,
Sclavonic dialects, and other
tongues, prevail among the different sections of this population, yet
Turkish is the only language which can be employed as a general medium of
communication with all
the various kindreds of people inhabiting European and Asiatic Turkey.
But the use of this language
extends beyond the present confines of the Turkish empire, and in point of
practical utility it ranks
among the foremost of languages; in fact, if we are to receive the statement
of Sir William Jones,
"there is scarce a country in Asia or in Africa, from the
source of the Nile to the wall of China, in
which a man who understands Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish, may not travel
with satisfaction, and
transact the most important affairs with advantage and security; nay, we may
say with equal truth,
that the Turkish language, in one or other of its dialects, is understood and
spoken from the south of
Europe, to the frozen shores of Kamschatka."
II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.
The Turkish language, like the race by whom it is spoken, affords a
curious instance of the inter-
mixture of the Asiatic and European type. The condition of this
language in the primitive stages of
its history is still exhibited by the Turkish dialects of the East, which
have remained to the present
day comparatively uncorrupted or unembellished by words of foreign origin;
and it is in these dialects
that the links connecting this tongue with those of the
Mantchoos and the Mongols are to be
sought.
The analogy which pervades this class of languages has been elsewhere
remarked: it is most observable
in the pronunciation of the guttural and nasal consonants, in the
orthographical regulations collectively
designated the "quadruple harmony of vowels," and in
the euphonic law requiring certain consonants
to be only associated with certain vowels.
The Turkish of Constantinople deviates in many important points
from its cognate dialects.
Its structure has in some degree been altered by joint influences from the
East and West. Its nouns,
like the Latin, have six cases; it possesses complex derivative conjunctions;
and with respect to its
vocabulary, it has amassed Persian, Arabic, and even
Chinese words from the East, and
Albanian,
Greek, and Italian elements from the
West. Yet, although so many heterogeneous principles enter
into its composition, the Turkish language is replete with grace and beauty.
"Rich, dignified, and
melodious, in delicacy and nicety of expression it is not, perhaps, surpassed
by any language; and in
grandeur, beauty, and elegance, it is almost unequalled." The
perfection of its mechanism, with respect
to verbs, has been often noticed; the addition of a single letter or syllable
renders a verb passive,
negative, impossible, causal, or reciprocal, according to the will of the
speaker, thus frequently convey-
ing the sense of an entire phrase in a single word. Notwithstanding
its multiplicity of grammatical
forms, however, this language has not yet shaken off the yoke originally
impressed on it in common
with most of the tongues of High Asia; it is still remarkable for its
stiffness of construction, and for
what we call artificial disposition of words in composition. The
extensive employment of gerunds
and participles, to the almost total exclusion of conjunctions, and the
grammatical law requiring words
governed to precede the governing, combine with other causes in
producing long, involved periods, in
which the sense is not ascertained till towards the close, and in which the
words are ranged in an order
directly contrary to what appears to us the natural sequence of ideas.
The most ancient Turkish alphabet is the
Ouigour, from which the
Mongolian is derived; but the
modern Turks use the Arabic and Persian characters. Their present
alphabet consists of thirty-three
letters, twenty-eight of which are Arabic, four are Persian, and one is
peculiar to the Turkish.
III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.
Two versions of the Scriptures in kindred dialects of the
Turkish language appear to have been
completed about the same period. One of these
versions, executed by
Seaman, and printed in England,
1666, will hereafter be noticed. The other,
comprising both the Old and New Testaments, was the
work of Ali Bey, whose history is rather remarkable. His original name
was Albertus Bobowsky, or
Bobovius; he was born in Poland, in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
and while a youth was
stolen by the Tartars, and sold as a slave in Constantinople. After
twenty years spent in the seraglio,
he publicly embraced the Moh_mm_dan religion, at the same time assuming the
name of Ali Bey;
and he then became first dragoman or translator to Mah_m_t IV.
He was noted for great erudition,
and was said to be thoroughly conversant with seventeen languages; and to
his instructions the
lexicographer Meninsky owed much of his celebrity.
At the suggestion and under the direction of the famous Levin Warner, who was then at Con-
stantinople as Dutch ambassador, Ali Bey
was induced to translate the Catechism of the
Church of
England into Turkish; and this undertaking probably paved the way to the
execution of his great
work, the translation of the entire Scriptures into Turkish. It is not
known with certainty whether
he drew his text immediately from the inspired originals, yet the translation
is considered on the whole
to be faithful and accurate. The study of the sacred volume was not
without effect on the translator;
for it is recorded that Ali Bey entertained thoughts of returning to the
Christian Church, and was
only prevented by death from accomplishing his design. When his version was corrected and ready
for the press, it was sent by Warner to Leyden to be printed. It was deposited in the archives of the
university of that city, among a valuable collection of Oriental MSS., and
there it was suffered to
remain for a century and a half; no effort whatever was made during all that
period to print it, with
the sole exception of a small edition of the first four chapters of Genesis,
published by Schroeder of
Marburg at Leipsic in 1739, with a
Latin translation and notes.
