Chapter 18 Chapter 14 Middle East

The West's influence on the Middle East was quite different from its influence on Russia, and the reactions of the peoples of the Middle East were equally different.True, there are different peoples, religions and cultures that are affected and respond, but there is also a different political and social organization.The Ottoman Empire, which included much of the Middle East during the nineteenth century, remained a collection of peoples, religions, and conflicting allegiances.As we mentioned in Chapter 3, the empire was organized as a theocracy based on clerical populations rather than ethnic groups.These population groups - the most important of which were the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Jewish populations - were able to enjoy full self-government under the leadership of their respective ecclesiastical leaders.Thus, for centuries, various Muslim peoples (such as Turks, Arabs, Albanians and Kurds) and various Christian peoples (such as Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians) have lived in autonomous, self-sufficient Self-sufficient populations lived side by side, each able to have its own church, language, schools, and local government as long as it recognized the sultan's authority and paid taxes to the imperial treasury.

The significance of this loose imperial organization is that Western ideas and pressures encountered a variety of cultures and circumstances.Thus it is true that the West did not have the same influence throughout the Ottomans.Therefore, in analyzing the nature of this effect, it is necessary to take into account the apparent variation in the various regional environments and the various regional responses.For this reason we will now examine the Ottoman Empire not in its entirety, but in turn in its three main regions—the Balkan Peninsula with its predominantly Christian population, Asia Minor with its predominantly Muslim Turkish population, and Asia Minor with its Muslim The provinces south of Asia Minor of the Arab nation.Finally, we will examine some important developments in the Persian kingdom.The Kingdom of Persia formed an important component of the Near East, although not part of the Ottoman Empire.

The peoples of the Balkans lived under Turkish rule for more than four centuries.It is often thought that these centuries were centuries of unrelieved tyranny, when oppressed Christians longed for freedom and waited eagerly for an opportunity to rebel.This explanation fails to account for the actual developments.The various nationalities of the Balkans greatly outnumber the few Turks who live among them.They live in dense groups and maintain their own language and religion.Had they been eager to resist, they might have caused the Turks more trouble than they actually did.In earlier centuries, however, the Turks were no more trouble ruling Christian subjects in the Balkans than Muslim subjects in Asia.

The explanation is that the Turkish conquerors were capable and benevolent compared with the Byzantine emperors, the Frankish nobles, the Venetian nobles, and the Bulgarian and Serbian monarchs who had previously ruled the Balkan countries.Turkey's administration is strict and fair, taxes are light, and non-Muslims enjoy freedom of belief to a certain extent unprecedented in Christian Europe.During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, the situation changed dramatically.During this period, as the power and power of Turkey had declined, there was widespread corruption and extortion; this in turn drove the now oppressed and resentful Balkan Christians to take up arms in self-defense.At that time, due to various reasons, the Balkan peoples were under various influences from the West and were aroused by these influences.

The Balkan peoples were influenced by the West earlier and more deeply than any other ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire. Most of them were Christians, so they were more susceptible to the influence of the Christian West than the Muslim Turks and Arabs.Because of the territorial proximity of the Balkan countries to the rest of Europe, it was easier to concentrate people, goods, and ideas on the Balkan peninsula from beyond the Danube, Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas.Thus, as commerce, industry, and the middle class developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western Europe's growing need for imported food promoted Balkan agriculture, especially the cultivation of the new colonial products, cotton and maize.The export of these goods in turn contributed to the growth of a group of native merchants and native sailors in the Balkans.The expansion of trade also promoted the demand and output of handicraft products.Important manufacturing centers arose throughout the peninsula, often in isolated mountainous areas; there artisans could practice their trades with a minimum of Turkish interference.The rise of commerce and industry thus had another impulse: they contributed to the development of the merchant fleets along the Dalmatian coast, the Albanian coast, the Epirus coast, and among the Aegean islands.The emerging Balkan merchant fleets carried away products such as cotton, corn, dyes, wine, oil, and fruit, often returning to colonial products and manufactured goods—spices, sugar, woolen goods, glass, watches, guns, and black gunpowder.

The significance of this economic revival is that it produced a middle class composed of merchants, craftsmen, shipowners, and sailors who were particularly sensitive to and fond of Western ideas and institutions.These people were already dissatisfied with Ottoman's rule, because Ottoman's rule had become incompetent and corrupt at this time.Merchants and sailors who traveled to foreign countries, and frequently settled there, not only contrasted the state of security and enlightenment they had witnessed abroad with the miserable state of affairs at home.It goes without saying that they will come to the conclusion that their own future and the future of their countrymen depend on the earliest possible removal of the Turkish incubus oppression.This view is typified by the following lament of the Greek merchant John Prigos.He had made his fortune in Amsterdam; while living in that city he had been impressed with the security and fairness with which commerce could be conducted.

Prigosian merchants were able to make an important contribution to the national development of the Balkans not only because they were politically active, but also because they acted as intermediaries between their homeland and the outside world.The Serbian merchants in southern Hungary, the Bulgarians in southern Russia, and the Greek merchants widely dispersed in the principal cities of Europe, all contributed to the intellectual development of their countrymen.They can do this because they publish books and newspapers in their native language, establish schools and libraries in their hometowns and villages, and provide funds for the education of young people of their own ethnic group in foreign universities.All of this means not just more education, but a new kind of education.It is no longer primarily religious education.Instead, it was deeply influenced by the Enlightenment in Western Europe at the time.A Protestant missionary at the time complained: "The educated part of Greece, that is, the talented and outstanding among the descendants of the Greeks, is accustomed to drink the poison of Voltaire and Rousseau, because the writings of the latter have been destroyed. Translated into modern Greek. I have met some Greeks who zealously defended the creepy doctrine of deism. It takes talent to deal with their sophistry."

