Thousand and One Nights

For the long and complicated bibliography of the Nights reference can be made to Victor Chauvin's Bibliographie des Ouvrages Arabes, pt. iv. to vii. (Liege, 1900-o3). This is a thesaurus of the whole subject. Still worth reference is J.Rfostrup's Studier over Tusind og en Nat (Copenhagen, 1891). Of this there is an abbreviated French translation by E. Galtier in Memoires de l'Institut Francais du Caire, vol. xxvii., and a German trans lation by 0. Rescher (Stuttgart, 1925) with valuable additions bringing it to that date. English is fortunate in its direct trans lations from the Arabic ; all, however, from the printed texts of the modern Egyptian Recension. In 1838, Henry Torrens pub lished a very remarkable version (Calcutta and London) of the first 5o Nights, giving the feeling of the original in prose and verse better than almost any other. Lane's incomplete version (3 vol. London, 1839-41) is from the Bulaq edition and shows his deep knowledge of Cairene Arabic ; the commentary is very valuable. The version by John Payne (Villon Society, 9 vol. 1882-84) from the Calcutta edition is a faithful and complete rendering into rather sophisticated translator's English. The prose part of Burton's version (Benares, io vol., 1885) is largely dependent upon Payne, but treated after Burton's fashion; the verse is his own. An excellent and complete German translation by Enno Littmann of the University of Tübingen has appeared at Leipzig; it is from the Calcutta text with additions, and the sixth volume, published in 1928, contains a valuable study (pp. 681 771) of the translating, origin, contents and history of the Nights. The French version of J. C. Mardrus (Paris, 1899 ff.), professedly from the Bulaq edition, is unfaithful to a large degree and repre sents no known Arabic text; the same holds of the various versions derived from it in English, Spanish and Polish. (D. B. M.) THRACE, a name applied at various periods to areas of dif ferent extent. Since 1923 Thrace has been divided between Greece (Western Thrace) and Turkey (Eastern Thrace). The boundaries of the Roman province of Thrace were—north, the Haemus; east, the Euxine sea ; south, the Propontis, the Hellespont and the Ae gean; and west, the Nestus. The distinguishing features of the country were the chain of Rhodope (Despotodagh) and the river Hebrus (Maritza). The former separates from the Haemus at right angles, and runs southward, parallel to the Nestus, until it approaches the sea, when it takes an easterly direction. Several of the summits of this chain are over 7,000ft. in height. The Hebrus, with its tributaries, drains almost the whole of Thrace. It starts from near the point of junction of Haemus and Rhodope, and takes an easterly direction, but at Hadrianopolis it makes a sharp bend towards the south, and enters the sea nearly opposite the is land of Samothrace. The greater part of the country is hilly and irregular; besides Rhodope two other tolerably definite chains in tersect it, one of which descends from Haemus to Adrianople, while the other follows the coast of the Euxine at no great distance inland. One district in the extreme north-west of Thrace lay be yond the watershed separating the streams that flow into the Ae gean from those that reach the Danube : this was the territory of Sardica, the modern Sofia. In the later Roman period two main lines of road passed through the country. One of these skirted the southern coast, being a continuation of the Via Egnatia, from Dyrrhachium to Thessalonica, connecting the Adriatic and the Aegean ; it became of the first importance after the foundation of Constantinople. The other followed a north-westerly course through the interior, from Constantinople by Hadrianopolis and Philippopolis to the Haemus, and thence through Moesia in the direction of Pannonia, taking the route by which the railway now runs from Constantinople to Belgrade.

The climate of Thrace was regarded by the Greeks as severe, and that country was spoken of as the home of the north wind, Boreas. The coast of the Euxine was feared by sailors, as the har bours were few and the sea tempestuous ; but on the southern shore we find the Greek colonies of Abdera and Mesambria on the Aegean, Perinthus on the Propontis, and, the most famous of all, Byzantium (q.v.). Colonies were also planted in the Thracian Chersonese, between the Hellespont and the Bay of Melas ; among its cities were Sestos and Callipolis (Gallipoli). In order to pre vent the incursions of the Thracians, a wall was built across its isthmus, which was less than 5m. in breadth.

