Part 5

THE KOORDS

Besides the Turks and Armenians, no race in Turkey has commanded more attention during the past two decades than the Koords. They have attracted the notice of the world by their large part in the Armenian massacres in 1895-96 as well as by their relations to the sultan himself through the organization and arming of the Hamidich cavalry within the last quarter of a century. They were almost unknown and unheard-of except locally until they came into prominence at the time of the siege of Erzerum by the Russians in 1876, when the Koords were used by the Turks in defense. They rendered little real service, however.

Whatever else may be said, this race has now to be reckoned with in all plans for propagating Christianity in any form in Eastern Turkey and western Persia, as well as in all questions of order in that region. Sometimes they are in open conflict with the Turks, and troops are mobilized and sent against them in their mountain fastnesses. Again they are provided with arms by the government and sent out to subdue and suppress revolutionary bands of Armenians who are more ambitious than discreet in their endeavors to obtain liberty.

Little is known of the origin and history of this wild and most interesting people. They probably are the direct descendants of the Karduchi, who occupied the same plateaus and commanded the same mountain passes that the Koords now hold. It is probable that they are not a race by themselves, but a collection of tribes with little among them all that is common except their hardihood, roughness, and tendency to plunder. One chief, whom the writer knew, declared that his ancestors came to the upper waters of the Tigris from Mesopotamia some eight centuries ago, and, after conquering the region, ruled it as feudal lords. That form of government is in existence among them even at the present time. Undoubtedly the word Koord, Kurd, Gutu, Gardu, or Karu, has been promiscuously applied to any mountain race, clan, or tribe occupying the upper waters of the great rivers in that part of the empire, if they were not already claimed by another race.

There are some marked distinctions between the peoples called Koords. Some are nomadic and pastoral, taking their flocks into the north of Armenia as the summer advances, and returning to the warmer regions of the south as it recedes. These live almost entirely in black tents, and, while they steal, are not generally robbers. Others settle in villages and the men devote their time usually to robbing traders and caravans passing through their country, and levying blackmail upon the Armenians who dwell upon their borders. It is this class who cause both the Turkish government and the Armenians the most trouble. A chief, whom the writer knew personally, and at whose castle he has often passed the night, boasted that he owned nearly four hundred villages with the adjacent land, and could throw, within two days’ notice, two thousand armed horsemen into a fight anywhere within the bounds of his territory. He said that he had over three hundred armed men out upon the road most of the time. His castle had dungeons, and was, to all intents and purposes, a fort.

These various Koordish leaders not only have little in common, but they are frequently in open conflict one with another. Could these people unite under a bold leader and form an alliance with the Arabs of the south, nothing in Turkey could stand against them. Many renowned leaders from among the Koords have appeared from time to time. Saladin, a noted ameer at the time of the crusades, was a Koord.

They occupy the mountainous regions throughout Eastern Turkey, reaching far down the Tigris to Mosul and into Mesopotamia, extending into Persia upon the east and coming west as far even as Anatolia. The mass of the Koords dwell within this area, but not a few are found outside. An estimate given of their numbers places it as high as 3,000,000.

Their languages are unclassified. There are two of them, neither of which ever was put into writing except within the last generation, so that the spoken tongues of those professing to speak the same language greatly differ in different parts of the country. Their speech is rough, like the life they live, and resembles in no small degree the barren cliffs amid which they dwell.

Some years ago Sultan Hamid II conceived the idea of subduing the Koords in the eastern part of his dominions by calling the chiefs to Constantinople and making them each commander of a body of their own people, giving this troop his own name as a special honor. The chiefs were to provide the men and the horses and the sultan furnished the equipment. The proposition was most acceptable to the Koordish nobles, for it provided them with modern equipments of warfare and at the same time stamped their acts, even of depredation, with official authority. Under the new dispensation, whoever offered resistance to a Koord armed with a government rifle, by that very act put himself into open rebellion against the government. These conditions prevail at the present time in the Erzerum, Bitlis, Diarbekr and Van vilayets along the Russian frontier. Much of the trouble of the last fifteen years in these regions is due to this fact. Were it not that the Koords are urged by the government to take aggressive measures against the resident Christian population, conditions there would be better than they are at the present time.

