THE KURDS.
Legend of the Serpents--Connected with the Medes--Tribal
Organization--Nomad Life--Saladin and the Crusaders--After the
Russo-Turkish War--The Hamidieh Cavalry--Brutal Treatment of
Christians--Arabs--Circassians and other Moslem Subjects--The
Nusairiyeh--Yezidis and Druzes.
The passion for legend is illustrated in no better way than in the
statements as to the origin of the oriental races. Even the wildest
tribes share in this, and there have come down, through their famous
story-tellers, narrative after narrative, to be taken not as authentic
history, and yet as giving after all the kernel of authentic history.
The Kurdish people are no exception to this rule. According to the
story that is told in their camps and castles, extending all the way
from the eastern end of the Black Sea to the very borders of the
Persian Gulf, and from the mountains of Western Persia along the
mountain ranges of Asiatic Turkey, they owed their origin to one of
those acts of cruelty familiar to all Eastern history.
In the capital of Persia, in the ages long past, there was a king
famous even there for his cruelty. Through many years his crimes went
unavenged. At last the gods found them too severe, and in punishment
sent two serpents to take up their abode, one in each shoulder. These
serpents preyed upon his flesh, which yet was constantly renewed by
a miracle of divine retribution, so that each morning found the body
still unimpaired. The torture of the day brought to the king’s mind
a suggestion of relief. Reasoning that his own flesh was no sweeter
than that of his nobility, and that the younger the flesh the more
dainty the morsel it furnished, he sent out among the wealthy families
of his kingdom, and gathered in all the young men. Every morning lots
were cast, and two of these were taken and fed to the serpents, that
so they might be diverted from the body of the king. Naturally terror
reigned throughout the kingdom. Fear and anger assisted the subjects
to discover a way of cheating, both the king and the serpents, just as
the king had hoped to cheat his tormentors. They reasoned that when the
first taste of the serpents was sated, an ordinary sheep would satisfy
their hunger. Accordingly each morning, lots were drawn between the
two victims, one escaped and fled to the mountains, while his comrade
suffered. This was carried on, for how long the legend does not say,
long enough, however, to result in the gathering of a large number of
these escaped members of the nobility in the mountains of Demavend,
banded together to avenge the wrong upon them and upon their kindred
against the king and all his forces.
This, according to the legend, was the origin of the Kurdish people.
More authentic tradition states that a race variously called Gutu
(warrior), Gardu, and Karu (whence Kardukas, Charduchi), occupied the
mountainous eastern border of the Assyrian empire in the time of its
glory. These were of Scythian origin, but were conquered by a tribe of
Kermanj descended from Madai (Mede), the son of Japhet. In any case
their mountain fastnesses furnished a sort of cave of Adullam, to
which every man who had a grievance came, and a rude sort of feudal
government arose. In some cases the men were followed by the women
of their families; in others they gathered wives from the plain in
their raids. Thus there grew up a race in the mountains whose hand
was against every man and every man’s hand against them. Occupying a
position on the border of several kingdoms, it was natural that they
should become a thoroughly heterogeneous community, owing their origin
to no one race and taking their characteristics from many. Still,
whether due to the method of their life or to the dominant influence of
some racial element, there resulted a very marked race, unity governing
the diversity. Thus, while the Kurds of the North are in many respects
essentially different from those of the far South, both in general
appearance and even in language, there are certain characteristics of
both that mark them all as being of one race.
Probably no absolute distinction can be drawn between the different
sections. In general, however, it is legitimate to accept the
classification of some of those who have made careful study of
them. About the only published authorities are the Kurdish history,
“Shereef Na’ameh,” published in St. Petersburg, a report to the
British Government prepared by Major Henry Trotter, British Consul for
Kurdistan, and monographs by the American missionaries. Considerable
information has been given by individual Kurds, for they have furnished
not a few scholars, and upon the basis of this information they may be
divided according to race, religion, government and mode of life, the
lines of separation not being always clear, but sufficient to furnish
the basis for classification.
