So far as Americans are concerned, the missionary work in
European Turkey and Asia Minor is and long has been almost
exclusively in the hands of the American Board. In no part
of the world has that Board or any Board had abler or more
devoted representatives to preach the gospel, to conduct
schools and colleges or to establish and administer
hospitals. Their original aim was to infuse new life into
the native Armenian and Greek churches, to rescue them
from mere formalism, and to imbue them with the spirit of
a pure and active Christianity. Circumstances compiled
them in due time to organize independent churches on which
the old churches at first looked with unfriendly eyes.
But of late years in many places a more friendly and
sympathetic spirit has been manifested towards them by
the clergy of the old order, and the life of some of the
native churches has been quickened by the example of the
missionary churches.
The excellence of our schools has been so manifest that
its stimulating effect has been felt by not only the
Armenian and Greek schools, but also by the Turkish
schools.
The medical work of our missionary physicians has also
widely commended itself to men of all faiths and has
awakened a decided interest not only in the religion which
so humanely brings its generous hospital treatment to all
who desire it, but also in the rational system of medicine
and surgery which it illustrates. Even the Mohammedans
who are generally inaccessible to the approaches of our
missionaries cannot but have some appreciation of the
benevolent and Christlike work of our physicians.
Wherever an American mission is established, there is
a center of alert, enterprising American life, whose
influence in a hundred ways is felt even by the lethargic
Oriental life.
—PROF. JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D.,
University of Michigan,
Ex. U. S. Minister to Turkey and China.
Smyrna was the first station of the Levant occupied by American
missionaries. This was an important city of Turkey and, until
Constantinople was better understood, was considered the most important
city to hold as the central station of the missions to Turkey. Since
1820 this place has been one of the stations of the American Board and
the residence of one or more missionary families. This was regarded as
a good starting-point for work among the Greeks, as well as other races
centering there in large numbers.
Beirut, after an attempt to locate in Jerusalem, was occupied as a
station three years later. While the original plans for work in Syria
had the Jews most distinctly in mind, attention was quickly diverted to
other races more alert and promising.
It was inevitable that Constantinople should early become the
headquarters of missions in the Ottoman empire as it was the political
capital and commercial metropolis. The climate is healthy, and being
partly in Europe and partly in Asia, the city partakes in part of the
character of both continents.
There was also another strong reason for making Constantinople
the headquarters of work in Turkey, namely, the fact that it was
the headquarters of every important religious sect in the empire.
Opposition to mission work must emanate from that center and
difficulties could best be overcome right at their beginning. As it was
also the seat of government from which governors and civil officers
were sent to every part of the empire, this made it still more
important that a strong mission force should reside here, in order that
these men should not receive the impression that Christian missionaries
are advancing upon the empire only through remote interior districts.
The capital was occupied as a mission station of the Board in 1831,
and has since been the base of operations for the work of the American
Board in the country. Tours of exploration made in Asia Minor and into
Koordistan and Persia started from this center.
Preliminary explorations had been made by various scientific societies,
as for instance that of John M. Parker, F. G. S., F. R. G. S., under
the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society and the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, in 1839-40. They went overland from
Constantinople to Cæsarea, Malatia, Diarbekr, Mosul, Koordistan,
Bitlis, Marash, Erzerum, Trebizond, and thence back to Constantinople.
The report of this extended tour through Asia Minor, northern
Mesopotamia, Koordistan, and Armenia, published in two volumes, under
the title “Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea,
and Armenia,” was of great value to the missionaries in planning
their locations. These researches were made largely from the purely
scientific standpoint and in some cases needed to be supplemented by
missionary observations.
The establishing of mission locations over the vast areas of Asiatic
and European Turkey was not hastily carried out. The country was
well mapped and explored before the stations were opened, and then
only such places were chosen as promised to be central to large
populations and healthful for missionary residences. The policy seems
to have been early adopted to set the stations far apart, with two
or more missionary families in each of them. The success of this
plan has proven its wisdom, and even now the tendency is to greater
consolidation in important centers rather than to a scattering of
forces.
A few, and but a few, places early opened as stations were later
abandoned. Three of these were Mosul, Diarbekr, and Arabkir. The former
place proved to be exceedingly unhealthy and was made an outstation of
Mardin, while the two latter places were within one hundred miles of
Harpoot and were made outstations. The carefulness and foresight with
which the early stations were chosen are proved by the test of over
fifty years of successful occupancy.
Trebizond, upon the southern shore of the Black Sea towards its eastern
extremity, was occupied as a station, as already stated, in 1835. It is
a large city of great influence, with a Greek, Armenian, and Turkish
population.
In 1839 a missionary family was sent to Erzerum, one hundred and ten
miles into the interior to the southeast of Trebizond. As soon as
these stations were opened they became the centers of exploration for
securing and forwarding information to the headquarters of the missions
in Constantinople and to the Board in Boston.
