In this accommodation to the conditions and institutions of the subject peoples did the strength, as well as the weakness, of the new masters consist: in so far as they found before them fast-bound customs, which they simply took over, they were obliged to accept, along with their advantages, their drawbacks as well. The only real advantage that they received came from their acceptance of feudalism, while the retention of cultural and social conditions in town and country was bound gradually to weaken their power, because these conditions either outlived them or, at any rate, were not suited to them. The first statement applies to agrarian relations, and the latter to commercial relations in the towns. This free shepherd and peasant race (for this they had previously been) lost its free character through taking over the Byzantine provincial nobility without, however, in doing this, developing a genuinely urban civilization, which is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for trade-activity. Thus the Turkish peasantry went backward without a Turkish bourgeoisie arising. At any rate, only a limited town-folk arose which made its living by handicraft but did not know how to conquer economically the regions that it had subdued politically. There existed here, therefore, a twofold, dangerous breach in the social organism of Mohammedanism, and into this breach sprang the ever-alive and ever-enterprising Greek, first the Greek trader, and then the Greek farmer. Both had in the west coast of Asia Minor and in the islands, regions where Greeks have always lived, a field for their activity that, though at first modest, has slowly but steadily broadened out.

In the first place, Greek trade in Asia Minor was destined to have an awakening. The impulse to this came from the trade policy inaugurated in the Levant by Colbert, the gifted Minister of Louis XIV. A special trade-society was founded for this purpose (1664), the consular system was reformed, French merchants were united in permanent corporations and a state system of control was arranged between the most important harbors of the Levant and Marseilles. An interesting account has been preserved, dating back to the year 1733, which tells of measures taken to increase the trade of Smyrna as over against its rival Constantinople, and one from the year 1778, containing a regulation decided upon by the Marseilles Chamber of Commerce for the French merchants of Smyrna.25

The number of firms there that represented French houses had, in the period from 1752 to 1783, already increased to twenty-nine as against eleven in Constantinople and eight in Salonika. This French trade-policy was systematically based on a strengthening of Smyrna, with the evident purpose of driving the rival trade of Italy out of the field. In this it must have succeeded, for in the forty years from 1750 to 1789 the value of French goods imported from Smyrna to Marseilles rose from 5,629,000 pounds to 12,805,000 pounds and, at the same time, the export from Marseilles to Smyrna rose from 4,250,000 pounds to 9,500,000 pounds. This increase in the trade of Marseilles naturally postulated a similar increase in the trade of Smyrna; this attained even in 1787 no less a figure than 52,750,000 Turkish pounds, in which figures is included the rapidly increasing trade with Russia which resulted from the latter’s position as Turkey’s protector since 1774. Smyrna thus became a new and important reloading place in the trade of the Levant, and although, at the beginning of the 18th century, it had numbered hardly 30,000 inhabitants, it had, in the year 1803, 100,000, of whom about a third were Greeks. The new blood was mostly to the advantage of the Greeks. In fact, one may say that the new enlargement of Smyrna, which had formerly been the center of Hellenism in Asia Minor and became so in an increasing degree from now on, opened a new period of prosperity to the Greeks of Asia Minor; from all parts of the Greek Orient a stream of enterprising Greeks gathered together here, so that the old capital of Ionia soon became once more an almost purely Greek city; in 1850, of about 125,000 inhabitants, 60,000 were Greeks, in 1880 of about 160,000, 75,000 or 80,000 were Greeks, and in 1910, over 100,000 inhabitants of the city’s 225,000 were Greeks. On the contrary, the number of Turks has, in the last 100 years, dropped from 75,000 to 60,000, or, according to some authorities, to 50,000, while the number of Greeks has almost quadrupled.26 The trade of Smyrna has correspondingly increased, especially since the opening up of the interior through the railroads that go out from Smyrna into the valleys of the Hermos and Mæander. Though the trade in 1839 amounted only to 53 million francs, it had increased in 1855 to 120 million, and by 1881 had even reached the figure of 220 million francs. It had already surpassed the commerce of Constantinople, and the Turks therefore call Smyrna too, mingling envy and scorn, “the infidel Smyrna” (Giaour Ismir). For Hellenism in Asia Minor, however, it became a new and firm support for its interests and a source of prosperity. Even in the year 1818 the Greek merchants of Smyrna were able to build at their own expense a beautiful casino, intended alike to serve business and social ends. This proved, however, to be a tender blossom that had come out prematurely and was soon destroyed by the storms of the Greek War for Independence (1821–1829), though it did bloom forth all the more strongly after the war’s fortunate ending.

For Hellenism began to spread over the west coast in a large number of little places, which were in part old Hellenic sites, and in part places settled during the Middle Ages, or in later Turkish times. Among the very old sites is Phocæa, which through a strange play of circumstances has formed the beginning and the ending of a development that has embraced the world. Famous as the metropolis of Marseilles (Massilia), it was, after a long period of decay, revived in modern times by the reflux movement from her daughter of old, a movement that affected Smyrna first, and then its neighbor Phocæa as well, for this too, in spite of its changing political fortunes, had always been a bulwark of Christianity and was again destined to experience a new, though modest, rejuvenescence. Although, during the first half of the 19th century, the Greeks there were still in the minority, as compared with the Turks, constituting two-fifths of the population (2,000 out of 5,000), the relation has in the intervening decades so changed that now out of 8,000 inhabitants, 6,000 are Greeks, so that these now form three-quarters of the inhabitants. This increase is due to the vigorous local shipping trade which centers here and which numbers annually something like 3,000 ships. The most remarkable thing is, however, that this rejuvenated Old Phocæa has already become once more the mother-city of a young Phocæa (New Phocæa), which is about ten kilometers northwest of the old and although only a few decades old already has about 5,000 inhabitants of whom about 4,000 are Greeks. New and Old Phocæa then, taken together, already number about 10,000 Greek inhabitants as compared with 3,000 Turks. Working the salt pits and exportation of raisins constitute the chief sources of livelihood of the two cities.

