Page -1-

A History of Anatolia

A. Rod Paolini

July 3, 2011

Page -2-

Figure2:001_Catalhoyuk_1

ANATOLIA1

“If I have been able to see farther than others, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”Sir Isaac Newton

Paleolithic Era 30,000 - 10,000 BCE

Neolit hic Era 10,000 - 3,500 BCE The distinguishing characteristic of this agebetween 8000-5000 BCE is the start ofproduction, farming and animal husbandry. Manin this age, left the caves and began to live instone and mud-brick dwellings. The mostimportant finds related to the Neolithic Age inAnatolia are in Çatalhöyük.

Çatal Hüyük 6,500 - 5000 BCE

Chalcolithic Age 5,000 - 3,000 BCE Man started to make pottery of baked clay and to decorate theceramics. This is understood from the excavation finds insettlement centers such as Hacilar, Can Hasan, Yumuktepe,Gozlukule, Beycesultan, Alisar, Alacahoyuk. Relations withMesopotamia developed by way of the rivers Tigris andEuphrates

Early Bronze Age 3,000 - 2,000 BCE The most important finds of this period are in Troy andAlacahoyuk. During this era when the pottery wheel was put intouse, the Anatolian man learned to make statuettes of baked clay,marble, alabaster, bronze and gold with both religious anddecorative purposes.

Middle Bronze Age 2,000 - 1,700 BCE The trade relations with various Mesopotamian states andespecially with Assyria, caused cultural and artistic interactionand as the result of this interaction an Anatolian style withcharacteristics of its own was created. The political powerdominating this age was the Hittite Empire. The typicalcharacteristics of the age can be understood from the excavationfinds in Bogazkoy-Hattusa in Central Anatolia, and the ceramicsfound in Troy, Western Anatolia prove the relations with theMycenaean civilization.

Anatolia (Greek for east, or more literally, Land of the Sunrise), also called by the Latin name of1

Asia Minor, is a region of continental Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey.

Page -3-

Abraham 1,800 - 1,550 BCELate Bronze Age 1,700 - 1,200 BCE Trojan War.

Hittites 1,800 - 1,200 BCEIron Age 1,250 -

Hellenic colonization 1,000 BCEPhrygians 1,200 - 700 BCEUrartian 900 - 600 BCELydians 700 - 546 BCEPersians 546 - 333 BCEAlexander the Great 334 - 323 BCEHellensitic City-States 500 - 200 BCECeltic 279 BCE - 400 CE

Common Era

Romans 400 BCE - 400 CEKing Attalus III of Pergammon (133 BCE)MithridatesZela (47 BCE)Parthian Kingdom

Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire 395 - 1453Great Schism (1054)

TurksSeljuk TurksBattle of Manzikirt (1071 - Alp Arslan)The Mongols (Genghiz Khan - 1200)Ottoman Turks (Osman I 1300 - 1326)Tatars (Tamerlane) 1402

Ottoman (Osmanli) Empire (1453 - 1923)Fall of Constantinople (May 29, 1453 by Mehmet

the Conqueror)Suleyman the Magnificent 1520- 1566Sieges of Vienna (1529 and 1683)“Sick Man of Europe” (1853)Balkan WarsWorld War IArmenian massacres

Republic of Turkey

Ghenghis Khan led the huge Mongol cavalryforce through the Islamic world from 1219 to1223. He return to Mongolia in 1223, and deathin 1227, meant that the main Mongol armywithdrew from the Islamic world. A Mongol forcedid return to Iran in 1250s, however, led byGhenghis Khan's grandson Hûlâgû, whoestablished the Mongols as a resident rulingpower over Iran, Iraq and much of Anatolia, until1335.

Page -4-

Time line: Major Empires in Tûrkiye

Era Date(s) Predominant Nation or Ruler Conquered by

1800-1550 According to the tradition, Abraham wasmoving from Ur to Canaan which was inPromised Land (Gen.11:35), when herested in Harran, near Urfa.

Before CommonEra (BCE)

1800-1200 Hittite Kingdom Assyrians and others

900-600 Urartian Kingdom Medes

800 Phrygians (King Midas) Cimmerians

MediterraneanAegean

800 Hellenic City-States (Part I) start tocolonize Aegean coast

Lydians

650-546 Lydians (King Croesus) Persians

Hellenic City-States (Part II)

546-320 Persians (Cyrus the Great); 2 map of AsiaMinor

Macedonians(Alexander the Great)

Flourishing timeof Hellenic city-states in AsiaMinor; HellenisticPeriod 400-100BCE3

336-190 Macedonian Empire (Alexander the4

Great; map of Empire)Divided into smallerempires

Seleucid Empire

188 BCE -330 CD

Roman Period (Battle of Magnesia-by-5

Sipylus ); 6 map of Asia Minor

133 Pergamon bequeathed to Rome

163 BCE -74 CE

Commagene Kingdom

Common Era(CE)

330-1453 Byzantine Period: Dedication ofConstantinople (Roman, Christian, Latin-speaking); map of Empire

Ottomans

Cyrus the Great was not the first Cyrus, but he was the first Cyrus to be king of the Persian2

Empire. Thus different histories sometimes cite his name as either Cyrus I or Cyrus II.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=hellenistic*1%2B03

http://ancienthistory.about.com/homework/ancienthistory/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2F4

www-personal.umich.edu%2F%7Espalding%2FImagesofAlexander%2FMaps.html

While the Roman Empire continued to exist after 330 CE, this date is considered the start of the5

eastern Roman empire. The term Byzantine was used in a book published in 1557 by Hieronymus Wolf,a librarian of the wealthy Fugger family in Augsburg. It was used to denote the Christian era of theEmpire as opposed to its preceding pagan era. Thus the term Byzantine was never used by the peopleof the Empire and they considered themselves Romanoi (Romans.).

Near Mt. Sipylus which is east of Smyrna (Izmir).6

Page -5-

~640 Emperor Heraclius declares Greek, longthe language of the people and theChurch, to be the official language of theEmpire

654-1050 Arabs (invade Anatolia but defeated byTurks)

1050-1192 Selçuk Period Mongol

1071 Battle of Manzikert (defeat of theByzantines by the Selçuk Turks)

map ofConstantinople7

1204 Fourth Crusade and sack ofConstantinople (Roman/Latin rule)

1402-1405 Timur defeats Selçuk Turks but returns tothe east

map of Empire 1299-1923 Ottoman Period (Osmanli); Mehmet IIconquerors Constantinople/Byzantines

Disintegrated andemerged as a republic

map of Turkey 1908-1923 From Empire to Republic: declared arepublic (President Kemal Atatürk)

1923-1961 First Republic Reconstituted as thesecond republic

1961- Second Republic: Türkiye Today

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/historical/shepherd/Constantinople_Shepherd.jpg7

Page -6-

Figure 6: 003_Hittite_W arriors

Figure 3:002_Hittite_map

Figure 5:004_Hittite_12gods

Hittite Kingdom

The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia. They established a kingdomcentered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca. the 18th century BCE. TheHittite empire reached its height ca. the 14th century BCE, encompassing alarge part of Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth ofthe Litani River (in present-day Lebanon), and eastward into upperMesopotamia.

The Hittite military made successful use of chariots and by the mid 14thcentury BCE (under king Suppiluliuma I), they had carved out an empirethat included most of Asia Minor as well as parts of the northern Levantand Upper Mesopotamia. After ca. 1180 BCE, the empire disintegratedinto several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving untilthe 8th century BCE.

Their Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of theIndo-European language family. Natively, they referred to their land asHatti, and to their language as Nesili (the language of Nesa). Theconventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with theBiblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Despite the use of "Hatti",the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier peoplewho inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millenniumBCE and spoke a non-Indo-European language called Hattic.

Although belonging to the Bronze Age, the Hittites were forerunners ofthe Iron Age, developing the manufacture of iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BCE, when lettersto foreign rulers reveal the latter's demand for iron goods.

Figure 4 :005_God Sarruma and King

Tuthalia IV

Page -7-

Figure 7:006_Urartu_area

Figure 8:007_Urartian_cuneiform

Urartian Kingdom

After the fall of the Hittite empire, at the beginning of the first millenniumBCE, Urartians established a kingdom in eastern Anatolia, around Lake Van,(present day Armenia) which was to survive for three hundred years (900-600BCE). They were descendants of Hurrians, and like them were closelyrelated to Hittites. They carried many of the customs and traditions of theHittites and were considered to be a typical Anatolian culture.

The art of metal work was highly advanced inUrartu, and perhaps the greatest proof of this was the fact that Urartu artifactswere exported to Phrygian in the west and then to Tuscany in Italy. This is howthe magnificent bull headed cauldrons of Urartu were found in Italy. The mostinteresting metal artifacts from the Urartu period are metal belts.

They left many documents written in cuneiformand hieroglyph, and they contributed a great dealto the Near Eastern art in architecture andengineering fields. The Urartians who knew how

to make use of natural forces byconstructing dams and water channels(the Canal of Shamiram is still in usetoday), also made a great development inthe field of metallurgy.

In the 6th ca. BCE, Urartu and Assyriawere both exhausted by constant warfare. Having formed the alliance withScythians, Urartu ended abruptly ca. 585BC after the Medes--assisted byScythians-- invaded and destroyed the

capital of Tushpa. The remains of the empire were subjugated by the Achaemenid Empire (under Cyrus,Xerxes and Darius). [Cyrus affects Israel, Babylonia and Asia Minor as described below.]

Remains of the Urartian Empire in Armenia include the citadels of Erebuni (Yerevan), Teishebaini (KarmirBlur), Argishikhnili (Armavir), fortresses at Metsamor, Giumri, Vanadzor and Sissian, and three fortified citieson Lake Sevan (L'chashen, Gavar and Martuni).

When the Uratians started to decline, the Hayasa country to the north united the local tribes upon which itexerted a profound economic and cultural influence, and having penetrated father into the Armenian Highland,subjugated the Uratians which in time became mutually assimilated with the Hayasa people. In this way, duringthe 6th century BCE, there arose the Armenian Kingdom which comprised large areas of Hayasa, Nairi andUratu. The process of emergence of the Armenian people that lasted six centuries was thereby completed.

Figure 9: From a Urartian CauldronFigure 10: Urartian metal belt

Page -8-

Figure 12:008_Cybele

Phrygian Kingdom

The Phrygians, originally from the Balkans (Thrace) arrived in Anatolia in 1200 BCE, and they were among themigrating tribes known as the people of the sea, who were responsible for the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Atfirst they lived in Central Anatolia, building settlements over the ashes of Hittite cities. At the beginning of the8th century BCE, they became very powerful, setting up a kingdom that dominated most of central and westernAnatolia.

Their capital was Gordion, named after their king, Gordios, and located on the banks of Sakarya river. As thelegend goes, it was Gordius who tied the original knot on the walls of Gordion, saying that whoever loosens theknot would become the world leader. Eventually, it was Alexander the Great who cut the knot with his sword.The Turkish word "Kordugum" which means blind (untiable) knot comes from Gordium.

Midas is the name of several Phrygian kings. The firstof these kings was said to have been the [adopted] sonof Gordius and Cybele, the goddess of the earth,whose first priest he was, and in whose honor hefounded a temple at Pessinus

The Phrygian King Midas, is the legendarymythological figure whose ears weretransformed into those of an ass, and knownfor his "golden touch" due to his ability to turneverything he touched to gold. Somearcheologists believe that they have foundthe tomb of Midas near the modern village of Yassihöyük.

Phrygians used the same Phoenician alphabet as the Hellenes, and their art wasinfluenced by Hittites, the Urartians from Eastern Anatolia, then later by Ionians from the Aegean.

The ruins lie in Ballihisar, near Sivrihisar, 85 miles from Ankara. It was an ancient Phrygian city in the form of atemple-state, with the famous sanctuary of the Great Mother of the gods, Cybele. The cult statue of theGoddess was an unshaped stone, or baitylos, supposed to have fallen down from heaven [meterorite?].

The city of Pessinus reached its highest fame in 204 BCE, when the Roman Senate, in seeking divine aidagainst the invading Carthaginians led by Hannibal, were advised of a Sibylline prophecy that caused envoys tobe sent to Pessinus and transport the cult statue of Cybele to Rome, where it was set up in a temple erected onthe Palatine for this occasion.

The Phrygians led by king Midas, were unable to resist the attacks of Cimmerian tribes who had begun tospread into Anatolia and Midas committed suicide by drinking bull's blood. Thus the state of Phrygian waswiped out in the late 600 BCE. After the collapse of the Phrygians, the Lydians took over the area.

According to myth, King Midas lived in arose-garden palace in Macedonia (a region ofpresent day Greece). Midas wished thateverything he touched would turn to gold. Thegod Dionysus granted him his wish but soonenough, Midas back pedaled since food, drink,and his children also turned to gold. So hepleaded to be set free of the wish, which wasgranted, but as penance Midas had to wash inthe river Pactolus (in present day Turkey).Subsequently, Midas was adopted by childlessPhrygian King Gordius.

Figure 11: Believed to be the tomb of Midas

Figure 13: Ruins of the temple of Pessinus

Page -9-

Figure 14:009_Hellenic_colonies

Figure 16:011_Ephesus_harbor

Figure 15:010_Greece_Aegean

Hellenic City-States: Part I

Sometime between 2100 and 1600 BCE, Greek-speaking peoples migrated from the Caucuses to theGreek mainland and the Peloponnese. The first groupwas the Achaeans. It is not clear whether twoadditional tribes arrived or the Achaeans split apart anddevolved into two additional tribes: the Aeolians andthe Ionians. The last group to arrive in the 8 centuryth

were the Dorians.

There is a myth which explains the origin of each of thesetribes, which is not particularly significant except that it posits an eponymous ancestor named Hellen; and thusthese people called themselves Hellenes. The word ‘Greek’ is a Latin word derived from the first (obscure)Greek people with whom the Romans came into contact.

While settlements were founded as early as 3000-2000 BCE inAnatolia, the Hellenes founded colonies as early as 1000 BCE. Miletus, Colophon and Priene were founded about 1000 BCE,probably by colonist from the Mycenaean kingdom of Pylos. However, these colonies were destroyed by the Sea-Peoples ofthe 12 century (who cannot be identified but are believed toth

have become the Phrygians). New colonies at the samelocations were founded in the 8 century.th

Many of the earlycity-states werebuilt along side ariver that flowedinto the AegeanSea. After a fewhundred years, the harbors of these cities silted up, therebyrequiring a relocation of the city, only to require another move yetagain. Note the silted up harbor of Ephesus in the distance.

The Aeolians settled the northern portion of Anatolia along theAegean coast; the Ionions the middle portion; and the Dorians thesouthern portion. These city-states were never isolated from theHellenes of the mainland; they were an extension of the mainland,

destined to contribute as much, if not more to the aggregate of Hellenic cultural development as the older citiesof the west.

Figure 17: Map of Anatolia showing Greek names and

names of indigenous peoples

The old inhabitants migrated to the shoes of Asia Minor which

became the center of Hellenism. A multitude of colonies was set

up by the four ancient Greek tribes of historic times: the Ionian

Dodecapolis (twelve cities) by the Ionians, with Miletus, Phocaea,

Ephesus, Colophon and Chios as the most important; the Doric

Hexapolis (six cities) by the Dorians (Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Cos

and the three cities of Rhodes) and the Aeolian Dodecapolis by the

Aeolians, with Lesbos and Tenedos as the most important. Up to

the end of the 6th century BCE the Greeks had spread westwards

as well, mainly to southern Italy and Sicily (Syracuse, Cumae,

Parthenope, Croton and Taranto) and to Marseilles which became

an important Creek centre and commercial supply station for

Greek seafarers. Colonies were also established in Macedonia

and Thrace.

Page -10-

Figure 18:012_Lydian_coin

Figure 19:013_Lydian_burialmounds

Lydian Kingdom

After the fall of Phrygian at the beginning of 700 BCE, Lydians established theircapital at Sardis and dominated western Anatolia from about 650 BCE through 545BCE. Lydians invented money and for the first time in history, coins made ofelectrum (an alloy of silver and gold) were used in trade. The coins carried theimages of a bull and lion, emblems associated with Hittites.

The story of the Lydians begins, rather dramatically, with the accession to the Lydian throne of Gyges in 685BCE as told by Herodotus: “‘Now it happened that Candaules was in love with his own wife...’ ‘...Candaules,anxious to confirm his own rapturous admiration of her beauty, arranged for Gyges, an incredulous friend, towatch from a discreet hiding place when his wife was preparing for bed. The plan miscarried, and the queen,understandably incensed, secretly compelled Gyges to contrive her husband’s assassination.’ Gyges thus

became king.

The Lydian kings had burial mounds constructed to hold theirtombs which can be seen today. The site is located six milesnorth of Sardis at Bin Tepe. between the Hermus (Gediz) riverand the Gygean Lake (Mermere Gölü).Its most notorious and last king was Croesus, know for wealthand extravagance. The expression “rich as Croesus” is stillapplied to someone who flaunts his riches. Much of the goldcame from the Pactolus River which flows through the valley andwas said to be affected by Midas’s “golden touch.”

Lydia became a vassal to the Persians. In deciding whether ornot to revolt from his vassalage to Cyrus the Great of Persia,

Croesus sought the Oracle at Delphi in Greece. “You will destroy a great empire” was the reply. Croesusattacked and was defeated in 547 BCE. The Oracle had not stated which empire he would destroy.

Sardis became the center of four Persian states. Anatolia remained under Persian domination for 200 yearsuntil 300 BCE. [It was during this period that the Persians twice crossed Anatolia in order to attack the Hellenesas described below.] However, it was merely a political dominance, without any evidence of Persian culture'sinfluence.

Subsequently, Sardis fell in turn to the Athenians, the Seleucids, and the Attalids until bequeathed to theRomans in 133 BCE. Under the Roman Empire, it was the metropolitan capital and center of judicialadministration of the Roman province of Lydia. Destroyed by an earthquake in 17CE, the city was rebuilt andremained one of the great cities of Anatolia until the later Byzantine period. It was obliterated in 1402 CE bythe Mongol Timur (Tamerlane). Its ruins include the ancient Lydian citadel and about 1,000 Lydian graves. Excavations of Sardis have uncovered more remains of the Hellenistic and Byzantine city than of the Lydiantown described by the Greek historian Herodotus.

