ellings,
make the rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The
hearth-rug, the bath-mat, the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the
saddle-mat must be regarded as necessities. Religion also has its
requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes ornamented with the hands of
the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment, whether of the
nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have
their own designs and methods of workmanship, and the rugs of each are
easily distinguished.[76]

For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to
convenient shipping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is
obtained in this manner. As a rule the rugs are named from the town or
district in which they are made. Smyrna and Constantinople are the chief
ports of shipment. Many of them find their way to European dealers, but
New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The great
majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice
fabrics, however, bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars.
Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a weaver frequently spends several
years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than ten cents a day. The
factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured product.

=Turkish Possessions.=--Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish
possession formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs,
however, to only a small part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of
the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the commercial people of the
greater part of this region, and although thousands have been massacred
because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief
power because of their business enterprise.

During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from
Constantinople and other coast-points to the interior. One of these
extended to Mesopotamia, and became a much-travelled route of the trade
which centred at Constantinople. Within recent years German capitalists
have built railways along these roads, thereby creating a considerable
export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.

_Angora_ and _Konieh_ (_Iconium_) are important marts. _Trebizond_ is
the chief port of the Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with
the interior. _Smyrna_ is the chief port of the Mediterranean, and from
it are shipped to European and Amer