Strange but True | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 15, 1877

Strange but True.

ENGLAND having fully decided not to render further assistance to Turkey, and not to prevent in any way the hostilities in the East, it may appear strange to some that Turkey should still continue her war preparations, but in view of the following facts it is not at all surprising:—

“The basis of the Turkish system is the Koran. All Turkish modes of government rest on that as the primal authority. This idea of a religious empire is seen in the manner in which the Turkish Emperors are invested with authority. Every new Sultan, instead of being crowned, is girded about with the sword of Othman, the founder of the empire, and this is done in a mosque built over the supposed tomb of the standard-bearer of Mahomet, the author of the Koran. Turkey is a power which exists for the sake of a religion. War is always carried on in supposed defense of the will of God, and hence is very sacred in the eye of the Turk. All who fall in battle are regarded as martyrs. Blood shed in battle is believed to purify the soul, which is thus prepared to go at once into the presence of its Maker. A Turk dying upon the battle-field enters at once into Paradise.”

It is with just such doctrines as these that the ignorant Turk is stimulated to fight. A letter from Bagdad concerning the Mohammedans in Asia says:—

“Throughout the whole of Mesopotamia an indescribable enthusiasm prevails for war. The officials have succeeded in stirring up the popular fanaticism to an extent that will yield the greatest possible results in case of war. The masses, who are ignorant in the highest degree, do not know what Servia, Montenegro and the Slavs are. They have only been made to understand that the infidel has declared war against Islam, and that sooner or later the Caliph will call them to the defense of the faith.

“This desire for war has taken hold everywhere of the nomad tribes, who have sent their sheiks to Bagdad in order to come to an understanding with the Governor-General about the contingent wanted from them. The tribe of the Tzafi, which numbers more than 3,000 tents, lived in the deserts for some years in Persia, but when its members learned that a great war was in prospect they returned to Asiatic Turkey and sent three delegates to Bagdad to offer to the Vali 1,000 horsemen. Similar offers have since come to the Vali from leading tribes of Irak-Arabia.

“The horsemen of these tribes desire nothing to take them to the field but a ration of bread and rice. They do not look for pay and only look for the booty which they may gather in the enemy’s country.”