Phoenician Maritime Colonies

Beginning with the Greek Dark Ages, Phoinikoi was the  word used by Greeks to refer to the urban populations  of the eastern Mediterranean seacoast. Phoenician cities  from coastal Syria and Lebanon to the northern shore  of Canaan, such as Ras al-Bassit (Poseidon), Tell Sukas  (Sianu), Arwad (Arados), Tell Kazel (Sumur, Simyra),  Tripolis, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Ushu, Akhzib,Akko, Tell Keisan, Tell Abu Hawam, and Dor, clung to  the rocky islands, sheer cliffs, promontories, and open  plains of the coastline. Inhabitants of these cities shared  some degree of common ancestry and spoke a common  language, also called Phoenician. The Phoenician-speaking populations were also united by numerous similarities  of material culture, social organization, religious belief  and practice, and economic enterprise. The Phoenicians  are perhaps most famous for promulgating the 22-letter  alphabet in which their documents were composed. The  Phoenician alphabet is an ancestor of or inspiration for  all succeeding alphabetic systems.

The Phoenician dialect of Tyre and Sidon reached its  most extensive use in the Neo-Assyrian period (c. 860­ 600 b.c.e.). North of Syria, the Cilician region of Anatolia (modern Turkey) adopted the Tyrian-Sidonian Phoenician language and script for royal, administrative, and  legal texts, generally with a parallel version in the local  Luwian language, which was written in a hieroglyphic  script. Westward expansion of Phoenician exploration  and settlement would carry the language and script to  Cyprus, Crete, the Aegean islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, the Balearics, and to the Atlantic coast of the Iberian  Peninsula. Cádiz, ancient Gades, now in Spain, was the  westernmost Phoenician city.

The Mediterranean and North African coast (with the exception of Cyrenaica) entered the mainstream of Mediterranean history with the arrival in the 1st millennium BC of Phoenician traders, mainly from Tyre and Sidon in the eastern Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were not looking for land to settle but for anchorages and staging points on the trade route from Phoenicia to Spain, a source of silver and tin. Points on an alternative route by way of Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands also were occupied. The Phoenicians lacked the manpower and the need to found large colonies as the Greeks did, and few of their settlements grew to any size. The sites chosen were generally offshore islands or easily defensible promontories with sheltered beaches on which ships could be drawn up. Carthage -- Cartagine in italiano --(from the Phoenician Kart-Hadasht, New City or Land, founded by Queen Elissar of Tyre), destined to be the largest Phoenician colony and in the end an imperial power, conformed to the pattern.

Tradition dated the foundation of Gades (modern Cádiz; the earliest known Phoenician trading post in Spain) to 1110 BC, Utica (Utique) to 1101 BC, and Carthage to 814 BC. The dates appear legendary, and no Phoenician object earlier than the 8th century BC has yet been found in the west. At Carthage some Greek objects have been found, datable to about 750 or slightly later, which comes within two generations of the traditional date. Little can be learned from the romantic legends about the arrival of the Phoenicians at Carthage transmitted by Greco-Roman sources. Though individual voyages doubtless took place earlier, the establishment of permanent posts is unlikely to have taken place before 800 BC, antedating the parallel movement of Greeks to Sicily and southern Italy.

Material evidence of Phoenician occupation in the 8th century BC comes from Utica, and of the 7th or 6th century BC from Hadrumetum (Susah, Sousse), Tipasa (east of Cherchell), Siga (Rachgoun), Lixus, and Mogador (Essaouira), the last being the most distant Phoenician settlement so far known. Finds of similar age have been made at Motya (Mozia) in Sicily, Nora (Nurri), Sulcis, and Tharros (San Giovanni di Sinis), Bithia and Olbia in Sardinia, and Cádiz and Almuñécar in Spain. Unlike the Greek settlements, however, those of the Phoenicians long remained politically dependent on their homeland, and only a few were situated where the hinterland had the potential for development. The emergence of Carthage as an independent power, leading to the creation of an empire based on the secure possession of the North African coast, resulted less from the weakening of Tyre, the chief city of Phoenicia, by the Babylonians than from growing pressure from the Greeks in the western Mediterranean; in 580 BC some Greek cities in Sicily attempted to drive the Phoenicians from Motya and Panormus (Palermo) in the west of the island. The Carthaginians feared that if the Greeks won the whole of Sicily they would move on to Sardinia and beyond, isolating the Phoenicians in North Africa. The successful defense of Sicily was followed by attempts to strengthen limited footholds in Sardinia; a fortress at Monte Sirai is the oldest Phoenician military building in the west. The threat from the Greeks receded when Carthage, in alliance with Etruscan cities, backed the Phoenicians of Corsica in about 540 BC and succeeded in excluding the Greeks from contact with southern Spain.

