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CONSTANTINOPLE


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CONSTANTINOPLE


British fleet threatened the city, which was courage- ously defended by Sultan Selim III and the French ambassador, General Sebastiani. In 1854 Anglo- French armies encamped at Constantinople before and after the Crimean expedition against Russia. In 1878 the Russians advanced to San Stefano, a little vilLage in the European suburbs, and dictated there the treaty of that name. In 1821 the Greek patriarch, Gregory V, with many bishops and laymen, was hanged on the occasion of the outbreak of the Greek War for Independence. In 1895-1896 the capital, as well as the provinces, saw many Armenians massacred by the Kurds, with the complicity, or rather by order of the Government. Even the dreadful physical catastrophes of former times have been renewed; great conflagrations in 1864 and 1870 destroyed entire quarters at Stamboul and Pera. In the latter place many thousands of lives were lost (most of the houses are built of timber). In 1894 an earthquake laid low a great part of the Bazaar and killed several thousand persons. The city is now undergoing a slow process of cleansing; it is lit by gas, and there are some tramways in its streets, most of which are still very narrow and dirty, and are at all times obstructed by vagrant dogs. A cable rail- way joins Galata to Pera.

National and Religious St.\tistics. — The popu- lation, we have already said, is (1908) at least 1,000,- 000, perhaps 1,200.000; Turkish statistics are very uncertain. The Turks seem to form about three- fifths of this population. There are more than 2000 mosques, near which are generally found elementary schools for boys and even for girls; often also me- dressehs or Mussulman theological schools. The tekkcs are Mussulman monasteries for dervishes of various orders. Superior instruction is given at the Lyceum of Galata Seraglio. It has about 1200 pupils (mostly Mussulmans), and instruction is given in both Turkish and French. Efforts are being made to transform this college into a university. There are also about 20 secondary schools, a university of law, a school of medicine, military schools, and other pro- fessional and special schools. The libraries annexed to the great mosques contain precious Eastern manu- scripts. There are many Turkish hospitals, several of which are in charge of Catholic Sisters of Charity, an asylum for the poor, a Pasteur institute, and other charitable foundations. The Persian Mussulmans, generally Shiites, have their own religious organiza- tion, with a hospital at Stamboul, conducted by Sis- ters of Charity. The Jewish population increases rapidly, and is of two kinds: the Spanish Jews who came to Turkey in the sixteenth century when ex- pelled from Spain, and still speak a bad Spanish; others, who came and still come from Russia, Ru- mania, Austria, Germany, etc. The latter often ob- tain good situations; not so the former, whose social status is low and unhappy. There is also among the Jews of the city a diversity of rites, synagogues, schools, and works of beneficence. The Christians seem to number over 300,000. If we except an insig- nificant body of Jacobites and their bishop, the rest may be divided as Monophysites, Protestants, Ortho- dox Greeks, and Catholics. The Monophysites are Armenians, who call them.selves Gregorians, after their apostle, St. Gregory Illuminator. They number about 100,000, with a patriiirrh i.si.l, nt a't Ivumi- Kapou (Stamboul), many cliuiclirs. :,:; cli-nientary ■schools, 2 colleges, a large charilnlilc cstMblisluncnt at W'di-Kouleh, etc.

Prot(!stantism is represented by English, American, German, and other foreign colonies, also by about one thousand Armenian converts. Its chief institutions, apart from several churches, are the Bible house at Stamboul with its bran'/.ies (hoines for sailors and foreign girls), Robert College a. Rumeli-Hi.ssar on the Bosporus (a large American school founded in


1863, with about 600 pupils), and a high school for girls at Scutari. There are also some elementary Protestant schools and a special mission for the Jews, finally an English and a German hospital. The Schismatic Greeks who call themselves Orthodox, number about 150,000, some thousands of whom are Hellenes, i. e. subjects of the Kingdom of Greece. The oecumenical patriarch, who resides in the Fanar (Greek quarter, along the Golden Horn), is the bishop of the diocese (there are raetropolites at Kadi-Keui and at Makri-Keui, the latter with the title of Derki). He is aided in the administration of his office by the Great Protosyncellus. There are 40 parishes, 12 of which are first class, 11 second class, and 17 third class. The principal churches prefer instead of a simple priest, a titular bishop or chorepiscopus : they are five in number. Recent statistics show 72 schools, 64 of which give elementary and middle, and 8 supe- rior teaching. Among the higher schools are included the so-called Great National School in the Fanar (said to date from the Middle Ages), the commercial and theological schools at Halki, etc. The theologi- cal school is a seminary for future bishops of the Greek Church. These Greek schools have 398 teach- ers and 13,217 pupils; the elementary schools have 10,665 pupils, and the superior schools 2562. We may add that many Greek boys and girls, also Armen- ians, are taught in foreign schools, chiefly in those of the French religious congregations and at Robert College. The Greeks have a large charitable estab- lishment at Balekli and an orphanage. Quite impor- tant also are their various associations (xyoihgi), the principal one being the important learned body known as the Literary Greek Society, with a rich library. The libraries of the Metochion, of the Holy Sepulchre, and the theological school at Halki are also remarkable for their manuscripts. For the general organization of the Greek Schismatics, see Greek Church. The Russians have at Constantinople 3 monasteries, a school, a hospital, and an archaeological institute, with a rich library. The Serbs and Rumanians have also their national establishments. There are in the capital about 15,000 Bulgarians. They are consid- ered schismatics by the Clreek Church, from which they have completely separated. Their exarch, who has jurisdiction over all native Bulgarians and those of European Turkey, resides at Chichli (pronounced shishli), where there are also a seminary, a school, and a hospital for Bulgarians. His cathedral is at Balata, Stamboul.

Catholic Life and St.\tistics. — The Catholics in- clude those of the Roman or Latin Rite, and others of Eastern rites often called Uniats. Among the latter, the Catholic Armenians deserve most attention; they mmiber about 5000. Their patriarch resides at Pera, and to their special organization belong: 6 elementary and 3 middle schools, also a large charitable establish- ment for orphans and for poor or sick people. They have four congregations conducted as follows: The Mechitarists of Vienna have 2 residences, 19 monks; the Mechitarists of Venice, 1 residence, 8 monks; the Antonines, 1 residence, 8 monks; Sisters of the Im- maculate Conception, 3 residences, about 100 nuns. The Mclchites or Arabic-speaking Syrians of Byzantine Rite have a church with .3 i)ricsts. one of whom acts as vicar of his patriarch for all affairs of the "nation" tliat onme before the Sublime Porte. The Catholic )iatri.[rchs of tile Chaldeans and the Syrians are simi- larly represented by vicars to whom are subject the few faithful of their rites present in the city. The Calliolic Greeks, few in number as yet, are subject to the .\pos((ilie delegate; they have two parishes, at Kouni-Ka|inu (Stamboul) and Kadi-Keui, conducted by the Assuinptionists, and a mission at Pera, con- d'ucted by the Fathers of the Holy Trinity. The former have also missions for the Greeks at CiEsarea in Cappadocia and at Peraraos in the Peninsula of