The following three correspondence between British Consular functionaries, shed some further light on the conditions of Christians in Ottoman Empire.
Despite reports use word Turkey to refer to geographical area which is actually called Anatolia, this term was not used by Ottoman Empire but actually coined by British to make fun of Turks.
The British and other Western powers use caricatures of a Turkey being slaughtered on their daily papers.
The real term used by Ottoman Authorities was Memalik-i Osmaniye, i.e. Ottoman Territories.
Dashnak Armenians and other anti-Turk xenophobes use this intentional terminological mistake to represent some mutual grave events which occurred between peoples of Anatolia, not due to mutual hatred but sedition spread by Russian Armenians who are members of Dashnak terrorist organization, as a fully intentional genocide staged by Ottoman Government (instead of which they use the term Turkish government).
Were Christians (including but not limited to Armenians) really oppressed and living in poverty? Was there hostility between Mussulmans (i.e. Moslems, / Turks) or was their gig good and were they making good profits from trade, a sector which they are absolutely dominant?
Number 9 is a letter from Sir H. Bulwer to Her Majesty's Consuls in the Ottoman Dominions, asking questions about the condition of Christians and Number 10, 11 and 12 are reports issued in response to Number 9.
Anyway let's read ourselves and see what was actually happenning those times through eyes of British consuls distributed throughout the entire empire.
Enjoy and let the truth be told.
No More Discrimination.
Despite reports use word Turkey to refer to geographical area which is actually called Anatolia, this term was not used by Ottoman Empire but actually coined by British to make fun of Turks.
The British and other Western powers use caricatures of a Turkey being slaughtered on their daily papers.
The real term used by Ottoman Authorities was Memalik-i Osmaniye, i.e. Ottoman Territories.
Dashnak Armenians and other anti-Turk xenophobes use this intentional terminological mistake to represent some mutual grave events which occurred between peoples of Anatolia, not due to mutual hatred but sedition spread by Russian Armenians who are members of Dashnak terrorist organization, as a fully intentional genocide staged by Ottoman Government (instead of which they use the term Turkish government).
Were Christians (including but not limited to Armenians) really oppressed and living in poverty? Was there hostility between Mussulmans (i.e. Moslems, / Turks) or was their gig good and were they making good profits from trade, a sector which they are absolutely dominant?
Number 9 is a letter from Sir H. Bulwer to Her Majesty's Consuls in the Ottoman Dominions, asking questions about the condition of Christians and Number 10, 11 and 12 are reports issued in response to Number 9.
Anyway let's read ourselves and see what was actually happenning those times through eyes of British consuls distributed throughout the entire empire.
Enjoy and let the truth be told.
No More Discrimination.
No.9
Questions addressed by Sir H. Bulwer to Her Majesty's Consuls in the Ottoman Dominions.
CONSTANTINOPLE, June 11, 186o
1. WHAT is the general condition of the province over which your jurisdiction extends?
2. What is the relative population, Christian and Mussulman, as far as your information enables you to pass an opinion, within the said province?
3. What is, generally speaking, apart from religion, the occupation and position in life of the Christians on the one hand, and of the Mussulmans on the other; for instance, are the great bulk of proprietors in the country Mussulmans? Are the majority of persons engaged in trade in the towns Christians?
4. Can Christians hold landed property on equal condition with Turks; and if not, where is the difference?
5. Can Christians exercise trade in towns on equal terms with the Turks; and if not, where is the difference?
6. Are the Christian peasantry in the Christian villages as well off generally as the Mussulmans; and if not, where is the difference?
7. Is Christian evidence admitted in Courts of Justice; and if not, point out the cases where it has been refused?
8. Is the Christian population, on the whole, better off, more considered, and better treated, than it was five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago?
9. Are there any inequalities dependent on religion now, and if so, what are those inequalities?
10. Whould the Christian population like to enter the military service instead of paying the tax which procures them exemption; and which would they gain most by serving in the army, or paying the said tax?
11. Do Christians find any difficulty in constructing churches, or in following their religious observances?
12. When cases of oppression against the Christians take place, is this generally owing to the acts of the Government, or the fanaticism of the population?
13. When Protestants are, if ever, persecuted, does that persecution proceed from Mussulmans, or from Christians, or other sects?
14. Are many of the grievances of which the Christian population complains owing to the conduct of their own authorities?
15. Are Christians admitted into the Medjlis or Local Councils? Are these Councils generally more in favour of progress and good government than the officials of the Porte, or more unfavourable?
16. If the latter, would there be any practical mode that occurs to you of limiting their attributes, so as still to maintain their power where it is useful, and abridge or suppress it where it is not?
17. What is your opinion as to withdrawing from the said Medjlis their judicial functions, and creating tribunals apart from them; and in such case how would you have those tribunal composed?
18. Do the Mahometans evince a strong desire to make converts? Do they do so frequently, or ever, by compulsion? If so, point out, if you can, the guilty parties.
19. In the case of the conversion of females, is this generally the effect of religious enthusiasm on the one side or the other, or does it proceed from worldly causes? And, if the latter, state those causes.
20. What measures do you think would best attain the end of equal justice, with the most simple and least expensive forms?
21. What measures do you think could best be taken to improve generally the condition of the country?
22. What is your opinion as to the possibility of establishing schools for all religions and classes, and as to the effect that would be produced by those schools?
23. What is your opinion as to naming a Christian Vice-Governor by the side of the Turkish Governor, where a great part of the population is Christian; the one and the other corresponding with the Porte?
24. Is it become a custom for subjects of the Porte to get foreign passports? Do they frequently get passports from Greece, and exchange them for Russian passports?
Reports received from Her Majesty's Consuls relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey 1860, London: 1861, p. No. 2
2. What is the relative population, Christian and Mussulman, as far as your information enables you to pass an opinion, within the said province?
3. What is, generally speaking, apart from religion, the occupation and position in life of the Christians on the one hand, and of the Mussulmans on the other; for instance, are the great bulk of proprietors in the country Mussulmans? Are the majority of persons engaged in trade in the towns Christians?
4. Can Christians hold landed property on equal condition with Turks; and if not, where is the difference?
5. Can Christians exercise trade in towns on equal terms with the Turks; and if not, where is the difference?
6. Are the Christian peasantry in the Christian villages as well off generally as the Mussulmans; and if not, where is the difference?
7. Is Christian evidence admitted in Courts of Justice; and if not, point out the cases where it has been refused?
8. Is the Christian population, on the whole, better off, more considered, and better treated, than it was five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago?
9. Are there any inequalities dependent on religion now, and if so, what are those inequalities?
10. Whould the Christian population like to enter the military service instead of paying the tax which procures them exemption; and which would they gain most by serving in the army, or paying the said tax?
11. Do Christians find any difficulty in constructing churches, or in following their religious observances?
12. When cases of oppression against the Christians take place, is this generally owing to the acts of the Government, or the fanaticism of the population?
13. When Protestants are, if ever, persecuted, does that persecution proceed from Mussulmans, or from Christians, or other sects?
14. Are many of the grievances of which the Christian population complains owing to the conduct of their own authorities?
15. Are Christians admitted into the Medjlis or Local Councils? Are these Councils generally more in favour of progress and good government than the officials of the Porte, or more unfavourable?
16. If the latter, would there be any practical mode that occurs to you of limiting their attributes, so as still to maintain their power where it is useful, and abridge or suppress it where it is not?
17. What is your opinion as to withdrawing from the said Medjlis their judicial functions, and creating tribunals apart from them; and in such case how would you have those tribunal composed?
18. Do the Mahometans evince a strong desire to make converts? Do they do so frequently, or ever, by compulsion? If so, point out, if you can, the guilty parties.
19. In the case of the conversion of females, is this generally the effect of religious enthusiasm on the one side or the other, or does it proceed from worldly causes? And, if the latter, state those causes.
20. What measures do you think would best attain the end of equal justice, with the most simple and least expensive forms?
21. What measures do you think could best be taken to improve generally the condition of the country?
22. What is your opinion as to the possibility of establishing schools for all religions and classes, and as to the effect that would be produced by those schools?
23. What is your opinion as to naming a Christian Vice-Governor by the side of the Turkish Governor, where a great part of the population is Christian; the one and the other corresponding with the Porte?
24. Is it become a custom for subjects of the Porte to get foreign passports? Do they frequently get passports from Greece, and exchange them for Russian passports?
Reports received from Her Majesty's Consuls relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey 1860, London: 1861, p. No. 2
No. 10
Consul C. Blunt to Sir H. Bulwer.
Sir, SMYRNA, July 28,1860.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to your Excellency inclosed, my replies to the printed series of questions contained in your circular despatch of the 11th of June last, and have at the same time to beg your indulgent consideration of the delay in their transmission which has been occasioned by indisposition and my having been confined to my room for the last three weeks.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CHARLES BLUNT.
Reports... relating to the Conditions of Christiansin Turkey... p. 30, .No. 8
Inclosure in No. 10
Answers to Queries.
1. NOTWITHSTANDING the very imperfect and faulty system of administration, the onerous abuses in the collection, by the farmers, of the tithes, the general condition of the province is daily improving; an improvement, however, which is more generally to the advantage of the Christian races, who are, if I may be excused the expression, buying up the Turks.
The general improvement commenced with the reforms introduced by the Gulhané Hatti-Sherif, previous to which the large Turkish proprietors in the interior lived by a system of oppression and plunder, which was put a stop to by the Hatt. The Christians then came forward as cultivators; their numbers increased by new-corners, for their lives were no longer at the mercy of every petty authority; the Turkish proprietors began to fall off population visibly decreased: their lands were no longer profitable. All Turkish proprietors have to furnish their quota for the conscription, and many, very many, of the descendants of formerly large landed proprietors, after serving their time with the army, return home to find the whole feature of their native place changed: the predominant Turkish population replaced by Christians; their heritage uncultivated lands; and they themselves, without either the means or taste for the avocations of their youth, and to which they were accustomed previously to their entering the army; and if, by chance, any of them desire to resume their former agricultural pursuits, they usually fall into the meshes of some Christian usurious banker, to whom the whole property or estate is soon secrificed. They who return without any taste for their old pursuits, dispose of their property for what they can get, and the purchasers are either Armenians or Greeks. Several estates, under these circumstances, have been purchased by Franks. Amongst the latter there are seven British subjects, who have purchased large farms in the interior, and are cultivating them with success. In the more immediate vicinity of Smyrna, very few Turkish landed proprietors remain; and at the principal villages where the Frank and Christian population resort during summer, nearly all the Turkish
proprietors have disposed of their property.
