exist in the East. It is only the westerners who, having called
themselves Christians, or followers of Christ, have named Mohamedans,
the followers of Mohamed. This, however, is as wrong and misleading as
if the Hebrew were to be called “Moseans.” The Hebrews do not follow
only Moses, they believe also in all their other prophets, beginning
with Israel. Therefore, if they were to be called Moseans it would
imply that they only believed in Moses and would not be correct. This
applies also to the Muslims and to call them Mahomedan is absolutely
misleading. The Muslims believe in all prophets, including all the
Israelite prophets and the Christ. So the term Mahomedan is wrong and
is not used in the East.
“We call ourselves “Muslims” which means in Arabic, followers of Islam
or followers of the Road of Salvation. This is a better appellation and
I often wish that instead of calling themselves by names which convey
to the average people, only an idea of a person or of a race, the
different churches had chosen to translate into their own language the
exact meaning of their appellation. Then there would be less difference
and therefore less antagonism between religions. Take for instance the
Christians and the Muslims. If when speaking a common language they
both translated the meaning of their appellation into it instead of
using words of Arabic and Greek origin, they would soon realize that
their creed was identical. “Christ” means “Saviour.” A Christian
therefore is a “follower of the Saviour.” Doesn't this term alone bring
him nearer to his brother, the “follower of the Road of Salvation”?
“In the Koran there is absolutely no difference between all people
who believe in the One Almighty God, all inclusive and powerful, no
matter by what name they call themselves. The only difference that is
made between human beings is that all those who believe in one God
are placed in one group and all those who deny the oneness of God,
the Pagans or Idolaters, are placed in another. It is said that God
has sent from time to time prophets to bring the people into the path
of truth, that all these prophets came with a book within which the
immutable principles of truth were clearly enunciated, and that as
truth can only be one all the books of the prophets were the same.
Therefore, all the followers of these different prophets are called
“people of the Book” and they are all brothers to the Muslims. They
should be treated as such and only the Pagans and Idolaters should
be, if necessary, coerced into recognizing the oneness of God. That
this principle was most firmly established is evidenced by the early
history of Islam. In the army of the Prophet, the army which conquered
Mecca and destroyed the idols of the Temple, Christian and Hebrew
soldiers were fighting side by side with their Muslim brothers for the
purpose of having the oneness of God recognized by Pagans and the
Muslims never fought the Christians until the ignorant people of the
mediaeval West, roused by lords and barons in quest of rich spoils and
adventure, embarked on the Crusades for the purpose of “liberating” the
Holy Sepulchres from the Muslims. That might have been all right for
the ignorant people of the Middle Ages, but isn't it now time for the
Christian to realize that despite the fact that the Holy Sepulchres
have been “liberated” only within the last few years from the Muslims,
despite the fact that for more than a thousand years Jerusalem has
been under the rule of Islam, the Holy Sepulchres have fared as well
under the Muslims as the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome has under
Christians?
“The Muslims have always guarded the Holy Places in Jerusalem with as
much loving care and veneration as they have guarded the Holy Places
in Mecca or in Medina. Why shouldn't they? The Koran has taught us to
venerate Jesus Christ. We believe in His divine mission as much as we
believe in the divine mission of Mohamed. We consider Him as much our
prophet as the prophet of the Christians. Our creed is based on this
belief and on the recognition of all the past prophets. So there is
really no difference between us and the Christians as far as we are
concerned. The only differences that exist are dogmatic differences
such as those which might exist even between two churches of the same
religion and in our eyes a Christian who follows the principles of
Christ and who does not deny the prophethood of Mohamed is as much a
Muslim as any one of us.
“Of course we do not consider as Christians those who adore images. The
Russian who expects an icon to perform a miracle is as much an idolater
to our eyes as any one who adores the stone or the paint with which
the statue or the picture of a saint is made. There is no difference
between them and the pagans of yore.
“We Muslims go even farther than some Christians in our belief in
Christ. We are taught that the Virgin Mary, in her religious ardor,
was praying the Almighty to give her a son who would bring back into
the fold his erring sheep and that the people upon hearing this prayer
criticized and shamed her: a virgin praying for a child! 'But how
little they knew the ways of God,' says the Koran. 'In answer to the
Virgin's prayer the Almighty sent her one of His Angels in the likeness
of a human and she begot the Christ,'
“For us, God is not material. He is the All-Inclusive Spirit which
permeates all nature and the whole universe. He is the Supreme
Conscious Force, endowed with all the attributes, who rules the
universe. He is Eternal: He never begot and never was begotten. We
believe in Him and He only do we adore. We believe in His Angels, His
Holy Books, His Prophets, and in the future life. We believe that
He ordains everything, our recompenses as well as our punishments,
and that there is no God but He and we believe that Mohamed is His
Messenger--who revived on this earth, as all prophets before Him, the
true religion as taught by Abraham, and by Moses and by Christ.”
