The Greeks, or Hellenes, have a numerical preponder- ance in the soutliern part of European Turkey, especial- Iv in Thessaly, Epirus, Southern Macedonia, and the islands, the most important of which is Crete. They .•ire the most civilized among the Christian races of 'I'urkey. Their number is estimated at about 1,000,000 ill European and 1,000,000 in Asiatic Turkey. The people of the predominantly (ireek districts expressed during the late civil war a desire to be annexed to the kingdom of Greece, and the government of that king- dom made in January, 1879, an attempt to occupy these districts. The attempt had, however, to be abandoned at the request of the great powers. The Congress of lierlin expresseil a desire that the frontier between Greece and Turkey sliould be rectified to the advantage of the former power, and offered the mediation of the great powers in case Turkej' and Greece should be un- able to agree. As this agreement was not reached, the supplementary congress held in Berlin in June, 1880, designated the new frontier between the two states. In Asia, the Greeks are fast occupying the seaports and coast of Asia Minor, from which the Turks are steadily retiring before them, and it is believed by many that a \igorous Greek kingdom in Europe would soon find a legitimate field of expansion along the coast of Asia no less than that of Europe.
The Albanians occupy the coijntry south of the Ser- vians and Bulgarians, and north of the (Jreeks. 'i'heir number is estimated at from 1,200,000 to 2,000,000. IMore t ban one half of them have embraced Islam, though it is said that many of the ^lohammedan Albanians remain secreth' Christian. They are divided into a number of tribes. Some of the most warlike mountain tribes are lioman Catholics. In the frontier districts the Albanians are greatly mixed with Servians in the north and with (ireeks in the south. They opposed with great vigor tbe cession to Montenegro by the Turkish government of some districts largely inhabited by Albanians, and de- clared an intention to o|ipose no less vigorously the ces- sion of some of their southern districts to Greece. The Albanians are the only one of the five non-Turkish na- tionalities of European Turkey which shows some kind of attachment to the Ottoman government. This must partly be explained by tlie pre<lominance among them of Mohammedanism, and partly by their determina- tion not to be absorbed by Servians and Greeks. The increasing consolidation of Servians, Bulgarians, and
Greeks will, however, cut them oflTfrom Constantinople, and make it impossible for them to remain a Turkish province.
A curious fact in the relation of the ditTcrent races that people European Turkey is the irregidar manner in which they are distinguished and mingled. '• Xo lo- cality," says Baker, in his 7'w//.yy, "can be found wliere the population is exclusively of the same nationality; but a rival race crops up here and there, and jostles its neighbors. We find, for instance, a (piarter where the majority of the pojiulation are Bulgarians; but among them in considerable numbers are Turks, Greeks, Circas- sians, and gypsies. In another quarter the majority are Albanians, but they again have to bear the friction of Bulgarians, A\'allachians, Greeks, and Turks; and so on all over the country. Each of these nations has its own language, religion, and customs; and it therefore follows that the difficulty of governing the mass lies in a direct ratio to the number of races represented in it." This irregular distribution of races has, how- ever, been considerably affected by the close of the Eastern war, when, especially, large numbers of Turks and Bulgarians left their endangered homes, and em- igrated to districts predominantly inhabited by core- ligionists. The Austrian consul Sax (in Oesterreich- ische Munafsschiift fit?- den Orieui, 1878) estimates the number of those who from the spring of 1877 to the close of 1878 changed their residence at more than one million.
II. Origin and Political ffistoiy. — The Turks are first heard of in history when they emerged from the regions of Central Asia, and emigrated, early in the Christian fera, to the neighborhood of the Aral and Caspian seas. In the Cth century they formed an alliance with the Ifoman emperor Justin 11; in the 7th they began to learn the Mohammedan religion at the hands of the Saracens. After their conversion to Jlohammedanism they rapidly rose in power and influence. One branch, which, after its leader, Seljuk, received the name of Sel- jukian Turks, subjugated a large portion of Persia, and thence spread into Syria, Armenia, Georgia, and Lower Egypt, Under Malek Shah, the grandson of Seljuk, the dynasty of the Seljukian Turks was in the 11th century the greatest power in Asia. They gradually pressed their conquests to the West, and from this time a more special and crying persecution of the Cliristians began. After Malek's death, the empire was divided into smaller states, which became rivals, and were finally extinguished in the 13th century by the irrup- tion of the Moguls under Genghis Khan. Then the history of the Ottoman Turks begins. The first men- tion of them is made at the beginning of the 13tli cen- tury, when they emigrated, under the name of Oghuze Turks, from the main body in Khorassan, Persia, to the mountains in Armenia, whence a part removed and settled near Angora, still acknowledging the suzerainty of the Seljukian sultan of Iconium. Partly at the ex- pense of the (ireeks, partly at that of other Turkisli emirs or princes, the leaders of this band, Ertoghrul and his son Othman, or Osman, gradually grew in power. Othman became the most powerfid prince in Western Asia, and from him his followers took the name by which this branch of the Turks has ever since been des- ignated, that of Ottoman, or Osmanli. Shortly before the death of Othman, in 1326, his armies took Brousa, which became the Asiatic capital of the Ottomans. With Othman's son. Orkhan. the Ottoman empire be- gins. He made himself entirely independent of the Seljukian sultan, though he continued to bear the infe- rior title of emir. During his reign Gallipoli, in the Thracian Chersonesus, the first accpiisition of the Turks in Europe, was conquered, in 1357. and all of Western Asia occupied. He imposed upon the conipiered Chris- tian nations the tribute of children, who were brought up in the IMohammedan faith, and out of whom was formed the famous force of the Janizaries, who for three centuries constituted the strength of the Ottoman armies.