Government.— The government of Turkey is an absolute monarchy and the sultan is the ruler. The succession to the throne is hereditary. It is now and since 1617 has been vested in the family of Othman (or Osman), in the person of its oldest living male member. The sultan is, therefore, succeeded by his oldest son, provided there are no living uncles nor cousins who are older in the Othman family. The oldest son takes the throne without regard to his mother, provided he sprang from the harem. The harem is a permanent institution of the empire, and all children born in the harem, no matter who their mothers are, whether free women or slaves, are legitimate and of equal lineage. It has been the rule and custom of the sultans of Turkey for many centuries not to contract regular marriages, but to maintain the harem. The inmates of the harem are women who are brought to it by purchase or who come to it by their free will. The greater part of them have heretofore come from places out side of the empire, the majority having come from Circassia. The sultan selects a certain number, generally seven, to be ((Ladies of the Palace" who are called "Kadyn." The rest are called (tOdalik," as they remain under the oKadyn" as servants. There is a superintendent of the harem, an aged woman of the palace, who bears the title of ellaznadar-Kadyn." Constitutions after the model of West Euro pean states were drawn up at various periods by successive Ottoman governments, the first by Sultan Abdul Medjid was proclaimed 3 Nov. 1839, and the most recent in a decree of Abdul Hamid II in November 1876. The latter pro vided for the security of personal liberty and property; for an irremovable judiciary; torture was abolished; the freedom of the press con ceded, and equality before the law of all Otto man subjects was proclaimed. Islam was de clared to be the state religion, freedom of worship was secured to all creeds, and all persons, irrespective of their creed, were de clared eligible to public office. Under this con stitution the legislature should consist of two houses, a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. Senators were to be appointed by the sultan, from among those who had deserved well of the state and should be at least 40 years of age. Every 600 electors were to select one electoral delegate and the latter were to choose one deputy for every 6,000 electors. Electors must be Ottoman citizens of at least 25 years of age and electoral delegates must be at least 30 years of age. In 1878 this constitution be came a dead letter and the reign of Abdul Hamid II was a more complete autocracy than perhaps any of his predecessors. In 1908 the prevailing discontent, which also developed in the army, caused by decades of corruption and misgovernment, compelled the sultan to issue a decree for the convocation of a new Parlia ment, and on 23 July 1908 constitutional gov ernment was restored in Turkey. The constitu tion in force is theoretically that of 1876, but it has been modified in some respects since 1908. For administrative purposes the empire is divided into vilayets, or governments, these subdivided into sanjaks, or minor provinces, these into smaller divisions known as kazas. At the head of each vilayet is a governor-gen eral, or vali, representing the sultan, and as sisted by a provincial council. Over the minor divisions are local authorities (mutesarrifs, kaimmakams, mudirs, etc.), subject to the gov ernor-general. Political reasons since 1908 have led to frequent modification of the vilayet sys tem. Thus several of the sanjaks are governed directly by mutesarrifs reporting direct to the Minister of the Interior. These are known as independent sanjaks and are in every case detached from the vilayet to which they hitherto belonged.
In 1913 a new law on vilayets was promul gated. Its ostensible purpose is to decentralize authority and a bill of 1918 provided for the creation of three new sanjaks in Mesopotamia, to be set up in March 1919. In 1919 Mesopo tamia was being administered by the British.
History.— The origin of the Turks, like that of the Arabs and almost all the Eastern nations, is enveloped in darkness. It has been sought in the Tatars of the Caucasus and among the ancient Parthians (the conquerors of Persia) ; some ethnographers claim the Turks as descend ants of the Scythians, or roving Tatars, who possessed the country between Sarmatia and the Tanais, and who, after overrunning all Asia, conquered Turkestan, from which they received the appellation of Turks. The Ottoman people at the present day call themselves Osmanlis, from a Turkish chieftain named Osman (or Othman), who established himself at Brussa in the 14th century. In the Turkish language the word °Turk" means a rustic or clown, and the Turks consequently never apply that word to themselves, but reserve it for the Turcomans and other tribes of central Asia.
