The Portland daily press., 1896-03-03
RISE OF THE OTTOMAN.
Sketch of the Turks in Europe.

From the Days of the Khan to those of
The 'sick Man."
Grew. Charles +. Lee in Boston Watch
man.
-Four hundred years ago the Turks were
the dread of Christendom; today they are
feared by none but the unhappy Armen-
ians. Four hundred years ago, having
conquered the Byzantine empire they
were threatening southern Europe; to-
day the Sick Man" is sicker than ever
before, and there is reason to believe that
his death will occur before the close of
the century.
Who are the TurksP There is large in
fusion of Caucasian blood in their veins
but their remote ancestors belonged to
the Turanian branch of the human
family, and, AS such, were allied to the
Tarters and Mongols. The primitive
Turks were homads and lovers of war.
The horse tails adorning Turkish stand
ards remind as what the founders of the
Ottoman empire were-horsemen, born
riders, fierce warriors aud ruthless de-
stroyers.
The birthplace of the Turks would seem
to have been the wild uplands of the
Altai mountains, where they were neigh
bors of the Chinese. to escape whosa
dominiona large number of them migrat-
ed to what is now known as Turkistan,
and dispossesed those whom they found
there. The grand khan, as the chief
rY.t of r ho g,1pIyicb 1a6
sent an embassy to Constantinople as
early as A. d. 562, aud, few years later,
formed an alliance with the Emperor
Justinian III. In the 10th century these
tribes, who were known to the byzantine
writer's as the Oghuze, began rapidly to
embrace Mohammedanism and, soon de-
prlving the Saracens of their conquests,
became masters of Persia, the greater
part of Asia Minor, Syria aud Egypt.
From Seljuk, one of their princes, under
whom they were converted to Islam, they
came to be called Seljuks.
The Ottoman Turks are descended
from q small Turkish tribe that had not
accepted Mohammedanism, and that,
fleeing before the arms of Genghis Khan,
the great Mongol conqueror, found a
nome in the highlands Of Armenia. At
the death of its leader, Suley man, the
tribe divided, and half of it went west
ward. to be granted territory on the
byzantine frontier by the Seljuk sultan
of Iconium. OsInan, the grandson of
Suleylnan. introduced 1slamism among
his subjects, and becoming in 1899, an
independent sovereign founded the OF
toman empire. From him these Turks
were called Osmanlis, which name was
corrupted by Europeans into Ottomans
From rhe time of Osman the Ottomans
rapidly increased in power. end soon be-
came virtually the lords of Asia Minor.
In the reign of Orchan, the son of Os-
man, they captured Gallipolis, ON the
other side of the Heilespont, and thus
established themselves in Europe.
Had the OttoIr ans remained what their
ancestors had bean-mere nomads-they
would not have become a standing men
ace to Europe. In that case their fate
would probably have been that of many
another barbaric Ieople-such, for in
stance, as the Huns of Attila-who, after
lHrid career of bloodshed and rapine in
civilized lands, have been destroyed or
driven back to the wild regions whence
they came, to be heard of no more. But
Orchan, like Osman, was creator rather
than a destroyer. Both these monar3hs,
learning some Of the lessons of the civil
ization with which they came in contact,
sought to convert their rude followers
into q nation, and endow s.them with at
least the outward gifts Of law and order
and fettled habits of life. The result
was that this Ottomans, without losing
their martial traits, gradually ceased to
be nomads, and were welded into a
power that. directed by genius, grew to
be the most formidable enemy Europe
had known since the fall Of the western
empire. One of the traits of the semi
civilization thus acquired was the forma-
ton in 1880 of the Janissaries, or New
Troops who constituted disciplined
standing army, which could he depended
upon by its masters as the irregular
horsemen before its time could not be.
The .lanissarjes were composed largely
of men of Christian parentage, who had
been torn from their homes in boy God,
reared in the creed of the conquerors,
and taught the trade of arms. Though
they afterward became as dangerous to
the sultans as the Pretorian bands were
to the Roman emperors. they formed,
while still amenable to discipline, a body
Of troops which, inf1amed with fanati-
cism, proved, on many vel fought
field match for the best soidery of
Europe. Murad l (1359-13S9) captured
Adrianople, Apollonia, Sofia and other
important places, aud compelled the Ser
vans and Bulgarians to pay tribute. 1t
was in his reign, too, that the Ottomans
first measured swords with the Hungar
ians, between whom and themselves 30
many bloody battles were to be fought
Bajavzet I, surnamed Ilderim, the
'Thunderbolt, reduced Wallachia to vas
salags anda extorted tribute from the
Greek empire He defeated Sigisplund
of Hungary in the terrible battle of Nico,
polls Q396), characteristic account OF
which may be found in Froissart's
&c chronicles, " and would have attempted
tine conquest Of Constantinople had he
not been overwhelmed and taken captive
H. i e. h. No.. AZ, De-,
baria butcher though he was, Europe
had right to regard Timur as, in some
sense, the instrument of Providence il
her deliyorance for season from the all
dreaded Turk.