Chapter XVI: Section I

_An Explanation of the Causes which have occasioned Trouble in the
World._

“This institution of the Nizam-y-Gedid has caused the established order of the world to be disturbed, and has given cause to the insolent conduct of the mountaineers in the country of Rumelia.” Such are the expressions employed by a set of contentious and ignorant men, incapable of learning reason. I have sometimes questioned such persons, saying as follows:—“Ho, friend! allow me in the first place to ask you a question. What is this institution against which you make such continual and senseless outcry? First know precisely what it is, and then continue to oppose it. If there be reason in what you say, I am open to conviction, and am ready to concede the point in dispute.” On hearing this, all they could say was, that what they call the Nizam-y-Gedid, is a body of troops trained and exercised; beyond which, and a mere profession of their aversion to it, they plainly showed that they knew nothing about the matter. Although I saw that an attempt to make this kind of rabble understand public affairs, is like trying to make a camel leap over a ditch, I proceeded to put some questions that occurred to me, as follows:—“Shall I give you some account of the troubles which occurred in the world before the Nizam-y-Gedid existed, during the reigns of their highnesses the former Ottoman Sultans, who have found mercy from God? Such as the disturbances raised in Anatolia by the Gellalli[57], and the insolence of Sarry Beÿ Oglou in the reign of Sultan Mahmoud, and especially the events which passed in Egypt, occasioned by Sacka-Yorghi Alli-Beÿ, the son of a glass-blower; and the affairs of Emir-Daher, of Abou-Vahib, all of which happened during the reign of Sultan Moustapha; and the calamities inflicted by the unemployed Levendis,[58] who turned the province of Anatolia upside down; and the continued bad success which attended the arms of the followers of Islam, for the space of seven years, during the Muscovite war, which began in the year 1182; the defeats which our great armies suffered every year, with the loss of so many thousand tents, such abundance of camp equipage, treasure, artillery, bombs, and military stores, sufficient for the consumption of many years, and so great a loss of our troops, either taken, drowned, or killed, and the capture as well of our small forts and retrenched posts, as of our large fortresses, some of which were reduced by famine and others by force; and the impossibility of delivering so many thousand women and children whom they contained, and who, still remaining in captivity, pass their lives in tears. These are things, the bitter remembrance of which can never be erased from our hearts. Some of these calamitous events may be found in our annals, and some have happened in our days. Pray was the Nizam-y-Gedid the cause of all these disorders and disgraceful occurrences? It did not exist at that time, and yet you see that confusion was already introduced, and the regular order of things interrupted. Is then the Nizam-y-Gedid the only cause of revolution? On what does your dispute now rest, and what answer can you give to my question?” After I had thus spoken, some of them who were disposed to hear reason yielded to conviction, and remained abashed, having nothing to answer. But some others, less reasonable, who knew nothing of the things which I had spoken, answered thus:—“What need I know about the troubles that have formerly happened in the world? I am well aware that those which now prevail are caused by the Nizam-y-Gedid.” To these ignorant and pertinacious adversaries, I again addressed myself in these terms:—“Disturbances having broken out in the regions of France, the people eat each other’s flesh[59], and the Crals[60] having declared war against them, for the space of exactly fifteen years, battles have been fought without intermission, so that the country of France has been turned upside down, and the inhabitants have drank each other’s blood, and poured it out in the streets like a torrent, and have, until this day, with the fury of dogs, changed their country into a slaughter-house for swine. Behold such troubles are not confined to[61] Frenghistan alone. Neither India, nor China, Arabia, Persia, nor the new world[62], are at present exempt from confusion and carnage. These things being so, is their source to be attributed to the Nizam-y-Gedid? We may observe, likewise, that although trouble and bloodshed prevail in Rumelia, yet, thanks be to God, Anatolia is free from these calamities (may the ears of Satan be stopped with lead[63]). Shall we say, then, that the fatal contagion of the Nizam-y-Gedid is confined to Rumelia, and that it has not infected Anatolia; or rather have not these things proceeded from the decrees of Providence? Should not that consideration strike us? After reflecting and meditating on what I have said, what reply can you make?”—“Good God!” says my opponent, “I thought Rumelia alone had been disturbed.”—“Then,” I replied, “if you are ignorant that every part of the world is thus convulsed, and such things happen when there is no Nizam-y-Gedid, and disturb the tranquillity of the universe, you should not, by any means, impute the origin of dissension to that establishment.”

By thus addressing them, I succeeded, by Divine favour, in bringing many of them to conviction. With respect to those persons, who, although they are acquainted with the true origin of such events, and the course of worldly affairs, and understand and know the commands of the great Prophet (on whom be salvation and the peace of God), yet persevere in their perverse opposition; and who, because they were formerly authors of sedition, are ashamed to belie their words, and therefore maintain the dispute, and uphold contention; who, having originally calumniated the corps of cannoneers of the Nizam-y-Gedid, and abuse those who were the authors of it, uttering speeches which do not become their lips, on a subject above their comprehension; with respect, I say, to such persons, who, although they themselves confessed that the excellence of these new troops was seen in the French war, and that to their good conduct many of us owed our escape from captivity, yet afterwards forgetting this avowal, are not ashamed to indulge in extravagant abuse of them, it remains only, that at the five stated times of prayer, we beseech the Divine Providence to grant them understanding, and a knowledge of the right way, that they may distinguish good from evil, and acknowledge the power of the Sublime Government with whose bread they are fed; and that thus, by a sincere union of hearts in the way of truth and justice, we may obtain complete success over the enemies of the state and of our religion. Thus did I manage my dispute and conference with those adversaries who attributed to the Nizam-y-Gedid the troubles of the world. Long and tedious indeed it was; yet by the favour of the Divine Majesty, and the protection of the great Prophet of miraculous memory, many of the opponents, who were at first unwilling to hear reason, have been convinced, and brought to entertain a just idea of those affairs; and using their efforts to convince others, have entered into the congregation of well-wishers to government.