Venerable historical traditions recount the Phoenician voyages to found new cities. Utica, on the Tunisian coast of North Africa, was reputedly founded in 1178 BC, and by 1100 BC the Phoenician city of Tyre supposedly had a Spanish colony at Gadir (Cadiz). Although intriguing, these historical traditions are unsupported by evidence. Excavations confirm that the Phoenicians settled in southern Spain after 800 BC. Their search for new commodities led them ever farther westward and was the reason for their interest in southern Spain's mineral wealth. The untapped lodes of silver and alluvial deposits of tin and gold provided essential raw materials with which to meet the increasing Assyrian demands for tribute. By 700 BC silver exported from the Río Tinto mines was so abundant that it depressed the value of silver bullion in the Assyrian world. This is the background for Phoenician interest in the far west.

Phoenician commerce was conducted by family firms of shipowners and manufacturers who had their base in Tyre or Byblos and placed their representatives abroad. This accounts for the rich tombs of Phoenician pattern found at Almuñécar, Trayamar, and Villaricos, equipped with metropolitan goods such as alabaster wine jars, imported Greek pottery, and delicate gold jewelery. Maritime bases from the Balearic Islands (Ibiza) to Cadiz on the Atlantic were set up to sustain commerce in salted fish, dyes, and textiles. Early Phoenician settlements are known from Morro de Mezquitilla, Toscanos, and Guadalhorce and shrines from Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar and the Temple of Melqart on the island of Sancti Petri near Cadiz. After the fall of Tyre to the Babylonians in 573 BC and the subjugation of Phoenicia, the early prosperity faded until the 4th century. Many colonies survived, however, and Abdera (Adra), Baria (Villaricos), Carmona (Carmo), Gadir  (Cadiz), Malaca (Málaga), and Sexi (Almuñécar) thrived under the trading system established by Carthage for the central and western Mediterranean. Eivissa (Ibiza) became a major Carthaginian colony, and the island produced dye, salt, fish sauce, and wool. A shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuyram, and the Balearic Islands entered Eivissa's commercial orbit after 400 BC. In 237 BC, just before the Second Punic War, Carthage launched its conquest of southern Spain under Hamilcar Barca, founded a new capital city at Cartago Nova (Cartagena) in 228 BC, and suffered crushing defeat by the Romans in 206 BC.

The Colonies, Phoenicia's Diaspora

Among the most outstanding colonies or trading posts which the Phoenicians had established were the cities of Genoa, where they went in with the Celts and established a flourishing colony, and Marseille which they started as nothing more than a trading post before it became fully Hellenized.

It is very probable that the tremendous colonial activity of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians was stimulated in the 8th to 6th centuries BC by the military blows that were wrecking the trade of the Phoenician homeland in the Levant. Also, competition with the synchronous Greek colonization of the western Mediterranean cannot be ignored as a contributing factor.

The earliest site outside the Phoenician homeland known to possess important aspects of Phoenician culture is Ugarit (Ras Shamra), about six miles north of Latakia. The site was already occupied before the 4th millennium BC, but the Phoenicians only became prominent there around 1991-1786 BC.

According to Herodotus, the coast of Libya along the sea which washes it to the north, throughout its entire length from Egypt to Cape Soloeis, which is its furthest point, is inhabited by Libyans of many distinct tribes who possess the whole tract except certain portions which belong to the Phoenicians and the Greeks.