Western influence on the Balkans became more directly political and demagogic in the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon I.Politically conscious people were deeply impressed by the uprising in Paris, the slogan of "liberty, equality, fraternity", and the scenes of Napoleon overthrowing one dynasty after another.A Greek revolutionist of the time attests: "In general, the French Revolution has awakened all reason. . . . All Christians in the Near East pray to God that France should wage war against the Turks, believing that they will Freedom. . . . However, when Napoleon did not act, they began to take steps to liberate themselves."

The speed of national awakening among the Balkan peoples has been very different.The Greeks were the first to awaken, because they had certain advantages: their frequent contacts with the West, their classical and Byzantine glorious traditions promoted national self-esteem, and their Greek Orthodoxy embodied and protected national consciousness.The Greeks were followed by the Serbs, who enjoyed a high degree of local autonomy in addition to the stimulating influence of some large Serbian expansions in southern Hungary.These favorable conditions for the Greeks and Serbs suggest a reason for the slower rate of national revival of the rest of the Balkans.The Bulgarians had no direct ties to the west and settled close to the Ottoman capital and to the strong new Turkish settlements in Thrace and eastern Macedonia.Romanians suffered from a sharp social division unique in the Balkans, which produced an educated upper class and a lifeless peasant mass.Albanians are the worst off because of their primitive tribal organization and divisions by the three religions: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam.

These factors explain why, instead of a common revolution against Ottoman rule, there was a series of separate uprisings in the Balkans from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.The Greeks won full independence from the Turks after a protracted war of independence from 1821 to 1829.The Serbs revolted earlier in 1804, but only gained an autonomous status within the Ottoman Empire in 1815.The Principality of Serbia did not gain full independence until 1878, becoming the Kingdom of Serbia.They were followed by the Romanians, who won self-government in 1859 and independence in 1878.The Bulgarians came later, gaining self-government by 1878 and independence by 1908.These three Balkan nations—Serbs, Greeks, and Bulgarians—formed a coalition in 1912 to drive the Turks completely out of the peninsula.They were successful on the battlefield, and, despite internecine warfare among the victors, the Turks were obliged to surrender all their remaining territories in the Balkans in 1913, retaining only the An enclave around the channel from Tandinople to Adrianople.

In this way, the borders of the Ottoman Empire began to retreat from the city walls of Vienna in 1653, to the Dori River in 1815, to the central part of the Balkan Peninsula in 1878, and to the outskirts of Constantinople in 1913.As the empire receded, the independent states of the Balkans - Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and, in 1912, Albania - took their place.The West contributed decisively to the development of a revolutionary nationalist ideology, by promoting the development of a middle class ready to act on the basis of this ideology, and by helping Balkan revolutionaries from time to time in their struggle against Turkish domination. National revival. The influence of the West on the Turks was much less and much later than it was on the Balkan Christians.There are various factors that explain this difference; perhaps the most important of these are the Turks' practice of Islam and the lack of an indigenous middle class. If the Christian faith of the Balkan peoples constitutes a link with the West, then the Islamic faith of the Turks is an obstacle, and a very terrible obstacle, because there has been a long history of confrontation and conflict between Christianity and Islam. history.Not only is there a tradition of mutual enmity, but on the part of the Turks, because of their religious beliefs, there is also a sense of superiority at their own disadvantage.For centuries the Turks had defeated Christianity in Europe, triumphantly crossed the Danube, and planted their star and moon banner under the walls of Vienna.True, they lost battles at the hands of the Austrians and Russians in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.However, they continued to rule over most of the Balkans with millions of Christian subjects until the end of the 19th