Musa Dagh - Farming and Animal Husbandry

Author: Vahram L. Shemmassian 30/09/24 (Last modified 30/09/24)

As a rule, land tenure in Musa Dagh was characterized by private ownership. With the exception of religious foundations and other public domains like forests, most holdings belonged to individuals. The overwhelming majority owned private houses. Each dwelling had a small yard planted with fruit trees, usually mulberry or fig, and or with vegetables including green bean, eggplant, squash, cauliflower, lettuce, pepper, radish, spinach, parsley, and mint. [1]The bulk of the population also possessed other real estate. Agricultural properties were divided into two categories: the bakhchas or orchards falling under the rubric of chereverk,that is, near waters and or irrigable, and the khupors (or tarlas), which constituted the cereal fields needing little or no water, hence their characterization as dashtya (waterless). [2] The bakhchas constituted approximately 90 percent of cultivable land. An average bakhcha in Bitias consisted of ten to twelve terraces called mandul or saki, each measuring about 30 meters by 4 meters (98 feet by 13 feet),for a total area varying between 1,200 and 1,440 square meters. [3] Naturally, the value of lands depended on size, but location might have played an even greater role in assessing real estate. In the early 1890s, for example, two bakhchas and one tarla of equal size each belonging to the Sarkis Nashalian family of Yoghun Oluk were valued at 50 liras, 225 liras, and 375 liras, respectively. [4]

Musa Dagh produced various kinds of fruits for local consumption as well as exportation.  Both categories included apples, peaches, pears, apricots, prunes, loquats, and pomegranates, as well as oranges, mandarins, lemons, figs, grapes, and olives. [5] Whereas the cultivation of especially citrus fruits for sale became widespread after World War I, figs, grapes, and olives were in great demand also before 1915. There were sixteen kinds of figs, all available during one season or another. [6] They were consumed fresh, dried or in distilled form. Figs were utilized for an alcoholic beverage called oghi, [7] comparable to the Arabic araq, Greek ouzo, or Turkish raki.According to one observer, “figs grow very plenty in this Moosa Dagh and to distill arrack from them is an art that everybody knows, hence the supply of spirits is generous although the people as a whole are very poor.” [8] This abundance of drinks had had a negative effect on society. “There are many [including priests] who spend their earnings on oghi before anything else,” regretted one reporter, adding that such indulgence led to frequent bloodshed. [9] Grapes, some ten kinds, were served on the table, sold, dried as raisin, distilled as vinegar and oghi, and or transformed into molasses called errob (pekmez). [10] Olives were eaten as such, pressed into oil, used to make soap, or their seeds were burned as fuel. Since meat and poultry were catered mainly on holidays and special occasions, olive oil constituted the main dietary fat in cooking. [11]

Because of its steep and limited terrain, Musa Dagh was not suited for the farming of cereals.  In addition, locusts and or persistent fog blanketing the higher elevations often destroyed the wheat, oat, barley, corn, millet, and potato crops. [12] For these reasons hardly did 100 families or about 8-10 percent of the total population engage themselves in the cultivation of cereals and or were able to procure their provisions from local yields. [13] This meant 90 percent dependence on outside markets, mainly that of Antioch, something which proved very costly not only financially but also during political crises/blockades. [14] Notwithstanding this fact, people took good care of their lots. So much so, that an impressed visiting American missionary had this to say: “If some of our American farmers with their broad acres of wheat could only see the tiny patches of land—like a handkerchief on the mountain-side—which are the wheatfields in the region. It was a marvel to me to see the cultivated ‘land-kerchiefs,’ reaching to the very mountain tops, with terrace after terrace to keep them from disappearing into the valley.” [15]

