Emanicipate

IV

The Era of

Emancipation

Ottoman Empire

Reports by British Diplomats (1850-1876)

Consul Hugh H. Rose to Sir Stratford Canning

Beyrout, October 31, 18500

Mr. Consul Werry has already reported to your Excellency the deplorable
events at Aleppo (a riot had broken out in Aleppo, cause by conscription, the levy of
a tax ?ferde?, and the new rights accorded to Christians), and a mass of statements
which I have received on the same subject, place in still darker relief those
occurrences. I shall state a few facts which will prove, that, only for the
unpardonable misconduct of the Turkish Civil and Military Authorities, the
revolt might easily have been put down.

There are two Mussulman parties at Aleppo, the Moderate and the
Fanatical, which latter includes the "Ayans" or Notables. The first treat the
Christians well, and many of them, during the late troubles, guarded the
houses of the Europeans, and even defended with arms the Christians
against their Mussulman enemies.

There is a garrison of 1,400 men, cavalry and infantry with three guns at
Aleppo. With this force and the Moderate Party, the two Pashas might
easily, as will be shown, have crushed an Aleppo mob, and wild Bedouins
armed only with bad matchlocks. But the two Pashas at Aleppo, instead of
acting with the resolution of men, or the sense of duty, of responsible
authorities, abandoned the City, and its stronghold, the Castle, full of warlike
stores, where they only left 30 native Artillery men of doubtful fidelity, and
retired to the Barracks where they remained the whole night in pretended
consultation with the "Ayans", whose fanaticism and bad example had,
mainly, caused the outrage on their Christian neighbours.

Having allowed the Insurgents full scope to commit, during the night, every
sort of atrocity in the Christian Quarter, Kerim Pasha, in the morning makes
what he calls "a military demonstration", that is, he marches his troops and
guns, the band playing, round the Quarter where the rioters, in broad day,
were burning and pillaging the Churches, murdering the Clergy and laity,
and violating Christian women in the very presence of their nearest and
dearest relatives (underlined in the text). The Insurgents well understood the
nature of this pusillanimous parade, for Mr. Werry reports "that, during it and
after it, the horrors in ?Guedidah? were continued".

Eventually, after 24 hours uninterrupted outrage, a few troops were sent
with Abdalla[h] Bey, a Civilian and some orderly Mussulmans, into the
Christian Quarter, and [they] reestablished order there. This fact proves how
easy it would have been, as I have stated, for the authorities to have
restored order. [?]

The events at Aleppo have caused amongst all classes of all nationalities a
sensation such as I never witnessed here before. The population of Aleppo
is the wealthiest, best conducted community in Syria. That such a body of
people, in time of profound peace, living under the protection of an
organised Government, of two Pashas, and a garrison of regular troops of
all arms should find themselves, without the slightest provocation on their
part of a moment?s warning, the victims of atrocities which are rarely
practised on a town taken by storm, is a consideration which has, I regret to
say, produced a feeling most unfavourable to the responsible Government.
The Christians of Syria, even those under the protection of regular troops
and Authorities, tremble lest the fate of their coreligionist of Aleppo should
be their own. The fears of those where there are no regular troops and
Government are of course more intense.

The only means of restoring confidence in Syria, and of preventing a
recurrence of events as hurtful to the Port?s political interests as to those of
humanity, is that the Porte should, for the future, grant equal justice, before
the laws, to Christians and Mussulmans, view the catastrophe of Aleppo in
all its painful gravity, and punish the authors of it with unshrinking justice
and severity; that is, punishment of the two Pashas of Aleppo; capital
punishment, or banishment for life of the perpetrators of murder, and
violation; and indemnity for the suffers by the confiscation of the properties
of those inhabitants, who have, directly or indirectly, been concerned in
depriving their unoffending fellow townsmen of all that men hold dear.

But if the Porte adopts, or is misled by the short sighted views of its Agents
in Syria, who already endeavour to find unworthy excuses for the culprits,
and causes of blame for the suffers, to cloak the cruel fanaticism which
caused, and the irresolution of treachery of the Pashas which literally
encouraged the commission of Aleppo, and Maloula (the houses of Christians
in Ma?lula were plundered, the clergy killed, and their women raped by the regular
troops ?FO 78/836, No. 48, Rose to Canning, Constantinople, 31 October, 1850)
atrocities, then, I have the honour to say, that the Porte will never regain the
confidence of its Christian subjects in Syria, who will unceasingly seek for
foreign protection and sigh for foreign rule; nor will the Porte be able to
prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of Aleppo, nor keep in subjection its
Mussulman subjects who will be confirmed in the unfortunate impression
which they now have, that, notwithstanding all ostensible declarations, the
Porte, in reality, looks on its Christian subjects with mistrust, if not aversion,
and on its Mussulman subjects as the only faithful guardians of its rule; and
further, that if left to itself, the Porte never would punish, with substantial
justice, any oppression which Mussulmans might exercise on their Christian
countrymen. And here, however delicate the subject, I cannot, from a sense
of duty, fail to report a cause, which, only one of many, confirms such
dangerous impressions I allude to the present, which the Sultan, when
dispensing favours, this summer, during his Royal progress, made to Bedr
Khan Bey, actually under punishment for having committed one of the most
unprovoked and sanguinary massacres of Christians on record. It is
impossible that the provincial Pasha, the fanatical Ayans of the Country
town, an Aleppo mob, or wild Bedouins, can view such an act but as a mark
of Royal favour to a Mussulman, who had done to Christians all the wrong
that fanatical inhumanity could do. And however willing I am to do justice to
the good intentions of the present Turkish Ministers, yet I must state that
there is one general complaint among Syrian Christians, those of the
Lebanon excepted, and unfortunately only too true an one, that Mussulmans
and their laws oppress them, and that it is almost useless to ask for justice
either from the Turkish Authorities, or Tribunals of justice.

I have frequently had the honour in my despatches, and lately in my military
report, to foretell two evils which have mainly brought about the disaster at
Aleppo. I mean the lawless and menacing state of the Arab tribes on the
desert Line from Aleppo to the Dead Sea, and the inability of the troops to
keep in subjection those tribes.

Mr. Calvert?s report, No. 29, to Her Majesty?s Embassy gives a further proof
of the inability of the Turkish troops to enforce the Pasha?s order on the
Desert Line. [?]

FO 78/836 (No. 47)

Rose to Canning, Constantinople

Consul James Finn to the Earl of Malmesbury

Jerusalem, 8 November, 1858

In continuing to report concerning the apprehensions of Christians from
revival of fanaticism on the part of the Mahometans, I have the honour to
state that daily accounts are given me of insults in the streets offered to
Christians and Jews, accompanied by acts of violence.

The latter, though generally petty cases, are of frequent occurrence, and the
sufferers are afraid, if natives, to report them to Turkish authorities,
inasmuch as, notwithstanding the hatti-humayoon [18 February 1856], as far
as I have learned, there is no case yet known of a Christian?s evidence
being accepted in a court of justice, or in a civil tribunal (Medjlis) against a
Moslem. There have been some instances of Moslems being punished for
offending Christians, but only in a summary method, without the formality of
a trial or the Christian?s evidence being placed on record. Of such justice we
may read instances in the "Arabian Night?s Entertainments", as existing
previous to the hatti-humayoon.

