February 24, 1916J 



NATURE 



707 



THE CA I.I I'll 'S LAST 1 1 ER IT ACE. 



t^WlS book, of such manifold attr;uti\ ciuss and 

 merit, has an unfortn.natr sub-titU'. I'Or, 



■ iLigh half the space is gi\tn lo historical sum- 



iries (pp. 1-294), ''i^^" ii'ally \aluable pari is 

 Miainly concerned with tlic author's travels in 

 Asiatic Turkey in 1906-1913. The History 

 lui^ins with Cyrus the Great, and does not brinl; 

 us to the Ottoman Turks until chapter xx\., p. 

 J78. It is, therefore, real!}- an historical sur\c\ 

 of the lands now comprisini^ 

 tlie Turkish Empire in Asia for 

 eii^hteen centuries before the 

 appearance of the Ottomans, 

 and during- the first two cen- 

 turies of Ottoman advance (to 

 the death of Selim the Inflex- 

 ible). Nearly all this survey is 

 given to the times before the 

 earliest Turkish attack upon 

 our western world — before the 

 advent of the Saljuks and their 

 onslaught upon the Eastern 

 Roman Empire in the eleventh 

 century a.d. Some of the 

 historic maps are well done, 

 and the frontispiece (Restora- 

 tion of the Round City of 

 Mansur at Baghdad) makes a 

 pleasing and suggestive pic- 

 ture, giving the real features 

 of the Tigris capital of the 

 AI>basids. But few, indeed, of 

 these plans of past time have 

 any reference to the Ottoman 

 Turks. 



We hope Sir Mark Sykes's 

 interesting and valuable jour- 

 • vs may at some future time 

 separately issued in a some- 

 \\ hat shortened form. Certain 

 portions of the diaries might 

 l)c condensed considerably, but 

 it is fortunate that the author 

 has left the best of his narra- 

 tives as they were written on 

 the spot, at different dates. 



■ I have not endeavoured," he 



. >, "to bring them into closer 



r«-s|)ondcnre than thcv natur- 



bear to one another, and 



>\vanec must be made for 



(lifications in the lii^lil nf ihi' < ■ 



iiMre during these Mar^.'" 



These travels cover a very large part of Turkey- 

 in-Asia. Syria, Mesopotamia, Kurclistan, Asia 

 Minor- — these are the chief fields; but Turkish 

 Armenia is visited, and we have a short record of 

 a journey in lower Egypt. 



"The strategy pursued was to follow mv nose nvt r 

 those portions of the map most rich in nolCs of intcr- 

 :jation and dotted lines." 



" The Caliphs' Last Heritage : A Short History of the Turkisli Empire.' 

 i.y I-ieut.-Col. Sir Mark Sykes. Pp. xii+633. London : .Macmillan ami 

 Co., Ltd., IQ15). Price 2o.t. net. 



The personal narratives of Sir Mark Sykes are 

 written from the heart, 'i'hey are full of vigour 



and reality, fre(|uently touched with a sarcastic 

 lumiour, often liit;lii\ and truly picturesque, and 

 (-onstanlly enlightening. They express incident- 

 al!} the tierce- rexolt of a modern Western from 

 " the great swindle of representative government, 

 with its excluded merit, and its dingy, incom- 

 petent, greedy mediocrities who masquerade as 

 the salt of the' earth" (]). 528). For the Christian 

 missions in the Tiukish Empire the author has 



Kast.-»muni Pea>ani showing Gallic type. From " The Caliohs' Last Heritage.' 



On. 



NO. 



2417, VOL. 96] 



little more affection than for representative govern- 

 ment, "the prejudices of Clapham," or "the 

 dogmas Hrixtonian " (pp. 389-90). He shudders 

 at "ilie Ainerican College in Beyrut, with its con- 

 tused and brutish ornaments, its soul-less front," 

 oi' ai "tile solid vulgarity of the Robert College, 

 ( 'onsKinlinople the incubators of all supposed 

 to he fashionable and useful in modern Turkey." 

 I'ai'licular referem c may !)<■ made to the sketches 

 of prosperous and progressive Aleppo and of the 

 "magnificent race of people in the making to the 

 east " (p. 298, etc.); to the account of Kastamuni, 

 "pt.Iiapv the most beautiful city in all Northern 