The method of cultivation was very rudimentary. As British consul T.S. Jago commented on farming in Aleppo province in 1890, “agriculture is conducted in the primitive manner of past ages, and no serious attempt is made to encourage ... or to introduce a better system. The agricultural classes remain, as ever, the poorest in the land.” [16] Seventeen years later conditions had remained the same, as observed by yet another British consul, H.Z. Longworth: “Cultivation is still carried out in the simple primitive manner of the patriarchal ages. No modern machinery has yet been introduced and in this the Aleppo Vilayet [province] is behind that of Adana. All is done by the labor of man and beast with implements of the rudest make and kind. The soil is tilled into shallow furrows with light wooden ploughs, the seed is scattered on the ground broadcast, while the harvest is reaped with sickles, threshed by sledges, and winnowed with forks. The waste is great.” [17]

Another occupation related to agriculture involved the extraction of licorice roots. In the mid-1890s more than one-third of Musa Dagh’s population was seasonally engaged in it. [18] They each winter descended to the plain of Amuk to work for the American Tobacco Trust which, conjointly with the Smyrna-headquartered British MacAndrew and Forbes firm, had virtually monopolized the venture since 1902. [19] Some peasants uprooted that plant in Musa Dagh itself, carrying their loads to a designated gathering spot on the coast, where local middlemen like Mardir Chaparian of Bitias, armed with exclusive rights, sold them to the above company and made hefty profits. [20] In 1900, the overall export of licorice roots from the district of Antioch amounted to 2,500 tons valued at ₤10,000. [21] A similar activity, albeit of much lesser scale, involved the picking of sumac leaves at a place eponymously called Summaqen near Yoghun Oluk; the tanneries of Antioch utilized them for dyeing leather. [22] And from the olive-like laurel berry, which grew plentifully in Musa Dagh, the Armenians distilled and sold gasle tzit (laurel/bay oil) to the soap manufacturers of Antioch. [23]

Animal husbandry was not developed commensurate with the opportunities that Musa Dagh afforded. According to one survey, the grazing pastures could accommodate forty-five to fifty flocks consisting of 250-300 heads each or a total of 12,000-15,000 animals. [24] But the size of livestock actually raised fell far short of capacity. For instance, in the early 1900s they reportedly numbered about 700 goats, sheep, and cows, [25] and in the summer of 1915 over 2,000 goats, sheep, cows, oxen, horses, and mules. [26] Young boys in the family herded the cattle or several households from the same neighborhood entrusted their herds to a single person in return for a token remuneration in kind or cash. [27] Bitias native Apraham G. Seklemian reminisced about his experience as a shepherd lad in the mid-1870s:

“About this time father [Garabed] was having a difficult time providing for the family. My elder brothers Krikor and Samuel were helping father to produce charcoal in the mountains.  So since I had completed the education our village school could provide, I was given my “job” to help out. This was to herd our flock of fifteen to twenty goats; to drive them up into the mountains to graze. Herding goats in the mountains can be a liberal education in itself.  One can learn many things not taught in books. And what a gloriously healthful life for a boy!  I joined another goat-herder a little older than I. Together we drove our respective flocks to every part of Musa Ler. It was not long before I knew every crag and cranny, all the cool springs, the mountain meadows and forested slopes of that magnificent mountain”. [28]

Western travelers observed flocks in or near Musa Dagh. In the mid-1830s, a sojourner at Bitias reported that “the shepherd and his flock were yet on his pasture, where they often, in this climate [?], remain all night.” [29] A decade later, an American missionary found the trail connecting Seleucia Pieria to Musa Dagh along an ancient tunnel “crowded with cattle, sheep and goats, reposing, during the [hot] day, beneath the cool vault.” [30] At the turn of the century, an itinerant spotted “flocks of goats that Armenian shepherd boys [from Kabusiye] herded morning and evening along the margin of the sea.” [31]

