The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe

by Leon Dominian

The Arabs

The Arab folk, sparsely distributed over the Syrian desert and forming the majority of the inhabitants of the featureless downs of Mesopotamia, represent the ebbing of the last tide of Semitic invasion. In the sandy waste of their western extension, their tribes, shifting perpetually from seat to seat, like the dunes around which they roam, consist of Bedouin or “tent men.” The contribution of these nomads to society is as insignificant as the yield of the unproductive lands of their wandering. Towards the east, however, where two mighty rivers bring fertility and life to the soil, the genius of the race blossomed untrammeled and gave Mohammedan civilization to the world.

The purest living representatives of the Semitic race are found among these Bedouins. Civilization pursued its steady growth around their tent homes without affecting their lives. Better favored belts encircling the Syrian desert attracted the human migrations which took place in western Asia. From the last outliers of the hill system fringing the southern Taurus to the northern confines of the Arabian peninsula, the patriarchal state of society prevailing today differs little from the condition in which a dreamer well past middle age found it fourteen centuries ago and brought it within the pale of modern thought by inspiring it with the enthusiasm of his own belief in a single God. Stripped of his religion and of his rifle, the Bedouin stands today before the historian as the living image of long remote ancestors whose invasions caused profound upheavals in the societies established east and west of his present tramping ground.

But the Arab settled in the long elongated plain watered by the Tigris and Euphrates can never lay claim to equal purity of stock. He lives in a land which by virtue of a great twin river system gave rise to the oldest civilization of the world. Its inhabitants, whether aboriginal or invaders from the table-land on the east, derived more than mere sustenance from proximity to these mothering watercourses. Surrounded by desert and mountain, this region naturally became a seat of population. Its native element, already much mixed, was assimilated to a large extent by the Arabs since the period of their appearance in Mesopotamia.

The floating masses of Bedouins have successfully resisted Turkish effort to induce them to abandon nomadism. Occasionally, as in the belt of Tauric precipitation or along the borders of the zone of Mediterranean rains no less than under the benign influence of Mesopotamian rivers, they become sedentary. They are then known as fellaheen. But the change is incompatible with their immemorial restlessness and implies loss of caste in their own eyes.

TABLE I

Names and Peoples of Some Non-Turkish Villages in Asia Minor

Peoples designated as follows:

Alevi	Al.
Armenians	Ar.
Avshars	Av.
Chaldeans	Ch.
Circassians	Cir.
Greeks	Gr.
Karapapaks	Kpk.
Kizilbash	Kz.
Kurds	Kd.
Nestorians	N.
New Chaldeans	N. Ch.
Tatars	Ta.
Turkomans	Tkn.
Yezidi	Yd.

Name of Village	Peoples	Name of Village	Peoples
Aghje Kaleh	Kd.	Atess	N.
Agh-ova	Kd.	Avviran	Gr.
Aivali	Gr.	Bazarjik	Kd.
Ak-bunar	Cir.	Berar	Ar.
Akdam	Ar.	Bey	Ch.
Akhlat	Kd.	Birgami	Kd.
Akstafa	Kpk.	Chateran	Ar.
Alaklissia	Gr.	Chevirme	Kd.
Alexandropol	Ar.	Chukh	Ar.
Alkosh	N. Ch.	Deliler	Kd.
Altea	Gr.	Derendeh	Ar.
Angora	Ar.	Diz-deran	Kd.
Arabja Keupri	Gr. & Cir.	Ekrek	Ar.
Ardia	Cir.	Feshapur	Ch.
Arji	N.	Funduk	Cir.

