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THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,   Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

NEW    YORK    •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS    •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

THE  MACMILLAN   CO.   OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/fringeofeastjourOOIuke 


THE    CASTLE    OF    PAPHOS 


Frniuispiece. 


THE   FRINGE  OF 
THE  EAST 


A  JOURNEY  THROUGH   PAST  AND 
PRESENT    PROVINCES   OF   TURKEY 


BY 

HARRY  CHARLES   LUKACH 


LUKACH.     [LUKE.H C]     ^he  Fnnge  of  the  Ea.      A  Jour^^^^^^^^ 

Present  Provinces  of  Turkey.     1913-     8vo,  cloth,  pp.  xm,  2/3,  '^"'^  ^^  ^^ 

MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,    LIMITED 

ST.    MARTIN'S    STREET,   LONDON 

1913 


COPYRIGHT 


P5 


TO    MY    PARENTS 


PREFACE. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  French  writer,  the  late  Vicomte 
E.  M.  de  Vogiie,  once  declared  of  the  East :  "L'Orient, 
qui  ne  sait  plus  faire  d'histoire,  a  le  noble  privilege 
de  conserver  intacte  celle  d'autrefois."  This  sentence 
seemed  just  and  true  at  the  time  when  I  returned  from 
the  journey  which  this  book  describes,  that  is  to  say, 
two  months  before  the  outbreak  of  the  constitutional 
revolution  in  Constantinople  in  1908  ;  but  in  the  period 
which  has  elapsed  since  then  events  have  occurred  which 
have  destroyed  its  relevance  and  have  changed  many 
things  in  the  regions  with  which  I  am  here  concerned. 
The  East  is  again  making  history,  and,  in  the  process, 
it  seems  likely  that  some  of  the  records  of  its  past  will 
fail  to  be  preserved  intact.  So  many  vicissitudes  have 
lately  befallen  the  Turkish  Empire  that  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  adapt  this  book  to  every  changing  phase. 
Consequently,  in  so  far  as  it  deals  with  the  political 
status  and  conditions  of  the  Ottoman  provinces  through 
which  my  journey  took  me,  it  describes  them  as 
they  were  toward  the  close  of  the  reign  of  'Abdu'l 
Hamid. 

The  bulk  of  the  photographs  which  form  the  illus- 
trations are  my  own ;  but  my  thanks  are  due  to  my 
travelling    companion,    IVIr.    Harry    Pirie- Gordon,    to 


viii  PREFACE 

whom  I  am  also  indebted  in  many  other  respects,  to 
Colonel  the  Hon.  J.  P.  Napier,  travelling  companion 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  journey,  and  to  Mr. 
Guy  Dickins,  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  for  three 
photographs  each.  For  the  use  of  the  photographs 
of  Subh-i-Ezel  and  his  funeral  I  have  to  thank  Mr. 
T.  Moghabghab  of  Famagusta. 

H.   C.  LUKACH. 


Nicosia, 
February,   1913- 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introduction        ______  i 

I.    Monasteries  of  the  Levant  : 

St.  Luke  in  Stiris — Meteora — Mount  Athos  -  6 

IL    Rhodes         -------  33 

IIL    Cyprus         _______  54 

IV.   Jerusalem.     I.      ------  73 

V.   Jerusalem.     II.     ------  89 

Brief  Note  on  the  Eastern  Churches  -         -  113 

VI.   Judaea:   the  Samaritans    -         -         -         -  115 

VII.   Samaria  and  Galilee-        -         -         -        -  130 

VIII.    Hermon  and  Damascus        -         -        -         -  153 

IX.    David,  Solomon,  and  Queen  Balkis   -         -  171 

X.   The  North  Road.    I.          -         -         -         -  185 

XI.   In  the  Mountains  of  the  Nosayriyeh        -  194 

XII.   The  North  Road.    II.         -        -         -        -  216 

XIII.  From  Aleppo  to  the  Euphrates          -         -  232 

XIV.  Principalities  of  the  Crusaders          -         -  247 
Index  --------  268 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

THE  CASTLE  OF  PAPHOS        _  _  -         -  -  Frontispiece 

THE     SERPENT     COLUMN      FROM     DELPHI  :     NOW     IN     THE 

ATMEIDAN,    CONSTANTINOPLE          _            .            .            -  8 

HAGIA    TRIAS,    METEORA         -_----  8 

THE    ABBOT    OF    ST.    LUKE    IN    STIRIS         -            -            -            -  I4 

ABBOT   WITH    MONKS    AND    SERVITORS     -            -            -            -  22 

A    SMALL    EASTERN    MONASTERY     -            -            -            -            -  22 

MONASTERY    OF    PANTOKRATOR      -----  30 

CAPTAIN    ANDREAS    WITH    HIS    CAPTORS  -            -             -             "  36 

RHODES,    THE    STREET    OF    THE    KNIGHTS            "            "            "  3^ 
ONE    OF    THE    1 9    CANNON    PRESENTED    BY    HENRY    VIII.    TO 

l'ISLE    ADAM    FOR    THE    RECAPTURE    OF    RHODES         -  44 
A  BEDSPREAD  OF    RHODIAN  EMBROIDERY  IN  THE  AUTHOR's 

POSSESSION              _-_---              -  48 

LINDOS    AND    ITS    CASTLE        ------  48 

LUSIGNAN    COAT    OF    ARMS    IN    KYRENIA              _             -             -  58 

LUSIGNAN    COAT    OF    ARMS    IN    FAMAGUSTA        -             -             -  58 
A    CYPRIOT   TURK           -------58 

INTERIOR    OF    ST.    SOPHIA,    NICOSIA  _  -  -  - 

THE    CASTLE    AND    OTHELLo's    TOWER,    FAMAGUSTA  - 

OUTSIDE    THE    WALLS,    FAMAGUSTA             -             -             -             -  62 

RUINED    CHURCHES    OF    FAMAGUSTA           .             -             -             -  64 

CASTLE    OF    ST.    HILARION       ------  66 

KANTARA    CASTLE,    LOOKING    NORTH        -             -             -            -  68 


60 
62 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

the  late  archbishop  sophronios  ii.  sitting  in  state       jo 
the  dome  of  the  rock    ------       76 

the  summer  pulpit  -------82 

porch  of  the  dome  of  the  rock     -         -         -         -       82 

dome  of  the  rock  :    the  crusaders'  grille     -         -       86 
haram  and  antonia  tower     -----       86 

courtyard,  holy  sepulchre      -----       92 

the  holy  fire  -------98 

chapel  of  st.  helena       -         -         -         -         -         -     i02 

the    abyssinian    monastery    on    the    roof    of    st. 

Helena's  chapel      -         -         -         -         -         -     102 

wailing  of  the  jews        -         -         -         -         -         -iio 

jerusalem  from  the  mount  of  olives     -         -         -     il6 
the  high  priest  of  the  samaritans         -         -         -     1 24 
sons  of  the  high  priest-         -         -         -         -         -     1 24 

the  samaritan  tor  ah      -         -         -         -         -         -1 28 

SAMARITAN    INSCRIPTION    IN    THE    HIGH    PRIESt's    COURT-       1 28 
HEROd's    street    of    COLUMNS,    SAMARIA  -  -  -       1 32 

church  of  st.  john,  samaria  -         -         -         -         -     1 32 
the  synagogue,  nazareth         -  -         -         -         -      i4o 

tiberias   ---------     140 

qal'at  es-subeibeh   -         -         -         -         -         -         -154 

the  grove  of  pan   ^-         -         -         -         -         -1 56 

qal'at    ES-SUBEIBEH;    THE    CISTERN         -            -  -  -       1 56 

A    CORNER    OF    DAMASCUS       -            -            -            -  -  -160 

THE    COURT,    LOOKING    WEST,    OMMAYAD    MOSQUE  -  -       160 

DAMASCUS,    INTERIOR    OF    THE     OMMAYAD  MOSqUE     AND 

JOHN    THE    baptist's    SHRINE           -             -  -  -       1 64 

RESTING-PLACE    OF    THE    HEAD    OF    HUSEIN  -  -       1 66 

SALADIN's    TOMB              -            -            -            -            -  -  -1 66 

SCENE    IN    THE    BAZAAR,    DAMASCUS           -             -  -  -       I70 

A    PILGRIM    FROM    RUSSIAN   TURKESTAN-             -  -  -       1 70 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

PAGE 

MOSLEM    PILGRIMS    ON    THE    HEJAZ    RAILWAY-             -  -       I7O 

SUBSTRUCTIONS,    BA'aLBEK,    SHOWING    BIG    STONES      -  -       1 86 

DETAIL;    Ba'aLBEK      -            -            -            -            -            "  -1 86 

Ba'aLBEK,    temple    of    JUPITER    AND    ANTI-LIBANUS  -       1 88 

PERISTYLE,    TEMPLE    OF    BACCHUS,    Ba'aLBEK   -            -  -       I92 

FRAGMENTS,    Ba'aLBEK            -             -             -             -             "  -       1 92 

qal'at  el-hosn  -         -         -         -         -         -         -198 

CHAPTER-HOUSE,    QAl'aT    EL-HOSN             -             -             -             -  1 98 

THE    Q.AIMAQAM    OF    QAL'aT    EL-HOSN    AND    HIS    SUITE       -  206 

HAMA           _--------  2X6 

THE    GREAT    MOSQUE,    HAMA             -----  220 

-  228 

-  228 


CAMELS    RESTING  ------ 

CHURCH,    RUWEIHA       ------ 

THE    CITADEL    OF    ALEPPO       ------  234 

MOSQUE    OF    ZACHARIAS,    ALEPPO    -----  242 

OUR    FERRY    ACROSS    THE    EUPHRATES       -  -  -  -  242 

QAl'aT    SIM'aN,    the    SOUTH    PORCH         -  -  -  -  25O 

qal'at  sim'an,  looking  SOUTH  -         _         -         -  250 

IN    THE    BAZAAR,    ANTIOCH  ------  254 

MOSQUE    OF    SULTAN    IBRAHIM,    JEBELEH  _  -  -  254 

CASTLE    OF    MERKAB      -------  260 

BURJ    SAFITA        -  -  -  .  _  -  -  -  260 

SUBH-I-EZEL,    AET.    80  ------  264 

THE   FUNERAL   OF    SUBH-I-EZEL  :    THE  PROCESSION    LEAVING 
FAMAGUSTA  ------ 

THE  INTERMENT    OF    SUBH-I-EZEL-  -  -  - 

SKETCH  MAP  OF  SYRIA         -  -  -  -at  end  of  volume 


266 
266 


INTRODUCTION. 

Some  five  hundred  years  ago  there  lived  in  Asia  Minor, 
in  the  little  town  of  Aqshehir,  which  lies  between 
Afiun  Karahissar  and  the  ancient  Seljuq  capital  of 
Konia,  the  Khoja  Nasr  ed-Din  Effendi  of  happy  and 
genial  memory.  At  Aqshehir  he  died  and  was  buried ; 
and  his  tomb  may  be  seen  to-day  by  the  traveller  on 
the  Baghdad  Railway,  surmounted  by  the  gigantic 
green  turban  which  he  affected.  The  Khoja  was  a 
village  Imam,  a  sort  of  country  parson,  yet  it  is  not 
to  sanctity  or  learning  that  his  celebrity  is  due.  Of 
these  attributes  he  had  but  little  store.  It  is  as  the 
classical  exponent  of  Turkish  humour,  as  the  hero 
of  adventures  which  usually  end  in  his  scoring  off 
other  people,  and  also  as  the  peg  on  which  similar 
tales  of  later  invention  are  hung,  that  he  has  made 
his  name  a  household  word  wherever  Turkish  is 
spoken. 

And  that  is  my  excuse  for  prefixing  to  a  book  deal- 
ing solely  with  lands  that  are  or  once  were  Turkish 
a  few  of  these  '  Khoja  stories '  as  they  were  related  to 
me  in  the  course  of  my  journey.  There  are  hundreds 
of  them  in  circulation,  disclosing  the  curious  blend  of 
buffoonery  and  shrewdness,  of  cunning  and  naivete,  of 
which  the  Khoja's  character  is  composed ;  and  they  are 
recounted   and  listened  to  with   gusto  by  the  country 


2  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Turks,  many  of  whom  know  no  other  form  of  literary- 
enjoyment  : 

One  day  a  man  went  to  the  Khoja,  and  asked  for  the 
loan  of  his  donkey.  The  Khoja  replied  that  the  donkey 
was  not  there,  but  at  that  moment  the  beast  brayed  and 
so  betrayed  its  presence. 

"Ah,  so  the  donkey  is  here  after  all  r'  said  the 
man. 

"  O  Fool,  begone !  Would'st  thou  believe  my 
donkey  before  me  ?" 

On  another  occasion  the  Khoja  borrowed  a  donkey 
from  a  Jew,  to  whom  he  refused  to  return  it ;  so  the 
Jew  haled  him  before  the  Qadi.  They  rode  together 
into  town,  the  Jew  on  a  mule  and  the  Khoja  on  the 
stolen  beast.  It  began  to  rain,  and  as  the  Khoja  had 
no  cloak,  the  Jew,  who  had  two,  on  being  asked,  very 
obligingly  lent  him  his  spare  one. 

