It has already been stated that in 1820 throughout the Turkish empire there was practically no modern education. The few schools which did exist were almost entirely ecclesiastical, maintained for the purpose of teaching a few men to conduct religious services. This was largely true of all schools, whether Armenian, Greek, or Turkish. Nowhere in the country were there schools for girls, the idea prevailing generally that girls could not learn to read, even if they were worth educating. The great mass of the people were unable either to read or to write. Ignorance even in the capital was dense, but it was much greater in the interior cities and towns. Often a large group of villages possessed not one person who could write or read a letter.

Argument is not required to show that no real reform could be introduced into the country without inaugurating some system of education. There must be produced readers and a literature if the intellectual and moral life of the people was to be raised. If the old Gregorian Church was to become enlightened in its belief and practise, there must be educated leaders as well as an intelligent laity. For this reason the missionaries began with an effort to awaken the intellects of the people. The Lancasterian schools that were so popular for a period in the capital had their value and exerted a good influence. The school of Pashtimaljian sprang from the aroused desire of the people for education and the conviction of the leaders of the Church that only educated leaders could be wisely trusted and followed. There were other schools supported and directed by the Armenians themselves, but springing largely from the persistent effort of the missionaries. Until 1839 it was hoped that all the work of modern education among the Armenians would be carried on by the Armenians themselves, so that the missionaries need not open schools of any kind.

As the zealous ecclesiastics became more and more suspicious, restrictive measures were applied. It was observed that those who studied in the schools were among the leaders seeking to reform the errors which were destroying the spiritual influence of the Church. It soon became evident to the missionaries that they must take a direct part in the work of education. In 1840 Bebek Seminary for training the young men was opened. The head of this school was Cyrus Hamlin, who the year before had arrived at Constantinople, designated to this work. He was a man of rare qualifications for the task assigned him, knowing no fear, never disheartened in the face of insuperable obstacles, of tireless industry, practical wisdom and unbounded resourcefulness and devotion to the cause to which he had given his life.

The seminary at Bebek was begun just as the persecution of the evangelicals at the capital was becoming acute. Early in his career Dr. Hamlin was impressed with the fact that the school must succeed in the face of direct opposition from Russia. During his first year in the mission, while he was learning the Armenian language, his teacher was suddenly seized at the order of the Russian ambassador and deported to Siberia. Dr. Hamlin and Dr. Schauffler repaired to the Russian embassy and protested against the high-handed proceeding. The ambassador haughtily replied, “My master, the emperor of Russia, will never allow Protestantism to set its foot in Turkey.” Dr. Schauffler, bowing low to the ambassador, gave the reply which has become historic, “Your excellency, the kingdom of Christ, who is my Master, will never ask the emperor of all the Russias where it may set its foot.” From that day to this, the covert as well as open opposition of Russia to missionary work in Turkey and, most especially, to all educational work, has been unremittingly experienced. Consistently has Russia adhered to the policy thus outlined and the opposition from that source to-day is as bitter as at any other period.

Dr. Hamlin threw himself into the work of the seminary with all his intense and resourceful energy. Thwarted at a hundred points, he immediately changed his plans and appeared even to his persecutors to have gained the victory. For twenty years the work proceeded with emphasis upon industries when industrial persecutions were crushing the people, but always strenuous, and always supremely Christian and evangelical. He saw that a vernacular training was not sufficient for the full equipment of the young men under his care to prepare them for positions of largest leadership. The Jesuit schools taught their pupils French so that all their graduates knew a European language. As yet the Armenian literature was very circumscribed and most inadequate to meet the intellectual and spiritual requirements of intelligent directors of a great national reform movement.

This was the opinion of Dr. Hamlin, shared, as he felt, by the great mass of the Armenian people. But he was not fully sustained in it by his colleagues in the mission. The American Board, under the leadership of its secretary, Dr. Anderson, had declared as its policy that mission schools should not teach English or any other language than the vernacular to their pupils. To Dr. Hamlin this seemed such a backward step that he resigned from the Board and began to work and plan for higher education among young men. The story of the building of the now famous Robert College under an imperial irade from the sultan, and upon the most commanding site along the entire length of the Bosporus, is now so well known that it need not be repeated.