It is often stated that all Koords are Mohammedans. The Turks take this ground, as they do regarding the Albanians of Macedonia. The fact is that few of the Koords are good Moslems. They do not hesitate to put out of the way a Turkish tax-collector who makes himself obnoxious. The fact that he is a brother Moslem interposes no obstacle. Many of them observe few of the rites and customs of Islam, and one tribe, at least, living along the upper waters of the Euphrates openly declares that it is not Mohammedan. The writer, in conversation with a leading man of that tribe, said, “You are a Mohammedan.” With great indignation he spat into the air, and, beating upon his breast, he said, “I am a Koord; Moslems are dogs.” They have certain religious rites which greatly resemble some of the Christian customs, as, for instance, they have a service in which bread dipped in wine is put into the mouths of the kneeling participants by their religious leader. These people often tell the Armenian Christians that their sympathy is with them rather than with the Turks.

Owing to the claim of the Turks that all Koords are Mohammedans, missionaries have not been able to inaugurate special work among them. Throughout the country called Armenia and where the Armenians are the most numerous, there also the Koords are found in the largest numbers. Frequently they reside in the same city, side by side, but more often the Armenians dwell in the plains, where they are the cultivators of the soil, while the Koords live higher up the mountains. A study of the regeneration of the Turkish empire cannot be complete without giving large consideration to this ancient, wild and violent people.

THE TURKS

In Turkey the word “Turk” is used only to designate a Mohammedan. A Greek who had accepted Islam would at once be called a “Turk.” It would be said of him that “he had Turkofied himself.” In its ordinary use, therefore, in Turkey it signifies a religious belief and that alone. The same may be said of the other names for nationality, such as Armenian, Greek, Jacobite, Yezidi, Koord, etc. Instead of using the word “Mohammedan” at this point we will consider this part of our subject under the title “The Turks,” thus keeping the national and religious parallel intact.

The Turks of Turkey comprise every race that has ever lived within its territory and has accepted Islam. As the people of the different races embrace Islam, they come at once into the Mohammedan body and are in a large measure unified with it by the common customs imposed upon them through the government and by their religion. These assimilated races marry and intermarry so that to-day, outside of Arabia, where the race has been kept more free from mixture, it is difficult to find among the Turks a clear racial type.

The original Turkish people were invaders, coming into the country from the north and east for plunder and conquest. As soon as these conquering hordes accepted Islam, every victory over a foe meant new women for the harem and added men who chose Islam to tribute or death. When the country had been overrun and Turkish rule was established, there was exhibited the spectacle of a Mohammedan body of officials from every race of the East, scattered over all parts of the empire, except possibly some sections of Koordistan and Arabia, administering a government over the other races dwelling among them. The Turks alone could hold office, serve in the army, collect the taxes, and control affairs. In Arabia the rulers or Turks (not so called there, however) comprised the main part of the population and so had things their own way. In all other sections of the country, other races, and not infrequently races of strength and energy who had occupied that same territory for generations before Mohammedanism arose, looked upon the Turk as an intruder and were not slow to make him aware of the fact. These were, for the most part, disorganized, and, by Turkish law, disarmed, so that little could be done to change local conditions.

The Druses of Syria, the Koords in Eastern Turkey, and the Albanians of Macedonia were reckoned as Mohammedans by their rulers. As these people had few religious convictions of any kind, and as the Mohammedan yoke placed upon them did not seem heavy, they fell in with the idea in so far as it seemed to conserve their interests to do so. Even at the present time, it is not clear how sincerely these races are Mohammedan. It is thought by many who have been among them that their Mohammedanism is largely in name. During recent years, undoubtedly influences have been brought upon the Koords which bound them more closely to the sultan, although this is not true of all classes of Koords.

Years of Turkish rule, by which the non-Moslem subject is looked down upon as a “Raya” who has no rights that a Mohammedan is bound or expected to respect, has made the Turk selfish and cruel, while it has hardened the Rayas, and made them hate the government. It has come to be generally understood that the government exists only for the Turks, to serve whom the Rayas are permitted to live. Through several centuries of Turkish rule, when the Raya subjects of the Turks were in grossest ignorance and widely scattered in the country, they came to accept in stolid silence the situation as divinely ordained. Something of the fatalism of their masters seemed to settle down upon even the Christian subjects and, with little complaint, almost human slavery was accepted.

If the immediate possessions of Turkey include a population of about 24,000,000, probably 6,000,000 of these are nominal Christians, and perhaps 1,000,000 are neither Christians nor Mohammedans.

It should be said that among the Turks are found men of great strength of intellect, and not a few of high character. Every one who has been in the country speaks of men of this class whom he has met. All would probably agree with the statement that the Turk as a whole is far better than his government.

It should also be stated that in recent years the Turks themselves have been more boldly open in expressing their intense dissatisfaction with the methods of government administration, especially in the eastern part of the country. The New Turk Party, so called, has no one knows how many followers, but undoubtedly it represents the modern spirit of unrest and progress.