Aintab was opened in what was then called “Southern Armenia,” in
1849, and became the center for operations upon a large population
dwelling in northern Syria, extending from Urfa on the east into the
Tarsus mountains upon the west, and including the important cities
of Marash, opened in 1855, Adana, Aleppo, Tarsus, Hadjin, Antioch,
Kilis, and many other towns of less importance. Later this became the
center of what came to be known as the Central Turkey Mission. This
region is approached from the Mediterranean and is inhabited chiefly
by Armenians and Turks. In this section of country the Armenians
have lost, for the most part, their native tongue, and speak only the
Turkish language. As the Koords and more savage races live in remote
regions, the people have not endured the persecution here that their
brethren in the north and east have been called upon to pass through.
In 1850 an investigation of the condition of the Jews in Salonica
was made, which resulted in the opening of that station for work,
especially among the Jews. There seems to have been no thought of
reaching from that station any other races. They found the Jews there
extremely ignorant, and divided between the Rabbinicals and the
Mohammedans. The unhealthy condition of the city led in 1859 to the
transfer of the station to Smyrna.
The more interior stations, like Marsovan, Cæsarea, Sivas, Harpoot
and Bitlis, were occupied in the ’50s, while Van, the most eastern
mission station in Turkey, was made such in 1872. From Constantinople
the missionaries had been gradually reaching out, Nicomedia and Brusa
having been made stations in 1847 and 1848, respectively.
The languages used in these missions were the Arabic and Syrian in the
Syrian field with its center at Beirut; the Turkish language in the
Central Turkey region with its center at Aintab; the Armenian language
in the Eastern Turkey district with its center at Harpoot; while Arabic
was the language of Mardin, Mosul and Arabia, and the Greek, Armenian,
Bulgarian and Turkish languages in the Western Turkey mission including
Trebizond. Various plans were tried at first of grouping these various
stations for purposes of control and administration. They could not
all be classed together owing to the long distances separating them
and the difficulties of travel in a country with no roads and no public
conveyances. Finally the above outlined arrangement of the stations
was adopted and each separate mission became a little republic in
itself, holding its annual meeting, in which delegates from all the
stations belonging to it met and legislated for it as a whole. In 1872
the European Turkey mission also became separate from the Western
Turkey mission and has since been conducted as an entirely distinct
organization.
The great extent of territory covered by these missions can best be
understood by the fact that but few stations anywhere were less than
one hundred miles apart. The nearest station to Harpoot in Eastern
Turkey was distant one hundred and fifty miles, a six days’ journey
by the ordinary mode of conveyance. To reach some of the interior
stations like Bitlis, Harpoot and Mardin required an overland journey
on horseback of from three to four weeks from the Black Sea coast. Thus
the country was dotted by mission stations which became at once centers
for direct, aggressive, educational, philanthropic and Christian
work. In no case was one opened except upon the urgent invitation of
a large number of the people themselves. A station meant then, as it
means to-day, a center in which missionaries reside. It was understood
also that this residence was permanent, and to make this clear to
all, houses for the missionaries were purchased or erected and other
arrangements completed for a life-work. This fact in itself made a
profound impression upon the people of all classes and religions.
When it was charged that the missionary movement would prove to be
short-lived, no one was able to answer the question, “What mean these
residences owned by the missionaries?” Certainly, if it was the purpose
to carry on only a temporary work, houses would have been leased.
Another fact, which gave the appearance and impression of permanency,
was that the missionaries came with their wives and set up their homes
there. These two facts had much to do in giving stability and strength
to the earlier work. The three men and their wives who occupied the
Harpoot station in 1858 were there together in that same station until
after the massacres of 1895, when owing to broken health and the
destruction of their homes four of them were compelled to come to this
country. Three of the six are still living, two of them at Harpoot. The
policy of married missionaries permanently located in central stations
and from there working together as a unit the large adjacent field,
has proved itself to be a wise and efficient policy for all parts
of Turkey. This policy necessitates the wide use of trained native
pastors, preachers, evangelists and teachers who occupy the outstations
and push the work into the remoter districts.
Each station became a social settlement, in which the Christian home
was the center and from which wholesome Christian influences were
exerted upon all with whom the missionaries came in contact. The plan
involved the elevation and purification of the entire social fabric of
the country, and, judged from our modern standpoint, no more effectual
way of accomplishing this could have been devised. It is no small thing
for devout philanthropists in England and the United States to give up
their comfortable homes and establish their residence, as many have
done and are still doing, among the downtrodden and oppressed in our
great cities. It is well known, however, that this change of residence
is not permanent and that, in cases of sickness, the old home and
friends remain, to which return can be made. With those missionaries
the case was different. Their homes in America were broken up. They
took up their abode in the interior cities of Turkey for life. In times
of sickness they remained. No friends from home visited them, and in
case of their death, their bodies were buried in the soil of the land.
