The Eastern Question

AMONG modern themes of absorbing interest, the so-called, “Eastern Question" is one of great prominence. Embracing within its arena associations of so wide extent, affecting the political and religious interests of so great a portion of the more enlightened peoples of the earth, it must necessarily occupy a place in the field of prophecy, so far as results are concerned, not inferior to that of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, or Rome.

A practical solution of the question from this standpoint will doubtless yet be evolved in the expulsion of Ottoman rule from Constantinople, the close of probationary time, and the ushering in of the great day of the Lord with all its attendant terrors to the unredeemed inhabitants of the earth. Such being the case, a geographical view of the arena where so great events are to be wrought out by the agencies employed, cannot fail to be of interest to the reader.

THE SITUATION.

The Black Sea, forming about 800 miles of the boundary line between Europe and Asia, and covering an area of 172,000 square miles, is an inland ocean, receiving as tributaries many large and navigable rivers, draining about one fourth of Europe and 100,000 square miles of Asia. Its water is not really so salt as that of the Mediterranean, and is very deep. There are no shoals along its shores save near its outlet. Except between the Danube and the Crimea, the coasts are high and the harbors excellent. There is only one small island in the sea opposite the mouths of the Danube. The navigation of the sea is very safe in summer, but dangerous in winter.

To the north of the Black Sea is the sea of Azov, with an area of about 14,000 square mires, connected with the Black Sea by the long narrow strait of Kaffa. Its waters are nearly fresh, and quite shallow. To the west of this sea is the peninsula called Crimea, about equal in area to the Azov. Near the southwestern extremity of this peninsula is the city of Sebastopol, the siege of which, in 1855, marked such an important event in history and the evident fulfillment of the prophetic terms of Dan. 11:44. The outlet of the Black Sea is the strait, or channel, of Bosporus, which signifies cow-ford. It is about seventeen miles long, has high shores and seven bays, or indentations, with corresponding promontories on the opposite side. One of these bays, called the Golden Horn, forms the harbor of Constantinople, near the entrance of the strait into the Marmora. The Bosporus is said to be one of the most attractive sheets of water in the world. The Sea of Marmora is 180 miles long, and sixty miles wide. It is very deep, in some places exceeding 2,000 feet. It has numerous and excellent harbors. On the south side the shores are bold and precipitous. There are a few islands in the sea. This body of water is capable of floating a vast navy, and so near to Constantinople that its strategic importance can be readily discerned.

From its western extremity, Marmora empties its waters into the Aegean Sea (opening, in turn, into the Mediterranean) by a serpentine channel, or strait, called the 'Hellespont. It is lined with crags and bluffs that might be utilized as military barriers against the ingress of foreign shipping. At the entrance of the strait into the Aegean are four strong Turkish forts called the Dardanelles, a name also given to the Hellespont. A long peninsula cut off from the mainland by the Gulf of Saros, forms the north shore of the strait. The inland extremity of the gulf approximates the Marmora. It can be readily understood from this view of the situation that the earth does not afford another position of so great strategic importance as this aqua boundary line between two great continents. And to possess Constantinople is to become master of the situation.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

At the beginning of the eighth century, more than 200 years after the complete subdivision of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms, the successors of Mohammed are said to have been "the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe." And yet it appears that Mohammedans as such did not possess distinct national character until near the end of the thirteenth century, when Othman i.e., the young bustard) succeeded his father Orthogrul as chief of a tribe of Oguzian Turks, a people who had emigrated from the steppes of Tartary east of the Caspian Sea, and raised it to the dignity of empire. Orthogrul had been emir to the Turkish sultan of Iconium, to which dignity the son, also, succeeded.

On the conquest of that sultany by the Moguls, near the end of the thirteenth century, Othraan planned to found a new empire, and for that purpose effected the consolidation of the different Turkish tribes. He fixed the seat of his government at Byrsa, or Brousa, situated on the side near the base of Mount Olympus, about sixty miles south of Constantinople, overlooking one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys in one Minor, and assumed the title of sultan. From this point dates the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks had long before embraced Mohammedanism, and had wrested the temporal dominion of the Saracens from the califs of Baghdad.

