Turkey in Prophecy by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 19, 1912

Turkey in Prophecy

By F. M. W.

France and Turkey in Conflict

As stated in our article last week, the judgment which came upon France in connection with the great revolution seemed to be in the order of divine retribution. The nation had forsaken God, and in consequence it was left to reap the natural fruits of its apostasy. In turn, heaven used the armies of the republic, under Napoleon Bonaparte, to visit judgments upon Europe, particularly the Catholic states. Austria was humbled in the dust; Italy was overrun; Rome was plundered, and Pope Pius VI was carried a prisoner into France, where he died in exile. Thus the French became the agents in the hands of God in bringing to an end the twelve hundred sixty years of papal domination.

These great victories gave to the youthful Napoleon dreams of empire. He believed that he saw in Egypt the key to an extensive rule. Accordingly, through his influence, the French declared war against England; and in the belief that he could strike a vulnerable blow against English influence in the East through possessing himself of Egypt, Napoleon fitted out an expedition for the invasion of that ancient country.

This conflict in Egypt was foretold in the prophecy of Daniel II. After the outline of the events of the French Revolution brought to view in verses 36-39, we are told in verse 40 that at the time of the end, at the close of the twelve hundred sixty years of papal domination, the king of the south should “push at him,” and the king of the north should “come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships.”

Definition of Terms

To what powers or nations do these expressions “king of the north” and “king of the south” refer? To determine this we must go back to the beginning of the prophecy. In verses 1-6 is given the prediction of the division of Grecia into four parts. These four divisions were eventually merged into two. The northern kingdom under Seleucus is designated by the prophet as the king of the north. This originally included Syria, but to this was annexed Macedonia and Thrace. The territory embraced in the dominion of Ptolemy, namely Egypt, was designated as the kingdom of the south. The territorial location of these kingdoms gave to them their names. During the revolutions which succeeded the days of Alexander the government of these territories many times changed hands, but the power occupying the original territory occupied by Seleucus, namely Syria and Thrace, is regarded always as the king of the north in the prophetic designation, while that power which occupied Egypt, the original possession of Ptolemy, is always designated as the king of the south.

At the time of the French invasion by Napoleon, Egypt, or the territory of the king of the south, was a nominal dependency of Turkey, possessing in reality an independent government under the Mamelukes. Turkey, occupying Syria, the original territory of the king of the north, is designated by this term.

We are now prepared to proceed with the study of the prophecy, and shall be able to understand the manner in which Egypt, the king of the south, pushed at France in the resistance which was afforded the invasion of Napoleon. We shall see also how events shaped about which later brought against Napoleon the whole power of the king of the north, or Turkey, “with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships,” reenforced by an alliance with other powers.

Conflict With the King of the South

With this prophetic prediction in mind, let us now consider the political movements and maneuvers whereby the prophecy was fulfilled. We shall consider in natural order, first, the invasion of Egypt by the French, and the manner in which the king of the south “pushed at him.”

It was on May 19 [1798] that the fleet put to sea under the orders of Admiral Brueys. It included thirteen French and two Venetian ships of the line, fourteen Venetian or French frigates, and four hundred transport vessels. Fifty thousand men embarked, roused and excited by the proclamation of their general.—“World’s Best Histories,” Vol. VI, page 380.

The fleet first proceeded to Malta, a strongly fortified island in the Mediterranean, held by the knights of St. John. Through intrigue and the payment of a large sum of money, but feeble resistance was made, and this stronghold was practically surrendered into the hands of Napoleon. With but little resistance the French next effected a landing at Alexandria.