The college became a reality and the scheme of education conceived by Dr. Hamlin and carried out in Robert College represented, within forty years of the time of his resignation from the Board, the fundamental policy of all the higher educational work in the empire carried on in both missionary and independent institutions. For nearly a generation, however, in mission schools little was done in European languages, and most of the education given was imparted through the spoken language of the people.

As early as 1836, four years before the seminary at Bebek was begun, a high school was opened in Beirut in which both Arabic and English were taught. This school was apparently a great success, but four years later the pupils, because of their practical knowledge of English, became so useful to the English officers, then quartered in Beirut on account of political troubles, that the school was broken up. No doubt this unfortunate experience had much influence in leading the Board to endeavor to exclude English from mission schools. In 1848, a seminary upon the purely vernacular basis was opened in Beirut with a view to training its students for useful service among their own people. This school was continued until the change in policy by the Board and the mission, when the English language again took its place in the curriculum.

Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the place of English in the educational system of Turkey, there was practical unanimity in the belief that reform in the empire demanded the creation and maintenance of a system of schools which should include all grades, beginning with the primary. It was necessary to begin with the most rudimentary teaching before higher institutions could be sustained. The seminaries already referred to were not by any means colleges. They taught many studies of the lowest grades. As most of the pupils were mature in years, they made speedy progress and often astonished their teachers by their rapid advancement and clear grasp of abstruse subjects.

At every station where missionaries settled, schools sprang up and were at once widely patronized. In the large centers like Erzerum, Harpoot, Aintab and Marsovan, where the people were unusually intelligent and eager for an education, there was marked development and a rapid rise in the grade of the central schools. Colleges were not then developed, for there were no natives qualified to teach the studies of college grade, while there were no preparatory schools fitted to train students for college work. At that time the country itself was not in a condition to demand a college education. In the meantime Robert College was taking the lead in the higher education of men, although its work was then far inferior to the courses it now offers. Educators throughout the empire were closely watching the new institution upon the Bosporus, which became the pioneer and leader for the entire country.

When Dr. Hamlin was in the midst of his efforts to organize and construct a college for Turkey, the Rev. Crosby H. Wheeler, also from the state of Maine, was sent into Eastern Turkey as a missionary, and with designation to Harpoot. Dr. Wheeler, with energy similar to that of his fellow laborer, stopped upon his way at Constantinople and became acquainted with the educational work there developing. He took direct issue with Dr. Hamlin upon the subject of the value of English, but agreed with him upon the place of education in the work of reform. Some years later, when the educational work at Harpoot was well established, Dr. Wheeler felt so keenly upon this subject that he gave public notice in the seminary, of which he was the principal, that any student who was known to be studying English, even by himself or by the aid of one or two resident Armenians who had studied at Constantinople under Dr. Hamlin, would be summarily expelled from the school.

Dr. Wheeler, with his keen vision and unconquerable energy, while an evangelistic missionary of unusual power, became the pioneer of education at Harpoot. Under his leadership, strongly seconded by Rev. Dr. H. N. Barnum, the seminary for young men at that place rapidly developed until in 1878 it was merged into Armenia College, afterwards changed to Euphrates College. It did not require many years for Dr. Wheeler to see that no broad education could be given in Turkey without the use of the English language, so that he became one of the most energetic and enthusiastic supporters of an English education for all students in the higher institutions of learning in the country. The other high schools in the eastern part of Turkey became preparatory schools for the college, which was heartily endorsed by the people themselves, as appears from the wide patronage it received.

The same process of growth that has been noted at Harpoot took place also at Aintab, which is distant some eight days’ journey from Harpoot, upon the south side of the Taurus Mountains. In the meantime, the educational work at Beirut had made rapid strides, developing into a college which later became the largest and most influential educational institution in Syria and one of the most important in the Levant. This school early in its growth became detached from the mission Board and came under the control of a separate Board of Trustees in New York, and assumed the name of the Syrian Protestant College.

