Adzharia

The Ilayet of Adzharia lies within the Ottoman Empire's damp northeastern Black Sea frontier, upon a narrow, humid and wooded coast that rises quickly into the Lesser Caucasus. Vati is a large commercial port, military outpost and point of passage between the sea and the hinterland. The few villages press between the water and the rising mountains. Inland, the country climbs quickly into broken forest, pasture and upland valleys.

The people live chiefly by grain, orchards, livestock, laurel and such local crops as the ground allows. In the warmer littoral, tea bushes, citrus trees and other subtropical plants grow in gardens and favoured estates. Tangerines, tung nuts and vegetables are known along the coast. Tobacco grows in sheltered places. Ottoman authority rests on tribute, appointed officers and the gradual spread of Islam among chiefs and leading families.