But even in matters of important personages the same evils occur. Only a
few days ago his Beatitude the Greek patriarch was returning through the
streets from the Cadi?s Court of Judgement (having perhaps paid a visit to
the new Cadi), preceded by his cavasses and dragoman, but had to pass
through a gauntlet of curses hurled at his religion, his prayers, his fathers,
&c.

This in Jerusalem, where Christian Consuls have flags flying, including the
Russian: but can this state of things be expected to last long?

The occurrence is rather one of indicating the tone of public mind, than one
to be dealt with by punishment of offenders, which could scarcely be done.
But it could not have happened in the time of Kiamil Pasha, though he was a
patron of Latin interest.

The present Pasha piques himself upon not believing too readily the
complaints of Christians, and he has recently, in an unguarded moment,
avowed to my dragoman that his mission here, especially over and above
common work, is not to depress Christianity so much as to abate or bring
down European influence.

I beg leave to express my opinion on this point, that among the few patriotic
Turks, such a desire may, under certain limitations of feeling rather than of
action, be excusable, but unfortunately these persons think they have to
arrive at their object only by crippling of progress among their own people.
Public works are not only not undertaken, but are by authority hindered. The
feeblest commencement of a public-press opinion is stifled, and because
Europeans are Christians, and Europeans are to be checked, the
independence of the Turkish Empire is made to consist in the independence
of Mahommetanism. [pp. 500-501]

PP 1860 [2734] 69 (No. 67, extract)

Finn to Malmesbury, London

Consul James Finn to the Earl of Malmesbury

Jerusalem, 8 November 1858

I have the honour to enclose copy of my despatch of the 27th ultimo to Mr.
Moore, Her Majesty?s Consul-General, and to report that, whereas many
villages in the district of Nablous have a few Christian families located in
each, such families were subjected in every direction to plunder and insults
at the approach of Tahir, the Military Pasha, shortly before his arrival.

But the two villages of Zebabdeh and Likfair (where all the inhabitants are
Christian, and in the former of which is a humble chapel) were utterly
sacked, men and women stripped even to their shirts and turned adrift. This
was done by the people of Tubaz and Kabatieh, always a violent people,
and no redress or punishment has yet been given by the military force. I
need not say that none is afforded by the civil authority, himself a factious
leader.

But on the arrival of Tahir Pasha in the city, and demanding a house to
serve for a barrack, instead of encamping in tents at this beautiful season,
the house of the Christian priest (Greek) was taken in his absence and his
stores of grain and oil for household use during the winter were taken, not to
be consumed by the soldiers (for that would entitle the owner to a claim on
the Government) but were mixed into one heap, wheat, barley, lentils, and
oil, by the Moslems of the city, and thrown into the street.

I feel myself more and more to be warranted in attributing the riots of
Nablous, in 1856, to an anti-Christian feeling.

At this present period it may be that the Military Pasha has not been
informed of what was done in the process of appropriating the priest?s house
to his use, But why does he not know it when I do? Simply because I am a
Christian, and they fear to tell him who is not one, and who is himself afraid
to coerce the inhabitants.

In conclusion, I have the honour to quote the perpetual expression of
Christians in Palestine, that their lot is become far worse since the
termination of the Russian War than it was before that period, extending
back to 1831. [p. 501]

PP 1860 [2734] 69 (no. 68)

Finn to Malmesbury, London

Consul James H. Skene to Sir Henry Bulwer

Aleppo, 31st March, 1859

The Christian subjects of the sultan at Aleppo still live in a state of terror. It
is difficult to explain this otherwise than as a reflex of the panic they received
nine years ago, for I cannot see that their condition is in any way worse than
that of the Christian population in other Turkish cities where so such dread
exists.

But events like those of 1850 are not easily forgotten. Houses were
plundered, men of distinction amongst them were murdered, and women
violated. It is therefore hardly to be wondered at that the eye witnesses of
such horrors should conceal their wealth and prevent their families from
appearing in the streets beyond the limits of the Christian quarter. Before
the Egyptian occupation in 1832 they had grounds of complaint which
cannot now be adduced. They were not allowed to ride in the town, not
even to walk in the gardens. Rich merchants were fain to dress in the
humblest garb to escape notice; when they failed in this they were often
forced to sweep the streets or act as porters in order to give proofs of their
patience and obedience; and they were never addressed by a Mussulman
without expressions of contempt. The Egyptians treated them differently,
and nothing of the kind has been outwardly renewed by the Mussulman
population since the cessation of their occupation [1840]. In heart, however,
I believe in little or no change. The Christians say that none has taken place
excepting most superficially, and they constantly talk of pillage and
massacre as imminent on every occasion when fanaticism is roused by
Mahometan festivals.

The Bedelieh Askerieh or Tax in lieu of military service is one of the
grievances of the Christians who admit that the principle is just but find fault
with the mode of its application. They say, for instance, that they should not
be called upon to pay the tax when the conscription is not in activity, -that if
the Turks give men, it is fair to take money from the Christians, - but that, by
levying the tax without enlisting recruits, the Government relieves the
Mussulman population at the expense of the Christians, whom it professed
to favour by abolishing the Kharadj [poll tax], - and that the distribution of the
tax is unequal in as much as it has been collected in some towns and not in
others. The Kharadj of Aleppo amounted to 100,000 Piastres per annum
while the sum of 240,000 Piastres is claimed for the Bedelieh payable by
15,000 Christians and 4,000 Jews, in lieu of 48 soldiers at 5,000 each. This
falls heavily on them, and it appears the more onerous because the change
was represented as a boon which the Sultan granted to his Christian
subjects when yielding to pressure from abroad in their behalf. The Verghi,
or personal tax, is taken unequally from the different classes of the
population of Edlib, a town of this Pashalik, 25 Piastres from the
Mahometans and 40 Piastres from the Christians, who complain bitterly of
this injustice. Their Bishops have brought the matter before the Governor,
who, strange to say, admitted that the division was unfair by consenting
reduce the amount paid by the Christians, but took upon himself to fix an
arbitrary ratio which diminish the disproportion without removing it
altogether. He offered to receive as a favour the quota of 38 Piastres, which
favour the Christians declined to accept. The other assessments furnish no
subject of dissatisfaction. [?]

In another part of this Consular District there seems to have been little
change from the old times of rapine and bloodshed in Turkey. I allude to the
Ansaireh mountains, stretching from the valley of the Orontes to Mount
Lebanon. On a late occasion a member of the Medjlis of Tripoli, passing
through a Christian village in pursuit of the revolted Ansaireh, set fire to it,
and, when the inhabitants conveyed their moveable property of value into
their Church which they hoped would be respected, it was broken open and
plundered. This case, with many others equally abominable, of simultaneous
occurrence, was laid before Her Majesty?s Consul General for Syria, the
perpetrators of the outrages being under the jurisdiction of the Pasha of
Beyrouth, and will thus have already come under Your Excellency?s notice.

FO 78/1452 (No. 11, extract)

Skene to Bulwer, Constantinople

Report of Cyril Graham on the Massacres of the Christians in the
Districts of Hasbeya and Rasheya, Lebanon (June, 1860)

On the 6th and 7th August such bad Accounts were given me by certain
natives of Hasbeya and Rasheya of the condition of the Christians in that
district, that I determined upon visiting without delay both those Towns, so
recently the scene of horrible massacres [10-11 June]. On the 8th I had an
interview with His Excellency Fuad Pasha and announced to Him my
intention, at the same time asking authority for removing, if necessary, the
Christians from that country, or for making the best possible arrangements
for their safety. The Pasha seemed delighted with my proposal for he said
he was extremely anxious to obtain accurate information of what was going
on in that quarter, and hitherto he had been able to obtain no authentic
accounts whatever. He immediately ordered me an escort, promised to be
guided by my reports, in his future measures for the security of the country
about Hermon, and placed at my disposal the sum of twenty thousand
piastres for distribution among the unfortunate Christians of the country I
was about to visit.