century.Therefore, regardless of their status, ordinary Turkish people have no doubts about their superiority, their religious beliefs, and their way of life in their minds.Therefore, this superiority is considered merely a natural attribute of a Muslim and a Turk.The Turks' condescension and contempt for all non-Muslims is reflected in some of the titles they commonly use when referring to the various peoples of Europe.They called the Albanians "sausage sellers," the Bulgarians "wanderers," the Dutch "cheesemakers," the Britons "atheists," the French "crazy heretics," and the Romanians "jeeps." racer".Needless to say, this attitude did not help the interplay between the Ottoman Empire and the West. The Turks also receive little attention from the West because they never developed their own middle class.They were not interested in business, or did not respect it, so the Ottoman bourgeoisie was basically Greeks, Armenians and Jews.Turks, by contrast, were either peasants (who were generally insensitive), or teachers and judges in Muslim ecclesiastical organizations (which almost always meant they were fiercely anti-Western), or imperial bureaucrats. officers (in which case they are usually only interested in maintaining their rank and promotion).The significance of this situation can be clearly seen when considering the important role played by merchants in Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in their respective countries.It is they who establish ties with the West, promote Western ideas and engage in political activities.Among the Turks, however, there is no group of people who perform similar duties.Thus, the rare advocates of reform among the Turks found themselves without any followers.In other words, they found themselves in the same predicament as the Russian Decembrists in 1825, and for the same reasons. The lack of popular support for the reforms was evident in the fate of Sultan Selim III.Selim ascended the Ottoman throne in 1789—a fitting year, if symbolic for the revolutionary nature of his ideas and ambitions.Selim was not the first sultan to recognize the need for reforms in the empire, however, he was the first to recognize that reform measures must look forward rather than backward.He first thought of reform in terms of borrowing from the West, rather than going back to the days of Suleiman I.His plans included reforming the administration, improving education and overhauling the Guards. The Janissaries, once an elite unit of Ottoman infantry, had degenerated into useless and disobedient Janissaries.This became evident in the war with Russia in the late 18th century, when regiments of the Guards showed up at the front with a total of five or six men.When the guards saw the enemy, most of them broke up and fled, stopping only to plunder their own barracks.In the past, several sultans have attempted to control or eliminate this pernicious army.They all failed because the head of the Ulema, collectively known as law and religion, sided with the Guards.Important economic interests also support the status quo, as income is derived from speculation in Guards pay certificates.Each guard soldier has a sealed pay certificate, which is used as a voucher for receiving salary. In 1740, the Sultan allowed the buying and selling of these paychecks.They soon became a stock, eagerly bought up by officials and speculators who had no connection with the Guards.Due to the scramble for pay certificates, it is inevitable that there will be a large number of false rosters.The names of dead Guardsmen were kept on rolls and their pay certificates were bought and sold. A powerful combination of military, religious and economic vested interests explains why the early sultans failed to reform the Janissaries and why Selim was also doomed, doomed to lose his throne and his life.At first, Selim was able to make some progress because of the popular resentment caused by the Guards' vicious attacks on the Russians.After various superficial measures aimed at improving the defenses of the empire, in 1793 he took the decisive step of creating a new military force called the New Army.It was a Western-style army, with uniform uniforms, specific recruitment and enlistment procedures, European training methods, and modern weaponry, including the latest artillery and bayonets in place of the traditional cutlasses.These plans called for an initial conscription of 1,600 men, to be gradually increased to 12,000 men. The New Army proved its worth in several engagements, but this only heightened the fear and opposition of the Guards and their allies.They fought back with an elaborate campaign designed to exploit the fear, prejudice