Napoleon, in the hope of winning over the Mohammedan population to his standard, protested his friendship for Turkey. He professed also conversion to Mohammedanism, and enjoined upon his soldiers the most scrupulous regard for the Mohammedan religion and religious exercises. At the same time he despatched emissaries to Constantinople, representing to the Turkish court that his designs upon Egypt were far from sinister, and that his whole purpose was to bring about such conditions as would cement the country more firmly to Turkish authority. However, Turkey was not deceived by these representations. At that period, as on many occasions in succeeding years,—

English diplomats took possession of the sultanic mind; and what they saw, the heir of the prophet saw. To save herself from a movement which threatened her in the East, Great Britain warmed to the infidel, forgot crusading vows and traditions, guided infidel counsels, supplied infidel needs, and aimed infidel guns. So that from the day he set sail, Napoleon had against him all the resources of England, all the power of Ottoman arms, all the strength of Mameluke resistance, all the discouragement of native Egyptian hostility.—Watson’s “Napoleon,” page 200.

Napoleon landed at Alexandria July 2, 1798. This city was occupied with but little resistance. After a rest of a few days his army marched into the interior in order to meet the forces of the Mamelukes, which had been mobilized to contest his possession of the country. Speaking of this battle, the “Library of Universal History,” Vol. VIII, pages 2637, 2638, says:—

On the sixth of July, Bonaparte left Alexandria, and with thirty thousand of his troops he advanced toward Cairo, greatly annoyed on the way by the Mameluke horsemen. On the twenty-first [July, 1798] he arrived before the entrenched camp of thirty thousand Mamelukes under Mourad Bey, near the famous pyramids. Eight thousand Mameluke horsemen advanced to attack the French troops, when Bonaparte exclaimed: “Soldiers, from yonder pyramids forty centuries look down upon you!” Then the conflict commenced. The French, who were formed into squares, easily repulsed the impetuous assaults of the Mamelukes, who rode up to the bayonets of their enemies, and threw their pistols at the heads of the French grenadiers. When the Mameluke cavalry were driven back, the French took by storm the camp of their enemy, with all their baggage and cannon; and the Battle of the Pyramids ended in a complete victory for Bonaparte, who had lost less than two hundred men in the engagement. Hundreds of the enemy perished in the Nile. Mourad Bey and a small remnant of his Mamelukes fled into Upper Egypt. Cairo surrendered the next day, and the conquest of Lower Egypt was accomplished.

By this victory, however, the spirit of the inhabitants was by no means broken. Later a serious uprising took place, well-nigh robbing the French of the advantage they had gained in the victory of the Battle of the Pyramids and in their occupation of Alexandria and Cairo. By great barbarity and the sacrifice of thousands of native lives, further resistance was effectually checked.

The king of the south “pushed at him,” but was not able to make an effectual resistance.

Meanwhile the English, fully apprised of the plans of Napoleon, had sent a strong naval fleet under Lord Nelson to intercept him in the Mediterranean. The two fleets passed each other in the night, and thus Napoleon was enabled to effect a landing in Egypt. The English, however, soon discovered that the French fleet under Admiral Brueys was anchored in the Bay of Abukir. Of this engagement Thomas E. Watson, in his “Napoleon,” pages 208, 209, says:—

But Nelson on the waters was what Bonaparte was on land—the boldest of planners and the most desperate of fighters. He came up at sunset, and did not wait till morning, as Brueys expected. He went right to work, reconnoitered his enemy, conceived the idea of turning his line, getting in behind with some of his ships, and thus putting the French between two fires. The maneuver was difficult and dangerous, but succeeded. Nelson rammed some of his ships in on the land side of the amazed Brueys, who had made no preparations for such a maneuver. Caught between two terrible fires, Brueys was a lost man from the beginning. It was a night battle, awful beyond the power of description. When it ended next day, the English had practically obliterated the French fleet; Napoleon was cut off from Europe. When the news reached him, he was stunned, almost crushed; but rallying immediately, he wrote to Kleber, “The English will compel us to do greater things in Egypt than we had intended.”

