C86 



TURKEY. 



who raised a serious rebellion a year before. Other 

 bands trekked over the western border of the 

 Transvaal into the Vryburg district. While the 

 invasion of Cape Colony necessitated a concentra- 

 tion of British forces in that new focus of dis- 

 turbance, the commandos in the vicinity of Johan- 

 nesburg became aggressive and were with dilli- 

 culty checked by Gen. French. Commandant 

 Beyers, who had been co-operating with Delarey, 

 threatened the railroad immediately south of Pre* 

 toria at Kaalfontein, and passed eastward when 

 attacked by the cavalry of Gen. William Knox. 

 In the northwestern Transvaal Gen. Clements was 

 unable to restore British authority in the llusten- 

 burg district. Lydenburg was occupied by Louis 

 Botha, who resumed the offensive, destroyed the 

 railroad at various points, and on Dec. 29 captured 

 Helvetia, killing and wounding 50 of the garrison 

 and taking 200 prisoners. Commandant de Wet 

 gathered together another strong and well- 

 equipped commando and occupied the country be- 

 tween Ficksburg, Senekal, and Winburg, while 

 Gen. Charles Knox could do nothing more than 

 guard the line between Winburg and Ladybrand 

 to prevent him from joining in the invasion of 

 Cape Colony. The enlistment in the United King- 

 dom of 5,000 yeomen was authorized. New Zea- 

 land raised a mounted force of 500 men, half of 

 them Maoris. Militiamen were recruited in Great 

 Britain to bring up the strength both of their own 

 regiments and of the regulars in South Africa. 

 Selected Johannesburg miners, 1,500 to begin with, 

 were allowed to return to work organized as a 

 military body. Volunteer regiments in England 

 were invited to send out officers and men to take 

 the place of those who returned home. Gen. 

 Baden-Powell was careful in selecting the men for 

 the colonial constabulary, who were to receive as 

 a prize the choicest farms in the new colonies and 

 to uphold the power of the British Empire among 

 the Dutch population in the future. The fighting 

 in January was more severe than in December, 

 and in February there were 150 killed on the Brit- 

 ish side in a large number of petty actions, while 

 24 officers and 624 men died of disease and wounds. 

 Up to the end of February deaths from all causes 

 amounted to 664 officers and 13.137 men, and 1,763 

 officers and 40,594 men had been invalided to Eng- 

 land, but a large proportion of these rejoined the 

 ranks. 



TURKEY, an absolute monarchy in eastern 

 Europe and western Asia. The Sultan is the 

 eldest prince of the line of Osman. Abdul Hamid 

 II, the thirty-fourth Sultan of the Osmanli dy- 

 nasty, born Sept. 21, 1842, succeeded his brother, 

 Murad V, who was deposed on Aug. 31, 1876, 

 on the ground of insanity. The Sultan is recog- 

 nized as the Khalif of Islam, the temporal chief, 

 not only within the Ottoman Empire, but by a 

 large proportion of the Sunnite Mohammedans out- 

 side. In matters of religion and law the Sultan 

 is advised by the Sheikh-ul-Islam and guided by 

 the decisions of the Ulema, a body of eminent 

 expounders of the sacred books sitting in Constan- 

 t Simple. In civil and political matters the chief 

 executive officer under the Sultan is tb Sadraz- 

 zam, or Grand Vizier. These two functionaries, 

 together with the ministers at the head of the de- 

 partments of state, form the Privy Council, or 

 Cabinet, which was composed at the beginning of 

 1000 as follows: Grand Vizier, Halil Rifat Pasha; 

 Bheikh-uMalam, Mehmed Jemaleddin Effendi; 

 Minister of War, Kiza Pasha; Minister of the In- 

 ti nor, Memduh Pasha; Minister of Justice and 

 Worship, Abdurrahman Pasha; Minister of Ma- 

 rine, Hassan Pasha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 Ahmed Tevfik Pasha; Minister of Finance, Keshad 



Pasha; President of the Council of State, Mehmed 

 Said Pasha; Grand Master of Artillery, Mustafa 

 Zeki Pasha; Intendant of Religious Endowments, 

 Galib Pasha; Minister of Education, Zundi Pasha; 

 Minister of Commerce and Public Works, Zihni 

 Pasha. 



