The peoples and ideas emanating from within the realm which still bears the name of Turkey have left an indelible mark on the rest of the world. Crossed by some of the great highroads of history, the land is inspiring in every aspect in which it is regarded. Its heritage of memories and the prestige of a happier and grander past are undisturbed by marks of decadence. Most of the foundations of our progressive spirit were laid in that eastern region. From a purely scientific standpoint, its human grouping and surface configuration present highly interesting interdependence.
The region is divisible into six major geographical sections. Each forms a background against which distinct types of the human family are displayed. The various groups differ from one another in religion and language, often even in race. A fringe of fresh and verdant coastland which surrounds the elevated shelf of Asia Minor is largely Greek and Christian. The only foothold which western thought, art or temper ever obtained in Asiatic Turkey is found within this wave-washed strip of land. The plateau-heart of Anatolia is predominantly Turkish and Mohammedan. The Christian element scattered on its steppe-like surface is unable to assert itself and yields to Oriental ascendancy. The high and broad mountain masses which border it on the east are the home of the Armenoids, generally Christians, sometimes Mohammedans, but almost always characterized by broad-headedness accompanied by a peculiar flattening of the back of the skull. Beyond this mountain barrier Asiatic Turkey becomes entirely Semitic, being mainly Arabian in speech and overwhelmingly Mohammedan in creed. Three main regions characterize this southern area. The long and narrow corridor of Syria became the highway which in antiquity bound the flourishing empires of the Nile basin to the powerful kingdoms of the Hittite highlands and the Mesopotamian lowlands. Its motley population, containing representatives of every race, is a relic of former to-and-fro human displacements along its trough-like extension. In the adjoining desert Bedouin tribes find their favorite tramping ground. The twin valley of Mesopotamia is the home of peoples in whom fusion of Semitic and Indo-European elements is observable.
The history of this land is that of its invaders. Successive streams of humanity poured into it from four superabundant reservoirs. Its central mountain zone was the motherland of a virile race whose sons went forth at intervals to breathe vitality into gentler populations scattered between the Ægean coast and the valleys of the Nile and Mesopotamia. Armenians and a number of Mohammedan sects represent today this Alpine race. Mediterranean men proceeded constantly from the south and west to new homes in the pleasant valleys that connected eastern Ægean shores with the interior table-land. Mobile Semitic hosts abandoned the plateau of inner Arabia before the time of our earliest records and drifted naturally northwards towards the fertile Tigris-Euphrates basin or the commercial routes of Syria. Finally a Turki element, lured out of its mountain cradle in the Altai by scattered grass lands extending westwards, swarmed in successive hordes into Asia Minor and even beyond, well into the heart of Europe.
In addition to the foregoing fundamental wanderings, the inflow of an Iranian element, composed of men of Aryan speech, may be observed. This contingent marched out of the plateau of Iran and reached the Turkish highland without having to scale its slopes. As a result of this migration Persian words permeate Armenian[214] extensively. The Turks also have appropriated a certain amount of Persian words and culture from the same source. Racially, however, the eastern element was absorbed by the Armenoid population.
The present inhabitants of the diversified domains of the Sultans have been welded by the run of history into a shadowy political unity which has failed to harmonize their incompatibilities of origin and ideals. Turkey is a thoroughly theocratic state. Its sovereign-caliph and his subjects have always considered it their most important mission to bring Islam to the infidel. So great is the hold of ideals over the human mind, however, that the non-Mohammedan populations have clung passionately to their religious beliefs. We are forced to seek in creed the main distinguishing traits which, outwardly at least, divide the inhabitants of Turkey into groups of different names. We shall see, however, that in the minds of many of them, language or historical traditions have little significance. At the same time it is believed that distinctions of a more fundamental character will be brought out in the course of this chapter.
Our knowledge of the first appearance of Greeks in Asia Minor has undergone radical revision in recent years. Their prehistoric culture can be traced as far back as the Neolithic. The chief interest of modern discovery centers around the now accepted fact that Greek culture originally invaded the region from the south and that the Indo-European element which brought Aryan speech to the land is a later wave which flooded the original Mediterranean stock at some time during the transition from the Age of Bronze to that of Iron.[215] The southwestern coast was first colonized. A northerly extension occurred thence and proceeded mainly along the coast.[216]
The sequence of geological events preceding man’s appearance upon the Ægean coast of Asia had imparted features which were destined to favor human development to an exceptional degree. A land-bridge connecting the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas occupied the site of the Ægean Sea at the dawn of quaternary times. The subsidence of the land during this period was accompanied by heavy fracturing trending in east-west lines. The Ægean archipelago, studded with islands and surrounded by deeply indented coasts, conveys a vivid picture, on the map, of the crustal deformity which occurred.