Taking up first the question of race, there appear to be two general
divisions, each with two subdivisions. First comes the great Jaff race,
divided into Kermanj and Goran or Koran; second, the Wend tribes,
divided between the Wends and the Lurs. The Jaff race includes those
tribes occupying the country from the eastern end of the Black Sea as
far south as Kerkuk in Turkey and Hamadan in Persia and throughout
the mountains of Asia Minor. The Kermanj are by far the most numerous
and include the entire population as far as the vicinity of Mosul
and throughout Asia Minor, with the exception of a comparatively
small number of tribes. The remainder are Goran. Of the Wends, the
distinctive Wend tribe has its origin in Afghanistan and extends
through Persia into Southern Mesopotamia. The Lurs occupy a section
of Luristan southwest of Hamadan. If the total Kurdish population be
estimated at three and a half millions, fully two millions belong to
what may be called the Northern Kermanj tribes; about 400,000 to the
Southern tribes, and about the same number (400,000) to the Goran
tribes; while the Wends number in all about 700,000.
In religion all are Moslems, the great majority being Sunnis
or orthodox; a comparatively small portion aside from the Wend
tribes being Shiahs. They are in the main very scrupulous in their
observations of religious rites, thoroughly enthusiastic and intensely
loyal Moslems, looking upon all Christians with the most utter
contempt. They are very largely under the influence of Dervishes, many
of their leaders belonging to the different Dervish sects which abound
far more in Eastern Turkey and Persia than in Western Turkey.
The general form of government is tribal, corresponding very
closely to that of the clans of Scotland and such as is natural to
all mountainous sections of country. As a rule, the chieftainship is
hereditary, and in some families it has remained for a long time; in
others the democratic element seems to rule, and there are frequent
changes. In the chieftainship among the Wend tribes that position is
held according to custom by the man whose prowess marks him as the
leader. There are, however, considerable sections in which the tribal
organization is practically disappearing. These mostly include the
Lurs of Persia and some of those found in Mesopotamia and through Asia
Minor. This loss of the tribal character is due chiefly to the contact
into which they have come with the dominating power of the Persian and
Turkish Governments.
Perhaps the most apparent division of the Kurdish people is according
to their manner of life, nomad or sedentary. The distinction between
these is not always easily drawn. In many cases the tribes are at one
season of the year nomad and at another sedentary; thus some of the
wildest clans of the mountains who spend their summers upon the plains
wandering back and forth with their tents, are in the winter confined
within their villages and have all the general aspects of a settled
population. It is doubtless true that the general tendency has been
from the nomad to the sedentary life, and many tribes whose ancestors a
half century ago knew practically no abiding place, are now found year
after year within the same geographical territory. But one of these
divisions can fairly be said to have retained absolutely its nomad
character, and that is the Wend tribe. They live on horseback, with
comparatively few flocks or herds, and prey upon whatever country they
happen to enter.
The great mass of the Kermanj are partially nomad, while the Lurs are
almost entirely sedentary. The development of city life has had its
effect, and there are a number of cities along the Persian border,
including Kerkuk, Suleimanieh, Rowandiz and Bitlis, where the entire
Moslem population is Kurdish. In some cases these have retained a
certain tribal form of organization though not of government, but in
not a few instances that has disappeared, and to the traveler the Kurd
appears to be an ordinary Turkish citizen.
