Within the last few years Armenia has been attracting the attention of
the civilized and Christian world. Those parts of Armenia, which were
in the Turkish and Persian empires, have been turned by the devotees
of the Mohammedan faith into altars upon which human sacrifices have
been offered. Yea, not only the Turkish and Persian Armenia but also
the whole of Asia Minor, and in fact every city, town, and village in
the Turkish Empire where Armenians were found, the high priests and
low priests of Islam were intensely engaged in the slaughter of the
Christians as sacrifices acceptable to Allah. It is a lamentable fact
that according to the teaching of Mohammed the severer the Mohammedan
is to his unbelieving or non-Mohammedan neighbor the greater will be
his reward, and the better his position in paradise.
It may not, therefore, be amiss if we say a few words about the
original and ancestral home of the Armenians, whence they have been at
times driven and scattered throughout the Mohammedan dominions and have
become the victims of cruelty and massacre for ages.
Armenia lies directly north of Mesopotamia. It is bounded on the north
by the Caucasian Mountains, on the south by the Mesopotamian plains, on
the east it extends to the Caspian Sea and Media and on the west to the
Black Sea and Asia Minor.[1]
Its boundaries varied at different times. According to the native
historians, the country reached its greatest extent under the reigns
of the Kings Aram and Tigranes II. The former is mentioned by the
Assyrian kings, the latter was well-known in the first century B.C. “It
(Armenia) varied in extent at different epochs, but it may be regarded
as lying between lat. 36° 50´ and 41° 41´ N., and lon. 36° 20´ and 48°
40´ E.” It must have been between six and seven hundred miles from east
to west and from two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles from
north to south.
The country of Armenia was divided into two main divisions, namely,
Armenia Major and Armenia Minor, or the Greater and Less Armenia.
Greater Armenia which comprised the larger part of the country extended
from the eastern boundary to the Euphrates river, and Armenia Minor
extended from the Euphrates to Asia Minor. This ancient river thus made
a dividing line between the two main divisions of the country. Armenia
Major was again divided into fifteen provinces.
Armenia is a highland from 4000 to 7000 feet above the level of the
sea. Its surface is undulated with beautiful dells and hills, with
fertile valleys and forest covered mountains, with richly productive
and extensive plains and pasture lands, and lofty snow capped mountains
with glittering snowy peaks, piercing the clear blue sky.
The highest mountain of western Asia is situated at the center of
Armenia. It is the Mount Masis of the natives, and Mount Ararat of the
Europeans, and is of unsurpassed beauty, magnificence and grandeur. No
traveler has ever yet seen it and not spoken of it with admiration.
“The impression made by Ararat upon the mind of every one who has any
sensibility of the stupendous works of the Creator, is wonderful and
overpowering, and many a traveler of genius and taste has employed
both the power of the pen and of the pencil in attempting to portray
this impression, but the consciousness that no description, no
representation can reach the sublimity of the object thus attempted
to be depicted, must prove to the candid mind that whether we address
the ear or eye, it is difficult to avoid the poetic in expression and
exaggeration in form, and confine ourselves strictly within the bound
of consistency and truth.
“Nothing can be more beautiful than its shape, more awful than its
height. All the surrounding mountains sink into insignificance when
compared to it. It is perfect in all its parts; no hard rugged
features, no unnatural prominence; everything is in harmony, and all
combined to render it one of the sublimest objects in nature.
“The fabric of Ararat composes an elliptic figure with an axis from
northwest to southeast. The base plan measures about twenty-eight miles
in length, and about twenty-three miles in width. The fabric is built
up by two mountains. Greater Ararat (16,916 feet above the sea) and
Little Ararat (12,840 feet above the sea). Their bases are contiguous
at a level of 8800 feet, and their summits are seven miles apart. Both
are due to eruptive volcanic action; but no eruption of Ararat is known
to have occurred during the historical period, and the summit of the
greater mountain presents all the appearance of a very ancient and much
worndown volcano with a central chimney or vent, long since filled
in.”[2]
From this central plateau, the highest mountain in Armenia, the land
slopes down in all directions. On the south it inclines toward the Lake
of Van and the plains of Mush; on the east toward the lower valley
of Araxes, on the north to the middle valley of Araxes, and on the
northeast and east toward the plains of Kars and Erzerum. “Along the
line of the fortieth degree of latitude a succession of plains extend
across the tableland, varying in their depression below the higher
levels, watered by the Araxes and by the upper course of the western
Euphrates, and each giving access to the other by natural passages.