I left Damascus that same evening, Wednesday August 8th, and reached
Rasheya the next morning. On arriving there I went to the house of the
Druze Chief Khazai el Arian, and immediately began my enquiries as to the
number of Christians at that moment in the place, and as to the condition in
which they were. I soon found that they were indeed in a miserable state;
they had nothing to eat except what they owed to the bounty of the Druzes,
and that was little enough! The population amounted to 1,100 souls whereof
only 76 were men, all the remaining males having been killed, and some few
having fled to Damascus and Beryout. In order to distribute the funds
committed to my case, I had all the women and children mustered, and then
separated in divisions according to the quarters of the Town they occupied,
each division again was shut up in a house and then one by one the women
and children were admitted through the door at which I stood and placed in
their hands money, so that I had an opportunity of ascertaining almost to an
accuracy the number of the population at that moment in Rasheya. The
Druzes however soon became very jealous of this and came in numbers to
ask what I was doing in their town and what my object was in coming. [?]

The night I started for Hasbeya, and passing through Kfeir and Mimis, two
villages in which almost all the Christian houses had been burned and some
110 Christians killed, I reached the other large town belonging to the district
of Hermon, - Hasbeya. Here I repeated my enquiries, numbered the women
and children, distributed money, and received visits from the principal
inhabitants. The whole number of Christians at that moment was 1,430,
there having been only three months ago, no less than 3,200[;] some few
are in Beyrout and Damascus but I fear that fully 1,300 were slaughtered.
Here the Christians were in the same state of suffering as those whom I
found at Rasheya, and in both places they were hourly in terror of a
massacre, so excited had the Druzes again become. I visited the Serai,
which was full of the Corpses of the Christians, non had been buried and
strange to say the bodies were well preserved, having been parched by the
burning Syrian sun. The sight was dreadful, bodies lying in every attitude on
the paves court of the Palace, the stones naturally white being stained a
deep brown; but the upper rooms presented even a more horrible spectacle;
in almost all of them, the bodies were piled one upon another to the hight
[sic] of 5 or 6 feet, and lay just as they had fallen; to add to the horror of this
frightful scene the poor women followed me in, and began to howl and
mourn over their dead; they led me from corpse to corpse, telling me how
they had seen their brothers, fathers, husbands, sons, slaughtered before
their eyes, and calling me to witness and to avenge their wrongs. The
Druzes who accompanied me made their jokes on the bodies, and one
fellow shoed me a pair of pistols set in silver, one of which had been broken
in dashing the brains out of the Christians? heads. He lamented over his
pistol and said "Oh that it should have been spoiled against their cursed
hard skulls." Here again the Druzes were more bold and insolent than I had
ever seen them anywhere before. I have travelled over all their country and
even visited them in their strongholds in the Hauran, and have never met
with anything but courtesy; now however they speak with great insolence,
boast of the number of Christians they have killed, and assert that they will
cut to pieces any force which shall be brought against them. The Emir Saad
ed Din who had been most obnoxious to the Druzes had his head cut off
during the massacre, and his body thrown out under the walls of the Castle.
It is said that the Druzes on first entering the Serai began to cut the
Christians to pieces, but some of them remarked, "If we do this we shall spoil
their clothes" let us strip them and then kill them. So accordingly after that,
they stripped them and slaughtered them in cold blood. I made enquiries
about the gun, which the commander of the troops had with him in the Serai
at Hasbeya, how often it had been fired &c. The Christians told me it had
been fired twenty-seven times, but all the balls had struck the houses of the
Christian quarter, this was certainly the case; and on asking the Druzes,
they said "Yes it is true Osman Bey intended to fire upon us but he did not
elevate his gun enough, so that it destroyed the Christians instead of us."
Osman Bey had the doors of the Serai opened and in rushed the Druzes
and commenced their slaughter.

In the evening the Druzes here again threatened my life, on which one of my
escort had some words with them, two Druzes thereupon fell upon him, and
there would have been bloodshed, had not some others interfered. I then
returned through some of the other burned villages, where a few Christians
were still struggling for their existence, coming back to Rasheya, where I
visited the Serai in which a second scene like that at Hasbeya presented
itself, I again mounted and rode down to Damascus where I arrived early on
the morning of the 12th.

The result of my journey and of my enquiries was, that I ascertained the
Christians to be in a state of great danger. No man dare go out of the towns.
Each week several persons were maltreated and even killed. The Druzes
threatened to exterminate them altogether should any attempt be made to
remove them to Beyrout. [?]

FO. 78/1520, Extracts from "Report of Cyril Graham Esq. On the Conditions
of the Christians in the districts of Hasbeya and Rasheya? encl. In Brant
(Damascus) to Russell (London), 13 August 1860, no. 13

Consul James Brant to Sir Henry Bulwer

Damascus, 25th July, 1860

I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that by last evening?s Beyrout
post we learned the departure of the Seraskier (commander in chief of the
army) with two battalions on Sunday the 22nd. Inst. [July]: and the promised
departure of His Excellency Fuad Pasha with two other battalions; thus the
arrival of necessary succours is deferred from day to day and in the same
degree the restoration of confidence (opposition to the emancipation of the
Christians provoked murders in Palestine and the massacre of thousands of
Christians in Damascus in July 1860). The Jews who had taken refuge in
Turkish houses were beginning to return to their own, but they are
persecuted by people demanding money under threats of violence. It is
reported that many Druzes are walking about the Town today which
occasions apprehension, and shows weakness in the Government. We
learned by the post that a strong message had been sent through the
French Ambassador to the Porte, that seeing the inability of the Sultans
Government to protect its Christian subjects, France would consult with her
allies as to the means of preventing the massacres which have been
disgracing Syria. If an armed intervention were resolved on without
protection to the Christians being in some way secured, no one would
escape, for before foreign aid could reach those in the interior, they would to
the last soul be murdered, unless it were those who embrace Islamism. The
Porte therefore should be urged to send adequate forces, and active and
energetic employes to restore order for the time, but if it could not be
permanently ensured, then the momentary security should be availed of to
withdraw the Christians to the coast before foreign troops were sent into the
interior. I would beg Your Excellency to consider what is to be done with
regard to the men and boys who have become Mussulmans under threats of
death, and what with regard to women who have been taken by Moslems as
wives and concubines and made to conform to Islamism.

I have come to an end of my pecuniary resources, and know not how to
obtain supplies; nobody in the actual state of insecurity will cash private
bills, nor have I funds to draw upon if they would. I have managed to give
sustenance to those under my roof; many have departed, but I still have
about 30, and I know not when I shall be able to get them off my hands, for
many are widows and orphans, and have neither houses to go to, nor
friends to help them, and all are without resources of any kind, for providing
food, clothing or lodging.