The general characteristics of the Kurds vary somewhat according to
these general divisions. The nomads, whether Kermanj or Wend, are
lawless and often brutal to the last degree. The sedentary Kurds are in
the main sturdy, but quiet and unaggressive. On the other hand there is
a marked distinction between the sedentary Lur on the plains of Persia
and his kinsman in the city of Bitlis. In general the Kermanj are the
most aggressive; the Gorans show the most character; the Wends are the
wildest, and the Lurs the most peaceful. Comparatively few have come
into contact with any form of civilization, although some of the Goran
chiefs, and even men of no particular position, have manifested ability
of high order. One of the most successful ministers that the present
Sultan has ever had, who has not only been ambassador to Germany, but
has held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and even that
of Grand Vizier at Constantinople, is a Kurd from Suleimanieh. The
editor of one of the most successful papers at the capital, before the
present intense censorship was established, was a Kurd from the same
section; and one of the most efficient assistants in the preparation
of the version of the Bible in the Turkish language was a Kurd who had
no education in foreign languages, simply what he had obtained from
Arabic, Persian and Turkish literature. No one can travel through the
mountains of Kurdistan, south of Van, without coming in contact with
men whose personal dignity of character and whose wide information
astonish him. Not a few who have known of these people have thought
that possibly with them lay the solution as to the ultimate rule of
that whole section.
Authentic history of the Kurdish people dates back not much more than
three centuries. Before that time they were simply a collection of
tribes with some racial unity, developing the idea expressed by the
legend of their origin. Occasionally chieftains made themselves a wider
reputation. Saladin, the famous Ameer of the time of the Crusades, was
a Kurd whose nomad instincts and ability placed him at the head of
the Moslem foes of the European kings. In the middle of the sixteenth
century they came under the power of the Ottoman and Persian rulers,
though the fealty that they rendered was perhaps scarcely worth
the name. Until the latter part of the last century they confined
themselves chiefly to the mountain ranges bordering Turkey and Persia,
spreading out upon the plains merely for occasional pasturage, but
within the last half century the tribes have spread east and west,
but principally west. Little by little they occupied the whole of the
mountain section of Eastern Turkey; then the mountain ranges skirting
the Black Sea; then the Taurus, until to-day they are found in varying
numbers and with some modified characteristics, yet still evidently of
the same race, even as far west as the borders of the Salt Plain of
Western Asia Minor.
The Kurds first came into prominence as an essential or at least
important element in the problems affecting the Turkish Government,
about the time of the Russo-Turkish war in 1876. Hitherto they had been
looked upon chiefly as an element of disturbance, but not of dread.
Whenever the government became more impatient than usual with their
raids, a strong hand was put forth and they were speedily brought
to terms. There was no apparent thought on their part of any united
action, or on the part of the Turks that they could be in any way made
use of.
The siege of Erzrum and attending battles on the border first brought
the Kurds into contact with the more advanced methods of western
warfare. They had seen something of it at Kars in 1856, but there had
not then been the advance made in the weapons used which characterized
the conflicts of twenty years later, and it seems to have made little
impression. On this latter occasion the Kurdish chiefs with their men
hung on the outskirts of both armies pillaging each with scrupulous
impartiality. They had no love for either Sultan or Czar, and looked
upon the soldiers, whether wounded or dead upon the battlefield,
chiefly as furnishing material for their own better arming. Two results
followed. There was a marvelous distribution of modern arms throughout
the Kurdish mountains, and a perfect revelation as to the methods of
modern warfare and the power that even they might exert. More than
this, however, there was borne in upon the Kurdish mind that neither
Sultan nor Czar was omnipotent. The sudden arrest of the Russian
advance and the subsequent evacuation of Erzrum could not in their mind
be attributed to the power of the Turk. There must be other influences
more mighty than he. In one way or another there came reports of the
great Queen of England, the Emperor of Germany and his wonderful
minister.
The author was lunching one day in a Kurdish village, not far from
Arbela, when he had a call from a Kurdish Sheikh, who asked him to read
the inscription on a magnificent pistol. He read, “Providence Tool
Company, Providence, Rhode Island.” The Sheikh would say nothing as
to where and how he gained possession of this weapon, but it did not
require much shrewdness to identify him with one of the leaders, who
brought terror to the stragglers, both Turks, and Russians, in the war
that had only ceased two years before. More significant, however, were
the questions he asked about Gladstone, Bismarck, Queen Victoria, the
Czar, etc., and especially those in which he tried to sound the visitor
as to the relations between those men and the Sultan and Shah. He did
not get much satisfaction, but his talk came very vividly to mind a
few weeks later, when a messenger from the most powerful chief of the
mountains came to the same traveler to ask, in a strictly private way,
how he could best come into communication with the Queen of England,
whom he desired to recognize as his suzerain. It was easy to refer him
to an English Consul, with the explanation that Americans had nothing
to do with Oriental politics.
