Ottomans Discuss Mormons

Samuel Dolbee, New York University

Muslims and Mormons have been linked in American public consciousness for long before the 2012 presidential race between Mitt Romney, an avowed Mormon, and Barack Obama, alleged to be a Muslim by those who don't care for Muslims or the truth. As Deirdre Moloney details in National Insecurities, even in the 19th century a key argument against permitting polygamy for Mormons in America was that it constituted, in the words of Vermont Senator Justin Morrill, "Mohammedan barbarism revolting to the civilized world." For 19th-century American politicians, then, Mormons were especially horrifying because they did "Muslim" things. Yet Mormons and Muslims were linked in a decidedly different way by Ottoman Deputies in Parliament nearly 50 years after Morrill's declaration. 

    

A report brought to the Chamber of Deputies on 22 March 1910 by Yorgo Boşo Effendi of Servia steered the Ottoman Parliamentary discussion to Mormonism. In a claim preserved in the wonderfully transliterated and searchable records of the TBMM, Boşo Effendi said that immigration officials in America had turned away Muslim workers due to polygamy. Boşo Effendi further claimed that American officials were not turning away workers due to their own practice of polygamy but rather due to Islam's condoning of polygamy more generally. In attempting to clarify this point, however, Boşo roused the ire of his comrades by describing polygamy as a stipulation (şart) in Islam. In a scene evocative of dramatic episodes in the British House of Commons, shouts of "It's not a stipulation" interrupted his speech, and he corrected himself; "Okay, so it is not a stipulation, but they are saying 'we do not accept you,' because [polygamy] is not [considered] a sin [in Islam]." 

Into this boisterous atmosphere entered Mormons, or at least the topic of Mormons. Ruhi Al-Khalidi of Jerusalem (erroneously referred to as Ruhi Bey El-Malidi in the transcript) introduced the topic: "In America there are Mormons," he stated simply. Boşo Effendi responded that there was no Mormon state among the United States. "[The Americans] prohibit [Mormons] also, I mean, are there not 52 states that make up America? In those republics it is illegal to take two wives." Boşo Effendi's count of states may have been creative; there were 46 states at the time (perhaps he included America's recent colonial acquisitions from the Spanish American War in his count?). In any case it was probably a better estimate than most American politicians could make of the number of provinces within the Ottoman Empire.  

The conversation then turned away from American policies toward Mormons to the question of whether the US was turning away all Muslims or just Muslim men with more than one wife. Boşo argued that they were turning away all Muslims; "a worker going to America for a safe income," he reasoned, "will not be one who is able to take two wives." But the presiding member of the meeting, Ahmet Rıza, argued otherwise, suggesting that if they banned Muslims "completely...they would not have accepted the ambassador who is a Muslim." In addition to having doubts about the veracity of Boşo's report, others questioned how the laws of another sovereign state were a matter for the Ottoman Parliament to discuss in the first place.        

Source: Şehbal, no. 31, p. 124, Atatürk Kitaplığı.

But as the conversation continued, it did not stray far from Mormons. Aristidi Paşa of Izmir (above) agreed with Ahmet Rıza, noting that the 20-30,000 Muslims in America were evidence that the ban was not a blanket one. He also added his own account of Mormon life in American history: "90 years before this there was a sect (mezhep) called "Mormon"; they would also accept polygamy. Later the government of America banned it," although, Aristidi added, "if the Mormons come to the Ottoman domains...[they] can take two wives." In light of this ban on polygamy, Aristidi intimated that Muslim workers were turned away from America for failing to meet some of the other requirements for entry, which, in Aristidi's words, included stipulations like "he must have 20 English pounds in his pocket, I don't know, he must have been vaccinated, there must be this, there must be that." These words - imprecise though they may have been - so moved Nafi Paşa of Aleppo that he declared, "I say what Aristidi Paşa said," although Ahmet Rıza chided him "for speaking without having the floor."  

Source: Şehbal, no. 31, p. 125, Atatürk Kitaplığı.

Nafi Paşa (above) did get the floor, though not before Nazarat Dagavaryan of Sivas contended that "America is a country of freedom" open to "Muslims, Buddhists, Brahmans, whoever." When Nafi Paşa's turn came, he echoed Aristidi, just as he stated when he spoke out of turn earlier in the session. He stressed how American application of anti-polygamy laws against Mormons proved they were not simply persecuting Muslims. Also like Aristidi, he suggested that Mormons had begun "to go to other countries and to the Ottoman domains and they have begun to take [multiple wives] there," though it is unclear if there was any truth to this last claim.     

In conclusion, the deputies voted to refer the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaving their digressions into American policies toward Mormons for bored graduate students to ponder a century later. For these Ottoman representatives, American persecution of Mormons for polygamy proved that American immigration policy toward Muslims was essentially fair. As they shouted over each other and spoke out of turn, they moved toward a consensus that sounds quite strange in our world of drone strikes and warrantless wiretaps and Black Lives Matter: an image of America as a country that above all respected law.  

Source: Türk Büyük Millet Meclisi, Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Ceridesi, Devre: I, Cilt: 3, İçtima Senesi: 2, 9 Mart 1326, p. 307-310. 

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