Sultan’s America: Lessons from Ottoman Encounters with the United States

Year 2014, Issue: 39, 55 - 76, 01.04.2014

Emrah Şahin

Abstract

On 23 June 1892, the Reverend John Joseph Nouri, Doctor of Divinity and Laws and a “native” and “loyal subject of the Ottoman Empire,” landed at the port of San Francisco, the terminus a quo of his first trip to the United States Y. Prk. Tkm. 30/53 1 . As the Archdeacon of Babylon and Jerusalem, and the Grand Apostolic Ambassador to Malabar, India, and Persia, he was a self-ordained biblical archeologist who aligned his faith with the urge to explore Eastern Turkey and the Holy Lands. This time, he undertook the non-biblical task of discovering the New World, not ancient religious sites. On 12 March the following year, he thought he saw enough of Southern states and decided to head northeast to Chicago via the Southern Pacific Railway. While waiting at the station, he was approached by a motley group of thieves, forced to surrender his train ticket, and robbed of his possessions including jewels, medals, papers, and vestment. After the mugging, the thieves, John Hurey, George Smith, and Susan Smith, poisoned and dumped him in critical condition at the Napa State Insane Asylum, where he was incarcerated as a mental patient without proper examination.

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