Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter XIII
CHAPTER XIII.
SKETCH OF TURKISH HISTORY.
1. The Origin of the Turks. The Turks are supposed to be identical with the many and extensive Tartaric tribes scattered over the plains and table-lands of Central and Western Asia, pastoral in their occupations, warlike in disposition, plundering in habits, and nomadic in their mode of life. Their ancestors appear to have been known to the ancients by the general name of Scythians.
Like most other nationalities, the Turkish tribe have a legendary history which goes back to remote antiquity. They claim to be descended from an individual named Turk, a supposed grandson of Japheth. But their authentic history commences at a more recent date; for it was not till the fifth or sixth century, A.D., that Europe had any knowledge of the name and nation of the Turk. About that period, having migrated westward from Central Asia, the barren table-lands of Mongolia, they spread over the vast steppes now bearing the name of Turkestan.
In connection with the Armenian history the name of Seljouk Tartars or Turks are mentioned, in order to distinguish them from the Ottoman or Osmanli Turk, the present nation designated by that name. The reader is requested to remember that the Seljouks were first settled in Khorasan, the Persian province, and founded an independent sovereignty that, under the three vigorous rulers Alp Arslan, Melik Shah and Togrul Bey, rapidly enlarged its bounds, as to include the whole of Persia, Armenia, Syria and the greater part of Asia Minor. The period of the Seljoukian kingdom in Asia Minor lasted about 250 years (1045–1299 A. D.). The Ottoman, or the present Turks, are their kindreds under a different dynasty or government, as will be seen elsewhere.
2. The Conversion of the Turks to Mohametanism. The religion of these Tartaric tribes, if they had any, seems to be very coarse heathenism; owing to their nomadic life and savage disposition they could not have fixed temples and systematic mode of worship, and regular religious organization of priesthood and teaching. In their semi-savage career, not much different from the wild animals, they did not show any sign of having been in contact with early Christianity, Hellenistic revival of letters and the European civilization; they had no literature or history until they met with the Saracens, the Mohametan warriors of Arabia, and were conquered and converted to Islam in Persia in the seventh century. Finding this new religion very suitable to their nature and habits they entered the service of the caliphs of Bagdad and swelled the Mohametan armies till the degenerate commander of the faithful (caliph of Bagdad) was compelled to resign his temporal power to the new converts, who pretended to respect the spiritual authority of the caliphate. Salur, the first Tartaric Mohametan chief of importance, called his tribe "Turk-iman," the Turks of the Faith, to distinguish them from their brethren who continued in heathenism.
The Seljoukians, who were the descendents of Turkimans, and were called after the name of their leader Suljouk, established in Persia and surpassed the other Moslems of their age by fanaticism and fierce intolerance, and thereby provoked the famous crusades of the western Christian nations. After the fall of the Bagdad caliphate, Syria and Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Egyptian caliphate, but Seljouks, wresting Jerusalem for a time from the dominion of the latter, and dealing worse with the resident and pilgrim Christians, caused Europe to be armed for the deliverance of the oppressed,
3. The rise of the Ottoman or Osmanli Turks. At the death of Melik Shah, the Seljoukian sovereign, the unity of his vast dominions was ended in consequence of several candidates claiming the throne, and thus became divided into various principalities, until the irruption of the Mongols under the successors of Genghis Khan changed the entire political situation of the East and everywhere broke the power of the Seljouk Turks, and paved the way for the rise of their Ottoman successors, the present Turks.
