Letters from Turkey (Moltke)
Encyclopedia
Letters on Conditions and Events in Turkey in the Years 1835-1839 or Letters from Turkey for short, is the name given to the series of letters written by Helmuth von Moltke during his stay in the Ottoman Empire between 1835-1839 .

Background

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke was a German Field Marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as one of the great strategists of the latter 19th century, and the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field...

 was a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 (Prussian) field marshal. He was the top commander of the army during the 1871 Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

. But while he was a junior officer he had spent more than 4 years in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 as a military adviser. He came to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 for only a brief stay. But while in İstanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, he was requested by the Ottoman government to enter the Turkish service, and being authorized from his headquarters, he accepted the offer. (Jannisaries, the traditional Ottoman army was recently abolished and the government was trying to establish a new army.)

The letters

During his stay in the empire he wrote a series of 67 letters to his family members and friends in Germany about the Ottoman Empire. But according to Turkish interpretter Hayrullah Örs some of these letters were not really letters, but were essays on certain topics and were added to the collection later (like the letter about Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

 and another one about quarantine measures in the Ottoman Empire). The letters were published in French newspaper Le Temps
Le Temps (Paris)
Le Temps was one of Paris's most important daily newspapers from April 25, 1861 to November 30, 1942.Founded in 1861 by Edmund Chojecki and Auguste Nefftzer, Le Temps was under Nefftzer's direction for ten years, when Adrien Hébrard took his place...

in 1872, i.e., soon after the Franco Prussian war. In the introduction the editor M.Neffzer wrote that these letters reflect the intellectual background of the enemy.

Moltke's stay in the Ottoman Empire

Moltke travelled to İstanbul following the route Ruse, Shumen
Shumen
Shumen is the tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and capital of Shumen Province. In the period 1950–1965 it was called Kolarovgrad, after the name of the communist leader Vasil Kolarov...

 (both in modern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

) and Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

. During his stay in İstanbul he lived in Büyükdere, a suburb of İstanbul. He paid short visits to Bursa, İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

 and Çanakkale
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....

 - Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

. In 1837 spring, he accompanied the sultan Mahmut II in his visit to European provinces of the empire, like Varna
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...

, Tırnova
Veliko Tarnovo
Veliko Tarnovo is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famous as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists...

 (Veliko Tarnovo) and Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...

 (all in Bulgaria). In 1838 he was appointed as the adviser of the army in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

. He sailed to Samsun
Samsun
Samsun is a city of about half a million people on the north coast of Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Samsun Province and a major Black Sea port.-Name:...

 and he visited Amasya
Amasya
- History :Its location in this steep valley makes the city a mountain stronghold, easy to defend, and thus Amasya has had a long and prominent history.-Antiquity:...

, Tokat
Tokat
Tokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey, at the mid Black Sea region of Anatolia. According to the 2009 census, the city of Tokat has a population of 129,879.-History:Tokat was established in the Hittite era....

 and Sivas. He then travelled to Malatya
Malatya
Malatya ) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province.-Overview:The city site has been occupied for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu. Following Roman expansion into the east, the city was renamed in Latin as Melitene...

 in East Anatolia where he collaborated with Hafız Pasha who was trying to defeat rebels in East Anatolia and North Iraq. He visited Musul
Musul
Musul may stand for:* The city of Mosul, Iraq.* An alternate name for Wushu, a Chinese martial art.* Korean martial arts...

 (in modern Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

), Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...

 and Şanlıurfa
Sanliurfa
Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language , in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhoy,Armenian Ուռհա Owr'ha, Arabic الرها ar-Ruhā), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323...

. In 1838 Autumn, he paid a short visit to Central Anatolia over Kayseri
Kayseri
Kayseri is a large and industrialized city in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Kayseri Province. The city of Kayseri, as defined by the boundaries of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, is structurally composed of five metropolitan districts, the two core districts of Kocasinan and...

, Nevşehir
Nevsehir
Nevşehir, formerly Muşkara, , is a city and the capital district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 117,890 of which 85,634 631 live in the city of Nevşehir...

 and Aksaray
Aksaray
Aksaray is a city in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital district of Aksaray Province. According to 2009 census, population of the province is 376 907 of which 171,423 live in the city of Aksaray. The district covers an area of , and the average elevation is , with the highest...

. He turned back from Konya
Konya
Konya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city seventh most populous in Turkey.-Etymology:...

 over Ereğli
Eregli
Ereğli is a town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2009 census, the population of the district is 135,008 of which 95,056 live in the town of Ereğli.-History:...

. In 1839 he was the adviser of Hafız Pasha during the battle of Nizip against Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian rebels (See Mehmet Ali Pasha). But according to his letters written in Birecik
Birecik
Birecik , also formerly known as Bir and during the Crusades as Bile, is a town and district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey, on the River Euphrates....

 and Malatya, Hafız Pasha ignored his suggestions. The result was a defeat. After the defeat Moltke returned to İstanbul. After a short stay he returned back home. Apart from the details of the battle, the only lasting benefit which the Ottomans got from his service was his memoirs which served as guidelines for all subsequent German officers who served in the Ottoman Empire
.
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