We will return to this site for a description during its Hellenistic period.

Page -11-

Figure 22:016_Asia_Minor

Figure 21:015_Mausoleum

Figure 20:014_Persian500

Persian Empire

After the Lydian Kingdom was defeated by thePersian king Cyrus, Anatolia came under thecontrol of the Persians.

An empire is defined as “a major political unithaving a territory of great extent or a number ofterritories or peoples under a single sovereignauthority.” Such was the Persian Empire.

It should be remembered that the Chaldeans,under their famous king, Nebuchadnezzar II, hadconquered and sacked Jerusalem in 586 BCE andrelocated much of its population to Babylonia. The Persians, under their king, Cyrus the Great, conquered theChaldeans and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem in 539 BCE. [Many did but many stayed, thuscontinuing the diaspora.]

The Persians (also called the Achaemenians after the founder of thedynasty) also conquered the Ionic city-states as well as Lydia.

The most important works remaining from this period which lastedbetween 546-334 BCE are the famous Royal Road, which runs fromSardis to Susa in Babylonia (southern Iraq), and the Mausoleum atHalicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey).

Mausolus, with his queen Artemisia, ruled overHalicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24years. Mausolus, though he was descended fromthe local people, spoke Greek and admired theHellenic way of life and government. He foundedmany cities of Hellenic design along the coast andencouraged Hellenic democratic traditions.

Then in 353 BCE Mausolus died, leaving his queen Artemisia,who was also his sister (It was the custom in Caria for rulers tomarry their own sisters), broken-hearted. As a tribute to him,she decided to build him the most splendid tomb in the known world. It became a structure so famous thatMausolus's name is now associated with all stately tombs through our modern word mausoleum. The buildingwas also so beautiful and unique it became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

559-529 CyrusI I (the Great)Cambyses

521-486 Darius I (the Great)486-465 Xerxes424-401 Darius II 401 Cyrus III

theYounger

Page -12-

Hellenic City-States: Part II

These city-states established colonies themselves: the Milesians founded the cities along the coast of thePropontis (now the Sea of Marmara), namely Abydus (Çanakkale)and Cyzicus; along the coast of the Black Sea, they founded Sinopeand Trapezus.

The twelve cities of Ionia formed a Pan-Ionic League, primarily areligious federation based on a cult of Poseidon, whose principalsanctuary was at Melia, on the north coast of the Mycale peninsula. However they seem at this time to have been irremediablydisunited, and suffered accordingly when called upon to faceaggression from Persia.

After the capture of Sardis, the Lydian capital, in 547 BCE, thePersians completed the subjugation of all of Asia Minor, includingthe Hellenic city-states. Asia Minor was divided into provinces andgoverned by a Persian satrap (governor), usually a Persiannobleman. In addition, local military forces were stationed in eachprovince. The satrap’s main responsibility was to collect tribute (taxes) and recruit men into the Persian army;he had little contact with the local city-states who were allowed to govern themselves, but under a ‘despot’responsible to the satrap.

In 511 BCE, Darius I (the Great) led an expedition into Europe and brought along the despot of Miletus namedHistiaeus. As a reward for saving his army while in retreat, Darius insisted he return to Susa with him. InMiletus, the despot’s prolonged absence created an opportunity for a widespread anti-Persian intrigue. This ledto the Ionian Revolt (I), championed by the deputed tyrant of Miletus named Aristagoras. He attempted toconvince the Spartans and then the Athenians to attempt to conquer the Persian Empire, thereby securing theirown empire. The Spartan king, Cleomenes sent him packing, but the Athenians made a modest contribution ofmen and ships. With some additional forces, Aristagoras endeavored to create a diversion by marching onSardis. The Ionion army, as might have been expected, failed to take the citadel where the Persian garrisonwas ensconced, but succeeded (rather vindictively) in setting fire to the town itself–an outrage for whichresponsibility was afterward attributed to the Athenians.

The Persians isolated and recaptured one city after another. They treated the Milesians harshly, deportingthem to a place called Ampe, at the head of the Persian Gulf. However, the Persians did substitute a more

democratic form of administration, and regular meetingsof representatives of each city to settle their differences. Darius, however, gave orders to his staff to regularlyremind him of his grudge against the Athenians.

The Persians mounted expeditions against the Hellensin 492 and 490 BCE. In the first, his fleet met with astorm while rounding the triple peninsulas of Chalcideand was almost completely destroyed. In the second,his troops landed at Marathon where the Hellensprevailed against all odds. His successor, Xerxes,launched a third expedition on a fabulous scale in 483BCE. Of historic interest for Anatolia, his engineersconstructed a bridge of boats across the Hellespont(Dardanelles), near Abydus (Çanakkale), only to havestorm sweep it away. In addition to executing most ofthe engineers, he ordered a ceremonial ‘chastisement’ ofthe Hellespont with 300 lashes.

Figure 24 017_Greece_Ancient

Page -13-

Figure 25:017_Anabasis

The Persian navy was defeated at the Battle of Salamis. The army was defeated at Plataea, to the south ofThebes (479 BCE). The final blow was struck against the Persian reserve force at Mycale. To liberate thecities of the Mediterranean coast, a battle took place on the river Eurymedon (now Köprü Çayý). In the end,the Anatolia city-states continued to rent their land and were dependent upon the Persians for protection.

By and large, the Hellens were not unhappy with Persian rule although they preferred to be free. As long asthey paid their taxes, provided men and material for the army, and didn’t fight among themselves, the Persians,as with most Empires, allowed their nations/kingdoms to rule themselves.

It should be noted, however, that almost an equal number ofHellenic states were preparing to fight on the Persian side, and agood many did. Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum)is an example. The so-called Persian Wars reflects the viewpointof the Greeks. It is often interpreted as a victory of the Greeknation when in fact no such nation existed; this late-dayinterpretation is partly for Greek political consumption and partly tofortify Western ideals.

The March Upcountry (Anabasis): Cyrus III, who had beenappointed Viceroy of Asia Minor in 407 BCE, planned anexpedition to Babylon with the intention (at first concealed from hisHellenic mercenaries) of dethroning his brother, Artaxerxes. Hisarmy marched unopposed down the Euphrates, encountered theimperial forces at Cunaxa, near Babylon. The Hellenes routed the Persians but Cyrus was killed. Under thecover of a truce, the Persians treacherously murdered the Hellenic officers, thus requiring one of the soldiers totake command: Xenophon. Under his leadership, they marched over a thousand miles across the highlands ofeastern Anatolia, to reach the Black Sea near Trebizond. From the time of the enlistment by Cyrus, the entireexpedition lasted a year and three months.

Page -14-

Figure 26:018_Alexander

Figure 29:021_Anatolia_240BCE

Figure 27:019_Alexander_portrait

Figure 28:020_Alexander_route

Macedonian Empire

“For I myself believe that there was at that time no race of mankind, no city, no singleindividual, to which the name of Alexander had not reached.” Arrian8

Phillip II of Macedonia (north of Greece) conquered the combined armies of Thebes andAthens at Chaeronia, east of Delphi in 338 BCE. He seems to have admired Helleniccivilization and attempted to form a federal constitution under his leadership. He alsodreamed of a pan-Hellenic crusade against Persia. He was assassinated in 336 BCEand succeeded by his son, Alexander.

In 334 BCE, with his army, Alexander crossed from Thrace to Anatolia at Abydus, and won a battle at the river Granicus near the modern town ofKarabiga. He advanced through Anatolia. Most cities opened their gatesand submitted to his suzerainty; but some did not such as Miletus.

He then moved south to Lycia, before turning north to Gordium, wherehe cut the Gordian knot. (According to legend, whoever undid this knotwould have control of Asia;Alexander simply cut it with hissword). He then proceededsouth through the Cilician gatesto Tarsus and then southeast,

where, near the small town of Issus (north of Antioch), he engaged thePersian army (which included Greek mercenaries [259, p.55]) led bytheir king, Darius III. It was a rout, and Darius was captured. FromAnatolia, Alexander proceeded south into Egypt and then east as faras the Indian Kush.

The Persian dominance of Asia Minor was merely political, without much influence of the Persian culture. Incontrast, the Greeks of Alexander implanted a long lasting Hellenic legacy. Throughout the non-Greekspeaking country, he garrisoned Hellenic soldiers who inter-married with local peoples; he instituted city-states(polis) but without full rights; he introduced the Greek language and Greek literature; he had cities built with grand walls, stadiums, theaters and gymnasiums. Alexander had no alternative but to re-establish the structureof Persian administration: regional divisions of the country called satrapies and governed by generals, with anoverall authority in Sardis. The free Hellenic city-states were largely excluded from this authority.

Alexander succumbed to illness in 324 BCE and died at age 33. No heir had been appointed to the throne, andhis generals adopted Philip II's illegitimate son, Philip Arrhidaeus, and Alexander's posthumous son by Roxana,Alexander IV, as kings, sharing out the satrapies. Some years later, both kings were murdered. Alexander’sgenerals, known as Diadochs, had established their own kingdomscomprising Alexander's empire (see map/figure 21):

& Ptolemy Lagus, Alexander's half-brother (Egypt andPalestine);

& Seleucus Nicator (Mesopotamia and Syria); & Cassander (Macedonia and Greece); & Antigonus (Asia Minor) & Lysimachus (Thrace).

Arrian (Flavius Arrianus), fl. 2d cent. CE, Greek historian, philosopher, and general.8

Page -15-

Antigonus was defeated and killed at Ipsus (on the road from Afyon to Konya) by Lysimachus, whose army wassupported by that of Seleucus and a great many elephants. Twenty years later Lysimachus himself waseliminated by his previous ally in 301 BCE.

Even with the internecine wars among Alexander’s generals, most of Anatolia thrived. While the western andsouthern coasts were thoroughly Hellenic, the rest of Anatolia was a blend of Hellenism and Orientalism. Forexample, the temple-states were still numerous and owned much land. Their religion, which was usually basedon the worship of the great pre-Aryan fertility goddess, was something foreign to Hellenics and Persians alike. The temple-lands were cultivated by peasants, and from their daughters were recruited the female temple-slaves (or temple-priestesses or temple-prostitutes, depending upon your point of view). In some cases, thegoddess might acquire the image of a Hellenic goddess and name, such as the transformation of Cybele to thatof Artemis at Sardis. The Seleucids did not attempt to eliminate the temple-states; rather they expropriated allland save that needed to maintain the sacerdotal community. [The priestly families remained undiminished,and, centuries later, they provided bishops for the Christian Church.]

This redistribution of land facilitated the foundation of new Hellenic settlements. These new settlementstogether with some older ones were adopted as Hellenic provincial centres, and usually renamed after thecontemporary Seleucid monarch: thus Mopsuestia became Seleucia with Antiocha’s and Cesarea’severywhere. Hellenic culture and Hellenistic methods of administration also spread gradually to the nativestates, the exception being feudal Armenia.

It was during this period that Antiochus I (69 - 34 BCE) had monumental structures built in the province ofCommagene, near the present day city of Urfa.

Page -16-

Figure 31:061_Nemrud_reliefs

Figure 32:062_Nemrud_statues

Figure

30:060_Nemrud_Antiochus

Commagene Kingdom

At the summit of Nemrut Da� (Nemrut mountain), near the city of Urfa on the Euphrates, a tumulus (artificialburial mound) of Antiochus I of Commagene (69 - 34 BCE) rises 150 feet above the natural rock. It includesstatues of gods, goddesses and also the kings as well as their tumuli.

The Commagene Kingdom was part of the Seleucid Empire, gaining itsindependence if 163 BCE; it lasted until 72 CE when Syria was conquered

by Roman general Vespasian and became an eastern province of Rome.

Antiochus claimed that his father was a descendant of Persian king Darius the Great and his mother Laodikewas a descendant of Alexander the Great. His dual cultural identity made him bring both Persian andHellenistic gods and goddesses together in front of his tumulus.

Today it is crowded with the damaged remains ofmemorial sculptures, indifferent in style but all ofcolossal size, the fallen heads alone are up to tenfeet high. The foundation walls facing thecourtyard has writings about the laws andcommands of the country as well as some scriptsindicating the birthday of the king and the details ofthe official worshiping ceremony.

The lion reliefs on the western courtyard carriessome astronomical symbols of nineteen stars onthe background and on the body of the lions. Thereare also figures of a crescent and three planets onthe same axis indicating a specific astronomicalevent which happened in 62 or 61 BCE, the 7th ofJuly when Jupiter, Mercury and Mars came ontothe same axis when observed from the Earth onthis date.

Page -17-

Figure 37:022_Pergamon_altarFigure 35:023_Pergamon_Athena

Figure 36:024_Pergamon_Hadrian

Figure 33:025_Pergamon_TheaterGreek Figure 34:026_Pergamon_TheaterRoman

The following are photographs of the ruins of the more impressive Hellenic city-states of western Anatolia. Note that the architecture includes both Greek and Roman construction.

Pergamon

As with most ancient Greek cities, there are two cities: the acropolis (high city) or citadel that is located on thetop of a hill or mountain that contains a fortress in the event of an attack and siege. Government and religious

buildings plus the aristocraticfamilies were located there. The lower town was usuallyhousing for the less wealthy

inhabitants.

Pergamon’s location seems to have been chosen primarily for its defensive position and its beauty. Theancient city of Elaea served as its harbor.

The acropolis also included a very large library. Mark Antony very generously gave it to Cleopatra of Egypt asa gift to be added to her collection in the library of Alexandria, Egypt. That library and its books were thendestroyed by a fire set by Christians as a means of destroying pagan learning and practices.

Equally famous was Pergamon’s hospital or asklepeion, a word that comes from a hero in Greek mythologynamed Asclepius who was a healer. The asklepeion consisted of several edifices for various states oftreatment. For example a recovery room enabled doctors to reinforce their instructions to their patients whowere recovering from the influence of drugs. The treatment was entirely psychological designed to make thepatient believe that he/she had received the magic touch of Asclepius; however, patients did received herbalmedicines that may have provided some real treatment.

Page -18-

Figure 39:027_Sardis_Artemis_1

Figure 38:028_Sardis_Artemis_2

Figure 41:029_Sardis_Gymnasium

Figure 40:030_Sardis_Synagogue

Sardis

I found the temple of Artemis at Sardis to be one of the most spiritual sites of my tour. Unfortunatelyphotography cannot show the mountains that surround the temple providing a very focused spot. As discussedabove, the goddess originally worshiped by the indigenous people was Cybele, but with the domination of theHellenes, the invaders introduced a goddess of similar attributes (syncretism) called Artemis.

The gymnasium was more than a “gym.” It was part of theeducational system for adolescence along with military schooling(ephebeia). For non-Greeks, it was an entryway to Hellenization. “The process of acculturalization was achieved as much in the gymnasia of the ephebeia as in the classroom. It was in the halls of the former that the Egyptian, Syrian or Jew acquired the dress, manners, style andconnections that marked him as part of the ruling class and distinguished him from the non-Hellenizedbarbaroi.” [Peters, p. 198] [A slight contradiction to the above statement, a gymnasium was a place to exercisenaked.]

The Synagogue is from the 3 century CE and once was a part of the gymnasium and restored to be ard

synagogue. Sardis had the largest known ancient synagogue. Its size and grandeur are a testimony to theprosperity of the Jews in Sardis during Roman times and to their eminent position in the city. However, one ofthe obstacles to citizenship (polites) for a Jew was the offering of sacrifice to the gods of the city-state (polis)and later the Roman Empire, something the Jew, as it was later for the Christian, was forbidden to do by afundamental principle of his own politeia, the Mosaic Law. [Peters, p. 297]

Page -19-

Figure 44:031_Priene_MtMycale

Figure 42:032_Temple_Athena

Figure 43:033_Priene_Theater

Figure 45:034_Priene_bouleterion1Figure 46:035_Priene_bouleterion2

Priene

As happened to most of the cities that located their harbor at the river entrance to the sea, the rising alluviummade the original site uninhabitable, and a new site was chosen only to suffer the same fate. Today, theLatmic Gulf is a wide, cultivated plain, from which the sometime island of Lade rises in the form of a small hill. Priene is now nearly ten miles from the sea.

The city was built according to Hippodamian form,that is, grid streets with planned location of the agorasurrounded by stoas, stadium, gymnasium, theater,prytaneion (meeting house and dining room forsenate members), bouleuterion (council chambers).

During the Byzantine age (13th century CE), the citywas abandoned after a major earthquake and asevere malaria epidemic.

Page -20-

Figure 52:041_Faustina_baths

Figure 53:042_Miletus_market_entrance

Figure 49:038_Miletus_stoa

Figure 51:040_Miletus_nymphaeum

Figure 47:036_Miletus_theater1

Figure

50:039_Miletus_Nympaheum_restore

Figure

48:037_Miletus_harbor_monument

Miletus

The remains of the building, with its entrances and vaulted corridors, display allthe distinguishing features of the Roman period. To the east of the stadium arethe baths of Faustina and, adjacent to the baths, city defense walls dating fromthe reign of the Emperor Justinian. There is also a Serapeum, or temple ofSerapis, from the 3rd century CE. From here one arrives at the southern agorabuilt in the Hellenistic period with shops in the southern and eastern wings. The monumental gate in the north-eastern corner of the agora leads into thecity center.

The Romans developed techniqueof mortaring bricks together and thereby able to construct arches,vaults and domes of large size.

Rome and Anatolia became theshowpieces of this new architecturaltechnique in a very short time. Cities in western, southern and evencentral Anatolia were adorned withgymnasiums, stadiums, theatersand roads paved with marble and lined with colonnades. Water waschanneled into the cities via aqueducts springing from fountains.

A nymphaeum was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially thoseof springs. Originally natural grottoes, tradition assigned these as habitationsof local nymphs. The monuments were sometimes arranged so as to furnish asupply of water. The majority of them were rotundas, and were adorned withstatues and paintings. They served the threefold purpose of sanctuaries,reservoirs and assembly-rooms. A special feature was their use for thecelebration of marriages.

Three “natural philosophers” or naturalscientists from Miletus were Thales (625-545BCE), Anaximander (610-540 BCE) andAnaximenes (mid-6th BCE).