FO 78/1520 (No. 28)

Brant to Bulwer, Constantinople

Consul James Brant to Lord John Russell

Damascus, 28th July, 1860

I have the honour to transmit herewith copies of my despatches Nos. 25,
26,27 and 28 addressed to His Excellency Sir Henry S. Bulwer, up to the
25th Instant, which will furnish the details of what has been passing here
(consul Brant?s dispatch of 25 July to Sir Henry Bulwer, and several other reports on
the massacre of the Christians in Lebanon and Syria ?June-July 1860? were published
in Bat Ye?or, the dhimmi, documents 44-50, pp. 259-278). [?]

The wallee does nor appear to have sufficient energy, or confidence in his
strength, to act with vigour, and this encourages the endeavours of the
ill-disposed to try to get up an excitement by ridiculous rumours. One for
example was spread yesterday that seventy Christians had leagued to burn
the Great Mosque; to any person who would use his reason, the utter
absurdity of such attempt, by people half dead with terror must be apparent,
but the lower classes of Moslems were or pretended to be excited by it, and
numbers of Christians panic-stricken rushed to the Castle from the Quarter
of the Meidan, where they had enjoyed safety and protection during the
outbreak. The Castle contains upwards of 12,000. The space is crowded to
excess, the shelter of the Tents and buildings insufficient, and the exposure
to the sun and heat by day, and to the chill of the night air produces
opthalmia and fever among this half-starved, half-clothed, panic-stricken
crowed, depressed in spirits by the loss of property and relatives. The
stench alone is sufficient to produce an epidemic. The food supplied by the
Authorities though enough to avert starvation is insufficient to preserve
health and the allowance is continually diminishing. Some clothing has been
furnished but quite inadequate to the necessity. The French Consulate has
been supplying both food and clothing to a considerable extent; still the
sufferings are very great, and when they are likely to end, or even to be
diminished does not appear clear, it is impossible that they can be endured
much longer without the most fatal consequence, both to the sufferers and
to the population generally.

FO 78/1520 (No. 10)

Brant to Russell, London

Consul James Brant to Sir Henry Bulwer

Damascus, 9th August, 1860

[?] Property of great bulk has been restored, but I fear of small value. About
750 persons, accused of murder and robbing or of robbing alone, are under
arrest, some have been proved guilty of murder. Only one as yet has been
executed, and in the Christian Quarter the very same day a Christian was
massacred, and the report was spread about the City that the inhabitants
were determined to murder a Christian for every Mussuluman executed.
This report has renewed a panic and increased the desire of the Christians
to quit the city, many of whom were beginning to think they might be able to
remain.

The criminal commission cannot get any witness to swear to a man being a
murderer, many will testify that people will be guilty of plundering, but as to
murder, one might almost believe that none have been committed, and
although it is certain that above 5,000 persons have been massacred in
broad day light or by delight of blazing houses, yet nobody will testify to
having witnessed a murder committed, or will recognise a single man guilty
of such a crime. If the ordinary forms of Turkish law cannot reach such
criminals, extraordinary proceedings must be resorted to, and people proved
guilty of plundering must be treated as having at the same time committed
murder. Atrocities such as have been committed cannot go unpunished by
such subterfuges as are attempted to turn aside the sword of justice. If other
means cannot be devised a Hat-i-Sheriff should be published condemning to
death everyone guilty of arson or robbery in the late outbreak at Damascus,
giving to the Court power to recommend to a less penalty than death such
persons in whose favour strong extenuating circumstances can be adduced.

FO 78/1520 (No. 31, extract)

Brant to Bulwer, Constantinople

Consul James Brant to Sir Henry Bulwer

Damascus, 16th August 1860

[After some criminals were arrested.] I anticipate that Fuad Pasha will
immediately commence executing some of the Criminals condemned, and I
have no doubt his doing so will strike terror into the population. The
Mussulmans will not yet believe that any executions can result from the
murder of infidels; when that is made clear to their minds, many will change
their tone and conduct and make revelations which they at present withhold.

FO 78/1520 (No. 34, extract)

Brant to Bulwer, Constantinople

Papers Relating to the Conditions of Christians in Turkey

(1860)

On 11 June 1860 the British ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry
Bulwer, sent a memorandum to various consuls containing twenty-five
questions relating to the conditions of Christians in the Ottoman Empire,
requesting their replies. This investigation was based on Turkey?s pledge
(Treaty of Constantinople, 12 March 1854) to promote the equality of all its
subjects in exchange for Anglo-French military aid in the Crimean War.
Some extracts from these answers are reprinted below.

Consul Charles J. Calvert to Sir Henry Bulwer

Salonica [Monastir], July 20, 1860

[?] It is, unfortunately, an historical fact that during several centuries the
Christians have been sorely oppressed. As their moral degradation has
through this long period of oppression become hereditary, so their elevation
to a higher standard of social and political worth will only be attained
progressively through successive generations after the removal of the
oppression. As yet, there has scarcely been one generation since the first
step has been taken towards it.

Nevertheless, the condition of the Christians is, in this province (this report
considers the province of Salonica, including Thessaly) at least, by no means so
intolerable as it has been depicted by the Russian Government; and
although I must admit that it is not, on the whole, as satisfactory as I could
wish it to be, it cannot be disputed that the Christians are far better off now
than they were some years ago. The greater part of the floating capital, and
almost all the trade, of the country is in their hands, whilst, on the other
hand, the Turks have been decimated by the conscription, and Mussulman
artificers and tradesmen return after their period of military service to find
their places occupied by Christians.

In the meantime the Christians have been distracted by too many conflicting
external influences. Young Greece, in the south, disseminating the seeds of
its scarcely gathered liberty, and Russia, in the north, working through the
sympathies of a common creed, - neither the one nor the other have taught
the Christians how they might improve themselves by reforming the abuses
of their own Church, which it is clearly not the office of the Turkish
Government to do. [?]

Reviewing my answers to your Excellency?s question, and what I have
written above, I beg leave respectfully to state it as my humble opinion that
direct foreign interference in the affairs of the various races, at least in the
way in which it has been exercised hitherto, is most prejudicial to the
general interests of the population. It ought at once to be put a stop to by
every practical means. More good would be done by employing the gentle
influence of unobtrusive and disinterested advice at the head than by
exciting the susceptibilities of both rulers and subjects in the mode that has
been practised.

It is difficult to conceive a more offensive course for one independent State
in time of peace, than that the one should receive a take formal notice of
complaints proferred against the other by a portion of its own subjects. The
initiative in a course of this kind has recently been taken by Russia towards
Turkey; and although the highly-coloured statements of the former Power
will very probably be successfully refuted, the bare fact of Russia having
openly provoked an inquiry into the condition of the Christians in Turkey will
establish a permanent claim on her part to their gratitude that cannot but
sensibly affect the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

The deplorable events that have occurred in Syria, and the display of
Mahometan fanaticism, accompanied, as it always is, with atrocities, ought
to make us more than ever cautious how we curb the spirit of the conquering
race in Turkey. The Turks, too, have their secret societies; and the
discovery of one conspiracy, with the punishment of the leaders, is no
security against the formation of other conspiracies against the Government,
and against the Christians, who are considered to have been too much
favoured by the Government already.

