Education has accomplished more toward the regeneration
of these lands than anything else. While it has been very
broad, especially in the higher institutions, it has
likewise been thoroughly permeated with Christianity.
Though Robert College is not directly connected with
any missionary society it “has exerted an incalculable
influence for Christian life all over the empire. Among
its graduates are many of the most prominent men in
Bulgaria, and it is perhaps not too much to say that
the nation really owes its existence to the influence
exerted by President George Washburn and his associates.
Its students have included representatives of twenty
nationalities, and its Young Men’s Christian Association
is unique among the college associations of the world in
that it is divided into four departments according to the
prevailing language spoken,—English, Greek, Armenian
and Bulgarian.” The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut
is likewise independent, though in closest sympathy
and cooperation with the Presbyterian Board, North.
Concerning the college, Mr. John R. Mott writes: “This
is one of the three most important institutions in all
Asia. In fact there is no college which has within one
generation accomplished a greater work and which to-day
has a larger opportunity. It has practically created the
medical profession of the Levant. It has been the most
influential factor of the East. It has been and is the
center for genuine Christian and scientific literature in
all that region. Fully one-fourth of the graduates of the
collegiate department have entered Christian work either
as preachers or as teachers in Christian schools.” In
less degree the same results noted in the case of these
two institutions are furnished by the records of the
American Board’s colleges at Aintab, Harpoot, Samakov,
Marsovan, and of its colleges for girls at Marash and
Constantinople, as well as of the less ambitious Bishop
Gobat School of the Church Missionary Society and the
Beirut Female Seminary of the Presbyterians.
—PROF. HARLAN P. BEACH, F. R. G. S. etc.,
in “Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions.”
It has already been stated that in 1820 throughout the Turkish empire
there was practically no modern education. The few schools which did
exist were almost entirely ecclesiastical, maintained for the purpose
of teaching a few men to conduct religious services. This was largely
true of all schools, whether Armenian, Greek, or Turkish. Nowhere in
the country were there schools for girls, the idea prevailing generally
that girls could not learn to read, even if they were worth educating.
The great mass of the people were unable either to read or to write.
Ignorance even in the capital was dense, but it was much greater in the
interior cities and towns. Often a large group of villages possessed
not one person who could write or read a letter.
Argument is not required to show that no real reform could be
introduced into the country without inaugurating some system of
education. There must be produced readers and a literature if the
intellectual and moral life of the people was to be raised. If the
old Gregorian Church was to become enlightened in its belief and
practise, there must be educated leaders as well as an intelligent
laity. For this reason the missionaries began with an effort to awaken
the intellects of the people. The Lancasterian schools that were so
popular for a period in the capital had their value and exerted a
good influence. The school of Pashtimaljian sprang from the aroused
desire of the people for education and the conviction of the leaders
of the Church that only educated leaders could be wisely trusted
and followed. There were other schools supported and directed by
the Armenians themselves, but springing largely from the persistent
effort of the missionaries. Until 1839 it was hoped that all the work
of modern education among the Armenians would be carried on by the
Armenians themselves, so that the missionaries need not open schools of
any kind.
As the zealous ecclesiastics became more and more suspicious,
restrictive measures were applied. It was observed that those who
studied in the schools were among the leaders seeking to reform the
errors which were destroying the spiritual influence of the Church. It
soon became evident to the missionaries that they must take a direct
part in the work of education. In 1840 Bebek Seminary for training the
young men was opened. The head of this school was Cyrus Hamlin, who the
year before had arrived at Constantinople, designated to this work. He
was a man of rare qualifications for the task assigned him, knowing
no fear, never disheartened in the face of insuperable obstacles, of
tireless industry, practical wisdom and unbounded resourcefulness and
devotion to the cause to which he had given his life.
The seminary at Bebek was begun just as the persecution of the
evangelicals at the capital was becoming acute. Early in his career Dr.
Hamlin was impressed with the fact that the school must succeed in the
face of direct opposition from Russia. During his first year in the
mission, while he was learning the Armenian language, his teacher was
suddenly seized at the order of the Russian ambassador and deported to
Siberia. Dr. Hamlin and Dr. Schauffler repaired to the Russian embassy
and protested against the high-handed proceeding. The ambassador
haughtily replied, “My master, the emperor of Russia, will never allow
Protestantism to set its foot in Turkey.” Dr. Schauffler, bowing low
to the ambassador, gave the reply which has become historic, “Your
excellency, the kingdom of Christ, who is my Master, will never ask the
emperor of all the Russias where it may set its foot.” From that day
to this, the covert as well as open opposition of Russia to missionary
work in Turkey and, most especially, to all educational work, has been
unremittingly experienced. Consistently has Russia adhered to the
policy thus outlined and the opposition from that source to-day is as
bitter as at any other period.