Page -21-

Figure 54:043_Didyma_Temple_1

Figure

55:044_Didyma_Temple_2

Figure 56:045_Didyma_Temple_3

Figure

57:046_Didyma_Medusa

Didyma

Located ca. 10 km S of the city of Miletus and inland from thesmall port of Panormos, the site of Didyma (a pre-Hellenic name)was a cult center with a spring and sacred grove before the arrivalof the Ionian Greeks. In the Archaic period the first temple ofApollo was constructed and a Sacred Way, lined with sculptures,led from Panormos to the sanctuary. Additional structures at thesanctuary included a temenos wall, stoas, and a circular altar and asacred well before the temple.

The open-cella Archaic temple wasreplaced by a larger unroofed

temple in the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic temple of Apollo, although nevercompleted, survives as one of the largest and most impressive examples ofancient Greek architecture. The temple housed a small Naiskos within the opencella and had an unusual room between the pronaos and cella which may haveserved as the Chresmographeion (office of the oracle). Also present at thesanctuary were other shrines, a stadium, and a settlement of priests andattendants. Although musical and drama contests were held as part of theFestival of the Great Didymeia every four years, there is no theater nor odeion atthe sanctuary.

Little is known about activities at Didyma during the 5th and 4th centuries BCE,but it seems to have suffered a decline. The sanctuary and the office of theoracle was revived ca. 311 BCE whenthe sacred spring reappeared (or wasrediscovered) on the occasion of a visit from Alexander the Great. Inthe following decades, Selencus embellished the sanctuary andcommissioned the new Hellenistic Temple of Apollo. The sanctuarygrew in wealth and fame and work on the temple continued for the next200 years.

In 278 BCE the sanctuary suffered under the raids of Gauls, butconstruction work on the temple was resumed. At 70 BCE thesanctuary was sacked by pirates and work on the temple stopped. Thesanctuary continued to function and in 100

CE, Trajan commissioned a new paved road to the sanctuary from Miletus.

By the 3rd century CE, Christianity had become well established in the Miletusarea, and the sanctuary at Didyma fell into disuse. About 262 CE the Temple ofApollo (which had never been completed, despite five centuries of service), wasconverted into a fortress against the invading Goths.

Page -22-

Greek Oracles

The ancient Greeks felt a deep need for guidance in the problems of life, but, unlike many believers in themodern world who are guided by the Bible, the Koran or the holy books of Eastern religions, the Greeks had nosuch sacred writings. Greek poets were often thought to be inspired by the Muses, but this did not make theirpoetry the work of the gods. Even their priests were of little help; their function was to perform public worship,mostly by offering sacrifices to particular gods. They delivered no sermons and heard no confessions. At bestthey could decide the questions of religious law - whether a certain act had made the inquirer impure and howhe could be cleansed. In contrast, an oracle provided answers to questions, typically:

1. Religious/philosophical questions;2. Whether or not to pursue certain policies or actions;3. Foretelling the future.

At a number of temples throughout the Greek world, there were oracles to which the inquirer, whether a privateindividual or a state, could bring a question and receive an answer which was supposed to express the will ofthe gods by speaking through a medium, in this case, a prophetess. The age of the oracles dates from around700 BCE to about 300 CE. The word oracle describes three things. It describes the person through which thegod speaks. It also describes the actual temple or shrine of the god. Lastly it describes the answer given by thegod through the prophet.

The major oracles were:

1. Delphi at Delphi, Greece2. Dodona, northwest (Epirus) Greece3. Olympia, Elis, Greece4. Didyma, near Miletus, Anatolia5 Claros near Colphon, Anatolia

These temples were mostly, though not all, dedicated to Apollo, whose cult had spread from Asia Minor to themetropolitan Greece.

I have yet to read a definitive treatise on oracles, but only incomplete descriptions of particular oracles, mainlyDelphi, Didyma, and Claros. I’ve also concluded that many of these descriptions simply reiterate attributesstated by other writers with no verification of the assertions. For example, it is widely believed that theprophetess at Delphi was inspired, either by breathing hallucinogenic fumes emanating from below the tripodupon which she sat as at Delphi, or by eating hallucinogenic inducing herbs. Geologists have negated theexistence of a volcanic source at Delphi, and the eating of herbs is strictly conjecture.

As to the organization of an oracle, I have read a rather detailed description of Didyma where there were five positions: the prophetess who was supposedly inspired by the god; a thespod who interpreted the somewhatincoherent utterance of the prophetess; a transcriber who wrote the interpretation in “neat iambic verse;” [27,p.175]; and a secretary that recorded and keep a record of the oracle (questioner, question, answer); the priestwho performed the sacrifices to the god.

Much is made of the obtuse nature of oracles, but such characterization is too general; most are fairly direct buta bit general. I’ve concluded that the answers were probably the result of considerable thought and research. At Didyma, The thespode had a day or more in which to reflect and to listen to supplicant’s question. Theseoracular shrines had “libraries and archives.” [27, p.188] “In the second and the early third century, there werephilosophers serving as prophets.” I have concluded that oracles were sources of independent thinkers–ancient‘think-tanks–and not just crackpots.

Page -23-

Figure 58:047_Ephesus_harbor-

road

Figure 59:048_Ephesus_road2theater

Figure 61:049_Ephesus_theater3

Figure

60:050_Ephesus_CelsusLibrary

Figure 62:051_Ephesus_HadrianTemple

Figure 63:052_Ephesus-

latrineFigure 64:053_Ephesus_Artemis

Ephesus

Ephesus is the most restored of all theHellenistic cities on the Aegean coast. When flooded with tourist in thesummer time, it almost has the lookand feel of a living city. One needs tobe reminded that up to the beginning ofthe ‘archaeological era’ in the middle ofthe 19 century, not one single stoneth

remained visible above ground.

The silting up process threatened thecommercial viability of the city, andLysimachus (360 BCE – 281 BCE) hadthe city completely rebuilt on the newand present site. Having difficultypersuading the more conservativeinhabitants of the old city to relocate,Strabo reports that he stopped up thesewers and flooded them out. From thenonwards, Ephesus became the veritablecapital of Asia until the third century CE.

The restored library shows the niches into which statutes wereplaced. The Temple of Hadrian is easily identified by its Roman arches. The Romans invented cement whichenabled them to construct more ornate and elegant structures than the Hellens. The Romans used marble as afacade, which, unfortunately, later inhabitants removed in order to construct other buildings.

Of more utilitarian value, this latrine shows that water flowed under theseats to remove the sewage while water also flowed in the small troughthat ran under the legs of persons, allowing them to clean their spongeswhich they then hung on the wall. The splashing water of a fountain inthe middle of the room drowned out more offensive noises.

The Artemisium shown at the left is a artistic impression of theappearance of the temple which was considered one of the SevenWonders of the Ancient World. Only a single column remains today. Alexander offered to rebuild the previousedifice that had burned, but the Ephesianstactfully refused on the grounds that ‘it wasunseemly for one god to dedicate a temple toanother.”

Page -24-

Figure 66:054_Myra_tombs1

Figure 65:055_Myra_tombs2

Figure 67:056_Myra_figures

Figure 68:057_Myra_masks2

Myra

The city of Myra is located on the Mediterranean coast inthe province of Lycia. It is famous for its rock-cut tombsof Myra’s early inhabitants. A few stand free from thecliff-face on little platforms, but the majority are merefacades, divided into doubly or triply recessed panels, andcuriously resemble the rectilinear mullioned windows ofElizabethan England. The facade is occasionallysurmounted by a pediment, beneath which the projectingends of wooden jointsare imitated in stone. There are also tombswith open porticoes,ornamented withsculptured friezes andfree-standing columns. There is also one tombwhose facade is turnedsideways to face an

open vestibule, embellished with life-sizefigures in relief. Other similar figures arecarved on the rock-face between the tombs or above the pediments.

In Roman times, Myra was on the sea and wasthe port where St. Paul changed ships on his wayto Rome in about 60 CE. The city is well knownfor its amphitheater (the largest in Lycia) and theplethora of rock-cut tombs carved in the cliffabove the theater

Constantine made Myra the capitol of Lycia aswell as a bishopric. St. Nicholas was one ofMyra's early bishops in the 4 century CE,th

famous for his miracles and known for his kindness. He later became the patronsaint of Greece and Russia as well as of children, sailors, merchants, scholars, those unjustly imprisoned, andtravelers. Legend has it that St. Nicholas threw bags of gold down a chimney to three sisters as dowries tosave them from a life of prostitution. This legend led to the development of the mythical figure of Santa Claus. After the death of St. Nicholas, Myra became a rich pilgrimage center with many new churches.

Because of Arab raids, flooding, and earthquakes, Myra was mostly abandoned by the early 11 century.th

Page -25-

Hellenistic Period

Initially Pergamon was a vassal state of the Seleucid Empire, but in 263 BCE, Eumenes I declared himselfindependent of Antiochus I; when he died in 241 he was succeeded by his nephew Attalus I.

In 279 BCE, bands of Celtic Gauls stormed across Anatolia and created havoc among neighboring Hellenisticstates. Invited from Europe by Bythian king, Nikomedes in 278 BCE, Celts, called Galatians, Pergamon's kingAttalus defeated the Celts, though they eventually settled in a territory in Central Anatolia to which they gavetheir name, Galatia, and named its capital Angora (Anycra, now Ankara). [It is to these people that the apostlePaul wrote one of the gospels.]

The original Attalid territory around Pergamon in the province of Mysia was greatly expanded by 188 BCE withthe addition of Lydia (excluding most Hellenic coastal cities), part of Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Pisidia (from 183BCE), all former Seleucid territories.

This expansion was accomplished as the result of Eumenes II's alliance with Rome in its conflict with theSeleucid Antiochus III. When Eumenes' son and second successor, Attalus III was near death and childless, hewilled that his kingdom to Rome. It has been surmised that he did so to prevent a relative, Aristonicus, fromsucceeding him. At the time, the slave unrest had spread east of the Adriatic, and Pergamon was also shakenby a wider social unrest. Perhaps Attalus believed that only Rome would be able to maintain law and order inhis empire. At any rate, Attalus died in 133 BCE, and Rome accepted Pergamon as its inheritance. Romeestablished the province of Asia Minor in 129 BCE, which included Ionia and the territory of Pergamon, but leftthe other regions to neighboring kings, who were clients of Rome.

Page -26-

Roman Period

The Attalid kings were still reigning in Pergamon when Rome began for the first time to take a hand in theaffairs of Asia Minor. Eumenes II appealed for help when the armies of the Seleucid King Antiochus the Great(for his legacy, see below) penetrated to the Maeander, and it was partly as a result of this appeal that in 190BCE the first full-scale Roman invasion took place. The Romans defeated Antiochus at the battle of Magnesia-ad-Sipylum (today’s Manisa). The Romans were able to consolidate their commercial footing. There was aprodigious increase in trade and an invading army of Roman businessmen that established a banking system.

With the emergence of Mithradates Eupator, King of Pontus, the Hellenic city-states were caught between theimperial west and eastern Barbarian resistance for which they suffered greatly. They lost their Helleniccharacter and emerged as components of the new Roman Imperium.

Mithradates was a colorful historical character: he killed his mother and younger brother, and he was a thorn inthe side of the Romans for 25 years. He conquered Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedonia. He exterminated anestimated 100,000 Italians in his retribution against the Romans, and he became a rapacious despot of theHellenic states.

Various generals were sent to deal with Mithradates. The Roman commander Cotta had stationed one part ofhis forces at Chalcedon (present day Haydarpaºa) on the Bosphorus which were destroyed by Mithradates. Mithradates then lay seige to the island city of Cyzicus but had to withdraw due to lack of supplies; in doing so,his forces were caught and cut to pieces by Roman mobile units. His Pontic fleet was caught and defeated bya Roman squadron under the command of Lucullus at the entrance to the Hellespont (Dardanelles) while theremaining half was battered to pieces by a storm in the Euxine (Black Sea), though he escaped alone in a smallpirate ship and eventually reached Sinope. Having relocated to Cabeira (Niksar), he reinforced his army. Mithradates was again defeated by Lucullus but again escaped, eventually making his way to the kingdom ofArmenia which was ruled by his son-in-law Tigranes. Again, Lucullus inflicted a defeat at Tigranocerta(southwest of Lake Thosprotis (Van) near Nisibis), yet again Mithradates and Tigranes escaped.

Lucullus was relieved of his command, and in his stead was placed the most noted general to confrontMithradates: Gnaeus Pompeis Magnus, better known as Pompey. He had just successfully completed acampaign of routing the pirates of the Cilician coast that were inflicting heavy losses on Roman trade with theEast.

Pompey defeated Mithradates at the source of the Euphrates river in 68 BCE. Yet again, Mithradates escapedand fled to Erzurum. [Pompey then pacified the Syria and Palestine, the last remnants of Seleucid authority,and then concluded a treaty with the Parthians.] It was then reported that Mithradates was dead, apparentlycommitting suicide having learned that his son Pharnaces had succeeded in usurping his throne and allyinghimself with Pompey. When the news of his death reached Rome, there was a public festival for tenconsecutive days.

Pompey then faced a more formidable foe: his fellow countryman, Julius Caesar. Mithradates’ son, Pharnaces,at the urging of Pompey’s Roman political supporters, revolted against the Roman garrison.

After dispatching Pompey’s army at Pharsalus in Thessaly, Caesar defeated Pharnaces at Zela (now Zile), abattle immortalized by his remark: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ His brief tenure instituted a more liberal policywith regard to tribute resulting in renewed prosperity in Asia Minor.

Figure 70: 062_Asia_Minor_Zela

Page -27-

Figure 71:058_StPaul_journeys

Figure 72:059_Ephesus_MarysHouse

When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, the unstable political situation was resolved with theformation of the Second Triumvir. The result for Asia Minor was a new tyranny in the person of Mark Antony,who initially demanded 10 years of taxes in advance. His famous first meeting with Cleopatra was a Tarsus inCilicia. They later spent a year at Ephesus.

The defeat of Antony by Octavian ushered in an unbroken peace that lasted two centuries with gradual changesand developments such as the spread of Western Civilization andthe popularization of Christianity.

St. Paul, the Christian apostle, was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. Themap shows his four journeys in his lifetime. The cities of Anatoliathat he visited include: Antioch, Seleucia, Perge, Antioch (in Pisidia),Iconium, Lystra (where he was stoned), Ephesus (he stayed for 3years), Derbe, Assos, Troas, and Miletus. He wrote to the church atEphesus (Ephesians), to the church at Galatia (Galatians), and the

church at Colosse(Colossians)

Some four to six yearsafter the death ofChrist, St. John is saidto have accompanied the Virgin Mary to Ephesus, where it isbelieved they dwelt in a small house over which now stands theCouncil Church, or the Church of the Virgin Mary. This assertionwas recorded by the [Ecumenical] Council of Ephesus which metin 431 CE. Later St. John brought the Virgin Mother to a houseon the slopes of Büülbüül Mountain, the position of which waslater forgotten, until research was begun in 1891 to find traces ofit

The house is typical of Roman architectural, and is entirely madeof stone. In the 4th century CE, a church, combining her houseand grave, was built. The original two-stored house, whichconsisted of an anteroom (where today candles are proposed),bedroom and praying room (Christian church area) and a roomwith fireplace (chapel for Muslims). A front kitchen fell into ruinsand has been restored in 1940's. Today, only the central part anda room on the right of the altar are open to visitors.

Page -28-

Figure 74:063_Byzantine_Empire

Figure

73:064_Constantine

Byzantine Period

In 324 CE, Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus,better known as Constantine (and also later given theappellation, the Great) became sole augustus oremperor of the Roman Empire. In 330 CE, he officiallydedicated the city of Byzantium as the eastern capital ofthe Empire, often called the “Second Rome” or "NewRome," but officially renamed “The City of Constantine”or Constantinople.

He had initially chosen Troy as the site of the newcapital but thought better of his initial selection,considering Byzantion’s geographical location andtopography. It’s eponymous founder thought the same

(see text box).

There is only conjectureas to why Constantinerelocated the capital but among the most probable are the following:

1) the wealth of the Empire had shifted from Rome and Italy to the eastern provinces as the soil of Italy had become depleted; food had to be imported andfarmers had migrated to the city to become an unwieldily mob.

2) the threat to the Empire was in the northeast and southeast so that aConstantinople could provide a better means of directing military defense.

3) Constantine could build a city as a monument to his own glory.

4) Constantine could build a Christian city.

At the time of the death of Constantine, rule of the Empire was apportioned tohis three sons, and eventually the there was an emperor in the west at Romeand an emperor in the east at Constantinople. The western half disintegratedunder the assaults of the barbaric tribes, its end marked by the deposing of theemperor by Odoacer, king of the Goths, in

476 CE. The eastern half of the empire continued for another thousandyears, and its citizens continued to consider themselves Romans(Romanoi in Greek). While Latin was the official language, Greek was thedominant tongue spoken, and in 640 CE, it became the official language.

Under Theodosius I (emperor from 379 to 395), the Olympic (i.e., pagan)religion was suppressed and Christianity adopted as the religion of thestate ; under Justinian (emperor 527-565), a a law was passed in 528 CE9

that required every pagan to present himself and his family for baptism. Tomark the distinctive eras of Olympian and Christian by historians after thefall of the eastern Roman Empire in 1453, a librarian of the wealthyFugger family in Augsburg, one Hieronymus Wolf, coined the termByzantine history in his biography of Zonaras in 1557. Thus we have aRoman Empire, called today Byzantium, whose citizens called themselves Romanoi, and who spoke Greek.

In an attempt to describe this empire, I describe a few institutions and some significant historical events.

According to Strabo, Byzantion is thought to havebeen founded by the colonists from Megara led byByzas in the 7C BC. The popular legend has it thatMegarians, before coming here, he went to the oraclein Delphi and asked for instruction on where to founda new colony. The answer give was "opposite the cityof the blind". When Byzas came to area, he noted theolder city of Chalcedon on the Asian side. He concluded that the inhabitants of Chalcedon must beblind not to see the advantages of the site on thepeninsula.

It should be mentioned that there are other, andolder founding myths of the city.

