6 Mayıs 2020 Çarşamba

TNT History Travel Log: From Istanbul to the Altay Mountains (1911)/Part III

//Ed. note:  Halim Sabit Efendi heads east from Kharkiv
to Samara, returning to the scene of his adolescent school
years.//

RUSSIA SAMARA 1910 - $24.99 | PicClick


After boarding the train again at Kharkiv, it was evident from their 
clothes and accents that the other passengers were Russians from the 
villages on either side of the tracks.  As the train neared Penza, though,
Turkish Moslems began to board.  I was eager to talk with them and 
the fez I wore on my head made it evident that I was an Ottoman Turk.
I noticed that even the middle-class Russians on the train were 
favorably inclined toward Turkey.

Passing Penza, the number of Turkish Moslem passengers increased
since we were in the area of the Volga River, which flows from beyond 
Nizhny Novgorod in the north to the Caspian Sea in the south, and
which has a large Turkish Moslem population.  As the train moved on,
the minarets of the village mosques came into view on both sides of
the railline.   

Our train crossed over the Volga bridge in five minutes and we arrived
in Samara.  I got off to visit this beautiful city, where I had spent a few
years of my youth.  I was happy to see my old friends from school 
and the medrese here.  One of them pressed a copy of "İktisad" 
magazine into my hands.  This is an economics-based periodical 
written in clear Turkish that focuses on the issues of Turkish Moslems 
around here.  These days, a friend from my school days was writing 
and publishing it. 

A ferry took us to the city of Simbirsk (now called Ulyanovsk, a bit
north of Samara).  I first to visit a merchant I'd known before.  We
caught up after years apart but then he explained that he was upset 
about the local imams in Simbirsk, which is very conservative, 
opposing reforms.  Nevertheless, despite the fierce opposition of 
teachers, imams  and elders he had been able to to establish modern 
schools for boys and girls.  We visited the schools together and they 
were indeed nice and clean.  The students were not there because of 
the summer break but there are more than 300 registered.

The mosque we visited, on the other hand, was in disrepair. Since it 
was Friday, we entered for prayers and I heard the same sermon I'd 
heard 10 years before, from the same imam's mouth.  Leaving the 
mosque, my friend told me that "you see for yourself the state of our 
medrese and mosque, compared to what they used to be. The imams 
and the 'müderris' (religious teachers) are very conservative and 
mislead the community against reforms.  Nevertheless, some 
progressive youths ignored them and they're running the boys school 
we just saw."

Samara, Russia: What to pack, what to wear, and when to go [2018 ...
Halim Sabit Efendi's route on this portion of his adventure 
took him by train from Kharkiv, lower left, through Penza to 
Samara, from where he took a ferry to Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk) 
to visit an old friend.

//END of PART III//

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