The two other important harbors north of Smyrna are, like Phocæa, of recent origin and are therefore purely Greek; I mean Dikeli and Aïvali. Dikeli may really be described as founded by the German archæologist Karl Humann, who in 1869 had the road that led to this place from Pergamon rebuilt, in order the better to transport the Pergamene sculptures excavated by him. Enterprising Greek merchants have taken advantage of this road in the exportation of the products of the country, and have built up here a trading place which in 1880 had 3,000 exclusively Greek inhabitants but which now contains 5,000 such.27 Owing to this fact the older harbor of Chandirli, situated more to the north, has steadily diminished in importance. The chief exporting harbor of northwest Asia Minor is, however, Aïvali, newly built in the third decade of the 19th century on the site of an older Greek settlement named Cydonia, a name which, like Aïvali, means “quince.” It is an almost unique example, on Asia Minor soil, of a large, purely Greek and practically self-governing community, with 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, a yearly export business of ten to twelve million francs and a shipping of over 3,000 vessels. It has thoroughly modern business institutions as well as a Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture and an Agricultural Bank. It is the seat of three consular agents, those of England, France and Italy. Through Aïvali’s growth the ancient Adramit (Adramyttium), which was formerly on the coast but is now further inland away from the bay, has been put into the background and now contains about 6,000 inhabitants. As compared with these three ports, the three that are situated on the west coast, south of Smyrna, are by no means so important, perhaps just because they are older settlements, in which Hellenism has had to force its way against the Turks, who were here numerically superior. This is particularly true of Chesme, which lies on the projecting west point of the peninsula of Clazomenæ.28 It is a town of about 6,000 inhabitants, which prospers through its raisin trade. The Turks, to be sure, form the majority of the population (about two-thirds), but the shipping (2,500 ships annually) is entirely in Greek hands. The chief place of export for the products of the Mæander valley is Scalanova, settled in the Middle Ages and named by the Turks Kush-Adassi, by the Greeks New Ephesus. The Greeks, 3,000 to 4,000 in number, are constantly forcing the Turks, who are settled in the old walled town and are about equal to them in number, further into the background, and in commerce they completely control the field. Lastly, Budrum, a Turkish settlement on the site of the ancient Halicarnassus and still inhabited by about 3,000 Turks, has become Hellenized in proportion as the growing importance of the place as a center of export for southwest Asia Minor—the ancient Caria—has been appreciated by the Greeks. Their number, which twenty years ago was a little over 2,200, may since then have come to equal that of the Turks, or may even have surpassed it.

The other little seaport towns on the southwest coast, as Marmaras, Macri, Levisi, Kalamaki and Phœnix, since they are not connected by railroad lines with the interior, are as yet without any commercial significance and are of importance only in connection with local coast-shipping. None of them has more than 3,000 inhabitants, but these are overwhelmingly Greek.

With these constantly increasing Greek settlements on the west coast, settlements which have their economical support in the great islands just off the coast, Mitylene, Chios, Samos and Rhodes, the settlements on the extended, exposed and less indented north and south coasts of Asia Minor can bear no comparison either in number or in importance, and this is true particularly of the south coast. The chief places here are the ancient Adalia (Attalia) founded in Hellenistic times, with about 30,000 inhabitants, and the entirely modern Mersina, founded in 1832, with about 22,000 inhabitants. In Adalia, which was an important station for the fleet in Byzantine times, and is now the chief emporium for the whole interior of the southwest, there live about 10,000 Greeks, i.e., about a third of the total population, while in Mersina they form the majority. This city, too, owing to the fact that it is connected with the Bagdad railroad by the Mersina-Adana line, has obtained the commercial supremacy on the south coast; it had in 1911 an import and export business of some twelve to thirteen million francs, while Adana had a business of only two and a quarter million. Here too, therefore, the more flourishing condition of the cities is in direct ratio with the increasing number of Greeks. On the north coast, which is twice as long as the southern, no new Greek settlements have developed, but those that have existed since antiquity have maintained their importance, thanks to the fact that they have preserved their Greek element, which from these bases has controlled the trade of the Black Sea. Trebizond, Kerasunda (Kiresun), Œnoe (Unieh), Amisos (Samsun), Sinope (Sinop), Ionopolis (Ineboli), Heraclea (Eregli) are still strong supporting and gathering points of the Greeks, who constitute in Trebizond half of the population (about 25,000 Greeks out of 50,000 inhabitants), while Samsun, the greatest trade center of the north coast, with an export business of about forty million francs, has even a larger proportion of Greeks.