As a rule, cows, goats, and sheep were kept for milk rather than meat, which was consumed primarily on special occasions such as national-religious holidays. On Holy Cross Sunday in mid-September 1899, for example, celebrants in Yoghun Oluk alone sacrificed thirty-one animals excluding poultry. [32] Milking took place twice daily during the three months from April through June—apparently the most abundant season. But in order to secure a regular supply of milk throughout the year, as many as ten families from the same neighborhood often cooperated by submitting their daily products to a “milk collector,” who weighed and redistributed the milk evenly (or proportionately) among the participants. [33] Milk, as such, was not the only dairy product consumed; several derivatives were prepared from it. Besides butter and ordinary yogurt, one such byproduct was ipudz madzeon (cooked yogurt), a prime diet served in lieu of cheese or used as an important ingredient in other foods. Another outgrowth of milk was chukalik or surki, the rough equivalent of molded, spicy farmer cheese. It was eaten as such or used in baking banderum huts (cheese bread), Musa Dagh’s version of vegetarian pizza. Cooked yogurt was also mixed with crushed wheat and dried for the preparation of terkhane shurbo (a soup). [34]

Domestic animals also satisfied other needs. Each village had several muleteers who commuted daily except Sundays between Musa Dagh and Antioch to purchase special orders and cereals or carry occasional passengers. [35] A European traveler likewise observed numerous donkey caravans conducted by Turks, Alawites (Nusayris), and Armenians trekking the Antioch-Svedia route. [36] Oxen were used for threshing and turning millstones. [37]

As mentioned above, inclement weather caused much harm to animal husbandry and farming in general. An August 1878 American missionary report spoke of the “loss of animals from the severity of last winter....” [38] In a single day in March 1898 as many as seventy goats froze to death in Yoghun Oluk and vicinity. [39] A year later, on May 5, 1899, a strong hailstorm, lasting less than one-half hour, destroyed 75 percent of the cereals, fruits, and vegetables of Yoghun Oluk, Haji Habibli, and Bitias. Fortunately, humans, animals, and buildings were not harmed. [40] In February 1911, an unprecedented snowstorm, exacerbated by gusty winds, ripped through the mountain for a month-and-a-half. Snow drifts 2-3 meters high prevented many who worked outside the villages from returning home, and some children remained unaccounted for. The damage to vegetation and animals was extensive. An estimated 3,000-3,500 Ottoman liras worth of oranges, laurel seeds, loquats, and potato buds were lost, the most crippling blow being felt in the citrus orchards of Kheder Beg and Vakef. Moreover, 25 percent of the livestock died, and another 50 percent was injured and rendered useless. The soaring price of fuel caused further damage. A similar situation prevailed in Antioch, where eight children froze to death and some fifty shops were totally ruined. [41] According to another report, that city “was cut off and all business paralysed.” As a result, “no fuel, no food came into the town. People burned their tables, chairs, and wooden floors as firing, or stayed in bed to keep warm.  Many died from cold and privation. Wolves and hyenas came down from the mountains and eagles and other hungry birds were seen in the [Presbyterian] mission garden.” [42]

The barinak or aghalar constituted another impediment to a healthier socioeconomic life. The term barin/bariun, an honorific appellation derived from the medieval-feudal title of baron, was bestowed upon those few who were wealthy by local standards and influential.[43] Thanks to their riches and attendant prestige, some of the barinak occupied certain positions in the district government. For instance, Kevork Baljian of Kabusiye held a seat on the five-member Administrative Council of Svedia sub-district during the 1900s, as did Apraham Shemmassian of Yoghun Oluk and Melkon Kuyumjian of Kheder Beg. [44] But fortunes could not be amassed nor high rank achieved without the backing of powerful men in Antioch. Hence, there existed between the Turkish notables of Antioch on the one hand and the barinak of Musa Dagh on the other a patron-client relationship which proved disastrous for the Armenian peasantry as a whole. [45] In order for the barinak to appease their patrons, they raised bribes through usurpation.One category of victims included the marabas, a small minority of sharecroppers who managed their landlords’ estates, and some of the kirajas (tenant-muleteers). [46] Others were manipulated indirectly or according to circumstance. Hovagim and Sima Maghzanian of Bitias were a case in point. As one of their descendants relates:

“Hovagim was the first ancestor to be called ‘Magzanian’ officially. It derived from his nickname—owner of Maghaza...—based on his wealth, especially in Chaghlaghan [near Bitias] where he had orchards, forest lands and a flour mill where neighboring Tat [Alawaite] villagers used to bring their wheat & corn to be ground.  He died young leaving behind his widow, Sima, and five young children.... When the village aghalar tried to confiscate the property claiming that the dead husband owed them a huge debt, which of course was a big fat lie, instead of caving in to their demands, she kept the property intact and gradually paid them off”. [47]

The Antioch notables, on the other hand, in their eternal rivalries pitted one barin against the other, who in turn polarized society or inflamed existing feuds. Reports from 1858 on make ample reference to “disputes and alienations,” [48] “families at variance,” [49] “quarrel[s] of long standing,” [50] and “seriously afflicted” communities. [51] In the mid-1890s, a visiting Armenian revolutionary leader named Garabed Tursarkisian, alias Aghasi, observed that the villages of Musa Dagh were divided into antagonistic camps, each wreaking havoc under the protective wings of leading Turkish personalities from Antioch. In Kabusiye, the line of scrimmage was drawn between the Baljians and Yusuf Agha, on the one hand, and the Garigians, on the other; in Kheder Beg, between the Izmirlians, Taslakians, and Shishmanians, on the one hand, and Panos Kehya, on the other; in Yoghun Oluk, between the Der Bedrosians and the Kazanjians, on the one hand, and Kapriel (Jabra/Jemil) Shemmassian, on the other; and in Haji Habibli, between Mardir Isgenderian and Kevork Vertanesian. [52] Slanders, accusations, counter-accusations, and false testimonies sent many of the protagonists or their cohorts to prison, thereby leaving the arena in their absence open for adversaries to abuse the villagers. [53] Reported the missionary John Merrill in 1907:

“At Yoghoonoluk the situation is very bad. The two most prominent men in the Protestant church are leaders in a feud which has taken the chief contestant on one side to prison and summoned to the government thirteen men whose names he gave, and which resulted in daily fear and in deeds of violence when we were there in May. The preacher’s life was threatened in case he told the truth about a certain matter, when he was questioned by the government. Of course this feud hasinterfered with all religious work. Mr. [C.S.] Sanders tried to settle it before his death, the Beytias [sic] pastor has tried to assist, and Mr. Merrill gave a little time in May, but nothing has been of much avail”. [54]

Such was the situation in Musa Dagh on the eve of World War I.

