LfBRARY UNIVERSITY OF '"RNIA rt SAN >IEGO WESTERN CULTURE IN EASTERN LANDS WESTERN CULTURE IN EASTERN LANDS A COMPARISON OF THE METHODS ADOPTED BY ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST BY ARMINIUS VAMBERY, C.V.O. AUTHOR OF 'TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ASIA,' 'HISTORY OF BOKHARA,' ETC LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1906 PREFACE DURING the many years that I have been engaged in studying the political and cultural questions of Inner Asia, it has often been laid to my charge that, in my criticism and appreciation of the two chief factors of our civilising influence in the East, I have not taken up a purely objective standpoint, and that, because of my partiality to the one, I have not been quite fair to the other. In Europe the prevailing idea is that the Russians, who in many respects are themselves still semi- Asiatic, are better fitted to undertake the civilisation of Asia, and will be more likely to bring about the transition from one sphere of action to another, than the English, the accomplished representatives of Western culture, who lack the necessary pliability, and whose stiff, proud bearing is supposed to be detrimental to the work of transformation. To prove the erroneousness of this view, and also to defend myself against the accusation of an unjustifiable partiality, these pages have been written. The comparative survey of the various innovations and reforms introduced by Russia and by England respectively, which I have endeavoured to give, will convince the reader that, in forming my conclusions, I have not been guided by personal motives, but that they are the outcome of a close investigation of what has actually been done by our two Culture-bearers. v vi PREFACE No one will deny that the more effective and the nobler are the means at our disposal, the more perfect and the better finished will be the work to be accom- plished. In order to teach, educate, and train the mind of others, we ourselves must first have been at it taught, educated, and trained ; and if, looking from this point of view, I give the preference to England, which unquestionably occupies the higher cultural position of the two Powers, I can scarcely be accused of partiality. As my studies have been almost entirely confined to Moslem Asia, I could not help referring also to the future of Islam. For more than fifty years I have been deeply interested in the destiny of the Moslem nations of Asia their both as ; and history, past and present, well as some individual phases of mental conflict in which I myself have had a share, may shed many bright gleams of light to serve as guiding-stars in the darkness which surrounds the future. The picture which I have ventured to place before the public concerning the future of Islam is founded not on vain speculations, but on conclusions drawn from concrete facts. A. VAMBERY. BUDAPEST UNIVERSITY. CONTENTS PART I THE CIVILISING INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA CHAI'TER 1-AGE - I. WESTERN INFLUENCE IN THE EAST I II. RUSSIAN SUCCESSES OVER URAL-ALTAICS 7 III. RUSSIA'S CONQUESTS ON THE LOWER VOLGA - - 14 IV. FORCED CONVERSION OF TARTARS - 21 V. RUSSIFICATION AND EMIGRATION - 27 VI. CULTURAL EFFORTS IN THE KIRGHIS STEPPE - - 35 VII. CULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN TURKESTAN - 47 VIII. DEFECTS OF RUSSIAN ADMINISTRATION - 58 IX. MORALS AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION - - 67 X. SEMI-CIVILISED NATIVES - 80 XI. UNEXPLOITED OPPORTUNITIES - 89 XII. THE RUSSIFICATION OF SIBERIA 98 XIII. RESULT OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE - 117 PART II THE CIVILISING INFLUENCE OF ENGLAND - I. THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH RULE 131 II. THE CONSOLIDATION OF BRITISH POWER - 148 III. FIRST STAGE OF REFORMS - - 158 IV. INCREASE OF WELL-BEING - - 1 68 V. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN INDIA - 179 VI. RESULTS OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM - ' 93 VII. CHANGE OF NATIVE MORALS - - 2O2 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTBR FACE VIII. NATIVE CRITICS OF BRITISH RULE - - 212 IX. THE EFFECT OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM - 225 X. STABILITY OF BRITISH RULE - - 240 XI. A COMPARATIVE SYNOPSIS - - - - 249 PART III THE FUTURE OF ISLAM - - I. OLD AND NEW ISLAM 263 - II. THE STRUGGLE OF REFORMS 281 III. DESPOTISM OF MOSLEM RULERS 296 IV. ISLAM CAPABLE OF REFORM - - 308 V. THE AWAKENING OF LIBERTY- - 320 VI. WESTERN CULTURE ACKNOWLEDGED - - 342 VII. THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF ISLAM - 355 VIII. CRESCENT AND CROSS- - 371 IX. EUROPEAN POWERS IN MOSLEM ASIA - - -387 INDEX- - ... PART I THE CIVILISING INFLUENCE OF RUSSIA THERE are, perhaps, no subjects of human knowledge and research in which such progress has been made during the past century as in those of the geography and ethnography of Asia. When we read, for instance, Ritter's intensely interesting and able