The King of the North to the Rescue

The significance of this great disaster to Napoleon was at once apparent. The demonstration to his enemies that he was by no means invincible resulted in the formation of a strong coalition against him on the part of several of the European powers. Particularly did it stir up against him Turkey, the king of the north, and from this point we shall see clearly how this power came against the invader. Speaking of this, Alison, in his “History of Europe,” Vol. IV, page 196, says:—

The consequences of the Battle of the Nile were, to the last degree, disastrous to France. Its effects in Europe were immense, by reviving, as will be detailed hereafter, the coalition against the republican government; and in the East, it at once brought on the Egyptian army the whole weight of the Ottoman empire. The French ambassador at Constantinople had found great difficulty for long in restraining the indignation of the sultan; the good sense of the Turks could not easily be persuaded that it was an act of friendship to the Porte to invade one of the most important provinces of the empire, destroy its militia, and subject its inhabitants to the dominion of a European power. No sooner, therefore, was the divan at liberty to speak its real sentiments, by the destruction of the armament which had so long spread terror through the Levant, than they gave vent to their indignation. War was formally declared against France; the differences with Russia were adjusted; and the formation of an army was immediately decreed to restore the authority of the crescent on the banks of the Nile.

Help for the King of the North

Napoleon found himself now not only confronted by the combined power of England and Turkey, but Russia also joined the union. Previously Turkey had been at war with her northern neighbor, but seeing in the victorious French a common foe, the two countries now united their forces to oppose the victorious march of Napoleon. Proceeding with the account of this combination, Alison says:—

Among the many wonders of this eventful period, not the least surprising was the alliance which the French invasion of Egypt produced between Turkey and Russia, and the suspension of all the ancient animosity between the Christians and the Mussulmans, under the pressure of a danger common to both. This soon led to an event so extraordinary that it produced a profound impression even on the minds of the Mussulman spectators.

On the first of September, a Russian fleet of ten ships of the line and eight frigates entered the Bosporus, and united at the Golden Horn with the Turkish squadron; from whence the combined force, in presence of an immense concourse of spectators, whose acclamations rent the skies, passed under the walls of the Seraglio, and swept majestically through the classic stream of the Hellespont. The effect of the passage of so vast an armament through the beautiful scenery of the straits, was much enhanced by the brilliancy of the sun, which shone in unclouded splendor on its full-spread sails; the placid surface of the water reflected alike the Russian masts and the Turkish minarets; and the multitude, both European and Mussulman, were never weary of admiring the magnificent spectacle, which so forcibly imprinted upon their minds a sense of the extraordinary alliance which the French Revolution had produced, and the slumber in which it had plunged national antipathies the most violent, and religious discord the most inveterate. The combined squadrons, not being required on the coast of Egypt, steered for the island of Corfu [at this time strongly fortified by the French], and immediately established a rigorous blockade of its fortress and noble harbor, which soon began to feel the want of provisions. Already, without any formal treaty, the courts of St. Petersburg, London, and Constantinople acted in concert, and the basis of a triple alliance was laid, and sent to their respective courts for ratification.

The situation of the French army was now in the highest degree critical. Isolated from their country, unable either to obtain succors from home, or to regain it in case of disaster, pressed and blockaded by the fleets of England, in the midst of a hostile population, they were about to be exposed to the formidable forces of the Turkish empire.—Id., pages 196, 197.

Napoleon, however, was by no means disheartened by this situation. While yielding to England the first place in naval combat, he still believed his forces invincible on land. Accordingly he proposed to anticipate the attack to be made upon him by the armies of the Porte which were mobilizing in Syria, and decided to make upon them a sudden and unexpected assault, believing that his army would be augmented by many discontented elements, and that he could easily overrun Syria. The hopes which possessed his heart at this time he confided to his secretary during the siege of Acre. He is quoted by Alison as saying:—