Climate also conferred its share of advantages. The long and narrow valleys are sheltered by mountains on all sides except to seaward. Northerly air currents cannot reach them. Frosts or snows are therefore unusual.[217] The course of moisture-laden winds blowing landward from the seas that wash the three coasts of Asia Minor is arrested by the mountainous rim of the peninsula. Precipitation is almost entirely expended upon the narrow shore lands. Copious rainfall and flowing rivers thus provide this historic Anatolian fringe with patches of luxuriant vegetation and green valleys. The interior plateau, on the other hand, remains parched and barren during the summer months.
A splendid stage for Greek history was thus built during the prehuman period. Early Mediterranean oncomers discovered sheltered havens and fertile inlets along the entire development of the fancifully dissected coast. A natural festoon of outlying islands increased their security by providing them with advanced posts for the detection of hostile raids. Erosion along the parallel lines of east-west rifts had carved fair valleys in which the winding rivers of classical literature found a channel. But above all, the sea contributed commerce and cosmopolitanism, both great elements of world power. These in turn favored the growth of tolerance,—a trait which has ever marked the western mind and which, at that particular spot, was to constitute a bastion destined to remain impregnable to the opposing spirit of the east.[218]
The American Geographical Society of New York
Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. VII
View larger image herePART OF ASIATIC TURKEY SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLES
Intermediate site, low relief above sea level and genial climate combined to give the Greeks a full share of the joy of life. These are the physical elements upon which the striking cultural superiority of Hellenism is founded and without the concourse of which it has never set permanent foot anywhere. The brilliant florescence of Greek civilization in pagan time attained its apogee wherever these three geographical factors prevailed. The Byzantine Empire succumbed before eastern onslaught because it was gradually converted into an Asiatic state and thus exceeded the boundaries marked by nature for Greek humanity.
The sixth century of the pagan era was the Golden Age of Hellenism in Asia Minor. The elongated seaward valleys became the seat of flourishing and independent nations. A strong democratic spirit prevailed among their inhabitants. City states or self-governing communities were numerous. Their merchant princes drew on the vast eastern rearland for supplies which they sold to Europe. They also collected heavy tolls from freight going eastwards. A double stream of wealth thus flowed into their treasuries. The prosperity of this period has never since been paralleled in the region.
Creative art found a home upon a site so eminently favored by nature. The heart and mind of its inhabitants throbbed responsively to the stirring events which were the result of their country’s situation at the junction of the most important sea and land highways of the then known world. There the antagonism between east and west, out of which so much world history has been made, broke into violent clashes after periods of commercial interchange. Talent was spurred to high achievement under the stimulus of foreign contact, wealthy patronage and genial environment. Imposing ruins and prolific discoveries of masterpieces of art convey ample testimony of nature’s concentrated prodigality on this famous coastland.
The present Greek occupants of the Anatolian shores reflect the pleasant character of their environment in the lightness of heart which is one of their distinguishing characteristics. Their craving for gaiety, society and enjoyment is unfailing. Even the gloom of Asiatic dominion does not prevent merrymaking at every opportunity. In these respects the Greeks share to an eminent degree the feelings of the nations of the western world.
With the exception perhaps of the Circassians, the Greeks are the handsomest of the inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey. Classical forms of the head and of the general cast of countenance are met in every nook of the Anatolian seaboard. Their profiles are those of the gently curving lines of ancient Greek statues and medals. Among women graceful carriage of the head and neck adds to their charm. The men are erect and firm of gait.
Fishing and sailoring are the hereditary occupations of the coastal Greek populations of Asia Minor. Inland they become traders. The “corner” grocery or the village butcher shop is generally owned by a Greek. In recent years the Greek has learned to play the part of the promoter in the growing development of Asia Minor. He is often the middleman who brings western capital to eastern opportunity. Herein his rôle differs but slightly from that of his Lydian or Carian ancestors.
The true Greek is met only as far inland as a whiff of the salt sea air can be inhaled. Eastward, on the Anatolian table-land, Greek communities of the ancient Phrygian and Cappadocian lands differ from kindred coastal populations as widely as the fascinating greenswards of the one vary from the semi-arid steppe of the other. Once beyond the range of maritime influences, Greeks often forget their own language and adopt Turkish instead. This is frequently the case in many of the inland settlements where Turkish is now the only medium of oral expression for Christian thought.[219] Racially, too, the Greeks of the inland towns and villages betray Alpine or Armenoid origin rather than Mediterranean descent. Short stature, ample chest development and broad-headedness are conspicuous among them. The rock-hewn villages south of Mt. Argaeus afford a clue to the origin and antiquity of these mountain Greeks.[220] They are descendants of the natives who were conquered by the armies of Greek pagan states or by Byzantine troops. The conquerors brought language and culture to the upland populations but were numerically insufficient to impose a new racial stratum. Later the wave of Turkish invasion drove out Greek and forced Asiatic speech on the same mountain populations without always replacing Christianity by Mohammedanism.