and fanaticism of the Muslim population.They spread rumors that the new army was an invention of Christian pagans, and that Selim created it because he was no longer the true protector of Islam.This caused much disturbance, enabling the Guards to force Selim to abdicate in May 1808.He was hanged two months later when Selim's supporters tried to free him from the palace cells where he was imprisoned. In retrospect, it is clear that Selim attempted to do what Peter the Great of Russia had accomplished a century earlier.He failed, partly because he was not such a powerful and decisive figure as the Russian Tsar.His defeat, however, was due more to the fact that the Guards, together with their allies in the Ulema Council, bureaucracy, and court, formed a far stronger opposition than any that Peter had ever faced. opposition bloc.Furthermore, Selim had no middle class, mass party or mass movement to rely on.As a result, the Ottoman Empire at the end of 1808 seemed as unchanged and immutable as ever. During the nineteenth century, however, the Ottoman Empire, like the Russians, was penetrated, influenced, and controlled by the West in many ways, both direct and indirect.Of the several routes of infiltration, the earliest and in some respects the most effective is the military route.The Turks, like the Russians, found themselves obliged to adopt European military technology in order to preserve themselves. In the second half of the 19th century, Western powers actively encouraged the Turks to modernize their military forces in order to stop Russia's expansion to the Middle East.But military Westernization includes more than just visits by foreign military delegations.It turns out that to support a modern army, European languages, mathematics, and science must be taught in addition to military subjects.Medical schools, hospitals, technical factories, foundries for heavy weapons, naval arsenals and shipyards must be established.Moreover, some of the many young men sent abroad to attend foreign military academies inevitably absorbed Western ideology as well as Western military technology.Thus, of all Turkish institutions, the military has become the most Westernized not only in organization but also in outlook. When the ancien regime was finally overthrown in the Ottoman Empire in 1908, it was not surprising that it was not a political party, nor a mass movement, but an army bloc that carried out the coup. In the field of religion, the West also has influence on the Muslim Middle East.Missionaries preached and established schools throughout the empire.By 1875, only American missionaries had opened 240 schools with 8000 students.Most of the students were Armenians, the rest were Christians, since conversion is forbidden among Muslims.However, in foreign academies scattered throughout the empire, such as the American-run Women's College of Constantinople and Robert's College (also in Constantinople), and the French Jesuit University of Saint Joseph in Beirut, one can find A considerable number of Turkish students.The Turks themselves had established several schools of higher learning by this time, including the Medical School (1867), the Imperial High School (1868), the University of Constantinople (1869), the Law School (1870) and the Political Science School. School (1878).Journalism in Turkey has also been developing rapidly during these years. In 1859.There is only one official weekly newspaper and one semi-official weekly newspaper in the empire.By 1872, there were three daily papers and several weekly papers.In addition, in cities such as Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria, six French dailies appeared and were read by educated Turks. At least as important as this cultural influence was the economic penetration of the Ottoman Empire by the West.A European syndicate headed by French diplomat and founder Ferdinand de Lesseps opened the Suez Canal in 1869 after 10 years of digging.The effect of the canal was to place the Ottoman Empire once again on the main merchant route between Europe and Asia.At the time, the Ottoman government was desperately in debt to a number of European governments and private financiers.They took out their first loan in 1854, and by 1875 their total debts amounted to £200 million.They needed around £12 million a year to pay annuities, interest and sinking funds, an amount equal to a little more than half the total revenue of the empire.Facts proved that the burden was heavy, and part of the interest payment was in arrears. Therefore, the European powers forcibly established the Ottoman National Debt Management Office in 1881.Composed mainly of foreign agents, this