Tyre's first colony, Utica in North Africa, was founded perhaps as early as the 10th century BC. It is likely that the expansion of the Phoenicians at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC is to be connected with the alliance of Hiram of Tyre with Solomon of Israel in the second half of the 10th century BC. In the following century, Phoenician presence in the north is shown by inscriptions at Samal (Zincirli Hüyük) in eastern Cilicia, and in the 8th century at Karatepe in the Taurus Mountains, but there is no evidence of direct colonization. Both these cities acted as fortresses commanding the routes through the mountains to the mineral and other wealth of Anatolia.

Cyprus had Phoenician settlements by the 9th century BC. Citium, known to the Greeks as Kition (biblical Kittim), in the southeast corner of the island, became the principal colony of the Phoenicians in Cyprus. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, several smaller settlements were planted as stepping-stones along the route to Spain and its mineral wealth in silver and copper: at Malta, early remains go back to the 7th century BC, and at Sulcis and Nora in Sardinia and Motya in Sicily, perhaps a century earlier. According to Thucydides, the Phoenicians controlled a large part of the island but withdrew to the northwest corner under pressure from the Greeks. Modern scholars, however, disbelieve this and contend that the Phoenicians arrived only after the Greeks were established.

In North Africa the next site colonized after Utica was Carthage (near Tunis). Carthage in turn seems to have established (or, in some cases, reestablished) a number of settlements in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Balearic Islands, and southern Spain, eventually making this city the acknowledged leader of the western Phoenicians.

Leptis Magna, a titular see of Tripolitana was founded by the Sidonians in a fine and fertile country, it was the most important of the three towns which formed the Tripoli Confederation (Libya toay). The remains of the ancient Phœnician town are still visible, with the harbour, quays, walls, and inland defence, which make it look like Carthage. This city subsequently became the centre of a Greek city, Neapolis, of which most of the monuments are buried under sand. Notwithstanding Pliny (Nat. Hist., V, xxviii), who distinguishes Neapolis from Leptis, there is no doubt, according to Ptolemy, Strabo, and Scyllax, that they should be identified. Leptis allied itself with the Romans in the war against Jugurtha. Having obtained under Augustus the title of civitas it seems at that time to have been administered by Carthaginian magistrates; it may have been a municipium during the first century of the Christian Era and erected by Trajan into a colony bearing the name of Colonia Ulpia Trajana, found on many of its coins. The birthplace of Septimius Severus, who embellished it and enriched it with several fine monuments, it was taken and sacked in the fourth century by the Libyan tribe of Aurusiani (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII, vi) and has never since completely recovered. It was at that time the seat of the military government of Tripolitana.

Around Memphis

Phoenicians from the city of Tyre dwell all round memphis, and the whole place is known by the name of "the camp of the Tyrians." Within the enclosure stands a temple, which is called that of Venus the Stranger.

Armenian Massacres (1894­-1897)

Toward the end of the 19th century, the Armenians lived as subjects of the Ottoman Empire. As a Christian minority of some 2.5 million in the midst of an Islamic state, they were routinely persecuted by their Ottoman overlords. In the 1880s a revolutionary socialist party, the Hunchak (“The Bell”), rose up among the Armenians, followed by an even more radical nationalist faction, the Dashnaktsutium (“Armenian Revolutionary Federation”). Fearing that he was losing his grip on the Armenians, Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842­1918) launched a series of pogroms against the Armenians of the empire beginning in 1894.

The first action took place in Sasun, where Armenian protesters had assembled to demonstrate against oppressive taxation. Acting in concert with Kurdish tribesmen,

Turkish police waded into the protestors and commenced a slaughter. This triggered a protest in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, which resulted in a 10-day siege of terror against the Armenian quarter of the city. Hundreds were clubbed to death, and the violence soon spread throughout eastern Turkey. Trebizond and 13 other cities were swept with a wave of unprecedented violence in which more than 14,000 Armenians perished at the hands of the Turkish army acting with Islamic extremists.