History.

The most striking archaeological monuments of the prehistoric period are the sepulchral mounds, which are found especially in the neighbourhood of the ancient towns. Roman im plements and ornaments have been found in some of them. The country was overrun several times by Darius and his generals, and the Thracian Greeks contributed 120 ships to the armament of Xerxes (Herod. vii. 185). The most powerful Thracian tribe was the Odrysae, whose king, Teres, extended his dominion so as to include the greater part of Thrace. During the Peloponnesian War his son Sitalces was an ally of the Athenians against the Macedonians. During the early period of the Roman empire the Thracian kings were allowed to maintain an independent sover eignty, while acknowledging the suzerainty of Rome, and it was not until the reign of Vespasian that the country was reduced to the form of a province. It was much exposed to the inroads of barbarian invaders, was overrun by the Goths on several occasions, and subsequently by the Huns ; but its proximity to Constanti nople caused its fortunes to be closely connected with the capital of the Eastern empire. In the middle ages the northern parts of Thrace were occupied by Bulgarians; in 1361 the Turks made themselves masters of Adrianople, which became the Turkish capital. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the whole country passed into the hands of the Turks, and in their possession it re mained until 1878, when the northern portion of it was placed under a separate administration, with the title of Eastern Ru melia ; this province has now become a part of Bulgaria.

Ancient Peoples.

The name "Thracians," from being used both ethnically and geographically, has led to confusion. There were the indigenous Thracians, and also Celtic tribes, such as the Getae. These were the "red" Thracians of Greek writers, and they differed not merely in complexion, but also in their customs and religion, from the native Thracians (Herod., v. 14). The native Thracians were inferior in morals, allowing their girls complete licence until marriage. The chief native deities were Dionysus, Ares and Bendis (Artemis). The ancient Dionysiac rites, includ ing a ritual play by "goat-men" carrying a wooden phallus, may I still be seen at Bizye, the old residence of the Thracian kings (see R. M. Dawkins in Hellenic Journal, 1906, p. 191). The true Thra cians were a dark-complexioned, long-skulled race, which had been in the Balkan peninsula from the stone age, closely akin to the Pelasgians (q.v.), to the Ligurians, and to the Iberians. In Homer, the term Thracian is applied to all the tribes dwelling from Pieria to the Euxine. There is no well-defined difference between aborigi nal Thracians and Illyrians (see ILLYRIA). Thus there was an Il lyrian tribe, Brygi ; a Thracian tribe, Bryges, and, in Strabo's time, a tribe called Dardanii, then reckoned Illyrian, living next the Thracian Bessi (in whose land was the oldest oracle of Dionysus), were probably as much Thracian as Illyrian. All the Thracian and Illyrian tribes tattooed, thus being distinguished from the Celtic tribes. The Thracians differed only dialectically from the Illyrians, their tongue being closely allied to Greek. The Thracians of the region from Olympus to the Pangaean district, worked the gold and silver of that region, began to strike coins almost as early as the Greeks, and displayed on them much artistic skill. Alexander I. of Macedon, on his conquest of the Bisaltae, adopted the native coinage of their country placing on the coins his own name (see Thrace was one of the three theatres of the first Balkan war of 1912, when the Bulgarians entered it and defeated the Turks in the great battle of Lule Burgas, subsequently marching up to the ramparts of Chatalja, where the armistice with the Turks was signed. With the assistance of Serbian troops the Bulgarians took Adrianople, and the Treaty of London of May 3o, 1913 put back the frontier of European Turkey to a line drawn from Enos on the Aegean to Midia on the Black Sea. Nearly all Thrace had thus fallen to the share of Bulgaria, but her quarrel with her allies over the spoils in Macedonia led to the second Balkan war of 1913, and the Turks took the opportunity to recapture Adrianople, to reoccupy Western Thrace and create the "independent govern ment of Giimilljina," a mainly Moslem district.