body was tasked with looking after revenues from various patents and customs duties, and servicing the debts of the Empire. In addition to controlling Turkey's finances, foreign powers also control Turkey's financial system, railway system, irrigation projects, mining enterprises, and municipal utilities.In addition, the empire remained subject to the consular jurisdiction clause or extraterritorial privilege that foreigners had enjoyed in the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century.These extraterritorial privileges included immunity from the Ottoman court and certain levies, including personal taxes and customs duties.These taxes were fixed at a very low level, and the Ottoman government could not raise them without the consent of the European powers; which, it goes without saying, did not agree easily.Therefore, we can conclude that the Ottoman Empire and even Russia were more in semi-colonial economic relations with Europe. The impact of all this oppression and control by the West is impossible to estimate with precision.But there is no doubt that they gradually shattered the once rock-solid and impenetrable structure of Islam.Canals, railways, banks, missionaries, schools, and newspapers form a backdrop that illustrates the cultural and intellectual awakening that took place among the Turks during the second half of the nineteenth century. The most famous leaders of this awakening are Ibrahim Shinasi, Namiq Kemar and Abdul Hamid Zia.These people do not agree on all issues, however, they do have some common experiences and do share some underlying principles.They have all lived in Western Europe, and they are deeply impressed not only by the material achievements of the West but also by Western thought and literature.They returned to Constantinople, determined to destroy what they now regarded as the tyranny of Persian classicism, which had long dominated Ottoman language and literature.They threw away the words and expressions of Persian and Arabic, and adopted the purer and simpler Turkish.They translated foreign works, especially French writers Garacine, La Fontaine, Rousseau, Montesquieu and Condorcet.They started the first independent Turkish newspaper; it had a limited circulation but had a wide readership in cafes and markets. These early reformers did not form a political party.At the time, the only real political parties in the Ottoman Empire were the "party in power" and the "party in opposition" that gathered around individual political leaders.By 1865, however, a fairly well-defined group of young writers inclined towards the West had formed around the newspaper "Mushbir", the Herald of Good News.The paper advocated, among other things, the introduction of some form of constitutional representative government.This was intolerable to the imperial regime, which banned the newspaper in 1867.Newspaper editors and their colleagues now found themselves in the same situation as Selim III in the early 19th century, when lack of popular support forced them to flee to Paris and London, where they continued their journalism and bashing of the Empire regime. At that time, a handful of Turkish statesmen had recognized that a comprehensive program of reform along the Western lines was essential to the survival of the empire.Prominent among them were Reshid Pasha (1802-1858) and Midhat Pasha (1802-1858), both of whom served as supreme ministers and issued many reform decrees. In May 1876, Midhat took advantage of a financial crisis at home and a revolution in the Balkans to force the abdication of Sultan Abdul Aziz.He then created a constitution that provided for an elected parliament, a bill of rights and an independent court system.The new Sultan Abdul Hamid II had to accept this constitution, however, he had no intention of abiding by it. In January 1877, he dismissed Midhat and expelled him from Constantinople.At the time, the only signs of protest were a few signs on the walls.The Turkish reformers still faced a mass inertia comparable to that which had crushed the Russian Decembrists in 1825.Thus, Abdul Hamid was able to rule as the unchallenged master of his empire for the remainder of the 19th century. During those decades, Abdul Hamid came to power by ruthlessly opposing the divisive forces of nationalism and constitutionalism.To this end, he prevented people from traveling and studying abroad, kept a large army of spies, and imposed strict censorship on the press.From time to time his agents drove out small groups of disaffected people; mostly intellectuals and officials, who usually fled to Paris for refuge.There they published periodicals and pamphlets critical of