Economically developed in quite another way, because more blessed by nature and more highly favored by its nearness to Constantinople, and on these accounts from of old, more densely populated, is the northwest coast of Asia Minor, the littoral of the Sea of Marmora. Here are situated on relatively shorter stretches of coast, no less than seven important old seaports which also belong completely to the Greek sphere of influence. There lie first, at and on the peninsula of Cyzicus, the old cities of Panormos (Panderma) and Artake (Artaki). The former is the more important as being the chief place of export for the sheep of Asia Minor, the value of which, even in 1893, amounted to fifteen million francs. Since then, the town, which has about 12,000 inhabitants, of whom 2,000 are Greeks, has become the terminus of the road that branches off from Manissa, and will take a sudden jump as soon as it has direct steamer connection with Constantinople. Artaki, an almost purely Greek town of about 7,500 inhabitants, subsists, in great part, from its manufacture of wine, liqueurs and cognac. In particular, the white wines produced here are highly esteemed in Constantinople. In the southeast corner of the Sea of Marmora are situated Mudania and Gemlik, the former, the old Apamea, the point of departure of the railroad to Broussa, having about 4,000 Greek and 2,000 Turkish inhabitants; the latter, the ancient Kios, which the Greeks have once more renamed by its old name, being an almost purely Greek town of 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, which, like Aïvali, enjoys an almost complete independence. The chief exports are chromium-ore and tobacco (Kios-cigarettes!). Finally, in the deep bay of Ismid, besides Ismid itself, are at one and the other side of the city Karamursal (the ancient Prænetus) and Gebize (the Byzantine Dakibyza). Both are the capitals of districts in which the Greek population already surpasses the Turkish (1893: 15,000 Greeks and 11,000 Turks), although in the towns themselves the Turks are still in the majority (Gebize has about 4,000 Turks and 2,000 Greeks). Alongside of these places, however, especially along the line of the Haidar-Pasha-Ismid Railway are to be found many Greek places whose Greek population increases, in a very striking way, the nearer one gets to Constantinople. So, for example, Daridsha, the Byzantine Aretzu, which is now once more inhabited exclusively by Greeks, and Cadikioi, the ancient Chalcedon, which now numbers 30,000 to 35,000 inhabitants, who consist in almost equal numbers of Armenians, Greeks and Turks, while at the beginning of the 19th century it was inhabited almost entirely by Turks.

Coming now to the last of these places, Ismid (the ancient Nicomedia), we find that this has lost its old significance as a place of transfer, toward Constantinople, of the products from the rich Bithynian plain, since the Anatolian Railroad has drawn this business in great part to itself, and its exports, which in 1893 amounted to thirty-two million francs, have since then decreased proportionately with the decrease in the number of its inhabitants, which furthermore is fluctuating greatly, being now reported as 40,000, again as 25,000, and again as only 20,000. The number of the Greeks up to twenty years ago, when they numbered 6,000, was constantly increasing, for in the first half of the 19th century they were estimated at not more than 1,000.

The whole Greek population of these sixteen towns is about 240,000, of which number about half are found in Smyrna, so that the other fifteen comprise a number about equal with that in Smyrna. But the number of Greek inhabitants of the coast has not yet been fully enumerated. For if we add the number of those who are settled in the districts of the various provinces that border on the coast, we arrive at almost twice this number, i.e., 450,000. There must then be living in these coast regions, scattered outside the cities in the country, more than 200,000 Greeks. These make their living by fishing, and grape and fruit raising, and extend in almost unbroken stretches between the towns along the whole coast, so that the whole Greek population of the coast consists in about equal proportions of city and country dwellers, a ratio that we shall also find obtaining in the interior as well.

This fringe or wreath of Greek colonies which extends toward the south as well as toward the north forms not only a strong economical force, but also a no less strong spiritual force. This is usually underestimated, as is too, in general, that idealistic element which is coexistent in the Greeks with that confessedly very prominent materialistic element, and this even in the times of its deepest national humiliation it has never lost. This idealistic element is rooted in a very strong national feeling, which has been nourished by the recollection of a great intellectual past and which finds its finest and most effectual expression in the fostering of Greek schools. This desire for schooling is implanted in the Greek nature from the times of late antiquity, and though it often savors rather strongly of scholasticism, it has prevented the Greeks from losing their national consciousness, as have the Jews and, to a certain degree, Armenians. Even the church is held so sacred by the Greeks only because she has been the bearer of national ideals in the times of slavery and has, at the same time, been a powerful political organ of administration, forming the only means in Turkey of putting through the national demands for schools. The relation of church and school is therefore, in the Greek Orient, quite different from that in Catholic or even Protestant Christian lands. The church regards itself not as the mistress of the school but rather as her servant and patron. This fact must be clearly understood in order rightly to estimate the relations now to be considered. If, for example, a Greek community wishes to establish a school on Turkish soil, the council of the community informs the bishop of the diocese of this desire and the latter communicates it to the superior bishop, who then acquaints the Greek Patriarchate in Constantinople with the matter. The latter is the religious head of the Greeks in Turkey and must therefore represent their educational interests. It is his task then to obtain the Sultan’s permission to establish the desired school, and in obtaining this, money plays a not unimportant rôle. The richer the community is, therefore, the more easily does it obtain the permission, and since the Greek communities of the coast of Asia Minor have always been, for the most part, very rich, they were able to proceed to establish their own schools at an early date. The oldest are those in Smyrna, Aïvali and Chesme, and those that first came into existence were not common schools but higher institutions of learning, corresponding to the development of the times and the aristocratic character of the Greek merchants. The oldest and most famous of these schools, and the only one which still exists, is the so-called Evangelical School in Smyrna. It goes back to 1708, but the year 1733 is really to be regarded as the year of its foundation. Existing under English protection since 1747, and being therefore absolutely autonomous, it was, in 1810, recognized by the Sultan as a fully authorized gymnasium, and after being twice reorganized—in 1810 and 1828—the Greek Government, too, gave it full recognition. Although supported entirely by the funds of the community and benefactors’ gifts, and demanding for its upkeep more than 100,000 francs, it still maintains in Smyrna two great affiliated schools. Its significance for the intellectual life of Smyrna rests in its ancient museum and in its rich library (30,000 volumes and 200 manuscripts), the only one on Asia Minor soil.29