The first is the valley of the Araxes, with its narrower continuation
westwards through the district between Kagyzman and Khorasan; the
second is the plain of Pasin; the third the plain of Erzerum. Yet
while the plains of Pasin and Erzerum are situated respectively at an
altitude of fifty-five hundred feet and fifty-seven hundred and fifty
feet, the valley of the Araxes in the neighborhood of Erivan is only
twenty-eight hundred feet above the sea. Both on the north and south of
this considerable depression, even the plainer levels of the tableland
attain the imposing altitude of seven thousand feet, while its
surface has been uplifted by volcanic action into long and irregular
convexities of mountain and hill and hummock.”[3]
Instances of earthquake are not uncommon but fortunately not very
frequent. In the early part of the eleventh century of the Christian
era, King John was frightened by an earthquake and an eclipse of the
moon as forebodings of coming calamity upon his kingdom and capital
Ani. It is believed by some that the isolation of the rock of Van
itself might have been due to some violent earthquake in the remote
past causing its present separation, from the heights adjacent on the
east. “Several visitations (earthquake) of considerable severity have
probably occurred during the historical period, thus we learn that
in the year 1648 of the Christian era, one-half of the wall of the
fortified city, as well as churches, mosques, and private houses were
shattered by successive shocks, and fell to the ground.”[4]
In the beginning of the year of our Lord, 1840, there stood the
ancient village of Aicori (vineyards), happy and apparently sheltered
in the shadow of the Armenian giant. Not far from the village at
the foot of Mount Ararat were situated the old Monastery of St.
James and its numerous buildings. But on the twentieth of June, a
terrible earthquake shook the mighty mountain from its foundations.
The avalanche, of rocks, earth, ice and snow from the mountain sides,
rushed swiftly down upon the village and the monastery, the houses and
buildings already tottering, crushed them and buried the inhabitants
alive--about one thousand in number. The cities Nakhejevan and Erivan
did not escape the calamity. In both of these cities also hundreds of
houses were thrown down and thousands of lives were lost.
The following despatch will show that not only the sword and incendiary
fire of the Turk has been pursuing the poor Armenian but even the
elements of nature seem to militate against his mundane existence. May
the good Lord save him from suffering in the hereafter!
PARIS, May 17, 1891.--“The _Dix-Neuvième Siècle_ states that
commercial advices have been received at Marseilles from Trebizond to
the effect that a new volcano has appeared in Armenia at the summit of
Mount Minrod, in the district of Van, vomiting forth flames and lava.
The villages at the base of the mountain have been destroyed, and many
persons are said to have been killed or injured....”
The earliest name of Armenia appears to be Ararat; by that name it
was known to the ancient Hebrews, Babylonians and Assyrians. We are
told, in connection with the Deluge, that when the waters of the flood
subsided “the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.” “The geography
of Genesis starts from the north. It was on the mountains of Ararat or
Armenia that the ark rested, and it was accordingly with this region of
the world that our primitive chart begins.”[5]
It was generally--we might say universally--believed by all Christians,
almost of all ages, before the days of the higher critics, that the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) was written by Moses. It
is not improbable that when he composed or compiled the book of Genesis
he was in possession of oral traditions and traditional documents,
handed down to his time from these sources. It is one of these older
written accounts which states that the ark rested upon the mountains
of Ararat. Another old tradition handed down and preserved in writing
is that of another Moses. Moses of Khorene, the Armenian Herodotus,
who states that this central part of Armenia was formerly called
Ararat. The author of the Book of Genesis is accurate and precise in
his knowledge of the fact that Ararat is the name of the country upon
whose mountains the tempest-tossed vessel of the Patriarch rested.
Whether his knowledge was due to Divine inspiration, or to a historical
fact preserved and handed down to his time (it may be both), we cannot
tell. But the accuracy of the statement, which stood the criticisms of
centuries, and especially this age of criticism, had a rightful claim
to acceptance by all.
