New Britain Herald Newspaper, August 18, 1919, Page 14

By Irving R. Bacon THE Christian world three citles nave ever been so interwoven with the very texture of religion that the mere mentlon of their names has al- SRS, bepught beforo the mind this - apiritRe prasidinénco of cheir activ: ties—Jerusalem, Ror;:\Nen_axant Of two of them—Jd Constantinople—the Turks held | terrupted sway for more than ha¥ thousand years, The British army n Palestire pried this Mosiem b in 1917, rnacle from Je alemn And now, the Greek commis- ion of the Feace Conference has come {0 the conclusion that the Mosiem hold a5 Constantinople mu relensed. likewise e 1t Bas been coclded. indeed. ¢ Turicey must ciear out of Furops Yogethsr, and content Mosler holdings In A o the Turks Constzntinople vas the fulerumr by which they ralged themzelves to world-power. And at leést ome of the Christian chunches which they found there—the St. So v | phia (Hcly 'Vvindom)-——bec‘nma to them, architecturally, at Jeast, the most csle- . brated mosque In the world. Wil ths return of Constantinople to “Gréeks, St. Sophia wiil Hoon resor . agamn to the anthems of Christian ship. Lorg a World Problem It this connection it is interesting fo mote tnat valsable | mosaics, represcnting sainis and | scenes of the early Christian era which _had been covered up with masonry by the Turks, were brought to light again o 1847 1y Fossadl, an liallan archl | tect, whom the Sultan Abdul Mejid . Bad employed to repalk the sacved ed- | fice. And at Fossatl’s eainest entreaty ‘the Haitan ferbove from ordering the I destructicn of the moeaics, and allowed Fossati to cover them with mattings. It is'as if Fosseti had dope this with | @ premonition of tne dawn of a day | when'the mosgue would be restored to ' those 10 whom the mosaics would have deeply rcligious meaning. From Mazy 13, A. D. 330, when the | seat of empire was transterred thither from Rome by Constantine the Great, [ until May 28, 1453, when it was cap- tured by Lohammed II and became the capital of the Ottoman' empire, the _ bistory of Constantinople was the his- | tory of the world. And until very | iose to our own times it remained almost always, more or less painfully, in the eye of the world, and has never ceased to be one of the most disquiet- ing problems of the statesmen of every nation. Qriginally the city’s name was By- zantium. It was founded in the sev- enth century before Christ, about the ' game time as Rome, with which it was | afterward to hold such close relations. From the start it was the bone of " contention among many nations, not . the states of Greece contending . for its possessions, but also the Goths, | the Scythians, the Macedonians, the " Romans, the Tartars and others. Its ple were always easy-going and lux- [ urious and, although good fighters \when put to it, they were natural- Porn pacifists. The wonderful advan- tages which the situation of their city offered for commerce as well as mill- tary and naval strategy was the mag- met which attracted to it every ambi- tious mation with a propensity for fighting. And though the city passed from hand to hand, no martial spirit was ever able to drive from the hearts of the people the love of peace and ease. ' Vespasian, emperor of Rome, who dicd In A. D. 79, was reproached by Apollonius of Tyana, a pagan philoso- pher, for stripping the people of By- gantium of some of their time-honored rights. “They have forgotten to be ce,” replied the emperor in extenva- tion of his harshness, inestimably An Tmpregnable Fortress What mude Byzantiarm the coveted prize for so mavy rations was that it was placed at o pofat whers Burcps end Asta are scpavated only by the Bogsorue, Hellespont and Gnlden Horn, ‘i;fi;-q ¢ navigable water nowhere Toore than five wiles wida 2nd in most olices less than baif a mile. Thus Hizantium commands 8 waterway be- " ipeen the Black Sea and the Med terrancan, bringing the city into Souch with regions extending east and ‘west from the Adriatic to the Persian ulZ, and vorth and south from tns Danubs to the waters washing the ghores of Africa and Asia. When it became the seat of the ‘Roman empire its name, in deference to the BEmperor, was changed 1o ‘% “gonstantinople. New Rome.” And, tc the present day, the chia? patriarch of " the (rgek Church signs all oficial ‘documents, “Arcibishup of Constanti- sople, Now Rome." aytinople, comared one of the Seven Won- s of the World, soon to resound lgain to the anthems of Christian worship maoy outbreaks of civil strife, was - seldom without an enemy battering at fts walls. But, added i~ the naturai defenses, which, with a good garrison, made access to it very precarious, its 200 feet of thickness of walls, rising in three tiers, rendered it an almost impregnable fortress. ‘whose attacks were most furious were tho Avari, In A. D. 627; Saracens, in 673 to 677 and again in 718; the Bul gars, in 813 and again in 913; the Knights of the Cross during the Feurth Crusade in 1203 and 1204 and by the Turks for the first time in 1422, and again in 1453, when, after acts of desperate heroism rarely ever equaled and certainly never surpassed, the city, fell into the hands of Moham- med IL 24 The Crusaders’ siege was remark- able in many ways. They were led by one of the most