In December 1895 at Urfa, the Turkish army held the Armenian quarter under siege for two months. When Armenians sought succor in a cathedral, the army stormed the sanctuary and killed 3,000. A total of 8,000 Armenians were killed in the siege of Urfa and its aftermath. Shortly after this in Zeitun (province of Cilicia), Armenian residents rose up against the Turks, taking some 400 prisoners. It was, however, the only significant resistance to the reign of terror.

The culmination of this first period of slaughter came in August 1896 in Istanbul. During two days an Islamic mob swept through the Armenian quarter, killing 6,000.

At last, the Western European powers were sufficiently horrified to threaten intervention. This brought a halt to the rampage, although anti-Armenian violence continued sporadically through 1897. Estimates of the totals killed during the 1894­97 period vary from 50,000 to twice that number.

See also ARMENIAN MASSACRES (1909); ARMENIAN MASSACRES (1915).

Further reading: Vahakn N. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (New York: Berghahn Books,1995)

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Ottoman government vs.

Armenian minority 

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Armenia 

DECLARATION: None MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: Attempt to crush an Armenian nationalist movement.

OUTCOME: Tens of thousands were killed, and the nationalist movement was temporarily suppressed.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS:

Unknown CASUALTIES: 50,000­100,000 Armenians TREATIES: None

Spread of Islam, Islamic Law, and Arabic Language

The rapid spread of Islam acted as a formidable force of change in the Old World. By the end of the reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab (d.644), the whole of the Arabian Peninsula was conquered, together with most of the Sasanian Empire, as well as the Syrian and Egyptian provinces of Byzantium. 

Following the tragic Battle of Karbala, which led to the death of Imam al-Hussein (AD 680), a new phase was ushered in with the making of the Umayyad Empire (661-­750), which eventually extended its dominion from the Ebro River in Spain to the Oxus Valley in Central Asia. Claiming universal authority over far-reaching frontiers,the Umayyad dynasty took Damascus as its capital city, and remained virtually unchallenged in its reign until the rise of the Abbasid caliphate with its capital in Baghdad (749­-1258). 

While Spain continued to be under Umayyad rule (756­1031), new regional powers confronted the Abbasid hegemony, like the Fatimids in Egypt (909­-1171), and the Saljuqs in Iran and Iraq (1038­-1194), along with waves of Crusader invaders in the Levant.

Numerous traditions in thought flourished,

like the Sunni schools of legal reasoning (hanafi, maliki, shafii, hanbali) and the “Twelver Shiite” lineage descending from the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661). The upsurge in intellectual activities was also marked by the founding of the mutazila and ashari methods of kalam, in addition to the maturation of philosophy, the sciences, and mysticism. Many notable centers of learning were established,

along with associated productions of manuscripts, like al-Azhar in Cairo, the Zaytuna in Tunis, the Qarawiyyin in Fez, the coteries of Córdoba in Andalusia, the schools of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, and those of Qumm and Mashhad in Iran.   Being the language of the Koran, Arabic was carried to the new converts. 

Becoming the lingua franca of medieval Islam, the distinctiveness of Arabic was evident in all spheres of high culture, from religious to legal, official, intellectual, and literary dictions. While in the western provinces Arabic dominated the vernacular dialects, Persian remained in use eastward; witnessing a literary revival in the tenth century AD with the unfurling of an Arabo-Persian idiom, which became prevalent across Iran as well as  Transoxiana and northern India.

A theme that recurs in this formative period of Islamic thought is the relationship,often tense, between revelation and reason.

Under the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (r.

813­833) there existed a group of theologians known as the Mutazila. 

They had absorbed the work of Greek philosophers and adopted a rationalist style of argumentation that equated God with pure reason. For the Mutazila the world created by God operated according to rational principles humans could understand by exercising reason. As free agents, humans were morally responsible for their actions, and since good and evil had intrinsic value, God’s justice was constrained by universal laws. They held to the view that the Koran was created in time, inspired by God in Muhammad, but not part of his essence. Their opponents, the hadith scholars,insisted that the Koran was “uncreated” and coeternal with God. They believed it was not for man to question God’s injunctions or explore them intellectually, and that all human action was ultimately predetermined.