Ararat is also mentioned in three other books of the Old Testament,
namely, II Kings 19:37, Isaiah 37:36, and Jeremiah 51:27. The first two
passages are identical in import and speak of the escape of Adrammelech
and Sharezer “into the land of Ararat” after having committed the crime
of patricide. In the third passage, Jeremiah summons the forces of
Armenia to join the Medes to overthrow Babylon in these words: “Set
ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations,
prepare the nations against her (Babylon), call together against her
the Kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz.... Prepare against her the
nations with the Kings of the Medes.”
The following is from an inscription of Assur-Natsir-Pal the King of
Assyria, and the date of his reign is assigned by Prof. Sayce from
B.C. 883 to 858. “The cities of Khatu, Khotaru, Nistun, Irbidi ... the
cities of Qurkhi which in sight of the mountains, of M’su, Arua and
Arardhi, mighty mountains, are situated, I captured.” Professor Sayce
remarks that “Arardhi seems to be the earliest form of Urardhu (of
later Assyrian inscriptions), the Biblical Ararat.”[6]
The passages from the Bible and the Assyrian inscriptions show beyond
doubt that Ararat was the earliest name of Armenia, and it was not
the name of a mountain; and that the ark of Noah rested upon “the
mountains of” Ararat or Armenia.
The great rivers of western Asia take their origin from the highlands
of Armenia. The river Acampsis of the ancients, identified by some
with the Pison of the Bible, has its source southwest of Erzerum, it
receives several other streams and with beautiful windings, flows into
the Black Sea. About the Araxes, according to some the Gihon of the
Bible, I find an interesting statement in an Armenian history: “Aramais
(King of Armenia) built a city of hewn stone on a small eminence in the
plain of Aragay, and near the bank of a river before mentioned, which
had received the name of Gihon. The new city which afterwards became
the capital of his kingdom, he called Armavir, after his name, and the
name of the river he changed to Arax after his son Arast.” The river
Araxes is fed and swollen by many streams, rivulets and brooks, which
run from the sides of numerous glens, through picturesque ravines,
and mingle with it. Its tortuous course irrigates the lands adjacent
carrying great fertility, and finally joins the famous river Kur
(Cyrus) and pours itself into the bosom of the Caspian Sea.
The other two great rivers of Armenia Major are the Euphrates and
Tigris, whose identity with those mentioned in connection with the
Garden of Eden is beyond doubt. Both of these rivers also take their
origin in the highlands of Armenia. The Euphrates, whose springs
are not very far from Mount Ararat (Masis of the Armenians) takes
a westward course along the Taurus mountain chain on the northern
side of the mountain, runs north of Kharput, then turns westward, and
about forty miles west of Kharput unites with the western branch of
the Euphrates; near Malateah the river turns towards the southeast
and nearly approaches the sources of the Tigris. From this point
onward with a southeasterly course, these rivers flow and finally they
unite and pour into the Persian Gulf. The students of the ancient
Babylonian and Assyrian history and civilization need not to be told
what fertility these rivers carried along their course through the
Mesopotamian plain, and how, with numerous canals and channels, they
irrigated the land of these great empires, and became the means of
commercial intercourse with the neighboring nations.