description of Eastern lands, or study the history of some particular portion of the East brought within our reach by the un- ceasing labour of modern Orientalists, we realise how poor and imperfect was our knowledge of the old world during the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1 848, for instance, on the subject of Central Asia we only possessed the joint labour of Dubeux and Valmont,* whereas we now have elaborate and exhaustive narra- tives and descriptions upon all possible subjects con- nected with those countries. In the regions where some decades ago the traveller's life was in constant danger, and where the struggle with the elements and with the natives made his progress necessarily slow and tedious, we now find a well-organised railway system, and in the place of the grunting camel the fiery steam-horse ploughs its way through endless vistas of sandy steppes. When, comfortably seated in our well- upholstered railway-carriage, we gaze upon the Hyr- kanian Steppe, upon the terrible deserts of Karakum * 'Tartarie, Beloutchistan, Boutan et Nepal,' par M. Dubeux et par M. V. Valmont. Paris, 1848. I 2 WESTERN INFLUENCE IN THE EAST and Kisilkum, we can scarcely realise the terrors, the sufferings, and the privations, to which travellers formerly were exposed. Truly, Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. And great changes similar to those which have taken place in Central Asia may also be noticed in greater or less degree in other parts and regions of the Eastern world : Siberia, West and North China, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Japan, were in the first half of the nineteenth century scarcely known to us, and where the early martyrs of geographical re- search, such as Schlagintweit, Hayward, Wyburd, Conolly, Margary, and others, fell victims to barbarism, we now find that the supreme power of the Western world is gradually making itself felt. The walls of seclusion are ruthlessly pulled down, and the resist- ance caused by the favoured superstitions, prejudices, and the ignorance of the sleepy and apathetic man in the East, is slowly being overcome. If the English poet Matthew Arnold was right when he sang, ' The East bowed down before the blast In patient, deep disdain ; She let the legions thunder past, And plunged in thought again,'* our present-day Europe, in its restless, bustling ac- tivity will take good care not to let the East relapse again into its former indolence. We forcibly tear its eyes open ; we push, jolt, toss, and shake it, and we compel it to exchange its world-worn, hereditary ideas and customs for our modern views of life ; nay, we have even succeeded to some extent in convincing our Eastern neighbours that our civilisation, our faith, our customs, our philosophy, are the only means whereby the well-being, the progress, and the happi- ness, of the human race can be secured. For well-nigh 300 years we have been carrying on * Obermann, ' Once More.' ANCIENT ROME AND THE EAST 3 this struggle with the Eastern world, and persist in our unsolicited interference, following in the wake of ancient Rome, which began the work with marked perseverance, but naturally never met with much suc- cess because of the inadequate means at its disposal. When we read the words of patriotic enthusiasm and inspiration with which Virgil addresses Caesar, ex- claiming : ' et te, maxima Caesar, Qui nunc extremis Asiae jam victor in oris Imbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum';* ' or when, in the ' Carmen Saeculare of Horace, young Roman citizens and maidens are made to sing : 1 Jam mari terraque manus potentes Medus Albanasque timet secures Jam Scythse responsa petunt, superbi ' Nuper, et Indi ;t or when in many other classical Roman poems we meet with passages of a similar nature, we naturally begin to think that the Roman legions not only conquered the Asiatic world, but also exercised a civilising and beneficial influence over the whole East. This, how- ever, was not the case. We may admire the splendour, the might, and the glory of ancient Rome, we may allow that the glitter of its arms struck terror and alarm into the furthest of in of corners Asia ; but spite all that, it would be difficult to admit that the civilising influence of Rome was ever more than an external varnish, a transitory glamour. Compared with the real earnest work done in our days by Western Powers, the efforts of Rome are as the flickering of an oil-lamp in comparison with the radiance of the sun in its full glory. It may be said without exaggeration that never in the world's history has any one continent exercised * ' Quoted from Relations Politiques et Commerciales de 1'Empire Remain avec 1'Asie Orientale,' par M. Reinaud, p. 141. f The same, p. 117. I 2 4 WESTERN INFLUENCE IN THE EAST such influence over another as has the Europe of our days over Asia : never were two such diametrically opposed elements engaged in so deadly a strife as is now to be seen in all parts of the Old World.