#11: Turkish introspection (c. 1900)
Our Turkish friends during these times were rather confused
and unhappy. Business, trade, was developing. There were
more travel, talk, education, and all that, but there was
much perplexity and some doubt. One day as I was riding
with a Turkish wagon driver he turned to me and said, "When
a European king wishes to be crowned, he must first get
permission from our Sultan and then he may be crowned; is
not that the way?" Before I could quite frame a reply that
would be neither impolite nor untrue he answered his own
question, "Yes, of course that's the way. When a European
king wants to be crowned, he must first get permission
from our Sultan and then he may be crowned". That represents
the old belief of Islam, with its Koran, tribute or sword
alternative, but in these modern days there began to be
doubt, and doubts are painful as well as confusing.
..........................................................
The Mufti and I often exchanged calls and we discussed
freely any subject of common interest. One day in a burst
of confidence he exclaimed, "You see how things are going
in our unhappy country. There is no fear of God, no
worshipper in the mosques; during Ramazan, people who fast
by day eat so much by night that they are fatter at the end
of the month than they were at the beginning of the fast;
nothing anywhere but worldliness, self-seeking and vice.
The fact is we will get no real settlement for our unsettled
and unhappy condition until we bring in the English and set
them up as they are in Egypt. I've been in Egypt and seen
things and I know. We were on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and
there was quarantine because there was an epidemic of cholera.
About 20,000 of us pilgrims were put ashore, and all our
baggage was piled in one great pile. It was guarded by just
one British soldier, and he looked half-asleep, and there
wasn't a thing stolen; but if it had been guarded by a whole
regiment of our soldiers there wouldn't have been a thing
left. The British don't interfere with a man's religion or
his private life either and they provide work for everybody".
Of course my caller might be regarded as a spy, but I knew
my friend too well to harbor such suspicions of him.
................................................................
There were officials and citizens of a different type, for
example Hadji Hamdi Effendi of Gumush. A go-between came to
him one day from the clique of his central town and seat of
government and said, "They're cutting up a little melon over
at headquarters, Hadji Hamdi Effendi, and they reckon your
share at about $100. Come on over and get it". But the upright
old man, not an official, but a highly respected and very
influential citizen, indignantly poured out his wrath at being
approached with any such proposition and refused to have
anything with it. "What's the matter", asked the messenger;
"aren't you satisfied with the amount? If not, we could
probably make it more". I pitied the Turks and pitied most
of all the really good men among them, and at the other
extreme, I pitied the very poor who were almost crushed by
taxes and exactions, while their ranks were decimated by
military service.
One day Tatar Osman Pasha, a keen man with the deep, sad eyes
of the Mongol, called at the College, as such officials
habitually did when passing through our place. The General,
who bore a great reputation for his military ability and was
on his way to the European, or Balkan, wing of the Ottoman
Empire to suppress some disturbance there, said that Turkey
would be better off without the Balkans if they could but
recognize facts. Those provinces were not the real Turkey,
and the chief tribes and kindred were not kindred of the
Turks, but the Turks had conquered that area and could not
make up their minds to let it go.
NEXT: Armenian revolutionaries
(c. 1900)
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