Hamid's dictatorship and are generally known in Western Europe as the Young Turks.The Turkish exiles were joined by revolutionary leaders of Abdul Hamid's various subordinate nationalities including Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Albanians, Kurds and Jews.Representatives of all these nationalities met in Paris in February 1902 in order to form a common front against the dictatorship.However, they soon discovered that they could not agree on any issue except that they did not like the Sultan.One group wanted Turk dominance and centralized rule, while another group favored a decentralized empire with full autonomy for subordinate peoples. While exiled intellectuals quarreled in Paris, the leaders of the reform-minded Turkish army were taking decisive steps to break the sultan's grip on the empire.Most of them had studied in the West or interacted with Western military delegations in the empire, so they had begun to understand that Sudan's rigid status quo policy was outdated and dangerous.They organized the "Ottoman Free Association", headquartered in Thessaloniki.Army officers formed the backbone of this group, but they were greatly aided by other groups, especially by the largest and wealthiest Jewish population in Thessaloniki.Free associations are organized into groups of 5, so each person knows only 4 members of the group.New entrants must be sponsored by a regular member and carefully observed during a probationary period.For the purposes of correspondence, each group had a "supervisor" who received orders from the Supreme Central Committee from the "supervisor" of the other group and which had to be passed on immediately.The association's activities were described as follows; The conspirators rebelled openly in July 1908, and there were two developments that forced their action.One development is the threat of foreign interference.British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Gray proposed the establishment of an autonomous Macedonian government in March 1908.At this time, all Turks, young and old, knew that autonomy was the prelude to independence.Later, it was announced that the British and Russian sovereigns would meet in Reval on June 10 to discuss Macedonian reforms.The organization in Thessaloniki, then called the Council of Unification and Progress, feared that the final result of the Reval meeting would be a partition of the Ottoman Empire, so it decided to act immediately. The committee telegraphed an ultimatum to the sultan, threatening to march on Constantinople if the 1876 constitution was not restored within twenty-four hours.The Council of State urged Abdul Hamid to agree to the ultimatum demand.The Shari'a authority, the highest religious and legal authority of the empire, refused to issue a judgment agreeing to suppress the rebels.Thus, on July 24, Abdul Hamid announced the restoration of the constitution.To make the most of the situation, he added that he had been in favor of constitutional government in the past, but had been led astray by the wicked local councilors.The British ambassador said: "I think the Sultan is the greatest comedian of our time, and unique, because he puts on such a posture in front of the public: he is a simple, loving father of the people, It's just that for 40 years they have been lied to by their advisers about the real aspirations of the people." News of the sultan's surrender was warmly welcomed by Christians and Turks, who hugged each other in the streets in ecstasy.Enver Pasha, leader of the Young Turks, said loudly; "There are no more Bulgarians, Greeks, Romans, Jews and Muslims. We are all brothers under the same blue sky. We are all equal and we are Ottomans for ourselves." And proud." The euphoric atmosphere didn't last long.The question of centralization and decentralization that had previously divided the émigrés in Paris must now be confronted as an urgent policy question rather than a theoretical one.Furthermore, the new leaders are often referred to as Young Turks, and conservatives distrust all Young Turks. The discord came to a head on April 12, 1909, when conservatives staged a counter-revolutionary campaign in Constantinople, seizing control of the capital.Gathering their forces in Macedonia, the Young Turks marched on Constantinople, captured the city after hours of fighting, and forced Abdul Hamid to abdicate despite his involvement in the coup. Complicity in the crime has not been proven.According to the new Sultan Muhammad V himself, he has not read a newspaper in 10 years.He thus acted as the docile puppet of the Young Turks, who by this time became the undisputed masters of Constantinople. In the years