Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin Read Free Book Online Page B

Midhat-pasha. Our Anwar, who at that time was still far from being any kind of effendi, worked as his secretary. Just lend a brief ear to this
    Midhat's service record.' Mizinov took out a separate sheet of paper and coughed to clear his throat. 'At that time he was the governor-general of the Danubian Vilajet. Under his patronage Anwar established a stagecoach service in those parts, built railways and even set up a network of islahhans - charitable educational establishments for orphan children from both the Moslem and Christian confessions.'
    'Did he, indeed?' Fandorin remarked.
    'Yes. A most praiseworthy initiative, is it not? Overall, the scale of Midhat-pasha's and Anwar's activities was so great that a genuine danger arose of Bulgaria escaping from the zone of Russian influence. Our ambassador in Constantinople, Nikolai Pavlovich Gnatiev, used all his influence with Sultan Abdul-Aziz and eventually managed to have the excessively zealous governor recalled. After that Midhat became chairman of the Council of State and steered through a law introducing universal public education - a remarkable law, and also, by the way, one that we still do not have here in Russia. Can you guess who drafted the bill? Yes, of course: Anwar-effendi. This would all be very moving, if not for the fact that in addition to his educational activities, at that time our opponent was also very actively involved in the intrigues at court, seeing that his patron had more than his share of enemies. Assassins were sent to kill Midhat; his coffee was poisoned; once, indeed, they even slipped him a concubine infected with leprosy - and Anwar's duties included protecting the great man from all these delightful pranks. But in any case, the Russian party at court got the upper hand and the pasha was banished into remote exile as the governor-general of poor and backward Mesopotamia. When Midhat tried to introduce his reforms there, an insurrection broke out in Baghdad. And do you know what he did? He summoned all the city elders and the clergy and made a brief speech as follows. I shall read it verbatim, since I find its power and style genuinely delightful: "Venerable mullahs and elders, if the public disorders have not ceased in two hours from now, I shall order you all to be hanged and put the four quarters of the glorious city of Baghdad to the flame, and afterwards may the great Padishah, Allah preserve him, also have me hanged for this heinous crime."' Mizinov chuckled and shook his head. 'So now he could proceed with his reforms. In less than three years of Midhat's governorship, his devoted deputy Anwar-effendi managed to build telegraph lines, introduce horse-drawn streetcars in Baghdad, set steamships sailing up and down the Euphrates, establish the first Iraqi newspaper and enrol pupils in a school of commerce. Not bad, eh? I hardly even need mention a mere trifle such as the establishment of the "Osman-Osman Shipping Line", whose ships sail as far as London via the Suez Canal. Then, by means of a certain cunning intrigue, Anwar managed to depose the Grand Vizier, Mahmoud Nedim, who was so intimate with the Russian ambassador that the Turks used to call him "Nedimov". Midhat became the head of the sultan's government, but only managed to hold on to this high office for two and a half months - our Gnatiev outwitted him yet again. Midhat's greatest failing - and one that is absolutely unforgivable in the eyes of the other pashas - is his incorruptibility. He launched a campaign against bribe-taking and was incautious enough to utter the phrase that was his undoing in the presence of European diplomats: "The time has come to show Europe that not all Turks are despicable prostitutes." For that word "prostitutes" he was thrown out of Istanbul and appointed governor of Salonika. The little Greek town immediately began to flourish, while the sultan's court settled back into luxurious indolence and sloth financed by the embezzlement of public funds.'
    'I