In Smyrna too is still published the first Greek newspaper to appear on Turkish soil, Amalthea, which has existed now for almost seventy-five years. Alongside of this old school for advanced studies there were in Smyrna in 1894 other Greek schools, and in particular seventeen grammar schools, two trade schools (the oldest having existed since 1857), four private girls’ schools and one large girls’ college with three associated schools and more than 2,000 pupils in all. The largest Greek school community in Asia Minor, next to that of Smyrna, is that of Aïvali, the second largest Greek colony of the west coast. It supports more than twenty grammar schools, two intermediate schools, a gymnasium and a girls’ boarding school, which in 1892 were attended by more than 1,100 pupils. Then comes Chesme, known for its old advanced-school, which at that time possessed only eleven schools but showed the largest number of pupils (675). Nearly equal to this were Phocæa with nine schools and 560 pupils, Adramit with nineteen schools and about 600 pupils, Artaki with twenty-two schools and 700 pupils, Panderma with fifteen schools and 536 pupils, Gemlik (Kios) with nine schools and 530 pupils, Mudania with eight schools and 330 pupils, Gebize with thirteen schools and 1,000 pupils. Although the wide dissemination, as well as the prosperity and the intellectual development of the Greeks on the north part of the west coast is reflected in the large number of Greek schools, that of the southern part is in this particular far more backward. Apart from Scalanova with five Greek schools and 440 pupils, Adalia on the south coast is alone worthy of mention with its ten schools and 600 pupils. Taken all together these sixteen cities have more than two hundred schools with more than 17,000 pupils,30 a number, the significance of which can only rightly be appreciated when compared with the corresponding Turkish figures, which show, to be sure, that the number of schools is a hundred larger but that the number of pupils is 6,000 less than that of the Greeks. There are therefore nearly three times as many pupils per school in the Greek schools as in the Turkish. The Greek settlements on the north and south coasts are to be distinguished from those on the west coast not only through their smaller number, but also through the fact that only scanty and weak settlements in the inland correspond to them. In the west, on the contrary, as we have already seen, Greek colonization has, since late antiquity, extended up into the interior, and the consequences of this have been felt even up to the present time, or, at any rate, have been made anew noticeable, owing to the fact that the Greeks of the west coast have for several decades been pressing farther and more vigorously into the interior, and have settled there more definitely. This region that has at present been occupied by them only in its chief centers is, in general, bounded by a line which may be drawn from Ismid in the north, past Eskishehr, Afiun-Karahissar, and Isbarta to Adalia. All that lies between this line and the west coast may be regarded as within the Greek sphere. The second phase of these Hellenizing efforts of today begins with this forward push into the interior of this region. Just how far and in what way has this succeeded?

If we start on the basis of the actual facts of the case, we find that in thirty towns of the western interior of Asia Minor of more than 5,000 inhabitants, the Greeks have a share in the population of from 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. Arranged according to the ratio of this share in the population, these cities fall into different groups, as follows:

First, a Greek majority is found in only two cities, Michalitsh (about 7,000 Greeks out of a total of 8,000) and Koplu (about 5,000 out of 8,000). Second, in nine cities the Greeks form between one-half and one-third of the population: Baindir (4,500 out of 10,000), Tireh (6,000 out of 14,000), Edemish (3,000 out of 7,000), Menemen (about 3,000 out of 10,000), Bergama (5,500 out of 14,500), Isbarta (7,000 out of 20,000), Sokia (4,000 out of 12,000), Soma (2,000 out of 6,000), Manissa (11,000 out of 35,000). Third, in four cities the Greeks form about a fourth: Inegeul (about 2,000 out of 8,000), Kassaba (6,000 out of 23,000), Kermasti (1,200 out of 4,800), Aïdin (8,500 out of 35,000). Fourth, in five cities they form from a fifth to a sixth part: Kutaiah (4,000 out of 22,000), Dimetoka (1,300 out of 7,000), Alashehr (4,500 out of 22,000), Milas (2,000 out of 12,000), Bigha (1,600 out of 10,000). Fifth, in five cities the Greeks form from a seventh to a ninth of the total population: Kirkagatch (2,000 out of 18,000), Ushak (1,500 out of 12,500), Balukiser (1,300 out of 10,000), Sabandsha (1,000 out of 7,500), Kyrkagatch (about 200 out of 18,000). Sixth, less than a tenth in seven cities: Denizli (1,600 out of 17,000), Soyut (1,500 out of 18,000), Nazilli (1,700 out of 21,000), Brussa (6,000 out of 80,000), Adabazar (1,600 out of 24,000), Eskishehr (1,150 out of 19,000), Nugla (1,100 out of 15,000).

From this combination of facts several interesting conclusions may be drawn as to the distribution of the Greek population in the interior itself, and as to the relation between the Hellenization of the interior as compared with that of the coast regions.

If we group the cities named above according to their distribution in the various provinces and districts, we find that only fifteen of these fall within the province of Aïdin, the largest province of the west coast of Asia Minor, and the one that is held to most stubbornly by the Turks. Of these fifteen, again, only thirteen come in the district of Smyrna, Sarukan and Aïdin, which form the most populous part of this province. These are Menemen, Manissa, Kassaba, Alashehr; Kirkagatch, Soma, Bergama; Baindir, Tireh and Odemish; Sokia; Aïdin and Nazilli. Now these thirteen towns, with the exception of Bergama, all lie, as the above grouping indicates, on the four railroad lines which go out in four directions from Smyrna, that is in those regions of the province which belong economically to Smyrna. At any rate, the significance for the Greek settlements of the economic factor is clearly evidenced in these towns, for they are, almost without exception, “capitals,” so to speak, of smaller districts, and are therefore important distributing and collecting centers for the local trade to and from Smyrna. With the increase of this trade the number of the Greeks in this group of interior cities is bound to increase quickly or has already done so.