Space will not permit the mention in detail of Anatolia College at Marsovan, St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus, and the International College at Smyrna. The last two named are of comparatively recent elevation to the grade of college, while the former has had a record of college work of a quarter of a century. The school for the Bulgarians was established at Samakov, which is now in Bulgaria. It is called the Collegiate and Theological Institute, and is calculated to do for the young men of Bulgaria and Macedonia what these other institutions are doing for Asiatic Turkey.

The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut was begun as an institution of higher learning in 1866 by Rev. Daniel Bliss. What Dr. Hamlin was to Robert College and Dr. Wheeler to Euphrates College, and Dr. Tracy to Anatolia College, Dr. Bliss has been to this college in Syria. To-day with a campus of over forty acres, with five departments including medicine, pharmacy and a commercial course, and some seven hundred students in attendance from not less than fourteen nationalities, including Druses, Jews and Moslems, drawn from all parts of the Levant, from Persia and the Sudan, this college stands among the first in the empire for equipment and influence.

Educational work for girls started more slowly and did not make such rapid progress as the work among young men. There was not at the beginning a manifest demand for the education of girls. Among all classes in the country was an inherent prejudice against the intellectual or social advancement of women. Intelligent men, not a few, were ready to argue that girls were incapable of learning to read, much less of acquiring a general education. It became necessary, therefore, to educate the men up to the idea that girls could learn and that it was worth while to educate them. In 1836 a school for girls was opened by the missionaries at Smyrna, then the most enlightened and advanced city in the empire. This passed out of the hands of the mission very quickly, being taken over with its forty pupils by the Armenian community. It was soon disbanded. In Constantinople, while no regular school had been opened for girls, a few of the most enlightened parents were providing instruction for their daughters by engaging as teacher for them one of the evangelical Armenians.

Under the impulse of the reform movement it was impossible to keep out schools for girls. These multiplied in the large cities first and then extended into the interior until they became almost as popular as the schools for young men. The Mission School for girls in Constantinople became the foremost institution of its kind in the empire. After passing through several changes, all in the line of progress, it became, nearly twenty years ago, the American College for Girls in Constantinople. It is to-day the most advanced school for the education of women in the Levant. Euphrates College at Harpoot has also a female department, while in Central Turkey at Marash there is now a collegiate school for young women as well as a similar institution at Smyrna. These schools, for both boys and girls, are overcrowded with students and have been from the beginning. It has been impossible to keep pace by enlargement with the increasing desire on the part of the people for the education of their children.

The collegiate institutions are well scattered over the length and breadth of the country. The two colleges for boys which are the nearest together are St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus and Central Turkey College at Aintab, and yet these are some four days’ journey apart. The students in Beirut speak Arabic for the most part; those in Marash and Aintab use Turkish; those at Harpoot, Armenian; at Marsovan and Smyrna, Armenian, Greek and Turkish; and those at the American College for Girls and at Robert College, both in Constantinople, use about all the languages of the empire. English is taught in all, and constitutes, in some of the institutions, the only common tongue; as, for instance, in Robert College there are seldom less than a dozen nationalities and languages represented among the students. The only language they all wish to master is English. This becomes, then, the common linguistic meeting-place of scholars in the Ottoman empire.

All but three of the American colleges here mentioned are incorporated under the laws of either New York or Massachusetts, and so are distinctively and legally American institutions. All of them have some kind of official recognition from the Sublime Porte or from the sultan himself. Below the colleges are schools for both boys and girls of a grade which admits to the collegiate courses. This is true of schools remote from any college where the pupils who cannot go to a distant part of the country for an education are numerous.

Including the preparatory departments, there are not less than six thousand pupils studying in connection with these collegiate institutions, and all under Christian training. The grade in many respects, if not in all, is equal to that of the ordinary American college. In languages they all give the broadest courses. In Euphrates College, for instance, there are from six to eight languages taught, at least six of which are compulsory. The courses of study are adapted to the needs of the country and with a view to training the students for the highest service to their own people. The college at Beirut has a medical department which is of great value to the country, drawing its students from every race.