The master was silent for a few minutes. His words which I had been
translating sentence by sentence as he delivered them, had impressed
us all so much that we kept quiet and awaited patiently for more. He
looked out from the window into the blueness of the sky. Then, turning
again to me he said with an infinite smile: “How simple it all is, and
how foolish humanity is not to understand”!
He passed his hand over his forehead in an effort to concentrate on
more material subjects, he sighed and said:
“These are the fundamental principles of Islam. It does not claim to be
the religion of one prophet, but the Religion of God and therefore of
all prophets. Truth can only be one, and religion is truth. It is the
fault of men if they have divided it into different religions, sects
and churches. It is the sin of men that they have, in doing so, turned
religion from its most useful earthly purpose: that of establishing the
oneness of humanity, the brotherhood of all believers.
“The Muslim religion succeeded in doing this during the first centuries
of its inception. It formed the first true democracy, the first
republic of modern times: the Caliphs, the chief executives of the
Muslim world were chosen by election. But it went even further: it
created the first League of Nations in the world--all the Muslim
states, although keeping their entire independence, became a federation
under the administration of a single elected Caliph and extended their
borders from the Himalayas to the Atlantic and within their borders
all those who believed in one God lived in peace, every one prospered,
science, industry and commerce flourished. Freedom of conscience,
freedom of creeds, was meticulously observed and Christians and Jews
lived and prospered side by side with their Muslim brothers. The
millenium would have truly arrived had the western nations only applied
these same principles within their own borders. But they were not yet
mature, they were not yet ready for liberty, democracy and unity. So
gradually they undermined our own institutions. Through centuries of
continuous contact and of incessant wars they spread discord within our
own ranks. We became divided first into separate Caliphates, then into
different nations and finally into different sects. Internal strife
having set in, we were condemned to fall sooner or later under the
conquering heel of the West. Decadence crept on the Muslim world slowly
but surely until Turkey was left alone to face the repeated assault of
the different western nations. and the tragedy of the long agony of
Turkey which has lasted ever since the sixteenth century is too well
known by all of you to make it necessary for me to repeat it
“This agony has culminated with the general war and let us hope
that now that the western nations have at last obtained what they
wanted--the administration of the Holy Land by a Christian power--they
will settle down to work and find out if they have any real difference
of principles with the Muslim world. Islam has passed through its
darkest days and now it is gradually reawakening, it is becoming again
conscious of the basic truth it had reached during its first years
and sooner or later the Almighty will find humanity ready to reflect
His own oneness. The time is near when all believers, irrespective of
denominations, creeds or sects will establish throughout the world a
real League of Nations where Christians, Jews and Muslims will live in
peace, a real League of all followers of Salvation based on the only
possible true democracy: the brotherhood, the unity of men.”
Hassan Effendi stopped again and looked at our American friends who
seemed to be very much surprised. “How little do we of the West know
of the religions, the ideals and the hopes of the East,” they said;
“but are we alone to blame? Why doesn't the East send us some of its
teachers, some of its leaders to explain to us its creed and its
belief?”
Hassan Effendi smiled: “We have sent you the message of our best
leader, of our best teacher and you have had it with you for nearly two
thousand years,” he said. “We have sent you the message of Jesus of
Nazareth, the Christ, the Apostle of Love and of Mercy, the greatest
antagonist of riches and of materialism. In later years we have sent
you in person the greatest living messenger of the East, Abdul Baha,
who warned the world years before the beginning of the war of the great
cataclysm toward which humanity was headed and who preached unity and
oneness as the only salvation. What good did it do? The West has always
coveted the East for the possession of the Holy Land--forgetting that
Palestine is an Eastern Land. Up to the last century the West has
always coveted the riches of the East, forgetting that after all if the
East had all these riches it was because it had worked for them. Since
then, and taking advantage of the decadence into which we have fallen,
the West has looked down upon the East for its lack of ambition for the
possession of material things and has tried to prove its inferiority by
claiming that it had not contributed to modern scientific discoveries,
forgetting that while the West has discovered the telephone, the
telegram, electricity and steam--all things which make material life
worth living--it is the East which discovered God, His Prophets and His
Holy Books--all things which make spiritual life worth expecting and
contrary to the custom of the West, the East has not commercialized its
discoveries; it has given them as a free gift to humanity. Christ was
an Easterner and He gave freely His knowledge to the West and now that
the West has acquired our riches and our lands we hope that it will
soon recognize that it has also our God.
“This recognition, this knowledge must, however, come to the West from
within. No matter how loud we claimed it, it would not be believed.
Westerners will have to come to our country and see for themselves.
They will have to investigate, even as you are investigating. They
will have to convince themselves that the religion taught by the
Prophet Mohamed is one and the same with the religion taught by Christ.