There were their children born, and in multitudes of cases, because
of the severity of the climate and the lack of proper facilities for
safeguarding their health, there also were they buried. Herein lie
many elements of moral strength which appear in the foreign missionary
movement. It is this feature which has made a profound impression upon
the races of Turkey and which is now reshaping its social system.
In 1860, after forty years of exploration and study in the Turkish
empire, so far as her people and their moral and spiritual needs
were concerned, missionary work had been outlined for at least five
different races. Interest in the Jews had been continued, and a
missionary, Dr. Schauffler, intended exclusively for work among them,
had been maintained, not at Jerusalem but at Constantinople. He was
working in harmony with the three English and Scottish societies, each
of whom was maintaining missionaries to the Jews, with headquarters
at Constantinople. The work done was quiet, exciting apparently less
interest among the people of Turkey than among the organizers of
societies in the United States for work among this race. Undoubtedly,
during the first generation of work in the Ottoman empire, the people
of the United States and England were more stirred by appeals for work
among the Jews than by any other appeal which was or could be made.
The work for the Greeks was promising in Smyrna and Constantinople.
Owing to Greece obtaining her freedom from the rule of the sultan,
Greeks still living in Turkey were drawn away in their sympathies and
interest to Greece, and the spirit of patriotism was strong in holding
them to the national Church.
Among the Syrians a hold was obtained in spite of the intense
opposition of the Roman Catholics who claimed all Syrians as belonging
to them. The severest opposition during the first twenty-five years of
mission effort in Turkey came not from the Turks but from the Roman
Catholics, who did not stop at the employment of any measure which
would tend to banish the printing-press and curtail the work of the
Protestant missionaries.
The Mohammedans commanded early attention. They were drawn to the
missionaries by the fact that no pictures or images were used in
Protestant worship nor gaudy display made in any public services.
Repeatedly Turks said to the missionaries, “You are like us, you are
good Moslems.” As acquaintance increased, interest deepened in this
dominant race. Conditions were such that little directly aggressive
effort could be wisely made for their immediate enlightenment. Much was
done in the way of private conversation and through the preparation and
publication of a Christian literature adapted to their needs.
It may be said, however, that the Armenians most completely commanded
both the interest of the missionaries and the attention of the
constituency at home. The most of the stations in the country were
established especially for this race. They were found at every center.
Even in Syria and in all of the interior stations, Armenians and Turks
were the chief people with whom the missionaries constantly came
in contact. Interest in Armenians was strengthened by the intense
persecutions through which the evangelicals passed in the early ’40s,
at the hand of their own ecclesiastics. They were open-minded, able,
and devout, and presented a wide opportunity for sowing the seeds
of intelligent belief. At that time little had been done for the
Bulgarians in European Turkey and Macedonia. The more remote Asiatic
field had proved to be so large and so interesting that there had been
scant pause to look into the conditions and needs of the people so near
at hand, occupying the southeastern corner of Europe.
Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk, writing from Smyrna to the Board rooms
in February, 1820, said, “In all the populous Catholic and Mohammedan
countries on the north and south side of the Mediterranean there is not
a single Protestant missionary. In all the Turkish empire, containing
perhaps twenty million souls, not one missionary station is permanently
occupied and but a single missionary besides ourselves.” This one man
did not long remain. Besides the English work among the Jews and Turks
in Constantinople and Palestine, the evangelization of the Turkish
empire was left from the first to the American Board. In later years
the Disciples of Christ and the Seventh Day Adventists have sent a
few missionaries into the country, but their work has been almost
exclusively among the Protestants and has resulted only in dividing
churches already organized. The Church Missionary Society of England
has had some work in Bagdad, and a Scotch society in Aden and the
Reformed Church of the United States has recently begun operations upon
the southern coast of Arabia. With a few other minor exceptions, the
Turkish empire north of Syria has been generally conceded to be the
distinctive mission field of the American Board of Missions.
When the division of fields took place in 1870 between the American
Board and the newly organized Presbyterian Board of Missions, southern
Syria and Persia were assigned to that Board, while the American Board
retained northern Syria and all the rest of Turkey. In European Turkey
the same Board is in sole charge of all the evangelical work for and
among the Bulgarians south of the Balkans, the Methodist Episcopal
Board of the United States having a work among the same people north
of the Balkans. Thus Macedonia and Bulgaria south of the Balkans, Asia
Minor, Armenia, Koordistan, northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia
are left the sole field of the American Board, with the few exceptions
mentioned above. This has put upon it a responsibility and placed
before it an opportunity such as few mission agencies in modern times
have had to face.