TURIN. 554 TURKESTAN. and became a Roman colony in the time of Augustus, when it received the name of Augrusta Taurinorum. It was prominent iiiulcr the Lom- bards, became later the seat of marquises, and in the eleventh century passed to the House of Savoy. It has been repeatedly in the hands of the French. Here Prince Eugene won a bril- liant victory over the French on .September 7, 1706. From 1861 to 1865 Turin was the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. Consult: Promis, L'antica Torino (Turin, 1S71); Borbonese, Torino illustrata e descritta (ib., 1884). TURIN, University of. An Italian uni- versity founded in 1405 by Louis of Savoy. It became at once a refuge for the professors at the universities of Pavia and Piacenza, then suffering from civil wars. Toward the latter part of the fifteenth century it shared the general reputa- tion and prosperity of the Italian universities of that period. It comprised two colleges, one founded in 1457 (Collegio Grassi). and one in US-. The university was reorganized in 1632, and in 1713 the present building was erected. In 1901 there were about 2800 students. The li- brary contains about 200.000 volumes and 3300 manuscripts. There are connected with the uni- versity the Collegio Carlo Alberto and the In- stituto Dionisio. TURIN PAPYRUS. A hieratic papyrus, preserved in the JIuseum of Turin, containing a dynastic list of the kings of Egypt. It formed part of the collection offered for sale to the French Government in 1818, by M. Dovretti, the French Consul-General in Egypt, and was at that time perfectly preserved. The French Gov- ernment declining to buy it, the papyrus after- wards was acquired by the King of Sardinia, and was finally sent to Turin. It was, however, care- lessly packed, and on its arrival it was found to be broken into 164 fragments. ChampoUion (q.v.) was the first to recognize its nature and value, and in 1824 collected from it between 100 and 180 royal prenomens, but, except in a very few cases, was unable to determine the order of succession. In 1826 Seyffarth (q.v.) attempted to piece together the" broken fragments and reconstruct the papyrus, but his attempted restoration is altogether unreliable, partly on account of his limited knowledge of the hieratic character, and partly because a large proportion of the frag- ments are so minute as to afford little or no indication of their proper order. Subsequent attempts to restore the text have met with little success. In its original condition the Turin Papyrus contained a list of the kings of Egypt, beginning with the mythical period and ending with Dynasties XV. and XVI., with the exact duration of each monarch's reign in years, months, and days. It would supply, if complete, an invaluable "guide for the earlier period of Egv-ptian history, but in its present mutilated state it is of little use for historical and chrono- logical purposes except in the portions covering the thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties, where the text is somewhat better preserved. Else- where, the papyrus serves at best to confirm data derived from other sources, and furnishes scarcely any independent information. The text is published in Lepsius. Ausirahl der niclitigfsten Vrkunden des iifji/ptischen Alterthums (Berlin, 1842), and in Wilkinson, The Fragments of the Hieratic Papyrus at Turin (London. 1851). Con- sult: Transactions of the Royal Society of Litera- ture, 2d series, vol. i. (London. 1843) ; licvue archeolo<ii(iiic, vol. vii. (Paris, 1850); Wiede- mann, Actpiptische Geschichte (Gotha, 1884-88) ; Budge, A ilistory of Egypt (New York, 1002). TURK'ESTAN', Turk pron. tUor'ke-stiin'. An extensive region in Central Asia, included be- tween the Russian territory of the Steppes on the north, the Mongolian Desert on the east, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, and Persia on the south, and the Caspian Sea on the west. A por- tion of Turkestan territory is comprised within Afghanistan. Politically the region is divided into Western or Russian Turkestan and Eastern or Chinese Turkestan. The Russian protectorates of Khiva and Bokhara and the Russian Province of Transcaspia are now considered and treated as separate divisions. RcssiAN Turkestan. This region embraces the territories of Ferghana, Samarkand, Semi- ryetchensk, and S_yr-Darva (Map: Asia, F 4). Total area, about 411,500 square miles; total population, about 4,888,200. Together with the Transcaspian province and a portion of the Pamir, it constitutes the general government of Russian Turkestan. It is bordered by the ter- ritory of the Steppes on the north, Sungaria and Chinese Turkestan on the east, Bokhara and Khiva on the south, and Khiva and the Sea of Aral on the west. The western and northern parts are flat and sandy; the southeastern part is mountainous. In the west and north are the great deserts of Kizil-kum, Mujun-kum. and Kara-kum. In the northeast is the extensive Lake Balkhash. The mountains of the south be- long to the three systems of the Hissar. the Alai, and Tian Shan, and form a wild Alpine-like dis- trict, interspersed with fertile valleys. The Karatau chain stretches northwest and divides the territory into two parts. There are numer- ous oases. The Syr-Darya, rising on the central mountain border, flows west through the centre of Ferghana, then northwest along the southwest- ern side of the Karatau, finally reaching the Sea of Aral. The Hi. an affluent of Lake Balkhash, is the chief river in the East. It flows northwest through the centre of Semiryetehensk. These streams have numerous tributaries. The south- ern section of Russian Turkestan is subject to earthquakes. The climate is continental. The summers are hot and dry and the winters com- paratively severe and accompanied by destruc- tive snowstorms. The flora in the west lielongs to the Aral Sea district, in the east to the mid- Asiatic region. The fauna, though essentially of the Central Asiatic type, comprises many tropi- cal representatives, among them the tiger. Salt, coal, and asphalt are obtained, and precious stones are exported. Numerous irrigation canals tap the rivers and provide agricultural conditions which would otherwise be impossible. This is especially true in the southern part of the country, where the bulk of the population is located. The staple crops are wheat, rice, millet, and oats. Cotton is a promising crop in Ferghana. Rice and cocoon silk are also produced in noteworthy quantities. Various kinds of fruit, including the grape, thrive. Stock-raising, however, is the leading occupation. Great numbers of sheep are reared. There are upward of 1,000,000 camels
