9ina copy, 
 
 1898. 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 aP.^"^ 
 
 Clia^.._..._. Copyright No. 
 ShelfjLjSc,^ ^, 
 
 r1^ 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
Illustrated Armenia 
 
 and the 
 
 Armenians 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. OHAN GAIDZAKIAN, M. D. 
 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 i8g8 
 
-T< 
 
 l^^% 
 
 23475 
 
 Copyrighted by 
 
 Ohan Gaidzarkian 
 
 and 
 
 B. H. AzNiVE, 
 
 1898. 
 
 
 • l"" 
 
 t-"^ Ui6f O 
 
^ 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 ARMENIA -rS? ARMCNlAi^ 
 
REV. OHAN GAIDZAKIAN, M. D. 
 
THE WRITER. 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND OCCUPATION. 
 
 I was born January 7, 1837, in Albastan in the state of 
 Aleppa. When I was a young man, 17 years old, that was in 
 year 1852, some strangers came to my own town Albastan. Af- 
 ter staying at an inn for a few days, they left the city, but they 
 left four copies of the New Testament and several religious 
 pamphlets in their room. The inn was kept by my cousin ; so 
 he got those blessed books and pamphlets, and a few days after 
 that he presented a copy of the New Testament to me. I 
 learned also that the strangers, who visited our city, were mis- 
 sionaries of the American Board. I read this book or New 
 Testament always secretly in some private place. I always 
 kept it in my pocket, for fear that I would be persecuted for 
 reading it; and besides if I had read it in public it might have 
 been taken from me and thrown in the fire, because in that 
 time Armenian patriarchs in Constantinople had given special 
 command and orders to all Armenian churches all over Asia 
 Minor against missionaries and all their publications also. 
 For that reason nearly two years I kept reading my New Tes- 
 tament, which worked its wonderful result upon my heart. I 
 was convicted of my sinfulness, repented of my sins and found 
 forgiveness for my sins, and peace to my disturbed soul. That 
 Bible was the only means of my conversion and subsequent 
 happiness and blessing of my life. 
 
 After a few years, Rev. Beebee and Rev. Perkins, Ameri- 
 can missionaries of Marash, had visited my native town, Al- 
 bastan, and had organized the evangelical Armenian church 
 with only eight members, one of whom was myself. During 
 the first two years I had a good many troubles and persecutions 
 
 7 
 
from my mother, relations and also from Armenian friends. 
 A few years after that I came to Marash and studied in the 
 College and the Theological Seminary under the supervision 
 of the American Board of Foreign Missions. During my theo- 
 logical season I married a Christian young lady, who is living 
 with me yet. I was graduated from the Theological Seminary 
 in 1869 and have been laboring in the Lord's fields in Antioch, 
 Kasab, Balin and Adana. For the first two years I preached 
 in those places, and in 1872 I had a call from the Evangelical 
 church of Marash. I was ordained in that church the same 
 year, in October. For about four years I had successful pas- 
 toral work in that church, and in 1876 I had a call from the 
 Evangelical church at Adana. I preached at that place until 
 1881, and then realizing a great demand for a medical mission 
 at home for that purpose, I came to America about 18 years 
 ago, and through the help of the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., 
 and Rev. Dr. Clark, the secretary of American Board of For- 
 eign Missions, — these noble men opened my way to the medi- 
 cal department of the Vermont University where I was gradu- 
 ated in 1883. Soon after I returned home with better advan- 
 tages in healing the sick and preaching the Gospel to the poor 
 and rich. For this privilege I consider myself indebted to the 
 American Congregational churches in this country. 
 
 So how much I was glad to get that New Testament; 
 and through it I have had a good many blessings in my native 
 land, both I and my family also. 
 
 I am, as you will see, a refugee. I have with the greatest 
 difficulty escaped from Turkish barbarism, after suffering the 
 greatest outrages, abandoning home, property and friends in 
 Armenia. But I have brought with me a large family, more 
 than 18 months ago; and have had much trouble and very hard 
 time always. I am now 61 years old, not able to work out of 
 doors. Unable to practice my profession in this country, I re- 
 sort, therefore, to the only method of earning for my family an 
 honest living that I have at hand, namely, the sale of my books, 
 and my Lord's prayer chart in 12 different languages, both of 
 
 B 
 
which were prepared by myself. I wish to call your attention 
 to the testimonials of prominent clergymen, professors and 
 missionaries of American Board, and the Foreign Missionaries. 
 The following few are selected: 
 
 Lexington, Mass., 
 
 Nov. 23d, 1896. 
 To any Christian Minister or Private Individual: 
 
 I wish to introduce to your kind regards Rev. Ohan Gaidza- 
 kyan, M. D., an Armenian refugee from Adana, Asia Minor — 
 or rather, Northern Syria — where he has been a successful 
 physician, and also a preacher of the Gospel, among his people 
 in Cilicia, for more than twenty years. 
 
 He can tell his own story of the escape of himself and his 
 family of seven, and lately also of relations, ten in number, who 
 arrived from Marseilles, aided by Lady Henry Somerset. 
 
 The question now is how^ to keep the wolf from the door? 
 
 He has certain articles and books to sell. At the same 
 time, he is anxious to be acquainted with the spiritual welfare of 
 his native people in the United States, and to preach the Gospel 
 as he may come in contact with them. He will answer any 
 questions you may ask about Turkey and the Massacres. 
 
 If you will kindly, in any way you choose, give access to 
 your people he is hopeful of gaining sufficient to support him- 
 self and family, also to succeed in his purpose of Christian 
 work. I have known him for about sixteen years as an earnest 
 worker. I commend him to your wise advice. 
 
 (Signed) Cyrus Hamlin, 
 
 Ex-President of Robert College of Constantinople. 
 
 To whom it may Concern : 
 
 The bearer. Rev. Ohan Gaidzakyan, M. D., I have known 
 for a good many years in Asia Minor, as a preacher and prac- 
 tising physician, although he has occupied a pulpit about three 
 years under my care, namely, in Neegda, and he has been an 
 able and always faithful man. But in consequence of the late 
 troubles in Turkey, he has with the greatest difficulty escaped 
 from Turkish oppressions, after suffering the greatest out- 
 
 9 
 
rages. Abandoning home, property and friends, he has with 
 a large and dependent family come to America. Even now he 
 has had many months of illness in his family, and the struggle 
 to keep the w^olf from the door is no mean struggle. In his 
 efforts to earn an honorable living by the sale of his beautiful 
 chart of "Our Lord's Prayer" in twelve different languages, 
 and books, I would gladly, if I could, enlist the interest of every 
 Christian minister and private individual. I wish for him a 
 kindly and sympathetic reception and consideration with 
 Christian fellowship. 
 
 (Signed) W. A. Farnsworth, 
 
 Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. 
 in Csesarea, Asia Minor, Turkey. 
 
 Woburn, Mass., July 7, 1897. 
 
 128 Wall Street, 
 New Haven, Conn., 
 
 28 Oct., 1896. 
 
 This will certify that I have known Rev. Dr. Ohan Gaidza- 
 kyan for the past sixteen years. He is a graduate of the Medi- 
 cal Department of Vermont University, and has been practis- 
 ing medicine in Adana, Turkish Empire, during the last fifteen 
 years. He has been reduced to utter poverty by the plunder- 
 ing ofhcials of the Turkish Empire, and has been obliged to 
 flee to this country with his family. He is endeavoring to find 
 some way in which he can support his needy family, and is anx- 
 ious to gain such support in an honorable and self-respecting 
 way. I would bespeak for him a friendly reception from all 
 those to whom he appeals, and can cordially testify to the entire 
 integrity of his Christian character. 
 
 (Signed) Lewis O. Brastow, 
 Professor in Yale Divinity School. 
 
 To whom it may Concern: 
 
 This will introduce the Rev. Ohan Gaidzakyan, M. D., 
 who, together with his family, was among the refugees who 
 
 10 
 
escaped with their hves, but with the loss of all their property, 
 from their late home in Armenia, which the inhuman Turk has 
 rendered desolate with fire and sword. Dr. Gaidzakyan is en- 
 deavoring to support his family by the sale of a beautiful chart 
 of "Our Lord's Prayer," in twelve different languages, pre- 
 pared by himself, and also by the sale of a small but very inter- 
 esting book by Frederick Davis Green, on the "Armenian 
 Crisis in Turkey." 
 
 I am well acquainted with Dr. Gaidzakyan, and know him 
 to be an earnest Christian man and one worthy of assistance in 
 his struggle to make the best of his present circumstances. 
 
 I bespeak for him a cordial reception wherever he may 
 present this. 
 
 (Signed) Judson V. Clancy, 
 
 Pastor Congregational Church. 
 West Medford, Sept. 14th. 
 
CONTENTS : 
 
 Chapter. 
 
 I. Where is Armenia, or the Land of Armenia? 
 
 II. I. Who are the Armenians? and the history of Arme- 
 nian dynasty. 2. The Haigazian, the Arshago- 
 nian. 3. The Pakradoanian and the Rupenian 
 dynasties. 
 
 III. The period of the Armenian subjection. 
 
 IV. What was the rehgion of the Armenian nation before 
 
 the converted of Christianity? 
 
 V. First introduction of the Gospel at Armenia. 
 
 VI. The prominent men of the period, and the Armenian 
 hterature and Armenian church form. 
 
 VII. Missionary work among the Armenians and its results. 
 
 VIII. The Last Horrors to the Armenians in Turkey. 
 IX. The Massacre and Martyrdom in Armenia. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Armenia has generally been termed 'The cradle of the hu- 
 man race," in view of the scriptural indication of it as the land 
 of man's origin. In fact, the mention of the four rivers (Gen. 
 II., lo-ii) seems to point conclusively to the situation of the 
 Garden of Eden near the source of the river Euphrates, which 
 takes its rise in the mountains of Armeiiia. 
 
 Then there is the great and everlasting monument, Mount 
 Ararat, with which will be inseparably associated the exceed- 
 ingly ancient name of Armenia, destined, though the race itself 
 be now threatened with extermination, to immortality. 
 
 In their native tongue they speak of their people as 
 "Haik/" and of Armenia as ''Hayastan," derived from that 
 great ancestor and patriarch who formed their kingdom. 
 
 By foreigners they came to be known as Armenians, from 
 the name of King Aram, whose bravery is fittingly recorded 
 in these pages. 
 
 Armenia can trace its origin to a period three centuries 
 anterior to that of the Jewish nation, inasmuch as Haik, its 
 founder, who was fifth in descent from Noah, was born 2277, 
 B. C., whereas Abraham's birth did not occur till 1996 B. C. 
 Its people, as a whole, were the first to embrace Christianity 
 and, as narrated in the body of this work, King Abgar held 
 communication with Jesus Christ. Throughout the ages they 
 have cherished their Christian belief, in spite of innumerable 
 trials and they still preserve it unswervingly. 
 
 So we find, after nineteen centuries, the people still living 
 in firm adherence to Christian doctrine and discipline, submis- 
 sive to their ecclesiastical head, the respected and beloved 
 Father Mgertich L, the catholicos of all the Armenians, who 
 
 13 
 
now sits on the very seat of the Apostles Thaddeus and Bar- 
 tholomew and of St. Gregory the Illuminator. 
 
 We may quote here a passage from Mr. F. D. Greene's 
 work on ''The Armenian Crisis and the Rule of the Turk," 
 with reference to the adoption of national religious belief. He 
 writes: ''They (the Armenians) have the distinction of being 
 the first race who accepted Christianity, King Dertad receiv- 
 ing baptism in 2y(^ A. D., thirty-seven years before Constan- 
 tine ventured to issue even the Edict of Toleration. Their 
 martyr roll has grown with every century. The fact that die 
 Armenian stock exists at all today is proof of its wonderful 
 vitality and excellent quality. More then for 3,000 years Ar- 
 menia, on account of her location, has been trampled into dust 
 both by devastating armies and by migrating hordes. She has 
 been the prey of Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Alexander, and the 
 Romans, the Parthians, and Persians, and Byzantine, Saracen, 
 and Crusader, of Seljuk and Ottoman, and Russian and Kurd, 
 etc. Through this awful record the Christian church, founded 
 by St. Gregory the Illuminator, has been the one rallying 
 point and source of strength. 
 
Illustrated 
 Armenia and the Armenians. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STORY OF ARMENIA. WHERE IS ARMENIA ? 
 
 Having found out, during my last visit to America, that a 
 large majority of people in America are without any knowledge 
 of Armenia and its historic events, and that they are anxious 
 to know something about the country, I have intended to give, 
 hereby, a brief account about its history. 
 
 First of all, Armenia is a very important country in regard 
 to its connection with the Bible. Armenia is the cradle of 
 mankind, and the venerable mother of all other countries. 
 Our first parents were created in that land. The beautiful 
 garden of Eden, which was planted for their enjoyment, was 
 in that land. It was in this garden that our first parents had 
 their first direct communication with Jehovah. It was there, 
 that after their disobedience, they offered a sacrifice to God, 
 and out of the skins of the sacrificed animals God made them 
 clothes and clothed them. The first religious service, and the 
 first plan of forgiveness by grace were instituted in the garden 
 of Eden near its eastern gate and in the midst of seraphim and 
 cherubim with their flaming sword. 
 
 Adam and his wife, after their fall, were driven out of 
 the garden of Eden into the land of Armenia, which was full 
 of thorns and thistles, that they might till the ground and thus 
 provide their daily bread in the sweat of their face. 
 
 Our first mother rocked the cradle of her first offspring in 
 Armenia. Therefore this country became the residence of our 
 first parents and the inheritance of their children. 
 
l6 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 It was there that Cain and his brother Abel were born and 
 brought up. Cain became a tiller of the ground, and selected for 
 himself the fertile lands of Armenia, while Abel became a keeper 
 of sheep, and led his sheep on the green pastures at the foot of 
 Mount Ararat and watered them out of the rivers flowing from 
 the garden of Eden. 
 
 The altar upon which Abel offered sacrifice to God with 
 a sincere faith, was in that country. 
 
 Cain slew his brother Abel in Armenia, hence the first 
 murder, and the first martyrdom took place in that land. On 
 account of this murder Cain left Armenia and went to the 
 land of Nod in Arabia, situated on the southeastern direction 
 of Eden, and there he was settled, built cities and founded the 
 land of Midianites. 
 
 God, after Abel's death, gave Adam another son, named 
 Seth, to our first parents, and after having many sons and 
 daughters born to them, and having lived their nine hundred 
 and thirty years, died, and were buried in Armenia. 
 
 It was in that land that Enoch walked with God for three 
 hundred years, and it was from there that with chariots and 
 horses of fire he was translated to heaven without tasting death. 
 
 Armenia was the land of all the people living in the world 
 during the first fifteen hundred years from Adam to Noah. 
 
 It was in that land that Noah, the patriot, was born, and 
 for a period of one hundred and twenty years was the preacher, 
 pastor and father of the people of that land. 
 
 The preparations for the Deluge were made in that land, 
 as the Deluge, took place there, mankind having not yet dis- 
 persed to other parts of the world. One of the convincing 
 proofs that the Deluge took place in Armenia is that the 
 waters of the Deluge have left their remnants in Armenia in 
 the form of the present Armenian lakes and especially the 
 Caspian Sea. This fact cannot be refuted. 
 
 According to the testimony of the Bible the mountains 
 of Ararat are in the land of Armenia, and when the waters 
 were abated, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. IJ 
 
 After a certain time in the ark Noak looked out of the 
 window, looked over the land and found that the waters 
 were wholly abated, and according- to the word of God he left 
 the ark with eight persons, who were his kith and kin, and 
 descended to his beloved land of Armenia. As soon as lie 
 left the ark he built an altar and ofifered a sacrifice to God. 
 Then he tilled the earth, planted gardens and vineyards, and 
 of their products he made wine and drank. It was Armenia 
 that produced Noah. He lived there before and after the 
 Deluge. It is not reasonable to think that after he left the 
 ark he went to a distant place, but he lived where he was 
 before; and after having sons and daughters and grand-chil- 
 dren, and living three hundred and fifty years, died. 
 
 Gomer was the son of Japheth, the second son of Noah. 
 Togarmah was the son of Gomer, and Haig was the son of 
 Togarmah. Haig was the first prince or king of that land, 
 therefore the land was named Haisdan. He fought with 
 Nimrod, who wanted to build the tower of Babel; he con- 
 quered him, and became the chief ruler of a large region. 
 Haig was succeeded by his son Armenag, in whose honor the 
 country was also named Armenia. 
 
 It is very likely that you may think as though I am say- 
 ing these things as historic curiosities or as fables. It is 
 natural for you to say, "Well, here is an Armenian lunatic, we 
 don't care what he says." It is all right if you think so. But 
 in the way of proving what I say I want to bring before you the 
 following two points, and wait for their answ^ers. 
 
 First. The Garden of Eden was the first residence of our 
 first parents. The rivers that issued from the Garden bear 
 the same old names to-day as in the days of Adam. We have 
 them to-day in the same position and with the same old names. 
 I cannot exactly tell in what part of Armenia the Garden 
 stood, as the Deluge wholly wiped out the Garden. But 
 judging by the original source of these rivers we can infer 
 that it stood on the east of Mount Ararat. This leads us to 
 say that the home of our first parents was in Armenia. 
 
l8 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Second. According to the Bible, God spoke to Noah 
 that he would send the Deluge to the world within one hun- 
 dred and twenty years. Noah made preparations for it. It 
 goes without saying that the Deluge took place where man- 
 kind was, and, as I said before, the first population of the 
 world was only in Armenia. Therefore the Deluge took place 
 in Armenia and the ark rested on the top of Mount Ararat. 
 The traces of the Deluge are still seen in the numerous lakes 
 in Armenia, especially in the Caspian vSea. 
 
 If there are those among the hearers or readers who have 
 objections to these points, let them kindly tell them and I will 
 endeavor to answer them. 
 
 But the student of the Bible will find a great deUght in 
 perusing any Biblical and historical work, for the discourses 
 of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Moabyan and Persian 
 monuments and tablets, with the decipherment of their cunei- 
 form inscriptions, have verified much of Biblical narrative, 
 satisfied the honest doubting minds and silenced the idle 
 cavilers. Armenia indeed does not equally rank with these 
 countries in the importance of its discoveries, or in its 
 immediate relation to the land of the Israelites. Yet Armenia 
 played an important role in the drama of the history of West- 
 ern Asia in the past, and who can tell what she may still do in 
 the future. 
 
 the land of ARMENIA; IT IS THE MOST PICTURESQUE OF 
 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
 The country of Armenia lies directly north of the Mes- 
 opotamia plain. It is a mountainous country, and contains 
 all of the great river resources of Western Asia. The Euphra- 
 tes, the Tigris, the Araxes, Cyrus (Kur), the Acampsis and 
 Holys (called Kizil Irmak) take their rise in the highland of 
 Armenia and flow into three different seas, fertilizing the 
 
MOUNT ARARAT. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 19 
 
 subjacent countries through which they run. Armenia is well 
 likened to Switzerland in its relation to the Western part of 
 Asia, as the latter is to Western Europe. 
 
 I. Its general character is that of a plateau. On the north, 
 Armenia reaches almost to the Caucasian mountains; on the 
 west, the Black sea, Asia Minor and the Taurus mountains; 
 on the south, the bay of Mesopotamia, the upper part of which 
 was included in the Armenian provinces, "the Noire" of the 
 cuneiform inscriptions; on the east, the Caspian sea and 
 Midia bounded Armenia.'^ In the time of Herodotus, Arme- 
 nia must have been about 550 miles from east to west, and 
 250 miles from north to south: or about 150,000 square 
 miles. The country was divided into two parts, namely, 
 Armenia Major and Armenia Minor. The latter lay to the 
 west of the Euphrates; the former was again divided into 
 fifteen provinces. But at the time of its greatest extent 
 and power — when its people were great and its kings were 
 great, long before Alexander's conquest — Armenia covered 
 about 500,000 square miles, and stretched from the Black 
 sea and the Caucasus on the north to Persia, and Syria on 
 the south; from the Caspian and a much smaller Persia on 
 the east, to Cilicia and far beyond the Holys (Kizil Irmak) 
 on the west, but also including old Midia. 
 
 Armenia is a highland from 4,000 to 7,000 feet above 
 the level of the sea. Its surface is undulating, with beauti- 
 ful dells and hills, with fertile valleys and forest-covered 
 mountains, with fecundant 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 centre of Armenia. It is 
 Mount Masis of the natives, and ]Mount Ararat of the Euro- 
 peans, which is of unsurpassing beaut}', magnificance and 
 
 *Pliny agrees with the Armenian historians in bringing tihe eastern 
 boundary to tlie Caspian sea, and Herodotus malies Armenia border on Cap- 
 padoeia and Cilicia on the west, stating that "this stream (the Holy river) 
 rises in the mountainous country of Armenia." 
 
20 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 grandeur. No traveller has yet ever seen it and not spoken 
 of it in admiration. 'The impression made by Ararat upon 
 the mind of every one who has any sensibility of the stupen- 
 dous works of the Creator, is wonderful and overpowering; 
 and many a traveller of genius and taste has employed both 
 the power of the pen and of the pencil in attempting to por- 
 trav this impression. But the consciousness that no descrip- 
 tion, 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 difhcult to avoid 
 the poetic in expression and the exaggerated in form, and 
 confine ourselves strictly within the bounds 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 feature, no unnatural promi- 
 nence; everything is in harmony, and all combined' to render 
 it one of the sublimest objects in nature." 
 
 Mount Masis or Ararat is situated on the wide and fertile 
 plain, which is watered by the Araxes with its tributaries. 
 This river traverses the plain, running on the north of the 
 mountain, and fertilizes the plain which it dotted by numer- 
 ous villages. This plain is, in fact, a plateau about 7,000 
 feet above the level of the sea. The mountain still rises 
 over 10,000 feet higher than the plain, thus making its total 
 height over 17,000 feet from the sea level. It is, therefore, 
 perpetually covered with snow ice that dazzles in splendor 
 the eyes of the spectators.^' 
 
 Mount Ararat and other mountains have been visited at 
 times by violent earthquakes and eruptions. Though Mount 
 Masis itself is formed of volcanic rocks, no record of its vol- 
 canic activities is preserved for us by the ancients. How- 
 
 *Sir Layerd saw the mountain from a distance of about 145 miles on 
 the south side of it; and a German traveller from the Caucasian mountains 
 on the north, a distance of 150 miles. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 21 
 
 ever, a German traveller makes mention of his seeing a ter- 
 rifying sight more than a century ago; and says, "Some dis- 
 tant southern volcanoes, or Ararat itself (the terrible gorge 
 of which, distant from Caucasus in a straight line 150 miles, 
 one can hardly look at without shuddering; and which, on 
 the 13th of January and 22d of February, 1783, began again 
 to throw out smoke and fire) must have burned the top of 
 Caucasus, and thrown upon it those mineral ashes.'' 
 
 In the year 1840, on the 20th of June, a terrible earth- 
 quake shook the foundation of the mighty mountain. The 
 monastery of St. James and the villages of Aicuri were buried 
 in the ruins; and the inhabitants of the villages, about one 
 thousands in number, were buried alive. The towns of 
 Nakhjevan and Erevan did not escape the calamity. In both 
 of these towns hundreds of houses were thrown down; 
 and thousands of human beings, unexpectedly, within a few 
 minutes were swept out of their earthly existence. 
 
 Undoubtedly such calamities must have been repeated 
 in the past; but we are not informed concerning them bv 
 the ancient visitors. But sad it is still to hear such news as 
 the following: 
 
 "Paris, May 17th, (1891), The Dix Neuwine Sircle, 
 states that commercial advices have been received at Mar- 
 seilles from Trebizond to the eflect that a new volcano has 
 appeared in Armenia at the summit of ?\lount Ximrod, 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 fugitives are camping outside the range of destruction. 
 They are almost entirely destitute, and the greatest misery 
 prevails among them.'' 
 
 The earliest name of Armenia, by which it was known 
 to the ancient Hebrew and Assyrian writers, was Ararat. 
 We are told, in connection with the Deluge, that when the 
 waters of the great flood subsided, "the ark" of Noah "rested 
 upon the mountains of Ararat." The language of the Bible 
 
22 ILLUSTR4TED ARMENIA 
 
 is both accurate and precise: — not upon Mount Ararat, as 
 it is generally and incorrectly said and written by many — but 
 upon the mountains of Ararat. 
 
 The author of the book of Genesis is accurate in his ex- 
 pression and precise in his knowledge of the fact that Ararat 
 is the name of the country upon whose mountains the tm- 
 pest-tossed vessel of the patriarch rested. Whether his 
 knowledge was the result of Divine inspiration, or is a his- 
 torical fact, preserved and handed down to the author's time, 
 we cannot tell. The accuracy of the statement, however, 
 which stood the criticisms of centuries, and especially this 
 age of criticism, has a rightful claim to its acceptance by all. 
 
 The following is a specimen of such absurdities and 
 blunders so often ignorantly, or by carelessness, committed. 
 
 A traveller, well known in this country, writes to one 
 of the daily papers as fohows: "At daylight we were in a 
 broad flat valley, lying between the greater and the lesser 
 Caucasus. The latter, to our south, lifted not far off, from 
 twelve to fifteen thousand feet, and were clothed in snow. 
 In the far distance were others. I saw a sharp, conical 
 burnished peak, which I took to be Ararat. I could not help 
 thinking what a hard time the mighty line of living things 
 had when marching by twos, male and female,, from those 
 cold, bleak heights down into the plains below, after the 
 great flood had subsided; and what a time good old Noah 
 must have had to keep some of his warm-blooded pets from 
 freezing on that lofty sixteen-thousand-feet-high pinnacle. 
 What a pity our theologians do not boldly preach that the 
 Bible is a mighty system of truth, but that its truths came 
 to us clothed in Oriental legend and fable: — that the truth 
 is there, pure and undefiled, as the grain is pure and uncon- 
 taminated by the chaff in which it is housed, instead of try- 
 ing to make a reasoning world swallow the chaff for solid 
 kernels." 
 
 Undoubtedly our honorable traveller will claim to belong 
 to that "reasoning world" of which he speaks. But if all 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 22^ 
 
 who make up that "reasoning world" will reason as he does, 
 namely, take that erroneous expression of the common peo- 
 ple, and call that highest mountain peak — which is over sev- 
 enteen thousand feet from the sea level — Mount Ararat, and 
 add to this error, or comparatively modern designation, 
 another, namely, that the ark of Noah rested upon this moun- 
 tain; then turn around and condemn the Bible as an "Orien- 
 tal legend and fable," it must be said that this kind of "rea- 
 soning" of the so-called "reasoning world," is absurdity, and 
 not reasoning at all. 
 
 Ararat is mentioned in three other books of the Old 
 Testament, beside the above, in connection with the flood: 
 2 Kings xix: 37; Isaiah xxxvii: 38; and Jeremiah li: 27. 
 None of these passages speak of it as a mountain, but as a 
 country. The first two passages, identical in import, speak 
 of the escape of Adrammelch Sharezer "into the land of 
 Ararat," after having committed the crime of assassinating 
 their own father, Sennacherib. 
 
 The prophet Jeremiah summons the forces of Armenia 
 to combine with the Medes to overthrow Babylon, in these 
 words: 
 
 "Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trirm- 
 pet among the nations, prepare the nations against her 
 (Babylon); call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, 
 Minni and Ashchenaz. 
 
 "Prepare against her the nation with the things of the 
 Medes." Li: 27, 28. 
 
 The following is from an inscription of Assur-Natsir- 
 Pal, the King of Assyria; and the date of his reign is assigned 
 by Professor Sayee, from B. C. 883 to B. C. 858. 
 
 "The cities of Khatu, Khartaru, Nestum, Irbiri, Mitqia, 
 Arzonia, Tela (and) Khalua, the cities of Qurkhi, which in 
 sight of the mountains of U'su, Arua (and) Arardhi mighty 
 mountains are situated, I captured." Professor Sayee 
 remarks that "Arardhi seems to be the earliest form of Arar- 
 
24 
 
 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 dher (of later Assyrian inscription), the Biblican Ararat." 
 (Records of the Past, Vol. 2, page 140.) 
 
 These passages from the Bible and the Assyrian inscrip- 
 tion, show, beyond doubt, that Ararat was the earliest name 
 of Armenia, and it was not the name of mountain; and 
 finally, that the ark of Noah rested upon the mountains of 
 Ararat or Armenia. Thus the history of the human race 
 besfan anew from the land of Ararat. 
 
 II. It has been said that the great rivers of Western Asia 
 take their origin from the highlands of Armenia: Euphrates, 
 Tigris, Pison, Araxes and many others from the jewels of 
 her crown. These rivers penetrate to every corner of the land, 
 traverse many hundreds of miles to give life to the field, the 
 vineyards and the orchards, to turn the mills. The river 
 Acampus of the ancients identified by some with the Pison 
 of the Bible, has its sources from the southeast of Erzurun. 
 It receives several streams and with beautiful winding flows 
 into the Black Sea. About the Arapes, according to some 
 the Gihon of the Bible, there is 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 Ara- 
 gay, and near the bank of ariverbefore mentioned, which 
 had received the name of Gihon. 
 
 The new city, which afterwards became the capitol of 
 his Kingdom he called Armatvir after his name, and the 
 name of the river he changed to Arat, after his son Arast."' 
 
 The river Arakes 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. 
 Along its tortuous course it carries a great fertility, and finally 
 mingles with no less than the- famous river Cyrus (Ker) and 
 pours itself into the bosom of the Caspian Sea. 
 
 The two rivers of Armenia are the Euphrates, and Tigris, 
 whose identity with those mentioned in connection with the 
 Garden of Eden is beyond doubt. Both of these rivers take 
 their origin from the highlands of Armenia. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 25 
 
 The Euphrates from the springs, which are not very far 
 from Mount Misis (Ararat so-called), takes a westward course 
 along the Taurus mountain chain on the northern side 
 of the mountain. Near ]\Ialatiyeh the river turns towards 
 the southeast and approaches the source of the Tigris, but 
 within a few miles distance. From this point onward, with 
 a southeasterly course, these rivers flow and finally they unite 
 and pour into the Persian Gulf. 
 
 The student of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian 
 history and civilization knows what fertility these rivers car- 
 ried along their course through the Mesopotamian plain and 
 hold with numerous canals and channels, they irrigated the 
 land of the Great Empires and became the means of commer- 
 cial intercourse with the neighboring nations. 
 
 The claim of Armenia to the possession within its 
 bosom of the Garden of Eden ought not to disputed. No 
 country, indeed, has attempted to contend with Armenia 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 breasts from which the mighty water run down 
 on her sides and fill the great channels of those rivers which 
 fertilize the subjacent counties and replenish the three ad- 
 jacent seas, all these do 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 the highest portion of Armenia, anciently called Ararat, 
 and it appears to furnish all the conditions of the Mosaic 
 narrative." 
 
 If variety makes beauty, x\rmenia furnishes such a va- 
 riety, making her one of the finest 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 the ambient air and the wind, 
 not only has she hundreds of murmuring streams and rip- 
 pling brooks gliding along the sides of thousands of hills 
 
2(i ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 which swell those kingly rivers and cause them to overflow 
 their banks, but, she also has some beautiful lakes, like jew- 
 els set in their respective caskets. The lake of Sevan, which 
 Hes between the Arapes and the Cyrus rivers, occupying the 
 centre of a fertile plain of the northern part of Armenia, is 
 called ''Street lake," in contradistinction to the others, which 
 are salt-water lakes. Lake Sevan, near the city of 
 Erevan, is now in the Russian provinces of Armenia. The 
 lake of Ormi or Orumiah, lies in the southern part of the 
 country, now in the provinces of Armenia. 
 
 These lakes and some others are surrounded by roman- 
 tic views and poetic scenery, but the lake of Van, surpass- 
 ing them in size, in importance, and splendor, causes us with 
 her to linger a little longer. 
 
 The area of Lake Van is about fourteen hundred square 
 miles, its surface is over five thousand feet high above the 
 sea. It is embosomed at the centre of a verdant and rich 
 plain, which plain also is encircled by an exceedingly beau- 
 tiful, romantic, undulating mountain chain, which culminates 
 on the north in the sublime monarch of mountain of West- 
 ern Asia, Mount Massis (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 language of a dis- 
 tinguished 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 sublime peak of the Subbon 
 Dagh (Mountain) mirrored in its transparent v/aters. 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 mid- 
 way into an ampitheatre in which amid lofty trees stood the 
 Armenian Convent of Seven Churchs. To the west of the 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 2^ 
 
 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 
 brightest flowers, over which wandered the flocks, while the 
 gaily dressed shepherds gathered around us as wx halted to 
 contemplate the enchanting scene.''* 
 
 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 majestic beaut}^ and splen- 
 dor, but marred by the vicissitudes of the ages and especially 
 under the iron heel of the present tyrant, her indescribable 
 misery, and weep like Jeremiah, "Mine eye runneth down 
 with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my 
 people." (Lamentations, 3-48.) 
 
 III. The climate of Armenia is the very healthiest in the 
 world; I do not say one of the healthiest, but the very 
 healthiest. The climate is excellent all the year round, and 
 though the winters are severe and much of the country is 
 covered with snow, yet on account of the elevation, which is 
 from four thousand to seven thousand feet above the level 
 of the sea, and in latitude 35° to 42°, or say from North 
 Carolina to Massachusetts. It might easily have been under- 
 stood 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 healthy, but in winter the cold is 
 severe, and it lasts from the middle of October until the be- 
 ginning of May. But the air is dry, pure and agreeable always 
 in the whole year, a preventative of disease, and conducive 
 to languity. The dread disease, consumption, does not ex- 
 ist there, while dyspeptics, if any are to be found, must have 
 been imported. The perfect type of physical vigor is to be 
 seen there. 
 
 In the valleys the weather is a good deal milder and very 
 * Layard's " Nineveh and Babylon," pages 333-4. 
 
28 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 pleasant. The summer is short, but warm and dry; this 
 especially is so in certain valleys, which are far away from 
 the reach of the sea breeze, too much enclosed by high moun- 
 tains and too deep for the mountain breeeze, for neither is it 
 uniformly long, nor is the degree of warm weather the same 
 all over the country. Generally the people of Armenia in 
 all the ages are tall, powerful, ruddy cheeked, full of endur- 
 ance and energy, shrewd and honest too. They are longer 
 lived than any other people of countries. I know a good 
 many people in Armenia Hved from 80 to 125 years of age. 
 They are full of life and they are greatly enjoyed in that 
 country. The most of the American missionaries in Armenia 
 would be sure to echo these words. A returned missionary 
 gave a striking testimony to this efifect. He was addressing 
 and lecturing in this country as follows: — "Before 
 I became a missionary, I had very poor health; most of my 
 family died of hereditary consumption, and I was attacked by 
 it. My house physicians strongly protested against my be- 
 coming a missionary, saying that if I went to a foreign land 
 I would grow worse, and probably die there, but I paid no at- 
 tention to this; I presumed they were right, but I was deter- 
 mined to go anyway, and if I must die, to die in my chosen 
 work. When I offered myself to the American Board, I was 
 allotted to Armenia, and thither I went. My disease disap- 
 peared and now I am as healthy as any missionary in the world. 
 You see how stout and vigorous I look, and I do not expect 
 to die soon. But I feel sure that if I had stayed in America to 
 save my Ufe, I should have lost it before this time." He is still 
 living in Armenia, and I hope will live to be over a hundred, 
 as many of the natives do there. 
 
 The reader will smile at all this as the patriotic boastful- 
 ness of an Armenian, and say, perhaps, that he can make as 
 fabulous declarations for his land, wherever he may be; but 
 such claims cannot be substantiated by records and personal 
 observations as these for Armenia can. Take the Bible ; some 
 of the patriarchs lived to be 600, 700, 800 — one even 969 ; if in- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 29 
 
 deed he ever died a natural death; some were taken up to heaven 
 without knowing death; and all these long lives, as will be 
 shown, were lived in Armenia. God's judgment was good. 
 He did not create man in America, Europe, or India, or any- 
 where but in Armenia. He came down there from 
 Heaven, planted the Garden of Eden there, and from the dust 
 of that land created the first man. When the race had become 
 sinful and only Noah's family were preserved, the ark was not 
 brought to rest on the Rockies, the Alps, or the Himalayas, 
 but on Ararat in Armenia. 
 
 The natural resources in Armenia are very rich. 
 The mineral wealth of Armenia is very great; but like the 
 other potential riches of the Turkish Empire, it profits nobody, 
 not even the greedy despot, whose word is death. Gold, sil- 
 ver, copper, iron, and minor metals, besides marble and other 
 beautiful stones, are present in abundance. 
 
 The reader might well have anticipated that a mountain- 
 ous country might possess some other valuable things beneath 
 the surface. Such an anticipation is decidedly justifiable 
 when we remember the fact that the mines of Armenia are 
 rich, numerous and varied. 
 
 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 decor- 
 ate the temple, was in this region. It may be interesting to 
 some to mention that the ancient river Acampsis, identified bv 
 some with the Pisom of the Bible, "which compasseth the 
 whole land of Havilah, where there is gold/" does really run 
 through this part of the country. About three miles from 
 Marsahan is a mountain caller Tarshan Dagh (rabbit moun- 
 tain), rich in gold; another in central Turkey is a mountain 
 called Baalgar Dagh, among the Taurus mountains very 
 rich in gold and many years since, are used by Turkish Em- 
 pire. 
 
 There are very rich silver and copper mines in the vicinity 
 of Harput (Harpoot), the copper mines alone annually yield 
 
30 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 two million two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. There 
 are rare mines of sulphur, sulphuret of lead, antimony, and 
 silver. The mines of iron and coal are found in abundance, 
 but the coal mines are entirely neglected and the iron and 
 other mines are very, poorly operated. There is a little town 
 situated among the Tauraus mountains called Zeitoon; about 
 ten miles from Zeitoon is a mountain called Beraut Digh, 
 rich in soft and abundant iron mines. The people of Zeitoon 
 almost live through that iron mine. 
 
 The mineral springs, hot and cold, at various places 
 with their peculiar curative powers, have become the "Beth- 
 esdes" of the invalids, and are frequented, like the places of 
 pilgrimage, by those who sui¥er anyq ailment and are able to re- 
 pair 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 
 from the salt rock, which would bring a good income in the 
 hands of a wise governor, unprofitably flows into and mingles 
 with the waters of the Euphrates. 
 
 The country has all the old fertility which made Asia 
 Minor under the Byzantine Empire the garden of the world, 
 till the Turks half turned it into a desert, as they do every spot 
 accursed by their presence. 
 
 Such a variety of climate combined with a naturally fertile 
 soil will produce a vegetation rich in quantity and splendid 
 in quality. There are indeed, a very few large forest and 
 timber lands left on account of their being inaccessible to the 
 people and for want of good roads. The government is en- 
 tirely indifferent, but in cultivating or protecting the people 
 who would cultivate such forest trees for the two-fold use of 
 them as timber and fuel. Consequently the people sufifer very 
 much for the want of these, especially is this true in certain dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 But such vegetations as wheat, barley, cotton, tobacco 
 and grapes, and every kind of fruits are almost unexcelled in 
 quality. The matermilons raised on the banks of the Eu- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 3I 
 
 phrates and the Tigris are the largest and sweetest of their kind; 
 two melons are sometimes a camel's load. It is impossible 
 for a family to use the whole of such a melon, which has to be 
 cut up and sold in pieces. The grapes, either fresh or in the 
 shape of wine or raisins and dried as raisins exceed in size the 
 plumpest grapes of other lands. Nearly everything is raised 
 or grows wild in Armenia which is to be had in the Northern 
 or Southern States of America, though of course, each country 
 has some things peculiar to itself. The products of the North 
 are paralleled by those of the rugged picturesque highlands of 
 North Turkish and Russian Armenia, with their cold snowy 
 winters, short, hot summer, and mild intervening season; those 
 of the South find their counterparts from the. rich upland val- 
 leys, or the lowlands plains needing irrigation, of Kurdistan and 
 Persian Armenia, with its semi-tropical climate, and alterna- 
 tions of wet and dry seasons. The Indian corn and oats and 
 rice are raised, and sugar is made in the Persian port. In the 
 fields and gardens you can find not only the wonderful mel- 
 ons I have just spoken of, but pumpkins and squashes, lettuce 
 and egg plant, and indeed most of the vegetables that come 
 to an American table. As to fruits, all that you know we 
 know also, only of finer flavors. Asia Minor is the original 
 home of the quince, the apricot, and the nectarine, and I be- 
 lieve of the peach too ; while our apples, pears, and plums are 
 incomparable, the muscot apple of Amassea are exceptional 
 even there. After eating them, one hardly wonders that 
 Adam and Eve could not resist the temptation of doing the 
 same, at the cost of innocence and Eden. The pears of Mal- 
 atiah keep them company ; and the quince grows sometimes as 
 large as a man's head. Another fruit equally important is the 
 mulberry for silk-worms. The olive andfig are cultivated and 
 also grow wild, and filberts and walnuts can be gathered any- 
 where in the woods, as well as orchards; of course not the 
 American "hickory nuts," but the "English walnuts" of the 
 groceries. 
 
 The fertility of the country is unquestionable when we 
 
32 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 remember the fact, that not only the country is very old and 
 therefore more or less would naturally decline in its produc- 
 tivity, but the method of cultivation itself is also very 
 old, started by Adam, Noah and Abraham, and their 
 immediate descendants, compelled by the necessities of life. 
 
 It has been said ancient traditions place the province of 
 Eden in Armenia, Such a statement itself might have aroused 
 an expectation in the mind of the reader to know something 
 about the environment and conditions which will give a parad- 
 isaical aspect to a place. The flowers of Armenia will, not 
 a httle, contribute to this aspect, wdiich, though growing wild 
 and uncultivated, are of rare beauty, fragrance and hue, and 
 hardly known to the Europeans and American. 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 produc- 
 tion was called in Latin bananea, or philipea coccinea, a para- 
 site 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 flow^er and the 
 stalk and all the parts of it resemble crimson velvet; it has 
 no leaves; it is found on the side of the mountains near 
 Erzerum, often in company with Morans orentalis, a remark- 
 able 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. 
 
 In regard to the singing birds of Armenia v/e do not 
 attempt to say much, but undoubtedly must they have per- 
 formed a noble service, by their melodious music in that great 
 assembly of all creation, gathered to witness the nuptials of 
 our innocent parents. 
 
 Many of the children of Adam and Eve even now do not 
 have any other musicians than the same. The birds in general 
 are numerous, belonging to various tribes, "which,'' sa.ys the 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 33 
 
 author above quoted, "in thousands and milhons, would re- 
 ward the toil of the sportsman and the naturalist on the plains 
 and mountains of the highland 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 with spring, or south in the autumn in a beautiful 
 array, led by a general, as it were, until they were lost out of 
 sight in the clear and bright Oriental sky ; nor even now would 
 it give him little delight, if it were possible, to retire into one 
 of those solitary watchmen's cottages in the vineyards and or- 
 chards of the East and listen to the most melodious anthems 
 of those songsters, who were then, it seems to him now, vying 
 more with each other to render their praises acceptable to 
 their Creator than many of our noted singers in the magnifi- 
 cent churches and cathedrals. 
 
 The animals that are generally found in a temperate 
 climate like the climate of the Northern states are also com- 
 mon in Armenia. In the days of old the Armenian horses 
 were as famous as are the Arabian horses now. The rich 
 pastures of IMedia and Armenia furnished excellent horses 
 for the Medo-Persian army. See also (Ezekiel xxvii, 14). 
 
 According to the rule of Sultan Hamid II. there is no 
 land of Armenia at all in that district. 
 
 The present Sultan forbids the use of the name altogether, 
 and insists on the district being termed Kurdistan, or called 
 by the names of its vilayets, Diarbekr, Van, Erzroom, Harpoot, 
 etc. Alany maps do not have the name Armenia at all. But 
 the reader knows and we know the name of Armenia has been 
 used more than four thousand years to that district ; at the same 
 time some of the ancient cities of Armenia are still in existence, 
 however, not in their former magnificence, and some are in 
 complete ruins. 
 
 A_mong the former. Van, Amid, now Diarbekr, Erevan, 
 Alalatiyeh, Palu, and Alanazghert mieht be mentioned; among 
 the latter, Armavir, Ardashad, A'alarshabad, Dicranaghert, Ani 
 and others are mentioned. There are yet other cities, some of 
 
34 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 them not of equal antiquity with some of the above named, 
 but of great importance, both in the past and in the present 
 time. These are Kars, Erzroom, or Erzerum, Moosh, BitUs, 
 and Karpert (Harpoot). 
 
 The ancient Armenia is now divided among three powers : 
 The northern part, from Botoum on the Black Sea to Baker on 
 the Caspian — the river Araxes being the boundary to near 
 Mt. Ararat — belong to Russia; the southeastern course of the 
 river of Araxes from near Mt. Ararat to Persia. The western 
 from Mt. Ararat to the Black Sea and the Kizil-Irmak and the 
 whole western part of Asia Minor, which is larger than the 
 other two, is under the Turkish Empire, consequently some of 
 the cities mentioned above are in the Russian provinces of 
 Armenia, but the most of them are in Turkish Armenia. 
 
 The English traveler, Sandys, who visited the Turkish 
 Empire over two centuries and a half ago, has described with 
 truth and eloquence the unhappy condition of the regions sub- 
 ject to its 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, pos- 
 sessing the thrones of ancient dominion, 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 ser- 
 vitude 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 became ruins, glorious temples, 
 either subverted or prostituted to impiety; true religion dis- 
 countenanced 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 unlocked for poverty." 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 35 
 
 What an immense wealth yet Hes in the entrails of Armenia; 
 a ruler that loves the well-being of his subject, and loves to 
 know both the condition of the country and of the people, in- 
 stead of struggling for existence in extreme poverty would 
 render both his government wealthy and his people happy, 
 having in possession such a country as Armenia and other 
 parts of the empire. But Turkish rulers have been destitute 
 in prudence and have gloried in cruelty, deceitfulness and ex- 
 action. Had the long expected and delusively-promised re- 
 forms of the Turkish government been fulfilled, then would 
 we have unfolded this wealth to the world. 
 
 Several years ago, when the missionaries of the American 
 Board were organizing the college for the education of the 
 Armenian young people at Harpoot, now so bloodily famous, 
 they named it Armenia college; but the present sultan for- 
 bade it on the ground that there was no longer an Armenia, 
 and the use of the name would encourage the Armenians to 
 revolt. The missionaries were forced to change the name to 
 Euphrates college. If any Turkish subject uses the word of 
 Armenia he is fined and imprisoned; if it is used in any book 
 the book is confiscated and the author banished or killed. The 
 study of Armenian history is forbidden to the Armenians; 
 they must be kept in ignorance about their own land so that 
 many of them do not know where Armenia was or what Ar- 
 menia is. A letter directed to any person or place in Ar- 
 menia will never reach its destination; for the Turkish postal 
 authorities recognize no such address. There is still another 
 cause for the widespread ignorance concerning Armenia. 
 These are the unhappy effects of the Turkish Empire on these 
 once so glorious and famous countries, and after two cen- 
 turies and a half this description is still literally true. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF ARMENIANS WHO ARE THE ARMENIANS? 
 
 The primal origin of the Armenians will be found in the 
 Scriptures of Genesis x, 3-10: from Togarmah. Among the 
 Armenian writers, calling the people by the appellation of 
 "Togarmah Doon, the house of Togarmah," as also by the 
 prophet Ezekiel xxvii., 14, was and still is very common. 
 
 Togarmah, the son of Gomer, the son of Japheth, the son 
 of Noah. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel mentions this name twice, not as a 
 mere name of the patriarch, but as a nation descended from 
 him, and known by the appellation, "of the house of Togar- 
 mah." The prophet does this in connection with other names 
 as representatives of different nations. The third son of 
 Gomer is Togarmah; the people descending from him are 
 call "the house of Togarmah," Ezekiel xxvii., 14, where they 
 are named after Javan, Tubal and Meshech, as bringing 
 horses and mules to the mart of Tyre; and xxxviii., 6, where it 
 appears after Gomer as a component of the army of Gog. 
 
 Togarmah had a son named Haig or Haik, as the ances- 
 tor of the Armenians, and they call themselves "Haikian'' or 
 "Haigazian" from him; and the land of Armenia is called 
 "Haiasdan" or "the land of Haik." 
 
 "Togarmah," the people thus designated, are mentioned 
 by the prophet Ezekiel. In the former passage as trading in the 
 fairs of Tyre with horses and mules; in the latter, as about to 
 come with Gomer out at the north quarter against Palestine. 
 Neither passage does much towards fixing a locality, but both 
 agree with the hypothesis, which has the support alike of ety- 
 mology and of national tradition, that the people intended are 
 
DYNASTY OF ARMENIAN FLAGS. 
 
HAIK. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. yj 
 
 the ancient inhabitants at Armenia. Grimm's view that Toear- 
 mah is composed of tvv'o elements, "Taka," which, in Sanskrit, 
 is "tribe," or *'race," and "Armah," (Armenia), may well be ac- 
 cepted. The Armenian tradition which derived the Haikian 
 race from Torgom, as it can scarcely be a coincidence, must 
 be regarded as having considerable value. Now, the existing 
 Armenians, the legitimate descendants of those who occupied 
 the country in the time of Ezekiel, speak a language which 
 modern ethnologists pronounce to be decidedly Indo-Euro- 
 pean; and thus, so far, the modern science confirms the Scrip- 
 tural account. 
 
 Haik, the son of Torgarmah, like the rest of the descend- 
 ants of Noah, was in pursuit of a new location for himself and 
 his posterity, and had descended w^ith the multitude into the 
 country of Shinar of ]\Iesopotamia. Here the people, for fear of 
 another destructive flood, attempted to build a high tower, "the 
 Tower of Babel.'' Haik and his sons distinguished them- 
 selves by wisdom and virtue in the erection of this tower; but 
 ambitious Belus for supremacy, yea even requiring homage to 
 him^ image, became too repulsive to virtuous Haik and his 
 sons. Haik therefore left the plains of Shinar with his large 
 family and returned to the home of his nativity, the land of 
 Ararat, in the vicinity of the lake of \^an; or the plain of Moosh. 
 Belus, on hearing that Haik had withdrawn from his author- 
 ity, pursued him with a large force. Haik, when he heard that 
 Belus was coming against him, mustered the male members 
 of his family and those who were willingly under his author- 
 ity, armed them as well as he was able and set out to meet the 
 enemy. He charged his little army to attack that part of the 
 enemy's force where Belus commanded in person, "for," said 
 he, "if we succeed in discomfiting that part the victory is ours; 
 should we, however, be unsuccessful in our attempt, let us 
 never survive the misery and disgrace of a defeat, but rather 
 perish, sword in hand, defending the best and dearest right of 
 reasonable creatures — our liberty." Then did the brave leader 
 move on with his force, and faced the invaders. After a bloodv 
 
^8 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 conflict Belus fell by an arrow discharged at him by Haik, 
 The army of Eelus, soon after this, was dispersed. 
 
 Haik was a powerful warrior, and the founder of the x\r- 
 menian kingdom, which began 2350 B. C, and ended with 
 Levan VI., 1375 A. D., thus lasting 3,725 years, though with 
 intervals of extinction. Their own kings did not always reign 
 in Armenia. Sometimes other nations ruled over it by way of 
 compensation ; sometimes the Armenians ruled over other na- 
 tions. The people never call themselves Armenians, or their 
 country Armenia; they use the name simply for the sake of 
 foreigners. The Armenians, therefore, call themselves after his 
 name, "Haik," and the country ''Hayasan." 
 
 Haik, following the manner of the ancient patriarchs, 
 founded towns and villages, and after a long life died in peace. 
 Whatever its origin, it is certain that the Armenians are a very 
 ancient nation, as ancient as the Assyrians or Persians. [I have 
 seen an article upon this question in the 'Independent'' of 
 March 5, 1896, which was written by Rev. James D. Barton, 
 D. D., secretary of the American Board. I would like to ask 
 from the author the privilege of using that article as follows in 
 my pamphlet. — The Author.] 
 
 According to Armenian histories, the first chief of the 
 Armenians was Haik, the son of Togarmah, the son of Gomer, 
 the son of Japheth, the son of Noah. It is an interesting fact, 
 that the Armenians to this day call themselves Haik, their lan- 
 guage, "Haiaren," and their coimtry, "Haiasdan." "Armenia" 
 and "Armenian" are words which cannot be spelled with Ar- 
 menian characters or easily pronounced by that people. That 
 name was given them and their country by outside nations, be- 
 cause of the prowess of one of their kings, Aram, the seventh 
 from Haik. Probably this people are the resultant of strong 
 Aryan tribes overrunning and conquering the country now 
 occupied by the Armenians, and which was then possessed by 
 primitive Turanian populations. Subject to the vicissitudes of 
 conquest and invasion, the borders of Armenia have fluctu- 
 ated. Lake Van has always been within the kingdom, and the 
 
AND THE AEMENIANS. 
 
 39 
 
 capital has usually remained during their highest prosperity at 
 the city of Van. They have had a long line of kings of valor 
 and renown. They were an independent nation, but with vary- 
 ing degrees of power, until A. D. 1375, wdien they became com- 
 pletely a subject people. Since that time their country has 
 been under the government of Russia, Persia, or Turkey, far 
 the larger portion being under Turkey. During the years of 
 their greatest prosperity, from 600 B. C. to about 400 A. D., 
 this nation played a prominent part in the wars of the Assyrians, 
 Medes, Persians, Greeks and Romans. 
 
 There are, perhaps, from two and a half to three millions of 
 Armenians in Turkey, Russia and Persia. In the absence of 
 accurate records w^e must be content with a mere estimate, 
 based upon observations and inadequate government returns. 
 In an extended district they comprise a majority of *ie inhabi- 
 tants. They are everywhere mingled with and surrounded by 
 Kurds and Turks. The Armenians are forbidden to carry or 
 possess arms, under severe penalties, where the other races are 
 armed, many of them by the government. Armenian histories 
 relate that soon after the resurrection of Christ, Abgar, the King 
 of Armenia, wath his court, accepted Christianity. This was 
 short lived, however; but in the third century A. D., under the 
 leadership of Gregory the Illuminator, the Armenian people as 
 a nation became Christian. This w^as the first nation to adopt 
 Christianity as a national religion. The church w^as called 
 "Gregorian'" by those outside, but "Loosavorchagan" by the 
 Armenians, the word meaning, 'TUuminator,"" the name given 
 to Greo^orv. The GrcG;orians and Greeks worked in harmonv 
 in the great councils of the Church untir45i. At the fourih 
 Ecumenical Council, which met at Chalcedon that year, the 
 Gregorian church separated from the Greek upon the so-called 
 Alonophysite doctrine, the former accepting and the latter re- 
 jecting it. Since then the Gregorian church has been distinctly 
 and exclusively an Armenian national church. 
 
 The organization and control of the church is essentially 
 Episcopal. The spiritn-^i head is a catholicos; but in addition to 
 
40 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA. 
 
 him there is a patriarch, whose office bears largely upon the 
 political side of the national life, as related to the Ottoman gov- 
 ernment. There are three of the former, residing in order of 
 their importance at Echmiazin, in Russia; at Aghtamar, on 
 an island in Lake Van; and at Sis, in Cilicia, each with his own 
 diocese. There are two of the patriarchs, residing at Constan- 
 tinople and Jerusalem. There are nine grades of Armenian 
 clergy. The Bible was translated into their language in the 
 middle of the fifth century. Owing to a change in the spoken 
 tongue, the Bible became a dead book to the people, although 
 it was constantly read at their church services. As the priests 
 scarcely ever understood the Scripture which they read, Chris- 
 tian doctrines were kept alive by oral teachings; but the re- 
 straint upon life which pure Christianity exercises was largely 
 removed. They blindly accept the Bible as the word of God. 
 They have many large and fine churches, some of which are 
 several hundred years old. This nation has suffered great per- 
 secutions for its faith during the last eleven centuries ; but with 
 wonderful patience and endurance has clung to the old beliefs 
 and forms of worship. 
 
 Mission work was begun among them for the purpose of 
 introducing into the church the Bible in the spoken language of 
 the people, in order that its teachings might reform the church 
 and the nation. The Armenian nature is essentially religious. 
 Born into the church, its customs, traditions and teachings have 
 large influence over the life. Although much of their teaching 
 and many of their customs are based upon mere traditions, and 
 are not in accord with the enlightened, educated Christianity of 
 the west, nevertheless, the fact that during the last few months 
 thousands among them have deliberately chosen death, with 
 terrible torture, to life and Islam shows that among them there 
 exists much essential Christian faith. It must not be over- 
 looked that the old church has been greatly enlightened and ele- 
 vated by the mission schools and colleges planted in their coun- 
 try, and the evangelistic work carried on among them. They, 
 too, in imitation of the evangelical branch of their nation, have 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 4I 
 
 organized schools, accepted the Bible in the spoken language, 
 and introduced into their church worship many of the methods 
 of Christian instruction used by the Christian church all over 
 the world. 
 
