MARDIN, the chief town of a sanjak of the Diarbekr vilayet of Asiatic Turkey. It is a military station on the Diarbekr-Mosul road. It occupies a remarkable site on the south side of a conical hill of soft limestone, and the houses rise tier above tier. The streets are narrow and paved in steps, while often the roadway runs along the roof of the house in the tier below. The hill is almost surrounded by old walls, while on the summit are the remains of the famous castle of the Kaleh Shubha (Lat. _Maride_ or _Marde_,) which from Roman times has played an important part in history. The Arab geographers considered it impregnable, and from its steep approaches and well-arranged defences it was able to offer a protracted resistance to the Mongolian conqueror Hulagu and to the armies of Timur. It was also for several centuries the residence of more or less independent princes of the Ortokid Turkoman dynasty. The climate is healthy and dry, and fruit grows well, but water is sometimes scanty in the summer. Mardin is the centre of a good corn-growing district, and is important chiefly as a border town for the Kurds on the north and the Arab tribes to the south. It is the chief centre of the Jacobite Christians, who have many villages in the Tor Abdin hills to the north-east, and whose patriarch lives at Deir Zaferan, a Syrian monastery of the 9th century not far off in the same direction. The population is estimated at 27,000, of whom about one-half are Christians of the Armenian, Chaldean, Jacobite, Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. Besides many mosques and churches there are three monasteries (Syrian, Franciscan and Capuchin), and an important American Mission station, with church, schools and a medical officer. Entry: MARDIN
One of the revolutionary dreams was to make the ancient Daron the centre of a new Armenia. But the movement met with no encouragement, either amongst the prosperous peasants on the rich plain of Mush or in the mountain villages of Sasun. In the summer of 1893, an emissary was captured near Mush, and the governor, hoping to secure others, ordered the Kurdish Irregular Horse to raid the mountain district. The Armenians drove off the Kurds,[1] and, when attacked in the spring of 1894, again held their own. The vali now called up regular troops from Erzingan; and the sultan issued a firman calling upon all loyal subjects to aid in suppressing the revolt. A massacre of a most brutal character, in which Turkish soldiers took part, followed; and aroused deep indignation in Europe. In November 1894 a Turkish commission of inquiry was sent to Armenia, and was accompanied by the consular delegates of Great Britain, France and Russia, who elicited the fact that there had been no attempt at revolt to justify the action of the authorities. Throughout 1894 the state of the country bordered upon anarchy, and during the winter of 1894-1895 the British government, with lukewarm support from France and Russia, pressed for administrative reforms in the vilayets of Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Sivas, Memuret-el-Aziz (Kharput) and Diarbekr. The Porte made counter-proposals, and officials concerned in the Sasun massacres were decorated and rewarded. On the 11th of May 1895 the three powers presented to the sultan a complicated scheme of reforms which was more calculated to increase than to lessen the difficulties connected with the government of Armenia; but it was the only one to which Russia would agree. The sultan delayed his answer. Great Britain was in favour of coercion, but Russia, when sounded, replied that she "would certainly not join in any coercive measures" and she was supported by France. At this moment, 21st of June 1895, Lord Rosebery's cabinet resigned, and when Lord Salisbury's government resumed the negotiations in August, the sultan appealed to France and Russia against England. During the negotiations the secret societies had not been inactive. Disturbances occurred at Tarsus; Armenians who did not espouse the "national" cause were murdered; the life of the patriarch was threatened; and a report was circulated that the British ambassador wished some Armenians killed to give him an excuse for bringing the fleet to Constantinople. On the 1st of October 1895 a number of Armenians, some armed, went in procession with a petition to the Porte and were ordered by the police to disperse. Shots were fired, and a riot occurred in which many Armenian and some Moslem lives were lost. The British ambassador now pressed the scheme of reforms upon the sultan, who accepted it on the 17th of October. Meanwhile there had been a massacre at Trebizond (October 8), in which armed men from Constantinople took part, and it had become evident that no united action on the part of the powers was to be feared. The sultan refused to publish the scheme of reforms, and massacre followed massacre in Armenia in quick succession until the 1st of January 1896. Nothing was done. Russia refused to agree to any measure of coercion, and declared (December 19) that she would take no action except such as was needed for the protection of foreigners. Great Britain was not prepared to act alone. In the summer of 1896 (June 14-22) there were massacres at Van, Egin, and Niksar; and on the 26th of August the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople was seized by revolutionists as a demonstration against the Christian powers who had left the Armenians to their fate. The project was known to the Porte, and the rabble, previously armed and instructed, were at once turned loose in the streets. Two days' massacre followed, during which from 6000 to 7000 Gregorian Armenians perished. Entry: ARMENIA
