Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

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.

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 American 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 become 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 mission 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 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 advancing 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 operations for the work of the American Board in the country. Tours of exploration made in Asia Minor and into Koordistan 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 Geographical Society and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in 1839-40. They went overland from Constantinople to Cæsarea, Malatia, Diarbekr, Mosul, Koordistan, Bitlis, Marash, Erzerum, Trebizond, and thence back to Constantinople. The report of this extended tour through Asia Minor, northern Mesopotamia, Koordistan, and Armenia, published in two volumes, under the title “Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, 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 missionary 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 populations 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 them. The success of this plan has proven its wisdom, and even now the tendency is to greater consolidation in important 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, Diarbekr, and Arabkir. The former place proved to be exceedingly 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.