turkey into harmony 
 with Europe. These are called the new Turks, and are clas- 
 sified roughly together as the " New Turk party." They 
 are not revolutionists in the ordinary sense of that word. 
 They find no favor with the reigning sultan, and are 
 exiled and even executed without trial. The party, al- 
 
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 though apparently not organized, is a fact, and the spirit 
 of reform is spreading among the Turks. Measures to 
 suppress this movement are generally secret and are seldom 
 reported abroad. A Turk once told the writer that " when 
 outrages are perpetrated against the Christians, the whole 
 world lifts up its hands in horror and the sultan is ordered 
 to cease ; but when the poor Turks are the victims, where 
 is there a voice raised in their defense? " 
 
 Naturally the Turkish government fears the Armenians 
 since they have made such rapid progress in education 
 during the last eighty years. Since Bulgaria became 
 practically an independent state, Turkey has tightened 
 its hold upon Armenia. At the same time, the Armenians, 
 seeing the great freedom and prosperity enjoyed by the 
 Bulgarians, have cherished dreams of the time when they 
 too might be free. While all Armenians have at times 
 indulged in such visions, but few have ever seriously con- 
 sidered the proposition a practicable one. Only the most 
 rattle-headed of them declare such a plan possible and 
 only such are advocating revolutionary measures to that 
 end. Armenia (a name not permitted in Turkey) can 
 hardly be erected into an independent nation, although 
 it would be impossible to convince Sultan Hamid II of that 
 fact. He governs as if he expected hourly that Armenia 
 may rise and demand its freedom, although the Moham- 
 medans are everywhere greatly in the majority. 
 
 There are, however, a considerable number of Armenians 
 who have been driven to desperation by the injustice and 
 cruelty of the government. Aware that they are power- 
 less to reform Turkey, they declare their inability longer 
 to endure. These resort to acts of desperation with the 
 hope that Europe will become aroused, as it did in the case 
 of Bulgaria, and interfere in the interests of the oppressed. 
 
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 Small revolutionary parties called by various names have 
 been organized in Macedonia, in Armenia, and especially 
 in border countries like Bulgaria, Russia, and Persia, for 
 the secretly avowed purpose of compelling the attention 
 and interference of Europe. They have stirred the Turks 
 to acts of extreme cruelty, but have egregiously failed 
 to accomplish their purpose. 
 
 These internal affairs which disturb and vex the people 
 almost beyond endurance are allowed to continue, un- 
 checked by European interference, because the nations 
 of Europe cannot agree to act together, nor can they trust 
 any one to act for the rest. England's influence, which was 
 supreme when the Treaty of Berlin was signed, has been 
 superseded by Russia, and she in turn has taken, more 
 recently, second place to Germany. The sultan, most 
 astute of all, is able to set rivalry, jealousy, and suspicion 
 against suspicion, jealousy and rivalry, and while they 
 quarrel over methods and precedents, he works his will. 
 No diplomat is able to cope with the sultan of Turkey, 
 because his statements cannot be relied upon, while his 
 promises are meaningless. Every ambassador and minis- 
 ter learns this to his sorrow, but is powerless to meet the 
 conditions created by it. To call the sovereign of a state 
 to which he is accredited " a falsifier " would not be dip- 
 lomatic, and might strain existing relations, and to meet 
 falsehood with falsehood is against the principles of rep- 
 resentatives of the Christian nations. While the foreign 
 legations are considering these problems the sultan con- 
 tinues his own way. 
 
 The present unsettled condition in Russia and the de- 
 feat of that country by the Japanese will undoubtedly 
 weaken her influence over the sultan. The emperor of Ger- 
 many, while maintaining friendly relations with Hamid II, 
 
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 does not seem to attempt to restrain him in his acts of 
 violence against his own subjects. If he would, it is be- 
 lieved by many that Emperor William might accomplish 
 much in bringing about reform measures in Turkey, if the 
 other Powers of Europe would permit him to do so. 
 
 Financially Turkey seems to be upon the verge of bank- 
 ruptcy. Her system of assessing taxes, paralyzing in- 
 dustry, and her method of often collecting from the poor 
 taxpayer many times the amount due, have impoverished 
 the country. The occasional general massacres in different 
 sections have been terribly destructive to national wealth, 
 striking directly at its sources. The strained political 
 situation is due in no small measure to the economic con- 
 ditions of that country, accompanied by the unjust ad- 
 ministration of the government. If Turkey could afford 
 her subjects of all classes a safe and just government, it 
 might soon be one of the most prosperous and thrifty 
 countries in Asia, comparing favorably with the govern- 
 ments of Europe. 
 
 What the future will bring forth for Turkey no one can 
 predict. Some twelve years ago the writer asked an old 
 and experienced diplomat at Constantinople what was to 
 be the outcome of the then threatening conditions in the 
 country. His reply was, " I have studied Turkey from 
 within and without for thirty years, and have carefully 
 weighed the diverse forces that are operating in the em- 
 pire. I have come to one clear and final conclusion which 
 I am certain will stand the test of time, and that is that 
 I do not know anything about what the future will pro- 
 duce here." 
 