GERRÚS, a small province of Persia, situated between Khamseh and Azerbaijan in the N., Kurdistan in the W. and Hamadan in the S. Its population is estimated at 80,000, and its capital, Bíjár, 180 m. from Hamadan, has a population of about 4000 and post and telegraph offices. The province is fief of the chief of the Gerrús Kurds, pays a yearly revenue of about £3000, and supplies a battalion of infantry (the 34th) to the army. Entry: GERRÚS
Geographically, Armenia is a continuation westward of the great Iranian plateau. On the north it descends abruptly to the Black Sea; on the south it breaks down in rugged terraces to the lowlands of Mesopotamia; and on the east and west it sinks more gradually to the lower plateaus of Persia and Asia Minor. Above the general level of the plateau, 6000 ft., rise bare ranges of mountains, which run from north-east to south-west at an altitude of 8000-12,000 ft., and culminate in Ararat, 17,000 ft. Between the ranges are broad elevated valleys, through which the rivers of the plateau flow before entering the rugged gorges that convey their waters to lower levels. Geologically, Armenia consists of archaic rocks upon which, towards the north, are superimposed Palaeozoic, and towards the south later sedimentary rocks. The last have been pierced by volcanic outbursts that extend southward to Lake Van. Amongst the higher mountains are the two Ararats; Ala-geuz Dagh, north of the Aras; Bingeul Dagh, south of Erzerum; and the peaks near Lake Van. The rivers are the Euphrates, Tigris, Aras, Churuk Su (Chorokh) and Kelkit Irmak, all rising on the plateau. The more important lakes are Van, 5100 ft., about twice the size of the Lake of Geneva, and Urmia, 4000 ft., both salt; Gokcha or Sevan, 5870 ft., discharging into the Aras; and Chaldir, into the Kars Chai. The aspect of the plateau is dreary and monotonous. The valleys are wide expanses of arable land, and the hills are for the most part grass-covered and treeless. But the gorges of the Euphrates and Tigris, and their tributaries, cannot be surpassed in wildness and grandeur. The climate is varied. In the higher districts the winter is long and the cold severe; whilst the summer is short, dry and hot. In Erzerum the temperature ranges from -22° to 84° F., and snow sometimes falls in June. In the valley of the Aras, and in the western and southern districts, the climate is more moderate. Most of the towns lie high, from 4000 to 6000 ft. The villages are usually built on gentle slopes, in which the houses are partially excavated as a protection against the severity of the weather. Many of the early towns were on or near the Araxes, and amongst their ruins are the remains of churches which throw light on the history of Christian architecture in the East. Armenia is rich in mineral wealth, and there are many hot and cold mineral springs. The vegetation varies according to the locality. Cereals and hardy fruits grow on the higher ground, whilst rice is cultivated in the hot, well-watered valley of the Araxes. The summer is so hot that the vine grows at much higher altitudes than it does in western Europe, and the cotton tree and all southern fruit trees are cultivated in the deeper valleys. On the fine pasture lands which now support the flocks of the Kurds, the horses and mules, so celebrated in ancient times, were reared. Trout are found in the rivers, and a small herring in Lake Van. The country abounds in romantic scenery; that of the district of Ararat especially has been celebrated by patriotic historians like Moses of Chorene and Lazarus of Pharb. Entry: ARMENIA
CARAVAN (more correctly _Karwan_), a Persian word, adopted into the later Arabic vocabulary, and denoting, throughout Asiatic Turkey and Persia,[1] a body of traders travelling together for greater security against robbers (and in particular against Bedouins, Kurds, Tatars and the like, whose grazing-grounds the proposed route may traverse) and for mutual assistance in the matter of provisions, water and so forth. These precautions are due to the absence of settled government, inns and roads. These conditions having existed from time immemorial in the major part of western Asia, and still existing, caravans always have been the principal means for the transfer of merchandise. In these companies camels are generally employed for the transport of heavy goods, especially where the track, like that between Damascus and Bagdad, for example, lies across level, sandy and arid districts. The camels are harnessed in strings of fifty or more at a time, a hair-rope connecting the rear of one beast with the head of another; the leader is gaily decorated with parti-coloured trappings, tassels and bells; an unladen ass precedes the file, for luck, say some, for guidance, say others. Where