Plaint  was  made,  and  when  the  Jew  had  finished 
speaking,  the  Qadi  said :  "  O  Khoja,  why  hast  thou 
robbed  this  Jew  .''" 

"  Robbed  this  Jew  !  O  Learned  among  Qadis, 
O  pattern  of  Judges,  may  thy  wisdom  ever  increase  ! 
Hearken  not,  I  beg,  to  this  abominable  Jew.  I  have 
stolen  the  fellow's  donkey,  have  I  ?  Why,  he  will  be 
saying  next  that  the  very  coat  I  wear  is  his ! " 

"  Of  course  it  is  mine,"  cried  the  Jew. 

"  O  Jew,"  said  the  Qadi,  "  thou  art  a  knave,  a  liar, 
and  a  Jew  !  Get  thee  gone,  and  slander  no  more  this 
just  man." 

The  Khoja  returned  home  in  high  feather  and  began 
to  think  of  himself  as  somebody,  forgetting  in  his  pride 
to  give  due  glory  to  Allah;  and  it  fell  out  that  he  said  to 
his  wife:   "To-morrow  I  sow." 


INTRODUCTION  a 

"  Insha'llah  ! "  said  his  wife,  which  means  'God- 
willing.'  ^ 

"  No,"  said  the  Khoja,  "  willing  or  unwilling — to- 
morrow I  sow." 

And  he  set  out  on  his  stolen  donkey  with  seed  corn; 
but  he  happened  upon  a  thunderstorm  so  fierce  and 
violent  that  he  was  swept  off  the  back  of  the  beast,  his 
corn  was  scattered,  and  the  donkey  drowned.  When 
he  came  home,  soaked  and  wretched,  and  knocked  at 
his  door,  his  wife  called  out  :   "  Who  is  there  .?" 

"I  am  the  Khoja,  if  God  will." 

Next  day  the  Jew  mocked  at  him,  for  his  mishap 
had  been  reported ;  wherefore  the  Khoja,  desiring  to  be 
even  with  the  Jew,  bethought  him  how  to  set  about  it. 
Now  the  Jew  was  a  dealer  in  silk,  and  the  Khoja  asked 
him  quite  politely  if  he  would  buy  silk  from  him. 
Said  the  Jew,  "  yes."  So  the  Khoja  went  into  the  next 
street,  bought  some  silk  of  another  merchant,  and  went 
to  where  the  drowned  donkey  lay.  Having  cut  off  its 
head,  he  swathed  it  in  the  silk,  and  bore  it  to  the  Jew. 

"  What  a  huge  bale  you  have  brought  !"  said  he. 

"  Yes,  it  is  an  '  ass's  head '  of  a  lot,"  replied  the 
Khoja,  for  the  Turks  use  that  word  to  imply  a  big 
bulk;  "you  will  buy,  will  you  not  .''" 

The  Jew  agreed,  and  for  some  time  they  chaffered 
about  the  price.  Finally  the  Jew  weighed  the  bale,  and 
paid  for  it  by  the  oke.- 

When  he  discovered  the  fraud,  he  haled  the  Khoja 
for  a  second  time  before  the  Qadi,  and  complained  of 
the  deception. 

^"  Say  not  thou  of  a  thing,  '  I  will  surely  do  it  to-morrow';  with- 
out, '  If  God  will.'"      Ooran,  xviii,  23. 
^  A  Turkish  measure  :   2-i  lbs. 


4  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

'*  No  deception  at  all,"  said  the  Khoja;  "  1  sold  it  to 
him  as  an  ass's  head." 

Despite  his  lack  of  learning,  the  Khoja  had  contrived 
to  make  himself  the  oracle  of  his  fellow-villagers,  and 
was  often  consulted  by  them  on  every  sort  of  subject. 
One  day  a  camel  passed  along  the  street  in  which  the 
Khoja  lived,  and  one  of  the  Khoja's  neighbours,  who 
had  never  seen  a  camel  before,  ran  to  ask  him  what  this 
strange  beast  might  be. 

"Don't  you  know  what  that  is?"  said  the  Khoja, 
who  also  had  never  seen  a  camel,  but  would  not  betray 
his  ignorance;  "  that  is  a  hare  a  thousand  years  old." 

A  great  man  once  gave  a  feast  to  which,  with  much 
condescension,  he  caused  the  Khoja  to  be  bidden 
Accordingly,  on  the  appointed  day  the  Khoja  repaired 
to  the  great  man's  house,  and  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  a  fashionable  and  richly  clad  assembly  which 
took  no  notice  of  the  poor  Imam  in  his  threadbare 
black  gown.  No  one  greeted  him  or  spoke  to  him, 
and  eventually  he  was  shown  by  a  servant  to  the  lowest 
seat.  After  a  little  while,  the  Khoja  slipped  away 
unobserved,  and  went  into  the  hall  where  some  of  the 
mighty  ones  had  left  their  outer  garments.  Selecting  a 
magnificent  gown  richly  lined  with  fur,  he  put  it  on 
and  returned  to  the  room.  Nobody  recognized  as  the 
Khoja  this  resplendent  personage  whose  arrival  excited 
universal  attention.  The  company  rose  to  salute  him, 
and  the  host,  who  had  previously  ignored  him,  ap- 
proached bowing,  and  inquired  after  his  honourable 
health. 

The  Khoja  stroked  the  sleeve  of  his  borrowed  gar- 
ment. 

"  Answer,  fur  ! "  he  said. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

Three  men  who  had  a  sack  of  wahiuts  were  quarrel- 
ling about  the  division,  when  the  Khoja  came  by. 

"  O  Khoja,  come  and  help  us,"  said  the  first,  "  for  we 
cannot  agree  upon  the  division  of  these  walnuts  among 
us  three.     Make  thou  the  division." 

"Yea,  divide  with  absolute  justice!"  said  the  second. 

"Nay,  justice  even  is  not  enough,"  said  the  third. 
"  Divide  as  Allah  would  divide." 

So  the  Khoja  agreed  and  took  the  walnuts.  "  Then 
am  I  to  make  division  as  would  Allah  ?" 

"  Yea,  as  would  Allah,"  said  all  three. 

Whereupon  he  gave  one  walnut  to  the  third  man, 
and  a  handful  to  the  second  man,  and  all  the  rest  to  the 
first. 

"  How  now,  Khoja,  what  is  this  .''  Dost  thou  call 
this  an  equal  division  ?" 

"  O  Fools,  when  did  Allah  divide  anything  equally 
among  men  ?     As  would  Allah,  so  have  I  divided." 


CHAPTER    I. 

MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT. 

Sl  Luke  in  Stiris — Meteora — Mount  Athos. 

Those  who  travel  by  sea  anywhere  but  along  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  wish  to  ascer- 
tain beforehand  how  much  their  passages  will  cost 
them,  are  able  to  do  so  to  a  nicety  by  reference  to 
printed  documents  which  the  steamship  companies 
supply.  In  the  Levant  such  documents,  although 
plentiful,  have  to  be  classed  among  works  of  fiction, 
highly  imaginative  ;  and  it  is  usually  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  which  sets  upon  your  journey  its  ever 
fluctuating  price.  When,  therefore,  on  a  cold,  clear 
December  morning  we  left  the  solid  comforts  of  the 
British  School  of  Archaeology  in  Athens,  and,  having 
arrived  at  the  Piraeus,  demurred  at  paying  15  drachmae 
a  head  for  conveyance  to  Itea,  the  agent  of  one  of  the 
most  forbidding  little  craft  that  disgraced  the  Gulf  of 
Corinth  frankly  explained  : 

"  Ah,  had  you  come  yesterday,  when  both  the 
Thermopylae  and  the  Diadochos  ^  Konstantinos  were  com- 
peting for  passengers  to  Delphi,  doubtless  you  might 
have  gone  for  8  drachmae.  To-day,  happily,  the 
Lordos  Buron  has  no  rival." 

^  Crown  Prince. 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  7 

So  in  the  Lordos  Buron  we  passed  between  Salamis 
and  Aegina,  passed  through  the  Corinth  Canal,  which 
was  projected  by  the  Emperor  Nero  and  opened  by  King 
George  of  Greece,  and  in  due  course  arrived  at  Itea, 
still,  as  in  ancient  times,  the  port  of  Delphi  for  those 
not  journeying  overland  from  the  north,  but  now  a 
decayed  little  village  having  nothing  but  Parnassus,  its 
background,  to  commend  it.  From  Itea  a  modern 
carriage  road  winds  up  the  side  of  the  mountain, 
intersected  at  intervals  by  vestiges  of  the  straight 
processional  path  along  which  the  pilgrims  from  the 
Peloponnese  rode,  walked,  and  danced  to  the  great 
shrine  of  Pythian  Apollo.  Both  toward  the  Gulf  and 
inland  the  views  are  very  lovely  ;  and  it  is  easy  to 
understand  how  Delphi,  by  the  impressive  beauty  of 
its  rugged,  lofty,  and  thickly  wooded  surroundings, 
arrested  the  imagination  of  ancient  Greece  so  deeply  as 
to  become  the  seat  of  the  oracle  which  made  of  it  '  the 
navel  of  the  world.'  On  this  occasion,  however,  our 
principal  objective  was  not  Delphi  but  the  ancient 
monastery  of  St.  Luke  in  Stiris,  which  lies  in  Phocis  to 
the  south-east  of  Parnassus  ;  and  our  visit  to  St.  Luke, 
one  of  the  most  important  Byzantine  monuments  in 
Greece,  was  intended  as  a  preparation  for  visits  to 
Meteora  and  Mount  Athos,  the  one  a  bygone,  the 
other  a  yet  vigorous  centre  of  Byzantine  monasticism. 

Owing  to  their  numbers,  their  wealth,  and  their 
influence,  the  monasteries  play,  and  have  played  from 
early  times,  an  exceedingly  important  part  in  the  life  of 
the  Levant.  The  oriental  mind  has  always  displayed  a 
pronounced  leaning  towards  monasticism.  Both  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  itself,  as  in  all  the  countries  which 
have    now   become   independent   of  it,   the  num.ber  of 


8  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

monasteries  seems  strangely  high  if  assessed  by  a 
western  standard.  The  island  of  Cyprus,  for  example, 
with  an  area  of  only  3584  square  miles,  contains  no 
fewer  than  eighty-two  ;  and  I  quote  Cyprus,  not 
because  it  is  richer  in  monasteries  than  other  parts  of 
the  East,  but  because  its  statistics  are  more  reliable. 
Wherever,  as  you  travel  through  Greece,  Macedonia, 
the  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  or 
Kurdistan,  you  espy  an  eligible  site,  a  fruitful  valley,  a 
safe  and  sheltered  nook  with  an  abundant  supply  of 
water,  you  are  almost  certain  to  find  that  it  houses  a 
settlement  of  monks.  Some  monasteries,  no  doubt,  are 
little  more  than  farms  ;  others  may  contain  only  two  or 
three  monks,  or  even  a  solitary  ascetic.  But  many 
have  been  lavishly  endowed  in  the  past  by  Byzantine 
Emperors  with  estates  situated  in  almost  every  province 
of  the  Empire  ;  and  as  these  estates,  known  as  fiero-^^ia, 
have  not  been  alienated,  their  possessors  continue  to 
derive  from  them  very  handsome  revenues.  To  these 
revenues,  again,  were  often  added  the  pious  donations  of 
other  Christian  potentates,  of  Hospodars,  Voyvodes, 
Sebastocrats,  and  Jupans,  in  Russia,  the  Balkans,  and 
even  the  distant  Caucasus. 

The  influence  of  the  monasteries,  considerable 
throughout  the  Levant,  is  particularly  felt  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  itself.  The  native  inhabitants  of 
European  Turkey  are  divided  for  administrative  pur- 
poses into  millets  or  '  nations,'  which  rest  on  a  basis 
religious  rather  than  racial.  Moslems,  of  whatever  race 
they  may  be,  compose  the  millet  of  Islam  ;  and  the 
rayahs,  that  is  to  say,  the  Christian  subjects  of  the 
Porte,  form  separate  ynillets  according  as  they  acknow- 
ledge the   Patriarch   of  Constantinople,  the   Pope,  the 


MONASTERIES   OF  THE   LEVANT  9 

Bulgarian  Exarch,  the  Armenian  Katholikos,  or  the 
Protestant  Vekil,  as  their  ecclesiastical  superior.  As  a 
result  of  this  system,  and  of  the  fact  that  to  each 
Christian  millet  a  measure  of  autonomy  is  given,  the 
churches  in  Turkey  are  not  only  spiritual  refuges,  but 
the  rallying-grounds  of  national  aspirations  ;  the  head 
ot  a  church  is  not  only  a  spiritual  chief,  he  is  also  a 
political  ethnarch.  And  while  the  Church  thus  becomes 
the  backbone  of  national  existence  and  propaganda,  the 
monastery  is  very  largely  the  backbone  of  the  Church. 
In  the  eastern  churches  only  celibate  or  widowed  priests 
and  deacons  can  attain  episcopal  orders  ;  the  hierarchy 
is  recruited  in  consequence  extensively  from  the  ranks 
of  the  regular  clergy.  Thus  there  are  concentrated  in 
the  monasteries  not  only  those  who  seek  to  retire  from 
the  world,  but  many  eager  and  ambitious  spirits  whose 
aim  is  precisely  the  reverse.  All  large  monasteries, 
especially  those  of  Mount  Athos,  are  fruitful  nurseries 
of  bishops,  archbishops,  and  patriarchs  ;  also,  owing 
to  the  frequent  depositions  of  the  latter,  havens  of 
refuge  whence  these  intrigue  for  the  downfall  of  their 
successors.  Often,  moreover,  in  the  Orthodox,  and 
habitually  in  the  other  eastern  churches,  bishops  reside 
permanently  in  monasteries  and  govern  their  sees  from 
them  ;  all  of  which  will  serve  to  indicate  the  weight  of 
monastic  influence  on  the  spiritual  and  political  affairs 
of  the  Levant. 

