SYR-DARYA 



5672 



SZEGEDIN 



SYR-DARYA, or SIR-DARIA, sirdahr'iah, 

 the principal river of the province of Syr- 

 Darya, in Russian Turkestan. It begins as a 

 small mountain stream whose source is on the 

 northern slope of the Tian-shan range. Flow- 

 ing in a general northwesterly direction, the 

 Syr-Darya follows a course of about 1,700 

 miles, finding its outlet in Lake Aral (see map 

 of Asia, opposite page 417). For a long dis- 

 tance the stream flows through an arid plain, 

 where its volume is decreased by evaporation 

 and the drawing off of water for irrigation pur- 

 poses. It is of little value for navigation. 



SYRIA, seer' ia, a region in Asia Minor bor- 

 dering on the eastern shore of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea. This land has no very important 

 part in modern commerce and industry, and it 

 is of little significance politically, but the name 

 has associated with it scenes and events of im- 

 perishable fame; for the land of Syria in- 

 cludes the Holy Land, the birthplace of Chris- 

 tianity, and it was in this region that the Israel- 

 ites established themselves as a nation. 



Modern Syria occupies a narrow strip of 

 country whose boundaries are approximately 

 the same as in Bible times the Alma Dagh 

 range on the north, the Euphrates River and 

 Syrian Desert of Arabia on the east, the Great 

 Sea on the west and Egypt on the south. It con- 

 stituted a Turkish vilayet (province) until 1919, 

 and has an area of 114,530 square miles. Tur- 

 key lost Syria at the conclusion of the War of 

 the Nations, and it became practically inde- 

 pendent, under the protection of the powers. 

 An official estimate gives the number of inhab- 

 itants as 3,675,100. Of these, Mohammedans 

 are in greatest number, but there are many 

 Christians, especially in Lebanon. Wandering 

 Bedouins and Arabs are found in the south. 

 Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Jerusalem are 

 the principal towns. 



The country in general is a plateau which 

 slopes abruptly toward the Mediterranean, and 

 is divided into eastern and western table-lands 

 by a narrow rift valley over 400 miles in length. 

 There are several mountain ranges along the 

 coast, the loftiest being in Lebanon. As vapor- 

 laden winds blowing from the sea lose their 

 moisture on the seaward slopes of the moun- 

 tains, the country is in most sections too dry 

 for agriculture. Several Jewish colonies, or 

 agricultural communities, have been estab- 

 lished in Palestine, and they raise cereals, cot- 

 ton and fruits. These Jews have introduced a 

 system of irrigation. Railroad and carriage- 

 road facilities are poor, but after the outbreak 



of the War of the Nations the railroad system, 

 which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, 

 was extended to within less than 200 miles of 

 the Suez Canal. 



Related Subjects. For further information on 

 this subject the reader is referred to the follow- 

 ing articles in these volumes: 

 Aleppo Jerusalem 



Arabs Jews 



Bedouins Lebanon, Mountains of 



Beirut Palestine 



Damascus Turkey 



Jaffa 



SYRIAC, seer'iak, one of the two dialects 

 of Aramaic, the other being the so-called Chal- 

 dee. Syriac was spoken in Mesopotamia, and 

 has literary monuments which date as far back 

 as the first century of the Christian era. The 

 oldest existing writing is a translation of the 

 Old Testament, and most of the early manu- 

 scripts are versions of some part of the Bible. 

 Down to the fourteenth century the language 

 had a vigorous life. 



From the fourteenth century it declined, but 

 to the present time there remain in the Kurd- 

 ish mountains and neighboring localities tribes 

 who speak a language called Syriac. This dif- 

 fers considerably from Syriac proper. 



S YRINGA , si ring ' ga, a genus of large, hardy 

 shrubs of the olive family, including the lilacs 

 and jasmine, whose fragrant flowers make them 

 popular as garden plants. In some species, as 

 the lilacs, the individual flowers are small, but 

 are borne in large clusters at the ends of the 

 plant stems. One species, common in the south- 

 eastern part of the United States, bears large, 

 white, single flowers. The mock orange is some- 

 times called syringa. 



SZEGEDIN, seg'edeen, an important city of 

 Hungary, the second in population, ranking 

 next to Budapest. It is the capital of the 

 County of Csongrad, and is situated on the 

 west bank of the Theiss River, 118 miles south- 

 east of Budapest (see map of Europe, follow- 

 ing page 2092). It is the commercial center of 

 a fertile agricultural region, and carries on a 

 prosperous trade in grain, wool and tobacco. 

 Since a disastrous flood, which occurred in 1879, 

 Szegedin has been rebuilt into a fine, modern 

 city, with broad, circular avenues, beautiful 

 public squares and stately public buildings. 

 Fine quays extend along the river and a dam 

 has been erected to prevent further damage to 

 the city. Szegedin is noted for its soap and 

 various food products, such as Hungarian pep- 

 per (paprika) and a dough preparation called 

 tarhonya. Population in 1910, 118,328. 