The result of this change is a very extensive increase in the amount of the productions of the country.
With respect to the moral state of the province, it may with safety be asserted that there is less crime than is heard of in provinces of the same extension, in more civilized countries where an effective state of police is kept up, and this is the more extraordinary when the police system is so very defective, where there are so many religious sects, where fanaticism is so prevalent amongst all classes, and the population generally armed, although they are not allowed to wear them in the towns.
The general improvement commenced with the reforms introduced by the Gulhané Hatti-Sherif, previous to which the large Turkish proprietors in the interior lived by a system of oppression and plunder, which was put a stop to by the Hatt. The Christians then came forward as cultivators; their numbers increased by new-corners, for their lives were no longer at the mercy of every petty authority; the Turkish proprietors began to fall off population visibly decreased: their lands were no longer profitable. All Turkish proprietors have to furnish their quota for the conscription, and many, very many, of the descendants of formerly large landed proprietors, after serving their time with the army, return home to find the whole feature of their native place changed: the predominant Turkish population replaced by Christians; their heritage uncultivated lands; and they themselves, without either the means or taste for the avocations of their youth, and to which they were accustomed previously to their entering the army; and if, by chance, any of them desire to resume their former agricultural pursuits, they usually fall into the meshes of some Christian usurious banker, to whom the whole property or estate is soon secrificed. They who return without any taste for their old pursuits, dispose of their property for what they can get, and the purchasers are either Armenians or Greeks. Several estates, under these circumstances, have been purchased by Franks. Amongst the latter there are seven British subjects, who have purchased large farms in the interior, and are cultivating them with success. In the more immediate vicinity of Smyrna, very few Turkish landed proprietors remain; and at the principal villages where the Frank and Christian population resort during summer, nearly all the Turkish
proprietors have disposed of their property.
The result of this change is a very extensive increase in the amount of the productions of the country.
With respect to the moral state of the province, it may with safety be asserted that there is less crime than is heard of in provinces of the same extension, in more civilized countries where an effective state of police is kept up, and this is the more extraordinary when the police system is so very defective, where there are so many religious sects, where fanaticism is so prevalent amongst all classes, and the population generally armed, although they are not allowed to wear them in the towns.
2. In 1830 the Turkish population of Smyrna was 8o,ooo;
it is now estimated at 41,000
In 1830 the Greek population in Smyrna was 2o,ooo; it is
now 75,000
Armenians 6,ooo
Jews 12,500
Latin Rayahs 3,700
Foreign subjects 19,000
(The authorities assert that the population of Smyrna is one third male and two-thirds female.)
Districts belonging more immediately to Smyrna 170,000
(Said to be two-thirds Mussulman and one-third Greeks)
Province of Aidin 280,000
(Town of Aidin 30,000)
Denislie and dependencies 50,000
Mentasha and dependencies 75,000
Magnezia and dependencies 150.000
Migratory population. Yourouks, Gipseys and Zeibecks 110,000
Total 991,700
It may be observed in reference to this question, that rapid as the increase is of the Christian population, the decrease of the Turkish is in a greater ratio. Visit any town or village where there is a mixed Mussulman and Christian population: in the Turkish quarter no one is visible, no children in the streets; whereas in the Christian the streets are full of children.
3. Although it is stated in Reply No. i, that the Turks are daily disposing of their lands to Christians in the interior, they still form the bulk of landed proprietors, but their lands are for the most part cultivated by the Christians.
The great majority of persons engaged in trade in the towns are Christians.
4. There is no difference whatever. Both Turk and Christian are upon a footing of perfect equality.
5. There is no difference whatever. Both Turk and Christian are upon a footing of perfect equality.
6. It may with safety be asserted that the Christians are much better off than the Turks; for there is no drain upon the Christian population for troops, and Christian pay the same taxes on their produce.
The Turkish villager is, without doubt, more frequently subject to oppression than the Christian.
If a Christian is oppressed by the minor Ottoman authorities in the interior, and the case is of a serious nature, he will always find the means of bringing the case to the attention of some Consular authority, through whose medium it would be represented to the Vizier, or presiding Pasha of the district, which the minor Turkish official is fully aware of and it is the fear of such interference which more or less protects the Christians, with the exception, however, of instances which often occur, when the Turkish official is supported by the Christian primates, for the latter are ever ready to avail themselves of Ottoman interference, however unjust, against their Christian brethren, when it suits their interests.
But the poor Turk, to whom can he appeal? Supposing he finds the means of obtaining Consular interference, the superintending Ottoman official, although he will promise, he will as certainly deny the supplicant redress for having appealed to Christian interference in his behalf!
A further preponderant influence in favour of the Christian is that, if not all, the great majority, of the farmers of the tithes are Christians who commit incredible abuses in their mode of exacting the tithe on produce. It cannot be asserted that the collector is more mercifully disposed towards the Christian than the Mussulman, but he is less fearful of exposure when imposing on the Turkish proprietor; the latter, therefore, is the greater sufferer.
7. Generally speaking, from all that I can learn, Christian evidence is not admitted against Mussulmans in the interior, but only one instance has been brought before me, which was in 1857, when the authorities at Aidin would not admit Christian evidence in a suit in which a British subject was interested. On that occasion, in conjunction with the Pasha of Smyrna, officers were sent from the Governor and this Consulate to Aidin, when upon their united interference Christian evidence was, and has since been, admitted in the Courts of Aidin. Christian evidence is admitted in the Courts at Smyrna, but in all suits relating to houses and landed property, foreign Christian evidence is not admitted against the native Christian.
8. It is a well-known fact, which no person of experience in the country would or could venture to dispute, that since the destruction of the Janissaries in 1826, from which period may be dated the more rapid decline of Turkish power, and the subsequent publication of the Gulhané Hatti-sherif, there has been an evident daily improvement in the state of the Christians. I first came to Turkey in 1820; consequently an experience of forty years enables me to express opinions founded on constant personal observation, and therefore fearlessly state that the Christian population, in this part of Turkey particularly, is not only better off, and more considered, than they were five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago, but that they feel and know they are so, and they also feel their increasing influence, without using the word "power", for the alarm evinced by the Turks makes them the more conscious of it, and the lower orders never lose the opportunity of showing it. On two occasions since my arrival in 1857, the lower orders of Christians of the Greek Church have disarmed some of the military guard sent to keep order during the performance of their Easter ceremonies.
9. I know of no inequalities dependent on religion. It does occasionally occur that some old fanatical Turk will call a Christian a Giaour; but generally speaking, in the towns the term is never used, but in the villages it is still used, not only by the Turks, but by the Christians, who from habit will say, "Our Giaours." I have heard the same expression used by Greek priests when addressing a Turk.
In all documents written by the authorities, the term Christian is now used. Formerly, in official letters or papers the Turks in referring to a Christian, either dead or murdered, they would use the term "murde;" meaning "died like a dog." But they now use the term "ulmush," "died or dead;" the same as they would when referring to a Mahometan.
it is now estimated at 41,000
In 1830 the Greek population in Smyrna was 2o,ooo; it is
now 75,000
Armenians 6,ooo
Jews 12,500
Latin Rayahs 3,700
Foreign subjects 19,000
(The authorities assert that the population of Smyrna is one third male and two-thirds female.)
Districts belonging more immediately to Smyrna 170,000
(Said to be two-thirds Mussulman and one-third Greeks)
Province of Aidin 280,000
(Town of Aidin 30,000)
Denislie and dependencies 50,000
Mentasha and dependencies 75,000
Magnezia and dependencies 150.000
Migratory population. Yourouks, Gipseys and Zeibecks 110,000
Total 991,700
It may be observed in reference to this question, that rapid as the increase is of the Christian population, the decrease of the Turkish is in a greater ratio. Visit any town or village where there is a mixed Mussulman and Christian population: in the Turkish quarter no one is visible, no children in the streets; whereas in the Christian the streets are full of children.
3. Although it is stated in Reply No. i, that the Turks are daily disposing of their lands to Christians in the interior, they still form the bulk of landed proprietors, but their lands are for the most part cultivated by the Christians.
The great majority of persons engaged in trade in the towns are Christians.
4. There is no difference whatever. Both Turk and Christian are upon a footing of perfect equality.
5. There is no difference whatever. Both Turk and Christian are upon a footing of perfect equality.
6. It may with safety be asserted that the Christians are much better off than the Turks; for there is no drain upon the Christian population for troops, and Christian pay the same taxes on their produce.
The Turkish villager is, without doubt, more frequently subject to oppression than the Christian.
If a Christian is oppressed by the minor Ottoman authorities in the interior, and the case is of a serious nature, he will always find the means of bringing the case to the attention of some Consular authority, through whose medium it would be represented to the Vizier, or presiding Pasha of the district, which the minor Turkish official is fully aware of and it is the fear of such interference which more or less protects the Christians, with the exception, however, of instances which often occur, when the Turkish official is supported by the Christian primates, for the latter are ever ready to avail themselves of Ottoman interference, however unjust, against their Christian brethren, when it suits their interests.
But the poor Turk, to whom can he appeal? Supposing he finds the means of obtaining Consular interference, the superintending Ottoman official, although he will promise, he will as certainly deny the supplicant redress for having appealed to Christian interference in his behalf!
A further preponderant influence in favour of the Christian is that, if not all, the great majority, of the farmers of the tithes are Christians who commit incredible abuses in their mode of exacting the tithe on produce. It cannot be asserted that the collector is more mercifully disposed towards the Christian than the Mussulman, but he is less fearful of exposure when imposing on the Turkish proprietor; the latter, therefore, is the greater sufferer.
7. Generally speaking, from all that I can learn, Christian evidence is not admitted against Mussulmans in the interior, but only one instance has been brought before me, which was in 1857, when the authorities at Aidin would not admit Christian evidence in a suit in which a British subject was interested. On that occasion, in conjunction with the Pasha of Smyrna, officers were sent from the Governor and this Consulate to Aidin, when upon their united interference Christian evidence was, and has since been, admitted in the Courts of Aidin. Christian evidence is admitted in the Courts at Smyrna, but in all suits relating to houses and landed property, foreign Christian evidence is not admitted against the native Christian.
