The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-04-02
TURKEYS PLACE IN THE
HISTORY Of THE
WORLD

In paper telling something of the
wonderful history of the lands over
which Turkey has ruled for many
generations, prepared for the Ma
tional Geographic Society, William
Poseph Showalter gives some inter
esting facts which ordinarily escape
attention. Except when Paul and his
associates crossed the Hellespont to
Athens and Rome, the entire Bible
story, from Genesis to Revelation,
was lived in what has been Turkey,
writes Mr.. Showalter, and he calls
attention to the fact that the great
empires of the east, the civilizations
of the Egyptians and the Phoenic-
ians, the glories of Byzantium-all
were planted on what has been Turk
ish soil. He also shows how King
Sargon, duling at the very dawn of
history, congratulated his empire up
on his success in bringing down the
high cost of living" He says, in
part:
"No other people possess lands Of
such wonderful historic interest as
the Turks. Occupying a region only
third as great in area as the United
States, they have yet territory with
in whose boundaries the greatest, the
most influential events in human his
tory have occurred.
THE Bible, with little exception, is
an account Of the doings of people
who never got beyond what have
hitherto been the confines of Turkey.
From a single corner of the Ottoman
Empire arose the Babylon that in its
| al hat
that same region envy and famine
conspired to send the children of
Abraham into Egypt, which until re-
Gently was embraced in the Empire
of the Ottomans. Thence, as they
marched back from Africa to Asia,
through the wilderness of sin to the
Promised Land, they never once set
foot off of what came to be Turkish
soil. And then the Star of Bethlehem
arose it stood over a Manager, on land
that is now Turkish soil"
I'm Asia Minor once dwelt Croesus,
whose name to this day expresses
the last degree of wealth. Here was
Pergamus, whose library in its period
was the finest in the world, making
such demands for papyrus that Ptol-
envy was led to prohibit the exporta-
ton of that commodity from Egypt.
Under the reign of the Caesars, Asia
Minor alone contained 500 populous
cities, enriched will all the gifts of
nature and adorned with all the re-
finements of art.
THE civilization of the Hittites,
whose lands finally were occupied by
the hosts of Israel; the civilization of
Tyre and Sidon, the greatest coloniz-
ers of ancient times; the civilization
of Egypt, rival of Persia and Chaldea
in the value of the heritage it be-
queathed to the future; the civiliza-
ton of Constantinople and the Byzan-
tine Empire, in its day more, gorgeous
than any that had gone before-all
found their home within the boundar-
les of what afterwards came to be
the land of the Turk. Mohammed,
and the religion which bears his name,
and now claims several hundred mil
lion adherents, were also born in the
Ottoman Empire.
The greatest of these ancient en-
pireS was the Babylonian. The Baby
lonians built their civilization upon an
irrigation ditch and made Babylonia a
land teeming with people. the seat of
magnificent cities, and the home of
wor d-conquering empire. Babylonia
rivaled the valley of the Nile in pro-
duction. Every Greek traveller who
wandered that way marveled at the |
luxuriouSnesS of the crops of Meso- |
potamia Even Herodotus hesitated
to tell the story in its fulness lest the |
people for whom he wrote history
might regard him as a nature fakir.
The hanging gardens of Babylon stir
red the admiration of the travellers |
out of the west, so that they wrote |
them down as one of the seven wond- |
RS of the world. Nebuchadnezzar
built them for ks wife, Amytis, the
beautiful Mede, to rescue her from |
her inconsistencies for her native Med
ian hills
King Sargon, though he lived at
the dawn of history, reviewed his |
reign much as president of the Unit
ed States or great European sover-
elgn might review his official career.
He tells us that he restored ancient
ruined cities and colonized them: that
he gave his nation a splendid svs-
tenn OF reservoirs, dams, and canals:
that he protected the needy from ali |
wants. the weak from oppressi sion, fill
ed the nations granaries with corn.
brought down the high cost # living.
and found new markets for the ma
tons products.
babylon's Notifications are said to
have had circumference of S. miles.
the outer wall of which was $50 feet
high and IS feet thick. The palace
OF Sargon ii covered about Is acres.
and Its front was twice as long as that
OF the United States capitol. Forty
eight great winged bulls guarded its
entrances and upon its walls were
more than two miles of sculptured
slabs telling the story of the kings
reign"