Newman and the Ottoman Turks

Abstract

The nineteenth-century British intellectual, John Henry Newman in his short History of the Turks in their Relation to Europe, written just before the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, disclosed his attitude towards his country`s policy of waging a war in support of Turkey. Newman, regarding Russia as the protector of the Christians living under Ottoman rule, and the Ottoman Empire as a declining non-European power which did not merit to be counted part of Europe, opposed that war. In his work, Newman, wishing to direct his countrymen`s attention to a matter so neglected, but fundamental to the solution of the Eastern Question, that is, to the issue of ‘civilisation’ among the Turks, showed, based on his own understanding of the notions of ‘barbarism’ and ‘civilisation’, that the Ottoman state and its society were uncivilised, barbarous and un-progressive. Therefore, this study dedicated to Newman`s thought and intellect, and his views and opinions with reference to the Turks, revealed that Newman did indeed favoured civilisation and progress, at least when he dealt with the history of the Turks and their empire. Thus, it offered a corrective to some unjust judgements of Newman. In drawing up the picture of the past and present state of the Turks, Newman was open to the Orientalist and secularist view of those nineteenth-century British writers that he selected to use.