FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.
The Interior of Syria: Zendjirli, Carchemish, Tell-Halaf. —German excavations at Zendjirli (the old kingdom of Samal) to the north-west of Aleppo near the Amanus, and the British work at Carchemish on the Euphrates, which of ter the fall of Boghaz-Keui was the capital of the new Hittite confederation, have produced some important inscriptions and have reconsti tuted the art of the Arameans. Here Hittite and Mesopotamian influences contend. A type of city based on a circular plan, sur rounded by one or several walls has been revealed. In these are found bit-hilani (Assyrian for these buildings), which are more wide than deep, with steps and a peristyle with columns and of ten flanked by two square towers. In conformity with technique found in Assyria, the courts and halls of the palace are decorated with plinths of carved stone, representing mytho logical scenes, lines of palace guards, or winding processions. Roaring lions guarded the doors. But this art is earlier than the glorious Assyrian period, for it starts with the beginning of the 1st millennium and is distinguished from the Assyrian by the use of basalt, and by a vigorous, bold, almost primitive, style, where massiveness is compensated by sincerity. This art, in compari son with the Assyria of the Sargonides, is provincial, but its date makes it independent of Assyria. It is related in a general way, though not directly, to the art of Boghaz Keui. Some of the old est sculptures, those of Uyiik for example, explain this art of upper Syria at the beginning of the 1st millennium, though there is missing the translation in relationship with the Hittite art of Anatolia of the r3th century. The German excavations of von Oppenheim at Tell-Halaf (on the Chabur) have revealed monu ments of the same style, the most vigorous being the oldest ; others, which are analogous to the most recent specimens from Zendjirli, exhibit in decadence the formula, of which they are the extreme branch in the direction of Assyria.
To the same epoch date the foundations of temples, which prove the continuity of the Semitic worship in this area. At Amrit, in a great court a small naos (shrine) is cut out of the rock itself, showing that it was a place of worship. At Sidon, on the side of a hill on a terrace overlooking the river, are the ruins of a temple, dedicated to Eshmun, the Phoenician Aesculapius. The most important Phoenician inscriptions, found in Phoenicia itself, come from Sidon and from the dynasty to which Tabnit and Eshmu nazar belonged. We may conclude that Phoenician art, in the course of its history, remained under the direct influence of the conquerors and of the countries with which Phoenicia had inter course. Phoenician art is a compound of Egyptian, Aegean and Mesopotamian motives, which local artists have utilized and combined with real taste.
At El-Barah, near the caravan route from Hamah to Aleppo, and at Serdjilla, an hour's distance away, many houses of the 5th century are still in an admirable state of preservation. They were abandoned at the time of the Arab occupation. They owe their preservation to the fact that stone was used almost entirely in their construction. Beautiful specimens of Syrian silver work of this period, chalices, vials for holy oil, vases, sumptuous book bindings of the Gospels, belonging, many of them, probably to the middle of the 6th century, are to be seen in the important museums.
About 195o B.C. western Asia Minor appears to have been held by the 1st dynasty of Hittites (q.v.), with their capital at Kushara ( ?). Two centuries later Aryan races seem to have in vaded'the country and imposed at least their language on the Hit-. tites, who about I Soo B.C. emerged suddenly as a powerful empire at Hati (Boghaz-Keui of to-day, Greek Pieria), ruling over Asia Minor and fighting the Egyptian Pharaohs for the mastery of Syria, and Assyria for the mastery of Mittani (Jerablus) .
The Hittite sculptures and inscriptions have been found in their own capital at Boghaz-Keui and at various places between Smyrna and the Euphrates.
This Hittite empire was overthrown by Indo-European races, possibly Greeks, who, crossing the Hellespont from Europe to Asia, with their iron weapons defeated the Hittites possessing only bronze weapons. These Indo-European races established many colonies all along the Aegean coast and in the hinterland, from which arose the Phrygian kingdom. Traces of this kingdom remain in various rock tombs, forts and towns, and in leg ends preserved by the Greeks. In the 8th century B.C. the Cimmerians coming from Armenia overran the Phrygian king dom, and on its decline rose the kingdom of Lydia, with its centre at Sardis. A second Cimmerian invasion, followed later by Cyaxares, almost destroyed the rising kingdom, but the in vaders were stopped by Alyattes (617-586 B.C.; see SCYTHIA). The last King Croesus ( ?56o-546 B.e.) carried his boundaries to the Halys, and subdued the Greek colonies on the coast. These flourishing Greek colonies formed a chain of settlements extend ing from Trebizond to Rhodes. Too jealous of each other to com bine, and too demoralized by luxury to resist, they fell an easy prey to Lydia. After the capture of Sardis by Cyrus, 546 B.C., these colonies passed to Persia without resistance. Under Persian rule Asia Minor was divided into four satrapies, but the Greek cities were governed by Greeks and the tribes in the interior re tained their native princes and priest-dynasts. The conflicts be tween Persians and Greeks are told in the article GREECE : History. Beginning with Darius' attempt to conquer the European, as well as Asiatic, Greeks, they ended in 334 B.c. when Asia Minor was invaded by Alexander the Great. (See GREECE; PERSIA; IONIA.) After the death of Alexander various diadochoi (succession rulers) established their rule over various parts of the peninsula, Rhodes became a great maritime republic. The Ptolemies of Egypt ruled over the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. A small independent kingdom was founded at Pergamum 283 B.C., which lasted a century and a half. Bithynia became an inde pendent monarchy, Cappadocia and Paphlagonia tributary prov inces under native princes. In the south the Seleucids founded Antioch, Apamea, Attalia, the Laodiceas and other cities as centres of commerce, some of which afterwards played an im portant part in the Hellenization of the country and in the spread of Christianity. During the 3rd century B.C. certain Celtic tribes crossed the Bosporus and established their power in districts be tween the Sangarius and Halys, called Galatia. Its capital was at Ancyra—the modern Angora, the capital of republican Turkey.
