THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



59 



present Ottoman Empire, not including 

 Arabia. 



The boundaries are the Black Sea and 

 Caucasus on the north, Egypt on the 

 south, the iEgean and Mediterranean 

 seas on the west, and the Syrian Desert 

 and Persia on the east. Turkey in Eu- 

 rope is almost a negligible area, as the 

 Balkan war stripped the Turks of all 

 their European possessions except Con- 

 stantinople and a narrow territory along 

 the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, some 40 

 miles in width ; so that when the Turkish 

 Empire is now referred to Asiatic Tur- 

 key is all that the term embraces except 

 the city of Constantinople and a small 

 amount of adjacent territory. 



Roughly speaking, Turkey is divided 

 into five great provinces, or districts — 

 Anatolia, Armenia, Kurdistan, Mesopo- 

 tamia, and Syria. 



Anatolia (the name is from a Turkish 

 word meaning "the dawn") lies between 

 the Black and Mediterranean seas. This 

 district is the home of the greater part of 

 the Turkish population, perhaps 7,000,- 

 000 in all. Here is a case where the peo- 

 ple can be distinguished from the govern- 

 ment. Even the so-called subject races 

 have suffered but little more at the hands 

 of the governing officials than the com- 

 mon Turkish people. 



A IX GOVERNMENT IN THE) HANDS OF 

 3OO MEN 



When one remembers that all govern- 

 ment of the Empire lies solely in the 

 hands of a group of not more than 300 

 men, and that they impose their selfish 

 will on Turk and Christian alike, one 

 readily understands how a distinction can 

 be made between people and government. 

 In spite of a constitution having been 

 proclaimed and a parliament summoned, 

 the people, whether of Turkish or other 

 race, have absolutely no voice in the 

 affairs of the nation. 



Armenia, east of Anatolia, extending 

 to the region of the Caucasus and the 

 Persian border, is the site of the ancient 

 Kingdom of Armenia. The population is 

 not wholly Armenian — in fact, even be- 

 fore the war the majority of the people 

 were Turks and Kurds — but here the 

 bulk of the Armenian race was found. 



It is a rugged land, a succession of 



mountains and valleys, where the people 

 have had to contend with nature for the 

 establishment and maintenance of their 

 homes ; but, like all highland countries, 

 it has been the means of producing a 

 religious, freedom-loving people. 



They were the first nation to embrace 

 Christianity when, in the latter half of 

 the third century, their king, Tiradates, 

 accepted the new faith, and most of the 

 nation followed him. Throughout all the 

 succeeding centuries they have remained 

 steadfast against wave after wave of per- 

 secution, until this last storm of hate and 

 fanaticism has swept the greater part 

 from their homes and has destroyed at 

 least a million — two-thirds of the entire 

 people. 



THE LAND OE SAEADIN, THE KURD 



Kurdistan, a hill country north of the 

 Tigris River, is the home of a brave, 

 virile, largely illiterate series of tribes and 

 clans known as the Kurds. They are the 

 descendants of the Cardushi, who gave 

 Xenophon and his ten thousand so much 

 difficulty on their march across these 

 same hills on their way to the sea. 



Nominally they are Moslem in religion, 

 but they have retained many elements of 

 heathen worship. Some of their tribes 

 are "Yesdi," or devil worshipers. They 

 are home-loving, frugal, and capable of 

 enduring great hardships. They practice 

 strict monogamy and their women occupy 

 an equal place with their men in the 

 family life. 



The Kurds have furnished at least one 

 great man to history, for Saladin, the 

 chivalrous leader of the Saracen hosts, 

 the compeer of Richard Cceur de Lion, 

 was from this people. 



Mesopotamia, Upper and Lower, vies 

 with Egypt in claiming the honor of be- 

 ing the home of ancient civilization. It 

 comprises the valleys of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates rivers. Here flourished the 

 Chaldean, Babylonian, and Assyrian em- 

 pires. The city of Bagdad, with all its 

 glamour of mystery and magic, is in the 

 heart of Mesopotamia. 



ONCE THE RICHEST EAND IN THE WORED 



This was the richest land in the world, 

 the granary of the ancients ; yet, in spite 

 of all that it has been, it today lies largely 



