The Sultan and His PeopleOscanyan, C. (Christopher)
History
The Sultan and His People
Oscanyan, C. (Christopher)
Turkey -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Social life and customs
Indeed, the very monkeys of India cannot excel them in their
disposition to imitate each other. For, it is said that a merchant
once carrying a large bale of fesses, or red caps on a speculation,
opened his goods on the way, with the view to examine them; and taking
one out and putting it upon his head laid down to repose a while under
a tree. What was his astonishment on waking, to find his stock of caps
had taken wings. He looked around in dismay, but happening to cast
his eyes upwards, he beheld a whole colony of monkeys each sporting
one of his caps! It seemed a hopeless case to catch each one of them
and force him to surrender the cap. In his anger and bewilderment
he seized his cap and in a passion threw it to the ground; when the
whole tribe of these mimicking creatures of the grove, instinctively,
with the same vehemence, divested themselves of their head-gear!
In imitation of Sultan, Pashas, and Efendi, the people in the East
have already doffed their robes and turbans; and are ready for other
reforms, if derived from the same honored projectors; crosses now
adorn the breasts of statesmen, and his majesty, the Sultan, displays
on his person the insignia of the garter. Indeed much good may be
anticipated from the liberal sentiments and benevolent dispositions of
the Sultan, were he but rightly advised and sustained in the exercise
of his absolute power; with the requisite protection against inimical
intrigues and aggressions, both foreign and domestic.
Besides, the government itself is already divided into two parties, the
liberal, who are ready to throw off the yoke of ancient prejudices,
and the church party, who not only with a blind zeal, but with
hopes of self-aggrandizement, are resolved to maintain the rule of
superstition. Now as the advancement, the maintenance of the country
is dependent on the one, its retrogradation and downfall involved in
the other, so Europe necessarily holds out its strong arm to the one,
and leaves the other not only unsupported but threatened. The wisest
of the Turkish statesmen are therefore prepared for changes; indeed,
they feel themselves bound to certain compromises with their friends
the Allied Powers, who engaged in the war, as they well know, not with
the view to reinstate Mussulman oppression and bigoted misrule, but to
set the country on a new footing--by raising the Christian population
to a level with the Mussulman. Considering the almost equal proportion
of the Christians to the Mohammedans, it is but just, there should
at least be an equality of national rights and privileges. For in
civilized countries, even a MINORITY is protected and their rights
respected; how much more then should this be the case where there
is not only no disproportion in numbers--but decided superiority
in civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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