The elevating influence of the missionaries in Turkey cannot be over-estimated. It is the most hopeful of all the influences which are at work in the empire to-day. Most people at home think of the missionary as a propagandist whose chief endeavor is to win converts to his creed, but on the field he appears as a very different character; he is an educator, a physician, a scientist, a peacemaker, a neighbor, and an example of civilized living. Judged by the numbers added to Protestant churches from the population of the Turkish empire, missions there might be counted a failure, or, at the most, but a partial success; but the making of Protestants is the smallest part of a missionary’s work. 1. The missionary elevates the whole standard of Christian living and thinking. There are in Turkey churches hoary with age—Greek, Armenian, Syrian—in which ignorance, barbarism, superstition, and low morality hold sway. To retain their members in the face of the missionary, these churches find intelligence, purity, spirituality, and civilization necessary, and have been greatly elevated by missionary enterprise. 2. In countries like Turkey, where medical skill is beyond the reach of the mass of the people, the preventable suffering and death are appalling. How eagerly the villagers bring their sick to any stranger in the hope that he may be a physician, almost every traveler can testify. The brightest spots in the country are the missionary medical centers, where untold sufferings are allayed. These range all the way from the village dispensary to the Medical College at Beirut, where one of the world’s best surgeons not only helps the suffering, but teaches others to do it too. 3. The most important phase of missionary work in Turkey is, however, the educational. From humble schools scattered widely through the villages to colleges like Robert College and the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut (which are the fruit of missionary enterprise) most successful efforts are being made, by broad-minded, undenominational methods, to train the young to think, and to induct them into modern science and civilization. The effect of this is already widely apparent, and it is clear that if the day ever comes when Turkey is able to take her place among the nations as a state which appreciates the laws of humanity sufficiently to be trusted, as Japan is now trusted, to control the lives and property of foreigners resident within her limits, it will be because of the civilizing influence of these educational institutions, combined with the lessons in integrity taught by the missionaries’ simple Christian lives. Apart from their work for Turkey, the missionaries have contributed much to science. Archæology owes them large debts in every part of the empire, and, to mention no other fields, the only authoritative work on the botany of Syria is by a missionary. The missionaries are in my opinion working more directly than any other class of men to complete the social evolution of mankind, and to make possible the peaceable federation of the world.
—George A. Barton, Ph. D.,
Professor of Semitic Languages in Bryn Mawr College,
Director of the American School of Oriental Study and Research
in Palestine, 1902-1903.
[Pg 119]
It was no light task to plant missions in a country so little known and extensive as was the Turkish empire at the beginning of the last century. Of the races which made up its large population little was understood except a general knowledge of the Jews and Greeks, and there was much less information regarding the Turks. In accordance with the policy already adopted by the American Board, the early missionaries were sent out to investigate and explore before deciding upon the location of missions and stations and before fixing the exact nature and methods of work.
The instructions given the earlier missionaries to Turkey seldom failed to emphasize the importance of fully examining the different parts of the country and becoming acquainted with the character, beliefs, and characteristics of the different races and peoples which comprise its population. In some cases particular unexplored regions were named as demanding immediate attention. All the early missionaries were directed to report to headquarters, in full detail, the results of their researches and observations.
In the instructions given in 1819 to Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, the first missionaries appointed to Turkey, the following passage occurs:
“You will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes which dwell in that land and in the surrounding countries. The two grand inquiries ever present in your minds will be, ‘What good can be done?’ and ‘By what means?’ What can be done for the Jews? What for the pagans? What for the Mohammedans? What for the Christians? What for the people in Palestine? What for those in Egypt, in Syria, in Armenia, in other countries to which your inquiry may be extended?”
[Pg 120] This single quotation demonstrates the spirit of them all, and reveals the deliberate and far-seeing policy of the Board in inaugurating its missions in Turkey as well as in other countries. Men of the highest ability and broadest vision were selected for missionary appointment and upon them was placed the responsibility of selecting the location of the missions and stations, and deciding the policy and methods of work.
The archives of the Board are rich with the early reports of those first missionaries, who explored with fearlessness and zeal, and observed with discriminating care and precision. They were conscious of the fact that much in the future depended upon the thoroughness of their work and the accuracy and fulness of their reports.
Messrs. Fisk and Parsons landed at Smyrna early in 1820 and at once began the study of modern Greek. They explored the sites of the seven churches of the Apocalypse and noted their conditions and needs. Careful and minute journals were kept of all their labors and observations. In order to facilitate the work of exploration, Mr. Parsons went on alone to Palestine, where he arrived in February, 1821. One of his chief objects there was to get into touch with the Christian pilgrims who flock to the holy city in great numbers. The Greek revolution drove him back to Smyrna after several tours in Palestine, and from there he went to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died Feb. 10, 1822. Mr. Fisk was joined by Jonas King, who left his studies in Oriental literature at Paris for that purpose, and early in January, [Pg 121] 1823, the two set out for Jerusalem by way of Alexandria and Cairo. They ascended the Nile as far as Thebes, distributing everywhere Bibles and tracts in Arabic. With a caravan made up of Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians, they made the overland journey to Jerusalem and from there went down to Beirut upon the coast. Here they separated, Mr. King taking up his residence in the Lebanon mountains among the Druses, where he was most hospitably received, in order that he might the better study the Arabic language and the people. By this time, these men were using with much freedom Arabic, modern Greek, and Italian.
The tours of these first missionaries covered Tripoli, the Lebanon, Baalbec, Jaffa, Hebron, Damascus, Antioch, and Latakia, thus bringing them into close personal touch with the desert tribes as well as with the Druses, Maronites, Turks, Greeks, and other races. Mr. King returned to Smyrna overland from Tarsus, and Mr. Fisk died at Beirut Oct. 23, 1825, two years after the arrival there of Mr. and Mrs. William Goodell.