8. It is a well-known fact, which no person of experience in the country would or could venture to dispute, that since the destruction of the Janissaries in 1826, from which period may be dated the more rapid decline of Turkish power, and the subsequent publication of the Gulhané Hatti-sherif, there has been an evident daily improvement in the state of the Christians. I first came to Turkey in 1820; consequently an experience of forty years enables me to express opinions founded on constant personal observation, and therefore fearlessly state that the Christian population, in this part of Turkey particularly, is not only better off, and more considered, than they were five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago, but that they feel and know they are so, and they also feel their increasing influence, without using the word "power", for the alarm evinced by the Turks makes them the more conscious of it, and the lower orders never lose the opportunity of showing it. On two occasions since my arrival in 1857, the lower orders of Christians of the Greek Church have disarmed some of the military guard sent to keep order during the performance of their Easter ceremonies.
9. I know of no inequalities dependent on religion. It does occasionally occur that some old fanatical Turk will call a Christian a Giaour; but generally speaking, in the towns the term is never used, but in the villages it is still used, not only by the Turks, but by the Christians, who from habit will say, "Our Giaours." I have heard the same expression used by Greek priests when addressing a Turk.
In all documents written by the authorities, the term Christian is now used. Formerly, in official letters or papers the Turks in referring to a Christian, either dead or murdered, they would use the term "murde;" meaning "died like a dog." But they now use the term "ulmush," "died or dead;" the same as they would when referring to a Mahometan.
In the Councils the Christian members are generally termed Aghas, and always treated with the same respect as the other members. If pipes and coffee are introduced, the Christians are served the same as Turks.
10. Most decidedly not, and it is more to their advantage to pay the exemption tax.
11. None whatever, as respects building churches; and in the performance of their religious ceremonies the Turkish authorities are ever ready to lend their assistance to keep order, and prevent any indecent interruption of the ceremonies.
12. As I interpret the bearing of the question, no case of oppression, of any glaring nature, has come to my knowledge since my arrival in Smyrna in 1857. It would, at the same time, be advancing too much to assert that no cases have occurred in the interior, at places where there are poorly paid minor Turkish authorities.
13. Protestant Ottoman subjects are under the special protection of the Turkish authorities, which is exercised to protect them against the fanatical enmity of other Christian sects, and Jews.
14. Generally speaking, the Christian population have far reason to complain of grievances emanating from their own clergy and primates than from the Turks. The Christians are not so numerous in Asia Minor as they are in Roumelia, where the evil is more general, and weighs more heavily on the Christian populations.
15. Christians are admitted into all the local Councils; in fact, in the interior, at places, where there is a predominant Christian population, everything is in their hands. The Mudir is the mere tool of the primates, well knowing that if he does not submit himself to their will a united complaint to the presiding Governor will occasion his dismissal.
It often occurs that there is a disunion amongst the primates respecting a Mudir, one party for, and the other against, him. The case is referred to the presiding Governor, when the weight of gold decides the question, and the amount of the bribe is charged proportionally by the primates to their Christian brethren.
Under such a system, it may with safety be stated that the Christian members of the local Councils are quite as opposed to reform as the Turkish officials.
16. The question is in some sense answered by the preceding reply; but it may be observed, in reference to the general bearing of these questions, if it is the policy of the day to maintain, or rather strengthen, the influence of the Christians in the country, the present should not be disturbed; but if not, the local Councils (which are the most corrupt tribunals in the country) should be abolished, and all suits and differences which now come within its attributes be referred to the presiding Pasha, or Governor of the district.
17. If only Turkish element can be availed of, my most decided opinion is, that no good would be derived by creating separate tribunals; for, according to the present state of things in Turkey, whether considered with a view to its intellectual or moral state, by augmenting the number of tribunals you spread more widely the means of corruption-or, in other words, you would enrich an increased number of Ottoman officials, to the detriment of the interests of the people.
18. Most decidedly not-that is, generally speaking. There are, occasionally, Turkish fanatics who consider it a merit to procure a convert for the Bairam festivals, and they get a convert from a class of individuals who will stoop to the ignominy of a temporary conversion, either for money or other worldly causes.
I know of no instance of conversion by compulsion since I have been in Smyrna, neither can I learn of any having taken place previous to my arrival.
19. Cases of female conversion are only amongst the lower orders, and, in the towns, very rare; but the instances of female conversion are more frequent than male in the interior, where, as in Roumelia, but particularly in Bulgaria, the origin or cause may be traced to the indiscretion of the Christian parents. It very often occurs that a young Turk becomes intimate with a Christian family, which the parents rather cultivate than reject, upon the plea or idea that their intimacy with him will protect them against other more evil-disposed Mahometans; the very natural results is, that the young Turk falls in love with the daughter of the indiscreet parents, his addresses are received, a secret courtship is carried on, till the young Christian female, either to hide her shame or for affection, goes off with her lover and declares herself a Mahometan.
It is an undeniable fact that such is the origin of the more frequent instances of female conversion in Bulgaria, and I am more than convinced that female conversion in Asia Minor arises from the same causes.
10. Most decidedly not, and it is more to their advantage to pay the exemption tax.
11. None whatever, as respects building churches; and in the performance of their religious ceremonies the Turkish authorities are ever ready to lend their assistance to keep order, and prevent any indecent interruption of the ceremonies.
12. As I interpret the bearing of the question, no case of oppression, of any glaring nature, has come to my knowledge since my arrival in Smyrna in 1857. It would, at the same time, be advancing too much to assert that no cases have occurred in the interior, at places where there are poorly paid minor Turkish authorities.
13. Protestant Ottoman subjects are under the special protection of the Turkish authorities, which is exercised to protect them against the fanatical enmity of other Christian sects, and Jews.
14. Generally speaking, the Christian population have far reason to complain of grievances emanating from their own clergy and primates than from the Turks. The Christians are not so numerous in Asia Minor as they are in Roumelia, where the evil is more general, and weighs more heavily on the Christian populations.
15. Christians are admitted into all the local Councils; in fact, in the interior, at places, where there is a predominant Christian population, everything is in their hands. The Mudir is the mere tool of the primates, well knowing that if he does not submit himself to their will a united complaint to the presiding Governor will occasion his dismissal.
It often occurs that there is a disunion amongst the primates respecting a Mudir, one party for, and the other against, him. The case is referred to the presiding Governor, when the weight of gold decides the question, and the amount of the bribe is charged proportionally by the primates to their Christian brethren.
Under such a system, it may with safety be stated that the Christian members of the local Councils are quite as opposed to reform as the Turkish officials.
16. The question is in some sense answered by the preceding reply; but it may be observed, in reference to the general bearing of these questions, if it is the policy of the day to maintain, or rather strengthen, the influence of the Christians in the country, the present should not be disturbed; but if not, the local Councils (which are the most corrupt tribunals in the country) should be abolished, and all suits and differences which now come within its attributes be referred to the presiding Pasha, or Governor of the district.
17. If only Turkish element can be availed of, my most decided opinion is, that no good would be derived by creating separate tribunals; for, according to the present state of things in Turkey, whether considered with a view to its intellectual or moral state, by augmenting the number of tribunals you spread more widely the means of corruption-or, in other words, you would enrich an increased number of Ottoman officials, to the detriment of the interests of the people.
18. Most decidedly not-that is, generally speaking. There are, occasionally, Turkish fanatics who consider it a merit to procure a convert for the Bairam festivals, and they get a convert from a class of individuals who will stoop to the ignominy of a temporary conversion, either for money or other worldly causes.
I know of no instance of conversion by compulsion since I have been in Smyrna, neither can I learn of any having taken place previous to my arrival.
19. Cases of female conversion are only amongst the lower orders, and, in the towns, very rare; but the instances of female conversion are more frequent than male in the interior, where, as in Roumelia, but particularly in Bulgaria, the origin or cause may be traced to the indiscretion of the Christian parents. It very often occurs that a young Turk becomes intimate with a Christian family, which the parents rather cultivate than reject, upon the plea or idea that their intimacy with him will protect them against other more evil-disposed Mahometans; the very natural results is, that the young Turk falls in love with the daughter of the indiscreet parents, his addresses are received, a secret courtship is carried on, till the young Christian female, either to hide her shame or for affection, goes off with her lover and declares herself a Mahometan.
It is an undeniable fact that such is the origin of the more frequent instances of female conversion in Bulgaria, and I am more than convinced that female conversion in Asia Minor arises from the same causes.
20. In a country where corruption is inherent to all classes, whether Turk or Christian, it is difficult how to suggest any system which could be carried, bearing in mind how far the ramifications extend, with any hope or prospect of counteracting so predominant an evil.
It may be surmised that, by appointing officers to be specially sent and salaried by the Porte, the evil might be checked; but long experience has taught me that the Ottoman official, however apparently sincere his professions previous to his departure from the capital, is a very different person when invested with power in the interior.
21. Previously to suggesting any measures, it is most undoubtedly, under existing circumstances, a question of very serious import whether, by attempting a re-organization, and consequently disturbing the present state of things, any beneficial results could be obtained. My foregoing replies have shown that, when human life and property were secure, the state of the Christian races began to improve simultaneously, it may be said, with agriculture and commerce. The more than richness of the soil, and the well-known superior intelligence of the Christian over the Mahometan races, mainly contributed to that improvement; therefore the now daily-increasing means of instruction, so largely availed of by the Christians, but unheeded by the Turks; the facility of communication with more civilized nations by steam, and the introduction of railways, will probably do more for the general good of the country, even under the present faulty system, than the introduction of new measures which the Turks cannot or will not understand, and I may add, have neither the desire nor capacity for carrying out.
In making the latter remarks, however strong they may appear, I shall venture to add, for my justification, that, with a people with whom the idea of patriotism is wanting; people in whose characters apathy and procrastination are predominant; people whose ideas are, in the extreme sense of the words, selfish and sensual; people whose existing social and moral evils add to the daily-increasing degradation of the country; with such sorry elements to work with, the introduction of new measures might probably tend to disturb the present steadily- progressing intelligence and prosperity of the country.