In the year 392 A.D., Hera and Zeus, Demeter and Poseidon, Hermes and Athena, Apollo and9

Aphrodite and several other Olympian deities were officially pronounced dead. Their death wasconfirmed by the edicts and policies of Theodosios the Great.” In Byzantine and Ancient GreekReligiosity by Demetrios Constantelos, p. 1.

Page -29-

Figure 75:066Pergamon_Red_bascilica1

End of Paganism: With the adoption of Christianity as a state religion, various policies were instituted tosuppress the cultic worship of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses:

1) the clergy was freed from municipal offices ( a position which entailed funding of building projects andservices), extraordinary taxes, and all forms of forced labor; church property was also exempt fromtaxation.

2) members of the court were forbidden under the severest penalties to consult oracles, augurs orsoothsayers. Over the years, the marble and stone of the temples and altars were removed to be used inthe building of churches. [This same practice was employed by the Ottomans in their building of mosquesand houses.]

3) temple lands, money and plate were confiscated; sacrifices prohibited.

4) non-Christians were gradually stripped of their civil rights.

5) every pagan had to present himself and his family for baptism.

The state also acquiesced in vigilantism: “Hypatia, a mathematician and head of the Neoplatonic school atAlexandria, was murdered by a Christian mob 415.

There were basilicas in the Roman Empire before the birth of Christ. A basilica was an official governmentbuilding, usually located in Rome or any major city, at thecentral plaza. A basilica had a special shape to it; usually alarge rectangular building with the entrance on a long side andwith two rows of columns along the long side. SupposedlyConstantine changed the structure so as to form a churchbuilding by relocating the entrance to a short side androunding the other end to form the apse.

Church of Pergamon (Kizil Avlu or Kýzýl Avlu) was built ontwo tunnels covering the stream and it is the only churchwhose location is known definitely among all the churchesmentioned in Bible. Also called the "Red Basilica," it wasactually built for God Serapis (Serapeion) during the 5thcentury CE. There are two towers on the right and left sides.The tower on the left side is used as a mosque today.

The red brick construction contrasts markedly with the white limestone and marble of the public buildings onthe acropolis. “Originally, the red-brick building was covered with marble but this has long been stripped andnow only the floor retains its marble finish.” [67, p. 178]

Eastern Orthodox Church: While initially one Christian church, the bishop of Rome and the bishop ofConstantinople soon had differences as to religious dogma and organizational authority. With the demise ofthe western empire, the western Church ceased to be attached to any one state although it had its protectors;but it attempted to be a universal church, hence the name Catholic (katholikos). The eastern Church wasimperial and constituted a department of the state administration. It was nationalist in its attitude; adoption ofChristianity went hand in hand with nationalism. For example, the conversion of Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, afterhis marriage to Anna, the Byzantine emperor’s daughter, set about proselytizing and converting towns andvillages en masse.

The Orthodox Church tended (and continues) to be more mystical and liturgical (ritual), and particularlyconcerned with questions of arcane theogony (nature of God). Consequently, there were several disputesabout dogma, within the church and between it and the Catholic Church. For example, in the early days ofChristian belief, the Third Person of the Trinity was held to proceed directly from God the Father. Then,towards the end of the sixth century, the fatal word filoque – ‘and the Son’ – began to appear. The Westadopted this dogma while the East deemed it the vilest heresy. Often these disagreements were expressionsof politico-national struggles. One result was severance of all bonds of rite and dogma between East and

Page -30-

West. Eventually, the Great Schism of 1054 became an official separation.

Page -31-

Defending the Boundaries of the Empire: The history of the Empire consists in large measure of wars indefense of borders from invaders or rebellions of nations within. Over the course of a thousand yeas, theByzantine Empire fought the following nations or ethnicgroups:

1. Persians/Parthians

2. Vandals, Lombards, Ostogoths, Visigoths (asRoman Empire)

3. Avars (550)

4. Slavs (576, 746)

5. Magyars (400 - 500)

6. Bulgars (late 900's - 1300)

7. Pechenegs (1091)

8. Normans (1080's)

9. Arabs/Saracens (800's)

10 Turks

a. Seljuks (1071)

b. Osmanlis

As a consequence, the demand for resources for themilitary put an extreme strain on the economy and onthe political and social structures. There were constantconflicts over succession to the emperorship, and overeconomic policies that favored one group over another.

Crusades: The Seljuk Turks first appear in the late tenthcentury, a nomadic tribe that had adopted the faith of Islam as Muslims. They had migrated westward andwere hired as warriors by the Persian Empire in its conflict with the Fatimids of Egypt and its Shi’ite ruler. Asdid/do most nomads, the Seljuks often raided settlements, and thus the Byzantines saw them as a menace andengaged the Seljuk army, the latter led by sultan Arp Arslan, at Manzikert near Lake Van in 1071. TheByzantine army was routed. Much of the blame for this defeat lies with the prior emperor, Constantine XDucas, who “pursued a virulently anti-military policy because he saw the aristocratic Anatolian families that ledthe army as an unnecessary expense and a theat to his power. The power of the army was based on the themeor provinces with governors and their militias. These were decimated over the years following Manzikert,thereby leaving the Byzantines significantly weaker relative to other military powers.

After fending off threats from the Normans (1080's) and the Pechenegs (1091), the Emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent emissaries to the West seeking military assistance in order to free Christian communities inAsia Minor that were suffering beneath the Turkish tide, and to counter the Turkish armies that were at the verygates of Constantinople with an imminent threat to all of Christendom. Alexius and successive emperors gotmore than they bargained for: four successive armies of crusaders came through the Empire to engage theinfidels. In addition to ravaging the countryside, pillaging and raping women, the Crusaders became embitteredtowards the Byzantines in disputes over authority and ownership of land (kingdoms) plus a bitter mistrust ofeach other.

Cruelty--East and WestBasil II Bulgaroktonos, ("the Bulgar-slayer" ): In adecisive battle with a Bulgarian army in 1014, theBulgarian army was taken by surprise, panicked andfled; some 15,000 were captured. “Of each hundredprisoners, ninety-nine were blinded; to one man asingle eye was left, that he might conduct theremainder to the presence of their king.”

First Crusade: In addition to ravaging the land andwomen, and plundering the towns and villages ofByzantium, the Crusaders “battered their way toJerusalem, slaughtering all the Muslims in the city andburning all the Jews alive in the main synagogue.”Factions in the city: Blues versus Greens The namesoriginally referred to the colors worn by the twoprincipal teams of charioteers. They existed as two“semi-political parties” which combined on occasion toform a local militia. The Blues tended to be the partyof the big landowners (and religious orthodoxy) whilethe Greens represented trade, industry and the civilservice (and monophysitism). Called the Nika revolt,in 532, both parties had gathered in the Hippodromefor a rally and the acclamation of a new emperor.Justinian, reinforced by the empress, Theodora,ordered the imperial bodyguard to quell the rioters. The principal exits were secured, and 30,000 wereslain.

Page -32-

Figure 76:067_Urbans_cannon

Economy and Trade: The Emperior Alexius Comnenus had received assistance from the Republic of Venice inrepulsing the Normans in 1081; in return he had granted trading privileges in Constantinople and elsewhere onterms calculated to outbid Byzantine merchants. [It provoked the rich, who might have been encouraged toinvest their capital in shipbuilding and trade, to rely on the more familiar security of landed property. Theconsequence was a decline in the wealth of the Empire.] In 1171, there occurred an anti-Latin demonstration inConstantinople: all Venetians in the empire were arrested and their property was confiscated. The Venetians(Italians!) did not forget. They too began to think in terms of putting Constantinople under Western control asthe only means of securing their interest in Byzantine trade.

Relations with the West and the Isolation of the Empire: There were many characteristics and actions of theEmpire that caused relations with the West to become diffident and hostile:

1. The differences between the churches;

2. The strictness of its Byzantine court etiquette;

3. The haughtiness of their heritage (They saw themselves as heirs of the ancient, imperial Roman Empireand called themselves Romani while the West called them Rhomaioi (the Greek form of “Romans” or moreoften Graeci (Greeks);

4. The wealth and refinement of its material civilization, that is, the Byzantines were seen as unmanly;

5. The West saw the East as traitorous during the Crusades

6. Their dependency upon the Venetians, Genoese and Pisans for trade andnaval support.

The Ending

The fourth crusade, composed mainly of Frankish (French) knights, led by anItalian, Boniface of Monserat, and by the Venetian Doge, Enrico Dandolo,conquered Constantinople and pillaged the city of its adornments (see imagesabove). While the Greeks regained the City some years later, they were neverstrong enough to withstand the surging tide of Ottoman Turks. Their estrangedrelations with the West brought them sympathy but little relief (one Crusade was initiated but defeated by theTurks), and on May 29, 1453, the Empire succumbed.10

Queller, Donald E., and Madden, Thomas F., The fourth Crusade: The Conquest of10

Constantinople, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1997.

Page -33-

Figure 78:071_Quadriga2

Figure 80:069_C_aquaduct

Figure 77:070_C_palace_view

Figure 81:072_Hippodrome_model

City of Constantinople

When regional characteristics were combined with theinfluences of Christianity, new styles were created. Asearly as the sixth century, Constantinople had a system ofstreet-lighting, sports, equestrian games or polo-playing,and above all chariot races in the circus or hippodromeshown as a model below; the outline of the stadium still

exists as a park. Note the squareend of thehippodrome hastwelve doorswhich were raisedto start thechariot race. Atop the box wasa triumphal quadriga (a sculpture of a car or chariot drawn by fourhorses abreast). Taken by the Venetians in the sack of the city in1204 CE, they are now in the west facade gallery of San MarcoBasilica in Venice.

The column of Çemberlitas, is situated in the old Forum ofConstantine the Great. This column, which is 57 m. in height, was

brought from the Apollo Temple in Rome. It is believed thatoriginally a statue of Apollo greeting the dawn surmounted it, whichwas replaced by Constantine the Great in 330 with a statue ofhimself. The column was made of eight porphyry drums whichwere wreathed with laurel. The statue of Constantine surmountingit was later replaced with a statue of Theodosius, which wasdislodged by lightening in 1081. The column was restored byAlexius I Comnenus and an inscription engraved on the capital witha gilded cross in place of the statue. Later, during the reign ofMustafa II (1695-1704), after a severe fire damaged it, the sultanhad a layer of stone added to the base and iron hoops fixed aroundit, giving it its present Turkish name of Çemberlitaº, the “hoopedcolumn”.

Figure 79 071_Cemberlitas

Page -34-

Figure 87:075_SerpentineColumn

Figure

84:077_Delphi_Tripod_2

Figure

82:076_Delphi_

tripod_1

Figure 83:078_StSophia_1

Figure

85:073_Hippodrome_high

view

Figure 88:079_StSophia_2Figure 90:081_BasilicaCistern

Figure

86:074_Obelisk_Theo

dosius_2

Figure 89:080_StSophia_const&just

Note the outline of the hippodrome in fig. 73_Hippodrome_highview. The obelisk in the foreground is theColumn of Constantine VII Porphryogenitus erected in 940 CE. It was originally covered with bronze plates, but they were ripped off by the Crusaders leaving the pockmarks. The 3,500 year old obelisk in the background isthe Obelisk of Pharaoh Thutmose III brought by Constantine from Karnak in Egypt; at the base are scenes ofthe emperor and his household. The bronze Serpentine Column, which is formed by three intertwined snakes,stood originally in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi; it was made of the bronze shields of Persian soldiers whowere killed at the battle of Palatea in 479 BCE in order to celebrate the victory of the Hellens over the Persians.

The pinnacle of Byzantine architecture was the construction of Hagia Sofia. It also produced fortresses, waterarchways and cisterns, bridges and palaces. The Byzantine era also witnessed great developments insculpture, mosaic, gilding and ornaments.

Constantinople is still the seat of the Orthodox Church and the Patriarch still resides in the district of Fener(Phanar).

Page -35-

Seljuk Period

The Seljuks were a group of nomadic Turanian warriors from CentralAsia who established themselves in the Middle East during the 11thCentury, having migrated from the western province of China.

Some of their tribes adopted Islam but this did not prevent them fromraiding their co-religious neighbors. Whenthe Kalif of Baghdad invited them to serveas his protector, their leader, Toghrul Beðcame in delight. The Turks designatedthemselves as guardians of the decliningAbbassid caliphate. In 1055, they defeatedthe Buyids in Baghdad and restored theSunnite caliphate. They helped to preventthe Fatimids of Egypt from making ShiiteIslam dominant throughout the Middle East.

Under Toghrul’s son, Arp Arslan and hisson Malik, they invaded Anatolia, firstdefeating Christian Armenia and then a

Byzantine army at Manzikert (1071) near the city and lake Va. It was a decisive blowas it resulted in the removal of the Anatolian heartland and the subsequentdestruction of the theme or provinces which maintained standing armies that had successfully protected theEmpire until then.

Internecine feuds among the heirs led to the collapse of the Seljuk domination, and independent emirs orsultans established governance in various areas. The Egyptians had actually driven the Seljuks out ofJerusalem shortly before the Crusaders appeared at the gates of the sacred city in 1099. Such conditionswere, of course, one of the prime reasons why the First Crusade (1095-1099) met with such decided success. As the Moslem chronicle bitterly records, "the discord among the sultans enabled the Franks to establishthemselves in the countries of Islam.” However, the Seljuks did block inlandexpansion by the crusader states on the Syrian Coast.

As mentioned above, the Seljuk empire had fragmented into short-livedsmaller sultanates (Nicaea, Hamadan and Merv) and into independentemirates. The last of their line died in battle against the Khwakizm-Shahs in1194. A branch of the Seljuks established its own state in Anatolia (thesultanate of Konya or Rum), which survived until it was conquered by theMongols led by Genghiz Khan in 1243.

Ghenghis Khan led the huge Mongol cavalry force through the Islamic worldfrom 1219 to 1223. He return to Mongolia in 1223, and his death in 1227 meant that the main Mongol army withdrew from the Islamic world. A Mongolforce did return to Iran in 1250s, however, led by Ghenghis Khan's grandsonHûlâgû, who established the Mongols as a resident ruling power over the areathat is today Iran and Iraq until 1335. They were defeated by an Egyptianforce in 1260 in Syria. Together with internal dissensions, they withdrew andfocused on invading Russia, never having invaded Anatolia.

The Seljuk ‘sultanate of Rum disintegrated of its own accord into several emirates. One of its emirs or chiefswas Osman, the founder of the Turkish Osmali (Ottoman) dynasty.

Figure 91 Seljuk Tomb

Page -36-

Figure 94:082_Osmanl1_1481-1683

Ottoman Period

The origin of the Osmanli is best described by Willian Sterns Davis in his Short History of the Near East (1922):

We are given to understand that around 1250 A. D. a sizable Turkish "horde," pushed on byMongol attacks from the eastward, crossed the Euphrates, seeking new places for settlement. Thishorde of-women, children, old men, slaves, with many cattle, and headed by about 4000 (some sayonly 2000) warriors-was led by one Solyman Shah. The Seljuk Sultan of Asia Minor, however,refused to receive the wanderers. They turned back towards Central Asia, but at the refording ofthe Euphrates, Solyman was swept from his horse and drowned in the river. The omen struckterror into the hearts of those of the band who were still on the Western bank. They refused toproceed Eastward and turned again into Asia Minor. The original horde then seems to havedispersed, but a remnant thereof, led by Solyman's son, Ertoghrul (Turkish spelling: Ertuðrul),wandered westward. It is told that at last he and his 400 warriors suddenly found themselves on abattlefield where two strange armies were locked in deadly encounter. For these Turanian ridersto stand as neutral witnesses while the combat was decided was impossible. They loved battle forbattle's own sake. Ertoghrul charged with his men, saying, "The manly part is to aid thevanquished!" and flew to the relief of the army which seemed weakest. Ertoghrul's charge decidedthe day. Alreddin, Sultan of Seljuk Asia Minor, had been rescued from a great host of Mongols.

Alreddin was of course intensely grateful to this friend in sorest need. He bestowed onErtoghrul and his people the district around Eski Sheir (ancient Dorylreum) in Northern Phrygia.Probably the grant of this fief cost the Seljuk little. He had given his new vassal a district closeagainst Bithynia, still held by the Greeks, a debatable frontier march in which civilized life, evenfor Turks, seemed nigh impossible. The principality was now known as Sultan-CEni: "The Sultan'sFront." Here Ertoghrul and his weary band at last could encamp, and gradually forsake some oftheir nomad habits.

The following description of the Empire is in two parts: its expansion and its decline. At its height in the 16th

century, it included most of the Balkans, Mesopotamia, Egypt, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Itconsisted of thirty kingdoms. It spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it wasreplaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

Expansion

Warfare (E)

The Ottoman Empire expanded its territory by conquest. For the West, theClausewitzian dictum that war was politics carried on by other means was incontrast to the Ottoman’s view that war was a product of religion: it was theduty of every Muslim to extend the “Domain of Peace” (Dar ul Islam), thelands where Islam reigned supreme. War was the Empire’s raison d’être.

The basic strategy of the Ottoman army was quite simple: large numbers andindividual skill, courage, and obedience [159, p. 45] There were no ranks inthe precise, hierarchical sense, and no real premium on the militaryexperience of the commander. There was no school of military science butthey were reminded only of the legends of their own brave heros. Once an objective was established, acommander would ‘unleash’ his eager troops. They did not manoeuver: they only charged, boldly, directly, atthe enemy; or, in defense, they held ground to the death. [159, p. 48]

Page -37-

Figure 97:084_Topkapi_fountain

Figure

95:085_EyeoftheSultan

Figure 96:083_Topkapi_throne

Sultans (E)

The head of the Empire was the sultan. He was not only the political leader, butcommand-in-chief of the army, and would lead his troops into battle. With his conquestof the Byzantine Empire, the Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror established practices,protocols, and surroundings designed to exhibit power and grandeur in his status andperson so as to instill fear and obedience in his subjects and foreign emissaries; and toestablish a perfectly ordered world.