Armenia’s claim to the possession of the Garden of Eden within her
bosom ought not to be disputed. Indeed no other country has attempted
to contend for this honor. Her natural beauty, salubrious climate, her
exuberant fertility, the fragrance of her flowers, the variety of her
singing birds, above all her mountainous bosom and overflowing rivers
through which mighty waters run down on her mountain sides and fill the
great channels, which fertilize the subjacent countries and replenish
the two adjacent seas and distant ocean in the south; all these justify
her claim, and render it almost a historical fact, that Armenia was the
cradle of infant humanity. “Ancient traditions place the province of
Eden in this highest portion of Armenia, anciently called Ararat; and
it appears to furnish all the conditions of the Mosaic narrative.[7] A
distinguished writer, well-known in this country, who had the pleasure
of looking from the top of Ararat over the countries around, makes the
following remark: “Below and around including in this single view,
seemed to lie the whole cradle of the human race, from Mesopotamia
in the south to the great wall of Caucasus that covered the northern
horizon, Mount Kaf, the boundary for so many ages of the civilized
world. If it was indeed here that men set foot again on the unpeopled
earth, one could imagine how the great dispersion went as the races
spread themselves from these sacred heights along the courses of the
great rivers down to the Black and Caspian Seas, and over the Assyrian
plain to the shores of the Southern Ocean, whence they were wafted away
to other continents and isles. No more imposing center of the earth
could be imagined.”[8]
If variety makes beauty, Armenia furnishes such a variety, making her
one of the most beautiful countries in the world; not only has she
those gigantic mountains with their snow crowned heads, looking down
upon the clouds that envelop their skirts while they mock at the air
and the winds, not only has she hundreds of murmuring streams and
rippling brooks, gliding along the sides of thousands of hills, which
swell those kingly rivers and cause them to overflow their banks; but
she has also some beautiful lakes like jewels set in their respective
caskets. The Sevan, which lies between the Araxes and the Kur (Cyrus),
occupies the center of a fertile plain in the northern part of Armenia
and is called “Sweet Lake,” in contradistinction to the others which
are salt water lakes. The Lake Sevan is about thirty miles northeast of
Erivan, and is in the Russian provinces of Armenia. The Lake Urmi, or
Urumia, lies in the southern and southeastern part of the country, and
is now in the Persian province of Armenia. These lakes and some others
are surrounded by magnificent views, but Lake of Van, surpassing them
in size, in importance and splendor, will attract us to linger with her
a little longer.
The area of Lake Van is about fourteen hundred square miles, its
surface is over five thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is
embosomed in the center of a rich and verdant plain, and this in turn
is encircled by an exceedingly beautiful, romantic, undulating mountain
chain which culminates, on the north, in the sublime monarch of the
mountains of western Asia, “The Armenian giant Mount Ararat.”
The beauty of Lake Van and its surroundings always did, and will more
intensely enchant the poets and artists--who are more fortunate and
enjoy the beauty of nature more than the rest of us. The following is
the description of a distinguished explorer: “A range of low hills now
separated us from the plain and lake of Van. We soon reached their
crest and a landscape of surpassing beauty was before us. At our feet
intensely blue and sparkling in the rays of the sun, was the inland
sea, with the sublime peak of the Subbon Dagh (mountain) mirrored in
its transparent water. The city (of Van), with its castle crowned rock
and its embattled walls and towers, lay embowered in orchards and
gardens. To our right, a rugged snow-capped mountain opened midway into
an amphitheater in which, amid lofty trees, stood the Armenian convent
of Seven Churches. To the west of the lake was the Nimrod Dagh and the
highlands nourishing the sources of the great rivers of Mesopotamia.
The hills forming the foreground of our picture were carpeted with the
brightest flowers, over which wandered the flocks, while the gaily
dressed shepherds gathered around as we halted to contemplate the
enchanting scene.”[9]
Many a scene like the above has enchanted the foreign traveler and
inspired the native authors and poets, and caused the wandering,
expatriated sons and daughters of Armenia to remember her former glory
and splendor, now marred by the vicissitudes of the ages (especially
under the iron heel of the Turkish tyranny), and in indescribable
misery to weep, like the ancient Hebrew prophet “Mine eye runneth down
with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
(Lam. 3:48.)
It will be easily understood that the climate of Armenia cannot be
mild in winter on account of the altitude of the country, which is
from four thousand to seven thousand feet above the level of the sea.
In general it is very healthful, but in winter the cold is severe and
lasts from the middle of October until the beginning of May. In the
valleys the weather is mild and very pleasant. The summer is short but
warm, especially in certain valleys, which are far away from the reach
of the sea breeze, too much enclosed by high mountains and too deep for
mountain air. “And while the climate of the city (Alexandropol) on the
Arpa may compare with St. Lawrence in North America, that of Erivan
resembles Palermo or Barcelona.”[10] The length of the winter should
not mislead the reader for neither is it uniformly long, nor is the
degree of cold the same all over the country.