Eastern  monasteries  have  yet  another  function,  to 
which  travellers  off  the  beaten  track  will  gratefully  bear 
witness.  In  many  outlying  parts  of  the  Near  and 
Middle  East  they  are  the  only  substitutes  for  hotels, 
the  only  establishments  where  strangers  may  be  sure  to 
find  both  food  and  shelter.     No  monastery,  however 


10  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

small,  is  without  a  guest-chamber  and  accommodation 
for  beasts  ;  and  the  guest-master  (ap-)(ovTdpti^  or 
^€voS6-)(09)  is  one  of  the  recognized  monastic  officials. 
In  theory  the  hospitality  of  the  monks  is  at  the  free 
disposal  of  all  who  ask  for  it,  but  in  practice  it  is  usual 
for  the  guest,  on  departure,  to  leave  a  small  sum  of 
money,  calculated  according  to  the  length  of  his  stay, 
in  the  alms-dish  inside  the  church.  The  only  exception 
to  this  custom,  in  my  experience,  is  made  on  Mount 
Athos,  where  the  monks  not  only  refuse  money,  but 
even  provide  free  transport  in  the  shape  of  mules  to 
carry  visitors  from  one  monastery  to  another. 

From  the  archaeological  and  artistic  points  of  view 
the  monasteries  are  no  less  important  than  from  the 
political  and  the  religious.  Themselves  examples  of 
early  Byzantine  architecture  in  both  its  religious  and  its 
domestic  forms,  they  enshrine  treasures  of  every  mani- 
festation of  Byzantine  artistic  and  intellectual  activity. 
Curzon's  Fisits  to  the  Monasteries  of  the  Levant  first 
revealed  to  the  world  in  general  the  abundance  of 
mosaics,  frescoes,  orfevrerie,  and  priceless  manuscripts 
which  they  contained,  works  of  art  of  whose  value  and 
interest  their  owners  were  equally  oblivious.  Those 
were  the  days  when  the  leaves  of  uncial  manuscripts 
were  used  as  covers  for  jam-pots,  when  eleventh 
century  illuminated  Gospels  might  be  had  for  the 
asking.  By  the  time  that  he  had  reached  the  end  of 
his  journey  Curzon,  that  fortunate  hunter  of  manu- 
scripts, must  have  bagged  at  least  a  boat-load  ot  his 
venerable  prey.  Things  have  changed,  however,  in  the 
last  eighty  years  ;  and  although  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
monks  now  study  their  literary  treasures  any  more  than 
they  did  in  the  time  of  Tischendorf  and  Curzon,  they 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  11 

have  become  more  alive  to  their  value.  Their  remaining 
manuscripts  have  been  examined,  collated,  and  cata- 
logued by  foreign  scholars  ;  their  reliquaries  and 
valuable  icons  have  been  inventoried  and  described. 
The  days  of  looting  are  over,  and  the  monasteries  are 
once  more  what  they  would  never  have  ceased  to  be 
but  for  the  slothful  and  culpable  ignorance  of  the 
monks — specimens  as  well  as  storehouses  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  a  fascinating  region  and  epoch,  each  one  a 
Musee  de  Cluny,  if  the  expression  may  be  allowed,  of 
mediaeval  Byzantine  and  early  Christian  art. 

In  plan  and  in  appearance  they  but  little  recall  the 
well-ordered  settlements  of  western  monks  and  friars. 
There  is  no  symmetry  in  the  grouping  of  their  buildings, 
very  rarely  any  attempt  at  external  embellishment. 
Occupying,  as  a  rule,  strategical  positions,  and  enclosed 
for  safety  within  stout  battlemented  walls,  they  have  the 
appearance  of  fortified  towns  or  villages,  which  in  a 
sense,  indeed,  they  are.  A  strong  gate-house  admits 
into  the  monastery  ;  a  tower  of  observation  surmounts 
its  domes  and  roofs.  And  within,  no  stately  quadrangles 
and  grassy  plots,  no  sheltered  cloisters  are  found.  In 
the  middle  of  an  irregular  space  stands  the  principal 
church  of  the  monastery,  the  many-domed  Katholikon  ; 
around  it  cluster  without  method  the  monastic  buildings 
and  dwellings  of  the  monks,  of  different  heights,  of 
different  periods,  of  different  materials.  Some  possess 
arcaded  galleries  opening  on  to  the  court,  others 
sport  innumerable  wooden  balconies  of  flimsy  and 
perilous  construction.  A  few  paces  in  front  ot  the 
Katholikon  there  generally  stands  the  ancient  marble 
fountain  of  liturgical  ablution  from  which  the  Moslems 
have    derived    the    washing-place     attached     to     every 


12  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

mosque  ;  below  the  cells  of  the  monks  are  stables, 
granaries,  oil  and  wine  presses,  cellars,  and  every  other 
accessory  of  a  large  manor  or  farm.  The  agricultural 
element  is,  in  fact,  almost  as  prominent  as  the  religious  ; 
and  the  domestics  and  labourers  of  the  monastery,  of 
both  sexes  except  on  Athos,  form  the  bulk  of  its  popula- 
tion. But  little  attempt  is  made,  as  a  rule,  to  keep 
the  monasteries  in  proper  repair,  and  they  are  usually 
exceedingly  untidy,  when  not  actually  in  a  state  of 
decay.  To  this  condition,  to  the  charm  of  site  and 
architecture,  and  to  the  intimate  blend  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  the  bucolic,  they  owe  a  strange  picturesqueness 
very  difficult  to  describe :  their  massive  substructures, 
their  irregular  outlines,  their  tiers  of  overhanging 
galleries  and  roofs,  their  bizarre  medley  of  towers,  walls, 
and  domes,  give  them  more  affinity  with  the  Lamaserais 
of  Tibet  than  with  monasteries  of  western  Europe. 

Of  the  peculiar  skill  which  eastern  monks  have 
always  manifested  in  the  choice  of  sites,  St.  Luke  pre- 
sents an  admirable  example.  The  monastery,  invisible 
from  the  west,  only  comes  into  sight  as  you  round  the 
hill  on  one  of  whose  spurs  it  stands,  a  spur  projecting 
into  a  broad  semi-circular  valley,  where  the  fresh  turf 
and  scattered  oaks  are  reminiscent  of  an  English  park. 
From  their  well-concealed  and  comfortable  retreat  the 
fortunate  kaloyers  (such  is  the  Greek  word  for 
monks  ;  its  literal  meaning,  '  good  old  men ')  survey  a 
beautiful  and  peaceful  domain,  rich  and  green  and  sunny, 
enclosed  by  the  hills  as  no  walls  could  enclose  it,  well 
wooded,  well  watered,  well  tilled.  Hither,  after  many 
wanderings,  there  came  in  or  about  the  year  940  the 
hermit  Luke,  native  of  Macedonia  and  typical  product 
of  an  age  when  many  sought  happiness,  and  some,  per- 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  13 

haps,  distinction,  in  the  practice  of  austerities  which 
contrasted  vividly  with  the  prevailing  violence  and 
rudeness  of  life.  Luke  had  commenced  his  search  for 
isolation  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Joannitsa,  not  far  from 
the  spot  where,  some  forty  years  later,  he  was  to  end  it. 
Here,  however,  his  solitude  was  troubled  by  the  incur- 
sions of  the  Bulgarian  Czar  Simeon,  and  he  passed  on 
to  Corinth,  then  to  Patras,  then,  ever  seeking  to  leave 
the  world  behind  him,  to  Kalamion  in  Santa  Maura. 
From  Kalamion  he  was  driven  by  an  Arab  invasion  to 
the  small  island  of  Ampelos,  and  in  Ampelos  he  lived 
for  three  years.  But  he  was  not  yet  satisfied.  The 
companionship  of  the  sea  disturbed  his  craving  for 
loneliness  ;  and  again  he  wandered  on — until  he  found 
his  goal  at  last  in  this  lovely  corner  of  Phocis,  which 
Parnassus  cut  off  from  the  habitations  of  other  men. 

For  seven  years  he  enjoyed  its  quiet  delights,  and 
then  expired,  after  having  begun  to  build  a  chapel  which 
he  dedicated  to  St.  Barbara. 

It  was  not  long  before  men  told  of  miracles  performed 
at  his  tomb  ;  and  in  due  course  the  anchorite's  retreat 
became  a  large  and  flourishing  monastery,  the  humble 
chapel  of  St.  Barbara  the  magnificent  church  of  St. 
Luke,  declared  by  the  seventeenth  century  traveller 
Wheler  to  be  second  only  to  that  of  St.  Sophia  in 
Constantinople.  That  the  pilgrims  who  flocked  to  the 
wonder-working  tomb  were  many  and  generous  is 
attested  by  the  sumptuous  decoration  of  the  church  : 
its  floor  is  paved  with  opus  alexandrinum  ;  its  walls,  from 
the  ground  to  the  spring  of  the  vault,  are  faced  with 
slabs  of  rare  marbles  of  divers  colours,  the  spoil,  no 
doubt,  of  many  earlier  buildings.  Finally,  in  accord- 
ance  with   a   principle   of  Byzantine   architecture   only 


14  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

applicable  to  churches  of  great  wealth,  every  inch  of 
vaulting  was  adorned  with  rich  mosaics,  which  are  still, 
with  the  exception  of  those  in  the  dome,  in  good  repair. 
Soon,  too,  it  was  found  that  one  church  was  unable  to 
accommodate  both  monks  and  pilgrims  ;  and  the  smaller 
but  almost  equally  interesting  Church  of  the  Theotokos 
(Mother  of  God)  was  accordingly  built  for  the  use  of 
the  monks  on  the  north  side  of  the  other. 

We  remained  a  day  and  a  night  at  St.  Luke,  and  then 
returned  to  Athens,  riding  through  Davlia,  the  ancient 
Daulis,  and  joining  the  railway  on  the  following  day  by 
that  patched-up  monster  with  a  vacant  smile,  the  Lion 
of  Chaeronea.  Not  long  afterwards,  we  proceeded  by 
sea  from  the  Piraeus  to  Volo,  and  touched  on  the  way 
at  Chalcis,  the  capital  of  Euboea,  which  an  iron  swing- 
bridge,  spanTiing  the  strait  of  Euripus,  connects  with  the 
mainland.  Chalcis  is  a  picturesque  place,  thanks  to  its 
Venetian  battlements  and  Turkish  minarets  ;  and  it  is 
remarkable  for  the  mvsterious  current  which,  notwith- 
standing  the  almost  complete  absence  of  tide,  four  times 
or  so  a  day  changes  the  otherwise  placid  strait  into  the 
fierce  race  wherein  Aristotle  is  said  to  have  lost  his  life 
in  an  endeavour  to  probe  its  secret.  From  Volo,  a 
thriving  port  devoid  of  interest,  a  railway  runs  north- 
westward through  the  rich  plain  of  Thessaly  to  the 
village  of  Kalabaka,  a  distance  of  a  hundred  miles  ;  and 
trom  Kalabaka,  formerly  called  Stagous  (etV  tov^  ayiov^ — 
to  the  holy  ones),  you  continue,  on  foot  or  on  an  ass, 
to  the  bases  of  the  fantastic  natural  pillars  on  whose 
summits  are  perched  to.  fxereoipa  /uouaa-WipLa,  the  Monas- 
teries of  Mid-Air. 

At  one  time  a  cliff  about  1800  feet  high  rose  at  this 
point  above  the  Thessalian  plain,  its  summit  forming  a 


THE    ABBOT    OF    ST.     LUKE    IX    STIRIS 


Facing  p.   14. 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  15 

more  or  less  level  plateau.  In  the  course  of  ages 
erosion  has  converted  this  cliff  into  something  like 
twenty-five  vertical  pillars,  some  cylindrical,  some  poly- 
gonal, which  stand  like  giant  ninepins  above  Kalabaka  ; 
and  in  the  fourteenth  century  Byzantine  monks, 
emulous,  perhaps,  of  the  earlier  Stylites,  or  fearful  of 
wars  and  alarums,  built  monasteries  upon  the  flat  tops 
of  the  pillars,  the  largest  of  which  offer  barely  an  acre 
or  two  of  surface,  the  smaller  very  much  less.  In  days 
gone  by  every  pillar  was  capped  by  a  monastery  ;  in 
these  days  only  the  four  monasteries  of  Meteoron, 
Hagios  Stephanos,  Hagios  Barlaam,  and  Hagia 
Trias  possess  communities  of  monks,  now  rapidly 
dwindling.  In  Hagia  Roxane  death  has  reduced  the 
number  of  inmates  to  one  ;  and  when  he,  too,  dis- 
appears, one  monastery  the  more  will  be  added  to  those 
which  are  now  uninhabited  except  by  eagles,  and  are 
inaccessible  to  men  for  want  of  anyone  inside  to  pull 
them  up.  The  means  of  approach  to  the  monasteries  of 
Meteora  are  of  two  kinds  only  :  either  the  visitor  must 
enter  a  rope  basket  which  is  let  down  for  him  by  the 
monks  (you  attract  their  attention  by  shouting,  or,  if 
that  does  not  avail,  bv  shooting),  and  is  then  drawn  up 
by  a  windlass,  bumping  the  while  against  the  rock  ;  or, 
if  he  be  a  man  of  nerve,  he  may  ascend  by  perilous  step- 
ladders  that  swing  loosely  away  from  the  overhanging 
cliff.  How  the  founders  of  these  establishments  origin- 
ally attained  the  tops  of  their  respective  pillars  remains  a 
matter  for  conjecture  ;  certain  it  is  that,  in  the  monas- 
teries now  deserted,  the  unburied  bones  of  the  last 
monk  to  die  run  small  risk  of  being  disturbed.  The 
life  of  step-ladders  not  constantly  repaired  is  brief:  I 
attempted  the   ascent  of  the  abandoned   Hagia  Mone, 


16  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

but  the  decayed  ladder  gave  way  at  the  fifth  or  sixth 
rung,  and  I  reverted  rapidly  to  the  plain. 

