The Diary of a Turk

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE DIARY OF A TURK
PRINCES IN LANCERS' UNIFORM.
BY HALIL HALID, M.A., M.R.A.S. CONTAINING EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1903
TO THE MEMORY OF E. F. W. GIBB ORIENTAL SCHOLAR, AND THE AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF OTTOMAN POETRY
Although no Western Power has ever played a greater part in the problems of the Ottoman Empire than Great Britain, yet in no other country in Western Europe is Turkey more grossly misunderstood. I have been many times asked by my English acquaintances to write a book on Turkey from a Turkish point of view, and two ways of writing were suggested to me: the one was to compile a detailed work, the other to write a small and light book. To take the former advice was not possible to me, as I found myself incapable of producing a great and technical work. Besides, I thought that after all a small and lightly written volume would have a larger circle of readers, and by its help I could to some extent correct some of the mistaken ideas prevailing in England about Turkey. Therefore I began to write this little volume in the form of a book of travel, and I now bring it out under the title of The Diary of a Turk . By this means I have been able to talk a little on many matters connected with Turkey. Let the critic find other points in this book on which to express his opinion, but do not let him charge me with ignorance of the fact that the somewhat unexciting experiences of an unknown man may be only of slight interest to the public.
In the chapter on women's affairs I have quoted a few paragraphs from two articles which I contributed some time ago to two London weeklies, the Queen and the Lady , I render my thanks to the Editors of these papers for kindly permitting me to reproduce them here.
H. H.

THE DIARY OF A TURK
My Asiatic origin—My great-grandfather's religious order— His miracles—My grandfather and Sultan Mahmud II. —An ordeal by wine—My father's charitable extravagance—His death—Primitive surgery in Asia Minor— The original home of vaccination—My mother's European ancestors—Writing a forbidden accomplishment for women.