The reader’s expectation of such a variety of climate, combined with
a naturally fertile soil, of a rich production both in quality and in
quantity is perfectly justifiable. Barley, cotton, tobacco, grapes and
wheat are almost unexcelled in quality; although these are cultivated
with very rude instruments and in very primitive ways. Almost all the
fruits and vegetables raised in gardens, in this country, are in the
list of the products of Armenia.
It is due to the natural fertility of the country, when we remember
the fact that the land is not only very old, and, therefore, more or
less, would necessarily decline in its productivity, but the method of
cultivation itself is also very old, started, probably by Adam, Noah
and their immediate descendants, compelled by the necessities of life.
In spite of ancient traditions, which locate the Garden of Eden in
Armenia, no explorer as yet has been able to discover it. Some signs
and symptoms, however, seem still to linger in that unhappy land, even
the curse of the flaming sword included.[11] The flowers of Armenia are
some of these signs, though they grow wild and uncultivated, yet they
are of rare beauty, fragrance and hue, and hardly are they known to the
Europeans and Americans. They should surely give a paradisical aspect
to the place and furnish the conditions of Eden.
The writer well remembers, while the snow had hardly melted away from
the ground, going out into the fields with a missionary of his native
city, who was eagerly digging up some of these flowers to send to his
friends in England. “Some slight remains of Paradise are left even to
our days, in the form of most lovely flowers, which I gathered on the
very hill from whence the three rivers take their departure to their
distant seas. Though one of them has a Latin scientific name, no plant
of it has ever been in Europe, and by no manner of contrivance could
we succeed in carrying one away. This most beautiful production was
called in Latin Ravanea, or Philipea Coscinea, a parasite on absinthe
or wormwood. This is the most beautiful flower conceivable, it is in
the form of a lily, about nine to twelve inches long, including the
stalk, the flower, the stalk and all the parts of it, resembles crimson
velvet; it has no leaves, it is found on the side of the mountains near
Erzerum, often in company with Morans Orientalis, a remarkable kind
of thistle, with flowers all up the stalk, looking and smelling like
the honeysuckle. An iris, of a most beautiful flaming yellow, is found
among the rocks and it, as well as all the more beautiful flowers,
blooms in the spring soon after the melting of the snow.”[12]
We must not omit the mention of the singing birds of Armenia, for
surely they must have performed a noble service by their melodious
music in that great assembly of all creation, gathered to witness the
nuptials of our innocent parents in their sinless state. Some of the
descendants of Adam and Eve, who are still living in Armenia, have
no other singers than the posterity of those, who sang for the first
happy pair, while in the state of their innocency. The birds in general
are numerous, belonging to various tribes “which” says the author,
above quoted, “in thousands and millions would reward the toil of the
sportsman and naturalist on the plains and mountains of the highlands
of Armenia.”
Nothing was more delightful and amusing to the writer when a child,
than to watch the armies of birds flying towards the north in the
spring, or south in the autumn, in a grand array, led by a general
as it were, until they were lost from sight in the clear and bright
Oriental sky; and even now, it would give him no little delight were it
possible, to retire into one of those quiet cottages in the vineyards
or orchards of the east and listen to the most melodious anthems of
those songsters, who were then, it seems to him now, vying with one
another to make their praises more acceptable to their Creator than do
many of our noted singers in the magnificent churches and cathedrals of
to-day.
The animals of Armenia--beside the human--are in general about the same
as are found in the United States, though perhaps the domestic animals
of Armenia, like cows, oxen, horses, mules and donkeys, sheep and
goats, are a little smaller in size than are found in America. In olden
times, the Armenian horses were as famous as are the Arabian horses
now. “The rich pastures of Media and Armenia furnished excellent horses
for the Medo-Persian Army.” (See Ezek. 27:14.)