We  visited  each  of  the  inhabited  monasteries  in  turn, 
beginning  with  Hagios  Stephanos,  which,  unlike  the 
others,  is  isolated  on  three  sides  only.  It  is  true  that 
on  the  fourth  side  a  chasm  narrow  but  deep  intervenes 
between  it  and  the  adjacent  mountain,  but  in  times  of 
peace  a  drawbridge  is  conveniently  thrown  across.  The 
monks  of  Meteora  are  more  immune  from  unwelcome 
visitors,  I  suppose,  than  any  other  community  :  in 
Hagios  Stephanos  it  is  a  matter  of  drawing  up  the 
bridge,  in  the  others  of  not  letting  down  the  bag ;  and 
Armatoles,  Antartis,  and  other  importunates  threaten 
and  foam  in  vain.  Our  Abbot,  however,  appeared  to  be 
quite  pleased  to  see  us,  and,  after  bestowing  the  kiss  of 
peace  at  the  gate,  led  us  into  the  reception  room,  from 
whose  loyal  walls  their  Hellenic  Majesties,  the  Diadoch 
and  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  beamed  in  olo- 
graphic complacency.  Coffee  was  brought,  and  jam,  and 
masticha^  a  liqueur  of  varying  nastiness  much  in  vogue 
in  eastern  monasteries;  and  the  Abbot,  whose  name 
was  Sophronios,  inquired  politely  after  the  health  of  the 
Archbishop  of  *  Canterviri.'  We  conversed  desultorily 
till  the  evening,  when  a  monk  conducted  us  to  the 
guest-chamber  and  to  a  supper  of  fried  eggs,  goat's  milk 
cheese,  and  unleavened  bread,  and  left  us  to  our  own 
devices  until  morning. 

On  fine  days  the  views  from  Hagios  Stephanos  must 
be  superb  ;  unfortunately,  we  were  afilicted  with  rain  and 
mist,  which  only  allowed  of  the  briefest  glimpses  on  the 
one  side  over  the  plain,  on  the  other  across  clefts  and 
abysses  to  the  grotesque  forest  of  hermit-laden  pillars. 
Hagia  Trias  is,  perhaps,  the  most  characteristic  of  these 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  17 

monasteries,  its  ascent  the  least  enjoyable.  It  has  two 
churches  lined  with  much  blackened  frescoes  depicting 
austere  Byzantine  saints,  the  older  of  the  two  being 
entirely  rock-hewn.  Meteoron  is  the  highest  and 
largest,  and  also  rejoices  in  two  churches,  as  well  as  in  a 
venerable  refectory,  used,  now  that  the  monks  are  too 
few  to  fill  it,  as  a  storeroom  for  grain.  Hagios  Barlaam 
proved,  however,  the  most  interesting  to  us,  not  only 
because  its  churches  and  frescoes  were  the  best  preserved, 
but  also  because  the  evening  which  we  spent  within  its 
walls  was  a  revelation  of  what  an  evening  could  be  in 
an  ancient  Byzantine  hermitage. 

Now  the  holy  Basil,  the  founder  of  Greek  monasti- 
cism,  has  ordained  that  four  times  in  the  year  shall  his 
faithful  followers  submit  to  prolonged  spells  of  fasting ; 
and  we  chanced  to  arrive  at  Barlaam  as  the  Advent  fast, 
which  continues  from  the  15th  of  November  until 
Christmas,  was  drawing  to  its  close.  It  chanced  also 
that  the  Abbot  was  at  this  time  entertaining  some 
ecclesiastical  dignitaries  from  without.  But  before  I 
proceed,  I  should  perhaps  explain  the  mysteries  of  the 
titles  with  which  the  dignitaries  of  the  Orthodox  Church 
are  blessed.  Patriarchs  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cyprus 
are  MaKapiwraroij  Beatitudes,  only  the  Oecumenical 
Patriarch  being  Havayiortj^^  an  All-Holiness.  Other 
Archbishops  and  Metropolitans  are  HaviepdoTaroiy  All- 
Sacred;  Suffragans  merely  'lepcoraroi,  Sacred.  Abbots 
and  Archimandrites  are  Jlai/oa-ioXoyiwraToi,  AU-Saintly- 
and-Erudite ;  but  when  an  Abbot  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  when  he  can  only  put  his  thumb  to  the  monastic 
documents,  it  is  considered  more  tactful  to  drop  the 
Aoyiwrarog,  Most-Erudite,  and  to  call  him  '■liavoa-iwraTe' 
tout  court.     Our  Abbot,  worthy  man,  assuredly  Havo- 


18  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

<Tio\oyiwTaTo^,  had  prepared  for  his  guests  as  good  a 
spread  as  season  and  place  allowed.  Our  portion  was 
tinned  lobster  and  a  fowl,  that  of  the  fasters  black  olives, 
radishes,  and  a  dish  of  lentils  and  split  peas.  Parmi  les 
convives^  as  the  French  society  journals  say,  we  remarked 
the  coadjutor  Bishop  of  Trikkala,  the  Abbot  of  Meteoron, 
a  monk  of  Pentelicus,  a  stray  Archimandrite,  and  the 
Abbot  our  host ;  while  we  ate,  one  of  the  monks  of 
Barlaam,  not  privileged  to  be  of  the  diners,  sat  on  a 
divan  by  the  wall,  and  in  melancholy  tones  read 
exhortations  from  some  ancient  book  of  devotion. 
Occasionally,  too,  as  the  meal  progressed  and  the  sour 
red  wine  of  northern  Greece  was  passed  round  the  table, 
the  Abbot  and  his  friends  would  solemnly  chant  a 
hymn  or  psalm.  Although  the  fare  was  simple,  it  did 
not  lack  in  quantity,  and  we  sat  at  table  a  prodigious 
time,  talking  of  many  things  with  these  excellent  monks, 
whom  we  found  to  be,  after  all,  very  human.  Indeed, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  with  every  circuit  of  the  bottle 
the  ecclesiastical  character  of  their  songs  was  becom- 
ing less  apparent.  We  had  sat  down  at  seven  ;  at 
ten,  the  dinnerless  monk  abandoned  in  despair  his 
homilies  from  the  Early  Fathers;  at  eleven,  there  being 
no  indication  that  the  party  was  likely  to  break  up,  I 
produced  a  bottle  of  rum  which  I  had  brought  from 
Athens  to  keep  out  the  rigorous  Thessalian  cold.  The 
Abbot  poured  it  out  in  tumblers,  and  in  an  instant  the 
All-Sacred,  the  All-Saintly,  and  the  All-Erudite  were 
roaring  Klephtic  ballads  at  the  tops  of  their  voices — but 
not  for  long.  Men  cannot  fast  for  forty  days  and 
then  drink  rum  with  impunity. 

Of  the  sequel,  of  mal  de  mer  endured  by  our  friends, 
in    strict    hierarchical   order,   from    these  giddy  heights 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE   LEVANT  19 

overhanging  the  plain,  I  forbear'  to  speak.  We  left 
betimes  in  the  morning,  before  the  place  was  astir,  not 
wishing,  by  delay,  to  become  involved  in  the  awful 
penances  which  were  the  fate,  no  doubt,  of  our  unhappy 
boon  companions. 

We  now  set  our  faces  toward  Mount  Athos,  called 
by  the  Greeks  the  Holy  Mountain,  to  dyiov  6po^,  a 
republic  of  monks  which  excludes  from  its  territory  not 
only  women  and  the  females  of  all  beasts,  but  even 
male  visitors  not  provided  with  letters  from  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople  or  from  the  official  representatives  of 
the  monks  in  Salonika.  We  obtained  our  permit  in 
Salonika,  and  after  three  days  spent  in  that  city  of  Jews 
and  glorious  Byzantine  basilicas,  embarked  for  Athos  in 
a  Russian  pilgrim  ship.  The  S.S.  y^zov  had  first  to  pick 
up  a  cargo  of  tobacco  at  the  port  of  Kavalla,  which 
lies  to  the  east  of  Mount  Athos  ;  then  she  doubled  back 
to  deposit  us,  her  only  passengers,  at  the  Holy  Moun- 
tain, and  to  take  from  it  home  to  Odessa  a  hundred  and 
fifty  Russian  pilgrims. 

The  old  town  of  Kavalla,  walled  and  crowned  with  a 
citadel,  stands,  like  Monaco,  upon  a  high  promontory. 
It  is  connected  with  the  new  town  (also  of  a  respectable 
age),  which  is  spread  over  the  hills  behind  it,  by  a  long 
two-storied  aqueduct  built  in  the  middle  ages  by  the 
Genoese.  The  great  Mehmed  'Ali  was  a  native  of 
Kavalla,  and,  as  a  thank-offering  for  the  favours  which 
Allah  had  showered  upon  him,  erected  the  large  alms- 
house, which  from  the  highest  part  of  the  old  town 
looks  across  the  Gulf  of  Kavalla  to  the  well-timbered 
isle  of  Thasos.  And  the  connexion  between  these  two, 
between  Thasos  and  the  alms-house,  is  curious.  In 
1807  Mehmed  'AH,  having  made  his  peace  with  Sultan 


20  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Mahmud  II.,  received  from  him  in  perpetuity  the 
revenues  of  Thasos  (except  the  customs  and  the  military 
exemption  tax),  to  be  applied  to  any  charitable  purpose 
which  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  might  select.  He  chose, 
naturally,  his  own  foundation  ;  and  from  that  time 
until  1902  the  island  was  administered  for  the  benefit 
of  this  establishment  by  an  Egyptian  Mudir  of  Evqaf,^ 
although  almost  within  swimming  distance  of  the 
mainland  of  Turkey.  In  1902  an  attempt  made  by 
the  Egyptian  Mudir  to  increase  certain  dues  provoked 
disturbances  which  led  to  the  termination  of  the  Egyp- 
tian administration  ;  and  the  island  reverted  to  Turkey, 
at  first  as  part  of  the  vilayet  of  Salonika,  later  as  a  sanjaq 
or  mutesarrifliq  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of 
Constantinople. 

It  seemed  a  rich  and  goodly  island  as  we  coasted  along 
its  western  shores  towards  Mount  Athos.  Indeed,  in 
all  directions  the  prospect  was  a  pleasant  one.  Behind 
us,  to  the  north,  the  snowy  heights  of  Prnar  Dagh 
towered  above  the  coast  line  of  Macedonia  ;  before  us 
rose  the  peak  of  Athos,  southernmost  extremity  of  the 
peninsula  to  which  it  gives  its  name,  a  peak  which  from 
very  early  times  has  profoundly  affected  the  imagination 
of  navigators.  Thus,  some  ancient  seafarers  have  not 
hesitated  to  declare  that  at  sunset  its  shadow  covered 
the  distant  island  of  Lemnos,  which  we  could  just  see 
away  to  the  south-east.  The  peninsula  of  Mount  Athos 
is  itself  a  part  of  the  greater  peninsula  of  Chalcidice, 
the  easternmost  of  its  three  narrow  promontories  of 
almost  equal  length.  Kassandra  and  Longos  are  the 
other  two,  and  over  against  Longos  is  the  port  of  Mount 
Athos,  the  little  harbour  of  Daphne.     Here  is  the  resi- 

^  Moslem  ecclesiastical  property  and  pious  foundations. 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  21 

dence  of  that  luckless  official,  the  Turkish  Qaimaqam/ 
who,  although  representing  the  sovereign  authority  of  the 
Sultan,  is  so  entirely  bound  by  the  laws  of  the  republic 
that  he  undertakes  a  monthly  journey  to  Constantinople 
to  visit  his  wife  and  children.  The  Sultan's  authority 
over  Mount  Athos  is  as  limited  as  was  that  of  his  pre- 
decessors, the  Emperors  of  Byzantium,  to  whose  piety 
many  of  the  monasteries  owe  their  existence.  From  its 
earliest  days  the  monastic  republic  has  enjoyed  almost 
complete  independence,  and  in  return  it  pays  to-day  to 
the  Porte  an  annual  sum  of  £16,000,  a  sum  not  exces- 
sive in  view  of  the  fact  that  its  total  revenues  amount 
to  nearly  half  a  million  pounds.  The  Qaimaqam  is  the 
living  symbol  of  Turkish  suzerainty,  but  the  local 
government  of  the  peninsula  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
monks.  They  carry  on  the  administration  by  means  of 
two  Councils,  and  maintain  order  through  their  Christian 
sirdars,  stalwart  Albanian  soldiers  whose  uniform  of 
white  fustanella  and  scarlet  jacket,  crossed  by  heavy 
silver  chains,  is  even  more  attractive  than  that  of  the 
royal  evzones  of  Greece. 