OTHER RACES

We need not speak at length of the Circassians, who in some respects are the most interesting race in Asiatic Turkey. These are Mohammedans who came into Turkey in large numbers after the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. Their business is primarily robbery. They are a race which must be reckoned with in the northern half of Asia Minor. We must pass over the Turkmen, or Turkomans, who can be traced back at least eight centuries. These are also Mohammedans and nomads in their habits. They are found in considerable numbers, scattered mainly over the southern half of Asia Minor. There are also the Albanians in the western part of European Turkey, able to substantiate their claim of being one of the purest and oldest races in Europe. These number perhaps two million souls, and are more united as a race than either the Circassians or the Turkomen. All three of these peoples are nominally Mohammedans, and from them have come some of the ablest and best of the Turkish officials.

The Bulgarians have a government of their own, practically independent of Turkey. Many of these, however, dwell in Macedonia, together with Turks, Albanians, and Greeks, and so constitute an important part of the Macedonian question. These are Christian and were originally a part of the Greek Church, with headquarters at Constantinople. They are a sturdy, vigorous, and intelligent race.

Space forbids the mention of other minor races like the Yezidis, neither is there call for a description of the Arabs who dwell in Arabia and northward.

It is sufficient to say that all these divergent, crude, and often hostile races, each with a religion differing from that of all others, together constitute the people of the Turkish empire. The dominating class is the Turk, representing the Mohammedan faith, but far from harmonious even among themselves, except as they are practically united in a common hatred of the Christians and in a common purpose to keep them from gaining supremacy in wealth, number, intelligence, or influence.

Outside of the large coast cities there are but few people in Turkey who are not native to the country. Turkey has offered little attraction to people of other countries for colonization. Far more are seeking to leave that country than are attempting to enter it. The exactions of the government upon all who dwell within the empire, the insecurity of the protection afforded to life and property, and the risks which gather about trade and commerce are not calculated to attract foreign capital or induce natives of other lands to immigrate there.

VIII. TURKEY AND THE WEST

Only last year the Arabic paper, Es-Zahir, published in Egypt, said: “Has the time not come yet when uniting the suppressed wailings of India with our own groans and sighs in Egypt, we should say to each other, Come, let us be one, following the divine words, ‘Victory belongs to the united forces’? Certainly the time has come when we, India and Egypt, should cut and tear asunder the ties of the yoke imposed on us by the English.” On the other hand, Mohammed Husain, the editor of a paper at Lahore, wrote a treatise on Jihad (1893), stating: “The present treatise on the question of Jihad has been compiled for two reasons. My first object is that the Mohammedans, ignorant of the texts bearing on Jihad and the conditions of Islam, may become acquainted with them, and that they may not labor under the misapprehension that it is their religious duty to wage war against another people solely because that people is opposed to Islam. Thus they, by ascertaining the fixed conditions and texts, may be saved forever from rebellion, and may not sacrifice their lives and property fruitlessly nor unjustly shed the blood of others. My second object is that non-Mohammedans and the government under whose protection the Mohammedans live, may not suspect Mohammedans of thinking that it is lawful for us to fight against non-Mohammedans, or that it is our duty to interfere with the life and property of others, or that we are bound to convert others forcibly to Mohammedanism, or to spread Islam by means of the sword.”

So the question of “religion and the sword” is still an open one among Moslems. It must needs be so long as they obey the Koran and tradition, for Mohammed said, “He who dies and has not fought for the religion of Islam, nor has even said in his heart, ‘Would to God I were a champion that could die in the road of God,’ is even as a hypocrite.” And again, still more forcibly, “The fire of hell shall not touch the legs of him who is covered with the dust of battle in the road of God.” In spite of cruelty, bloodshed, dissension and deceit, the story of the Moslem conquest with the sword of Jihad is full of heroism and inspiration. —S. M. ZWEMER, F. R. G. S. in “Islam.”

Selim III, sultan of Turkey from 1789-1807, more formally and openly displayed the spirit and purpose of reform than had any of his predecessors. He had been carefully educated, and conceived the bold design of becoming the regenerator of the empire. He erected a printing-press at Scutari, welcomed intelligent foreigners, employed Christian workmen, and, among many other things, changed the system of taxation. He also called in European generals to train his army, and sought advice from the European residents of his capital. In the meantime, the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon had stirred up the passions of the populace of Constantinople, and the sultan with his unpopular reform measures tottered upon his throne. Russians marched into the Danubian provinces, while a British fleet passed the Dardanelles and anchored at the mouth of the Bosporus. The Janissaries mutinied in 1807 and Selim’s rule ceased. These internal imbroglios had attracted the attention of the world to Constantinople and Egypt, if not to all Turkey.

