164 years ago, during the Great Famine in Ireland, the Ottoman Empire sent £1,000 sterling (about $1,683,000 US dolars today) and 5 shiploads of food to Drogheda, Ireland.
Ireland was ridden with famine and disease between 1840 and 1850. Also known as the Great Hunger, this famine had lasting effects: at least one million people died due to famine-related diseases and more than one million Irish fled, mainly to the United States, England, Canada, and Australia.
The Ottoman ruler at that time Sultan Abdülmecid (Abdul-Majid) declared his intention to send £10,000 sterling to Irish farmers but Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only £1,000 sterling, because she had sent only £2,000 sterling herself ( 336,656 US Dollars) . The Sultan sent the £1,000 sterling but also secretly sent 5 ships full of food. The British administration tried to block the ships, but the food arrived secretly at Drogheda harbour.
This generous charity from a Muslim ruler to a Christian nation is also important, particularly in our time when Muslims and the Turks are often unfairly accused of human rights violations.
PS:
1- While the Turkish soldiers starving, who guarded the ships.
2- A claim was made by a US professor of law, Francis A. Boyle that the Famine was genocide by the British against the Irish, meaning that the famine was part of a deliberate policy of planned extermination. !
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