22. In Smyrna, and in all the principal towns and villages, there are schools both for the Turks and Christians. In those for the Turks, generally speaking, instruction is confined entirely to the Koran. For the Christian, instruction is general.
The establishment of schools for all religions and classes, if the project could be carried out, which I hold to be doubtful, would always have a predominant influence in favour of the Christians, amongst 'whom, with both sexes, there is an increasing desire for instruction, which does not, generally speaking, exist with the Turks.
All facilities of instruction which the Christians can avail themselves of will, most decidedly, increase the weight of their influence in the country.
It may be surmised that, by appointing officers to be specially sent and salaried by the Porte, the evil might be checked; but long experience has taught me that the Ottoman official, however apparently sincere his professions previous to his departure from the capital, is a very different person when invested with power in the interior.
21. Previously to suggesting any measures, it is most undoubtedly, under existing circumstances, a question of very serious import whether, by attempting a re-organization, and consequently disturbing the present state of things, any beneficial results could be obtained. My foregoing replies have shown that, when human life and property were secure, the state of the Christian races began to improve simultaneously, it may be said, with agriculture and commerce. The more than richness of the soil, and the well-known superior intelligence of the Christian over the Mahometan races, mainly contributed to that improvement; therefore the now daily-increasing means of instruction, so largely availed of by the Christians, but unheeded by the Turks; the facility of communication with more civilized nations by steam, and the introduction of railways, will probably do more for the general good of the country, even under the present faulty system, than the introduction of new measures which the Turks cannot or will not understand, and I may add, have neither the desire nor capacity for carrying out.
In making the latter remarks, however strong they may appear, I shall venture to add, for my justification, that, with a people with whom the idea of patriotism is wanting; people in whose characters apathy and procrastination are predominant; people whose ideas are, in the extreme sense of the words, selfish and sensual; people whose existing social and moral evils add to the daily-increasing degradation of the country; with such sorry elements to work with, the introduction of new measures might probably tend to disturb the present steadily- progressing intelligence and prosperity of the country.
22. In Smyrna, and in all the principal towns and villages, there are schools both for the Turks and Christians. In those for the Turks, generally speaking, instruction is confined entirely to the Koran. For the Christian, instruction is general.
The establishment of schools for all religions and classes, if the project could be carried out, which I hold to be doubtful, would always have a predominant influence in favour of the Christians, amongst 'whom, with both sexes, there is an increasing desire for instruction, which does not, generally speaking, exist with the Turks.
All facilities of instruction which the Christians can avail themselves of will, most decidedly, increase the weight of their influence in the country.
23. It might very probably be a most dangerous experiment; and, on the other hand, I do not see that any advantage would be derived from such an appointment. There would be a continual clash of feelings and sentiments. The one would hold to his Koran, and the other to his fanaticism; and in every case of reference to the Porte the deciding vote would be in favour of the Turk, except in some glaring instance, when such a decision might be taken up by some representative of a Western Power.
24. Most undoubtedly, the subjects of the Porte will always obtain foreign passports whenever they can.
There is a greater facility in obtaining Russian and Greek passports than any other.
I have not heard of any instances of Greek passports being exchanged for Russian.
24. Most undoubtedly, the subjects of the Porte will always obtain foreign passports whenever they can.
There is a greater facility in obtaining Russian and Greek passports than any other.
I have not heard of any instances of Greek passports being exchanged for Russian.
(Signed) CHARLES BLUNT, Consul.
Reports Relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey, p. 30-34, No. 8
No. 11
Consul Skene to Sir H. Bulwer.
(Extract.) ALEPPO, August 4, 1860.
IN compliance with the instruction conveyed to me by your Excellency's circular ofJune ii, which I received by last mail, I have the honour to subjoin the following Replies to the Queries therein contained:
1. This province is in a good condition as regards the amount of production. But, unfortunately, the productive class does not enjoy in peace the fruits of labour. A portion of its produce is carried off by the nomadic Arabs, and extorted from the peasantry by the farmers of the tithes.
Vast plains of the most fertile land lie waste on account of the incursions of the Bedouins, who drive the agricultural population westward, in order to secure pasture for their increasing flocks of sheep and herds of camels. I have seen twenty- five villages plundered by a single incursion of Sheik Mohammed Dukhy with 2,000 Beni Sachar horsemen. I have visited a fertile district which possessed 100 villages twenty years ago, and found only a few lingering Fellahs, destined soon to follow their kindred to the hills ranging along the seaboard. I have explored towns in the Desert, with well-paved streets, houses still roofed, and their stone doors swinging on the hinges, ready to be occupied, and yet quite untenanted; thousands of acres of fine arable land spreading around them, with tracks of watercourses for irrigation, now yielding but a scanty pasture to the sheep and camels of the Bedouin. This overlapping of the Desert on the cultivated plains commenced eighty years ago, when the Anazi tribes migrated from Central Arabia in search of more extended pasturage, and overran Syria. It has now reached the sea on two points, near Acre, and between Latakia and Tripoli.
The Arab, however, does not always carry off the whole stock of the villager, but is frequently satisfied by a conciliatory offering in money and grain. Something is thus left for extortion by the tax-gatherer. His operations are conducted in an equally open manner with those of the nomadic plunderer. When the tithes are put up to auction, the members of the Provincial Council select the villages whose revenues they wish to farm under the name of a retainer. They agree not to compete with each other, and use their joint endeavours to prevent others from outbidding them. When the highest price is offered the Pasha consults the Council, which declares it to be the full value; and a profitable bargain is obtained by the Councillor whose turn has come. Then begins the pressure on the villager. His grain is threshed and ready for sale, but he must not move-it until the tithe is taken by the farmer. Prices are falling in the market with the daily increasing abundance. He implores permission to sell, and receives it only on consenting to double or treble the tax. In lieu of io per cent., there are instances of 40 per cent being thus wrung from him, when the want of the necessaries of life for his family prevents his waiting longer. The peasant is next forced to convey the collector's share to town without remuneration, to feed his numerous satellites, to bring him presents of poultry, lambs, and forage, which latter produce i not tithed. He has no means of redress, for the voice of the all-powerful Council drowns every complaint. The Pasha is appealed to, and shrugs his shoulders.
Still the agricultural population is not plunged in that hopeless state of destitution which might be expected under these conditions: so rich is the soil, so industrious and frugal the labourer.
In the towns, until quite lately, trade and manufactures were in a flourishing state. Since the revival, however, of the old feelings of aversion and animosity between the Mussulman and Christian communities, a disadvantageous change has consequently become apparent also in the material circumstances of the population. Want of confidence in the future is withdrawing capital from circulation; trade stagnates; and one-half of the looms previously worked are now at rest.
The state of the Mussulman population of this Consular district is different from that existing in other provinces of the Ottoman Empire which are more in contact with European ideas. Here the dominant race is still what it was three or four centuries ago, proud and intolerant. It is not a mongrel produced by the inroad of Frank trade and the erigrafting of a so-called civilization on the old Mahometan stock. Commerce with Great Britain, Austria, France, and Switzerland, has been introduced to a considerable extent, but it remains a separate element, and exercises but little influence on the Mussulman mind. The descendant of the Arab grandee, as of his Turkish conqueror, lives unconscious of the encroachment of foreign enterprise and blind to the rise of Christian supremacy.
The glorious traditions of the two great factions which once divided Turkish society and have now fallen into oblivion elsewhere, are still fresh at Aleppo. The affiliation of the Janissaries has never been eradicated, here, and they meet in secret to keep alive the memory of their past preponderance. The green-turbaned Shereefs claim, as of old, and receive, the veneration of the people, for their descent from the Prophet. It is in vain that one talks to them of the altered circumstances of Islam, which are incredible to them. Vegetating in their narrow circle of contemptuous exclusiveness, they are animated only by personal and party rivalries. Their religion of pride cannot admit that a religion of humility is compatible with power abroad or prosperity at home. What they hear of Christendom is, therefore, regarded by them as an idle tale. The condition of the Mussulman population of this northern capital of Syria is thus a remnant of what Turkey has been rather than an example of what she is.
The Christians of Aleppo are a keen, money-making people, clever in trade, miserly at home, abject without support, and insolent when unduly protected. The great mass of them live in a state of chronic terror. This was merely a reflex of what they suffered in the massacre of 1850, and their panic is now enhanced by the disasters of Mount Lebanon and Damascus. The measures adopted to prevent an outbreak have hitherto been successful, and, if they continue so, it will be a source of no small satisfaction to me, having been called upon to co-operate in them with the competent authorities.
This seat of provincial government, surrounded by the most productive tracts of country possessing, under ordinary circumstances, a trade of great activity and extent, and amply provided with all the elements of abundance, is nevertheless in a condition of unvarying financial embarrassment. The method, or rather want of method, of management followed, is to supply by loans, at usurious rates of interest, the deficit produced by allowing the revenue to fall into arrear. Speculators purchase, at a large discount, the orders on the Treasury, which are given in default of cash, and pounce upon the receipts before they reach the chest. There is, probably, also an under-current of actual robbery of the public money, but I am not prepared to make an assertion that such exists, although the fact that Members of the Councils, and other public servants, born of poor families, should live in affluence on small salaries and realize large fortunes, can leave little doubt on the subject. The result of all this is, that we have here a province yielding a gross annual income of 19,000,000 piastres, exporting every year produce of the average value of 25,000,000 piastres, and importing foreign goods to the amount of 50,000,000 piastres, and yet offering the continual spectacle of an empty Treasury, leaving salaries in arrear for many months, and dealing with usurers at the rate of' 40 and 50 per cent per annum. Nor does this embarrassment arise from an excess of expenditure, for the nominal and ostensible outlay is always one or two millions below the real amount of the revenue. The hypothesis of peculation can alone explain the matter.
2. In the year 1849 a census was made of the male population of this Pashalic, but little reliance can be placed on it, owing to the interest which the separate communities have in concealing their real numbers to diminish collective taxation as practised in Turkey, and to secure exemption from the full weight of the conscription and its corresponding impost on Christians in lieu of military service. A Registrar for recording births and deaths has been appointed since then; but the want of efficient inspection, and the general carelessness prevalent in most public offices in Turkey, render the estimates very imperfect. We are, therefore, reduced to the use of approximate quantities in this as in many other statistical data. I should calculate the Christian population to be about one-fifth of the whole, and the Mahometan four-fifths, with a trifling deduction for Jews, Druses, and Ansairis. The population of the Province must in the aggregate be slightly under 500,000.
