Turkey has been admitted into the fraternity of Europe; not as a Mohammedan power, but as one of the powers that rule the earth’s domains.
The sultan has a voice among the potentates of his times—not the voice of Mohammed the Prophet, but of the civilized and regenerated friend of his own people and the world in general.
A new era has dawned upon Mohammedanism; for, if the Christian world has for the first time received into its confederation an anti-Christian empire, the Mohammedans, by entering such a confederation, have also for the first time placed themselves on an equality with the former Giavours, whom the precepts of the Koran have proscribed, and doomed to the sword of the Faithful. Here then is a bold stride beyond the confines of a faith only suited to barbaric days, and well calculated to sway the minds of a superstitious multitude on to conquest. As consanguinity with civilization is strengthened, who can trace the pathway of the Mussulman nation through the world’s history!
The genius of the country and the condition of the people are not in opposition to the progress of reform.
The past history of this nation has been the progress of Mohammedanism—its conquests and its laws. As Moses was both the spiritual and temporal law-giver to the Jews, so has Mohammed been to the Turkomans. Such laws suited the exigencies of the times; but the sword is sheathed, and in its sheath too, must abide the darkness and barbarity of past ages.
Besides Mohammedanism in Turkey is not the same as in Arabia or Bokhara, where Imams and priests predominate. The Turkomans had, previous to embracing Islamism, a civil government of their own; and in making the Koran the rule of faith and conduct, they never lost the idea of Sovereignty independent of Religion. Hence the Turkish has never been like the Papal government, where cardinals and bishops represent all the departments of the pontifical state. The very existence of two distinct representatives of the Sultan, the Grand Vezir and the Sheikh-ul-Islam, are evidences of a separation of church and state. If the ecclesiastical has hitherto superseded the civil power, it has been through the superstitions of the people, and the chicanery of the officials.
The only real union is in the person of the Sultan, who is the proxy of Allah, and the supreme Ruler of his people. His will and his edicts are regarded by them with superstitious reverence.
The natural relations of this empire with the rest of the world, as well as its new ties of consanguinity with civilization, must, of necessity, bring about a revolution of policy as well as of action.
His majesty has already introduced many measures of reform—such as the abolishing of capital punishment—the promulgation of a new constitution, with the privilege of free deliberation in the national councils, etc.; and besides all these, he has already commenced, even in his own person and household, a renovation, which is, in reality, only a conformation to the habits of civilized life. He has become himself a salaried executive, diminished his own retinue, etc.
The Sultan well understands the imitative nature of his own people, and is aware that he is the model to the Grand Vezir and the various Pashas, who, in their turn, are the channels of his majesty’s own movements to the rest of their fellow citizens. Constantinople is the city where the game is played by high and low, “So does the Grand Mufti.”