TURKEY. 



T25 



was elected to Congress in Galveston; the other 12 

 are Democrats. The Legislature will stand : 148 

 Democrats, 2 Republicans, 7 Populists, and 2 Inde- 

 pendents. 



Judicial. The Siipreme Court gave decision on 

 a law of 1875, providing that the purchaser of prop- 

 erty sold for taxes should receive a deed from the 

 assessor and the collector; the court held that it 

 was unconstitutional, in so far as it requires the 

 payment of taxes before making a defense against 

 a void claim of title under an illegal tax sale. 



TURKEY, an absolute monarchy in eastern 

 Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. The 

 Sultan is the eldest prince of the line of Osman. 

 Abdul Hamed II, born Sept. 21, 1842, the thirty- 

 fourth Sultan of the Osmanli dynasty, succeeded 

 his brother Murad V, who was deposed on Aug. 31, 

 1876, on the ground of insanity. The Sultan is 

 recognized throughout most of the Mohammedan 

 world as the Khalif, or temporal chief of Islam. In 

 matters of religion and law he is advised by the 

 Sheikh-ul-Islam and guided by the decisions of the 

 Ulema, a body of eminent expounders of the sacred 

 books, which sits in Constantinople. In civil and 

 political matters the Sadvazzam, or Grand Vizier, 

 is the chief executive officer under the Sultan. 

 These two functionaries form with the ministers at 

 the head of the several departments of state the 

 Privy Council or Cabinet of the Sultan. This was 

 composed in the beginning of 1898 as follows : 

 Grand Vizier, Halil Rifat Pasha ; Sheikh-ul-Islam, 

 Jemalledin Effendi ; Minister of War, Riza Pasha; 

 Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs, Abdurrah- 

 man Pasha; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed 

 Tewfik Pasha; Minister of Marine, Hassan Pasha, 

 Minister of the Interior, Memduh Pasha ; Minister 

 of Finance, Nazif Pasha ; President of the Council, 

 Said Pasha ; Grand Master of Artillery, Zeki Pasha , 

 Intendent of Religious Endowments, Galib Pasha : 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Zuhdi Pasha, Minis- 

 ter of Commerce and Public Works, Mahmud Pasha. 



Area and Population. The immediate pos- 

 sessions of the Sultan have an area of 1,147,578 

 square miles, with a population estimated at 24,535,- 

 700. The European vilayets, with an area of 65,909 

 square miles, have 5,812,300 inhabitants ; Crete, 

 area 2,949 square miles, 294,192 ; Asia Minor, area 

 209,669 square miles, 9,238,900 ; Anatoba, area 89,- 

 264 square miles, 2,472,400 ; Syria and Mesopotamia, 

 area 215,349 square miles, 4,667,400; Arabia, area 

 173,700 square miles, 1,050,000 ; Tripoli, are 398,738 

 square miles, about 1,000,000. The vilayets of Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina and the sandjak of Novi Bazar, 

 occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary by 

 virtue of the treaty of Berlin ; Cyprus, administered 

 by Great Britain under the Anglo-Turkish conven- 

 tion of June 4, 1878 ; the tributary principality of 

 Bulgaria and the autonomous province of Eastern 

 Rournelia united with it since 1886 ; as well as 

 Egypt, which obtained autonomy in 1841 and is 

 now occupied by British troops, are all integral 

 parts of the Ottoman Empire by public law, al- 

 though they have been removed from Turkish ad- 

 ministration and jurisdiction. The European prov- 

 inces in this position have an area of 75,010 square 

 miles, with 5,304.981 inhabitants ; Egypt an area of 

 10,698 square miles, with 9,811,544 inhabitants. 

 The tributary principality of Samos,area 180 square 

 miles, has 5"l,745 inhabitants. Including all the 

 provinces in which the suzerainty of the Sultan is 

 still recognized, the area of the Turkish Empire is 

 1,623,000 square miles and the estimated popula- 

 tion 39,652,000. 