 One thing is sure, the methods of government which 
 were successful there six centuries ago cannot be con- 
 tinued indefinitely. Modern thought and ideas will not 
 
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 submit in patience and quietness forever to the oppressive 
 measures of the middle ages. Dawn is breaking and it is 
 useless for the night to rail at its coming. Intelligent 
 belief will win in the end, and justice and righteousness 
 must triumph. This may cost the shedding of blood, but 
 indications do not point that way. A mighty revolution 
 is already in progress which will accomplish its purpose, 
 in time, by the simple laws of God wrought out by the 
 lives and acts of intelligent and righteous men. The forces 
 of reform are in operation, not only in institutions, but 
 in the hearts and in the longings, and in the purposes, of 
 men of all classes and races. It propagates itself as it 
 moves from coast to coast, and from plain to mountain 
 fastness, gaining in force and depth and breadth with 
 every decade. Present conditions cannot indefinitely con- 
 tinue. Times may be worse before they are better, but even 
 greater changes are inevitable and at no remotely distant 
 day. God is in his heavens and he is guiding the affairs of 
 the Turkish empire. 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
 
 In the Mohammedan dominions of Turkey missionary institutions have 
 graduated men who have in many instances occupied government positions 
 on account of their superior capabilities, in spite of the fact that Christian 
 officials are greatly handicapped by Moslem prejudices. In the case of the 
 Bulgarian graduates of Robert College, it was said in 1902, by a missionary 
 of the American Board then residing at Sofia, that " since the beginning of the 
 national administration of Bulgaria, in 1878, there has been no government 
 ministry without one at least, and often two or three, Robert College members. 
 The present Secretary of the Cabinet, whose ability has preserved his position 
 for him during ten years, and under eight successive ministries, is one of these 
 men." The judge of the supreme court, besides the mayor of Sofia, and 
 many others in diplomatic, judicial, or clerical posts, are all Robert College 
 men. The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut has graduated men who, as 
 government appointees, occupy positions of responsibility, and exert no little 
 influence in the administration of political and judicial affairs in Syria, 
 especially in the Mount Lebanon government. Its medical graduates, 
 moreover, are to be found in the military and civil service in almost all sections 
 of Asiatic Turkey, and notably under the Egyptian administration. — James 
 S. Dennis in "Christian Missions and Social Progress." 
 
 Many causes have combined, many factors are present, many influences 
 have turned the hearts of men through that empire [Turkey] ; but if we ask 
 ourselves what the governing and final factor is which has brought about the 
 first of the world's bloodless revolutions, which has seen a people divided 
 and dissevered by creed, by race, by language, by every conceivable differ- 
 ence which can separate the sons and daughters of men, suddenly act 
 together — we do ill if we forget that for eighty years the American mission- 
 aries have been laying the foundations and preaching the doctrine which 
 makes free government possible. — Talcott Williams, LL.D., editor 
 Philadelphia Press, in an address at Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1908.
 
 XXVII. CONSTITUTIONAL 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 1ATE in 1902 a plan for administrative reform in 
 . the Adrianople, Salonica, and Monastir Provinces 
 of European Turkey was published. These included 
 Macedonia where disorders and atrocities had become 
 chronic. Under this measure the valis or governors were 
 given new powers and an inspector general was appointed 
 reporting directly to the grand vizier. The Powers com- 
 pelled the addition of a financial commission representing 
 them, which should examine the budget of the three vi- 
 layets and recommend improvements. With the aid of 
 three Ottoman inspectors, the commission was to super- 
 vise the provincial finances and in other ways bring relief 
 to the untoward conditions of the inhabitants. The gen- 
 darmerie was put under a foreign officer with an Italian 
 general in command, and much improved in efficiency. 
 
 A three per cent increase in the customs duties provided 
 funds for securing other reforms. These, however, it must 
 be said, existed largely upon paper. While the Powers 
 ostensibly had some responsibility and authority in the 
 administration of affairs in Macedonia, the sultan was able 
 in ways so well known to himself to thwart their exercise 
 of it while the discordant elements in Albania and Mace- 
 donia made conditions for all classes more intolerable than 
 ever. 
 
 Again, early in 1908, the Powers gave hesitating atten- 
 tion to this plague-spot of Europe as one united cry of 
 distress arose from all tongues, the Turkish, Greek, Bul- 
 garian, and Albanian alike. It is impossible to say which 
 
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 race was the greatest sufferer or which the freest from 
 oppression. Practically the entire country was in a state 
 of anarchy and there was none to deliver. On March 13, 
 1908, the Porte reluctantly consented to the British pro- 
 posal that the mandates of foreign officials in Macedonia 
 be renewed for a period of seven years. A budget was 
 adopted for the support of the army, the civil list, and the 
 railway, which threatened a deficit of nearly $4,000,000. 
 With all these arrangements no party to the transaction 
 was satisfied, except those European Powers that hoped, in 
 the end, to make political capital out of Macedonia's afflic- 
 tion. These entered reluctantly into agreement as did also 
 the sultan, who saw his personal power in the three prov- 
 inces gradually wane; but his former experiences made 
 him quick to read the signs of the times. 
 
 In the meantime the army in those provinces had been 
 reenforced. Monastir, upon the border of Albania and con- 
 nected by rail with Salonica, was made an important mili- 
 tary post. The people themselves had no faith that these 
 measures would assure them of safety of life and property, 
 while the representatives of the Porte were anxious to 
 demonstrate that the scheme of the Powers was not calcu- 
 lated to restore and maintain order. Matters went on 
 from intolerable to worse until plunder, robbery, brigand- 
 age and murder became daily occurrences in practically all 
 parts of the country. These were the conditions that pre- 
 vailed in Macedonia the latter part of July, 1908. 
 
