The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in EuropeDominian, Leon
History
The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe
Dominian, Leon
Europe -- Languages; Nationalism
To this group belong the inhospitable Tahtajis (known also as
Chepmi and, in their westernmost extension in the Aidin vilayet,
as Allevis), who are the woodcutters of the upper recesses of the
Lycian mountains. A people of almost primitive manners, they form a
community of about 5,000 souls. Eastern and western culture swept
by their mountain homes, leaving the faintest of traces among them.
Having neither priests nor churches they are held in disrepute
by the Turks. Similarity with eastern religions can nevertheless
be traced in their worship. They wail over the corpses of their
dead as do the Egyptians. A vague connection with Iranian ideas
is discernible in the belief they hold regarding the incarnation
of the devil in the form of a peacock. They cannot be induced to
discuss their rites with strangers. In their simple minds faith is
all in all, and well accentuates the separatist tendency determined
by their rugged mountains.
A more important group, the Kizilbash, present racial
characteristics peculiar to the Nordic race, although they too have
mingled extensively with the Armenoid natives of the Anatolian
mountains over which their settlements are scattered. The name
is pure Turkish for “red head,” but cannot be traced to head-gear
in Turkey. In Persia however allied communities are known whose
members wear scarlet caps. The bends of the Kizil Irmak[224] and
of the Yechil Irmak contain their villages.[225] They also have
settlements in the highlands which extend from the Taurus to Upper
Mesopotamia.
A Turkish-speaking people of peaceful habits, engaged exclusively
in the tillage of their lands, submissive to authority, frugal and
industrious, such are the Kizilbash in the midst of their Turkish,
Kurdish and Armenian neighbors. They are usually on excellent terms
with the Christians. But to this day, after centuries of occupation
of the valleys of the Sakaria and Halys, they have remained as
foreigners among the Turks who colonized their territory long after
them. Probably on account of religious divergences the newcomers
have always held them in contempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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