 The Armenians' greatest enemy outside of Islam, is their 
 incompatibility of character. They cannot agree among them- 
 selves. "Haik voch miapan'' ("Armenians cannot agree") is 
 one of their many proverbs. This is their national weakness. 
 Owing to this fact, which led to internal jealousies and bicker- 
 ings and strife during the period of their most successful na- 
 tional life, they were weakened, then disrupted, and finally 
 completely subjugated. This characteristic has constantly ap- 
 peared in the management of their ecclesiastical affairs, and the 
 Turks, in order to control them, have made great use of this 
 weakness, playing one party off against another. The source 
 of this national weakness lies in their jealousy of imagined or 
 actual rivals. Suspicious of each other, and jealous of compe- 
 tition, the race has been broken up into factions, which has 
 rendered impossible anything like a national growth or unity, 
 and has made it easy for the ruling Turk to keep them in com- 
 plete subjection. ]\Iany times the Armenians themselves have 
 been the most effective instrument in the hands of their diplo- 
 matic rulers in checking national progress. Owing to this fact, 
 if for no other reason, a plan for a general revolution upon the 
 part of the Armenians could lead only to exposure and failure. 
 The most intelligent have from the first fully understood this, 
 and have deprecated any agitation wdiich must necessarily end 
 in disaster. The advocates of revolution have almost invariably 
 been men of narrow views and no leadership in the nation at 
 large, who have, outside of Turkey, organized rival societies to 
 collect monev from credulous Armenians to the credit of their 
 own personal bank account, and for the injury of their protest- 
 ing people in Turkey. This same characteristic would make it 
 impossible to-day for the Armenians to be self-governing. 
 
 The Armenians are the most intelligent of all the peoples 
 of eastern Turkev. In western Turkev their onlv rivals are the 
 
42 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Greeks. They far outclass their Alohammedan rulers in the 
 desire for general and liberal education, and in their ability to 
 attain to genuine scholarship. During the last twenty years 
 few institutions of higher education in the United States and in 
 England have failed to have Armenians among their pupils, 
 and the rank which they have usually taken is most creditable 
 to the race. 
 
 The popularity of Euphrates College, in Horput, and of 
 Central Turkey College, at Aintab, whose students are almost 
 exclusively Armenians, as w^ell as Anatolia College, at Marso- 
 van, and Robert College, at Constantinople, which have many 
 Armenians among their students, taken together with the fact 
 that large sums are paid each year by the people for the educa- 
 tion of their sons and daughters, all prove that in addition to 
 the ability to advance mentally there is a strong desire upon 
 the part of the Armenians for general enlightenment. Bi-lingual 
 from childhood, and many of them tri-lingual, they learn lan- 
 guages easily. Their general tendency is to prefer metaphysi- 
 cal studies, being inclined rather to the speculative in their 
 manner of thought. They have taken readily to the idea of 
 female education, and the three colleges for girls in Turkey are 
 among her most popular evangelical institutions. These are 
 largely patronized by the Armenians. This nation has pro- 
 duced many w^ell-known scholars, which fact, taken together 
 with the general high standard of scholarship among her stu- 
 dents, and the eager desire prevalent among the people for a 
 liberal education, shows that the race, intellectually, compares 
 favorably with the m.ost favored nations of the world. 
 
 The Armenians are the farmers, artisans, tradesmen, and 
 L^ankers of eastern Turkey. They have strong commercial in- 
 stincts and mature abilit}% and being industrious withal have 
 made much progress in all these lines. In spite of the heavy 
 restrictions placed upon them by the Turkish government, in 
 the form of general regulations and excessive taxes, in some 
 parts of Turkey the leading business operations are largely in 
 their hands. In some setions of the villages of Harput and 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 43 
 
 Diarbekir, twenty-five years ago, the land was owned almost 
 entirely by Moslems, but rented and farmed by the i\rmenians. 
 At that time the Armenians were not permitted to possess, to 
 any extent, the soil. Lack of industry upon tlie part of the 
 Mohammedans, and the acquirement of property upon the part 
 of the Armenians, largely by emigration to the United States, 
 have led the Turks to sell their ancient estates to Armenians, 
 v/ho are supplied with funds from their friends vAio are working 
 in this country. The careful management of the property thus 
 acquired led to the advancement of the proprietor-farmer, while 
 the one from whom the land was purchased was left without an 
 income. 
 
 While the Turks in many of the principal cities where 
 Armenians dwell own most of the shops, the renters are largely 
 Armenians. An intelligent Turkish governor once told the 
 writer that if the Armenians should suddenly emigrate or be 
 expelled from eastern Turkey, the Moslem would necessarily 
 follow soon, as there was not enough commercial enterprise and 
 ability, coupled with industry, in the population to meet the 
 absolute needs of the people. 
 
 The Armenian, while industrious and naturally inclined to 
 follow in the footsteps of his father, takes very readily to a new 
 trade. When emigrating to foreign countries, he easily adapts 
 himself to his new surroundmgs, and does creditable service in 
 almost any line of work. This adaptability, together with a 
 tendency to hold on to a Ime once begun, has given a stable 
 character to the nation. 
 
 The Armenian is domestic in his habits and aspirations, 
 and not military. In the early history of the race we do not 
 find much writing of their conquests. They did not go outside 
 of their borders, as a general thing, to conquer their neighbors. 
 Wliile not lacking in physical courage and prcv;ess in war 
 when called to defend their country against invasion, they 
 did not seek to conquer. Sometimes in driving back an ag- 
 gressive foe they carried the war into his territory, and levied 
 upon it for injuries received. Yet it never seems to have been 
 
44 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 their ambition to be a great nation, ruling over conquered 
 races. Their chief ambition appears to have been to possess in 
 quiet their beloved fatherland, "hairenik," where they might 
 worship God according to the demands of their own national 
 church. To-day they have no desire of conquest or ambition 
 to rule. Their greatest wish is to be permitted to enjoy without 
 fear the blessing of their simple domestic life, together with the 
 privileges of worship and education, and the opportunity to 
 possess in peace the fruits of their frugal industry. The Ar- 
 menian loves his children, and is most closely attached to his 
 home. When he emigrates, it is only for the purpose of trade 
 and gain. His heart's affection centres in the old home, to 
 which he, if unprevented, will return to rejoin his loved ones. 
 In all his native land the city or village of his birth is the spot 
 on earth. 
 
 The Armenians are most simple and frugal in their man- 
 ner of life. Uncomplaining and generally cheerful, they con- 
 tinue their occupations, foUow^ing in the footsteps of their 
 fathers without desire for change. The son of thexarpenter is 
 a carpenter, content with the adze and saw ; and the shoemaker 
 sticks to his last without a thought of being anything else so 
 long as that trade serves him. The home life is patriarchal, the 
 father ruling the household, and the sons bringing their wives 
 to the paternal roof. In the event of the death of the father, 
 the eldest son takes his place at the head of the family. The 
 aged are held in high esteem, and their counsel sought and 
 honored. The women occupy inferior positions, the nation 
 copying many customs in regard to them from the Turks 
 among v/hom they live. They are not an immoral race, but are 
 inclined to drink wine, wdiich is a cheap product of their 
 country. 
 
 Thus we have a race old in national history when Alexan- 
 der invaded the East, and with its star of empire turning tow- 
 ard decline when the Csesars were at the height of their power ; 
 a nation not minghng in marriage with men and women of 
 another faith, with blood now as pure in its descent from the 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 45 
 
 undiscovered ancestors of nearly three decades of centuries 
 ago as the Hebrews stand unmixed with Gentile blood; with a 
 language, a literature, a national church, distinctively its own; 
 and yet a nation without a country, without a government, 
 without a protector or a friend in all God's world. This is not 
 because it has sinned, but because it has been terribly sinned 
 against; not because of its intellectual or moral or physical 
 weakness, but because it has little to ofTer in return for the 
 service which the common brotherhood of man among nations 
 should prompt the Christian nations of the world to render. 
 
 THE STORY OF ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 
 
 The First: The Haigazian, from 2350 to 328 B. C. 
 
 The Armenian dynasties are divided into four special 
 branches or periods. The first is the Haigazian dynasty. This 
 dynasty began 2,350 years before Christ, and ended in the time 
 of Alexander the Great, 328 B. C. No other recorded dynasty 
 has so long an unbroken succession. As already mentioned, 
 Haig was the founder of the Armenian kingdom. He can 
 scarcely be called a King, because in his time there was not a 
 great Armenian nation. It was rather a tribe, and Haig was 
 chief or governor. His position was like that of Abrahan], 
 what would now be called a sheikh ; and like Abraham he was 
 a worshiper of the true God. 
 
 Haig's son Armen succeeded his father, and greatly en- 
 larged the kingdom. He sxibdued a large district northeast of 
 Mount Ararat, and built a city and town of hewn stones there, 
 near the banks of the rixer Araxes. He named the city after 
 himself Armanir, and made it the capital of the government. 
 It is most likely the name Armenia comes from him. Some re- 
 cent foreign writers have the impudence to say that there was 
 no such King, but that his name was made up to account for 
 that of Armenia; but the same records which tell us of Haig 
 
46 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 tell US of his son. After Armen we find his son, Armaiss, was 
 the successor of his father Armen, or Armenag. The son of 
 Aramais was Amassia, who, soon after the decease of his father, 
 took the lead of the government. Our historians tell us that it 
 was Amassia who gave the name ]\Iasis, after himself, to that 
 magnificent and huge mountain (Alount Ararat, so called). 
 Harmah mounted the throne of his father Amassia after the 
 latters departure from this life. Aram, or Armanag, about 
 2000 B. C, the son and successor of Harmah towers among the 
 monarchs of the first period of the Armenian history. He was, 
 like King David, a great warrior and conqueror. One of the 
 notable Kings is Aram, the seventh in succession, and the 
 greatest of Armenian conquerors. He raised and drilled an 
 army of 50,000 men, whose efBciency and his own military skill 
 and energy are proved by his invading and conquering Media. 
 He then invaded Assyria, and conquered a part of that country. 
 Next, he marched westward, and subjugated some of the east- 
 ern portion of Asia Minor, inhabited by the Greeks. The latter, 
 Cappadocia, along the Halys or Kizil-Irmak, Aram named the 
 Hayasdan, translated by the Romans as "Armenia Minor," 
 which, oddly enough, in later times became Greater Armenia, 
 or Armenia proper. After the long and glorious reign of Aram, 
 the country slowly came into a subordinate condition to the 
 Assyrian empire, though the Kings of the Haikian dynasiy 
 continued to rule over Armenia; but they were very much 
 overshadowed when the Assyrian empire was at the zenith of 
 her glory. 
 
 It, however, should be understood that Armenia was not 
 completely subjugated; for every ruler of a district was a King 
 'by himself, and on account of the inaccessibility of some dis- 
 tricts an entire subjugation of a country like Armenia was an 
 impossibility in those days. Tiglath-pileser I., the King of 
 Assyria (11 10-1090 B. C.) unconsciously confesses in his famous 
 inscription, which contains the most of his great achievements, 
 that some of these districts never knew subjugation. 
 
 The enormous growth of the Armenian kingdom under 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 47 
 
 Aram or Armanag', and its conquest of part of Assyria, excited 
 the alarm of the Assyrian King Ninos. Not feehng strong 
 enough to engage in open warfare witli him, he thouglit to 
 compass his destruction by winning his friendsliip, and then 
 putting- him out of the way; and as a first step he sent him a 
 costly jeweled crown. The intrigue failed, however, and Aram 
 lived to a great age, reigning fifty years. 
 
 Aram was succeeded by his son Ara, called ''Ara the Beau- 
 tiful." The fame of his beauty went abroad through the world. 
 The Assyrian Queen, Semiramis, was so enchanted by the sight 
 of his person that she fell madly in love, and proposed marriage 
 to him, but Aram refused her. This military Amazon was not 
 to be balked so. She resolved to marry him by force, and came 
 with a great army to Armenia to capture the prize ; but he was 
 killed in the war, and she took possession of the country, with 
 which she was so charmed that she decided to remain. She re- 
 moved the capital of the enlarged Assyrian kingdom to the 
 lovely shores of Lake Van, erecting a palace there for herself, 
 and buildings on the eastern side of a city named 
 "Shamiramagerd" (built by Semiramis). Many years later 
 a King of the Haigazian dynasty, whose name was 
 Van, rebuilt it and called it after himself. This was 
 the present city of Van. 
 
 The next great interesting event was in 710 B. C, when 
 Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his two sons, 
 Adramelich and Sharezer, who escaped into Armenia. The 
 King of Armenia at this time was Sgayorty, which means ''son 
 of giant.'' He received the sons of vSennacherib with great 
 kindness; they married Armenian women, and remained in 
 the country till their death. Their descendants were great 
 Armenian princes, bearing the titles Prince Arziroonian and 
 Prince Kinoonian. 
 
 It has already been said that the Assyrian influence, civili- 
 zation and culture had characterized this period, moulded the 
 customs of the people, and wrought changes in the names of 
 some places and persons. It has been inferred by some his- 
 
48 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 torians and scholars from these changes that the Kings and 
 the people of Ararat, or Armenia, were not Aryans, and do not 
 belong to the Indo-European race or family. But they, un- 
 fortunately for them, have no better argument to support their 
 hypothesis than two or three names found in the Behistum 
 inscription. The unhappiest aspect of their passion is this: 
 One of the two scholars mentions those names as an argument 
 to prove the existence still of these non-Aryan''' people and lan- 
 guage, and the other adduces the same names as evidence of 
 the Aryans making their appearance at that period, or just a 
 little before that time. 
 
 Armenia comes ti view again in connection with Biblical 
 history in the capture at Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 600 
 B. C, and the deportation of the Judean people. The Armenian 
 King,. Hurachia, was one of his allies in the siege, and on re- 
 turning to Armenia carried with him a Hebrew prince named 
 Shampad. This was a very intelligent man, and made himself 
 greatly loved and esteemed by the Armenians — a sort of Daniel 
 or Joseph. He, too, married an Armenian noblewoman, and 
 his descendants became the very foremost of the noble families 
 and ecclesiastical ftmctionaries of the country, crowning the 
 Kings on occasion. They were called Parkradoonias princes, 
 and at last one of them founded the third dynasty of Armenian 
 Kings, the pakradoonian. Though the nation is Aryan, there 
 is noble Hebrew (Semitic) blood mixed with it. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting past of the Haigazian dynasty 
 comes just before the end, the time of Dikran or Tigranes I. 
 In him both wisdom and valor were combined to an eminent 
 degree. As soon as he succeeded his father, Yerevant, he in- 
 stituted great reforms to improve the state of the country. He 
 not only enlarged it by conquest, but he greatly improved 
 public education and morals, removed obstructions to interna- 
 tional commerce, introduced navigation on the lakes and rivers, 
 
 *In tlie Behistum inscription we have three Armenian names, Dartarsh- 
 ish, Drakha and Hanita, must be the same with Khaldita of the first quota- 
 tion, for he is the father of Aral^pa ; both, therefore, must be either Aryans or 
 uon Aryans. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 49 
 
 encouraged cultivations; trade flourished, every acre of ground 
 was tilled, the country was alive with energy and hope. This 
 vigor and prosperity aroused the envy of Ashdahag, King of 
 Media. He resolved to kill Dikran, and, to throw him off his 
 guard, married his sister, Princess Dikranooee. A plot to 
 murder Dikran was then set on foot. The princess learned of 
 it, warned her brother, whom she loved, and ran away. Dikran 
 collected an army, made a rapid march to Media, surj^rised and 
 slew Ashdahag, and brought back a vast amount of spoils in 
 captives and goods. He built a fine city on the bank of the 
 Tigris, and called it Dikranagerd, ''the city of Dikran." It was 
 afterwards the residence of the sister who had saved liis life. It 
 is now called by the Turks Diarbekr. 
 
 The most important political achievement of his life was 
 assisting Cyrus in the capture of Babylon, 538 B. C. The two 
 monarchs w-ere very friendly, and Dikran's Armenian army 
 was a chief factor in the conquest. In Jeremiah's prophecy of 
 the capture about a century before it occurred, he mentions the 
 Armenian kingdom as one of the actors, "the kingdoms of 
 Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz." (Jer. li., 2y}) 
 
 After Dikran's death his son, Vahakn, or Vahi, succeeded 
 him; he was considered a god by the people, and worshiped 
 as such through a monument after his death. Thus far the 
 people had mostly worshiped the one true God, but from this 
 time they relapsed into heathenism for a while, on account of 
 the influences pressing on them from outside. The last King 
 of the Haigazian dynasty was A'ahi, or \^ahakn. When Alex- 
 ander the Great invaded Persia, Vahe went to Darius' help with 
 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry. But Alexander conquered 
 first Darius and then Vahi (323 B. C.), and annexed both 
 Persia and Armenia. From this time the country of Armenia 
 was governed by the ^Macedonian ralers until the defeat of 
 Antiochus the Great by the Romans. At this time Armenia 
 recovered her independence, which did not, how^ever, last very 
 long. Thus came to an end the first Armenian dvnast\% after 
 an existence of 1,922 years. 
 
50 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 THE STORY OF ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. (CONTINUED.) 
 
 The Second: The Arshagoonian, from 150 B. C. to 428 A. D. 
 
 This dynasty began not far from 150 B. C, close to the 
 time when Carthage was utterly destroyed and Greece was 
 finally subjugated. It ended 428 A. D., about half a century 
 before the extinction of the western Roman empire, and about 
 the time Genseric and his Vandals conquered Africa. It is by 
 far the most famous of the Armenian royal houses, for it em- 
 braces the very heart of the classic times with which all edu- 
 cated people are famihar. It brings us perpetually in contact 
 with the most brilliant and best know^n of classic names. It is 
 sprinkled with names towering up familiar and powerful, even 
 among the Greek and Roman magnates, and in spite of poHtical 
 ups and downs it covers a time of immense expansion for the 
 Armenian people, of a firmly rooted growth in numbers, wealth 
 and consciousness of national unity, wdiich has enabled the na- 
 tion to survive and keep its united being through many cen- 
 turies of dismemberment, impoverishment, massacre and at- 
 tempts at outright extermination again and again. Alore than 
 all, it covers the time of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Ar- 
 menia to his religion, first of all the nations of the earth, as by 
 its history and traditions it ought to have been. During the 
 time between the disappearance of the line of Haig and the rise 
 of the line of Arshag, Armenia was not by any means wholly 
 without Kings of its own, but it was mostly a dependency. The 
 rise of the Arsacidse or Arshag dynasty of Parthia was a 
 complete overthrow of the Macedonian influence in the East. 
 Arsaces, the Parthian King, appointed his brother Valarsaces 
 King over Armenia, and these two countries, governed by one 
 reigning family, were in full sympathy with each other and in 
 firm alliance for a time, and a worthy antagonist and opponent 
 of the Romans, who were pushing eastward over the territories 
 once subdued by the Macedonian prince, Alexander the Great. 
 
 Among the successors of Valarsaces of Arsacidse or Arshas: 
 
DIKRAN IT. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 5I 
 
 dynasty of Armenia, Tigranes the Great, or the second, immor- 
 tahzed hiniseh", not only in the history of Armenia, but also in 
 universal history. His name was the glory of his people, as it 
 was also a terror to his enemies. He extended his dominions 
 from the Caucasian-mountains to the Alesopotamian plains, and 
 from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, including Media, 
 Atropatene, Assyria proper, Cilicia, Syria, and Phoenicia. He 
 built a new capital city of an immense size, and called after 
 his name, Tigranaghert''' (built by Tigranes). 
 
 After these conquests he called himself "King of Kings'' 
 (that is, emperor, king with other kings under him), which title 
 the Parthian Kings had claimed theretofore. He would prob- 
 ably have ended by mastering and restoring the unity of the old 
 Seleucia kingdom in its widest extent, the whole heart of west- 
 ern Asia, had he not in an evil hour been induced by that reck- 
 less old fighter, his father-in-law, Mithradates of Pontus, to 
 join him in war against the Romans. Tio^ranes' own son had 
 quarreled with him, and taken refuge with the King of Parthia, 
 whose daughter he married, and now offered to guide his 
 father-in-law into Armenia if he would invade it as the ally of 
 the Romans. This was done, and Tigranes the Elder had to 
 fly to the mountains; but the Parthian King grew tired of the 
 siege of rock castles, and went home, leaving his son-in-law to 
 carry on operations with part of the army. The great Ar- 
 menian King at once broke loose, and annihilated the forces of 
 his son, who fled to Pompey, just invading Armenia with the 
 Roman army. Even the great Tigranes was no match for 
 Rome, and had to surrender. Pompey was not harsh with 
 him, but left him /Armenia (except Sophene and Gordyene. 
 which were made into a kingdom for his son) and his Parthian 
 conquests, even going so far as to send a Roman division to 
 wrest these from the Parthian King, who liad reconquered 
 them on Tigranes' defeat, and restore them to the latter. On 
 
 ♦Aecordiiifr to Strodo. tweh'e Greek cities were depopulated to furnish 
 Tigranacerta with inhabitants (xl. 14, section 15). According to Appian, three 
 hundred thousand Cappadocians were translated thither (Mithrid. page 210 
 f). Plutach speaks of the population as having been drawn from Cilicia. 
 Cappadocia. Gordyene. Assyria, and Adiabent, (Lucull, 26). "Sixth Oriental 
 Monarchy," by G. Ilawlinson. 
 
52 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 the departure of Pompey, the Parthians once more reclaimed 
 them, but a compromise was finally made. Phraates of Par- 
 thia, however, resumed once more the title of "King of Kings." 
 Tigranes remained the ally of the Romans till his death in 55 
 B. C, a reign of thirty-nine years, on the whole of great glory 
 and usefulness. 
 
 He was succeeded by his son, Artavasdes (Ardvash), who 
 inherited that most dreadful of legacies, a place between the 
 hammer and the anvil. For the next quarter of a century the 
 Romans and the steadily growing and consolidating power of 
 the Parthian empire were alternately irresistible in eastern Ana- 
 tolia. It was impossible to avoid taking sides, for neutrality 
 meant invasion by one party or the other; and whichever side 
 he took he was sure to be punished for as soon as the other 
 came uppermost. If Artavasdes had been as dexterous as 
 Alexius Comninus himself he could hardly have escaped ruin; 
 that he kept his throne for over twenty years is proof that he 
 was not unworthy of his father. First came the invasion of 
 Parthia by Crassus. Artavasdes, faithful to his father's Roman 
 allegiance, asked him to make the invasion by way of Armenia, 
 and offered to help him. Crassus refused, but the Parthian 
 King, Grades, invaded Armenia. However, he made peace, 
 and betrothed his eldest son, Pacorus, to Artavasdes' daugh- 
 ter, just before news was brought him of the annihilation of 
 Crassus' army, guaranteed by Crassus' severed head and hand. 
 The civil wars of Rome for years to come broke the Roman 
 power, and the Parthians (with the good will of the inhabitants, 
 who detested the Roman pro-consuls), swept westward, com- 
 pelled submission or alliance from all the countries to the Tau- 
 rus, and even annexed all Syria for a time, just as, seven cen- 
 turies later, the Syrians, from hate of the Byzantine governors, 
 gave up their cities to the Saracens. But the Roman power 
 once more rallied. The Parthians were driven out of Syria, 
 and Pacorus was killed. The aged Grades, under whom the 
 Parthian empire proper reached its pinnacle, died, leaving the 
 throne to one of those jealous, murderous despots so familiar 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 53 
 
 in eastern history, who made a general slaughter of his broth- 
 ers, and even nnirdered his son to remove any possible leader of 
 a revolt, and Artavasdes once more returned to the Roman 
 alliance. In the year 36 A. D., ^Nlark Antony undertook the 
 task Crassus had so terribly failed in seventeen years before, of 
 striking at the heart of Parthia. But this time the invasion was 
 by way of x\rmenia. It was almost as frightful a disaster as the 
 former; a third of the army of 100,000 men was destroyed bv 
 the enemy, 8,000 died of cold and storm in the Armenian 
 mountains. The wounded died in enormous numbers; but 
 that Artavasdes let the army winter in his country, it would 
 have perished as completely as Crassus' did. In spite of this, 
 the Romans, wanting a scapegoat, laid the wdiole blame on 
 Artavasdes, without a shadow of reason that can be shown. It 
 was the last time for a century and a half that the Romans at- 
 tacked Parthia. In default of that plunder they resolved to 
 have Armenia, and a couple of years later, in the year 33 A. D., 
 they seized Artavades by treachery and occupied the countrv. 
 The Parthians at once took up the cause of his son, Artaxa, 
 and made war on the Romans to seat him on the throne, and 
 when the Roman troops were withdrawn to help Anthony's cause, 
 which was lost in the battle of Actium, the Parthians overran 
 Armenia, and killed or massacred all the Romans in the coun- 
 try, and made their candidate King as Artaxa 11. This was in 
 30 B. C, and in the same year his father, Artavasdes, who had 
 been carried to Alexandria by Antony, was beheaded bv Cleo- 
 patra. But the very next year, the worthless tyrant, Phraates 
 of Parthia, was driven from the throne by a rebellion, and 
 Artaxa made peace with Rome. 
 
 The history of Artavasdes' reign is in essence the history 
 of the next four centuries, save that the results were in.comp^ir- 
 ably worse. 
 
 We have been dealing w^ith a time at least of steady, single- 
 handed government, of able rulers, either inside or outside, of 
 some sort of ability to keep the civil structure of the country 
 from breaking to pieces; but even that disappears over long 
 periods in the early centuries of the Roman empire. 
 
54 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 One great secret of Armenia's misery during these ages of 
 woe — indeed, to a large extent during all the ages— lies in the 
 fact that she is a borderland, a buffer between great states, and, 
 indeed, between great natural divisions of climate and society. 
 She is the boundary between semi-tropic central A,sia and tem- 
 perate eastern Europe, touching the land of the fig and the silk 
 worm on the one side, and that of the apple and the mountain 
 goat on the other; between Scythian steppes and Syrian des- 
 erts. In these earlier ages she was fought for between East, 
 West and South — Parthia, Rome and a Syro-Egyptian power 
 of some sort; in these days divided between East, West and 
 North. 
 
 Had Armenia been smaller or more level she would have 
 perished without a struggle, perhaps, rather, would never have 
 existed ; but her territory is so large and so defensible, that her 
 history could have been predicted — final dismemberment be- 
 tween great states surrounding her, yet not without ages of 
 desperate struggle. She was not large enough to be per- 
 manently the seat of empire; she was far too large for either 
 rival to let pass wholly into the hands of the other. So she 
 was pulled to pieces. But she wanted to control her own des- 
 tiny, and made a long and heroic fight before being dismem- 
 bered. 
 
 To write the history of the next few centuries would tire 
 out all readers, and would not do any good. It was a long 
 duel between Rome and Persia for the ownership of Armenia, 
 in which the prosperity and happiness of their unhappy football 
 nearly perished. Almost the whole foreign policy of Parthia 
 was to control or to have a paramount influence in Armenia; 
 almost the whole foreign policy of Rome in the East was to do 
 the same thing. 
 
 For nearly a century following Artavasdes' deposition, 
 though the Romans professed to govern the country, and the 
 Parthians sometimes held it, and both sides repeatedly put 
 kings on its throne, it was actually in a state of pure anarchy. 
 Every great family, seeing it must depend on its own strength 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 55 
 
 for preservation, extended its rule over as wide a district as 
 would submit. Nearly two hundred houses acted with perfect 
 independence of each other and of the nominal government, 
 and some of them established principalities of considerable 
 size. 
 
 After this, though the country was for century after cen- 
 tury just the same shuttlecock between the rival states, the 
 feudal anarchy was somewhat reduced, the turbulent nobilit}- 
 better held in check; but it was impossible that there should 
 be really firm and orderly government when a king could not 
 be secure of his throne for a year on one side or the other, and 
 dared not render his powerful subjects disaffected by making 
 them obev the laws. 
 
 We may be sure that the government was really an oli- 
 garchy, under the forms of a monarchy, and even the title, 
 "King of Armenia,-' during this period must not be taken to 
 mean too much. There were sometimes separate kings of 
 Upper and Lower Armenia, one under Roman and one under 
 Parthian influence. The independent princes often made head 
 against both, and outlying principalities, like those of Osrhoene 
 and Gordyene, probably got hold of more or less Armenian 
 territory in the melee. 
 
 At this time the Prince Abgar, or Abgarus, or King Apkor, 
 the son of Arsham, from the dynasty of Osrhoene, w^as the 
 fifteenth king of the little kingdom of Armenia, or in northern 
 ^Mesopotamia, whose capital was the flourishing city of Edessa, 
 called Uorfa, which lay next he southern border of Armenia. 
 
 According to the Armenian church history, and also the 
 great Christian father, Eusebius, tlie origin of Christianity in 
 Armenia dates from the time of its King Abgar, who reigned 
 at the beginning of the Christian era. He had his seat of gov- 
 ernment in the city of Edessa, and was tributary to the Romans. 
 
 Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Judaea, was hostile to King 
 Abgor, but was unable to injure him, except by exciting the 
 Romans against him. Pie therefore accused him falsely to the 
 Emperor Tiberius of rebellious projects. King Abgar, on 
 
56 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 being made acquainted with this accusation, hastened to send 
 messengers to tlie Roman general, ]\Iarinus, then governor of 
 Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, for the purpose of vindicating 
 himseh; then, however, he had vindicated himself before the 
 Roman Emperor, Tiberius. 
 
 After Abgor's death his son Anane succeeded him. This 
 Anane apostatized, and tried to make his people do the same 
 as before. He reopened the heathen temples, resumed the 
 public worship of the idols, and ordered the sacred handkerchief 
 removed from the city gate. But Adde, the bishop, w^alled up 
 the latter. The King ordered the bishop to make a diadem for 
 him, as he had for his father. The bishop refused to make one 
 for a head that would not bow to Christ, and the King had the 
 bishop's feet cut off while he was preaching, causing his death — 
 the first Christian martyr on record. By a just retribution the 
 savage king met his own death by a marble pillar in his palace 
 falling on him and breaking his legs. 
 
 Meantime, Abgor's nephew, Sanadrug, had set up his 
 standard in Shavarshan, or Ardaz, proclaiming himself King 
 of Armenia — one of the countless chieftains who took advan- 
 tage of Armenian anarchy to carve out principalities for them- 
 selves. On the death of Anane, he marched to Edessa, claim- 
 ing it as his own inheritance. The people admitted him on his 
 oath not to harm them, but once inside he massacred all the 
 males of the house of Abgor. 
 
 THE STORY OF ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. 
 
 The Third: the Pakradoonian from 885 A. D. to 1045 A. D. 
 
 For a century after the Mohammedan conquest of Persia 
 the fortunes of Armenia were apparently at their lowest ebb, and 
 as a country it almost disappears from history. But by one of 
 the compensations of nature, which provides that human force, 
 like other force, cannot be extinguished, but if suppressed will 
 find an outlet elsewhere, its people began a career of brilliancy 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 57 
 
 and power unequalecl in its history, and broadened from the 
 role of a tormented bufier-state to that of the great Byzantine 
 empire itself. The Saracen torrent flowed over Armenia's low- 
 lands, and np to the base of its mountain fortresses, but never 
 overcame them; for generations the contending forces battled 
 together, surging back and forth, and filling the beautiful val- 
 leys wnth fire and blood. But Armenia proper was never added 
 to the list of Saracen conquests, never made a part of the AIo- 
 hammedan empire, or strengthened Mohammedanism, till four 
 centuries later, through Byzantine greed and folly. 
 
 Internally it w^as all in feudal anarchy again, so far as con- 
 cerned any one central focus of government. Even the Persian 
 satraps had gone from the Persian side, and with them the half- 
 control they had kept over the turbulent baronage. On the 
 Roman side, from early in the seventh century to early in the 
 eighth, the throne of Constantinople was filled with weak and 
 unstable monarchs, fighting for Anatolia against the Saracens, 
 and unable to exercise any effective control over Armenia, to 
 which, indeed, they looked as a frontier defense against these 
 verv foes. 
 
 But let us not attach too harsh a meaning to "anarchy." 
 There were a hundred rulers, it is true, great dukes and barons, 
 each supreme in his own district; but because they held power 
 by the sword against a savage enemy their subjects had to be a 
 strong, independent race, with arms in their hands, which they 
 would use against their chiefs, as well as the foreigners, if there 
 was great oppression. In this fierce school Armenia learned 
 the sternest lessons of self-help and discipline. With no inter- 
 ference from outsiders to fear, and no help from them to be got 
 i: became even more confirmed in its own independent, isolated 
 ways, a world to itself, as it has been ever since. Its cultivators 
 tilled their fields as they had done for so many centuries, and its 
 scholars reach such books as they had, and wTote such as their 
 own minds furnished. But vast numbers of its hardy sons took 
 service in the Greek armies, and became the bone and sinew of 
 the defence of Asia Minor against the caliphs. Not only so, 
 
^S ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 but they rose by hundreds to the highest commands in the em- 
 pire, both civil and mihtary. They formed the "best society" 
 in Constantinople itself, and to crown all. a score of emperors 
 and empresses, in four different lines, including the most illus- 
 trious ones that ever sat on the throne, from Constantine down 
 and who ruled the empire for two hundred and seventy-seven 
 years, were Armenians. It is within the truth, and can be jus- 
 tified from the greatest of English historians, to say that for 
 four centuries the Byzantine empire was not a Greek but an 
 Armenian empire. Armenians by blood filled all the great 
 offices of state, commanded the armies, occupied the throne for 
 nearly three hundred years, and preserved the empire from ex- 
 ternal invasion and internal disintegration. It was the acces- 
 sion of an Arrnenian dynasty that turned it from a decaying 
 power to one that expanded steadily for two centuries, from 
 one falling into anarchy to one the glory of the world for scien- 
 tific organization, and it was the final overthrow of Armenian 
 influence that ruined the empire, being followed almost at once 
 by the loss of half its territory and the richest part, and the 
 breaking up of its system of civil administration. Everywhere 
 in the time of Byzantine glory you find the list full of Armenian 
 names. The appearance of "Bordas" as the name of generals 
 or civil magnates is always proof of Armenian blood, and that 
 name is monotonously common. It is the Greek form of 
 "Varton," though now and then they make it ''Bardones.'' 
 One of the greatest conquerors in Byzantine history, John 
 Kurkuas, was an Armenian, from a family which supplied three 
 generations of statesmen and generals and two great emperors, 
 and this is part of what the immortal historian of "Greece Under 
 Foreign Domination," George Finlay, has to say: — 
 
 Let us note the Armenian sovereigns of the Byzantine 
 empire. First, the great iconoclast house of Leo, the so-called 
 Isaurian, the saviour and restorer of the empire, which reigned 
 from 716 to 797. Leo considered himself an Armenian, and 
 he ought to have known best. He married his daughter to an 
 A.rmenian. He saved Constantinople from capture by the 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 59 
 
 Saracens, causing the destruction of the finest Mohammedan 
 army ever gotten together; of its 180,000 men only 30,000 got 
 back home, according to the Mohammedan historians. 
 
 Twenty-two years later another great Moslem army was 
 annihilated by Leo, and for two centuries the Saracens scarcely 
 troubled the empire again. But not only so, he remodeled the 
 whole administration so efifectively that no serious breakdown 
 occurred for three centuries, and he put new life into the whole 
 society, so that it began to outgrow its enemies, as well as out- 
 fight them. After his able dynasty ended another Armenian, 
 Leo v., reigned seven and a half years, from 813 to 820. 
 
 About half a century later began the Basilian dynasty, 
 under which the laws were codified and Bulgaria destroyed. 
 
 Basil was born in Macedonia, but the name of his brother, 
 Symbatias — Armenian Simpad — shows that he was of an Ar- 
 menian family, the colonies of Armenians having spread all 
 over the civilized world. 
 
 His line reigned without a break from 867 to 963, when the 
 beautiful widow, Theophano, was pushed aside for sixteen years 
 by another Armenian house. Nikephoras Phokas and his 
 nephew, John Zimiskes, two of the ablest generals and states- 
 men ever on the throne, descendants of a brother of the great 
 commander, John Kurkuas, before spoken of; then Theo- 
 phano's son, Basil IL — Boulgaroktanas, the Bulgarian Slayer, 
 and the ultimate destroyer of Armenia as well — took the throne 
 979, and the dynasty continued till 1057, when it had run to 
 dregs, and had just before finally ruined Armenia, and by so 
 doing ruined the empire. 
 
 To go back to Armenia itself, the reason a feudal anarchy 
 always ends in a military monarchy, no matter how able or 
 self-willed every one of the separate chiefs may be, is that this 
 very class most interested in perpetuating it grow wearv of it. 
 The stronger barons oppress and plunder the weaker, who are 
 always superior in numbers and in united strength if they will 
 act together. A small lord may like to be free from control by 
 the King's officers, as well as a great one; but if he can only 
 
60 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 have that privilege by letting his overbearing neighbor be free 
 from it too, and rob him, he finds it does not pay, and sighs for 
 a law that will control everyone alike, and a strong ruler to 
 enforce it. So if a chief in such a community comes to be 
 known as having a hard hand, and letting no one be above the 
 law but himself, the small landholders flock under his banner; 
 he grows into a prince, and eventually some prince of such a 
 family will make himself king, with the good will and help of all 
 but a few great houses, who feel able to take care of themselves 
 and desirous of taking care of others. 
 
 This happened in Armenia. In 743, a century after the 
 battle of Nehavend, and four years after Leo's crushing defeat 
 of the second great Saracen army, we find that a chief named 
 Ashod, of the family of Pakrad,orBagrat, claiming descent from 
 the ancient Jews, had managed to win control over central and 
 northern Armenia ; how long it had been exercised or what it 
 grew from no one knows. When Ashod is the first known 
 founder of the Pakradoonian dynasty of Armenia, probably in 
 885, the two most interested powers, the Persian and Greek, 
 were both favorable to this change, and no doubt both expected 
 to benefit by it. Under these auspices a dynasty, the descen- 
 dants of Sumbat and Pakrat, and hence of the direct line of 
 Israel (see the Haigian dynasty in this book), took possession 
 of the Armenian throne. During the period of wellnigh two 
 hundred years of their troubled sway, the history of Armenia 
 has little other interest save what attaches to a condition of in- 
 cessant commotion and massacre, arising from the alternating 
 oppressions of Persians and Greeks, as they saw it to be their 
 advantage to intervene in her afifairs. The effusive friendship 
 of both eastern and western patrons had begun to visibly cool 
 before a single generation of the new regime had passed away. 
 Issuf, a creature of the Persian caliph, after carrying on hostili- 
 ties against the Pakradoonian King, Sumbat I. (the second of 
 the dynasty), seized him, and tortured him to death. This mis- 
 creant continued his invasions of Armenia in the reign of Sum- 
 bat's successor. Ashod II., "the Iron," gained his title from his 
 
ASHOD. 
 

AND THE ARMENIANS. 6l 
 
 stern military power. He beat back the Arabs, and gave the 
 land peace for a considerable time. He left no son, and his 
 brother Appas succeeded him, another brave and wise ruler, 
 who brought back the Armenian captives held in bondage by 
 the Saracens. He made the city of Kars his capital. He 
 greatly improved the city, and built a beautiful cathedral there. 
 After a reign of tv/enty-four years he died in peace, and his son 
 succeeded him as Ashod HI. 
 
 This was the glory of the line in prowess and generosity. 
 He reminds one of Alfred the Great in England. He was the 
 terror of his country's enemies ; not one of them, Arab, Greek, 
 or Persian, dared to invade Armenia, and they sent presents to 
 conciliate his friendship. It was under him that the country 
 became formally independent again. He filled it with fortified 
 places. He gave all his personal income in charity, and estab- 
 lished almshouses and state charities. He was so benevolent 
 and so interested in the destitute that he was called "The Merci- 
 ful." He ruled over x\rmenia twenty-six years, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, Simpad. This was neither a good man nor 
 good ruler, but corrupt, cruel, and ambitious only for selfish 
 purposes. He made the city of Ani, on the north side of Mount 
 Ararat, the royal capital, built strong walls and lofty towers 
 around it, and is said to have erected looi churches in it — which 
 he might do, and still be a bad man. The extent of its still ex- 
 isting ruins of palaces, churches, towers, and castles testifies 
 that it was one of the great cities of the world, like Babylon, and 
 Antioch. 
 
 For more than a century Armenia flourished and grew 
 rich; then it disappeared once more under the hammer and 
 anvil of Byzantine and Saracen, aided by internal disruption 
 and the treachery of its great nobles, who hated the Kings for 
 controlling their lawlessness. Let us take in just its situation. 
 It included the heart of the Armenian highlands, but it had not 
 the extent of old Armenia, several Armenian districts being in- 
 dependent of it, and either free or tributary to the Byzantine 
 empire. Ani was its seat, but the district around Kars, fifty 
 
62 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 miles northwest, had spht off into a separate principaUty, the 
 boundary between the two being the Aros; on the east was Vas- 
 paurakan, another princedom; on the west Sebate, another; on 
 the north Iberia, and Abkhasia, or Abasgia, or Albania, the 
 realms of the Georgians, and one or two others not quite cer- 
 tain. But all these were ruled by Armenian princes, mostly of 
 the Pakradoonian house. 
 
 The Byzantines and Armenians were not long destined to 
 fight their battles side by side. In 1022 the Emperor Basil II. 
 compelled the Armenian King, Johannes Simpad, to sign a 
 treaty, ceding at his death the city of Ani, with the province in 
 which it stood, to the Greeks. Constantine IX. called upon 
 ■Gaghik, the last of the Pakradoonian Kings, to ratify this 
 treaty. On his refusal, Constantine, forming an alliance with 
 the Saracen Emperor Tovin, laid siege to Ani. The treachery 
 of the Armenian chiefs aided the project of the emperor. Gag- 
 hik surrendered, and, receiving a safe conduct, set out to 
 Constantinople to plead his cause. Meantime, the city of Ani 
 was captured by the Byzantine forces (1045). This fatal blow 
 to the Pakradoonian monarchy, coming from the hand of a 
 Christian power, destroyed not only an Armenian dynasty, but 
 the only barrier to the advances of the Seljauk Turks. It was, 
 therefore, in due time destined to recoil with direct results upon 
 the head of the assailant. 
 
 EoUowing close upon the surrender of Ani the Seljauk 
 Turks made repeated incursions into Armenia. In the third 
 of these incursions they captured the city of Arzen, and mas- 
 sacred in cold blood 140,000 people; the remnant they carried 
 away into captivity. The native historian adds that the same 
 cruehies were perpetrated by this barbarous horde on many other 
 cities of Armenia. Ani, meantime, was occupied by 60,000 
 Greek troops, under the command of Camenas, and these were 
 well pleased to look on with complacency at the sufferings of 
 the Armenians. 
 
 In 1062, after the death of Togrue, his successor invaded 
 Armenia and captured Ani. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 63 
 
 We have now reached the close of our brief survey of the 
 general character of the Bagradoonian dynasty. The termina- 
 tion of the chequered career of the exiled King Gaghik is tragic 
 in no ordinary degree. Father Chamich gravely relates how 
 the exiled King visited Marcus, the Metropolitan of Csesarea, 
 with a few attendants. He had heard that Marcus kept a huge 
 dog, which, to show his contempt, he named "Armenian." 
 Marcus made a show of giving the ex-king a cordial welcome, 
 and prepared for him a feast on the evening of his arrival. 
 Gaghik desired his host to call his large dog. The animal, on 
 being brought in was saluted by his master by the name "Ar- 
 menian." On a given signal, the attendants of Gaghik seized 
 the dog and put him into a large bag. They forthwith threw 
 the Metropolitan in beside him, and securely fastened the bag. 
 The do^ was then severely beaten, and so becoming furious, he 
 worried his master to death. Falling into the hands of the 
 Greeks, Gaghik was, in revenge, subjected to the most horrid 
 cruelties, and after being put to death, his bloody corpse was 
 suspended from the walls of Kigistra, to strike terror into his 
 followers. So perished, says Chamich, Gaghik, in the fifty- 
 fifth year of his age. He had been three years in possession of 
 the throne of Armenia, and thirty-five years in exile. The same 
 authority observes: "A want of prudence removed the crown 
 from the Arsacidse, and a melancholy want of unanimity 
 caused the downfall of the Pakradoonians." 
 
 With the overthrow of the Pakradoonian dynasty the for- 
 tunes of Armenia sunk to a still lower ebb than ever they had 
 done before. A portion of the conquered dominions w^as 
 seized by the Greeks, while the Turks and Kurds did their best 
 to establish a claim to the rest. At this stage took place a gen- 
 eral movement into different provinces of the Turkish empire, 
 particularly into the regions lying to the west and south of their 
 ancient settlements. Only one or two native princes continued 
 to maintain their independence. Of these, Rupen, related to 
 the Pakradoonia, extended the limits of his dominions, and his 
 successors advanced to Cilicia and Cappadocia, where they es- 
 tablished what is known as the Rupenian kingdom and dynasty. 
 
64 ^ ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 THE STORY OF ARMENIAN DYNASTIES. (CONTINUED.) 
 
 The Fourth: The Rupenian, from 1080 A. D. to 1375 A. D. 
 
 In the time of Rupen the patriarchate was weakened by 
 divisions. Instead of one, the Armenian church set up four 
 rival pontiffs, but the general voice was in favor of St. Gregory, 
 to whose character and reforms we have already alluded. 
 Around him and successive pontiffs gathered groups of studi- 
 ous and scholarly men, whose names and works are still held in 
 honor. While Rupen and his successors styled themselves 
 Kings, it was not until the time of Leo II. (1198) that the Ru- 
 penian kingdom was formally constituted and recognized by 
 other powers. In that year Pope Celestinus III., at the insti- 
 gation of the German Emperor (Henry VL), sanctioned the 
 coronation of Leo, and sent him a magnificent crown by the 
 hand of Conrad, Archbishop of Maguntia. The Emperor sent 
 him at the same time a splendid standard, having in the middle 
 a lion rampant, in allusion to his name. This device was hence- 
 forth adopted by the Armenian Kings in lieu of the ancient 
 design of the eagle, pigeon and dragon.* 
 
 But we have anticipated the grand event which, in some 
 measure, renders memorable this era in the history of the 
 Cilician kingdom of Armenia. This was its temporary connec- 
 tion with the Crusades. While the new sovereignty on the 
 west of Asia Minor was struggUng into and for existence, first 
 with Greeks, and then again with Persians, a new enterprise 
 was rousing to its inmost depths the heart of the nations of 
 Christian Europe. This was the conception of a grand Cru- 
 sade, whose object should be to wrest Palestine and Jerusalem, 
 and Constantinople as well, from the grasp of the infidel. 
 
 It was true that at this stage the deliverance of Constanti- 
 nople was only prospective, as it was not yet in the hands of the 
 advancing foe. But it was easily seen that, with the Turkish 
 camp already pitched on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, 
 
 *Camicb, vol. ii, pp. 215. 
 
tf/sVi^V^OJ? 
 
 ';/&' ' \y/<i.l.-%v? 'r^i. r. ->^ 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 65 
 
 this could only be a question of time. Peter the Hermit, laden 
 with the benediction of Urban IL, and supported by a countless 
 host of warriors, bearing on their breasts or shoulders the sign 
 of the Red Cross, was now at Constantinople, on the way to 
 deliver Jerusalem. Under the leadership of Godfrey of 
 Bouillon this motley group had made its way to this, its first 
 friendly resting-place and object of succor. Crossing into Asia 
 Minor, it had found itself in the horrors of famine and pesti- 
 lence. The Armenians, both of eastern and western Asia, sent 
 abundant supplies, and by their seasonable services earned the 
 gratitude of the leaders of the Crusade. The same friendly 
 spirit was shown also in the case of the second Crusade. On 
 the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 the leader of the first Crusade 
 sent the Armenian prince, Constantine, valuable presents, cre- 
 ated him a marquis, and conferred on him the honor of knight- 
 hood. 
 
 Amid the turmoil of Saracen conquest, in honor of the 
 founder this new dynasty was styled the Rupenian dynasty, 
 which lasted about three centuries. Meanwhile Malek Shah 
 died, and the vast Seljukian empire was divided into various 
 principalities. One of these principalities occupied a large 
 portion of western Asia, bordering on the Greek empire, having 
 for its capital the city of Nice. 
 
 It was during the reign of Constantine, the son and suc- 
 cessor of Rupen L, that the immense army of the Crusades 
 for the first time marched into western Asia, took Nice and 
 various places, and laid siege to Antioch. But a terrible 
 famine broke out in their camp. When the information of it 
 reached Constantine and his chiefs, they sent an abundance of 
 provisions to the army of the Crusaders. 
 
 The last dynasty of the Armenians in Cilicia was by no 
 means in a favorable condition. While western Asia was in a 
 fearful agitation, and in a tumultuous situation, the Seljukian, 
 after losing their capital, Nice, made Iconium — which over ten 
 centuries before had listened to the famous missionaries, Paul 
 and Barnabas, tell the story of the Cross — their capital, and 
 
66 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 made it resound with the *'ezzins" of the "muezzin" from the 
 numerous minarets, and became a source of great trouble to 
 the Armenians. The Greeks, inflamed with like hatred and 
 prejudice as before, were more or less in constant conflict with 
 them. The Armenians, over-exultant because of the presence 
 of the Christian forces of the western nations in the east, were 
 willing to enUst in aid of their cause by entering into an alliance 
 with them. But the suspicions of some that these foreigners 
 were anxious to bring the Armenian church or people under 
 the control of the Pope of Rome were sustained by the facts, 
 revealed in due time. Though their attempts proved unsuc- 
 cessful, a schism originated in the church, which, with its detri- 
 mental effect upon the church and the people, still continues. 
 
 A new^ tremendous army of the Mongolians, under the 
 command of Chinghis Khan, made its appearance in western 
 Asia. They spread all over Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor 
 destruction, devastation, and death, committing wholesale mas- 
 sacre, consuming the cities and towns by fire, and carrying 
 away hundreds and thousands into captivity. Armenia has 
 been over and over inundated with the blood of her inhabitants, 
 enriched with their carcasses scattered upon her face; her 
 beautiful and bright sky was often rendered foggy and smoky 
 on account of the conflagrations of her immense cities and 
 numerous towns, kindled by the enemy; her beautiful sons and 
 daughters were torn away from the bosoms of their parents^ 
 carried away as captives, and sold for slaves; her magnificent 
 churches and monasteries were converted into mosques and 
 "tekes." Yet the ''House of Togarmah" marched on through 
 these tremendous seas of oppression, persecution, cruelty, and 
 injustice, from a remote antiquity to the end of the fourteenth 
 century of our era, lifting up the old, centuries old, flag of lib- 
 erty, torn to pieces and ready to fall into an irreparable disso- 
 lution. 
 
 No doubt the object of the Popes, who urged the western 
 sovereigns to raise Crusades against the Mohammedans, and 
 kept them engaged in this unsuccessful enterprise for a length 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 67 
 
 of time, at the expense of an immense wealth and milhons of 
 human Hves, was twofold — to exercise their sublunary power 
 over these potentates, and to further their influence over other 
 Christian nations in the east. 
 
 But they signally failed in their purpose. There came a 
 time that the Popes had no influence over the Kings of Europe, 
 and the Crusaders in the east rendered their names detestable 
 forever, both to the Christians and non-Christians. 'Tn 1204 
 (Christian era) the capital (Constantinople) was captured by the 
 Crusaders, whose conduct fixed an indelible stain upon the 
 name of the Franks throughout the east, especially as it is con- 
 trasted with that of the Mohammedans, who, a few years before, 
 had conquered Jerusalem. When Saladin entered the latter 
 city the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was respected, and the 
 conquered Christians remained in possession of their property; 
 no confiscations were made of the wealth of the non-comba- 
 tants. But the vaunted chivalry of the papal church plundered 
 a Christian city without remorse, desecrated its shrines, and 
 maltreated its inhabitants, while the profane cry of "God will 
 it!'' was raised to excite each other to act the part of brigands 
 and debauchees. Sacred plate, golden images of saints, and 
 silver candelabra from the altars; bronze statues of heathen 
 idols and heroes, precious works of Hellenic art; crowns, coro- 
 nets, thrones, vessels of gold and silver; ornaments of dia- 
 monds, pearls, and precious stones from the imperial treasury 
 and the palaces of the nobles; jewelry and precious metals from 
 the shops of the goldsmiths; silks, velvets, and brocaded tis- 
 sues from the warehouses of the merchants, together with 
 coined money, were accumulated in vast heaps as spoils to be 
 divided by the victors. A few of the crusading clergy endea- 
 vored to moderate the fury which the bigoted prejudices of the 
 Latin church had instilled into the minds of the soldiery against 
 the Greeks; but many priests were as forward as the most 
 abandoned of the troops in robbing the temples of a kindred 
 faith."* 
 
 ♦"The Turkish Empire," pp. 23*8, 239. 
 
68 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Our Saviours words were literally fulfilled. With what 
 measure the Greeks so often had measured and dealt with the 
 Armenians it was meted to them by the hands of the Crusaders. 
 Yet such a conduct of the Crusaders with the Christians, and 
 undoubtedly a conduct ten times worse than this towards the 
 Mohammedans, accounts for the determination and fury of the 
 latter against the Christians. The reply of Melick Nasr, the 
 Egyptian Sultan, to an application of the Armenian King, Leo 
 II., for a treaty of peace was the following: — 
 
 ''I will never make peace with you until you promise on 
 oath not to hold any correspondence or communication with 
 western nations." 
 
 Often did the Mohammedan powers imagine that the Ar- 
 menians had again stirred up the western nations, that they 
 were marching against them in greater force than ever before, 
 and then they would attack the cities and towns of the Ar- 
 menians and commit all manner of atrocities, thinking that this 
 might be their last opportunity. The Armenian independence 
 of Cilicia was surrounded by the Ottoman power on the west, 
 constantly growing in strength and in numbers; on the east 
 and north by the Mongolian invaders, under such leaders as 
 Togrul Bey, Alp Arslan, Chinghis Khan, Tamerlane, and 
 others, who deserve to be called the greatest warriors and the 
 most cruel sons of the world; on the south by the Mohamme- 
 dans of Egypt, under the reign of the Mameluke Sultans, who 
 were no less formidable than the previous two, both in hatred 
 and cruelty toward the Christians. 
 
 After the withdrawal of the western nations — or, rather, 
 their being driven out from the east, in full satisfaction of their 
 complete failure, either to maintain their position or ameliorate 
 the oppressed condition of the Oriental Christians under the 
 Mohammedans, the latter had but little difficulty in destroying 
 the independnce of the Armenians in Cilicia. By various in- 
 cursions of the Mohammedans of Egypt into Cilicia, the Ar- 
 menians were reduced in strength and in numbers. Finally a 
 vast army of the enemy marched against them. These mis- 
 
LEON VII. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 69 
 
 sionarv soldiers of Mohammed, indeed brutes in character and 
 nature, though clad in clayey garments of human forms, spread 
 themselves all over the country. No city, town, or village ; no 
 building of any value, whether church, monastery, or dwelling, 
 and no human being of any age or sex that fell into their hands 
 was spared. They slaughtered every human being, and burned 
 to ashes every building or razed it to the ground. In their exe- 
 cution of the unfortunate victims fallen into their hands they 
 did not leave any mode untried. "The deceitful above all 
 things and desperately wicked heart" of a depraved human 
 creature could not have suggested any new method of torture 
 that these Mohammedans did not devise and experiment upon 
 their captives. 
 
 King Leo \T. and the garrison surrendered on the condi- 
 tion that their lives would be spared. The Egyptian general 
 promised this on oath. Leo VL was fettered, and, with his 
 family, carried to Cairo in the eleventh year of his reign. (A. D. 
 1373). The King, Leo, and his family, after serving a period 
 of imprisonment at Cairo, were freed by the mediation and 
 valuable presents of the King of Spain from their imprison- 
 ment. Leo, with his Queen and daughter, went to Jerusalem. 
 There he left them, at their own request, and then visited the 
 European countries. On the 19th of November, A. D. 1393, 
 he ended his mortal career at Paris. Leo, King of Armenia, 
 was of small stature, but of intelligent expression and of well 
 formed features. His body was carried to the tomb clothed in 
 royal robes of white, according to the custom of Armenia, with 
 an open crown upon his head and a golden sceptre in his hand. 
 He lay in state upon a bier hung with white, and surrounded bv 
 the officers of his household, clothed all of them in w^iite robes. 
 He was buried by the high altar of the church of the Celestine. 
 The following epitaph is on his monument, which still exists 
 to-day: 
 
 "Here lies Leo. VL, the noble Lousinian Prince, 
 
 The King of Armenia, 
 
 Who died 1393 A. D., Nov. 23d, in Paris." 
 
70 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 The enemy had rendered the country a complete desert, 
 and it still remains so. The people also fell under the iron 
 yoke of the ^lohammedan power, and still suffer all the injus- 
 tice and cruelties of such a government as that of Turkey, which 
 has no excuse for its existence. 
 
BHMMMMKMHMMtai 
 
 CATHERINE KORNARO, LAST QUEEN OF ARMENIA. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE ARMENIAN SUBJECTION FROM 1 375 TO 
 
 THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 From the overthrow of Leo VI., the last of the Rupenian 
 dynasty, in 1375, the Armenian Monarchy ceased to exist. 
 From that time forward even the semblance of civil autonomy 
 disappeared. Whether, and when, it is destined to reappear^ 
 as the outcome of the present situation, is one of the questions 
 which is still awaiting solution. The absorption of Armenia, 
 now deprived of her kings, first by Persian and again by Turk- 
 ish rulers, makes it no easy matter to trace the course of her 
 chequered history. 
 
 How many thousands of their children were alienated 
 from their paternal homes and home altars to adopt [Moham- 
 medanism, to swell the number of the Janissaries; how many 
 thousands of families were compelled to exchange the re- 
 ligion of Christ, which is the religion of love and chastity, with 
 the religion of Mohammed, which is the religion of sensualism 
 and tyranny; how many thousands were massacred because 
 they could not obey such an infernal behest, it is surely impos- 
 sible to tell. But suffice it to say that these questions are not 
 imaginary possibilities, but actualities performed by our fan- 
 atic Mohammedans, and instances are not wanting even at this 
 present day. 
 
 While the expatriated Armenians were so cruelly treated 
 by the Turks in the western and central part of Asia Minor, 
 those in Armenia proper received one of the severest calami- 
 ities ever inflicted upon men. The scourger of this infliction 
 was the famous ^longolian savage and warrior, Lenk Timour, 
 commonly called Tamerlane. He made himself the master of 
 
72 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 an empire extending from the walls of China to the shores of 
 the Mediterranean, having Samarkand for his capital. 
 