The Mutazili view, buttressed by the mihna (an “inquisition” or test applied to ulama and public officials), held sway for a period. How-ever, it was reversed under his successor al-Mutawakil (r. 847­-61) as a result of populist pressures focused on the heroic figure of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) who resisted imprisonment and torture to defend the “uncreated” Koran. A kind of compromise between reason and revelation was reached in the work of Abul Hasan al-Ashari (d. 935).

He used rationalistic methods to defend the “uncreated” Koran and allowed for a degree of human responsibility. However, the consequences of the Mutazili defeat were far reaching.

The caliphs ceased to be the ultimate authorities in doctrinal matters. Mainstream Sunni theologians espoused the command theory of ethics: an act is right because God commands it,God does not command it because it is right. 

Mutazilism is a term of abuse for many conservative Islamists,especially in Saudi Arabia,which follows the Hanbali tradition in law.

Abbasid Caliphate under Harun al-Rashid

The reign of caliph Harun al-Rashid (r.

764­809) marked the height of military conquests and territorial acquisition under the Abbasids, with the caliphate extending from the boundaries of India and Central Asia to Egypt and North Africa.

Harun rose through the ranks as a military commander before assuming the caliphate from his murdered brother al-Hadi (r. 785­86) and served variously as governor of Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia), Egypt, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. His military campaigns against the Byzantines kept them at bay. Upon becoming caliph in 764, Harun established diplomatic relations with Charlemagne (r. 742­814) and the Byzantine emperor. Diplomatic and commercial ties were also established with China.

Harun’s reign is often referred to as the Golden Age, a period of significant cultural and literary activity during which the arts, Arabic grammar, literature, and music flourished under his patronage. Al-Rashid figures prominently in the famous literary compilation One Thousand and One Nights. Among his courtiers were the poet Abu Nuwas (d. 815), who was renowned for his wine and his love poetry,and the musician Ibrahim al-Mawsili  (d. 804). 

Abu ’l Hasan al-Kisai (d. 805),who was tutor to al Rashid and his sons, was the leading Arabic grammarian and Koran reciter of his day. The classical texts were translated from Greek, Syriac, and other languages into Arabic.

Harun was famous for his largesse: a well-turned poem could earn the gift of a horse, a bag of gold,or even a country estate.

His wife Zubaida was famous for her charities,especially for causing numerous wells to be dug on the pilgrimage route from Iraq to Medina.

Sufism (Islamic mysticism) flourished under the caliph. The famous ascetic and mystic Maruf al-Karkh (d. c.815) was among the leading expositors of Sufism in Baghdad. By contrast, Harun instituted a policy of repressing the Shiites, who were thought to challenge this rule.

The latter half of Harun’s reign was marked by political instability. The granting of semiautonomy to the governor of Ifriqiya,

Ibrahim b. al-Aghlab, in 800, followed by Harun’s destruction of the all-powerful al Barmaki family, led to a period of political and territorial decline. Harun’s decision to divide the empire between his two sons al Amin and al-Mamun, appointing the elder alAmin (r. 809-­813) as his successor, contributed to a two-year civil war that was followed by periods of continued instability and insurrection. 

The reign of al-Mamun (r.813-­833), though intellectually brilliant, was marked by territorial decline and the waning of Abbasid influence.

Uyghurstan/East Turkestan

Turkestan.—I. CHINESE TURKESTAN.—

When Jenghiz Khan died (1227) his second son, Djagatai, had the greater part of Central Asia for his share of the inheritance: his empire included not only Mavara-un-Nahr, between the Syr Daria and the Amu Daria, but also Ferghana, Badakhshan, Chinese Turkestan, as well as Khorasan at the beginning of his reign; his capital was Almaliq, in the Ili Valley, near the site of the present Kulja; in the fourteenth century the empire was divided into two parts: Mavara-un-Nahr or Transoxiana, and Moghulistan or Jabah, the eastern division. In 1759 the Emperor K'ien Lung subjugated the country north and south of the T'ienshan and divided the new territory into T'ien-shan Peh-lu and T'ien-shan Nan-lu; in 1762 a military governor was appointed and a new fortified town, Hwei-yuan-ching, was erected (1764) near the site of Kulja: a number of Manchus, from Peking and the Amu, and Mongols were drawn to the new place and later on there came a migration of Chinese from the Kan-su and Shen-si Provinces. The local Mohammedan chieftains are known as Pe-k'e (Beg); they are classed in five degrees of rank from the third to the seventh degree of the Chinese hierarchy: the most important titles are Ak'im Beg (local governor), Ishkhan Beg (assistant governor), Shang Beg (collector of revenue), Hatsze Beg (judge), Mirabu Beg (superintendent of agriculture). 