Finances. The Turkish debt on June 30. 1898, 

 amounted to T. 144,127,899, not including T. 24,- 

 513,000 of war indemnity due to Russia and a huge 

 floating debt of unknown amount. The loan of 



1885, the defense loan of 1891, and the 3^-per-cent. 

 loan of 1894, amounting to T. 19,830,426, are 

 guaranteed by the Egyptian tribute. For the 

 other debts the indirect taxes on liquors, salt, silk, 

 and fisheries, stain ps, the tobacco regie, tobacco 

 tithes, and customs duty on tumbeki, or Persian 

 tobacco, and the Cyprus and Eastern Rouni'lian 

 tributes are pledged and are administered by an in- 

 ternational council, yielding in 1897 the sum of 

 T. 2,165,188, less T. 95,973 expenses. In January 

 the Porte negotiated with the Ottoman Bank, the 

 Deutsche Bank, and the Anatolian Railroad Com- 

 pany, one an Anglo-French, the others German 

 corporations, for advances of T. 600,000, T. 200,- 

 000, and T. 400,000 respectively at 7 per cent, 

 interest, to be repaid out of the Greek war indem- 

 nity. The railroad company stipulated for the 

 right to connect its line with the Aidin Railroad, 

 and when the English promoters of the latter ob- 

 jected the Porte decided to refuse the concession of 

 the coveted branch line to the Germans and to the 

 English the promised right to extend their line to 

 Afasin and Kara Hissar. The Russian Government 

 demanded out of the war indemnity of T. 4,000,- 

 000 the payment of T. 1,250,000 arrears of the 

 Turkish war indemnity and charges for maintaining 

 prisoners. The Porte finally agreed to pay the arrears 

 in five annual payments. France, Great Britain, and 

 Italy claimed out of the indemnity compensation for 

 damages sustained by their subjects in the Constan- 

 tinople riots of August, 1896, to the total amount 

 of T. 80,000. The Porte replied in July to the 

 identical note of these powers disclaiming responsi- 

 bility, pointing out that similar disorders had oc- 

 curred in other countries without the Government 

 concerned being called upon to pay any indemnity, 

 and suggesting that the injured foreigners should 

 proceed against the perpetrators of the crimes from 

 which they had suffered. The Council of the Public 

 Debt reported for 1898 a revenue exceeding that of 

 the previous year by T. 50,000, notwithstanding a 

 decrease of T. 67,000 in the receipts of the tobacco 

 regie. The decline in the business of the regie 

 company, attributed to the smuggling of Persian 

 tobacco, was the subject of a complaint from the 

 German Government. The Greek indemnity was 

 received in installments running from May to 

 July, and was paid out again to satisfy debts and 

 claims and for quick-firing field guns and Mauser 

 cartridges. 



The Army. The empire is divided into 7 Ordus, 

 or military circumscriptions, outside of which are 

 the division of Hedjaz, in Arabia, and the division 

 of Tripoli. The Nizam, or troops of the line, num- 

 ber about 350,000 ; the Redif, or territorial army, 

 300,000 ; the Mustahfiz, or territorial army reserve, 

 250,000 ; total, 900.000 men, of whom 750,000 have 

 received a thorough military training. The in- 

 fantry is armed with Mauser rifles of 7 65 and 9.5 

 millimetres caliber, with magazines holding 5 car- 

 tridges. All Mohammedan Turks are liable to serve 

 three years in the active army, but can purchase a 

 furlough after five months. Christians pay a mili- 

 tary tax in lieu of service. 



The Navy. The only vessels remaining in the 

 Turkish navy are the casemated ironclads " Assar-i- 

 Tewfik," " Efamidiye," and Messudive," the turret 

 ships "Asisiyc " and " Osmaniye," two old broad- 

 side ships, 1 monitor, 3 gunboats, 2 destroyers, and 

 15 first-class and 7 second-class torpedo boats. 



Commerce. The total value of the external 

 commerce in 1895 was 2,407,549,000 piasters for im- 

 ports and 1.375.381,000 piasters for exports (1 pias- 

 ter = 4.4 cents). The import of cotton cloths was 

 207,700,000 piasters: cereals and flour. 166.200,000 

 piasters: sugar, 157,600,000 piasters: wnoljuid cot- 

 ton stuffs, 143,100,000 piasters; quilting. 186.700,- 



