Twenty Years' Residence among the People of Turkey: Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, and Armenians

by Fanny Janet Sandison Blunt

The general appearance of the girls was that of negligent untidiness; their hair was uncombed, and most of them were seated on the ground working, with a total absence of that good breeding which was to be expected in a well-regulated school for girls of their age and condition.

Defective as this establishment is, it is deserving of praise and encouragement as a first attempt which may lead to a higher standard of education among Turkish women. Perhaps some of the institutions at Stamboul, though now greatly improved, had no higher origin. Conversing lately about these with an intelligent Turk, I was assured that some of the young Turkish girls had so much profited by the education afforded in them as to have made great progress in composition and even novel-writing, an unprecedented event in the lives of the ladies of this nation! Some have devoted themselves to the study of French, and have translated one or two little French works into Turkish. One of these institutions has now become a training college for teachers, who are sent as mistresses into other schools.

The Turkish girls’ school of Salonika is attended by forty-eight pupils, superintended by one master, and a Greek schoolmistress for needlework. It is hardly necessary to say that the instruction afforded is very defective, and can be of little practical use to young girls who often, after a few years of childhood, leave when they attain the age of ten or eleven, just when their young minds are beginning to take in what is taught them. However, a little is always better than nothing, and it is to be hoped that the Salonika girls’ schools will pave the way to more effective means of teaching.

Excepting one or two schools founded by Midhat Pasha, in the vilayet of the Danube, no other Moslem girls’ schools but these at Stamboul and Salonika exist in Turkey. It must be the vegetating existence of these few establishments that has caused the flowing pen of one writer on Bulgaria to scatter girls’ schools profusely all over the country, placing one even in the remotest village of the Balkans; in all these schools, according to him, girls are everywhere taught to read and write! The statement is, unfortunately, only another proof of the accuracy of the saying, that a thing may be too good to be true.

The foundation of the Lyceum at Constantinople, decided upon in 1868, was due to Ali and Fouad Pashas. The object of this institute was to spread knowledge and education throughout the country, irrespective of creed and nationality, and thus to attempt to break through the mischievous routine of separate education, and to bring together all the youth of Turkey with the view to establishing better relations between the different races, creeds, and parties. The task was not an easy one. The history of the opposition encountered by the director and professors at the opening of the college will give a slight idea of the difficulties and obstacles the Government itself meets with in the management of its subjects.

One hundred and fifty purses were voted for the Lyceum, to be expended for the benefit of all Ottoman subjects, whether Moslems, Catholic or Gregorian Armenians, Roman Catholics, Greeks, Bulgarians, or Jews. Foreign subjects were only admitted on the payment of fees.

It was intended to establish branches of the Lyceum in the principal towns, but this project was soon given up. The administration, as well as the direction of the greater part of the studies, was confided to French functionaries, chosen by the Minister of Public Instruction in France, subject to the approval of the Turkish Minister of the same department. The lessons were to be given in French, and comprised literature, history, geography, elementary mathematics, and physical science. The Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages were to be taught by Turkish professors. Greek and Latin were to be taught, partly to facilitate the acquisition of a knowledge of scientific terms, and partly because Greek was of daily utility to the greater part of the students.

The Mohammedan religious instruction was confided to an Imam, but the spirit of tolerance had gained sufficient ground in the customs of the establishment to allow its members to practise their different creeds at will amidst their comrades, and it is said to have been a most interesting sight to witness their devotions.

In spite of (or rather on account of) the liberality and tolerance of the original bases of this institute, and the constant endeavor of the directors to accommodate these bases as much as possible to the habits and ideas of the members of the different races there represented, none seemed to feel the satisfaction and content that was expected. The Mohammedans naturally demanded that the Koran laws and its exhortations regarding prayer, ablutions, the fasting of Ramazan by day and the feasting by night, should be respected. The Jews, rigid observers of their traditions, rebelled against the idea of their children being placed in an institute directed by Christians, and of their partaking in common of food that was Tourfa, or unlawful. The Greeks followed, complaining that their language was not sufficiently admitted into the course of studies; and the well-to-do members of that community abstained from sending their children there. The Roman Catholics had religious scruples caused by a special prohibition of the Pope, and were under pain of deprivation of the sacraments if they placed their children in an infidel institution. Armenian pretension required that special attention should be paid to the children belonging to that community, and the Bulgarians demanded that a strict line should be drawn between their children and those of the Greeks.

Next to this came the difficulty about the Day of Rest: the Turks claiming Friday, the Jews Saturday, and the Christians Sunday; allied to this point of dispute was that of the observance of the religious and national festivals, all falling on different days. Even the masters themselves, Turks, Armenians, English and French men, Greeks and Italians, by the variety of nationalities they represented, still further complicated the matter.