 He marched with an immense army in 1387 against the 
 Persians and subdued them within a short time, and he then 
 fell upon the Armenians; from the city of Van to the city of 
 Sibastia (Sivas), from the one end to the other of Armenia. 
 No city, town or village escaped the notice of this rapacious 
 potentate, but he reduced them to ruinous heaps and ashes ; he 
 slaughtered a great number of the inhabitants, sparing the 
 youths as captives. The inhabitants of the latter city (Sivas) 
 surrendered on his solemn promise that "no soldier of his will 
 lift up the sword on them." He, however, was true to the let- 
 ter, but not to the spirit of his promise. Four thousand soldiers 
 were roasted to death, great multitudes were buried alive, and 
 thousands of young and old whose hands and feet were tied, 
 were thrown together and trampled under the feet of the horses. 
 
 The spot upon which this barbarous mode of massacre 
 took place, to this day bears the name of Sev-Hakher, signify- 
 ing in the Armenian language the "Black plains." 
 
 He then attacked the Turks, who received a signal defeat, 
 and Sultan Bayazid I. in vain attempted to efifect his escape; 
 he was captured, and he possibly died in captivity about 1402. 
 
 "For a few years Timour was the undisputed lord of Asia, 
 master of the original seat of Ottomans, reigning in all the 
 splendor of the ancient caliphs of Samarkand, till death re- 
 moved him to the presence of that awful Being whose laws 
 he had violated and whose creatures he had destroyed." He 
 died in 1406 in his capital, Samarkand. 
 
 The magnificent city of Constantinople, after being the 
 metropolis of a Christian nation over eleven centuries, fell into 
 the hands of the barbarian Turks. In vain, and too late, did 
 the Greeks realize their critical condition, and struggle 
 against the angel of death. The capture of Constantinople by 
 the Turks filled the European nations with consternation. 
 
 The following is from the letter of Pius H., the pope of 
 Rome, who tried to raise a crusade against the Turks. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 73 
 
 The Strait of Cadiz has been passed, and the passion of 
 Mohammed penetrates even into Spain. . . In the other di- 
 rection, where Europe extends eastward, the Christian rehg- 
 ion has been swept away from all the shores. 
 
 The barbarian Turks, a people hated by God and man, 
 issuing from the east of Scythia, have occupied Cappadocia, 
 Poatus, Bethynia, Troas, Pisidia, Cilicia and all Asia Minor. 
 Not yet content, counting on the weakness and dissensions of 
 the Greeks, they have passed the Hellespont, and got posses- 
 sion of nearly all the Grecian cities of Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, 
 Achaic, INIacedonia and Trace. 
 
 Still, the royal city of Constantinople did remain the pil- 
 lar and head of all East, the seat of patriarch and emperor, the 
 sole dwelling place of Grecian wisdom. . . This, too, in 
 our own day, while the Latins, divided among themselves, for- 
 sook the Greeks, has that cruel nation of Turks invaded and 
 spoiled, triumphing over the city that once gave taxes to all 
 the East. 
 
 Nor is their savage appetite yet satiated. The lord of that 
 unrighteous people, who is rather to be called a dark brute 
 than a king, a venomous dragon than emperor, he athirst for 
 human blood, brings down huge forces upon Hungary. Here 
 he harasses the Eperotes, and here the Albanians ; and swelling 
 in his own pride, boasts that he will abolish the most holy Gos- 
 pel and all the law of Christ, and threatens Christians every- 
 where with chains, stripes, death and horrid torments. 
 
 Even the great reformer, immortal Luther, composed a 
 
 once popular prayer, suited to the times, to be sung as a hymn 
 
 in the churches ; and Robert Wisdame, afterwards Archdeacon 
 
 of Ely, appended a translation of it to the metrical version of the 
 
 psalms, by Steinhold and Hopkins. It commences with the 
 
 lines: 
 
 ''Preserve us, Lord, by Thy dear word. 
 From Pope and Turk, defend us. Lord." 
 
 The cruelties of Tamerlane had already caused thousands 
 of Armenian families to emigrate still westward; all these, and 
 
74 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 those dwelling in Cilicia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia Minor, 
 became subjects to the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 Sultan Mohammed II., the most remarkable, perhaps, of 
 all the Sultans, stormed and took the city of Constantinople, 
 which was henceforth to be the seat of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 The siege and fall of Constantinople rank among the 
 most imposing events in the transition from ancient to modern 
 history. Constantine XL, the last of the Greek Caesars, had 
 appealed for help to the Christian powers of Europe — but in 
 vain. The disputes betw^een the Eastern and Western churches 
 had rendered the prospect of the fall of the former a matter 
 of indifference, if not an object of desire, to the papal see. 
 
 The spirit of the Crusades was also largely quenched, 
 and so the citadel of Eastern Christendom, in its hour of su- 
 preme need, was left to its own unaided resources. We can- 
 not rehearse the story of the fifty-three days' siege. The 
 forces of the attack and the defence were in sad and suggestive 
 contrast. 
 
 Around a city, whose Greek population the recent calam- 
 ities had reduced to about 100,000 souls, with an enfeebled gar- 
 rison, there gathered the 258,000 soldiers of the Turk, wnth 
 320 sail, including all kinds of craft. 
 
 The day fixed for the final onslaught, i. e.. May 29, 1453, 
 was set apart by the Sultan Mohammed II. as a religious fes- 
 tival. The preceding night witnessed a magnificent illumina- 
 tion of the Moslem camp and ships, transforming the harbor 
 of the Golden Horn and its vicinity into a scene of splendor 
 such as, perhaps, had never been witnessed before, or was ever 
 to be witnessed again in the history of Oriental display. 
 
 The stated calls to prayer rose upon the still air without, 
 while the pathetic cry of Kyrie eleison resounded within the 
 doomed city. 
 
 The attack commenced in the early morning, and by mid- 
 day Mohammed II. was riding in triumph into his new 
 capital by the gate of St. Romanus. He rode past the dead 
 body of the Greek emperor, buried beneath a heap of the slain. 
 
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AND THE ARMENIANS, yc^ 
 
 The grand old emperor, whose courage had supported 
 his people through the horrors of the siege, had already taken 
 his last sacrament in the church of St. Sophia, and bidden 
 farewell to his household, ere he went forth cheerfully to sec- 
 rifice his life in defence of the throne of the Caesars. But the 
 heroic effort was in vain. 
 
 The blow long pending had fallen; the Roman Empire 
 was no more. 
 
 Sultan Mohammed II., who captured the city of Constan- 
 tinople, established an Armenian patriarchate there in 1461, 
 A. D. 
 
 The first patriarch was Havaguem, the Bishop of Broosa, 
 with certain privileges, and as well as the representative, and 
 the responsible one for his nation. 
 
 The first patriarch Havaguem was a friend of the Sultan 
 Mohammed II. had two motives in this, first, to have an x^r- 
 menian ecclesiastical centre in Constantinople for the nucleus 
 of a strong Armenian settlement there, to play off against the 
 Greeks from whom the city was taken and who might be dan- 
 gerous, whereas the feud between Armenians and Greeks 
 would make each weaken the other. Second, to have a hos- 
 tage for the Armenians, responsible for their not breaking into 
 revolt; not at all for the benefit of the Armenians, but for that 
 of the Sultan. The same reason obtains to this day; if there 
 was no patriarch their cause would be much better of¥. After 
 the establishment of this patriarchate the Armenians had no 
 more kings or princes ; their political head was the patriarch. 
 Even after the patriarchate was established they were no safer. 
 They yielded to the Sultans, they became slaves to the Sultans, 
 but the Persian Mohammedans were foes of the Turkish Mo- 
 nammedans, and Armenia, as of old in Roman times, was the 
 battleground. 
 
 After some bloody conflicts in Persia and Armenia hx 
 hostile claimants fcr supremacy over these countries. Shah 
 Ismail had found the Suffavean dynasty of Persia in 1499. A. 
 D. The Suffaveans claimed that Ali, the fourth caliph, would 
 
jrb ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 have been the immediate successor of the prophet Mohammed 
 and the head of Islamism had Abubekr Omar, and Osman not 
 usurped themselves and seized his right. They, moreover, 
 claimed lineage from Ali and thus the lawful successors of 
 Mohammed. The Osmanli Sultans repudiated this right and 
 descent. This difference between the Mohammedan Turks 
 and Persians furnished these two Islam nations with an occa- 
 sion of constant war and bloodshed. But alas ! the noble land 
 of Ararat had to furnish them the battlefield, and the unfor- 
 tunate "House of Togarmah" to suffer the doleful consequen- 
 ces of their sanguinary conflicts. 
 
 In the time of Sultan Ahmed and Shah Appas, the latter 
 a "magnificent barbarian," was one of the Shahs of Suf¥avean 
 dynasty, and he, preparing for war with the Turks, fearing 
 that he might be compelled to cede Armenia to the latter, he 
 gave orders to his army to immediately vacate as many cities 
 and towns as possible, and to burn them to ashes, and drive 
 the inhabitants into captivity. Within a short time many a 
 city and town lay in ruins, and the country was converted into 
 a fearful condition of desolation. Thousands sought refuge 
 in the mountains and caves. Some found a refuge but others 
 found only the enemy, and fourteen thousand families were 
 led into captivity. 
 
 This great host of captives was composed of the venerable 
 patriarch, bishops, priests, vartabeds, old men and women, 
 and children of all ages, mothers with their infants in their 
 arms, baptizing them with their tears; the gallant looking 
 young men and maidens. These all indiscriminately were 
 driven by the Persian soldiers to the bank of the Araxes, where 
 some rafts and galleys were in readiness- to hasten their cross- 
 ing the swift waters of the river. Many gallant husbands and 
 knightly brothers who were determined to protect their beau- 
 tiful but unfortunate wives and sisters, even unto death, found 
 watery graves in the river Araxes from the hands of the brut- 
 ally lustful soldiers and offlcers. Opposite Ispahan these cap- 
 tives were settled and built New Jula (some write Julpa). 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. ']'J 
 
 The ]vX2i proper in Armenia was destroyed by Shah Abbas. 
 The contest between the Turks and Persians over Armenia 
 lasted more than two centuries, beginning in 15 12, A. D., by 
 Sultan Selim L, till the early part of the last century. Hardly 
 had they signed a treaty of peace when there was another 
 power creeping dow^n the Caucasus. Peter the Great of Rus- 
 sia was coo great to miss the opportunity of taking a portion 
 of that historic land at Ararat. His successors too, very 
 faithful to the charge delivered to them by him, though faith- 
 less to their promises, did the same. 
 
 The Russians contended with the Persians over a portion 
 of Armenia and other provinces belonging to the latter from 
 1772 — 1829. In this contest the Armenians rendered a signal 
 service to the Russians and decided the victory for Russia. 
 The promise of liberty for their heroic service and bravery 
 made by the Russians was intended to be abject servitude 
 and ignominious exile. 
 
 From 1813 to 1829, the Armenians appeared to think their 
 emancipation at hand. 
 
 Russia stood in need of them to make a diversion against 
 the Ottoman forces, and held out to them the hope of be- 
 coming an independent principality, under the protection of the 
 Czar. Her promises were believed, and, in their devotion to 
 their destined liberator, they withstood for more than six 
 vv^eeks an army of eighty thousand Persians who were marching 
 against Russia, and prevented them from crossing their fron- 
 tier, but these services reaped a poor reward, for not only were 
 the Russians faithless to their promises, but they seized the 
 opportunity of some trifling disturbance in the country to lay 
 violent hands on the venerable Archbishop Narses. who was 
 dragged in the first place to St. Petersburg, and afterwards ban- 
 ished to Bassarabia, whilst several of the Armenian chiefs were 
 scattered in exile through foreign countries or carried ofT to 
 Russia to be heard of no more. 
 
 Russia also wrested from the degenerate Turkish Empire 
 at times, especially in 1878, after the Russo-Turkish war. a 
 
yS ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 large territory and the important city of Kars of Armenia. As 
 it has been already said, the unfortunate land of Ararat is now 
 divided among these three empires, the Russian, Persian and 
 Turkish, the largest portion of it being still under the rule of 
 the latter. 
 
 From the above brief history given in a cursory manner 
 it will be easily understood that the Armenians have been sub- 
 jected to all kinds of cruelties. Owing to the calamitous wars, 
 merciless persecutions, voluntary and involuntary exiles, and 
 emigrations into different countries, they have been often 
 justly compared to the Jews scattered like them all over the 
 globe. The Armenians are met with in every commercial city 
 throughout Europe and Asia, but the great majority of the 
 nation still dwells in the land of Ararat and in the Turkish Em- 
 pire. There are over two hundred thousand Armenians ia 
 the city of Constantinople, and as many in other cities of Euro- 
 pean Turkey and other European countries. 
 
 The number of Armenians in Asia Minor and Armenia 
 proper under the Turkish rule does not fall below two millions 
 and a half. The three or four vilayets (provinces) of Erzerum^ 
 Diarbekr, Harpoot, and Kurdistan contain many villages, 
 peopled entirely by Armenians, and in these provinces, not- 
 withstanding frequent emigration (owing to the atrocities of 
 the Kurds and Turks) the Armenians preserve a numerical 
 superiority over the Turkish and Turcoman races. 
 
 The Armenians live in their respective villages, towns and 
 cities. In those cities and towns where they are not the only 
 inhabitants, but there are other nationalties like the Turks 
 and Greeks, the Armenians live in certain districts clustered 
 by themselves, having a sufBcient number of churches and 
 schools attached to them for their religious and educational 
 wants. The dwellings in the villages and towns in the in- 
 terior are of primitive style, either being of unhewn stone 
 entirely, or half of stone and half of sun-dried bricks with flat 
 roofs; first large logs or beams laid crosswise and supported 
 with strong pillars, then covered with roots and earth and dirt, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 79 
 
 with a thickness of two or three feet, and then hardened to 
 prevent leaking. But sometimes, ''through idleness of the 
 hands the house droppeth through." (Ecclesiastes x. i8), 
 Proverbs xix. 13, and xxvii. 15.) 
 
 The Armenians living in large towns and cities are en- 
 gaged in various occupations of life. The following trades are 
 almost exclusively in the hands of the Armenians in Asiatic 
 and partly in European Turkey: Locksmithing, blacksmith- 
 ing, coppersmithing, goldsmithing, watchmaking, shoemak- 
 ing, tailoring, weaving, printing, dyeing, carpentry, masonry, 
 architecture, etc. 
 
 And some are grocery, hardware, and all sorts of store- 
 keepers, and some others are peddlers, traveling merchants, 
 merchants, money brokers, (sarafs), bankers, lawyers and phy- 
 sicians. "The 'Armenian nation,' " says a writer, "is the life of 
 Turkey.'' Another says, "They are a noble race, and have 
 been called the Anglo-Saxons of the East. They are an ac- 
 tive and enterprising class. Shrewd, industrious and perse- 
 vering, they are the bankers of Constantinople, the artisans 
 of Turkey, and the merchants of Western and Central Asis." 
 
 Hardly will it be necessary to adduce numerous state- 
 ments of many European and American observers, some of 
 whom know the Armenians far better than many an Armenian 
 himself, but let us sufftce with the following testimony of Rev. 
 Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, one of the first missionaries of the 
 American Board among the Armenians. 
 
 "The principal merchants are Armenians, and nearly all 
 the great bankers of the (Turkish) governments; and whatever 
 arts there are that require peculiar ingenuity and skill, they 
 are almost sure to be in the hands of Armenians, in one word, 
 they are the Anglo-Saxons of the East." 
 
 The above statements are made undoubtedly and com- 
 paratively of the modern Armenians, but in order that the 
 reader might not be misled to lightly think of the Armenians of 
 old as lacking the ingenuity, skill, and the spirit of enterprise 
 we will cite also the statements from secular and sacred his- 
 
8o ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 tory to show that the ancient Armenians were not much be- 
 hind the Anglo-Saxonism of the Armenians of the present 
 time. 
 
 Herodotus, the great historian, who hved in the fifth cen- 
 tury before the Christian era, tells us that next to the marvel- 
 ous city of Babylon were the boats, constructed in Armenia 
 by the Armenian merchants in the following manner: — 
 
 ''But the greatest wonder of all that I saw in the land, 
 after the city itself, I will now proceed to mention. The boats 
 which came down the river (Euphrates to Babylon are circu- 
 lar, and made of skin. The frames, which are of willow, are 
 cut in the country of the Armenians above Assyria, and on 
 these, which serve for hulls, a covering of skin is stretched 
 outside, and thus the boats are made, without either stem or 
 stern, uite round like a shield. They are then entirely filled 
 with straw, and their cargo is put on board, after which they 
 are suffered to fioat down the stream. Their chief freight is 
 wine, stored in casks made of the wood of the palm-tree. 
 They are managed by two men, who stand upright in them, 
 each plying an oar, one pulling and the other pushing. The 
 boats are of various sizes, some larger, some smaller; the 
 biggest reach as high as five thousand talents burthen. Each 
 vessel has a live ass on board; those of large size have more 
 than one. When they reach Babylon the cargo is landed and 
 offered for sale, after which the men break up their boats, 
 sell the straw and frames, and loading their asses with the 
 skins, set off on their way back to Armenia. The current is 
 too strong to allow a boat to return up-stream, for which rea- 
 son they make their boats of skins rather than wood. On 
 their return to Armenia they build fresh boats for the next 
 voyage." * 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel, in his enumeration of the ancient 
 merchant nations who were engaged in mercantile pursuits 
 with the merchant nations of the Phoenicians in the marts of 
 the commercial city of Tyre, speaks of the Armenians under 
 
 *Rawlinson's Herodotus, book 1, page 194. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 8l 
 
 the popular appellation of "the house of Togarmah," 'They of 
 the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and 
 horsemen and mules." (Ezekiel xxvii., 14). 
 
 The descendants of Togarmah, on account of their in- 
 dustry, ingenuity, and intelligence, have accumulated great 
 wealth, and demanded, yea extorted, from the indolent Turks 
 high trusts in the government and its affairs; but by the 
 jealousy, cruelty, and cupidity of the latter, many of them 
 have been precipitated from their elevated state and prosperity 
 into terrible misery, often ending only with execution, as the 
 following and similar inscriptions on their tombstones and 
 on the pages of history will abundantly prove: — 
 
 "The most remarkable circumstance is that those Arme- 
 nians who have undergone execution ha"ve the modes of 
 their death commemorated on their sepulchres by the efifigies 
 of men being hung, strangled or beheaded. In explanation it 
 is stated that having become wealthy by their industry, they 
 suiifered as victims to the cupidity of former governments, not 
 as criminals; and hence their ignominious death was really 
 honorable to them and worthy of a memorial. An inscription 
 on one of the tombs of this class is as follows : — 
 
 "You see my place of burial here in this verdant field. 
 
 I give my goods to the robbers, 
 
 My soul to the regions of death; 
 
 The world I leave to God, 
 
 And my blood I shed in the Holy Spirit. 
 
 You who meet my tomb, 
 
 Say for me 
 
 'Lord, I have sinned.' 
 
 1 197."* 
 
 It was Sultan Mohammed II. who first appointed Bishop 
 Havaguam, of Broussa, patriarch over the Armenians in his 
 dominions in 1461. This custom of appointing of the patri- 
 archs by the Sultans of Turkey continued for a long time. 
 But it did not prove to be the proper way on account of the 
 
 ♦The Turkish Empire, page 261. 
 
82 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 abuses of procuring the ofiBce, and unqualified persons often 
 obtaining the appointment by the influence of their friends. 
 
 The nation, therefore, obtained the right of appointing 
 their own patriarch from the Porte; this national appointment, 
 however, had to be ratified by the Sultan of Turkey. 
 
 At two different times two more grants were received 
 from the Porte, namely, to have two distinct councils, the one 
 ecclesiastical and the other civil. The former was composed 
 of fourteen clergymen, the latter of twenty members from the 
 laity, and the members of these councils were also elected by 
 universal suffrage; the patriarch was the chairman of both of 
 those councils. 
 
 The Ecclesiastical Council has its sphere of action in re- 
 ligious matters and is the highest authority in the Turkish Em- 
 pire. The Civil Council is the civil authority, and has four sub- 
 councils under its supervision through which to operate, 
 namely: Council of Revenue, Council of Expenditure, Judica- 
 tory Council, and Educational Council. These names indi- 
 cate the sphere of their activity. This mode of operation or 
 division of the work is carried out into the provinces of the 
 Turkish Empire, wherever there are sufficient Armenians to 
 justify the existence of these councils. And all the councils 
 and sub-councils in the provinces and in the districts of the 
 capital are amenable to the General Ecclesiastical and Civil 
 Councils, and these councils are responsible to the patriarch 
 and the patriarch to the Porte. 
 
 Although such grants have been made and privileges ac- 
 corded and many other promises of reforms uttered and re- 
 corded by the Turkish government at various times to amelio- 
 rate the oppressed condition of th^ Armenians, yet most of 
 these grants, privileges, and promises now have their exist- 
 ence only as dead letters. 
 
 It has been said before that the Armenians are now, 
 more or less, scattered all over the globe, like the Jews. The 
 condition of this in India is far better than that of those in 
 Persia, Turkey and Russia. Being subject to a comparatively 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 83 
 
 just and Christian government they enjoy all civil and religious 
 privileges, consequently they are both wealthy and influential, 
 and some hold important positions in the queen's government 
 in India. 
 
 At Calcutta they have a bishop, churches, schools, and an 
 Armenian press. They have better educational advantages, 
 both in the English and the Armenian languages. The Arme- 
 nians are also conversant with the language of the country, 
 wherever they are found. 
 
 The Armenians in Persia, or under the Persian rule, have 
 not a very desirable condition, from a religious and educa- 
 tional point of view. And those especially living in Western 
 Persia, or Pers-Armenia, are also subject to all sorts of cruel- 
 ties by the hands of the Kurds, with whom they unfortunately 
 live. 
 
 The most of them, however, are at this time free from 
 the present tribulation that their brethren are undergoing in 
 the hands of "the unspeakable Turk." In the summer of 1890 
 many Armenians found refuge in Persia from the atrocities of 
 the Kurds and Turks. The Shah of Persia is very anxious to 
 get as many Armenians as possible into his kingdom, know- 
 ing the value of their industry, intelligence and useful occu- 
 pations. 
 
 Russia having wrested from Persia and Turkey a large 
 portion of Armenia in this century, there are now over one 
 million Armenians in the Russian provinces of Armenia, be- 
 side a good number of those in the commercial cities of the 
 same empire. 
 
 The financial condition of the Armenians in Russia might 
 be pronounced pretty fair. **The Anglo-Saxons of the East" 
 have proved their shrewdness in business and industry; in 
 character there, too, and according to a recent writer, in the 
 city of Titlis money is controlled by the Armenians. But from 
 a religious and national point of view the Armenians in Rus- 
 sia are in a serious danger. The policy of the government is 
 to Russianize other nations, both ethnically and ecclesiastically. 
 
84 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 The Russian government took occasion of a trifling disturb- 
 ance and issued an order to take possession of the Armenian 
 schools, and this order was carried out by mihtary force in 
 1885, while the late Catholicos has not yet succeeded to his 
 predecessor's vacant post. 
 
 The properties, consisting in real estate of the monastery 
 of Echmiadzin, where the seat of the Cathohcos is, were seized 
 upon by the government, and the monastery and its schools 
 were supported by the governmental money for a few years, 
 but this support was gradually reduced, so much so that now 
 the inmates of the monastery can hardly live on it, and the 
 monastery is not able to support any schools as it used to do 
 before with the plenteous income from the numerous villages 
 and farms. 
 
 The very country where the forefathers of the Armenians 
 lived centuries before the Russian nation had any existence, 
 or if any, it was in the embryonic state among the barbarous 
 Scythians, and by the very bravery and lives of many Armeni- 
 ans this country was extorted from the Turks for Russia^ and 
 it is strange, but nevertheless a fact, that the Armenian can- 
 mot own land in his own country, because he is a subject of 
 the Russian government. 
 
 In the summer of 1890, while the country of Armenia, un- 
 der the Turkish rule, was in a turbulent condition, some Ar- 
 menians crossed the boundary line and fled into an Armenian 
 monastery in Russian Armenia for a refuge from the Kvirds 
 and Turks. Most naturally were they protected and cared 
 for by the priests and monks in the monastery. This was a 
 pretense for the government to demand, or rather order, the 
 imprisonment, and afterwards the exile, of those clergymen 
 who sympathized with their persecuted brethren and cared for 
 them. 
 
 It will be a violation of our intention and the limits of 
 brevity of this present work to dilate on this subject, to point 
 out the unjust policy of the Russian government,, and her 
 constant effort to absorb the Armenian nation and church in 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 85 
 
 her dominions by compulsive teaching of Russian language 
 instead of the Armenian in the Armenian schools. 
 
 The Armenians have, unfortunately, learned cordially to 
 hate the Turks on account of their cruelties for centuries. The 
 Russians also are making themselves as detestable as the 
 Turks, not only to the Armenians, but also to all other na- 
 tions who love justice and delight in mercy. 
 
 The Armenians now number more than four million in 
 different countries in the world, of whom, two million, five 
 hundred thousand are in the Turkish Empire ; one million, five 
 hundred thousand are in Russian Armenia and other 
 parts of the same empire; five hundred thousand are scattered 
 through Persia, India, Burmah, Egypt and other parts of 
 Asia; one hundred thousand are scattered through Europe 
 and the United States; the total number of Armenians being 
 four million, six hundred thousand on the globe. 
 
 Probably about one half of the population of Turkish 
 Armenia now is Mohammedan, composed of Turks and 
 Kurds. The former are mostly found in and near the large 
 cities, such as Ezzingan, Baibourt, Erzerum and Van, and the 
 plains along the northern part. ^The Kurds live in their moun- 
 tain villages over the whole region. The term Kurdistan, 
 Vviiich in this region the Turkish government is trying to sub- 
 stitute for the historical one Armenia, has no political or geo- 
 graphical propriety except as indicating the much larger area 
 over which the Kurds are scattered. In this vague sense it 
 applies to a stretch of mountainous country about fifteen hun- 
 dred miles in length, starting between Erzingan and Malatiah, 
 and sweeping east and south over in Persia as far as Karman- 
 shah. 
 
 The number of the Kurds is very uncertain, neither the 
 Sultan nor the Shah of Persia, ever attempted a census of 
 them; and as they are very indifferent taxpayers, the revenue 
 tables — wilfully distorted for political purposes — are c^uite un- 
 reliable. 
 
 From the estimates of British consular officers there ap- 
 
86 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 pear to be about one and a half million Turkish Kurds, of 
 whom about six hundred thousand are in the vilayets of Erz- 
 erum, Van and Bitlis, and the rest in the vilayets of Harpoot, 
 Diarbekr, Mosul, and Bagdad. This is a very liberal estimate. 
 There are also supposed to be about seven hundred and fifty 
 thousand in Persia. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHAT WAS THE RELIGION OF THE ARMENIAN NATION BEFORE 
 THE CONVERTED OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 It is not possible to give specific information on the 
 original forms of the religion of the Armenian race. The 
 culture and civilization of the West had begun to penetrate 
 into Armenia with the victorious legions of the Greeks and 
 Romans. Another of the many deluges which have swept 
 over this unhappy land was showing tokens of subsidence, 
 and the ark was once more nearing a place of rest. 
 
 We have acknowledged from the book of Genesis, "And 
 Noah builded an altar unto the Lord" (Genesis ix., 20.) 
 
 The Bible, modern scholarship, and the Armenian tradi- 
 tion concur on the question that the ark of Noah rested ''upon 
 the mountains of Ararat," or Armenia. Again, we learn from 
 the Bible that "God spake unto Noah, saying, "Go forth out 
 of the ark," and Noah came out of the ark and all those that 
 were with him, and he builded an altar unto the Lord, "and 
 offered burnt ofiferings on the altar." This fact will entitle 
 Armenia to claim to be the country where a true and pure 
 divine worship was first practised after the Deluge. The tra- 
 dition of the Armenians coincides with the fact in stating that 
 the primitive religion of the people was simple and pure 
 monotheism, in form patriarchal, Noachian. This tradition 
 has for its support both the Bible and the science of religion. 
 
 Prof. Max Muller tells us that "religion is not a new in- 
 vention. It is, if not as old as the world, at least as old as the 
 world we know. As soon, almost, as we know anything of 
 the thoughts and feelings of man, we find him in possession 
 of religion, or rather possessed by religion." Thus find we 
 
88 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Noah and his descendants in possession of or rather possessed 
 by rehgion. 
 
 The Bible furnishes sufficient facts to assert that this pure 
 monotheistic worship in its patriarchal form was perpetuated 
 among the descendants of Noah, especially in the family of 
 Shem. More than four centuries after the building of the first 
 altar unto the Lord we find Abraham called out of his coun- 
 try and the people by Jehovah, to become the head of a nation 
 through whom the knowledge of the only one true God should 
 be perpetuated. God's cahing Abraham out of his country and 
 people was not to make him a true worshipper of Himself, 
 but He said to him, "I will make of thee a great nation." 
 
 Another example of the true worshipper of God in the 
 time of Abraham was Melchizedek (king of righteousness), 
 "King of Salem (peace), who was the high priest of the most 
 high God." (Genesis xiv., i8). Melchizedek was not only a 
 monotheist, but also the priest of a Monotheistic faith. He 
 reigned over his people and on whose behalf he ofificiated as 
 the high priest of the most high God. Now, therefore, it ought 
 to be admitted that not only solitary individuals like Abram 
 and Melchizedek, but the people of the latter also were the 
 true worshippers of God. Another example: Job, his family 
 and his friends, they were also true worshippers of God. They 
 belonged to the eastern nations, they might be from Armenia. 
 
 The Bible is not a universal history, were it so, well might 
 we have expected it to mention other nations and their re- 
 ligious beli.efs; though what little it incidentally gives, or states 
 in regard to them is marvelov?Sly accurate. 
 
 The Armenian tradition that their primitive religion was 
 pure monotheism, therefore, is neither incredible nor unten- 
 able, but on the contrary it is most probable and almost cer- 
 tain, supported by the analogy of the Bible. 
 
 The investigations of modern scholarship maintain the 
 idea and render it almost a moral demonstration that the 
 primitive religions of the ancient nations were of a Monotheis- 
 tic type, if not a pure Monotheism, at least they were not very 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 89 
 
 far from it. Prof. Max MuUer, of Oxford, England, in his 
 lectures on the "Origin and Growth of Religion," says that 
 "The ancient Aryans felt from the beginning, aye, it may be, 
 more in the beginning than afterwards, the presence of a Be- 
 yond, of an Infinite, of a Divine, or whatever else we may call 
 it now; and they tried to grasp, and comprehend it, as we all 
 do, by giving to it name after name." It is conceded by the 
 scholars that the ancient Armenians were closely connected 
 with the ancient Aryans, that they were Aryans and their 
 legitimate descendants now speak a language which modern 
 ethnologists decidedly pronounce to belong to the Aryans cr 
 Indo-Germanic. Although we do not know when the separa- 
 tion of the Aryans took place, we can safely say that the above 
 statement of Prof. Max Muller is also perfectly applicable to 
 the ancient Armenians, yet we are not able to say how long 
 such a purity of faith lasted in Armenia. 
 
 The human mind is capable of progress, but when it is 
 left to itself is sure to retrograde and degenerate. This is veri- 
 fied in the case of almost all nations and in the history of all 
 religions of the world. 
 
 "That religion is liable to corruption is surely seen again 
 and again. In one sense the history of most religions might 
 be called a slow corruption of their primitive purity." Divine 
 aid, especially in religion, is therefore absolutely necessary for 
 a true progress. Armenia left to herself fell into a gross form 
 of idolatry. 
 
 Her fall must have been hastened, if not caused, by her 
 idolatrous neighbors, the Babylonians and Assyrians. For the 
 idolatry which we find in the early history of the Armenians is 
 decidedly like that of Assyro-Babylonians. It is not the same 
 religion adopted and practised by the Armenians, but it is mod- 
 elled after the Assyrian. 
 
 Anterior to the cuneiform inscriptions of Armenia, the 
 people must have had an idolatry similar to the Sabeism of 
 Babylonia, which was afterwards shaped to the Assyrian style, 
 with its distinctive character. One of the inscriptions fur- 
 
90 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 nishes us with a long list of the gods and the regulations for 
 sacrifices daily to be ofifered to them. 
 
 There are, however, three other gods, which stood apart 
 by themselves at the head of the Pantheon. These are Khal- 
 dis, Teisbas (the air god), and Adinis (the sun god). But Khal- 
 dis is the supreme god and the father of other gods; and in 
 addition to these every tribe, city and fortress seem to have 
 its respective god. Some other gods are Anis or Avis (the 
 water god), Agas (the earth god), Dhuspuas (the god of Tosp, 
 the ancient name of the city of Van), Selardis, (the moon god), 
 Sardis, (the year god). The Armenians in this period, do not 
 seem to have any goddess. Soris is found only once men- 
 tioned in the inscriptions and is translated, "queen," yet it is 
 supposed to have been borrowed from the Assyrian, Istar. 
 Whether all the other gods are the children of the supreme 
 god Khaldis, or they are subordinate to him and separate from 
 his numerous offsprings, it is not quite clear. The latter, how- 
 ever, is most likely the case, because the Khaldians (the chil- 
 dren of Khaldis) and other gods have their separate ofiferings 
 assigned to them according to their importance. 
 
 It has been said that the Armenian culture, civilization, 
 and religion were very much influenced by the Assyrians while 
 the latter were in the height of their power. From the follow- 
 ing citation it will be seen a resemblance of the religions of 
 these two nations and they might have also the same origin 
 and the growth: — 
 
 "The rise of Semitic supremacy was marked by the reigns 
 of Sargon I. and his son, Noram-Sin. The overthrow of Sar- 
 gon's dynasty, however, was soon brought about through the 
 conquest of Babylonia by Khammaragas, a Kossacon from 
 the mountains of Elam. Before the Kossocan conquest the 
 Babylonian system of religion was already complete. It 
 emanated from the primitive Accadian population, though it 
 was afterwards adopted and transformed by their Semitic suc- 
 cessors. The sorcerer took the place of the priest, magical in- 
 cantations the place of the ritual, and the innumerable spirits 
 the place of gods. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. QI 
 
 By degrees, however, these earHer conceptions became 
 modified, a priesthood began to estabhsh itself; and as a nec- 
 essary consequence some of the elemental spirits were raised 
 to the rank of deities. 
 
 The old magical incantations, too, gave way to hymns in 
 honor of the new gods, among whom the sun god was espe- 
 cially prominent, and these hymns came in time to form a col- 
 lection similar to that of the Hindu Rig- Veda, and were ac- 
 counted equally sacred. This process of religious development 
 was assisted by the Semitic occupation of Babylonia. The 
 Semites brought with them new theological conceptions. 
 With them the sun god, in his two-fold aspect of benefactor 
 and destroyer, was the supreme object of worship, all other 
 deities being resolvable into phases or attributes of the su- 
 preme Baal. At his side stood his female double and reflection, 
 the goddess of fertility, who was found again under various 
 names and titles at the side of every other deity. The union 
 of these Semitic religious conceptions with the developing creed 
 of Accad produced a state religion, watched over and directed 
 by a powerful priesthood, which continued more or less unal- 
 tered down to the days of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. 
 
 It was this state-religion that was carried by Semitic As- 
 syrians into their homes on the banks of the Tigris, where it 
 underwent one or two modifications; in all essential respects, 
 however, it remained unchanged. 
 
 With the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire a new religion 
 rises from obscurity to prominence in Western Asia. This is 
 the religion of Zoroaster. This was the religion with which 
 Christianity had so nobly contended since the introduction of 
 the latter into Armenia, until the former, in cqmplete despair 
 and as a vanquished foe, almost disappeared from existence. 
 It is generally believed that Zoroaster was a real person and 
 the founder of this religion, which is called after his name, 
 Zoroastrianism. There is, however, a great uncertainty about 
 the period of his earthly existence; some would make him a 
 contemporary with Moses, and others with David and Solo- 
 
92 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 mon. It Is very probable, however, that he Hved even in a good 
 deal later period than these Israelitish kings. 
 
 Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion. It teaches that 
 there are two uncreated beings, Ormazed, the supreme good, 
 and Ahriman, the evil; and Ormazed created the earth, the 
 heavens, and the man, and that man is created free. Ahriman 
 is the evil and evil-doer, and in constant war with Ormazed; 
 this world is their battle-field. There are inferior good spirits 
 which are called genii, who are the instruments of Ormazed, 
 but the fire alone was the personification of the son of Ormazed, 
 and therefore an object of veneration and worship. 
 
 The abominable religion of the ancient Babylonians must 
 have had a great influence even over the religion of Zoroaster, 
 for we find that the Persians and Armenians had also similar 
 gods, like Mithea, sungod, and Anahita, the goddess of water. 
 The magi were the priests of Zoroastrianism, with a high priest 
 of this order who was called in Armenian language Mogbed, 
 (the head or the leader of magi). No doubt this was the re- 
 ligion of the Armenians for nearly nine centuries, from the 
 end of the seventh century B. C, to the end of the third century 
 of our era (or A. C). Possibly there were some modifications 
 and additions from the Grecian polytheism after the conquest 
 of Alexander the Great. 
 
ABGAR, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN KING ON THE EARTH. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE GOSPEL IN ARMENIA. 
 
 At the time of our Lord's birth, Armenia was divided into 
 separate portions, called respectively Great and Little 
 Armenia. 
 
 The latter district extended from the Gordyian Moun- 
 tains to the Euphrates, and had as its capital the Greek city 
 of Nieibis (or Niezib, in Turkish). Greek art and civihzation 
 had long exercised a great influence upon the whole of Syria 
 and Mesopotamia; but the Roman and Greek writers seem to 
 regard the Kingdom of Osroene or Osrhoene, as that of Ar- 
 menia Minor was generally styled, as in large measure Syrian. 
 As is well known, the Roman government claimed the suze- 
 rainty over Mesopotamia; and Arsham, who died King of 
 Osrhoene in B. C. 3, and left his title to his son Abgar, was 
 in reality little else than their deputy, holding his position 
 like Herod the Great in Palestine, only by the favor of his 
 emperial master. 
 
 Abgar, being devoted to the service of the heathen gods, 
 refused to permit the image of Augustus to be erected in 
 the temples of his dominions. Herod Antipas, learning this, 
 laid a charge against him before the emperor, and accused 
 him of disloyalty. Finding that all his efforts to clear him- 
 self were in vain and offended at the treatment accorded at 
 Rome to the ambassadors he had sent to plead his cause, 
 Abgar determined to revolt from the Roman yoke, and to 
 cast in his lot with kindred family who then held the throne 
 of Persia. With this object in view he removed the seat of 
 rule the Nieibis to Edessa, and began to strongly fortify 
 the latter city. Moses of Khorene tells us that the King 
 
94 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 carried with him to his new capital the images of the gods 
 whom he worshipped and the rehgious archives stored up in 
 the temples at Nieibis. Just when Abgar thought everything 
 was ripe for rebellion, relying on the assistance of the Parthi- 
 ans, Arshavir, the Parthian King, died and left his kingdom 
 a prey to confusion and civil war. Abgar felt himself called 
 upon to restore order, and accordingly marched into Persia 
 and put an end to the strife which had there broken out 
 between the rival claimants to the vacant throne (A. D. 21). 
 This expedition, through God's good providence, was over- 
 ruled to the conversion of Abgar, and to the opening up of 
 both Armenia and Persia to the light of the Gospel. The 
 story is told by Eusebius and by the ancient Armenian his- 
 torian, Moses of Khorene, who profess to have learnt it 
 from the archives of the kingdom of Osroene, written in 
 Syriac. 
 
 On his expedition to Persia, Abgar was struck with a very 
 severe illness, which some Armenian writers tell us was lep- 
 rosy, and which all the skill of his court physicians was power- 
 less to heal. While in vain that the Roman Emperor Tiberius 
 had been informed of his intended rebellion, and believing 
 that Abgar's expedition into Persia had been undertaken 
 mainly with the hope of entering into an alliance with that 
 empire, was about to inflict on him condign punishment. In 
 order to avert this, Abgar in the first place entered into an 
 alliance with Aretes, King of Arabia Nabataca, whose daughter 
 Herod Antipas had divorced, and sent a body of Armenian 
 troops to aid Aratos in his war against Herod. Herod's army 
 was defeated with great slaughter; but the Romans, hearing 
 of the trouble brewing in Armenia, Mesopotamia and Syria, 
 sent Marinus to Caesarea as governor, with a large army, with 
 orders to restore order. Hearing of this, Abgar sent three 
 Armenian nobles of high rank to Marinus at Csesarea, together 
 with a copy of the treaty he had made with Artoshes, the 
 new King of Persia, that the Romans might understand that 
 he was loyal in his allegiance to the Emperor, and had no 
 intention of rebelling. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 95 
 
 The ambassadors were received with great honor by 
 Marinus at EleutheropoHs, and succeeded in their efforts to 
 prevent a breach between the Emperor and King Abgar. 
 But their visit to Palestine had another and a far more im- 
 portant resuh, for there had heard the fame of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, whose miracles of healing were then attracting great 
 attention; of some of these they were enabled to become eye- 
 witnesses themselves. On their return to Armenia, these 
 nobles, remembering that their sovereign had completely 
 failed to obtain healing by ordinary means, informed him of 
 the miraculous power and the Messianic claims of Jesus. 
 
 The whole Eastern world was, as Suetonius informs us, 
 at that time full of expectation that a great ruler would soon 
 appear in Judea, and establish his dominion over the whole 
 world. The coincidence between the Messianic prophecies 
 and hopes of the Jews on the one hand, and the strange and 
 only slightly less clear traditions of the advent of a great De- 
 liverer preserved in the Zend Avesta of Persia and the Sibyl- 
 line books of ancient Rome and represented to us by Virgil's 
 glorious Fourth Eclogue, on the other, had doubtless turned 
 towards Jerusalem the eyes of pious and truth-seeking men 
 everywhere. The visit of the Persian Magi to the Infant 
 at Bethlehem is only one indication of the extent of this ex- 
 pectant longing. It is not at all unlikely, therefore, that Abgar, 
 on hearing the report of his messengers, was greatly stirred. 
 At last the long-expected prince had appeared and not 
 only so, but was actually healing in Galilee and Judea those 
 afflicted with diseases which no human skill could cure. 
 Abgar's bodily affliction naturally made him the more anxious 
 to benefit at least by the healing power of our Saviour, and 
 the news which his messengers brought him left no doubt 
 of his willingness and ability to grant his request. 
 
 Abgar, therefore, wrote a letter to Christ, and sent it 
 to Him to Jerusalem by the hands of his courier Ananias, 
 Later Armenian accounts state that Ananias was also ac- 
 companied by an able portrait painter, who had received orders 
 
96 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 from the King to request permission to paint Christ's picture 
 and bring it back with him to Edessa to Abgar, in case the 
 Saviour Himself decHned to accede to the King's written 
 request that He would come and heal him of his illness. 
 
 The King also directed his messengers to offer sacrifices 
 to the true God in his temple at Jerusalem. 
 
 They reached the Holy City on the very day of Christ's 
 triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and endeavored to approach 
 Him in order to present the King's letter to Him. Not being 
 able to do so, however, they gave it to Philip, and asked him 
 to deliver it and to procure them an audience. This, we are 
 told, is the meaning of the incident recorded in the twelfth 
 chapter of St. John's Gospel (vv. 20-34), where certain Greeks, 
 who had come up to worship at the Feast of the Passover, 
 were presented to our Lord. Christ saw in them the repre- 
 sentatives of the heathen world, then longingly looking for 
 some one to give them the light of life, and prophesied that 
 His crucifixion would draw all men unto Him (ver. 32). The 
 Armenian tradition that these "Greeks" were Abgar's messen- 
 gers has nothing directly contrary to it in the use of the word 
 "Greeks" in the original, since this word is often used in 
 the New Testament to denote any who were not Jews. 
 
 The tradition is at least as old as Moses of Khorene (died 
 A. D. 487), who mentions it as an undisputed fact (Paton- 
 Hayots-Hat. ii. Kl. 29), and was probably believed long before 
 then, for in the ancient Armenian version of the New Testa- 
 ment made by St. Mesrap (died A. D, 441), the word Greeks 
 in this passage is translated merely "heathens." 
 
 Eusebius, and after him Moses of Khorene, gives a ver- 
 sion of the letter which King Abgar is said to have addressed 
 to Christ on this occasion, and which Eusebius tells us was 
 still preserved in his own time in the library at Edessa (Uorfa 
 in Turkish). Although all modern critics rightly regard this 
 letter and our Lord's supposed reply to it as undoubtedly 
 spurious, it may be of interest to enter them both here in order 
 to complete the narrative. Abgar's letter ran as follows : 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 9*7 
 
 Abgar, Toporch of Edessa, to Jesus the good Saviour, 
 who has appeared in Jerusalem, greeting: 
 
 ''I have heard of Thee and Thy cures, which are being 
 performed by Thee without drugs and medicines. For, as 
 report says, Thou dost cause the bhnd to recover sight, the 
 lame to walk, and Thou cleansest lepers, and drivest out un- 
 clean spirits and demons, and healest those tormented with 
 long-continued sickness, and raisest the dead, and having 
 heard all these things about Thee, I decided in my mind on one 
 of two conclusions — either that Thou art God, and having 
 come down from heaven Thou doest these things — or that, 
 doing these things, Thou art the Son of God. 
 
 "Therefore, I now write and entreat of Thee to take the 
 trouble to come to me, and to heal the disease which I have. 
 For indeed I hear that the Jews are murmuring against Thee 
 and wish to do Thee violence. I have a very small and noble 
 city, which will suffice for us both.'' (Euseb. Eccl. Hist, i., 13; 
 M. Khorene, Paton, Hayots, Hat. ii., Kl. 99). 
 
 When our Lord had this letter and saw Abgar's faith 
 in Him, he directed Thomas to write a reply to it from His 
 own dictation, in the following terms : 
 
 Blessed art thou, who hast believed in Me without having 
 seen Me. For it is written concerning Me that those who 
 have seen Me will not believe Me, and that those who have 
 not seen Me shall themselves believe and live. But where 
 thou didst write to Me to come to thee it is necessary that I 
 should here accomplish all those things for which I was sent, 
 and that, after having accomplished them, I should then be 
 taken up to Him who sent Me; and when I am taken up, I 
 shall send unto thee a certain one of My disciples, that he 
 may heal thy sickness and give life to thee and to those that 
 are with thee. 
 
 Having received this letter, Abgar's messengers entreated 
 permission to paint a portrait of Christ, in accordance with 
 their master's orders. The required permission was accorded 
 them, but the painter's hand refused to perform its task in 
 
98 ILLUSTRATED ARAIENIA 
 
 delineating Christ's divine features. Seeing this, the Saviour 
 took a towel and applying it to His countenance, impressed 
 upon it a marvellously correct picture* of Himself, and sent 
 it to Abgar with the letter above quoted, intending thereby 
 to relieve his sufferings and strengthen his faith. Abgar, on 
 reading the letter and receiving the portrait, worshipped the 
 letter, and took courage, looking hopefully for the fulfilment 
 of Christ's promise to send him a teacher to instruct and heal 
 him. 
 
 This story as here related bears distinct marks of a later 
 age, and it has received much embellishment from later Ar- 
 menian writers which is not to be met with in Moses of Kho- 
 rene or in Eusebius. The story of the portrait and of the 
 worship paid to it by Abgar could not have originated until the 
 worship of pictures had been introduced into the church. 
 The letters ascribed to Abgar and to Christ bear evident marks 
 of a clumsy forgery. The account of the interview which 
 Abgar's messengers had with our Lord is possibly but not 
 probably true. On the other hand, it seems rash to reject the 
 whole narrative (as many writers do) as fabulous. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be better to hold that a certain substra- 
 tum or residum of fact underlies the tale. It is certainly 
 neither impossible nor improbable, taking into consideration 
 all the circumstances of the case, that the fame of our Lord's 
 miracles of healing may have reached Edessa, and that Abgar's 
 illness may have led him to look longingly for the arrival in 
 his country of a disciple of Christ able to heal him. This would 
 prepare the way for a favorable reception being given to the 
 earliest preachers of the Gospel on their arrival in Mesopota- 
 mia and Osraene, which must have taken place soon after 
 the Ascension. 
 
 After that Jesus was received up, says the old Syriac docu- 
 ment quoted by Eusebius. Judas (who is also called Thomas) 
 sent up to him (Abgar) as an apostle Thaddeus, one of the 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
THADDAEUS AND BARTHOLOMEW. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 99 
 
 seventy. He coming dwelt with Tobias, the son of Tobias, 
 and when news was heard concerning him, it was told to 
 Abgar, saying: ''An apostle of Jesus has come hither, accord- 
 ing as He wrote unto thee." Thaddeus accordingly began in 
 the power of God to heal every sickness and every disease, 
 so that all men did marvel. But when Abgar heard of the 
 might and wonderful works which he did, and how he healed, 
 he suspected that this was he of whom Jesus had written, say- 
 ing: ''When I am taken up, I shall send unto thee a certain 
 one of My disciples, who shall heal thy sickness." 
 
 Having, therefore, called for Tobias, w4th whom abode, 
 he said, 'T have heard that a certain mighty man has come 
 and has abode in thy house ; bring him unto me." And Tobias 
 came unto Thaddeus, and said to him: "Abgar the Tbporch 
 called for me and bade me bring thee to him, in order that thou 
 mightest heal his sickness." And Thaddeus said, 'T go up, 
 since I have been sent unto him with might." Tobias, there- 
 fore, having risen early on the morrow, and taking Thaddeus 
 with him, came to Abgar. And when he came suddenly upon 
 his entrance the King's nobles also being present and standing 
 there, a great sight was manifested to Abgar in the counte- 
 nance of the apostle, Thaddeus. And when Abgar saw this 
 he worshipped Thaddeus. Astonishment also fell upon all 
 those that stood by. For they did not see the sight, which 
 appeared to Abgar only. And he asked Thaddeus, "Art thou 
 in truth a disciple of Jesus the son of God, who said unto 
 me, T shall send to thee a certain one of my disciples, who 
 shall heal thee and give thee life?'" And Thaddeus said, 
 "since thou hast firmly believed in Him who sent me, there- 
 fore was I sent unto thee. And again, if thou believest in 
 Him, according as thou believest the desires of thine heart 
 shall be granted thee." And Abgar said unto him, "I believe 
 in Him so much that I desired to take a force and destroy the 
 Jews who crucified Him, only that I was hindered from doing 
 so by the empire of the Romans." And Thaddeus said, "Our 
 Lord Jesus hath fulfilled the will of His Father, and having 
 
100 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 fulfilled it He was received up unto His Father." Abgar saith 
 to him, '1 also have believed in Him and in His Father." And 
 Thaddeus saith, "I therefore lay my hand upon thee in His 
 name." And when he had done this, he was imme- 
 diately healed of the sickness and the disease which 
 he had. And Abgar marvelled that, according as he 
 had heard Jesus, so had he received in reality from His 
 disciple Thaddeus, who had healed him without drugs and 
 medicines. And not only so, but Abdus also, the son of 
 Abgar, who had the gout. For the latter also, coming for- 
 ward, fell at his feet. And Thaddeus, having prayed, took him 
 by the hand, and healed him. Many others also of their fel- 
 low citizens did the same Thaddeus heal, doing wondrous and 
 great things, and preaching the Word of God. But after 
 these things Abgar said, "Thou, O Thaddeus, by the power of 
 God doest these things, and we ourselves marvel at thee. But 
 beside these things I entreat of thee to narrate to me concern- 
 ing the advent of Jesus, how it took place, and concerning His 
 power, and by what power He used to do these things of 
 which we have heard." And Thaddeus said, 'T shall be silent 
 for the present, since I was sent to preach the Word. But on 
 the morrow assemble unto me all thy citizens, and unto them 
 I shall preach the Word of God, and I shall tell them about 
 the advent of Jesus, how it took place and about His mission, 
 and why He was sent forth by the Father, and concerning the 
 might of His works, and the mysteries which He proclaimed 
 in the world, and by what power He did these things, and 
 concerning His new proclamation, and concerning His love- 
 liness and humiliation, and how He humbled Himself and 
 died, and how He lessened His divine nature, and was cru- 
 cified, and descended into Hades, and rent in twain the middle 
 wall or partition which had not been rent from eternity, and 
 raised the dead. For having descended alone, He 
 raised up many with Him unto His Father, and then 
 in this way He ascended." Abgar accordingly gave 
 orders that early on the morrow all his citizens should 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. lOI 
 
 come together and should hear the preaching of Thad- 
 deus, and after these things he commanded to give him gold 
 and treasure. But Thaddeus would not accept it, saying, "If 
 we have left our own, how shall we accept the things of 
 others?" These things were done 1865 years ago. 
 
 Eusebius adds that the result of Thaddeus' work at Edessa 
 was the conversion of those that were healed and their admis- 
 sion into the number of Christ's disciples, and states that, in 
 consequence of this, the whole of the people of Edessa had 
 remained Christians even up to his own time (Eccl. Hist. ii. i). 
 This, however, is incorrect; though many were Christians in 
 Eusebius' days. 
 
 Armenian writers inform us that Thaddeus, having thus 
 converted Abgar and his people, baptized them, and then pro- 
 ceeded to erect a large church in the city of Edessa. He also 
 consecrated as bishop of the city a pious convert named Adde, 
 a silkmaker, who had previously been employed to make a 
 royal tiara for Abgar. After his conversion, Abgar, filled with 
 zeal for the Gospel, wrote letters to the Emperor Tiberius and 
 to the King of Syria, and to Artashes, King of Persia, inviting 
 them to receive the Gospel and accept Christ, as their Lord 
 and Saviour. 
 
 Three years after his conversion Abgar died, and was 
 buried in Edessa (A. D. 35). 
 
 His widow Helene, was also an earnest Christian.''' When 
 some years later banished from Edessa by Sanatrouk, she went 
 to her native city, Haran, and there ruled for a time. She is 
 also said to have been queen of Adiabene. Somewhat later she 
 went to Jerusalem, and Josephus tells usf that during the great 
 famine in Claudius' time (Acts xi., 28), she bought a great 
 quantity of corn in Egypt and, at enormous expense, had it 
 carried to Jerusalem and distributed it to the poor. When she 
 
 *This is what Moses of Khorene saj's (Patnr, Hayots. Hat. ii., Kl .32), 
 but .Tosephus calls her queen of Adiabene, and gives quite a different account 
 of her, saying that she became a Jewess, (Aut. xx., 2). 
 
 t(Jos. Aut. XX., 2). 
 
102 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 died, a noble tomb was erected to her memory in the suburbs 
 of the Holy City, in memorial of her beneficence. 
 
 After founding the Christian Church in Edessa, Thad- 
 deus went to Armenia proper, to the district Artoz or Shavor- 
 shan, which was at that time ruled over by Sanatrouk, Abgar's 
 sister's son. The latter received him kindly, and gave him 
 every opportunity of preaching the Gospel to the people. 
 
 As a result of this it is said that Sanatrouk and his 
 daughter Sandoukht, together with not a few nobles and very 
 many of the common people, were converted and received 
 baptism. Thaddeus consecrated one of his converts named 
 Zacharias, bishop, and it is said that the latter afterward carried 
 the Gospel to the Alvanions, a tribe living on the shores of 
 the Caspian Sea at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. 
 
 Meanwhile strange things were happening at Edessa 
 itself. The Christians at that city are said to have carried the 
 Gospel into Persia, and the friendship and alliance which ex- 
 isted between Artoshes, King of Persia, and Abgar renders 
 this very probable. But on Abgar's death, his son, who is 
 called by different writers Ananias, Anane, Ananann, and 
 Anan, ascended the throne at Osraene, and at once apostatized 
 and restored the worship of the heathen gods, especially that 
 of Beal, the great tutelary deity of the city. The temples, which 
 had been closed by Abgar, were reopened, and a certain 
 amount of persecution was begun against the Christians. One 
 instance of this in particular is related. 
 
 Ananias ordered Bishop Adde, who had made a tiara for 
 Abgar before Thaddeus' arrival in Edessa, to return to his 
 old trade and make one for him also. Adde refused, saying, 
 "My hands shall make a tiara for no head which does not bow 
 down to the dust in honor of Christ." Enraged at this mes- 
 sage, Ananias sent the executioner to cut ofif both the bishop's 
 feet. 
 
 This was done as he was seated at worship in the church, 
 and resulted in his speedy death. 
 
 Meanwhile Senatrouk was extending his power in Ar- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 
 
 103 
 
 menia, and was plotting to make himself master of the throne 
 of Asraene. Great confusion and disorder followed, but was 
 ended by Ananias' death (A. D. 38), after a reign of only four 
 years. It is said that his death occurred in the following 
 manner: 
 
 Ananias was having the royal palace in Edessa rebuilt 
 with great magnificence. One day, while standing on the 
 pavement below, surveying the work, a huge marble column 
 fell from the upper story upon the King, striking him to the 
 earth and crushing his legs so severely that he died of the 
 shock. His Christian subjects saw in this event a just judg- 
 ment upon him for the murder of their good bishop Adde, 
 and remarked upon the noteworthy circumstance that the 
 King had been smitten upon precisely the same part of the 
 body where Adde had by his orders been struck by the exe- 
 cutioner's sword. 
 