Area and Population. The area of the Turk- 

 ish Empire still under the dominion of the Sultan 

 is estimated at 1,111,741 square miles, and the total 

 population at 24,515,500. Including the tributary 

 states of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, Samos, 

 and Egypt, with Thasos, and also Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina, Crete, and Cyprus, now under foreign 

 administration, the total area is 1,576,677 square 

 miles, and the total population 39,810,000. The 

 area of Turkey in Europe, comprising the vilayets 

 of Constantinople, Adrianople, Salonika, Monastir, 

 Kossovo, Scutari, and Janina, is 62,744 square 

 miles, with 6,086,300 inhabitants. Asia Minor has 

 an area of 194,392 square miles and 9,238,900 in- 

 habitants; Armenia, 72,491 square miles and 

 2,472,400 inhabitants; Syria and Mesopotamia, 

 209,714 square miles and 4,667,900 inhabitants; 

 Arabia, 173,700 square miles and 1,050,000 inhab- 

 itants; Tripoli, 398,900 square miles and 1,000,000 

 inhabitants. The population of Constantinople is 

 about 1,125,000; Smyrna, 210,016; Bagdad, 145,- 

 000; Damascus, 140,487; Aleppo, 127,149; Beyrut, 

 118,811; Salonika, 105,000. About half the popu- 

 lation of European Turkey is Christian. In Asia 

 Minor the Christians form 17 per cent, of the popu- 

 lation ; in Armenia, 26 per cent. ; in Syria, 18 per 

 cent, in the vilayet of Aleppo, 28 per cent, in the 

 vilayet of Syria, 31 per cent, in the vilayet of 

 Beyrut, and 80 per cent, in the Lebanon. Besides 

 the Moslem religion the Turkish Government rec- 

 ognizes the Franks, or Roman Catholics, the 

 Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenians, the Syr- 

 ians and United Chaldeans, the Maronites of the 

 Lebanon, Protestants, and Jews. 



Finances. Out of a total revenue of T. 18,- 

 500,000, the public debt absorbs T. 6.000,000. 

 Various revenues are hypothecated for the debt 

 and placed in charge of a foreign Council of Debt 

 Administration, which in the financial vcar 1900 

 received T. 2,274,378, of which T. 1,125,527 

 came from the indirect taxes on liquors, salt, 

 stamped paper, fisheries, silk, etc., T. 702,887 

 from the tobacco regie, T. 90.000 from tithes 

 on tobacco, T. 202,702 from the Eastern Rou- 

 melian tribute, T. 102,596 from the share of rev- 

 enue of the island of Cyprus, T. 50,000 from 

 customs duties on Persian tobacco, and T. iit!<5 

 from various sources. The cost of administration 

 -was T. 119,676, leaving T. 2,154,702 net re- 

 ceipts, against T. 2,132,728 in 1899 and T. 

 2,097,304 in 1898. The total amount of loans out- 

 standing on June 30, 1899, was T. 127,832.:-:..!. 

 of which T. 76,937,762 were the converted debt 

 of 1881, T. 28,364,460 various loans obtained 

 between 1888 and 1894, T. 13,953,080 lottery 

 bonds, T. 4,783,451 the 5-per-cent. customs loan 

 of 1886, T. 848.600 the 4-per-cent. priority bonds 

 of 1893, and T. 2,945,200 the 5-per-cent. loan 

 from the Ottoman Bank. Other debts are: T. 

 24,513,000 war indemnity due Russia, T. 50.000 

 of indemnities to Russian subjects, and T. ^7:>. 

 494 for the Damascus Railroad. 



The Army and Navy. The army is dis- 

 tributed in 7 ordits, or military regions, 6 of which 

 can furnish in time of war 4 army corps each. 

 viz.. 1 corps of nizrtmf or regular troops, 2 corps 

 of the redif or territorial army, and 1 corps of 

 Hiiixtdlifiz, reserves of the territorial army. The 

 nirum troops are kept at their full strengtli in 

 time of peace, excepting some special bodies. The 

 first 5 army corps have each 64 battalions of rcdif, 