Let  me  endeavour  briefly  to  describe  the  polity  of 
this  commonwealth  of  7500  monks.  The  territory  of 
the  peninsula,  which  is  forty  miles  long  and  about  four 
miles  in  width,  is  divided  entirely  but  unequally  among 
twenty  monasteries ;  and  no  one  not  a  member  or 
dependent  of  one  of  these,  or  a  Turkish  official,  may 
permanently  take  up  his  residence  in  it.  A  little  town 
called  Karyaes  is  the  capital  and  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment;  and  here  deliberate  the  'Assembly'  and  the 
'Commune'.     The  'Assembly'  is  the  legislative  Council 

1  I  am  describing  the  status  of  Mount  Athos  as  it  was  at  the  time  of 
my  visit. 


22  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

of  the  republic,  and  is  composed  of  one  deputy  from 
each  monastery,  elected  for  one  year;  the  '  Commune' 
is  an  inner  or  executive  Council,  and  has  a  membership 
of  four.  These  bodies  decide  matters  of  general  con- 
cern; in  other  respects  the  monasteries  manage  their 
own  affairs  under  the  supervision,  if  coenobitic,  of  the 
abbot,  or,  if  idiorrhythmic,  of  a  committee  of  overseers 
{eTTLTpoTroi).  For,  while  all  Orthodox  monks  belong  to 
the  order  of  St.  Basil,  their  monasteries  are  of  two 
kinds.  In  coenobitic  monasteries,  which  are  ruled  by 
abbots  chosen  for  life,  the  monks  own  no  property, 
take  their  meals  in  common,  and  generally  conform  to 
the  earlier  and  stricter  ideals  of  monasticism.  The 
later  and  laxer  principles  of  idiorrhythmic  rule,  on  the 
other  hand,  permit  monks  to  live  in  their  own  suites  of 
rooms,  own  private  property,  and  have  a  share  in  the 
revenues  and  profits  of  their  monastery.  The  idior- 
rhythmic monastery  is,  in  fact,  a  company  owned  by  a 
limited  number  of  shareholders,  the  monks,  and  ad- 
ministered by  a  board  of  directors,  the  eTrhpoTroi,  whom 
the  shareholders  elect  for  a  certain  term  of  years.  The 
monasteries  of  Mount  Athos  were  in  the  first  instance 
exclusively  coenobitic.  Then  came  a  period  of  de- 
cadence, during  which  many  lapsed  into  the  idior- 
rhythmic category;  later,  again,  toward  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  efforts  of  the  Patriarch  Gabriel 
resulted  in  a  reformation  whereby  several  backsliders 
returned  to  their  former  fold.  Eleven  of  the  monas- 
teries are  now  coenobitic,  nine  idiorrhythmic. 

But  the  monks  of  Athos  are  not  all  dwellers  in 
monasteries;  and  one  of  the  most  interesting  features 
of  the  place  is  the  co-existence  in  it  at  the  present  time 
of  the    three    successive    forms    under    which    eastern 


ABBOT    WITH    MOXKS    AND    SERVITORS 


A    SMALL    EASTERN     MONASTERY 


Facing  p.   22. 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  23 

monasticism  has  existed.  In  a  recent  work  Dr.  Lake 
thus  describes  the  periods  in  which  these  forms  arose  : 
"  There  is  first  of  all  the  hermit  period,  in  which  a 
desolate  piece  of  country  is  selected  by  hermits  as 
affording  the  necessary  solitude  for  an  ascetic  life. 
Secondly,  there  is  the  period  of  loose  organization  of 
hermits  in  lauras ;  that  is  to  say,  a  collection  of  hermits' 
cells,  more  or  less  widely  scattered,  grows  up  round 
the  common  centre  provided  by  the  cell  of  a  hermit  of 
remarkable  fame,  who  has  attracted,  and  in  some  degree 
become  the  leader  of,  the  others.  Thirdly,  there  comes 
a  time  when  the  loose  organization  of  the  laura  is 
replaced  by  the  stricter  rule  of  a  monastery,  with 
definite  buildings  and  fixed  regulations,  under  the  con- 
trol of  an  ^yovixevo^  or  abbot."  ^  The  two  earlier  stages 
are  now  represented  by  a  large  number  of  kellia  (hermi- 
tages) and  sketae  (groups  of  kellia\  scattered  throughout 
Mount  Athos,  wherein  dwell  those  who  prefer  to  lead 
more  isolated  and  ascetic  a  life  than  that  prevailing  in 
the  monasteries.  Keilia  and  sketae  nominally  depend 
upon  a  monastery,  although  some  skeiae  have  now 
grown  out  of  all  proportion.  A  notable  example  is  the 
Russian  skete  of  St.  Andrew,  which  is  as  big  as  two  or 
three  monasteries  combined,  and  with  its  new  green 
cupolas  strikes  a  discordant  note  among  the  ancient 
Byzantine  buildings  of  Karyaes. 

Below  this  aggressively  rich,  somewhat  vulgar,  and 
most  modern  Russian  outpost  stands  a  venerable  church 
called  the  Protaton,  an  impressive  building  lined  with 
age-darkened  frescoes,  the  mother-church  of  Mount 
Athos.  The  contrast  between  the  two  cannot  fail  to 
impress  the  observer :   it  is  emblematic  of  the  struggle 

1  The  Early  Days  of  Monasticism  on  Mount  Athos,  Oxford,  1909. 


24  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

which,  although  carried  on  below  the  surface,  is  rending 
in  twain  the  commonwealth  of  monks.     The  struggle  is 
between  the  Russian  and  the  Greek,  the  new  and  the 
old,  the  intruder  and  the  occupant,  the  progressive  and 
the  conservative,  and,  it  must  in  fairness  be  added,  the 
vigorous  and  the  feeble,  the  efficient  and  the  effete,  for 
the  hegemony   of  Mount   Athos.     The  Greeks   claim 
and  still  possess  to  a  considerable  extent  the  leadership 
of  the  Orthodox  Church  as  a  whole;  but  their  supre- 
macy is  being  challenged,  and  challenged  successfully. 
True,  of  the  20  Athonite  monasteries,   17  are  theirs, 
while  Russians,  Bulgarians,  and  Servians  have  only  one 
each  ;    consequently   they   command    1 7   votes   in    the 
Assembly  to  the  three  votes  of  the  Slav  element.     Yet 
the  true  strength  of  the  protagonists  cannot  be  measured 
entirely  by  this  standard  :  in  their  one  monastery  (with 
its  kellia  and  sketae)  the  Russians  can  muster  more  monks 
than    the   Greeks   in   their   seventeen.      And   hosts   of 
Russian  pilgrims,  visiting  the  Holy  Mountain  at  Christ- 
mas and  at  Easter,  annually  enrich  the  great  Rossikon 
with  recruits  and  with  gifts  of  money;  wealthy  Russians 
frequently  make   bequests   for   the  foundation  of  new 
sketae.     They  would  gladly  found   new  monasteries  if 
they    could  ;     but    the    Patriarchs    of   Constantinople, 
anxious  to  save  the  Greeks  from  submersion,  will  not 
allow  the  number  of  twenty  to  be  exceeded.     At  the 
beginning  of  the   nineteenth   century  Rossikon,  or,  to 
give  it  its  proper  name,  St.  Panteleemon,  was  a  Greek 
monastery;   the  Russians  have  now  completely  ousted 
the  Greeks,  and  so  enlarged  the  monastery  that  it  was 
able  to  send  a  contingent  of  300  monks  to  take  part  in 
the  Russo-Japanese  war.     Servians  and  Bulgarians,  too, 
follow  the  lead  of  Russia  in  this  struggle,  which  is  one 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE   LEVANT  25 

of  Slav  against  Hellene ;  and  when  the  Greeks,  unable, 
as  in  the  middle  ages,  to  look  to  Byzantium  for  sup- 
port, can  no  longer  enforce  representation  by  monastery, 
instead  of  by  numbers,  in  the  Athonite  Assembly,  their 
cause  will  have  been  lost. 

We  will  now  return  to  Daphne,  where  the  Qaima- 
qam,  Papayanni  Bey,  welcomed  us  with  joy  born  of  an 
utter  surfeit  of  monks.  After  staying  with  him  for  two 
days,  during  which  heavy  snowstorms  made  it  impos- 
sible to  proceed,  we  set  forth,  and,  accompanied  by  a 
zaptieh,  rode  up  the  bridle-path  leading  to  Karyaes.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  scenery  more  lovely 
than  that  in  the  mountainous  forest  country  through 
which  we  passed.  Olives,  laurels,  and  holly-oaks  on  the 
lower  levels,  pine  trees  higher  up,  their  boughs  snow- 
laden,  almost  concealed  from  view  the  little  kellia  lurking 
everywhere  among  them;  occasionally  a  clearing  enabled 
us  to  look  back  and  down  upon  Daphne,  upon  the 
tiled  roofs  of  Xeropotamou,  and,  following  the  coast- 
line of  the  peninsula  northward,  upon  the  grim  white 
walls  of  Rossikon  and  over  a  succession  of  monasteries 
and  sketae  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  And  when, 
having  crossed  the  ridge  which  lengthwise  divides 
Mount  Athos,  we  came  to  the  eastern  slope,  Karyaes 
with  its  towers  and  domes  was  before  us,  forest- 
embowered  ;  and  beyond  it,  past  descending  terraces  ot 
monasteries,  the  blue  sea  and  Thasos. 

Our  first  duty  was  to  present  our  credentials  to  the 
Assembly.  A  sirdar  led  us  to  a  house  somewhat  larger 
than  the  rest,  up  one  flight  of  stairs  and  through  an 
antechamber  where  stood  several  of  his  fellows,  drew 
aside  a  black  curtain  embroidered  with  a  cross  in  red, 
and  ushered  us  into  a  large  room  round  three  sides  of 


26  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

which  ran  a  divan.  In  the  middle  of  the  room  stood  a 
table,  and  at  one  end  of  the  divan,  facing  the  door,  was  a 
raised  stall  wherein  sat  impressively  an  old  man  with 
a  long  white  beard,  holding  in  his  right  hand  an  ivory- 
headed  staff  of  office.  This  was  the  njOWTeTrto-rarj;?,  the 
President  of  what  is,  1  suppose,  the  strangest  Parlia- 
ment of  Europe ;  at  the  table  sat  a  younger  monk,  the 
clerk.  To  him  we  handed  our  letter,  and  after  he  had 
read  it  aloud,  the  President  welcomed  us  with  kindly 
words  to  Mount  Athos.  Meanwhile  monastic  legis- 
lators dropped  in  from  time  to  time,  in  a  casual  fashion 
which  showed  that  they  were  no  strangers  to  parlia- 
mentary behaviour,  and  exchanged  compliments  with  us 
while  a  palikar  from  outside  carried  in  on  a  tray  the 
usual  oriental  refreshments,  coffee,  jam,  and  liqueur. 
Presently  we  took  our  leave;  and  soon  a  messenger 
brought  us  the  permit  necessary  for  visiting  the  monas- 
teries. It  was  in  the  form  of  an  official  letter  addressed 
to  the  heads  of  the  twenty  establishments,  requiring 
them  to  receive  and  entertain  us  ;  and  it  was  sealed 
with  the  quadripartite  seal  of  Mount  Athos,  of  which 
one  quarter  is  in  the  custody  of  each  of  the  four 
members  of  the  Commune,  whence  it  can  only  be 
affixed  in  the  presence  of  them  all.  The  due  formali- 
ties were  thus  complied  with,  and  we  were  now  made 
free  of  the  republic. 

