ISLAM
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96 <strong>ISLAM</strong> VERSUS CHRISTIANITY<br />
carry more weight than those of Mr. Levonian, the<br />
champion of Christian faith. Mr. Knight says :<br />
"There is no degradation of the women in Turkey.<br />
Ihe Turkish peasant women are far from being<br />
degraded as any other women of their class in Europe.<br />
It may astonish some Englishman to learn that the<br />
simple living Turk of the upper and middle classes,<br />
though his religion permits him to marry four wives,<br />
rarely marries more than one. Of the young Turks<br />
whom I have met, not one, I believe, has more than<br />
one wife, and I have heard several of them speak<br />
with disapproval of the custom of polygamy. English<br />
ladies who have friends among the Turkish ladies<br />
have told us how refined, charming and in these<br />
latter days well educated they are. As most Turkish<br />
gentlemen retain their old customs in their family<br />
life, the Englishman visiting the house of a Turkish<br />
friend has no opportunity of seeing his wife, but his<br />
little daughters up to the age of twelve years are<br />
usually brought in by the proud father to see the<br />
visitor, just as they might be in England, when the<br />
pretty manners, the intelligence, and the careful<br />
education which they have evidently received (they<br />
nearly always speak French or some other European<br />
languages) tell their own tale."* Mr. Knight further<br />
goes on to say : "The constant and deep veneration<br />
which a Turk entertains for his mother through life<br />
belies the nonsence that is sometimes talked concerning<br />
the condition of the women in Turkey. The Turkish<br />
9 E. F. Knight "Awakening of Turkey^ pp. 12.
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