The Dream of Empire

“Yes, Bourrienne, that miserable fort has indeed cost me dear; but matters have gone too far not to make a last effort. If I succeed, as I trust I shall, I shall find in the town all the treasures of the pasha, and arms for three hundred thousand men. I shall raise and arm all Syria, which at this moment unanimously prays for the success of the assault. I will march on Damascus and Aleppo; I shall swell my army as I advance with the discontented in every country through which I pass; I will announce to the people the breaking of their chains, and the abolition of the tyranny of the pashas. Do you not see that the Druses wait only for the fall of Acre to declare themselves? Have I not been already offered the keys of Damascus? I have only lingered under these walls because at present I could derive no advantage from that great town. Acre taken, I will secure Egypt; on the side of Egypt cut off all succor from the Beys, and proclaim Desaix general-in-chief in that country. I will arrive at Constantinople with armed masses; overturn the empire of the Turks, and establish a new one in the East, which will fix my place with posterity: and perhaps I may return to Paris by Adrianople and Vienna, after having annihilated the House of Austria.”—Id., page 209.

Accordingly, with ten thousand men, Napoleon crossed the desert by the way of Suez, for Palestine. Jaffa, on the way, was taken and given up to plunder, accompanied by frightful horrors. Thousands of Turkish prisoners were given up to wanton massacre. The siege of St. Jean d’Acre followed. This stronghold was defended by a large number of Turkish and Arab troops, reinforced by the English fleet under Sir Sidney Smith.

Having received information from the pasha of Syria that Acre was to be attacked, he [Sir Sidney Smith] hastened to the scene of danger, and arrived there just two days before the appearance of the French army, with the “Tiger” of eighty-four, and “Theseus” of seventy-four guns, and some smaller vessels. This precious interval was actively employed by him in strengthening the works, and making preparations for the defense of the place. On the following day, he was fortunate enough to capture the whole flotilla despatched from Alexandria with the heavy artillery and stores

for the siege of the town, as it was creeping round the headlands of Mount Carmel; and the guns, forty-four in number, were immediately mounted on the ramparts, and contributed, in the most important manner, to the defense of the place. At the same time, Colonel Philippeaux, a French officer of engineers, expatriated from his country by the revolution, exerted his talents in repairing and arming the fortifications; and a large body of seamen and marines, headed by Sir Sidney himself, were landed to co-operate in the defense of the works.—Id., pages 204, 205.

The Turks, however, on their side, had not been idle. By vast exertions they had succeeded in rousing the Mohammedan population of all the surrounding provinces; the remains of the Mamelukes of Ibrahim Bey, the Janizaries of Aleppo and of Damascus, joined to an innumerable horde of irregular cavalry, formed a vast army, which had already pushed its advanced posts beyond the Jordan, and threatened soon to envelop the besieging force.—Id., page 205.

The Decisive Battle

For fifty-four days Napoleon sought by every means in his power to capture this strongly fortified port. Seventeen different times his forces were repulsed and driven back, even after they had scaled the fortifications on two occasions, and penetrated into the heart of the city. Both sides fought with desperation. On the results of the conflict turned the course of empire. Says the historian Watson, in his “Napoleon,” pages 215, 216:—

The lesson from Jaffa had taught the Arab that it was death to surrender. To him, then, it was a stern necessity to conquer or die. The English were there to help. Sir Sidney Smith furnished guns, men to serve them, and skilled engineers. Napoleon was not properly equipped for the siege, for his battering train, on its way in transports, was stupidly lost by the captain in charge. Sir Sidney took it and appropriated it to the defense. In vain Napoleon lingered till days grew into weeks, weeks into months. He was completely baffled. There were many sorties, many assaults, dreadful loss of life, reckless deeds of courage, done on both sides. Once, twice, the French breached the walls, made good their assault, and entered the town, once reaching Djezzar’s very palace. It was all in vain. Every house was a fortress, every street an ambuscade, every Arab a hero,—the very women frantically screaming “Fight!”