The first fruit of this was manifest two years later, when the chief
who sent this last question declared open war on the Shah, and started
on an expedition that for a time threatened ruin to the two large
cities in Northern Persia. Sheikh Obeidullah was one of the finest
specimens of the Kurdish chief. A man of wide acquaintance, shrewd
judgment, boundless ambition, and fine bearing, he was evidently
fitted to inaugurate a Kurdish kingdom. He was connected, too, with
the Nakshibendi order of Dervishes, and could bring to his support the
mighty influence of that, the most powerful order in Western Asia. When
he started out from the fastnesses of the mountains north of Rowandiz
there was terror everywhere, and not a few felt that not merely had
a new element entered the conflict, but one whose power was beyond
computation. He traversed the plain south of Lake Urumia, appeared
before the city, and even threatened Tabriz. He doubtless made his
first attack on Persia, as the weaker of the two empires, planning,
in case of success there, to measure strength with the Sultan. He
doubtless hoped also to make such an impression as to attract the
attention of Europe. He was disappointed, however. His followers, with
no discipline or morale, proved absolutely unmanageable when it came to
meeting even the play troops of the Persian army, and the tumbledown
walls of Urumia. They soon became disheartened, feared lest they should
lose the plunder already collected, and the army of many thousand men
melted away like dew.
As a Turkish subject the Sheikh, under the representations from
Teheran, was taken as a captive to Constantinople. He was confined for
a time in an apartment of the palace, but managed to escape in the form
of a green dove, as the nursery stories went. He was found, however,
back in his old home, and again seized and sent into exile in Arabia,
where in due time he died.
This experience, however, had its lessons for the Turkish Government.
It was evident that there was an element of danger in the mountains of
Kurdistan, which, added to the other dangers menacing the Sultan, from
the activity of the Armenians, the pressure from the European powers,
and the general hostility to his Caliphate among the Arabs, might
easily prove very serious. Were the Kurds to join the Arabs, Turkish
rule in Eastern Turkey and Mesopotamia would be at an end. Were they to
join the Armenians the result would be equally disastrous. Such a thing
may seem absurd, and yet it was not so absurd as might appear. The one
power that seemed to Sheikh Obeidullah and doubtless to his friends
as the one to be courted, was England. England was well understood to
be the patron of the Armenians. The Kurds had little hostility to the
Armenians themselves. They were glad to plunder them when they could,
and very ready to raise the Moslem cry if it served their turn; but in
the main Kurdish and Armenian mountaineers had gotten along together
fairly well. It was the villages of the plain that had the most to
fear. Both alike suffered from the Turkish Government, both alike
dreaded Russia. It is by no means inconceivable that the two should
have united forces against both governments.
Whether this fear came to the Turkish authorities or not, it is certain
that they took the most effective way to prevent such a union.
The two things that appeal most to a Kurd are plunder and finery. If
he can appropriate other people’s sheep and goods and dress himself in
showy colors he is happy. With true Oriental shrewdness the Turkish
Government took advantage of this and sent word to the chiefs to
organize a portion of their men into a sort of irregular cavalry.
They were to be provided with uniforms and arms, were to be honored
with the Sultan’s own name, Hamid, and called the Hamidieh Cavalry.
