Chapter IX · (continued 2)

“I asked him to tell me how it all came about, and he said it was from his having interfered to save the lives of the Christians at Tantah. He had gone into Tantah that morning thinking of nothing, and when he saw the people being killed he had lost his temper and laid about him with his stick to stop them, and he had expostulated with the Mudir, and he had taken 150 of the people, Syrians, Jews, or Greeks, to his country house, and had kept them at his own cost during the war. The people who had got up the riot were Ibrahim Adhem and his wakil, Mehariz, who is now Mudir. These two were solely answerable for it. He had heard of Osman Rafaat’s coming to Tantah, but had not seen him. I asked him about Abu Diab. ‘Wallah!’ he said, ‘if there was one innocent in the world it was Abu Diab.’ I then tried to get out of him what his political views were. But he was very cautious, after the manner of his people. ‘If,’ he said, ‘you were to take an ox or a camel or an ape, or even a hare, and give it to the Egyptians as their Governor, they would be grateful and loyal to it. Before the war we loved the English, but we do not love them now. They have destroyed us, and they have given us to those who have no mercy.’ After much pressing, I got out of him that he would like Abbas with a regent, Riaz, or, if it were possible, Arabi. He said Riaz because he would keep order, but Arabi the people would like far better. He did not wish Ismaïl. He should have no objection to Halim. But any one would be acceptable so long as Tewfik went away. I urged him to come to England to give evidence, and he said he would, but what was he to do with the family? His family was here, and he had no friend to leave them with. I fear he is a rather helpless ally. Still we must make what use of him we can, and he is to come again on Monday.

“2nd Nov., Sunday.—By steamer to Roumeli Hissar to have luncheon with Halim Pasha, and take leave. But we unfortunately missed the boat, and did not get there till nearly two o’clock. The Princess is certainly a very charming person, and still a pretty woman. She gave us luncheon in the kiosk in the garden, a very handsome room. Some Turkish dishes, among others one of chicken with walnut sauce. Afterwards I had a long talk with Halim. Explained to him how the war had been brought about, and Mr. Gladstone’s desire to be rid of Egypt, and begged him to further my design of bringing forward now the charges against the Khedive, by sending Ismaïl Jowdat and Mustafa Bey to England. And he promised to send them and to get them to agree with Minshawi not to quarrel. At going away I said to the Prince: ‘I suppose it is understood between us that if Your Highness returns to Egypt, Arabi is to return too.’ He said: ‘You may count upon it. I have never had any other idea, and I only regret that I have not been able sooner to put myself in direct communication with him. All the exiles shall be recalled.’ I like Halim more the more I see him. He is plain spoken and direct in all he says.

“His Beatitude Stephen Peter X, Monseigneur Azarian, Patriarch of the Catholic Armenians, called on us. He is a dignified and intelligent man, to whom we had brought letters from Madame Volodkowich; and he told us in detail the Armenian situation. The desire of the Catholic Armenians was to have such a government as that of the Lebanon. They did not want to be separated from the Porte, as their greatest danger was absorption by Russia. But the administration had become worse than it had ever been, and the people would bear it no longer. With regard to the Kurds, he said they were much less fanatical than the Turks, and the accounts of their misdeeds were very much exaggerated. He was sure that, if they had a government like that of the Lebanon, they would all live together very peaceably. The Turkish Government favoured the Catholics, as they did not conspire with Russia, which the Orthodox did. But even these did not wish Armenia to be absorbed by Russia.

“Of the Sultan he gave the most favourable account I have yet heard. He says that he has known personally four Sultans, and Abdul Hamid is far the best of them, and perhaps the best Sultan there ever was. He is a good man, and works hard to know everything concerning his country, and is most intelligent. He has no vices, has few women, neither drinks nor amuses himself, and is severely economical. He has no debts, paying everything, down to the last detail of his household, every Thursday. He knew this as the Sultan’s accountant is an Armenian Catholic. Only, all his servants are bad, and he trusts no one. The Government of the Porte is worse than it ever was, a mere den of corruption, and it is impossible that a catastrophe is not impending. The Greeks in Roumelia are all members of secret societies, and so are the Syrians, and one of these days it will occur. The finance will break down, for nobody is paid and the people are all coming to beggary. Everything can be bought. The new Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem is a man whose name stands first on the list of those dangerous to the Empire, as he is a head centre of Pan-slavism. Yet he procured his nomination by spending money. All was going to ruin, and would go to ruin. He, the Patriarch, was sorry for it. A worthy old man. Peace be with His Beatitude.

