Ebook The Literature of the Turks

Turkish dominions are about four times as large as France, and the Turkish language is spoken not only in them, but it is the Court language of Persia and Egypt, and is more or less used from the Danube to the Nile, and from Constantinople to the confines of China. It is the language of millions of Mussulmans who hold some of the most important strategic positions in the world, which, if occupied by a more aggressive power, might threaten the liberty of the world. Friendly intercourse between Turks and Englishmen, and a good understanding between their governments, which have many interests in common, would be greatly promoted by Englishmen being able to talk to Turks in their own language. The trade which England now carries on with Turkey might be immensely developed and extended, if English merchants in the Levant, or their employes, could speak and write the language of the country, which at present, with exceedingly rare exceptions, they cannot do. Our political and commercial interests in Turkey are, therefore, at the mercy of Levantine interpreters, who cannot be expected to have the good of Turkey or England very much at heart; as they are, properly speaking, neither Englishmen nor Turks, and they are most often men who possess only a colloquial and imperfect knowledge of Turkish. Their sympathies are generally not with the Turks, and the Turks would much prefer dealing directly with Englishmen, if Englishmen could understand them. Yet, until quite lately, the number of Englishmen who knew Turkish was exceedingly small, and even now there is a wide-spread belief in Europe that the Turkish language is scarcely worth learning, and that the Turks have no literature, or no literature worth perusing.