Ambitious of extending his dominion, or from other mercenary motives, Othman made an attack upon the Grecian Empire, on July 27, 1299. From that time the Turks greatly harassed the Grecians for 150 years—five months of thirty days each, prophetic time. Rev. 9:6. Success so far attended the Turkish arms that in about seventy years after the founding of the empire, the seat of government was removed from Brousa to Adrianople, about 130 miles northwest of Constantinople. The character of the Turkish ruler is well expressed by the term: 'apollyon' —a destroyer. (See Rev. 9:11.) At the end of the period of 150 years, the Turk had so far weakened the Grecian power that on the death of the Greek emperor, his successor did not dare ascend the throne without the consent of Amurath, the Turkish sultan, which he asked and obtained. Thus ended the supremacy of the Greek division of the Roman Empire. About four years after, Amurath having died, his successor besieged and took Constantinople, in 1453, and made it the seat of the Ottoman Empire.

The city was founded by Constantine the Great, who is said to have robbed the cities of Greece and Asia of their finest works of art to beautify and enrich his capitol. The exterior view of the city, with its slender minarets and gilded domes towering above the billowy green of cypress, gleams like a beautiful mirage in the rays of the declining sun. But on entering the city, the streets are found to be narrow and infested with dogs; and the Oriental architecture is fast disappearing under frequent and disastrous fires, only to be replaced by more occidental styles. The city, as a whole, is said to be as silent as death.

The submission of the Greek emperor to the Turkish power, in 1449, removed from the four sultanies composing the Ottoman Empire, the restraint which Greek supremacy had imposed, and gave them 361 years and fifteen days of national liberty, in which to satiate their thirst for carnage and plunder. (See Rev. 9:15.) This period ended on the 11th of August, 1840, when England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia interposed to settle a difficulty between the sultan and Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt,—an interposition that the sultan was obliged to permit, thus ending the supremacy of his empire.

When the Turks obtained possession of Constantinople, they also secured entire control of the commerce of the Black Sea, and maintained it until 1774, when the Russians secured the right to trade in it, and a few years later Austrian, French, and English ships were admitted.

The growth and final preponderance of Russia in the Black .Sea: precipitated the war of the Crimea in 1853-56. The declaration of war against Russia at that time by Turkey, a power whose dignity as a nation had been so effeminately surrendered to a pressure of circumstances a few years before as to win for itself the sobriquet of the "Sick Man of the East," filled Europe with astonishment. The great rage with which the Turkish soldiers are said to have assailed their enemies in this war, is an evident fulfillment of Dan. 11:44. Notwithstanding this, had not England and France come to the aid of Turkey, the result of the war would have inscribed a far different chapter upon the page of history than now meets the eye of the student. The overwhelming numbers and vast resources of the Russians would without doubt have eventually absorbed the sanguinary valor of the Turk, and extended the dominion of the Czar to the Bosporus. But English gold invested in Turkish securities, and jealousy lest a probable advantage should be gained by Russia and other powers by seizing Constantinople, evidently governed the policy of Great Britain at that time under the premiership of Disraeli. But the treaty of 1856 that concluded the war, did not permanently settle the question, and in 1877 Russia declared war against Turkey, under pretense of defending the persecuted Christians in that country.

This war resulted in the loss to Turkey of Roumania, Servia, Montenegro, Bessarabia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the island of Cyprus, constituting an area of about 100,000 square miles, with a mixed population of about 14,000,000. In 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria, a large province east of Servia between the Balkans and Roumarria and extending eastward to the Black Sea, was created an "autonomic and tributary principality" under the suzerainty of the sultan. On the south of Bulgaria was also formed the less independent province of East Roumelia, whose governor was to be a Christian, though appointed by the Porte, subject to the approval of the treaty powers. The capital of the province is Phillippopolis, which, before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. On the 18th of September, 1885, the people of this province, groaning under the double burden of supporting home and Turkish institutions, deposed their governor, blew up the bridges, and cut the wires leading into Turkish territory and proclaimed union with Bulgaria, said to be one with them in race and religion. These provinces unitedly have been not inaptly termed "a huge hornet's nest." It might as appropriately be added that the nations of Europe are the boys‘who play a dare-devil game with it. (To be continued.)