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Turkish tobacco is a small-leafed variety of tobacco. Its plants usually have a greater number and smaller size of leaves than American tobacco, and are typically sun-cured. These differences can be attributed to climate, soil, cultivation and treatment methods. Historically, it was cultivated primarily in Thrace and Macedonia, which are now divided among Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, and Turkey, but it is now also grown on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, in Egypt, in South Africa and elsewhere.
The name "Turkish" refers to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the historic production areas until the late 19th/early 20th century. The term Oriental tobacco has also been used for the leaf.