When the direct collegiate work was entered upon, in every instance the theological schools were made separate departments or were entirely set apart by themselves. There are at the present time six distinct training-schools in Turkey which have for their object the preparation of young men for the gospel ministry. Two of these, namely the schools at Beirut, and at Mardin, in northern Mesopotamia, train their pupils for work among Arabic speaking peoples; the one at Harpoot, for work among the Armenians, where the Armenian language is chiefly used, although some of its pupils speak Turkish; the one at Marash for Turkish speaking peoples; the one at Marsovan for those who speak Armenian, Turkish and Greek; and the one at Samakov, Bulgaria, for Bulgarians alone. Attempts have been made to unite this theological work, but the long distance separating the schools and the time and cost of the journey to and from them, the barriers of the different languages, and the restrictions put upon all native students in travel, have made it impracticable to do so up to the present time.

In these institutions, by far the largest number of teachers are natives of Turkey, some of whom, after taking a course of study in their own country, have had postgraduate work in Europe or the United States. In each case, the president is an American who is usually assisted by one or more Americans. It is the policy of all these institutions to employ as many thoroughly equipped native teachers and professors as can be secured consistent with maintaining the high intellectual and moral tone of the schools.

In no case are these free schools. The students are charged tuition, room rent, and board, and they also purchase their own books and supplies. Some of these colleges secure from fees and payments by the pupils nearly three-fourths of the entire cost of conducting the institution. This is true of Robert College at Constantinople and Anatolia College at Marsovan, and others. In addition to the fees paid, the people of the country have contributed in some cases most liberally for the college plant. Aintab College is a marked instance of this. In recent years the early students who have prospered in business have given freely for the endowment of their Alma Mater, as in the case of Euphrates College at Harpoot. The willingness of the people to contribute for the support of these higher educational institutions demonstrates most unmistakably belief in their value.

Such numerous collegiate and theological institutions necessitate a large and ever increasing number of schools of lower grade all over the country. These have sprung up in nearly every village and are found in every town of size. They are for the most part entirely supported by the people themselves. The great value of the educational work done in Turkey by the missionaries does not lie alone in the schools of different grades now controlled and directed by them; it also appears in the thirst for education which manifests itself in independent village, parochial, and city schools, with more or less modern equipment, and stretching from Persia to the Bosporus, from the Black Sea to Arabia. There is much yet to be desired in this respect, but much has already been accomplished.

This educational work has made no perceptible impression upon the Jews, for whose special awakening mission work in Turkey was first undertaken. The Greeks have slowly responded and many young men from that race are found in Robert College at Constantinople, in the International College at Smyrna and in Anatolia College in Marsovan. The race as a race, however, in Turkey has not taken up the cause of modern education with vigor and pressed it with moral earnestness. It is the Armenian race that has responded most fully to the call of modern learning. By far the largest number of students of any one race in the schools in Turkey are Armenians. They constitute as large a proportion of the pupils of Robert College as that of any other race. While they number probably less than one-tenth of the inhabitants of the empire, they furnish a large proportion of its student body.

These modern educational institutions in Turkey are a mighty force in reshaping the life, thought, customs and practises of the people of that country. Men and women from these schools are taking leading positions there in the learned professions as well as in commerce and trade. Large numbers of former students in the mission schools are now prosperous merchants and business men in Europe and America. Through these men of modern ideas Western machinery and the products of our factories are finding their way into that part of the East in increasing quantities while the products of Turkey are in exchange brought to us. It is probably true, as has been frequently stated, that the money given from America for the establishment and support of American colleges in Turkey is far more than returned, with large interest, in the form of increased trade with that country.

While the Turks have not largely attended any of the schools mentioned, nor have they seemed awake to the needs of a modern education, nevertheless, through the influence of so many advanced schools in the country they have been compelled to improve their own schools. It is an interesting fact that recently a far greater number of Mohammedan pupils are applying for admission to these schools. Few of the Turkish schools have as yet been thoroughly modernized; still, their entire educational system, if system it may be called, has felt the influence of the foreign schools. There have now and then been attempts at the organization of a Mohammedan college. These have for the most part proven egregious failures from the lack of preparatory schools to train students for the college and of teachers with proper training to carry on college work. They have also in cases, not a few, opened and conducted schools for girls, thus demonstrating their acceptance, in a measure at least, of the Christian doctrine of the equality of the sexes and the worth of womanhood. Many Moslem young men have been aroused to seek education in England or France.