Most of the other towns named above are in the province of Hodavendikiar, which lies due north of that of Aïdin; and once more is it true that they are in the most densely inhabited parts of the province, Brussa, Ertogrul and Kutaiah. Of the nine cities that belong here, five, again, are found on the line of the Anatolian Railroad, namely, Biledjik, Soyut, Eskishehr, Kutaiah and Ushak; one, Brussa, on a branch road and three on no railroad at all, though within reach of the Michalitch-Kirmasti-Inegeul Railroad. Here, too, therefore, the cities which are more or less decidedly Greek in their population lie along the main railroad lines, though they are not quite so strongly Greek as those in the province of Aïdin; for we are here in the very heart of Turkey, and its greatest city Brussa, which more than all the other cities of this region has preserved its Turkish character more purely. It is always to be borne in mind that the Anatolian Railroad goes out from Constantinople and that this, with its strong Greek population, is as important a gate of entrance to the northwest of Asia Minor as Smyrna is for the west.

Although up to this time it is impossible to speak of a Hellenizing of the great interior cities of western Asia Minor, since these are (thus being quite different from the coast cities) very far from succumbing, either numerically or culturally, to the Greek invasion—the number of Greeks is the largest in Manissa—yet, if one looks into the matter narrowly, he gains the impression that in the interior the Hellenizing influence comes from the smaller towns. This supposition, to be sure, is opposed to the view, still broadly accepted, that the Greek element is purely a city element, and that the country-folk consist only of Turks. This view, which, as we have seen, does not hold even in the coast regions, is, however, absolutely false and is only to be explained as arising from the impressions of superficial travelers who have rarely penetrated into the remoter regions with a predominantly rural population. Anyone who has, for example, visited the larger Greek islands of the Asiatic coast, like Mitylene, Chios, Samos and Rhodes, knows that these dense populations live in great measure from grape and fruit-raising or from silk culture, and only in a very small degree from trade. Farming plays no very large part, simply because of the lack of arable land. Since now, as we have said, these very islands for something like fifty years have become very densely populated or even in part overpopulated (as, for instance, Samos), there have been periodical emigrations of the island peasants, in considerable numbers, over to the mainland, where they have, in particular, settled in the fruitful valleys of the Mæander and the Hermos in the western parts of Asia Minor and in that of the Sangarios, farther north. In part, it is the descendants of the former Greek landowners who have been reduced to socagers or serfs, who, on getting possession of some little capital, have now, in their turn, driven back the Turks by buying them out or by working the soil more scientifically, a process in which they were helped by the immigrant islanders. If a sufficient number of them is thus found settled together, they try to obtain the Sultan’s firman permitting them to settle in a town. Thus the English traveler Hamilton states that the Greeks in a little town of Lydia (Singerli), in which they had settled ten years before, had, in his time (1837), increased to 40–50 families and were busied with building a new market. In this way numerous new and dense settlements came into existence in the midst of the more scattered Turkish populations, and the higher fecundity of the Greek settlers, combined with their industry, their intellectual keenness, their frugality and their community-feeling, helped always by the retrogression of the Turkish population itself, have contributed to extend the Hellenizing process more and more to the country districts.31

In particular have they taken possession of the regions adapted to silk culture, like that of the lower Sangarios Valley, and also of such regions as are adapted to raising grapes. More recently, Greek industrial enterprises, too, especially silk-spinning mills, cognac factories and steam oil mills, have sprung into existence, meeting with no rivalry on the part of the Turks. With this Greek peasant of Asia Minor, who is on a higher moral plane, and who is therefore more congenial to us Germans than the Greek trader or innkeeper in the coast-towns, our German spirit of enterprise which is seeking to get the economic control over Asia Minor, will have to come to terms, and it would be just as perverse as it would be foolish to depend on the Turk to the exclusion of the Greek, who has the controlling hand in trade and traffic, as well as in the cultivation of the soil.32

Even to a traveler of a hundred years ago the great difference between the Greeks of the cities and the peasants was especially noteworthy. The former were subservient and cringing like the Armenians, while the latter were energetic and intelligent, irreconcilable in their hatreds and by no means lacking in courage. And it is to these praiseworthy qualities, and not to their much-bruited craftiness, that they owe their progress in the interior of Asia Minor.33

As to the numbers of the Greek inhabitants of the interior of Asia Minor, only an indirect estimate can be made. The whole number of all the Greeks in the interior of the two provinces of Brussa and Aïdin, exclusive of the inhabitants of the coast regions, even twenty years ago, amounted to 200,000, i.e., less than half as many as in the coast regions. About 100,000 of these lived in places with a population of more than 5,000, so that about 100,000 were scattered among the villages and towns. The distribution of this interior population is very uneven. The densest Greek populations have gathered in the Prefecture of Aïdin and here chiefly in the sub-prefecture of Smyrna, with its five districts (Sarukan, with four districts, and Aïdin, with only one). These three sub-prefectures, therefore, in their ten districts, comprised, twenty years ago, a fifth part of the entire population. In the province of Brussa the number of districts with a considerable Greek population was only five, in the sub-prefecture of Ertogrul, three; in those of Brussa and Kutaiah, one each. There were the largest numbers in the district of Eskishehr, the ancient Dorylæum, where they comprised two-fifths of the population, and in Michalitch, where they formed one-third of the total. In fifteen of the twenty-five districts of the interior of the two prefectures fifteen, therefore, already contained a considerable part of the population. To speak in greater detail, these districts may be classified as follows, with relation to the proportions of their Greek inhabitants: The Greek population is densest in the districts of Magnesia (Sanjak Sarukan), and Eskishehr (Sanjak Kutaiah), where they constitute a fifth of the population; less dense in the district of Sokia (Sanjak Aïdin), with about a third; next comes the district Michalitch (Sanjak Brussa), with from a fourth to a third; and then those of Bergama, Menemen, Baindir, Tireh and Odemish (Sanjak Smyrna), where they form about a fourth; next those of Alashehr (Sanjak Sarukan) and Yenishehr (Sanjak Ertogrul) with about a fifth; and finally those of Inegeul, Biledjik (Sanjak Ertogrul) and Soma (Sanjak Sarukan), with a sixth to a seventh of the entire population.