The language of the Turks shows they are near of kin to those who spoke the Ural-Altaic or Turanian languages, which were in use from the western frontier of China to the Caspian Sea. There are different dialects, the harsh one of the east and the soft and more melodious one of the west, but many of the words, phrases and grammatical forms are similar. A portion at least of the present Turkish race are descend ants of a people who once inhabited the terri tory west of Lake Baikal. The claim is made that while living near the shores of that lake Christian missionaries visited them, and in sup port of this claim is the fact that their ancient alphabet had 14 letters based on the Syriac al phabet. The name eTurksa given to the mighty hordes who dwelt on the steppes of northern Asia, at the foot of the Altai Mountains, and beyond Persia, is first mentioned in our history about the middle of the 6th century. They were an aggressive people, seeking existence in lands where others had found sustenance. At the present day the name of Turk or Tatar generally denotes a Moslem speaking a Turkish language, and Mongol a Buddhist speaking a Mongol language. But in earlier centuries it is not so easy to draw that distinction. Timur (Tamerlane) has been described both as a Turk and a Mongol; he came of a Turkish speaking stock, and his descendants founded the "Mogul') Empire in India, a name which ap pears to be a variant of The only certain distinction between the Turks and their kindred tribes is linguistic, but in nearly all cases the Turkish-speaking stocks have shown themselves warlike and mobile to a remarkable degree, and where these qualities are found among non-Turkish-speaking tribes — as among the forbears of the Magyars — an admixture of Turkish blood may be suspected. It has always been a puzzle to historians how a race of people which had never before been politi cally conspicuous in the world should suddenly have exhibited such a marvelous power of con quest. Nor could one have expected the rise of a race of world conquerors from the multi tude of barbarians who were ever roving to and fro in the vast sandy desert of Arabia, where they preyed upon one another, marking history with but few traces of their existence. But the Turks, starting as an obscure tribe from the confines of China, have touched Vienna, Algiers, Arabia, Egypt and India; while the Arabs under Mohammed and his suc cessors not only produced and spread a new religion, but extended in less than a century throughout Arabia, Syria and Egypt, along the coast of Mauretania far into the interior of Africa, and included within their embrace Spain and part of Gaul. Eastward, Persia and Scinde had been subdued and Transoxiana invaded by the Arabs. Translations made in recent years from Chinese histories reveal the existence, over 1,000 years Lc., of warlike nomads called Hiung-nu (Huns), a generic title applied to various barbarous tribes whose original haunts were the plains of central Asia, from the Oxtis to the Arctic Circle and from the borders of China to the Caspian Sea. They lived on horse back and were trained to handle bows and arrows from childhood. From these records we can trace the Turks as a branch of the Hiung-nu as far back as the middle of the 5th century of our era. One of the clans — the Asena — settled near the modern town of Shan-tan, in the prov ince of Kan-su. In their vicinity was a hill called from its shape DUrko, or Tii-chiich, the ((helmet.) This is said to have been the origin of the name which has since been so widely applied and become so famous in history.
About the middle of the 6th century we find the Chinese calling these people the iTu-lciue) and attributing to them an astonishing degree of progress. Within a few years they became a world power which had relations with China and Byzantium. In about the year 800 they secured possession of a part of the territory now called Armenia, and they named the place Turkomania. They were that branch of the Turk family which learned the Mohammedan religion from the Saracens and, later, founded the Ottoman dominion in Europe. Turks and Saracens first came together early in the 8th century, when the caliph, or successor of the Prophet, ruled as temporal and spiritual chief over the Mohammedan world. • As soon as the Saracens began to conquer and convert the Turks, The latter began to play an important part in history. Under the caliphs they ap pear as slaves, as subjects, as mercenaries, as practical masters, as avowed sovereigns and, finally, claiming for themselves the powers of the caliphate. In process of time the chiefs of this barbarous soldiery arrogated to them selves the most important offices in the state, leaving to their sovereign only a nominal au thority. Harassed by civil disorder and sec tarian violence, the caliphs were unable to check the usurpations of those who, in their names, ruled the provinces of the empire, and whose ambition it was to become the founders of separate and independent dynasties. Thus one province after another was lost, and in the end Baghdad fell into the hands of the Mogul Hologu. From the 11th to the 13th centuries the Turkish dynasty of the Seljuks (q.v.) ruled over a large part of Asia. Later this empire was divided on account of internal dissensions, and during the 13th century the Mongols be came virtually the owners. It was in the course of the struggles between Seljuks and Mongols that the name Ottoman Turks first appeared. Othman was the son of Ortogrul and grand son of a Turkish emir who, early in the 13th century, and on the approach of the Mogul Ghengiz Khan, left his home in Khorassan in search of some safer settlement in Asia Minor. On the march he perished in the Euphrates, but Ortogrul obtained from the Seljuk sultan of Iconium settlements for his followers in the ancient province of Phrygia. His son, Oth man, extended his possessions chiefly at the expense of the Greek emperor, and in 1299, on the death of his patron, the ruler