They will have to realize that any one who follows either of them is
following the Road of Salvation. And then, only then, will the peace of
God descend upon a redeemed humanity. I pray the Almighty that this day
may come soon.”
And so saying Hassan Effendi rose from his seat next to the window.
It was the signal that our audience was at an end, and we all got up.
We took leave from the master who accompanied us to the door where he
shook hands with every one of us.
And as the door was closing we could hear his soft voice like a
blessing: “Peace be with you”!
XIV
A VOICE FROM ANATOLIA
No matter how short and succinct it is, an account of the Turks as they
really are and of the Turkey of to-day would not be complete without
a description of the Turks who are now so successfully engaged in
fighting the supreme battle of their country on the plains of Anatolia.
The foregoing pages have been devoted almost entirely to the Turks of
Constantinople, to their mode of living, their ideals and ideas. But
after all Constantinople is only one city of Turkey and Anatolia is the
real backbone of the country.
From the shores of the Black Sea down to Broussa and Smyrna, Anatolia
is an armed camp, bristling with activity. That much every one knows.
How well organized these activities are is evidenced by the success
the Turks have secured against such great odds. But behind the guns
and bayonets, behind the steel wall which has stemmed the invasion
of foreigners, there is a whole country whose borders extend as far
as Caucasia and whose influence extends beyond, to the arid steppes
of Turkestan and the snow-covered mountains of Afghanistan. Within
this country there are millions of Turks who, besides their military
activities, the immediate needs of their armies and the political
requirements of their country are living a life throbbing with
enthusiasm and hopes. This is the rejuvenated Turkey, not intent in
imitating, like a monkey, the customs of the West or in adopting
wholesale the now antiquated political structure of Europe. It is
a Turkey which realizes fully the harm that too indiscriminating
a copying of western customs has brought and is liable to bring
to nations whose temperament and moral standards are different, a
Turkey which is well aware that its past greatness in history was due
exclusively to its own unadulterated racial qualities, a Turkey which
is convinced that by reviving its own customs and modernizing them to
fit the requirements of the time it will better and more quickly revive
its racial qualities and the grandeur of the East than by imitating
aliens; a Turkey convinced that it should adapt and not adopt those of
the western customs which make for modern progress and culture.
The heart and brains of this Turkey have been set up in a small village
on top of the fertile plains which dominate the rugged mountains of
Anatolia.
Thrice presumptuous enemies have tried with machine guns, tanks and
aeroplanes, with all the destructive paraphernalia of modern armies,
to seize and destroy this village in the hope that under its ruins
would be smothered the new Turkey. Thrice the Turks of Anatolia have
answered: “Thou shalt not pass,” and have preserved intact the sanctity
of their mountains, their plains and their country from the desecration
of its western foes and despite all, thousands of Turks, leaders of
the Anatolian movement, continue to live, hope and work in Angora,
the village on top of the plains dominating the rugged mountains, the
free capital of a free and independent new Turkey which ever since
its inception has been progressing in leaps and bounds toward the
leadership of the East.
An account of modern Turkey and of the modern Turks would not be
complete without an account of these Turks, their mode of living,
their ideals and ideas and to obtain first-hand information on them
I have written to a childhood friend of mine, Djemil Haidar Bey, who
is now visiting Angora. I have received a letter from him and for
fear of omitting the smallest detail or detracting from its vivid
pictures vibrating with youthful vitality, I am giving here its textual
translation. I have only left out those parts which had to do with
matters of personal interest.
“I will now endeavour to give you the description you have asked of the
Angora of to-day and of the people who are living here. I believe you
visited Angora before the war. Anyhow you know that it was nothing but
a village which could boast of no more than about fifteen thousand
inhabitants living in wooden shacks and mud huts, good Anatolian
peasants and their families, satisfied with leading a good, peaceful
life, working in their fields during the day and meeting in prayer at
night.
“The general war came and as in every other village of Anatolia it
drained Angora of all its male inhabitants who could bear arms and
with the signing of the armistice those of the surviving inhabitants
who were lucky enough to come back found nearly half of their village
destroyed by fire. “It was written,” they said with a sigh, and settled
down to their usual life. Little did they know that soon the most
momentous events in the Near East were to make of their unknown little
village the powerful center of a whole nation in open rebellion against
the imperialistic desires of powerful enemies.
“But somewhere in the limitless space of the infinite the powers that
rule the destinies of the world were silently acting. Events were
taking shape. Turkish patriots, practically all members of the House of
Representatives duly elected by the people, winced on reading the terms
of the treaty of peace which the enemies of Turkey wanted to impose on
their country. To accept them would have been to sign the death warrant
of the country. But to refuse them and remain in Constantinople was not
to be thought of. Several of their leaders who had openly given vent
to their feelings in Constantinople had been arrested and exiled to a
little island in the Mediterranean where they could leisurely think
over the emptiness of war formulas such as the one which enunciated
as inalienable the rights of small nationalities. To organize an open
rebellion in Constantinople would have been impossible; the guns of the
most powerful fleets of the world were turned on the city.