What made the estimating of the numbers of these Greeks in the interior so very difficult was the fact that up to a few years ago they spoke Turkish and therefore did not share in the national and racial consciousness of their kinsmen on the coast, and also the fact that they do not essentially differ in physical type from the Ottomans, who have become assimilated to the race type of the conquered people and have lost their special Turkish characteristics. This state of affairs began to change when the Greeks, with the help of their church, succeeded in introducing the Greek language in their schools alongside of the Turkish. Since then, that is, since the seventies of the last century, the national propaganda has made great progress among them, and the number of schools has greatly increased.

In the thirty cities of the interior of this region (prefectures of Aïdin and Brussa) they possessed in the last decade of the 19th century more than 400 schools with about 25,000 pupils, while the Mohammedans in their thousand schools had only 20,000 pupils. The number of pupils in each Greek school therefore averaged 60, while those in the Turkish schools averaged only 20, a disproportion which is to be explained by the fact that the Mohammedan schools are almost exclusively poorly attended mosque-schools, while the Greek schools are community-schools that are very well attended. The religious character of the Turkish educational system is just as prejudicial to the Turks as the nationalistic tendency of the Greek schools is beneficial to the Greeks. There are towns in which, in spite of the Greeks being in a minority, more Greek children attend the schools than Turkish children. So Sokia, with 180 Turkish and 218 Greek children in school; the same is true of Bigha (125:140), Alashehr (250:525), Nazilli (162:220), Menemen (220:325), Biledjik (1,100:1,113). In other towns, such, for example, as Bergama, Magnesia, Milas, Soyut, the number of the Greek pupils almost equals that of the Turkish, and in most of them the number is more than half as large as that of the Turkish pupils, even in that stronghold of Mohammedanism, Brussa, where there are something like 2,500 Greeks, as compared with 5,000 Turkish pupils, although the Greeks comprise here only ten per cent of the population. These are figures which more than anything else are indicative of the activity and capacity for education of the Greek part of the population. The intellectual superiority of the Greeks is set forth in an even stronger light when one compares the sum total of the Greek schools and of their pupils in both prefectures with that of the Turkish. For we find that even in 1894 there were 540 Greek schools, with about 30,000 pupils, as compared with 1,900 Turkish schools, with about 42,000 pupils. The slight numerical superiority of the Turkish scholars is, to say the least, entirely disproportionate to the large majority of Turks in the population.

According to recent statistics, which are, to be sure, taken from Greek sources34 and are, therefore, perhaps a little too optimistic in their tone, the number of Greek schools has since then risen to more than 700 and that of the pupils to more than 100,000 (69,274 boys and 48,468 girls), which leads one to conclude that the Greek population numbers a million, a number which, compared with the 650,000 of twenty-five years ago, does not seem to be too high an estimate, particularly if we take into account the great increase of the Greeks through a higher birthrate and through immigration. Thus, the sum total of the Greeks in both prefectures, which have together a population of about three millions, would be about a third of this number and would, at any rate, not fall far below this.

With this rapidly increasing Greek population of the west coast and interior, the prefectures of Brussa and Aïdin, and that in the mountains of Pontus (prefecture of Trebizond) and Central Cappadocia (prefecture of Angora), which number together a million and a third more, we have not exhausted the list of Greeks of Asia Minor. There are, as a matter of fact, large numbers scattered through the interior and along the south coast, chiefly in the prefecture of Sivas and Konia, where their number in 1890 approximated 75,000. Next comes the prefecture of Adana, with about 50,000, and, least strongly Greek, the prefectures Angora (about 30,000) and Kastamuni (about 25,000). It has, however, been observed that the number of Greeks in the middle and eastern provinces is always decreasing, which is doubtless due to the fact that they wander away into the livelier and more fruitful regions to the westward.35 These are in this way becoming more and more solid nuclei for the process of crystallization for Hellenism in Asia Minor, which is thus once more, as it did in late antiquity, shifting its center of gravity toward western Asia Minor, as though it felt that here is ever that original free-flowing source to which it now for the fourth time owes its strengthening and rejuvenation: the first being when in the last centuries before the Christian Era the native Lydians and Phrygians were assimilated; the second, when in early Byzantine times it turned back the Romanizing process which had been going on since the beginning of this era; the next, when in the 7th to the 10th centuries it averted the threatening Arabic peril, and finally when, though apparently defeated by the Turkish conqueror, it has after 500 years of relaxation again regained its vigor and strength in order to fulfill its old historical mission, which consists not in forcing its way on with the wild alarum of weapons, but through the peaceful weapons put in its power by nature, i.e., by material and spiritual civilizing agencies, that do their work quietly. This mission Mohammedanism must meet through appropriate measures in administration and education, if it desires to secure its political control even in the western part of Asia Minor, now and in the future.

