Armenia: Travels and Studies

Abstract

IN two large well-printed volumes, Mr. Lynch gives an account of his visits to Russian and Turkish Armenia in 1893-94, and in 1898.The volumes are illustrated by 197 excellent reproductions, some apparently French, of the author's sketches and photographs; by special maps and plans, made in Germany; and by a general map of Armenia and the adjacent country, compiled by Mr. Shawe, and published also separately by Stanford.The first volume deals with Russian Armenia, and contains a minute and, here and there, slightly tedious description of the route followed from Batum on the coast to Kutais, Akhaltsyk, Alexandropol, Erivan, Ararat-which was successfully climbed on September 19, 1893-Edgmiatsin, Ani, Kars, Kagyzman, and the Turkish frontier; accompanied by geographical, historical, statistical, and political information.The second volume carries on the route from the Turkish frontier to Van, Bitlis, Mush, Erzerum, and Trebizond; and gives the details of the second tour in Turkish Armenia, during which much good topographical and geological work was done.In each volume a chapter is specially devoted to geography, and another to statistics and politics; and in the second there is a very useful bibliography and an index.Mr. Lynch followed no untravelled routes, but in several instances he has added to our knowledge of the districts which he visited; and his descriptions of Akhlat, Nimrud Dagb, Sipan Dagh, and Bingol Dagh, illustrated as they are by maps compiled from his own surveys and reproductions of his photographs, are both interesting and valuable.It is the first time that the great crater of Nimrud Dagb, nearly 5 miles in diameter and 14] miles in circumference, has been thoroughly examined and described, and all that is said of it is of special interest.The volumes give much information with regard to the condition of the people, and to the vast tracts of fertile land which lie uncultivated on the Armenian tablelands.Mr. Lynch finds little to admire in the methods of government in Russia and Turkey, or in the policy adopted by those states towards their Armenian subjects.He writes enthusiastically of the Armenians, but apparently regards all Kurds, whether of Kurdish or Armenian origin, as parasites and long-beaked birds of prey.This is not the place to dwell upon the rival merits of Armenians an I Kurds, or upon the fascinating history of the land and its people from the time when Tiglath Pileser I. defeated the confederate princes of Nairi on the plain of Nelazkert to the present day.To that history Mr. Lynch scarcely does justice.He has given a good account of the Vannic empire, and has dealt with the kings of Ani; but a more continuous history is needed to bring out the various causes which have led to the present condition of the country.It may be observed that the mediaeval kingdom of Lesser Armenia was not " overwhelmed by the Turks " (i.367), but by the Sultan of Egypt; that Tsamentav, which is placed near Amasia (p.364), and in the Cilician Taurus (p.395), has been identified with Azizieh, on the Zamanti So, eastward of Kaisarieh; and that the great battle in which the Seljuk Sultan of Rum defeated the Kharezmians was fought near Erz;ngan, and not at Akhlat (ii.296).In writing of Lake Van, it is remarked that "the most obvious explanation of this gradual rise in the norm of the lakelevel is furnished by a cause which must be constantly operative, namely, the increase of sediment deposited upon the bottom" (ii.52).The rise due to this

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