“But the purpose of the Turkish patriots representing the will of the
people was already fixed. One by one and unostentatiously they went as
far away as possible from Constantinople, to Erzeroum on the borders of
Caucasia, and assembling here a National Assembly, flung to the face of
the surprised world the slogan of the great American patriots of 1776:
“Give us Liberty, or give us Death”!
“However, events proved that the selection they had made for their
capital was not a wise one. The Russian Colossus now ruled by the
Bolsheviki was shivering under a new fever of imperialism as acute as
the endemic one it had under the Tzars. It stretched its blood-stained
claws to the South, and gripping the independent Turkish republic of
Caucasia, implanted its Soviets too dangerously near Erzeroum. The
Turks of Anatolia, the Nationalist Turks as they now called themselves,
saw the danger and shivered in dismay. Their organization was as yet
nil, the Turkish armies had been disbanded, the Turkish fleet had been
dismantled, and their capital--the brains of New Turkey whose double
national purpose was naturally to protect Europe from a Southeastern
Bolshevik invasion and the Near East from western domination--was
without guns, without cannons and without bayonets, at the mercy of
Russia. The dismay in the Turkish camp was, however, of short duration.
From Constantinople had arrived a great man, a great leader, a great
general whose genius had already once saved Turkey at the Dardanelles.
Mustapha Kemal Pasha appeared in Erzeroum and the National Assembly
unanimously elected him at once to its presidency. He gave immediate
orders and all the members of the National Assembly, numbering nearly
seven hundred, all the civilian and military chiefs accompanied by
their staffs, all the employees of the temporary Government packed
up their baggage and trudged their weary way to the great Anatolian
plateau accessible only through easily defensible mountain passes where
the Sakaria river winds its way.
“Here, at the head of one of the very few railroad lines in Asia Minor,
practically at the same distance from the Black Sea shores, the Russian
Soviet's borders, Mesopotamia occupied by the British and Cilicia
then occupied by the French--all places from which an attack could
have been expected on the rear of the Nationalist armies fighting
against the Greeks on the Smyrna and the Broussa front--was a small,
dilapidated, half-burned village, Angora. But it was the natural center
from whence the Turkish struggle for freedom could be better launched
and could be defended with the greatest probability of success.
“The Turkish Nationalists wanted to build up their country for
efficiency, not for luxury. They had not sought and obtained power
for selfish reasons of comfort and enjoyment. So what did they care
if their capital was to be a small, uncomfortable village! They had
left their homes, their property and their families in Constantinople
and had come to Asia Minor to put into execution lofty ideals. Their
purpose was to set up in Anatolia a new state, a new democracy, a new
Government of the people and for the people, free and independent--and
they were firmly determined to do this against any odds. They were
firmly determined not only to maintain but even to extend the new
Turkey to its proper racial and economic limits so as to include, in
fact as well as in name, all countries and cities peopled by a Turkish
majority such as Constantinople and the districts of Thrace and Smyrna.
To attain this object they had already sacrificed their personal
comfort and their wealth. They were now ready to lead a truly Spartan
life to secure the success of their undertaking and they did not object
to selecting Angora and to setting up here the headquarters of their
fight for liberty.
“So one fine day this half-destroyed, quiet little village of Angora,
celebrated only for its cats and goats, was awakened by the influx of
several thousands of active, energetic and progressive men who had
decided to make of it the center of their activities, a place destined
to pass into history as the capital of a nation capable of “getting
the goat” of the most prominent statesmen of the age who thought--or
hoped--that Turkey was dead. Like the Phoenix of mythology, the Turks
were reborn from the ashes of this burnt down village.
“The village was swamped by the newcomers who lodged as best they
could in shacks and mud huts. As long as they could settle down to
assisting the painful travail of the birth of a new government and of
a new administration conforming to the wishes of the people, and of
an army capable of defending the very home and the very hearth of the
nation, the newcomers did not mind. The most prominent and influential
statesmen and military leaders were only too glad to “pile up” under
any kind of roof which could offer them shelter.
“I purposely use the expression “pile up” as it accurately describes
what took place. As I have said before half of the village had been
destroyed by fire so that there was barely enough place to lodge
normally about two-thirds of its own inhabitants and the newcomers
numbered from six to eight thousand. You can well imagine the
difficulties to contend with in order to lodge all these newcomers
when you realize that even now--after nearly three years and the hasty
erection of many temporary buildings--the place is so overcrowded
that it is common to find four or five of the most prominent citizens
sharing the same room.