72 



PKOF. D. S. MARUOLIOUTH, D.LITT., ON 



reader finds that in some matters at any rate, which when 

 Vambery wrote no progress had been made, the present condition 

 exliibits very decided advance. Thns Vambery declared that 

 the ideas of Enrope never got beyond the Salamlik, or reception 

 room ; that the Turkish womankind were absohitely unaffected 

 by the reforms, and lie supposed the reforms must always remain 

 superficial, because the earliest years of the lives of the men were 

 spent in the society of mothers who were rigidly conservative, 

 and to whom all things European were objects of contempt anfl 

 detestation. A lady who wrote on Constantinople in 1895, 

 Clara Erskine Clement,* testifies that Turkish ladies now study 

 music, language, embroidery, and other feminine acconi])lish- 

 ments ; and the same is admitted by Dwight in the yet more 

 recent work from which quotations have been made. In native 

 Turkish novels the ladies are made to perform brilliantly on the 

 1)iano, and to speak French with ease and discourse on 

 European literature. A distinguished Turkish authoress,t 

 Eatimah Aliyyah, in the preface to one of her translations from 

 the French, speaks of this style of work as a departure in 

 accordance with modern ideas, and hopes that she may be imitated 

 by her countrywomen. This lady has composed some novels 

 of her own, and has also given her countrymen some more 

 serious literature, including a biography of philosophers. 

 Feminine authorship has at all times been more common in 

 Mohammedan countries than would natui ally be supposed ; it 

 is however interesting to be able to hit on a point in wliich 

 Yambery's Constantinople was certainly behind the city of to-day. 

 It would also appear that the literature in circulation among 

 readers of Turkish, not only at Constantinople, but in the 

 provinces, compares favourably with what we should find in the 

 bookshops of a European capital or provincial town. From 

 Avhat I have been able to see of the works employed for 

 instruction of the young, Vambery's severe criticisms on the 

 unpractical and reactionary character of the instruction would 

 not now be justified. 



For social regeneration I look to the working of one par- 

 ticular evangelist — one that may appear strange in this con- 

 text, but yet of considerable efficacy. That is the French 

 novel. In Turkey it is well known that the French language is 

 studied with enthusiasm, and those who obtain government 

 appointments of any importance are ordinarily accomplished 



* Constantinople^ p. 253. 



t Maram, A.II. 1307. 



