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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo by Ellsworth Huntington 



A PORTION OF THE CITY OF HARPUT 



It lies around a strong castle 1,500 to 2,000 feet above one of the broad, fertile basin- 

 plains of Armenia. The large roofless building on the right is an Armenian church, which 

 was burned by the Kurds during the massacres of 1905. 



is inhabited largely by Kuzzilbash Kurds 

 who are neither good Mohammedans, 

 good Christians, nor good pagans. Nom- 

 inally they belong to the Shiah sect of 

 Mohammedans, who are looked upon 

 with great aversion by oxthodox Sunni 

 Mohammedans, such as the Turks. In 

 practice the Kuzzilbash are very cosmo- 

 politan in their religious observances. 

 When away from home they readily join 

 in the prayers at either a Shiah or a 

 Sunni mosque. If they happen to be in 

 an Armenian village where there are no 

 Turks, they often go in and join in the 

 Christian service, kneeling and bowing 

 with the congregation. At home they are 

 said not to pray except when led by one 

 of their sayids, or holy men, who are 

 supposed to be descendants of Moham- 

 med. As a matter of fact they, like the 

 rest of the Kuzzilbash, are probably de- 

 scended, in part at least, from Armenians 

 whose conversion to Mohammedanism 

 was not exactly a matter of conviction. 



One of the most peculiar customs of 

 the Kuzzilbash is an ancient rite which 

 is apparently of Christian origin. No 

 European has seen it, but, according to 

 trustworthy Armenians, the Kuzzilbash 

 men gather at the mosques on solemn 

 feast days and one by one they advance 

 to the front of the sacred building — on 

 their knees, it is said by some. As each 

 man comes forward a sayid takes a bit 

 of meat, dips it in wine, and puts it in 

 the man's mouth. Such a ceremony can 

 scarcely be anything but a relic of Chris- 

 tianity. 



In many places Turks, Kurds, and Ar- 

 menians all reverence the same shrines — 

 places which have probably been sacred 

 since the far-off days of the pagans who 

 fought with the Assyrians or opposed the 

 march of Xenophon. One of the most 

 notable of such places is located in Mus- 

 har Dagh, or Mushar Mountain, inside 

 the point of a sharp bend to the west- 

 ward made by the Euphrates River 



