The Great Turk and His Lost Provinces 47 



Under Turkish rule all public wor- 

 ship was forbidden except that of Islam, 

 and Christians and Jews were obliged 

 to say their prayers in secret and pay 

 blackmail to the local magistrates for 

 the privilege. They were known as 

 Rayahs — the word means ransomed — 

 because, meriting death, the}' purchased 

 permission to live by paying tribute. 

 Western Christians do not appreciate 

 the religious heroism which the poor 

 peasants, not of Bosnia only, but of 

 Bulgaria, Macedonia, and other Balkan 

 provinces, have displayed during the 

 long centuries they have suffered from 

 the persecution of the Turks. They 

 have lived in daily dread of martyrdom, 

 yet have clung to their faith, when at 

 any moment they might have secured 

 safety, prosperity, and position by re- 

 canting and accepting the religion of 

 their oppressors. These conditions still 

 exist in Macedonia, and in Roumania 

 the Jews are suffering more from the 

 Christians than they ever suffered in 

 Bosnia from the Turks. The Christians 

 do not kill with the sword nor destroy 

 with the torch, nor do they steal women 

 for their harems, but they debar their 

 Jewish fellow-beings from labor, drive 

 them to distress and starvation, deprive 

 them of education and the privilege of 

 worship. 



Through all the centuries that Bos- 

 nia was controlled by the Turks the 

 people were without morality, educa- 

 tion, arts, or sciences, and their indus- 

 try was limited to the supply of their 

 own wants, simply because when they 

 possessed something they did not actu- 

 ally need, it attracted the rapacity of 

 the officials. Occasionally some man 

 like Nikola Tesla, the famous electri- 

 cian, who is a native of Bosnia, broke 

 through the restrictions and found an 

 opportunity to develop his genius else- 

 where; but under the Turks such cases 

 were few. 



Much of the cruelties endured by the 

 people formerly were due to religious 



fanaticism. A peculiar sect of der- 

 vishes, called Ghazi, are holy men who 

 go forth to slay the enemies of the 

 Prophet until they are themselves slain, 

 and as long as such fanatics are allowed 

 to invade Christian communities, there 

 can be no peace. Religious fanatics who 

 commit murder for the faith in Bosnia 

 are sentenced to have their bodies cre- 

 mated after execution. This has driven 

 them from the country. It is a punish- 

 ment they dread more than death. To 

 hang or shoot a Mohammedan is simply 

 to send him to the paradise he is seek- 

 ing, where he will rise again in his nat- 

 ural body in the presence of the Prophet. 

 But if his body is burned or destroyed 

 by any means, it is impossible for him 

 to be translated, and his soul will re- 

 main forever in suspense. 



Bosnia is broken by high peaks, deep 

 glens, ridges, beautiful wooded hills, 

 winding streams, and rich alluvial 

 basins, which yield large crops of grain 

 and are especially adapted to fruit. The 

 landscape is a series of terraces which 

 slope gradually southward and finally 

 disappear in an archipelago of lovely 

 islands, one of the most enchanting 

 pictures in the universe, whose attrac- 

 tions have been the theme of poets ever 

 since the days of Homer. It was on 

 this coast during the Roman occupation 

 that the Roman Emperor Diocletian 

 erected his magnificent palace, which 

 covered ten acres of ground, and for size, 

 magnificence, and architectural display 

 surpassed all human dwellings. The 

 ruins are still sufficiently well preserved 

 to fascinate the artist, the architect, and 

 the archaeologist, but the marble is be- 

 ing rapidly carried away to Italy and 

 Austria for building material. 



Sarajevo, the capital, is a city of 

 60,000 inhabitants, reached by a narrow- 

 gauge road winding among the moun- 

 tain gorges like the Colorado railways 

 until it reaches the Adriatic at Metkovic, 

 the port of Bosnia. The journey is in- 

 teresting ; the scener}' is picturesque, 