Name of Village	Peoples	Name of Village	Peoples
Furinji	Kd.	Misli	Gr.
Garib	Kd.	Mush plain	Ar.
Garni	Ar.	Nerdivan	Kd.
Gemerek	Ar.	Nerib	Kd.
Gunderno	Ar.	Nigdeh	Gr.
Gunig-kaleh	Ar.	Niksar	Gr.
Gurgujeli	Tkn.	Norchuk	Ar.
Gurun	Ar.	Omar	Kd.
Haik	Ar.	Orbülu	Kd.
Hamsi	Gr.	Pekarieh	Ar.
Hanefi	Al.	Pingan	Ar.
Harras	Kd.	Porrot	Kd.
Helais	Kd.	Pulk	Ar.
Hornova	Ar.	Rabat	Kd.
Hoshmat	Ar.	Redvan	Yd.
Inevi	Tkn.	Samsat	Kd.
Instosh	Ar.	Sekunis	N.
Isbarta	Gr.	Semil	Yd.
Isoghlu	Kd.	Serai	N.
Jenan	Kd.	Shabin Kara-Hissar	Ar.
Jessi	Kd.	Shahr	Ar.
Kaialik	Kd.	Sha-uta	N.
Kainar	Cir.	Sheik Adi	Yd.
Karachu	Kd.	Sheikh Amir	Kd.
Kara-geben	Ar.	Sheikhan	Kd.
Keklik-oghlu	Kd.	Shen	Kd.
Kelebesh	Gr.	Shernak	Kd.
Kemer	Av.	Sultan Oghlu	Tkn.
Keupri	Tkn.	Tadvan	Ar.
Kezanlik	Cir.	Takvaran	Kd.
Khakkaravokh	Kd.	Tashan	Ar.
Khasta-Khâneh	Av.	Tashbunar	Cir.
Khusi	N.	Terzili	Ar.
Kinskh	Kd.	Thorub	Ch.
Kizil-doghan	Gr.	Tokat	Ar.
Kilisse	Ar.	Tomarze	Ar.
Kochannes	N.	Top-agach	Ar.
Koch-hissar	Ar.	Tor	Tkn.
Kojeri	Ar.	Ulash	Ar.
Koshmet	Kz.	Uzum Yaila	Cir.
Kotni	Kd.	Vurla	Gr.
Kula	Gr.	Yakshi-khân	Ta.
Kwaneh	N.	Yalak	Av.
Maden	N.	Yarzuat	Ta.
Madrak	Kd.	Yeni Keui	Kd.
Mansuriyeh	Ch.	Zara	Ar.
Melendis	Gr.	Zela	Ar.
Mervanen	N.

TABLE II

Classification of the Peoples of Asiatic Turkey

Name	Race	Religion	Speech	Homeland	Estimated Number
Allevis (see Tahtajis)
Ansariyehs	Armenoid	Monotheistic	Arabic	Syrian mts. and Cilician plains	175,000
Aptals	Armenoid	Sunni	Arabic	Syrian mts.	uncertain
Arabs	Semitic	Mohammedan	Arabic	South of Tauric and Armenian mts.	300,000?
Arameans	Semitic	Hebrew	Aramean		300
Armenians	Armenoid	Christian	Armenian (Aryan)	Armenian highland, Taurus and Anti-Taurus ranges	1,000,000[260]
Asdias (see Yezidis)
Avshars	Turki	Shia	Turkish	Anti-Taurus	uncertain
Balikis	Armenoid	Mixed Mohammedan and Christian	Mixed Arabic, Kurdish and Armenian	Near Sasun	uncertain
Bejvans	Semitic	Mixed Mohammedan and Christian	Arabic	Near Mosul	uncertain
Chaldeans	Semitic	Roman Catholic	Syriac, Kurdish and Arabic	Near Diarbekr and Jezireh; Sert and Khabur basin	50,000
Chepmis (see Tahtajis)
Circassians	Mixed Turki and Indo-European	Mohammedan	Turkish	Anatolia, N. Syria, N. Mesopotamia	500,000
Druzes	Armenoid	Mohammedan	Arabic	Lebanon; Anti-Lebanon, Hawran mts., around Damascus	200,000
Greeks[261]	Mediter-ranean	Christian	Greek	Coast districts, mining districts, large cities	2,000,000
Ismailyehs	Armenoid	Mohammedan	Semitic	Northern Syria	22,000
Jacobites	Semitic	Christian (Monophy-sites)	Syriac	Syria, Mesopotamia	15,000
Jews	Mixed Semitic, Mediterranean and Armenoid	Hebrew	Hebrew	Jerusalem; environs of Damascus	150,000
Karapapaks	Turki	Shia	Turkish	Tutakh-Patnoz	3,000
Kizilbash	Armenoid mixed with Turki	Shia, or mixture of Shiism, Paganism, Manichaeism, and Christianity	Turkish	Angora and Sivas vilayets; Dersim	400,000
Kurds	Indo-European	Mohammedan	Aryan languages	West of the Sakaria river; Kurdistan	1,500,000
Lazis	Georgian branch of the Caucaso-Thibetan peoples	Mohammedan	Grusinian	Lazistan; north of Choruk Su, around Riza	uncertain
Maronites	Armenoid	Christian	Arabic	Mt. Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon	350,000
Metauilehs	Probably Armenoid	Shia	Arabic	Northern Lebanon	under 50,000
Nestorians	Armenoid	Christian	Syriac	Basin of the Great Zab; valleys of the Bohtan and Khabar	60,000
New Chaldeans	Semitic	Christian	Syriac	Alkosh	uncertain
Sabeans	Semitic	Christian	Syriac	Amara and Muntefik sanjaks of the Basra vilayet	3,000
Samaritans	Semitic	Hebrew	Hebrew	Near Nablus	300
Syrians	Semitic	Christian and Mohammedan	Arabic	Syria and Mesopotamia	uncertain
Tahtajis	Armenoid	Mohammedan	Turkish	Lycian mts.	5,000
Tatars	Turki	Mohammedan	Turkish	Anatolia and Cilician plains	25,000
Terekimans (see Karapapaks)
Turkomans	Turki	Mohammedan	Turkish	Angora, Adana and Aleppo vilayets	uncertain
Turks	Turki mixed with Armenoid	Mohammedan	Turkish	Anatolia mainly	8,000,000
Yezidis or Asdais	Mixed Armenoid and Indo-European	Devil-worshipers, mixture of the old Babylonian religion; Zoroastrianism; Manichaeism and Christianity	Kermanji	Kurt Dagh on the W. to Zakho E. of the Tigris; Badi near Mosul; Sinjar range	40,000
Yuruks	Armenoid	Mohammedan	Turkish	Konia vilayet	200,000
Total					15,048,600