The  most  important  personage  in  the  annals  of  the 
peninsula  is  St.  Athanasius,  called  the  Athonite,  who 
flourished  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century.  He  it  was 
who,  with  the  support  of  his  friend  and  patron, 
the  Emperor  Nicephorus  Phocas,  transformed  Mount 
Athos  from  an  unorganized  resort  of  hermits  into  a 
regulated     community.      His     monastery,     the     Great 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  27 

Lavra,  attracted  monks  from  many  parts  ;  and  he 
caused  the  fame  of  Athos  to  spread  so  widely  that, 
before  the  century  had  closed,  the  monastery  of  Omor- 
phono  had  been  founded  in  imitation  of  his  by  seven 
Benedictines  from  Amalfi.  Of  the  brief  history  of  the 
only  Latin  monastery  in  Mount  Athos  (it  had  dis- 
appeared before  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century) 
we  know  little  beyond  the  curious  fact  that  its  monks 
supplied  St.  Athanasius  with  caviare ;  but  simultaneously 
with  the  Amalfitans  there  arrived  from  the  Caucasus 
two  distinguished  nobles  of  Georgia,  father  and  son, 
who  founded  the  monastery  of  the  Iberians  or  Georgians 
close  by  the  eastern  shore.  Long  ago,  in  the  days  of 
their  strength,  the  Greeks  drove  out  the  Georgian 
monks  ;  and  Iveron  {/Jiovrj  twv  'J^i'jpoov'^  is  now,  next  to 
Vatopedi,  the  largest  of  the  Greek  monasteries,  with  no 
trace  of  its  origin  except  its  name,  an  estate  in  the 
Caucasus,  and  some  valuable  Georgian  manuscripts 
which  Curzon  vainly  essayed  to  buy.  We  rode  down 
to  it  from  Karyaes,  and,  having  tethered  our  mules 
outside  in  accordance  with  good  manners,  approached 
the  gate  on  foot.  The  guest-master  met  us  in  the 
porch,  where  monks  were  selling  crudely  carved  bone 
crosses  and  '  conversation  beads,'  and  led  us  along 
interminable  galleries  to  a  clean  and  spacious  room 
which  was  placed  at  our  disposal.  Iveron  is  idior- 
rhythmic,  and  houses  its  two  hundred  monks  in  suites 
of  rooms  not  unlike  those  of  an  Oxford  college.  The 
only  difference  is  that  here  a  kitchen  is  attached  to 
every  suite  ;  and  thereby  you  may  know  the  category 
of  a  monastery  at  a  distance.  If  it  is  idiorrhythmic,  a 
forest  of  chimneys  breaks  the  long  line  of  roofs  ;  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  but  few  chimneys  are  seen,  it  is  a  sign 


28  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

that  the  good  monks  still  take  their  meals  in  the 
common  refectory.  Our  guest-master  was  very  zealous 
in  doing  the  honours  of  his  monastery,  and  through 
having  lived  for  seven  years  in  Georgia,  managing  some 
of  its  property,  had  become,  for  an  Athonite  monk, 
exceptionally  alert  and  v^ell-informed.  It  cannot, 
unfortunately,  be  denied  that  the  interests  of  the  monks 
of  the  present  day  are  mean  and  paltry,  and  that  the 
zeal  and  devotion  vi^hich  once  made  of  Mount  Athos 
the  perfect  image  of  religious  life  in  the  East,  and  a 
home  of  art  and  learning,  are  lamentably  wanting.  A 
few  monks  sit  and  think,  the  majority  just  sit,  in  the 
words  of  the  fable  ;  and  of  the  former  the  thoughts 
most  probably  follow  some  such  trains  as  these  :  the 
latest  elections  in  Greece  (intriguers  born  and  bred, 
they  take  an  avid  interest  in  the  politics  of  the  outer 
world)  ;  the  fluctuations  of  a  South  African  security 
in  which  they  may  be  interested  (for  Greeks  do  not, 
in  assuming  the  cassock,  divest  themselves  of  their 
taste  for  finance)  ;  the  prospects  of  the  ex-Patriarch 
So-and-so,  now  in  retirement  in,  let  us  say,  the 
monastery  of  Vatopedi,  of  ousting  the  man  who  has 
supplanted  him  ;  and,  above  all,  if  they  are  Greeks, 
how  they  can  score  off  their  Russian  rivals.  Not 
very  lofty  subjects,  perhaps,  for  the  meditation  of 
monks  ;  and,  indeed,  true  spirituality  seems  to  be 
entirely  lacking  in  them.  I  only  met  one  man  in 
Mount  Athos  whom  I  would  credit  with  it,  and  he  was 
a  layman,  an  old  and  wizened  little  Greek  doctor  who 
for  many  years  had  been  resident  physician  at  Iveron. 
On  the  morning  after  our  arrival  at  the  monastery,  he 
took  us,  very  early,  to  the  principal  church  for  the 
office  of  the  community.      It  was  dark  without,  and  the 


MONASTERIES  OF  THE  LEVANT  29 

dimness  within  was  intensified  by  the  sombre  frescoes 
on  the  walls,  the  flickering  candle-light,  and  the  incense 
which  slowly  rose  to  the  dome  in  coils  of  fragrant 
smoke.  The  celebrants  in  their  vestments,  the  congre- 
gation of  monks  standing  in  their  stalls,  had  retained 
the  dignified  immobility,  the  mediaeval  features  and 
appearance  of  those  Byzantine  saints  before  whose  stifl?" 
and  lifeless  images  they  stood  in  daily  contemplation. 
The  ones  performed,  the  others  followed  the  rites  with 
a  mechanical  precision  which  their  minds  seemed  to  have 
no  part  in  producing  ;  of  all  the  faces  around  me,  only 
that  ot  the  little  doctor  appeared  to  reflect  anything  of 
fervour  or  even  of  interest.  No  doubt  the  traditions 
of  the  Eastern  Church,  as  preserved  in  Mount  Athos, 
are  apt  to  militate  against  individual  thought  and 
emotion  ;  it  would  seem  to  be  their  aim  to  cast  their 
victims  into  an  uniform  hieratic  mould,  suppressing  all 
promptings  of  the  soul.  Thus  it  happened  that,  in  a 
monastery  which  cherished  particular  veneration  for  St. 
Nicephorus,  a  young  monk  showed  talent  for  painting, 
and  endeavoured  to  quicken  his  art  by  departing 
somewhat  from  the  rigidity  of  the  Byzantine  style,  a 
style  which  in  the  course  of  ages  has  been  so  entirely 
unaffected  by  change  that  it  is  often  difficult  to 
distinguish  a  fresco  of  the  tenth  century  from  one  of 
the  seventeenth.  The  Abbot  chanced  to  see  some  of 
the  boy's  drawings,  and  administered  a  severe  repri- 
mand ;  he  subsequently  explained  to  a  protesting 
visitor  that  as  the  monk  was  destined  all  his  life  only  to 
paint  portraits  of  St.  Nicephorus,  it  was  obviously 
undesirable  that  he  should  waste  his  time  in  attempts  to 
become  an  artist. 

Portraits  of  St.  Nicephorus,  representing  an  emaciated 


30  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

anchorite  with  a  prodigious  beard,  recur  frequently,  too, 
among  the  frescoes  of  Iveron  ;  and  the  story  of  how 
this  holy  man  came  by  his  beard  is  perhaps  worth 
transcribing  from  the  aged  tome  in  which  I  found  it  : 

"  He  was  a  person  of  the  most  eminent  virtues  of  his 
time.  But  his  great  misfortune  was  that  the  endow- 
ments of  his  mind  were  not  set  off  with  the  outward 
ornament  of  a  beard.  Upon  occasion  of  which  defect, 
he  fell  into  a  deep  melancholy.  The  Devil  taking  the 
advantage  of  this  Priest,  promised  to  give  him  that  boon 
which  Nature  had  deny'd,  in  case  he  would  comply  with 
his  suggestions.  The  beardless  Saint,  tho'  he  was  very 
desirous  of  the  reward  propos'd,  yet  he  would  not  pur- 
chase it  at  that  rate  neither  :  but  rejected  the  previous 
bribe  with  indignation,  declaring  resolutely,  that  he  had 
rather  for  ever  despair  of  his  wish  than  obtain  it  upon 
such  terms.  And  at  the  same  time,  taking  in  hand  the 
downy  tuft  upon  his  chin,  to  witness  the  stability  of  his 
resolution  (for  he  had  it  seems  beard  enough  to  swear 
by),  Behold  !  as  a  reward  for  his  constancy,  he  found  the 
hair  immediately  stretch,  with  the  pluck  that  he  gave  it. 
Whereupon  finding  it  in  so  good  a  humour,  he  follow'd 
the  happy  omen  :  and  as  young  heirs  that  have  been 
niggardly  bred,  generally  turn  prodigals  when  they  come 
to  their  estates  ;  so  he  never  desisted  from  pulling  his 
beard,  till  he  had  wiredrawn  it  down  to  his  feet." 

That  night  died  in  Iveron  Neophytos,  sometime 
Archbishop  of  Nevrekop  in  Macedonia,  who  had 
resigned  his  see  to  end  his  days  as  a  simple  monk  in 
Athos.  And  on  the  morrow  he  was  buried.  Coped 
and  mitred,  and  as  rigid  as  any  mummy  in  the  folds  of 
his  stiflF  Byzantine  vestments,  he  lay  in  an  open  coffin  at 
the  porch  of  the   church,  receiving  the  farewells  of  his 


:t^i^ 


MONASTERIES   OF  THE   LEVANT  31 

companions.  Then,  after  the  body  had  been  asperged  and 
censed,  six  sturdy  monks  carried  the  venerable  Makarite 
(the  pious  Greeks  allude  to  their  dead  as  '  blessed ')  out 
of  the  monastery  gate  for  the  last  time,  to  the  little 
cemetery  which  lies  on  a  neighbouring  knoll  rising 
gently  above  the  sea.  Here,  still  in  his  open  coffin,  he 
was  laid  to  rest,  while  the  bells  of  the  churches  were 
tolled  and  the  semantra  (gongs)  beaten,  facing  that 
stormy  diocese  across  the  Gulf  whose  conflicts  had 
driven  him  long  ago  to  seek  peace  in  the  monastery  of 
the  Georgians.  In  the  afternoon  we  said  good-bye  to 
our  kindly  hosts  of  Iveron,  and,  as  we  departed,  the 
little  doctor,  whose  beard  was  almost  as  long  as  that  of 
St.  Nicephorus  himself,  bade  us  farewell  in  archaic 
French,  which  he  must  have  learned  from  the  classics  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  We  now  rode  northward  along 
the  shore  to  two  monasteries,  Stavroniketa  and  Panto- 
krator,  which  rise  fantastically  from  the  water's  very 
edge,  their  upper  galleries  actually  overhanging  the  sea. 
Here  were  mosaics  and  jewelled  icons  in  abundance,  and 
in  Pantokrator  some  priceless  Rhodian  plates  let  into  the 
walls.  But  it  would  be  impossible  to  describe  all  the 
monasteries  in  detail  within  the  limits  of  a  chapter 
designed  to  give  but  a  general  summary  of  their  nature. 
Enough,  I  trust,  has  been  said  to  show  that  in  the  diver- 
sity which  it  offers,  the  study  of  the  monasteries  of  the 
Levant  is  of  absorbing  interest.  If  we  look  beneath  the 
outer  garb  of  mediaevalism,  which  is  common  to  them 
all,  we  discern  in  some  the  eremitical  asceticism  of  the 
early  Church  and  complete  aloofness  from  the  world  ;  in 
others  the  keenest  interest,  the  most  active  participation 
in  all  that  is  going  on.  In  Hagia  Roxane  a  solitary 
hermit  is  ending  his  days  with  fasting  and  meditation  ; 


32  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

in  Rossikon  two  thousand  eager  partisans  are  fighting 
for  the  supremacy  of  their  nation  in  a  monastic  republic. 
In  St.  Luke  in  Stiris  a  small  community  is  peacefully 
cultivating  its  fields;  in  Vatopedi  monks  are  dabbling  in 
De  Beers,  and  ex-Patriarchs  scheming  for  their  restora- 
tion. Some  monasteries  you  can  approach  only  if 
you  are  an  athlete,  others  only  if  you  are  a  male. 
At  one  time  you  seem  to  be  removed  by  centuries 
from  the  age  in  which  you  live ;  suddenly  you  will 
be  brought  back  to  it  by  discovering  in  a  mediaeval 
monk  modern  traits  which  were  not  expected.  And  if 
the  desire  to  give  a  faithful  account  of  eastern  monas- 
teries has  made  it  necessary  to  mention  certain  imper- 
fections, certain  deviations  from  the  standard  set  by 
religious  communities  in  the  West,  no  less  stress  should 
be  laid  upon  the  hospitality  of  the  monks  and  upon  their 
friendliness  to  strangers.  The  kindly  welcome  which 
they  never  fail  to  extend  does  much  to  mitigate  the 
discomfort  entailed  by  a  visit  to  their  strange  abodes. 


CHAPTER   II. 

RHODES. 

To  leave  the  Holy  Mountain,  we  retraced  our  steps  past 
Karyaes  to  its  only  port,  Daphne,  and  there  received  a 
hearty  send-off  from  the  genial  Papayanni.  Communi- 
cation between  Athos  and  the  outside  world  is  neither 
frequent  nor  good ;  so  we  had  perforce  to  be  content 
with  a  cattle-ship,  which,  fourteen  hours  after  our 
departure  from  Daphne,  set  us  down  at  Chanaq  Qal'esi, 
at  the  Asiatic  entrance  to  the  Dardanelles.  They  were 
fourteen  hours  heavy  with  discomfort.  It  was  bitterly 
cold,  a  gale  was  blowing,  and  our  cargo  of  sheep  not 
only  filled  both  decks,  but  overflowed  into  the  saloon, 
to  encounter  the  stony  gaze  of  the  icon  of  St.  Nicholas, 
which  in  all  Greek  and  Russian  ships  presides  over 
that  apartment.  As  we  skirted  the  south  coast  of 
Imbros,  rain  swept  down  in  torrents,  and  when  again 
we  got  into  open  sea  the  gale  had  become  a  storm. 
Finally,  we  made  the  Dardanelles,  but,  arriving  too  late 
to  be  given  pratique,  were  compelled  to  spend  another 
night  on  board. 

