PERSIA AND ASIATIC TURKEY.
PERSIA has a population of about nine millions, over eight millions of whom are Mohammedans, chiefly of the Shiah faith. The rest are Parsees, Jews, Nestorians, Armenians, and Kurds. The country is under an absolute monarchy, and the present ruler is Shah Mazefer-ed-Din, who ascended the throne last year. The laws are based on the precepts of the Koran. The Persian priests are called mullahs, and Friday is the Mohammedan sabbath. The missionary Henry Martyn said of the Persians, “They are clever and intelligent and more calculated to become great and powerful than any other of the nations of the east.” S. G. Wilson, for fifteen years a missionary in Persia, writes: “The Persians have alert, active minds, untrained and unscientific, but naturally intelligent, subtile in argument, sharp in business, skilled in imitation, artistic in execution, socially entertaining, fond of humor, poetry, and music, and well informed for their opportunities. Persian art and civilization gave birth to Arabian culture in Bagdad and Spain, with its philosophy, mathematics, and architecture. Persian poets have sung in immortal verse.” There are among the Persians about three thousand Protestant converts. Asiatic Turkey includes Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Kurdistan, and has a population of nearly twenty-two millions, about twelve millions of whom are Turks and about eighteen millions (including Turks, Arabs, and Kurds) are Mohammedans. The Jews number over a hundred thousand. The country has been ruled over since 1876 by Sultan Abdul-Hamid II., who is an absolute monarch and is about fifty-five years old. The laws are according to the Koran. Arabia, containing about five million Arabs, is the birthplace of Mohammedanism. Mecca is there, and each of the 200,000,000 Mohammedans hope to visit it at least once before they die.—Selected.