TABLE III

The Christians of the Turko-Persian Borderland

I. Mosul and the Valley of the Tigris (by families)[262]
District of Mosul.
City of Mosul	2,000	R. C.[263]
City of Mosul	1,200	J.
City of Mosul	400	R. C. s.
Telkief	2,000	R. C.
Bagdair	700	J.
Bartila	300	R. C.
Batnai	400	R. C.
Tel Uskof	450	R. C.
Alkosh	700	R. C.
Dohuk	150	R. C.
Bait Kupa	300	R. C.
Mar Yakob & Sheus	100	R. C.
Total	8,700		8,700
District of Sapna.
Mangeshie	200	R. C.
Dihie	30	P.
Daviria	100	R. C.
Tinn	70	R. C.
Aradin	200	R. C.
Haszia & Benata	50	R. C.
Bibaidi	30	N.
Diri	40	N.
Dirginie	35	N.
Lower Barnai, Maisie, Chamankie, etc.	120	R. C.
Total	875		875
District of Zakhu.
Zakhu	100	R. C.
Bait Daru	90	R. C.
Peshawur	110	R. C.
Bersiwi	70	R. C.
Sharnish	50	R. C.
Margu & Baiju	95	R. C.
Wasta	80	R. C.
Total	595		595
District of Bohtan.
Tilkuba	60	R. C.
Jazera (Jezireh)	150	R. C.
Mansuria	60	P.
Hassan	70	N.
Shakh	30	P.
Mar Akha	30	P.
Mar Yohannan	10	P.
A few other villages	50	N.
Total	460		460
District of Zibar.
Esan	30	N.
Argin	7	N.
Shushu & Sharman	25	N.
Shaklawa (in Akra)	500	R. C.
Akra	300	R. C.
Total	862		862
District of E. Berwar.
Aina d’Nuni	50	N.
Duri	35	N.
Ikri & Malakhta	40	N.
Bait Baluk	20	N.
Four villages, including Halwa, Khwara	50	N.
Dirishki	20	N.
Maiyi	25	N.
Haiyiz	30	N.
Bishmeyayi	20	N.
Iad	20	N.
Tashish	30	N.
Musakka	20	N.
Three small villages	25	N.
Jadeda	15	N.
Chalik	30	N.
Kaneba Labi	20	N.
Total	450		450
			11,942
II. The Highlands of Kurdistan
Tyari	5,000
Tkhuma	2,500
Baz	800
Tal	700
Diz	600
Jilu	2,500
Berwar (Qudshanis included)	900
Lewan (west of Julamerk)	300
Serai (45 miles east of Van)	300
Eleven villages around Serai	400
Norduz (on Van-Julamerk road)	200
Albak (near Bashkala)	300
Gawar	400
Six villages in Nerwan & Rekan	200
Shemsdinan & Bar Bhishu (estimated)	200
Total families	15,300		15,300
Grand total			27,242
Total individuals at six to a family			163,452