Dr. Hamlin threw himself into the work of the seminary with all his
intense and resourceful energy. Thwarted at a hundred points, he
immediately changed his plans and appeared even to his persecutors
to have gained the victory. For twenty years the work proceeded with
emphasis upon industries when industrial persecutions were crushing
the people, but always strenuous, and always supremely Christian and
evangelical. He saw that a vernacular training was not sufficient for
the full equipment of the young men under his care to prepare them for
positions of largest leadership. The Jesuit schools taught their pupils
French so that all their graduates knew a European language. As yet the
Armenian literature was very circumscribed and most inadequate to meet
the intellectual and spiritual requirements of intelligent directors of
a great national reform movement.
This was the opinion of Dr. Hamlin, shared, as he felt, by the great
mass of the Armenian people. But he was not fully sustained in it by
his colleagues in the mission. The American Board, under the leadership
of its secretary, Dr. Anderson, had declared as its policy that mission
schools should not teach English or any other language than the
vernacular to their pupils. To Dr. Hamlin this seemed such a backward
step that he resigned from the Board and began to work and plan for
higher education among young men. The story of the building of the now
famous Robert College under an imperial _irade_ from the sultan, and
upon the most commanding site along the entire length of the Bosporus,
is now so well known that it need not be repeated.
The college became a reality and the scheme of education conceived by
Dr. Hamlin and carried out in Robert College represented, within forty
years of the time of his resignation from the Board, the fundamental
policy of all the higher educational work in the empire carried on in
both missionary and independent institutions. For nearly a generation,
however, in mission schools little was done in European languages, and
most of the education given was imparted through the spoken language of
the people.
As early as 1836, four years before the seminary at Bebek was begun,
a high school was opened in Beirut in which both Arabic and English
were taught. This school was apparently a great success, but four years
later the pupils, because of their practical knowledge of English,
became so useful to the English officers, then quartered in Beirut on
account of political troubles, that the school was broken up. No doubt
this unfortunate experience had much influence in leading the Board to
endeavor to exclude English from mission schools. In 1848, a seminary
upon the purely vernacular basis was opened in Beirut with a view
to training its students for useful service among their own people.
This school was continued until the change in policy by the Board and
the mission, when the English language again took its place in the
curriculum.
[Illustration: ROBERT COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE]
[Illustration: SYRIAN PROTESTANT COLLEGE, BEIRUT, SYRIA]
Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the place of English in
the educational system of Turkey, there was practical unanimity in the
belief that reform in the empire demanded the creation and maintenance
of a system of schools which should include all grades, beginning
with the primary. It was necessary to begin with the most rudimentary
teaching before higher institutions could be sustained. The seminaries
already referred to were not by any means colleges. They taught many
studies of the lowest grades. As most of the pupils were mature in
years, they made speedy progress and often astonished their teachers by
their rapid advancement and clear grasp of abstruse subjects.
At every station where missionaries settled, schools sprang up and were
at once widely patronized. In the large centers like Erzerum, Harpoot,
Aintab and Marsovan, where the people were unusually intelligent and
eager for an education, there was marked development and a rapid
rise in the grade of the central schools. Colleges were not then
developed, for there were no natives qualified to teach the studies of
college grade, while there were no preparatory schools fitted to train
students for college work. At that time the country itself was not
in a condition to demand a college education. In the meantime Robert
College was taking the lead in the higher education of men, although
its work was then far inferior to the courses it now offers. Educators
throughout the empire were closely watching the new institution upon
the Bosporus, which became the pioneer and leader for the entire
country.
When Dr. Hamlin was in the midst of his efforts to organize and
construct a college for Turkey, the Rev. Crosby H. Wheeler, also from
the state of Maine, was sent into Eastern Turkey as a missionary,
and with designation to Harpoot. Dr. Wheeler, with energy similar to
that of his fellow laborer, stopped upon his way at Constantinople
and became acquainted with the educational work there developing. He
took direct issue with Dr. Hamlin upon the subject of the value of
English, but agreed with him upon the place of education in the work of
reform. Some years later, when the educational work at Harpoot was well
established, Dr. Wheeler felt so keenly upon this subject that he gave
public notice in the seminary, of which he was the principal, that any
student who was known to be studying English, even by himself or by the
aid of one or two resident Armenians who had studied at Constantinople
under Dr. Hamlin, would be summarily expelled from the school.
Dr. Wheeler, with his keen vision and unconquerable energy, while
an evangelistic missionary of unusual power, became the pioneer of
education at Harpoot. Under his leadership, strongly seconded by Rev.
Dr. H. N. Barnum, the seminary for young men at that place rapidly
developed until in 1878 it was merged into Armenia College, afterwards
changed to Euphrates College. It did not require many years for Dr.