 Immediately on the news reaching him that Ananias 
 was dead, Sanatrouk marched to take possession of Edessa. 
 He seems to have already apostatized"^ from the Christian 
 faith, and consequently the Christians at that city at first op- 
 posed his entrance. But Sanatrouk reassured them by binding 
 himself with an oath to permit them the free exercise of their 
 religion. On taking possession of Edessa, Sanatrouk slew all 
 Abgar's remaining sons, and banished his daughter and his 
 widow, Helene, to the latter's native city, Haran, though he 
 left her the title of Queen Mesopotamia. 
 
 We have already the rest of the history of this lady. 
 Having thus removed all rivals from his path, Sanatrouk felt 
 free to govern according to his own pleasure. He rebuilt in 
 the most splendid manner the city of Nisibis, which had been 
 destroyed by an earthquake, and set up in the public square 
 there a statue of himself with a single drachma in his out- 
 stretched hand, implying that he had expended all the rest 
 of his treasures in the work of rebuilding the city. 
 
 ♦Through fear of the Armenian nobles, who were still heathens, ac- 
 cording to Moses of Khorene. 
 
104 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 But Sanatrouk is famous, or rather infamous, foi deeds 
 of a different kind also. In direct contradistinction to his 
 oath, he began a most cruel persecution of the Christians in 
 which he spared neither sex nor age throughout his domin- 
 ions. Among others that fell victims to the tyrant's fury was 
 Thaddaeus himself. This apostolic man, hearing of Sanatrouk's 
 apostacy, returned from Cappadocia, whither he had gone to 
 preach the Gospel. 
 
 On his way to Mesopotamia, it is said, he met five am- 
 bassadors sent from Rome to Sanatrouk's court. One of these 
 was a noble and well-born man named Chrysos. Hearing the 
 Gospel message from Thaddaeus, they accepted it and were 
 baptized. Chrysos himself was ordained presbyter. These men, 
 in the ardor of their new-found faith, sold all that they had 
 and gave to the poor, and then devoted themselves to preach- 
 ing Christ crucified to the people of Armenia. They seemed 
 to have formed a body of itinerant preachers from among their 
 converts, who lived among the mountains and who, from the 
 Armenian translation of their original leader's name, were 
 called Voskeaukh, the ''Golden Ones." These men for some 
 years continued their work in Armenia. 
 
 Hearing of their conversions, Sanatrouk summoned 
 Thaddaeus to his presence in Shavarshan, where he then hap- 
 pened to be. On the arrival of the apostle, he was martyred 
 with many other devoted Christians, including Sanatrouk's 
 own daughter, Sandaukht, the first of a noble band of Arme- 
 nian women who have not feared to lay down their lives for 
 their faith (A. D. 48). Tradition relates that miracles of heal- 
 ing were wrought at Sandaukht's tomb, and that this led to 
 the conversion of many others, not a few of whom wore the 
 martyr's crown. 
 
 So in all ages and in all lands has the blood of martyrs 
 been the seed of the Church of God. 
 
 Later legends add that Bartholomew also came to Arme- 
 nia in A. D. 50, bringing with him a picture of the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I05 
 
 He is said to have preached in Lower Armenia, and to 
 have made many converts^ including Sanatrouk's sister Tha- 
 kauhr (Queen) and the generahssimo of his army. 
 
 Sanatrouk's fury was not appeased by these fresh proofs 
 of the power of the Gospel, which he hated with a renegade's 
 hatred. He put his sister to death, scourged Bartholomew, 
 and then crucified him in the city of Arevbanus, where his 
 tomb was long after an object of veneration. Armenian super- 
 stition or patriotism claims that the apostle Jude also labored 
 in the country, died and was buried at Urmia. The bones 
 of St. Thomas, the apostle of Parthia and India, were brought 
 from the latter country (where he had been martyred), and 
 interred in Armenia. St. Enstathius, one of our Lord's seventy 
 disciples, was martyred in the province of Sinnikh, and buried 
 at a place still called Stathew or Sather. Elisha, one of Thad- 
 deus' disciples, accompanied by a little band of these devoted 
 followers, preached, we are told, in Upper Armenia, and then 
 passed on to labor among the Albanians. 
 
 He was instrumental in bringing a very large number of 
 these people to a knowledge of the truth, and finally died in 
 the plain of Arghann. Sanatrauk the persecutor reigned for 
 thirty-four years, and having seen the failure of his attempt to 
 crush the infant Christian Church in his dominions, was at last 
 accidentally killed by an arrow while hunting (A. D. 65). 
 
 Dr. Philip SchafY says: "It is now impossible to decide 
 how much truth there may be in the somewhat mythical stories 
 of correspondence between Christ and Abgarus, and the mis- 
 sionary activity and martyrdom of Thaddeus, Bartholomew, 
 Simon of Cana, and Judas Lebbeus. But it is certain that 
 Christianity was introduced very early in Armenia." How 
 much or how little of this account of the first preaching of 
 the Gospel in Armenia is true must perhaps forever remain 
 unknown. What we have narrated above is the story as told 
 by Armenian writers for the most part, and believed by them 
 to be correct. 
 
 After this time, Christianity spread in Armenia as it did 
 
lo6 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 in other parts of the Greek Empire; rapidly in the cities, where 
 intelhgence was quick and new ideas were welcomed; slowly 
 in the country districts, where people did not readily change. 
 Its first result everywhere was not so much to make people be- 
 lieve in it as to make them disbelieve in Paganism; for every 
 person who actually came to believe in Christ, there were fifty 
 who ceased to believe in Jupiter, or Bel, or Throth, Vanus, or 
 Astarte. 
 
 There would be a flourishing Christian church in a great 
 city when most of the people did not have any faith in any 
 religion. 
 
 But everybody who had a family came gradually to think 
 very well of a religion that gave them the power to teach chil- 
 dren righteousness, and enforce it by the command of God, 
 and the respectable classes became more and more Christian. 
 
 But the fact that till two or three centuries after Christ 
 there was no general attempt on the part of the Pagan govern- 
 ments to put down the Christian by persecution, shows that 
 not till then did they become so numerous as to frighten the 
 government for fear they would before long have a majority; 
 persecution means fear. The government let the Christians 
 pretty much alone, except for little fits of anger now and then, 
 till they were afraid the growth of the sect would overthrow 
 themselves or bring on civil war. 
 
 The Christians had become well established in Armenia 
 within a century or so after the death of Christ; but it was 
 over a century and a half before they seemed an imminent 
 menace to the ruling class. Then a furious persecution began, 
 about the same time as that of Diocletian in the Roman Em- 
 pire, and indeed, part of the same movement. Diocletian had 
 set the persecuting King Tiridates on his throne, and Tiridates 
 had passed his life from boyhood almost to old age in the 
 Roman service, and had the same ideas as the Pagan Roman 
 upper classes. Yet in the providence of God this same Tirida- 
 tes made Christianity supreme in Armenia years before Con- 
 stantine made it supreme in the Roman Empire, thus making 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I07 
 
 Armenia the first Christian nation. Might be our readers 
 know that when Gregory the Illuminator, who was born (A. D. 
 257), the proclaimed of the message throughout Armenia, he 
 found Christians everywhere, and a church which, though 
 sorely persecuted and oppressed, had existed from apostolic 
 times. He was, in fact, rather the restorer than the founder 
 of the Armenian Church, which became the church of the 
 whole nation half a century before the cross was emblazoned 
 on the standard of Rome. The Armenians may justly claim 
 to be the oldest Christian nation in the world. 
 
 The Father of Gregory, Prince Anak, was of the royal 
 family of Arsacidae of Parthia, whose reign was overthrown 
 by Artaxerxes, the founder of the Sassanian dynasty of Persia. 
 But the Armenian branch of Arsacidae was still in full vigor 
 in the person of Chosroes I., the King of Armenia, who had 
 tried to restore the seized sceptre of Power to the deprived 
 royal family of Arsacidae of Parthia from the revolter, Artax- 
 erxes, the Persian. In order that Artaxerxes might secure his 
 reign he tried to subdue Armenia too. But, failing to do this 
 manfully, he resorted to treachery. Anak, the relative of 
 Chosroes I., was induced by Artaxerxes, with promises of large 
 reward, to play the part of an assassin. It was so arranged 
 that Anak w^ould be chased out of Persia, being a member of 
 the Arsacidae dynasty, a dangerous person to the newly-estab- 
 lished sovereignty of Persia. "Anak, with his wife, chil- 
 dren, brother, and a train of attendants, pretended to take 
 refuge in Armenia from the threatened vengeance of his sover- 
 eign, who caused his troops to pursue him, as a rebel and de- 
 serter, to the very borders of Armenia.""^ Anak was received 
 by Chosroes I., who credulously listened to his story and sym- 
 pathized with him. Anak committed the crime of assassina- 
 tion of the King, but the King lived long enough to request 
 the complete destruction of the family of Anak, and Anak also 
 had no time to effect his escape, and being seized upon, he 
 
 ♦The Seventh Oriental Monarchy, p. 51. 
 
I08 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 received the due recompense of an assassin. However, his 
 son Gregory, who was only on infant, was saved by the faith- 
 fulness of his nurse, who took him and escaped into the city 
 of Csesarea, Cappadocia, where he was brought up in a Chris- 
 tian family with a thorough Christian education. 
 
 On the other hand, Artaxerxes obtained his object with- 
 out paying for it, and hearing of the condition of affairs in 
 Armenia, he immediately hastened thither with his army and 
 took the people by surprise. He doomed the family of Arsa- 
 cidae to death, so as not to leave any to rival him for the throne. 
 However, Tiridates, the son of Chosroes, escaped into the 
 Roman province of Armenia, and then to Rome, where he 
 received a military training, and his sister was hid in the strong- 
 hold of Ani. 
 
 Tiridates was welcomed by his people, who joined his 
 army and drove out of the country .their common enemy 
 (A. D. 286). 
 
 The Gregory was brought up in Caesarea as a Christian, 
 and was well instructed in the Scriptures and in the Greek 
 and Syriac languages. When he had grown up, he married 
 a maiden named Mariam, daughter of an Armenian who bore 
 the name of David. Both were Christians, and must naturally 
 have told Gregory something of the deplorable heathenism of 
 their native land and of the brave martyrs who had already 
 been the first fruits of Armenia to Christ. Of this marriage 
 two sons were born, the elder named Vethanes and the 
 younger Arestakes. 
 
 Three years after their marriage, it is said, Gregory and 
 his wife parted by mutual consent. She entered a nunnery at 
 Csesarea, taking her younger son with her. Gregory entrusted 
 to guardians the training and education of the elder, and him- 
 self went to Rome to enter the service of the youthful Prince 
 Tiridates (A. D. 280), hoping by faithful and devoted service 
 in some measure to atone to Khasrov's son for the crime which 
 Anax had committed, and of which and his own connection 
 with the perpetrator Gregory had until very recently been kept 
 in complete ignorance. 
 
zrc!„e n)-ioJi£jIb:it^ 
 
 gT. GREGORY, THE ILLUMINATOR. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. IO9 
 
 St. Gregory returned to Armenia and entered King Tiri- 
 dates' service, whose "purpose being to win over to eternal 
 life, through the Gospel of Christ, the son of him who had 
 been slain by his father, and thus to make amends for his 
 father's crime/' Though he sufifered many a torture and tor- 
 ment, and thirteen years' imprisonment in a pit, yet this noble 
 Christian hero and apostle was determined ''to win (the King) 
 over to eternal life, through the Gospel of Christ." Finally, 
 the King was converted and baptized by St. Gregory, and 
 became himself a worthy champion of the truth, and the first 
 honored King, who proclaimed throughout his dominions that 
 henceforth the religion of Christ is the religion of Armenia. 
 The Armenians have been nationally converted to Christianity, 
 from the King to the servant; however, there were some, es- 
 pecially among the nobility, who with a heathenish tenacity 
 held on to Zoroastrianism; but this was for a mercenary pur- 
 pose, not from a real appreciation of Zoroastrianism; for St. 
 Gregory, by his evangelistic spirit and labors, had laid a 
 firm foundation for the religion of Christ in the land of 
 Ararat. (A. D. 289.) 
 
 He was, by the request of the King, sent to Csesarea, 
 Cappadocia, to be ordained bishop over Armenia (A. D. 302). 
 The temples of the idols in every important city or town 
 were pulled down and Christian churches in their stead were 
 reared. The most splendid of all these churches was Etch- 
 miadzin, "the descent of the only begotten,'" which was after- 
 wards clustered about with other buildings and became a mon- 
 astery and the seat of St. Gregory's successors to his prelatic 
 chair to this day. This done, Gregory and Tiridates set about 
 exterminating idolatry; they smashed the idols and demol- 
 ished the temples, the new converts joyfully assisting them. 
 The work of conversion went on rapidly, under the wonder- 
 ful preaching of the Saint, and the zeal of the King; all the 
 people converted were baptized by immersion. 
 
 In eight years the majority of the Armenian nation, many 
 millions in number, had become Christians. That religion was 
 
no ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 made the State creed of Armenia in 310, while the Council 
 of Nice, which did the same work for Rome, was not held till 
 
 (A.D.325). 
 
 Gregory deserves every credit for this magnificent work; 
 but I cannot help wishing he had been less zealous in destroy- 
 ing the Pagan literature, which is a great loss to the 
 world. However, Christianity is worth it, if we could not 
 have it at a less price. 
 
 Schools, as well as churches and benevolent institutions, 
 were organized in great numbers under Christian auspices 
 during the next two or three centuries, and a brilliant band of 
 scholars and preachers went out from them, the equals of any 
 in their age and perhaps in any age. 
 
 During the long reign of Tiridates the church greatly 
 flourished. Indeed, did St. Gregory lay the foundation of the 
 religion of Christ upon the immovable rock of the Word of 
 God. 
 
 Both the noble founder and the valiant defender of that 
 divine faith, committed to their care by King Jesus, entered 
 their rest, after having seen the prosperous condition of the 
 church, and were succeeded by their sons. However, the 
 power of Armenia was unequal to the conflicting forces on 
 either side, though the descendants of Tiridates held the scep- 
 tre of Armenia nearly a century longer, but in a very enervated 
 state. Nevertheless the church of Armenia made a decided 
 advance within this period. 
 
 The rivalry between Rome and Persia grew flercer than 
 ever with the introduction of Christianity, for new rehgious 
 hate was added to political ambition; and on the side of Per- 
 sia the Armenian difficulties w^ere doubled, for a considerable 
 part of the Armenians were still Zoroastrians, and sympathized 
 with the Persians against their own government, while many 
 of the Persians had become Christian, and opposed their 
 Pagan rulers. Thus the Persians felt that they had a civil 
 war on their hands as well as foreign wars, and persecuted 
 their Christians horribly. 
 
DERTAD. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. Ill 
 
 On tiie other hand, they had the hold of the Pagan part 
 of the Armenians in invading or controlhng that state; still 
 as'ain, the Armenian Christians now favored the Romans 
 much more strongly than they had before, because Rome was 
 now Christian; while on top of all were the great barons, 
 almost independent of the nominal Kings, and who favored 
 neither party, but wanted their feudal independence. 
 
 Yet the Roman control of the Kingship for what it was 
 worth, lasted without a break for over half a century after 
 the victory of Christianity, and over three-quarters of a cen- 
 tury from the accession of Tiridates; which was due largely 
 to the great ability of the Roman Emperors, Diocletian and 
 Constantine, and the excellent administration and military 
 organization they left, which saved the eastern provinces from 
 Persia for over a quarter of a century after Constantine's death. 
 Shahpur II. of Persia, won many victories, but he could not 
 hold even the places he captured, and he gained no territory 
 till the death of "Julian the Apostate" in his Persian campaign 
 of 363. His weak and frightened successor Jovian surren- 
 dered a great section of the Eastern Roman territory, and 
 still more disgracefully agreed that the Romans should not 
 help their ally Arshog or (Arsaces), King of Armenia, against 
 Shahpur. Armenia was at once invaded, but she felt her 
 national existence at stake, and fought with desperation. 
 Though Shahpur had the help of two apostate Armenian 
 Princes, Mesurgan and Vahan, and other native traitors, who 
 ravaged the country and fought their King because he was 
 a Christian, Arshag held out four years, aided by his heroic 
 though unprincipled wife Parantzem, and his able chief com- 
 mander Vashag. Vagharshabad, Ardashad, Ervandshad, 
 and many other cities were taken and destroyed; finally Arshag 
 and Vajhag were captured. Arshag's eyes were put out, and 
 he was thrown into a Persian dungeon in Ecbatana ; Vashag 
 was flayed alive, and his skin stufifed and set near the King. 
 Queen Parantzem still refused to surrender, and with 11,000 
 soldiers and 6,000 fugitive women held the fortress of Ardis 
 
112 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 fourteen months, till nearly all of them were dead from hunger 
 or disease; then she opened the gates herself. Instead of hon- 
 oring her, Shahpur, who was a worthy predecessor of the 
 Turks, had her violated on a public platform by his soldiers, 
 and then impaled (638). Meantime, her and Arshag s son, Bab 
 (Papa), had escaped to Constantinople and asked the help of 
 the co-Emperor Valens. 
 
 That Emperor hated to break the treaty, and involve 
 Rome in a new Eastern war; but he could not suffer Persia 
 to be strengthened by the possession of all Armenia, and the 
 Roman statesmen had determined to end the long struggle 
 over Armenia by dividing it between Persia and themselves. 
 Bab was secretly helped by the Romans ; he kept up a guerilla 
 warfare in the mountains, and a large part of the Armenian 
 people were prepared to welcome him back to his rightful 
 throne. The Romans tried to keep within the letter of their 
 treaty by not letting him assume the title of King. The Per- 
 sians considered his support by Greek troops a breach of the 
 treaty, none the less, and Valeus alternately aided and dis- 
 avowed him. The matter was not mended by the worthless 
 character of Bab himself, who murdered his best friends on 
 the least suspicion, and had the incredible baseness to hold a 
 secret correspondence with Shahpur, the worse than murderer 
 of his parents. Finally the Romans, convinced that he must, 
 be under their watch if they were to have any security of him, 
 tolled him down to Bilicia, and prevented him from returning 
 by guards of soldiers. 
 
 He made his escape, and professed his allegiance to the 
 Romans as before; but Valens resolved to be rid of him, and 
 had him murdered by Count Trojan, the Roman commander 
 in the East. 
 
 Meantime a powerful Roman army under Count Trojan, 
 and the chief Persian host, had actually camped opposite each 
 other on the borders of Armenia (A. D. 371); but neither side 
 wanted a general war just then, — Rome must have her hands 
 free for the Goths, and Persia hers for the Mongols. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 113 
 
 Finally, in 379 (A. D.), Shahpur died, and there was an 
 instant and entire change in Persian policy toward Rome, and 
 even toward Christianity for a while. His brother and suc- 
 cessor, Ardosher, was an old man, and reigned but four years ; 
 his successor, Shahpur III., at once sent embassies to Rome, 
 and made a treaty of peace (384). Finally, on the succession 
 of Bahrom IV. (Kirman Shah), in 390, that monarch arranged 
 a treaty of partition with Theodosine, the Roman Emperor, 
 by which Armenia ceased to exist. The western portion be- 
 came a Roman province, the then reigning sovereign, Arshog 
 IV., was made governor to keep the people contented. 
 
 The eastern and much the larger section, was annexed to 
 Persia, under the name of Persamenia; and to please the peo- 
 ple, an Arsacid, Chasraes IV., was made governor, and the 
 dynastv was continued in its rule over the Armenians till after 
 the great Perso-Roman war of 421-2, and the persecution of 
 Christians by Persia, which was the pretext of it. 
 
 The persecution and the war led to a movement for Ar- 
 menian independence; after it was over, Bahram V. at Persia 
 (Gor, the Wild Ass, "tlie mighty hunter'), put a mere vassal, 
 Ardoshes IV., into the governorship; but the great Arme- 
 nian barons would not give up the struggle, and this last of 
 the Arshagaanian dynasty was removed in 428 and Persian 
 governors -substituted. 
 
 Thus ended the rule of the line of Arshag. It was a 
 mighty race, and swarms with brilliant names, but in Persia 
 it was justly displaced by one of better pul)Hc policy; and in 
 Armenia the position of the country was fatal to it. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PROMINENT MEN OF THE PERIOD. 
 
 Nierses the Great. — This was the great founder of Arme- 
 nian scholarship. Nierses, the representative of Gregory's 
 house, would most probably have been chosen to occupy the 
 position, which might almost be said to be hereditary in the 
 family of the Illuminator. He studied in the Greek schools 
 of Caesarea during boyhood, had he then been in Armenia. 
 But he was resident at Constantinople, where he became fa- 
 mous for learning. He was married to a Greek princess of a 
 distinguished house. And it may well be believed that the 
 King was in no hurry to urge the return and appointment to 
 the Archiepiscopal dignity of a man likely to be both strong 
 and good, and therefore bound to oppose him in his evil con- 
 duct. Phoren occupied the patriarchal throne for only about 
 two years, dying in A. D., 364. On his death it was resolved to 
 elect Nierses a Catholicos, though he was still absent from the 
 country. This was done, and the nobles sent an urgent mes- 
 sage to him, begging him to return to his fatherland. Nierses 
 acceded to their desire, and was consecrated at Caesarea on his 
 way to Armenia. 
 
 When he reached his native land, the nobles and people re- 
 ceived him with great gladness (A. D., 365). He immediately 
 set about the reformation of abuses which had crept into the 
 church during recent times, endeavoring very successfully to 
 restore the strict and healthy discipline which -had been main- 
 tained under his great progenitor, and to abolish the laxity of 
 morals and general disorganization which had of late pre- 
 vailed. He also introduced many ecclesiastical improvements 
 which he had seen in Constantinople. By the King's per- 
 
NERSES THE GREAT. 
 
MUSHEGH. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. II5 
 
 mission he called a great council or synod of all the bishops 
 and many leading nobles, which met at Ashtishat in A. D. 365, 
 the main object of which was the correction of abuses in the 
 church. The chief of these which were condemned at the 
 council were: 
 
 1. Marriages contracted between near relatives, among 
 •the nobles more especially, with the object of retaining prop- 
 erty in the family. 
 
 2. The practice of indulging in excessive mourning for 
 the dead, and in conduct unworthy of Christians. 
 
 3. The habit of expelling from the towns and villages 
 all lepers and persons suffering from infectious diseases. Such 
 unfortunates, besides the lame, the blind and hopeless incura- 
 bles, were often left unaided to die of starvation. 
 
 He founded over two thousand schools and benevolent 
 institutions as well as great numbers of churches. To put a stop 
 to the latter practice, Nierses was successful in getting hos- 
 pitals and suitable asylumxS built in every canton for the recep- 
 tion of these unfortunates. He also erected orphanages and 
 places where widows and the poor might receive help, and 
 succeeded in having taxes levied for their endowment. In 
 certain places where they were most needed, he also built 
 resthouses for travellers. He was a powerful and persuasive 
 preacher, and a considerable writer, part of the church history 
 being his. From these schools went forth a very brilliant band 
 of scholars, preachers and orators, the equals of any in the 
 world. 
 
 It was during his pontificate that the affairs of Arshag and 
 Bab (or Pap) took place, and he was intimately connected 
 with them till his death at the hands of the latter. Previous to 
 the desertion of Armenia by the Romans in 363, they had 
 quarrelled with Arshag, and sent an army to punish him; but 
 on Nierses' intercession with A'alens it was recalled and the 
 saint obtained high favor with the emperor. 
 
 Arshag's conduct, however, grew too bad for endurance; 
 he had his father and a relative named Kucuel (of Guel) killed, 
 
Il6 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 and married Kuenel's wife, Parantzem (who afterwards met 
 such a horrible fate), though his own wife, Olympias, was still 
 alive, but bribed a priest named Mrjinnik to poison the queen 
 Olympias, which he did by mingling poison in the cup at 
 Holy Communion. Pharantzem, or Parantzem, thereupon be- 
 came queen. Nierses, the Catholicos, finding admonition of 
 no avail, quitted Vagharshabad and went into a convent. But 
 Arshag, getting into fresh difficulties with the emperor and 
 his own rebellious vassals, besought the saint to assist him 
 once more, and once more Nierses complied. He first pacified 
 the turbulent nobility; then interceded with the Roman com- 
 mander to such effect that the general withdrew his army and 
 went to Constantinople to justify himself to the emperor, tak- 
 ing a letter to him from Arshag, and hostages for the latter's 
 loyalty, and also inducing Nierses to accom.pany him. But 
 Valens was enraged at the withdrawal, would neither read the 
 letter nor see the saint, and ordered the hostages killed and 
 Nierses banished. The former sentence was revoked on the 
 general's intercession, but Nierses was shipped for his place 
 of exile. On the way a storm wrecked the vessel on a desert 
 island, but he and the crew were saved. It was winter, and 
 they could find no food but the roots of trees, but in a short 
 time the sea miraculously cast abundance of fish on shore, and 
 for eight months they never suffered for sustenance. At 
 the end of that time the saint was set free. 
 
 After the restoration of Bab to the land, though not the 
 acknowledged throne of his father, Nierses, the Catholicos, 
 convened an assembly of Armenian princes and ecclesiastical 
 heads, with the King, and show them all to mutual concord 
 and good behavior, to unite the land against the Persians, but 
 Bab, like so many Eastern potentates and indeed his father, 
 cared for nothing but to indulge his own passions, and would 
 have sold his country to Shahpur if he could have gotten his 
 price. Nierses earnestly remonstrated with him, but in vain. 
 Bab merely hated him for it, and finally had secretly poisoned 
 him (A. p., 383), in the village of Khakh in the province of 
 
ST. SAHAG CATHOLICOS. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. II7 
 
 Eghueghiatz. Nierses, the Catholicos, had been pontiff eight 
 years, but they were crowded with labors of immense variety 
 and usefuhiess. He left one son (Isaac), who eventually be- 
 came pontiff also. 
 
 MESROP. SAHAK (OR ISAAC) AND THE ARMENIAN BIBLE. 
 
 The great work of the conversion of Armenia to the 
 Christian faith, began by Gregory the Illuminator, had been 
 left unfinished in at least one very important respect. Gregory 
 had seen the desirability of rendering the church of Armenia 
 as soon as possible independent of foreign missionaries, and 
 had accordingly established schools for the education of the 
 people, and for the training of indigenous clergy. But, as 
 there was no Armenian literature worthy of the name at that 
 time extant, and as no suitable alphabet capable of properly 
 representing the sounds of the language had as yet been in- 
 vented, he had not attempted to translate into the language 
 of the people the scriptures and the service books used in 
 divine worship. Greek and Syriac were carefully taught in 
 the numerous schools established throughout the country by 
 Gregory, and it became the practice to read the scriptures 
 either in Greek or in Syriac — whichever language the officiat- 
 ing minister knew best — and to explain to the people in the 
 vernacular the meaning of what they heard. 
 
 This was evidently only a temporary measure, and it 
 worked well for a time. The schools turned out a considerable 
 number of preachers and teachers able to expound to the 
 people the meaning of the Greek and Syriac texts, and so the 
 pressing need of an Armenian version was not so much felt. 
 But during the troubles wdiich followed on Tiridates' death 
 the schools gradually lost both teachers and pupils. The new 
 generation of clergy could indeed read the sacred texts, but 
 they understood them less and less. 
 
Il8 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 During the persecution under Meronzhan tlie study of 
 Greek was, as we liave already seen, entirely prohibited, and 
 all Greek books which were found in the country were ruth- 
 lessly burnt. No serious attempt seems to have been made 
 to interfere with the use of Syriac in worship ; but the congre- 
 gations accustomed to worship in Greek found their clergy in 
 most instances quite unable to interpret to them the Syriac 
 scriptures. The result was as ancient Armenian historians in- 
 forms us, that the people left their churches uncomforted by 
 the words of Life, which they had heard with their outward 
 ears, but which they had been utterly unable to understand. 
 Day by day this state of things grew worse and worse. Ig- 
 norance of the doctrines of Christianity spread rapidly, and 
 there was great danger that the people would in consequence 
 either lapse into their old heathen practices or at least be un- 
 able to withstand the efforts for their conversion to Magicianism 
 made by the Persian court. This was the state of affairs which 
 led to the invention of the Armenian alphabet still (with slight 
 modifications) in use, and to the ultimate translation of the 
 Holy Scriptures into that language. 
 
 This great work was accomplished by the Catholicos 
 Sahak or Isaac in some measure, but more particularly by 
 his famous associate and fellow-laborer, Mesrop Mashtats. 
 
 Mesrop was born in the village of Hatsik, in the canton 
 of Taran. His father, Vartan, taught him a little Greek, and 
 when still young he became a pupil of Nierses the Great, under 
 whom he soon mastered Greek, Syriac and Persian. When 
 he grew up he became for a time one of the court scribes, and 
 found his knowledge useful in that capacity, for at that time 
 the letters and edicts of Armenian kings were generally pub- 
 lished in all three languages. He devoted himself to all secular 
 studies, especially Greek, and became much respected by 
 small and great, as his friend and biographer, Koriun, informs 
 us. Wearying, however, of secular work, Mesrop soon left 
 the court, and retiring to a hermitage with a few disciples, de- 
 voted himself to the practice of austerities and the preaching 
 
MESROP, AS YOUNG PRIEST, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 1 IQ 
 
 of the Gospel. He went especially to preach in those parts 
 of the country, such as the canton of Gaghtha, where heathen 
 practices still prevailed among the people, having never en- 
 tirely ceased. With the favor and assistance of Sabith or 
 Sabath, the chief of the district, Mesrop and his disciples were 
 enabled to work a great reformation there, and the gods are 
 said to have fled in a bodily form from them and to have re- 
 tired into Media. 
 
 Being well acquainted with Syriac, Mesrop himself did 
 not find it a very difficult task to translate orally to the people 
 the passages of Scripture read to them in church, but the work 
 was far more difficult for his disciples to perform. During the 
 time that he spent in itinerating and preaching the Gospel in 
 difYerent parts of the country, Mesrop felt more and more how 
 absolutely necessary it was for the people to have the Scrip- 
 tures translated into and published in their native tongue. 
 But before this could be done, it was necessary to invent an 
 alphabet suited to the genius of the language. Owing to the 
 number of sounds which Armenian possesses, neither the 
 Greek nor the Syriac, nor even the pahlavi alphabet was at 
 all suitable- to write Armenian in. To the task of devising 
 a really suitable alphabet and of having an Armenian version 
 of Scriptures made, Mesrop now determined to devote all his 
 energies. 
 
 Accordingly, leaving his hermitage, Mesrop came to 
 Sahak, the Catholicos, and told him his plans (A. D., 397). 
 This wise and good man showed the greatest possible interest 
 in them, and gave Mesrop every encouragement to continue 
 the efforts he had already begun to make with the object of 
 devising an Armenian alphabet. Mesrop renewed his efforts, 
 with fervent prayer to God for guidance. 
 
 About this time King Vramshapouh, who, at the request 
 of the King of Persia, had visited Mesopotamia in order to 
 arrange a dispute which had arisen in that country between 
 himself and the Byzantine court met a Syrian presbyter 
 named Abel, who informed him that a learned and pious 
 
120 ILLUSTRATED ARMl^NlA 
 
 Syrian bishop, Daniel by name, had by him an alphabet which 
 had formerly been used for writing Armenian. The King 
 took no notice of this statement at the time, but did not forget 
 it. By Mesrop's advice, Sahak got Vramshapouh to call a 
 great council of the nobility and of the bishops and principal 
 clergy of his realm, in order to decide what steps should be 
 taken >vith the object of obtaining an Armenian literature. 
 The council met at Vagharshapat in A. D., 402. The King 
 himself was present and mentioned what he had heard about 
 an Armenian alphabet. The council took the matter up most 
 warmly, and entreated the King to send messengers to Meso- 
 potamia at once to visit Abel and learn all he could tell them 
 about the matter. This he did, and messengers obtained from 
 Bishop Daniel a copy of the alphabet in question (which is said 
 to have resembled the Greek) and information regarding the 
 pronunciation of the letters com.posing it. Meanwhile the 
 whole council, according to Lazarus phorpitsi, addressed a 
 very earnest request to the Catholicos that he would complete 
 the work begun by his great ancestor, Gregory, by taking im- 
 mediate steps to have the Bible translated into Armenian from 
 the Greek. Sahak most gladly undertook to have this great 
 work carried out, for he saw that it was the desire of the 
 whole nation, who deeply felt their need, and the almost utter 
 uselessness of having the Scriptures read and divine service 
 held in a language they could not understand. 
 
 A fitter person that Sahak to undertake such a work 
 could hardly have been found. Setting aside his piety and 
 zeal, Sahak's learning rendered him capable of the task. Born 
 at Constantinople and educated there and at Csesarea, Sahak 
 knew Greek as perfectly as he knew his mother tongue. He 
 had become Catholicos at the age of thirty-five, and the 
 greater part of his life up to that time had been spent abroad. 
 He had a very fair knowledge of Syriac, and was also well 
 acquainted with Persian, at that time apparently the court 
 language in Armenia. His energy was unbounded, and he 
 was untiring in every good work. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 121 
 
 He commanded the confidence of the people and was 
 honored at court. Besides all this, he was an eloquent 
 preacher and an able teacher, and had the rare talent of instill- 
 ing into the minds of his disciples the zeal and earnestness that 
 animated his own soul. 
 
 When Mesrop received the alphabet sent by Bishop 
 Daniel, Sahak the Catholicos and he having carefully studied 
 it, tried for two whole years to teach it in the schools, and use 
 it for the development of an Armenian literature. But they 
 found that it contained fourteen letters less than were actually 
 needed to express the sounds of their native tongue. Mesrop 
 had devoted a considerable amount of study to the conclusion 
 that it was utter waste of time to continue to use this defective 
 alphabet. Before, however, abandoning the attempt, he, with 
 his assistants, John of Ekeghikh and Joseph Paghnatsi visited 
 Bishop Daniel in Mesopotamia, and tried with his assistance 
 to modify this alphabet so as to adapt it to the Armenian lan- 
 guage. But the attempt failed. 
 
 While praying over the matter the right solution suddenly 
 occurred to Mesrop. Koriun informs us that, "Not in sleep as 
 a dream, nor in a vision while awake, but in the workshop of 
 his heart he saw, manifested to the eyes of his spirit, the fingers 
 of a right hand writing on a rock. The stone had a border line 
 as of snow. It not only was manifested to him, but the exact 
 figures of all the characters were collected together in his mind 
 as a miracle. 
 
 Rising from prayer, he founded our written characters. 
 At Samosata he and his assistants procured the aid of a Greek 
 scribe named Ruffines, a disciple of Epiphanes, a hermit in 
 Samos, who seems to have assisted him in improving and ar- 
 ranging the characters as far as possible in accordance with 
 the order of the letters of the Greek alphabet. In fact, there 
 can be no reasonable doubt that the Armenian characters are 
 formed principally from the Greek, though some were ap- 
 parently borrowed from the Avestic alphabet, and new letters 
 — modifications of somewhat similar Greek ones — were intro- 
 
122 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 diiced when needed to express sounds peculiar to Armenian. 
 The alphabet thus formed was made symmetrical and harmo- 
 nious, and it has ever since been used in Armenia. The date 
 which Armenian historians assign for this invention is A. D., 
 406. 
 
 Immediately after this discovery, Mesrop with his two 
 pupils, John and Joseph, set to work to translate the Bible from 
 the Greek. He began with the Book of Proverbs, and then 
 went on to translate the New Testament. How much of this 
 work he accomplished at Samosata we do not know. . . . 
 Koriun seems to imply that Mesrop translated the whole 
 Bible, while Moses of Khorene attributes the work to him and 
 the Catholicos Sahak and their disciples working together. 
 It seems plain that the whole task cannot have been accom- 
 plished by Mesrop at that time for he returned to Armenia 
 very soon, and we find the new invention warmly welcomed 
 by King Vramshabad in 408, when he encouraged Mesrop 
 and Sahak in their efforts to establish schools throughout the 
 country, in which the new letters were taught. 
 
 The schools established at Vramshapouh w^as the most 
 celebrated of these, and became in fact a sort of Alma Mater 
 to all the rest. 
 
 The pupils there trained were dispersed throughout the 
 cotmtry to found schools and train the most promising youths 
 in the other cantons of Armenia. 
 
 They were also associated with Sahak and Mesrop in their 
 translated work. Then began the Golden Age of Armenian 
 literature. 
 
 The fifth century is known as the Age of Translators. 
 These were divided into tv/o groups. Among the ''elder trans- 
 lators" are included Eznik Koghbatsi, who wrote a refutation 
 of heresies. Koriun, the biographer of Mesrop, Joseph Pagh- 
 natsi and John Ekeghetsatsi, whom we have already men- 
 tioned, Joseph Vayots Tzorits and Leantius Vanandetsi. The 
 ''younger translators" were in most instances the pupils of the 
 elder, and included Moses of Khorene, (the Herodotus of Ar- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 1 23 
 
 menian history), Eghishe (Elisha), who wrote a history of the 
 great struggle which took place in the fifth century between 
 the Persians and the Armenians under the Vardans, John 
 Mando Kanni, Ghazar (Lazar) Phorpetsi the historian and 
 others. 
 
 When Mesrop returned to Armenia he found that the 
 Catholicos had already begun to translate the Bible from the 
 Syriac. It had been his intention to make the Greek Septua- 
 gint the basis of his translation of the Old Testament, and to 
 translate the New Testament from the original Greek. But 
 a most careful search throughout the whole of Persian Ar- 
 menia failed to discover a single manuscript of Holy Scriptures 
 in Greek. Meranzhan's search for Greek books had been so 
 thorough that he had burned every single copy in the country. 
 
 Nor were the Catholicos' messengers permitted to extend 
 their search to that part of the country which, after Khasrove 
 III.'s death, had again, in the reign of Theodosius II., been in- 
 corporated with the Byzantine empire. Even Mesrop's at- 
 tempt to get permission to teach his alphabet to the people 
 of that district were for the same considerable time success- 
 fully opposed by the Byzantine governors. Meranzhan's 
 efforts had not been directed to the destruction of Syriac cop- 
 ies of the Bible; in fact, Syriac learning was encouraged by 
 the Persians, while they sternly endeavored to repress the 
 study of Greek. Hence Sahak had no difficulty in procuring 
 copies of the Peshitto version of the Bible, and accordingly 
 began to translate that into Armenian. 
 
 He first translated those portions of the Scriptures which 
 were appointed to be read in the churches, and his version of 
 these was published in A. D., 411. 
 
 The Catholicos now sent some of his own and IMesrop's 
 most promising pupils to Greece and Syria to search for and 
 translate all the most important books they could find, espe- 
 cially the works of the leading fathers of the church. Eznik 
 and Joseph were sent to Edessa for this purpose. 
 
 When they had made many versions there from the Syriac, 
 
124 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 they went to Constantinople in their eagerness to prosecute 
 the study of Greek. There obtaining possession of the Greek 
 originals of some of the works they already had in Syriac, they 
 carefully revised the versions of these books which they had 
 made at Edessa. They were joined at Constantinople by 
 Koriun and Leontes, who had been impelled to go thither by 
 their zeal for learning. 
 
 Shortly afterwards two others of their fellow students ar- 
 rived, John and Arbzan, sent by Sahak to obtain authorized 
 copies of the Greek Bible for him, and these latter were also 
 directed to be present at the council of Ephesus in A. D. 431. 
 There they gave an account of the progress of the Gospel in 
 Armenia and of Mesrop's great invention. 
 
 On their return they took back with them copies of the 
 Greek Bible from the imperial library at Constantinople, which 
 must have been in accordance with those made by Eusebius at 
 Constantine the Great's command. They found Mesrop and 
 Sahak at Ashtishat, still busily engaged in translational work. 
 
 On the receipt of the Greek manuscripts, which his mes- 
 sengers had brought, Sahak was greatly puzzled by the nu- 
 merous slight variations of reading to be found in the dif- 
 ferent Syriac and Greek copies of the Bible now in his hands. 
 It was partly for this reason, as well as with the object of secur- 
 ing the assistance of scholars thoroughly versed in Greek 
 learning, that he sent Moses of Khorene and others to study 
 philosophy, history and rhetoric at Alexandria. Others were 
 sent to Constantinople and other great educational centres. 
 
 On their return, after a period of about seven years, these 
 men devoted their energies to the enlightenment of their na-^ 
 tive land. 
 
 They do not seem, however, to have been of much as- 
 sistance in the translation of the Bible, which was finished and 
 published in A. D. 456. 
 
 This was the second Armenian version, made this time by 
 Sahak and Mesrop, from the Greek. The receipt of the Greek 
 manuscripts brought from Byzantine had made Sahak resolve 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I25 
 
 to revise his version in accordance with the Greek. We might 
 therefore suppose that he would have fohowed the Greek in all 
 places where it differs from Peshitto Syriac text. But, how- 
 ever, the fact is to be accounted for — this is by no means the 
 case. Certain passages show that the Syriac text was preferred 
 to the Greek. 
 
 It will be sufficient to mention one illustration of this. In 
 the last paragraph of St. Mathew's Gospel — which is read in 
 the Baptismal service of the Armenian church — the passage 
 "As (My) Father hath sent me, even so send I you;" is intro- 
 duced at the end of the eighteenth verse, as in the Peshitto. It 
 is repeated, however, in the Armenian version (as in the Greek 
 text and the Peshitto) in its proper place, John xx., 21, flak- 
 ing allowances for such facts as these, which show a want of 
 critical acumen — hardly to be wondered at in that age — on 
 the part of the Armenian translators, the version made by 
 Sahak, Mesrop and their coadjutors is a noble one, well deserv- 
 ing of the title of "ciueen of versions" which has been bestowed 
 upon it. Its great defect is that the Old Testament was trans- 
 lated from the Septuagint and not direct from the original 
 Hebrew. From the language of Moses of Khorene and other 
 contemporary writers, it is clear that the Armenian Bible did 
 not originally contain the Apocrypha. The expression they 
 use is that the translators rendered into Armenian the twenty- 
 two evident (acknowledged) books of the Old Testament. This, 
 of course, means the books of the Hebrew canon, which were 
 in ancient times reckoned as numbering twenty-two, the num- 
 ber of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The Old Testament 
 Apocrypha is, however, now read in the Armenian church. 
 
 As far as we can learn from the somewhat varying ac- 
 counts of contemporary Armenian historians, the whole of 
 the Old Testament, except the proverbs of Soloman, was trans- 
 lated by Sahak, while Mesrop translated the proverbs and the 
 New Testament. But the revision was shared in by both 
 these great men as well as some of the most able of their 
 disciples. It is needless to say what a boon to Armenia 
 
126 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 such a work was. The Armenian people were now able to un- 
 derstand the word of God read in their churches and circulated 
 among them in every part of the country as quickly as scribes 
 could multiply copies in sufficient numbers. 
 
 The Bible was everywhere eagerly studied, and one im- 
 mediate result was a great deepening of the religious life of 
 the people. The knowledge of the Gospel message and of 
 the commandments of God spread everywhere, and Mesrop 
 and Sahak were most diligent in the effort to enlighten the 
 people in every canton of the country. We may form some 
 idea of what then took place in Armenia by remembering the 
 accounts which historians give us of the reception Luther's 
 German Bible met with when it issued from the press. The 
 Armenian Bible soon became the one great national book, and 
 early Armenian historians have in most cases their whole 
 style colored by their intimate acuaintance with Holy Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 It has often been remarked, and with perfect truth, that 
 it was to the invention of the Armenian alphabet, and the pub- 
 lication of Mesrop and Sahak's version of the Bible in that lan- 
 guage that the nation owed not only its retention of Christi- 
 anity during the terrible persecution that so quickly followed 
 the fall of the Arsacidae dynasty, but even its very existence. 
 Had not the people been united by an intelligent knowledge, 
 and a hearty acceptance of one faith and by the possession of 
 a national literature, they could never have weathered the 
 storms that in the fifth and following centuries beat with such 
 fury upon Armenia. The breathing space afforded by Vram- 
 shabad's wise and peaceful reign, falling between these 
 periods of trouble and discord, was giving by an all-wise and 
 merciful providence to prevent the vessel of both church and 
 nationality from dire and terrible shipwreck. 
 
 Besides the direct spiritual results of the translation of the 
 Bible into the language of the people, (which were so great 
 that Lazarus Pharpetsi says that in describing them he is war- 
 ranted in using Isaiah's words, and stating that the whole land 
 
MESROP, AS HIGH PRIEST. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 12/ 
 
 of Armenia was thereby filled with the knowledge of the Lord 
 as the waters cover the sea), it had also others less direct, but 
 very important. One of these was that it reduced the lan- 
 guage to a literary standard, and gave it order, fixity and per- 
 manence. From very early times many different dialects have 
 prevailed in Armenia, but during the last few centuries of 
 our narrative the dialect of the province of Ararat had come 
 to the fore as the language of the court and of the central and 
 leading district in the kingdom. 
 
 This was the dialect which was naturally adopted by the 
 translators, and it became the literary language of the country. 
 Even to the present time though no longer spoken, it is used 
 in literature to a great extent and until very recently was the 
 only written form of Armenian. The literary dialects of mod- 
 ern language, those of Ararat and Constantinople, are now ex- 
 tensively used, though the old literary dialect is still dignified 
 with the title of Grapar, or written. 
 
 The literary impulse given to the leading minds of the 
 nation by Mesraph's invention of the alphabet led to a great 
 amount of other translational work, besides the composition of 
 such books as Moses of Khorene's History of Armenia, 
 Eznik's Refutation of Heresies, Elisha's History of the War of 
 the Vartans, and other similar works of great value and in- 
 terest. Not only were the old chronicles of the kingdom 
 transcribed into the new alphabet, and thus preserved for some 
 considerable time, but the works of all the Greek and Syrian 
 Fathers that could possibly be obtained were translated into 
 Armenian. A little later the works of Plato and Aristotle, of 
 Homer and other classical writers were added to the list. We 
 hardly know as yet at all fully what valuable writings have 
 thus been preserved to us in Armenian libraries, but Tatian's 
 Diatessaran and Eusebius chronicle are examples of the treas- 
 ure still to be discovered by diligent search in this field of 
 learning. 
 
 Armenian historians relate that to Mesrap is due the inven- 
 tion of the ecclesiastical alphabet in use in Georgia. The date 
 they fix for this is A. D. 410, 
 
128 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 BAROUYR OR BRAYERIOS. 
 
 We must not judge the ability and reputation of men 
 in their own ages solely by the familiarity of their names to 
 us: those that have come down to us are a mere handful, and 
 not by any means always the greatest of their time. 
 
 Much depends on chance — the preservation of certain 
 works, and the loss of others, or certain men happening to do 
 something dramatic. Great orators are especially likely to 
 be forgotten; they leave no written works of their own, and 
 not being in political life the common histories do not mention 
 them. The name of Barouyr is wholly unknown to this age; 
 but we have the testimony of a contemporary writer, Eunapius 
 of Sardis — not a countryman of his, and therefore free from all 
 suspicion of patriotic brag, and most unlikely to make out an 
 Armenian greater than he was — that he was the most wonder- 
 ful orator of his time, famous all over the Roman world, and 
 greatly admired even by the emperors. He was one of those 
 men to whom all languages seem alike to come by nature, and 
 his oratory was as easy and as perfect in one as in the other; 
 in Latin or Greek as in his national Armenian. The only 
 comparison I can give in modern times is Louis Kossuth. 
 
 That Barouyr has not the fame of Cicero or Demosthenes, 
 Kossuth or Gladstone, is probably because under the circum- 
 stances of the time he could not engage in political Hfe. Mili- 
 tary service or high birth were about the only avenues. 
 
 I will quote in substance what Eunapius says of this bril- 
 liant orator, whom, he probably knew all about, as our boys 
 know about Gladstone. 
 
 Barouyr, he was born in 347, and he was certainly alive 
 in the time of the Emperor Julian, who came to the throne in 
 361. 
 
 Barouyr lived to be ninety, and was beautiful even in old 
 age, having vigor of youth in his looks. He was eight feet 
 high. When a boy he left Armenia and went to Antioch, 
 the first of the Christians, and entered the school of oratory un- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I29 
 
 der the celebrated Albianos, where he shortly became the fore- 
 most pupil. Thence he went to the Athens and studied under 
 Julian, the greatest of the teachers of oratory there, — support- 
 ing himself by working meantimes, as he was very poor; in no 
 long time he was recognized as the leading orator of Athens, 
 and taught the art to the Athenians. The other teachers were 
 so angry that they bribed the governor to banish him; but on 
 the governor's removal some time after, he was permitted to 
 return. The new governor instituted an oratorical competi- 
 tion: Whoever could deliver the best extempore oration on a 
 subject to be given out on the spot, should receive great 
 honors. Barouyr took part on condition that the auditors 
 should take careful notes and should not cheer; but they were 
 so fascinated that they broke both conditions, listening in 
 rapture and applauding repeatedly. The governor offered 
 him his chair and honored him as the greatest orator in 
 Athens. Later the Emperor Constans was so struck with 
 his wisdom and oratorical power that he called him first to 
 Gaul and then to Rome, where he delivered his greatest ora- 
 tions and the Romans erected a bronze monument in his 
 honor, inscribed '^Regina Rerum Momoe Regi Eliquentioc." 
 (Rome Queen of Affairs to the King of Eloquence). From 
 Rome he returned to Athens, and taught there many years 
 with great repute, up to the time of the Emperor Julian, who 
 honored him and spoke as follows of him: "Barouyr was a 
 flowing river of oratory, and in power and persuasiveness of 
 speech was like Pericles." And I now add that with all this 
 he was a thorough Christian man — not a priest, but a great 
 Christian layman and teacher but not among his nation. He 
 was mostly in foreign countries. 
 
 VARTAN, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. 
 
 The Sassanian dynasty in Persia was a source, more or 
 less, of perpetual misery and blood-shed in Armenia. As it 
 
130 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 has been said before, the Persians had two reasons for their 
 cruel attitude towards Armenia. These causes were the ex- 
 istence of the Aroacide reign and Christianity in Armenia, 
 while Zoroastrianism was revived in Persia under the Sassan- 
 ian kings. - 
 
 Christianity was a permanent cause or occasion for which 
 Armenia has suffered and is still suffering indescribable mis- 
 eries and innumerable cruelties. The Persians would imagine 
 that as long as the Armenians are Christians they are in al- 
 liance with the Greeks, while, unfortunately and often, the 
 Greeks were no longer in sympathy with them than the Per- 
 sians. 
 
 Armenia about the middle of the fifth century had entirely 
 lost her independence and was divided between the Greeks and 
 the Persians, the eastern and the large part of the country be- 
 ing under the latter power. 
 
 Yesgerd 11. , the King of Persia, (A. D. 450), decreed thus: 
 "All people and tongues throughout my domains must aban- 
 don their heresies, worship the sun, bring to him their offer- 
 ings, and call him God; they shall feed the holy fire, and fulfill 
 all the ordinances of Magi." Accordingly, Mihrnersh, the 
 grand vizier of the Persian court, wrote a long letter to the 
 Armenians, polemic in character, persuasive in style, and 
 menacing in tone, the synod of the Armenian bishops he con- 
 vened, who unanimously agreed to defend their religion at 
 any cost, and at the same time it was decided upon answering 
 the letter of the grand vizier in which they both refuted the 
 charges made against Christianity, undauntedly defended their 
 faith, showing the absurdity of Zoroastrianism, and concluded 
 the epistle with these words: "From this beHef no one can 
 move us neither angels nor men, neither fire nor sword, nor 
 water, nor any other horrid tortures, however they be called. 
 All our goods and our possessions are before thee, dispose 
 of them as thou wilt, and if thou only leavest us to our belief, 
 we will here below choose no other lord in thy place, and in 
 heaven have no other God but Jesus Christ, for there is no 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I3I 
 
 other God save only Him. But shouldst thou require some- 
 thing beyond this great testimony, behold our resolution: our 
 bodies are in thy hands — do with them according to thy plea- 
 sure; tortures are thine, and patience ours; thou hast the 
 sword, we the neck; we are nothing better than our fore- 
 fathers who, for the sake of their faith, resigned their goods, 
 possessions and life. Do thou, therefore, inquire of us nothing 
 further concerning these things, for our belief originates not 
 with men, we are not taught like children, but we are indissolu- 
 ble, bound to God from whom nothing can detach us, neither 
 now or hereafter, nor forever, nor for ever and ever." 
 
 As soon as this letter arrived at the Royal Court of Persia, 
 King Yasgerd was enraged and summed the Armenia 
 princes to immediately repair to His Majesty's presence. 
 There in the presence of the King they manifested a great 
 resolution in their faith, for which they were ignominiously 
 treated and confined in prison. Having been threatened while 
 in their confinement, they devised a scheme; they thought it 
 was better, apparently, to comply with the demands of the King, 
 but inwardly to remain true to their convictions and religion. 
 God, who is able to bring good out of evil, indeed did so in 
 this case. When it was made known to the King that the Ar- 
 menian princes were willing to accept his terms, at once they 
 were liberated and returned with distinctions to their homes, 
 and a large army with over seven hundred magi were exultant- 
 ly marching on to Armenia to raze to the ground every Christ- 
 ian church and school and disciple the people into the myster- 
 ious absurdities of Zoroastrianism. 
 
 No sooner had the news of the apostacy of the princes 
 reached Armenia than the bishops, priests and the laity con- 
 demned the weakness and the folly of the princes. 
 
 When the princes returned to Armenia they found no one 
 ready to listen to any explanation, but everywhere the people 
 were ready to defend their religion at the cost of their lives. A 
 large multitude made up of clergy and laity, among whom 
 were many women, gathered for immediate action, for the 
 
132 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 enemy was marching on. Some of the princes could not endure 
 the contempt of the people, nor the unrelenting remorse of 
 consciences, so they were ready to expiate their folly at 
 any cost. 
 
 Vartan Mamigonian is the most esteemed and beloved 
 name in Armenian history. This noble man was a grand- 
 son of Sahak CathoHcos. When Vartan Mamigonian was a 
 little boy, he was so full of grace that the Pontiff Sahak 
 adopted him as his son, and through this companionship of the 
 aged ecclesiastic and the religions boy, the latter developed 
 into a great spiritual Hght. In 421 he went to Constantinople 
 with noble St. Mesrop, and was much loved and esteemed by 
 the Emperor (Theodosius 11. ), and the court, then to Persia, 
 where the King honored him and gave him the title of prince. 
 
 Vartan Mamigonian was a faithful servant of God and His 
 Saviour. It was said of him that he was an honest, modest, 
 wise, brave, true, pure, childlike and Christlike Christian com- 
 mander, a great soldier of the Cross. He was a lamb in nature, 
 but when he came to defend his religion he was a lion. 
 
 Prince Vartan, the Mamigonian, was unanimously ap- 
 pointed the commander-in-chief of the Armenians, against 
 the Persians, and the multitude was formed into three divisions, 
 intrusted to three princes: Vartan, Nershebuh and Vasag. 
 The latter, however, proved treacherous and perfidious, and 
 with his almost entire division sided with the Persians, and be- 
 gan to devastate the provinces, where he was stationed to en- 
 counter the foe. His treachery decided the fate of the Ar- 
 menians. But brave Vartan and the rest were not dismayed, 
 though they knew that they alone could not conquer an im- 
 mense army of the enemy with a small force of their own. Yet 
 they were not fighting for victory, but for their convictions and 
 the religion of Christ. 
 
 Finally the forces were arrayed for battle on the banks 
 of the Dughmood river, on the plains of Avaraye, near the 
 present city of Van. 
 
 Prince Varton had 66,000 men, the Persians several times 
 
•■^•l 
 
 
 •Vr'/^ 
 
 f 
 
 /yzwi^/e EriXif:- Co -i;>o&h&n 
 
 VARTAN MAMIGONIAN. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I33 
 
 as many. Before beginning- war Vartan Mamigonian 
 knelt down and prayed to God for help, and to Christ for 
 his own salvation, then he made an address to his soldiers, in 
 substance as follows: 
 
 ''Soldiers, as Christians, we are averse to fighting, but to 
 defend the Christian religion and our own freedom we have to 
 fight. Surely our lives are not as valuable as Christ's, and if 
 He was willing to die on the cross for us we ought to be will- 
 ing to die in battle for Him. I have been," said he, "in many 
 battles, and you also with me ; we have sometimes bravely van- 
 quished the foe; sometimes they vanquished us, but on all 
 these occasions we thought only of worldly distinction, and 
 vve fought merely at the command of a mortal king. Behold, 
 we have all many wounds and scars upon our persons, and 
 great must have been our bravery to have won these great 
 marks of honor. But useless and empty I deem these exploits 
 whereby we have received these honorable marks, for they pass 
 away. If, however, you have done such valiant deeds in obedi- 
 ence to a mortal ruler, how much more will you do then for 
 our immortal King, who is Lord of life and death, and who 
 judges every one according to his works. 
 
 ''Now, therefore, I entreat you, my brave companions, and 
 more so as you — albeit in bravery, worth, and inherited hon- 
 ors greater than I — have of your own free will and out of your 
 love elected me your leader and chief, I entreat that my words 
 may be favorably received by the high and the low. Fear not 
 the numbers of the heathens; withdraw not your necks from 
 the terrific sword of a mortal man in order that the Lord may 
 give the victory into our hands, that we may annihilate their 
 power and lift on high the standard of truth." 
 
 On the morning of the day of the battle the little army of 
 the Holy League received the Holy Eucharist, and marched on 
 with these words: "May our death be like to the death of the 
 just, and may the shedding of our blood resemble the blood- 
 shedding of the prophet. May God look in mercy on our vol- 
 untary self-ofifering, and may He not deliver the church into 
 
134 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 the hands of the heathens." Then, with his troops, he crossed 
 the river fell on the enemy's centre, and scattered the huge 
 army in rout, killing 3,544 men, besides nine great princes, and 
 losing 1,036 of his men; but alas! one of these was himself, 
 dying from a mortal wound not long after. Nevertheless he 
 had won the victory he was striving for. 
 