The law codes (kanunname) dictated the proceduresand ceremonials within the palace, defined the rolesand duties of officials, and even laid down the dress11

and accouterments for every member of the rulingcaste. [159, p. 38] It also specified the dress for non-Muslims, e.g., Greeks wore black shoes, Armeniansviolet, and Jews blue. Ottoman men wore baggy pants,no doubt derived from their nomadic days of ridinghorses and living in tents. The sat on divans ratherthan chairs, again, derived from their days asnomads living in tents. Once established, thisdress code was immutable: “the concept of fashionwas completely alien.” [159, p. 71] Topkapi Palacewas more than just the private residence of theSultan and his court. It was the seat of thesupreme executive and judiciary council, the Divan

and the training school, the Palace School. In the First Courtyard, there were ahospital, bakery, arsenal, a state mint, a part of the treasury and the Outer Service.It was open to public. The Second Courtyard was open to people who had businesswith the council. The Third Courtyard was reserved to the Sultan's household andpalace children. The Fourth Courtyard was exclusively reserved for the Sultan's use.

The palace was a series of enclosures, a ceremonial ordering of space. Visitors, told to wait hours in thesecond court, perceived that the walls were lined, not with sculptured caryatids, but with living men who nevermoved a muscle. It was an expression, not merely of wealth, but of will. [154, p. 52]

When suppliants appeared before the him and his successors, they would approach to his side; he would notspeak but only listen while his counselors would discuss issues with the visitor. Later and in privacy, the sultanwould discuss the matter and state his decision. The head administrator and counselor was called the GrandVizier – the word vizier means ‘the sultan’s footstool.’ Rather than meeting with his Divan Odasi or Chamber ofState, which convened four days a week under the Grand Vizier, Mehmet instituted the ‘Eye of the Sultan’ sothat he could hear without being seen. The government took the name of its entrance to it administrativebuilding: the Sublime Porte, or ‘High Gate.’

Should we consider such a law ridiculous, we should be aware of the sumptuary laws11

(sump'chue're) enacted in Western civilization, regulations based on social, religious, or moral groundsdirected against overindulgence of luxury in diet and drink and extravagance in dress and mode of living.Such laws existed in ancient Greece and Rome. In the 14th and 15th cent. several statutes were passedin England that regulated ornateness of dress and the people's diet. These regulations varied accordingto the rank of the person, peasants being subject to rules different from those of the gentry. The mainpurpose of the legislation was to mark class distinctions clearly and to prevent any person from assumingthe appearance of a superior class.

Page -38-

Figure 99:087_ Suleymaniye

Figure 98:086_Harem_entrance

To prevent young princes from becoming a focus for conspiracies, the practice, formalized by the Conqueror,was instituted whereby all the sultan’s brothers and cousins were murdered at the accession of a new sultan,usually by a silk cord or bow string. [159, p. 38] Primogeniture was unknown.

The obedience demanded by the sultan may be illustrated with this one small incident: On finding one of hisprized cucumbers missing, the Sultan Mehmed had the stomachs of his gardeners ripped open to discoverwhich of them had eaten it. [159, p. 27]

Harem (E)

The idea that there are separate spheres of living is practiced in manycountries over thousands of years. In most Muslim countries, the area ofthe house where men entertain is called the selamlýk while the part reservedfor women is called the harem (“forbidden sanctuary”). Rather than just abrothel or prison for sex slaves, it was a place where women operated thehousehold and were trained in the arts and crafts, household management,music and religion.

The first Ottomans had eagerly adopted the Byzantine practice of using castratedmen for guarding their women, and the white eunuchs rapidly extended theiractivities into administration.” [159, p. 33] During Suleiman’s reign (1520-66), heintroduced black eunuchs to guard the Harem. The women were either capturedin war, a few kidnaped, some bought, and others sent by their parents.

The validé (mother) sultan formed an alliance of interest with the chief blackeunuch, and when the sultan was young, or enfeebled, the real power within thepalace rested with his mother and her entourage. The result was feudingbetween these two and the Grand Vizier.

In addition to the use of castrati, N.M. Penzer asserts that other Byzantinepractices were adopted: “Bit by bit the traditions and culture of the Greeks were to be absorbed by theirconquerors, until finally, when Constantinople became the capital in 1453, with the adoption of everythingByzantine—the secluded Palace, the veil, the harem, eunuchs, ceremonial clothes, the weekly visit to themosque, leaden roofs, red ink for State documents, and a hundred other things—the transformation wascomplete.” [455,p. 228]

Islam (E)

Islam played a crucial role in the Empire, maintaining solidarity among its diverse Muslim elements andproviding the ethical and legal structure for its subjects. The Ottoman sultans assumed the caliphate followingthe conquest of Egypt in the 16 century. Early Ottoman theologians were influenced by the views of Al-th

Ghazali, a Persian scholar of the 11 century who rejected the idea that scientific knowledge violated Islamicth

doctrine. As a result, many Muslims achieved fame in the fields of science, notably astronomy, mathematicsand medicine. They used mathematics and astronomy to fix the prayer niche of mosques towards Mecca. Thewords “algebra” and “cipher” come from Arabic. However, most Muslims disdained the philosophical andcultural values of foreigners.

Buildings (E)

The sultans had mosques built in their honor as a means of projecting their might and majesty.

Devsirme and the Janissaries (E)

Various empires and nations have tried to solve the problem of maintaining an administration that is loyal to itsking. The Romans and Persians used eunuchs, the kings of Europe used unmarried clergy, and the Chineseused their famous exam system to enrol humble but eager scholars into the ranks of the ruling class. Murad IIintroduced the boy tribute system in 1432. Boys were taken mainly from families in the Balkan countries. Theyleft boys of widows, and did not trouble families with a single son. They avoided boys who already spokeTurkish, or had learned a trade, or had lived in the city; they refused orphans too, who were too wily, and hadlearned to fend for themselves.

Page -39-

Figure

100:088_Janissaries

The ‘recruits’ underwent training to be the future governors, soldiers and administratorsof the empire. All became kul or slaves of the sultan; all were circumcised andconverted to Islam. A kul was ‘one who blindly and unquestioningly obeys the will andcommand of the sultan’. [159, p. 32] They were selected and promoted strictly on merit indistinct contrast to the Western principle that rank and favor based upon heredity.

Those chosen to be soldiers were enrolled in the Janissaries (new army) corp thoughethnic Turks were the mainstay of the army. Those who had greater intelligence andsocial skills were given additional training and appointed to an administrative post and would be given a wife from among the harem women who were also slaves of the sultan.

“‘By the 16 Century, we can say without any hesitation that the Turkish state was run byth

non-Turks.’” [92, p.59 quoted from a lecture by Paul Wittek, London School of Orientaland African Studies, 1953.

Travel and Trade (E)

“The Pax Ottomanica, imposed by force and sustained by savage punishments, gave more peace and securityto its citizens than many Christian states could provide. A French traveler in Turkish lands wrote, ‘the countryis safe and there are no reports of brigands or highwayman....” [159, p. 24]

Economy (E)

The ‘noble endeavor’ to extend the Domain of Peace had lucrative rewards: the plunder that was taken insuccessful campaigns; so much so, that it became a predominant part of the economy.

The Domain of Peace did have its benefits for those who traded and traveled. By the caravans threading theirway across the Islamic world, carrying sacks of spices and bags of gold, bales of silk and bundles of furs, mostof the luxuries of the known world were handled by Muslim merchants. [154, p. 6] The Ottomans did notengaged in much trade themselves, but they taxed it.

There was a tax on households and farms, trade transactions and the capitation (head) tax on non-Muslims,though they were exempt from military service. In addition to taxes, persons wanting some governmentalservice or permission usually had to pay off (bahºiº) to an official.

The Ottomans also gave the equivalent of most favored nation status, called capitulations, to any country thatpromised to supply the markets with regularity. A capitulation also gave a nationality or religious community(millet) living within Empire a right to govern themselves in aspects that did not involve relations with Muslims.

Religious Toleration (E)

The Ottomans demanded that every subject should belong to a group (millet, guild, regiment, religiousfraternity, or just a village) that would impose social and political control, and for which they could hold theirleader responsible. When the Greek Phanariots rebelled in Bucharest in 1821, the Patriarch Gregory was hungfrom the door of his church. As long as the millet did not come into conflict with Islamic organization andsociety, provided it paid its taxes and kept the peace, its leaders were left to run their own affairs.

Many writers have asserted that the Ottoman Empire practiced a policy of religious tolerance. ‘They pay greatrespect to the customs of foreign nations,’ it seemed to Busbecq, [the ambassador from the Austrian emperorPhillip II in 1560] ‘even to the detriment of their own religious scruples.’ When the Jews were expelled fromSpain in 1492 [The Inquisition], Sultan Bayezit II heard of their predicament and ordered his governors toreceive them with kindness and assistance. “They say Ferdinand is a wise monarch,’ he told his courtiers. ‘Howcould he be, he who impoverishes his country to enrich mine.!” “The Spanish Jews after all knew everything,from how to card fine wool to how to manage funds at interest.” [154, p. 98] “Nearly all of them [the Jews inSalonika] are the descendants of exiles from Spain in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and they still speakSpanish (Ladino). [461, p. 298]

There are, however, reports that non-Muslims were viewed as a lower social order (They were infidels!), andcertain social customs were required such as not being able to ride a horse. One traveler reported that “TheGreeks were, I am aware, oppressed by the different governors with heavier taxes, and were treated as aconquered people; but, on the other hand, they escaped the trouble and annoyance of personal service ascitizens.” [275, p.259]

Page -40-

Figure 102:089_DolmabahcePalace

Figure

103:091_Beylerbeyi_1

Figure 101:090_Beylerbeyi_4

Relations with the West (E)

Until the 18 century, the Ottomans were almost wholly ignorant of the West, and engaged them only in battle.th

The Ottoman empire expanded its contiguous territory into the Arabian peninsula, North Africa, and Europe,specifically, the Balkans. It also conquered ports and lands owned at that time by the Republic of Venice, i.e.,Negroponte (1470), Ithaca, Cephalonia, Zante, Leucas (1479) in Greece, Otranto (1480) in Italy, Rhodes(1522), Nauplia, Malvasia, Skiros, Patmos, Aegina, Ios, Paros, Astipalaia (1537), Cyprus (1570) and Crete(1669). The West has always regarded the Turks with a mixture of horror and fascination. [159, p. 25] Theywere believed to be addicted to unnatural vice and sordid sexual perversions together with a morbid sense ofcruelty. Articles, paintings, and even operas depictedTurks in this manner even though the authors nevervisited the Empire or observed the events or behaviorthey described. Strangely enough, eighteenthCentury Vienna was crazy about the Turks eventhough the city had narrowly adverted capture in1683. There were Turkish dress styles, Turkish hair-dos, Turkish stories, and a great deal of Turkishmusic ¯or what the Viennese thought was Turkishmusic. Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio isan example of this impression of Turks.

Decline

Warfare (D)

The Ottoman expansion was stopped by two decisive battles:the defeat of the siege of Vienna in 1683 in which theAustrians used harquebusses; and their defeat atPeterwardin, Hungary in 1715 which lead to the loss ofBelgrade in 1717. The West introduced new tactics(battlefield movement) and technology (firepower) while theOttoman’s continued to base their strategy upon eachindividual’s skill and bravery though they also had canons.

The Ottoman government in general, and its army inparticular, lacked initiative. From 1600 to 1800, theydid not vary their equipment nor their method of war. This lack of adaptability can be traced in part to asaying attributed to the Prophet: ‘the worst things arethose that are novelties, every novelty is aninnovation, every innovation an error, and every errorleads to Hell Fire. [159, p. 70]

Attempts to modernize by bringing in experts from theWest, mainly from France, failed because they were

rejected because they were not based upon the strategy of individuals courage andskill. “The changes which they opposed most consistently were those which clashedwith their self-image: that depended on the primacy of hand-to-hand conflict. Their sense of honor, as a warriorcaste, was bound up with the use of swords, spears, daggers and maces.” [159, p. 98]

Sultans (D) and Harem (D)

With the accession of Ahmet I in 1603, the practice of fratricide was abandoned and primogeniture instituted. But in order to minimize the risk of a palace coup d'état, princes were confined to the inner sanctum of theharem, the so-called Gilded Cage. As a consequence, if a prince became sultan, he knew almost nothing ofthe world, was ill-prepared to rule, and was often manipulated if not intimidated by his counselors.

If the sultans could not exhibit real power, they could project its image. By 1878, Mahmud II and his successorsAbdul Meçid (1839-61) and Abdul Aziz (1861-76) had built or refurbished no less than ten additional residencesstrung out along the Bosporus. The cost was prodigious. In 1856, it amounted to 14.5% of state revenues.

There is a legend that a baker, working through the nightat a time when the city was under siege, heard faintunderground rumbling sounds which, on investigation,proved to be caused by the Turks tunneling under thewalls. The tunnel was blown up. The baker asked noreward other than the exclusive right to bakecrescent-shaped pastries commemorating the incident,the crescent being the symbol of Islam. He was dulyrewarded in this way, and the croissant was born.

Page -41-

[159, p. 155]

The Ottoman state squandered its resources, and when its revenues were insufficient, obtained loans at highrates of interest. The inevitable consequence followed in 1875, when the empire was forced to admitbankruptcy, and the European governments imposed a settlement which guaranteed their own investments.” [159, p. 159]

Attempts were made at reform (tanzimat) including the introduction of a constitution and general assembly in1878. But the sultan, Abdul Hamit II quickly suspended both, giving rise to the formation of the ‘Young Turk’movement. In 1909, Hamid was deposed and constitutional monarch instituted.

Islam (D)

As the Empire declined, the Turkish ulema became open to widespread corruption and closed to change andprogress. The clergy isolated themselves from all intellectual and cultural developments, including those inscience and technology. In 1850, Sultan Murat III shut down an observatory in Istanbul because theastronomers were “insolent enough to try to pry open the secrets of the universe” – the secrets known only toAllah.

Devsirme and the Janissaries (D)

The levy of Christian children in the Balkans as slaves of the sultan – the devºirme – was abandoned in the firsthalf of the seventeenth century, when it was found to be unnecessary: more than enough volunteers could befound to staff the palace and the Janissary Corps. But eventually Muslims were able to bribe their way intothese positions and a system of patronage developed so that selection and advancement were no longer basedon merit but on bribery.

The muster roles were greatly inflated, either by officers’ continuing to collect the pay of dead Janissaries, or bythe dead Janissaries’ wives and children who lived on the weekly rations [159, p. 90] At first the regimentsrotated to the field army but later they remained in the same region for many generations building family tiesand flourishing businesses. [159, p. 90] Their unwillingness to fight forced the sultan to rely on mercenaries orirregulars to fill out his army. [159, p. 91.]

The Janissaries extorted protection money for property and person; they became thugs who swaggered aboutthe town intimidating and man-handling those who took offense. They sold meal-tickets and paybooks likestock certificates.

Reform was tried as early as 1789 but the revolt of theJanissaries led to the dethronement of the sultan. Bypolitical maneuvering, the next sultan, Mahmud II, wasable to break the historical connection between theJanissaies and the religious class, which had long givensanction to their misuse of power. He developedanother new army called eskenjis composed of selectedJanissaries. There was a revolt in June 1826, but it wasquashed by the sultan and his eskenjis with the barracksof the Janissaries blown up by canon fire and manykilled throughout the Empire.

Travel and Trade (D)

Ottomans did not, on the whole, engage in trade; theyworked in administration. Their minorities, Greeks,Jews and Armenians, separated from them by a gulf ofculture and sympathy, traditionally looked after themoney side.

Economy (D)

“Its economic welfare had been a function of plunderand booty, not of internal development.” [92, p.32] With the boundaries of the Empire restricted, there was nobooty to supplement the pay of the army nor finance resources for additional arms. Since they did not engagedextensively in trade nor in manufacturing, the income for the average Turk declined while the non-Muslim

Cruelty: “The Viennese then discovered the charredcorpses of captives who had been thrown into theflames, while the bodies of more than 1,000 womenand children, killed because they were not worthcarrying into slavery, were huddled in clusters withtheir throats cut.” (Siege of Vienna,1529) [159, p. 62]

“The body of [Turkish] prisoners [2,000 of them] weremarched out of Jaffa in the centre of a large squarebattalion. They foresaw their fate, but used neithercomplaints nor entreaties to avert it. They marchedon silent and composed. They were escorted to thesand hills to the south-east of Jaffa, divided there intosmall bodies, and put to death by musketry. Theexecution lasted a considerable time, and thewounded were dispatched by the bayonet. The bodieswere heaped together, and formed a pyramid, which isstill visible, consisting now of human bones, asoriginally of bloody corpses.” Turks massacred by theFrench army of Napoleon in 1799 [159, p. 122]

Page -42-

Figure 104:092_SelimiyeBarracks

communities, Jews, Armenians, and Greeks, prospered, thereby fostering resentment among the Turkishcommunity.

The tax system was fairly rudimentary, and nothing in Ottoman experience or training prepared them for thebusiness of managing the enormous funds a modern state was obliged to raise, protect and disburse for war.

Religious Toleration (D)

The rise of nationalism among the ethnic communities/nations of the Empire led to wars of rebellion andindependence in the Balkans: Greece in 1829; Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia in 1878; the Kingdom of Serbs,

Croats, and Slovenes was formed in 1918 (its name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929); Armenia in 1920.

There were wars among the newly created nations over the boundaries and in order to acquire additional

territory. Often there was no law enforcement, and brigand bands raided villages. Many Muslims were killed

and were forced to relocate in Thrace and western Anatolia. They blamed the Christian ethnic groups for the

loss of their kinsmen and their land. They did not forget!

Relations with the West (D)

The imposition of restrictions in expenditures, and the collection of taxes by the western governments together

with the rebellion of Christian Balkan nations seeking independence from their Ottoman rulers led western

governments and Russia to pressure and threaten the Sublime Port in its policies. In turn, many Ottoman’s

resented Western interference.

“The Turks were condemned as the enemies of humanity for their

treatment of the Greeks during the Greek War of Independence (1821-9).

But the 15,000 Turkish men, women and children slaughtered in southern

Greece in 1821 were ignored: the Greek slogan ‘Not a Turk shall remain in

the Morea’ was a prescription for genocide. During the ‘Bulgarian

atrocities’ of 1875, the atrocities committed against the Christians were

widely publicized in Europe and the United States, but the equally

atrocious murders of Muslims were ignored. In the 1890s, when

Armenians used violence to secure an independent Armenia, the killings of

Turks were ignored by the Western states, while the Ottoman response was condemned as mindless racial

murder.” [159, p. 165] The image of ‘the terrible Turk’ continues to this day, witness the recent move, Midnight

Express.