 What were some of the general conditions in Turkey 
 which led directly to the uprising in Macedonia soon after 
 the 20th of July, 1908, resulting in the revival of the 
 constitution for all Turkey which had remained inactive 
 since 1877? Sultan Hamid II has been an absolute ruler. 
 His pride has centered in his complete personal mastery 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 over every department of government and all officials, both 
 civil and military. As he advanced in years, he became in- 
 creasingly suspicious of every one holding office or occupy- 
 ing a position of influence. He seemed so morbidly afraid 
 of a popular uprising that any mention of an Armenian 
 revolution or reference to a constitutional government or 
 suggestion of a Young or New Turkey party, threw him 
 into a state of nervous panic. In order to protect his own 
 person, to guard his administration from corruption by 
 men who thought in terms of modern government, and to 
 suppress any and all movements toward reform, he gradu- 
 ally built up about him a cumbersome, cruel and expensive 
 system of espionage. Every official from the grand vizier 
 at the Porte to the postmaster in a remote inland village 
 was watched and reported upon. One official was directed 
 to make secret reports upon a colleague and all men of 
 wealth and consequent influence, and especially all who had 
 received a degree of modern education were always under 
 sleepless surveillance from the watch-dogs of the palace. 
 
 No one knows how many of these men were engaged in 
 the secret service, but there were undoubtedly many thou- 
 sands. Some drew salaries of large proportion while others 
 were paid according to the service rendered. These spies 
 well knew that they too were under observation by others 
 who had been commissioned to see that they were loyal to 
 their chief. The gates of the foreign embassies were 
 guarded, and the names of all Ottoman subjects who en- 
 tered them were reported to the police. Everywhere these 
 sleuth-hounds of Yildez were doing their best to justify 
 their appointment, and, if possible, to secure a rise in 
 salary or a handsome bonus. It is reported that this large 
 corps of secret service men were the only officials who 
 received liberal pay and who got it regularly and in cash. 
 
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 Through information thus obtained, strange things took 
 place. Of course there were never any hearings or trials. 
 None were necessary when trusted spies had reported ad- 
 versely. Groups of students in the government schools 
 disappeared and the parents even did not dare ask a ques- 
 tion. Men of wealth found themselves bundled off to 
 Arabia in poverty, and officials in honor on one day were in 
 exile, if not in their graves, on the next. The only thing 
 certain about the life of an influential and intelligent Otto- 
 man subject was his being under strict surveillance by those 
 who were mainly concerned to satisfy their chief of their 
 own efficiency. 
 
 During recent years the one horror of the sultan has 
 been the " Young Turks," which meant Turkish subjects 
 who know about good government and are eager to see it 
 tried in Turkey. All who were suspected of harboring 
 such ideas were summarily treated. Many such have been 
 banished into interior provinces such as Macedonia, Asia 
 Minor, Armenia and Syria. Some were given minor offices 
 in their place of banishment, but all have been diligent in 
 promoting their ideas. There is hardly a town of impor- 
 tance in Turkey to which one or more of these intelligent, 
 thinking Ottoman subjects has not been exiled and where 
 they have not propagated their principles of reform as 
 opportunity offered. This seed-sowing of modern ideas 
 has been broadcast, and the seed has fallen into rich soil. 
 During these years, secretly and in the dark, multitudes of 
 Ottoman subjects have been studying the science of govern- 
 ment with the best educated in the empire as instructors. 
 The lesson has not been the less impressive because secret 
 and the teacher none the less in earnest because his pro- 
 fession was perilous. Wherever these exiles went they 
 found the people writhing under injustice. Excessive 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 taxes were assessed and then collected by extortionate of- 
 ficials who, in the name of the sultan, carried on a system 
 of public robbery. Taxes paid in the spring were again 
 demanded in the autumn, the peasant having no defense in 
 the absence of tax receipts. These teachers of a possible 
 new order of things did not need to take time to persuade 
 their hearers that a change was desirable. Restlessness, 
 approaching a state of sheer desperation, everywhere pre- 
 vailed. In the meantime, revolutionary committees or 
 organizations among Armenians and perhaps other na- 
 tionalities had identified themselves sympathetically, if not 
 formally, with the New Turkey party. 
 
 Government by espionage and instruction of the masses 
 by banished reformers have been going on in all parts of 
 Turkey for many years, no one can say with certainty how 
 many. It was inevitable that a crisis must come. The ad- 
 ditional fact that all public officials, especially the army, 
 were poorly paid on paper, if at all, brought things to a 
 pass that seemed to be waiting only for a leader or an 
 occasion to precipitate concerted action. 
 
 Such was the situation in Macedonia the latter part of 
 July, 1908. The large army, half starved and underpaid, 
 was sent into the country to put down lawlessness among 
 a people made desperate by prolonged oppression. Previ- 
 ous experiences had satisfied the soldiers that in battling 
 with the hardy mountaineers, many of whom were fighting 
 for their homes, they had little chance of success. Why 
 should they throw their lives away in a useless conflict with 
 people of their own blood, and for a sovereign who ap- 
 peared scarcely grateful. This was indeed an opportune 
 hour to strike a blow for liberty. It is not yet known how 
 completely the New Turks — called in Macedonia, the 
 " Committee of Ottoman Union and Progress " — had 
 
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 organized, but subsequent events show an excellent degree 
 of cooperation. 
 
