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.
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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 [Pg 138] 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 [Pg 139] 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 [Pg 140] 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 [Pg 141] 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.
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