3. All the proprietors in the country are Mussulmans.
Almost all the traders in the towns are Christians.
Almost all the cultivators are Mussulmans; and the pastoral tribes of Arabs, Kurds, and Turcomans, are nominally Mussulmans.
4. Of the four species of tenure of land, two only are open to Christians:
1st. "Mulkh," or freehold property, and
2nd. "Miri," or crown lands, which they can occupy by right of a deed, called "tabou," conferring on them the usufruct for ever, on condition that they shall not lie uncultivated for three successive years, under penalty of their returning to the Sultan.
The other two species of tenure can only be enjoyed by Mussulmans, and the nature of their origin justifies the principle. Thus, "vakouf or pious foundations, are held by the descendants of those who bequeathed them for the support of mosques and medressehs, and cannot be alienated; malikaneh," or fiefs, still belong to the families of Spahis, who had received grants in return for the military service they rendered in the wars of the State, or in conducting caravans of pilgrims in Syria to Mecca.
In all these kinds of titles, excepting the first, the real property of the land is vested in the Sultan, who though he has nominally abolished feudalism in Turkey, retains the fee-simple of almost the whole of his dominions. Unlike that of the nations which subverted the Roman Empire in the West, the feudal system of the East secured a seigneurial right over the people to the Sovereign, untempered by that of the landed aristocracy, and this peculiarity of the Turkish social compact still exists, notwithstanding that feudalism ceased to be the law of the land under Sultan Mahmoud II, in pursuance of the purpose of his enlightened but less energetic uncle Selim III.
Freehold property, the best of tenures, is therefore within the reach of theSultan's Christian subjects. The fear, however, of unfair treatment deters them from becoming landholders; and it appears to me that the national tendency is also in favour of trade in preference to agriculture.
1. This province is in a good condition as regards the amount of production. But, unfortunately, the productive class does not enjoy in peace the fruits of labour. A portion of its produce is carried off by the nomadic Arabs, and extorted from the peasantry by the farmers of the tithes.
Vast plains of the most fertile land lie waste on account of the incursions of the Bedouins, who drive the agricultural population westward, in order to secure pasture for their increasing flocks of sheep and herds of camels. I have seen twenty- five villages plundered by a single incursion of Sheik Mohammed Dukhy with 2,000 Beni Sachar horsemen. I have visited a fertile district which possessed 100 villages twenty years ago, and found only a few lingering Fellahs, destined soon to follow their kindred to the hills ranging along the seaboard. I have explored towns in the Desert, with well-paved streets, houses still roofed, and their stone doors swinging on the hinges, ready to be occupied, and yet quite untenanted; thousands of acres of fine arable land spreading around them, with tracks of watercourses for irrigation, now yielding but a scanty pasture to the sheep and camels of the Bedouin. This overlapping of the Desert on the cultivated plains commenced eighty years ago, when the Anazi tribes migrated from Central Arabia in search of more extended pasturage, and overran Syria. It has now reached the sea on two points, near Acre, and between Latakia and Tripoli.
The Arab, however, does not always carry off the whole stock of the villager, but is frequently satisfied by a conciliatory offering in money and grain. Something is thus left for extortion by the tax-gatherer. His operations are conducted in an equally open manner with those of the nomadic plunderer. When the tithes are put up to auction, the members of the Provincial Council select the villages whose revenues they wish to farm under the name of a retainer. They agree not to compete with each other, and use their joint endeavours to prevent others from outbidding them. When the highest price is offered the Pasha consults the Council, which declares it to be the full value; and a profitable bargain is obtained by the Councillor whose turn has come. Then begins the pressure on the villager. His grain is threshed and ready for sale, but he must not move-it until the tithe is taken by the farmer. Prices are falling in the market with the daily increasing abundance. He implores permission to sell, and receives it only on consenting to double or treble the tax. In lieu of io per cent., there are instances of 40 per cent being thus wrung from him, when the want of the necessaries of life for his family prevents his waiting longer. The peasant is next forced to convey the collector's share to town without remuneration, to feed his numerous satellites, to bring him presents of poultry, lambs, and forage, which latter produce i not tithed. He has no means of redress, for the voice of the all-powerful Council drowns every complaint. The Pasha is appealed to, and shrugs his shoulders.
Still the agricultural population is not plunged in that hopeless state of destitution which might be expected under these conditions: so rich is the soil, so industrious and frugal the labourer.
In the towns, until quite lately, trade and manufactures were in a flourishing state. Since the revival, however, of the old feelings of aversion and animosity between the Mussulman and Christian communities, a disadvantageous change has consequently become apparent also in the material circumstances of the population. Want of confidence in the future is withdrawing capital from circulation; trade stagnates; and one-half of the looms previously worked are now at rest.
The state of the Mussulman population of this Consular district is different from that existing in other provinces of the Ottoman Empire which are more in contact with European ideas. Here the dominant race is still what it was three or four centuries ago, proud and intolerant. It is not a mongrel produced by the inroad of Frank trade and the erigrafting of a so-called civilization on the old Mahometan stock. Commerce with Great Britain, Austria, France, and Switzerland, has been introduced to a considerable extent, but it remains a separate element, and exercises but little influence on the Mussulman mind. The descendant of the Arab grandee, as of his Turkish conqueror, lives unconscious of the encroachment of foreign enterprise and blind to the rise of Christian supremacy.
The glorious traditions of the two great factions which once divided Turkish society and have now fallen into oblivion elsewhere, are still fresh at Aleppo. The affiliation of the Janissaries has never been eradicated, here, and they meet in secret to keep alive the memory of their past preponderance. The green-turbaned Shereefs claim, as of old, and receive, the veneration of the people, for their descent from the Prophet. It is in vain that one talks to them of the altered circumstances of Islam, which are incredible to them. Vegetating in their narrow circle of contemptuous exclusiveness, they are animated only by personal and party rivalries. Their religion of pride cannot admit that a religion of humility is compatible with power abroad or prosperity at home. What they hear of Christendom is, therefore, regarded by them as an idle tale. The condition of the Mussulman population of this northern capital of Syria is thus a remnant of what Turkey has been rather than an example of what she is.
The Christians of Aleppo are a keen, money-making people, clever in trade, miserly at home, abject without support, and insolent when unduly protected. The great mass of them live in a state of chronic terror. This was merely a reflex of what they suffered in the massacre of 1850, and their panic is now enhanced by the disasters of Mount Lebanon and Damascus. The measures adopted to prevent an outbreak have hitherto been successful, and, if they continue so, it will be a source of no small satisfaction to me, having been called upon to co-operate in them with the competent authorities.
This seat of provincial government, surrounded by the most productive tracts of country possessing, under ordinary circumstances, a trade of great activity and extent, and amply provided with all the elements of abundance, is nevertheless in a condition of unvarying financial embarrassment. The method, or rather want of method, of management followed, is to supply by loans, at usurious rates of interest, the deficit produced by allowing the revenue to fall into arrear. Speculators purchase, at a large discount, the orders on the Treasury, which are given in default of cash, and pounce upon the receipts before they reach the chest. There is, probably, also an under-current of actual robbery of the public money, but I am not prepared to make an assertion that such exists, although the fact that Members of the Councils, and other public servants, born of poor families, should live in affluence on small salaries and realize large fortunes, can leave little doubt on the subject. The result of all this is, that we have here a province yielding a gross annual income of 19,000,000 piastres, exporting every year produce of the average value of 25,000,000 piastres, and importing foreign goods to the amount of 50,000,000 piastres, and yet offering the continual spectacle of an empty Treasury, leaving salaries in arrear for many months, and dealing with usurers at the rate of' 40 and 50 per cent per annum. Nor does this embarrassment arise from an excess of expenditure, for the nominal and ostensible outlay is always one or two millions below the real amount of the revenue. The hypothesis of peculation can alone explain the matter.
2. In the year 1849 a census was made of the male population of this Pashalic, but little reliance can be placed on it, owing to the interest which the separate communities have in concealing their real numbers to diminish collective taxation as practised in Turkey, and to secure exemption from the full weight of the conscription and its corresponding impost on Christians in lieu of military service. A Registrar for recording births and deaths has been appointed since then; but the want of efficient inspection, and the general carelessness prevalent in most public offices in Turkey, render the estimates very imperfect. We are, therefore, reduced to the use of approximate quantities in this as in many other statistical data. I should calculate the Christian population to be about one-fifth of the whole, and the Mahometan four-fifths, with a trifling deduction for Jews, Druses, and Ansairis. The population of the Province must in the aggregate be slightly under 500,000.
3. All the proprietors in the country are Mussulmans.
Almost all the traders in the towns are Christians.
Almost all the cultivators are Mussulmans; and the pastoral tribes of Arabs, Kurds, and Turcomans, are nominally Mussulmans.
4. Of the four species of tenure of land, two only are open to Christians:
1st. "Mulkh," or freehold property, and
2nd. "Miri," or crown lands, which they can occupy by right of a deed, called "tabou," conferring on them the usufruct for ever, on condition that they shall not lie uncultivated for three successive years, under penalty of their returning to the Sultan.
The other two species of tenure can only be enjoyed by Mussulmans, and the nature of their origin justifies the principle. Thus, "vakouf or pious foundations, are held by the descendants of those who bequeathed them for the support of mosques and medressehs, and cannot be alienated; malikaneh," or fiefs, still belong to the families of Spahis, who had received grants in return for the military service they rendered in the wars of the State, or in conducting caravans of pilgrims in Syria to Mecca.
In all these kinds of titles, excepting the first, the real property of the land is vested in the Sultan, who though he has nominally abolished feudalism in Turkey, retains the fee-simple of almost the whole of his dominions. Unlike that of the nations which subverted the Roman Empire in the West, the feudal system of the East secured a seigneurial right over the people to the Sovereign, untempered by that of the landed aristocracy, and this peculiarity of the Turkish social compact still exists, notwithstanding that feudalism ceased to be the law of the land under Sultan Mahmoud II, in pursuance of the purpose of his enlightened but less energetic uncle Selim III.
Freehold property, the best of tenures, is therefore within the reach of theSultan's Christian subjects. The fear, however, of unfair treatment deters them from becoming landholders; and it appears to me that the national tendency is also in favour of trade in preference to agriculture.
