Evening star., 1924-03-28

Not so very long ago junta or
fire-eating reformers and plotters,
styling themselves as Young Turks.
had made UP their minds to blow a
new breath into the shrivoled breast
of the sick man OF Europe. A blood
less revolution was effected overnight,
and the Young Turks became COM
plete masters of the situation and of
Constantinople.
A few months later, however, 1t
was found necessary to remove from
the imperial throne of Islam the
shrunken frame of It's occupant, the
Red Sultan Abdul Hamid II; "the
great assassin" Gladstone had aptly
termed him as far back as 1878. But,
to their dismay, the irrepressible
Young Turks discovered at once that,
while il was childishly easy to re-
move from the throne the deCrepit
old tyrant, as far as the command of
force was concerned, it was diJCon-
certingiy hard to depose "the king OF
kings, the shadow of God upon earth,
the sole arbiter of the destinies of the
world. the master of the two conti-
nents and of the two seas. the sover-
eign of the orient and of the occi
dent"-this being only part OF the
Nay, a khaliph may be stoned to
death, like some of the very early
ones were; or strargled in his bed, in
accordance with more modern prac-
tice; or he may be done away with In
an infinite variety of ways. But, it
was pointed out to the pIotters, an
act of dethronement must be based on
some express or implied authority to
be found only in the universal guide
book of the Moslem. the Koran Gray
hnn hoo lnh n
theologians, were forthwith COM
manded to make a search through the
Koran in order to find some suitable
apothegm or dictum that would
throw the cloak of religious sanction
on the act Of the deposition OF the
khaliph. Fortunately for the Young
Turks, the proverbial elasticity of the
holy book offers all kinds of pegs to
hang all sorts of writS on: for a writ
or fctfa, to be regularly and duly is
sued by the fetfa- emin, the guardian
of the writs, was equally indispensa-
bic to legalize the action.
dubious dictum was found. the
fateful writ was issued and Abdul
Hamid ceased that very moment to be
the successor of Mohammed and to
have any claim OF allegiance on the
part of the faithful.
4 = :; =
That happened only fifteen years
ago: TO be more exact, in the month
Of March. 1909.
In the same month Of the present
year. 4 few strokes from the creaky
reed pen of some kiatip. transcribing
orders issued by the grand national
assembly Of Angora, llhaliph, khali-
phate and sacred Mohammedan law
have been committed TO the mere
memory of men, as far as Turkey is
concerned. And with them all the
paraphernalia of lsla mic theocracy
have been thrown into he discard.
Thus. from the Asia lie darkness Of
Angora the Turk comes out as ne
plus ultra twentieth-centur man.
Now. could such a thorough change
take place in the Turks mentality in
the short space of fifteen years?
Could a people who until yesterday
were Offering almost divine worship
To the Shadow OF God upon Earth
wake up suddenly to the realization
Of their error? Is il possible that the
Turk may achieve at the bat of an
eye what the western world took cen
turieS of preparation to attain?
We have always known the Turk
as an amiable, when not cross, slow
and easy-going fellow, basking Ian
guidly in the sunshine of his indolent
oriental nature, yielding delightfully."-
to long spells of dolce far niente,
never caring much for other things
than those that make life more enter
tanning: and. above all we have
known him as an exceptionally Allah
fearing man who would. every year.
prostrate himself devoutly before the
remaining hairs of Mohammed's beard
II = 4 y
What has happened. then. in the
meantime to change the snail into a
! dromedary. to use common simile
from the Koran itself? With a little
stretch Of our imagination we might be
able to understand, after all, that the
sultan's office could be abolished: that a
republic might be established; that
efforts should be displayed to wipe
out some OF the glaring deficiencies
and incongruities in the obsolete So