Wheeler to see that no broad education could be given in Turkey without
the use of the English language, so that he became one of the most
energetic and enthusiastic supporters of an English education for all
students in the higher institutions of learning in the country. The
other high schools in the eastern part of Turkey became preparatory
schools for the college, which was heartily endorsed by the people
themselves, as appears from the wide patronage it received.
The same process of growth that has been noted at Harpoot took place
also at Aintab, which is distant some eight days’ journey from Harpoot,
upon the south side of the Taurus Mountains. In the meantime, the
educational work at Beirut had made rapid strides, developing into a
college which later became the largest and most influential educational
institution in Syria and one of the most important in the Levant. This
school early in its growth became detached from the mission Board and
came under the control of a separate Board of Trustees in New York, and
assumed the name of the Syrian Protestant College.
Space will not permit the mention in detail of Anatolia College at
Marsovan, St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus, and the International College
at Smyrna. The last two named are of comparatively recent elevation
to the grade of college, while the former has had a record of college
work of a quarter of a century. The school for the Bulgarians was
established at Samakov, which is now in Bulgaria. It is called the
Collegiate and Theological Institute, and is calculated to do for the
young men of Bulgaria and Macedonia what these other institutions are
doing for Asiatic Turkey.
The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut was begun as an institution of
higher learning in 1866 by Rev. Daniel Bliss. What Dr. Hamlin was to
Robert College and Dr. Wheeler to Euphrates College, and Dr. Tracy to
Anatolia College, Dr. Bliss has been to this college in Syria. To-day
with a campus of over forty acres, with five departments including
medicine, pharmacy and a commercial course, and some seven hundred
students in attendance from not less than fourteen nationalities,
including Druses, Jews and Moslems, drawn from all parts of the Levant,
from Persia and the Sudan, this college stands among the first in the
empire for equipment and influence.
Educational work for girls started more slowly and did not make
such rapid progress as the work among young men. There was not at
the beginning a manifest demand for the education of girls. Among
all classes in the country was an inherent prejudice against the
intellectual or social advancement of women. Intelligent men, not a
few, were ready to argue that girls were incapable of learning to
read, much less of acquiring a general education. It became necessary,
therefore, to educate the men up to the idea that girls could learn and
that it was worth while to educate them. In 1836 a school for girls
was opened by the missionaries at Smyrna, then the most enlightened
and advanced city in the empire. This passed out of the hands of the
mission very quickly, being taken over with its forty pupils by the
Armenian community. It was soon disbanded. In Constantinople, while no
regular school had been opened for girls, a few of the most enlightened
parents were providing instruction for their daughters by engaging as
teacher for them one of the evangelical Armenians.
Under the impulse of the reform movement it was impossible to keep out
schools for girls. These multiplied in the large cities first and then
extended into the interior until they became almost as popular as the
schools for young men. The Mission School for girls in Constantinople
became the foremost institution of its kind in the empire. After
passing through several changes, all in the line of progress, it
became, nearly twenty years ago, the American College for Girls in
Constantinople. It is to-day the most advanced school for the education
of women in the Levant. Euphrates College at Harpoot has also a female
department, while in Central Turkey at Marash there is now a collegiate
school for young women as well as a similar institution at Smyrna.
These schools, for both boys and girls, are overcrowded with students
and have been from the beginning. It has been impossible to keep pace
by enlargement with the increasing desire on the part of the people for
the education of their children.
The collegiate institutions are well scattered over the length and
breadth of the country. The two colleges for boys which are the
nearest together are St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus and Central Turkey
College at Aintab, and yet these are some four days’ journey apart.
The students in Beirut speak Arabic for the most part; those in Marash
and Aintab use Turkish; those at Harpoot, Armenian; at Marsovan and
Smyrna, Armenian, Greek and Turkish; and those at the American College
for Girls and at Robert College, both in Constantinople, use about all
the languages of the empire. English is taught in all, and constitutes,
in some of the institutions, the only common tongue; as, for instance,
in Robert College there are seldom less than a dozen nationalities and
languages represented among the students. The only language they all
wish to master is English. This becomes, then, the common linguistic
meeting-place of scholars in the Ottoman empire.
All but three of the American colleges here mentioned are incorporated
under the laws of either New York or Massachusetts, and so are
distinctively and legally American institutions. All of them have some
kind of official recognition from the Sublime Porte or from the sultan
himself. Below the colleges are schools for both boys and girls of a
grade which admits to the collegiate courses. This is true of schools
remote from any college where the pupils who cannot go to a distant
part of the country for an education are numerous.
Including the preparatory departments, there are not less than
six thousand pupils studying in connection with these collegiate
institutions, and all under Christian training. The grade in many
respects, if not in all, is equal to that of the ordinary American
college. In languages they all give the broadest courses. In Euphrates
College, for instance, there are from six to eight languages taught, at
least six of which are compulsory. The courses of study are adapted to
the needs of the country and with a view to training the students for
the highest service to their own people. The college at Beirut has a
medical department which is of great value to the country, drawing its
students from every race.