the route is rocky and steep, as that between Damascus and Aleppo, mules, or even asses, are used for burdens. The wealthier members ride, where possible, on horseback. Every man carries arms; but these are in truth more for show than for use, and are commonly flung away in the presence of any serious robber attack. Should greater peril than ordinary be anticipated, the protection of a company of soldiers is habitually pre-engaged,--an expensive, and ordinarily a useless adjunct. A leader or director, called _Karawan-Bashi_ (headman), or, out of compliment, _Karawan-Seraskier_ (general), but most often simply designated _Raïs_ (chief), is before starting appointed by common consent. His duties are those of general manager, spokesman, arbitrator and so forth; his remuneration is indefinite. But in the matter of sales or purchases, either on the way or at the destination, each member of the caravan acts for himself. Entry: CARAVAN
The Bitlis vilayet comprises a very varied section of Asiatic Turkey, as it includes the Mush plain and the plateau country west of Lake Van, as well as a large extent of wild mountain districts inhabited by turbulent Kurds and Armenians on either side of the central town of Bitlis, also some of the lower country about Sairt along the left bank of the main stream of the Tigris. The mountains have been little explored, but are believed to be rich in minerals, iron, lead, copper, traces of gold and many mineral springs are known to exist. (F. R. M.) Entry: A
_History._--With regard to the origin of the Kurds, it was formerly considered sufficient to describe them as the descendants of the Carduchi, who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains, but modern research traces them far beyond the period of the Greeks. At the dawn of history the mountains overhanging Assyria were held by a people named _Gutu_, a title which signified "a warrior," and which was rendered in Assyrian by the synonym of _Gardu_ or _Kardu_, the precise term quoted by Strabo to explain the name of the Cardaces ([Greek: Kardakes]). These _Gutu_ were a Turanian tribe of such power as to be placed in the early cuneiform records on an equality with the other nations of western Asia, that is, with the Syrians and Hittites, the Susians, Elamites, and Akkadians of Babylonia; and during the whole period of the Assyrian empire they seem to have preserved a more or less independent political position. After the fall of Nineveh they coalesced with the Medes, and, in common with all the nations inhabiting the high plateaus of Asia Minor, Armenia and Persia, became gradually Aryanized, owing to the immigration at this period of history of tribes in overwhelming numbers which, from whatever quarter they may have sprung, belonged certainly to the Aryan family. Entry: KURDISTAN
KUCHAN, a fertile and populous district of the province Khorasan in Persia, bounded N. by the Russian Transcaspian territory, W. by Bujnurd, S. by Isfaraïn, and extending in the E. to near Radkan. Its area is about 3000 sq. m. and its population, principally composed of Zafaranlu Kurds, descendants of tribes settled there by Shah Abbas I. in the 17th century, is estimated at 100,000. About 3000 families are nomads and live in tents. The district produces much grain, 25,000 to 30,000 tons yearly, and contains two towns, Kuchan and Shirvan (pop. 6000), and many villages. Entry: KUCHAN
AZERB[=A]ÏJ[=A]N (also spelt ADERBIJAN; the _Azerb[=a]deg[=a]n_ of medieval writers, the _Athropatakan_ and _Atropatene_ of the ancients), the north-western and most important province of Persia. It is separated from Russian territory on the N. by the river Aras (Araxes), while it has the Caspian Sea, Gilan and Khamseh (Zenj[=a]n) on the E., Kurdistan on the S., and Asiatic Turkey on the W. Its area is estimated at 32,000 sq. m.; its population at 1½ to 2 millions, comprising various races, as Persians proper, Turks, Kurds, Syrians, Armenians, &c. The country is superior in fertility to most provinces of Persia, and consists of a regular succession of undulating eminences, partially cultivated and opening into extensive plains. Near the centre of the province the mountains of Sahand rise in an accumulated mass to the height of 12,000 ft. above the sea. The highest mountain of the province is in its eastern part, Mount Savelan, with an elevation of 15,792 ft., and the Talish Mountains, which run from north to south, parallel to and at no great distance from the Caspian, have an altitude of 9000 ft. The principal rivers are the Aras and Kizil Uzain, both receiving numerous tributaries and flowing into the Caspian, and the Jaghatu, Tatava, Murdi, Aji and others, which [v.03 p.0081] drain into the Urmia lake. The country to the west of the lake, with the districts of Selmas and Urmia, is the most prosperous part of Azerb[=a]ïj[=a]n, yet even here the intelligent traveller laments the want of enterprise among the inhabitants. Azerb[=a]ïj[=a]n is one of the most productive provinces of Persia. The orchards and gardens in which many villages are embosomed yield delicious fruits of almost every description, and great quantities, dried, are exported, principally to Russia. Provisions are cheap and abundant, but there is a lack