[237] The Armenian population of Turkey is divided by creed into three distinct communities. The vast majority--probably about ninety per cent--belong to the Gregorian sect of Christianity. Adherents of the Roman Catholic faith are found chiefly in western Asia Minor. Protestant congregations have sprung up around the educational institutions maintained by British or American missionary societies. Let it be noted here that many Mohammedan communities in Armenia consist of Armenoid individuals whose membership in the fold of Islam is the result of forcible conversions since the rise of Ottoman power. The Dersimlis, who inhabit the region between the two main branches of the Euphrates, have the reputation of being crypto-Christians of Armenian blood. Moslems of Armenian origin are also known in the village of Karageben on the Tehalta river east of Divrik. In Russia the Armenians number a scant million souls. Half of this community is scattered in the valley of the Arax and in the Erivan province. [238] F. von Luschan: The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia, _Ann. Rept. Smithsonian Inst._ for 1914, pp. 561-562. [239] “Rarely of unusual stature ... complexion dark” is Wilson’s description. Handbook for Travelers in Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Persia, etc., London, 1911, p. 64. [240] Mark Sykes: The Kurdish Tribes of the Ottoman Empire, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, Vol. 38, 1908, pp. 451-486. [241] B. Dickson: Journeys in Kurdistan, _Geogr. Journ._, Vol. 35, No. 4, April 1910, p. 361. [242] De Torcy: Notes sur la Syrie, _La Géogr._, Vol. 27, No. 3, March 15, 1913, pp. 161-197; No. 6, June 15, 1913, pp. 429-459. [243] L. Gaston Leary: Syria, the Land of Lebanon, New York, 1913, p. 10. [244] R. Dussaud: Les Nossairis, _Bibl. de l’École des Hautes Études, Sciences, Philosophie et Histoire_, Paris, 1900, Vol. 129. [245] J. Garstang: The Land of the Hittites, London, 1910, pp. 15, 16. [246] About forty towns and villages are held by the Druzes in the southern Lebanon. In the Anti-Lebanon districts they people eighty villages and share possession of about two hundred with their Christian kinsmen, the Maronites. [247] Hakem was a Fatimite caliph of Egypt, who ruled in the early eleventh century. He incurred the hatred of his subjects by causing the incarnation of God in himself to be preached in Cairo by Darasi, his chaplain. Both became so unpopular that they were forced to escape from the capital to the Lebanon, where they succeeded in imposing their doctrines on the mountaineers. The name Druze is believed to be derived from Darasi. [248] In recent years the Maronites have submitted to the authority of the Vatican. In return certain privileges, such as that of retention of Syriac liturgy, have been accorded to them. They constitute a veritable theocracy, all tribal and community affairs being handled by the clergy.