of Iconium, assumed the 'title of sultan. Thus began the Ottoman Empire; a succession of 10 great princes of the dynasty widely extended their territories and raised their military power to the first rank in Europe. • In 1328 the seat of the monarchy was fixed at Brussa, under the shadow of Mount Olym pus, and Asia Minor was conquered to the Hellespont. The history of Turkey proper be gins with the reign of Othman; he was bold and brave, loyal to friends, cruel to foes and possessed the vices of the conqueror and the virtues of the leader. His immediate successor was his son Orkhan, who assumed command of the armies at the death of his father in 1326. He organized the Janissaries, a body of paid infantry, highly trained and fearless of foe or danger. By marriage he formed an alliance with the Greek emperor and also secured the diplomatic friendship of the Genoese, who were then among the commercial rivals of the Medi terranean. Solyman I invaded Europe in 1355 and Ateurath I took Adrianople in 1360 and made it his capital. For many years the waves of Moslem invasion rolled over European bat tlefields. At times the Moslem armies seemed destined to conqueror the world; Macedonia, Albania and Serbia fell before them. Christian forces flocked together to stem the flood, from Hungary, Italy and the upper Danube; but the Turks defeated the combined armies at Kossovo, 15 June 1389. Sultan Murad was killed the same day; his successor, Bajazet I (q.v.), who was surnamed Yilderim (thunderbolt), had a sanguinary and unsuccessful reign. He began by attacking and taking the dominion of his father-in-law, the Prince of Phrygia. He next suffered a defeat in Europe at the hands of Stephen, sovereign of Moldavia, after which he was suddenly called to suppress Caraman Oghly, a petty Asiatic ruler, whom he speedily crushed, besides taking several provinces in Armenia.. Returning to Europe, Bajazet cap tured some towns on the Danube and nearly the whole of Wallachia. King Sigismund of Hungary called upon the princes of Christen dom to repel the Turk. He received a con federate army of some 100,000 Christians under his command; they were defeated by Bajazet with 60,000 men. The Empire of the East, almost reduced to the city of Constantinople, lay invitingly open ,to Turkish attack. John, son of Andronicus, sought the aid of the sultan against his uncle, Manuel, promising to cede the city on condition that he be allowed to retain the sovereignty over what the Greeks still possessed in the Morea. Bajazet sent him 10,000 Turks, who ravaged the country round the city and compelled Manuel to hand the empty title of emperor to John. Bajazet's schemes of conquest were suddenly arrested by a call to defend his own territory against the redoubtable Tamerlane, who with his Tatar hordes conquered with remarkable rapidity Persia, Mesopotamia, Asiatic Sarmatia and Syria, and forced the gates of Baghdad. The sultan hastily collected a large army and en countered Tamerlane on the plains of Angora (Ancyra) on 28 July 1402. In a fierce battle the Turks, outnumbered, were defeated and Bajazet was taken prisoner. He died the fol lowing year of grief and humiliation, in the train of his conqueror. Tamerlane reinstated all the Mohammedan princes who had been dethroned by Bajazet and returned to Samar cand without retaining any of his conquests. An interregnum followed from 1403 to 1413 under Solyman and Musa, two worthless sons of Bajazet. Neither is included in the Turkish roll of sultans. Both were killed in civil strife and the throne fell to their youngest brother, Mohammed I, who reunited the empire, reigned with moderation and justice for eight years and restored much of the national glory lost by his father. During his reign the Grand Vizier Ibrahim organized a Turkish navy, which was destroyed by the Venetians. Murad II (reigned 1421-51) captured Thessalonica (1429), besieged Belgrade in 1435 (on which occasion artillery was first used against the Turks), defeated a confederation of European princes under King Ladislas of Hungary at Varna, 10 Nov. 1444, and finally defeated the Hungarians under Huniades in 1448. His reign was troubled with conspiracies and pretenders, besides suffering discomfitures at the hands of Scanderberg (q.v.). In 1451 Mohammed H (q.v.) became sultan, one of the most perfidi ous and sanguinary rulers that history exposes to the execration of posterity. The outstanding event of his long reign (30 years) is the capture of Constantinople (1453), though his whole life may be described as one long campaign, in the course of which he conquered two empires, 12 kingdoms and nearly 300 towns. What he ac complished as a conqueror for the advancement of the Ottoman Empire caused the Turks to regard him as the greatest of their sultans, and in their eyes the glory of his conquests atones for his many vices. He made Constantinople the capital of the empire. He attacked and conquered successively the Morea, Serbia, Bos nia and Albania; from the Venetians he took Lemnos and Negropont; from the Genoese, Caffa; he made the Crimea a dependency of Turkey in 1475, while Otranto in southern Italy belonged to Turkey when Mohammed died, though it was soon reconquered. Greece fell under the Turkish yoke; the empire of Trebi zond was conquered in 1461. The island of Rhodes, defended by the Knights of Rhodes, held out against the Turk; the mountain district of Montenegro, in a ceaseless warfare of over 400 years, withstood the Turkish might. The Ottomans were now brought into the neighbor hood of Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Greeks, Slays and Albanians came under Turkish dominion, overcome by the arms of their own children, for the Janissaries, which formed the main strength of the Ottoman armies, were re cruited from kidnapped children of the con quered nations. The conquests of Mohammed gave the Ottoman Empire in Europe nearly the same extent it had up to 1878, when the Berlin Congress began the dismemberment of the empire.