Duality of language is sometimes accompanied by a strange duality of creed among Anatolian Greeks. At Jevizlik, on the road between Trebizond and Gumushchane, dwell crypto-Christian Greeks who publicly profess Mohammedanism while maintaining in secret the Greek orthodox faith.[221] The inauguration of a constitutional form of government in 1908, with its promise of religious liberty, gave the members of the community an opportunity to renounce their outward form of faith and proclaim complete adherence to the religion they had never really forsaken.
To the philologist these ancient Greek communities are veritable treasure grounds, especially when found in mountainous districts. Archaic forms of speech are in current use among their inhabitants. In many, the purity of the ancient Greek dialects of Asia Minor has been preserved with but slight contamination from later literary influences. The very names of those who speak these vernaculars show interesting connection with the classical period of Hellenism. Socrates or Pericles will cook daily for the traveler, and Themistocles supply him with tobacco. More than that, they all make themselves intelligible in the style—and the spirit, too—of inscriptional language. But the old Hellenic dialects should not be confused with the still unknown Lycian, Lydian and Carian languages found in inscriptions. There is reason to believe that these primitive speeches of the Anatolian plateau represent exceedingly early stages in the development of Indo-European forms.
Many of the Greek communities owe their survival to the proficiency of their members in a particular industry. The settlements of Greek miners scattered in the Pontic and Tauric mining districts are instances in point. The Turkish conquest of the Byzantine Empire was accomplished by Asiatic barbarians who knew how to fight but included no artisans in their ranks. They were therefore obliged to rely upon the populations of the conquered lands for the maintenance of industrial and commercial activity. This notorious incompetence of the Turk for any pursuit other than that of soldiering is, at bottom, the prime cause of the survival of Christian communities within Ottoman boundaries.
The appearance and establishment of the Turks in a land which was not that of their origin follows their life as nomad tribesmen of the vast steppeland of central Asia. They were men at large upon the world’s largest continent, the northerners of the east who naturally and unconsciously went forth in quest of the greater comforts afforded by southern regions. The flatlands which gave birth to their race lie open to the frozen gales of the north. Their continental climate, icy cold or burning hot in turn, is cut off from the tempering influences prevailing behind the folds of tertiary mountain piles to the south. As the steppemen migrated southward their gradually swelling numbers imparted density to the mass they formed because expansion on the east or west was denied them. China and the Chinese, admirably sheltered by barriers of deserts and mountains, stopped their easterly extension. Christian Russia stopped them on the west, though at a heavy cost to herself, for no obstacle had been raised by nature to meet their advance. The open plain of central Asia merges insensibly into that of north Europe. That is why incidentally Russia is half Tatar today. The Asiatic was forced upon her. She sacrificed herself by absorbing him into her bosom, saving Europe thereby from this eastern scourge, but forfeiting the advantages of progress.
Fig. 58—A group of Turks who have none of the racial traits indicated by their name. The seated members in the foreground are typical inhabitants of the Anatolian plateau. The Greek type, closely resembling the Italian, appears in the background.
Cut off from east and west in this manner, the only alternative left to the Turk was to scale the plateau region of western Asia and to swarm into the avenues that led him to conquered territory where he succeeded in attaining power and organizing his undisciplined hosts into the semblance of a state. The presence of the Turk upon the land to which he conferred his Mongolian name and the very foundation of the Turkish state can in this manner be attributed to outward causes rather than to local development. It was essentially a process of transplantation. The consolidation and rise to power of the Ottoman Empire between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries were largely due to foreign conditions, for during that interval Europe was busily engaged in extirpating feudalism and the objectionable phases of medieval clerical influences from its soil.
The Turks and their name were first known to the western world in the sixth century of our era. But their invasion of Asia Minor should rather be considered as a gradual infiltration begun in prehistoric times. Hittite carvings represent, among others, a recognizable Mongoloid type of Tatar soldiers who fought as allies of the great mountain state.[222] Pig-tails, high cheek-bones and oblique eyes have been conspicuously modeled by the sculptor. Tatar migrations are thus discerned in the morning of the history of Asia Minor. The early invaders were steadily reinforced from the east by their kinsmen. The rise of the Seljuk Turks to dominance was the explosion of energy accumulated in the course of the centuries in which this movement of Altaic tribes had persisted. The consolidation of Ottoman power marked its culmination. A single tribe could never have acquired sufficient strength to establish a mighty empire had not its ranks been swollen by members of kindred groups encountered during its migration. This is what actually happened when Jenghiz Khan and Timur appeared on the stage of history. Turkish accounts describe both as fiery leaders, men who could command the adherence of the vast swarm of descendants of their kinsmen, in whose footsteps they marched. Sultan Osman, the founder of the present Turkish dynasty and reputed to be of the same caliber, likewise drew on a human legacy of centuries for the accomplishment of his designs.
