On the Edge of the Civilized World: Cyrus Hamlin and the American Missionary Work in Turkey

Abstract

When the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions appointed Cyrus Hamlin to Istanbul as a missionary, his immediate reaction was one of enthusiasm and joy but his rooted perception of the city was that it was a place "on the borders of civilization." However, the main concern of this paper is to decribe Hamlin's philanthropic achievements as a missionary educator both with reference to the modern theory of philanthropy and within the historical context of the American missionary work in Turkey in the nineteenth century.