The lives of the Europeans who are thinly scattered over the country are
assuredly not safe so long as the elements of strife are fermenting on both
sides. The lives of the foreign Agents, too, are exposed to even greater
danger, because the Government itself seems to be incapable of
suppressing an outbreak against Christians; whilst, were the case reversed,
a foreign Agent suspected of having upheld the authority of the Porte would
in all probability be sacrificed to the popular vengeance of the Christians.
[pp. 9-11]

FO 424/21 (No. 7, Inclosure 1 in No. 2, extracts)

Calvert to Bulwer

Answers to Queries: Consul Charles J. Calvert to Sir Henry

Bulwer (July 20, 1860)

[Query 12. When cases of oppression against the Christians take place, is
this generally owing to the acts of the Government or the fanaticism of the
population?]

12. They are attributable chiefly to the innate hatred which the Mussulmans
bear towards the Christians; and, if the officials of the Porte ever act against
the Christian, they (particularly the subordinate authorities in the districts)
are generally instigated by some influential Mussulman landed proprietor
sitting in the Medjlis. Otherwise the Mussulman and Christian population live
peaceably towards each other, not from motives of affection or sympathy,
but, because of their mutual dislike, they avoid each other as much as
possible. The Mussulman always considers himself the Christian?s superior,
and whenever he acts with kindness towards the Christian it is with a
species of condescension and forbearance which converts a right into a
favour.

[Query 15. Are Christians admitted into the Medjlis or Local Councils? Are
these Councils generally more in favour of progress and good government
than the officials of the Porte, or more unfavourable?]

15. Christians are admitted into the local Councils, but they are so few in
number compared with the Mussulman members as to be completely
overawed, and therefore practically useless. They blindly affix their seals to
the "mazbattas" [reports or decisions] which are written in Turkish, - a
language they can rarely read; and even were they to understand what was
written, they would scarcely venture to refuse to confirm it, although they
might inwardly dissent from the purport of the document. [p. 14]

FO 424/21 (No. 26, Inclosure 2 in No. 2, extract

Calvert to Bulwer

Consul J. A. Longworth to Sir Henry Bulwer

Belgrade, 14 July, 1860

[?] At Widdin (on the Danube, to the north of Rumelia), however, a petition had
been presented to him [Grand Vizier Kiprisli Mehmed Pasha] subscribed
with 300 signatures, and containing vague charges against the local
authorities. This document he did not hesitate to characterise as spurious.
[p. 24]

1st. With reference to the refusal of the local authorities to allow the
Christians to put up a church-bell, it may be remarked that this use of bells
in East has always been considered as tantamount to a recognition of
Christianity being the established worship of the place. In some towns,
therefore, inhabited almost exclusively by Christians, this concession has
been made by the Government. But at Widdin, where more than
three-fourths of the inhabitants are Turks, it would have involved an insult to
their prejudices and a dangerous experiment on their forbearance. At a
former period the Christians would not have dreamt of putting forward such
a pretension; and it must be admitted that in all other respects there is no
restriction on religious ceremonies, and not even on public precessions. [p.
25]

3rd. It is represented that the Christians admitted as members into the
Medjlis, or municipal Council, were allowed no voice in its proceedings, and
had, in fact, been silenced by the Pasha. This charge was fully investigated
by the Grand Vizier, and proved to be unsupported by a shadow even of
evidence. It was, moreover, denied most positively by the Bishop, who has
himself a seat in the Medjlis. If the petitioners had been satisfied with
affirming that the Christian members exercised little influence or authority in
the Medjlis, the complaint would have been more plausible; though as
regards Widdin, I am told it would, even when thus qualified, have been
inapplicable. My own experience, however, leads me to infer that in many
places, and I should say the majority of them, it were vain to look for
independence of character in the Christian members of these Councils, not
more from the domineering spirit of the Turks than their own disposition,
which is crouching and corrupt; corruption and falsehood, indeed, are the
chronic infirmities, though in a different degree, of a change for the better.
The Government may, by its Edicts and Hatti-humayouns, hasten and
advance such a reform; but I question very much whether more evil than
good will not arise from proclaiming a social equality which is, in the present
state of things and relations of society, morally impossible.

Equality before the law is that which must be first established; the only sort
of equality, in fact, which can, under existing circumstances, be realised.
And in connection with this, we come to the complaint in the petition – the
only tangible point in it – relative to the rejection of Christian evidence in the
Ottoman tribunals. In this respect, it cannot be denied there is room for
amendment, not only at Widdin, but in every province of the Empire. A futile
regulation has been enacted by which such evidence is admitted in an
inferior Police Court, but excluded from the higher or Municipal Council,
while the sentence passed in that where [Christian] witnesses are heard has
to be confirmed in the other where they are not. All this has the appearance
of evasion – one of those half-measures which give satisfaction to nobody.
Nor is this all: a distinction is drawn in the Hatti-humayoun itself between
civil and criminal suits, Christian evidence being held to be admissible in the
latter, but not in the former. The plea upon which it is defended is, however,
specious enough; it is urged that the property of the Turks, particularly in
districts where they are in a great relative minority, would be exposed to
confiscation if, in the existing demoralised state of society, Christian
testimony were taken in cases of this kind. But it may, on the other hand, be
rejoined that much of this demoralisation, as regards the indifference shown
to perjury, both by Turks and Christians, may be traced to the lax and
vicious principle acted upon in the Mussulman Courts, where, as the only
means of securing justice to Christians, Mussulman false witnesses are
permitted to give evidence on their behalf. The abolition of this practice
would do more than anything else to purify these tribunals; but this can only
be effectually accomplished by the admission of Christian evidence, instead
of Mussulman perjury, as a matter of legal necessity. The "ulema," or the
law authorities of Turkey, will have eventually either to do this, or to
renounce the adjudication, together with the emoluments arising therefrom,
of all Civil suits. Were the alternative resolutely put to them by the Porte,
there can be little doubt what their decision would be. In the meanwhile, this
is unquestionable the chief obstacle to any amelioration in the matter. [p. 26]

His Highness, moreover, agreed in the opinion I expressed that this [the
forcible abduction of Christian girls by Mahometans] and the question of the
Christian evidence are the two main points to which, as sources of bitter
feeling and discussion, the attention of the Porte should now be directed. As
to eradicating, by any summary process, mere religious antipathies, which
were mutual between the Turks and Christians, the only difference being
that the Turks, as masters, had been under greater temptation to display
them, the task was, he said, hopeless; all that could be done was to deal
with their effects in the shape of overt acts. It was, at the same time, a great
mistake to suppose that the oppression complained of had been systematic
or uniform. The contrary, indeed, was the case. The result of the Ottoman
conquest had been to establish the supremacy of one people over another,
while the Government had, from the democratic tendencies of Islamism,
been much more popular in its essence than was generally imagined. It was
a fact, which did honour to the Turks, that living in juxtaposition with
conquered races, they had discovered a degree of toleration and
forbearance to which, considering they were uncontrolled, history could not
furnish a parallel. Their hand, it is true, had been heavier on the Christians
in some parts of the Empire than it had been in others, and this when a
rude, popular authority was exercised, was to have been expected as the
natural consequence of different circumstances in different provinces. In
Bulgaria and on the Danube, where the Turks garrisoned the fortresses and
occupied, in force, the considerable towns, the pressure on the Rayahs
might have been greater in their immediate neighbourhood; but they were
comparatively unmolested in the distant villages of the plains and the
Balkans. In Albania the instincts of race are stronger than the prejudices of
religion; and it was remarkable that though Christians of a race, in their
estimation, inferior, such as the Bulgarians, who live among them, are
treated with harshness and contumely, Christians of Albanian blood are
allowed to wear their arms, and are independent almost as themselves. The
province in which Christians have had most reason to complain was Bosnia:
the question is, there, one of noble and serf, of a privileged and unprivileged
class, precisely analogous to that which now occupies the Russian
Government, which, familiar as it must be with its difficulties, should be more
indulgent to a neighbouring State engaged in the task of solving them like
itself. Turkey had, in fact, made greater progress in it; but in Bosnia the
question of privilege was complicated by religious considerations, the nobles
having, at a former period, embraced Mahometanism to preserve their
estates, which were thus conditionally assured to them. Each of the other
provinces had passed through its peculiar ordeal, and a separate inquiry
into the past and present condition of each would tend entirely to disprove
the charge of systematic oppression. It was, in truth, the absence of
anything like system or uniformity that rendered it difficult for the Porte to
adopt any general regime for the amelioration of the condition of the
Christians.