 In Monastir the army took oath of allegiance to this 
 committee; the troops in Salonica, Kortcha and other 
 parts of the country followed in their lead. A few officers 
 who hesitated were summarily shot. Proclamations in 
 the name of the committee were posted in the leading 
 cities asking all to join the society. At Kortcha in Al- 
 bania, for instance, a time limit was set for joining the 
 movement, after which all outside were to be regarded as 
 traitors. In all Macedonia there seemed to be little hesi- 
 tation. Other proclamations enjoining orderly conduct 
 were posted, and within five days Macedonia was more 
 quiet and life and property safer than for twenty years 
 previously. 
 
 In the meantime, the leaders were in telegraphic commu- 
 nication with the sultan at Constantinople. What had 
 taken place was reported to him, and he was asked to de- 
 clare a constitutional government without delay. It was 
 intimated that the army was ready to march on Constanti- 
 nople if he refused. He hesitated for a while, but when he 
 learned that the Albanians were in the forefront of the 
 movement, and that he could not depend upon the troops, 
 he yielded to a demand he could not resist. Ferid Pasha, 
 his Albanian grand vizier, was summarily dismissed. Said 
 Pasha was appointed to succeed him and Kiamil Pasha was 
 placed upon the Council of Ministers ; both men of liberal 
 ideas who had been saved by Great Britain when there was 
 a price upon their heads. Stormy debates followed in the 
 palace at Constantinople as to what could be done to meet 
 the demands of the formidable committee in Macedonia. 
 Honeyed words and paper promotions had proved unavail- 
 ing and repeated telegrams from the front spoke of 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 urgency. At last the sultan yielded and, on Friday, the 
 24th of July, issued an irade restoring the constitution of 
 1876 that had been suspended since 1877. 
 
 The constitution which is now revived was sanctioned 
 by Sultan Hamid II soon after he came to the throne in 
 1876. At that time a European Commission met in Con- 
 stantinople to suggest methods by which the sultan might 
 set in order his European provinces. He desired to show 
 Europe that he was able to work out reforms of his own. 
 He therefore appointed a well-recognized reformer as grand 
 vizier and proclaimed a constitution. This provided for a 
 responsible ministry, a senate, a chamber of deputies, the 
 right of public meeting, freedom of the press, the appoint- 
 ment of judges for life, compulsory intermediate education, 
 religious liberty, and a long list of other rights and priv- 
 ileges belonging to an enlightened and free government. 
 Within two months, Midhat Pasha, who drafted the con- 
 stitution, was banished. 
 
 An election, however, was held and, in 1877, the Senate 
 and the Chamber of Deputies met in a Parliament House 
 that had been fitted up by the sultan in Constantinople. 
 At that time in his speech from the throne, he repeated 
 his promise for social reforms and a reorganization 
 of the army and navy. The two houses were discussing 
 this address when war broke out in Russia. Martial 
 law was proclaimed in May, and in June parliament 
 was adjourned. Once again that year it was assembled 
 but the sultan was not pleased with the independence 
 exhibited, so in February, 1878, it was dissolved or 
 ;< suspended " as he preferred to call it. It never met 
 again. 
 
 This is the constitution to which the thoroughly alarmed 
 sultan turned as the demand came up from his trusted 
 
 [281]
 
 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 troops, beloved Albanians and faithful Moslems in Mace- 
 donia, for immediate and effectual reforms. 
 
 To this he solemnly swore fidelity in the most sacred 
 way known to the Moslem, namely, upon the Koran. The 
 Sheik-ul-Islam, the supreme high priest of the Moham- 
 medan faith, exhibited to the people in Constantinople 
 the book upon which this oath was taken, and made public 
 declaration that it is the purpose of the sultan faithfully 
 to carry out his pledge. He even went further than this 
 and said that it is the spirit of Islam to give the fullest 
 religious freedom to all subjects of the empire and to 
 guarantee constitutional justice and liberty. All this com- 
 mitted the sultan to the constitution far more irrevocably 
 than he was committed in 1876. It made also the Sheik-ul- 
 Islam witness and SDonsor to the people of the sultan's 
 promise. 
 
 The announcement that a constitutional government was 
 granted was wired to the impatient leaders in Macedonia 
 and published in the papers in Constantinople. The re- 
 sult was unparalleled in the history of any country in any 
 age. All Turkey gave way to a carnival of joy. An 
 order was issued abolishing the secret service, and freedom 
 of the press was guaranteed by the constitution. All po- 
 litical prisoners were released and those in exile were in- 
 vited back to their homes. Incidentally the prison doors 
 were thrown wide open and the criminal shared the common 
 joy of all. The occupation of the censors of the press 
 was gone and every paper in the empire spread the glad 
 news that a new day had dawned. New papers started 
 like mushrooms in a night. Representatives from the com- 
 mittee in Macedonia proceeded to Constantinople and ap- 
 parently came to an understanding with the sultan as to 
 the situation. He was plainly told, it is persistently ru- 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 mored, that if he did not appoint as ministers men of their 
 choosing, his only safety would He in abdication. The old 
 members of the cabinet, representing the regime of op- 
 pression, disappeared or were imprisoned, and the new men 
 quietly stepped into their places. Isset Pasha, the much 
 hated secretary of the sultan, in spite of efforts by the new 
 party to retain him, succeeded in boarding a British vessel 
 at Constantinople and escaping to England. 
 
