Historical Dictionary of Modern Greece

The major problem in studying Turkey as a country is that it wasn't one. Mohammed's Arabs hired and converted a small force of Turkish mercenaries, which gradually achieved dominance over its masters. The Greek‐speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire, after having been stabbed in the back by the western Crusaders, was conquered by these Turks in 1453 and formed into an Ottoman Empire centred on the great Greek city of Constantinople. This Empire was, however, thickly populated when the Turks got it. There were Armenians, Kurds and Galatian Celts in the uplands of Asia Minor, assorted Semites in the...