There are some valuable mines in Armenia. Traces of old gold mines are
found midway between Trebizond and Erzerum. Some even think that the
locality of “Ophir,” from whence King Solomon fetched gold to decorate
the temple at Jerusalem, was in this region. It may be interesting to
some to repeat that the ancient river Acampsis, identified by some
with the Pison of the Bible, “which compasseth the whole land of
Havilah, where there is gold,” does really run through this part of the
country.[13]
There are rich silver and copper mines in the vicinity of Karpert
(Harput), the copper mines alone yield 2,250,000 pounds annually. There
are mines of sulphur, sulphurate of lead, antimony and silver. The
mines of coal and iron are found in abundance, but not in full use,
those that are operated are very poorly done. There is a little town
situated on one of the tributaries of western Euphrates, called Divrig,
where the writer spent some time in the two-fold capacity of a teacher
and preacher for the reformed Armenian Church, and he well remembers
how the people used easily to avail themselves of the native masses of
iron, with primitive skill, converting them into rude implements for
farming or other purposes.
There are mineral springs, hot and cold, at various places, with
their peculiar curative powers; they have become “Bethesdas” of the
invalids, and are frequented like the places of pilgrimage, by those
who suffer any ailment which may be amenable to treatment and who are
able to repair to such restorative resorts. Rock salt and salt springs
also abound in Armenia. They are especially inexhaustible in the
vicinity of Moosh. A salt stream, whose springs are through and from
the salt rocks, which would bring a good income in the hands of a wise
government, unprofitably flows into, and mingles, with the waters of
the Euphrates.
Some of the ancient and modern cities of Armenia still in existence are
the following: Van, Amid--now Diarhekie--Palu, Malatia, Kars, Erzerum,
Etchmeadsin, Erivan, Sivas, Karpert (Harput), Manazgherd, Bitles and
Moosh. The following is a list of some of the ancient cities in ruins:
Armanir, Ardashad, Valarshabad, Dicranagherd and Ani.
The largest part of Armenia until the present year (1916) was under
the Turkish rule. Since the spring of this year, the Russians have been
occupying the country, and the fate of Armenia is still uncertain, but
the hope and the prayer of all good people is that Armenia will be
free from the yoke of the bloody Turk, whose reign in western Asia and
in eastern Europe has been a curse to humanity in general and to the
Armenians in particular.
The English traveler Sandys, who visited the Turkish empire nearly
three centuries ago (about 1638) “has described with truth and
eloquence the unhappy condition of the regions subject to the
destructive despotism,” in the following words:
“These countries, once so glorious and famous for their happy estate,
are now, through vice and ingratitude become the most deplorable
spectacles of extreme misery. The wild beasts of mankind have broken
in upon them, and rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern,
and barbarous tyrant, possessing the thrones of ancient dominions,
who aims only at the height of greatness and sensuality hath reduced
so great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentable distress
and servitude under which it now faints and groans. Those rich
lands at this present time remain waste and overgrown with bushes
and receptacles of wild beasts, of thieves and murderers; large
territories dispeopled or thinly inhabited; goodly cities made
desolate, sumptuous buildings become ruins, glorious temples either
subverted or prostituted to impiety; true religion discountenanced and
opposed; all nobility extinguished; no light of learning permitted, no
virtue cherished; violence and rapine exulting over all, and leaving
no security, save an abject mind and unlooked on poverty.”
What would Mr. Sandys--this good Englishman--say if he were alive now
and had seen what happened within the last hundred years; how these
“wild beasts of mankind” again and again broke in upon the defenceless
Christians, and the barbarous tyrants ordered their wholesale
massacres; and how England protected and prolonged the lives of these
wild beasts and barbarous tyrants over a hundred years; and how
goodly cities have been made desolate and the ancient dominions have
been turned into a veritable hell by the sword and the fire by these
despots; and how England is now paying dearly for her past sins against
humanity and Christianity for defending such a lowering faith, whose
votaries defied Jesus to come and save His followers from the burning
churches, after they had set fire to them to consume the helpless
Christian men, women, and children who had fled thither for refuge from
the sword? He would have said like others of his mold--England lacked
men of Cromwell’s type.
The friends of Armenia still hope that she may have yet a bright future
before her, when peace and tranquillity is restored; that she may
yield, or contribute many valuable discoveries and manuscripts from the
old monasteries and ruined churches and furnish a fuller knowledge of
the history of the early Christian churches in the east; and that they
may swell the band of missionaries of the cross and render good to her
foes for the evil she has received for centuries.