leading up to World War I they tried, with little success, to strengthen and modernize their empire.They tried to implement policies of centralization and Turkization, but the more they insisted on doing so, the more opposition they aroused.At this point it was too late to reject the irresistible awakening of the Albanians, Arabs, Greeks, Bulgarians and other subordinate peoples.Thus, the result is a vicious cycle of repression and resistance.The Albanians took up arms in 1910, and two years later the Balkan states formed a coalition against the Turks.At that time, Italy had also invaded the Tripolitania region of Africa in 1911.Thus, until 1914, when the Young Turks decided to share their fate with the Allies, they found themselves almost constantly at war. It is obvious that the Turks' efforts to adapt to the West have proved remarkably ineffective.Because of their religious and historical traditions, they were less susceptible to Western influence than the Russians, and it was for this reason that they ended up being more vulnerable to Western attack.They did not develop their own industry, therefore.Their armies have always depended on Western weapons as well as Western leaders.In fact, the Ottoman Empire survived until World War I because of the conflicting interests and policies of the great powers rather than because of its own strength.Its survival should not obscure the fact that the empire survived only with the grudging consent of the West, which was hopelessly inferior in political unity, economic development, and military might. The Arab peoples, like the Balkan Christians, were under Ottoman rule for four centuries.They do not see this rule as a heavy foreign yoke, as the Balkan Christians do.First, early Ottoman administration was efficient and generally acceptable.Arabs, like Muslims, think in Western theocratic rather than Western secular ways of thinking, they consider Turks not so much foreigners as fellow Muslims, and therefore feel that they are living in Among them the Muslim Ottoman Empire had a real close relationship.In modern times, this feeling has been heightened by the aggressiveness of Europeans; Europeans conquered the ancient Muslim kingdoms of North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia.面临如此可怕的威胁，阿拉伯人很自然地把土耳其人看作是保护卷土耳其人虽然在后期变得愈来愈腐败和暴虐，然而仍比异教徒好得多。这些原因说明了为什么阿拉伯人在感受西方影响和发展民族主义抱负方面远远地落后于巴尔干基督教徒。 西方对近代阿拉伯世界的影响，可以说从1798 年拿破仑率领侵略军在埃及登陆那一天就已开始。拿破仑的真正目标是打击英国在东方的地位，但是，在海军将领纳尔逊在亚历山大附近歼灭拿破仑的舰队以后，拿破仑放弃他的目标，回国了。不过他的远征对埃及有持久的影响，因为这不仅仅是一个军事事件。它也是西方对阿拉伯世界中心地区的一次文化入侵。拿破仑除了将解释古代象形文字的科学家和制订把地中海和红海连接起来的计划的工程师带到埃及外，还给埃及带来了第一台印刷机。有个阿拉伯学者曾参观由这些新来的人建立的一个实验室，法国科学家的影响就反映在他以下这番表示惊讶的话中： 拿破仑在他出征埃及的短暂时间里，还粉碎了埃及原有的统治阶级的权力。这为天才的阿尔巴尼亚冒险家穆罕默德·阿里当政铺平了道路。穆罕默德·阿里的历史意义在于他是第一个意识到西方技术的意义并有效地利用西方技术来为自己的目的服务的中东的统治者。他取得的成就很多，都是革命的。他开始兴修近代的灌溉系统；引进棉花的栽培，棉花迅速地成为国家最大的资源；重新开辟亚历山大港；鼓励对外贸易；派学生到国外去学习；开办各种学校，不过他自己是文盲；建立一所翻译学校，在1835至1848年间将大约2000本欧洲的著作译成阿拉伯语。穆罕默德·阿里还聘请外国专家帮助他建立中东第一支新式的陆海军。他甚至勇敢地试图在埃及建立一个近代化的工业结构，而且他的确在开罗和亚历山大兴建了大量的工厂。不过，这些企业最后由于国内的不足之处和欧洲诸强国的反对而失败。 这些成就使埃及转变为一个可怕的强国。穆罕默德不太费力地侵占了阿拉伯半岛、苏丹、克里特岛和包括今日巴勒斯坦、黎巴嫩及叙利亚在内的整个黎凡特海岸地区。这些征服提出了穆罕默德与他在君士坦丁堡的名义上的霸王马哈茂德苏丹之间的关系的问题。马哈茂德曾试图阻止穆罕默德沿黎凡特海岸扩张，但是，也很快就被决定性地打败了。实际上，只是外国的干涉才阻止了埃及军队开进君士坦丁堡去结束有50O年历史的奥斯曼王朝。同样，也正是外国的干涉阻止了穆罕默徳实现他似乎已考虑到的一个备用计划。这一计划是要在小亚细亚以南的奥斯曼地区创立一个阿拉伯帝国。穆罕默德已在进行中，因为他控制了大部分阿拉伯地区，包括一些圣城。但是，一个控制前往印度的路线的强大的阿拉伯帝国是与英帝国的利益相违背的。1833年3月21日，帕默斯顿勋爵对穆罕默德的野心作了如下的评论： 这意味着建立一个阿拉伯王国的任何可能性的结束。穆罕默德在外力强迫下不得不交出除埃及之外的所有属地；在埃及，他仍然是世袭的、自主的统治者。诸强国的利益使阿拉伯的统一和独立的实现延迟了一个多世纪。不过，应该指出，即使穆罕默德·阿里被允许实行他的计划，他原本能建立的也只是一个个人的帝国而不是一个统一的阿拉伯民族国。情况不可能不是这样，因为在19世纪初叶诸阿拉伯民族中间缺乏民族觉悟的观念。 由于拿破仑的远征和穆罕默德·阿里的极其巨大的努力，埃及在阿拉伯世界中成为西方思想的最重要的桥头堡。1870 年以后，包括当时的整个黎凡特海岸在内的叙利亚，作为西方影响的一个中心可与埃及相匹敌。一个原因是，叙利亚和欧洲之间的贸易日益繁荣，大量的叙利亚商人去国外从事商业活动，然后对国内的同胞施加同样的催化影响，就象巴尔干商人在早几十年时所做的那样。另一原因是主要由法国耶稣会会士和美国长老会教徒从事的广泛的传教、教育活动。到1865年，美国人已创办了叙利亚新教学院，这所学院后来作为贝鲁特美国大学而闻名整个中东。几年后，耶稣会会士在贝鲁特建立了圣约瑟夫大学。英格兰、苏格兰、德国和俄国的学校随后相继建立，不过它们的规模较小。这些学校培养阿拉伯学生，印刷和分发阿拉伯书籍。如此，叙利亚阿拉伯人重新发现了他们的过来，了解了西方的文学、思想意识和技术。 这种来自外界的刺激导致最早的阿拉伯民族主义的出现。开始时的领导人多半是基督教阿拉伯人，因为穆斯林直到较后的年代才进入教会学校。1860年，新教的一个皈依者布特鲁斯·布斯塔尼开始发行报纸《叙利亚号声报》。10年后，他建立了一家政治的、文学的和科学的杂志《盾》。这家杂志的箴言是“对我们国家的热爱是一种信仰”—一这种情感以往一向为阿拉伯世界所不知。 由于奥斯曼当局的镇压措施，布斯塔尼和其他最早的民族主义者不能公开地进行政治鼓动。因而，第一个被公认的政治活动，是1875 年新教学院的5个学生组织一个秘密的革命团体。他们制订了一个民族纲领，该纲领要求实现自治、出版自由和采用阿拉伯语作为官方语言。土耳其官员进行了调查，试图查出这一秘密团体的领导人员。后者惊恐起来，于1878年解散了他们的团体。然后，他们动身到埃及，因为帝国特务对埃及没有什么控制，那里的形势对有现代头脑的阿拉伯人来说更有希望。 克迪夫·伊斯梅尔从1863至1879年统治埃及，同穆罕默德·阿里一样野心勃勃。在他统治期间，铁路得到敷设，亚历山大港给扩大，苏伊士运河通航，近代银行建立，货币被稳定。外侨的人数从1836年的3000人增加到1878年的68000人，表明了新的经济机会。教育机构的巨大发展也同样重要。到1875年，创办宗教小学4685所，有学生111896人，创办宗教中学3所，有学生15335人，创办平民学校36所，有学生4778人，而开罗的历史悠久的爱资哈尔大学有来自穆斯林世界各地的学生15000人。 这种活动把叙利亚商人和受过西方教育的叙利亚知识分子吸引到埃及。后者出版可使埃及人熟悉法国和英国的自由主义的、科学的思潮的报刊杂志。同时，象形文字的解释、博物馆的建立、埃及学的发展，促进了埃及人对埃及古代历史的认识，促使埃及人对埃及的成就感到自豪。