of forests and timber trees. Lead, copper, sulphur, orpiment, also lignite, have been found within the confines of the province; also a kind of beautiful, variegated, translucent marble, which takes a high polish, is used in the construction of palatial buildings, tanks, baths, &c., and is known as Maragha, or Tabriz marble. The climate is healthy, not hot in summer, and cold in winter. The cold sometimes is severely felt by the poor classes owing to want of proper fuel, for which a great part of the population has no substitute except dried cow-dung. Snow lies on the mountains for about eight months in the year, and water is everywhere abundant. The best soils when abundantly irrigated yield from 50- to 60-fold, and the water for this purpose is supplied by the innumerable streams which intersect the province. The natives of Azerb[=a]ïj[=a]n make excellent soldiers, and about a third of the Persian army is composed of them. The province is divided into a number of administrative sub-provinces or districts, each with a _h[=a]kim_, governor or sub-governor, under the governor-general, who under the Kajar dynasty has always been the heir-apparent to the throne of Persia, assisted by a responsible minister appointed by the shah. The administrative divisions are as follows:--Tabriz and environs; Uskuh; Deh-Kharegan; Maragha; Miandoab; Sa[=u]jbulagh; Sulduz; Urmia; Selmas; Khoi; Maku; Gerger; Merend; Karadagh; Arvanek; Talish; Ardebil; Mishkin; Khalkh[=a]l; Hashtrud; Garmrud; Afshar; Sain Kaleh; Ujan; Sarab. The revenue amounts to about £200,000 per annum in cash and kind, and nearly all of it is expended in the province for the maintenance of the court of the heir-apparent, the salaries and pay to government officials, troops, pensions, &c. Entry: AZERB
DIARBEKR[1] (_Kara Amid_ or Black Amid; the Roman _Amida_), the chief town of a vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on a basaltic plateau on the right bank of the Tigris, which here flows in a deep open valley. The town is still surrounded by the masonry walls of black basalt which give it the name of _Kara_ or Black Amid; they are well built and imposing on the west facing the open country, but almost in ruins where they overlook the river. A mass of gardens and orchards cover the slope down to the river on the S.W., but there are no suburbs outside the walls. The houses are rather crowded but only partially fill the walled area. The population numbers 38,000, nearly half being Christian, comprising Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites and a few Greeks. The streets are 10 ft. to 15 ft. wide, badly paved and dirty; the houses and shops are low, mostly of stone, and some of stone and mud. The bazaar is a good one, and gold and silver filigree work is made, peculiar in character and design. The cotton industry is declining, but manufacture of silk is increasing. Fruit is good and abundant as the rich volcanic soil is well watered from the town springs. The size of the melons is specially famous. To the south, the walls are some 40 ft. high, faced with large cut stone blocks of very solid construction, with towers and square bastions rising to 500 ft. There are four gates: on the north the Kharput gate, on the west the Rum, on the south the Mardin, and on the east the Yeni Kapu or new gate. A citadel enclosure stands at the N. E. corner and is now partly in ruins, but the interior space is occupied by the government konak. The summer climate in the confined space within the town is excessively hot and unhealthy. Epidemics of typhus are not unknown, as well as ophthalmia. The Diarbekr boil is like the "Aleppo button," lasting a long time and leaving a deep scar. Winters are frequently severe but do not last long. Snow sometimes lies, and ice is stored for summer use. Scorpions noted for the virulence of their poison abound as well as horse leeches in the tanks. The town is supplied with water both by springs inside the town and by aqueducts from fountains at Ali Punar and Hamervat. The principal exports are wool, mohair and copper ore, and imports are cotton and woollen goods, indigo, coffee, sugar, petroleum, &c. Entry: DIARBEKR
ARARAT (Armen. _Massis_, Turk. _Egri Dagh_, i.e. "Painful Mountain," Pers. _Koh-i-Nuh_, i.e. "Mountain of Noah,"), the name given to the culminating point of the Armenian plateau which rises to a height of 17,000 ft. above the sea. The _massif_ of Ararat rises on the north and east out of the alluvial plain of the Aras, here from 2500 ft. to 3000 ft. above the sea, and on the south-west sinks into the plateau of Bayezid, about 4500 ft. It is thus isolated on all sides but the north-west, where a _col_ about 6900 ft. high connects it with a long ridge of volcanic mountains. Out of the _massif_ rise two peaks, "their bases confluent at a height of 8800 ft., their summits about 7 m. apart." The higher, Great Ararat, is "a huge broad-shouldered mass, more of a dome than a cone"; the lower, Little Ararat, 12,840 ft. on which the territories of the tsar, the sultan, and the shah meet, is "an elegant cone or pyramid, rising with steep, smooth, regular sides into a comparatively sharp peak" (Bryce). On the north and west the slopes of Great Ararat are covered with