 Yazygerd, the King of Persia, saw it was impossible to 
 conquer the Armenians in a war for religion, and granted en- 
 tire liberty to the Christians to believe and preach as they 
 pleased 
 
 PRINCE VAHAN MAMIGONIAN. 
 
 Christianity and Zoroastrianism had many a battle in the 
 land of Ararat, until the latter, in total despair, was willing to 
 submit to the former, on some amicable terms to be suggested 
 by a brave son of Armenia, a worthy member of the house of 
 Mamigoians. This valiant champion of truth was Vahan 
 Mamigonian, whose uncle, Prince Vartan, led the Holy League 
 in battle, and with the heroism and courage of the martyrs 
 defended their religion and rights, and had sealed their testi- 
 mony to the truth of Christianity by their blood in the previous 
 battle. 
 
 The Persians, ofter their conquest of Armenia, destroyed 
 many of the churches and schools. Many of the bishops and 
 priests were captured. Some were martyred on the spot, others 
 were carried to Persia and there executed. The patriarch, 
 Joseph, in whose character and life shine forth piety, courage 
 and devotion, was one of those carried to Persia. The Christ- 
 ians were persecuted with indescribable tortures and cruelties 
 and Zoroastrianism inculcated among the Armenians, who in 
 return most cordially hated both the religion of Zoroaster and 
 its defenders, and were alert for an opportunity to drive out the 
 usurpers as unwelcomed teachers of an unphilosophized reli- 
 
PRINCE VAHAN MAMIGONIAN. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 135 
 
 gion Sprung out of Zoroaster's imagination. The northern 
 provinces of Armenia rebelled against the Persians. The latter, 
 therefore, attempted to subdue them. The Armenians availed 
 themselves of this ample occasion, armed themselves and urged 
 Vahan Mamigonian to take the lead of the army to clear out 
 of the country the troops of the enemy left there. The Persian 
 forces had received such terrible disastrous defeats in various 
 contests from the Armenians, under the command of Prince 
 Vahan Mamigonian, that when a new governor, Nikhor, was 
 appointed by Balos, the King of Persia (A. D. 485), he instead 
 of attacking Vahan, who held almost the whole of the country, 
 wished to come to an arrangement agreeable to the Armen- 
 ians. Prince Vahan therefore proposed the following terms: 
 
 1. The existing fire-altars should be destroyed and no 
 others should be erected in Armenia. 
 
 2. The Armenians should be allowed the free and full 
 exercise of Christian religion, and no Armenians should be in 
 future tempted or bribed to declare themselves disciples of 
 Zoroaster. 
 
 3. If converts were, nevertheless, made from Christianity 
 to Zoroastrianism, places (of honor) should not be given to 
 them. 
 
 4. The Persian King should in person, and not by de- 
 puty, administer the affairs of Armenia. 
 
 These terms proposed by Prince Vahan, were favorably 
 accepted by Nikhor, and an edict of toleration was issued and 
 proclaimed that everyone should be at liberty to adhere to his 
 own religion, and that no one should be driven to apostatize. 
 Afterwards Vahan himself was appointed governor of Ar- 
 menia by the King, and thus the church enjoyed a period of 
 tranquility from the persecutions. 
 
 ARMENIAN LITERATURE. 
 
 The Armenian schools and universities and their outpour 
 of great scholars and writers have already been spoken of. 
 
136 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 but of course Armenian youths, eager for the best of the 
 world's learning, did not confine themselves to their own 
 country; they studied in Constantinople, Athens, Antioch, 
 Alexandria, and wherever great teachers were located, — all 
 zealous Christians, and the books they have left behind were 
 Christian literature, not works of mere enjoyment. A very 
 rich and valuable literature it is, too, in my judgment the most 
 so of any single body that exists; though much of it has per- 
 ished in the recent destruction of everything Christian the 
 Turks can reach. 
 
 The fifth century is called the Golden Age of Armenian 
 literature. First in point of time as well as importance comes 
 the Armenian Bible. The furious opposition of the church in 
 the Middle Ages to letting the people have the Bible to read 
 in their own tongues seems perfectly ridiculous, when we re- 
 member that in the early Christian Church every people had 
 it in their own language, and it was thought to be the greatest 
 work for a heathen people that could be done, to translate 
 the Bible for them. 
 
 It was not thought needful then to keep the Word of 
 God in a strange tongue, so that the people could neither 
 read it for themselves nor understand it when it was read to 
 them. 
 
 There were probably some books of popular tales and 
 songs in Armenia before the fifth centur}^, for we are told that 
 there was an Armenian alphabet to write them in as early as 
 the second, but if so they have all perished, and the alphabet 
 was doubtless a poor and meagre one. Armenian scholars 
 and writers read Greek or Latin books, and occassionally He- 
 brew or Syriac ones, and wrote in Greek or Latin themselves ; 
 if it was necessary to write Armenian, as in letters, they made 
 the Greek, Syriac of Persian characters, which of course were 
 insufficient to give the Armenian sounds. They would have 
 got along with this, however, if it had not been for the eager- 
 ness of Christian enthusiasm which made them wish to give 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 137 
 
 the Bible to Armenia. It was to spread the Word of God, not 
 to write books, that they were anxious. 
 
 St. Mesrop set to work and invented a very perfect alpha- 
 bet of thirty-six letters, to which two have been added since. 
 According to one of his disciples, having vainly sought help 
 from the learned, he prayed to God, and received the new al- 
 phabet in a vision. 
 
 This was about 405. He and Sahag, the Pontiff, at once 
 began to translate the New Testament and the Book of 
 Proverbs from a poor Greek version, the best they had, with 
 the assistance of two pupils, John and Joseph. This was fin- 
 ished in 406. Many years later they undertook the translation 
 of the Old Testament; but as the Persians had destroyed all the 
 Greek manuscripts, it was necessary to use a Syriac version. 
 The same two assistants aided them; but being sent to the 
 Council of Ephesus in 431, they brought back copies of the 
 Greek Septuagint, and the old translation was at once 
 dropped, and a new one put under way. But all found their 
 knowledge of Greek too imperfect to rely on, ^nd the pupils 
 were sent to Alexandria and Athens to complete their educa- 
 tion. On their return they seem to have brought a new Alex- 
 andrian version, and corrections were made from that, and the 
 work completed, mOst likely about 435. 
 
 The Bible completed, they turned to other labors. The 
 saints, Sahag and Mesrop, are said to have written six hun- 
 dred books themselves, all in Christian theology and instruc- 
 tion; and the pupils from the schools St. Nierses and them- 
 selves had founded — the chief of their own were at Naravank, 
 Ayri, and Vochkhoraz — wrote great numbers besides. The 
 first original work of Sahag was one on pastoral theology, 
 setting forth that the Church of Christ is the Bride of Christ, 
 and the ministers must therefore be holy, pure, and obedient. 
 He wrote many epistles to Kings and Emperors, all of whom 
 reverenced and were greatly influenced by him. 
 
 He wrote a large part of the Armenian Church history, 
 
138 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 composed many hymns, and translated many commentaries 
 and theological works from the Greek. 
 
 Fortunately during this period the government of Arme- 
 nia was very good, with the exception of one period of two 
 years or so; even after its partition, for close on forty years 
 it had practically self-government in internal affairs, and for 
 another decade the Christians enjoyed full rights of worship. 
 Bahram IV. at Persia (389-399), who helped divide it, was 
 a monarch who loved peace above all things, both with foreign 
 countries and his own people, his successor, Yazdegerd I. (399- 
 420), went even further, employed the CatboHcos or Pontifif 
 on embassies to Constantinople, as mediator with his own 
 brother, and made his son, Shahpur, governor of Persian 
 Armenia, continuing the Arsacidse dynasty. He was murdered 
 by his nobles, instigated by the Zoroastrian priests, for being 
 too tolerant to the Christians, and his successor, Bahram V., 
 who got the throne by favor of the rebellious elements, tried 
 to please them by persecuting the Christians. This involved 
 him in a war with Rome, as I have said, and after a couple 
 of years he made peace and gave toleration again. The turn- 
 ing of Persian Armenia into a satrapy in 428, but no fresh 
 persecution was undertaken till that of Yasgerd II. in 439, 
 ending in Vartan's revolt just detailed. Shahpur of Armenia 
 was a Prince of great wisdom, generosity, and public spirit; 
 he patronized men of learning, founded schools, made large 
 grants from the treasury for scholarship, and sent scholars 
 to all the great seats of learning to teach and acquire the lan- 
 guages, literature, and history of other nations, after which 
 they wrote and translated hundreds of volumes. Among them 
 were Tavit, Khosrohl, Mampre, and Zazer; a great historian, 
 Eghishe, author of the life of Prince Vartan, and a great 
 philosopher, Yeznic. These are only a few out of scores 
 worthy of mention. 
 
 Dr. PhiHp Schafif says : "In spite of the unfavorable state 
 of political and social affairs in Armenia, during this epoch, 
 more than six hundred Greek and Syriac works were trans- 
 
MOSES KHORENTZI. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 139 
 
 lated within the forty years after the translation of the Bible, 
 and as in many cases the original works have perished, while 
 the translations have been preserved, the great importance of 
 this w^hole literary activity is apparent. Among works which 
 in this way have come down to us are several books by Philo- 
 Alexandrinus, on providence, and reason, commentaries, etc. ; 
 the Chronicle of Eusebius, nearly complete; the Epistles of 
 Ignatius, translated from a Syrian version; fifteen homiUes 
 by Severianus; the exegetical writings of Ephriam, 
 Syros, previously completely unknown, and the historical 
 books of the Old T estament, the Synoptical Gospels, the Para- 
 bles of Jesus, and the fourteen Pauline Epistles; the Hexahe- 
 meran of Basil the Great; the Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem; 
 several homilies by Chrysostom, etc. The period, however, 
 was not characterized by translations only. Several of the 
 disciples of Mesrop and Sahak left original works. Esnik 
 wrote four books against heretics, printed at Venice in 
 1826, and translated into French by Le Vailliant de Florival, 
 Paris, 1853. A biography of Mesrop by Koriun, homilies by 
 Mambres, and various writings by the philosopher David, 
 have been published; and the works of Moses Chorenensis, 
 published in Venice in 1842, and again in 1864, have acquired 
 a wide celebrity; his history of Armenia has been translated 
 into French, Italian and Russian. 
 
 Sixth century: The leading authors in this century are 
 Abraham Mamigonian, who wrote on the Council of Ephesus ; 
 and Bedross Sonnian, who wrote on the life of Christ. There 
 are, however, many others of merit. 
 
 Seventh century: By far the greatest name in this cen- 
 tury, and indeed the best known and most important name 
 in Armenian literature altogether, is the writer who calls 
 himself Moses Khorentzi, well known to all historical scholars 
 as Moses of Chorene, author of the History of Armenia. For 
 more than a thousand years, up to this century, indeed, this 
 was practically the only source of Armenian history to the 
 world; the other writers were inaccessible, and it is still very 
 
140 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 valuable, though not in just the way it was once thought to 
 be. It preserves a vast amount of Armenian tradition, stories 
 and ballads, and real history, which have perished except for 
 this work, but he seems not to have had the Greek and Latin 
 histories to draw from, and makes a great many mistakes. 
 He gives a life of himself, and says he is -writing in the fifth 
 century, and knew Saints Sohag and Mesrop when he was 
 young, but he really lived in the seventh, and wrote history 
 about the year 640. But still he is a great writer, and one of 
 Armenian's hterary hghts, and we do not need to claim for 
 him anything more than he deserves. 
 
 Besides Moses, the chief authors were Gomidos, Yeze, 
 Malassagha, Krikoradour, Hovhounes, Vertanes and Anania, 
 They wrote chiefly rehgious books, but Anania Shiragatzi 
 is the author of a valuable work on astronomy. 
 
 In eighth century, the leading authors were Hovhom 
 Imossdosser, Sdepannoss Sonnotzi, and , Lehamt Yeretz. 
 They wrote hymns, books on oratory, etc. In ninth century, 
 Zakaria Shaboah, Toama, and Kaur Ken, etc. In tenth cen- 
 tury, the chief authors were Anania, Khosrov and Krikor 
 Noregatzi. The latter wrote a prayer book in ninety-five chap- 
 ters, which one of the missionaries of the American Board 
 thinks the best in the world. He says that only Henry 
 Beecher was able to offer such prayer as Krikor Naregatzi. 
 In the eleventh century, the leading writers were Hovhannes, 
 Krikor, and Aristaguss. In this century some of the best 
 commentaries were written on the Bible. And the twelfth 
 century the chief authors: Nerses Shnorhali, or Nerses 
 Graceful, is the foremost of Armenian poets, and a thoroughly 
 converted and consecrated man of God. His hymns were in- 
 tensely spiritual, and the Armenians still chant them in their 
 church. They are worthy to be translated into Enghsh, by 
 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, in Boston, Mass., as follows: 
 
 "O, wayspring sun of righteousness, shine forth with light for me; 
 
 Treasure of mercy, let my soul thy hidden riches see. 
 
 Thou before whom the thoughts of men lie open in thy sight, 
 
NERSES SHNORHALI. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I4I 
 
 Unto my soul, now dark and dim, grant thoughts that shine with light. 
 
 O, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Almighty One in Three, 
 
 Care-taker of all creatures, have pity upon me! 
 
 Awake, O Lord, awake to help, with grace and power divine; 
 
 Awaken those who slumber now, Like Heaven's host to shine; 
 
 O Lord and Saviour, life-giver, imto the dead give life, 
 
 And raise up those that have grown weak and stumbled in the strife; 
 
 O skillful Pilot; Lamp of Light, that burneth bright and clear; 
 
 Strength and assurance grant to me, now hid away in fear. 
 
 O Thou that makest old things new, renew me and adorn; 
 
 Rejoice me with salvation, Lord, for which I only mourn. 
 
 Giver of Good, unto my sins be Thy forgiveness given; 
 
 Lead Thy disciples. Heavenly King, unto the flocks of Heaven, 
 
 Defeat the evil husbandman that soweth tares and weeds; 
 
 Wither and kill in me the fruits of all his evil seeds; 
 
 O Lord, grant water to my eyes, that they may shed warm tears, 
 
 To cleanse and wash away the sin that in my soul appears; 
 
 On me, now hid in shadow deep, shine forth, O glory bright; 
 
 Sweet juice, quench thou my soul's keen thirst; show me the path of 
 
 light. 
 Jesus, whose name is love, with love crush thou my stony heart; 
 Bedew my spirit with thy blood, and bid my griefs depart; 
 O Thou that even in fancy art so sweet. Lord Jesus Christ, 
 Grant that with Thy realty my soul may be sufficed; 
 When Thou shalt come again to earth, and all Thy glory see, 
 Upon that dread and awful day, O Christ, remember me. 
 Thou that redeemest men from sin, O Savi.our, I implore, 
 Redeem him who now praiseth Thee, to praise Thee evermore. 
 
 This hymns the perfectly spiritual, and Armenians with 
 the pleasure and gladly still singing them in their church cere- 
 monies in the every morning. (The Archbishop Nerses the 
 Graceful; born 1102, died 1172.) In this 12th century, Nerses 
 Lampranatzi, the greatest scholar ever born in Armenia, was a 
 distinguished commentator on the Old Testament, and wrote 
 many other books. Another is Yeremia. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, the leading authors: Krikor 
 Sguevratzi, Kevork Sguevratzi. IMukhitar Anetzi, Vanagan 
 Vartabed,VartanVartabed, etc. They wrote histories, commen- 
 taries, etc. As the Armenian dynasties ended in the fourteenth 
 century at Cilicia by the last King Leo VI., and after that pe- 
 
142 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 riod have no important literature among the Armenian 
 churches. 
 
 The Armenians, besides the language of country, 
 wherever they may be found, speak their own tongue, which 
 is a distinct language of itself, and belongs to the Indo-Ger- 
 manic family of languages. There are, however, two Arme- 
 nian languages, the ancient and modern. The former was 
 the language of the pre-Christian era; and after the conversion 
 of the nation to Christianity, and the translation of the Bible 
 into it, it became the standard language of the literature. 'Tn 
 its syntactical structure the old Armenian resembles most 
 nearly the classical Greek." Its close relation to the Sanskrit, 
 ancient Persian, Greek, and Latin might be pointed out by 
 numerous words commonly found in these and Armenian 
 languages. 
 
 The modern Armenian language has been elevated to 
 the dignity of a respectable language almost in this century 
 by numerous original and translated works and periodicals 
 published in various countries, especially by the translation 
 of the Bible. The relation of this language to the ancient 
 Armenian might be compared with that of the modern Greek 
 to the ancient Greek language. 
 
 The Armenian literature of the pre-Christian era has not 
 survived, excepting a few fragmentary songs, which lingered 
 even until the time of Moses of Khorene, in w^hose history 
 of Armenia they are preserved, and the inscriptions of the 
 Kings of Van — if we admit with some — are ''the oldest speci- 
 mens of the Asiatic branch of the Indo-Germanic family." 
 
 Christianity brought with it into Armenia a great love 
 for learning; Armenian youths flocked into the schools at 
 Athens, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Most of them en- 
 gaged themselves in translating many valuable works from 
 the Greek and other languages into the Armenian. A recent 
 writer speaks of these translators in this manner: Some of 
 them obtained celebrity in their chosen pursuits. To this 
 tendency we owe the preservation, in Amenian, of many works 
 that have perished in their original languages." 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 143 
 
 The original works consist of theological and expository 
 discourses, commentaries, histories, sacred songs, devotional 
 works, etc. 'The existing literature of the Armenians dates 
 from the fourth century, and is essentially and exclusively 
 Christian." This "literature is rich and continuous, uninter- 
 rupted through all the Middle Ages. It has furnished the 
 philosophers, historians, theologians, and poets." The pecu- 
 liar value of the Armenian Hterature is not realized as it should 
 be, by European and American scholars; the language is 
 well worth learning for what it can give the student. Not 
 alone is the original work that comes from the first Christian 
 nation specially valuable for its bearing on primitive Chris- 
 tianity, but the Armenian scholars translated great numbers 
 of works from other languages, and these translations are 
 preserved in Armenian monasteries when the originals have 
 been irretrievably lost in the wars, and burnings, and devasta- 
 tions of other countries. Six hundred volumes of this old 
 literature are known to exist now, two hundred in Europe, 
 and four hundred in different places in Armenia. 
 
 "They (the Armenians) are a people of fine physical de- 
 velopment, often of stature and powerful frame, indus- 
 trious and peaceable, yet more jealous of their rights and 
 liberties than any other Oriental race. They passionately 
 cherish the memory of their fathers, and preserve the 
 use of their national language, which belongs to the 
 Indo-European family, and possess a literature of con- 
 siderable importance."* 
 
 "These Armenians are a superb race of men; their cos- 
 tume, which is plain and noble, displays to advantage their 
 athletic forms; their physiognomy is intelligent; they have 
 florid complexions, black and blue eyes, and beards of light- 
 ish color. They are the Swiss of the East. Industrious, peace- 
 able and regular in their habits, they resemble them also in 
 calculation and love of gain. The women are lovely; their 
 features are pure and delicate, and their serene expression 
 
 *♦' Bible Lands," page 3G7. By Van Lennep. 
 
144 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 recalls the beauty of the women of the British Islands or of 
 the peasants of Switzerland."* 
 
 In education the Armenians surpass all other nations 
 of Western Asia, and many might even fairly be compared 
 with the people of some Roman Catholic countries. But 
 a great majority, safely may it be said, yet sit in the darkness 
 of ignorance and superstition. This is a sad fact. But it is 
 impossible to be otherwise, as long as the sceptre of power 
 is in the hand of Islamism. "Islamism it is which palsies 
 every effort to reform throughout the empire." ''The convic- 
 tion is inevitable, that until the power of Islamism is broken, 
 the true reformation of this land is an impossibility." Islam- 
 ism is a moral and photophobia; it dreads the light of civiliza- 
 tion and Christianity. 
 
 As the religion of the Armenians, Christianity, though not 
 in its simplicity and purity now as it was in the beginning, is 
 infinitely superior to the religion of Mohammed, so the char- 
 acter of the Armenians, it might be said, is in the same pro- 
 portion, superior to that of the Mohammedans, notwithstand- 
 ing all the evil influences of the latter upon the former. The 
 Armenians, moreover, lack the volatility of the Greek and the 
 laxity of the Jews. 
 
 Before I finish this chapter I wish to say a few more 
 words about the beginning of Christianity in Armenia. 
 
 Christianity was begun in Armenia, perhaps, as early 
 as the days of the apostles, and had been mightily re- 
 vived by Gregory the Illuminator. Armenia or the Armenians 
 were now a Christian country, or people, with an independent 
 and indigenous church and a Bible in their own language. 
 She possessed a body of devout and learned clergy, full of 
 energy and zeal. Her students went everywhere to seek 
 knowledge and learning, and returned home to divide among 
 her numerous congregations the mental and spiritual treasures 
 they had won. Her people studied the Word of God, and 
 grew in grace and in the knowledge of God. Christianity 
 had routed and annihilated Paganism, and had struck her 
 
 * Lambertine," Voyage in Orient," volume ii., page 190. 
 
INTERIOR OF ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 145 
 
 roots deep down into the heart and conscience of the nation. 
 Like a noble tree on the mountain-top, buffeted by the storm 
 and yet unshaken from its post, the Armenian Church even 
 in near future, was to experience the tempests of persecution 
 and oppression, and yet by those very blasts be driven to strike 
 root more deeply still, as it were, into the very Rock of Ages, 
 and to stand firm during all future time as a proof of her 
 Master's protecting care in the very face of the gates of hell. 
 
 THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The Armenian Church was and still is a national, 
 independent and separate body as much as the Greek or the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and older than either of them ; there- 
 fore the prosperity of the nation was also the prosperity of the 
 church. The nation had but little rest after her embrace 
 of Christianity. Christian Armenia during the first three 
 centuries of her existence made such a defence of her faith 
 against Zoroastrianism that the latter was completely par- 
 alyzed and no longer able to lift up the sword against the 
 followers of Christ. 
 
 But with the rise of Mohammedanism, a more formidable, 
 cruel, unjust, and inhuman enemy arose. 
 
 The Saracens or the Arabs, wdio were both the soldiers 
 and missionaries of Mohammedanism, literally panted after 
 the blood of the Christians as the hart panteth after the water 
 brooks. 
 
 Even these, after sucking all the blood that they could im- 
 bibe, fell off like swollen leeches and themselves were swal- 
 lowed up by the Seljukian, Tartar, and Mongolian Turks, who 
 surpassed even the Arabs in cruelty and deserved to be called 
 ''the unspeakable Turk." The Greeks, with all their subtlety, 
 volatility, perfidy, intrigues, and intolerable bigotry, could 
 do no more than to cause some of the corruptions of their 
 church to creep into the Armenian Church. But this is not 
 all; for while the Armenians were driven into the mountain- 
 
146 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 ous district of Cilicia, the land of the brave Apostle Paul, by 
 the Mongolian and Tartar invaders, who spread desolation, 
 destruction, and death wherever their feet touched the soil, 
 there came with the appearance of the crusaders in the East a 
 number of zealous missionaries of the Romish Church, who, 
 instead of preaching and converting millions of Mohamme- 
 dans to Christianity, tried to bring the Armenian Church into 
 a subordination and jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome. 
 
 Though the missionaries of the Romish Church un- 
 doubtedly knew that their church excelled the Church of 
 Armenia in corruption, in superstition, and nonscriptural 
 claims and dogmas, yet they took advantage of the oppressed 
 condition of the people and persistently disturbed their church. 
 The overthrow of the political existence of the Armenians, 
 according to some, is due to their intercourse with the West- 
 ern nations, as we have seen. After this overthrow the Church 
 of Armenia became both the custodian of the nation's ex- 
 istence and the defender of her independence. 
 
 The Armenians, owing to the frequent incursions, de- 
 vastations, barbarous massacres, and being led captives in 
 great numbers by the Saracens, afterwards by the Mongolian 
 and Tartar hordes, were compelled to immigrate into safer dis- 
 tricts and countries, especially after the overthrow of the inde- 
 pendent dynasty in Cilicia. 
 
 When Constantinople was taken by the Turks, Sultan 
 Mohammed II. appointed Bishop Hovaghim, of Brusa, the 
 Patriarch over the Armenians then in Constantinople and in 
 vicinity. This naturally also drew a good number of the Ar- 
 menians from other parts, while nearly two centuries before 
 this time Jerusalem was also made the seat of a Patriarch. 
 
 The seat of the Archbishop at Sis in Cilicia, Akhtamar, 
 in the Island of Lake Van, and Etchmiadzin by bishops fear- 
 ing the title of Catholicos. Some of the occupants of these 
 seats were very much like some of the popes of Rome at the 
 expense of honor, distinction, and well-being of their people 
 they sought honor and distinction, but some others nobly 
 
ARMENIAN CATHOLICOS IN CHURCH UNIFORM. 
 
. AND THE ARMENIANS. 147 
 
 suffered privation, prosecution, exile, and martyrdom with 
 their flock. 
 
 The Papal missionaries, under the order of the Unitors 
 who had insidiously sown the seeds of dissension in the Ar- 
 menian Church, took advantage of every calamity that befell 
 the people, and afterwards being- also augmented by the 
 Jesuits and their sagacity, until they converted this dissension 
 into a volcanic eruption about the beginning of the last cen- 
 tury. Consequently thousands of the Armenians avowed their 
 allegiance in spiritual matters to the Pope of Rome. 
 
 The Mohammedan conquerors always dealt with their 
 Christian subjects with the utmost contempt, unmodified in- 
 justice, unabated cruelty, and relentless persecution. Un- 
 doubtedly did many of the people delude themselves with the 
 idea that by uniting with the Romish Church they would enjoy 
 protection through the influence of Romish France, then more 
 influential in the East, for it is quite improbable that they 
 could believe that the Romish Church was any better in sim- 
 plicity and purity than the old Armenian Church. 
 
 The superiority of the educational institutions of the Jesu- 
 its to that of the Armenians was also an inducement then for 
 some of the youths to flock into their schools. The monastery, 
 founded by Makhitar, of Sebastia (now Sivas), about the 
 beginning of the last century in St. Lazarus' Island, in Italy^ 
 and the literary pursuits of the Mekhetarits, who edited many 
 old Armenian writings and translated from the Latin writers, 
 always tinted with the Papal views, rendered great service 
 to the Romish Church. Many a sad event is connected with 
 this Papal movement which our space will not allow us to nar- 
 rate; but suffice it to say that this movement resulted in the 
 separation of about one hundred thousand Armenians from the 
 Armenian Church (this separation took place in 1830), and it 
 has now a standstill condition. 
 
 The following is from a French writer, Mr. A. Ubicini, 
 who speaks of these sad events in detail: "Fortunately for 
 the Catholics they found a powerful protector in De Feriol, 
 
148 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA . 
 
 the French ambassador, who obtained an order from the Porte, 
 in 1783 for the deposition and banishment of the (Armenian) 
 patriarch, Avedik. Exiled to Chios, he was clandestinely car- 
 ried off during the passage, and conducted, some say, to Mes- 
 sina, others to Marseilles, and thence to the Island of St. Mar- 
 guerite, where he died of martyrdom. There were strong 
 grounds for suspecting the Jesuits established in Chios and 
 at Galata of having contrived this plot in concert with the 
 French ambassador."* 
 
 Often heard are such expressions as ''Armenian Catholic 
 Church," and many people think it simply a "branch" of the 
 Great Eastern or Greek Church. 
 
 It would be just as sensible to consider the Greek a 
 branch of the Armenian Church. Each of them represents 
 a form of Church organization and body of doctrine which 
 best satisfied the representatives of certain races or nations. 
 The advantage of the Greek was that that race — or at least 
 its speech and thought — happened to be dominant in the 
 Roman Empire at the time Christianity won the battle, 
 and so had the official backing of the Empire, and was able 
 to outgrow and crush down the others. It was not any truer, 
 any more the real church of Christ, than the Syrian or 
 African, or Armenian. It was not the earliest, for the very 
 first Christian Churches sprang from the Jews. It was not 
 even the earliest great national church body, for the Arme- 
 nian Church has that distinction. 
 
 The foundation of the Armenian Church by St. Gregory 
 and Tiridates. That church has its own head- — -the Catholicos 
 or Pontiff, who is no more a subordinate of either the Pope 
 or the Greek Patriarch than the Grand Llama is or Dr. Park- 
 hurst — and its own self-subsistent being. 
 
 As to the differences between them, in the first place the 
 Armenian is a purely Trinitarian. There is no room for Uni- 
 tarianism within its lines. 
 
 * " Letters on Turkey," volume ii., pages 250-7. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 149 
 
 When Gregory the Illuminator was preaching his ser- 
 mons on the hills and plains of Armenia, he laid the founda- 
 tion of the national church in the Trinity. His first sermon 
 was on the Trinity, and his last sermon was on the Trinity, — 
 in all his sermons he asserted the Trinity — the Father, the Son, 
 and Holy Ghost; Jesus Christ being a perfect man and perfect 
 God; in His person we see God in man and man in God; a 
 perfect Emmanuel; God with us. We see in him that man 
 can be united with God. The only possible way of salvation 
 is through Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour of the world and 
 none else, and whosoever believeth in Him shall be saved. 
 This is the behef and the only belief of the Armenian Church. 
 Its members repeat the Apostolic Creed and the Lord's Prayer 
 every day in their church. 
 
 Secondly, the Armenian has never been a persecuting 
 church, and every other one of the great Christian churches 
 has been. The Armenian Church, as befits the first and most 
 Christlike of all the bodies that professed Christ before Lu- 
 ther's time, has always been the broadest, the most inclusive, 
 the most untechnical of churches. It fellowships with all 
 other churches. It demands only that men shall profess and 
 believe in its own church body. Its canons are conversion 
 and regeneration, purity, holiness, being born again from the 
 Holy Spirit and becoming Christlike. It holds that Chris- 
 tianity is brotherhood through Jesus Christ, and gives no 
 warrant for oppression or persecution, curses or anathemas. 
 But other churches hold that no one can be saved outside of 
 their own churches (the Greek and Catholic churches). The 
 Armenian Church has been repeatedly persecuted by both, 
 and has always protested against the principle of it, as well 
 as against the pretensions of the Popes to universal sway. 
 
 The next: That the Armenian contention is for free- 
 dom of will, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, and 
 political freedom, is the cause of their being hated both by the 
 Mohammedans and by their so-called Christian neighbors. 
 The next one: As. to theological questions the Arme- 
 
150 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 nian Church fathers did not pay much attention to them. Not 
 because they were not able, because they were too able, and 
 very far-sighted. They knew well that such questions can 
 never be solved, no matter how many centuries pass away, 
 no matter how great scholars the world produces; therefore 
 they would not enter into the debate. And so every Arme- 
 nian scholar has his own theology. 
 
 The Armenian Church has not a theology or any special 
 official doctrine; and this is a very fortunate thing for the Ar- 
 menians. They care more for righteousness of life than for 
 particular beliefs about the way of getting it. 
 
 When there was a great controversy in the Council of 
 Chalcedon, 451 A. D., about the nature of Christ, Armenians 
 did not care about it. Some of the great theologians said 
 Christ had two natures; some said he had only one nature; 
 the Armenian bishops would not give any opinion. They be- 
 lieve in Christ as their Saviour, that is the essential thing; but 
 whether He has two natures or one nature is not essential. 
 Then came the controversy about the Holy Spirit. Whence 
 does the Holy Spirit proceed? Some say from the Father and 
 the Son, some simply from the Father. When the question 
 came before the Armenian bishops they replied that they did 
 not care whence he proceeded. They knew that they needed 
 the Holy Spirit for guidance in spiritual life, for regeneration ; 
 they knew that the Holy Spirit was one of the persons in the 
 Trinity; and that was enough for them. 
 
 The Armenian Church claims to be apostolic in its origin. 
 Christianity being introduced into Armenia by the Apostles, 
 and having survived the persecutions of heathenism during 
 the first three centuries, finally subdued the entire nation 
 about the end of the third century. 
 
 St. Gregory the Illuminator was sent to Csesarea, Cappa- 
 docia, to be ordained Bishop of Armenia, A.D. 302. This cus- 
 tom of the ordination of the bishops of Armenia at Csesarea 
 lasted until the patriarchate of Nerses the Great (A. D. 363), 
 one of the noblest and holiest bishops of the Armenian 
 Church. 
 
^ ^ fan (^ ^ M A ^ A 
 
 jV ,v y .y V .v.x:v<.yi 
 
 i. hi 
 
 ^^k,iM^-jtk^ 
 
 )i 
 
 
 INTERIOR OF ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
H' ^«.- ~„ 
 
 V 
 
 '^-^^^-^ ^:%0 M.^S^ ^-^^^ ., 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES, SACRED VESSELS AND ORNAMENTS USED IN 
 ARMENIAN CHURCHES. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I5I 
 
 During the period of his patriarchate the clergy and the 
 laity of the nation unanimously agreed to have their bishops 
 ordained in Armenia by the Armenian bishops. It is evident, 
 therefore, from the fact that there is no higher rank or order 
 than that of a bishop or presbyter, which names are inter- 
 changeably used in the New Testament, as Vartabed (teacher), 
 M. Muradian, of Jerusalem, correctly states in his recent ''His- 
 tory of the Apostolic Church of Armenia.''* Here it may be 
 also interesting to add as a fact of history that St. Gregory 
 and his immediate successors, his sons and grandsons, and 
 for a length of several centuries, the bishops were married 
 and the heads of families. Celibacy was not required of them, 
 neither separation, but it was optional with them to choose 
 either, or none. 
 
 "The election of the bishops, like that of all the Arme- 
 nian clergy, takes place by universal suffrage;" the ordination, 
 at Etchmiadzin, Akhtamar, or at Sis in Cilicia by the presid- 
 ing bishop or Catholicos and his associates. 
 
 The priests or elders (yeretz) are chosen by the people 
 from among themselves, who are expected to have a toler- 
 able knowledge of the Bible and the liturp-v of the church — 
 some in former days knew very little of theirs — and are '^'*- 
 dained by the bishops. The priests live with their families 
 among the people and are occupied with their daily duties 
 in the church services morning and evening; they perform 
 also baptism for the infants, and marrying and burying the 
 young and old. 
 
 "The Armenian clergy receive no stipends, and exact no 
 contributions like those of the Greek Church: their reve- 
 nues depend entirely on the voluntary contributions of the 
 faithful. It is therefore rare to meet with a wealthy priest, 
 though some few are in easy circumstances. "f 
 
 With respect to morals also, though it is difficult to pro- 
 nounce absolutely on the subject, the Armenian clergy appear 
 
 * See page 35 in the original. 
 
 t " Letters on Turkey," Vol. ii., pp. 285-286. 
 
152 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 to be very superior to the Greek. The deacons are elected 
 and ordained like the priest, and have no income whatever; 
 they serve the church and assist the priests in the daily ser- 
 vices of the church. 
 
 There is another class of clergy of the Armenian Church. 
 Those forming this class are called Vartabeds, or doctors 
 in theology. It is very probable that the very necessity of the 
 case created this order. In the former days, after the conver- 
 sion of the Armenian nation to Christianity, most of the lit- 
 erary men were of the clergy, and the monasteries became 
 the seat of learning, and those who loved a literary life would 
 retire to those places and pursue such a course. Asceticism 
 of the East also must have played a good part in it. 
 
 They at first, most likely, voluntarily preferred celibacy, 
 in order to devote their whole time to learning and teaching, 
 and were ordained evangelists, to visit the churches and to 
 preach the Gospel to the people, who were so often perse- 
 cuted and oppressed by their enemies. But what was with 
 them optional has become now a condition, for that order. 
 Though ''the Vartabeds form the most enlightened and 
 learned portion of the Armenian clergy," and from them are 
 the bishops elected and ordained, but unfortunately "they are 
 restricted to celibacy." 
 
 The Armenian Church differs from that of Rome on the 
 following points : 
 
 (I.) It denies the supremacy of the bishop of Rome. 
 
 (II.) It rejects the authority of the Council of Chalcedon 
 as ecumenic. 
 
 (III.) It rejects the introduction of filioque into the creed, 
 but admits that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. 
 
 (IV.) It rejects the Romish doctrine of purgatory. 
 
 (V.) It rejects also indulgence. 
 
 (VI.) It does not withhold the Bible from the people, but 
 encourages them to read it. 
 
 The orthodoxy of the Armenian Church would not. have 
 been questioned by some of the Western writers had they 
 
l,,x**% 
 
 „„-":""" _ ' ''' ' '"^ ^ s&'^&'T^rff^ 
 
 A RETIRED ARMENIAN" BISHOP. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 153 
 
 drawn their information from the native authors, instead of 
 drawing them from some later Greek and Latin writers. The 
 following is a translation from a recent Armenian work, en- 
 titled, "The History of the Holy Apostolic Church of Arme- 
 nia." The author is Vartabed M. Muradian, of St. James' 
 Monastery at Jerusalem. It is sweet and comforting to dis- 
 course of the revealed truths of the Bible, which is the only 
 foundation of undefiled doctrine, to which always have the 
 Holy Church fathers trusted for the defense of faith. 
 
 "The Bible teaches concerning God two things: First, 
 that God is one and there is no other God beside Him. 
 Second, that divine nature is common to the Father, to the 
 Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and these three persons have one 
 Godhead. This is the faith of the Christians in harmony 
 with the manifest word of the Bible. This trinity is the foun- 
 dation of the Christian faith, and the three persons have one 
 influence for our salvation, but in different ways of manifest- 
 ing it; that is, the Father calls and causes us to approach His 
 Son, whom be begat from eternity and prepared His coming. 
 The Son came from heaven and was united with human 
 nature that he might save us from sin and give eternal life 
 to our souls. The Holy Spirit is our regenerator, who re- 
 established in us the likeness of God, making us receptive of 
 the salvation offered of God. 
 
 "The Bible teaches that Christ, on account of His eternal 
 generation from the Father, is called the Son of God, but for 
 His incarnation in time, the Son of Man, brother of men, 
 through whom we obtained the right to call God our Father, 
 and for this reason the Church confesses in the personality 
 of Christ two natures, divine and human, distinct and insep- 
 arable in their union. This mystery of incarnation is the 
 great mystery of God's love for the world; and as much as 
 this is incomprehensible and inconceivable by human intelli- 
 gence, so much is it natural with divine love and omnipo- 
 tent nature. In this great mystery was the salvation of man- 
 kind; for this the entire humanity waited, and therefore the 
 
1^4 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 law and the prophets in this mystery of incarnation were 
 fulfilled. Because Christ, as the true Messiah, performed 
 prophetic, priestly and kingly offices, and became for us 
 true prophet, true priest and true King; teaching the doctrine 
 of redemption, elucidating the past, the present, and the fu- 
 ture of mankind, forgiving and reigning over us with a 
 heavenly and spiritual kingdom. 
 
 "The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit proceeds and 
 flows from the Father, not as a common influence of God, but 
 as a person of the Holy Trinity, infinite, eternal, a true God. 
 But with respect to us, the Holy Spirit is the source of union 
 of God to Man; the seal by which we are known as Chris- 
 tians; because without the Holy Spirit's dwelling in us. His 
 help and guidance, we are only alive, for the Holy Spirit is 
 co-worker with the Father and the Son for our salvation; and 
 as the manifestation of God through Christ, to the world, is 
 called redemption, so also the revelation of God through the 
 Holy Spirit is denominated regeneration and sanctification. 
 
 "At this present day there is not a book like the Bible 
 from which the intellectual world has been able to derive 
 so much good for the real well being and progress of human 
 society. There is not a book, and cannot be, that is trans- 
 lated into so many languages and is distributed so exten- 
 sively as the Bible. Our immortal translators felt this great 
 want, and they began the first step of the nation's enlighten- 
 ment and progress by the translation and study of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and this translation is so choice, with various 
 praises bestowed upon it by the European scholars of the 
 present century, who know the Armenian language, it is 
 called the Queen of Versions. But we will be giving a still 
 greater praise to our forefathers if we generalize the study of 
 the Holy Scriptures among our people and rear the edifice of 
 education upon that solid foundation of the Word of God."* 
 
 By no means should the reader think that the writer is 
 
 * " History of the Holy Apostolic Church of Armenia,," pp. 171-121, 137-8. 
 
vir: 
 
 tt- 
 
 AN ARMENIAN PRIEST IN CHURCH UNIFORM. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I55 
 
 partial in not telling something of the superstitions, formal- 
 ism and ignorance still in existence and practice among the 
 Armenians and in their church. It has often been written 
 and spoken, even with a great lack both of knowledge and 
 charity. Had those writers on these subjects of the Armenian 
 Church and people remembered that for almost fifteen centu- 
 ries this church has been in constant conflict with Paganism, 
 Zoroastrianism, Mohammedanism, and the evil influences of 
 the corrupt Greek and Roman Churches, they would not 
 have been so severe in their denunciations of that old relic of 
 the ancient Christian Church. 
 
 Often were the bishops and priests in the battlefield with 
 their flocks against the enemy of the Church. Often were they 
 in chains, in imprisonment, in hostage, at the Pagan, Mo- 
 hammedan, and so called Christian courts; often were they 
 carried away into captivity and massacred by their captors. 
 How could they give more attention than they did give to 
 the education and enlightenment of their people, 
 and to the purity of the Church? Even to-day the best 
 intellects of the Armenian clergy, the lovers of the reform and 
 purity of the Church and people, are in either exile or 
 bondage by the Russian, Persian, and Ottoman Empires. 
 These circumstances certainly will not justify the condition 
 of the Armenian Church, but they ought to modify the se- 
 verity of our judgment and fill us with a deeper sympathy, 
 with a truer Christian love and activity for its reform, purity, 
 and spiritual prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MISSIONARY WORK AMONG THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY AND 
 
 ITS RESULTS. 
 
 When the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in 
 the United States were united for the work of evangeHzing the 
 world, one of the first things they did was to send Revs. Pliny 
 Fisk, Levi Parsons, W. Goodell and Bird, that they may spread 
 the Gospel throughout Turkey and reform the Christian people 
 who were sitting in darkness. This was between 1819 and 
 1823. 
 
 These missionaries were landed and stationed at Beyrouth, 
 Syria, for the purpose of evangelizing the Armenians in that 
 city. In March and April, 1821, two of them went to Jerusa- 
 lem, that they may preach the Gospel to the large multitude of 
 Armenian pilgrims who flocked there at that time on account 
 of their Easter. 
 
 Rev. Levi Parsons, one of the missionaries who went to 
 Jerusalem, was an amiable, gentle, and sweet-natured man, and 
 soon won the confidence and love of all who met him, especially 
 of the notables in the Armenian church at Jerusalem. These 
 men, after they found out Mr. Parsons' mission to Jerusalem, 
 did not only consent to have the work of reformation begun in 
 Jerusalem, but they also asked him to go to Constantinople, 
 confer with the priests and notables of the church there, and 
 begin the work of reformation. 
 
 This proposition Mr. Parsons gladly wrote to the mission- 
 aries in Beyrouth. But owing to their unfamiliarity with the 
 Armenian language. Revs. Goodell and Bird thought it would 
 be best not to start any mission in Jerusalem for the time being. 
 They thought it would be expedient for them to undertake the 
 
AN ARMENIAN MONK. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I57 
 
 work only after the translation of the Bible in the Turkish lan- 
 guage. But in the Providence of God a way was being pre- 
 pared for them. For Bishop Dyonisius and Krikor Vartabed 
 — the latter an Armenian bishop — being enlightened by the 
 Gospel light, rendered the missionaries invaluable help to trans- 
 late the Bible, both in Armeno-Turkish and Armenian vernacu- 
 lar. With the untiring efforts of these two prelates the Bible 
 was printed in the vernacular, and was spread by them, in com- 
 pany with one of the missionaries, far and wide in Asia Minor. 
 They v^ent almost everywhere, and gave away Bibles. They 
 came to my native town, which fact I, as a child, remember very 
 distinctly. 
 
 At the close of this missionary tour, in 1826, Rev. W. 
 Goodell, in company with two young Armenians, went to the 
 island of Malta for the purpose of printing the Bible in the 
 popular Armenian. They were there four years, and on their 
 return the missionaries decided to make Constantinople a mis- 
 sion station, that they may start the work of reformation over 
 there. In 1831 and '32 the American Board sent Revs. Elias 
 Riggs, Dwight, Bliss and Cyrus Hamlin to work with Rev. W. 
 Goodell. The first thing the missionaries did in Constanti- 
 nople was to establish a school, educate the youth, print and 
 publish Bibles and portions of Scriptures and religious tracts, 
 thus to spread religious knowledge and enlightenment among 
 the Armenians. To this some ignorant people opposed. But 
 the chief men and especially the Armenian patriarchs were in 
 hearty sympathy with the missionaries in regard to the reforma- 
 tion of their national church and the enlightenment of their 
 youth. 
 
 But right here the Missionaries had another opposition. 
 The Jesuit propagandists, who were in Constantinople to con- 
 vert Armenians to Roman Catholicism, were jealous of the 
 missionaries, and did all they could to frustrate all their labors 
 in the way of evangelization. 
 
 In 1836 the Roman Catholic and Greek patriarchs tried 
 very hard to influence the Armenian patriarch against the mis- 
 
158 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 sionaries. Iri this they were successful. They now set to work 
 and enticed the Armenians away from the missionaries and 
 everything that savored of Protestantism. The resuh was that 
 the Armenian patriarch changed his friendly attitude toward 
 the missionaries, convened a general ecclesiastical meeting, 
 sent an encyclical to all the Armenian churches throughout the 
 Turkish empire, forbidding every Armenian from having any- 
 thing to do with the missionaries, with the Protestant Bibles 
 and with the Protestant views. Anybody who opposed or dis- 
 obeyed, any one who did not burn his Bible would be under 
 the ban and anathema of the church. But in the wonderful 
 providence of God thousands of the Bibles had already found 
 entrance to many an Armenian family. 
 
 The result of this official opposition by the church was the 
 general persecution of Protestant brethren and missionaries by 
 the common people and the burning of thousands of volumes 
 of the Scriptures. I myself was beaten and imprisoned 
 three times. I had to keep my Testament in my pocket 
 for three months, could not read it openly, but had to look for 
 secluded places to read the words of life. 
 
 This general and wide-spread persecution resulted in an 
 endless commotion. Everybody discussed the question. In 
 every house, street-corner and meeting-house the general topic 
 of discussion was the annihilation of Protestantism from Tur- 
 key. Although the missionaries and the brethren were very 
 patient in persecution and persevering in the good work they 
 had undertaken, time came when they could no more endure 
 the persecution. This was on July i, 1846 — the persecution 
 had lasted ten years, when the first evangelical Armenian 
 church was organized in Constantinople. This was also the 
 first Protestant church in Turkey. 
 
 From 1846 to '55 the new evangelical church was under 
 the anathema of the Armenian national church. As a result of 
 this ban all sorts of intercourse, intermarriage and trade with 
 the Protestants were prohibited to the Gregorian Armenians. 
 The brethren, a large part of whom belonged to the poorer 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 1 59 
 
 class, were often unable to earn their daily bread, for no Grego- 
 rian would hire a Protestant. Thus destitution, deprivation, 
 ostracism and constant persecution were the natural outcome 
 of the establishment of this new church. 
 
 It was right at this time that the wonderful Providence of 
 God intervened in behalf of the brethren. In 1853 Crimean 
 war broke out between Russia and Turkey, and naturally the 
 brethren were the greatest sufferers among the rest of the 
 people. But Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, with his natural ingenuity, 
 generosity and capability, established flour mills to furnish 
 loaves of bread to the Turkish army. This he did under a con- 
 tract with the Turkish government. In his mills he employed 
 as many Protestants as he could, and so almost all of them 
 were able to support themselves for three years. The earnings 
 of the mills were so great that Dr. Hamlin was able to build 
 several churches and lay aside some amount of money for a 
 further emergency. At the close of the Russo-Turkish war in 
 1856 a treaty was signed in Paris, according to which religious 
 freedom was granted to all the Protestants and evangelical 
 churches throughout Turkev. This was one of the numerous 
 achievements of Rev. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, whose name is so dear 
 to every Armenian heart. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, vou have seen by the foregoing- 
 brief description how the missionaries and the early brethren 
 were persecuted and subjected to great sufferings. But when 
 they saw the result of their labors thev were exceedingly glad 
 and forgot what they had suffered and gave thanks to the Lord 
 of the Vineyard. 
 
 And now I want to call your attention to the outcome of 
 the missionary labors and the work of evangelization during 
 the past 51 years. 
 
 I. Educationally Turkey has advanced wonderfully. 
 
 Fifty or sixty years ago there was no school among the 
 Armenians in Turkey, save a few monasteries and the websters' 
 and dyers' shops, where but few boys could find their way to 
 obtain a very meagre knowledge in reading and writing. As 
 
l6o ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 to the girls, there was not a place of education to be found for 
 them, and so they were absolutely destitute of even the first 
 rudiments of learning. But the missionaries' labors of the 
 past fifty-one years have borne their abundant fruit. To-day 
 we have 485 common schools for boys and girls among our Pro- 
 testant brethren. Five hundred young men and women are 
 teaching in these schools. The number of boys and girls in 
 these schools is over 15,000. We have 23 boarding high 
 schools for boys and seventeen for girls. We have four col- 
 leges for boys, in Constantinople, Aintab, Marsovan and Har- 
 poot, in which educational institutions our young men are 
 receiving the same same degree of education as young men in 
 this country do in the American colleges. 
 
 We have four theological seminaries, which supply preach- 
 ers and pastors for our churches. In all these educational in- 
 stitutions we have some 19,000 — ^20,000 scholars in all. 
 
 To-day 80 per cent, of all evangelical brethren are able to 
 read and write, and owing to the establishment of kindergar- 
 tens, I have no doubt the rate of literacy will be 90 per cent, 
 before long. 
 
 The annual contribution of the brethren for the work of 
 evangelization is $15,000, which amount, being added to the 
 allowance of the American Board, goes to help to enlighten 
 and evangelize Armenians throughout Turkey. All these 
 things, besides leaving their good impression and effect upon 
 the other Christian churches, have also left a wholesome influ- 
 ence over the Turkish part of the population. The result was 
 that in all the hamlets, villages, towns and cities throughout 
 Turkey schools were established for children of both sexes, 
 which spread light and knowledge everywhere. Thus you see 
 Protestants besides owning these schools became the pioneers 
 of education to their neighbors. Here we want to thank all 
 the missionaries for their untiring labors in this respect and the 
 Christian friends in this country who sent these missionaries. 
 
 2. A wonderful religious reformation is another outcome 
 of missionary labors. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. l6l 
 
 Six years before the first evangelical church was estab- 
 lished in Constantinople a theological seminary was estabHshed 
 in Bebek, Constantinople, where twenty Armenian young men 
 were educated for preaching. These young men were sent to 
 different parts of Turkey after the establishment of the first 
 church. In the year 1846 evangelical churches were established 
 in Nicomedia, Adabazar and Trebizond. The persecutions 
 were renewed. But the more the persecutions were strength- 
 ened the better the brethren were re-enforced and the more 
 zealously they worked to spread the light of the Gospel. The 
 number of the missionaries was augmented from time to time. 
 They were stationed in the chief cities in the country. And 
 now evangelical churches were being rapidly organized. Be- 
 sides the cities I have already mentioned Erzeroum, Bitlis, Diar- 
 bekr, Harpoot, Marsovan, Aintab, Aleppo, Marash, Tarsus, 
 Adana, Kessab, Killis, Antioch and many other cities, town- 
 ships and villages had their evangelical churches. 
 
 In 1856 Abdul Mejid, the Sultan of Turkey, under the 
 influence of the missionaries, issued an imperial edict, called 
 Hatti Humayoun, by which religious freedom was granted to 
 all Protestants. Thus the persecutions began to disappear and 
 everybody was free to follow the way according to the dictation 
 of his own conscience. 
 
 To-day American Board has 157 missionaries in Turkey, 
 which number includes all the married, single, male and female 
 missionaries. These are stationed in fifteen different cities, 
 where they superintend the educational and evangelistic work. 
 There are no organized evangelical churches, with a church 
 membership of 12,000. In these churches there are seventy- 
 four ordained ministers, 730 preachers and 130 assistants. The 
 Gospel is preached at 203 different places to at least 35,000 
 souls every week. 
 
 Twenty-two thousand men, women and children 
 receive religious instruction in Sunday Schools every Sabbath. 
 The total number of Protestants throughout Turkey is 45,000. 
 Their annual contribution for the preaching of the Gospel is 
 
l62 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 $48,ooo-$5o,ooo, which is one-third of the sum the Board spends 
 in Turkey. We have about thirty self-supporting churches, 
 among which the churches at Aintab, Marash, Uorfa, Harpoot, 
 Cassarea, Marsovan, Adana, Tarsus and Kessab are note- 
 worthy. We have many devoted, faithful and diligent native 
 Christian workers. 
 
 Christian ladies and gentlemen, all the labor you have 
 undertaken, all the money you have spent, all the time you 
 have devoted and all the prayers you have offered at the throne 
 of grace have not been in vain, but they have had their abundant 
 fruit. You gave thousands and thousands of your dollars and 
 sent your missionaries to Turkey. Great many of them have 
 died on the field of labor, and caused you to mourn their loss. 
 But over against these all you have had an abundant harvest, 
 for which you have our unending thanks. 
 
 3. The institution of Young Men's Christian Associations 
 has been beneficial to our churches in every way. Fifteen or 
 twenty years ago our churches did not know anything about 
 the organized labor of young Christians. But this important 
 phase of Christian work has been introduced from this land to 
 ours, and has created a new enthusiasm and activity in the 
 church. 
 
 During the eleven years of my ministry from 1869 to 1880 
 the thought of how to lead young men to Christ greatly occu- 
 pied my mind. As a result of my thoughts I used to bring 
 together 30 or 40 of the young men in my church for prayer 
 and conference, which proved to be a great help in the spiritual 
 growth of those young men. As a result of these Christian 
 labors in Marash we had a glorious spiritual awakening, which 
 added thirty-seven young men to the membership of the church, 
 I never knew at the time of the existance of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association in this country, nor did any other 
 preacher in Turkey. 
 
 Our beloved missionary, Rev. G. F. Montgomery, trans- 
 lated Into our language an article on the work of Young 
 Men's Christian Associations in America. This he showed me, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 1 63 
 
 which widened my knowledge and importance of the work. I 
 brought the matter before my church in Marash, and fully ex- 
 plained to them the organization and the work of Young Men's 
 Christian Associations. They took to the idea verv favorably 
 and we immediately formed an association composed of twenty 
 members. This was in 1876. From that day to this many 
 similar associations have been organized throughout our 
 churches in Turkey, in cities, townships and villages. 
 
 The following are some of the lines of activity in which 
 the members of these associations have proven themselves use- 
 ful to the community among which they live, (i) Visitation 
 of the sick. There are almost no hospitals in Turkey, and so all 
 the poor patients of a parish are left entirely upon the care of 
 such young men and such benevolent organizations. In this 
 way the young men of the church have rendered invaluable 
 service to the church, by visitine and comforting and providing 
 medicine and food for poor sick people. (2) Visitation and 
 helping of the poor. (3) Finding out the careless and cold 
 and backslidden members of the church and bringing into the 
 church people who would not otherwise go to church. (4) 
 Home missionary work. These young men have sent teachers 
 and preachers to many villages within their county, and in many 
 cases, where the villages were near the cities, they have them- 
 selves visited and preached the words of life to the spirituallv 
 needy souls. (5) Every kind of humanitarian and Christian 
 activity has been faithfully and efficiently performed by these 
 young men. All these good works are the result of the devoted 
 labors of these organizations of young men, who are the spirit- 
 ual children of the missionaries you sent to us. 
 
 4. The American missionaries have further helped in 
 the progress of the Armenians in that they have translated and 
 published the Bible and many religious tracts. That the pub- 
 lishing of the Word of God in the vernacular is the chief means 
 of the uplifting of a people Is well known to you. 
 
 When the missionaries first came to Turkey the first thing 
 they noticed in regard to the Armenian church was that the 
 
164 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 language of the Bible and all the ceremonies in the church was 
 wholly different from the language of the common people. 
 Consequently the people were left in utter darkness in regard 
 to their religious and Christian duties. Besides the language 
 of the church being wholly unintelHgible to the average people, 
 they did not possess the Bible or its portions, and even if one 
 was fortunate enough to possess one, he was strictly forbidden 
 by the priests to read it. The result was a general spiritual 
 darkness. 
 
 As I have mentioned before, Rev. W. Goodell had the Bible 
 published in the vernacular as early as 1826. But there was 
 soon felt a necessity of a revised edition of the Bible. In this 
 the British and American Bible Societies rallied to the assist- 
 ance of the missionaries. Their labors have put the Bible 
 within the reach of even the poorest. These societies, that 
 have published the Word of God in more than 300 different 
 languages, have also translated and published It in thirteen 
 different languages now spoken in Turkey. These languages 
 are : Common Armenian, Armeno-Turkish (Turkish language 
 in Armenian characters), Armeno-Kurdish (Kurdish language 
 in Armenian characters), Arabo-Turkish (Turkish language In 
 Arabic characters, Persian, spoken Chaldee, modest Greek, 
 Greco-Turkish (Turkish language in Greek characters) and 
 Bulgarian. Although these have greatly helped all the differ- 
 ent nationalities In the Turkish empire, but the Armenians have 
 been immeasurably helped and benefited. The fruitage of the 
 missionary labors among the Armenians Is the most conspicu- 
 ous among the rest. Although the Armenian church at first 
 opposed the new translation of the Bible and burned hundreds 
 and thousands of copies, still finally the Word found its way 
 Into almost every Armenian home and has since done its won- 
 derful work In the hearts of men, for It Is written, "The law of 
 the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." "Thy word is a lamp 
 unto my feet and a light unto my path." "Is not my word like 
 as a fire? salth the Lord; and like unto a hammer that breaketh 
 the rock in pieces?" "The gospel of Christ is the power of 
 God unto salvation to every one that belleveth." 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 165 
 
 A few anecdotes in connection with the first spread of 
 the Gospel in Turkey are in order. I can say about myself that 
 I was converted by the reading of the Bible. 
 