 The people of Turkey, with centuries of repressive dis- 
 cipline in the political school of the empire, were supposed 
 to have lost the faculty of spontaneous exultation or gen- 
 eral demonstration of joy. But impelled by a sense of 
 liberty never before experienced, the entire population 
 broke into an outburst of appreciation for the new order 
 of things such as Turkey had never before witnessed. 
 
 The people gathered by thousands and by tens of thou- 
 sands in the public squares of their cities to listen to the 
 proclamation of liberty and the firing of salutes in honor of 
 the occasion. These crowds were composed of Christians 
 and Moslems, who only a few days before had seemed 
 to hate each other with deadliest hatred. Now they clapped 
 their hands and joined their voices in shouting " Long live 
 the Fatherland," " Long live the People," " Long live 
 Liberty," " Long live the Constitution." Christian and 
 Moslem leaders embraced and kissed one another in public 
 while tears rolled down the cheeks of thousands as they 
 took part in the festivities. Great assemblies were ad- 
 dressed by Mohammedan and Christian speakers, all of 
 whom exhorted the people to unity and the maintenance 
 of order, declaring that religious distinctions were now 
 done away, as all pledged their allegiance to the new con- 
 stitution and to the Ottoman empire. In an immense pro- 
 cession in Salonica a float was drawn upon which rode a girl 
 
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 DAYBREAK IN TURKEY 
 
 dressed as the Goddess of Liberty. At Constantinople in 
 one of the large Gregorian churches, the assembly was ad- 
 dressed by both Mohammedans and Christians and the 
 Moslem band played the Armenian national air. For an 
 Armenian to have sung this air one month before would 
 have meant exile or death. 
 
 In one of the principal mosques of the capital a memo- 
 rial service for the Armenians slain in the massacre of 1898 
 was held in which Moslems and Christians fraternally 
 joined. This was followed by a similar mass meeting in an 
 Armenian church in memory of the Mohammedans who had 
 laid down their lives for the freedom of their country. AD 
 united in the declaration that the massacred Armenians 
 and the Moslems dying in exile were brothers in their 
 common sacrifice for the freedom of Turkey. 
 
 These scenes of spontaneous celebration enacted in the 
 great centers of population indicated the universal readi- 
 ness of the people for the proclamation and their unanimity 
 in the reforms. It is indeed an uprising of the people for 
 liberty and, by meeting their demands, the sultan, for the 
 time, has made himself the most popular ruler sitting upon 
 any throne. The carnival of joy gives hint of what their 
 disappointment will be should there be any breach of good 
 faith in securing to them all the privileges granted by the 
 constitution. Not the least of their joy is in the marvel 
 that this revolution has been brought about almost without 
 the shedding of blood. A few in Macedonia who hesitated 
 to join the new party were executed, but in Constanti- 
 nople there was no loss of life in completing the transfer 
 from the old to the new regime. 
 
 The masses of Turkey know little of the duties and re- 
 sponsibilities of a parliament. They are launching out 
 upon an experiment, unknown and untried. It remains 
 
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 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 to be seen how they will meet their own expectations in 
 the measure of self-government which the constitution 
 grants. There are many able, educated men among the 
 Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Albanians. 
 The question is : Will these, laying aside all national and 
 religious jealousies, be able to work together in the crea- 
 tion of a new government, and all under the leadership of 
 Sultan Hamid? It is also an open question whether the 
 sultan himself, after a life of absolutism, can adapt himself 
 to the new order and execute it in a way to insure a sym- 
 pathetic following and substantial success. 
 
 There is danger that the people may be unreasonable in 
 their demands and rebel against the collection of taxes ade- 
 quate for the proper conduct of the government. Only 
 a beginning has yet been made. Much remains to be 
 done. 
 
 In all the history of Turkey a reform has never been 
 inaugurated with the same solemnity and religious sanc- 
 tion that attended the recent declaration of constitutional 
 government. The highest sanction of Islam has been ac- 
 corded it, and, so far as we can see, the sultan could not 
 materially alter his course without bringing himself per- 
 sonally in the eyes of the people into open conflict with his 
 own religion and the faith of the great majority of his 
 subjects. It is conceivable that, if he should find it impos- 
 sible faithfully to carry out the provisions of the consti- 
 tution, he will be asked to step aside and permit his 
 constitutionally proclaimed successor to fulfil his oath of 
 loyalty. 
 
 Under a constitutional government well established and 
 righteously administered, there are boundless possibilities 
 for the material, intellectual, political, and moral advance 
 of the empire, so long regarded as decadent. This can be 
 
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 accomplished only by tireless labors and great sacrifices 
 upon the part of those who bear the responsibility. But 
 it can be done if all national and traditional differences are 
 buried, in the one patriotic purpose to restore the country 
 to something of its former power and glory, and to weld 
 the masses of its divergent population into a homogeneous 
 nation. 
 