At first there was some dismay, for it is the unvarying rule of the
Turkish Government to send its soldiers far away from their own homes
for active service. That rule was broken in this case. The Hamidieh
were especially favored and permitted to remain in their own mountains,
where they were authorized to act as police. The effect of this was to
give them absolutely unlimited opportunity for plunder. The slightest
defense on the part of the Armenians against a raid was sufficient
pretext to warrant their punishment for open insurrection, and this was
what happened throughout Eastern Turkey and even to the west, wherever
the Kurds extended. The result has been to bring out into bold relief
the worst elements in the Kurdish character. The atrocities committed
by them have been horrible beyond description. They have showed no
mercy to any. They have become so identified with robbery, murder
and outrage, that not merely have the Armenians come to dread them
as demons, but the Turks themselves often look upon them as the most
dangerous allies. At the same time their innate cowardice as well as
their weakness have been made most apparent. In every case where they
have carried devastation to places of any size or strength it has been
with the aid of Turks, and whenever the Turkish Government has really
sought to ward off their attacks it has done so with perfect ease. In
defenseless villages they have proved a perfect tornado of devastation,
but in not a single city have they unaided been able to accomplish
anything. In the attack on Harput, where the houses of the American
missionaries were destroyed, they were assisted by the Turkish rabble
from the city itself and by Turkish soldiers in disguise; but when,
as at Mardin, they sought alone to attack the city, they were easily
driven back.
The term Arab is applied in popular use to all the Moslem subjects of
the Sultan who use the Arabic language, and they are found in Syria,
Mesopotamia and Arabia. In fact a large number of these are not Arabs
at all. In both Northern Syria and along the Lebanon, the great mass
are Syrians who early accepted Islam, and are of the same race as their
Christian fellows of the Jacobite and Chaldean Churches. Thus, in the
cities of Aleppo, Mardin and Mosul there are comparatively few pure
Arabs, although genuine Arab tribes press very closely upon the borders
of all these places. Arabia itself, being practically independent, with
the exception of the provinces of Hejaz and Yemen, has comparatively
little to do with Turkish history, and notwithstanding that the Bedouin
tribes of Mesopotamia partake frequently of the general characteristics
of the mountain Kurds, they still have come into little antagonism
with Christians. They prefer the free life of the plains and are not
feared by the villagers as are the rougher Moslems to the East. The
chief interest for Turkish history connected with the Arabs arises from
the control Turkey has held, ever since the conquering of Egypt, of
the provinces of Arabia, where the Moslem religion has its center. The
Arabs of Mecca and Medina, and also those of the province of Yemen,
have always hated the Turk. The Moslem law says that the caliph should
be a member of the tribe of Koreish, and to have that high honor, so
dignified by the rulers of Bagdad and their followers, assumed by a
Tartar from Central Asia is a standing grievance with the descendants
of the Prophet and his kinsmen. Hence the Turkish hold upon those
provinces has always been very slight, scarcely more than its hold
upon any of the interior sections. Revolts in Yemen have become so
common a phrase that they scarcely attract any special attention. The
whole province is in a chronic state of disturbance, and almost at any
time, were Arabs really to exert themselves, or could they unite, they
could throw off the Ottoman rule. More important in many ways than the
regular Arabs are the Syrians. They are shrewd, proud, ambitious, love
display and manifest the peculiar characteristics of a race which for
centuries was subject and then assumed the ascendancy.
The Circassians, who are found in numbers in Asia Minor, from
Constantinople to Sivas, along the shores of the Black Sea, and also
to a considerable extent in European Turkey, are mostly the followers
of Schamyl, the famous leader who was defeated by the Russians in
1859. They are bold and daring, far more fearless and aggressive than
the Kurds and are also of a higher type of ability and character. The
Sultan listened to their appeal for protection and gave them a cordial
welcome into his domains. He appropriated to them certain lands and
then practically left them to claim possession and to extend their
claim wherever they could. As a result, for a number of years they were
a terror to all, Moslem and Christian. Gradually, however, they settled
down and then their industry manifested itself and the Circassian
communities in many cases attained a good degree of prosperity.
