New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-06
A dispatch to The Daily fers from Con-
THE TURKISH EMPIRE A MYTH.

Is NOT SECULAR STATE, But RELIGIOUS
AND MILITARY THEOCRACY-THE ERRORS OF
EUROPEAN DIPLOMATIsTs.
To the EditOr Of The Tribune.
SIR: The reassembling of the Great Powers
at Berlin to fix some of the issues not settled
by the Treaty of 1873, relating to Turkey and
the Eastern question, makes every really i'm
portant contribution to the discussion of this
engrosSing subject interesting even to Ameri-
can readers. ! send you herewith a transla-
ton of remarkable letter from an Ottoman
statesman, which appeared yesterday in the
Journal DIES Debats. Yours respectfully,
Paris, June 49, 1880. GEORGE WALKER.
TURKEY RELIGIOUS CONGREGATION.
EUROPEAN REFORMS ARE IN CONFLICT WITH THE
OTTOMAN PRINCIPLE or GOvERNMENT-TURKEY
is NOT STATE IN THE EUROPEAN sENsE-IT
is TIE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF ISLAM WHOSE
SOCIAL BOND Is FAITH.
PARIS June 16, 1850.
TO The Editor Of The Journal DIES DebGts
Europe is pursuing in the East three objects: ~
The amelioration Of the condition of the Christian
populations (2l the preventing Russia from absorb
ing the East 81 the maintenance of the Turkish
Empire According TO ordinary calculations this
programme offers nothing which is not entirely
the means necessary for tho realization of these
three objects how does it happen. then. that Euro
pean craftsmanship with all its powerful resources,
has never accomplished any one of them Z
TO us the reason is perfectly clear. The pro-
gramme in question involves a great errOr-an error
strange ana mpercepible. it is true. to the Euro
pean eye, but of n nature TO completely upset all
the calculations of Western diplomacy. We will
endeav0r III a few words TO explain wherein tins
strange error lies. We all know that there is in the
East a country called Turkey. and people holding
dominion there called the Turks. We are all aware,
also, that this people and this country constitute
what is called the Ottoman Empire. But what Eu
rope does not know, aud what it will not readily
believe is that for Orientas there does not exist
Turkish nation, properly sO-called, and IL may. in
fact be said that there has never existed either
Turkey or an Ottoman Porte, clothed with the at
tributes of a civil government such as is esab-
lished in Europe. These names and the things
which they represent are utterly unknown i'll the
East.
The great Oriental State which European dpO-
macy has dsGgured under the names Of " Tnrk"
and Turkey" not the thing it is supposed to be.
This vast Mussulman power, this Turkish Empire.
this Ottoman Porte, which Europe wishes TO save
from destruction, and which it has not yet learned
Islam. Europe, deceived by the semblance of
tain historic facts has mistaken the military papacy
of Islam for a simple secular state. This error.
lyIBg at the bottom of all the relations of Christian
states with Islam. has given rise in the East 10
that frightf confusion of things and of ideas out
which European craftsmanship has never been able
to educe anything but misconceptions. The time
has come for correcting this mistake and for en-
deavOring, first Of ALL TO examine into the nature
and the exigencies Of that Mussulman papacy
which is falsely styled Turkey. but of which the
true name is the Great and Holy Caliphate of
Islam. For the study of this essential point we
venture now the following information.
THE NATURE OF THE CALIPHATK.
The Calpbate being a delegation of Divine power
and having for its mission the cOnquerDg and gov
erning if it IS possible. of the whole world, it is
easy to perceive that such theOcracy Is IN no wise
analogous to a Christian state, nor yet to any hui
man government whatsoever. All other states have
as a basis nationality and a national domain, but
here there is 10 nationality. no country. The Ca
iphate of Islam belongs to noterrtory TO no race to
10 family. At Bagdad, as III Egypt, under the de-
scendants of Abbas as well as under the family OF
Osman. it is always and everywhere the Mussulman
church: it is tho true and only government IN cx-
lstence. It's territories shoald be called neither
tries of Islam. The members of this church are not
and cannot be either Arabs or Turks or OttOmans
they are only Mussulmans.
Under the universal empire of the Caliphate. as
historical researches amply establish. the social
bond is neither language nor race nor history-lt is
faith. Ii matters not whether you speak Turkish
or Indian. whether you come from China or Amer
lea If YOU have the Mussulman faith you are le-
Ultimate citizen of this universal state Of Islam.
And on the other hand, though you be born at
Medina, though you dwell at Mecca, though you
speak the language Of the Prophet, and render the
most signal services to Islam, If YOU are not Mus
SULLIVAN you are of necessity excluded from this COM
munity; you can never be the equal OF believer.
Outside the pale Of Islam you an impure init
del y; you are only gaour"
Whatever may be tho opinion Of Europe to
the value OF these principles, 1t is Individually
owing to them that Islamism, after SCATTERING
many empires, and grinding together hundred
different peoples, has been enabled TO found the
most formidable military theocracy which human
genius has ever conceived. When the supreme
power of this theOcracy. at once religious and
by the pursuit of methods which even TO
this day are inscrutabe to MS, was transmitted to
the family of Osman, and when, by that circum-
stance. the Holy See of Islam was transferred to
COnStantlnOple. Christianity Mhhe uoinS Hotnlne
to oppose it, and without even realizing It's import
witnessed the accomplishment of one OF those great
events on which the destnes of the world arc made
to depend. The Christian nations OF that period
vaguely remembering that the conqueror Of Con-
staptinope was a Turk. and having, moreover. 10
cvact notion of this Power of the CalDhate, sup
posed that they were witnessing simply the advent
Of a barbarous tribe which had come from the
DEPTHS of Tartary to take possession of the whole
Empire of the East
The mysterious springs of this prodigious Church
of Islam. which the labor of centuries and the gi
eantic struggles Of the world had helped to install
at Constantinople. remained completely hidden from
the eyes OF Chrisiian nations. And AS the members