 It is to be sincerely hoped that the European Powers 
 will not interfere with this endeavor upon the part of 
 the people of Turkey to establish for themselves a safe 
 and just government. They have the right to a free 
 hand in working out the problem of government for them- 
 selves, so long as they do not plunge the country into 
 anarchy. 
 
 There has never been a time when Western peoples have 
 had a greater opportunity to aid materially in making 
 stable the new order of things in the Ottoman empire. 
 Under the Constitution, with compulsory education and 
 a free press, Turkey will require aid from without in or- 
 ganizing and establishing schools all over the country, and 
 in the preparation of a literature of the widest range. 
 These needs are at once apparent. The colleges in the 
 country should be immediately enlarged and strengthened 
 that they may be able to meet the demands that will be 
 made upon them. The entire country is in need of normal 
 schools to train teachers for educational institutions of 
 the preparatory grades. Turkey needs and deserves the 
 sympathy and cooperation of other nations, not by way 
 of interference, but by way of fraternal assistance and 
 genuine help to the full realization of all the benefits of 
 a representative and a constitutional government. The 
 motto which seems to have been adopted by common 
 consent is, " Liberty, Justice, Equality and Fraternity." 
 
 [ 286 ]
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 Every friend of constitutional government can sympa- 
 thetically join with the people of Turkey in their honest 
 endeavor to establish a new order for themselves upon 
 these four corner-stones as their basis of union and mutual 
 well-being. 
 
 [ 287 ]
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aden, 133. 
 Adrianople, 33, 173. 
 Agriculture, methods, 23, 233; prod- 
 ucts, 23, 24. 
 Aintab, 139, 171; medical work, 208. 
 Albanians, 78, 80, 261 ; work among, 
 
 262. 
 American Bible Society, 154. 
 American Board of Commissioners 
 
 for Foreign Missions, 90, 145, 146. 
 American College for Girls, 189. 
 Amurath I, 1359-1403, 33. 
 Anatolia College, 191, 234. 
 Anderson, Sec. Rufus, 123, 171, 183. 
 Angell, James B., quotation, 136. 
 Arabia, missions in, 132. 
 Armenia, traditional history, 65 ; 
 
 political history, 66; population, 
 
 67; religious history, 68. 
 Armenian Church, Evangelical; see 
 
 Evangelical Armenian Church. 
 Armenian Church, Gregorian; see 
 
 Gregorian Church. 
 Armenian Evangelical Union, 163. 
 Armenians, 65-70 ; tour among, 123- 
 
 126; interest in, 144, 149; desire 
 
 for political freedom, 269. 
 Army, organization of, 43. 
 
 Bajazet I, 33. 
 
 Barnmn, H. N., 186, 216. 
 
 Barton, George A., quotation, 118. 
 
 Beach, Harlan P., quotation, 180. 
 
 Bebek, boys' school, 164, 171 ; semi- 
 nary, 182. 
 
 Beirut, 122, 137 ; medical work, 208 ; 
 press, 199; school, 184; Syrian 
 Protestant College, 187, 190. ' 
 
 Bible, Armenian, 150-153, 198 ; pub- 
 lication, 153; translations, 199. 
 
 Biblical interest in Turkey, 19. 
 
 Bird, Mr., 123. 
 
 Bithynia Union, 228. 
 
 Black stone of the Kaaba, 96. 
 Bliss, Daniel, 187. 
 
 Bliss, Edwin Munsell, quotation, 222. 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 
 151, 154. 
 Bryce, Hon. James, quotation, 196. 
 Bulgarians, 80; in Macedonia, 263; 
 
 work among, 173. 
 
 Cabinet, Turkish, changes in, 283. 
 
 "Capitulations," 241. 
 
 Central Turkey College, Aintab, 189. 
 
 Church Missionary Society, 145. 
 
 Cilicia Union, 228. 
 
 Circassians, 80. 
 
 Classical interest in Turkey, 18. 
 
 Colleges, official recognition, 189; 
 
 present need, 286. 
 Committee of Ottoman Union and 
 
 Progress, 279. 
 Concessions, 241. 
 Constantinople, 137 ; missionary 
 
 center, ^87, 93-97. 
 Constitutional government, present 
 
 problems, 285. 
 Constitutional liberty granted, 281. 
 Cromer, Lord, quotation, 10, 40, 50, 
 
 112. 
 Crusades, 54, 59. 
 Cyprus, possession by England, 47. 
 
 Darazi, founder of Druses, 55. 
 Death penalty for Mohammedan 
 
 convert, 133, 250. 
 Decline of Empire, 15. 
 Dennis, James S., quotation, 206, 
 
 260, 274. 
 De Redcliffe, Sir Stratford, 250, 253. 
 Diarbekr, 128, 130, 139. 
 Dionysius, 160. 
 Disciples of Christ, 145. 
 Dodge, Dr. Asa, 207. 
 Druses, 55, 78. 
 
 [ 291 ]
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dunmore, Rev. and Mrs., 130. 
 Dwight, H. G. O., tour in Asia 
 
 Minor, 123-126. 
 Dwight, Henry Otis, quotation, 92. 
 
 Edict of Toleration, 1453, 241. 
 
 Education, 106, 181 ; of priests, 106, 
 159, 160; of women, 107, 187; 
 Lancasterian schools, 160; theo- 
 logical, 176; Turkish, 193; indus- 
 trial, 234. 
 