The bad administration of the Chinese governors was the cause of numerous rebellions; a great rising took place against the Governor of Ili, Pi Tsing; at the head was Jihanghir, son of Saddet Ali Sarimsak and grandson of one of the Khoja, Burhan ed-Din; unfortunate at first, Jihanghir was victorious in October, 1825, and captured the four great towns of T'ien-shan Nan-lu: Kashgar, Yangi-hissar, Yarkand, and Khotan. The Chinese Emperor Tao Kwang sent General Ch'ang Ling to fight the rebels. Jihanghir was defeated and made a prisoner at K'artiekai (1828) and sent to Peking where he was put to death in a cruel manner. On the other hand, the establishment of Orenburg by the Russians, the exploration of the Syr Daria by Batiakov, the foundation of Kazalinsk (1848) near the mouth of this river, the exertions of Perovsky, the attacks of the Cos-sacks against the Khanate of Khokand, had for result the arrival of the Russians in the valley of the Ili River. On July 25, 1851, Col. Kovalevski signed with the Chinese on behalf of the Russians at Kash-gar a treaty regulating the trade at Ili (Kulja) and at Tarbagatai (Chugutchak). In the meantime new rebellions broke out after the death of Jihanghir: in 1846 one of the Khoja, Katti Torah, with the help of his brothers took Kashgar, but was soon defeated by the Chinese; in 1857 Wali Khan captured Kashgar, Artosh, and Yangi-hissar; and at last, the son of Jihanghir, Burzuk Khan, with the help of Mohammed Yakub, son of Ismet Ulla, born about 1820 at Pskent in the Khanate of Khokand, taking advantage of the Mohammedan rebellion of Kan-su, began a new struggle against the Chinese. Yakub, having taken Burzuk's place, subjugated Kashgar, Khotan, Aksu, and the other towns south of the T'ien-shan, thus creating a new empire; his capital was Yarkand, and there he received embassies from England in 1870 and 1873 (Sir Douglas T. Forsyth) and from Russia in 1872 (Col. Baron Kaulbars). 

To check the advance of Yakub to the west, the Russians who had captured Tashkent (June 27, 1865) took possession of Ili, i.e. the north of the T'ien-shan, on July 4, 1871. When the Chinese had quelled the Yun-nan rebellion after the surrender of Ta-li, they turned their armies against the Mohammedans of the northwest; the celebrated Tso Tsung-t'ang, Viceroy of Kan-su and Shen-si, had been appointed commander-in-chief; he captured Su-chau (October, 1873), Urumtsi, Tih-hwa, and Manas (November 16, 1876) when a wholesale massacre of the inhabitants took place; the Russian Governor of Turkestan, General Kauffman, wrote a protest against these cruelties. The task of the Chinese was rendered easy by the death of Yakub (May 29, 1877); Aksu (October 19, 1877), Yarkand (December 21), Kashgar (December 26), and at last Khotan (January 14, 1878) fell into their hands. The Chinese then turned to the Russians to have Ili, occupied temporarily, restored to them. Ch'ung-hou, sent as an ambassador to St. Petserburg, signed at Livadia in October, 1879, a treaty ceding to the Russians a large portion of the contested territory including the Muz-Art Pass, giving them the privilege of selling their goods not only at T'ien-tsin and Han-kou but also at Kalgan, Kia-yti, Tang-shan, Si-ngan, and Hanchung; permission was also granted to the Russians not only at Ili, Tarbagatai, Kashgar, and K'urun, but also at Kiayu-kwan, Kobdo, Uliasut'ai, Hami, Turfan, Urumtsi, and Kushteng. The treaty was strongly attacked by the censor, Chang Chi-tung, and Ch'ung-hou, tried by a high court, was sentenced to death. War between Russia and China very nearly broke out, but, thanks to the good offices of foreign powers, a new embassy sent to Russia with the Marquis Tseng arranged matters. A new treaty was signed at St. Petersburg, 12 (24) February, 1881, and Russia kept but the western part of the contested territory, restoring the Pass of Muz-Art and giving up some of the commercial privileges granted by the Livadia Treaty. 

