The missionary activities of the Protestant Churches in the territory of the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th century

From the beginning of the 19th century a significant restoration of the idea of the Christian mission among Protestant Churches can be observed. The visible result of such a revival being the missionary activity undertaken in different countries, also Turkey. The most active organizations included: Church Missionary Society launched on 14th April 1799. Missioners of the C. M. S. mostly worked in the regions under British rule (including the Near East). London Jews Society (the common name for the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews) established in 1809, which originally played a significant role in the evangelization of the Jews in Palestine. The development of the Protestant mission in the Near East was based on the following factors: increasing the role of British colonialism and the collapse of the Ottoman Turkey regime, strengthening relations with Muslim civilization and the continuation of the European idea of a “Focus on the Orient”. Furthermore, the development of Protestant missions was connected with the name Cleardo Naudi (1780–1837) of British Malta. He encouraged the representatives of CMS to begin their work in the Near East. The coordinator of such an activity became William Jowett, whose main idea was to support the Christian minority in the Near East mostly by delivering religious publications to the territory. Apart from this, the evangelization among Jewish and Muslim communities had been planned. There were also ideas of the evangelization of the region by using the Christian minority from the Near East. This task was implemented by Baselermissionsgesellschaft (A Protestant Missionary Society from Basel). Knowing the culture and the language, the Christian minority from the Near East was the best candidate for developing Christianity in the Muslim world. In one of his first reports, Christian Researches in the Mediterranean from 1815 to 1820, W. Jowett emphasized the need to build educational centers and charity societies. As the result of such Protestant missions in the Near East, Christianity in this region became more active, but on the other hand new conflicts and divisions emerged - e.g. after 1850, when the Protestant churches fell under the influence of millets.