



Produced by Turgut Dincer (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet Archive
and Hathi Trust)






THE DIARY OF A TURK

[Illustration: PRINCES IN LANCERS' UNIFORM.]




  THE DIARY OF A
  TURK

  BY

  HALIL HALID, M.A., M.R.A.S.

  CONTAINING EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

  LONDON

  ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

  1903

  TO THE MEMORY OF

  E. F. W. GIBB

  ORIENTAL SCHOLAR, AND THE AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF OTTOMAN POETRY"




PREFACE


ALTHOUGH no Western Power has ever played a greater part in the
problems of the Ottoman Empire than Great Britain, yet in no other
country in Western Europe is Turkey more grossly misunderstood. I have
been many times asked by my English acquaintances to write a book on
Turkey from a Turkish point of view, and two ways of writing were
suggested to me: the one was to compile a detailed work, the other
to write a small and light book. To take the former advice was not
possible to me, as I found myself incapable of producing a great and
technical work. Besides, I thought that after all a small and lightly
written volume would have a larger circle of readers, and by its help I
could to some extent correct some of the mistaken ideas prevailing in
England about Turkey. Therefore I began to write this little volume in
the form of a book of travel, and I now bring it out under the title of
_The Diary of a Turk_. By this means I have been able to talk a little
on many matters connected with Turkey. Let the critic find other points
in this book on which to express his opinion, but do not let him charge
me with ignorance of the fact that the somewhat unexciting experiences
of an unknown man may be