Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/126



1. The Nature of the Turkish Government. The Turkish Government is what we may call a politico-religious system. The Sultan claims to be the successor of the prophet, hence the highest authority over the Mohametan world. The Turkish army is exclusively a Mohametan army. All the struggles and wars, however political they may be, are regarded and fought as religious wars, always sanctioned by the legal decree from the highest religious authority, and led by "sanjak sherif," the holy banner of the "Apostle of Allah," used in religious contests of the Saracens. The law of the Turkish courts in its essentials and details is based upon the Koran, administered and executed by Mohametan judges, who are the white-turbaned religious heads of the community. In one word, the interest of the Turkish Government is that, and only that, of Islam. Hence the more zealous and intolerant a sultan the nearer the ideal of a Mohametan ruler, and more respected and obeyed by the bigoted people, officers and the army.

Another phase of the Turkish Government is its dualism. It is a government within a government. Two words, porte and palace, express these elements. The whole machinery of government exists at the