Turkish tobacco

Its plants usually have a greater number and smaller size of leaves than American tobacco, and are typically sun-cured.

The name "Turkish" refers to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the historic production areas until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[1] In the early 1900s, manufacturers of Turkish and Egyptian cigarettes tripled their sales and became legitimate competitors to leading brands.

The New York-based Greek tobacconist Soterios Anargyros produced the hand-rolled Murad cigarettes, made of pure Turkish tobacco.

[citation needed] Cigarettes containing Turkish tobacco (which includes those varieties grown in what is now Greece) exclusively continued to be manufactured and sold as "Turkish cigarettes" in the US (brands Murad, Helmar, Fatima, and others), in the UK (Sullivan & Powell, Benson & Hedges, Fribourg & Treyer, Balkan Sobranie), and Germany (where the so-called "Orientzigaretten" had the major market share before the Second World War).