Unfortunately, the Turks bear a name which is utterly void of significance. They themselves apply it to every Mohammedan inhabitant of Asia Minor without discrimination of race or origin. But for fully eight centuries they have stocked their harems with women seized from conquered populations. It is no exaggeration to say that this human tax has been levied on almost every family of the Caucasus, western Asia and the countries of the Balkan peninsula. Today the net result of this variegated intermixture is that the Tatar origin of the average Turk, so called, is entirely concealed by the mingling with Mediterranean, Armenoid-Alpine and even Nordic elements. Except in a few isolated instances the Turki type of central Asia is rarely met within Turkish boundaries. Clearly no valid claim to racial distinctiveness can be set up by the Turks.
In religion the Turk is no innovator. He has merely taken unto himself the idealism of Arabia. And yet his efficient wield of the fine edge of Mohammedan fanaticism failed to sever the ties which bind Islam to this land. Even his language is not his own. The splendor of Arabian syntax and the supple elegance of Persian style alone confer literary flavor upon it. Over 70 per cent of the words in Turkish are Arabic retained in unalloyed purity. A scant sprinkling of Tatar words merely recalls by their sound the raucous articulations which form the nomad’s speech, while their paucity is a true measure of the limited range of concepts which find lodgment in his mind.
Turkish nationality is equally meaningless. The descendants of Asiatic nomads became masters of western Asia without ever conferring the boon of government or of nationality upon the land and its peoples. In Gibbon’s mordant words “the camp and not the soil is the country of the genuine Tatar.” And Turkey is still a vast field in which the Turk has pitched his tent and merely waits, knowing that the day is not far off when he will have to break camp and seek new pasturages for his herds and flocks. But the site on which he has settled for the past five centuries had been the seat of a highly organized government. Seeing himself master of this estate the Turk unhesitatingly adopted its institutions. Thus, under the mantle of Islamic theocracy, Byzantine government and customs have continued to flourish in Ottoman dominions. Barring special features belonging to Mohammedanism, the ceremonials of the Sultan’s court may be traced, step by step, to Byzantine forms. The very absolutism of the caliphs is alien to the fundamentally democratic character of both Tatar societies and Koranic teaching. It is Byzantine and a relic of the despotism of the Roman Caesars.
In speaking of the Turks it is necessary to carry two distinct types in mind. The pure Tatar vagrant, true to his native indolence, which unfits him for sedentary occupation, is in the minority. The mass of the Turkish population consists of a mixed element in which the racial strain of given localities persists along with characteristics imparted by fusion with Turki conquerors. This mingling is indicated further by the spirit which moves this people in the performance of their daily tasks. Its members are recruited among the plodding, gentle-mannered and kind-hearted peasants of the land. Local influence accounts for these qualities. Occasionally, however, the foreign strain will crop out. Then, like their nomad ancestors, who, from peaceful shepherds roaming leisurely from patch to patch of green, are transformed into fiends incarnate by the approach of a thief or a beast of prey, or whom a passing storm will throw into fits of uncontrollable rage which vents itself in passionate outbursts of shrieking and gesticulation, the Turkish peasants can cast their natural softness of character to the winds and become either bloodthirsty murderers smiting unarmed Christians or else heroes performing gallant deeds on the battlefield.
The majority of this Turkish population finds a congenial home on the Anatolian upland. Their ancestors beheld here an environment in which the physical characteristics of the plateaus of central Asia were reproduced. They took to it naturally. The table-land is a rolling expanse mournfully devoid of vegetation, save for rare clusters of stunted trees. Scanty plots of grass, surrounding sickly pools or streams, resemble holes in a ragged garment spread over its surface. Sun-baked in summer, chilled in winter, with a climate too deficient in moisture for the favorable development of human societies, the land could only appeal to Asiatic sons of semi-arid areas. In recent years, the tendency of Turks to retire to this region is observable wherever the industry of Christian populations of the encircling coastland has rendered life too arduous for Turkish love of ease.
The penetration of this table-land by nomads from the heart of Asia goes on today as in the past, albeit with abated intensity. It is no rare occurrence in Asia Minor to meet Tatars or Turkomans who have been on a slow westerly march for periods of from five to ten years at a time. Most of them come from the Kirghiz steppes. A vague desire to change their residence from a Christian to a Mohammedan country impels their wanderings, according to their own accounts. Constantinople looms as an objective nebulously impressed in their minds. But the goal is rarely attained. In reality their migration is as unconscious as that of their forefathers and merely carries them out of sheer necessity from pasturage to pasturage in the manner it affected former generations.