astonishing char- acters in all history—Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice. Dandolo belonged to an {llustrious family of the merchant. republic. He was elghty-four years old and almost blind when he was elected Doge. Except for the infirmity of his organs of sight, which, accord. ing to a not very well authenticated story, was caused by the Ltreachery o: Emperor Andronicus Comn’enus, who bad sought to have him blinded, he was still in full possession of as mucn vigor as an ordinary healthy man at forty. Among those Dandolo and His Crusaders When Dandolo was ninety-four he was requested to aid In the fitting out of a crusade. Not only did he con- tribute toward its equipment, but ha 'offered to lead it, leaving his son to govern Venice in his absence. After the Crusaders had met with many vicissitudes which left them impe cunious although still far from the Holy Land, Prinee Alexius Comnenus, son of the deposed emperor, Isaac II, offered 10,000 men and 200,000 marks (equivalent to millions of dollars in present-day money values) if the Crusaders would pause on their way to Palestine long enough to reinstate his father as emperor. The throne was occupled by Alexius, the brother of Isaac I Dandolo thought so well of the generous offer made by the prince and was withal so well impressed with the Justice of his father's cause tiat o led the Knights of the Cgoss wit out any more ado against the waii of Constantinople. which had come be tegarded by most men as impreg: nable. siege the ecity storm on July 17, 1202, and Ysaac reinstated upon the Although Tsaac was not at all insen. #ible to ths great kindress done him ed a great he told Dandolc that his son had bsen too excited when promis. ing 80 golden a reward., Personally, Dandolo did not allow this disappoint. ment to ruffe his temper. The poor empercr simply did not have the money, and couldn't muster up S0 large a force as 10,000 men for foreign service; and Dandolo coincided with Emperor Isazc that under the cireum- etances there was nothing to be done. But emonug the Crusaders were many who were not at all ideailsts; many to whom the rescuo of the tomb of the Saviour was merely an ostenaiblo reason for a crusade, the real reason being either a desive to get away from disagrseable complications at home or else to improve their material re- soucces abroad. This contingent of Dandolo’s otherwise magnificent army raiged & great hubbub in Constanti- noplo when it was learned that tine emperor had besn compelled to re- pudiate his son’s promises. A duma- gogue of the city, named Murzuphlus, took advaniage of the disorders which ensued and, in the presence of the emperor, strangled Prince Alexius. The shock killed the emperor and an officer named Canabus took posses- sion of the, throne and had himselt proclaimed emperor. . To escape mixing up in these do- mestic troubles of the Constantinopo- litans, Dandolo led his army out of the city to await developments. Within * the walls political changes were of al- most hourly occurrence. Canabus was soon dethroned by Murzuphlu: caused himself to be proclaimed em- peror as Alexius V, On April 12, 1204, the Crusaders ogain attacked the city, carrying it after a desperate struggle. Théy de- clared the empire of the East at an end and established in its stead a * Latin empire, with Count Baldwin of Tlanders at its head as emperor. The Greek Ascendancy happens In every wir, “vae vio (“woe to the vanquished”) be- the watchword, in so far as the resources of Constantinopic were con. cerned. 1in the division of the spoils, nice received, among other things, bronze herses, wonderfu! works of art. wh have ever since been adorning the facade of St. Mark's Cathedral. Civic pride and rallgiots fanaticism welded the ousted Greeks into a cormn. pact mas: against tho new regime, and in April, 1205, the two armiss met in battie at Adrianople. The Latins ware defeated and Baldwin was captured and put to death. It was only by his own personal bravery and prowess that Dandolo saved the fragment of his army and Yed it back whence it had come. Worn out by age and the fatlgues he had endured, Dandolo died, aged ninety- seven. The Greel: emperors held sway two and a half centuries longer, when, in 1453, the Turks captured Constunti- nople and put an end to the Byzantine empire, which, except for the Latin interregnum, had ruled the world for a thousand years. The Turks had not yet made their appearance in Europe when the Cru- As tis! " came When the Knights of the Cross under En- rico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, swarmed over the “impregnable” walls of Constan- tinople in the thirteenth century the age of ninety, in 1326, his domin- lons included the Valleys of, Sakaria and Adranos as far south as Kutajah, which is about 150 miles southeast ot Constantinople, and as far north as the Sea of Marmora, on the opposite shore of which Constantinople is sit- uated. After the death of Ala-ud-dim and the collapse of the Seljukian Em- pire, he declared himself an independ- ent ruler. From Osman, whose name was also pronounced Othman, the Turks came to be called Osmanli and also Otto- mans. The name Moslem relates more directly to their religion, for it is the participial form of the verb “Salama,” to