III. HELLENIC PONTUS, A RESUME OF ITS HISTORY

By Demosthenes H. Oeconomides

[Among the most interesting of the irredenta regions of Asia Minor, from many points of view, is Pontus, on the southeast coast of the Black Sea. So strong is the anti-Turkish feeling in this intensely Hellenic land that a strong movement has recently arisen among her expatriated sons to establish an independent Republic of Pontus. Its mountainous inland districts have been so isolated from the rest of the Greek world and its coast regions have so strongly preserved their individuality that language, blood and national feeling have been maintained in quite a different way from elsewhere in the Greek world. It has seemed fitting that Pontus therefore should receive special consideration in this number of the American-Hellenic Society’s publications, and we are glad to present this scholarly treatise by Demosthenes E. Oeconomides, a philologian of no mean repute, who is a native of this region and has written amongst other things an authoritative treatise on the Pontic dialect entitled: Lautlehre des Pontischen, Leipzig, 1908.]

Pontus is bounded on the north by the southeast shore of the Euxine or Black Sea, on the east by the Phasis River and Iberia, on the south by the Argaeus and Antitaurus mountains, and on the west by the Halys River. The whole country has at several epochs been variously divided and has gone under different names, thus, for example, in the time of the Parthians, the region that extended from the Phasis to the Bosporus was called the Kingdom of Pontus; in the time of the Romans, preserving the same boundaries, it was called the Polemoniac Pontus. The best known cities of Pontus are Rizus, Trapezus, Kerasus, Kotyora, Oenoe, Amisos, Sinope, Inepolis and Heraclea, all of which are coast cities, while in the interior are Amasea, Paphra, Neocæsarea, Nicopolis, Argyropolis, etc. Ecclesiastically it is divided into six, or if Cæsarea be included, into seven Metropolitan districts: Trapezus, Rhodopolis, Chaldia, Neocæsarea, Amasea, Cæsarea and Colonia. Of the many monasteries in Pontus, the most important is that of Mela (now called Soumela) founded by the Athenian monks, Barnabas and Sophronios, in 376 A.D. in the time of Theodosius the Great.

Since Trapezus, even in ancient times, was the most important of the Pontic cities and in the Middle Ages was, in fact, the capital of the Trapezuntian Empire of the Comnenes, we must give a brief sketch of its history.

Trapezus, which was founded by a colony of Sinopians 756 B.C. on a site peculiarly adapted to the cultivation and development of commerce, is a most ancient and illustrious city. “The city Trapezus,” as Eugenicus says, “most ancient and best of all the cities in the East,” and “most venerable of all” according to the expression of Besarion (MS. Ven. p. 133). We learn from Xenophon’s “Anabasis” (Book V. 5, 10) that Trapezus paid tribute to its metropolis Sinope. Since, according to this historian, neither the Colchians nor Chaldians recognized the Persian sovereignty, we may infer from this that the Trapezuntians never submitted to the Persians. Xenophon also furnishes us historical and geographical information about Trapezus and the countries and peoples round about it, for he was hospitably entertained there for thirty days on the return of the 10,000. The fine coins of gold and silver struck both before and after the time of Alexander the Great testify that it was a free and prosperous city. It certainly maintained its independence and freedom under Alexander the Great, for it is well known that he drove out the Persian satraps and rulers wherever these existed in Pontus and left all the districts and cities autonomous, among which, under Persian rule, Amisos (Samsun) had been deprived of its democratic government. During the time of the Diadochi, (Alexander’s successors), there are recorded as ruling in Cappadocia, Paphlagonia and a part of Pontus as far as Trapezus, Eumenes (322–315 B.C.), Perdiccas, Mithridates and in particular Seleucus I, called Nicator (312–208 B.C.), until the Mithridates again gained control up to 63 B.C., when upon the final dissolution of their empire, Pontus, under the Romans, entered upon a new period of life.

From that time there was sent there by them annually a special governor until in 46 B.C. Polemon from Tralles in Phrygia was established as king of Pontus from Bosporus to Colchis. Many of the coast cities which had been the allies of the Romans during the wars waged by them from 89–63 B.C. against Mithridates VII, called Eupator, and among them Trapezus, were, however, still left autonomous. The Polemoniac Empire lasted till 63 A.D., when Nero made Pontus a Roman province.

After a short period of decline Trapezus rose again in the time of Julian in 333. It had accepted Christianity from the first apostle, Andrew, who came there from Samsun in 34 A.D. and transmitted it to the surrounding peoples. Its first bishop was Eugeneos, known as the patron and protector of the city, who endured martyrdom in 216 under the reign of Diocletian (a Byzantine church, still existing, preserves his name). He was succeeded by a long line of bishops who honored the Church. In fact, some of them participated in Ecumenical Synods.

In the time of the great Constantine, Trapezus continued to be a provincial city under a pro-consul, as also in the time of Justinian (6th century). As such it belonged, along with Cerasus, to Polemoniac Pontus, the capital of which was then Neocæsarea. From then up to the time of Leo the Isaurian, unfortunately, we know nothing about it, but in the time of the Isaurians it appears as a starting point for political and warlike operations undertaken against the Persians, the Turcomans and the Arabs, having become the metropolis of the large and important “thema” (district) of Chaldia, while it was, at the same time, and even before the time of the Isaurians, a home of learning, as the Siracene Ananias, a trustworthy Armenian writer of the 7th century, testifies.