 In 1852, when I was seventeen years old, some strangers 
 came to my native city of Alboostan. After stopping at an 
 inn for a few days they left the city, but left behind in their 
 room four copies of the Gospel. The inn belonged to a cousin 
 of mine, so he presented one of them to me. I read this 
 book stealthily and always kept it in my pocket, for fear I 
 would be persecuted for reading it, and besides had I read it 
 in public it might have been taken from me and thrown into 
 the fire. For two years I kept reading my Gospel, which 
 worked its inevitable result upon my heart. I was convicted 
 of my sinfulness, repented of my sins and found forgiveness 
 to my sins and peace to my disturbed soul. Thus the Bible 
 is the only means of my conversion and the subsequent hap- 
 piness and blessings of my life. 
 
 In 1869 I graduated from Marash Theological Seminary. 
 In 1870 I was sent by Mr. Powers, the missionary at Antioch, 
 to preach the Gospel at Beilan. I moved there with my family. 
 No Protestant preacher had gone there before and there 
 was not a single Protestant in the city. I labored there seven 
 months. First two months of my residence there people 
 would not speak to me, nor have anything to do with me. I 
 used to take the Bible in hand and go to cofifee-houses and 
 even to liquor saloons to see if I could find anybody to talk 
 with on spiritual matters, but was unsuccessful. Finally, one 
 day when I was going on the streets, a venerable old man, by 
 the name of Tiros Agha, called out to me by my name to his 
 store and said to me he would be glad if I called at his house 
 once in a while. Upon inquiry^I found out the old gentleman 
 possessed a copy of the Gospel, several copies of religious 
 works and a copy of Young's Nights. He told me that many 
 people came to his house almost every night and that if I 
 called at his house sometimes and explained the truth to them 
 he would be greatly obliged. This was what I was anxiously 
 
l66 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 looking for, and beginning with that day I kept going to his 
 house and expounding the word for three or four hours to a 
 very attentive and inquiring gathering. For five months I 
 continued this Bible Class work in that dear old man's house. 
 He himself, already a good man, was wholly converted, and 
 through him many people accepted Jesus Christ as their Sa- 
 viour, until at the present time Beilan has an evangelical church 
 with about 300 members. Thus I have seen the power of the 
 Gospel upon myself and upon many others like myself. We 
 Protestant Armenians never forget the unselfish and untiring 
 devotion of Father Goodell in his great work of translating 
 and publishing the Bible in our spoken language, who, like 
 John in the Isle of Patmos, was confined on the island of Malta 
 for three years and later ten years in Constantinople that he 
 might bring the word of truth within the reach of all. His edi- 
 tion and translation of the Bible is held with great reverence 
 in many an Armenian home, and I am proud to own a copy 
 for my home use. Besides the thousands and thousands of 
 copies of the Scriptures, 8,000,000 pages of rehgious tracts in 
 twelve different languages are being yearly published by the 
 missionaries. And so in the foregoing lines of Christian ac- 
 tivity the work of the American missionaries has been very 
 important for the Armenian nation. 
 
 BY JUDSON SMITH, D. D., 
 
 Secretary of the American Board. 
 
 The first notice of an intended mission within the limits 
 of the Turkish Empire appears in the Annual Report of the 
 Board for 1819, nine years after the Board was organized. 
 Missionaries of the Board were already at work in India and 
 among the aboriginal tribes of America, and a mission to the 
 Sandwich Islands was under contemplation. In this report 
 the committee dwell upon the reasons for a special interest 
 on the part of the Christian people in the re-establishment of 
 pure Christianity in the historic regions honored by the earthly 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 167 
 
 life of our Lord and traversed by his first disciples. Palestine 
 was the region specially in mind, but the committee recognized 
 the fact that the occupancy of a much wider field was included 
 in the beginning of missionary work in Jerusalem, and the 
 writer of this first report referred to "Smyrna, the provinces of 
 Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia and Persia, Mohammedan 
 countries, in which, though there are many Jews and Christians, 
 there is still a deplorable lack of Christian knowledge and of 
 Christian life." Before this year had ended, the Rev. Levi 
 Parsons and the Rev. PHny Fisk were set apart to establish 
 a mission at Jerusalem, and in the following year entered upon 
 their labors, touching at Malta and taking up their residence 
 at Smyrna for a time before they reached their destined field. 
 From these labors, by a process of natural development, mis- 
 sionary work at first intended for Palestine, afterward set up in 
 the Island of Malta and in Athens, came to take a firm and 
 lasting hold upon the Turkish Empire. 
 
 In 183 1 work was opened at Constantinople by Dr. Good- 
 ell, reenforced by Dr.Dwight in the following year, and thence 
 gradually it was extended to Smyrna, Brusa, Trebizond, Erzum, 
 Aintab, and so on throughout the entire district of Asiatic Turkey. 
 The aim in the establishment of the original mission in Pales- 
 tine and in these later stages of missionary work in Turkey, 
 had respect to the entire population of the Empire; and this 
 aim has never for a moment been abandoned or lost sight of, 
 and remains to-day an unfulfilled but inspiring purpose. Actual 
 missionary work, however, was restricted by the laws of the 
 Empire to the Christian populations, chiefly the Armenians 
 and the Greeks and to the Jews, and this has been the charac- 
 teristic feature of the work of the Board in the Turkish Empire. 
 An ancient but corrupted form of Christianity it has been 
 sought to purify and bring back to a true acquaintance with 
 the Gospels, a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a life 
 molded in its spirit and aims by the Scriptures and by Him of 
 whom they testify. It was not the intention of the missionaries 
 to establish a separate Protestant community, but to assist, if 
 
1 68 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 possible, in a movement that should result in the reformation 
 of the existing churches. The excommunication of the evan- 
 gelicals from their own church and community by the Arme- 
 nian Patriarch of Constantinople changed their plans and made 
 necessary the organization of Protestant churches and of a 
 Protestant community, which were at once formally recognized 
 by the Turkish Government. This action took place in 1847 
 and introduced a change in the methods of missionary work 
 but not a change of aim. It is a most happy circumstance of 
 these later days, that the reformation of the Gregorian churches 
 which was making such progress prior to the separation has 
 reappeared, that these churches have in many instances come 
 into most friendly relations to the neighboring Protestant 
 churches, the true evangelical spirit has manifested itself with 
 cheering results among the priests and people, and the original 
 hope of the mission has begun to be realized on a wide scale 
 in many parts of the Empire. 
 
 Originally the entire field of Turkey was regarded as one 
 mission with its centre at Constantinople; but the practical 
 difficulties of holding a yearly meeting of the mission at any 
 one point, with other considerations, led to the division of the 
 Empire into the four fields of the present time — the Western 
 Turkey mission, embracing territorially the larger part, includ- 
 ing as its stations Constantinople, Nicomedia, Brusa, Smyrna, 
 Marsovan, Cesarea, Sivas and Trebizond; the Central Turkey 
 mission, lying to the south of the Taurus Mountains, and to 
 the west of the Euphrates Valley, with its two principal stations 
 at Aintab and Marash; the Eastern Turkey mission, including 
 what hes between these two fields and the Russian and Persian 
 borders, having for its stations Erzrum, Harpoot, Mardin, Bitlis 
 and Van; and the mission in European Turkey, of later origin, 
 chiefly among Bulgarians, with its stations at Monastir, Philip- 
 popolis, Samokov and Salonica. From the beginning, work in 
 behalf of the Greek Christians, found in certain parts of the 
 Turkish Empire in considerable numbers, has constituted an 
 integral and very interesting part of the whole enterprise, but 
 has never constituted a distinct mission. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 1 69 
 
 The languages employed in missionary work have been 
 the Armenian, the Greek, the Turkish, the Bulgarian and in 
 certain portions of the Central Turkey mission and of the East- 
 ern Turkey mission the Arabic. The Bible translated into these 
 languages, has been widely distributed, many text-books for 
 school use have been provided, and a somewhat extended vol- 
 ume of Christian literature has been made available for the 
 people by the efforts of the missionaries. The Bible House at 
 Constantinople, one of the great centers of missionary activity 
 and a right arm of the missionary work, sends out through all the 
 Empire annually many millions of pages of the Scriptures and 
 of other literature for the instruction and edification of the 
 Christian people, as well as text-books for the mission schools. 
 The direct Christian work in these missions in Turkey has 
 been most energetic, widespread and effectual, and many self- 
 supporting, evangelical churches are found in the great centers 
 in each of the missions. Education has been a marked feature 
 of the work in these missions almost from the beginning, and 
 nowhere else in the fields occupied by the Board have we to-day 
 so many institutions of a high grade, so fully attended. Ana- 
 tolia College at Marsovan, Central Turkey College at Aintab, 
 and the Institute of Samokov, for men alone, the American 
 College for girls at Scutari, and the Central Turkey Female 
 College at Marash, for women alone, and Euphrates College 
 at Harpoot, for both men and women, are all institutions doing 
 a work of true college grade adjusted to the special conditions 
 found in the Turkish Empire. Robert College on the Bospo- 
 rus, though entirely independent of the missions, is a striking 
 result of missionary labors and strongly re-enforces missionar}^ 
 influence. These colleges are re-enforced by twenty-six high 
 schools for boys, nineteen boarding schools for girls, all thor- 
 oughly manned and attended by about 2,000 students, and 
 by 350 common schools, with more than 16,000 pupils. At the 
 head of all stand the five theological schools, in which men 
 are trained directly for the native pastorate. It will suggest 
 the breadth and fruitfulness of the work if attention is called 
 
170 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 to the 125 churches now in these missions, with 12,787 mem- 
 bers with 100 native pastors, 128 other preachers and a total 
 force of native laborers numbering 778. It is furth^^r evidence 
 of the quality of these churches that last year they contributed 
 for all purposes but little short of $68,000. 
 
 A work having the same origin with these missions, con- 
 ducted by the Board for many years, achieving a like success, 
 and now in the care of the Presbyterian Board of New York, 
 is in progress in Syria, having its great educational center at 
 Beirut. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of America sus- 
 tains a small but successful medical and educational work at 
 Mersin in Asia Minor. Work in behalf of the Jews in differ- 
 ent parts of the Empire, at first included in the missions of the 
 Board, is now in the care of missionaries from Great Britain; 
 there is also an interesting work supported by the Society of 
 Friends in this countrv^ carried on in different parts of Pales- 
 tine. But, providentially, the great bulk of the missionary 
 work in the Turkish Empire has devolved upon the American 
 Board, and has at length reached nearly every principal city 
 and village in European Turkey and in the territory from the 
 Dardanelles and the Mediterranean eastward to the Russian 
 border, and from the Black Sea southward to Syria and Arabia. 
 , At no time has the work of the Board in Asiatic Turkey 
 been in better condition or presented greater promise than 
 within the last year. And it is upon the Armenian people, 
 among whom this work has been so largely carried on, that 
 a wild storm of massacre and pillage has fallen, sweeping the 
 country from Trebizond southward into the valley of the 
 Euphrates, westward to Marsovan and Cesarea and out to the 
 Mediterranean Sea, covering the entire territory of the eastern 
 and central missions and those parts of the Western Turkey 
 mission that are adjacent. Thousands have been foully mur- 
 dered, chiefly the leading business men, and hundreds of 
 thousands of those dependent on them have been left utterly 
 destitute; many a Protestant pastor and teacher has fallen 
 in loyalty to his faith, and mission chapels and schools in 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I7I 
 
 great numbers have been burned to the ground. The stations 
 where educational work centered have been especially assailed, 
 and at Harput and to some degree at Marash, the plant has 
 been well-nigh swept out of existence, and the missionaries 
 themselves exposed to deadly peril. Sympathy for the people, 
 so broken and bleeding, is almost as widespread as Christianity 
 and civilization, and generous gifts for their relief are steadily 
 flowing to Constantinople. There is an additional reason why, 
 for the American people, a peculiar interest should attach to 
 the present situation in Turkey. Upon the uplifting and enlight- 
 enment of a noble portion of the people in the Turkish Empire 
 American citizens have already expended more than $6,000,- 
 000, have estabHshed there a mission plant worth to-day 
 $1,500,000, are annually devoting to the further development 
 of this work a sum exceeding $150,000, and have there as 
 their representatives, distributed in small groups over the 
 whole Empire, a band of 152 men and women, among the 
 noblest and the best that our Christian homes and schools can 
 produce. The bearing of these men and women in the midst 
 of the terrible scenes of the last four months, their calmness 
 when the people were filled with dread in view of the approach- 
 ing scourge, their courage when death was all around them 
 and even when it stared them in the face, their faith that out of 
 all this tumult and distress will come the enlargement of 
 God's kingdom in this land, their steadfast purpose to remain 
 at their posts and share the troubles of their people and min- 
 ister to their wants, proof against the natural shrinking of 
 their own hearts, against the pleading of friends at home, 
 against the persuasions even of those to whom they must 
 look for protection — these things have won for them the meed 
 of universal praise. The name missionary has gained a new 
 definition by deeds like these, and instead of a term of re- 
 proach or ridicule, it has become almost a synonym of hero 
 and heroine. And all this noble conduct has filled the Arme- 
 nian nation with boundless love and gratitude, and has bound 
 their hearts to the missionaries with hooks of steel. Hence- 
 
iy2 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 forth this whole nation will be like wax in the hands of these 
 their protectors and benefactors and personal friends. And 
 even beyond the Armenian people, many and many of the 
 Moslems are noting this high proof of the Christian faith, and 
 are enshrining in their hearts' admiring love the names we 
 cherish, and longing for a share of their faith. 
 
 But it is as teachers and exemplars of the Christian faith 
 and life, not as political deliverers, that they have won their 
 place; no political aim has ever been allowed to enter into 
 this widespread and most effective Christian labor; and the 
 missionary operations of the Board stand clear of all respon- 
 sibility for the grave political disturbances which threaten 
 the stability of the Empire. They have been loyal to the ex- 
 isting Government and have inculcated this duty upon their 
 pupils; they have sought to make better men and better citi- 
 zens of all those with whom they have had to do; and no truer 
 friends of the Turkish Empire and of all its people than the 
 American missionaries have lived within its borders these 
 seventy years past. For the protection of themselves and of 
 their legitimate enterprise within that territory guaranteed 
 by treaty rights, and numerous precedents, and long con- 
 tinued usage, we may justly claim the utmost exertions of 
 our own Government and the friendly regard of all mankind. 
 It cannot be that upon this work, to which so many precious 
 lives have been given, on which such treasures have been ex- 
 pended, on the successful maintenance of which such vast 
 interests depend, ruin hopeless and universal is now to fall. 
 May we not rather cherish the hope that this storm is for 
 cleansing and purifying and shall endure but for a night, 
 and that a day of brightness and glory is soon to dawn upon 
 
 this great Empire. 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 But alas! the result of their labor has been ruthlessly 
 dealt with by the cruel Turks at the late massacres, 4,000 or 
 5,000 Protestants alone have been butchered, their personal 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 173 
 
 property have been plundered and several thousands have 
 taken refuge in the United States. I am one of of those suf- 
 fering refugees, who with members of my family am in great 
 difficulty. To-day there are in the United States more than 
 200 graduates of the American colleges in Turkey. Some of 
 them are at work with various occupations, but the majority 
 of them have no work to do. Ladies and gentlemen, these 
 are the children of your missionaries. What are you going 
 to do about them? They are now returned to you for help. 
 If the Congregational Church does not take care of them, 
 what denomination will. All the evangelical Armenians in 
 this country are your foster children. Your missionaries, 
 your prayers and your money brought them up. If you do 
 not take care of them, I am afraid others will carry them oflf. 
 But I myself cannot consent to it. After receiving so much 
 blessing from them how can I turn against them and be un- 
 grateful to them. For all we are to-day we owe to the Con- 
 gregational Churches in this country. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LAST HORRORS OF THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY. 
 
 The events which have happened in Turkey during the 
 last twenty years have drawn the special attention of the 
 nations and governments of the whole of Europe, and have 
 employed not only the skill of the diplomatists, but the pens 
 of journalists every morning, and the evening newspapers 
 have been examined for the purpose of learning the civilization 
 or reformation of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 The principal point considered in this contest has hitherto 
 been the political, but people have entirely lost sight of its 
 religion and moral aspects; still the oppressions and persecu- 
 tion of Christians can never be fully understood by those who 
 may be born in a free land like you are, where there are no 
 Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Georgians, Zaibacks and no Mo- 
 hammedanism with its oppressions and persecutions to the 
 Christians. 
 
 Therefore I propose to consider the religion and political 
 causes that have ruined the population of Turkey entirely. 
 
 But the questions arise. Why the Sultan orders (during 
 the last few years) the Turks, Kurds, or other followers to 
 destroy the Christians, whereby more than one hundred thou- 
 sand (100,000) of them have recently been killed and five hun- 
 dred thousand have been rendered homeless and left to die 
 of starvation among the streets and out in the mountains? 
 and again why the Sultan ordered all who are willing to ac- 
 cept the Mohammedanism that have never been referred to 
 with any sort of correctness by the newspapers or periodicals 
 in their accounts of the dreadful oppressions taking place in 
 Armenia, or all over Asia Minor? 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 175 
 
 I. The first cause of the horrors to the Armenians of 
 Turkey is that chiefly of the Mohammedan reHgion. 
 
 Though the Islamism or Mohammedan reHgion is di- 
 vided into a great many sects, but the moral precepts and laws 
 of all are based upon the book of Koran. The book of 
 Koran is not an apt instrument to keep pure the moral 
 character of the population of the Turks; on the other hand 
 it causes the opportunity for the greater corruption in moral 
 respects, with that it nourishes in its followers a spirit of im- 
 proving animosity and opposition to non-Mohammedan 
 races and nationalities. 
 
 The following facts are the most interesting points which^ 
 have attracted my attention: 
 
 A. The book of Koran teaches that the sinner having 
 once performed his ablution and said his prayers, his sins 
 should be forgiven. Ablution means that a man goes to a 
 fountain of running water or takes some water from a jug and 
 washes his head, ears, mouth, arms and feet, regarding that 
 those sins were committed by those members and are washed 
 away. 
 
 But a dying person who is unable to perform above re- 
 ligious duties can have the same forgiveness by raising his 
 forefinger and with it confess that there is one God, and 
 Mohammed is the true prophet; even then if the person is 
 unable to do so he need only repeat the above confession in 
 his mind, whose sins, having been instantly wiped away, he is 
 made as white as snow. 
 
 B. The book of Koran, moreover, teaches that all Moham- 
 medan people shall go to the seventh heaven any way, where 
 all the sensual indulgences known on earth will await them; 
 even others of a more degrading and bestial character. The 
 language with which these ideas are clothed is so indelicate 
 that it can hardly bear repeating in society. 
 
 Nobody who has not lived in Turkey can realize how 
 hopeless, almost self-contradicting, it is to talk of ''reforming" 
 Turkey. It could not be reformed and be Mohammedan Tur- 
 
176 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 key. The lack of reform or power of reform is just what 
 makes it what it is. The root of evil is Mohammedanism 
 itself; it is embodied social stagnation, corruption, ultimate 
 ruin. Neither the Sultan nor the Turks can improve the state 
 of the Empire, even if they wished. The usual ''broad- 
 minded" statements about Mohammed and his religion are 
 simply elaborations of ignorance, made up out of men's 
 own minds, and what they think must be true. It is customary 
 for writers to talk in this fashion. Mohammedanism is a half- 
 way house to Christianity. Mohammed converted the heathen 
 Arabs to a belief in the true God. Mohammed established a 
 . great religion and a great empire, etc., etc. There is no truth 
 in this, for all its plausible sound. Mohammedanism is not 
 even on the road to Christianity; and Arabia, Asia Minor, and 
 Palestine were all much better off before the Mohammedan 
 conquest than after it. Buddhism and Brahmanism are bet- 
 ter religions than Mohammedanism. The Chinese, the Japan- 
 ese, the people of India are much more religious that the 
 Turks. The Chinese Emperor and the Japanese Mikado are 
 \ far better men than the Mohammedan Sultan. The heathen 
 religions rear better men than Mohammedanism. The Mon- 
 gols are more humane and sympathetic than the Turks. 
 Heathenism at its worst, though a low form of religion, is really 
 a form of religion; but Mohammedanism is not a religion 
 at all. 
 
 Then what is it? It is a system of imposture and false 
 pretense, and of lives of human lust and cruelty. Mohammed 
 practiced all this, and his successors have done the same and 
 taught the same ever since; and the system means just that 
 now, and nothing else. There is neither love nor sympathy, 
 manliness nor humanity in Mohammedanism. Can a sys- 
 tem lacking all these be considered a religion? This is the 
 substance of Mohammed's teaching: "Love your fellow be- 
 lievers, hate and slay all wdio refuse to accept your religion. 
 Marry as many wives as you can afford ; if you can afford but 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. T77 
 
 one, do not repine, for you shall have seven thousand to enjoy 
 in Paradise.'^ 
 
 The Mohammedan religion teaches that every be- 
 liever after having- died in that faith will be married to 
 seventy thousand virgins in Paradise, so as they can enjoy all 
 the happiness in gratifying the desires of flesh. In the book of 
 Koran the picture of Paradise is drawn as such that all forms 
 of pleasure and happiness as expected to be the outcome of 
 jealousy and selfishness is to be found there, also not one 
 faithful or one who believes in one God and confess Moham- 
 med a true prophet of God, and those who bring Selavat will 
 under any circumstances go to Hell, but will undoubtedly go 
 to the Paradise as described in the book of Koran. If you 
 conquer a country, show no mercy to the people unless they 
 embrace Islam. If they refuse, either kill them or make slaves 
 of them. What sort of reformers can you expect in Turkey, 
 when the very religion that is to make people better incul- 
 cates such principles. If one does not know a language he 
 cannot speak it; if he has not a principle he will not practice 
 it. How can the Sultan, a vicious man to begin with, trained 
 in a religion calculated to make a cruel and licentious ani- 
 mal even out of a decent man, reform anything? His very 
 religion forbids it; he cares nothing for the religion when it 
 stands in his way, but he will follow its injunction to please 
 the Mohammedans, especially when they gratify and justify 
 his worst passions. I shall be asked if the Mohammedans do 
 not believe in one God, and the same -God, as the Christian, 
 and if that does not make it a religion, and very near that 
 of Christian. Yes, they do; and so do the devils. That is 
 what Mohammedanism is — the religion of devils. Most of 
 the Turkish conversation consists of oaths and smut. I do 
 not mean among the common people — theirs is nothing else 
 — but of the educated upper classes, their scholars, teachers, 
 governors, and priests. I came in contact with them for 
 years, and I hated to listen to them, their talk was so full of 
 cursing and filth. You never see the fruits of the spirit in 
 
1^8 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 them; only the fruits of the flesh. They do not understand 
 what spiritual life is; with them all is sense — eating and drink- 
 ing, finery and lust — lust above all, everywhere and always — 
 like cattle. They seem never able to forget sex and its uses. 
 The whole Mohammedan system is designed to make the 
 gratification of lust as easy and plentiful as possible short of 
 a promiscuity that would lead to civil anarchy. A Moham- 
 medan can divorce his wife any time, no matter how many 
 children she or he has. He does not much care for his chil- 
 dren; only he pleases by paying back her dower, and marry 
 another to do likewise; every week, or day, if he sees fit, 
 he can re-marry and re-divorce the first one as often as he 
 pleases. It is like trading horses ; as little sentiment or moral- 
 ity in one as the other, the slightest possible regulation of 
 sheer animal desire. 
 
 There is, however, one form of divorce which is com- 
 plete, and does not allow of re-marriage until another mar- 
 riage has intervened ; that is called the ieuchden docuza (mean- 
 ing from three to nine divorce, from the terms the husband 
 uses in doing it. He says to her, "I divorce you three to 
 nine." Nobody knows what it means or meant. After this, 
 if he wants his wife back, he must get somebody else to marry 
 with her, and then he divorce her regularly; and as this is 
 perilous, because the second husband after marrying her 
 may take a notion to keep her, or any way keep her much 
 longer that the first one relishes, or demand a large sum of 
 money, the usual plan is to fix a very poor man, or a blind 
 beggar (preferably blind, so that he canot see the wife, and 
 be so charmed by her beauties that he will wish to keep her) ; 
 get him to become the woman's husband for a few days, and 
 then pay him something to divorce her, then the first can 
 marry her again if he chooses. There are many_ more speci- 
 mens of Mohammedan "purity" too shameful to write, and 
 too shameful to read. I cannot soil the paper with them. 
 But I must mention one more engine of corruption which lies 
 at the very root of Mohammedanism itself, the pilgrimage to 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 179 
 
 Mecca, to the birthplace of Mohammed in Arabia. Once 
 a year Mohammedan pilgrims from every quarter of the 
 world go to Mecca to pay homage to their beloved prophet, 
 averaging 200,000 to 500,000 a year. It is their duty to sacri- 
 fice. This is done on the hills which surround the great tem- 
 ple, the greatest mosque in the world. It is a square building, 
 which covers several acres of land. Just in the cluster is 
 the Holy Well, called Zamzem. Mohammedans believe that if 
 they drink of that water, hell fire cannot burn them, and 
 every pilgrim does so. Then they begin to die from cholera 
 to the tune of fifty thousand a year or so, for the well is a mere 
 cesspool. -You see, after cutting the throats of the animals, 
 they leave the filth and blood just as they are, for the Mo- 
 hammedan religion does not allow the sacrifice to be touched. 
 The sandy soil absorbs this putrid filth, which leaks into the 
 well. But it is a great merit to die on the spot where Mo- 
 hammed was born; one goes straight to heaven if he does. 
 That is not the worst, however; they fill bottles with that 
 water and carry it to their families and friends throughout 
 the Turkish Empire, Persia and India, from which cholera 
 is spread abroad over the world. 
 
 The pilgrims do not take their wives as far as the birth- 
 place of Mohammed, but leave them half way, and on reach- 
 ing Mecca they marry temporarily. About 20,000 prosti- 
 tutes there make a business of being short-term wives of the 
 pilgrims, getting $5 to $25 from each, and being his wife 
 for anywhere from a day to a fortnight, so that each woman 
 marries from fifty to a hundred pilgrims a year. TTiis is not 
 prostitution; it is religion — and Mohammedan "purity." 
 Mecca is considered the most holy spot on earth by Moham- 
 medans; but it is the most corrupt spot; it is a hell, and the 
 Mohammedan Paradise is worse than Mecca. 
 
 The Mohammedan religion sets strict rules prohibiting 
 the true freedom to female sex. While requiring them to 
 perform all the other religious duties in mosques where men 
 worship, there will not be one woman among them. As ex- 
 
l8o ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 ception to this rule one might see an old woman, and that 
 to be over sixty years of age. Usually the female sex are 
 expected to perform their religious duties and do the act of 
 worshipping in the house. 
 
 Although the book of Koran accepts the object in 
 the formation of families (of family) to the generation of hu- 
 manity, yet that pure object is ignored only through their 
 passion; they distinguish the difference between the unlawful 
 from lawful in this manner, that without ever having seen 
 each other, though the declaration of a few representative wit- 
 nesses of the parties to be married that the marriage ceremo- 
 nies are performed. It has taught that the wife of a married 
 man should not be seen by any other man; therefore each 
 Mohammedan woman is kept under the rules of namehram; 
 that is to say, the wife of a married man should not be seen 
 by any other men, and if any man come to the house or the 
 wife has to go out of the house, her head, face and the entire 
 body should be covered, and if it should be seen or under- 
 stood that she has disobeyed this rule, is lawfully considered 
 divorced on the ground that she has been unfaithful to her 
 husband. Young girls also should not be seen by a man nor 
 should they talk to a man. 
 
 A married man enjoys privileges to such an extent that 
 he has full right to divorce a wife without any reason or ex- 
 cuse, even though he may have many children by that wife, 
 and can marry any other woman he may wish. A Moham- 
 medan has the right to marry three more wives while he is mar- 
 ried and living with the first wife. 
 
 Mohammedan women are not allowed the true liberty, 
 and they must be kept under the ruling of the hand. They 
 are treated like slaves; consequently, wishes a Mohammedan 
 husband can respect or show objection or trust his wife, nor 
 his wife can think the house in which she lives is her own nor 
 assured that she is to live with this husband until death; thus 
 there is on true family can be found among are supppressed. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. l8l 
 
 It is better for a Mohammedan girl to be sold like a 
 slave rather than to be the wife of a Mohammedan man. 
 
 This is one of the principal teachings of the book of 
 Koran. There are other similar teachings of this book that 
 deprive the female sex of their rights and liberty by the few 
 examples here given of the true nature of Mohammedanism. 
 
 In one word, Mohammedans have no right to exist, 
 politically, socially, or religiously. In the first thev have 
 wrought nothing but ruin ; in the second nothing but corrup- 
 tion; in the third nothing but devilishness. They are working 
 nothing else now in either of the three. They have never 
 built up anything; they are pure destroyers. The day one 
 becomes a Mohammedan he loses his intellect, his skill and 
 his common sense. Mohammedanism is a poison, fatal to any 
 good gifts or graces; it cultivates in him falsehood, cruelty 
 and lust. It was sent by God for a curse to the Christians, as 
 a punishment, just as the Philistines were sent to the people 
 of Israel. 
 
 The book of Koran, moreover, teaches that all those who 
 are not Mohammedans should be frequently invited to the true 
 religion; that in case of complying with the invitation they 
 should be well treated and receive every consideration; 
 should they, however, perish in rejecting the true faith, all 
 the possessions of the obstinates are declared to belong le- 
 gally to the true believers, and here is the Fetua, or sacred 
 sentence. "If the Gyver or Kaiffir (the blasphemer) does not 
 renounce his blasphemy, his life should be taken away, and 
 all his goods appropriated by the true believers." Although 
 this is not the present practice of the Moslems, it has been the 
 only rule for centuries past. 
 
 Therefore, by the few examples here given, the true 
 nature of the Mohammedan religion may be clearly ascer- 
 tained. That religion, as you may observe, gives many oppor- 
 tunities for the corruption of the morals of mankind, and with 
 it endangers the morals and materials of humanitv. One of 
 the causes of deterioration of Christianity in the East is, and 
 
l82 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 are apt to follow the bad example set before them. It is from 
 this spirit the book of Koran, that the blood of many inno- 
 cent persons has been shed in Turkey; it is from this spirit 
 that children and delicate women have been ill-treated. 
 
 It has already been shown to be not a religion, but a 
 system of falsehood, hatred, cruelty, lust, and sensuality. Of 
 course these things combined can only result in corruption. 
 
 It would seem that Mohammed must have taken his 
 inspiration from both the domestic and a bull. A rooster is 
 a polygamist; he has his hens without limit. He claimed to 
 have received a revelation from heaven directing him to take 
 to himself any woman he pleased, no matter whether she was 
 married and had a husband or not; that made no diflference 
 with Mohammed. He took any woman he wanted, and if her 
 husband objected he was sure to be put to death. Moham- 
 medans cannot diflfer from their prophet; they follow him; 
 they strive to imitate him just as much as true Christians 
 strive to follow and imitate Christ. 
 
 The Sultan grows more of a beast and more of a fiend 
 as he grows older, and all the Mohammedans are of the same 
 stripe. Armenian men and Armenian women alike dread 
 the approach of an old Turk far more than of a young one. 
 Unless one has witnessed a fight between bulls he can have 
 little idea of Turkish warfare; no animal fight can approach 
 it in ferocity or insatiability. When a bull conquers another, 
 he never leaves him until he gores him to death ; so when Mo- 
 hammedans conquer a nation, be sure they will exterminate 
 it. To them mercy means apostasy. To leave a man alive or 
 a woman unravished is to be false to the precepts of Moham- 
 med. They cannot help it; it is their religion; a religion for 
 wild animals. Their priests go to the mosques and preach to 
 them thus: "O, believers in Mohammed, love your fellow 
 believers, but hate and kill all others; they are Giaours, 
 heathen dogs, filthy hogs." To kill a Christian and to kill a 
 hog is all the same to a Mohammedan; there is as little sin in 
 one as the other. The priests of Mohammedan Khojas say: 
 
im I'll 
 
 SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 183 
 
 ''Go ask them to accept our religion; if they do you must not 
 harm them, but if they will not, kill them, for they have no 
 right to live in a Mohammedan country; it is not only no sin, 
 but a great virtue. The more Christians you kill the greater 
 reward you will have from Allah (the God) and his prophet 
 Mohammed." 
 
 The Turks are slaughtering Armenians to earn this reward. 
 Of course if the men apostatize they are spared ; but the Turk 
 has no notion of losing the gratification of his lust on the 
 women in that way. A woman who falls into their hands need 
 not hope to keep her virtue on any terms, even by abjuring 
 her religion. They violate her first, and force her to become 
 a Mohammedan afterwards. 
 
 Let it be fully understood throughout the Christian world 
 that the massacre is a religious demand. The Turks have to 
 comply. As a Christian tries to be faithful to Christ and His 
 teachings, so the Turks are trying to be faithful to their 
 prophet and his. They go to the mosques and pray, ''Allah, 
 (O God), help us; strengthen our hands and sharpen our 
 swords to kill the infidel Armenian." Then they come from 
 the mosques and begin to kill, and plunder, and outrage, and 
 commit every sort of indescribable atrocity on the peaceable 
 and defenseless Armenian. And it will grow worse instead of 
 better, since so-called Christian nations have given the Sultan 
 public notice that they will not interfere with him. Do not be 
 deceived by his lying reports. They did not kill the Turks; 
 they never dreamed of such madness. This awful fate has 
 fallen on them purely and simply for being Christian. 
 
 The second cause of the horrors to the Armenians of 
 Turkey, is a despotic government. 
 
 According to the Koran, the Sultan of the Empire is also 
 Khalif of the Mohammedan religious world. He cannot ab- 
 dicate either office, if he would, without vacating the other 
 by the same act. 
 
 In fact, herein lies the secret of the present Sultan's policy, 
 which seems suicidal on general principles of government. 
 
184 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 He has been lavish in the building and repairing of the 
 mosques and the rooms of prayer meeting, and also in estab- 
 lishing Moslem schools throughout his dominions. 
 
 The Ottoman Government is a politico-religious system. 
 This is the necessary constitution of any Mohammedan sover- 
 eign state, but the conception has special force and vitality 
 in Turkey, whose sovereign claims to be the Mohammedan, 
 and thus the Khalif of the Mohammedan world. The whole 
 fabric of the Turkish Empire rests on a religious foundation ; 
 this religious foundation is not the general religious principle 
 in man, but the particular form of religion established by 
 Mohammed. The Sultan is a good conscientious Mohamme- 
 dan. It is only fair to believe, even if he were not a sincere 
 believer, he would still feel compelled to adopt the same course 
 as a matter of internal political necessity. The Moslem popu- 
 lation look to him as the defender of the faith, girded with the 
 sword of the prophet. He feels it imperative at hazards to 
 regain lost prestige over his fanatical subjects, especially in 
 the South, where rumblings of discontent and disloyalty are 
 ominous. 
 
 According to the book of the Koran, which is the basis 
 and ultimate authority of Mohammedan law, — Code Napo- 
 leon, treaty stipulatoins, and Imperial Trades notwithstand- 
 ing, — the whole non-Moslem population of Turkey are out- 
 laws. The millions of ancient hereditary inhabitants, whether 
 Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, Jacobite, Jew, or Syrian are 
 considered aliens. Their legal status is that of prisoners of 
 war, with corresponding rights and responsibilities. Not one 
 of them is expected or even allowed to serve in the army. 
 Non-Moslems, whose services are indispensable to the Gov- 
 ernment, are, in rare cases, put in civil offices, especially where 
 integrity or ability can be found. It cannot be denied that the 
 above is true in theory, and it is equally true that the theory 
 is carried out so far as fear of intervention by Christian na- 
 tions permits. So far as we can judge the Sultan is a sincere 
 and honest Mohammedan, and regards himself as a true 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 185 
 
 Khalif — or successor of the prophet of Mohammed. He is 
 the chief defender of the faith; under God the absolute arbiter 
 of its destinies. He has undoubtedly done his best to recon- 
 cile the interests of the Khalifate with those of the Empire. 
 
 In one particular (the policy of the Sultan) is condemned 
 by most enlightened Mohammedans, as strongly as by Chris- 
 tians. His attempt to concentrate the whole administration 
 of the Empire in his own hands has led to the establishment 
 of a dual government — that of the palace and the Porte. 
 The whole machinery of a government exists at the Porte. 
 There are ministers and fully organized departments; there 
 is a council of ministers and a council of state. All business 
 is supposed to pass through their hands, and the whole ad- 
 ministration is supposed to be subordinate to them. All is, 
 of course, subject to the supreme will of the Sultan, but his 
 official advisers and his official agents are at the Porte. 
 
 The government of Turkey, under the supreme rule of 
 the Sultan, is composed of the Sublime Porte and the council 
 of state; under those there is the administration of the de- 
 partments in the central government, and of the provinces 
 throughout the Empire. There is, however, an informal, yet 
 none the less powerful element, known sometimes as the 
 privy council, or the palace party. 
 
 The Sublime Porte, which derives its name from the 
 gate where the early Sultans held their audiences, and which 
 enter the seraglio grounds near the Mosque of St. Sophia, 
 corresponds very closely to the cabinets of other countries. 
 Its officers are the Grand Vizier, the Sheikh-ul Islam, the 
 Ministers of the Interior, of War, Evkaf, Public Instruction, 
 Public Works, Foreign Aflairs, Finance, Marine, Justice and 
 the Civil List, and the President of the State. The Grand 
 Vizier receives his appointment immediately from the Sultan, 
 and makes up his own Cabinet, though with the Sultan's ap- 
 proval. He has no particular portfolio, but presides over the 
 general Government, and his word is ordinarily all-powerful 
 in any of the departments. The Sheikh-ul Islam also nomi- 
 
l86 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 nally receives his appointment direct from the Sultan, but in 
 most cases is the choice of the Grand Vizier. He is not, as is 
 so often supposed, the head of the Moslem religion, but is 
 the representative in the Cabinet of the Ulima, the general 
 body of teachers of Moslem law, having no very definite or- 
 ganization in themselves and yet exerting as a mass a very 
 powerful influence over the Empire. 
 
 The Sheikh-ul Islam has comparatively little influence, 
 except when there is a necessity for the interpretation of 
 Moslem law in the conduct of the Government; then he be- 
 comes an important member. The other members of the 
 Sublime Porte conduct their departments in much the same 
 way as in the other Governments. Two only require special 
 mention: The Department of Public Instruction is most im- 
 portant, including as it does the Board Censors, who have 
 the right to pass upon the publication or importation of all 
 literary matter, and can decree the suppression or confisca- 
 tion of any newspaper or of any book which they think is 
 derogatory to the interests of the Empire. The Department 
 of Evkaf is peculiar to Turkish administration. It has to do 
 with the care of the great amount of property vested in the 
 mosques. Under Turkish law property which in other states 
 would revert to the Government, reverts usually to the nearest 
 mosque, and individuals as an act of piety frequently deed 
 real estate or other property to the mosques, which thus have 
 become immensely wealthy. This property may be purchased 
 on condition of the payment of rent to the mosque or of an 
 annuity to any persons specified in the deed by which the 
 property is handed to the mosque. The income of this de- 
 partment has been somewhat reduced of late years by the 
 seizure of a considerable portion of it by the Government. 
 Under this same department comes also the care of the gen- 
 eral expenses for Mohammedan worship, such as the pil- 
 grimages to Mecca, the public reading of the Koran, etc. . . 
 In fact, however, there is another Government at the 
 Palace of Yildiz, more powerful than the ofBcial Govern- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 187 
 
 ment, made up of chamberlains, moollahs, eunuchs, astrolo- 
 gers and nondescripts, and supported by the secret police, 
 which spares no one from the Grand Vizier down. The gen- 
 eral policy of the Empire is determined by this government 
 and the most important questions of the state are often treated 
 and decided, while the highest ofificials at the Porte are left 
 in absolute ignorance of what is going on. It is needless to 
 add that the Porte and the Palace are at sword's points, and 
 block each other's movements as far as they can. . . . 
 
 The Sultan evidently believes that he is equally inde- 
 pendent of all these governments, and decides all questions, 
 great and small, for himself. In form he does so, but no man 
 can act independently of all his sources of information, and 
 of personal influence of his entourage; under the present sys- 
 tem he makes himself responsible for every blunder and every 
 iniquity committed in the Empire, but he has disgraced three 
 distinguished Grand Viziers for telling him so, and seems to 
 have no idea of the causes of the intense dissatisfaction with 
 his government which prevails among his Mohammedan sub- 
 jects. The Turks as well as the Christians also condemn the 
 laws restricting personal freedom, which have increased in 
 severity every year. In many ways these laws are more gall- 
 ing to the Turks than the Christians. 
 
 For administrative purposes the Empire is divided into 
 vilayets, these again into mutassarifliks and kaimakamliks, 
 and these again into mudirliks. The two highest grades are 
 governed by Pashas appointed in Constantinople; the third 
 grade or kaimakam receives his appointment ordinarily from 
 Constantinople, but sometimes from the provincial superiors. 
 The mudire are almost invariably local magistrates. 
 
 Associated with each one of those officials is a council, 
 or mejliss, including prominent Turks. Turks are the head 
 authority; tender their advice when it is desired to the Gov- 
 ernor, and consult in general in regard to the interests of the 
 communities. 
 
l88 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 There is another evil connected with this system which 
 may lead to serious difficulties with foreign powers. All 
 foreign relations are supposed to be managed through the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Grand Vizier, but these 
 officials have no power and but little influence ; they can prom- 
 ise nothing and do nothing; but in all delicate diplomatic 
 questions it is essential to treat with responsible agents, and 
 to discuss them with such agents in a way in which it is impos- 
 sible to treat with the Sovereign himself. The present sys- 
 tem has been a serious injury to Turkey. It has roused the 
 hostility of all the embassies and led them to feel and report 
 to their governments that there is no use in trying to do any- 
 thing to save the Empire; that it is hopelessly corrupt, and 
 the sooner it comes to an end the better for the world. There 
 is no longer any concerted action of Europe at Constanti- 
 nople for the improvement of the condition of the people. 
 
 Over this whole administration presides the Sultan him- 
 self. His word is supreme in each department, and he can 
 and frequently does override the decisions of his ministers. 
 More than almost any of his predecessors in the line of Otto- 
 man Sultans, Abdul Hamid II. takes personal cognizance of 
 the most minute details of his Government. The interests not 
 only of his palace and his capital, but of the most remote 
 provinces come under his eye. His industry is proverbial, and 
 to his ability all who know him personally bear cordial wit- 
 ness. He is however, by no means the absolute autocrat that 
 he appears. He realizes very clearly his position between 
 two contradictory and mutually repellant forces, the progress 
 of the West and the conservatism of the East. If he an- 
 tagonizes the former too much he runs the risk of losing his 
 Empire; if he fails to keep in sympathy with the latter his 
 Khaliphate is endangered. His position is one by no means 
 to be envied, and no judgment of his can be just which does 
 not take into account the peculiarities of that position. 
 
 If Sultan Abdul Hamid would come out of his palace, 
 restore to the Porte its full responsibility, disband its secret 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS, 189 
 
 police, trust his Mohammedan subjects and do simple justice 
 to the Christian, his Ufe would be far more secure than it is 
 to-day, with all precautions. His people and all the world 
 would recognize the great and noble qualities which they 
 now ignore, and welcome him as the wisest and best of all 
 the Sultans. 
 
 The sad pity of it is that he will never do it. It is too late. 
 The influence of the palace favorites is too strong. He will 
 appear in history not as the Sultan who saved the Empire, but 
 as the one who might have saved it and did not. 
 
 I might mention a thousand similar cases, all of them 
 traceable to this fatal spirit of the Koran. If such a despotic 
 Empire, or such a book of the Koran, be in the hands of the 
 Government, and if it should regard its subject races in the 
 same light as the Koran regards non-Mohammedans, how 
 can the populations living under it be reformed or improved 
 from wathin? All of you will of course agree with me in say- 
 ing that it is impossible. 
 
 Now, this is the condition of the despotic Empire or Gov- 
 ernment, these are the principal causes of the internal ruin of 
 Turkey. 
 
 III. The third cause of the horrors of the Armenians in 
 Turkey: these are the products of the misrule and oppression 
 of the Government. 
 
 The rule of the Turkish Government is hopelessly and 
 remedilessly bad wherever that rule extends. For example: 
 The income of the Government is derived from customs, dues, 
 tithes, levied on all agricultural produce; from the sale of certain 
 articles, as salt, which are Government monopolies, and from 
 imports on pretty nearly everything, and from the capitation 
 and exemption taxes levied upon the Christian subjects. The 
 tithes are generally framed out, and by the misrule this gives 
 occasion for the greatest amount of oppression. There is 
 no regular system of collection, and when the treasury runs 
 low the Government sends out requisition to the interior 
 provinces. The money is then collected in whatever way is 
 
190 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 feasible. There is no regularity in the payment of salaries. 
 The Government is notoriously in arrears in regard to the 
 payment of employees, being sometimes months, and even 
 years, behind. 
 
 The statement that a month's salary is to be paid be- 
 comes a matter of comment in the public press and of general 
 congratulation. The result is widespread corruption in all 
 departments. The absence of salaries is made up for by the 
 collection of fees; and every official from the lowest to the 
 highest, through whose hands any money passes, is sure to 
 keep as much of it as he thinks he can without incurring too 
 severe wrath from his superior. 
 
 Throughout a large section of the fairest part of the 
 earth's surface business enterprise, intellectual progress, to 
 say nothing of religious freedom have long been dead. In the 
 fair lands which border on the Mediterranean, lands which 
 should be the garden spots of the earth, there is and has been 
 for many generations, poverty, wretchedness and squalor, 
 which can hardly be credited in lands that are better governed. 
 
 Naturally the character of the people has deteriorated, 
 and a hopeless fatalism or cunning mendacity, which seeks 
 to win by deceit what it cannot gain by fairer methods, have 
 become characteristic of the people; in fact whether we 
 consider the character of the people, the soil on which they 
 live, the houses that cover them or the institutions by which 
 they are misgoverned, we find that the trail of the Turk is 
 over them all. 
 
 The traveler through Palestine cannot but be impressed 
 by these facts; still more he who takes the overland journey 
 across Asia Minor, where the Turk has had more full and 
 undisputed sway. 
 
 He will find himself in a land of great natural resources, 
 large possibilities; a land with a fertile soil, and exhaustless 
 mines of precious metals; a land of rushing rivers and bold 
 and rugged mountain scenery. When the Turk is deposed 
 and some decent Government establishes its sway in Asia 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. IQI 
 
 Minor, we shall read of Cook's parties and Gaze's Tourists 
 in the magnificent land of Taurus. The Cilician gates will 
 be open to the traveler, though for many years they have been 
 practically closed by the inefficient shiftlessness of a Govern- 
 ment which taxes the people to death for roads which are 
 never built, and bridges which are never constructed. Then 
 the mines which, with their hidden treasures, have been sealed 
 to all enterprise, will pour their wealth into the world's cof- 
 fers. But now the Turk reasons with characteristic phlegm, 
 that so long as the mines are undisturbed the wealth of the 
 nation is intact, and he does not propose to allow outer bar- 
 barians to come in and open up mines and cart ofif his treas- 
 ures of gold and silver. This is carrying the stocking-leg 
 theory of finance to its absurdest limits. To be sure the traveler 
 finds one feeble, struggling little railway on the Mediterranean 
 coast of Turkey, from Mersin to Adana, a distance of about 
 forty miles. It was built by foreign capital, however, and is 
 managed by foreign enterprise, and has been hampered and 
 taxed almost off the face of the earth by the ruling. 
 
 There is also a passable wagon road for Turkey for a few 
 miles from Tarsus toward the Cilician gates, but this passable 
 road soon runs into an almost impassable cart track. 
 Though the camel path does not exactly run up a tree, it seems 
 to loose itself when it gets to the most inaccessible portions 
 of the Taurus Mountains, or at least is fit only for the sure- 
 footed "ships of the desert" that continually traverse it with 
 their swaying loads and their tinkling bells. The only bridges 
 in many parts of the country are those built by the Romans, 
 eighteen hundred years ago, so substantially and so scien- 
 tifically that the war of the elements and the neglect of the Turk- 
 ish Empire for t\venty centuries has not been able to destroy 
 them. It should be said that the road which starts from Tarsus 
 comesto fight here and there duringthe hundreds of mileswhich 
 lie between thebirthplace ofSt. Paul and the ancient city Angora, 
 in old Galatea ; but it as often gets lost again or is obstructed 
 and rendered impassable by falling trees and descending boul- 
 
192 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 ders which no one has energy enough to move out of the way. 
 And yet this road is the excuse for wringing tens of thousands 
 of pounds every year out of the poverty-stricken inhabitants. 
 To be sure, the money is not expended upon the road, and 
 every year it is falHng into a more utterly impassable condi- 
 tion; but, no matter, it furnishes an excuse for yearly taxes 
 and for more misrule or misgovernment. 
 
 There are no hotels in that country, or inns even, of the 
 humblest character, along this highway, which is the only 
 artery between Constantinople and the same places of the 
 Mediterranean ports; but there are stone huts called khans, 
 in which men and bullocks and camels and asses may rest 
 their wearied bodies in delightful promiscuity, while all are im- 
 partially attacked by other occupants that are not recorded in 
 the census, and are not registered upon the books even of a 
 Turk. For much of the distance along this highway every 
 tree and shrub and root has been plucked up to furnish a 
 little scanty fuel for the shivering inhabitants. The broad 
 stretches of tableland, naturally so fertile, are so poorly tilled 
 with the rude implements of the past, that only a scanty popu- 
 lation can be maintained, and these at "a poor, dying rate," 
 where millions might thrive under a good government. 
 
 The villages in the interior are for the most part built 
 of sun-dried mud, though sometimes of stone, and are not 
 clean and healthy. Very naturally, all enterprise and energy 
 are killed out of such a people by hundreds of years of misrule 
 and oppression. Why should a man strive to get on in the 
 world, when he knows that he will only make himself, by his 
 enterprise, the special prey of the oppressor? Why should 
 he plant an orchard of superior fruit, when he knows that the 
 tax-gatherer will get the best of it? Why should he try to 
 improve his worldly condition in any way, when he knows that 
 unless he can cover up his wealth and simulate poverty, he 
 will but become the target for every corrupt and unscrupulous 
 official? The land of Turkey has been picked bare; even 
 the pin feathers of enterprise, if we may be excused the ex- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 193 
 
 pression, have been singed off by a rapacious officialism dur- 
 ing many generations. 
 
 Undoubtedly the rule of the Turk is hopelessly and reme- 
 dilessly bad wherever that rule extends. The mildew and 
 blight of his occupation are found wherever the star and cres- 
 cent wave. Just as truly as in the olden days, destruction 
 and desolation were left in the wake of the victorious **horse- 
 tails" of the triumphant Sultans, so now desolation and de- 
 struction are left in the retreating wake of the decadent and 
 conquered Sultan. 
 
 The history of six hundred years teaches us that it is of 
 little use to talk about mending the reign of the Turk. There 
 is nothing left but to end it. To mend it is out of the ques- 
 ion. To end it is the only hope for Moslem and Christian 
 alike, who dwell within the Sultan's domains. And now these 
 centuries of atrocious misrule and almost inconceivable cor- 
 ruption are crowned by the murder and the pillage and the 
 wholesale massacres, which have caused the blood of civiliza- 
 tion to run cold; outrages that will mark the years of 1895-96 
 with such blots as no other years have known for many centu- 
 ries. Yet the civilized world allows the Great Powers, each 
 disarmed against the Turk by their mutual jealousies, to look 
 on supinely while the butchery in Armenia never ceases. 
 Still the Queen's speech, read at the opening of Parliament 
 in the year 1896, talks gingerly about the Sultan's promises 
 to institute reforms, while very likely, at the very moment 
 when her speech was read, the Sultan's hirelings were mur- 
 dering Christians, pillaging their property and firing their vil- 
 lages. 
 
 What will our grandchildren think of the boasted civiliza- 
 tion of the nineteenth century? How will the people of the 
 happier age which is to come look back with shuddering hor- 
 ror, not only upon the deeds enacted in Turkey, but with 
 scarcely less horror, upon the Christian nations who. by reason 
 of their insane jealousy of one another, permitted those atroci- 
 ties, which they might have prevented. 
 
194 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Alas, that this centur}^ should be known not only as the 
 century of invention and discovery, of the railway and the 
 steamship, and the telegraph and the telephone, the century 
 of religious progress and missionary enterprise, the century 
 of the Sunday School and the young people's movements, 
 but also the century stained with the deepest dye of Chris- 
 tian blood of which the great Christian powers can never wash 
 their hands. 
 
 "The oppressive character of the Government of the Turk- 
 ish Empire, with respect to the subject race," is a very clear 
 declaration on the part of the editor of the Independent of 
 the situation in the country known as the Turkish Empire. It 
 is a character that is important; it is an actually existing Gov- 
 ernment that counts, and the mischievous results of that Gov- 
 ernment concern the civilized world to-day more in the rela- 
 tion to the "subject race," than the general reformation of that 
 misrule itself. 
 
 The question is not so complicated as vast; not requiring 
 so much skill in dealing with it as patient study to have a full 
 comprehension of the main factors entering into it as potent 
 influences. 
 
 As in a medical examination, so in this, euphony of dic- 
 tion is to be sacrificed to truth; and first, the "Government of 
 the Turkish Empire," as it is to-day and has been for 500 
 years, is only Mohammedan domination with regard to the 
 non-Mohammedan population of the country. Secondly, the 
 "subject races" are only slave population and prisoners of 
 war; and, thirdly, the essential character of that domination 
 over those races has been a thorough and absolute system 
 of oppression. In entering upon remarks regarding the char- 
 acter of that oppression, it might be necessary to point to the 
 proofs of the above statements regarding the Government 
 itself and the status of the "subject races." For that part, it 
 is quite sufficient to point to the whole history of the Turkish 
 Government through every step of its settled existence dur- 
 ing 500 years. Not very keen insight is necessary, either, but 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I95 
 
 only deliberate study and simple impartial judgment, to con- 
 vince anv intelligent mind of the justice of the charges. 
 
 The character of the oppression of the Turkish Govern- 
 ment must be tried by tlie one test which stands higher than all 
 theory and even logical inferences; by that test which has the 
 stamp of the highest authority and comes with the powder of a 
 prima facie evidence that compels conviction. "By their fruits 
 ye shall know them." The timber of the oak ^s what tells, 
 and w^e care not so much for the foliage or the acorn. The 
 flower of the rosebush is enough to satisfy us regarding the 
 result of the gardener's w^ork : but from the orchard we expect 
 fruit, and by its fruit we judge of the value of the husband- 
 man's labor and of wisdom of his management. A Govern- 
 ment is not for exhibition. It is not merely to make history. 
 Before the judgment of God and man it is to stand and be 
 judged by the fruit of its influences upon human life; its hap- 
 piness, its comfort, its development — moral, physical and in- 
 tellectual, judged by that standard. 
 
 I. The Government of the Turkish Empire, in its rela- 
 tion to the "subject races," is found to be radically and es- 
 sentially oppressive. The Turkish Government is based upon 
 the Mohammedan religion, the component elements of which 
 are the sw^ord and the Koran. While for half a century Eu- 
 ropean diplomats have been deceiving themselves and the 
 civilized world that the Koran could cease to be the law that 
 regulated the movements of the sword, the events of the past 
 year and a half have proved that the history of the Turkish 
 Government has long ago demonstrated that the sword and 
 the Koran are united so that nothing but the death of one 
 or the other can put them asunder. If the Government of the 
 Turkish Empire could be induced to recognize and permit 
 the development of an "Ottoman Empire," after the type of 
 civilized governments, where the equality of all citizens before 
 the law is the basic principle, oppression in the Government 
 might be treated as a disease; but as the Turkish Empire has 
 always been, and is to-day a "Mohammedan Empire," oppres- 
 
196 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 sion of the Christian and the "infidel" in it is a constitutional 
 quality. 
 
 For those who have at heart, not only the fate of the Chris- 
 tian races in Turkey, but also the interests of civilization and 
 Christendom at large, this must stand as the most important 
 element in the case, namely, that the Government of the Turk- 
 ish Empire, when true to itself, and standing upon the ground 
 of its highest efficiency, is by nature destructive of those forces 
 which make for righteousness in this world, and are the foun- 
 dation of that which is counted by the Aryan races as the 
 highest civilization. 
 
 All the other characteristics are the outcome of this one 
 essential fact, and will be influenced by the remedy brought 
 to bear upon this root of the evil itself. 
 
 2. Turkish oppression is universal ; it oppresses the 
 "subject races," in all places and in all their relations. The 
 unalterable disabilities deny them justice in the courts, as- 
 suring immunity to the robber and the highwayman and the 
 swindler, if he is only a Mohammedan. The prosperity of the 
 Christian races, merchant and artisan, dependent upon justice 
 and protection, is thus reduced to a deplorable minimum; 
 poverty is the highway open before every Christian commu- 
 nity; but as taxation, unremitting, unlimited, and merciless, 
 is also the law of the land, the instinct of self-preservation 
 drives them on to labor incessantly in order to remedy the 
 evil as far as possible. In spite of the fertile soil and abundant 
 natural resources, therefore, the "subject races" of the Turk- 
 ish Empire are under the heel of a grinding oppression. 
 