After the Mohammedan rebellion had been crushed, the territory was organized in 1878 and was called Sin-Kiang or New Dominion, the names Eastern Turkestan and Chinese Turkestan being also used; it is bounded on the north by Siberia, on the west by Russian Turkestan and India, on the south by Tibet, and on the east by Mongolia and the Chinese Province of Kan-su. Its area is 550,579 square miles, with a population of 1,200,000 inhabitants scattered over this immense desert varying in altitude from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea and surrounded by mountains: in the south the Kwen-lun and its two branches, the Nan-shan and the Altyn-Tagh; in the west, the Karakoram, the Pamirs and the Trans-Altai; in the north by the T'ien-shan, north of which chain the country is called T'ien-shan Peh-lu or Sungaria, and south of it T'ien-shan Nanlu or Kashgaria. The chief river of Chinese Turkestan is the Tarim or T'ali-mu-ho, about 1250 miles in length, resulting from the junction of the rivers or darias, watering Yarkand, Khotan etc.; finally the Tarim empties its waters into the Lob-Nor, now more of a marsh but a lake in ancient times. The principal passes to enter Sin-Kiang are the following: the Tash-Davan (Kwen-lun range), south of Lob-Nor; the Karakoram Pass, road leading from Yarkand to Leh in Ladak; the Shishiklik Pass, in the Pamirs; the Kyzil Art Pass, in the Trans-Alai; the Muz-Art, road from Kulja to Aksu; the Terek-Davan, in the Western T'ien-shan; the Urumtsi Pass, in the Eastern T'ien-shan; the Talki Pass, to the north of the Ili Valley. 

Sin-kiang includes the following regions: Hami or Qomul or Pa Shan; the great Gobi Desert or Shamo, the largest portion of Turkestan, the southwest part of it is the Takla-makan Desert; the region of oases (Khotan, Yarkand, Kashgar, Aksu, Uch-Turfan, Yangi-hissar); the Turf an region (Turfan, Karashar); Sungaria (Urumtsi, Kuch'eng); the Ili region (Kulja). Sin-Kiang is crossed by three main roads: (I) from Kan-su to Turfan, by Ngansi and Hami; (2) north from Urumtsi to Kulja, via Manas; (3) south from Turfan to Kashgar, via Karashar, Kurla, Kucha, Aksu, Maralbashi; there is also a route from Kashgar to Lob-Nor, via Khotan, Kiria, Charchan, Lob-Nor, thence to Sha Chou; this is Marco Polo's itinerary. The New Dominion is divided into four Tao or Intendancies: Chen Ti Tao (Tih-hwa Fu), in 1908 Jung Pei was Tao-t'ai and judge; Aksu Tao (Yenk'i Fu), Tao-t'ai vacant in 1908; Kashgar Tao (Sulofu), in 1910 Yuan Hung-yu was Tao-t'ai; and I T'a Tao (Ning yuan hien), in 1908 K'inghiu was Tao-t'ai. It includes six Fu or Prefectures: Tih-hwa or Urumtsi, Yenki or Karashar, Su lo or Kashgar, Soch'e or Yarkand, Wensuh or Aksu, and Ili; two Chou, K'uch'e or Kucha, and Hwotien or Khotan; and eight T'ing: Yingkihshaeul or Yangi-hissar, Wushih or Uch-Turfan, K'ueulk'ohlah Wusu or Kurkara-usu, Chensi or Barkul, Hami or Qomul, T'ulufan or Turfan, Tsingho, and T'ahch'eng or Tarbagatai. 

