ASIA
MINOR
The defeat of the Emperor Romanus (1071) initiated a change in the condition of Asia Minor which was to be complete and lasting. A long succession of nomad Turkish tribes, pressing forward from Central Asia, wandered over the rich country in search of fresh pastures for their flocks and herds. They did not plunder or ill-treat the people, but they cared nothing for town life or for agricultural pursuits, and as they passed onward they left the country bare. Large districts passed out of cultivation and were abandoned to the nomads. The peasants either became nomads themselves or took refuge in the towns or the mountains. The Mongols, as they advanced, sacked towns and laid waste the agricultural lands. Timur conducted his campaigns with a ruthless disregard of life and property. Entire Christian communities were massacred, flourishing towns were completely destroyed, and all Asia Minor was ravaged. From these disasters the country never recovered, and the last traces of Western civilization disappeared with the enforced use of the Turkish language and the wholesale conversions to Islam under the Osmanli sultans. The large increase of the Greek population in the western districts, the construction of railways, and the growing interests of Germany and Russia, seem, however, to indicate that the tide is again turning in favour of the West. Population.—None of the conquering races that invaded Asia Minor, whether from the east or from the west, wholly expelled or exterminated the race in possession. The vanquished retired to the hills or absorbed the victors. In the course of ages race distinction has been almost obliterated by fusion of blood; by the complete Hellenization of the country, which followed the introduction of Christianity; by the later acceptance of Islam; and by migrations due to the occupation of cultivated lands by the nomads. It will be convenient here to adopt the modern division into Moslems, Christians, and Jews : (a) Moslems. The Turks never established themselves in such numbers as to form the predominant element in the population. Where the land was unsuitable for nomad occupation the agricultural population remained, and it still retains some of its original characteristics. Thus in Cappadocia the facial type of the non-Aryan race is common, and in Galatia there are traces of Gallic blood. The Zeibeks of the west and south-west are apparently representatives of the Carians and Lycians; and the peasants of the Black Sea coast range, of the people of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus. Wherever the people accepted Islam they called themselves Turks, and a majority of the so-called “Turks” belong by blood to the races that occupied Asia Minor before the Seljuk invasion. Turkish and Zaza-speaking Kurds (see Kurdistan) are found in the Angora and Sivas vil&yets. There are many large colonies of Circassians and smaller ones of Noghai Tatars, Georgians, Lazis, Cossacks, Albanians, and Pomaks. East of Boghaz Keui there is a compact population of Kizilbash, who are partly descendants of Slha Turks transplanted from Persia and partly of the indigenous race. In the Cilician Plain there are large settlements of Ansarleh who have migrated from the Syrian mountains (see Syria). The nomads and seminomads are, for the most part, representatives of the Turks, Mongols, and Tatars who poured into the country during the 350 years that followed the defeat of Romanus. Turkomans are found in the Angora and Adana vilayets , Avshars, a tribe of Turkish origin in the valleys of AntiTaurus ; and Tatars in the Angora and Briisa vilayets; Yuruks are most numerous in the Konia vilayet. They speak Turkish and profess to be Moslems, but have no mosques or im&ms. The Chepmi and Takhtaji, who live chiefly in the Aidin viUyet, appear to be derived from one of the early races. (6) Christians. The Greeks are in
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places the descendants of colonists from Greece; but most of them belong by blood to the indigenous races. These people became “ Greeks ” as being subjects of the Byzantine empire and members of the Eastern Church; and at the present day every Turkish subject who belongs to the Orthodox Church is officially a “ Greek.” On the west coast, in Cappadocia, in Pontus, and in the mining villages, the language is Romaic; on the south coast and in many inland villages it is either Turkish, which is written in Greek characters, or a Greco-Turkish jargon. In and near Smyrna there are large colonies of Hellenes. Armenians are most numerous in the eastern districts, where they have been settled since the great migration that preceded and followed the Seljuk invasion. In Central and Western Asia Minor they are the descendants of colonists from Persia and Armenia (see Armenia), (c) The Jaws live chiefly on the Bosporus; and in Smyrna, Brusa, and other western towns. Gypsies—some Moslem, some Christian—are also numerous. In the absence of trustworthy statistics, only the following rough estimate can be given :—Moslems, 6,800,000; Armenians, 560,000 Greeks, 780,000; other Christians, 45,000; Jews, gypsies, foreigners, &c., 150,000; total, 8,335,000. This does not include the population of the islands—Moslems, 27,500; Greeks, 342,000 ; other Christians, 3000; Jews and foreigners, 2000; total, 374,500. Administration.—The modern division of the country and the present system of administration are treated elsewhere (see Turkey). The modern towns rarely occupy the sites of the ancient cities, a point well brought out by Ramsay (Hist. Geog. pp. 82-88). All Turkish subjects who are not Moslems must belong to one of the recognized millets or religious communities—Armenian, Greek, Jewish, Latin, Protestant, &c. The most striking educational feature is the great influence for good exercised by the schools and colleges of the American Board of Missions. The Greeks and Armenians have good schools for both sexes. The principal manufactures are :—Carpets, rugs, cotton, mohair and silk stuffs, soap, wine, and leather. The exports are :—Cereals, cotton, cotton seed, dried fruits, drugs, fruit, gall nuts, gum tragacanth, liquorice root, maize, nuts, olive oil, opium, rice, sesame, sponges, storax, timber, tobacco, valonea, walnut wood, wine, yellow berries, carpets, cotton yarn, cocoons, hides, leather, mohair, silk, silk stuffs, rugs, wax, wool, leeches, live stock, minerals, &c. The imparts are :—Coffee, cotton cloths, cotton goods, crockery, dry salteries, fezzes, glass-ware, haberdashery, hardware, henna, iron-ware, jute, linen goods, manufactured goods, matches, petroleum, salt, sugar, woollen goods, yarns, &c. Communications.—There are few metalled roads, but on the plateau light carts can pass nearly everywhere. The lines of railway now open are:—(1) From Haidar Pasha to Ismid, Eski-shehr,. and Angora, to be extended to Kir-shehr and Kaisarfeh. (2) From Mudania to Brusa. (3) From Eski-shehr to Afiiin Kara-hissar and Konia. (4) From Smyrna to Manisa, Ala-shehr and Afiun Kara-hissar, with a branch line from Manisa to Soma. These lines are worked by the German Gesellschaft der Anatolischen Eisenhahn. (5) From Smyrna to Aidin and Dineir, constructed and worked by an English company. (6) Mersina to Tarsus and Adana. The German company has power to extend its system to Baghdad, but the route by which the line will cross the Taurus has not yet been decided. There are thus two competing routes—one running inland from Constantinople (Haidar Pasha), the other from Smyrna. The first is practically connected with the European railway system;