 After centuries of honest, toilsome life, in sight of the 
 golden dawn of the world's greatest century, and with the 
 thunder of the chariot wheels of modern progress in their 
 ears, the Christian "subjects" of the Sultan are there to-day 
 without railroads or even highways, without any "improve- 
 ments," ancient or modern, in science or art, agriculture or 
 sanitation, with no police, and no fire alarms, no water works, 
 and no house lighting or street lighting system, and as the 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I97 
 
 shadows of evening descend, the entire land from east to 
 west or Mt. Ararat to the Adriatic sinks into fitful slumber, 
 under the black wings of a night of terror and insecurity that 
 best enables weary souls to comprehend the felicity of a here- 
 after when ''there shall be no night there." 
 
 The universality of the oppression is also assured by the 
 fact that the Mohammedan of all conditions, however ignor- 
 ant or dull in other respects, is remarkably well versed in this 
 one doctrine, that he is lord and master, while the Christian is 
 the slave; how he is to be reminded of his subordinate condi- 
 tion with every opportunity. An intelligent residence, of anv 
 length of time in Turkey, would convince one of this almost 
 astounding fact. The Governor or the Pasha, as true Moslems, 
 have never had scruples in denying justice to the Christian, 
 in receiving bribes from defendant and plaintiff alike, in ex- 
 tending their protection to the murderers of men and the 
 ravishers of w^omen; but the barbarous Kurds on the moun- 
 tains, as well as the beggar women in the streets of Constan- 
 tinople, are just as conscious of their privilege in this direc- 
 tion as the watchful guardians of Turkish law in high places. 
 On the hills of the Golden Horn, above Balat, on a sunny 
 afternoon, a Protestant minister was out walking with a little 
 girl and her brother. The girl was dressed after the fashion 
 of Europeans, and to guard her eyes from the bright sun- 
 light a green veil covered her face. There were Turkish vil- 
 lages around, and a group of Turkish women were passing 
 by. Suddenly one of them sprang toward the little girl and 
 snatched the veil from her head and tore it into shreds with 
 ominous mutterings and imprecations. The veil was green, 
 the sacred color of the Mohammedan religion, to be worn 
 only by the highest clergy. How could the child of the ac- 
 cursed "Giaour" dare to go about under its shadow. Years 
 afterward, far away on the jagged heights of Montenegro, a 
 bridal party of Christians were attacked, as reported by the 
 British consul, by a band of Turkish ruffians. They cut the 
 bride into pieces, half killed the bridegroom, raised a funeral 
 
198 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 pyre, and burned the dead and dying under the rays of the 
 setting sun. The bride had worn a green velvet jacket. Away 
 on the mountains of Armenia the Kurdish chief, Genjo, upon 
 the recovery of his son from a fatal malady, went out to seek 
 a thank oftering to the God of heaven, and the sacrifice he 
 decided upon was the lives of seven Christian priests. Up and 
 down through the length and breadth of the Turkish Em- 
 pire, at the hands of millions of Mohammedans, universal op- 
 pression in every conceivable shape has been the law for the 
 "subject races" of the Turkish Empire. 
 
 3. The oppression of the Turk is cumulative. Poverty 
 and ignorance bring degradation, and degradation hardens 
 human nature, cruelty becomes an instrument, and lust is 
 there as the impelling power. Slowly, steadily, from village 
 to city, from the cities to the capital of the Empire, the great 
 tidal waves of cruel oppression have brought devastation 
 through the centuries, and once and again the return current 
 has dashed itself against the highlands of Armenia, as well 
 as the habitations of other Christian races, and opened before 
 the eyes of Christendom ghastly pictures of blood and de- 
 struction that to the mind of the uninitiated have appeared as 
 accidental developments. The forces of this evil are there al- 
 ways, and are constantly accumulating their momentum. It 
 is a farce to speak of inabiHty to control fanaticism on the part 
 of the Government or the Sultans of Turkey. It were just 
 as reasonable to speak of the helplessness of the man to avert 
 disaster who loosens a mighty boulder from the mountain 
 heights above his village, or finds the entertainment of a sum- 
 mer day by carving a channel in the dam above the citv. Sure 
 enough, the Ignorance of the Mohammedan disqualifies him 
 from understanding the science of the correlation of forces In 
 the Kingdom of the devil, but of their nature he is not ig- 
 norant, and glories In his liberty to set them moving in the 
 midst of the Christian population of the Empire. 
 
 4. And, hence the greatest evil of the Turkish oppres- 
 sion is Its far-reaching character. We must admit that there 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. I99 
 
 are degrees of sin and evil ; that there is a sin against the spirit 
 which far outweighs many transgressions. The oppression 
 of the Mohammedan Government by its universal, cumulative 
 weight has crushed and is now crushing out those spiritual 
 qualities which make the fiber of true human souls. No one 
 who believes in the soul of man and its undying worth could 
 fail to be appalled at the sight of the havoc that has been 
 wrought upon the manhood of the people inhabiting Turkey 
 in consequence of Mohammedan oppression. Degeneration 
 and degradation lose their significance here. It is spiritual 
 contagion; it is intellectual rottenness. From early childhood 
 thousands of the Christian subjects of the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, directly or indirectly in its employ, are led to seek pro- 
 motion by qualifying to serve men whose business is theft and 
 corruption. A Pasha or Governor in the interior seeks an ac- 
 countant or a treasurer, not to render accurate accounts to 
 the Minister of Finance, but to devise w^ays and means by 
 which both the imperial treasury and the population of the 
 district can be robbed in a manner that will be the least open 
 to detection and the most profitable for the private treasury 
 of the Pasha or the Governor himself. Thousands of the 
 Christian youths of the land, naturally the most intelligeni and 
 capable among them, have been for centuries trained in a 
 school of corruption and villainy, to oppress their own coun- 
 trymen, as the servile tools of the corrupt officials of the Gov- 
 ernment. The most approved methods of fraud and bribery, 
 of smuggling and wholesale deceit have, therefore, been at 
 a high premium in the land known as the Turkish Empire, 
 from the morning that the crescent waved over the walls of the 
 city of Constantine. A lie is disreputable if it fails to deceive. 
 It has the double reward of both remuneration and promotion 
 to higher service if it prevails. How blessed the Christian 
 under-secretaries of the Turkish Foreign Office, when they 
 return with the trophies of the intellectual scalps of the astute 
 diplomats whom Europe sends to Constantinople to fish for 
 facts in the awful maelstrom of falsehoods of Tm-k- 
 
200 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 ish diplomacy. It is a matter of surprise, indeed, that 
 there are men in high places of the Christian West who have 
 fallen into the habit of measuring the hideous injustice and 
 oppression of all the Christian races in Turkey, only in a 
 balance where houses, farms and bodies of men and women 
 can be weighed. We have been asked: "Oh, the condition of 
 the Christian in Turkey is surely not intolerable, except for 
 these occasional massacres, which European diplomacy ought 
 to prevent." And the answer is: "No, the disasters of fire and 
 sword are nothing compared to the frightful havoc of the 
 souls of men that has been brought with an iron hand and 
 a persistent, unrelenting conpulsion upon the Christian races 
 in Turkey." Turkish Government, which is mainly nothing 
 but a colossal avalanche of corruption and sensuality, over- 
 whelming the people of Turkey, cannot be justly qualified 
 by any definition that falls short of signifying an absolutely 
 unmitigated curse. I am reminded here of the sterling words 
 of the golden-tongued prophet, the noble Gladstone, who 
 stands towering above British mediocrity in these dark days 
 of ours: "This is strong language, gentlemen, but language 
 must be strong where the facts are strong." We are told that 
 the condition of the Christians in Turkey might be worse; 
 they might have been exterminated. It surely is in order to 
 ask here. Where is the justice of it, when there is help for 
 it? What right has Europe to attend to the balance of power 
 that is kept at the right level by piling high in the pan of the 
 scale, souls of men, both of Turk and Christian, laid low with 
 the contagion of corruption and the rottenness of all iniquity 
 combined, in order that they may serve as dead-weights? And 
 the iniquity of this condition and the awful responsibility at 
 the door of those who are responsible for it is enhanced by 
 the fact that the Christian "subject races" under the Govern- 
 ment of the Turkish Empire have been striving and strug- 
 gling through all these years of subjection for a higher man- 
 hood, nourished by the abundance of good works, and es- 
 pecially at the touch of Western civilization, have been aspir- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 201 
 
 ing for their highest possibiUties, as individual men and as 
 
 nations. 1 • u /- 
 
 This quaUfication of the oppression of the Turkish Gov- 
 ernment is especially justifiable and unavoidable because ^ 
 
 ""5. An essential factor in the character of the oppression 
 of the Turkish Government is its hopelessness. Some one 
 wrote upon a prison wall the gamut of national degeneration. 
 It went down from wealth and pride to war and poverty, and 
 then started on a return tide of industry and prosperity back 
 over the same path. If there is any correctness in this itm- 
 erary, it must have counted tipon rapid transit not to give time 
 for pride and poverty to leave an impression upon the soul of 
 
 the nation. 
 
 The universal accumulation and all-pervadmg flood of 
 Turkish oppression has torn up and borne down with it every 
 single anchorage and mooring of virtue and manhood for the 
 ship of state, so that no returning tide is ever possible for it. 
 Action and reaction, with increasing rapidity, even" through 
 the past fifty years, have brought disastrous loss in all direc- 
 tions; so that Turkey has to-day less money, less manhood, 
 less wisdom, less patriotism and confidence in itself. Only 
 one power rises in the midst of universal degeneration, and 
 that is the rampant spirit, desperate and mahgnant oppression. 
 
 In the midst of the colossal calamity of tens of thousands 
 of innocent people murdered in cold blood, villages and cities 
 laid in ashes, and hundreds and thousands of men, women and 
 children on the verge of starvation and death from exposure 
 to the cold blasts of a highland winter, civilized nations of 
 the world stand appalled and appear to consider the difficulty 
 of the situation as unsurmountable. But it is not so. First, 
 there is the hope, if hope it may be called, in the principle that 
 evil destroys itself, while the good rises strong with the power 
 of self-propagation with every morning's sun. 
 
 The Turk is destroying himself. His government of 
 oppression is as great a curse to himself as to the Christian; 
 and Europe, in permitting and well-nigh supporting that op- 
 
202 ■ IIXUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 pression, has been as great a criminal against the Turk as 
 against the Christian. What is wanted, therefore, for the 
 Christian ''subject races" in Turkey, languishing under the 
 cruel yoke of this murderous oppression, is protection. If the 
 Christian Governments of Europe are unwilHng as yet to 
 separate the sword and the Koran, they are surely in honor 
 bound to extend the protection they so easily can extend to 
 the Christian population in the Turkish Empire, and prac- 
 tically isolate the Mohammedan with his sword and his Koran. 
 That is the efficient remedy of the situation, and one which, 
 in the name of justice and humanity, honor and civilization, 
 all believers in human rights can demand at the hands of those 
 who have the power to apply it. Pure air and good soil are 
 the best disinfectants. Before the swelling tide of Christian 
 civilization, with its bracing atmosphere of justice and liberty, 
 and the healthful soil of industry and continued well doing, 
 the Mohammedan will be driven away as the floating clouds 
 and the pestilential miasma are blown away before the breath 
 of the mighty north wind, and nature blossoms into full life 
 in the warm light of heaven. 
 
 IV. The fourth cause of the horrors to the Armenians 
 of Turkey is the come-out through the present Sultan, or is 
 produced with the hands of Sultan Hamid 11. 
 
 The Mohammedan population in Turkey every year is 
 decreasing. When the present Sultan captured the throne 
 from his brother. Sultan Murad, the Turkish Government had 
 40,000,000 people; as soon as he girded the sword of Osman, 
 he began the great battle with Russia, and after the Turko- 
 Russian war he found himself with 18,000,000. Who are the 
 losers. Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Bosnia, 
 Herzegovina, a part of Macedonia, Cyprus and a part of Ar- 
 menia — practically the whole of Europe was lost for Turkey, 
 except Constantinople and the district Edirne or Adrianople. 
 
 Turkey is not an Empire any more, but it is a little King- 
 dom; rather a little feudal system, or, more accurately still, a 
 Httle anarchy. If it were not for mutual European jealousy, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 203 
 
 the Sultan could not keep his anarchism. Yet many still 
 think that the Ottoman Empire is a great one, a powerful Gov- 
 ernment. They look at the Sultan and his dominion through 
 a magnifying glass. This shows ignorance. The Turks are 
 decayed and are decaying. The sick man of Turkey is the 
 dead man of Turkey, and ought to be buried; but the European 
 powers do not bury him because there are precious stones and 
 jewelry in the cofhn; no matter how bad the corpse smells, they 
 will endure it. 
 
 And the bad smell of the Sultan is killing hundreds of 
 thousands of Christians; but the dead stays where it is, and 
 may stay for some years; but the end will come before many 
 have gone by. When I say that the days of the Sultan are 
 numbered, and the brutal Turkish misrule will cease, many 
 Armenians will rejoin ''that the same has often been said long 
 years since, though the Empire remains to-day, and seems 
 likely to remain." The fact is, however, that during my or 
 your own life more than half of it has gone to pieces, and the 
 fragment which remains will go to pieces soon. Permit me to 
 say that all former prophecies have been mistaken because 
 those who made them have judged and misjudged the 
 situation from an occidental standpoint; I judge it from 
 that of a native. Who knows the realities as only a 
 native can? What can an English ambassador or an Ameri- 
 can minister in Constantinople, staying perhaps two or three 
 years, and entertained and decorated by the crafty Sultan, 
 know about the internal state of Turkey? Having traveled 
 through the country, lived and preached for years at a time, 
 preached in different cities, including Constantinople, I can 
 see signs of a break-up that a foreigner would not notice. 
 
 The reason the Turkish population does not increase is 
 this: The army has to be made up of Mohammedans, partly 
 because the Sultan does not put arms into the hands of 
 Christians, for obvious reasons, since they have no motive 
 to uphold and every motive to fight him, and partly because 
 to be a soldier in Turkey is a holy service, the privilege of 
 
204 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Mohammedans alone. As there is a large standing army, 
 nearly all the Mohammedan youths have to become soldiers. 
 Their service begins when they are about twenty years old. 
 The shortest term is five years; for many it is ten; and even 
 after that there are many who cannot escape. If a young 
 Mohammedan is not married at twenty, obviously he cannot 
 marry until twenty-five anyway, and perhaps thirty — very late 
 for a country population. If he is married, his wife is virtu- 
 ally a widow for from five to ten years. Now the reader can 
 see my drift. With marriages so late, and husbands so long 
 absent, Turkish families are small. They do not make good 
 the deaths. And there is a still plainer cause: The soldiers 
 being very poorly fed, and constant fighting going on, ninety 
 per cent, die in the army, and so never have any families; the 
 flower of the nation perishes barren. Those who survive and 
 return are pale and sick, good for nothing, a burden to their 
 families and to the nation. The Armenians have to support 
 the Sultan's army, since they do not furnish it; but they rear 
 families and are drowning out the Turk. 
 
 Another cause of decrease is the pilgrimage to Mecca, 
 where Mohammed was born: On an everage, five hundred 
 thousand pilgrims go there every year — of course not all from 
 Turkey, but most of them — and every year about 50,000 or 
 100,000 of them die of cholera or some other disease before 
 reaching home, from drinking the water of the Holy Well 
 (Zemzorm Sooji), which is full of unholy foulness. Even 
 those who live and return home take that water to their fami- 
 lies, and many of the latter die too. Cholera is perpetual in 
 Turkey, and it originates at Mecca. When I was in Adana, 
 600 at one time went on the pilgrimage, and only 50 of them 
 returned to their home. It is a great virtue to die where Mo- 
 hammed was born, or to drink that water and die, and they 
 are going to him at a rapid rate. Just last year, when the 
 English and Russian and French consuls at Jiddah, the sea- 
 port of Mecca, estabhshed a quarantine to detain those com- 
 ing from Mecca, and bringing cholera, they were murdered by 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 20$ 
 
 the Mohammedan Arabs, who said they were interfering with 
 the sacred rehgion, and the Suhan had to pay the indemnity. 
 
 Another cause of decrease is the polygamy. People natu- 
 rally think that marrying more than one wife should increase 
 the number of children; but the facts emphatically prove the 
 reverse. The polygamous Turks do not increase as fast as 
 the Christians who have but one wife. 
 
 Hence the Mohammedans are fast decreasing in Turkey, 
 and the Sultan is terrified, and hopes by kilhng a large part of 
 the Christians and forcing the survivors to accept Moham- 
 medanism, that their power of multiplication may be the boon 
 of a Mohammedan people. Out of the 18,000,000 inhabitants 
 of Turkey, 6,000,000 are native Christians, about 1,500,000 
 of them Armenians. This leaves only 12,000,000 for the whole 
 Mohammedan population in the present Turkish dominion. 
 The internal ruin of Turkey is made by massacres and forced 
 conversions. That the Sultan has been planning this massacre 
 ever since the Turko-Russian war is evidenced by the fact 
 that after the war he encouraged or ordered a number of Mo- 
 hammedan tribes — Circassians, Georgians, Kurds and Lazes 
 — to emigrate from Russia to Armenia, confiscated masses of 
 Christian property, and gave it to them, and directed them to 
 reduce the number of Armenian Christians by any way they 
 saw fit, giving them full license to do what they would with 
 Armenians, without penalty. You know what that means 
 with fierce tribes of human wild animals, cruel and foul, and 
 he knew what it meant too, and intended it to mean that. 
 Before his time the Christians far outnumbered the Moham- 
 medans in Armenia proper; but under his "government" — his 
 deliberate policy of extermination — great numbers fled the 
 country, numbers were killed and their women made concu- 
 bines to Alohammedans, and now the Mohammedans are more 
 numerous in Armenia than the Armenian Christians. And if 
 the Sultan is permitted to go on, he will kill a million more; 
 the rest will be "converted." And then he will call the atten- 
 tion of European powers to this fact and say: "See here, 
 
2o6 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 you ask me to reform Armenia ; Armenia is reformed. There 
 is no Armenia; the people in that part of my Empire are all 
 Mohammedans, and they are satisfied with my government. 
 What do you want from me? What right have you to interfere 
 with my country and religion?" That is the plan of the 
 Sultan; but that is bad fortune for him; and still it is the real 
 cause of the eternal ruin of Turkey. Because through his plan 
 he has lost nearly 100,000 of noble Armenian people, and at 
 the present time more than 500,000 of Armenian people 
 have need only of bread. They have nothing in hand. And 
 at the same time the Sultan has destroyed and burned many 
 thousands of houses and shops and farms. And now he can 
 not get the principal taxes which the Armenians pay to the 
 government, because they have nothing. They are not able 
 to pay the poll tax, $2 per head, including the new-born male 
 baby, and tax on real estate, and land tax, and house tax, 
 namely, 50 piasters on 1,000 of the value of the house; and 
 Khamtchoori, namely, 5 piasters or 20 cents per head of sheep 
 — one-eighth of the value of the sheep; and tithe of agricul- 
 tural products. So that the Turkish Government has to-day 
 less money, less manhood, less wisdom, less power, less 
 patriotism and less confidence in itself, and has ruined itself. 
 
 V. The fifth cause of the horrors of the Armenians: It 
 has come out with the Eastern question; or I say that it is the 
 product of the Treaty of Berlin. 
 
 It is quite needless to remark that Turkey, instead of do- 
 ing anything to improve the condition of the Armenians, has 
 done much to make it worse during the past fifteen years. 
 The question now arises. What have the powers signatory to 
 the Berlin Treaty done to compel the Sublime Porte "to carry 
 out the improvements and reforms" demanded in the sixty- 
 first Article? And what steps has Great Britain taken In ad- 
 dition to discharge the additional obligation for the improve- 
 ment of Armenia which she assumed by the so-called Cyprus 
 Convention? 
 
 We find that in November, 1879, the English Govern- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 20/ 
 
 ment, seeing that matters throughout Asia Minor were really 
 going from bad to worse, went the length of ordering an Eng- 
 lish squadron to the Archipelago for the purpose of a naval 
 demonstration. The Turkish Government was greatly ex- 
 cited, and with a view to getting the order counterm.anded, 
 made the fairest promises. 
 
 But England was not the only power aroused. On June 
 II, 1880, an Identical Vote of the Great Powers demanded the 
 execution of the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin which had re- 
 mained in suspense. On the conclusion of the Identical A^ote 
 a clear recognition is made of the fact that the interest of 
 Europe, as well as that of the Ottoman Empire, requires the 
 execution of the sixty-first Article of the Treaty of Berlin, and 
 that the joint and incessant action of the Powers can alone 
 bring about this result. 
 
 On J^dy 5th the Turkish Foreign Minister sent a note 
 in reply to the representatives of the Powers. "It is of great 
 length and small real value, except as combining in a remark- 
 able degree the distinguishing characteristics of modern Ot- 
 toman diplomacy, namely: First, great facility in assimilat- 
 ing the administrative and constitutional jargon of civilized 
 countries; second, consummate cunning in concealing under 
 deceptive appearances the barbarous reality of deeds and in- 
 tentions; third, cool audacity in making promises which there 
 is neither the power nor desire to make good; and finally, a 
 paternal and oily tone, Intended to create the impression that 
 the Turkish Government is the victim of unjust prejudices and 
 odious calumnies." 
 
 As soon as the reply of the Porte was received, Earl 
 Granville sent copies to the British consuls in Asia Minor, 
 inviting observation thereon. Eight detailed replies to this 
 request are published in the Blue Book. They concur in a 
 crushing condemnation of the Ottoman Government. 
 
 These conclusions, moderately and very diffusely ex- 
 pressed in diplomatic phraseology, are reflected in the col- 
 lective Note which was sent on September ii, 1880, to the 
 
2o8 ILLUSTR/iTED ARMENIA 
 
 Sublime Porte by the ambassadors of the Great Powers. On 
 October 3d, without making the sHghtest references to cen- 
 sures which had been addressed to it, and even appearing 
 completely to ignore the collective Note, the Porte, assum- 
 ing a haughty tone, merely notified the Powers of what it 
 intended to do. 
 
 In a circular of the 12th of January, 1881, Earl Gran- 
 ville tried again to induce the other five powers to join in 
 further representations to the Sublime Porte on the subject. 
 But the other powers seem to have thought that the diplo- 
 matic comedy had gone far enough, and sent evasive answers. 
 Prince Bismarck expressed the opinion that there would be 
 "serious inconvenience" in raising the Armenian question, 
 and France hid behind Germany. Such action by the Powers 
 had been anticipated by the British ambassador at Constan- 
 tinople, Mr. Goschen, who had already written to Earl Gran- 
 ville. "If they (the Powers) refuse, or give only lukewarm sup- 
 port, the responsibility will not lie with Her Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment." The whole correspondence was simply a matter 
 of form. I have condensed this outline of events since the 
 Treaty of Berlin from Armenia, the Armenians, and the 
 Treaties, following as far as possible the words of the writer, 
 M. G. Rohlin-Jacquemyns, a high authority on International 
 Law. From 1881 to the present time, almost without excep- 
 tion, England, on her part, has allowed no mention in her 
 Blue Books of the manner in which her proteges and those 
 of Europe have been treated. Her energies have seemed to 
 be devoted to stifling the ever-increasing cry of despair from 
 Armenia, instead of attempting her rescue or relief. The 
 other powers are only less guilty in proportion as they have 
 done less to perpetuate Ottoman misrule, and have made less 
 pretence of sympathy and help for the oppressed. Freeman 
 says of England: "By waging a war on behalf of the Turk: 
 by signing a treaty which left the nations of southeastern Eu- 
 rope (and Asia Minor) at the mercy of the Turk ; by propping 
 up the wicked power of the Turk in many ways, we have done 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 209 
 
 a great wrong to the nations which are under his yoke; and 
 that wrong which we have ourselves done it is our duty to 
 
 undo." 
 
 It is thus clearly seen that both the sixty-first Article of 
 the Berlin Treaty, and the Cyprus Convention as well, have 
 been of positively no value in securing for the Armenians any 
 of the reforms which were therein recognized as imperatively 
 called for and guaranteed. It is also clear that the condition 
 of Armenia, and of Turkey as a whole, is even vastly worse 
 and more hopeless than it was twenty years ago. 
 
 This condition I further maintain is in large measure di- 
 rectly attributable to those treaties themselves and to the atti- 
 tude subsequently assumed by the Powers which signed them. 
 It is said that the Armenians have brought trouble on them- 
 selves by stirring up the Turks. T ask what stirred the Arme- 
 nians up? It was primarily the sixty-first Article of the Treaty 
 of Berlin. Many a time has that precious paragraph been 
 quoted to me in the wilds of Kurdistan by common Armenian 
 artisans and ignorant villagers. They had welcomed it as a 
 second evangel, and believed the word of England as they did 
 the Gospel. 
 
 It was that Article which roused them from the torpor of 
 centuries. There is another sequel to the Berlin Treaty and 
 to the attitude of the Powers, namely: Its effect on the 
 Turks themselves. The natural enmity and contempt of the 
 Moslem rulers and population generally for the Christian sub- 
 jects has been greatly increased by reason of the pressure 
 which foreign powers have occasionally brought to bear on 
 the Turks in order to procure relief for the Christian. To be 
 sure, the only hope of such relief is from without. But the 
 pressure should not be of a petty, nagging and galling nature. 
 This Is worse than nothing. What is needed is prompt, de- 
 cisive and final action. 
 
 A recent writer wisely says that the Armenian question, 
 If it ever be settled at all, must be taken out of the Turks* 
 hands, whether he like it or not. . . . And we have an 
 
2IO ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Opportunity now, which may never come our way again, of 
 settHng a difficulty which if allowed to develop much longer, 
 will prove more fruitful of mischief than any with which we 
 have been confronted for a generation or more. Really it is 
 the natural outcom.e of the horrible situation in Armenia since 
 the Treaty of Berlin, and the disease is bound to grow more 
 virulent and contagious until the European doctors apply vig- 
 orous and radical treatment to the ''sick m.an." It is difficult 
 to see how anything but a surgical operation can be helpful. 
 The knife has frequently been used in the case of this incur- 
 able patient during the present century, and always with ex- 
 cellent results, as for instance in the case of Greece, Lebanon, 
 Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Egypt. A situation in 
 many respects parallel to that in Armenia existed until lately 
 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the European powers never 
 do that, though at the Treaty of Berlin they destroyed the 
 nation of Armenia, and also the population of Turkey. 
 
 VI. The sixth cause of the horrors to the Armenians of 
 Turkey. The Mohammedan population in Turkey decreased 
 while the Christian increased. When the Sultan Abdool Ha- 
 mid II. was enthroned Turkey had 40,000,000 population; as 
 soon as he girded the sword of Osman, he began the battle 
 with Russia; after the Turko-Russian war he found himself 
 with 18,000,000, Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, 
 Bosnia, Herzegovina, a part of Macedonia, Cyprus and a part 
 of Armenia. Practically the whole European part of Turkey 
 except Constantinople and the district Edirna or Adrianople 
 left. 
 
 Turkey is not an empire any more, but she is. a small king- 
 dom, rather a little feudal system or more accurately still a lit- 
 tle Anarchy., 
 
 If it was not for mutual European jealousy the Sultan 
 could not keep his anarchism. Yet many think that the Otto- 
 man Empire is a great one and powerful government. 
 
 They look at the Sultan and his dominion through a 
 magnifying glass, which shows their ignorance. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 211 
 
 The Turks were decayed, are decaying yet. Hence the 
 Mohammedans are fast decreasing in Turkey and the SuUan 
 is terrified but hopes by kilhng a large part of the Christians, 
 he forces the survivors to accept his rehgion, that their power 
 of muhipHcation may be the boon of a Mohammedan people. 
 
 Out of the 18,000,000 inhabitants of Turkey, 6,000,000 are 
 native Christians, half of them are or rather were Armenians ; 
 which leaves only 12,000,000 Mohammedan population in the 
 present Turkish dominions and she grows less, while the Chris- 
 tians grow more. 
 
 The Sultan, a few years ago, made the obtaining of a 
 marriage certificate compulsory for Armenians, in order to 
 decrease them, but the Turkish authorities found out that it 
 would be almost impossible to notify them according to the 
 order of their Sultan, because it would cost a great deal to es- 
 tablish the order; on the other hand, since many years there 
 have been no marriages in Armenia. The authorities will not 
 give certificates on any terms and prevent any more Chris- 
 tians being born. The daughters and young brides of the 
 murdered thousands are made mothers, violated by the Turks 
 and Kurds. 
 
 The Christians have been increasing, not only from within 
 but from without, too. Europeans have begun to go where- 
 ever railroads go, hence another reason for massacre and 
 forced conversion comes out by that way. 
 
 The Sultan has been planning this massacre ever since 
 the Turko-Russian war is evidenced by the fact that after the 
 war he encouraged or ordered a number of Mohammedan 
 tribes — Circassians, Georgians, Kurds and Lazes — to immi- 
 grate from Russia to Armenia, confiscated masses of Chris- 
 tians' property and gave it to them ; directed them to reduce the 
 number of Armenian Christians by any way they could, at the 
 revolt they should not be punished. 
 
 You know what it means with fierce tribes of human wild 
 animals, cruel and fraud; he knew what it meant too and in- 
 tended it to mean that. Before his time the Christians far 
 
212 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 outnumbered the Mohammedans in Armenia proper, but un- 
 der his government his dehberate policy of extermination, 
 great numbers of them fled from the country. Many of them 
 were killed and their women made concubines to Mohamme- 
 dans, for this reason they killed those who were between the 
 ages of 15 and 50. Now the Mohammedans are more numer- 
 ous in Armenia than the Armenians ; if the Sultan is permitted 
 to go on he will kill a million more; the rest will be "con- 
 verted," and then he will call the attention of the powers to 
 this fact, and say: "See here, you ask me to reform Armenia, 
 there are no more Armenians here, because the people in that 
 part of my empire are all Mohammedans and they are satis- 
 fied with my government. 
 
 "What do you want of me anyway? What right have 
 you to interfere with my country and religion?" that is his 
 proper plan. 
 
 When the Berlin congress was held the Armenians were 
 the majority in his dominions ; the congress decided on reform 
 for it so that Sultan accepted. But he gave with the full in- 
 tention of depopulating and converting it, and then telling the 
 powers there was no need of reform there. He was doing 
 this a few years ago incessantly, and as remorselessly as a fiend. 
 Therefore you can understand the cause of the oppression and 
 the persecutions in Turkey. 
 
 VIT. The seventh cause of the horrors to the Armenians 
 of Turkey. The Christian people are going to be rich and 
 educated, but Mohammedans generally are poor and ignor- 
 ant. 
 
 The Turks have never cared for money or education. 
 They have always said, "Let the Christians make the money, 
 and we will take it from them whenever we choose. We will 
 be the rulers, the soldiers, the police; we will have the sword 
 in our hands. Then their property and their women too will 
 be ours at will, and we can force them to become Mohamme- 
 dans." Such being their reasoning, they took good of their 
 swords and their guns, which were furnished to them from 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 213 
 
 Europe and the United States. The Christian peoples be- 
 lieving- that the great Christian powers would never permit 
 the Turks to wreak their murderous and shameful will on them, 
 did not risk the vengeance of the Turks by secretly buying 
 weapons, nor train themselves in the use of arms. They 
 trained their minds, got education, traveled in Europe and 
 this United States, enlightened themselves in every way they 
 could. They sharpened their intellects rather than their 
 swords. They learned to make money also; they established 
 all the business houses in Turkey, all the Turks that get em- 
 ployment in the cities get it from the Christian merchants. 
 As far as Turkey has any finances, they are in the hands of 
 Christians. Go where you will in Turkey, seaboard or interior, 
 all the money and education belongf to the Christians. Poverty 
 and ignorance are the portion of the Turks. Ninety per cent 
 of the Christians know how to read and write, while ninety 
 per cent of the Turks do not. Sixty per cent of the Moham- 
 medan propertv has been sold to the Christian peoples within 
 twenty years. When I was in Turkey during the last twenty 
 years, the Mohammedans were always selling and the Chris- 
 tians always buving-. One day a Turk was going- to sell his 
 field to a Christian, and they went to the government office 
 to make the transfer. The officer in charge said he could not 
 transfer the property of a Mohammedan to a Christian. This 
 was something new. "Whv is that?" they asked. "The gov- 
 ernor forbids it," said the officer. "He told him that hereafter 
 it should not be done." Finallv both went to the governor 
 and asked him why he forbade it. The governor replied: 
 "Of late the Christians have bought up the fields of the Mo- 
 hammedans, till they own the greater part of them; if we let 
 them go on they will own evervthing and the Mohammedans 
 will be left without property. Therefore I forbid it. No Mo- 
 hammedan shall hereafter sell any property to a Christian." 
 He told the Turk he might sell his field to another Mohamme- 
 dan, but not to a Christian. "All right," said the Turk, "I 
 will sell it to you then at the same price, or may be a little 
 
214 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 less. Will you buy it? because I need the money to support 
 my family." "I cannot buy it," said the governor. ''I have 
 no money." "I know that," replied the Turk, "and not only 
 you, but all the other Mohammedans have no money either; 
 they are all poor. I cannot find any Turk who has the money 
 to buy my field, and I need money and I have to sell it to that 
 Christian." Finally the governor was forced to give permis- 
 sion and the Christian bought the field. This is only one case, 
 but it is typical. There are thousands of just such, and this 
 is another cause which aroused the jealousy of the Sultan and 
 his subordinates to order the massacre of the Christians and 
 the seizure of their property. The Sultan is just the same. 
 He is outwardly very pleasant, very gentlemanly, very hu- 
 mane. He will promise almost anything, but he will do noth- 
 ing, and he calls his enraptured guests dogs and hogs behind 
 their backs. Who knows how many times he has called Lord 
 Salisbury, the German Emperor, or Russian Czar, who are 
 helping him to kill the Christian or Armenians, heathen dogs? 
 See the promises of the Sultan in 1878, in the Berlin Treaty, 
 Article 61 : — "The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out w^ith- 
 out further delay the improvements and reforms demanded by 
 local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the Ar- 
 menians, and to guarantee their security against Circassians 
 and Kurds. It will periodically make known the steps taken 
 to this effect to the powers, who will superintend their ap- 
 plication." These promises were m^ade eighteen or nineteen 
 years ago, and the reforms were to be made, "without further 
 delay." His reforms have consisted In ordering Circassians 
 and Kurds to murder and plunder them. Since the Berlin 
 Treaty, the Sultan, calling the European Kings, Emperors and 
 Princes heathen hogs and Christian dogs, directly and indi- 
 rectly, he has killed nearly 200,000 Armenian Christians. But 
 still 500,000 Armenians remain today who need only daily 
 bread. That was his reform. 
 
 I often hear it said in this country, "Let us help the poor 
 Armenians," and I feel very indignant. Poor Armenians! 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 21$ 
 
 There are poor among the Armenians as among all nations, 
 but the Armenians as a body are not poor; they are the richest 
 people in Turkey. That is one reason why they are plundered 
 and killed. I do not want the American people to help the 
 Armenians as a poor, ignorant, miserable people, but because 
 they deserve help as a rich, noble, Christian nation, being 
 rusted out by plunder and murder, for the benefit of, and by 
 means of a horde of savages. 
 
 After the last war, and loss of the provinces, the Sultan 
 encouraged the Mohammedan population of European Turkey 
 to emigrate to Asiatic Turkey, that they might not live under 
 Christians, and that they might increase the number of Mo- 
 hammedans in the Asiatic part. The slaughter of the i\r- 
 menians and the confiscation of their property forms part of 
 the scheme to make room for them. Before his time the 
 Armenians in Armenia outnumbered the Turks; but the mas- 
 sacres, the occupation of the farms and houses by the savages 
 let loose on them, and the emigration of many more Armenians 
 to Persia and Russia, have greatly diminished their numbers. 
 Of course they are not permitted to emigrate ; they simply fly. 
 About 200,000 have actually perished. As to the forced con- 
 versions the Sultan does not care a particle for Islamism, but 
 wants to please the Muslim and finds this an agreeable way 
 to do it. As to the converts from Islamism to Christianity, 
 they are ordered to go to Constantinople and are killed there. 
 Hundreds and thousands of the INIohammedan Turks are 
 Christians in secret, but do not dare to confess it. These are 
 the ones who helped and protected the Armenians during the 
 recent atrocities. Some six or seven years ago a number of 
 such professed the Christian religion publicly; they were at 
 once ordered to go to Constantinople and every one of them 
 was murdered by order of the Sultan. When the represen- 
 tatives of the Christian powers asked about them the Sultan 
 denied that they had come there at all. This was the method 
 of their assassination: The Sultan has several pleasure boats, 
 and in one of those boats he fitted up an air-tight room with an 
 
2l6 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 air-pump; each night one of the converts was taken from 
 prison and put into this room, the air was pumped out, and he 
 was suffocated; then an iron chain was hooked around him and 
 he was thrown into the Bosphorus. One by one all of them 
 were so murdered. How did the author of this book discover 
 the secret? Well, when in Constantinople I had an intimate 
 friend among the engineers. The engineer of this death boat 
 told my friend about it and he told me. 
 
 And the Sultan is not simply a murderer by proxy and 
 official order; he is a murderer himself personally. When in 
 Constantinople I learned from several authoritative sources 
 that he killed with his own revolver several of his servants for 
 no cause whatever, but merely from suspicion or rage. He 
 always keeps a revolver in his pocket, and whomever in the 
 palace he suspects he shoots. 
 
 Vni. The eighth cause of the horrors to the Armenians, 
 these are come through the great powers of the European. 
 
 During the last several years Constantinople has been the 
 great battle ground of European diplomacy. England was 
 the first in the field. The occasion of her action was the de- 
 struction of the Armenian villages and the massacres of many 
 of the people in the Kurdish mountains near Sassoun, in Au- 
 gust and September, 1894. The facts were denied by the 
 Turkish government, and she demanded an investigation and 
 such reforms as should insure the safety and well-being of the 
 Armenians. She invited Russia and France to unite with 
 her in securing both these ends. They consented. Italy ex- 
 pressed a wish to join them, but this offer was declined. Aus- 
 tria and Germany were not invited, and did not wish to be, as 
 they had no interest in Asiatic Turkey. 
 
 England, France and Russia worked together in apparent 
 harmony, secured a Turkish commission of investigation and 
 appointed their own delegates to oversee its action. This 
 commission, appointed in November, 1894, continued its sit- 
 tings until July, 1895, and a report of its doings has just been 
 published in an EngHsh Blue Book. Meanwhile the English, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 2\J 
 
 Russian and French ambassadors devoted their attention to 
 the elaboration of a scheme of reforms for the six provinces 
 in which the Armenians were most numerous. This was 
 completed and presented to the Sultan as the minimum of re- 
 forms, which the three powers could accept in harmony and 
 his immediate acceptance of them demanded. This was in 
 May, 1895. After a delay of more than two weeks, the Sultan 
 returned an evasive and unsatisfactory answer. Up to this 
 point the three powers seem to have worked together in har- 
 mony. The other powers, when appealed to by the Sultan, 
 declined to interfere. 
 
 The question then arose what was to be done. Should 
 these demands be presented as an ultimatum, and the Sultan 
 be forced to accept them and carry them out? or should they 
 be left where they were as so much good advice, which he 
 might take or reject? England was in favor of coercion, but 
 Russia and France opposed it. Just at this time the Liberal 
 government in England resigned: the Conservatives came in 
 with a practical interregnum until after the election in July. 
 Lord Salisbury took up the question as he found it. Russia 
 and France persisted in their refusal to admit of the use of 
 force, and gave this assurance to the Sultan. Still the three 
 powers pressed their demands diplomatically, and the English 
 fleet came into the vicinity of the Dardanelles. Germany ex- 
 pressed her sympathy with the Sultan, but still advised him 
 to come to terms with the three powers. At the end of Sep- 
 tember came the outbreak at Constantinople and the massacre 
 of some two hundred Armenians in the streets. Three weeks 
 later the Sultan accepted, with some unimportant modifica- 
 tions, the scheme of reforms presented to him in May, 1895, 
 and here ended the alliance of England, France and Russia. 
 There had been no real harmony between them for some time. 
 Russia and France remained in it not to help the Armenians, 
 but to control the action of England, and, if possible, prevent 
 her sending her fleet to Constantinople, still there was no 
 positive acknowledged break. 
 
2l8 ' ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 Meanwhile there had been massacres at Trebezand, Ak- 
 Hissar, Baiburt, Gmmushkhane, Erzingan, Diarbekr, and 
 other places, which showed that the situation was far more 
 grave than any one in Europe had supposed. 
 
 The excitement in England was intense. It was believed 
 that there was a deliberate purpose to exterminate the Armen- 
 ians, and the English government believed that armed in- 
 tervention was necessary to dethrone the Sultan, or at least 
 to limit his power. Exactly what happened between the first 
 of October and the middle of November between the great 
 powers we do not know. There is reason to believe that Ger- 
 many proposed to England to join the Triple Alliance, in 
 which case the four powers would go to Constantinople to- 
 gether. England refused and Germany resented it, and threw 
 all her influence into the scale with Russia. At this point was 
 formed the concert of the six powers, which was simply a 
 mutual agreement that no power should act independently, 
 and all the fleets gathered in the ^gean to watch each other. 
 By the end of December it was evident that nothing would be 
 done, and one by one they stole silently away, leaving the 
 Sultan apparently master of the situation. There is no doubt 
 that all through the year the Sultan showed consummate skill 
 in this diplomatic conflict, and a better knowledge of the situ- 
 ation than most of the statesmen concerned in it. Technically 
 he won the battle. England has been beaten and humiliated 
 and the Sultan is in close alliance with Russia, France and 
 Germany, stronger, if he can trust his allies, than ever before. 
 The Continental governments have had a perfectly free hand 
 in this conflict, because there has been no popular feeling of 
 sympathy for the Armenians. The Continental press has either 
 ignored the massacres or represented them as due to the revo- 
 lutionary spirit of the Armenians. *^Any way," they have said, 
 "who are the Armenians? What interest have we in these 
 Asiatics?" 
 
 But can the Sultan trust his aUies? In fact he has but 
 one; France and Germany are sim.ply bidding against one 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 219 
 
 another for the friendships of Russia and follow her lead at 
 Constantinople. The real victor in this conflict is not Turkey 
 but Russia — who has played the part of a disinterested friend 
 of the Sultan so well that she has for the first time in history 
 driven England off the field and became the sole protector of 
 the Ottomaji Empire, thus realizing the dream of centuries. 
 The first result of this triumph is a close alliance of Russia 
 with Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro, and the overthrow of 
 Austrian influence in the Balkan peninsular to be consum- 
 mated this week at Sofia. 
 
 Russia is now supreme in this part of the world and can 
 do what she pleases. What she will do with her newly ac- 
 quired influence remains to be seen. She will do nothing 
 for the Armenians, that is certain. She has not professed any 
 interest in them. She has before her three possible courses 
 of action from which she must choose one. She may seize 
 upon the present opportunity, the best she has ever had to 
 come to Constantinople. 
 
 First, perhaps, as the friend and support of the Sultan; 
 but any way, come to stay. The alliance with the Balkan 
 states makes this easy, even if the Sultan should be inclined to 
 resist. But he will not. It is only necessary to stir up serious 
 trouble in Constantinople to make the coming appear as a 
 friendly act of a trusted ally. If no effort is made to put a 
 stop to the troubles in the interior or here, this will be an in- 
 dication that this plan is in favor at the Russian embassy here, 
 if not at St. Petersburg, and may be realized soon. 
 
 Second, possibility for Russia is to make her alliance with 
 Turkey and the Balkan states as agreeable to them as possible, 
 to do her best to restore and preserve order, and with them 
 as allies to guard her rear and flank, to attack Austria and bring 
 all the Southern Slavs under her own rule, or at least under her 
 protection. This is the dream of the Pan-Slavists, who are 
 the strongest and most active party in Russia. This would 
 mean a general European war, for Germany and Italy are 
 bound by treaty to defend Austria from any such attack. 
 
220 ILLl STRATED ARMENIA 
 
 France would improve her opportunity to recover Alsace and 
 Lorraine. England pretends to believe that the old Austrian 
 Alliance is no longer of any value to her, but the chances are 
 that she would become involved in such a war. 
 
 The third possibility for Russia is to maintain the present 
 state of things here — to continue to play with France and Ger- 
 many, giving encouragement to both and securing the aid of 
 both to destroy English influence in China and to gain a com- 
 manding position there herself, with some compensation to 
 France and Germany, this might lead to a war with England. 
 
 "It is plain that Russia cannot do more than one of these 
 things, and to decide which is the most desirable and practic- 
 able will demand the highest statesmanship. My own opinion is 
 that no deliberate choice will be made, but that, as in most 
 Russian afifairs, the decision will be left to chance and be de- 
 termined by some accident, by a massacre in Constantinople, 
 by some resentful action on the part of Austria in connection 
 with the Balkan states, or by some event in the far East. 
 Russia is never in a hurry. The Czar has determined to have 
 grand coronation ceremonies in May, and will hardly be in- 
 clined to stir up trouble anywhere before that time. 
 
 The great powers have each of them some general ideas 
 of what they consider to be their interests. Each has a policy 
 of some kind. But now that the telegraph has put an end to 
 all independent action on the part of ambassadors, and every- 
 thing is managed by the foreign ministers, diplomacy has be- 
 come a hand to mouth affair. There is very little planning 
 for the future or for the people of the East. 
 
 Listen to what the haughty young ruler of Germany says : 
 'Tt is better that the Armenians be killed than the peace of 
 Europe disturbed." 
 
 The Sultan, to begin with, has proved himself to be one 
 of the boldest and most skilful diplomatists in Europe, and 
 his point of view is so totally different from that of Christian 
 rulers that no one can calculate in what direction it will lead 
 him. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 221 
 
 With such elements of uncertainty in the methods of 
 diplomacy and in the men who direct it, it would be folly to 
 venture upon any predictions for the future. Things may 
 drift on for months or years very much as they are today, or 
 some unforeseen incident may change the whole face of 
 Europe. 
 
 It is perfectly true that the government, whose deeds we 
 have to impeach, is a Mohammedan government, and it is 
 perfectly true that the sufferers under those outrages, under 
 those actions, are Christian sufferers. The Mohammedan 
 subjects of Turkey sufifer a great deal, but what they suffer is 
 only in the way of the ordinary excesses and defects of an in- 
 tolerably bad government — perhaps the worst on the face of 
 the earth. Well, I say, the great powers gave chance or priv- 
 ilege to Turkish Sultan to ruin himself, and also the popula- 
 tion of Turkev. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MASSACRE AND MARTYRDOM OF ARMENIA. 
 
 Turkish atrocities in Armenia are not new things. The 
 previous brief history of this people, especially since the intro- 
 duction of Christianity into Armenia, has furnished the reader 
 with sufficient facts to convince him that the real troubles and 
 atrocities of this nation began from the time of their conversion 
 to Christianity, and has come down to the present time. 
 
 What the Armenians are now is not less than what they 
 have suffered in the fifth century from the hands of the fire- 
 worshipping Persians. Had they then received Zoroastrian- 
 ism, forced upon them, they might have changed the entire 
 aspect of the history of Western Asia, or had they embraced 
 Mohammedanism in the seventh century, when fanatic mis- 
 sionary soldiers of Mohammed fell upon them, sword in hand, 
 and massacred thousands upon thousands in cold blood, be- 
 cause they refused to accept the sensual religion of a sensual 
 and bloody man, again the history of Western Asia might have 
 been differently written from the present. They have gone on 
 for centuries and left but a fraction of the population it once 
 had. But let us disregard old history and come to the subject 
 of the present, those that were begun about the last of August, 
 1894, and to the end of August, 1896, which are horrible 
 atrocities, and oppressions which had been done among the* 
 Armenians. Practically that begins with Hamid H., the pres- 
 ent Sultan. He began his persecutions nearly twenty years 
 ago, but on a small scale. He had continually devised new 
 methods of getting rid of the Armenians without responsibility. 
 Finally he hit on the plan of arming the Kurds and letting 
 them loose with full power to do their worst. He summoned 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 223 
 
 the Kurdish chiefs, hundreds of them, to Constantinople, and 
 entertained them in the palace, armed them with modern rifles, 
 and sent them to Armenia on their mission. The pretence 
 under which he did it was worthy of him; he called them the 
 ''Hamidish Cavalry," and pretended that they were a sort of 
 mounted police who were to keep order and protect the Ar- 
 menians, but the Armenians knew well what they were for. 
 The European travellers and newspaper correspondents took 
 it all seriously and talked of his "civilizing the Kurds," etc. 
 Now these were only the chiefs; each chief had a large follow- 
 ing of tribesmen, so that about 30,000 Kurds in all were given 
 arms and ordered to go to work exterminating the Armenians. 
 This work began in i8gi, but on a small scale, and in a 
 very crafty way so that it should not have the appearance of a 
 premeditated massacre; then it was stopped till about 1894, 
 when they were encouraged to begin again, publicly, and with 
 full swing. It was decided to begin in Sassoun, a district far 
 from the sea, with no roads and a sparse population; if suc- 
 cessful in escaping the report there, he could carry out the 
 massacre through all Armenia, for which ''reforms" were asked 
 and promised. He ordered Zekii Pasha to have his soldiers 
 ready, and meantime to have the "Hamidish Cavalry," the 
 Kurdish chiefs and tribesmen ready to attack and kill all the 
 Armenians in Sassoun. This city lies between Moosh and 
 Bitlis, in a mountainous country, and the Armenians in Sas- 
 soun are almost a brave people. The district has about sixty 
 villages and towns, and more than 12,000 people in T894 had 
 been killed. The chief commander, Zekii Pasha, and the regu- 
 lar soldiers and the armed Kurds, surrounded the district from 
 all sides, and in about a month had slaughtered the entire 
 population. It was reported that Zekii carried on his breast 
 an order from the Sultan as follows: "Whoever spares man, 
 vvoman or child is disloyal." After he had finished his task 
 he received great rewards from the Sultan, and is now one of 
 his most esteemed commanders. Before themassacre of thepeo- 
 ple at Sassoun, the Sultan's order to Zekii Pasha was to 
 
224 ILLUSTEATED ARMENIA 
 
 Spare neither man, woman nor child, but as the men met the 
 enemy first, they were killed first. When the women's turn 
 came, the Turks and Kurds abused all they could get hold of 
 and then told them that if they would deny Christ and accept 
 Mohammedianism,and become their wives, they should live, but 
 if they refused, every one of them, according to the Sultan's 
 order, should be killed. *'Now," said they, "choose between 
 Islam and death." The noble Armenian Christian women 
 said: "We are Christians; we can never deny Christ. Jesus 
 Christ is our Saviour, He came down from heaven and died 
 on the cross for us; for that dying and loving Christ,- we are 
 Christians, we are ready to die for Him who died for us," and 
 they added further "We are no better than our husbands were ; 
 you killed them, please kill us too." Then the horrible 
 butchery began on these defenseless women. A good many of 
 them were slaughtered and a good many of them ran to 
 different churches, hoping that perhaps they might find pro- 
 tection in some way in those holy walls, or hoping that God in 
 his great mercy might shelter them, but the ferocious Kurds 
 and Turkish soldiers pursued them, sword in hand, violated 
 them even in the churches, and cut their throats there until 
 the floors were streaming with blood, then they poured kero- 
 sene on the building and burned them. 
 
 They went to one village and killed every man, the 
 women, of course, knowing that their fate was soon to be worse 
 than their husband's. One of the leading women named 
 Shaheg, perceiving that the Turks and Kurds were getting 
 ready to seize and ravish them, called the other women and 
 said: "Sisters, our husband's are killed, and you know what is 
 in store for us and our children. Don't let us fall into the 
 hands of those savage beasts, we have to die anyway, and can 
 die easier, and without being defiled first, and perhaps tor- 
 tured. Let us go to the precipice and jump ofT." So saying, 
 she took her baby on her arm, ran to the rock, and threw her- 
 self over. The others followed her, and thus all were killed. 
 In the meantime the Turks captured many boys and girls, six 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 225 
 
 or eight of ten years of age, held them by an arm or foot, 
 and hacked them to pieces with their swords. Sometimes they 
 stood the boys in a row and shot them, to see how many could 
 be killed by a single bullet. They wrenched babies from their 
 mothers' arms, cut their throats while the mothers shrieked 
 and pleaded, and boiling them in kettles, forced the mothers to 
 eat the flesh. They cut open women about to become 
 mothers, tore out the unborn babes, and marched triumphantly 
 with the ghastly trophies on their spears, crucifying head down- 
 ward, and pouring boiling water on them, leaving them so 
 till death came; flaying alive, cutting ofif arms, feet, nose, 
 ears and other members, and leaving them to die; thrusting 
 red-hot wires into and through their bodies. They pulled out 
 the eyes of several Christian pastors, saying: "Now dance for 
 us." They poured kerosene on them and burned them to 
 death. They put a Bible and a cross before others and ordered 
 them to first spit and then trample on both and deny Christ, 
 on their refusal they were butchered. The handsomest girls 
 and young matrons were not murdered, but worse; each one 
 was kept as a spoil of some Turk or Kurd, who carried her to 
 his house and made a slave and concubine of her. 
 
 This is another specimen of Mohammed religion, and it 
 all happens because the Armenians are Christians. They 
 boasted of it, they plumed themselves on it, they praised the 
 Sultan for ordering them to do it, and he praised them for do- 
 ing it and decorated all the ofHcers. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF 1894. 
 
 "The Armenians of Sassoun were fully aware of the hostile 
 intention of the government, but they could not imagine it to 
 be one of utter extermination. 
 
 "The Porte had prepared its plans, Sassoun was doomed. 
 The Kurds were to come in much greater number, the govern- 
 ment was to furnish the provision and ammunition, and the 
 regular army was to second them in case of need. 
 
226 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 'The various tribes received invitations to take part in 
 the great expedition, and the chiefs, with their men, arrived 
 one after the other. The total number of the Kurds who took 
 part in the campaign may be estimated at 30,000. The Ar- 
 menians believed in the beginning that they had to do only 
 with the Kurds. They found out later that an Ottoman regu- 
 lar army, with provisions, rifles, cannons, and kerosene oil, 
 was standing at the back of the Kurds. 
 
 "The plan was to destroy first Shenig, Semal, Guellie- 
 goozan, Aliantz, etc., and then to proceed tow^ard Dalvorig. 
 The Kurds, notwithstanding their immense numbers, proved 
 to be unequal to the task. The Armenians held their own, 
 and the Kurds got worsted. After a two weeks' fight be- 
 tween Kurd and Armenian, the regular army entered into an 
 active compaign. Mountain pieces began to thunder. The 
 Armenians, having nearly exhausted their ammunition, took to 
 flight. Kurd and Turk pursued them, and massacred men, 
 women and children. The houses were searched and then 
 set on fire. Certain groups of men, with tax receipts in their 
 hands, went to the camp and asked to be protected, but were 
 slaughtered. 
 
 "A great number of villages outside of the Dalvorig dis- 
 trict, which had in no wise been concerned in the conflicts of 
 the previous years, were also attacked, to the unspeakable hor- 
 ror of the population. The troops climbed up even the Mount 
 Antok, where a multitude of fugitives had taken refuge, and 
 massacred them. A number of women and girls were taken to 
 the church of GuelHegoozan, and after being frightfully abused, 
 were tortured to death. 
 
 "When the work of destruction was nearly accomplished 
 in the other districts, some of the Kurdish armies were set on 
 Dalvorig. The people defended themselves against the over- 
 whelming number of the barbarians, but after four or five days 
 they saw other tribes and regular Turkish troops marching on 
 them from every side, and they took to flight, but were over- 
 taken and massacred. The scene was most horrible. The en- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 22^ 
 
 emy took a special delight in butchering the Dalvorig people. 
 An immense crowd of Turkish and Kurdish soldiery fell upon 
 the villages, busily searching the houses and rooting out hid- 
 den treasures, and then setting fire to the village. While the 
 troops were so occupied, a number of the fugitives fled wildly 
 to get out of the district, and tried to hide themselves in caves, 
 between rocks, or among bushes. Three days after the com- 
 plete destruction of the Dalvorig villages, the Kurds and the 
 regular soldiers divided among themselves the result of the 
 plunder, and the Kurds returned to their own mountains." 
 
 As my use of English is defective, I take the liberty here 
 of quoting from a long letter by E. J. Dillon to the Contem- 
 porary Review, January, 1896. 
 
 Dr. Dillon is an Englishman who was the special corres- 
 pondent of the London ''Daily Telegraph," a most accurate 
 and conscientious reporter, who writes as an eye-witness: 
 
 'Tf a detailed description were possible of the horrors 
 which our exclusive attention to our own mistaken interests 
 let loose upon Turkish Armenians, there is not a man within 
 the kingdom of Great Britain whose heart-strings would not 
 be touched and thrilled by the gruesome stories of which it 
 would be composed. 
 
