? How the Ottoman helped the Irish during the Great Famine
the Great Famine in mid 19th century was one of the most devastating events in Irish history between 1845 and 1852 potato blight hit the Island's potato crop. the potato was a staple item of good in Ireland a lack of good harvesting let to mass starvation disease and the death of nearly a million poeple one of unexpected sources of aid in this crisis was the Othoman Caliphate Slultan Abdul Majeed the first went out of his way to try to help so he could ease the the suffering of the Irish people Sultan Abdul Majeed was only 23 years old in 1847 when he personally offered ten thousand pounds in aid to Ireland but he had already ruled the Caliphate for nearly ten years in that time he earned the admiration of many of his own subjects and other around the world but this time he would have to scale back his generosity British diplomats advised him that it would be offensive for anyone to offer more than Queen Victoria who had only donated two thousand pounds.
it was suggested that he should donate half of that amount so he gave one thousand pounds the Sultan's donation was appreciated by the public in Britain and Ireland as well one English religious journal published an article titled a benevolent Sultan in which the author wrote "for time Mohammaden sovereign, presenting multitudinous Islamic population. manifests spontaneously a warm sympathy with a Christian nation may such sympathies, in all genial charities of common humanity, be sultivated and henceforth ever be maintained between the followers of the crescent and the cross!"
the press also blamed British diplomate in Constantinople for rejecting the initial donation of 10.000 pounds just to avoid embarrassing Qween Victoria meanwhile Sultan Abdul Majeed had found other ways to help. to day the port twon of Drogheada in Irland includes a cresent and the star both of which are symbols of Islam in its coat of arms local tradition has it that these symbols were adopted after the Ottoman Empire secretly sent five ships loaded with food to the town in may 1847.
the reason for the secrecy is that the British administration had allegedly tried to block the ships from entreing drogheda's harbor.
entring drogheda as harbor evidence that backs up these claims includes newspaper articles from the period and letter from Irish notables explicitlythanking the Sultan for his help the nationalist Irish Ferrman's Jurnalcelebrated these efforts the conduct of Abdul Majeed on the occasion referred to the author wrote " was that of a good humane,and generous man. a believer in Muhammedanism, he acted in the ture spirit of a follower of Christ, and set an example which many professing Christians would do weel to imitate."
though Abdul Majeed probably hadn't expected any kind of returns on his aid to the Irish some of them rallied to his side in 1854 just two years after the famine ended Britain had become involved the Crimean war to defend Ottoman territory against an expanding Russian Empire in addition to Irish nurses and engineers and some of first war journalists in history about 30.000 Irish soldiers served in the war despite the suffering that they and their families had endured during the Great Famine they were noticed to be serving enthusiastically in deference of the territory of the Sultan who had helped them in their time of need.
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