这种初期的民族主义由于西方对埃及的不断增长的支配而被进一步唤起。这种支配是强加的，因为伊斯梅尔在欧洲货币市场上借贷大笔的钱，导致了破产并最终导致了外来的军事干涉和统治。在伊斯梅尔统治的16 年间，长期借款从300万英镑上升到680O万英镑。这笔钱大部分用于建设性项目，但同时，埃及正遭到被恰当地称作“金融骗子”的人的无情掠夺。埃及人同土耳其人一样，不习惯于无耻的国际金融家的欺骗，受到残忍的剥削。例如，在建造亚历山大港时，英国承包人多收费80% 左右。贷款通常的利息为6％或7%，然而，提供给各处的埃及人时，利息在12 % 至27%之间。 到1876 年，伊斯梅尔已破产，不得不接受一个国际的“公债委员会”。这一机构努力使所有的债务得到迅速的偿付，但是，埃及在这过程中被榨尽血汗。1877年的总收入达9543000英镑，其中7473000英镑必须用于偿还债务，另外一部分钱必须用来履行固定的义务，如每年向苏丹交纳的贡金。只有10O万英镑多一点的钱留作国家的行政管理之用，这笔钱显然是不够的。 在这些情况下，一次民族主义的起义于1882年在埃及军官艾哈迈德·阿拉比的领导下爆发。这次起义一方面是反对外国对埃及事务的干涉，一方面是反对埃及总督与垄断了军队和官僚机构中的所有高级职位的土耳其寡头政治集团。在亚历山大出现一些骚乱和伤亡之后，英国先后邀请法国和意大利来共同干涉起义。干涉的目的显然是为了支持埃及总督反对起义者。当英国的提议遭到拒绝时，英国开始独自行动。一支英国舰队于1882年7月炮击亚历山大要塞，两个月后，一支远征军在埃及登陆，击败阿拉比。 当时，首相格莱斯顿宣称，无限期占领“与陛下的政府的所有原则和观点是绝对地不相符的”。但是，陛下即维多利亚女王本人却持有不同的意见。几个月后，她写道：“女王极力希望，有人能说没有什么可束缚或妨碍我们在埃及的行动；我们必须一劳永逸地牢牢控制住埃及。”正是这种观点占了上风。远征军留下成为占领军。埃及名义上仍然是土耳其的一个省，但英国这时在各个方面——在经济、政治和军事上控制了埃及。 这些事件自然在埃及激起强烈的仇外情绪，但是，它们针对的与其说是土耳其人，不如说是西方人。当时，只有少数基督教阿拉伯领袖希望摆脱君士坦丁堡。穆斯林群众基本上仍然是冷漠的，而少数有政治觉悟的穆斯林想要的只不过是奥斯曼帝国结构内的自治。 随着1908年青年土耳其党的起义，这一愿望看来会得到满足。阿拉伯人同帝国的其他民族一样，热情欢迎这一起义。叙利亚的一位传教士对民众的喜悦作了如下报道：“穆斯林的普遍的声音是，'现在，我们都是兄弟，我们能平平安安过日子。今后，我们将仅仅作为奥斯曼人而互相认识。自由万岁！军队万岁！苏丹万岁！'这似乎好得叫人难以相信，我们这里数星期来，外国人和叙利亚人一样，似乎生活在一场梦中。黄金时代似乎正开始出现。” 这种开端证明是虚假的。青年土耳其党领袖很快就采取严厉的土耳其化的措施，不顾一切地试图团结整个帝国来反对外来的军事侵略和内部的民族主义者的颠覆。阿拉伯人蒙巴尔干基督教徒那样，对这种抑制不满。1908年，贝鲁特的一家报纸厉害地评论道： 然而，大多数阿拉伯人仍渴望自治而不是渴望独立。例如，在巴黎的穆斯林阿拉伯学生于1909年11月14日建立了一个秘密团体，称为“青年阿拉伯协会”，其更为人所熟知的名字是al-Fatat（青年），它在阿拉伯民族主义运动中起了领导作用。它的目标是要在以奥匈帝国的方式成立的土耳其和阿拉伯两种族的奥斯曼帝国的范围内实现阿拉伯自治。1913年10月，另一秘密的阿拉伯团体“盟约”在伊斯坦布尔成立。其成员大多是奥斯曼军队中的阿拉伯军官，其纲领几乎与巴黎那个团体的纲领完全相同。 第一次世界大战爆发以前大多数阿拉伯人的情结就是如上所述。然后，青年土耳其党领袖作出与同盟国共命运的决定，一下子改变了形势，加速了一系列事件的连锁反应；这些事件终至成为1916年反对长达数世纪之久的土耳其统治的阿拉伯大起义。 应该提到，埃及以西的北非地区到第一次世界大战时已受到欧洲的直接统治。远在16世纪，土耳其人已将他们的统治扩展到除遥远的摩洛哥之外的这些地区。如果根据诸如“中东”和“远东”之类的西方流行的用法，注意到穆斯林称摩洛哥为“al—Maghrib al-opa”即“远西”，相反地称北非剩下的地区——的黎波里塔尼亚、突尼斯和阿尔及利亚为“al—Maghrib”即“西方”，那是很有趣的。在大约一个世纪的时间里，土耳其人从君士坦丁堡派出总督，直接统治了上述三个地区。然后，当奥斯曼力量衰落时，这些遥远的地区随着世袭王朝的出现而成为完全自治的，不过它们继续承认土耳其苏丹的宗主权，并在需要时提供海军部队。 北非这些政权的黄金时期是在16 和17世纪，那时，他们在地中海劫掠基督教船舶。但是，到18世纪时，穆斯林私掠船愈来愈受到欧洲舰队的不断增茂的技术优势的妨碍。从前繁荣的阿尔及尔城的人口急剧地下降，而它的基督教俘虏的人数在1830年法国入侵时也从过去最多时期30000名下降到仅仅100名。 法国入侵的主要目的是用一个军事胜利来支撑查理十世的摇摇欲坠的王位。软弱的土耳其军队被轻易地击溃，但是，法国君主仍然在此后不久被废黜。他的后继者路易·菲力普经过一番踌躇之后，决定保持新获得的北非属地。这就使平定土著阿尔及利亚人的长期的、残忍的战役成为必需，因为阿尔及利亚人比为数不多的土耳其驻军进行了猛烈得多的反抗。一旦法国人在阿尔及利亚安身下来，他们将自己的控制扩展到两边的国家就只是一个时间问题。他们于1881 年和1912年先后接管了突尼斯和摩洛哥。在每种情况下，这一个过程涉及到的与其说是军事力量，不如说是外交手腕，这与先前在阿尔及利亚的较粗暴的做法完全不同。法国新获得的国家享有的不是被征服地的地位，而是法律上的保护国的地位；这意味着法国的控制是间接的，不过，不是那么非决定性的。最后，欧洲对阿拉伯北非的猛攻于1911年随着意大利对的黎波里塔尼亚的入侵而结束。正如在阿尔及利亚一样，土耳其驻军被轻易地击败，但是，在意大利统治牢固地确立以前，需要对土著抵抗力量进行长期的斗争。 当这些事件在阿拉伯世界发生时，同样重要的发展正在邻近的波斯出现。我们在第三章中已看到，17世纪初叶，波斯在沙·阿拔斯一世统治下达到的伟大的顶点可与奥斯曼帝国在苏里曼一世统治下达到的伟大的顶点相比。然后，波斯陷入软弱无能、默默无闻的状态，经历了又与土耳其人的衰落相似的衰落。波斯也未曾遇到过让外界影响使沉闷的气氛变得活跃的拿破仑远征、活动范围广阔的叙利亚商人和大量的外国传教士。因而，1887至1888年居留在波斯的一位英国学者在那里发现了早救世纪已在西方消失的一种类型的世界： 然而，大约正是在19 世纪后期的这一时候，波斯开始明显地受到无所不在的西方的影响。这种影响的根源和性质通常与在土耳其人中间的影响的根源和性质相似。最初是试图借用西方的军事技术，这转而又需要更大的中央集权和一个新的官僚机构。传统的穆斯林宗教学校（即madaris）显然不能提供可以充当新官僚机构的官员的毕业生，更不用说提供可以充当新军队的军官的毕业生了。因此，学生们给派到国外，而种种西方式的新学校在波斯得到建立。渐渐地，出现一批知识分子，他们对西方的物质进步印象很深，希望把西方的制度和习惯做法引进自己的祖国。 19 世纪后期，由于西方的不断加强的经济入侵和剥削，这一小批知识分子能在城市里唤起群众的相当的支持。早在1828年，俄国人就已获得与后来强加于中国的领事裁判权相似的治外法权。欧洲大部分强国迅速地仿效俄国交替自己的国民弄到特别权利。波斯国王为了增加供他们恣意挥霍的资金，愿意将垄断特许权授予外国人；这一点促进了上述过程。波斯卡扎尔王朝最能干的一位统治者是纳绥尔丁国王，1848至1896年在位。然而，甚至他也发现，要为他在国外的花费很大的旅行筹措资金，就必需允许外国人开设银行、发行钞票、敷设铁路和享有出售烟草及其他商品的专利权。1896年，这位波斯国王遭暗杀，表明人们对这些做法极为反感。这一暗杀没有解决什么问题，因为继任的统治者不大能干，同样地奢侈，并乐于将自己的国家出卖给出价最高的人。 到1905 年，波斯的形势就是如此；那时，先后传来了俄国在满洲遭到失败和俄国内部出现巨大的革命高潮的消息。由于相当数量的波斯学生在俄国的大学里上学、数量大得多的波斯工人受雇于外高加索的油田和工厂，这些富有戏剧性的发展对波斯产生重要的影响。1910年，驻圣彼得堡的波斯领事估计，每年有不少于20万的农业季节工人转入俄国。这些劳工不可避免地受到震撼当代俄国工人阶级的那些革命运动的影响。因而，1905年的激动人心的事件不仅在国西方侵犯而惊恐的波斯宗教领袖中间引起了反应，而且在波斯的许多工人和知识分子中间引起了反应。 一阵罢工和骚乱的浪潮席卷波斯，直到波斯国王于1906年7月同意免去他的不得人心的首相的职务、召集一次国民议会即波斯议会为止。第一届波斯议会于1906年10月在德黑兰召开，制订了一个自由主义的宪法，波斯国王在两个月后即他临死前签署了这一宪法。新的统治者、反动的穆罕默德·阿里国王决定废止这一宪法，但是，他有已觉醒的大众要由他照管。近代以来，波斯第一次正在为一个有真正的群众追随者的改革运动所震撼。由于在外国人手下蒙受的耻辱和遭受的剥削，这一运动是强烈地民族主义的、反西方的。一个消息灵通的英国观察者对波斯改革者的动机因素和目的作了如下描述： 因而，改革者们采取西方的政治策略和口号，不顾一切地努力反抗西方的侵略。但是，他们的努力是注定要失败的，因为在第一次世界大战前的这一时期中，维持现状的势力太强大了。沙皇时代的俄国国明显的原因而坚决地反对改革者，并坚定地支持波斯国王反对波斯议会。英国有矛盾心理：对温和的改革者有好感，可是，不赞成革命的或反王朝的活动。如果这两个强国互相牵制，改革者原可能有一个经过努力获得成功的机会。但是，当俄国和英国缔结1907 年的协议时，这一微弱的可能性消失了。协议条款之一指定波斯的北部和中部为俄国的势力范围，波斯的东南部为英国的势力范围，介于它们之间的地区为中立的缓冲地带（见第二十章第一节）。不用说，关于这些安排，俄、英两国没有同波斯人协商过。在1907年10月2日一期《笨拙报》上发表的一幅漫画恰当地表现了波斯人的反应。画上描绘英国狮子和俄国熊正在粗暴地对待它们之间的一头不幸的波斯猫，狮子在说：“你能玩弄它的脑袋，我能玩弄它的尾巴，我们两个都能抚摩它的腰背部，”而可怜的猫呻吟着说：“我不记得你们和我商量过这件事。” 猫的确进行过勇敢的战斗，但是完全无用。当时，波斯的主要军事力量是由俄国人训练和指挥的哥萨克旅。1908年6月，这支军队按照波斯国王的命令，解散波斯议会，击溃它在德黑兰的支持者。但是，第二年，巴赫蒂亚里部落民向德黑兰进军，占领首都，废黜波斯国王，让他的12岁的儿子继位。这时，波斯的真正统治者——波斯议会邀请美国财政顾问W· 摩根·舒斯特前来帮助补救经济创伤。舒斯特组织了一支国库宪兵队去收集赋税，并部署了一系列广泛的改革，但是，他激起了有影响的波斯人和俄国人的对抗。后者要求驱逐舒斯特，经过一次力量的显示之后，于1911年11月迫使波斯议会解除舒斯特的职务。第二月，波斯议会突然被解散，从那时直到第一次世界大战爆发为止，波斯几乎一直为俄国所支配。