5. They can; and there is no difference, either in right or in practice.
6. There are no Christian villages in this part of Syria, excepting in the neighbourhood of Marash, where Armenian peasants cultivate the land of Mussulman proprietors, by whom they are protected, and their condition is consequently as good as that of the Mahometan peasantry.
7. It is not admitted; and the attempt is never made to obtain its admission. No case has occurred in connection with the business of this consulate to raise the question. The practice is to appoint Arbitration Commissions when the results of a suit depend on Christian evidence, or to refer the decision to the Bishops; but this is, of course, only in civil, commercial, and correctional cases.
8. Most certainly. A change in favour of Christians was introduced twenty years ago by the Egyptian authorities, and it has been carried on by those of the Sultan. Ten years ago the Christians suffered greatly at the hands of the Mussulmans; but that outbreak was dependent on incidental causes, and left no retrograde effect. The progress in this respect has even reached a degree which is becoming dangerous to the Christians: the Mussulmans are jealous of their prosperity in trade, and exasperated by their arrogance when they obtain Consular protection.
9. There are none except the non-admission of Christian evidence in Courts of Justice, and of Christian soldiers in the army.
10. The Christians of Northern Syria are not a warlike people, like those of Mount Lebanon, or the Albanians, or the mountaineers of Crete. They have neither a taste for, nor a knowledge of, the use of arms. They are hardly ever even sportsmen. I do not believe that any Christian would prefer entering the military service to paying the tax in this part of the country. At Marash the offer was made by the Armenian community; but I am of opinion that it originated merely in the hope of obtaining relief from the tax, and that it would not have been realized if the Government had accepted it.
Serving in the army would, I think, be more advantageous to the Christians than paying the tax, provided the conscription were conducted in an equitable manner, which has not hitherto been the case. If, instead of taking all the young men from one district and none from another, those only were enlisted who could be spared from rural labour and the support of families, Christian recruits would return more useful members of society after seven years' military service than they are now. A people wanting in manliness, who tremble at the sight of a gun or sword, and dare not approach a horse, cannot but be improved by leading for a time a soldier's life. The sum of about 2S. 9 a head per annum would also thus be saved to the whole community. The Christians in general are averse to the idea, however, by innate distaste and from fear of ill-treatment.
11 Christian churches have been built, of late, at Kessab, Marash, Aintab, and Killis, without the least opposition or difficulty; and no molestation whatever had been experienced in the observance of Christian worship until two months ago when an incident of the kind occurred at Antioch; Mussulmans having entered the Church there during Divine service, and called out, "La illahe il Allah; Mahommed resoul Allah!" (There is no God but God; Mahomet is the Prophet of God!), as reported by me at the time. No repetition of the offence has taken place, the Turkish authorities having punished the offenders.
12. Only one instance of oppression has occurred during the three years and
a-half that 1 have been here, and it was solely on the part of the Government officers. The great massacre of Christians in 1850 was produced by rival claims amongst the Ayans of Aleppo, which ended in a general rush for plunder on the part of the Mussulman population.
13. Exclusively from the church which they have left.
14. The Christian population of this Consular district has no great grievances to complain of; and their own authorities seem to me to be in no way open to insecurity of life and property arising from the state of insubordination of the nomadic tribes; the Turkish authorities could do much to remedy this. The Christians suffer from the defects of the Commercial Tariff more than the Mussulmans, however; and its revisiLn would easily meet all the exigencies of the trade in manufactures. For example, the Aleppo goods called "alagia" are made to pay little more than i per cent, on their value, while those named "ghazi," not being specified in the Tariff, fall under a comprehensive clause, and pay 10 per cent; manufacturers, therefore, have thrown the workmen of the latter article out of employment, and exporters cannot supply the demand for it, which is much greater than that for the former on account of its stronger and cheaper quality. The high price of provisions is a ground of complaint by both Christians and Mussulmans; this is due to the practice of members of the Councils being directly or indirectly interested in the farming of the tithes. If they were practically prevented from entering into such speculations, a different class of persons would take them up, and the influence of the Ayans would become beneficial in furthering the trade in provisions as owners of land, instead of being pernicious by impeding it to secure the greater gains of rapacity as uncontrolled collectors. The Christian authorities can do
nothing to cope with so deep-seated an evil.
15. There are two Christian members of the Medjlis, but their presence at the sittings is a mere matter of form, as they take no part in deliberations, and are treated with utter disregard never venturing to express dissent in any decision, even though it be calculated to injure their brother Christians.
These Councils are certainly less favourable to progress and good government than the officials of the Porte.
In my humble opinion the experiment ofmunicipal institutions was made in a manner not in harmony with the existing state of the country. The feudal system of the East had degenerated when it produced the great barons of Turkey in the first quarter of the present century, Ali Tepedeleni, Ali, of Stolatz, Kara Osman Oglu, Chassan Oglu, Haznadar Oglu, and others, equally powerful and independent; and it had reduced the body of the people to actual servitude. The spirit of industry was crushed by the narrow maxims of a military aristocracy. The country was on the verge of ruin. A counterpoise was sought for the oppression of pashas of the old school. The remedy has outweighed the evil, and instead of one tyrant there are now many tyrants, each grasping his own advantage, and all inferior to the Pasha in qualifications for government. The desired control exists, but the local magnates are unworthy of the trust. The power of the functionaries sent from Constantinople, which is a whole century in advance of the provinces, is paralyzed by the corrupt action of the Ayans. A good Pasha is hampered; a bad one not checked. Men of integrity and public spirit may come from the capital, but are not to be found in the towns of the interior. The Pasha of the present day is an improvement on the old feudal Satrap; the unchanging Ayan is still a man of the same stamp; and the better is thus controlled by the worse. Composed of cruel, venal, and rapacious accomplices, the Medjlis oppresses the people and enriches itse1f while Pashas are powerless, when willing, to cope with its collusive chicanery. Possessed of superior local information and experience, wielding a dangerous influence over the lower orders, which fear their iron rule, and well versed in all the trickery of Oriental intrigue, they rarely fail soon to reduce the most zealous pasha to the condition of a mere instrument in their hands. He is made to feel the weight of their displeasure, and the value of their support, by the unwise credit which is given by the Porte to their collective censure or certificates of good conduct, and he generally subsides into letting them govern the province in his stead. If he himself be not above temptation, as may happen, the affair is of course more easily arranged, and the result is the same. I have followed the same familiar phases of provincial government with unvarying issue in Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Roumelia, in Asia Minor and Syria, and I have thus been forced into strong convictions on the subject, which I hope to be held excused for thus expressing freely.
16. I cannot conceive the possibility of the powers of the Ayans being useful under any conditions without the standard of public morality being raised. If an equal number of the most respectable Christian merchants, however, were admitted into the Council, their weight and presence might go far to neutralize the baneful influence of its Mussulman members, and shame them into honesty.
17. It appears to me self-evident that judicial functions should not be entrusted to the local Councils as they are at present constituted. I doubt even that the Christian element could be advantageously introduced into the Courts of Justice, except in so far as regards the formation of commercial tribunals; and I should, therefore, say that even a Council, modified as above stated, would be incapable of acting satisfactorily in a judicial capacity.
Musulman law is a peculiar and abstruse study, which none but members of the Ulema make themselves masters of, and those of that learned body who come to the provinces as Cadis are frequently men of zeal for the public service, as well as integrity and legal acquirements. Their influence does not reach the Councils, where justice is in the market, and the prevalence of false
witnesses almost incredible: persons of no other calling being always in waiting at the door to make any depositions that may be required for a few piastres. If separate tribunals were organized, it would, therefore, be the best plan to have their members, or at least their Presidents, sent from Constantinople to keep the corruption of local members in check.
18. None whatever. No instances have occurred of late years.
19. Nothing of the kind takes place.
20. The judicial establishment is thus constituted: The Mehkemeh is a Court of Justice conducted by the Cadi, with the assistance of the Mufti. The Cadi is a lawyer from the schools of Constantinople, and is allowed to remain only one year in each province. The Mufti is a native of the town, and holds his office at the pleasure of the Governor. He is neither a colleague nor a superior of the Cadi, but an independent collateral authority, whose duty it is to deliver a "fetva," a species of oracular axiom, applicable to each case after it has been tried, and before sentence is passed.
The Great Medjlis is a Council of uneducated Ayans, and public functionaries without legal education, which adds to its legitimate deliberative and usurped executive functions the office of passing judgment on evidence taken by the Medjlis-el-Tahkik.
6. There are no Christian villages in this part of Syria, excepting in the neighbourhood of Marash, where Armenian peasants cultivate the land of Mussulman proprietors, by whom they are protected, and their condition is consequently as good as that of the Mahometan peasantry.
7. It is not admitted; and the attempt is never made to obtain its admission. No case has occurred in connection with the business of this consulate to raise the question. The practice is to appoint Arbitration Commissions when the results of a suit depend on Christian evidence, or to refer the decision to the Bishops; but this is, of course, only in civil, commercial, and correctional cases.
8. Most certainly. A change in favour of Christians was introduced twenty years ago by the Egyptian authorities, and it has been carried on by those of the Sultan. Ten years ago the Christians suffered greatly at the hands of the Mussulmans; but that outbreak was dependent on incidental causes, and left no retrograde effect. The progress in this respect has even reached a degree which is becoming dangerous to the Christians: the Mussulmans are jealous of their prosperity in trade, and exasperated by their arrogance when they obtain Consular protection.
9. There are none except the non-admission of Christian evidence in Courts of Justice, and of Christian soldiers in the army.
10. The Christians of Northern Syria are not a warlike people, like those of Mount Lebanon, or the Albanians, or the mountaineers of Crete. They have neither a taste for, nor a knowledge of, the use of arms. They are hardly ever even sportsmen. I do not believe that any Christian would prefer entering the military service to paying the tax in this part of the country. At Marash the offer was made by the Armenian community; but I am of opinion that it originated merely in the hope of obtaining relief from the tax, and that it would not have been realized if the Government had accepted it.
