The curious reader perusing the last few articles regarding the Ottomans might easily take for granted the power of such positive statements by European travelers about the character of the Ottomans. The full force of these quotes are only truly brought into light when understanding the environment of sheer racism on the part of the general European establishment towards the Ottomans and their intense hatred for their political successes.

Works such as these are, unfortunately, also the ultimate source for much of the history available today within English regarding the Ottomans. Of course, these statements have been filtered in modern day history books, however the biased opinion on various events and inclination to a negative character remains.

Some of these comments echo what we hear from today’s neo-cons. Interestingly enough, the criticisms against the Ottomans are largely against their faith and their strong hold of it. Not only does this help eliminate the myth of irreligious leaders, these comments describe the foundation for the European movement away from the Ottomans and Islam by some Turkish parties influenced by the Western lifestyle. Eventually this party became known as the nationalist ‘Young Turks’ which led to the abolishment of the Caliphate.

A small collection of these comments from authoritative works and sources of ‘history’ are presented below.

As always I am interested in your thoughts and comments.

Such a religion, so inwrought in every political, social,
and moral relation of every Moslem believer, cannot
but have a powerful influence upon the character, and
capacity of a nation, composed of such believers, for
progress and advancement in civilization; and facts
justify the position of some of our ablest historians, that
any real civilization is impossible for the Turk, until he
abandons the Koran and the faith of Mahomet. Of
course, in’the light and knowledge which forces itself
upon nations surrounded by a higher civilization in this
nineteenth century, the continued existence of such a
nation is a struggle, which can have but one of two terminations ;
either it must abandon Islamism, or it must
go to the wall. Unhappily, while all that was vital in
the Mahometan faith has been gradually eaten out in
the larger cities, the empty shell remains, and is strong
enough to bring about their destruction as a nation. In
the country and the provinces, the old bigotry yet remains.
As long as the Turks entertained no doubt of the superiority
of their religion, they zealously practised its
tenets, and only revealed the natural deformities of a
system, which, while it enforces and exaggerates the
Value of certain specific social virtues, more than makes
up for it, by giving the reins to all the worst passions
inherent in human nature.
-The Conquest of Turkey, Or, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1877 …
By Linus Pierpont Brockett, Porter (1878)

“But your Turk is a Mahometan, it seems, and therefore an
ally not fit for a Christian !—I do not know, sir, but an alliance
with a Mahometan may be as good as a peace with an atheist; /
the sanction of its engagements may, perhaps, be as sacred, and
its stipulations as likely to be fulfilled. ”
-Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable George Canning
By John Styles (pg 99) Published 1829

“We have heard much of the
reforms introduced into Turkey during the last twenty or
thirty years, and the progress she is making in civilization,
or in approximating the civilization of the West, and we are
willing to admit that some progress has been made at Constantinople
in rejecting the least objectionable portions of
Mahometanism, and in adopting the vices and frivolity of
our Western civilization. But we see in this nothing to
encourage us. Western civilization is at bottom a Christian
civilization, and can be adopted in its essential and
living principles by no nation that rejects, or does not adopt,
the Christian religion. No nation can adhere to the Koran
and enter into the civilized order of Europe or America.
Even if a Mussulman people were to reject the Koran,
without accepting the Bible, it could not enter that order.
Jt could adopt only what is anomalous in it, accidental
to it, or exists along with it, in spite of it; for what constitutes
its life, its soul, its vigor, is Christianity, and not an
abstract or disembodied Christianity, but the Church.”
– Brownson’s Quarterly Review
By Orestes Augustus Brownson (Published 1860)

The man who has risen from a low estate to a great
one by vile means,’ the man who has bought his
place by bribes, the slave who has risen by craft
and cringing, the wretch who has risen by that viler
path which Christian tongues are forbidden to speak
of, but which is the Turk’s surest path to power,
in such men as these the lowest and basest form of
human nature is reached. And such men as these
rule at pleasure over South-eastern Europe. Barbarians
at heart, false, cruel, foul, as any of the old
Turks, but without any of the higher qualities of the
old Turks, these men have picked up just enough of
the outward show of civilization to deceive those who
do not look below the surface. They meet the
Ministers of civilized powers on equal terms; they
wear European clothes; they talk an European
tongue, and are spoken of as ” Excellency” and ”
Highness.” The wretched beings called Sultans are
thrust aside as may be thought good at the moment;
but the relations between the Sultan and his subjects,
the relations with which at the treaty of Paris the
Christian powers bound themselves not to interfere,
go on everywhere in full force. There is no barbarian
so dangerous as the barbarian who is cunning enough
to pass himself off for a civilized man. pg 202-203

“The Ottoman Power in Europe: Its Nature, Its Power, Its Decline” : pub: 1877