Early  the  next  morning,  we  transferred  ourselves 
and  baggage  on  shore ;  and,  after  satisfying  a  bevy  of 
functionaries  on  the  wharf  that  our  tezkeres  were  all 
that  they  should  be,  determined  to  set  out  in  search  of 


34  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE   EAST 

such  shipping  agents  as  Chanaq  Qal'esi  might  boast  of, 
anxious  to  prosecute  without  delay  the  journey  to  our 
next  objective,  Rhodes.  But  there  was  no  need  for  us 
to  trouble ;  Mohammed  was  already  hastening  to  the 
mountain.  Like  wildfire  the  news  of  our  arrival  and 
destination  had  spread  among  those  citizens  of  Chanaq 
who  had  an  eye  to  business  (and  they,  I  think,  are 
equivalent  to  the  entire  population,  which,  as  in  other 
Turkish  ports,  consists  very  largely  of  Jews),  and  hardly 
had  we  installed  ourselves  in  a  coffee-shop  to  prepare  for 
the  morning's  work,  when  by  each  of  the  doors  of  the 
establishment  there  entered,  simultaneously,  the  agent 
of  a  steamship  company.  And  then  the  fun  began- 
With  no  unseemly  haste,  with  that  true  oriental  courtesy 
which  can  so  well  disguise  sentiments  of  a  very  different 
nature,  these  two  men  of  enterprise  took  it  in  turns  to 
sit  at  our  table,  pass  the  time  of  day,  and,  without  quite 
knowing  what  price  the  other  had  suggested,  to  under- 
bid him  in  the  matter  of  our  fares.  One  was  a  dapper 
little  Jew,  of  Russian  origin,  born  in  Constantinople, 
and  living  under  the  protection  of  a  British  passport. 
This  much  he  vouchsafed  in  the  preliminaries  to  actual 
business.  The  other  was  a  lanky,  fire-eating  Greek, 
with  carroty  hair  and  a  fierce  moustache,  a  plausible 
manner  and  a  shifty  eye.  They  had  heard,  they  said, 
that  we  wanted  to  go  to  Rhodes.  By  a  providential 
coincidence  each  had  a  boat  leaving  that  very  day  for 
Rhodes,  via  Smyrna,  and  would  esteem  it  an  honour, 
as  well  as  an  unexpected  piece  of  good  fortune,  to  be 
allowed  to  convey  us  thither. 

Now  in  the  course  of  another  journey,  some  four 
years  previously,  I  had  spent  a  few  days  in  Smyrna, 
and  had  even  sampled  a  portion  of  the  Aidin  railway  ; 


RHODES  35 

but  agreeable  as  was  the  former,  and  charming  the 
country  traversed  by  the  latter,  with  its  plains  of  waving 
asphodel  and  its  stork-inhabited  ruins,  I  was  anxious  on 
the  present  occasion  to  hasten  to  pastures  new.  This 
aspect  of  the  situation  was  carefully  explained;  and 
both  gentlemen  assured  us,  separately  and  in  turn,  that 
their  ships  would  stop  at  Smyrna  for  two  hours  at  the 
utmost,  and  would  then  make  with  all  despatch  for 
Rhodes.  Much  time  was  now  spent,  and  much  coffee 
consumed,  while  the  subject  of  fares  was  again  discussed 
in  all  its  bearings.  To  each  agent  with  sublime  impar- 
tiality we  lauded  his  rival's  ship,  and  this,  I  think,  with 
considerable  success ;  but  bed-rock  was  touched  when 
the  Russian,  who  had  the  bigger  boat,  declared  that  he 
could  go  no  lower  than  90  francs  a  head,  while  the 
Greek  was  prepared,  nay  eager,  to  do  the  job  for  65. 
And  well  he  might.  Won  by  the  plausible  manner, 
and  in  spite  of  the  shifty  eye,  we  took  our  passages 
with  him,  and,  the  business  of  the  day  being  concluded, 
spent  the  remainder  of  the  morning  in  the  company  of 
a  fat  Jew,  in  theory  being  shown  the  sights  of  the  town, 
in  practice  having  to  listen  to  a  detailed  narrative  of  his 
friendship  with  the  late  Professor  Schliemann,  and  of 
their  joint  labours  at  Troy. 

We  left  Chanaq  in  the  afternoon,  and  all  unsuspect- 
ing steamed  past  Tenedos's  double  peak  and  watched 
the  sun  set  behind  vine-clad  Mitylene.  But  on  the 
morrow  a  rude  awakening  was  ours.  As  we  moved 
along  the  hilly  shores  between  which  the  Gulf  of  Smyrna 
eats  its  way  for  thirty  miles  into  the  land,  the  captain 
informed  us,  with  an  aplomb  which  we  could  but 
admire,  that  his  next  port  of  call  after  Smyrna  would 
be  the  Piraeus,  and   that  Rhodes  never  had  been,  and 


36  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

was  never  likely  to  be,  included  in  his  itinerary.  Too 
amazed  at  the  effrontery  of  our  carroty  friend  at  Chanaq 
to  make,  there  and  then,  a  suitable  and  effective  pro- 
test, we  landed  at  Smyrna  like  lambs  ;  but  at  the 
custom-house  a  successful  brush  with  the  censor,  who 
interrupted  the  suppression  of  a  telegram  announcing 
that  Montenegro  had  broken  off  relations  with  the 
Vatican  in  order  to  point  out  the  iniquity  of  importing 
into  Turkey  so  seditious  a  work  as  a  treatise  on  Cru- 
sading castles,  enabled  us  to  recover  sufficiently  to  make 
a  perfectly  useless  scene  at  the  company's  offices.  By 
the  time  we  had  finished,  the  Russian  ship  arrived  ; 
and  nothing  now  remained  but  the  somewhat  humiliat- 
ing task  of  negotiating  with  her  once  more,  and,  our 
overtures  being  received  without  undue  display  of 
triumph,  to  embark  in  her  the  same  evening,  the  poorer 
in  gold,  the  richer  in  experience. 

It  is  refreshing  to  turn  from  the  contemplation  of 
brigandage  so  base  to  the  more  attractive^  form  prac- 
tised in  the  neighbourhood  of  Smyrna  by  the  spirited 
Chakirji^  and  his  numerous  confreres,  among  whom 
the  luckless  Captain  Andreas  is  almost  unique  in  having 
been  caught  and  punished  by  the  Government.  The 
vilayet  of  Aidin  has  long  been  a  flourishing  centre  of 
brigandage,  and  there  was  a  time,  not  many  years  ago, 
when  the  Vali  was  compelled  to  restrict  play  on  the 
golf  course  in  the  environs  of  Smyrna  to  two  days  a 
week,  as  he  could  not  spare  more  often  the  patrol  of 
zaptiehs  required  to  protect  members  of  the  club  from 
capture.     The  leaders  of  the  brigand  profession  take  a 

^  It  seems  more  attractive  because  others  are  the  victims, 
2  The  death  of  Chakirji,  or  Chakirji   'Ali,  was  last   reported    by 
the  Turkish  press  in  November,  191  i. 


CAPTAIN    ANDREAS    WMH    HIS    CAPTORS 


RHODES,    THE    STREET    OF    THE    KNIGHTS 


Facing  p.   36. 


RHODES  37 

by  no  means  undistinguished  place  in  such  Smyrniot 
society  as  is  not  strictly  official  and  does  not  contribute 
victims.     It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  East 
brigandage  is  essentially  a  gentleman's  occupation,  and 
is  held  by  many  in  honour  and  repute.    This  is,  indeed, 
not  unnatural  in  countries  where  the  impulse  to  embrace 
it  is  not  always  an  exclusively  sordid  one  ;  it  is  often 
in  part  political,  as  with  the  Klephts,  or  sentimental,  as 
in  the  case  of  Chakirji,  and  thus  certain  to  evoke  sym- 
pathy and  to  command  popular  approbation.     Chakiqi, 
tor  example,  was  the  son  of  a  poor_cultiyator  of  olives, 
and  sawhis  tathei^^HoFbdForeliir^^  because  he  could 
not  or  would  not  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  tax-farmer's 
emissary.    Determined  to  avenge  his  father's  death  on  the 
^Government,  on  wjlQiiLMlYisitedTnot  quite  jus'try^X:!. 
Jiap^,  the  tax-farmer's  crime,  he  became  a  brigand  whose, 
^  speciality  was  the  captureo^_Turkish  officials,  and  when 
these  were  unable  to  produce  the  requisite  ransom,  they 
were  summarily  shot.     In  Turkey  such  proceedings  used 
to   be   by  no   means   incompatible   either   with   society 
manners  or,  owing  to  the  amenability  of  the  Bench  to 
certain  forms  of  persuasion,  with  personal  liberty;  and 
Chakirji,   who   spoke   English,  went    to    tea-parties  at 
Burnabat   and   Budjah,  and  is   even   believed   to   have 
played  tennis  in  the  city  of  Smyrna  itself.     The  contrast 
suggested  by  so  widely  differing  aspects  of  the  man's 
existence  may  seem  to  us  a  strange  one,  but  examples  of 
it  are  not  as  rare  as  one  might  think.      I  knew  a  gentle- 
man on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  who  had  been  tried  on 
two  occasions  for  complicity  in  Human  Leopard  Society 
murders,  a  peculiarly  atrocious  combination  of  cannibal- 
ism and  magic;  and  who  nevertheless  paid  annual  visits 
to  England,  where  he  wore  a  silk  hat  and  a  frock  coat  and 


38  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

belonged,  I  believe,  to  a  club  ;  and  who,  when  residing 
in  his  native  village,  read  prayers  every  morning  to  his 
assembled  families.  I  do  not  wish  to  imply  for  a 
moment  that  brigandage  and  cannibalism  are  morally  on 
the  same  level.  Regarded  from  a  social  point  of  view, 
however,  the  latter  practice  is  far  from  being  mal  vue  in 
the  tribe  of  which  the  individual  in  question  is  a  member; 
and  although  I  am  bound  to  state  that  he  was  acquitted 
of  the  charges  brought  against  him,  whereas  ^^lakirji. 
took  a  proper  pride  in  his  profession,  nay,  regarded  each 
coup  as  an  act  of  filial  piety,  the  fact  that  he  lived  at 
times  in  an  environment  which  made  his  prosecution 
for  Human  Leopardism  possible,  while  at  others  he 
could  be  seen,  immaculately  dressed,  in  the  streets  of 
Liverpool  or  London,  makes  the  analogy  a  valid  one. 

Our  new  vessel  was  a  pilgrim  ship  conveying  a  batch 
of  moujiks  from  Odessa  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  through- 
out the  following  day,  and  doubtless  during  every  day 
of  their  journey,  these  stolid,  simple,  faithful  folk  sat  in 
the  steerage,  singing  hymns  in  harmony  and  doing 
kind  actions  to  each  other's  heads,  otherwise  impassive 
and  quite  oblivious  of  the  ever-changing  scenery  through 
which  we  were  threading  our  way.  It  was  a  charming 
maze  of  capes  and  small  islands,  full  of  unexpected 
developments,  and  full  of  memories  of  modern  history's 
most  romantic  period.  For,  in  passing  between  Kalym- 
nos  and  the  Carian  shore,  we  entered  the  whilom 
dominions  of  the  great  Order  which  has  left  an  indelible 
mark  on  this  corner  of  the  world,  that  Order  whose 
members,  variously  known  as  Hospitallers,  Knights  of 
St.  John,  Knights  of  Rhodes,  and  Knights  of  Malta, 
after  continuing  the  struggle  which  had  been  abandoned 
by  the  Crusaders,  and  after  keeping  back  for  genera- 


RHODES  39 

tions  the  flowing  tide  of  Islam,  slowly  and  reluctantly 
receded  westward,  until,  having  lost  everything  except 
a  sovereignty  little  more  than  nominal,  they  now  spend 
a  placid  and  enfeebled  old  age  under  their  Grandmaster 
in  Rome,  contemplating  an  irretrievable  past  when  they 
were  both  the  pride  and  the  glory  of  Europe.  Kalym- 
nos  was  theirs,  a  dependency  of  Rhodes;  theirs,  too, 
the  castle  of  Budrun  which  thev  constructed  of  the 
tomb  of  Mausolus,  and  which  we  could  see,  gleaming 
in  the  sunlight,  on  the  promontory  of  Halicarnassus. 
Then  came  Pserimo  and  Kos,  Nisyros  and  Syme  {un 
ottimo  Pascolo  di  Capre,  says  Coronelli),  and  late  at  night, 
its  ramparts  outlined  against  the  starry  sky,  Rhodes  itself, 
Rhodes,  last  citadel  of  militant  Christendom  in  the  East, 
Rhodes  whose  defence  against  the  Turks  was  as  much 
the  wonder  of  the  world  as  had  ever  been  its  Colossus. 
The  Rhodes  of  these  days,  unchanged  except  in  its 
possessors  from  the  Rhodes  of  those,  recalls  with 
startling  vividness  the  era  of  the  Knights.  Its  fortifica- 
tions, one  of  the  noblest  monuments  which  mediaeval 
military  art  has  ever  produced,  certainly  the  best 
preserved,  the  most  extensive  of  all  that  survive, 
enclose  what  has  been  said  to  be  the  most  perfect 
specimen  extant  of  a  fifteenth  century  French  town, 
complete  in  every  detail.  Elsewhere  may  be  seen,  as  at 
Avila  and  Aigues  Mortes,  massive  town-walls,  or,  as  in 
Oxford,  a  street  largely  mediaeval  ;  but  nowhere  can 
be  matched  this  stupendous  cincture  of  curtain,  gate, 
and  tower,  setting  a  town  which  for  close  on  four 
centuries  has  suffered  no  alteration,  a  town  of  Gothic 
houses  whose  turrets  and  mullions,  gargoyles  and 
emblazoned  fagades,  are  the  fine  flower  of  flamboyant 
domestic    architecture.     And    yet    here    is    something 