“3rd Nov.—Our first visitor was Ahmed Minshawi, from whom we got additional details, and I have drawn up a statement of the evidence he is prepared to give, which will be most valuable.[90] As he gets more confidence his face lights up, and he acquires even a certain eloquence. He reminds me every now and then of Arabi, typical fellahin both. He was driven away by the arrival of Doctor Dickenson. [Here follows Doctor Dickenson’s account of the death of Abdul Aziz, which has been related previously in my ‘Secret History,’ see pages 52 to 55.] Dr. Dickenson is a very precise old gentleman, and the sort of witness whose evidence would be accepted by any jury in the world. I therefore entirely believe his account. Midhat and Damad, he told us, died in chains at Taïf, some months ago, having been starved to death. Midhat’s end was hastened by a carbuncle, but he was none the less made away with. The Sheykh el Islam has also recently died there who gave the fetwa authorizing Abdul Aziz’s deposition. This act of terror has given Abdul Hamid the absolute power he now holds.

“We went to the Russian Embassy again to say good-bye, and see some horses given by the Sultan to Nélidof. The horses are of no great account, a chestnut and a gray worth £50 or £60 a piece.

“Coming back we found Mustafa Bey, and we have arranged that he is to encourage Minshawi, and when we telegraph come with him to England and give his evidence. Ismaïl Jowdat also came in. We wrote out a procès verbal for Minshawi to sign. What I intend to do is to invite Mr. Gladstone to examine the evidence privately, or appoint Trevelyan or somebody of equivalent integrity to examine it. If he refuses I shall do it publicly. Ismaïl Jowdat will come at once with us to England.

“While we were talking, Aarif Bey came in with a message from Ahmed Bey to the effect that they had been afraid to present my request of an audience to the Sultan; but that they had spoken of my wish to see the horses, etc., and that the Sultan had been most gracious, and would send an aide-de-camp to-morrow to show us over the stables and the palace. I confess the story did not sound to me quite coherent, and Selim Faris, who looked in later, tells me that he has just been to the palace, and that the true account of it is that Munir did give my letter to the Sultan, but that he wishes to put off on others the responsibility of not answering it, that he is as usual undecided, and would like to find out a little more about me first, and he will probably send an aide-de-camp on purpose to report concerning me to-morrow. He will see me later if I will only wait. But I can’t wait. The Sultan asked Zaffir about me on Friday, but Zaffir pretended he had never heard of me. This invitation to the palace and stables is at any rate a proof that he is not ill-disposed, and we must make the most of it. The idea of the palace at present is that nothing new will come on in Egypt till next summer, and he thinks if I come back then I shall be able to do a great deal. Perhaps he is right. In any case we shall not have wasted our time here.

“Our last visitor was Mr. de Leon, formerly American Consul-General at Cairo, now agent of a company for making a ship-railway over the isthmus of Akaba. The scheme seems to me chimerical from the fact that Suez is a far easier, shorter, and more direct route.

