Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/872

Rh ASIA

790

ASIA

Pontus. the Greeks arc numerous; on the southern coast anil in the islamls they are in tlie vast majority and, except poHtically, are the dominant race as of old, being the commercial and industrial element. Not a few of the sedentary Turks are of Greek origin, descendants of voluntary or compulsory apostates; on the other hand, not a few Greeks isolated in the interior yet speak Turkish, a stigma of hated sub- jection that Greek patriotism aims at effacing. There are many Armenians in Asia Minor, some- times gathered in distinct settlements, and again scattered through the Turkish villages; the taxes are usually farmed out to them, for which reason they are bitterly hat«d by the Turkish peasant who complains of their rapacity. They retain usually their native tongue. On the Persian frontier of Asia Minor, in some secluded valleys, are found yet a few Nestorians, descendants of those Syrian Christians who fled in remote times to these fast- nesses either to avoid the oppression of their Moslem masters in Mesopotamia or before the encroach- ments of nomad tribes.

V. Government. — Asia Minor proper is divided into fifteen "vilayets" or administrative territories, two separate sanjaks (districts), and one principality (Samos). At the head of each is a " vali" or provin- cial governor, in whose council a seat is given to the spiritual head of each of the non-Moslem communi- ties. Each vilayet is divided into sanjaks or districts, and these are again subdivided into communal groups and communes, presided over respectively by officers known as mutessarifs, kaimakams, mudirs, and mukhtars. The code is the common law of Islam, known as Nizam, and there is an appeal to the High Court at Constantinople from the civil, criminal, and commercial courts in each province. It is to be noted that in the conquered Roman prov- inces the Arabs first, and then the Turks, retained much of the Roman (Byzantine) Law, especially as regarded their Christian subjects, and in so far as it did not conflict with the Koran (Amos, History of the Civil Law of Rome, London, 1883). The chief cities of Asia Minor are Smyrna (300,000), Trebi- zond, IskanderOn (Issus, Scanderoon), Adana, Angora (Ancyra), Sivas (Sebasteia), Sinope, Samsiin (Ami- sus), Koniah (Iconium), Kaisariyeh (Ciesarea in Cappadocia). Adalia is the largest seaport on the southern coast; Broussa (Prusa), magnificently situated at the foot of Mt. Olympus in Bithynia, is the seat of silk industries, and holds the tombs of the early Ottoman sultans. Kaisariyeh at the foot of Mt. Argaeus, with its memories of St. Basil the Great, is one of the world's oldest trade-centres, recognized as such from the dawn of history under its Semitic name Mazaca; it is even now the most important commercial town in eastern Asia Minor. Sivas in the valley of the Kizil-Irmak (Halys) is a wheat centre. Trebizond on the Black Sea justifies even yet the foresight of its early Greek founders. Erzerflm in Lesser Armenia is an important mountain fortress.

VI. Communication and Education. — There are no roads in the sen.se of our modern civilization; pack animals, including horses, have always been u.sed by the Turks, both seilentary and nomad, for transportation, both of persons and goods. Recently carts have come somewhat into use. There are relays of hor.scs at interx'als on the main lines of communication and in the larger towns. A trans- Syrian railroail from Const.mtinople to Bagdad on the Persian Gulf has long Ijcen projected. It has reached Koniah and on its way pas.ses Ismid (Nico- media) and Kskeshir (Doryla^um). In all there are about 220 miles of railway in the vast peninsula. One of the principal Moslem schools is at Amasia in Galatia. The Greek comnninities in Asia Minor cherish no public duty more tlian that of education.

and make many sacrifices in order to provide for their children, in primary and secondary schools, a high grade of the education they admire. It is in reality a genuine Hellenism based on the study of the ancient classic writers, the history of their ances- tors both peninsular and continental, antipathy to Islam, a strong sense of mutual relationship, and a vivid hope that they will again be called to the direc- tion of pubUc life throughout the peninsula. There is, however, a manifold opposition U> this modern Greek ideal. If it were possible to bring about the re-union of the long separated Churches the ideal could be notably furthered.

VII. Resources. — .\sia Minor is yet largely an agricultural and pastoral land. On the high pla- teaux immense flocks of sheep and goats are raised, whose wool is used for domestic purposes, for export, or for the manufacture of Turkish rugs and carpets. The silk manufactures of Broussa, in the sixteenth century a staple of Asia Minor, have greatly decreased. Viticulture, once the pride of Asia Minor, has almost perished. The use of wine is forbidden by the Koran; hence the grape is cultivated by the Turks only for the making of confections, and by the Greeks chiefly for personal use. The wines of Chios anil Lesbos and Smyrna, famous in antiquity, are no longer made; their place is taken by dried raisins that form a

Crincipal article of export. Boxwood, salt-fish, arley, millet, wheat, oil, opium, rags, wool, and cotton, hides, galls, wax, tobacco, soap, liquorice paste, figure on the table of exports, but not at all in the proportions becoming the natural advantages of the land. It has already been stated that a few mines and marble quarries are worked, but in a feeble and intermittent way. The popular genius is foreign to all progress, the government is based on corruption and oppression, and the national religion is eminently suspicious and repressive. The inland Turk has the reputation of honesty, kindliness, hospitality, but he has no bent for the active and energetic Western life, loves dearly his "kief" or somnolent vegetative repose, and is hope- lessly in the grasp of two rapacious enemies, the usurer and the tax-gatherer. The Greek and the Armenian are the dominant commercial factors, and are in several ways equipped to wrest from the Turk everything but political control of the country.

VIII. The Islands. — Leaving aside the great islands of Crete and Cyprus, no longer under immedi- ate Turkish control, it may be noted that those of the Archipelago form a special administrative dis- trict. Their number is legion; some of them are very fertile, others are mere peaks and ridges of rock. They export fruit, some wine, raisins, olive oil, and mastic, and their sponge fisheries are very valuable. Among the islands famous in an- tiquity are Tenedos near the mouth of the Darda- nelles, Lemnos between the Dardanelles and Mt. Athos, Lesbos, the native place of .■Vlcaeus and Sappho, between the Dardanelles and Smyrna. The island of Icaria recalls the legend of Icarus, and Patmos the sojourn of St. John and the composition of his .\pocalypse. Cos awakens memories of the great healer Hippocrates, and the island of Rhodes has a history seconii to none of the small insular states of the world. Its strong fleets made it respected in Greek antiquity, and its maritime code was taken over by the Roman Law. Its bronze Colossus, astride the mouth of its harbour, was one of the seven won- ders of the world. For nearly four hundred years it was the home of the Knights of St. .lohn. and its famous siege and capture by Suleiman I (1522) filled all Western Christendom with equal sorrow and admiration. Since 1S32 the island of Samos is a quasi-independent principality, and forms a spe- cial sanjak by itself. In the full flood of ancient Ionian luxury, art. and science, Samos was foremost