What was said above concerning Islam as the hereditary
faith of the Ottoman Turk does not hold true of the
other Moslem races of Turkey. Koords, Circassians,
Albanians—nearly half as many, all together, as the
Turks—are, at best, but half Mohammedan. To a large
extent the profession of Islam by Koords and Circassians
is purely outward and formal, while their esoteric
faith is a mixture of Mohammedanism, Christianity and
heathenism. In grouping and generalization we cannot go
farther than the statement just made. Take the Koords
alone. There is almost infinite variety in their religious
beliefs and superstitions. It is well known that there
are whole villages among them ready to declare themselves
Christians, could they be assured of protection in so
doing. The Moslem Albanians—somewhat more than half the
race—are more bigoted and violent Mohammedans than the
Turks, just as the Janissaries, likewise of Christian
origin, who were compelled from childhood to embrace
Islam, out-Heroded Herod in the fanaticism of their
anti-Christian zeal.
With the exception of the Albanians, Islam has, in all
the centuries of the reign of the Ottoman Power over
these lands, made very slight gains from the Christian
races. The number of Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian,
Roumanian, Servian, Bosnian, or Montenegrin Mohammedans
is insignificant. Of these seven races, for hundreds of
years under Moslem sway, the number to-day free from
Ottoman control is nearly equal to the entire population,
Moslem and Christian, now directly under Turkish
domination.
—From “The Mohammedan World of To-day.”