Serving in the army would, I think, be more advantageous to the Christians than paying the tax, provided the conscription were conducted in an equitable manner, which has not hitherto been the case. If, instead of taking all the young men from one district and none from another, those only were enlisted who could be spared from rural labour and the support of families, Christian recruits would return more useful members of society after seven years' military service than they are now. A people wanting in manliness, who tremble at the sight of a gun or sword, and dare not approach a horse, cannot but be improved by leading for a time a soldier's life. The sum of about 2S. 9 a head per annum would also thus be saved to the whole community. The Christians in general are averse to the idea, however, by innate distaste and from fear of ill-treatment.
11 Christian churches have been built, of late, at Kessab, Marash, Aintab, and Killis, without the least opposition or difficulty; and no molestation whatever had been experienced in the observance of Christian worship until two months ago when an incident of the kind occurred at Antioch; Mussulmans having entered the Church there during Divine service, and called out, "La illahe il Allah; Mahommed resoul Allah!" (There is no God but God; Mahomet is the Prophet of God!), as reported by me at the time. No repetition of the offence has taken place, the Turkish authorities having punished the offenders.
12. Only one instance of oppression has occurred during the three years and
a-half that 1 have been here, and it was solely on the part of the Government officers. The great massacre of Christians in 1850 was produced by rival claims amongst the Ayans of Aleppo, which ended in a general rush for plunder on the part of the Mussulman population.
13. Exclusively from the church which they have left.
14. The Christian population of this Consular district has no great grievances to complain of; and their own authorities seem to me to be in no way open to insecurity of life and property arising from the state of insubordination of the nomadic tribes; the Turkish authorities could do much to remedy this. The Christians suffer from the defects of the Commercial Tariff more than the Mussulmans, however; and its revisiLn would easily meet all the exigencies of the trade in manufactures. For example, the Aleppo goods called "alagia" are made to pay little more than i per cent, on their value, while those named "ghazi," not being specified in the Tariff, fall under a comprehensive clause, and pay 10 per cent; manufacturers, therefore, have thrown the workmen of the latter article out of employment, and exporters cannot supply the demand for it, which is much greater than that for the former on account of its stronger and cheaper quality. The high price of provisions is a ground of complaint by both Christians and Mussulmans; this is due to the practice of members of the Councils being directly or indirectly interested in the farming of the tithes. If they were practically prevented from entering into such speculations, a different class of persons would take them up, and the influence of the Ayans would become beneficial in furthering the trade in provisions as owners of land, instead of being pernicious by impeding it to secure the greater gains of rapacity as uncontrolled collectors. The Christian authorities can do
nothing to cope with so deep-seated an evil.
15. There are two Christian members of the Medjlis, but their presence at the sittings is a mere matter of form, as they take no part in deliberations, and are treated with utter disregard never venturing to express dissent in any decision, even though it be calculated to injure their brother Christians.
These Councils are certainly less favourable to progress and good government than the officials of the Porte.
In my humble opinion the experiment ofmunicipal institutions was made in a manner not in harmony with the existing state of the country. The feudal system of the East had degenerated when it produced the great barons of Turkey in the first quarter of the present century, Ali Tepedeleni, Ali, of Stolatz, Kara Osman Oglu, Chassan Oglu, Haznadar Oglu, and others, equally powerful and independent; and it had reduced the body of the people to actual servitude. The spirit of industry was crushed by the narrow maxims of a military aristocracy. The country was on the verge of ruin. A counterpoise was sought for the oppression of pashas of the old school. The remedy has outweighed the evil, and instead of one tyrant there are now many tyrants, each grasping his own advantage, and all inferior to the Pasha in qualifications for government. The desired control exists, but the local magnates are unworthy of the trust. The power of the functionaries sent from Constantinople, which is a whole century in advance of the provinces, is paralyzed by the corrupt action of the Ayans. A good Pasha is hampered; a bad one not checked. Men of integrity and public spirit may come from the capital, but are not to be found in the towns of the interior. The Pasha of the present day is an improvement on the old feudal Satrap; the unchanging Ayan is still a man of the same stamp; and the better is thus controlled by the worse. Composed of cruel, venal, and rapacious accomplices, the Medjlis oppresses the people and enriches itse1f while Pashas are powerless, when willing, to cope with its collusive chicanery. Possessed of superior local information and experience, wielding a dangerous influence over the lower orders, which fear their iron rule, and well versed in all the trickery of Oriental intrigue, they rarely fail soon to reduce the most zealous pasha to the condition of a mere instrument in their hands. He is made to feel the weight of their displeasure, and the value of their support, by the unwise credit which is given by the Porte to their collective censure or certificates of good conduct, and he generally subsides into letting them govern the province in his stead. If he himself be not above temptation, as may happen, the affair is of course more easily arranged, and the result is the same. I have followed the same familiar phases of provincial government with unvarying issue in Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Roumelia, in Asia Minor and Syria, and I have thus been forced into strong convictions on the subject, which I hope to be held excused for thus expressing freely.
16. I cannot conceive the possibility of the powers of the Ayans being useful under any conditions without the standard of public morality being raised. If an equal number of the most respectable Christian merchants, however, were admitted into the Council, their weight and presence might go far to neutralize the baneful influence of its Mussulman members, and shame them into honesty.
17. It appears to me self-evident that judicial functions should not be entrusted to the local Councils as they are at present constituted. I doubt even that the Christian element could be advantageously introduced into the Courts of Justice, except in so far as regards the formation of commercial tribunals; and I should, therefore, say that even a Council, modified as above stated, would be incapable of acting satisfactorily in a judicial capacity.
Musulman law is a peculiar and abstruse study, which none but members of the Ulema make themselves masters of, and those of that learned body who come to the provinces as Cadis are frequently men of zeal for the public service, as well as integrity and legal acquirements. Their influence does not reach the Councils, where justice is in the market, and the prevalence of false
witnesses almost incredible: persons of no other calling being always in waiting at the door to make any depositions that may be required for a few piastres. If separate tribunals were organized, it would, therefore, be the best plan to have their members, or at least their Presidents, sent from Constantinople to keep the corruption of local members in check.
18. None whatever. No instances have occurred of late years.
19. Nothing of the kind takes place.
20. The judicial establishment is thus constituted: The Mehkemeh is a Court of Justice conducted by the Cadi, with the assistance of the Mufti. The Cadi is a lawyer from the schools of Constantinople, and is allowed to remain only one year in each province. The Mufti is a native of the town, and holds his office at the pleasure of the Governor. He is neither a colleague nor a superior of the Cadi, but an independent collateral authority, whose duty it is to deliver a "fetva," a species of oracular axiom, applicable to each case after it has been tried, and before sentence is passed.
The Great Medjlis is a Council of uneducated Ayans, and public functionaries without legal education, which adds to its legitimate deliberative and usurped executive functions the office of passing judgment on evidence taken by the Medjlis-el-Tahkik.
The Medjlis-el-Tahkik is a Council of also uneducated Ayans, for the investigation of penal cases.
There is no Commercial Tribunal at Aleppo, in spite of repeated orders to institute one.
The reforms I should think calculated to correct the defects of this system are:-
1st. The employment of lawyers instead of Ayans in the Medjlis-el-Tahkik
2nd. The formation of a Court of Appeal, composed of lawyers; to perform also the judicial functions now fulfilled by the Great Medjlis.
3rd. The employment of a distinguished lawyer from Constantinople as Mufti to act as Inspector of all the Courts, and correspond with the Minister of Justice, without being attached to the Mehkemeh as he is now.
4th The complete independence of all judicial from the administrative authorities.
5th The formation of a Commercial Court of Mussulman, Christian, Jewish, and European merchants, to be guided by the laws and usages of trade, without reference to Mussulman law.
6th. The abolition of the practice of making all gainers of suits pay the cost, litigation being often encouraged by the wish of the losers to revenge themselves in this way when their cases are untenable.
7th The substitution of fines for imprisonment in all minor penal cases; the latter having no stigma in this country.
21. (1st A serious consideration of the question of the nomadic Arabs.
(2nd.) Vigilance to prevent abuses in the collection of the tithes.
(3rd Road-making; a bushel of wheat costs as much for carriage on the back of a camel or mule from Orfa to the shipping port, as it does to purchase it in
the interior.
(4th The detaching of regular troops over the country instead of employing irregulars, who exhaust the resources of the villages by living on them, and connive at plunder.
(5th Vigilance to prevent Consular protection being given to subjects of the Sultan, especially as regards religious communities, which are thus kept in a state of antagonism amongst themselves, and of disaffection towards the State.
22. In the present state of feeling between communities and sects, Christian parents might be averse to sending their children to be taught by Mussulmans, and vice versa, even although convinced that the education received would be exclusively secular. But under ordinary circumstances, the study of Oriental languages by Christians has always been by the tuition of Mussulman teachers, and the College founded by the Franciscan Friars have been attended by both Mahometan and Jewish students. I should say that such schools might tend to smooth the asperities of religious prejudices, and unite the youth of different persuasions in that bond of school-fellowship which is so strong and enduring with us at home.
23. This appears to me the most felicitous idea that has yet been started for the settlement of a very complicated question. At Aleppo I feel confident that such an arangement would work admirably, But the Christian Vice-Governor should be a functionary sent from Constantinople, commanding respect by his character and abilities.
24. I have heard of only two persons of Aleppo, subjects of the Sultan, who on returning from Constantinople, whither they had gone for the purpose, brought Russian passports with them.
(5th Vigilance to prevent Consular protection being given to subjects of the Sultan, especially as regards religious communities, which are thus kept in a state of antagonism amongst themselves, and of disaffection towards the State.
22. In the present state of feeling between communities and sects, Christian parents might be averse to sending their children to be taught by Mussulmans, and vice versa, even although convinced that the education received would be exclusively secular. But under ordinary circumstances, the study of Oriental languages by Christians has always been by the tuition of Mussulman teachers, and the College founded by the Franciscan Friars have been attended by both Mahometan and Jewish students. I should say that such schools might tend to smooth the asperities of religious prejudices, and unite the youth of different persuasions in that bond of school-fellowship which is so strong and enduring with us at home.
23. This appears to me the most felicitous idea that has yet been started for the settlement of a very complicated question. At Aleppo I feel confident that such an arangement would work admirably, But the Christian Vice-Governor should be a functionary sent from Constantinople, commanding respect by his character and abilities.
24. I have heard of only two persons of Aleppo, subjects of the Sultan, who on returning from Constantinople, whither they had gone for the purpose, brought Russian passports with them.
