From Berlin to Bagdad and BabylonZahm, J. A. (John Augustine)
HistoryChristian
From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon
Zahm, J. A. (John Augustine)
Middle East -- Civilization; Middle East -- Description and travel
But, although not a vestige of Chalcedon’s former grandeur now remains,
it will always be remembered as the city in which was held in 451 the
fourth œcumenical council of the Church, in which was condemned the
teaching of Eutyches and the Monophysites respecting the human and the
divine nature in Christ. When I recalled the fact that this council,
including the representatives of the absent bishops, was attended by
six hundred and thirty bishops; that more than six hundred of these
belonged to the Eastern Church, and remembered the very small number
of the episcopate that is now found in this part of the world, it was
easy to understand the present backward condition of civilization and
culture in Asia Minor and Syria. What a change, indeed, since the
days of those great doctors of the Oriental Church--the Cyrils, the
Gregories, the Basils, the Ephrems, the Chrysostoms--whose learning and
eloquence have from their time been the admiration and edification of
the whole of Christendom.
A short distance to the north of Kadi Keui is the Haidar Pasha military
hospital which was the scene of Florence Nightingale’s heroic labors
during the Crimean War. The rooms which she occupied while here are
still preserved intact and as I passed through them, I recalled
Longfellow’s beautiful tribute to her in the verses:
_A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood._
_Nor even shall be wanting here
The palm, the lily and the spear,
The symbols that of yore
Saint Philomena bore._[86]
It is but a few minutes’ walk from Florence Nightingale’s hospital
to the Haidar Pasha railway station. On the way thither we passed
through the well-kept British Cemetery where rest eight thousand
British soldiers who died of wounds and disease during the Crimean
War. The large granite obelisk here by Marochetti is a conspicuous
object and is visible at a great distance. The Haidar Pasha station,
the north-western terminus of the Anatolia[87] Railway was, before
its partial destruction during the war, a most imposing building and
compared favorably with the best of similar structures in Europe.
Shortly after we take a seat in a cozy corridor car our train swings
towards the picturesque shore of the Marmora. From the window of our
compartment we have the most lovely views of the Princes Islands,
and of the quaint little fishing villages which sprinkle the eastern
shore of the Marmora and which are so perfectly mirrored in its placid
waters. For hours, as our train moves alternately along the verge
of lofty cliffs and near the level of the emerald expanse of the
Propontis, we have a succession of panoramas that are scarcely less
fascinating than those seen along the famous driveway between Sorrento
and Amalfi.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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