Baron Von Diez, formerly
Russian ambassador at Constantinople,
who was intimately conversant
with the Turkish language, was among the first to draw the attention of
Europe to this long-neglected
translation. He offered his services in editing the MS. to the
Committee of the British and Foreign
Bible Society; and meeting with great encouragement to prosecute his design,
the venerable senator
immediately addressed himself to the revision of the Old Testament. He
died, however, when he had
completed but four books of the Pentateuch, and the
work of revision was transferred by the Society
to Kieffer, professor of the Turkish language at the University of Paris, and
interpreting secretary to the
king of France. The new editor disapproved of the plan pursued by his
predecessor, particularly of his
insertion of vowel points, and he therefore commenced the work anew.
He applied himself, however, in
the first instance to the New Testament; but, unfortunately, misunderstanding
the directions of the
Committee, he followed the text of the MS. implicitly, without
collating it with the original Greek.
Several errors in the text were thus inserted in the printed copies; but it
was not long before they were
detected, and the discovery gave rise to a printed controversy. It was
a happy circumstance that
scarcely a hundred copies had been issued when notice of these inaccuracies
was received. The circu-
lation was immediately suspended; the errors, forty-nine in number, were examined and corrected by a
sub-committee appointed expressly for the purpose, and Professor Kieffer commenced a laborious and
elaborate revision of the text. He collated every portion, not only
with the original, but with the
English,
German, and
French versions, with the
Tartar version of Seaman, and of the
Scotch
mies. of
Karass, with the versions of
Erpenius and of
Martyn, and
with those in the
London
Polyglot. This revision was carried on from 1820 (at which
period the errors were first detected) to
1828, when the entire Turkish Bible, with the embodied corrections, was
completed at press, and
obtained the attestation of the most eminent Orientalists in Europe as to its
rigid accuracy and fidelity.
The edition consisted of 5000 copies in 4to.; and the proofs, as they issued
from the press, were read
by Dr. Henderson, who was
the first to detect the former errors. The work was printed at Paris,
and
the original MS. was afterwards returned to Leyden. An edition of the
Turkish New Testament,
carefully revised by Mr. Turabi, under Dr. Henderson’s superintendence, was
completed by the Society
in 1853. A subsequent edition, printed in 1857, has undergone
the careful revision of J. W. Redhouse,
Esq., the corrected renderings having been submitted to the
examination of the Rev. Drs. Schauffler
and Goodell. In addition to the 5000 copies of the entire Bible above
mentioned, 14,050 Testaments,
and 14,130 copies of portions of the Old and New Testaments, had been printed
(up to the close of
1859) by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
IV.--RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.
Fanaticism, bigotry, and intolerance have been in all ages
the characteristics of the followers of
the false prophet, and the dissemination of the Scriptures among them has
ever been attended with
peculiar difficulty. It has been justly remarked, that "one of the chief obstacles to the reception of
Christianity by the Turks, has always been the unhappy representation of
true religion set before
them by the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches.
Seeing the idolatry and evil lives of those who
are called Christians, the Turks do not care to inquire into the religion
which, as they suppose,
produces such fruits."
Great changes have, however, occurred within recent years, as
concerns the position of Christianity
in the empire of Turkey, and a brighter picture than that above drawn is now
happily exhibited.
The principle of complete religious toleration has been recognised by the
reigning Sultan, and, not-
withstanding much opposition, the Turkish government has, in the main, acted
upon this principle.
Among the most gratifying circumstances of recent years may be reckoned the
formation at Constan-
tinople, in 1853, of an Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society,
upon occasion of the
Society’s Jubilee in that year. Constantinople has since become an
important and active centre of
my. operations. The existence of the Society’s Agency in that city is
fully recognised and
allowed by the Turkish government, and in 1856 a copy of the Bible, in the
Turkish language, was
(through the medium of the British ambassador) presented to, and graciously
received by the Sultan--
the head of the Moh_mm_dan faith! A fact truly
indicative of the altered relations which now
subsist in the centre of Isl_m, between Christian and
Moh_mm_dan, as compared with those of
former days!
It is not, indeed, too much to say that an important religious
movement has commenced in
Turkey, amongst the Turks themselves, and a vastly-increased demand for the
Turkish version of
the Scriptures has been the natural result. "When
(says the Report of the British and Foreign
Bible Society for 1856) it is recollected that until within the last eighteen
months, it has been all but
impossible to prevail upon the Turks to accept the Scriptures as a free gift,
it will be deemed a fact of
weighty and joyous significance, that during the year 1855, 1278 copies of the
Turkish Scriptures
were disseminated, principally by sale." It was amongst the
Turks at Constantinople, Smyrna, and
elsewhere in Asia Minor, that this circulation took place. Subsequent
years exhibit a continuance of
the demand.
Recent reports of the Society supply numerous instances of the
blessed results which have ensued,
in individual cases, from the increased facility now afforded for the
acquisition by the Turks of the
revealed Word of God in their own tongue. Such examples are justly
regarded as of no ordinary
importance. "They afford (again to quote the
Society’s Report) conclusive evidence that the Turkish
mind is opening to the light and influence of Christian truth,--that the
spell of fanatical bigotry is
dissolving, and that the day is not far distant when the revealed Scriptures
shall have free course
in Turkey." The evidence of a Christian is now, for the first
time, placed on the same level as that
of a Muss_lm_n, and every inhabitant of the Sultan’s
dominions is free to renounce homage to the
Kor_n for belief in the Bible, without incurring any
penalty or forfeiture of legal rights."--1860 S. Bagster
[Info only]
