The sun., 1897-07-20
Christians Under Mohammedan Rule.

Christians Under MohammedanR Rule.
Some unfavorable comments have been
made OH the declaration uttered by Sir
PHILIP CURRIE, when replying to the de-
mand of TEwFIK Pasha for part of Thcs-
sally, that England could not agree to
restore a Christian population to Moham-
medan rule" He ought to have said, 1t was
asserted, "Turkish rule" for, II Europe OBJ
jects to placing Christians under the sway
of the Osmanli, it is not because the latter
are Mohammedans, but because they are
Turks; that Is to say, Mohammedans Of a
particular type who are given to read their
religious obligations in particular way.
The distinction thus attempted betrays
ignorance Of facts and confusion of thought,
as was clearly shown the other day by an
unusually well-informed and acute corre-
spondent of the London Guardian.
The truth is that the question raised by
the demand of TEwF1K Pasha is, in the
strictest sense, a religious and not an ethnic
one. In the first place, It is doubtful If q
thousand Turks of pure Ottoman descent
on both sides could be found in the Turk
ish empire. Slavery and polygamy are
everywhere and at all times fatal to purity
of breed. This Is emphatically true Of the
Turkish empire, and especially of its off,
cial classes, from the Sultan downward. For
five hundred years no Sultan Of Turkey has
had a Turkish mother. Since the time of
BAJAZET 1. the mothers of Turkish Sultans
have been slaves in most cases enslaved
Christians. The mother of the present
Sultan was an enslaved Armenian, and
the belief is widespread among the Mos
lens of Constantinople that his father
also was an Armenian in the service of
ABDUL MEDJID. This explains the shiv-
ering suspicousness with which he Is
necessarily haunted, and the fury with
which, after the fashion of renegades, he
assails his Armenian kinsmen in order to
disarm the jealousy of his Mohammedan
subjects. The Osmanli, considered as a
whole, are the most mixed people within
! the bounds Of their heterogeneous empire.
The process of deracializing the Turks has
been accomplished mainly through inter-
marriage and concubinage with the subject
populations, but it has also been power
fully accelerated by two facts. The first of
these was the tribute of children formerly
levied by the Sultan on his Christian sub
jects, and amounting to one boy in five at
the age of eight. These children had the
sign of the cross indelibly branded on the
soles of their feet, so that they might
always trample on 1t; out of them was
| formed the famous corps of Janiza-
ries. The official civil service of Tur-
| key was also administered by trib-
ute children; of the forty-eight per-
sons who became Grand Viziers after the
conquest of Constantinople, only twelve
were native Turks. This yearly infusion
Of a large stream of Christian blood long
ago dominated the Osmanli element, and
alongside of 1t came another stream which
still continues to flow into the Turkish sys-
tenn. We now refer to the compulsory con-
version of Christians, which goes on in
cessantly. DR.. LEPsIUs, after careful in
vestigation Of recent events In Armenia.
AYERS that in addition to the 100, 900 Ar
menians massacred by order of the Sultan,
at least another 100000 have in their
despair been forced to become Mohamme.
dams In the next generation the descend
ants of these men will become fanatical
Moslems.
So much for the chronological question; It
is evident that those who oppose the sub
lection of Christians to Turks must object
| TO the latter as Mohammedans. and not as
men of pure Ottoman descent Now let US
inquire whether Mohammedan rule is or
can be in any country or In the hands of
any race tolerable for a subject Christian
population. In the belief of orthodox
Moslems the Koran is the final revelation
of GOD to man, and everything ordered
therein Is immutable. The Koran places
Christians under an irrevocable ban. The
Koran, however, is not practically, though
1t is in theory, the ultimate tribunal of ap.
peal In the Mohammedan world. A body of
Jurisprudence has grown up around it, called
the Sheriat or "sacred law" which bears
much the same relation to the Koran that
the DEGREES of oecumenical councils bear
to the Bible In Catholic theology. In those
codes are laid down the ordinances that
govern the relations between the Moham.
medan subject Of q Mussulman power