(Signé) FREDERIC PISANI.
(Translation.)
Excellency, Pera, November 3, 1843.
In conformity with your orders, I placed in the hands of Rifaat Pasha the Turkish translation of Lord Aberdeen's instructions and of your Excellency's letter, with a copy of your letter.
Rifaat Pasha read the translation of the two documents which he considered to be of great importance. He told me that he will lay Lord Aberdeen's instructions before the Grand Vizier and the Sultan.
Rifaat Pasha told me confidentially that the measures which it is proposed to take, are to order all the authorities at Constantinople and and [sic] in the provinces henceforth to take care that when a Turk who was a Christian, becomes again a Christian, and when a Turk speaks insultingly of Mahomet or the Prophets, or utters other blasphemies, he shall not be allowed to be given up to, and judged by, any Mehkemé whatever; but if the case occurs at Constantinople, the accused shall be sent to the Porte, or if it occurs in a district beyond Constantinople, he shall be sent to the Pasha of the province without any previous judgment. In this manner, said Rifaat Pasha, the Porte and the provincial Pashas will devise means for terminating affairs of this kind without noise, and (I venture to infer from his Excellency's words) without having recourse to capital punishment.
Rifaat Pasha added, that the Porte can give no written answer respecting this affair without compromising itself either as regards the Christian Powers, by stating that it is forced to execute the law regarding Christians who, after having of their own accord embraced Islamism, renounce it and become Christians again, and thus incur capital punishment,—or as regards the law, by declaring that it will not for the future be executed in cases similar to that of the Armenian.
Rifaat Pasha, however, seemed to me convinced that after the noise which has been made in Europe, a scene similar to that of the Armenian cannot be renewed. The measures which the Government are about to adopt have for their object to avoid a trial, and without a trial no one can be condemned to death. The Armenian was tried at the Mehkemé called that of the Stambol Effendi, before being sent to the Porte. The Kiatib who is in prison for having uttered blasphemies against Mahomet, was judged at the Mehkemé of Salonica, before he was sent to Constantinople; and the Supreme Council has declared him worthy of death, although he has not yet been judicially and formally condemned here. The circumstance of the Kiatib having already been tried and convicted of uttering blasphemy against the name of Mahomet puts his life in the most imminent danger.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) FREDERICK PISANI.