The administration of Sin-Kiang has at its head a Fu-t'ai (in 1908, Lien K'uei), who resides at Urumtsi and is deputed by the Shen-Kan Tsung-tu (Viceroy of Kan-su and Shen-si) whose seat is at Lan-thou, Kan-su; the treasurer, Fan-t'ai (in 1908, Wang Shunan), who resides at Urumtsi (Tih-hwa); as well as the judge, Nieh-t'ai, who is also the Tao-t'ai of the circuit. The four Tao-t'ai have been mentioned. There are three Tsung Ping (brigade generals) at Aksu (Yenk'i), Palik'un (Barkul), and Ili. The Banner Organization includes: at Ili, a Tsiangkiin (Tatar general), a Futut'ung (deputy military lieut. governor), a Ts'an Tsan Ta Ch'en (military assistant governor), and the Ling Tui Ta Ch'en (commandants of forces) of Solun, Oalot, Chahar, Sibe; at Tarbagatai, a Futut'ung, and Ts'an Tsan Ta Ch'en; at Uliasut'ai, a Tsiang Kiin and two Ts'an Tsan Ta Ch'en; at Urga, a Panshi Ta Ch'en (commissioner) and a Pangpan Ta Ch'en (assistant commissioner); at Kobdo, a Ts'an Tsan Ta Ch'en and a Panshi Ta Ch'en; and at Siping, a Panshi Ta Ch'en. 

Mission.—The Ili country is a part of the second ecclesiastical region of China; it was constituted as a distinct mission (Ili or Sin-Kiang mission) at the expense of the Vicariate Apostolic of Kan-su by a decree of October 1, 1888; it is placed under the care of the Belgian missionaries (Cong. Imm. Cord. B. M. V. de Scheutveld) with Jean-Baptiste Steeneman as their superior. The mission includes five European priests and 300 Christians. 

II. RUSSIAN TURKESTAN.—RUSSIAN 

Central Asia includes the two khanates under Russian protection, Bokhara and Khiva, and the Turkestan region with its five provinces: Syr Daria, Samarkand, Ferghana, Semirechensk, and Transcaspian; it extends from the Caspian Sea to China, and from Siberia to Persia and Afghanistan, with an area of 721,277 square miles for Turkestan and 63,012 square miles for the Khanates. To the east, towards China, the country is mountainous and contains numerous lakes, Balkash, Issyk-kul, etc.; to the west, it is a large plain with desiccated lakes, watered by the two large rivers, Amu Daria and Syr Daria which run into the Aral Sea. The conquest of this region began in 1867 with the annexation of the country south of Lake Balkash, and occupation of the valley of the Syr Daria, forming the provinces of Semirechensk and Syr Daria; in 1878 the Zarafshan district was added and became subsequently the Samarkand Province. Later on, in 1873, part of the Khanate of Khiva, on the right bank of the Amu Daria, was occupied and was incorporated with the Syr Daria Province. In 1875 and 1876 the Khanate of Khokand being annexed became the Province of Ferghana. The population is but 6,243,422 inhabitants including, on the one hand, Russians, Poles, Germans, etc.; on the other, the natives: Aryans, Sarts, Tajiks, Tzigans, Hindus, with Mongols: Kirghizs, Uzbeks, Torbors, etc., and emigrated Jews and Arabs representative of the Semitic Race. The chief products are corn, barley, rice, jugara, cotton. Cattle-breeding is the main source of commerce. The trade of Turkestan amounts to about 320 millions and a half of rubles, of which 140 millions and a half are exportation and 180 millions are importation. The chief trading province is Ferghana with 120 millions. Tashkent, the chief city of the Syr Daria Province, is also the center of the administration of Russian Turkestan with a population of 191,500 inhabitants, of which 150,622 are natives, for the most part (140,000) Sarts. The two main rivers of Russian Turkestan which flow into the Aral Sea are the Syr Daria, Sihun, or Jaxartes, and the Amu Daria, Tihun, or Oxus. 

HENRI CORDIER