• [1] Interview with Yenova Bolisian Hajian. For the various kinds of vegetables produced in Musa Dagh, consult “Musa Leran pusaganutiune” (The Flora of Musa Dagh), in Mardiros Kushakjian and Boghos Madurian, Hushamadian Musa Leran (Memorial Book of Musa Dagh) (Beirut: Atlas Press, 1970), pp. 131-32; Tovmas Habeshian, Musa-Daghi babenagan ardzakankner (Ancestral Echoes of Musa Dagh) (Beirut: Yerepuni, 1986), pp. 142-48.
• [2] Interview with Hajian.
• [3] Ibid.
• [4] Isgender Nashalian, private papers, Glendale, CA, family property deeds titled “Imperial Documents” (in Ottoman Turkish), numbers 78, 639, and 640, from Defter (registry) 305, dated 1307 H. (1889-90).
• [5] For the various kinds of fruits in Musa Dagh, consult “Musa Leran pusaganutiune,” pp. 132-33.
• [6] The various kinds of figs are listed in Habeshian, Musa-Daghi, pp. 152-53.
• [7] Ibid.; Boghos Madurian, “Mer hatse” (Our Bread), in Kushakjian/Madurian, Hushamadian Musa Leran, p. 156.
• [8] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 16, C.S. Sanders, Report of Aintab Station, CTM (Central Turkey Mission), July 1905-April 15, 1906.  According to a 1900 report, “the produce of figs [in Antioch district] was estimated at 1200 tons value for about ₤7000.  The greater part of this was exported to Egypt and part was sent to Anadol.”  See Great Britain, FO 861, File 35, David Dowek to Henry D. Barnham, Trade Report of British Vice-Consulate Antioch and Swedea, April 10, 1900.
• [9] Asbarez, August 18, 1911.
• [10] Habeshian, Musa-Daghi, pp. 151-52; “Musa Leran pusaganutiune,” pp. 132. 
• [11] Madurian, “Mer hatse,” pp. 156-57. 
• [12] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 4, Corinna Shattuck to N.G. Clark, August 14, 1878. N.M. Baghdoyian, “Jebel Musa yev hay lernagannere” (Musa Dagh and the Armenian Mountaineers), Hairenik Amsakir (Fatherland Monthly) XV: 4 (February, 1935): 74-76; Punch, February 14, 1898; Piuzantion, April 26, 1911. 
• [13] Hov[Hannes] Eskijian, “Jebel-i Musaya bir ziyaret” (A Visit to Musa Dagh), Avedaper LXIII (May 14, 1910): 474; Piuzantion, April 26, 1911.
• [14] Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Archives, Boston (now in Watertown), MA, File 945/8, Giligio gam Lernavayri G. Gomide 1903 T. (Central Committee of Cilicia or Lernavayr, 1903) Holan (or Hoshan) to Varaztad, January 3, 1903; Dikran Antreasian, “Svedahayere” (The Svedia Armenians), in M. Salpi [Dr. Aram Sahagian], comp. and ed.,Aliagner yev khliagner.  Hay vranakaghakin darekirke (Little Waves and Hovels: The Yearbook of the Armenian Tent City) (Alexandria, Egypt: A. Kasbarian Press, 1919/1920), p. 17.
• [15] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 1, Foreman to Lamson, October 20, 1910.
• [16] Great Britain, FO 195: Embassy and Consular Archives.  Turkey: Correspondence, File 1690, [T.S.] Jago, Report of the Vilayet of Aleppo, June, 1890.
• [17] Great Britain, FO 424, File 212, Longworth to O’Conor, April 15, 1907.
• [18] AGC, H 93, Cartella V, Da Vallarsa to Rev. Father, January 2, 1896.
• [19] Great Britain, FO 424, File 212, Longworth to O’Conor, April 15, 1907; Aghasi [Garabed Tursarkisian], “Husher” (Memoirs), in Mihran Seferian, ed., Trvakner Svedio antsialen (1893-95 heghapokhagan shrchanen) (Episodes from Svedia’s Past [From the 1893-95 Revolutionary Period]) (Beirut: Ararad, 1957), pp. 48, 68. 
• [20] Interview with Arakel Izanian, December 28, 1991, Sunland, CA. See also Compatriotic Union of Musa Dagh, Hishadagaran-Albom Musa Leran 1961-1967 (Colophon-Album of Musa Dagh 1961-1967) (Beirut: Sevan Press, 1967), p. 45.
• [21] Great Britain, FO 861, File 35, Dowek to Barnham, Trade Report, April 10, 1900.
• [22] Interview with Hajian.