glittering fields of unbroken _névé_. The only true glacier is on the north-east side, at the bottom of a large chasm which runs into the heart of the mountain. The great height of the snow-line, 14,000 ft., is due to the small rainfall and the upward rush of dry air from the plain of the Araxes. The middle zone of Ararat, 5000-11,500 ft., is covered with good pasture, the upper and lower zones are for the most part sterile. Whether the tradition which makes Ararat the resting-place of Noah's Ark is of any historical value or not, there is at least poetical fitness in the hypothesis, inasmuch as this mountain is about equally distant from the Black Sea and the Caspian, from the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Another tradition--accepted by the Kurds, Syrians and Nestorians--fixes on Mount Judi, in the south of Armenia, on the left bank of the Tigris, near Jezire, as the Ark's resting-place. There so-called genuine relics of the ark were exhibited, and a monastery and mosque of commemoration were built; but the monastery was destroyed by lightning in 776 A.D., and the tradition has declined in credit. Round Mount Ararat, however, gather many traditions connected with the Deluge. The garden of Eden is placed in the valley of the Araxes; Marand is the burial-place of Noah's wife; at Arghuri, a village near the great chasm, was the spot where Noah planted the first vineyard, and here were shown Noah's vine and the monastery of St James, until village and monastery were overwhelmed by a fall of rock, ice and snow, shaken down by an earthquake in 1840. According to the Babylonian account, the resting-place of the Ark was "on the Mountain of Nizir," which some writers have identified with Mount Rowanduz, and others with Mount Elburz, near Teheran. Entry: ARARAT
By Art. LXI. "the Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds." It was to keep the powers informed periodically of "the steps taken to this effect." Entry: BERLIN
Under the Ptolemies, the inland cities declined in comparison with the maritime ones, and the Cyrenaica began to feel the commercial competition of Egypt and Carthage, whence easier roads lead into the continent. After all N. Africa had passed to Rome, and Cyrenaica itself, bequeathed by Apion, the last Ptolemaic sovereign, was become (in combination with Crete) a Roman province (after 96 B.C.), this competition told more severely than ever, and the Greek colonists, grown weaker, found themselves less able to hold their own against the Libyan population. A great revolt of the Jewish settlers in the time of Trajan settled the fate of Cyrene and Barca; the former is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus in the 4th century A.D. as "urbs deserta," and Synesius, a native, describes it in the following century as a vast ruin at the mercy of the nomads. Long before this its most famous article of export, the _silphium_ plant, a representation of which was the chief coin-type of Cyrene, had come to an end. This plant, credited with wonderful medicinal and aromatic properties, has not been certainly identified with any existing species. The similar _Thapsia garganica_ (Arab. _drias_), which now grows freely in Cyrenaica, though it has medicinal properties, has not those ascribed to silphium. Henceforward till the Arab invasion (A.D. 641) Apollonia was the chief city, with Berenice and Ptolemais next in order. After the conquest by Amr ibn el-'Asi, inland Cyrenaica regained some importance, lying as it did on the direct route between Alexandria and Kairawan, and Barca became its chief place. But with the substitution of Ottoman for Arab empire, resulting in the virtual independence of both Egypt and Tripoli, the district lying between them relapsed to anarchy. This state of things continued even after Mahmud II. had resumed direct control over Tripoli (1835), and in the middle of the 19th century Cyrenaica was still so free of the Turks that Sheik Ali bin-Senussi chose it as the headquarters of his nascent dervish order. All over the district were built Senussi convents (_zawia_), which still exist and have much influence, although the headquarters of the order were withdrawn about the year 1855 to Jarabub, and in 1895 to Kufra, still farther into the heart of Africa. In 1875 the district, till then a sanjak of the vilayet of Tripoli, was made to depend directly on the Ministry of the Interior at Constantinople; and the Senussites soon ceased to be _de facto_ rulers of Cyrenaica. Their preserves have now been still further encroached upon by a number of Cretan Moslem refugees (1901-1902). This is not the first effort made by Turkey to colonize Cyrenaica. In 1869 Ali Riza Pasha of Tripoli tried to induce settlers to go to Bomba and Tobruk; and in 1888 an abortive effort was made to introduce Kurds. To protect the Cretans the Ottoman government has extended the civil administration and created several small garrisoned posts. The district is accordingly safer for Europeans than it was; but these still find themselves ill received. The Ottoman officials discourage travel in the interior, partly from fear of the Senussites, partly from suspicions, excited by the lively interest manifested by Italy in Cyrenaica. Entry: CYRENAICA