Naturally they brought more or less of their brigand style of life and
of dealing with them, and even the settled communities included not
a few who relied for their subsistence upon plunder. One thing may
be said in their favor. They brought their wagons with them from the
Caucasus, and have done more perhaps than any others to change the
method of transportation. Accustomed to rough roads in their old home,
the absence of roads in Turkey did not terrify them and they set to
work to make some, and to them perhaps more than to almost any other
influence was due the gradual disappearance in certain sections of
carriage by horse and mule caravan. Akin to the Circassians are the
Lazes, found chiefly in the region of Trebizond. They, however, are
of a lower grade, more brutal and less reliable, more easily led into
outrage and violence of the lower order. Their work is especially seen
in the massacres in the region of Trebizond, Baiburt and Erzrum.
In Western Asia Minor, in the mountains back of Smyrna and throughout
the generally rough country as far east as Angora, there are numerous
Moslem tribes passing under one name or another according to the
location--Xeibecks, Avshars, Yoruks, etc. They are a wild, lawless,
brutal lot, a terror to everyone in the whole region. They know no
restraint of any kind and put at defiance all law. Occasionally, when
their depredations upon the plains or villages have become too severe,
the Turkish Government has sent out some troops, but ordinarily they
have held their own in the mountain fastnesses and plundered the
villages and towns and carried into exile prominent citizens, holding
them for heavy ransom. In this respect they have vied with some of the
well-known Greek brigands, until it was scarcely safe for foreigners to
ride out an hour’s distance from the cities of Smyrna, Manisa or Aidin.
Ordinarily associated with Moslems and classed in a sense as Moslems
by the Turkish Government, yet not belonging to them really, are
three strange communities in Syria and Mesopotamia; the Nusairiyeh
and Druzes in Syria and the Yezidis in Mesopotamia. The Nusairiyeh
have their headquarters in the cities of Adana, Tarsus and Latakia,
and number perhaps 300,000. Their origin is lost in obscurity. Some
claim that they are descended from the Persians; others that they are
the remnant of the tribes that Joshua drove out of Palestine. Their
religious practices, which are held very secret, sustain the theory
of their descent from the ancient heathen tribes of Palestine. They
receive their name from a renowned leader and teacher, and their
religious system was brought to perfection by one of his descendants.
They claim to be followers of Mohammed, but are really pagans, the
claim being a diplomatic one, chiefly for the purpose of avoiding
the terrible oppression of the Moslem rule. They hold to special
mysteries into which none are initiated under eighteen years of age,
and each applicant must bring twelve men as security, and these must
each be secured by two others. He is then required to swear by all the
heavenly bodies never to reveal the mysteries under penalty of having
hands, feet and head severed from his body. It is, as a consequence,
almost impossible to learn anything from them, and one of their number
at Adana, who revealed their mysteries in part, disappeared shortly
afterwards, and undoubtedly suffered the penalty. They worship fire,
the wind, the waves of the sea--anything that manifests power; are
hearty believers in the transmigration of souls, and occasionally have
a strange mixture of paganism and Islam. They have numerous feasts,
and some of their religious rites are said to be most vile. They are
revengeful and practice blood atonement. They are thievish and tricky
to the very last degree, and their general morality is very low. At
the same time many of them manifest elements of character of great
interest, and their shrewdness makes conversation with them almost
fascinating. Their relations to the Turkish Government have always been
uncertain. They have been heavily oppressed and have been called on to
furnish tributes, but are such adepts in the art of deception that even
the government has found it impossible to carry out all its designs
with them.
