Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

Okay, I'm taking another wild stab and cheated again. Whether or not the answer is correct, this will serve as my history lesson to the forum for the day.

Our interest in the Middle East really developed under the Lincoln administration when Seward recognized the need for support from the Ottoman Empire and sought a treaty with it via Egypt (which was still a part of the Empire, but pretty much its own country). The treaty of 1862 guaranteed continuous trade between the Empire and the U.S. as well as assuring the protection of U.S. trade vessels from Confederate pirates.

Later, Lincoln rec'd word of a U.S. missionary being harassed in Egypt and wrote a letter of protest to the Wali [governor]. He was assured that further harassment of missionaries would not be tolerated and that perpetrators would be punished. Lincoln's letter served to impress religious Christians in Europe and helped to keep England and France out of our Civil War.

Please tell me that's what you are referring to...

BTW: Is the portrait of Murad II who ruled in the 1400s?