THE MEDITERRANEAN PEOPLES—FISCHER. ST 
It is fatal to the Servians that they, like the Albanians, are divided 
between the Roman Church, the Greek Church, and Mohammedan- 
ism. They are also hampered by being divided politically into two 
countries, Montenegro and Servia, and are also spread out into Dal- 
matia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. It is also true that a considerable 
portion of old Servia is still under Turkish rule. Bulgaria, on the 
other hand, is almost a national unit, and only a small part of its 
people, the Pomaces, have gone over to Mohammedanism. 
After the Slavic wave came the Arabic period of influence, which 
Arabicized not only Egypt and the northern part of Africa, but also 
Syria, which had become strongly Grecian, but in whose population 
the old Aramaic element was still strongly dominant. Mohammedan- 
ism stretched as a barrier across the whole Mediterranean region and 
was a great factor in causing uniformity of life and customs. This 
is to-day far less effective and broken down in many places, but is 
still a great influence. 
During all these centuries this region became the region of greatest 
friction between occidental Christians and the oriental world of 
Islam. This region of friction became still larger when the steppes 
of Asia again poured forth a flood of people against the Mediterra- 
nean region and Europe. This time it was the Turks, followed by 
the Mongolians, who came with a rush and retired as quickly as they 
came, at least from Mediterranean territory. 
The Turks, however, obtained a firm foothold in Asia Minor, 
cleared out the last trace of the Roman Empire of the east, and sub- 
dued almost the whole of southeastern Europe. It was only the 
German strength which stopped them there also, for they made them- 
selves masters of almost the whole world of Islam, which had been 
till then entirely Arabic. Syria, Egypt, and the whole of north 
Africa as far as Morocco fell into their hands. Under Turkish rule 
all Christian civilizational influences were excluded even more than 
under the Arabs. Behind the boundaries of the Turks, Bulgarians 
and Servians reverted to barbarism, Albania became the least known 
of all European countries to-day, and Asia Minor, Syria, and all of 
northern Africa remained absolutely isolated and unknown. 
Tunis has been opened to commerce only since 1881, Morocco only 
since 1900 in the principal lines, and the same is true of Tripoli and 
Barca. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, in fact even 
since the eighteenth century, the Turkish tide has been on the ebb. 
Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria are again restored to the Christian 
world. Algeria belongs entirely to the French and Tunis essentially 
so, while Egypt has fallen to the English. 
It can not be said, however, that the contrast between Christianity 
and Mohammedanism is any less for this reason. On the contrary, 