 ''During all those seventeen years, written law, traditional 
 custom, the fundamental maxims of human and divine justice 
 were suspended in favor of a Mohammedan saturnalia. The 
 Christians, by whose toil and thrift the empire was held to- 
 gether, were despoiled, beggared, chained, beaten, and ban- 
 ished or butchered. First their movable wealth was seized, 
 then their landed property was confiscated, next the absolute 
 necessaries of life were wrested from them, and finally honor, 
 liberty and life were taken with as little ado as if these Chris- 
 tian men and women were wasps or mosquitoes. Thousands of 
 Armenians were thrown into prison by governors like Tahsin 
 Pasha and Bahri Pasha, and tortured and terrorized till they 
 delivered up the savings of a lifetime, and the support of the 
 helpless families, to ruffianly parasites. Whole villages were 
 
228 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 attacked in broad daylight by the Imperial Kurdish cavalry 
 without pretext or warning, the male inhabitants turned adrift 
 or killed, and their wives and daughters transformed into instru- 
 ments to glut the foul lusts of these beastial murderers. In a 
 few years the provinces were decimated, Aloghkerd, for in- 
 stance, being almost entirely ^purged' of Armenians. Over 
 20,000 woe-stricken wretches, once healthy and well-to-do, fled 
 to Russia or Persia in rags and misery, deformed, diseased, or 
 dying; on the way they were seized over and over again by the 
 soldiers of the Sultan, who deprived them of the little money 
 they possessed, nay, of the clothes they were wearing, out- 
 raged the married women in the presence of their sons and 
 daughters, deflowered the tender girls before the eyes of their 
 mothers and brothers, and then drove them over the frontier 
 to starve and die. Those who remained for a time behind 
 were no better ofif. Kurdish brigands lifted the last cows and 
 goats of the peasants, carried away their carpets and their 
 valuables, raped their daughters and dishonored their wives. 
 Turkish tax-gatherers followed these, gleaning what the bri- 
 gands had left, and, lest anything should escape their avarice, 
 bound the men, flogged them till their bodies were a bloody, 
 mangled mass, cicatrized the wounds with red-hot ramrods, 
 plucked out their beards, hair by hair, tore the flesh from 
 their limbs with pincers, and, often, even then, dissatisfied with 
 the financial results of their exertions, hung the men whom 
 they had thus beggared and maltreated from the rafters of the 
 room, and kept them there to witness with burning shame, im- 
 potent rage, and incipient madness, the dishonoring of their 
 wives and the deflowering of their daughters, some of whom 
 died miserably during the hellish outrage. 
 
 "In accordance with the plan of extermination, which has 
 been carried out with such signal success during these long 
 years of Turkish vigor and English sluggishness, all those Ar- 
 menians who possessed money, or money's worth, were for a 
 time allowed to purchase immunity from prison, and from all 
 that prison life in Asia Minor implies. But as soon as terror 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 229 
 
 and summary confiscation took the place of slow and elaborate 
 extortion, the gloomy dungeons of Erzeroum, Erzlnghan, Mar- 
 sovan, Hassankaleh and Van were filled till there was no place 
 to sit down, and scarcely sufficient standing room. And this 
 means more than English people can realize, or any person 
 believe who has not actually witnessed it. It would have been 
 a torture for Turkish troopers and Kurdish brigands, but it was 
 more than death to the educated school-masters, missionaries, 
 priests and physicians, who were immured in these noisome 
 hot-beds of infection, and forced to sleep night after night 
 standing on their feet, leaning against the foul, reeking corner 
 of the wall which all the prisoners were compelled to use as . . . 
 The very worst class of Tartar and Kurdish criminals were 
 turned in here to make these hell-chambers more unbearable 
 to the Christians. And the experiment was everywhere suc- 
 cessful. Human hatred and diabolical spite, combined with 
 the most disgusting sights, and sounds, and stenches, with their 
 gnawing hunger and their putrid food, their parching thirst and 
 the slimy water, fit only for sewers, rendering their agony mad- 
 dening. Yet these were not criminals nor alleged criminals, 
 but upright Christian men, who were never even accused of an 
 infraction of the law. No man who has not seen these prisons 
 with his own eyes, and heard these prisoners with his own ears, 
 can be expected to conceive, much less realize, the sufferings 
 inflicted and endured. The loathsome diseases, whose terrible 
 ravages were freely displayed; the still more loathsome vices, 
 which were continually and openly practiced; the horrible blas- 
 phemies, revolting obscenities, and ribald jests which alter- 
 nated with cries of pain, songs of vice, and prayers to the un- 
 seen God, made these prisons, in some respects, nearly as bad 
 as the Black Hole of Calcutta, and in others infinitely worse. 
 In one corner of this foul fever-nest a man might be heard 
 moaning and groaning with the pain of a shattered arm or leg; 
 in another, a youth is convulsed with the death spasms of 
 cholera or poison; in the centre, a knot of Turks, whose dull 
 eyes are fired with bestial lust, surround a Christian boy, who 
 
230 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 pleads for mercy with heart-harrowing voice while the human 
 fiends actually outrage him to death. 
 
 "Into these prisons venerable old ministers of religion 
 were dragged from their churches, teachers from their schools, 
 missionaries from their meeting-houses, physicians and peas- 
 ants from their firesides. Those among them who refused to 
 denounce their friends, or consent to some atrocious crime, 
 were subjected to horrible agonies. Many a one, for instance, 
 was put into a sentry-box bristling with sharp spikes, and 
 forced to stand there motionless, without food or drink, for 
 twenty-four and even thirty-six hours, was revived with stripes 
 whenever he fell fainting to the prickly floor, and was car- 
 ried out unconscious at the end. It was thus that hundreds 
 of Armenian Christians, whose names and histories are on 
 record, suffered for refusing to sign addresses to the Sultan 
 accusing their neighbor and relatives of high treason. It was 
 thus that Azo was treated by his judges, the Turkish officials, 
 Talib Eenfifdi, Captain Reshid, and Captain Hadji Fehim Agha, 
 for declining to swear away the lives of the best men of his 
 village. A whole night was spent in torturing him. He was 
 first bastinadoed in a room close to which his female relatives 
 and friends were shut up so that they could hear his cries. 
 Then he was stripped naked, two poles extending from his arm- 
 pits to his feet were placed on each side of his body and tied 
 tightly. His arms were next stretched out horizontally and 
 poles arranged to support his hands. This living cross was then 
 bound to a pillar, and the flogging began. The whips left 
 livid traces behind. The wretched man was unable to make 
 the slightest movement to ease his pain. His features alone, 
 hideously distorted, revealed the anguish he endured. The 
 louder he cried, the more heavily fell the whip. Over and 
 over again he entreated his tormentors to put him out of pain, 
 saying, Tf you want my death kill me with a bullet, but for 
 God's sake don't torture me like this !' His. head alone being 
 free, he at last, maddened by excruciating pain, endeavored 
 to dash out his brains against the pillar, hoping in this way 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 23I 
 
 to end his agony. But this consummation was hindered by 
 
 the police. They questioned him again; but in spite of his 
 
 condition, Azo repHed as before: T cannot defile my soul with 
 
 the blood of innocent people. I am a Christian.' Enraged at 
 
 his obstinacy, Talib Effendi, the Turkish official, ordered the 
 
 application of other and more effective tortures. Pincers were 
 
 fetched to pull out his teeth, but Azo remaining firm, this 
 
 method was not long persisted in. Then Talib commanded 
 
 his servants to pluck out the prisoner's moustachios by the 
 
 roots, one hair at a time. This order the gendarmes executed, 
 
 with roars of infernal laughter. But this treatment proving 
 
 equally ineffectual, Talib instructed the men to cauterize the 
 
 unfortunate victim's body. A spit was heated in the fire. 
 
 Azo's arms were freed from their supports, and two brawny 
 
 policemen approached, one on each side, and seized him. 
 
 Meanwhile another gendarme held to the middle of the 
 
 wretched man's hand the glowing spit. While his flesh was 
 
 thus burning, the victim shouted out in agony, Tor the love 
 
 of God kill me at once!' 
 
 "Then the executioners, removing the red-hot spit from 
 his hands, applied it to his breast, then to his back, his face, 
 his feet, and other parts. After this, they forced open his 
 mouth, and burned his tongue with red-hot pincers. During 
 these inhuman operations, Azo fainted several times, but on 
 recovering consciousness maintained the same inflexibility of 
 purpose. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the adjoining apartment, a heartrending 
 scene was being enacted. The women and the children, 
 terrified by the groans and cries of the tortured man, fainted. 
 When they revived, they endeavored to rush out and call for 
 help, but the gendarmes, stationed at the door, barred their 
 passage, and brutally pushed them back. 
 
 "Nights were passed in such hellish orgies and days in in- 
 venting new tortures or refining upon the old, with an in- 
 genuity which reveals unimagined strata of malignity in the 
 
2^2 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 human heart. The resuhs throw the most sickening horrors 
 of the Middle Ages into the shade. Some of them cannot be 
 described, nor even hinted at. The shock to people's sensibili- 
 ties would be too terrible. And yet they were not merely 
 described to, but endured by men of education and refinement, 
 whose sensibilities were as delicate as ours. 
 
 "And when the prisons in which these and analogous do- 
 ings were carried on had no more room for new-comers, some 
 of the least obnoxious of its actual inmates \\ ere released for 
 a bribe, or, in case of poverty, w^ere expeditiously poisoned of¥. 
 
 'Tn the hom.es of these wretched people the fiendish fan- 
 atics were equally active and equally successful. Family life 
 was poisoned at its very source. Rape and dishonor, with 
 nameless accompaniments, menaced almost every girl and wo- 
 man in the land. They could not stir out of their houses in 
 broad daylight to visit the bazaars, or to work in the fields, 
 nor even lie down at night in their own homes, without fearing 
 the fall of that Damocles' sword ever suspended over their 
 heads. Tender youth, childhood itself, was no guarantee. 
 Children were often married at the age of eleven, even ten, 
 in the vain hope of lessening this danger. But the protection 
 of a husband proved unavailing; it merely meant one murder 
 more, and one 'Christian dog' less. A bride would be married 
 in church yesterday, and her body would be devoured by the 
 beasts and birds of prey to-morrow, — a band of ruffians, often 
 officials, having within the intervening forty-eight hours seized 
 her and outraged her to death. Others would be abducted, 
 and, having for weeks been subjected to the loathsome lusts 
 of lawless Kurds, would end by abjuring their God and em- 
 bracing Islam; not from any vulgar motive of gain, but to 
 escape the burning shame of returning home as pariahs and 
 lepers, to be shunned by those near and dear to them forever. 
 Little girls of five and six were frequently forced to be present 
 during these horrible scenes of lust, and they, too, were often 
 sacrificed before the eyes of their mothers, who would have 
 gladly, madly accepted death, ay, and damnation, to save their 
 tender offspring from the corroding poison. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 233 
 
 "One of the abducted young women who, having been 
 outraged by the son of the Deputy-Governcr of Khnouss, Hus- 
 sein Bey, returned, a pariah, and is now alone in the world, 
 lately appealed to her English sisters for such aid as a heathen 
 would give to a brute, and she besought it in the name of our 
 common God. Lucine ]\Iussegh — this is the name of that out- 
 raged voung woman wdiose Protestant education gave her, 
 as she thought, a special claim to act as a spokes-vsoman of Ar- 
 menian mothers and daughters — Lucine Mussegh besought, 
 last March, the women of England to obtain for the women 
 of Armenia the 'privilege' of living a pure and chaste life! 
 This was the boon which she craved — but did not, could not 
 obtain. The interests of 'higher politics,' the -civilizing mis- 
 sions of the Christian powders, are, it seems, incompatible with 
 it! 'For the love of the God whom w^e worship in common,' 
 wrote this outraged, but still hopeful, Armenian lady, 'help us, 
 Christian sisters! Help us before it is too late, and take the 
 thanks of the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and the daughters 
 of my people, and with them the gratitude of one for whom, 
 in spite of her youth, death would come as a happy release.' 
 
 ''Neither the Christian sisters nor the Christian brethren 
 in England have seen their way to comply with this strange 
 request. But it may perhaps interest Lucine Messegh to learn 
 that the six great powers of Europe are quite unanimous, and 
 are manfully resolved, come what will, to shield His ^lajesty 
 the Sultan from harm, to support his rule, and to guarantee 
 his kingdom from disintegration. These are objects w^orthy of 
 the attention of the great powers ; as for the privilege of lead- 
 ing pure and chaste lives — they cannot be importuned about 
 such private matters. 
 
 'Tn due time they began. Over 60,000 Armenians have 
 been butchered, and the massacres are not quite ended yet. In 
 Trebizond, Erzeroum, Erzinghan, Hassankalek, and number- 
 less other places the Christians were crushed like grapes dur- 
 ing the vintage. The frantic mob, seething and surging in the 
 streets of the cities, swept down upon the defenseless Armen- 
 
234 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 ians, plundered their shops, gutted their houses, then joked 
 and jested with the terrified victims, as cats play with mice. 
 As rapid, whirling motion produces apparent rest, so the wild 
 frenzy of those fierce fanatical crowds resulting in a condition 
 of seeming calmness, composure, and gentleness, which, taken 
 in connection with the unutterable brutality of their acts, was 
 of a nature to freeze men's blood with horror. In many cases 
 they almost caressed their victims, and actually encouraged 
 them to hope while preparing the instruments of slaughter." 
 
 After the horrible scenes at Sassoun, and other places, 
 the Armenian protests shamed the European powers, who 
 signed the treaty of Berlin, to send a commission and investi- 
 gate the atrocities. It found the stories quite true, laid the 
 facts before the Sultan — and that was the end of it. The Ar- 
 menians asked, "Since you admit the truth of these things, 
 why do you not punish the criminals, stop the outrages, and 
 compel the payment of indemnity to those who were outraged 
 and who lost their dear ones and their property?" The powers 
 were deaf to all this. Then the Armenians prepared an appeal 
 (several months ago) and carried it to the Sublime Porte, ask- 
 ing it to do them justice. As soon as the Sultan heard of this, 
 he ordered his soldiers to fire on them if they presented it. The 
 appeal was presented, and before the eyes of the European Am- 
 bassadors in Constantinople, the brave soldiers of the kind- 
 hearted Sultan butchered about 3,000 Armenian Christians, 
 several thousand were imprisoned, and several hundred were 
 murdered in the Central Prison. Then the cold, wise, and 
 considerate European powers began to move very slowly, not 
 for the sake of the Armenians, but for their own, their citi- 
 zens in Constantinople and elsewhere. 
 
 They ordered the Sultan to reform Armenia, brought 
 their fleets to the Dardanelles near Constantinople to overawe 
 him, prepared a scheme of reform for Armenia, and made huge 
 threats to the Sultan if he did not accept it. But he knew that 
 this pretended concert of the powers for Armenian reform 
 was a mere trick and a sham, as I have persistently asserted all 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 235 
 
 along in the face of my hopeful European and American 
 friends; in fact, the Russian government at this very time was 
 secretly urging him to stand firm and refuse to accept the re- 
 forms. He did so, broached a scheme of his own as a sub- 
 stitute, and the powers accepted it as such ; and then the whole 
 thing was dropped, the Sultan did nothing whatever about it, 
 as he had never intended to. The European countries were 
 hoodwinked, and the Armenian massacres and conflagrations, 
 plundering and deflowering, went on at a greater pace than 
 ever. Then the powers dropped the Armenian question, and 
 took up that of gunboats in the Bosphorus, to protect their 
 citizens against a rising in Constantinople; that they forced the 
 Sultan to permit, because their own interests were concerned 
 in it, — which shows that they could have forced him to stop 
 exterminating the Armenians if they had cared. All joined in 
 this except Germany; the German Emneror is the Sultan's 
 friend, and backs him up. So now, Germany, Russia, and the 
 Sultan are hand in hand, leagued to prevent any of the miser- 
 able victims of his tyranny from escaping his clutches, and the 
 Sultan has the best possible encouragement to go on killing 
 the Armenians. The German Emperor says, "Better the Ar- 
 menians be killed than have a war in Europe and lose the 
 lives of some of my soldiers." The Czar says, 'Time must be 
 given to the Sultan to reform his country." Lord Salisbury 
 says, "The Sultan has promised, and we must wait and see 
 what he will do." And the Sultan, cursing every Emperor 
 and lord of them ah as a set of Christian hogs, orders the sold- 
 iers and the Kurds to go on with the good work in Armenia. 
 And when we come to America, the Monroe doctrine obliges it 
 to quarrel over Venezuela, and not only refuse help itself, but 
 give Lord Salisbury a good excuse to give none either. 
 
 Such is the situation; the massacres are going on in Ar- 
 menia and the Armenians in despair are crying, "O Lord, how 
 long, how long!" 
 
 Mass meetings are good as far as they go; raising money 
 and sending it to relieve the Armenians is good as far as it 
 
236 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 goes; the Red Cross Society is good as far as it goes; there 
 are no objections to any of them; they are all noble and Christ- 
 ian. But, reader, don't you think all these good movements 
 with good motives will hurt the Armenian cause, as there is 
 nothing to aid that cause directly? All these mass-meetings 
 merely irritate the Sultan into carrying on the murders more 
 strenuously, since there is no force back of them. Don't you 
 think the Armenian question being discussed in the United 
 States Congress, and resolutions made without any action, will 
 hurt the Armenians more than anything else!^ If you can't 
 tread down the Sultan, don't stir him up. Miss Clara Barton, 
 that noble woman, is in Armenia to help the Armenians. The 
 Red Cross Society is there and is feeding the Armenians. I 
 thank her, every Armenian thanks her. But do you think that 
 that will relieve the situation? Spring has come, and w^hat 
 now? Will the Armenians have any crops? Did they, or 
 could they sow any seed? Is there any farmer left alive? Has 
 any farmer, if he is alive, any oxen or horses? If he has, will 
 he dare go to his field, sow, reap, and thresh? Reader, con- 
 sider all these things, and reconsider them, and I am sure you 
 will come to the same conclusion I did many years ago, that 
 Turkey does not need a Red Cross Society, not like the medi- 
 aeval crusades, but a Protestant American crusade in the nine- 
 teenth century. Let me illustrate this Armenian question by 
 the following parable: — 
 
 Suppose a lamb is torn by a wolf, and the wolf lies in wait 
 to finish it. You go to the lamb with a bundle of grass in 
 your hand, pat it and say, "Here, poor lamb, I pity you, I give 
 you grass; take it and eat." Then you leave the lamb and go 
 away. Do you think you have helped the lamb? As soon as 
 you have gone the wolf will come and tear the lamb to pieces. 
 If you are going to help the lamb, you must kill the wolf, else 
 no matter how much grass you give the wounded Iamb, it will 
 do it no good. You will do no good by sending Red Cross 
 societies to Armenia to feed the Armenians if you have not the 
 power of the will to keep the wild beasts ofif. You will feed 
 them, and then the wolves will kill them. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 237 
 
 Now I will pass in review some of the leadinp^ cities in Ar- 
 menia where there have been great persecutions. Before be- 
 ginning, however, I must state that it is impossible to give an 
 accurate census of the population in the Armenian cities, or 
 the number who have been massacred; for the Turkish gov- 
 ernment never takes a correct census, and never gives or will 
 give the true number of those it has murdered. But I think 
 I can make a fair approximation of both. I will begin with the 
 city of Harpoot. 
 
 HARPOOT AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 This is one of the most important Armenian districts, be- 
 cause the Armenians outnumber the Mohammedans there ; in 
 the cities the Turks are the more numerous, but there are 
 many Armenian town and villages which make up. The dis- 
 trict has about 150,000 people, most of them Armenians, and 
 about 40,000 were killed in the recent massacre. Harpoot is 
 built on three hills, and has a commanding view. Here is lo- 
 cated a great American missionary institution, the Euphrates 
 College; it has three departments, the college, the Theological 
 Seminary, and the Girls' Seminary. There were twelve build- 
 ings, eight of which were burned in the outrages, a loss of 
 $100,000. 
 
 Almost all the outlying villages were burned, and the 
 movables carried of¥. Women were made preys, boys and girls 
 were kidnapped; the horrors can never be described. T give 
 here a few words from a private letter, written to a Moham- 
 medan Turk to his brother in this countrv. I have the letter 
 in my possession, written in the Turkish language. He says: 
 
 "My dear brother: All the Christian villages which belong 
 to Harpoot district, we plundered and destroyed, and killed 
 the inhabitants. We killed them both with our swords and 
 
238 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 with our rifles. The bullets of our rifles poured upon them 
 like rain ; none of them are left, neither any dwelling was left, 
 we burnt all their houses. We thank God that not a single 
 Mohammedan was killed. Everywhere throughout Armenia 
 the Christians were punished in the same manner." 
 
 Another testimony from another Mohammedan, an officer; 
 he says nearly 40,000 were killed in Harpoot province, Febru- 
 ary 26, 1896: — 
 
 "A petition in behalf of the Armenians was given to the 
 powers in the hope of improving their condition. An imperial 
 firman was issued for carrying out the reforms suggested by 
 the powers. On this account the Turkish population was 
 much excited, and thought that an Armenian principality was 
 to be established, and they began to show great hostility to 
 the poor Armenians, who had been obedient to them and 
 with whom they had lived in peace for more than 600 years. 
 To the anger of the people were added the permission and help 
 of the government; and so, before the reforms were under- 
 taken, the whole Turkish population was aroused, with the 
 evil intent of obliterating the Armenian name; and so the 
 Turks of the province, joining with the neighboring Kurdish 
 tribes by the thousand, armed with weapons which are allowed 
 only to the army, and with the help and under the guidance 
 of Turkish officials, in an open manner, in the daytime, attacked 
 the Armenian houses, shops, stores, monasteries, churches, 
 schools, and committed the fearful atrocities set forth in the 
 accompanying table. They killed bishops, priests, teachers, 
 and common people with every kind of torture, and they showed 
 special spite toward ecclesiastics by treating their bodies with 
 extra indignity, and in many cases they did not allow their bod- 
 ies to be buried. Some they burned, and some they gave as 
 food to dogs and wild beasts. 
 
 "They plundered churches and monasteries, and they took 
 all the property of the common people, their flocks and herds, 
 their ornaments and their money, their house furnishings and 
 their food, and even the clothing of the men and women in 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 239 
 
 their flight. Then after plundering them, they burned many 
 houses, churches, monasteries, schools and markets, some- 
 times using petroleum, which they had brought with them to 
 hasten the burning; large stone churches which would not 
 burn they ruined in other ways. 
 
 "Priests, laymen, women, and even small children were 
 made Moslems by force. They put white turbans on the men 
 and circumcised them in a cruel manner. They cut the hair 
 of the women in bangs, like that of Moslem women, and made 
 them go through the Mohammedan prayers. Married women 
 and girls were defiled, against the sacred law, and some were 
 married by force, and are still detained in Turkish houses. 
 Especially in Palu, Severek, Malatia, Arabkir, and Choon- 
 koosh, many women and girls were taken to the soldiers' bar- 
 racks and dishonored. Many, to escape, threw themselves 
 into the Euphrates, or committed suicide in other ways. 
 
 "It is clear that the majority of those killed in Harpoot, 
 Severek, Husenik, Malatia, and Arabkir were killed by the 
 soldiers, and also that the schools and churches of the missiona- 
 ries and Gregorians in the upper quarter of Harpoot City, to- 
 gether with the houses, were set on fire by cannon balls. 
 
 'Tt is impossible to state the amount of pecuniary loss. 
 The single city of Egin has given 1,200 (some say 1,500) Turk- 
 ish pounds as a ransom. 
 
 "These events have occurred for the reasons I have men- 
 tioned. I wish to show by this statement, which I have writ- 
 ten from love to humanity, that the Armenians gave no occa- 
 sion for these attacks." 
 
 The Turk, whose document is thus translated, figures that 
 the total deaths in the province of Harpoot during the scenes, 
 have been 39,334; the wounded 8,000; houses burned, 28,562; 
 and the number of the destitutes is 94,870. 
 
 In a letter just received (Jan. 18, 1896) from the Rev. 
 H. N. Barnum, D.D., of Harpoot, Eastern Turkey, where the 
 property of the American Board was burned, he says that 
 reports have been secured from 176 villages in the vicinity of 
 
240 ILLUSTRATED ARMEXLV 
 
 Harpoot. These villages contained 15,400 houses belonging 
 to Christians. Of this number 7,054 have been burned, and 
 15,845 persons are reported killed. Dr. Barnum adds: "The 
 reality, I fear, will prove to be much greater.'' 
 
 The statistics of the last outrages will never be accurately 
 known, but the most careful figures thus far received, the par- 
 tial, are as told. In the table below I will try to show the popu- 
 lation of the ten provinces and the houses and shops plundered 
 and destroyed or burned in the ten provinces, namely: Erze- 
 rim, Bitlis, Diarbekr. Ya.n, Harpoot, Sivas, Trebizond, An- 
 gora, Adana, and Aleppo: 
 
 Total population of the ten provinces 5,898,300 
 
 Arm.enians in the ten provinces 1,192,000 
 
 Total houses and shops plundered and destroyed or 
 
 burned in the provinces 62,661 
 
 Number killed in the ten provinces 83,895 
 
 Number forced to accept Islam in the ten provinces 40,950 
 
 Number left entirely destitute in the ten provinces. . 315,060 
 
 Number of the widow women 65,650 
 
 Number of Armenian Orphans 55,000 
 
 It thus appears that about nine-tenths of the outrages oc- 
 curred within the first six provinces to which the reform scheme 
 applied. The Sultan professed to accept the reforms on Octo- 
 ber i6th, 1896, and the above figures show with what energy, 
 zeal and good faith he carried them out; for most of the work 
 was done within two months of that date. There can be no 
 doubt that the Sultan deserves credit for these "reforms,-' for 
 he claims it himself, assuring Lord Salisbury, in a letter made 
 public at his reciuest, that they were being executed under his 
 personal direction. Kurds and soldiers have constantly de- 
 clared tliat they were simply obeying the Sultan's orders and 
 that this was the case is clear from the fact that no one has 
 been punished ior disobedience, not even the officials in whose 
 presence the American colony at Harpoot was bombarded, 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 24I 
 
 plundered and burnt out of home i8os in Xov. It has repeat- 
 edly been preached that these outbreaks were carefully pre- 
 arranged by disarming Christians and by prescribing limits 
 as to place, time, duration and method of execution. 
 
 It is from this spirit, the book of Koran, that the blood of 
 many innocent persons has been shed in Turkey; it is from 
 this spirit that children and delicate women have been ill 
 treated and butchered. 
 
 Let it be fully understood throughout the Christian world 
 that the massacre is a religious demand which the Turks have 
 to complete. 
 
 As a Christian tries to be faithful to Christ and his teach- 
 ings, so the Turks are trying to be faithful to their prophet and 
 his teachings also. 
 
 They go to the mosques and pray "Allah (God) help me or 
 help us, strengthen our hands and sharpen our swords to kill 
 the infidel Armenians." Then they come out from the mosques 
 and begin to kill, plunder, outrage and commit every sort of 
 indescribable atrocities on the peaceable and defenceless Arme- 
 nians ; but it will grow worse than ever since so called Christian 
 nations have given the Sultan public notice that they will not 
 interfere with him. Do not be deceived by his lying reports. 
 There w^ere no Armenian rebellions; they could not rebel; they 
 did not kill the Turks; they never dreamed of such madness. 
 This awful fate has fallen on them purely and simply for being 
 Christians. 
 
 This is the Fetva or secret sentence which comes out from 
 the Shaikhull Islam: If the Giavoure or Kafirs, which means 
 blasphemers, do not accept the true religion they should be 
 killed and their property be appropriated by the true believers. ' 
 
 Of course they cannot help it: it is their faith, a religion for 
 barbarians. 
 
 Their teachers or Hojas go to the mosques and preach to 
 them this way: "You Mohammedans love your fellow believ- 
 ers, but hate and kill all others; they are Giavoures, heathen 
 dogs and hogs." To kill a Christian is just the same as to kill 
 a hog for them. 
 
242 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 The Hojas say that first you ask them to accept our faith; 
 if they do you must not harm them, but if they will not, kill 
 them, because they have no right to live in a Mohammedan 
 country. It is a great virtue the more Christians you kill, and 
 the greater reward you will have from Allah (or God) and his 
 prophet Mohammed. 
 
 The Turks slaughter Armenians to earn this reward; there 
 is no nationality like Turks which ever respects or gratify the 
 females. 
 
 If a woman falls into their hands she need not hope to 
 keep her virtue and religion; they violate her first, then force 
 her to become a Mohammedan after all. 
 
 In the years of 1894 and 1895 in a good many places in 
 Armenia or Turkey, a number of able-bodied young Armenians 
 were captured, bound, covered with brushwood and burned 
 alive, but thousands surrendered themselves and plead for 
 mercy. Many of them were shot down on the spot and the re- 
 mainder were dispatched with sword and bayonet. 
 
 Lots of women, variously estimated from 60 to 160, were 
 locked up in a church and the soldiers were commanded to let 
 loose, kill them. Most of them were outraged to death in a 
 different way. 
 
 Once, when a number of young women were in one 
 place, locked up, the Turks advised them that if they were car- 
 ried ofi to the harems or their houses they could get along 
 with them very nicely, but if you refused you would be killed, 
 so they did. 
 
 Children were placed in a row, one behind another, and a 
 bullet fired through the line, apparently to see how many could 
 be shot down with one bullet; houses were surrounded by sol- 
 diers, set on fire and the inmates forced back into the flames 
 at the point of the bayonet as they tried to escape. A number 
 of men of one village, during their escape, took the women and 
 children, about five hundred in number, and placed them in a 
 sort of grotto in a ravine; after several days the soldiers found 
 them and butchered those who had not died of hunger. 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 243 
 
 Fifty young women and girls were selected from one vil- 
 lage and placed in a church, when the soldiers were ordered to 
 do with them as they liked, after which they were butchered. 
 
 In another village fifty choice women were set aside 
 and urged to change their faith and become Hauums (or lady) 
 in Turkish harems, but they indignantly refused to deny Christ, 
 preferring the fate of their fathers and husbands. People were 
 crowded into the houses, which were then set on fire; in one 
 instance a little boy ran out of the flames, but was caught on a 
 bayonet and thrown back. Children were frequently held up 
 by the hair and cut in two, or had their jaws torn apart. 
 Women with children were ripped open, and older children 
 were pulled apart by their legs. 
 
 A handsome recently wedded couple fled to a hill top; sol- 
 diers followed and told them that they were pretty and would 
 be spared if they would accept Islamism, but the thought of 
 the horrible death they knew would follow did not prevent them 
 from confessing Christ. 
 
 "the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame. 
 
 If the Turks and the Kurds only killed and killed clean, 
 there would be less indignation in the heart of mankind. But 
 they, of all savages, least hearken to the well-known prayer — 
 
 "Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame 
 That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to 
 flames." 
 
 In all the atrocities of the Armenian charnel-house nothing 
 can for a moment vie in hideous and unspeakable horror the 
 continuous and never-ending string of narratives of the foulest 
 of outrages on women and children. 
 
 It is assumed too often that the continual liability to viola- 
 tion with impunity of generation after generation would have 
 somewhat deadened the sense of female honour in the unfortu- 
 nate Armenians. Dr. Dillon, however, confirming many other 
 witnesses, says that this is by no means tVie case. 
 
244 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 I have seen and conversed with hundreds and hundreds of 
 Armenian women lately, and I have found no signs of the tem- 
 pering process. Whatever vices or virtues may be predicated 
 of Armenian women, chastity must be numbered among their 
 essential characteristics. They carry it to an incredible ex- 
 treme. In many places an Armenian woman never speaks to 
 any man but her husband, unless the latter is present. Even 
 to her nearest and dearest male relatives and connections she 
 has nothing to say; and her purity, in the slums of Erzeroum 
 as in the valleys of Sassoum, is above suspicion. Yet these are 
 the people who are being continually outraged by Kurds and 
 Turks, oftentimes until death releases them. 
 
 "English people have not even a remote notion of the extent 
 to which young married women and girls are outraged all over 
 Armenia by Turkish soldiers, imperial Zaptiehs, Kurdish offi- 
 cers and brigands; — and outraged with such accompaniments 
 of nameless brutality that their agonies often culminate in a 
 horrible death. Girls of eleven and twelve — nay, of nine — are 
 torn from their families and outraged in this way by a band 
 of 'men' whose names are known, and whose deeds are ap- 
 proved by the representatives of law and order. Indeed, these 
 representatives are themselves the monsters, the bestial poison 
 of whose loathsome passion is destroying 'the subtle, pure, and 
 innocent spirit of life.' 
 
 "Rape, violation, outrages that have no name, and wliose 
 authors should have no mercy, are become the commonplaces 
 of daily life in Armenia. And the Turkish 'gentleman' smiles 
 approval. I have myself, says Dr. Dillon, collected over 300 
 of these cases, and I have heard of countless others. 
 
 "The following case is one in w^iich I took a very lively in- 
 terest because I am well acquainted with the victim and her 
 family. Her name is Lucine Mussegh, her native village 
 Khnoossaberd, Born in 1878, Lucine was sent at an early age 
 Armenian Missionary school at Erzeroum, wh/ere she was 
 taught the doctrines of evangelical Christianity, her father, 
 Aghadjan Kemalian, having always manifested a strong sym- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 245 
 
 pathy for Protestantism. Armenian parents are continually 
 scheming for the purpose of shielding their daughters from 
 violation by the Turks and Kurds. Lucine, to escape this dan- 
 ger, was taken from school at the age of fourteen, and wedded 
 to a boy of her own age, Milikean by name, and having lived 
 some time with him under his father's roof, was sent to the 
 Protestant school once more. One night, during her hus- 
 band's' absence from home, she was seized by some men, 
 dragged by the hair, gagged, and taken to the house of Hussni 
 Bey. This man is the son of the Deputy-Governor of the place. 
 He dishonored the young w^oman and sent her home next day, 
 but her husband refused to receive her any more, and she is 
 now friendless and alone in the world. 
 
 "Lucine's father presented a complaint to the colonel of the 
 Hamidehs, and a petition to the parish priest. The Metropoli- 
 tan Archbishop of Erzeroum likewise took the matter in hand, 
 and appealed to the Governor-General of the Vilayet, and to 
 the Court Khnouss. But all to no purpose. Lucine is now a 
 pariah. In her Appeal to the Women of England, which is 
 too long and too naive to find a place here, Lucine says: 
 
 We suffered in patience when our corn, butter, and honey 
 were seized, and we were left poor and hungry; we bowed our 
 heads in sorrowful resignation when our kith and kin were cut 
 down by the Kurds and Turks. Are we also to be silent and 
 submissive now that our race is being poisoned at its source? 
 Now that child-mothers and baby-daughters are being defiled 
 and brutalised by savages? Say, Christian sisters, is there in 
 truth no remedy? .... W'e ask for no revenge, for no 
 privileges; we ask only that .... but need I be more 
 explicit to English matrons, wives and sisters? .... Al- 
 though we are Armenians we are Christians: I was brought 
 up in a Protestant school, as you were : I drew my moral susten- 
 ance from the Bible, as you did; I was taught to feel and think, 
 as you were . . . For the love of God, then, whom we 
 worship in common, help us. Christian sisters, before it is too 
 
246 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 late, and take the thanks of the motherss, wives, sisters, and 
 daughters of my people, and with them the gratitude of one 
 for whom, in spite of her youth, death would come as a happy 
 release. 
 
 (Signed) LUCINE AlUSSEGH. 
 
 "I have also received a piteous appeal to women of Eng- 
 land from some hundreds of Armenian women of the District 
 of Khnouss, begging as an inestimable favor to be shielded 
 from the brutal treatment to which they are all subjected. It 
 is needless to publish it here. Written appeals are seldom very 
 forcible. If the reader had seen the wretched women them- 
 selves, as I saw them, and heard them tell their gruesome tales 
 in the simplest of w^ords, punctuated by sobs and groans, em- 
 phasised by misery and squalor, they would be in a condition to 
 form some idea of the state of things in Armenia, which in the 
 good old times of theocracy would have brought down con- 
 suming fire from heaven. In the village of Begli Akhmed, 
 for example, I met a woman of about twenty-eight clothed 
 in ragged pieces of dirty carpets, with a pale emaciated boy 
 of twelve, suffering from a terrible cough, who looked like a 
 typhus patient aged only six or seven. I asked her to tell her 
 story, and this is what she said : 
 
 My name is Atlass Manookian; I come from the village 
 of Khrt (Khnouss District). We were very well off, but the 
 Kurds took away everything we had. Everything, Effendi; 
 still my poor husband worked for me and the child here, though 
 they told us to go. One day I was bringing bread to my hus- 
 band in the field, they struck me on the head and dishonored 
 me. That was in the daytime. . . . 
 
 " 'It was at noon, mother, when father used to eat his 
 bread, that they did that to you,' broke in the ghost of a child. 
 I never in my life witnessed anything more horrible than the 
 sight of those two friendless, hopeless wretches, as they stood 
 there trembling in the cold, the dying child thus simply bearing 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 247 
 
 witness that his mother was dislionored in the fields bv a num- 
 ber of neighboring Kurds. She then went on : 1 complained 
 to the head officer, Sheikh Moorad, but the Binbashi beat me 
 cruelly about the head and back, and knocked me down. 
 Then, last spring, when my husband was sowing corn, AH 
 Mahmed came up and killed him.' 'With an axe, mother/ 
 said the boy. 'We are now alone in the world, wandering and 
 begging, and nobody knows us,' said the woman. Having 
 given her some coins, I hurried away, vainly striving to shake 
 off the horrible impression which clung to me, like a hideous 
 ghost, for weeks afterwards. 
 
 "Let me close this awful chapter with one despairing cry. 
 It was written November 14, 1894, to an Armenian missionary 
 by one of his old pupils: — 
 
 '' 'I implore and earnestly entreat that you will remember 
 one of your former pupils, and hear my cry for sympathy and 
 protection. I have been outraged. Oh, woe is me, eternal 
 pain and sorrow to my young heart! Evil disposed and law- 
 less men have robbed me of the bloom and beauty of my wifely 
 
 purity. It was H Bey, the son of the Kaimakam (the local 
 
 Turkish Governor residing in the village). It was in the even- 
 ing between six and seven o'clock. I was engaged in my 
 household work. I stepped outside the door, when I sud- 
 denly found myself in the grasp of four men. They smothered 
 my cries and threatened my life, and by force carried me off to 
 a strange house. Oh what black hours were those till the 
 sweet light of the sun once more arose! Though this is writ- 
 ten with ink, believe me, it is written in blood and tears.' " 
 
 By the few examples here given, the true nature of the 
 Mohammedanism may be closely ascertained, that religion 
 as you may observe gives many opportunities for the corrup- 
 tion of the morality of mankind, and with it endangers the, 
 property of the people. 
 
 A private letter from a young lady to her dear brother of 
 Csesarea, Asia Minor, in Turkey, Dec. 31, 1895: 
 
 My Dear Brother: Before the horrible massacre, every- 
 
248 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 body was in fear; several families would gather in one house 
 to protect themselves, and all Armenian stores were closed for 
 twenty days; but as the government guaranteed that there 
 would be no danger, and told everybody to attend to their 
 business, and open their shops, they did so. It was the i6th 
 of November, on Saturday, that all peoples opened their shops 
 again, and the transaction of business commenced in full force. 
 At 2 p. m., at the doors of market, bugles sounded, and sev- 
 eral hundred bashr-bozook (irregular soldiers), were at the 
 doors of the bazaar, every one of them having in his hands 
 stilettos, swords, yataghans, guns, revolvers, hammers, axes, 
 hatchets, sickles, poinards, daggers, and heavy sticks with 
 twenty or thirty nails fastened to them. 
 
 Then they blew horns, the signal to start the massacre, 
 cries were heard, first kill, cut and butcher the Gianours; the 
 property already belongs to us; cut, cut, kill, don't care plun- 
 dering. 'Then they rushed into the market and slaughtered 
 all they met. Oh; you can imagine what became of those 
 who_ fell into the hands of those brutes. Alas ! alas ! how un- 
 speakable! They butchered them like cattle; cut their heads 
 off like onions. Some tried to run, but could not; others 
 tried to escape but were brought back and killed. The bazaar 
 was full of dead bodies. People hid themselves among the 
 goods, and in the cellars and were saved; ten or fifteen days 
 after, people were found there in a starving condition, not hav- 
 ing dared to come out. They killed at once in a factory thirty- 
 eight men; in Kayanjilar everybody was slain. After the mas- 
 sacre was over the Governor, Yerrick Pasha, sent soldiers 
 around, and they discovered many people hiding and took 
 them back to the Government house, (Saray), examined their 
 pockets for revolvers and knives, and not finding any the gov- 
 ernor sent them to their homes. 
 
 They plundered the bazaar of all its goods, and then, oh, my 
 Lord; they rushed upon the house, and upon women in Turk- 
 ish baths. I believe you don't know the meaning of Turkish 
 bath. In Turkey, as a rule, twice, or once a week, and gen- 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 249 
 
 erally on Saturday, good many Armenian women go to Turk- 
 ish baths to wash themselves. On that Saturday in Turkish 
 baths more than four hundred Armenian women, young ladies 
 and girls. At meantime a good many bashi-bazook came in 
 Turkish baths. ... I cannot describe this; when I think 
 of it, my whole body trembles. The people in the baths were 
 killed and wounded, and they carried away the young ladies 
 and girls; every one was killed that they came in contact with. 
 The houses were plundered of all their contents and buildings 
 were torn down, and houses full of people were burned. Oh, 
 how terrible. What I say you cannot imagine to be so; you 
 may think it is a dream, because your eyes have not seen nor 
 your ears heard the screams, wailings, weeping, shrieks and 
 groaning, that even your forefathers never heard, but of which 
 our ears are full day and night. 
 
 Some of the kidnapped girls were brought back by the 
 Government, but most of them were wounded and half dead 
 from fright. Thank God, we are safe, but we are not better 
 than those girls. We are lost, lost, ruined, no work, no busi- 
 ness, every one of us looking for safety. Happy, happy be 
 you that are in America and have nothing to fear. They say 
 to me, you ought to be with your brother in America now. If 
 the way was opened everybody would like to go. 
 
 If you are not in good circumstances there, you must 
 feel satisfied and give thanks to God always. We also have to 
 thank God that we are still living. It is one month now that 
 we have not been able to go out in the street. O, Lord, help 
 us. Oh; what shall we come to? Oh my dear brother, if you 
 can help us in any way please do so; make lectures, get some 
 help; everybody is dying of hunger. I cannot write any 
 longer; we leave all to your conscience. I do not write this 
 letter only to you, but to all. Do whatever you can for us; we 
 are in a terrible condition. I thank you, my brother, for the 
 money that you sent to me; thank you very much. 
 
 Your Sister. 
 
250 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 A letter has been written by the missionary lady from Oarfa, 
 Jan. 28, 1896: 
 
 Dear Friend: Your only remaining brother -sends you a 
 letter, but no letters can begin to explain the sad state of this 
 city. The massacre of Dec. 28 and 29 has left all homes ex- 
 cept Catholics and Syrians entirely empty of any comforts. 
 Many families have not one bed even; all cooking utensils, 
 clothing, bedding, carpets, etc., were taken. Most have a 
 little Zakhere left, though some have not that. We are feed- 
 ing about 175 of the most needy, and more will come to us 
 every week. The loss by death is between 4,000 and 5,000. 
 Our pastor, the Rev. Hogop Abauhayatian, Dr. Kivore, and 
 brother Haratoun, Sarkis varjebed chubukian and b rother and 
 son, Garabed, Raumian, Habbangan Avedis, and brother Sar- 
 kis, old sexton Garabed and other sexton, ogas, Magar Kivore 
 and brother Bogos and Berber Manofa and two sons,Eskiyi- 
 yan Morderas, Zarman Boamian's three sons, are some of the 
 dead. In all, our Protestant dead are 115. Some of our peo- 
 ple perished in the Gregarian Church, where 1,500 or 2,000 
 went for refuge Saturday night, and on Sunday were murdered 
 or burned, very few escaping. 
 
 It was the most awful of all the terrible events of those 
 two days. Thank God, two hundred and forty were saved by 
 coming to me. Sixty of them were men. I could not keep 
 the men in my house or yard, because it was forbidden by the 
 guards, but hid them elsewhere, and fed them for three or four 
 days. The government carefully protected me, and killed as 
 many of my friends as possible. We have our house and all 
 the schoolrooms full of the wounded and the most forlorn. 
 
 Our Oarfa redeaf leave tomorrow; we have now soldiers 
 now for guard of the city; and Christians epecially. Oarfa re- 
 deafs have been poor guards, and but for them the awful work 
 would not have been accomplished. The pastor of Severek, 
 the Rev. Marderas, the Rev. Vartan remains alive in Adaya- 
 man. Both in Severek and Adayaman the number of the 
 killed was very great. In Birijik, about 200 were killed, and 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 251 
 
 all remaining have become Moslems; they have been circum- 
 cised. 
 
 In Aintab about 300 were killed, 847 shops plundered, 
 and 417 houses, and about 400 wounded. 
 
 During our first disturbance, six to seven hundred shops 
 were plundered, and about 175 houses. "^ len the Chris- 
 tians used arms to defend themselves. Sii e then all arms 
 have been taken by the government from t Christians, and 
 the leaders wxre forced to sign a paper static. ; the city as '*in 
 peace and harmony, thanks to the rulers," etc.; twenty-five 
 signed it, and now almost all of those have been killed. 
 
 Our pastor signed for Protestants. 
 
 Only two of the Gregarian priests remain, and they are 
 wounded. The bishop is alive, but feeble and does not work 
 publicly now. Their state is very bad. We desire your 
 prayers, and the aid of all who can give us help by money at 
 this time. Sincerely your Friend. 
 
 Before the coming end of this book, I would like to sav 
 a few words about the same especial martyrs. 
 
 During the wholesale massacre of the Christian Armen- 
 ians, a good many thousands, the brave and faithful Christian 
 men and women, they are never deny their Saviour of Jesus 
 Christ before the swords of their enemies, most of them they 
 are bravely confessed their Christian faith and their martyrs, 
 as the follows. 
 
 Ourfa, Dec. 29, 1895. During the massacre on that day, 
 while every Armenian was running with their life, six of them 
 entered the house of Rev. Absuhayatian of that city to find 
 shelter there. In the meantime, fifteen Mohammedans, well 
 armed, came to the house of Rev. Absuhayatian and asked him 
 to come out. When he did so they told him how well they 
 thought of him and for such a good man as he is it would be 
 advisable to accept the religion of Mussalman, in answer to this 
 Rev. Absuhaytian said: ''No, I cannot do that. I cannot deny 
 my Redeemer.'' The Mohammedans repeated their request 
 three times and each time the answer they received was the 
 same, and the last time Rev. Absuhayatian said: *T cannot 
 
252 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 give up my faith, and would rather die a Christian." As he 
 finished these last words a bullet went through his left breast, 
 fired by one of the Mohammedans, who was standing some 
 distance from the victim. Following the shooting, others 
 struck him and stabbed him with their daggers and swords un- 
 til the victim was utterly helpless. Then they went inside of 
 the house, found the six men hidden there, these they killed and 
 wounded to death, also Rev. Absuhayatian, about twelve hours 
 afterward, died a martyr for Christianity. 
 
 Severek, Nov. 23, 1895. While Rev. Mardiros was in his 
 house a band of Kurds and Mohammedans walked into the 
 house and requested that he should accept the religion of Islam 
 (or Islamism), Rev. Mardiros said, "No, cannot comply with 
 your request, nor can I deny my Lord and my Saviour." At 
 this time they took one of his sons and killed him there; then 
 they asked him (Rev. Mardiros) if he was ready to accept Islam- 
 ism, for if he did his life will be spared. To this they received 
 again a negative answer, and they brought the second son and 
 murdered him there in the presence of his father; and Rev. 
 Mardiros was asked the third time if he was now willing to 
 accept the right religion. They received the same negative 
 answer. Then a Kurd struck him with his sword, and the 
 poor sufferer raised his voice and said, 'T am a Christian. My 
 name is Mardiros, and I have received this name while I was 
 being baptized to be a martyr for Christ. At that moment 
 some one of the crowd struck his head with an axe, and the 
 victim fell to the ground dead. 
 
 Our fa, 3,500 attendants in an Armenian church were 
 burnt to ashes by kerosene oil. 
 
 Beridjik, a Christian young man, was repeatedly re- 
 quested to turn to Islamism, but he persistently refused to 
 do so, saying, 'T am a Christian, and I cannot accept your 
 false prophet." His head was put into a large stone mortar 
 and was smashed to death. 
 
 Marash, an elderly gentleman of my acquaintance, ad- 
 vised his two sons while they were being murdered before his 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 253 
 
 eyes that through fear of death they should not deny Christ; 
 it is better for them to die and be martyrs for Christ; and they 
 were made martyrs, and the father also was killed, to follow 
 his sons. And again, my brother-in-law in Marash, with his 
 two sons, were invited to accept Mohammedanism. On re- 
 fusal of such request all three were killed. They soon found 
 his son-in-law and killed him also. The bloodthirsty mob 
 found twenty-six persons hidden in one house. After killing 
 them all, they tied ropes around their feet and dragged the 
 dead bodies through the streets as they do the body of an 
 animal. 
 
 These are only a few of the true happenings of every- 
 day massacres in Armenia, and tens of thousands of such 
 bloody works can be gathered. While at this time the blood 
 of these martyrs is crying out to us of the cruel injustice to 
 them, their spirits beneath the altar of the Heavenly Throne 
 are crying still louder and saying, ''O, Lord! when wilt Thou 
 revenge our enemies?" Truly, the number of martyrs of Chris- 
 tianity in Armenia and in the entire Ottoman Empire during 
 1894 and 1895 has been greater than has been known to other 
 nations. 
 
 Sivas, Nov. 12, 1895. — Rev. Gorabed Kilyjian died a 
 martyr, his life being offered him three times if he would deny 
 Christ. He bore noble testimony before many witnesses, then 
 fell in their presence, sealing his faith and testimony wdth his 
 blood. 
 
 The nature of the pacification which may be expected if 
 Turkey is left free to carry out its schemes for these provinces 
 may be judged from the following list of educated and influ- 
 ential ministers, who have been put to death for refusing to 
 embrace Mohammedanism. In every case the offer of life on 
 these terms was made; in several cases time was allowed for 
 consideration of the proposal; and in each case faith in Jesus 
 Christ was the sole crime charged against the victim. 
 
 1. Rev. Krikor, pastor at Ichme, killed Nov. 6, 1895. 
 
 2. Rev. Krikor Tamzarien. 
 
254 ILLUSTRATED ARMENIA 
 
 3. Rev. Boghos Atlasian, killed November 13. 
 
 4. Rev. Mardiros Siraganian, of Abakir, killed Nov. 13. 
 
 5. Rev. Garabed Kilijjian of Sivas, killed Nov. 12. 
 
 6. Rev. Mr. Stepan, of the Anglican Church at Marash, 
 killed Nov. 18. 
 
 7. The preacher of the village of Hajin, killed at Marash, 
 Nov. 18. 
 
 8. Rev. Krikor Baghdasarian, retired preacher at Har- 
 poot, Nov. 18. 
 
 9. Retired preacher at Divrik, killed Nov. 8. 
 
 10. Rev. Garabed Resseian, pastor at Cherwouk, Nov. 
 
 12. Pastor at Cutteroul, Nov. 6. 
 
 13. Preacher at Cutteroul, Nov. 6. 
 
 14. Rev. Sarkis Narkashjian, pastor at Chounkoush, 
 Nov. 14. 
 
 15. The pastor of the church at Severek, N©veniber. 
 
 16. The pastor of the church at Adiyaman. 
 
 17. Rev. Hohannes Hachadorian, pastor at Kilisse, 
 Nov. 7. 
 
 18. The preacher at Karabesh, near Diarbekr, Nov. 7. 
 
 19. Rev. Mardiros Tarzian,^ pastor at Keserik, near Har- 
 poot, November. 
 
 THE BLOT ON THIS NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Dear r^eader, do you know how many thousand Chris- 
 tians have been killed during this nineteenth century? It 
 stands about as follows: 
 
 1822, Greeks, especially in the Island of Sco 55,ooo 
 
 1850, Nestorians and Armenians, in Kurdistan 12,000 
 
 i860, Maronites and Syrians, Lebanon and Damascus 1 1 ,000 
 
 1876, Bulgarians in Bulgaria 13,500 
 
 1894, Armenians, in Armenia and Sassoun 12,000 
 
 1895-6, Armenians, in Constantinople and all over in 
 
 Asia Minor, more than 71*895 
 
AND THE ARMENIANS. 255 
 
 1896 and 1897, Greeks, in Island of Crete and Greece, 
 at the last war, over 55,ooo 
 
 The total number 240,395 
 
 In a word the nineteenth century has been a bloody and 
 blotted era for the eastern Christians, because up to this date 
 over 240,000 men and women and innocent children have been 
 killed and butchered in cold blood by the brutal and immoral Is- 
 lamism. Therefore many thousands of such bloody words 
 can be gathered. While at this date the blood of those martyrs 
 is crying out for the cruel injustice to them and to the orphans 
 and widows left behind them, their spirits also, beneath the 
 altar of the Heavenly Throne, are crying still louder and 
 saying, "O Lord, when wilt thou revenge our enemies." Truly 
 the number of martyrs of Christianity in Armenia and of the 
 entire Ottoman Empire during the 19th century has been 
 greater than has been known to other nations. 
 
TABULAR VIEW OF THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES, 
 
 From 1894 to 1896, 26 of August. 
 
 NAME OF TOWN 
 AND THE VILLAGES. 
 
 Sassoun and Villages . 
 Constantinople . . . 
 Ak-Hisaar . . . . . 
 
 Trebizoncl 
 
 Baiburt and Villages . 
 (xumushane and Vill's . 
 Erzingian and Villages 
 Bitlis and Villages . . 
 Harpoot and Vicinities 
 Sivas and Vicinities . 
 Falu and Villages . . 
 Diarbekr and Vicinities 
 
 Albostan 
 
 Eerzeruni and Vicinities 
 
 Onrfa and Villages . . 
 
 Kara, Hessar .... 
 
 jNIaltia ....... 
 
 Marash and Villages . 
 Aintab and Kilis . . . 
 
 Guoroon 
 
 Daranda 
 
 Asliody 
 
 Arabkir 
 
 Argana 
 
 Soverck 
 
 Birejeck, Jibin and Orul 
 Aduyaman and Basny . 
 Azizia and Gamei'ac 
 Divrigy and Villages . 
 Bakhnr Madany . . . 
 
 Musli 
 
 Tokat 
 
 Amasia 
 
 Yozgat and Villages 
 Egun 
 
 Zaytoon, Gab an . . . 
 Furnuz, Doongala . . 
 Shivilgy, Nuorpat . . 
 Gaoksoom, Shardarasy 
 and Hajine .... 
 Adana and Vicinity . . 
 Caisarea and Neegda . 
 And some other places 
 
 DATE OF 
 MASSACRE 
 
 1894 
 
 1895, Sept. 30 
 
 " Oct. 9 
 
 " " 8 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 I" 
 
 1895 
 
 l« 
 
 NUMBER 
 KILLED. 
 
 " 
 
 21 
 
 " 
 
 25 
 
 Nov. 
 
 11 
 
 " 
 
 12 
 
 Oct. 
 
 4( 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 U 
 
 30 
 
 Nov. 
 
 3 
 
 Dec. 
 
 28 
 
 Oct. 
 
 25 
 
 Nov. 
 
 6 
 
 ti 
 
 18 
 
 " 
 
 15 
 
 " 
 
 10 
 
 " 
 
 9 
 
 u 
 
 9 
 
 i( 
 
 6 
 
 Dec. 
 
 19 
 
 Nov. 
 
 19 
 
 << 
 
 17 
 
 u 
 
 13 
 
 u 
 
 13 
 
 >( 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 12 
 
 u 
 
 
 (( 
 
 19 
 
 u 
 
 13 
 
 again. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 25 
 
 u 
 
 26 
 
 (( 
 
 16 
 
 More than 12,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 " 150 
 
 " 800 
 
 1,200 
 
 " " 150 
 
 1,000 
 
 " 1,200 
 
 " " 15,845 
 
 1,500 
 
 4,000 
 
 3,500 
 
 " 150 
 
 " 3,000 
 
 } " " 3,500 
 
 '' 500 
 
 " " 250 
 
 " " ■ 1,200 
 
 1,150 
 
 " " 3,500 
 
 " 750 
 
 125 
 
 " " 2,000 
 
 " " 150 
 
 250 
 
 " " 500 
 
 1,300 
 
 500 
 
 " " 250 
 
 " 200 
 
 " " 150 
 
 .350 
 
 " " 250 
 
 " " 1,575 
 
 " " 250 
 
 2,250 
 
 3,000 
 
 " " 800 
 
 " " 150 
 
 " 1,200 
 
 150 
 
 BY AVHOM DONE. 
 
 Soldiers, Knrds and Turks. 
 Police, Softas and Turks. 
 Moslem villagers. 
 Soldiers, Lazes and Turks. 
 Lazes and Turks 
 Turks and Kurds. 
 Soldiers and Turks. 
 Soldiers, Kurds and Turks. 
 
 Soldiers and Turks. 
 Soldiers, Kurds and Turks. 
 
 Turks and Kurds. 
 Soldiers and Turks. 
 
 Kurds, Turks and Soldiers. 
 
 Circassians and Turks. 
 Turks and Kurds. 
 
 Soldiers and Turks. 
 Kurds and Turks. 
 
 Kurds, Circassians, Turks. 
 
 Kedifs and Turks. 
 Kurds and Turks. 
 
 Soldiers and Turks. 
 
 Soldiers, Of shar Turks. 
 Circassians and Turks. 
 
 Turks 
 
 During the three years from 1894 to 1896, 26 of August, the total number of the 
 ssacres of the Christian Armenians in Asia Minor and Turkey, 83,895. 
 
 massacres 
 
 The statistics of the last outrages will never be accurately known, but bv the most 
 careful figures thus far received, the partial are as told. In the table below I wish to 
 show the population of the ten provinces, and the houses and shops are plundered, 
 and destroyed or burned in the ten provinces, namely: Erzerum, BttJis, Diarhekr, 
 Van, Harpoot, Sivas, Trehi?:ond, Angora, Adana, and Aleppo. 
 
 256