Ever since the establishment of Turkish authority in western Asia the policy of the Sultan’s officials has been directed towards attracting Mohammedan settlers from foreign countries to the unpopulated districts of Turkey. Particularly at the end of unsuccessful wars, special efforts are made to induce Moslem inhabitants of lost provinces to return within Turkish boundaries, where land often exempt from taxation is assigned to them. Widely distributed Circassian, Tatar and Turkoman settlements owe their origin to this Turkish method of increasing the Mohammedan element in the country. The Bithynian peninsula, where Cretaceous limestones and sandy Eocene beds provide excellent soils, is a region favored by immigrants.
Russia’s southwesterly spread of empire is responsible for the movement of some 500,000 Circassians from the Caucasus highlands to Asiatic Turkey. Lithe of figure, brilliant-eyed and nimble in mind, these immigrants are morally and physically far superior to their new countrymen. They bring with them the higher standard of living of their native land. Their dwellings are more solidly built than the customary shanties or hovels of the Anatolian table-land, and their food is of the average European quality. Wherever settled, they live in a degree of comfort unknown to the Turkish peasant. Flourishing farming communities have grown up around their villages. In cities they are distinguished by a natural aptitude for commerce, and many an able government official has been recruited from their numbers.
In race, language and religion the Circassians of Turkey present, according to tribal origin, the confusion existing in their cradle land. The Kabardian group of the Uzun Yaila are of western Caucasus extraction and speak an incorporative language. The Chechen settled in Syria are derived from Daghestani highlanders. In some cases Circassians bear Christian names, but worship in mosques. Representatives of central Asiatic, European and even Semitic races are found among them.
A colony of Noghai Tatar refugees was founded in the lower Jeihun valley after the Crimean War, at which time it consisted of some 60,000 individuals. Their numbers were speedily reduced, however, by the malaria and fevers of the unhealthful Cilician coast land. A decimated remnant is now engaged in farming the marshy lands originally bestowed on their fathers. They maintain excellent relations with the Turks, with whom they intermarry.
The Turkomans of Asia Minor are, according to their statements, refugees from Muscovite Christianity. In reality they seek escape from Russian pressure exerted to force them to abandon nomadism. This name is applied generally to immigrants coming from Turkestan who preserved their roving habits. The cruel Turki type of lineament and expression is observable on their faces. They are Sunnis, or orthodox Mohammedans, and a Turkish-speaking people, but have little intercourse with native Turks.
The Karapapaks, or Black Caps, known also by the name of Terekimans, are Shiites, or adherents of the eastern branch of Mohammedanism, from Russian Armenia, who have crossed the Turkish frontier and settled near Patnoz in the Van vilayet. The original seat of this people is between Chaldir and Daghestan. Racially they are of Turki stock. Tatar types predominate among them, although Circassian and Persian physiognomies are by no means uncommon.
The Lazis of northeasternmost Turkey, who are sometimes known by the name Tchan, form the connecting link between the Caucasian and Anatolian populations. Many of them have forsaken their Russian homes in the past thirty years for the land of their kinsmen on the Turkish side of the frontier. They occupy, in fairly dense communities, villages nestling on the forested seaward slopes of the Pontic Alps, as well as the narrow strip of coast east of Platana. Former generations looked on them as pirates or brigands. They now follow less irregular pursuits, but still bear the reputation of being daring smugglers. The Turkish navy recruits sailors from among them.
By race the Lazis are allied to the Georgian group of Caucasus peoples, and their intermixture with ancient Armenian populations is probable. Their adherence to Mohammedanism is lax. They speak a southern dialect of the Grusinian language closely allied to Mingrelian but mingled with Greek and Turkish words. In some localities Turkish entirely replaces their vernacular. The limits of their language in Turkey coincide with the western boundary of the sanjak of Lazistan. They extend thence eastward, in a belt fringing the southern base of the Caucasus, all the way between the Black and Caspian seas.[223]
Fig. 59—“Turkish” crowd in an Anatolian city (Trebizond). A gathering in these Turkish cities contains representatives of almost every race in the world.
A number of communities whose origin is wrapped in obscurity are found off well-beaten avenues on the Anatolian table-land. A mild, temperate lot, broad-shouldered and open-faced, they have much in common, in spite of diversity of worship and isolation. Racially they present few of the Turki features. Their speech is usually Turkish, but they keep rigidly apart from the Turks. They are Mohammedans in name only. Having secured immunity from the fanaticism of the masters of the land, they have secretly maintained ancestral beliefs to their full extent. When the light of ethnographic research shall have been fully shed on their rites, it is likely that the transition of religious thought from the paganism of Hellenic times to the Christianity of the Byzantine era will be made clear.