The Yezidis are popularly known as devil worshippers, though this is
probably incorrect and due partly to the secrecy of their rites, and
partly to their idea of propitiating the powers of evil. They belong
to those Arabs who refused to accept Islam, and gathered in a loose
organization under a certain sheik from the region of Damascus, in the
early part of the twelfth century. Under Moslem rule they have in a
certain way accepted Mohammedanism, at least in outward appearance,
though they entertain a deep-seated hatred for Moslems, whether Arabs
or Kurds, and are in return treated by them with contempt. They are
found both in the mountains to the east of the Tigris and also in the
Sinjar Hills west of Mosul, as well as in the vicinity of that city
itself. Those in the mountains use the Kurdish language, but those
on the plains use Arabic as well. They are an agricultural people,
live in villages, and as a rule are neater and cleaner in their dress
than either the Arabs or the Kurds. In the main they are quiet and
industrious, but in the northern sections among the mountains they
are given to highway robbery, and in the Sinjar Hills, where they are
in the great majority, they are restive and hostile to the Turkish
Government. Their religious belief is very confused. They believe in
God as the Supreme Deity, but have nothing to do with Him in the way
of worship or service. They believe in an emanation from God who is
eternal, the Melek Taoos, or King Peacock, who became incarnate as
Lucifer, deceived Adam and Eve as Satan, and is one of the seven gods
who in turn ruled the world for ten thousand years. They also worship
the Sheik to whom they owe the organization of their religious system,
and various other gods. They hold to the transmigration of souls
and give a qualified reverence to the Scriptures, the Old and New
Testaments. They have a religious oligarchy composed of six orders;
the Ameer, Sheiks, and priests, who are Nazarites, having taken vows
of celibacy. They worship the sun and fire, and once a year perform
the service before the emblem of the Peacock, which is carried to the
different villages. They have no liturgy and observe several feasts.
Their relations to the Turkish Government have been not unlike those
of the Nusairiyeh, except that they have suffered more severely than
that community. In the early part of the present century there was a
terrible massacre in which thousands of them were put to death.
More notable than either of these previous classes, although much
smaller in numbers, is the sect or race of the Druzes, living in
Northern Syria, along the slopes of the Lebanon. They have about one
hundred and twenty towns and villages, and are estimated at a total
population of 65,000. Their chief town is Deir-el-Kamar, about fifteen
miles southeast of Beirut. Like the Nusairiyeh, they are generally
supposed to have descended from the pagan peoples of the land,
especially the Cuthites, who re-peopled Samaria; or perhaps partly from
the Mardis, brought to Lebanon by Constantine, with an element of the
Arabs and possibly something of the Crusaders. Their own traditions
indicate a widely extended knowledge, and in their conversation and
manners they show a certain refinement which is in marked contrast to
the other Syrian races. The reputed author of their peculiar religion,
which is held in secret by them, was a caliph of Egypt at the close of
the tenth century, who was undoubtedly insane, but who left the impress
of his ferocity upon the people. They do not acknowledge the claims of
any other religion, but allow the profession of any religion according
to expediency, and unite with the Moslem in many of his services.
So also they at times will sprinkle with holy water in the Maronite
churches. Far from being fatalists as the Moslems, they recognize
absolutely the freedom of the human will. Ordinarily they are quiet
and peaceable, but on occasion are stirred to terrible ferocity, as
was seen in the massacres of 1860, when they killed so many Maronites,
and at the present time they furnish the Turkish Government with not a
little cause for uneasiness. A threatened revolt in the winter resulted
in calling out the reserves of the Turkish army, and for a time there
was fear of a general outbreak. This, however, was averted and quiet
was restored.
[Illustration:
KURDISH SHEIKH, from the region north of Harput. Many of the Kurds of
that section were originally of Armenian origin. A great many of them
are men of considerable force of character and ability, generally
kindly in their disposition, and living for the most part on good
terms with their Christian fellow-subjects.]
[Illustration:
GROUP OF XEIBECKS; a tribe of mountaineers inhabiting the mountain
section inland from Smyrna. They are bold, reckless, rather brutal
men, famous for their marauding expeditions, in which they plunder
indiscriminately Moslem as well as Christian villages. In the
Russo-Turkish war, numbers of them were taken into Bulgaria, where
they committed the most atrocious outrages.]