• [23] “Musa Leran kiughatsinerun zpaghumnern u arhesdnere” (The Occupations and Artisanship of the Musa Dagh Villagers), in Kushakjian and Madurian, Hushamadian, p. 118; Madurian, “Mer hatse,” p. 157.
• [24] Baghdoyian, “Jebel Musa,” pp. 74-76.
• [25] Ibid., p. 74.
• [26] Arev, October 4, 1915, November 1, 1915.
• [27] Interview with Manase Maghzanian, July 20, 1988, Fresno, CA; Madurian, “Mer hatse,” pp. 152-53.
• [28] Leigh Seklemian, private papers, Concord, CA, “Memoirs of Apraham G. Seklemian,” pp. 10-11.
• [29] W.H. Bartlett, William Purser, et al., with John Crane, Syria, the Holy Land, and Asia Minor, etc., Illustrated, in a Series of Views Drawn from Nature, vol. III (London: Fisher, Son, and Co.,1838), p. 74.
• [30] William M. Thomson, “Travels in Northern Syria: Description of Seleucia, Antioch, Aleppo, etc.,” Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review 5 (1848): 451.
• [31] Bell, Syria, p. 334.
• [32] Punch, October 30, 1899.
• [33] Madurian, “Mer hatse,” pp. 152-54.
• [34] Ibid.  For the Musa Dagh cuisine, see Alberta Magzanian, Anna Magzanian, and Louisa Magzanian, The Recipes of Musa Dagh: An Armenian Cookbook in a Dialect of Its Own, 2nd ed. (N.p.: Lulu.com, 2015);Jack Hachigian, Secrets from an Armenian Kitchen (N.p.: n.p., 2006); Women’s Auxiliary of St. Paul Church of Anjar, Musa Leran yev Ainjari dohmig jasher (Ethnic Foods of Musa Dagh and Anjar)(Beirut: Hamazkayin Vahe Setian Press, 2001); Kyozalyan, Musa Leran, pp. 128-40.
• [35] M. Lerntsi [Hagop Abajian], Echer giankis kirken (inknagensakrutiun) (Pages from the Book of My Life [Autobiography]) (Beirut: Altapress Printing, 1986), p. 47.
• [36] Nijeholt, Voyage en Russie, IV, p. 325.
• [37] Madurian, “Mer hatse,” p. 147.
• [38] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 4, Shattuck to Clark, August 14, 1878.
• [39] Punch, March 28, 1898.
• [40] Ibid., June 12, 1899; ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 14, Sanders to Judson Smith, August 30, 1899.
• [41] Piuzantion, April 26, 1911; Yeridasart Hayasdan (Young Armenia) (Providence, RI), May 3, 1911; Bahag (Guard) (Boston), June 22, 1911; Asbarez, August 18, 1911.
• [42] Isobel Lytle, James Martin:  Pioneer Medical Missionary in Antioch: A Thrilling Account of Faith and Courage (Belfast: Cameron Press, 2003), pp. 61-62. 
• [43] Sima Aprahamian, “The Inhabitants of Haouch Moussa: From Stratified Society through Classnessness to the Re-Appearance of Social Classes,” Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1989, pp. 62-92 passim; interview with Hajian. 
• [44] Salname-i Vilayet-i Haleb (Yearbook of Aleppo Province) (Aleppo: Official Government Publication, 1324 H./1906 A.D.), p. 288.  See also Compatriotic Union of Musa Dagh, Hishadagaran-Albom, p. 45.
• [45] Fr. Khachadur Boghigian, “Husher” (Memoirs), unpublished manuscript, Beirut, Lebanon, pp. 32-33; Fr. Nerses Tavukjian, Darabanki orakir (Diary of Suffering), Toros Toranian, ed. (Beirut: High Type Compugraph – Technopresse S.A.L., 1991), pp. 46-53 passim; Aghasi, “Husher,” pp. 44-45, 72-75; Sherbetjian, Badmutiun svedahayeru, pp. 25-26. 
• [46] Aprahamian, “The Inhabitants of Haouch Moussa,” pp. 88-89.
• [47] Alberta Magzanian, letter to the author, not dated (1989).
• [48] The Missionary Herald LV: 2 (February 1859): 59.
• [49] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 4, Powers to Clark, March 19, 1972.
• [50] Ibid., Shattuck to Clark, October 17, 1876.
• [51] Ibid., vol. 10, L.H. Adams, Report of the Antioch Field, 1890-1891. 
• [52] Aghasi, “Husher,” pp. 44-45, 72-75.
• [53] Ibid.
• [54] ABCFM, ABC: 16.9.5, vol. 16, John Merrill, Report of Aintab Station for the Year 1906-1907.  See also idem, vol. 19, Merrill to Enoch F. Bell, May 21, 1907.