To this group belong the inhospitable Tahtajis (known also as Chepmi and, in their westernmost extension in the Aidin vilayet, as Allevis), who are the woodcutters of the upper recesses of the Lycian mountains. A people of almost primitive manners, they form a community of about 5,000 souls. Eastern and western culture swept by their mountain homes, leaving the faintest of traces among them. Having neither priests nor churches they are held in disrepute by the Turks. Similarity with eastern religions can nevertheless be traced in their worship. They wail over the corpses of their dead as do the Egyptians. A vague connection with Iranian ideas is discernible in the belief they hold regarding the incarnation of the devil in the form of a peacock. They cannot be induced to discuss their rites with strangers. In their simple minds faith is all in all, and well accentuates the separatist tendency determined by their rugged mountains.
A more important group, the Kizilbash, present racial characteristics peculiar to the Nordic race, although they too have mingled extensively with the Armenoid natives of the Anatolian mountains over which their settlements are scattered. The name is pure Turkish for “red head,” but cannot be traced to head-gear in Turkey. In Persia however allied communities are known whose members wear scarlet caps. The bends of the Kizil Irmak[224] and of the Yechil Irmak contain their villages.[225] They also have settlements in the highlands which extend from the Taurus to Upper Mesopotamia.
A Turkish-speaking people of peaceful habits, engaged exclusively in the tillage of their lands, submissive to authority, frugal and industrious, such are the Kizilbash in the midst of their Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian neighbors. They are usually on excellent terms with the Christians. But to this day, after centuries of occupation of the valleys of the Sakaria and Halys, they have remained as foreigners among the Turks who colonized their territory long after them. Probably on account of religious divergences the newcomers have always held them in contempt.
It is not unlikely that the Kizilbash are lineal descendants of the Galatae of Asia Minor. This western people entered the peninsula through the notch cut by the valley of the Sakaria—an avenue also chosen by the Phrygians sung by Homer. Later the Cimmerians also followed the same route. All these invasions from the west brought blondness into Turkey—though not of the pure Nordic type, for the roads leading out of northern Europe had their longest stretches in the brunet territory of central and southern Europe. Nevertheless mingling incurred in the course of migration, as well as after settlement, has not obliterated entirely the fair ancestral type. The strongest argument in favor of the relationship between the Galatae and the Kizilbash lies in the identity of the territory occupied by both peoples. The racial distinction between the two lies in the greater admixture of Tatar blood in the Kizilbash of our times. Gradual change of the Galatian of European provenience into the Kizilbash type of Asiatic affinity was accompanied by the replacement of Celtic by Tatar culture.
Galates to the Greeks meant any western barbarian. The term was applied to the foreigners whose coming was always marked by destruction and who, in the third and second centuries B.C., terrorized Thrace before crossing into Asia Minor. Here they introduced Celtic forms of speech which were current in their settlements as late as the fourth century of our era. At that time the language spoken in parts of Anatolia was similar to the dialect of the Traveri, a Celtic tribe on the Moselle whose name has been perpetuated in that of the city of Trèves.[226] Arrian, a native of Bithynia, describing the customs of the Celts gives accounts of usages, such as the worship of the oak, which prevailed in his country and which on investigation are found to have their counterparts in Europe.
In religious thought, the Kizilbash may be classed as the most liberal among the Mohammedans of Turkey. Their interpretation of the Koran exempts them from keeping fasts and allows them the use of wine. They permit their women to go about with a freedom which has never been tolerated among Sunnis. Christian rites, such as the custom of praying over bread and wine, are performed among them. Fragmentary survivals of pagan observances likewise form part of their worship.
The Kizilbash are closely affiliated with the Bektash confraternity, a once powerful Islamic organization which still owns a large number of convents (tekkes) and churches in Turkey. Indiscriminate use of the two names has led to much confusion in the writings of travelers. It seems preferable to restrict the name of Kizilbash to the group of Anatolian people whose mountain origin is amply proven by somatic traits and whose cultural development denotes amalgamation with invaders of the table-land. The term Bektash can then be applied to the form of religion to which this people adheres at present. The connection is probably founded on the ease with which Bektash proselytism drew recruits from among Kizilbash populations. In the light of this distinction the so-called Bektash people of the Lycian mountains are merely a sub-group of the Kizilbash, to whom they are related in part by race, language and religion.
The Balikis, or Belekis, living on the southern fringe of Sasun,[227] are probably also a remnant of the old highland population. The Mohammedanism they profess is tainted with dim reminiscences of Christian worship and was probably adopted as a self-preservatory measure. Religious beliefs weigh lightly however on this community. Its members possess neither church nor mosque. A term of residence among them would probably enable an observer to discover survival of very ancient customs. The passing traveler can do little more than note the unusual freedom with which their women go about unveiled or note the mixture of Arabic, Kurdish and Armenian words in their language.
