Aug 18 Thesis
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ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: “THEIR OBJECT IS TO STRENGTHEN THE MOSLEM AND REPRESS THE CHRISTIAN”: HENRY JESSUP AND THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION TO SYRIA UNDER ABDUL HAMID II Evan L. R. Hays, Master of Arts, 2008 Directed by: Professor Peter Wien Department of History Henry Jessup and the American Presbyterian Mission to Syria faced a new challenge in 1885 when the Ottoman authorities closed various American schools there. Jessup, the Secretary of the American mission, responded with a rhetorical campaign against the Ottoman impositions that portrayed the policies of Abdul Hamid II’s administration as new, pro-Muslim, anti-Christian, and designed to replace American missionary institutions in Syria with Muslim institutions backed by Ottoman force. While some of Jessup’s writing while in Syria from 1856 to 1910 was polemical, his writing surrounding the school controversy in the 1880s rather reflected the historical context of local and foreign educational competition in Syria that now included Ottoman initiatives against foreign institutions who presented a threat to Ottoman-Islamic imperial discipline. This thesis seeks to contextualize Jessup’s writing to portray 1885 as a watershed in the history of a mission whose evangelistic efforts were then successfully limited by Ottoman reforms. “THEIR OBJECT IS TO STRENGTHEN THE MOSLEM AND REPRESS THE CHRISTIAN”: HENRY JESSUP AND THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION TO SYRIA UNDER ABDUL HAMID II by Evan Lattea Rogers Hays Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2008 Advisory Committee: Dr. Peter Wien, Chair Dr. Hilary Jones Dr. Madeline Zilfi Copyright by Evan L.R. Hays 2008 ii Dedication Soli Deo Gloria iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank first of all my family for all of their support and encouragement during my time as a Master’s Student overall, but especially during my thesis. My parents raised me to be honest and do my best, and I hope this thesis manifests those principles. For my wife Amy, I am ever-grateful for all of her love and support that shows itself in so many different ways. I am also thankful for the care, prayers, and encouragement of my church family. I would also like to thank my advisor, Dr. Peter Wien, and the rest of my advisory committee, Dr. Zilfi and Dr. Jones. Special thanks go to my advisor Dr. Wien who did just the right amount of prodding and encouraging to bring me along. The whole experience of the thesis was academically stimulating, personally encouraging, and has made me a better student and person. I look forward to using what I have learned here in the department of history at the University of Maryland as I go on in my studies in the future. Thanks also go to history Ph.D. students Reid Gustafson and Ryan Misler. Both read drafts of my thesis, and Reid’s careful and detailed comments were especially helpful. Ryan helped me with Arabic translation, a difficult exercise for me, and for his help I am extremely grateful. iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................................ 1 Significance .................................................................................................................................................. 9 Outline of Paper......................................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER I: THEORY.................................................................................................................................... 18 Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 18 Past Historiography................................................................................................................................... 19 Recent Scholarship and the Old Paradigms ............................................................................................. 22 A New Turn................................................................................................................................................. 24 Where this paper fits in.............................................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER II: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND........................................................................................... 31 Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 31 The Second Great Awakening and Millenarianism .................................................................................. 33 Islam in the American Mindset.................................................................................................................. 35 From Jews and Muslims to Eastern Christians ........................................................................................ 42 From Proselytism to Education................................................................................................................. 46 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................. 50 CHAPTER III: CONTEXT AND RHETORIC 1860-1885.......................................................................... 52 Introduction to the controversy of 1885.................................................................................................... 52 Introduction to 1860 to 1885 ..................................................................................................................... 55 The Impact of the War of 1860 .................................................................................................................. 57 Internal Difficulties in the Mission............................................................................................................ 61 Funding .................................................................................................................................................................... 61 The Ideology of the Mission................................................................................................................................... 63 Encroachment of other Foreign Missions................................................................................................. 68 Rejection from local Eastern Christians ................................................................................................... 74 On Islam and the Ottoman authorities...................................................................................................... 76 Note on the expansion of American mission schools................................................................................ 80 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................. 82 CHAPTER IV: THE 1885 SCHOOL CONTROVERSY IN CONTEXT .................................................. 84 Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 84 Ottoman Policy Changes in the 1880s ...................................................................................................... 86 Policies to promote centralization and consolidation ............................................................................................ 88 Policies to promote Ottoman Legitimacy through the use of Islam...................................................................... 90 Ottoman Perceptions of Missionaries..................................................................................................................... 91 Ottoman Response................................................................................................................................................... 94 The 1885 School Controversy through Missionary Documents............................................................... 99 Outline of School Controversy, 1885-1893 .........................................................................................................100 Memorial of Missionaries .....................................................................................................................................101 The Foreign Missionary........................................................................................................................................109 Missionary Correspondence..................................................................................................................................110 Jessup’s Memoir....................................................................................................................................................113 Conclusion on Jessup’s writing............................................................................................................... 115 The Larger Context of Competition over local influence ....................................................................... 121 Local Christian Initiatives.....................................................................................................................................122