After the brief reign of Mustipha IV, Mahmud II ascended the throne in 1808. He possessed extraordinary energy and force, and warmly espoused the reform measures of Selim. Resisting Russia’s demand that all Greeks in Turkey should be placed under the immediate protection of Russia, he was soon at war with that country. Napoleon prevented the occupancy of Constantinople by the Russians, but most of the Danube province was lost. A Hellenic revolution was later fermented which broke into open conflict early in the beginning of mission work in Turkey.

Turkey as a government and as a factor in the relations of Russia to Europe was thus brought to the attention of the West. At the same time there was a revival of interest in the Jews, both in Europe and in the United States. There was a restudying of history and prophecy with new interpretations, which led to the formation of societies to circulate among them the New Testament and to preach to them the gospel of Christ. Naturally, Palestine and Syria came first of all to be recognized as a land that had peculiar claims upon Christians. There was a wide-spread belief that the Jews were about to return to their ancestral home, and that such return would be limited only by the obstructions put in their way by the Ottoman government. Levi Parsons, the first American missionary to Palestine, said, in 1819, just before sailing, “Destroy the Ottoman empire and nothing but a miracle will prevent the Jews’ immediate return from the four winds of heaven.” It was natural that, in their judgment, missionaries ought to be there to receive them when the Ottoman empire, then apparently in its death struggle, tottered to its fall.

Moreover, the Turkish empire embraced the lands of the Bible. There was in the minds and hearts of American Christians not a little of the spirit of the crusaders of the middle ages. Why should the soil trodden by the feet of the prophets and apostles, yes, even by the Lord himself, remain a stranger to the voice of the preacher of righteousness and untouched by the feet of the modern apostle? The instructions given to the first missionaries to Turkey dwelt upon this impressive and moving fact, as did the early letters of the missionaries. Unlike the crusaders, these aimed at a purely spiritual conquest, but it included the Christian subjection of all races and peoples.

As a part of this same impulse may be placed the interest in the historic Greek and Syrian Churches. Students of Church history were profoundly moved as they learned of the decadence of vital Christianity in these Churches, and they were thrilled with the desire to inaugurate among them a revival that should restore them to their former prominence and power. The purpose to reach Mohammedans does not appear prominent in the earlier documents of this period, although it is not by any means entirely wanting.

In view of these facts and also since Turkey was the most accessible to America of any Asiatic country, it is not strange that in 1819, with unusual enthusiasm, two missionaries, Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk, were set apart for work in Turkey by the American Board of Commissioners, with special reference to the Jews in Palestine.

As a strategic center in which to begin to prosecute missionary work, few countries are more attractive than Turkey. It lies along the southern border of Russia throughout its entire length, except as separated by the Black Sea. Upon the east it borders upon Persia, and constitutes almost the only approach to this country of the shah, as well as to the Caucasus possessions of the czar. Arabia, Egypt, and North Africa all border upon the same Mediterranean Sea, and many important islands like Cyprus and Crete lie but little off its coast.

Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman empire, occupies the most strategic position of any city in Europe and dominates both the European and Asiatic sides of the Bosporus. To this center all the great and historic cities of Turkey look for political direction, and to it come sooner or later representatives of every tribe and race in the empire. All traffic from the Black Sea to the outer world and even from Persia and southern and eastern Russia must perforce pass through Constantinople and the Dardanelles. It stands upon the highway and at the crossroads of commerce and travel. As a base for missionary operations, not only upon Turkey but upon adjacent countries as well, it is unexcelled. Smyrna upon the Grecian Sea, with immense populations behind it, by the strategic force of its location, commanded the early attention of those sent out to explore for location. Beirut in Syria attracted for the same reason the attention of the missionaries to Palestine.

There is an advantage in carrying on missionary work among sturdy races. When such are converted, they become a force in the work of the Church, the conduct of Christian institutions, and the propagation of the gospel. No country in the world could present such an array of ancient, historic, and hardy races as Turkey. Race survival there was under the law of the survival of the fittest. None but the invincible remained. Some had proven themselves invincible by arms, others had conquered by superior intelligence, strategy, and cunning. Each race remained because, in some particular, it had an advantage over its natural and persistent antagonists. The very fact that these races had kept themselves apart, resisting gradual absorption while repelling open attempts at conquest, and all for twenty centuries or more, testifies to their sturdy worth.