The Turk and His Book of Prophecy
A DISPATCH from Mytilene says that "one of the contributory causes in the confidence of victory that has unquestionably animated the Turks has been the circulation of a book of prophecies, purporting to have been uttered by some Arabic seer about three years ago, and distributed broadcast throughout the empire by the zeal of the Young Turk committee. "In this publication, the disastrous issue of the first Balkan war was foretold, but the resuscitation of Turkey and the restoration of her ancient glories were to follow closely on the heels of this preliminary catastrophe." Then the prophecy goes on to tell of another war in which Turkey would become involved, and says: "The Turks would, in the early part of this second war, be sorely pressed by their foes; but the result of the war thus undertaken would be the annihilation of the latter, the reconquest by Turkey of all her lost dominions, and the creation of a Mussulman world empire under the suzerainty of the Ottoman caliph." Since the great Mohammedan world figures largely in the closing drama of history, all such things are interesting to the careful student of prophecy.