About the middle of the thirteenth century another Turkish tribe, driven forward by the Mongol invaders, left their camping ground in Khorasan and wandered into Armenia in search of pasturage for their flocks. After seven years of exile, deeming the opportunity favorable to return, they set out to their ancient possessions; but while crossing the Euphrates the horse of their leader fell with him and he perished in the river. Upon this accident the tribe was divided into four companies by his sons, and Ertogrul, the war-like head of one division, resolved to turn back to the westward and seek a settlement in Asia Minor. While pursuing his course he saw two armies in hostile array, and joined himself to the apparently weaker party, and his timely aid decided the victory. The conquered were an invading horde of Mongols; the conqueror was Aladdin, the Seljouk Sultan of Iconium, one of the divided principalities of the great dominion of Melik Shah. As a reward of his timely help Aladdin assigned a territory for Ertogrul and his people, which consisted of the rich plains in the valley of the river Sangarius, and of the Black Mountains in Asia Minor. This was the accident which led to the establishment of the present Turkish empire, because Ertogrul was the ancestor of the present Ottoman dynasty.
4. Osman the First (Ottoman) Turkish Sultan. On the death of the Seljouk ruler of Iconium, who left no son to succeed him, the Emirs, the chiefs of the clans, divided his dominion into petty states among themselves. Osman, the son of Ertogrul, being one of these local chiefs, became practically an independent prince, 1289 A. D. His dominion as a Sultan began, however, in 1299, by the invasion of Nicomedia, the first conquest of the Ottoman Turks.
According to the native historians, a dream foretold to Osman his future greatness. While resting beneath the roof of a sheikh, whose daughter he admired, and whom he afterwards married, the sleeper fancied that he saw a tree sprouting from his own body, which grew rapidly in size and foliage till it covered with its branches the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Beneath this tree four huge mountains raised their snowy tops, from the sides of which came four rivers, the Tigris, Euphrates, Danube and Nile. Through the avenues of the valleys were seen cities adorned with domes, towers and minarets; the crescent gleamed on every spire, and from every minaret was heard the voice of the muezzin, the Mohametan crier to worship, and these voices mingled with the notes of thousands of nightingales and other singing birds. Suddenly the branches and leaves of the tree assumed a glittering, sabre-like aspect, and moved by the breeze towards Constantinople. That capital of the world, placed at the junction of two seas and two continents, seemed like a precious diamond in a ring between two sapphires and emeralds. Osman was about to celebrate his marriage with the Byzantine city by placing the ring upon his finger when he awoke.
5. Janissaries, the Furious Turkish Soldiers. Owing to the decayed condition of the Byzantine (Greek) empire, the Turks marched westward, and beginning with Nicomedia, gradually enlarged their dominion. In the year 1354 they crossed the strait of Dardanelles and set foot upon the soil of Europe. This was the first invasion any Tartaric or Turkish sovereign gained over this continent, and was also a preparation for the capture of Constantinople. This occurred at the time of Sultan Orchan's reign.
By this time the necessity of a permanent military force was felt, and the grand vizier, the prime minister of the Sultan established a corps of infantry, who, not having yet forgotten, however, the pastoral life, proved ungovernable and unfit for the strict discipline of military life. To remove this difficulty he resorted to rearing up in the doctrine of Islam the children of the conquered Christians, training them from early youth to the profession of arms, and forming them into a separate corps called "Yeni Cheri" (janissary), the new troops.
The corps proved very valiant, and continued to be supplied by the children of captives taken in war, or by those of Christian subjects. An inhuman tax of every fifth child, or of one child every fifth year, was strictly levied upon them. It has been estimated that not less than half a million Christian children thus cruelly torn from their parents, were made Moslems, and trained them to maintain Islam with the sword. Afterwards the children of janissaries themselves were admitted into regiments, thus they became a military class, distinguished by their fanaticism in religion, bravery in wars and cruelty against Christians. Through upwards of three centuries, marked by a long series of great battles, they sustained only four signal reverses. Victory and despotic rule marched hand in hand under their banner; but by the gradual advance of the European nations their power failed abroad, while their disorder increased at home and they became formidable to their masters, deposing them from the throne and raising to it, till, unable otherwise to suppress their boldness, Sultan Mahmoud II., the grandfather of the present Sultan, had the entire order exterminated by the sword.
