39 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tunicle Turkey
régime are liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice. The sultan was not at first deposed, but was made to accept the constitution—which recognizes the sovereignty of the dynasty of Othman, Mohammedanism as the religion of the State, and the sultan as calif of Islam, but promises religious liberty, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, equal rights, and equal duties for all races and religions—secured by a parliament where all are equally represented and by a reformed judiciary. In 1909 an attempt was made to subvert the constitution, but Abd-ul-Hamid was shown to have been concerned in the attempt and was deposed, and his brother, Mohammed V., was raised to the throne. This revolution is the work of the same Ottoman Turks as have ruled the empire for 600 years. They constitute about one-fifth of the population of the empire and hope that a strong and regenerated Turkey will restore their influence in the Mohammedan world. It remains to be seen how far it is possible to graft these Christian principles upon Mohammedanism and how far the Christian nationalities in the empire will consent to give up the special privileges which have been assured to them ever since the capture of Constantinople, and have served to protect their national churches from destruction. The Arabs, Albanians, Kurds, and other Mohammedan races have never loved the Turks, while the Christian races have always hoped and prayed for the decay and disappearance of the Turkish rule. In 1909 in Constantinople, officially recognized by the Porte, there were patriarchs of the Armenian, Armenian Catholic, Latin and Orthodox (Greek) churches, the exarch of the Bulgarian church, the vekil of the Protestants, and the Haham Bashi of the Jews. They are appointed by the sultan and have considerable civil as well as ecclesiastical authority over their flocks. In these organizations political interests have often taken the place of the concerns of religion, and, except the Protestants and Catholics, none of these religious bodies have done anything since the Turkish conquest to propagate their faith. As’ these communities are protected by European powers it will be impossible for the Turks to deprive them of these privileges by force, and their political interests and aspirations will lead them to cling as far as possible to these separate organizations.
II. Protestant Missions: The Protestant Reformation in Europe was not without influence in Turkey, and some of the highest ecclesiastics of the Orthodox church were more or less in sympathy with it. But the people were too ignorant and too isolated to be reached by any movement from with-
out; and Protestantism was practically
1. General. unknown to them until the establishment of Protestant missions in Turkey,
early in the present century. These missions have been confined almost exclusively to the Jews and the Oriental Christians. Thirty-one societies are engaged, including the Church Missionary Society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the London Jews Society, the Established Church of Scotland, the United Free Church of Scotland, the Irish Presbyterian Mission, the Palestine Church Missionary Society, the British Syrian School Society, the
Lebanon Schools Committee, the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East. All of these are British organizations; and in addition to these there are several independent enterprises, mostly schools, conducted by the English. The American societies are the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the Presbyterian Board of Missions, the Reformed Presbyterian Mission, the Christian (Campbellite) Mission, the Society of Friends (American and English). There are also a number of publication societies, both English and American, which have agents in Turkey or work through the missionaries. The most important are the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, the London Religious Tract Society. The German missions are the Kaiserswerth Deaconesses, the Krishona Missions, and the Jerusalem Verein. These societies employ about 450 missionaries and assistant missionaries, and about 1,800 native assistants. The whole number of Protestants in Turkey is estimated at 100,000, of whom about 25,000 are communicants.
First of these organizations stands the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which originally represented the Presbyterian, Reformed (Dutch), and Congregational churches of America, but since 1870 only the last. The work of this board in Turkey was commenced in 1819, when
two missionaries, Messrs. Fisk and
2. American Parsons, were sent out to begin work Board. at Jerusalem. This mission was never fairly established, but in 1823 the
Syrian mission was commenced at Beirut. The Armenian mission was founded at Constantinople in 1831, and the Jewish mission in 1832, the Assyrian mission in 1849, and the Bulgarian in 1858. Several missionaries have at times been appointed to work among the Mohammedans, but without any permanent result. There was a time, after the Crimean war, when the government tolerated work for the Mohammedans and there were a few converts. But in 1865 this toleration ceased, and for the last thirty years it has been impossible for a Moslem to abjure his faith and remain in the country. It remains to be seen how far the religious liberty now promised will be extended to Mohammedans. The board has now four distinct missions in Turkey—the European, Western, Central, and Eastern Turkey missions; and its work is chiefly among the Armenians, Bulgarians, and Greeks. The missionaries at first had no intention of establishing an independent Protestant church in Turkey, but sought rather to reform the existing Christian churches. The peculiar constitution of the Turkish empire, which not only gave civil power to the patriarchs, but treated as an
' outlaw every person not belonging to some estab-
lished church, together with the violent animosity of the ecclesiastics against Evangelical teaching, finally forced the missionaries to found a Protestant church, or, more properly, a Protestant civil community, which was recognized by the Porte in 1850, through the influence of England. In 1910 the American Board had in Turkey 354 male and female missionaries. They also supported, wholly or in part, 1,355 native pastors, preachers, teachers,
Turkey Turner