In 1853, Tsar Nicholas I made his now

famous quote that the Ottoman Empire was

‘the sick man of Europe;’ and, he continued,

“...it will...be a great misfortune if he

escapes us one of these days, especially

before all the arrangements are made.’”

[159, p. 205]. From that time onward,

Western Powers, both the Entente and the

Triple Alliance were plotting to gather the

spoils of the collapse.

When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, the Britishgovernment requested that Florence Nightengale, along with 38other nurses, aide the doctors in attending the sick and woundedin Scutari Hospital, located across the Bosphorus from Istanbul.

She imposed strict sanitary and nursing standards. As a result ofthis and by her hard work the number of soldiers that died fromtheir wounds or from illnesses such as typhus, cholera anddysentery was greatly reduced from 42% to just 2%. Withcompassion, she walked the hospital halls at night, carrying alight. Wounded soldiers called her the Lady of the Lamp-- herlight has come to symbolize the care and concern for the sickand wounded. Almost all modern nursing systems andtechniques we know today can be traced back to her.

Page -43-

Causes of decline:

& Intrigue: With the end of the practice of executing possible contenders for the throne, these contenders

were imprisoned in the hareem thereby contributing to intrigue in positioning a contender for the throne.

This continuous intrigue within the harem that resulted in the deposing of sultan and/or Grand Vizier

(definition: properly, a bearer of burdens, a porter) that diverted attention to matters of national

concern.

& Uneducated and Inexperienced Sultans: By imprisoning contenders for the throne, these persons were

isolated and uneducated so that if and when they came to the thrown, they were incompetent at best

and deranged at worst thereby subject to manipulation by their hareem and pashas.

& Extravagance of the sultans: The sultans in the 19th century continued to build palaces with funds

borrowed from European countries. The Treasury accounts made no distinction between the needs of

state and the sultan with less than one-tenth of the loans being spent on measures to increase the

Empire's economic well-being, [179, p.139]

& Corruption: official governmental positions were sold to wealthy Moslems; nepotism and graft were

routine.

& Janissaries became uncontrollable “They continued to dethrone or murder sultans until 1826 when one

had the wit to blow up the whole corps in their barracks.” [88, p. 309] during the period of their decline

and corruption, the Empire not only could not expand but could not defend itself.

& Failure to change from an economy based upon booty and tribute to one based upon production of

goods and services

& Lack of innovation and modernization: the ulema controlled education and permitted no change in

subject or method; there was no free inquiry.

& Inability of the military to modernize versus those of the Western powers which increased technology

starting in the 17 century with the use of troop formations and maneuver and the introduction of theth

arquebus and canons.

& Loss of centralized control. The governors (beryerbey, or later vali) ceased to provide men and

resources for the army and forward their collected taxes.

& Continuous wars and threat of wars from surrounding countries, particularly Russia.

& Nationalism and the rise of ethnic groups within the Empire, primarily in the Balkans, so that the Empire

had to devote attention and resources in suppressing insurrections rather than focusing on defense and

production

Page -44-

Figure

105:093_AbdulHamid_I

I

From Empire to Republic

The founding of the Turkish Republic began around the turn of the 20 century. It rose in reaction to the loss ofth

Ottoman lands to nations, the failure of its own internal institutions, and its loss of sovereignty to foreign

powers.

Nationalism and the Great Game

The notion of nation-states emerged in the 19 century, and one after another, the nationalities in the Balkansth

struggled for their independence. Their strategy employed terrorism against Ottoman institutions and the

Muslim/Turkish population. In turn, the Ottoman gendarmerie would suppress and terrorize the

Christian/nationalities (Bulgarians, Serbians, Macedonians, Greeks, etc.) These groups appealed to the great

powers, principally Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France and Russia, to intervene on their behalf by instituting

economic sanctions and/or by military intervention. These Balkan countries were seen as assets to be won, or

at least denied, to the other powers in the Great Game for strategic economic and military advantage that was

being played among Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungry and Russia.

The result for the Ottomans was a loss of wealth from these rich provinces, and masses of refugees flooding

Istanbul and western Anatolia. There were reports of the mistreatment of millions of Muslims by the Russians

as well as the newly independent Balkan states. Stories of persecution and savagery from the Crimea to

Belgrade and Sarajevo were mingled with accounts of oppression from India to Algeria, and was contrasted to

the belief of the toleration and good treatment provided for non-Muslims by the great Muslim empires, including

that of the Ottomans.

The lost of territorial integrity, religious persecution, and increasing interference resulted in an Ottoman public

that felt besieged and maligned.

Seeds of Discontent

As mentioned above, while brought about by the Empire’s own mismanagement of funds, the Capitulations to

the Europeans were seen as destroying traditional Ottoman institutions such as its judicial system, its

industries, and its financial resources due to the debilitating dependence on high-

interest loans.

There was also increasing discontent within Ottoman society. There was a lack of

civil liberties and there was heavy censorship imposed by the sultan Abdulhamit II.

It is reputed that he had 20,000 spies in his employ by which he controlled his

ministries as well as the general population. Criticism of the sultan was forbidden;

the writings of some ‘seditious’ authors, such as Racine, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hugo

and Zola, were banned.

Page -45-

Figure

106:094_Osmanl1_1914

This discontentment increased with the growing awareness of western ideas which was the result of the reforms

(Tanzimat) instituted by the sultans starting in 1839, primarily for the purpose of improving military capabilities.

The educational system was secularized; the military academies sent their students to Europe to learn the

latest tactics and weapons; and books and magazines flooded the Empire [The printing press, which had been

used for 250 years in Europe, was only sanctioned by the Islamic clergy in 1727.] But the ideas could not be

restricted to technology but extended to ideas of freedom and democracy and nationalism–an idea that could

cut two ways.

Though Ottomanism promoted the idea of the motherland, with all subjects, regardless of religion and race,

equal before the law and loyal to the same dynasty, the success of national unity movements in Germany, Italy

and the non-Turkish groups in the Empire led to an increased awareness of the Turkish identity and the

germination of Turkish nationalism.

Young Turks and the CUP

Several protest groups were formed under different names in and out of the Empire during the reign of Abdul

Hamid II, then gradually formed a movement called the Young Turks which formed a political group called the

Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) which was finally able to force the sultan to restore the Parliament in

1908. Control of the government shifted from the sultans palace to the CUP’s representatives in Parliament,

the army and the government ministries. There was a counter revolution staged by reactionary parties, the

ulema, and the sultan, but it was suppressed by the army of Macedonia. Abdul Hamid II was forced to abdicate

and his brother Mehmet V Reºat installed on the throne. Civil liberties were instituted.

In 1910, Albania revolted, an act that convinced the Turks that it would be impossible to conciliate different

national interests and attain a unified empire. This conviction was affirmed in the next four years. In 1912-13,

the first Balkan War erupted in which various Balkan nations achieved their independence; accordingly the

Ottomans lost all their remaining territories in Europe; Greece annexed Crete. In a subsequent, Second Balkan

War (1913-14), the various Balkan countries tried to obtain territories from each

other. With Bulgaria engaging the Macedonians, the Ottoman retook eastern

Thrace.

With a defeated army, millions of homeless refugees, and uneasiness about its two

remaining Christian minorities, the Greeks and Armenians, the Ottomans faced the

question of which side they would join at the outbreak of the Great War: the Triple

Entente–initially Great Britain, France and Russia (which we in the United States

call the Allies) or the Triple Alliance–Germany, Austro-Hungry, and Italy (which we12

call the Central Powers or Axis).

Italy later sided with the Triple Entent.12

Page -46-

Figure 108:096_Armenians_massacred

Figure 107:095_Provinces_eastern

Entering World War I

The Ottoman government had contracted with Germany to modernize the army, and thus there were official

and personal relations between the two countries. Still, most of the CUP members and the public felt closer to

Britain and France. But German autocracy and militarism appealed to Enver Paºa, the minister of war. His

argument for joining the Axis was straightforward: Russia would most certainly attempt to extend its gains in the

Anatolia east where it continued to foment Armenian agitation and terrorism. With Russia on the Entente side,

it would be difficult to secure protection from England and France. Germany seemed to have no territorial

ambitions in the Middle East.

Cemal (Djemal) Paºa, the minister for Finances and Public Works, approached Britain and France but was

rejected. He had sought abolition of the capitulations and financial aid but was rejected by the Allies. Although

the Allies encouraged the Ottomans to remain neutral whereas the Germans urged the Ottomans to regain

territories in the east so as to occupy the Russian army and to engage the British in order to regain Egypt which

had been lost to Britain in 1882. Rather than a deliberative decision, Enver

and Cemal conspired in secret and ordered the Ottoman navy to bombard

Russian ports and ships in the Black Sea. On November 2, 1914 Russia

declared war and Britain and France followed three days later.

Massacres in the East

As described above, several nationalities in the Balkans had fought and

gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire by appealing to the

Great Powers for aid and protection. This same strategy was used by the

Armenian community, but Armenia is located in the heart of Anatolia and not

on the periphery of the Empire; thus it did not have the ‘protection’ from

imminent invasion by a Great Power or the firepower of the British navy.

As the threat of world war increased, “the Armenian community let it be known generally that it would not

support the Ottoman war effort, and, encouraged by [American] President Wilson’s principle of self-

determination, moved to create an independent Armenian state. To the Ottoman authorities, these activities

constituted wartime treason, and they reacted violently.” [92, p.14]

The Armenians suffered oppression and massacres under Abdul Hamid II,

particularly in the years 1894-98. Often they were the victim of raids by

Kurds and Circassians.

On November 1, 1914, Russia invaded eastern Anatolia. Before the war,

many Armenians had trained as guerilla bands; they committed acts of

sabotage and terror. After the Russian invasion, Armenians provided

intelligence, served as scouts, and local militias. Their goal was to earn an

independent nation-state of Armenia, and in fact did so under Russian

auspices when the army reached Van. The Ottoman government ordered

the relocation of all Armenians in eastern Anatolia to the Mosul area of

northern Iraq; and the relocation of Armenians residing in the countryside

(villages but not the cities) of Cilicia and northern Syria to central Syria. The Armenians insist that the

deportations and massacres were more widespread (see map).

Page -47-

In many reported instances, the Armenians of a town were required to surrender their arms (many of which they

held when they were enrolled in the Ottoman army). Next the males between 15 and 70 were required to report

to a central location. They were then marched out of town to a remote location and shot. Next, the rest of the

Armenians were forced to walk to Syria. En route, they were robbed of their belongings and even their clothes,

women were raped or kidnaped; many died of exhaustion, starvation, disease, and exposure; many were

murdered by Kurds and the soldiers escorting them.

The Armenians to this day declare that the Turks committed genocide. The dictionary defines genocide as “the

deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” To date, no document has been

discovered indicating such a governmental decision or directive. Armenians in other parts of the country were

not relocated though there were some massacres. A few Ottoman commanders did make efforts to protect the

Armenians being forced to relocate, but obviously many did not. After the 1915 incident, there were13

indictments, trials and convictions although Armenians insist that all the guilty were not prosecuted nor did they

served sufficient sentences.

While I conclude that there was no ‘Armenian Genocide,’ there certainly were massacres of Armenians for

which the Ottoman government and the Turkish people were responsible. It is likely that these acts were one of

retaliation and barbarism, the latter committed in part by Kurds and brigands, some of whom may have been

retained by the government to serve as escorts as its police were sent to the eastern and western fronts.

It is estimated that “6 million people – Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, Jews, and others – were killed by a

combination of revolts, bandit attacks, massacres, counter massacres, famine and disease, compounded by

destructive and brutal foreign invasions in which all the peoples of the Empire, Muslim and non-Muslim alike,

had their victims and criminals.” [114, p. 316; 239, p. 316]

Gallipoli

The Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill,

decided to capture the Gallipoli peninsula and Istanbul

in order to assure supplies to its ally, Russia. After

unsuccessful efforts to reach the city through the Straits

because of Turkish batteries and mines, a landing was

made by Australians and New Zealanders, better known

as ANZACs, who were unsuccessful and slaughtered by

the thousands. After a year, the ANZACs withdrew.

The result was little help for Russia although the

October Revolution made the issue moot; Churchill’s

reputation was in ruins; but the people and Australia

gained a new sense of independence because of their

sacrifice.

Ataturk delivered in 1934 to the first Australians, NewZealanders and British to visit the Gallipoli battlefields: Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly Country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the JohnniesAnd the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours...You, the mothers, Who sent their sons front far away countries Wipe away your tears, Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace After having lost their lives on this land They have become our sons as well

It is also asserted that the Allies, particularly the British and the Russians, urged the Greeks13

and the Armenians to sedition, mainly by sabotaging and providing intelligence. One observer stated:Local officials then retaliated with so-called ‘white murder’–starvation–and massacres. They acted ontheir own and some stayed human; there was never the planned persecution that Christian propagandaclaimed,...” [239, p. 290]

Page -48-

Figure 109:097_Ottoman_fronts

Figure 110:098_Sykes_Picot

Defeat of the Ottomans

The Ottomans fought on four fronts as indicated on the map. In addition

to the Allied forces, the Arab revolted, primarily because their leaders

were opposed to the centralization of government imposed by the

Ottomans and because they were offered

bribes by the British, primarily cash and the

promise of kingdoms as stipulated in the

Sykes-Picot Agreement. T.E. Lawrence

gained fame in supposedly leading an armed

force through the desert to attack Ottoman

forces at Aqaba.

When British forces opened a front in the Balkans to attack Germany, the

connection between the Ottomans and its principal ally was severed. Britain gained

control of Istanbul and the Straits. An armistice was soon signed on the island of

Mondros in the Aegean on October 31, 1918.

Distributing the Spoils

The Allies began implementation of the secret agreements made before the war; there were subsequent

changes and independent actions by states and groups afterwards, most of which were embodied in the Treaty

of Sèvres (August 20, 1920) made between the Allies and the sultan’s government.

Allied

BeneficiaryOttoman Territory to be Ceded Comments

Armenians Six provinces in eastern Anatolia in

addition to the districts of Kars, Ardahan

and Batun in the Caucuses

A transcaucus republic had been established

during the war. The British favored expansion

so as to provide a buffer state vis-a-vis Soviet

Union; and envisioned the United States as

holding the mandate, that is, protection of

Armenia.

Arabs Palestine, Arabia, Syria and Iraq (Note

the conflicting promises regarding Syria

between Arabs and French)

Palestine and Iraq were to be under British

mandates. A Jewish homeland was to be

established in Palestine.

French Cilicia, Lebanon and Syria The French had colonies in the Lebanon since

the Crusades.

Jews Palestine

Italians Southwestern Anatolia centered at

Antalya and the Dodecanese Islands

Greeks Western Anatolia

British Istanbul and the Straits Originally promised to Russia, the claim was

refused by the Soviet Union.

There were many provisions of the Treaty that cannot be described in this space. Suffice it to say that, in

addition to awarding territories, it imposed severe sanctions and restrictions on the Ottoman state, e.g.,

restoration of the Capitulations, control of the budget, taxes, customs duties, currency and public loans.

Page -49-

The Rise of Nationalism

The rise of nationalism, the notion that people of the same ethnic group should govern themselves, fragmented

the Empire which was based on incorporating multiple ethnic groups. Ethnic groups--Greeks, Bulgarians,

Serbians, Montenegrins, Arabs and Armenians--all tried, most successfully, to establish nation-states for

themselves. Even the Turks themselves were infused with nationalistic fervor during World War I as these

ethnic groups established independence. With the defeat of the Empire, the only land that the Turks controlled

was Anatolia to which it then claimed as Türkiye -- the land of the Turks.

Ethnic Cleansing

“In 1800, a vast Muslim land existed in Anatolia, the Balkans, and Southern Russia. It was not only a land in

which Muslims ruled, but a land in which Muslims were the majority or, in much of the Balkans and part of the

Caucasus, a sizeable minority. It included the Crimea and its hinterlands, most of the Caucasus region,

eastern as well as western Anatolia, and southeastern Europe from Albania and Bosnia to the Black Sea,

almost all of which was within the Ottoman Empire. Attached to it geographically were regions in Romania and

southern Russia in which Muslims were a plurality among different peoples. By 1923, only Anatolia, eastern

Thrace, and a section of the southeastern Caucasus remained to the Muslim land. The Balkan Muslims were

largely gone, dead or forced to migrate, the remainder living in pockets of settlement in Greece, Bulgaria, and

Yugoslavia. The same fate had overcome the Muslims of the Crimea, the northern Caucasus, and Russian

Armenia--they were simply gone. Millions of Muslims, most of them Turks, had died; millions more had fled to

what is today Turkey. Between 1821 and 1922, more than five million Muslims were driven from their lands.

Five and one-half million Muslims died, some of them killed in wars, others perishing as refugees from

starvation and disease.” [248, p.1]

The means by which Muslims/Turks were eradicated from an area were murder (massacre), pillage, rape of

women, excessive taxation, and destruction of property and sustenance leading to disease and starvation.

Page -50-

American Involvement

As a side note, after the Great War ended, the victorious nations assembled at Severes to draw new maps of

the conquered nations and their former territories. The United States under President Woodrow Wilson set

forth a policy of self-determination. But unlike the American experience in which it was claimed that the

country was a 'melting pot' that had become one people, Anatolia consisted of several ethnic groups that

remained separate in terms of language, religion, and self-identity. Self-determination as a policy did not

inherently answer the question of which ethnic group would control the state (government) and which ethnic

group would get its own country. This question was particularly acute in the eastern region of Anatolia which

was/is composed of six provinces (vilayets) that the Armenians wished to become a nation-state even though

they were a minority compared to the Turkish population. [No doubt Armenians would claim that there numbers

had been greatly reduced by the 'Armenian Genocide' or, in today's parlance, 'ethnic cleansing' while the Turks

claim that they were still a minority prior to the relocation in 1915-16.] For America, the issue became moot as

the United States Congress declined to ratify the treaty enrolling the U.S. in the League of Nations and it slated

role of protecting the to-be-established nation-state of Armenia as a mandate by the League.

