JAMES CREAGH. TURKOPHILE IN THE BALKANS, 1875

Abstract

James Creagh (1836–1910) is the author of one of the travelogues that, during the first year of the Great Eastern Crisis, was intended to familiarize readers in Great Britain with the uprising in the Ottoman provinces. Over the borders of Christendom and Eslamiah. A journey through Hungary, Slavonia, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, and Montenegro, to the north of Albania, in the summer of 1875 serves as an example of travel literature that, within the categorization of Balkanophile and Turkophile travelogues, belongs to the latter. Having been an officer and a participant in the Crimean War, the author’s Russophobia, a trait commonly found in British travel literature of the time, is particularly pronounced. Krig’s travelogue is characterized by his hostile stance toward the opponents of Ottoman rule, glorification of the Ottoman administration, justification of Muslim treatment toward Christians, dismissal of critical perspectives on the Ottoman Empire, and the projection of the Irish political paradigm onto Balkan realities. The aim of this paper is to highlight Krig’s subjectivity and inaccuracies by pointing out omissions, tendentious comments, and factual errors, thus demonstrating the extent to which Krig’s work is an unreliable historical source.