The Avshars, descended from Persian immigrants mingled with native hill populations, are settled mainly on the eastern slopes of the Anti-Taurus facing the northern end of the Binbogha range.[228] The two elements which are blended in this people are also represented in their religion. The newcomers brought Shiite Mohammedanism and insured the predominance of their views over the relics of the nature cults of the aboriginal groups. Traces of Christian influence are observable in their daily life. Around Cesarea these Avshars give the shape of a cross to the loaves of unleavened bread they bake. In view of the deep-rooted aversion of Mohammedans towards any trace of Christian symbolism, it is evident that we are here in the presence of an old-established usage rather than one adopted in post-Mohammedan times. But in speech, custom and occupation the community differs in no respect from neighboring Turks.
The nomad element of the Anatolian plateau is represented mainly by the Yuruks, whose wanderings range from the northern landward slopes of the Cilician Taurus to the mountainous tract surrounding Mt. Olympus. They are divided into tribes of varying size, some not exceeding twenty tents. Their number is estimated at about 200,000. Roving over barren districts, the members of this group are half-starved human products bred in areas of defective food supply. The men know no other occupation than that of tending their sheep and horses. The women are noted carpet-weavers. Strangers passing within sight of their tent settlements can generally rely on finding the nomad’s proverbial hospitality under their felt roofs.
In common with kindred plateau communities, the Yuruks hold severely aloof from the Turks. But they have adopted Turkish speech, and it is gradually replacing their ancient vernacular. They have sometimes been connected with European gipsies, although the little that is known concerning their history and traditions hardly warrants such an assumption. A promising field for ethnographic research still awaits exploitation among their settlements. They call themselves Mohammedans and circumcise, but have no priests or churches.[229]
The Aptals of the lofty valleys of northern Syria also have nomadic habits and appear to be closely related to the gipsies. Although they claim to be Sunnis they rarely intermarry with settled Mohammedans. Their roaming life carries them from village to village, generally in the capacity of musicians and entertainers. According to their traditions they were expelled from the lower Tigris regions in the ninth century.[230]
The table-land on which Armenian life unfolded itself was faulted into blocks and covered by flows of huge volcanoes after the Miocene. Pontic ranges fringe it on the north and thereby forbid access to the Black Sea.[231] On the south, the folds of the Anti-Taurus mountains likewise act as successive barriers. But no mountain obstacles intervene to the east or west of Armenia. Close racial, linguistic and historical relations can therefore be traced between Armenians and Persians today. Furthermore, the existence of important Armenian communities scattered all the way west of Armenia to the coasts of the Ægean becomes intelligible. The very crowning of Armenians as Byzantine emperors may ultimately be explained by this east-west extension of relief in western Asia.
The heart of the Armenian plateau is found in the gently folded limestones and lacustrine deposits surrounding Lake Van. Here an elevated plain relieves the ruggedness of environing peaks. Here, too, our earliest knowledge of Armenian history is centered. But the formation of nationality upon the surrounding sites of intricate relief was a long-drawn process. A highland dissected into numerous valleys could not become the seat of a united people. The region, being broken up, favored division. Accordingly feudalism flourished undisturbed throughout its extent. Each valley or habitable stretch was governed by its own princeling. These petty chiefs relied on the security provided by their rugged environment and were naturally disinclined to acknowledge authority emanating from outside their valley homes.
Fig. 61—The plain of Van. The photograph shows the three features which make the site a center of Armenian history. The plain afforded farming land and was dominated by a lone eminence to the protection of which Armenians have resorted to this very day. The broad lake in the background added to the natural strength of this position.
The plain of Van has always loomed large in the history of Armenia. This interesting depression occupies the southeastern corner of the great central plateau and lies surrounded by volcanoes which were centers of lively eruptive activity during the Pleistocene. Together with the plain of Mush it forms a single basin which was once a lake bed. The heavily saline waters of Lake Van still cover its deepest section. The exposed lake bottom consists of volcanic matter carrying fertilizers in abundance. Rich brown loams contributed to the region’s famed fertility. Between the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. the Vannic community became the nucleus of a confederacy of mountain tribes forming the kingdom of Urartu,[232] which extended to the heads of the valleys debouching on Assyrian territory.[233] After successful resistance against Assyria the independence of the Armenian state became well established about 800 B.C.