be free; from which also are derived the name of the religion Islam and the greeting “salaam,” equivalent to “peace be with you.” Osman’s younger son, Orkhan, who was his favorite, succeeded him, while the elder son, Ala-ud-din; became the vizier. Orkhan signalized his accession to the throne in 1326 by capturing Brusa, one of the finest cities of Asia Minor, at the foot of Mount Olympus and about fifty-seven miles southeast of Constantinople. He transferred his seat of government thither from Ku- taiah. Orkhan's son Suleiman led his father’s hosts in war against the Greeks and in 1355 captured Gallipoli, which gave the Turks their first foot- hold in Europe and brought them an- other stretch mnearer Constantinople. Gallipoli is the place which the Brit- ish and other Allied fleets attacked with such disastrous result during the war in 1915. It is at the northeast en- trance of the Dardanelles, 132 miles southwest of Constantinople. The Turk in Control Several years afser the taking of Gallipoli Suleiman was killed by & fall from his horse. Grief killed his father, Orkhan, and he was succeeded as Sultan by arother son, Murad I, in 1859, When Murad, in 1367, took Adrian- ople and transferred his capital there from Brusa, the Pope called upon Christendom to lLead off the Turkish wedge which was now beginning to push its way so energetically into Bu- rope. Hungarians, Serblans, Walla- chian: and Moldavians responied, but were beaten in successive battles. By, quick strides Murad entered and an- nexed to his crown Serbia, Kiustendil, Nicopolis, Silistria, ‘Bosnia, Herzego- vina, Philippopolis, Rumelia, Monastir and many other BEuropean sections. He was assassinated in 1389 by a Ser- bian patriot on the battlefield of Kos- sovo, just after defeating, with 40,000 troops, the Allied armies of 100,000. His son, Bayezid I, proclaimed Sul- tan on the battlefleld immediately after the death of Murad, besieged Constantinople. The emperor, Manuel, bribed the vizier and the latter In- duced Bayezid to de: The vennecting Link between Burope and Asia—the Galata bridge, looking toward Stamboul from Pera saders uader Dandolo tock Constanti- nople. deed, it was not until the t the Ottoman Turks be- gan to figure in history at ail. The first notice en of them was When, in that year, some 4900 of them, men, together with n from their Asian homes by Mor 5, besousnt Sultan Ala-ud-din I, sobad of Xonia (Iconium), for shelter. The Sultan teared troubie might cnsue from harboring ec numerous a guest in his own territory. He bado their leader, Suleiman Shan, 10 tzke them back; and as Ala-ud-din looked like a man who wouid not hesitate to use force if crossed in his purpose, Sulei- man complted and Jed his tribe back over the sarmcy route by Which they had come f As they wpre crossing the River Fuphrates Syjleiman was accidentally €rowned. l but 400 had already crossed. These 400, who were under the leadership of Suleiman’s son, Ertaghrul, resarded the accident as an omen that they, at lcast, should not return to their old home. Once more they requested Ala-ud-din for shelter, and, as ho felt that 400 could not do much damage in so large an empire as his, he assigned to them 2 roomy piece of territory at Karaja Dagh, near Angora. Upbuilding Ottoman Empire In 1288 Ertaghrul, .who had shown his gratitude by fighting some of Ala- udin’s many battles for him, died at the age of ninety. He was. succeeded by his son, Osman, who continued to serve Ala-ud<in against his encmies. e did this to such good effect that 95, Ala-ud-din II conferred upon e horsetail, drum and banne: which symbolize independent com- mand Already the possessions of the Turks, under Osman, hal expanded un- til they took in as much as an ordl- nary kingdom, most of it coming by conquest, some of it by marriage. Os- man had married the richly endowed Mal Khatun, daughter of the learned Sheikh Edbali. More tracts of land and other property were added to the patrimony by the marriage of Os- man’s son, Orkhan, to the beautiful Greek maiden, Nilofer, daughter of the Jord of Hissar. The fact that Nilofer had been plighted to another made no difference. Orkhan, aided by his father, carried her off on the day set for her marriage. In 1300 the Seljukian empire, over which Ala-ud-din II reigned, began to fall to pieces and the score or more of people who were subject to it began to yrebel. Osman alone of them all re- mained true. By, the time of Osman'o death, at signs upon Constantinople, which thus for eighty years longer remained a bulwark against the rising tide of the Turkish conquest. When Mohammed II came to the throne in 1451 he built a fort at Ru- meli Hissar on the European side of the Bosporus, opposite Constantinople, employing 8000 men, day and night. It was completed in forty days. Then he had big cannon and other gi- gantic engines of war constructed there, and by the spring of 1453 he completed all arrangements for an at- tack upon Constantinople, The final assault, In which he carried the city, was made on May 29 of that year. - The emperor himself perished whils leading the defense at the breach made by Mohammed's cannon. It,was a strange coincidence that the last Christian_emperor of Constantinople, like its founder, bore the name Cone stantine,