Turkish Resistance

As early as 1919, a resistence movement formed, composed of roving guerrilla bands and regular volunteer

militias. Officers of the defeated army assumed positions of leadership of an army corps in Ankara and in

Erzurum. On the day the Greek army landed troops at Smyrna, Mustafa Kemal left for Samsun on the Black

Sea. His orders were to restore order and to gather and secure arms and ammunition as directed by the Allies.

The Greek invasion and general harassment and massacres of the Turkish population in western Anatolia gave

increased impetus for a resistence movement and a new government. A national congress was held at

Erzurum and at Sivas to establish the Grand National Assembly (parliament), a new constitution (The National

Pact) and a new government with Kemal as president.

It would require too great deal of space to describe the various factions and positions regarding the constitution,

e.g., the continued existence of the sultanate.

In addition to foreign armies surrounding the Turkish nationalist, there were a number of groups, political-

military units with their own agenda for establishing rule. The nationalists led by Kemal spent most of 1920

subduing these groups and organizing an army.

The newly established Armenian Republic in the Caucasus advanced forces into eastern Anatolia but were

repulsed. The Armenians sued for peace and agreed to a peace treaty but the treaty was never signed as the

Armenian Republic was taken over by the Bolsheviks, and thereby laying the basis for the Turko-Soviet

Friendship Treaty.

The Defeat of the Greeks [See appendix ]

The nationalist then turned their forces toward the Greeks who were advancing toward Ankara. The Greeks

held. The French were having difficulty with Arab uprisings in Syria, and so recognized the Ankara government

and withdrew its troops to Syria. Italy did the same. Nationalist troops in southeast and southwest were then

transferred to the west to repulse the Greeks. In a small Turkish counterattack, the Greeks were forced to

retreat. By September 13, 1922 they were in flight. The Greek army debarked from town of Çeºme on the

Aegean coast. The Turks finding the burnt villages and slaughter of their countryman took their revenge in14

About 1921, a Commission of Inquiry on the Occupation of Smyrna [by the Greeks armed14

forces in 1919] was established to determine the extent of the Greek advance toward the east, and whether or not, and to what extent, atrocities were committed by the Greek forces. A brief description ofthe testimony gathered is described by Robert Dunn: “‘The Turks reentered the city with rage in theirhearts,’ Soeur Marie of the French Catholic mission in her flowing black, read from a diary. ‘They found

Page -51-

Smyrna. The Armenian and Greek sections were looted and then burned; men were shot; women and children

were forced to swim to Allied ships in the harbor where some were rescued and some were not.

The Turkish nationalists then confronted the British in the Straits. Some British cabinet members wanted to

fight, but left the matters in the hands of the British Allied commander who withdrew with formal ceremonies at

the Sirkeci boat station in Istanbul. An armistice was reached at Mudanya (an island in the Marmara) on

October 11, 1922, and a the Treaty of Lusanne on July 24, 1923 that established the territory of the Republic of

Türkiye–the land of the Turks.

A separate agreement between Greece and Türkiye arranged for a compulsory exchange of population,

involving about 1.3 million Greeks and a half-million Turks in all. [114, p. 368]

Table 30.

Mortality and Migration of Muslims

Deaths Refugees

Greek Revolution 25,000 10,000* (number setting out)

Caucasian Wars (1827-

29)

unknonw 26,000 (number surviving)

Crimean Expulsion 75,000* 300,000 (number setting out)

Caucasian Expulsion 400,000* 1,200,000 (number setting out)

Bulgaria, 1877-78 260,000 515,000 (number setting out)

Eastern War, 1877-78) unknown 70,000 (number surviving)

Balkan Wars 1,450,000 410,000 (number setting out)

Caucasus, 1905 unknown ------

East Anatolia, 1914-21 1,190,000 900,000 (internal refugees)

Caucasus, 1914-21 410,000 270,000 (number setting out)

Western Anatolia, 1914-

22

1,250,000 480,000†

1,200,000

(number setting out)

(internal refugees)

everywhere the bodies of their citizens, the houses only a heap of ruins.’” [239, p.325]

The first couple months of the occupation was described to American senate by James Harbord, whosemission was to determine the situation of Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire:[14]

The Greek troops and the local Greeks who had joined them in arms started a general massacre ofthe Mussulmen population in which the officials and Ottoman officers and soldiers as well as thepeaceful inhabitants were indiscriminately put to death and subjected to forms of torture and savageryworthy of the Inquisition and constituting in any case a barbarous violation of the laws of humanity.Naturally the outcry was great among the Mussulmen population. The whole nation rose to oppose thebarbarously hostile action of the Greeks. Meetings were organized in the towns and even in the villagesand telegrams dispatched by the hundred to the Entente Powers and the whole civilized world, tearfullyappealing for protection and help. [James Harbord, Conditions in the Near East: Report of the AmericanMilitary Mission to Armenia; The report can be accessed athttp://armenianhouse.org/harbord/conditions-near-east.htm

Page -52-

Deaths Refugees

5,060,000 5,381,000

*Rough estimates.

†Greco-Turkish Population Exchange

Note: Most military mortality and some civilian mortality not included.

Empire to Republic

On November 1, 1922 the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of

Ottoman rule. The last sultan, Mehmet VI Vahideddin, fled aboard a British destroyer to Malta on November 6,

1922. The Ottoman Empire went out of existence.

The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly

formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially

proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara.

The National Assembly abolished the Caliphate on March 3, 1924. Abdul Mejid was sent into exile along with

the remaining members of the Ottoman House, marking the official end of the "Ottoman Caliphate".

Page -53-

Figure 112:100_Atatürk

First Republic

Nation Building

Mustafa Kemal and his reformers wanted to model their new nation on the West, but all existing institution

were unmistakably eastern and conservative. Among the many obstacles facing Kemal and his reformers were

the following:

- Identification as a Muslim and with a town or village as opposed to the state

- Illiteracy

- Debilitating disease

- Religious dogma and Fatalism

- Inferior position of women

- Resentment of the West

- Allegiance to the sultanate

- Inadequate communication

The following changes were instituted:

- Abolishment of the caliphate

- Development and installation of a secular state and civic code

- Establishment of legal equality of ethnic groups

- Establishment of compulsory school education

- Abolishment of the religious law (Shari’a)

- Replacement of Arabic script with the Latin alphabet

- Banning of fez and turban

- Establishment of legal equality for women, based on the civil code of Switzerland

- Introduction of intellectual and scientific freedom

- Self-identification of the people as Turk rather than Muslim

Türkiye tried capitalism with a private banking system, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great

Depression were disastrous for Türkiye’s crop exports, thereby discrediting capitalism. The government

instituted a planned economy, modeled on the Soviet Union with five-year development plans and state

capitalism. Subsequent administrations have tried to reduce this “state socialism” but haltingly.

While Türkiye had a significant Communist Party, it’s relationship with the Soviet Union turned hostile due to

the agitation of the domestic Communists and the Soviet’s demands for control of the Straits plus assertion of

ownership by Armenia of territories in the six eastern vilayets. The United States and Great Britain have firmly

backed Türkiye to check any Soviet moves.

Throughout the late 1970s Türkiye’s government oscillated between of extremes, while the economy was in a

dire condition. Left-right feuding, sectarian violence and separatists activities erupted, leaving some 5,000

dead by 1980, many more tortured or wounded, and the country on the verge of civil war. On September 12,

1980, the generals once again stepped in and took temporary control of the government. The army is

steadfastly secular and has authority under the constitution to intervene in the even a political party implements

non-secular laws.

The political power of Türkiye seems to lie with the large landowners and the conservative rural population. As

a consequence, much of the government budget and loans are devoted to agriculture as well as general public

spending leading to massive trade deficits and national debt with the concomitant rampant inflation and

currency devaluations.

Page -54-

Türkiye Today

Demography

Türkiye has a population of about 65 million with an annual growth rate of 1.57% in compared to .85% for the

United States. Similar to the U.S., there is migration from rural areas to the cities. There is emigration to

European countries, principally Germany, in order to obtain work.

Economy

Turkey’s GDP growth rate between 1980-90 was 5.3% compared to the U.S. rate of 3.0%; for 1990-95, both

slowed to 3.2% and 2.6% respectively. In visiting the country, one sees booming cities, new highways, vast

dams, and a spreading tourism infrastructure. However, much of this growth has been based on borrowed

money, resulting in an inflation rate of 80-100% per year. A side effect is a constantly changing conversion

rate; on November 20, 2002, the U.S. dollar was equal to 1,585,074 Turkish Liras. The government issued a

new Turkish lira that knocked off the six lower digits; today (May 7, 2011) 1.00 USD = 1.54610 TRY. If an item

is priced in Turkish lira, multiply it by .65 to get the price in US currency.

Religion

“Turkey is one of two truly secular countries in Europe; the other is France. The Turkish State is secular to the

extent that official oaths, such as oaths at court, are taken not in the name of God, but in the name of ‘what the

individual regards sacred.’” [240, p.32]

“In Turkey, imams (Moslem religious professionals) are civil servants. This practice is contradictory to

secularism, and yet it is a product of secularism. Ataturk placed imams on the government payroll in order to

prevent them from developing an independent power base. Foundations set up for the upkeep of mosques

during the Ottoman period were nationalized also for the same reason. Currently, the government employs

85,000 persons in jobs related to religion. (as a comparison, the number of elementary school teachers is

225,000.)” [240, p.32]

Popular Culture

Turks are exposed to the popular culture of the world, having access to the media of national and international

newspapers, radio, and television. They come in contact with the tourists from all over the world (but especially

Germans, Brits and Americans); and travel to Europe themselves. In the urban areas, they are developing

their own fashions of music, clothes and cinema.

Dissonance

There are a number of aspects of Turkish society that strain the social and political fabric:

• Wealth: As in most countries, there is great disparities between the rich and poor.

• Urban-rural: Urban residents tend to be more liberal on the social, religious, and political spectrum

compared to rural residents who mostly live in small towns and villages.

• Religion: While there are minorities of different religions and are a source of conflict, the major

dissonance is between moderate and conservative Muslims. The political ramification is that

degree to which religious law and customs are incorporated in civil life, e.g., divorce,

education.

• Education: As might be expected, wealthy, urban children obtain better education in comparison to

poor, rural children. As in most European countries, a standard test at a certain grade level

determines ones educational advancement.

Page -55-

• Women’s Rights/Customs: Again, there is a wide dichotomy between the

rights (and the awareness of rights) and customs of women in

urban areas versus those in rural areas. Women in urban areas

work in many sectors of the modern economy, e.g., banks,

advertising agencies, travel agencies; they can be seen

shopping in the shops and bazaars and having a cocktail in a

bar. Some of them look with disdain on their rural counterparts

who slave in the kitchen after a day’s hard labor in the family

field while their husbands return to yet another game of cards or

backgammon at the local teahouse.

There are protections and women’s rights in the law: polygamy is outlawed as

are religious marriages; woman have equality of testimony in a court of law;

there is a minimum age of

marriage and they are allowed to

divorce and receive equal

inheritance. But practice does not

equal legal theory: men are still regarded as the head of the

household, and alimony and inheritance is very difficult to claim.

For these reasons, women often remain in abusive relationships.

Identity

“Happy is he who calls himself a Turk!” This famous quotation is taken

from Atatürk’s speech of 1927 elaborating the future values of an

independent republic. However, its meaning is not defined and accepted

throughout the country, and the identity of the people of Türkiye has

been changing.

First, there are several ethnic-religious groups: Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Laz, Circassian, Tatar,

nomads, and Muslims, the latter having various sects, the major ones being Sunni, Alevis (which are Shi’ite)

and Sufis (today the Mevlevi order whose whirling dervishes follow the mystical poet Melvana (lord) Celaleddin

Rumi who lived in Konya in the 13 century.th

Under the Ottomans, there was no “national” feeling; Ottomans originally were members of the house of

Osman; then expanded to include the aristocracy and finally all Muslim Turks. The ethnic-religious groups

were separate communities (millets) within the Empire. With the independent movements in the Balkans,

Sultan AbdulHamit II tried to establish an Ottoman identity for all peoples of the Empire; when this failed, he

raised the banner of Islam. With Western encroachment and independent movements within Anatolia, the

CUP used Turkism as a means of solidifying the population.

Until about 1970, the word ‘Turk’ usually connoted a rustic–not an idealized symbol of a nation. The founders

of the Republic looked further back in history for their national heroes and found the Selçuk Turks. Older

people raised on this idea usually define themselves by a vague ethnic relationship to these tribes of Islamic

Turkic nomads. Unfortunately, this label conjures the image of ‘the terrible Turk’ in the minds of many

Westerners; and it does not include the many ethnic-religious communities that are indeed part of the nation.

Thus the word, ‘Anatolian’, meaning “from the motherland”, is coming back into vogue. This word allows all

ethnic-religious groups to retain their identity yet affirm their allegiance to the Republic which is very important

to a country which is suspicious of any group that touts its identity above the nation as being traitorous.

Figure 113 Dersim_house

Figure 114 City of Van

Figure 115Dersim_woman_worker

Page -56-

Figure 122:107_Grand_Bazaar_1

Figure 120:102_Grand_Bazaar_2

Figure

117:101_Arasta_BazaarFigure 116:104_Galata_Tower

Figure 119:105_Leanders_tower

Figure 118:103_Pammaklaristos

Figure

121:108_Isanbul_street

Figure 123:106_Yeni_Mosque

Istanbul

There is no certain origin of the name, but one possibility is that Greek signs saying, “This Way to the City,”

was “Is tin poli” which became “Istanbul” in Turkish.15

According to a popular story that has existed for many years, the Byzantines did not refer to the city by its actual name, but,15

because of it size, simply as 'Polis' (the City), and when they wanted to say 'to the City', they said 'eist enpolin' (is-tin-polin), which was the

(possible) origin of the name 'Istanbul'. Recent research has shown that the name 'Istanbul' was used if not during the Byzantine period,

Page -57-

The name of the tower in the Marmara is based on the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. A young man of

Abydus (now Çanakkale) falls in love with Hero, a priestess of Venus, in the town of Sestos on the opposite

shore. He would swim the strait to have their tryst in the tower from which she raised a torch to guide him. But

one night a tempest arose and the sea was too difficult, and he was drowned. In her despair, Hero cast herself

down from the tower into the sea and perished. There are other myths associated with the tower.

In actual fact, the Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenos (1143-1180) had two towers built, one on the shore

near where Topkapi Palace was later constructed, and the other where the Maiden's Tower stands today.

Chains were drawn across the mouth of the strait between these two towers when Constantinople attracted

enemy fleets. The original tower was rebuilt after Sultan Mehmed II conquered Istanbul in 1453. This structure

underwent various changes over the centuries as a result of repairs and fires, and was extensively renovated

during the reign of Mahmud II when it took the form we see today.

The Galata tower was originally built around 528 CE. It was called "Great Bastion" by the Byzantine and "Jesus

Tower" by the Genoese. The existing tower was built in 1348 by the Genoese merchants in order to see their

ships approaching so as to prepare for off-loading their cargos. The Genoese had been granted free trade and

a semi-independent status following the Latin occupation in 1204 gained by the fourth Crusade. The tower

burned down and was repaired during the Ottoman empire. The tower was used as a prison in time of Sultan

Suleyman and later became dormitories of the ottoman military band. Later on, it was used as a sort of light

house.

During the time of Sultan Murat IV, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, who is known to have made several attempts to fly

to Okmeydani with wings attached at his arms, tried on one occasion to fly from Galata Tower. On the winds of

Bosphorus, he flew all the way to Uskudar, so the story goes.

Many palaces have been built on the site of the Çiraðan Palace. While only half finished, Sultan Abdulaziz

acceded to the throne and demanded the palace be built in Arab style as a memorial to his reign. But he lived

there for only a few months before pronouncing it to be too damp to stay in. It housed Sultan Murat V until his

death in 1909. Parliament convened for two months before a fire left it a mere shell. It is now the Çiraðan

Palace Hotel Kempinski Istanbul, a very expensive resort hotel with 315 rooms.

Facing Hagia Sophia across Sultanahment Square, the Sultanahmet Camii (mosque) is one of the most

beautiful mosques in the city. It was built from 1606 to 1616 by order of Sultan Ahmet and designed by

architect Sedefkar Mehmet Agha.

It is also called the Blue Mosque because of the Iznik tiles on the interior walls. The most important element in

the interior of any mosque is the mihrab, a niche set into the center of the wall opposite the main entrance, that

indicates the direction of the holy city Mecca, toward which the faithful must face when they perform their

prayers. To the right of the mihrab we see the mimber, or pulpit, where the imam stands when he is delivering

his sermon at the time of noon prayer on Fridays or on holy days. The mosque is flooded with light from its 260

windows. This mosque is unique in that it has six minarets.

at least during the 11th century and that the Turks knew the city by this name. Istanbul has had other names at various times but none of

them was used widely or for any great length of time. During the Turkish period the names 'Dersaadet' and 'Deraliye' were used. Some

official correspondence and coins had the transcription of 'Konstantinoupolis'or 'Konstantiniye', although the use of the name

'Konstantiniye' was prohibited at one time during the Ottoman period by Sultan Mustafa III, its use continued, to be abandoned during the

republican period.

The name controversy was assumed to be settled when Atatürk officially renamed the city Istanbul in the 1920s. It took W esterners a few

decades to accept the name, as Constantinople continued to appear on maps well into the 1960s, when it began to appear in parentheses

next to Istanbul. The Greeks still do not use the Turkish name, and Konstantinopolis continues to be used on maps and road signs in

Greece today.

Page -58-

I tried to determine the meaning of the symbols of the Turkish flag. One source

that I found claims that the crescent and star are traditional symbols of the

Islamic religion. Another source, while visiting ancient (Greek and Roman)

Side commented upon viewing a “most strikign relief...was that of a star and

crescent, the symbol of Islam, except that here , in ancient Side, it was an

emblem of Cybele, and symbolized that she was a moon goddess.” But

another source stated that:

The Crescent Moon and Star (Sun during the Ottoman Empire) are ancient Turkish celestial

symbols of power originating from the Turkish, ancestral lands of Siberia and Central Asia.