Reports received from H.M's Consuls Relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey 1860, London: 1861. pp. 48-53, Yo. 13/1
No. 12
Consul Skene to Sir H. Bulwer.
(Extract.) ALLEPPO August 20, 1860.
ON the 4 instant I had the honour of forwarding my replies to the Queries contained in your Excellency's circular ofJune ii, which had reached me only a few days previously, and yesterday I received the other circular bearing the same date. I thus furnished what information I could without being aware of the motives dictating the questions, and without being in possession of the valuable instructions conveyed by the other circular. I shall, therefore, endeavour now to supply the deficiencies of my replies.
Whatever may be the condition of the provinces of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, it is certain that in Northern Syria the almost total absence of crime of any kind is one of the most remarkable features of the country, and is not equalled in any part of Europe. There have been, no doubt, conflicts between sects such as the massacre of the Christians at Aleppo, in 1850, and those of Lebanon and Damascus this summer, but no impartial and dispassionate observer can class such incidents as inherent parts of the existing state of society. They are rather the symptoms of the decline of a supremacy which burst out in occasional recrudescence in proportion as the introduction of another social order becomes felt. These things did not occur before the struggle commenced between absolute predominance and the claim of equal rights. They prove, therefore, that a change is taking root in favour of the Christians, and not merely that they are oppressed by the Turks.
Religious tolerance is professed by the Government authorities in this province, and there is no practical violation of the principle of any importance. It has even been evinced recently in a very striking manner by the Ulema;
Mussulmans insulting Christians in the streets having been severely rebuked by them, and some of the most revered Imams having publicly in the mosques preached the equality before God of all mankind, as proved by quotations from the Koran.
Your Excellency expresses the belief that it is an exaggeration to contend that things are in a much worse state than, under the circumstances, might be expected.
This view of the case is fully corroborated by my experience during many years passed in the provinces of both European and Asiatic Turkey, as well as at Constantinople. But, in making this statement, I beg leave to add, that I also conceive a great exaggeration to have existed in the expectations which were entertained.
On the accession of the present Sultan a new era opened for Turkey, and an improved system ofgovernment was inaugurated by the Edict of Gulhané. More I think, was expected from the reform than was warranted by the state of the country, which was generally estimated on the erroneous data supplied by appearances in the capital, while the provinces by no means keep pace with it in the career of improvement. Old vices of the State have been eradicated, immediately under the eye of a well-intentioned Sovereign and Ministry, with the vigilance of foreign Representatives to watch over their efforts, whether it be to assist or to expose weakness. Some advance in the same direction has doubtless been made also in provincial administration, but it is far from meeting the expectations of those who believed in the regeneration of the Ottoman Empire. I consider the reasons of disappointment to be that the provinces were judged by the capital, that the capability of the former to receive reforms was overrated, and that the measures adopted were not in harmony with their actual condition. What has been effected in the way of improvement may not, however, be less than under the circumstances might be expected. For further elucidation of my views on this subject I respectfully beg to refer to my replies to your Excellency's queries, in which I have endeavoured to point out what I regard as the flaws in the existing system of provincial government and their possible remedies.
Your Excellency calls for information on the condition of the Rayah population, and on what points the intentions of the Sultan can be carried out more fully with safety and advantage.
I may add, to what I have stated in my replies to your Excellency's queries, that I cannot help considering the general estimate of the state of the Christians in Turkey to be as inaccurate now as that of the Mussulmans was twenty years ago.
The political education of the Sultan's Christian subjects has made but little progress, and a violent change would find them sadly in arrear of certain opinions which regard them as being prepared for self-government. Nor do I see that the intentions of the Sultan have much chance of being carried out at all, and either time or opportunity allowed for maturing the advantages of which the seeds were sown by the Edict of Gulhané and the Hatti-Humayoun.
I feel persuaded that the best prospect for the Christian population of Turkey is to be found in the amelioration of Turkish provincial administration, more particularly as regards the selection of Governors and reform of the Councils, with a complete cessation of special protection by Consular authorities, and great forbearance on the part of Europe towards the Porte on any emergencies which may arise.
Without being too sanguine on the subject, it appears to me that it would be no very arduous task to promote the prosperity of Syria. With security of life and property for the agricultural classes, and the establishment of justice in the towns, it would soon become one of the most flourishing of the Sultan's possessions. Perfect salubrity of climate, a great extent of fertile plains, a sufficient number of rivers and smaller streams for irrigation, with a patient, frugal, and industrious peasantry, an active and intelligent trading community, leave little wanting to confer on Syria a degree of welfare hitherto unknown. A rational mode of treating the important question of the nomadic tribes; the repression of corruption and extortion on the part of the local magnates; the admission of the Christians to a larger share in the administration of public affairs; the purification and reorganization of the tribunals; the encouragement of education; -seem to me reforms of a practicable realization, and their beneficial effects cannot be called into question. In my replies to your Excellency's queries I ventured to enumerate the measures which I humbly consider calculated to attain those ends.
I am sure your Excellency wishes to have opinions frankly stated, in order that they may be duly sifted, and appreciated according to their merits and demerits; and I therefore hope I may be held excused if I have too freely given utterance to these crude notions on a subject, the consideration of which may not strictly form part of a Consul's attributes.
With respect to the Provincial Councils, on which your Excelency desires that the Consuls should furnish the results of their observations, I have nothing to add to the remarks contained in my despatch of the 4 of August.
Reports relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey..., pp. 67-69, no. 18/1
Whatever may be the condition of the provinces of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, it is certain that in Northern Syria the almost total absence of crime of any kind is one of the most remarkable features of the country, and is not equalled in any part of Europe. There have been, no doubt, conflicts between sects such as the massacre of the Christians at Aleppo, in 1850, and those of Lebanon and Damascus this summer, but no impartial and dispassionate observer can class such incidents as inherent parts of the existing state of society. They are rather the symptoms of the decline of a supremacy which burst out in occasional recrudescence in proportion as the introduction of another social order becomes felt. These things did not occur before the struggle commenced between absolute predominance and the claim of equal rights. They prove, therefore, that a change is taking root in favour of the Christians, and not merely that they are oppressed by the Turks.
Religious tolerance is professed by the Government authorities in this province, and there is no practical violation of the principle of any importance. It has even been evinced recently in a very striking manner by the Ulema;
Mussulmans insulting Christians in the streets having been severely rebuked by them, and some of the most revered Imams having publicly in the mosques preached the equality before God of all mankind, as proved by quotations from the Koran.
Your Excellency expresses the belief that it is an exaggeration to contend that things are in a much worse state than, under the circumstances, might be expected.
This view of the case is fully corroborated by my experience during many years passed in the provinces of both European and Asiatic Turkey, as well as at Constantinople. But, in making this statement, I beg leave to add, that I also conceive a great exaggeration to have existed in the expectations which were entertained.
On the accession of the present Sultan a new era opened for Turkey, and an improved system ofgovernment was inaugurated by the Edict of Gulhané. More I think, was expected from the reform than was warranted by the state of the country, which was generally estimated on the erroneous data supplied by appearances in the capital, while the provinces by no means keep pace with it in the career of improvement. Old vices of the State have been eradicated, immediately under the eye of a well-intentioned Sovereign and Ministry, with the vigilance of foreign Representatives to watch over their efforts, whether it be to assist or to expose weakness. Some advance in the same direction has doubtless been made also in provincial administration, but it is far from meeting the expectations of those who believed in the regeneration of the Ottoman Empire. I consider the reasons of disappointment to be that the provinces were judged by the capital, that the capability of the former to receive reforms was overrated, and that the measures adopted were not in harmony with their actual condition. What has been effected in the way of improvement may not, however, be less than under the circumstances might be expected. For further elucidation of my views on this subject I respectfully beg to refer to my replies to your Excellency's queries, in which I have endeavoured to point out what I regard as the flaws in the existing system of provincial government and their possible remedies.
Your Excellency calls for information on the condition of the Rayah population, and on what points the intentions of the Sultan can be carried out more fully with safety and advantage.
I may add, to what I have stated in my replies to your Excellency's queries, that I cannot help considering the general estimate of the state of the Christians in Turkey to be as inaccurate now as that of the Mussulmans was twenty years ago.
The political education of the Sultan's Christian subjects has made but little progress, and a violent change would find them sadly in arrear of certain opinions which regard them as being prepared for self-government. Nor do I see that the intentions of the Sultan have much chance of being carried out at all, and either time or opportunity allowed for maturing the advantages of which the seeds were sown by the Edict of Gulhané and the Hatti-Humayoun.
I feel persuaded that the best prospect for the Christian population of Turkey is to be found in the amelioration of Turkish provincial administration, more particularly as regards the selection of Governors and reform of the Councils, with a complete cessation of special protection by Consular authorities, and great forbearance on the part of Europe towards the Porte on any emergencies which may arise.
Without being too sanguine on the subject, it appears to me that it would be no very arduous task to promote the prosperity of Syria. With security of life and property for the agricultural classes, and the establishment of justice in the towns, it would soon become one of the most flourishing of the Sultan's possessions. Perfect salubrity of climate, a great extent of fertile plains, a sufficient number of rivers and smaller streams for irrigation, with a patient, frugal, and industrious peasantry, an active and intelligent trading community, leave little wanting to confer on Syria a degree of welfare hitherto unknown. A rational mode of treating the important question of the nomadic tribes; the repression of corruption and extortion on the part of the local magnates; the admission of the Christians to a larger share in the administration of public affairs; the purification and reorganization of the tribunals; the encouragement of education; -seem to me reforms of a practicable realization, and their beneficial effects cannot be called into question. In my replies to your Excellency's queries I ventured to enumerate the measures which I humbly consider calculated to attain those ends.
I am sure your Excellency wishes to have opinions frankly stated, in order that they may be duly sifted, and appreciated according to their merits and demerits; and I therefore hope I may be held excused if I have too freely given utterance to these crude notions on a subject, the consideration of which may not strictly form part of a Consul's attributes.
With respect to the Provincial Councils, on which your Excelency desires that the Consuls should furnish the results of their observations, I have nothing to add to the remarks contained in my despatch of the 4 of August.
Reports relating to the Condition of Christians in Turkey..., pp. 67-69, no. 18/1
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