These pioneer operations were accompanied with great hardship and even peril. The difficulties were increased at this early period by the efforts of the Roman Catholics to drive all Protestants from Syria. In 1824 the missionaries in Jerusalem were apprehended, at the instigation of the Catholics, and brought before a Moslem judge, charged with distributing books which they declared to be neither Jewish, Moslem, nor Christian. Attacks by robbers were of no infrequent occurrence and fanatical uprisings were constantly to be expected. The Greco-Turkish war brought many personal perils and hardships, but did not result in the loss of missionary lives. [Pg 122]
These experiences and subsequent investigations led to the choice of Beirut as the missionary center for Syria and Palestine, contrary to the previous expectation that Jerusalem would be chosen. Jerusalem was carefully tested and its climate was found to be unfit for the permanent residence of American missionaries. Beirut was upon the sea, and at the same time in such relation to the Lebanon mountains that, during the heated time of the year, the missionaries could withdraw into the mountains without becoming entirely separated from the people and their work.
The matter of healthfulness was most wisely taken into consideration in selecting the location for permanent mission stations. Not that this was the solely decisive feature, but it was given due place in the weighing of arguments pro and con. Subsequent experience has proven that it is the poorest and most wasteful policy to permit missionaries to reside permanently in cities that are found to be unhealthy, or to plant in such places central institutions. Beirut has been occupied to the present day as the great mission center for Syria, and the wisdom of its choice eighty years ago has been abundantly justified. In selecting other stations in different parts of Turkey the same wise, careful method was followed.
During the ten years from 1820 to 1830 the explorations made in that country by missionaries of the Board were extensive, embracing, as has been stated, the site of the seven churches, the shores of the Nile as far as Thebes, the whole of Palestine, and the greater part of Syria. Cappadocia had been entered from Smyrna; while the Peloponnesus, the more important of the Ionian and Ægean Islands, as well as Tripoli and Tunis upon the north coast of Africa, had also received missionary visits. These careful and scientific investigations had brought to the attention of the Western world the religious beliefs and practises and [Pg 123] the moral condition of the Copts, the Maronite and Greek Churches, as well as the condition and needs of other races dwelling in that wide extent of territory.
Vast regions in that empire were still unexplored and peoples like the Armenians, Nestorians, Chaldeans, as well as Turks, Turkomans, Koords, and Persians, dwelt in the far east of Turkey and in Persia and about them little was known. The conditions and needs, and how best to meet these needs, could not be determined until all parts of the empire, all its peoples and their interrelations, were fairly well understood.
Owing to the Greco-Turkish war, which involved some of the European nations, it became necessary in 1828 to withdraw from Beirut, the center of the Syrian and Palestine work, to Malta, and for two years Beirut was unoccupied. Towards the close of 1828, Rev. Rufus Anderson, then Assistant Secretary of the American Board, was sent to Malta to meet and confer with the brethren and later to make personal investigations in Greece and the Levant. This conference led to the location of Mr. Bird in Beirut, and in sending Dr. Goodell to Constantinople.
At the same time the Prudential Committee decided to send Rev. Eli Smith and Rev. H. G. O. Dwight upon an extended tour of investigation across Asia Minor, Armenia, and Koordistan into Georgia and Persia. Mr. Smith had learned Arabic in Syria and was also somewhat familiar with the Turkish language, besides being an experienced traveler and a close and accurate observer. Mr. Dwight was just entering upon his missionary career and was full of energy and pluck.
These two men proceeded from Malta to Smyrna in March, 1830, and from there to Constantinople, overland, in April. Before beginning the [Pg 124] journey, they placed themselves under the protection of a chief of the Tartars, who witnessed the seal of the Tartar guide to a document acknowledging responsibility for the safe delivery at Constantinople of the persons and property of the missionaries. Beds, bedding, clothing, cooking utensils, dishes, writing material, books, food, etc. were carried in waterproof leather bags upon the backs of horses. They clothed themselves in the flowing native dress of the country so as to attract as little annoying attention by the way as possible. They were also supplied with passports from the government and official letters of introduction.
While travelers had repeatedly penetrated the regions to which they were to go, none had made careful, scientific investigation of the people and of the religious and moral conditions. There was not even a map in existence upon which dependence could be placed.
After obtaining at Smyrna and Constantinople all the information possible regarding the Armenians and the country through which they were to pass, these two missionary explorers set out from the latter place on the twenty-first of May, 1830, under their Tartar guide, for the remote interior of the country. The carefully kept journal of this memorable tour is a classic of its kind. Later accounts and fuller knowledge of the region traversed by them and of the people they met give occasion for little change in the story they told to bring it up to date.
At Tocat they visited the grave of Henry Martyn who gave up his life there eighteen years before. On the thirteenth of June they entered the city of Erzerum and found it in the possession of the Russians and the headquarters of their army. The most of the Armenian population had fled. After remaining there for a few days, they pushed on eastward, [Pg 125] creating astonishment wherever they went. Their knowledge of Turkish made it possible for them to converse freely with the people, while all were puzzled to explain the fact that their own language was known by foreigners from beyond the sea. None of the inhabitants could understand the purpose of their inquiries, for to all classes a mission solely for the sake of the people was incomprehensible. From here they faced still eastward, visiting Kars, where they met large numbers of Armenians. They continued on through Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a distance from Constantinople of more than fifteen hundred miles. When they arrived at Shoosha in the middle of August they were nearly worn out with the extreme fatigue of a journey, in itself most trying, while accommodations at night were often unfit even for a horse. They were also in the midst of cholera which had recently carried off over seventy thousand people.
They passed two and a half months in Shoosha with some German missionaries, whic............