I give the above remarks as the substance rather of my conversation with
the Grand Vizier (this official Turkish opinion is contradicted by the systematic rules
for dhimmis and their obligatory enforcement throughout the dar al-Islam) than a
distinct recapitulation of what was said on either side, which, as our views
were almost identical, is the less necessary. [pp. 27-28]

FO 424/21 (No. 26, Inclosure in No. 3, extract)

Longworth to Bulwer

Vice-Consul S. Mayers to Sir Henry Bulwer

Rustchuck (on the Danube, in Wallachia), July 15, 1860

[?] The Israelites of Widdin have also benefited by the Grand Vizier?s
[Kiprisli Mehmed Pasha] visit and obtained the permission of erecting a
synagogue which the authorities denied them up to this day. [p. 32]

FO 424/21 (No. 37, Inclosure 3, in No. 4, extract)

Mayers to Bulwer

Consul James Finn to Lord John Russell

Answers to Queries

Jerusalem, July 19, 1860

[7. Is Christian evidence admitted in Courts of Justice; and if not, point out
the cases where it has been refused?]

7. In the Mehkemeh or Cadi?s Court, non-Mussulman evidence is always
refused. In the various Medjlises some subterfuge is always sought for
declining to receive non-Mussulman evidence against a Mussluman, or
recording it under the technical name of witness. These Courts and the
Pasha will rather condemn at once a Mussulman in favour of a Christian,
without recording testimony, than accept non-Moslem evidence. Evidence of
Christian against Christian or Jew, or vice-versa, i.e., non-Moslem against
non-Moslem, is always received.

[8. Is the Christian population, on the whole, better off, more considered,
and better treated, than it was five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago?]

8. [?] The condition of the Christians was lowest and inconceivably
degraded previous to the Egyptian occupation [1831-40].

The condition of the Christians during the Egyptian period was one of
greater liberty and comfort than at present.

There was a reaction in favour of the Mussulmans after the expulsion of the
Egyptian, though until 1853 this was much modified by the advancing
influence of Consulates and of Europeans generally.

During the Russian war [Crimean War] the condition of Christians was
improved, and many instances have been brought to my notice of insolent
Christian behaviour towards Mussulmans, the former having Consulates to
lean upon (during the Crimean War, Britain, France and Turkey were Allies against
Russia. After the war, Europe pressured the sultan to implement the emancipation of
the rayas).

Since the war, another reaction has taken place which is, in most respects,
anti-Christian, and, on the part of the Governors, anti-European.

[9. Are there any inequalities dependent on religion now, and if so, what
are those inequalities?]

9. No offices of trust are confided to Christian, either in local government or
in military service, or even in police. They are essentially the governed
class, and the Mussulmans the governors. [?]

[11. Do Christians find any difficulty in constructing churches, or in
following their religious observances?]

11. Difficulty is always made till an order is obtained from Constantinople for
building new churches; and such orders, when obtained, have been hitherto
couched in such vague terms as to give rise to needless vexations and long
delays. The disposition is here rather towards hindrance than otherwise.

I have not heard of Christians asking for steeples. Bells are of common use
in towns where Christians are numerous; in others they are not permitted,
on account of the fanatical feeling in the majority of inhabitants. Their use,
however, only dates from the last few years, except in the Lebanon, where
they have been long in use.

[12. When cases of oppression against the Christians take place, is this
generally owing to the acts of the Government, or the fanaticism of the
population?]

12. Oppression against Christians usually begins with the fanatic populace,
but it is neither repressed nor punished by the Government; a remarkable
instance of which is presented in our Nablous case of April 1856. There was
another case in Gaza in 1856. But Sureya Pasha showed a disposition to
depress Christians on his first arrival; for instance, in imprisonment of the
Coptic priest and deacon in the common prison. The popular fanaticism
never breaks out until the fanatical tendency of the Governor is visible. [p.
34]

FO 424/21 (No. 21, Inclosure in No. 5, July 17, 1860, extracts)

Finn to Russell, London

Consul J.E. Blunt to Sir Henry Bulwer

Answers to Queries

Pristina, July 14, 1860

[?] For a long time the province [of Uscup] (Uscup: Skopje, in the actual
"Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia") has been a prey to brigandage: this
evil originating from a mountain population unsubdued, and eminently
warlike and mercenary, has more sway in the plains. But it may be said that
its development has been rather arrested than promoted; Christian churches
and monasteries, towns and inhabitants, are not now pillaged, massacred,
and burnt by Albanian hordes as used to be done ten years ago.

On the whole the Undersigned can say, without fear of contradiction, that
the province of Uscup is in that happy state of transition from bad to good,
perhaps slow in its operation, but on that account not the less sure in its
effects. [?]

1. They [the Christian peasants] are not allowed to carry arms. This,
considering the want of a good police, exposes them the more to attacks
from brigands. [P.43]

7. Christian evidence in law-suits between a Mussulman and a
non-Mussulman is not admitted in the local Courts.

In such cases in which the parties are not Mussulman, Christian evidence is
admitted.

About seventeen months ago a Turkish soldier murdered a Mahometan, an
old man, who was working in his field. The only person, two in number, who
witnessed the deed are Christians. The Medjlis of Uscup would not take
their evidence, although the Undersigned urged the Kaimakam to accept it.

About the same time a Zaptieh tried by force to convert a Bulgarian girl to
Islamism. As she declared before the Medjlis of Camanova (Kumanovo, near
Skopje) that she would not abjure her religion, he killed her in the very
precincts of the Mudir?s house. This tragedy created great sensation in the
province. The Medjlises of Camanova and Prisrend (Prizren, near Kosovo, in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) would not accept Christian evidence, and
every effort was made to save the Zaptieh; but on the case being referred to
Constantinople, an order reached the authorities to "take evidence of all
persons who witnessed the murder". This was done, and Kiani Pasha, who
at the time took charge of the province, where he has done much good,
immediately had the Zaptieh beheaded.

Six months ago a Bulgarian in the district of Camanova was attacked,
without provocation on his part, by two Albanians. They wounded him
severely; on the case being referred to Prisrend, the Medjlis refused to take
cognisance of it, as the only evidence produced was Christian.

[8. Is the Christian population, on the whole, better off, more considered,
and better treated, than it was five, ten fifteen, twenty years ago?]

8. Decidedly it is: while everywhere there are signs that the Turks, more
especially the higher classes, are losing ground in population, agriculture,
and trade, the opposite is the case with the Christians.

In nearly all the towns, streets – entire quarters - have passed into the
hands of the Christians.

