Travels in Southeastern Europe

The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.

MONASTIR TO TEPELEN. 283 it had great political effect, as I learnt daily, and inspired wild hopes in the Sultan's land alike among Moslems and Christians-hopes so great that it dawned upon me gradually that nothing but abject fear could have ever forced His Majesty to have permitted that work to be carried out. Were it not for the misery of the mass of his subjects, of all sects, there are times when I should feel sorry for that terror-stricken man clinging madly to his decaying power in Yildiz Kiosk, a prisoner in his own house, while his moon, no longer ' crescent,' wanes pallid in a pool of blood. I stared at the gaunt wreck of the broken bridge, the wild mountains, the lone, lom land. It had come to this: I, a 'female giaour,' was asked to shame the great Padishah by one of his Moslem subjects. The irony of things can scarce go further. Their insistent belief in my power would have made me believe I was the British Empire had not the burning, grinding pain in my leg reminded me I was only myself, and helpless to bear the intolerable weight of the 'white man's burden,' which everywhere. the people strove to thrust upon me. And this was at the birthplace of Ali Pasha —of Ali, Lord of South Albania, the Lion of Janina, gorgeous, glorious, brutal, barbarous-invincible Ali, whose rule reached from Arta to Ochrida, and who was only overpowered and slain when he had reached the age of eighty. Where art thou, now, oh Ali Pasha? Thy people cry for help to a female giaour! Ali was born in 1741, over there in that little
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About this Item

Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 283
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001
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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bosnia/ans3900.0001.001/290

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"The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham." In the digital collection Travels in Southeastern Europe. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 30, 2025.
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