With regard to the thema of Chaldia (the eighth in Asia Minor), it is to be noted that this originally extended as far as Colonia, Kamak and Keltzene, but in the time of Leo the Wise the two last districts were added to the thema of New-Mesopotamia. We know that the archons and dukes of Chaldia in the 11th century, seeking little by little to free themselves from Byzantine rule, began to call themselves dukes of Trapezus and their country Trapezousia. One in particular, Theodore Gabras, from a noble family in Trapezus, and most skillful in war, saved Trapezus and the surrounding country from two invasions, one by the Seljuk-Turks in 1049 and the other under David, the king of Georgia. He, therefore, regarded the country as his own private possession and held it up to his death, as a prince, independent of Byzantium. Of these Gabrades dukes of Trapezus, Theodore’s son Gregory and his grandson Constantine Gabras are known to us. In the time of the former Trapezus was again made dependent on Byzantium, but in the time of the latter, since the dukes had offered important services to the Byzantine Empire, it gained its independence again and held it till Manuel I (Comnenos) 1143–1180, succeeded in attaching it to his realm by taking advantage of a faction that had risen there against the Gabras family, and from that time on Trapezus continued to be dependent on Byzantium until its capture by the Latins, because at that time the Trapezuntian Empire of the Comneni was established.

From the foundation of this new empire until its fall through the capture of Trapezus by the Turks, that is from 1204–1461, the following rulers occupied the throne:

The fall of Trapezus which occurred a few years after the capture of Constantinople dealt the final deadly blow to Hellenism as a whole. At this time, in the very nature of things, it was impossible for the Trapezuntian Empire to escape its fate, being compelled, as it was, to fight against innumerable and well organized enemies, while previously, during the 257-year period of its life, it had repulsed many barbarian invasions and had shown great political and military efficiency. But even in her fall she contributed not a little to the dissemination of the seeds of civilization and literature in the West through her illustrious sons, such as Bessarion, George the Trapezuntian and other learned men. By a strange coincidence the two last emperors of Hellenism, Constantine Palæologus of Byzantium and David of Trapezus, fell as soldiers, the first fighting for his fatherland like a hero on the fortifications of his capital, the second for his religion in Constantinople itself, preferring with nobility of soul and true Christian fortitude to see his children fall beneath the ax of the executioner and then to fall himself exclaiming, “Just art Thou, O Lord, and righteous are Thy judgments” rather than to forswear his faith as proposed by the conqueror Mohammed.

As everywhere, so, too, in Pontus, the Greek, though subjected to harsh slavery, did not lose courage and hope, but by uniting the strength left him and taking courage anew, he endeavored, just in so far as he could, to render his living with his conquerors as endurable as possible, an attempt in which he succeeded by enlisting their sympathy and esteem whenever they made use of him for high positions, or in the arts and trades in which they needed his help. Those that had special skill in iron-working in Chaldia and others in other places were even granted special privileges.

The services rendered to the Ottoman Empire by the Hypsilanti, Mourouzae and Carotsades of Pontus, were indeed invaluable, services which brought honor and profit to their own fatherland and the Greek race in general. Thus, Hellenism in Pontus partly by its steadily honorable and sincere character, and partly by its intellectual superiority generally, has made its impress on the conquerors and has succeeded in distinguishing itself in education, in trade, in the arts and sciences as the only element that makes for civilization. Unceasingly cultivating Greek letters under the shield of the Greek church, now in the monasteries or under the roof of the church, now in special schools, it keeps alive the national feeling and sentiment, which it has preserved and is preserving in a high degree, with the hope of a more auspicious future and of some day recovering its full freedom.

Never has it forgotten its glorious past. Glorying in this, with beating heart it sings, as it has always sung, of the Greek name and of Greek courage. A clear testimony of this is the preservation of the name “Hellene” and the words “Hellenic spear” in the demotic songs of the period after the fall of Constantinople. Having succeeded in preserving even in the times of slavery its language and nationality and the faith of its fathers, it takes pride in this and cherishes unshaken the conviction that at the proper time the historical rights that it possesses will not be overlooked.

The Greek Dialect as Spoken in Pontus

Of the many dialects of Modern Greek, that spoken in Pontus has taken a prominent place in the investigation into Modern Greek in general ever since linguistic scientists have undertaken to study it. And this is certainly justified, for this study contributes substantially to the elucidation, explanation and solution of many linguistic phenomena in the other dialects and in the Κοινὴ διάλεκτος in general, for many forms and many words which were formerly inexplicable from the point of view of phonetics or semantics have been most happily explained by the comparison of corresponding forms or words in the Pontic dialect. This, too, is derived from the Koine, but owing to an admixture of certain Ionic elements, and to the fact that in taking shape in the Middle Ages it admitted new Byzantine words, it has so developed and grown that its use on the one hand of sounds unknown to the common Greek, and, on the other, the astounding variety of phonetic changes and modifications (which appear in different forms) which it presents, its manifold transformations on the basis of analogy, its not infrequent syntactic peculiarities (which are due especially to the influence of the Turkish language), and the large number of nouns, verbs and adverbs formed from Turkish words or Turkish roots through the use of Greek terminations, render it incomprehensible to many. This evolution and the great difference between the Pontic language and the common Greek are perfectly natural, both on account of the Ionic elements which have been preserved from of old, and of the Turkish elements which the language has received through the conquest of Pontus by the Turks, and thirdly from its geographical position which separates its inhabitants from the great masses of the Greek people and thus limits the assimilating influence of modern Greek on the Pontic dialect.

This form of the language has great importance for the reason that in the variety and richness of its vocabulary it has preserved a rich and extremely valuable store of forms and ancient words, some wholly unchanged in form and signification, and some modified, to be sure, but perfectly capable of being reduced to their original form by the philologist.36