"Djeremeh" fine, the very worst feature of Eastern oppression, and which
was much practised twenty and fifteen years ago, has been removed by the
Tanzimat.

Ten years ago torture was very frequently adopted by the authorities, but is
no longer resorted to. Churches were not allowed to be built; and one can
judge of the measure of Turkish toleration practised at that time by having
had to creep under doors scarcely four feet high. It was an offence to smoke
and ride before a Turk; to cross his path, or not stand up before him, was
equally wrong. [?]

[9. Are there any inequalities dependent on religion now, and if so, what
are these inequalities?]

9. Christian evidence, as stated in reply to question No. 7, is not respected
by the Medjlises.

The uncivil conduct and contemptuous conduct of the Mudirs and members
of Medjlises towards the Christians, appears to be viewed by the latter as
arising from the difference of religion.

The degrading terms of "kiaffir" [infidel] and "giaour" [pagan], addressed to
them by their authorities, offends their feelings and excites their hatred. [p.
44]

[15. Are Christians admitted into the Medjlis or Local Councils? Are these
Councils generally more in favour of progress and good government than
the officials of the Porte, or more unfavourable?]

15. Christians are admitted, but generally as a mere matter of form. They
are not allowed to take a prominent part in public affairs, and are treated
disrespectfully. On the whole, these Councils are far more opposed to
reform and good government than the officials of the Porte. [?]

[19. In the case of conversion of females, is this generally the effect of
religious enthusiasm on the one side or the other, or does it proceed from
worldly causes? And, if the latter, state those causes.]

19. On the part of the Turks, from both, but not so with the Christians; with
them it is more under the influence of worldly causes.

The Turks employ Christians, principally females, as servants; and the
number of these has increased since the importation of Arab slaves has
been arrested. When these servants first enter the service of the Turks, they
are very young, often mere children, and are chiefly recruited from the
indigent classes. The fact is, the parents, who cannot afford to support the
young and useless members of their family, dispose of them when they can
for a sum of money, paid to them in advance, at the rate of twenty, thirty, or
forty piastres per annum for a period of three, five, or seven years. The
arrangements once concluded, the Turk takes charge of the girl; and as the
parents will not or cannot look after her, she is brought up, as regards
manners and religion, like the other members of the family to which she is
apprenticed.

It very frequently happens that, at the expiration of service-term, the master
does not want to give her up; and tries by every means in his power – now
by promises of matrimony and gifts, and them by threats – to draw her from
her religion. If she feels that she can better her condition by abjuring a
religion of which she knows little, and has been taught to care less, she
succumbs under such pressure. It is then that the matter is taken up by the
Christian community; a hue-and-cry is raised by the clergy and primates
against the Turks, and every effort is made to save her; and they generally
succeed through the same process of persuasion used by the opposite
party. [pp. 45-46]

FO 424/21 (No. 470, Inclosure in No. 7, extracts)

Blunt to Bulwer

Consul James H. Skene to Sir Henry Bulwer

Aleppo, 4 August, 1860

Answers to queries

1. [?] Vast plains of the most fertile land lie waste on account of the
incursions of the Bedouins, who drive the agricultural population westward,
in order to secure pasture for their increasing flocks of sheep and herds of
camels. I have seen twenty-five villages plundered by a single incursion of
Sheik Mohammed Dukhy with 2,000 Beni Sachar horsemen. I have visited a
fertile district which possessed 100 villages twenty years ago, and found
only a few lingering Fellahs, destined soon to follow their kindred to the hills
ranging along the seaboard. I have explored towns in the Desert, with
well-paved streets, houses still roofed, and their stone doors swinging on
the hinges, ready to be occupied, and yet quite untenanted; thousands of
acres of fine arable land spreading around them, with tracks of
watercourses for irrigation, now yielding but a scanty pasture to the sheep
and camels of the Bedouin. This overlapping of the Desert on the cultivated
plains commenced eighty years ago, when the Anezi tribes migrated from
central Arabia in search of more extended pasturage, and overran Syria. It
has now reached the sea on two points, near Acre [Palestine], and between
Latakia and Tripoli.

The Arab, however, does not always carry off the whole stock of the villager,
but is frequently satisfied by a conciliatory offering in money and grain. [p.
58]

14. [?] Thus a very great evil is the insecurity of life and property arising
from the state of insubordination of the nomadic tribes; the Turkish
authorities could do much to remedy this. [p. 61]

FO 424/21 (No. 47, Inclosure in No. 9, extract)

Skene to Bulwer

Acting Consul James Zohrab to Sir Henry Bulwer

Bosna Serai [Sarajevo], July 22, 1860

I have the honour to acknowledge your Excellency?s circular of the 11th
June, transmitting a list of questions connected with the condition and
administration of the provinces within my Consular jurisdiction.

To these questions I beg to hand the following replies, according to the
series of questions: -

1st. A glance at the map of European Turkey will show the importance of the
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Turkey, both on account of their
extent and their geographical position.

Occupying a space of more than 800 square miles, of which a large portion
is arable land, bounded on three sides by independent or almost
independent States, it is of vital importance that the elements of resistance
be found in the provinces, and that the lands be occupied by a contented
and loyal people. [?]

The Mussulmans, like the Christians, belong to the Slave [sic] race.

From 1463 to 1850 the Bosniak Mussulmans enjoyed all the privileges of
feudalism. Sincerely attached to their religion they respected the Sultan as
its head, but as their temporal Sovereign they bore him no affection, and
they looked and still look upon the Turks as a separate people.

This statement seems to be contradicted by the fact that the Bosniaks have
frequently fought under the banners of the Sultans. Their aid was, however,
always conditional, that is, they lent their aid on condition that none of their
privileges should be invaded, and that they should continue to govern
Bosnia through their own Chiefs. The Porte submitted to these conditions till
1850, when, finding herself sufficiently powerful to assert her authority over
these provinces, she sent an army, under Omer Pasha, who subdued the
country and introduced reforms.

Thus Bosnia and Herzegovina may be said to have been but tributary States
of the Porte for nearly three centuries.

Omer Pasha exiled the heads of the chief families, who, under the mere
nominal superintendence of a Pasha named by the Porte, arbitrarily
governed the Sandjaks, and about 100 other individuals implicated in the
effort made to resist the Government. He abolished the corvee and the
Spahi privileges, and enrolled about 2,000 Bosniaks into the regular army.
The Porte did not, however, dare to proceed further; the conscription was
abandoned, and the reformed laws were only put partially and occasionally
in force. The Mussulmans, keen to detect, at once perceived this weakness,
and they have not failed to take advantage of it.

Irritated at the banishment of their Chiefs, irritated at having been subdued
by a people they considered inferior to themselves, the Bosniaks long for
independence, and if they could overcome their antipathy to the Christians, I
have no doubt they would join them to expel the Turks.

The hatred of the Christians towards the Bosniak Mussulmans is intense.
During a period of nearly 300 years they were subjected to much oppression
and cruelty. For them no other law but the caprice of their masters existed.

In the belief that the direct administration of the Porte would materially
ameliorate their position, they were induced, in 1850, to lend a hearty
assistance to Omer Pasha, and to their aid must be attributed the rapid
success of the Turkish arms. Their hopes were disappointed. That they
were benefited by the change there can be no doubt, but the extent did not
nearly come up to their expectation. They saw, with delight, the extinction of
the Spahi privileges and of the corvee, but the imposition of new and heavy
taxes, the gross peculation of the employes sent from Constantinople, and
the demands of the army, filled them with disappointment and dismay, and,
with these causes for complaint, their previous servile condition was almost
forgotten. Their hopes had been raised high to be cruelly disappointed; their
pecuniary position was aggravated, while their social position was but
slightly improved.