 Emigration, 236. 
 
 England, first treaty relations with 
 Turkey, 34 ; seizure of Cyprus, 47 ; 
 policy in Turkey, 48. 
 
 English taught in schools, 183, 184. 
 
 Erzerum, 127, 139. 
 
 Eski-Zagra, 173. 
 
 Euphrates College, Harpoot, 186, 188, 
 190, 191, 229. 
 
 Evangelical Armenian Church, 161, 
 165, 166, 167, 168, 174, 177. 
 
 Fatalism, 210. 
 Financial condition, 271. 
 First Turkish ambassador, 33. 
 Fisk, Pliny, 87, 119, 120, 121, 145, 
 
 149. 
 Free Church of Scotland, 54. 
 
 Germany, policy in Turkey, 48; 
 influence in Turkey, 270. 
 
 Goodell, William, 121, 123, 157, 159, 
 174, 177, 198, 249. 
 
 Grant, Dr. Asahel, 127, 129, 207. 
 
 Greco-Turkish war, 121, 123. 
 
 Greek Church, 59-62. 
 
 Greeks, work among, 143; in Mace- 
 donia, 264. 
 
 Gregorian (Armenian) Church, 68- 
 70; deterioration, 70, 79, 102, 104; 
 jealousy in, 102; political organi- 
 zation, 105; reform in, 150, 165, 
 237. 
 
 Hagopos, 163. 
 
 Haig, father of Armenian race, 65. 
 Hall of the Holy Garment, 96. 
 Hamid II, see Sultan Abdul Hamid 
 II. 
 
 Hamlin, Cyrus, 164, 182, 234. 
 
 Harem, 41. 
 
 Harpoot, 131; educational work, 
 186; printing-press, 201. 
 
 Harpoot Evangelical Union, 228, 229. 
 
 "Hatti Sherif of Gul Hane," grant- 
 ing of religious liberty, 250. 
 
 Health of missionary, 122. 
 
 Hejaz, 133. 
 
 Hepworth, George H., 216; quota- 
 tion, 212. 
 
 Historical interest in Turkey, 17. 
 
 Holmes, Mr., 128. 
 
 Hospitals, self-support in, 209, 227, 
 228. 
 
 Industrial education, 234. 
 
 Industrial reform, 233. 
 
 Imperial Protestant Charter of 1850, 
 252. 
 
 Islam, Koran, 35, 201 ; death penalty 
 for change of faith, 133, 250 ; fatal- 
 ism, 210. 
 
 Jacobites, 57-59. 
 Janissaries, 32. 
 Jerusalem, 122. 
 Jesuit schools, 183. 
 Jews, 56, 57; revival of interest in, 
 86; work among, 140, 143. 
 
 Kaaba, 95. 
 
 Keith-Falconer Mission in Arabia, 
 133. 
 
 King, Jonas, 120, 121, 160. 
 
 Koordistan Missionary Society, 229. 
 
 Koords, history, 73; character, 74; 
 armed by government, 75; re- 
 ligion, 76, 78. 
 
 Koran, 201; basis of law, 35. 
 
 Lancaster, Joseph, 160. 
 Lancasterian schools, 181. 
 Lawrence, Edward A., quotation, 14, 
 
 64. 
 Laws, founded on Koran, 35. 
 
 Macedonia, Turkish rule in, 261, 
 263; uprising in, 264, 276, 279; 
 reforms promised, 275; Young 
 
 [292 ]
 
 INDEX 
 
 Turk Party in, 279; constitution 
 restored, 281. 
 
 Mahomet I, 1413-1421, 33. 
 
 Mahomet II, conqueror of Greek 
 Empire, 33. 
 
 Marash, 172, 188. 
 
 Maronites, 54. 
 
 Martyn, Henry, 124. 
 
 Massacres, 218. 
 
 Mecca, 94. 
 
 Medical missionaries, 207. 
 
 Medina, 207. 
 
 "Memoirs of William Goodell," 
 quotation, 232. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Board (U. S.), 
 146. 
 
 Midhat Pasha, 281. 
 
 Mineral resources, 24. 
 
 Mission policy, 119, 139, 141, 157, 
 159, 162, 207, 223. 
 
 Missionaries, moral influence of, 142 ; 
 noted, 177; contribution to knowl- 
 edge of country, 115 ; to literature, 
 199; to industry, 233; trust in, 
 216; relief work, 218; relation to 
 native churches, 175; under Eng- 
 lish protection, 241 ; charges 
 against, 255. 
 
 Missionary interest, awakening of, 86. 
 
 Missions, division of field, 145; 
 problems of, 115; object of, 108. 
 
 "Mohammedan World of To-day," 
 quotation, 72, 248, 266. 
 
 Mohammedans, contact with Chris- 
 tianity, 113-115, 119, 238; interest 
 in, 144; converts, 254, 257; re- 
 ligious liberty promised, 250; no 
 religious liberty, 255. 
 "Multeka," code of laws, 35. 
 
 Native Church, self-support, 224- 
 
 227; self-propagation, 228. 
 New Turk Party, 79, 268, 279. 
 Nicholas, Czar, epithet applied to, 15. 
 Norton, Thomas H., quotation, 170. 
 Nusairiyeh, 53. 
 
