Gallery
1. Turkey
Photo from http://visibleearth.nasa.gov
"In 1835 the word ‘Turkey’ was political shorthand, not an official name. The Ottoman Empire, like Saudi Arabia today, was named after a man, in this case Osman I, the Turkish gazi, or warrior, who founded the dynasty in 1299... [more]
2. Constantinople in the 1820s
Drawing by Claudius James Rich.
On the far left, the Sea of Marmara, joined by the waters of the Bosporus. In the foreground, on the Asian shore: the village of Scutari, where Florence Nightingale established her hospital during the Crimean War (1854-56)... [more]
3. Trabzon/Trebizond
"The difficult part of their journey began in Trebizond (now Trabzon) at the east end of the Black Sea. No steamer took them there from Istanbul. They boarded instead a schooner, American-made and English-owned, which formerly had served in the slave trade—a grim fact which they did not fail to note. With the ship’s arrival at Trebizond on August 30, their sea voyages came to an end. [more]
4. View of Erzurum
"In all this fighting [1828-29] the local Armenians openly sided with the Russians, and intelligence provided by them proved vital in the final attack on Erzurum. After its capture, wrote Pushkin, the city "presented an astounding picture. From their flat roofs the Turks were looking at us sullenly. Armenians were thronging noisily in the narrow streets. Their little boys ran in front of our horses, crossing themselves and repeating: ‘Christians! Christians!’" [larger image]
--Fever and Thirst
5. Urmia
"But beautiful Urmi, far as the eye can reach, is one oasis. From Turkman onwards the plain becomes more and more attractive, the wood-embosomed villages closer together, the variety of trees greater. Irrigation canals shaded by fruit trees, and irrigation ditches bordered by reeds, carry water in abundance all through the plain. [more]
6. Southwest Asia
Photo from http://visibleearth.nasa.gov
Modern borders drawn by NASA technicians; 19th century Ottoman, Persian, and Russian domains noted. Note Urmia, Hakkari, and Mosul, the three poles of Dr. Grant's life from 1835-44. [larger image]
7. Hakkari & Murder of Schultz
Photograph by Gordon Taylor, 1977
Photo of Sumbul Dagh (Chiya-ye Simbi, in Kurdish) and the gorge of the Greater Zab, Hakkari province, Turkey. River is out of sight at the base of the mountain. Upstream, some twenty miles to the left, the explorer Friedrich Schultz of Giessen was lured into a side canyon and murdered (1829). [larger image]
--See Fever and Thirst, Chapter 3
8. Dr. Grant of Kurdistan, 1807-44
Image probably made early in 1841, very soon after the daguerreotype process was brought over from France. "[Because of the long exposures that were necessary], anyone who views these [daguerreotypes] tends to see people with the very life sucked out of them... [more]
9. Nestorian Tribesmen
Matson Collection, Library of Congress
Taken in Urmia, early in the 20th century. “To the borders of their country,” said the vigorous pasha of Mosul, “I will be responsible for your safety; you may put gold upon your head and you will have nothing to fear; but I warn you that I can protect you no farther. Those mountain infidels (Christians) acknowledge neither pashas nor kings, but from time immemorial every man has been his own king!..." [more]
10. Kespiyanish
Photograph by Gordon Taylor, 1977
Graveyard in the Kurd (formerly Nestorian) village of Kespiyanish (Mutluca), south of Beytussebap, Hakkari province, Turkey. View is toward the south. Iraqi border lies beyond the mountains shown, which are called Tanintanin Dagh. [more]
11. Mt. Ararat
Photo from http://visibleearth.nasa.gov
The Great Ararat (16,916’) and Lesser Ararat (13,100’) - these mountains (extinct volcanoes) lie at the corner where the borders of Turkey, Iran, and Armenia meet. [more]
12. Nineveh and Mosul
Drawing by Claudius James Rich
The walls of ancient Nineveh, with the shrine of Nebbi Yunus (Jonah). In the distance the River Tigris and the city of Mosul, where Asahel Grant died in 1844. Thomas Laurie, writing about Mosul summers, leaves little doubt about the trials facing newcomers... [more]