The ancient history of the Armenians is closely related to that of the Hittites. The appearance of the former is coeval with the disappearance of the latter. The probability of a common origin is strong. Enough light has been shed on the history of the Armenian table-land prior to 700 B.C. to enable us to divide its political subdivisions into two great groups. The Vannic states of the kingdom of Urartu held sway in the northern ranges. Hittite dominance extended to the southern group of mountains. It may be assumed that the Armenians of the present day are direct descendants of these ancient populations, due allowance being made for the invasion of Iranian peoples who brought eastern culture to the land. The free inflow of this eastern element was impeded, however, by the highly dissected table-land of Armenia. It trickled westward without ever assuming the proportion of a flood. Hence the Armenian physical type is preserved with considerable purity beneath the shroud of Aryan culture.
The Armenians call themselves Hai and trace their descent to a mythical mountain chief Haik. Hai-istan is the name of their native land in Armenian. The word Armenia itself is of Persian derivation and foreign to Armenian. A remote possibility of the connection of Hai with the old name Hit or Hatti may be advanced in view of the frequency with which the elision of the letter t and the replacement of d-t sounds by y occur in Armenian.[234] The etymology of the name, however, still awaits more thorough elucidation.
Although the relation between the Hittite and Armenian languages yet remains to be determined, and the secrets of the old Vannic language are not fully revealed, enough is known to prove Armenian an Aryan infiltration from the west. Herodotus refers to them in a natural manner as the Φρυγῶν ἄποικοι (VII, 73), “Phrygian colonists.” It is significant to note that this Greek appellation was bestowed on the Armenians at a time when western Asia was better known to the civilized countries of the world than it is at present. Modern research, however, places the inhabitants of the plateau of Anatolia and of the Armenian mountain land in the same racial type.
Planted squarely on the scene of the secular conflict between the civilization of Europe and Asia, Armenia became the prey of the victor of the moment. But the united influence of site and configuration was more than once during this long struggle strong enough to confer independence on the Armenian. As a buffer between eastern and western empires the country enjoyed three distinct periods of native rule prior to the Ottoman conquest.
Throughout these vicissitudes, Armenian life centered mainly around its mountain home. Nevertheless, altitude alone does not suffice to explain the characteristics of the people. Climate must also be taken into account. Armenians are distributed in a belt extending one degree on either side of the line of north latitude 39°. Within this zone the products of the soil as well as the customs are those of temperate regions bordering on the warm. The narrow highland valleys are wonderfully fertile. Wheat is harvested before July at an elevation of 3,600 feet in many districts. The country enjoys fame for the variety and excellence of its fruits.
Little wonder, then, that traits which distinguish populations reared in sunny lands should also prevail among the dwellers of this rugged mountain zone. Voluble in the extreme, endowed with a highly developed imaginative sense and with an innate tendency to aggrandize and glorify the facts of ordinary life, the Armenian is often an eastern counterpart of the celebrated Tarasconese created by Daudet’s genial fancy.
But a rocky environment is equally reflected in the minds of the Armenians. Harshness of manner and a certain degree of uncouthness are present along with tenacity of purpose and moral fortitude. Through the latter, endurance of Turkish persecution, which has generally assumed exceedingly savage form, was made possible. Armenians are also known for their martial spirit. Dwellers of many of the less accessible recesses of the Tauric or Armenian highlands held their Turkish foes in check for centuries and managed to maintain a state of semi-independence in their conqueror’s land until confronted by modern artillery.
Again, the influence of the mountain home of the Armenians is expressed in their art. Poems and songs often extol the fairness of the valleys where rest will be found after descent along interminable slopes. Sometimes the beauty of lakes, embosomed in high plateaus, fires the poet’s fancy. Towering summits figure in legend as steeples from which melodious chimes send forth their tones. Armenian music, too, resounds with echoes that seem to reverberate from valleys cut deep in the sides of their mountains.
Perhaps it is these varied influences which convert the rough and mannerless mountain boors into the most polished and cultured citizens of Turkish cities. Armenians have the reputation of being energetic business men. Their honesty was proverbial among the Turks, who generally intrusted the management of estates or domains to their hands. Among them alone throughout the inland districts of Asiatic Turkey, western progress found receptive minds.
The size of the Armenian population of Asiatic Turkey has never been accurately determined. The inaccuracy of Turkish statistics is notorious. Furthermore the boundaries of Turkish administrative provinces have been drawn with the sole view of creating groups in which the Mohammedan element would predominate. The estimate of 2,100,000 Armenians for Asiatic Turkey given by so reputable a writer as Major-General Sir Charles Wilson[235] is undoubtedly high. Cuinet’s figures given by Selenoy and Seidlitz[236] probably come nearer the truth. The wholesale massacre of Armenian males which has been systematically conducted by the Turks for the past twenty years and which culminated in the massacres and deportations of the past two years, makes it improbable that over 1,000,000 Turkish Armenians still live. Prior to the European war, the only districts of any size in which they constituted a majority of the population were found west of Nimrud Dagh in the plains surrounding Mush as well as in the Kozan district north of the Cilician plains.[237]