A humiliation they experienced at this time at the hands of Omer Pasha
disappointed them greatly, and impressed them with the hopelessness of
expecting real benefits from the Turks; they were disarmed, while the
Mussulmans who had opposed the Government were permitted to retain
their arms.

Oppression cannot now be carried on as openly as formerly, but it must not
be supposed that, because the Government employes do not generally
appear as the oppressors, the Christians are well treated and protected. A
certain impunity, for which the Government must be rendered responsible, is
allowed to the Mussulmans. This impunity, while it does not extend to
permitting the Christians to be treated as they formerly were treated, is so
far unbearable and unjust in that it permits the Mussulmans to despoil them
with heavy exactions. False imprisonments are of daily occurrence. A
Christian has but a small chance of exculpating himself when his opponent
is a Mussulman.

Christian evidence, as a rule, is still refused.

Christians are now permitted to possess real property, but the obstacles
which they meet with when they attempt to acquire it are so many and
vexatious that very few have as yet dared to brave them.

Such being, generally speaking, the course pursued by the Government
towards the Christians in the capital of the province where the Consular
Agents of the different Powers reside and can exercise some degree of
control, it may easily be guessed to what extent the Christians, in the
remoter districts, suffer who are governed by Mudirs generally fanatical and
unacquainted with the law. [?]

2.The population of the two Provinces (Bosnia and the Herzegovina) is
estimated at 1,200,000, as follows: - Mussulmans, 490,000; Catholics,
160,000; Greeks [Serb Orthodox], &c., 550,000.

3.The Mussulmans are almost all proprietors; the Christians are engaged in
trade and in agriculture.

4.Christians are permitted by law to possess landed property, but the
difficulties opposed to their acquiring are so great that few have as yet
dared to face them. As far as the mere purchase goes, no difficulties are
made – a Christian can buy and take possession; it is when he has got his
land into order, or when the Mussulman who has sold has overcome the
pecuniary difficulties which compelled him to see; that the Christian feels the
helplessness of his position and the insincerity of the Government. Steps
are then taken by the original proprietor, or some relative of his, to reclaim
the land from the Christian, generally on one of the following pleas: that the
original owner not being sole proprietor had no right to sell; that the ground
being "meraah," or grazing ground, could not be sold; that the deeds of
transfer being defective the sale had not been legally made. Under one or
other of these please the Christian is in nineteen cases out of twenty
dispossessed, and he may then deem himself fortunate if he gets back the
price he gave. Few, a very few, have been able to obtain justice; but I must
say that the majority of these owe their good fortune not to the justice of
their cause, but to the influence of some powerful Mussulman.

Those who possess lands hold them on equal conditions with the Turks.

5.Christians can exercise trades in towns on equal terms with Mussulmans.

6.The Christian peasants in the Christian villages are generally miserably
off, working land which does not belong to them; they are but the labourers
of the proprietors, who, with rare exceptions, appropriate the lion?s share of
the harvest. The Mussulman peasants generally work their own land, and
having only Government taxes to pay are well to do; but those Mussulmans
who labour on the lands of others are as badly off as the Christians.

7.Christian evidence in the Medjlises is occasionally received, but as a rule
it is refused, either directly or indirectly, by reference to the Mehkemeh.
Knowing this the Christians generally come forward prepared with
Mussulman witnesses. The cases in which Christian evidence has been
refused are numerous, but it would take time to collect them.

8.The Christian population is socially better off now than it was twenty or ten
years ago. The protective laws, though indifferently administered, are still
extended over them. Their financial position is worse; twenty years ago, it is
true, they had no laws beyond the caprice of their landlords; but their
landlords, well aware that to ruin them would be to ruin themselves, allowed
them to enjoy a greater share of the fruits of their labour than they can hope
to enjoy now after paying their landlords their taxes, and their priests. [?]

11.To construct a church a firman must first be obtained from
Constantinople granting the authority; beyond unnecessary delay in
transmitting this, I have not heard of the government opposing their erection.
The Christians are occasionally, but rarely, disturbed in their religious
ceremonies.

12.Cases of oppression are frequently the result of Mussulman fanaticism,
but for these the Government must be held responsible, for if offenders were
punished, oppression would of necessity became rare; but while impunity is
allowed, and the Agents of the Porte are themselves frequently oppressors,
the Government must be considered the primary cause.

13.There are no native Protestants in these Provinces.

14.The grievances of which the Christians complain must be attributed to
the Turkish authorities.

15.A Greek and a Catholic Christian are admitted into each Medjlis to
represent Christian interests. Their presence is not of the slightest utility;
indeed it is prejudicial to the Christians, as by it they appear to approve acts
of injustice against the Christians.

The Medjlises are invariably opposed to progress and good government.

16.An entire remodelling of the Medjlises I consider most urgent. As at
present constituted they represent neither the interests of the Provinces, nor
the declared views of the Government. The members are selected from
among the richest persons of the town in which the Medjlis sits; they are
invariably fanatical, narrow-minded, and opposed to progress, possessing
no qualifications for their position; they are selected merely on account of
the local interest they may possess. [?]

Nearly two-thirds of the population is Christian. It is therefore absurd to
suppose that if ten or twelve Mussulmans are required to represent the
interests of the minority, two Christian members are sufficient to represent
the interests of the majority. I should therefore propose that each Sandjak
nominates two members, one Christian and one Mussulman; and, in the
same manner, each Mudirlik of sufficient importance should elect two
members to form the Medjlises of the sandjaks. [?]

17.[?] A Criminal Court was established in Mostar in 1857. It was composed
of a President sent from Constantinople and a Council of six, - two Greeks,
two Catholics, and two Mussulmans.

This tribunal existed for two years. During this period only one or two cases
were disposed of, though the prisons were full of persons awaiting trial. This
ill-success must be attributed to the inexperience of the President, who was
a very young man.

18.Conversion of males to the Mussulman religion is rare. I have not, during
my residence in this country, heard of one case of compulsory conversion.

19.The conversion of females is common, but compulsion is not frequently
used to effect this; and, when attempted, I must in justice say the
Government generally interferes. A case in point occurred only a few days
ago. A Turk carried off a young Catholic girl, and endeavoured to compel
her to abjure her faith prior to his marrying her. The girl was recovered by
the authorities and restored to her home; and Osman Pasha assures me
that the Turk will be punished.

In nearly every Mussulman house in these provinces one or two Christian
girls are to be found holding the position of servants. They are taken when
very young, grow up in the family, by whom they are kindly treated, and they
frequently end by voluntarily changing their faith and marrying into the
family. [?] [pp. 64-69]

FO 424/21 (No. 41, Inclosure 1 in No. 10, extract)

Zohrab to Bulwer

Acting Consul James Zohrab to Sir Henry Bulwer

Bosna Serai, July 22, 1860

[?] The Hatti-humayoun, I can safely say practically remains a dead letter.
To what extent the Edict of Gulhane has been enforced, I cannot exactly
say, as I have not by me a copy of it by which to judge. [?]

FO 424/21 (No. 41, Inclosure 2 in No. 10, extract)

Zohrab to Bulwer