When the direct collegiate work was entered upon, in every instance the
theological schools were made separate departments or were entirely
set apart by themselves. There are at the present time six distinct
training-schools in Turkey which have for their object the preparation
of young men for the gospel ministry. Two of these, namely the schools
at Beirut, and at Mardin, in northern Mesopotamia, train their pupils
for work among Arabic speaking peoples; the one at Harpoot, for work
among the Armenians, where the Armenian language is chiefly used,
although some of its pupils speak Turkish; the one at Marash for
Turkish speaking peoples; the one at Marsovan for those who speak
Armenian, Turkish and Greek; and the one at Samakov, Bulgaria, for
Bulgarians alone. Attempts have been made to unite this theological
work, but the long distance separating the schools and the time and
cost of the journey to and from them, the barriers of the different
languages, and the restrictions put upon all native students in travel,
have made it impracticable to do so up to the present time.
In these institutions, by far the largest number of teachers are
natives of Turkey, some of whom, after taking a course of study in
their own country, have had postgraduate work in Europe or the United
States. In each case, the president is an American who is usually
assisted by one or more Americans. It is the policy of all these
institutions to employ as many thoroughly equipped native teachers
and professors as can be secured consistent with maintaining the high
intellectual and moral tone of the schools.
In no case are these free schools. The students are charged tuition,
room rent, and board, and they also purchase their own books and
supplies. Some of these colleges secure from fees and payments by
the pupils nearly three-fourths of the entire cost of conducting the
institution. This is true of Robert College at Constantinople and
Anatolia College at Marsovan, and others. In addition to the fees paid,
the people of the country have contributed in some cases most liberally
for the college plant. Aintab College is a marked instance of this. In
recent years the early students who have prospered in business have
given freely for the endowment of their Alma Mater, as in the case
of Euphrates College at Harpoot. The willingness of the people to
contribute for the support of these higher educational institutions
demonstrates most unmistakably belief in their value.
Such numerous collegiate and theological institutions necessitate a
large and ever increasing number of schools of lower grade all over the
country. These have sprung up in nearly every village and are found in
every town of size. They are for the most part entirely supported by
the people themselves. The great value of the educational work done
in Turkey by the missionaries does not lie alone in the schools of
different grades now controlled and directed by them; it also appears
in the thirst for education which manifests itself in independent
village, parochial, and city schools, with more or less modern
equipment, and stretching from Persia to the Bosporus, from the Black
Sea to Arabia. There is much yet to be desired in this respect, but
much has already been accomplished.
This educational work has made no perceptible impression upon the
Jews, for whose special awakening mission work in Turkey was first
undertaken. The Greeks have slowly responded and many young men from
that race are found in Robert College at Constantinople, in the
International College at Smyrna and in Anatolia College in Marsovan.
The race as a race, however, in Turkey has not taken up the cause of
modern education with vigor and pressed it with moral earnestness.
It is the Armenian race that has responded most fully to the call of
modern learning. By far the largest number of students of any one race
in the schools in Turkey are Armenians. They constitute as large a
proportion of the pupils of Robert College as that of any other race.
While they number probably less than one-tenth of the inhabitants of
the empire, they furnish a large proportion of its student body.
These modern educational institutions in Turkey are a mighty force
in reshaping the life, thought, customs and practises of the people
of that country. Men and women from these schools are taking leading
positions there in the learned professions as well as in commerce
and trade. Large numbers of former students in the mission schools
are now prosperous merchants and business men in Europe and America.
Through these men of modern ideas Western machinery and the products
of our factories are finding their way into that part of the East in
increasing quantities while the products of Turkey are in exchange
brought to us. It is probably true, as has been frequently stated,
that the money given from America for the establishment and support
of American colleges in Turkey is far more than returned, with large
interest, in the form of increased trade with that country.
While the Turks have not largely attended any of the schools mentioned,
nor have they seemed awake to the needs of a modern education,
nevertheless, through the influence of so many advanced schools in the
country they have been compelled to improve their own schools. It is
an interesting fact that recently a far greater number of Mohammedan
pupils are applying for admission to these schools. Few of the Turkish
schools have as yet been thoroughly modernized; still, their entire
educational system, if system it may be called, has felt the influence
of the foreign schools. There have now and then been attempts at the
organization of a Mohammedan college. These have for the most part
proven egregious failures from the lack of preparatory schools to
train students for the college and of teachers with proper training
to carry on college work. They have also in cases, not a few, opened
and conducted schools for girls, thus demonstrating their acceptance,
in a measure at least, of the Christian doctrine of the equality of
the sexes and the worth of womanhood. Many Moslem young men have been
aroused to seek education in England or France.