Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

XXIV. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION

One distinctive feature of Islam in Turkey—and this applies to nearly all Moslem races in the Ottoman empire except the Arabs—is that the Turk does not know the language of his sacred book. The Koran is as much a sealed book to the Turk as the Bible is to the peasant Roman Catholic of Central Europe. He knows, even if he is a peasant, many Arabic words and phrases, but although he may read the Koran, he cannot understand it; and it is, to the Mohammedan, a greater impiety to attempt to translate the Koran from the Arabic, than it was, till recent years, in the eyes of the faithful but ignorant Romanist to translate the Latin Bible into French or German. This ignorance of Arabic is a fact even among the more or less educated Turks of the capital and coast cities. It is very rare to find one who can read Arabic intelligently, and who speaks it correctly. Some years ago, when K—— Effendi, a learned Arab Koord, who had embraced Christianity, was called before the highest Mohammedan court, his perfect knowledge of the Arabic, of the Koran and of Mohammedan law and traditions completely confounded and silenced those who would have been his judges.

—From “The Mohammedan World of To-day.”

At the beginning of mission work in Turkey the government and high officials seemed indifferent. They looked upon missionaries as only another sect of Christians. It apparently did not occur to them that Christians would attempt to present the claims of their religion to Moslems, or that there was the least probability that any Mohammedan would listen to a Christian upon the subject of religion. For centuries no Christian in Turkey had made any such attempt. Indeed, the lives of the Christians there exhibited little that was attractive in the religion of Jesus Christ.

The Turks, therefore, appeared to assume that the missionary movement was an effort to reform the Christians or to divide and weaken them. To either of these purposes or results the sultan and his officers saw no objections. To the Turks all who are not Moslems are infidels, and it mattered little to them what these believed since they denied faith in Mohammed.

Contrary to expectations, observing Moslems were attracted by the fact that the Protestants made use of neither pictures nor images in their worship, and demanded purity of life, honesty, temperance, and truthfulness in their adherents. This was to them a new phase of Christianity, one that accorded more with the Mohammedan ideas than the practises of the Catholic and Oriental Churches with which they were familiar. Among the early inquirers there were many Mohammedans. In 1835 Dr. Goodell of Constantinople wrote, “Almost every day I am visited by Mohammedans. I could very profitably devote my whole time to them.” In cases not a few, in the early days, the Turkish officials were not slow to shield the evangelical Christians from the persecutions of the officials of the old Churches. As it did not occur to the sultan that there was any danger that Moslems could look with favor upon Christianity, he was the more free to grant full religious liberty under the importunity of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the British ambassador.

It was not, therefore, a difficult matter for Sultan Abdul Medjid to issue, November 3, 1839, an imperial rescript named the Hatti Sherif of Gul Hane, promising to protect the life, honor, and property of all his subjects irrespective of race or religion. At that time the sultan was eager to enlist and hold the sympathy of European rulers, and believed that such a concession would materially help toward it. This directly pledged the protection of the imperial government to every subject of the empire in the exercise of his rights as a citizen, without regard to religion or sect. It was the first declaration of the Turkish government putting Christians upon a parity with Mohammedans before the law. It was a long forward step in the way of administrative reform.

In August, 1843, an Armenian youth, some twenty years of age, was beheaded in the streets of Constantinople and his body exposed for three days, because he had once declared himself a Moslem and then later recanted. It seems that through fear of punishment this young man had accepted Islam and left the country. Later he returned and resumed the practises of his former religion. In spite of threats and promises, he adhered to his ancestral faith with the above results. Sir Stratford de Redcliffe did all in his power to save his life, but without success.