The defeat of Antiochus the Great at Magnesia, Igo B.c., placed Asia Minor at the mercy of Rome, but it was only in 133 B.C. that the first Roman province, Asia, was formed to include the western Anatolia. Under Mithridates the Great (q.v.) Pontus rose into a formidable power ; but he was driven from his country by Pompey and died in 63 B.C. The Romans organized the penin sula into various provinces, leagues and almost independent prin cipalities, and under their dominion Asia Minor developed and became prosperous. At the end of the 3rd century A.D., in re organizing the empire, Diocletian broke the great military com mands and united the provinces into groups called dioceses. A great change followed the introduction of Christianity, which gradually spread over the region. The seven Christian Churches of Asia Minor were built up in this period.
When the Roman empire was divided into two in 395, Asia Minor fell to the Eastern Roman empire with its capital at Con stantinople ; the native languages and old religions partly disap peared and the country was thoroughly Hellenized. At the close of the 6th century Asia Minor had become wealthy and prosper ous, but centuries of peace and over-centralization produced a state of affairs which is embodied in the term Byzantine. The vigorous Persian monarch Chosroes II. (Khosrau) invaded Asia Minor from 616 to 626 and pitched his camp on the Bosporus. The emperor Heraclius, however, restored the Byzantine power by marching his army to Kurdistan ; but soon after the Arabs entered Asia Minor, and in 668 A.D. laid siege to Constantinople. For the following three centuries Byzantium and the caliphs of Baghdad waged occasional warfare for the mastery of the bridge heads of the Euphrates and the Cilician gates. But a more dan gerous enemy was soon to appear from the East. In 1067 the Seljuk Turks ravaged Cilicia and Cappadocia; in 1071 they de feated and captured the emperor Romanus Diogenes; in 1080 they took Nicaea. One branch of the Sel j uks founded the empire of Rum with its capital at Iconium. During the 12th century a number of Seljuk Atabeks ruled in different districts of Asia Minor ; the Mamelukes of Egypt in Syria and farther East ; Greeks in Pontus, Armenians in Cilicia, Danishmends (an Armenian family) at Sivas, Bayandurs (a Greek family) at Erzerum, etc. The Mongols swept the whole region and in 1243 subdued the Seljuk sultan of Rum. In the ensuing struggle for power among the Turkoman tribes, the Osmanli Turks eventually assumed su premacy and established their state at Brusa. In 1400 Sultan Bayazid I. held almost all Asia Minor west of the Euphrates. But he was defeated and imprisoned by Timur, who swept through the country to the shores of the Aegean. On the death of Timur, the Osmanli power was re-established after a prolonged struggle which ended with the annexation by Mohammed II. (1451-81) of Karamania and Pontus. The later history of Asia Minor is that of the Ottoman empire. The Turks have dominated Asia Minor since in the widest sense, until their supreme power was challenged in 1832 by an Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha, and their rule shattered in the World War.
The devastation of Asia Minor, initiated by the Seljuk hordes in the 11th century, was followed by a long succession of nomad Turkish tribes. The latter did not ill-treat the native people; but as they passed onwards they left the country bare and deso late. Whole provinces passed out of cultivation and the natives, taking to the mountains or to towns, abandoned their lands to these nomads, who replaced wheeled traffic by the pack horse and the camel. The native peasants were thus forced to be nomads themselves. The Mongols, as they advanced, sacked towns and historic monuments; they razed to the ground even mounds and "all that might serve as a place of armed resistance." Timur con ducted his campaigns with a ruthless disregard of life and prop erty. Entire Christian communities and almost all who attempted any self-defence were massacred; flourishing towns were com pletely destroyed and all Asia Minor was ravaged. From these disasters the country never recovered, and many traces of Hel lenic civilization disappeared with the enforced use of the Turkish language and the wholesale conversions to Islam under the early Osmanli sultans.
In modern times, Asia Minor slowly recovered under western influences; but the construction of railways and the consequent growth of trade and local industries were seriously interrupted by the disaster of the World War. When the Turks signed the Armistice on Oct. 3o, 1918, they were utterly beaten. The British armies had captured all the Arab-speaking lands of Asia Minor. In May 1919 a Greek army seized Smyrna and most of the Ionian coast and gradually extended its occupation to Eski Shehir (the ancient Dorylaeum) and Afiun-Karahissar. At one moment it was thought that the Hellenic civilization was again rising in its historic centres.
The Treaty of Sevres (q.v.), signed by the Turks in Aug. 1920, reduced Asia Minor to its geographical and ethnic boundaries as it had been established by five centuries of Turkish domination. Great Britain assumed the mandates of Palestine and 'Iraq, and France that of Syria. Meanwhile Great Britain, France and Italy had signed a tripartite agreement, by which they divided south and south-eastern Asia Minor into spheres of influence. The Tur kish nationalist movement, however, led by Mustapha Kemal Pasha soon reasserted itself. The Turks drove the French from Cilicia and the Greeks from Smyrna. The Treaty of Sevres was not ratified and was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne ( July 19 23) which left Turkey absolutely sovereign in Asia Minor in the narrow sense. After the suppression of the sul tanate in Nov. 1923, soon followed by that of the caliphate, Tur key declared itself a republic with its capital at Angora.
Under the auspices of the Allied Powers and in conjunction with the Treaty of Lausanne a convention for the exchange of populations was signed between Turkey and Greece, by which about one million Greeks, the oldest civilized natives of western Asia Minor, were driven from their ancestral homes and lands and transferred to Greece and Macedonia, thus wiping out the last traces of Hellenism in Anatolia.