 Orchan, 32. 
 
 Orphans, industrial training of, 234. 
 
 Osman, founder of dynasty, 31. 
 
 Palestine, missionaries to, 86. 
 
 Parker, John M., 138. 
 
 Parsons, Levi, 86, 87, 119, 120, 145, 
 
 149. 
 Pashtimaljian school, 160, 181. 
 Patriarch, Greek, 60 ; , Gregorian, 69 ; 
 
 power of, 105. 
 Periodical publications, 200. 
 Perkins, Mr., 126. 
 Persecution of " Evangelicals," 166. 
 Peters, John P., quotation, 156. 
 Philippopolis, 173. 
 Physicians, native, 208. 
 Pomeroy, Dr., 167. 
 Population of Turkey, 16. 
 "Porte, The," meaning of, 34. 
 Postal system, 26. 
 Presbyterian Board of Missions, 146 ; 
 
 work among Maronites, 54. 
 Press, printing, 172, 197; freedom 
 
 guaranteed, 282. 
 Priests, Christian, low standard of, 
 
 103. 
 Privy council, 36. 
 Property, right to hold, 244. 
 Protestant Charter of 1847, 252. 
 
 Railroads, 24, 25, 47. 
 Ramsay, W. M., quotation, 240. 
 Reformed Church, 145. 
 Reformed (Dutch) Church of 
 
 America, in Arabia, 133. 
 Reforms in Gregorian Church, 237. 
 Religious liberty granted, 250, 253. 
 " Researches in Armenia," Smith and 
 
 Dwight, 123-126. 
 Revolutionary parties, 264, 270. 
 Riggs, Elias, 198. 
 Roadways, 24. 
 
 Robert College, 184, 185, 189, 191. 
 Roman Catholics, opposition of, 121, 
 
 144, 162. 
 Russell, Earl, 255. 
 Russia, opposition to missionary 
 
 work, 182; influence in Turkey, 
 
 268, 270. 
 Russian Bible Society, 150-152. 
 
 St. Gregory the Illuminator, 68. 
 St. Paul's Institute, Tarsus, 189. 
 
 [ 293 ]
 
 INDEX 
 
 Salonica, 140. 
 
 Samakov, Collegiate and Theological 
 Institute, 187. 
 
 Schauffler, Dr., 143, 182. 
 
 Schneider, Dr., 171. 
 
 Schools, present need of, 286. 
 
 Self-support, hospitals, 209, 227; 
 church, 224, 228; schools, 226, 228. 
 
 Selim III, 1789-1807, reforms of, 85. 
 
 Seventh Day Adventists, 145. 
 
 Sheik-ul-Islam, 35, 282. 
 
 Size of Territory, 16. 
 
 Smith, Eh, tour in Asia Minor, 123- 
 126. 
 
 Smyrna, 137, 140, 172. 
 
 Spies, government, 227; abolished, 
 282. 
 
 "Sublime Porte," 34. 
 
 Suliman "the great," 1520-1566, 34. 
 
 Sultan Adbul Aziz, 255. 
 
 Sultan Abdul Hamid II, succession 
 to throne, 41; character, 41, 46, 
 48, 270; absolute power in gov- 
 ernment, 35, 43; in religion, 46, 
 93, 94, 96; foreign relations, 47; 
 attempt to subdue Koords, 75 ; 
 system of espionage, 277; fear of 
 Young Turks, 278; restores con- 
 stitution to Macedonia, 281. 
 
 Sultan Abdul Medjid, 250, 251; 
 grants religious liberty, 253. 
 
 Syrian Church, 57-59. 
 
 Syrian Protestant College, 187, 190. 
 
 Syrians, work among, 121, 144, 173. 
 
 Tamerlane, 32, 33. 
 
 Taxation, system of, 51, 279. 
 
 Telegraphy, 26, 234. 
 
 Territory, population, 16 ; size, 16. 
 
 Theological schools, 190. 
 
 Townsend, Meredith, quotation, 22, 
 
 30, 100. 
 Transportation, 25. 
 "Travels and Researches in Asia 
 
 Minor," 138. 
 Treaty of Berlin, 256. 
 Treaty of Paris, 253. 
 Treaty rights, 243. 
 Trebizond, 127, 139. 
 "Turk," religious significance, 77. 
 Turkey, importance as mission field, 
 
 89; relations with foreign powers, 
 
 241 ; policy of suppression, 268. 
 Turkish schools, 193. 
 Turkomen, 80. 
 Turks, origin, 31, 77; character, 79; 
 
 dominance over non-Moslems, 78, 
 
 81. 
 
 Unions of native churches, 176. 
 
 United Free Church of Scotland, in 
 Arabia, 133. 
 
 United States, Armenians in, 236. 
 
 United States, relations with Turk- 
 ish government, 34, 45, 241, 245. 
 
 Vali, power of, 36. 
 
 Vartenes, expelled from church, 165. 
 
 Vilayet, 36. 
 
 Ward, William Hayes, quotation, 
 
 148. 
 Wheeler, Crosby H., 185, 201, 224. 
 Williams, Talcott, quotation, 274. 
 
 Yemen, 133. 
 
 Young Turk Party, 278; in Mace- 
 donia, 279. 
 
 Zwemer, S. M., quotation, 84. 
 
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