“4th Nov.—Ismaïl Jowdat came in the morning, having written out the evidence given us by Minshawi in Arabic for him to sign. But Minshawi did not appear till too late, for we had to go out at a quarter to one to the old Seraglio, where the Sultan had appointed an aide-de-camp to meet us and show us everything. This Serai is a delightful old place, and the position the finest, without exception, in the world. By good luck the aide-de-camp on duty was old Vefyk Pasha’s son, an extremely nice, intelligent young man, who knew the history of the various Sultans well, and so was able to explain us everything. We were received in State and conducted round by the whole staff of the Palace. The Treasury is full of interesting things which belong to the domain of Murray. But what was to me most attractive was the series of effigies of the Sultans dressed in their actual clothes. This recalls past glories better than anything else could do. Mahmud’s miserable hussar jacket closes the series, but there are lower depths still since, left unrepresented. The young man confessed himself ashamed of his wretched uniform and fez, a rare instance of good taste in a modern Oriental. In the kiosk we drank the Sultan’s coffee, which I confess I only sipped, remembering its fatal name. The Dolmabakji to which we were next taken is without interest inside, and we were disappointed of our promised visit to the stables, as the Sultan was having the horses paraded at the Yildiz Palace in order to choose one for an Ambassador. At least such was the excuse given—but I half suspect they were afraid of our criticism. The visit to the palaces is, however, a proof of the Sultan’s goodwill, and when I thanked the young man and gave him a message of thanks to the Sultan he told me that they all knew of me as a defender of Islam and a friend.

“Selim Faris, who came in the evening, tells me it was Musurus (the Turkish Ambassador in London) who set the Sultan against me, telling him that I was seeking to found an Arabian Empire; but he is now undeceived. He advises me to write a memorandum of my ideas to the Sultan.

“5th Nov.—Ahmed Minshawi came and signed his evidence (see Appendix). Mustafa Bey Nejdi also called, and then Count Corti, to wish us goodbye, and we went on board the French steamer, having spent three weeks at Constantinople, an interesting visit, though our main object of seeing the Sultan remained unachieved. It was a dark evening with a huge bank of black clouds to the north, signs of winter in the Black Sea, when we steamed out of the Golden Horn and passed Seraglio point and the city walls on our way home. Ismaïl Jowdat goes with us.

“6th Nov.—Really there never was such good fortune. On board there is an acquaintance of Ismaïl’s, Mohammed Assad Bey, Muteserif of Candia, on his way to his post, uncle-in-law of our friend Aarif Bey. He is by birth one of the hereditary Kurdish chiefs, but exiled at the age of seventeen (he is now fifty-seven) on account of his father’s rebellion—a most interesting man. He has been many years in Crete, and has seen many changes in the Empire, all for the worse. He lamented the quarrels between England and Islam, which he attributed to its true causes, first, the obstinacy of the Porte in effecting no reforms, and secondly, the dishonesty of England in regard to Egypt. In regard to the latter, he said what they all say and to which there is no answer, that the English caused misgovernment in Egypt so as to have an excuse for taking it. He said that all his life he had been accustomed to respect Englishmen as men of just dealing, but they were changed and he respected them no more. If he had not seen Ismaïl Jowdat with us, he should not have cared to make our acquaintance. From having the best reputation in the East the English had now the worst. About his own country, Kurdistan, he talked much in the sense that Aarif had done—only he seemed to see less hope in the trouble which was coming. The Russians he said were very busy stirring up the Christian Armenians, and the thing would break out in the spring. It would begin with the Armenians, then the Kurds would take up arms in self-defence. There would be stories of bloodshed and massacre greatly exaggerated, and the Russians would take it as a pretext for intervention. The Turks had about 150,000 Nizams in Asia Minor, and the Kurds could put a far greater number under arms. But he augured ill for the result. The Russians wanted Mesopotamia and Bagdad and Bussora. The Turks could fight well, but they had no leader. All the Turkish commanders were corrupt and selfish, and they would be bribed again by the Russians. I asked him who was the natural Kurdish leader, and he said: ‘There are several hundred Kurds in the Custom House at Galata. Yesterday, when I passed through, they all bowed.’ His elder brother, however, would seem to be the man, and this agrees with Aarif’s account. Obeidallah is the religious chief only. In the evening Ismaïl Jowdat gave a full account of all he knew in connection with Arabi and the events of 1881. [The substance of what I learned from him is embodied in his statement (see Appendix).]

“12th Nov.—We arrived without incident at Marseilles and went on immediately to Paris.”