Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/123

Rh the troops were discontent and it became necessary to raise the siege.

4. Greatest Extent of the Empire. The Ottoman Turks, once a petty tribe of unsettled wanderers, without an acre of soil they could call their own, had now become, in little more than three centuries, great among the European nations, occasionally endangering their independence, civilization and religion. They possessed the most favored climate of the earth and the most fertile soil; a seaboard abounding in convenient roads and harbors; an archipelago offering facilities to commerce; straits the most impassable to him who has not the key or who is not on friendly terms with the owner, and a capital adapted by its geographical position to become the center of a dominion extending to three continents. They were masters of countries the most interesting from their sacred, classic and historical associations; the scenes where patriarchs pitched their tents and prophets delivered their oracles, and the soil on which the Savior of the World was born and where apostles first proclaimed the gospel of salvation.

Their empire included in Europe Roumelia, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Thessalia, Greece and greater part of Hungary; in Asia all Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, Daghistan, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cyprus and the chief part of Arabia; in Africa Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers; while the khanate of Crimea, the principalities of Valachia and Moldavia and Transylvania, with the