Napoleon had hopes at one time during the siege that succor was at hand. In the distance he descried a fleet of ships approaching. Says Alison:—

All eyes were instantly turned in that direction, and the besiegers and besieged equally flattered themselves that succor was at hand. The English cruisers in the bay hastily, and in doubt, stood out to reconnoiter this unknown fleet; but the hearts of the French sank within them when they beheld the two squadrons unite, and, the Ottoman crescent joined to the English pendant, approach the roads of Acre. Soon after, a fleet of thirty sail entered the bay, with seven thousand men, and abundance of artillery and ammunition from Rhodes. . . . In this extremity, Sir Sidney Smith landed the crews of the ships, and led them, armed with pikes, to the breach. The sight reanimated the courage of the besieged, who were beginning to quail under the prospect of instant death, and they mounted the long-disputed tower, amidst loud shouts from the brave men who still defended its ruins. Immediately a furious contest ensued; the besieged hurled down large stones on the assailants, who fired at them within half pistol-shot; the muzzles of the muskets touched each other, and the spear-heads of the standards were locked together. At length the desperate daring of the French yielded to the unconquerable firmness of the British and the heroic valor of the Mussulmans.—“History of Europe,” Vol. IV, page 207.

Blasted Hopes

This was a new experience for the French general. Up to this time in his experience defeat had been unknown. M. Guizot in his “France,” Volume VI of the “World’s Best Histories,” says, on pages 388, 389:—

The scene was changed. The conquerors of Europe, victorious against the Mamelukes, found themselves no longer in presence only of Orientals. Always heroic behind their walls, the Turks, ignorant and badly armed, had received from the English a reenforcement of engineers and artillerymen. They had at their disposal the artillery prepared by Bonaparte for the siege of the place, but which were captured at sea by Sir Sidney Smith. . . . The advanced guard, shut up in a mosque, defended themselves with so much fury that Sir Sidney Smith himself demanded a capitulation for them. The assault was renewed on the tenth of May, with the same result. Bonaparte decided upon raising the siege, bitterly affected by his defeat, and convinced that the taking of St. Jean d’Acre would have opened to him the road to Turkey.

The effect of this battle was a terrible disappointment to the French. Says Watson, “With bitterness in his soul Napoleon turned away. ‘That miserable hole has thwarted my destiny,’ and he never ceased to ring the changes on the subject.” When in exile at St. Helena, Napoleon still mourned over what he considered this great check in his fortunes.

This crushing defeat of their hopes at Acre was the beginning of the end in the evacuation of Egypt by the French. We shall speak of this more fully next week.

Recapitulation

A few words by way of recapitulation: the prophecy declared that there should come a time in the history of France when the king of the south should “push at him,” and “the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships.” The king of the south at this period in the prophetic outline represented Egypt, and the king of the north, Turkey.

It is a remarkable fact which can be accounted for only on the basis of God’s foreknowledge and the unerring accuracy of prophetic prediction, that at the very time specified in the prophecy (1798) Egypt was invaded by France. The resistance which Egypt made to this invasion constituted the pushing at him to which the prophecy refers. England cooperated with Egypt in this resistance, and under the direction of Nelson the fleet of France was destroyed in the Battle of the Nile.

The king of the north, or Turkey, then became thoroughly aroused and put forth earnest efforts to quell the French invasion of one of her dependencies. Peace was made with Russia, with whom Turkey had been at war. The two nations fitted out a strong fleet to oppose the French. Recognizing that their assistance was not needed in Egypt, where the French navy had been destroyed, they immediately sailed for Corfu, a strong port which had been fortified by the French, and began an effective blockade of that place. In the meantime the English fleet was cooperating with the Turkish forces at St. Jean d’Acre, to which siege had been laid by Napoleon. The besieged armies were reenforced by a fleet of thirty war-vessels which came to the assistance of Turkey from Rhodes.

Thus fully and literally the king of the north, in his own power and the power which he commanded through coalition with other nations, came against France “like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships.”

These events add additional force to the application of the terms king of the north and king of the south. They occurred in exact conformity with the terms of the prophecy, and at the precise period of the world’s history foretold by the prophet.

The prophecy from this time on deals more particularly with the king of the north, or the Ottoman empire. Some of the leading events in its history as outlined by the inspired penman will be considered in our next number.

F. M. W.