Its origins are not Arabic or Persian and it can not be Islamic due to the strict, religious

doctrines forbidding the usage of any symbols or the painting/drawing/sculpting of human

faces... these very important religious facts are disregarded today by those trying to claim the

Moon & Star as their own today.

Needless to say, the origins of the Crescent & Sun/star are in fact Turkish from ancient times,

pre-Islamic. The Turks believed in Shamanism and more importantly the one supreme Sky

God (Tanri) along side others gods like that of the Moon & Sun, when they roamed nomadically

on horseback in the steppes of Siberia & central Asia.

In the 10th century, the Turks accepted Islam on their own will and conquered the Middle East.

Within a few centuries, the Turks became extremely powerful and stretched an empire from the

gates of Vienna, Austria, Russia all the way to Spain in the west. They brought into Islam their

own free spirit, dynamism, Turkish culture, superstitions and serious beliefs as well. This is the

origin of how the Crescent Moon & Star came into the Islamic world.

The importance of the celestial bodies can be seen in many Turk epics, poems, songs, names

etc. The Crescent Moon and Star are ancient Turkish celestial symbols of power. The founder

of the Ottoman Turkish empire, Osman, had a dream of a crescent moon stretching over the

earth for which he took as a sign and made it the symbol of his dynasty. When a Turkish army

met a Euro-Christian one, the latter would assume that it was a symbol of Islam used by

Muslim people.[252, p.326]

Page -59-

Figure 127:110_Sultanahmet1

Figure 128:111_Sultanahmet_interior2

Figure

126:109_Zal_Mahmut_Pasa_garden

Figure 129:112_Iznik_tile

Figure 125:108_Ciragan_Palace

Figure 130 Sublime Port

Page -60-

Bibliography

Çatalhöyük http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalhoyuk

From the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic [Excerpted from w, Helen Chapin Metz, ed. (Washington,

D. C.: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 1995)]

http://unx1.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/593Turk.html

The Ottoman Empire Enters WWI on the Side of the Central Powers,

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/EastEurope/TurkeyCentral.html

Maps of Islamic and Medieval Christian History, http://www.faculty.juniata.edu/tuten/islamic/maps.html

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map.html

The Empire from 1807 to 1920: Dissolution of the Empire,

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=120799&tocid=44421&query=kurds&ct=eb

Dalrymple, William, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East, Henry Holt

& Company, Incorporated, February 1999.

Queller, Donald E., and Madden, Thomas F., The fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, University

of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1997.

[239] Dunn, Robert, World Alive: A Personal Story, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1956.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/State-organisation-of-the-Ottoman-Empire

[244] Toynbee, Arnold, The Western Question of Greece and Turkey, (ISBN: 0865272093), Fertig Howard Inc.,

December 1970.

[248] McCarthy, Justin, Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Ottoman Muslims, 1821 - 1922, The

Darwin Press, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, 1995.

[469] Constantelos, Demetrios, Byzantine and Ancient Greek Religiosity,

http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/Constantelos_3.html

Page -61-

Addendum: The Ottoman Empire

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/State-organisation-of-the-Ottoman-Empire

The Ottoman Empire developed a highly advanced organisation of state over the centuries. Even though it

had a very centralized government with the Sultan as the supreme ruler, it had an effective control of it's

provinces and citizens, as well as it's officials.

The Ottoman society had a ruling class called the askeri, inluding the noblemen, court officials, military officers

and the religious class called the ulema. Townspeople, villagers and farmers formed a lower class called the

reaya. This class had nothing to do with what religion one belonged to but rather meant anyone who wasn't

askeri. Nobles sometimes used the word turk for Muslim farmers and villagers, referring to them as ignorant.

Wealth and rank wasn't necessarily something you inherited, rather it had to be earned. This was not in the

case of the sultans, of course, but for most titles such as viziers and agas. Military service was a key to

advancement in the hierarchy.

The Sultan and the Imperial Law

Often by foreign ambassadors called the "Grand Turk" or "Grand Signior," the sultan was the sole ruler of the

Ottoman state, at least officially. The sultan was the government, and he had absolute power over just about

everything in his realm. The sultan came to power through succession. Only males could become sultans.

Unlike European monarchies, however, the oldest son did not automatically inherit the throne. Rather the

throne went to the most powerful of the brothers--or, in some cases, to the sultan's favorite. It did not matter

whether the prince's mother was a legitimate wife of the sultan or a slave concubine of the Harem.

Once a sultan had assumed the throne, he had all his brothers executed as well as their sons. These

executions guaranteed that there would be no future wars or struggles between claimants to the throne. One of

the reasons for the decline of the Empire was that in the 17th century, the sultans began to revise this practice

and simply imprisoned their brothers within a section of the harem called the Cage. By now, the crown could

also pass into the hands of a brother; and, since the crown was falling to individuals who had been imprisoned

much of their lives, the Ottoman state saw a succession of many ignorant and mad sultans.

Sultanic justice

In theory the sultan was to guarantee protection and justice (adala) for the people. In Islamic political theory,

the model of the just ruler was the legendary king Solomon of Judea. In addition, according to old Turkish

traditions, the ruler had to provide peace and wealth to his people, otherwise he had no right to rule. Thus, the

reign of the Ottoman sultans, at least most of them, was somewhat dependent on public opinion, and therefore

this opinion was often heard and heeded. The sultan protected his people from injustice, both on local and

governmental level, such as illegal taxation and the corruption of officials. This justice could only be

guaranteed by the ruler if he had absolute power.

In order to maintain law, order and justice for the people, a number of institutions were set up in the Sultan's

central government. An extensive bureaucracy grew up with its center in Istanbul, located in and around the

Imperial Court at the Topkapi Palace. The reach of this bureaucracy was comprehensive, with had offices in

the provincial capitals; these in turn controlled local governments.

A competent sultan would kept an eye on his officials at all times, using a vast, complex and elaborate system

of spies who would report back to the central bureaucracy. Servants and eunuchs served as the sultan's spies

in the court, constantly informing him of the intrigues. Some say that the Ottoman intelligence agency was the

best in the world until the 20th century. Sometimes the sultan himself would secretly observe Divan meetings

and proceedings of the ulama courts. Some say that the decline of the Ottoman Empire was primarily because

later sultans took less interest in maintaining justice in their Empire.

Page -62-

This system of anti-corruption laws was called the siyasa. The punishment administered to corrupt officials in

the siyasa laws was dismissal and dishonourment of one's family for lesser crimes such as accepting smaller

bribes. If the crime was of a more severe nature (such as the mustering of private armies or forcing peasants to

labour or pay illegal taxes) the official was to be formally executed. There was no pardon; no fines could be

paid as compensation and there were seldom any people put into prison.

The commandments of the sultan were called the firman. In order to prevent abuse of the peasantry by officials

and governors, firmans and taxes were always posted in public. Another important matter to locals was the

accessibility to the centralized government. The highest positions of power were available to each and every

citizen of the Empire, independent of religion and social status. Of course, it was often easier for noblemen to

advance through the ranks than for peasants with no education. Official petitions (called the ard-i mahdar)

could be brought before the Imperial Council by any citizen, even by women (at least sometimes, according to

the current trend).

The imperial government

Though the sultan was the sublime monarch he had a number of advisors and ministers. The most powerful of

these were the viziers of the Divan, led by the Grand Vizier. The Divan was a council were the viziers met and

debated the politics of the empire. It was the Grand Vizier's duty to inform the sultan of the opinion of the

divan. The sultan often took his vizier's advices in consideration, but he by no means had to obey the divan.

Sometimes the sultan called a divan meeting himself if he had something important to inform his viziers of,

such as coming war. The viziers then carried out his orders. The divan consisted of three viziers in the 14th

century and eleven in the 17th century, four of them served as Viziers of the Dome, the most important

ministers next to the Grand Vizier. Sometimes the commander (aga) of the Janissaries attended at the divan

meetings as well.

The ministers (Nazir) had not as much influence over the sultans as the viziers, but controlled the ministries

(Nezareti). The ministries and departments were important parts of the Ottoman bureaucracy. The ministries

also supplied the viziers with whatever information they required. In addition, the viziers had their own advisors

called the kahya. The most important minister was the minister of justice, the Adliye Naziri, whose ministry

included the civil judges (kadis) and the military judges (kadiaskers or kaziaskers) who were the highest judicial

authority of the Empire after the seyhulislam, the supreme religious leader of the ulema. For each military

corps there was a Nazir who had the administrative power. Under him was the Aga who had the ceremonial

command of the corps. Other officials within a ministry included the Kethüdar, a representative of the ministry

and assistant to the minister with several clerks (kalfas) under him. The kalfas did all the paper-work in the

Ottoman bureaucracy.

The servants

The sultan, his viziers and his harem was served by an army of pages who were the sultan's slaves.

Twenty-five of these served in the kitchen and in the larder. Others served in the Treasury and the Armoury,

maintaining the sultan's treasures and weapons. There were also a branch of servants that were said to serve

the Chamber of Campaign, i.e. they accompanied the sultan and his court while on campaign. The best of the

pages was chosen to serve the sultan in person. One was responsible for the sultan's clothing, one served him

with drinks, one carried his weaponry, one helped him mount his horse, one was responsible for making his

turban and a barber shaved the sultan every day.

At the palace served also a great number of stewards who carried food, water and wood throughout the palace

and lit the fireplaces and braziers. The corps of doorkeepers (Kapici) numbered several hundreds and were

responsible for opening the doors throughout the entire palace and also for execution. The chief doorkeeper

was resonsible for escorting important guests to the sultan. A number of lackeys ('ikadar) served as

messengers in the palace and the city and from one of these were the Imperial Herald (Divan avisi', literally

"sergeant of the divan") who was a man by entrusted by the sultan to various tasks, among others to inform

people who would take part in meetings of the Divan.

There were also a corps of palace guards (Zuluflu Baltaci) under the command of the Swordmaster and palace

Page -63-

gardeners (Bostanci) who also were responsible for the Sultan's luxury boat. Those taught in European

etiquette and language (mainly French) served as ''Yasaki, guards for foreign ambassadors. Also stationed near

the palace was the Six Divisions of Cavalry (Alti Bk'') and, of course, the Janissaries.

The nobles

The viziers was the core of the nobles, though they were really slaves of the sultan. Other noble families

inhabited Istanbul and often visited the court during parties or ceremonies. The clergy was another prominent

part of the court. The muftis and imams were always present at religious ceremonies, which were plentiful. The

''m teferrika'' was a sort of young noblemen's club, where the sons of effendis, pasas and other notables got

together. They often accompanied the sultan when he went out hunting.

The Harem

The Harem was one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by the Valide Sultana (or

Bas Kadin, 'chief lady'), the mother of the Sultan, and she enjoyed supreme power over the Harem and an

exquisite status in the court. Sometimes she got involved in state politics could diminish the power and

position of the Sultan in what was called a Sultanate of Women (Kadinlar Sultanati). Under the Sultan's mother

in the hierarchy came the Hasseki Sultana, the queen and mother of the Sultan's firstborn son. The Sultan also

had four other official wives, the Hasseki Kadin. Below the Sultan's wives came his favorite concubines

(ikbaliks or hassodaliks, litteraly 'fortunate girl') and then the other concubines in favor of the Sultan (''g zde or

gedik). Next in rank was the concubines of officials who were ranked below the sultan's concubines. Pupils

(acemi) and novices (cariye or sahgird'') were younger women who either was waiting to be married off to

someone or who had not yet been graduated from the Harem School.

The Harem was under the administration of the eunuchs, of which there were two categories, Black and White

Eunuchs. Black Eunuchs were Africans taken as slaves who served the concubines and officials in the Harem

and together with chambermaidens of low rank. The White Eunuchs were Europeans from the Balkans. They

served the recruits at the Palace School (see below) and were from 1582 prohibited from entering the Harem.

An important figure in the Ottoman court was the Chief Black Eunuch (Kizlar Agasi or Harem Agasi). In control

of the Harem and a perfect net of spies in the Black Eunuchs, the Chief Eunuch was involved in almost every

palace intrigue and could thereby gain power over either the sultan or one of his viziers, ministers or other court

officials.

The Palace School

The palace school was the place where the devsirme boys where trained. There were palace schools in the old

palace in Edirme, one in the Galata Palace north of the Golden Horn in Istanbul and one in the Ibrahim Pasha

Palace at the Hippodrome in central Istanbul. Graduating after seven years, the boys were ready to become

servants for the sultan or other notables, to serve in the Six Divisions of Cavalry or as a Janissary. Some of the

most talented devsirme boys came to the Topkapi Palace where they were trained for high positions within the

Ottoman court or military.

Provinces

The Ottoman Empire was divided into provinces (vilayets or beylerbeyliks eyalets). See provinces of the

Ottoman Empire for a list of the provinces. The provinces of Rumili (Rumelia) and Anadolu (Anatolia) were

under the direct rule of the sultan in Istanbul. Otherwise, the provinces were ruled by governor-generals

(beylerbeylis).

The provinces were divided into smaller divisions known as sanjaks (sancaks). Sanjaks were ruled by

sancakbeys and were divided into timars (fiefs held by timariots) and zeamets (also ziam; larger timars). Some,

such as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, were not part of a province.

Page -64-

Jews and Samaritans

One other consequence of the Assyrian invasion of Israel involved the settling of Israel by Assyrians. This

group settled in the capital of Israel, Samaria, and they took with them Assyrian gods and cultic practices. But

the people of the Middle East were above everything else highly superstitious. Even the Hebrews didn't

necessarily deny the existence or power of other peoples' gods—just in case. Conquering peoples constantly

feared that the local gods would wreak vengeance on them. Therefore, they would adopt the local god or gods

into their religion and cultic practices. Within a short time, the Assyrians in Samaria were worshipping Yahweh

as well as their own gods; within a couple centuries, they would be worshipping Yahweh exclusively. Thus was

formed the only major schism in the Yahweh religion: the schism between the Jews and the Samaritans. The

Samaritans, who were Assyrian and therefore non-Hebrew, adopted almost all of the Hebrew Torah and cultic

practices; unlike the Jews, however, they believed that they could sacrifice to God outside of the temple in

Jerusalem. The Jews frowned on the Samaritans, denying that a non-Hebrew had any right to be included

among the chosen people and angered that the Samaritans would dare to sacrifice to Yahweh outside of

Jerusalem. The Samaritan schism played a major role in the rhetoric of Jesus of Nazareth; and there are still

Samaritans alive today around the city of Samaria

Page -65-

Addendum: Invasions of Asia Minor

“Western Anatolia has sometimes been conquered, or partially conquered, successfully overland. The

Phrygians and Mysians achieved this about the twelfth century, and the Galatians in the third century B.C.,

from the north-west, coming across the Straits out of the Balkan Peninsula. It has also been conquered from

the north-east by Powers already in possession of the east and the centre of the country--in the sixth century

B.C, for instance, by the Persians and in the thirteenth century after Christ by the Turks. All these conquests

except the Persian, however, were tribal migrations, not annexations by a foreign state situated beyond the

boundaries of the country. There are even fewer instances of conquest from the west coast by a foreign state

situated overseas.

The Ancient Greek colonies of the twelfth century B.C. (on which Modern Greece largely founds her claim to

‘Ionia’) are not a case in point, for they too were planted by emigrants who retained no political connection with

the country from which they came. There were not colonial possessions of any Greek state or states on the

other side of the Aegean, and in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. they were annexed without difficulty by

the Kingdom of Lydia, the first considerable land-power that arose in the interior of Western Anatolia after the

their foundation. Soon after the middle of the sixth century, there were taken over, with Lydia, by the Persian

Empire. About 499 B.C. they revolted and received some naval and military assistance from the independent

Greeks overseas. But though Athens was not three days’ sail away, while the capital of Persia was three

months’ journey overland, the insurgents were reconquered.

In 479 B.C., however, they slipped out of Persia’s hands again, in a moment of demoralisation due to the

disastrous failure of Xerxes’ invasion of European Greece, and an interesting controversy immediately arose

between the two leading states in the victorious Greek alliance.

‘The Allies held a conference to discuss the evacuation of the civil population of Ionia,

and debated where to settle them in the parts of Greece at their disposal, supposing that they

abandoned Ionia to the Orientals. It seemed to them out of the question that they should

remain under arms for ever protecting the Ionians and without their protection they had no hope

of the Ionians successfully measuring themselves against the Persians. The Peloponnesian

Governments accordingly proposed to evict the inhabitants of ports belonging to nations in

Greece which had sided with the Persians [emphasis added], and to hand the districts over to

the Ionians to settle in. The Athenians, however, would not hear of any evacuation of Ionia or

accept proposals from the Peloponnesians in regard to a population of Athenian origin. They

raised such violent opposition that the Peloponnesians gave way.’

The result was that a war which had already lasted, off and on, for twenty-one years (499-479 B.C.)

was prolonged to fifty-one (499-449 B.C.) and terminated by a mutually unsatisfactory peace. The terms of it

are obscure, because the Athenians referred to them as little as possible and the Persians never wrote their

own history. Apparently, the Ionian cities on the mainland remained members of the Athenian Confederacy but

were ‘demilitarised’--their fortifications being dismantled and their territories declared neutral ground. No doubt

they paid double tribute to the sea and the land power which had made peace at their expense. Afterwards, the

fratricidal conflict into which Greece fell in 431 B.C. gave Persia an opportunity of reasserting her claim to

sovereignty; and then, when Athens had at length succumbed to Sparta, the Ionians appealed to King

Agesilaos to carry on the Anatolian policy of Pericles. Agesilaos landed troops at Ephesus and delivered a

series of offensives against the Persians (399-5 B.C.), over much the same ground and with much the same

results as the operations conducted from the adjacent base of Smyrna in 1919-21. Victories were gained and

territory was occupied, but with no effect upon the enemy’s will to continue the war. Finally, the campaign was

broken off by a diversion in the Balkans. Sparta was attacked by her neighbours, and Agesilaos evacuated

Anatolia on an urgent summons from his government. For eight or nine years, the countries round the Aegean

relapsed into general warfare. Then, in 386 B.C. peace was negotiated in European Greece by Persian

mediation, and the broker’s fee was a formal recognition, by all states ‘consenting to the peace,’ of Persia’s

sovereignty over the Anatolian mainland. [244, p.219-22]