40  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

more  than  an  unrivalled  combination  of  western  art, 
military  and  domestic,  surviving  the  ages  in  almost 
unrivalled  perfection.  Here  are  a  sea  and  sky  of 
Mediterranean  blue,  a  golden-brown  colour  to  the  walls 
which  is  sometimes  seen  in  Sicilian  buildings  but  never 
in  those  of  France,  a  scattering  of  date-palms  through 
the  open  spaces  of  the  Burgh  and  through  the  pretty 
suburbs  behind  it,  and  the  picturesquely  varied  popula- 
tion of  a  Turkish  town,  all  helping  to  create  the  unique 
and  manifold  charm  possessed  by  the  remnants  of  the 
Latin  East.  As  salt  brings  out  the  flavour  of  meat,  so 
does  colour  reveal  the  full  beauty  of  a  building  ;  and 
Rhodes  can  prove,  as  the  most  fastidious  purist  will 
allow,  that  the  Gothic  church  and  the  Gothic  mansion, 
which  are  admirable  in  the  cold  lights  of  Northern 
France  or  England,  are  transformed  into  something  far 
more  wonderful  in  the  golden  haze  of  the  Archipelago. 
The  prettiest  sight  in  Rhodes  is  its  harbour,  facing 
Makri  on  the  Karamanian  coast,  once  also  a  stronghold 
of  the  Order.  Two  moles  run  out  from  the  land,  the 
one  forming  the  outer  boundary  of  the  Grand  Harbour, 
the  other  separating  it  on  its  northern  side  from  the 
Mandraki,  a  subsidiary  harbour  used  by  the  Knights 
for  their  lesser  galleys.  Along  both  moles  is  planted  a 
row  of  the  windmills  which  are  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  features  of  the  island,  the  very  windmills 
which  ground  the  corn  in  the  days  of  the  Order  ;  and 
both  terminate  in  strongly  fortified  watch-towers,  the 
northern  one  in  St.  Nicholas's  Tower,  perhaps  the  site 
of  the  Colossus,  the  eastern  one  in  the  Tower  of  the 
Windmills.  At  the  base  of  St.  Nicholas's  mole  a 
shorter  spit,  running  at  right  angles  to  it,  partially 
closes    the  entrance  of  the  Grand   Harbour  ;    here  in 


RHODES  41 

former  days  stood  Naillac's  Tower,  once  the  greatest  of 
all  the  towers  of  Rhodes,  but  now  surviving  only  in  its 
foundations.     Between    this  spot  and  the  base  of  the 
mole  of  the  Windmills'  Tower  the  walls  of  Castile  line 
the  Grand  Harbour  with  a  semicircle  of  solid  masonry, 
and  there  are  few  more  delightful  walks  in  the  fortress 
than  along  the  road  which  runs  between  these  and  the 
water's  edge.     To  your  right,  as  you  enter  the  road 
from  the  Sea  Gate,  stretches  the  crenellated  crescent  of 
stone,   guarding    the   town    which    lies   behind    it,  and 
broken  in  the  middle  by  the  towers  of  St.  Katharine's 
Gate  ;  to  your  left  its  outlines  are  reflected  in  the  still 
waters  of  the  harbour,  which  looks  as  if  at  any  moment 
it   might  once  again  be  filled  with  the  galleys  of  the 
Knights,  gaily    decked    for    a    water    pageant,   or    else 
mustering   for  some  raid  on  which  the  banner  of  the 
Order,  on  a  field  gules  a  plain  cross  argent,  would  be 
borne   victorious   against   the  Turks.     But  as  Rhodes 
was  rarely  attacked  from  the  sea  side,  the  walls  of  the 
harbour,    if    the    more    picturesque,    were    inferior    in 
strategical  importance  to  those  which  defended  the  land 
side  of  the  town  ;    hence  they  were  entrusted  to  the 
care  of  the  smallest  of  the  eight  Nations  or  '  Langues ' 
of  which  the  Order  was  composed  during  its  occupation 
of  the  island.     These  were,  in  order  of  precedence,  the 
Langues  of  Provence,  Auvergne,  France,  Italy,  Aragon, 
England,  Germany,  and   Castile,  and  to  each  Langue 
was  committed  the  defence  of  a  certain  section  of  the 
fortifications.     At   Naillac's  Tower  begin  the  walls  of 
France,  and  then  follow,  in  succession  and  completing 
the    circuit,    those    of    Germany,    Auvergne,    Aragon, 
England,  Provence,  and    lastly,  those  of   Italy,  which 
end   at    the   mole   of  the   Windmills,   where   those   of 


42  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Castile  begin.  On  the  land  side  three  gates,  the  Gates 
of  Amboise,  St.  George,  and  St.  John,  give  issue  from 
the  city  by  bridges  which  cross  the  wide  ditch  cut  with 
incalculable  labour  in  the  rock  along  the  whole  length 
of  the  defences  ;  but  for  these  there  is  no  interruption 
to  the  chain  of  wall  and  bastion.  A  fourth  gate,  that 
of  St.  Athanasius,  was  closed  after  the  siege  of  1480  by 
Cardinal  d'Aubusson,  fifteenth  of  the  Rhodian  Grand- 
masters. 

The  city  itself  consists  of  two  parts  :  the  smaller, 
known  as  the  Collachium,  contained  the  principal 
buildings  of  the  Order,  the  Hospital,  the  conventual 
Church,  the  Grandmaster's  palace,  and  the  Auberges  of 
the  several  Langues  ;  and  the  Knights,  who  lived  a 
collegiate  life,  were  compelled  by  the  rules  of  the  Order 
to  dwell  within  it.  Separated  by  a  wall  from  the 
Collachium  was  the  Burgh,  inhabited  by  the  merchants 
and  by  the  subjects  of  the  Order.  But  after  the 
Turkish  conquest  all  foreigners  except  Jews  were 
expelled  from  both  Burgh  and  Collachium,  and  to  the 
time  of  our  visit  only  Turks  and  Jews  could  live  in 
the  city.  Thus,  when  the  bugles  blew  at  sunset,  and  the 
Turkish  sentries  closed  the  gates  with  as  much  precision 
as  if  Rhodes  were  still  being  beleaguered,  all  rayahs 
and  strangers  perforce  withdrew  and  returned  to  their 
dwellings  outside  the  walls,  in  the 'suburbs  of  Neomara 
and  Mara.  The  Jews  were  privileged,  it  is  said, 
because  one  of  their  faith,  resident  in  the  town  during 
its  final  siege  by  the  Turks,  is  supposed  to  have  aided 
in  his  betrayal  Andrea  d'Amaral,  then  'Pillar,'  or  Head, 
of  the  Langue  of  Castile,  and  ex  officio  Grand  Chancellor 
of  the  Order.  On  the  death  of  Grandmaster  del 
Carretto    in    1521,  d'Amaral  was  a  candidate  for   the 


RHODES  43 

Grandmagistracy ;  but  the  Order  chose  Vllllers  de  I'lsle 
Adam,  and  in  the  following  year  Suleyman  the  Magnifi- 
cent began  the  investment  of  the  town,  determined  at 
last  to  make  an  end  of  the  power  which  had  been  for 
so  long  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
Previous  attempts  had  taught  the  Turks  that  this  would 
be  no  easy  matter,  and  they  had  brought  an  army  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  to  take  the  town, 
which  was  being  defended  by  six  hundred  Knights, 
four  thousand  five  hundred  mercenaries,  and  the  Greek 
inhabitants,  who,  preferring  even  the  Latins  to  the 
Turks,  displayed  throughout  the  greatest  loyalty  to  the 
Order.  For  several  months  the  siege  continued. 
Despite  great  efforts  and  heavy  loss  of  life  on  the 
part  of  the  Turks,  the  city  held  out,  and  the  Knights, 
led  by  their  heroic  Grandmaster,  determined  to  sell 
Rhodes  dearly.  But  the  well-placed  artillery  of  the 
besiegers  gradually  reduced  the  numbers  of  the  garrison, 
and  time  diminished  their  supplies.  On  the  24th 
of  September  the  Turks  succeeded,  after  several  vain 
assaults,  in  making  a  breach  in  the  walls  of  Aragon,  but 
after  holding  the  wall  for  three  hours  they  were  obliged 
to  retire,  and  they  lost  on  that  day  no  fewer  than 
15,000  men.  At  this  stage  it  is  said  that  the  Sultan, 
deceived  by  their  untiring  resistance  as  to  the  extent  of 
the  Knights'  resources,  was  so  discouraged  that  he 
contemplated  raising  the  siege,  when  d'Amaral,  em- 
bittered by  his  disappointment  and  jealous  of  I'lsle 
Adam,  revealed  to  him,  by  messages  shot  on  arrows 
into  the  Turkish  lines,  the  terrible  straits  of  the 
besieged.  At  least,  such  was  the  evidence  given  against 
him  by  his  valet  and  by  a  Greek  priest,  and  on  it  he 
was  condemned  and   executed  by  a  desperate  garrison 


44  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

which  could  afford  to  take  no  risks.  After  that,  there 
was  no  more  hope,  yet  the  nearer  appeared  the  triumph 
of  the  Turks,  the  more  spirited  became  the  resistance. 
On  the  loth  of  October  the  Turks  seized  the  bastion 
of  Aragon,  but  with  a  mighty  effort  the  defenders 
hastily  threw  up  a  new  wall  behind  the  now  conquered 
fort ;  on  the  29th  of  November,  while  the  bells  of  St. 
John's  Church  pealed  and  the  Greek  Archbishop  urged 
his  people  to  the  walls,  a  last  rally  of  soldiers  and 
citizens,  men  and  women,  kept  off  for  a  few  more  days 
the  inevitable  fall.  On  the  22nd  of  December  the 
agony  was  at  an  end  ;  I'lsle  Adam  surrendered,  and 
Suleyman  rode  into  the  city  over  the  bodies  of  the 
forty  thousand  Turks  who  had  been  its  price.  "Toute- 
fois,"  remarks  Friar  Andre  Thevet  in  a  pleasant  work 
intituled  Cosmographie  de  Levant^  "  il  usa  d'une  grande 
modestie  enuers  le  Seigneur  Grandmaistre  i^  enuers 
tous  les  habitans  du  lieu,  les  laissant  aller  bagues 
sauues,  auec  inhibicions  ^  defenses  a  ses  gens  de  ne 
leur  faire  aucun  empesche  ny  deplaisir."  On  the  ist  of 
January,  1523,  the  galleys  of  the  Order  assembled  for 
the  last  time  in  the  harbour  to  which  they  had  so  often 
returned  laden  with  Turkish  booty  :  the  Grandmaster, 
with  those  who  remained  of  the  Knights,  and  with  some 
five  thousand  of  the  inhabitants,  embarked  and  sailed 
away  ;  and  thus,  with  the  honours  of  war,  departed  out 
of  Rhodes  the  Order  which  had  done  much  in  the 
name  of  religion  that  would  scarce  do  religion  credit, 
but  which  had  won,  by  gallantry  that  atoned  for  not  a 
little,  the  admiration  of  Christians  and  the  respect  of 
the  Turks. 

In    1856   the  conventual  Church  of  St.  John,  which 
stood  in  the  Collachium,  near  the  Grandmaster's  palace. 


RHODES  45 

was  struck  by  lightning.  A  terrific  explosion  ensued, 
in  which  the  church  and  its  adjoining  buildings  were 
annihilated,  and  more  than  eight  hundred  people  killed. 
The  lightning  had  ignited  a  quantity  of  gunpowder 
which  lay  in  the  vaults  of  the  church,  its  presence  un- 
known until  revealed  by  the  disaster.  The  question 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  gunpowder  has  never  yet 
been  solved,  although  many  theories  have  been  put 
forward.  The  Rhodians  believe,  however,  that  it  was 
hidden  there  by  none  other  than  d'Amaral,  who,  not 
content  with  betraying  his  fellow  Knights  to  the  Sultan, 
endeavoured  still  further  to  cripple  their  resources  by 
concealing  their  ammunition.  Whether  this  suspicion 
is  true  or  not  will  probably  never  be  proved ;  but  it  is 
not  impossible  that  news  of  a  shortage  of  powder  had 
reached  d'Amaral's  judges  when  they  ordered  him  to 
be  beheaded  and  quartered,  and  a  portion  of  his  body 
to  be  exposed  on  every  bastion. 

As  the  greatness  of  Portugal  in  former  days  was  due 
to  a  succession  of  able  kings,  so  the  Order  owed  to  its 
Grandmasters  much  of  its  undoubted  success.  The 
names  of  Helion  de  Villeneuve,  Dieudonne  de  Gozon, 
'  extinctor  draconis'  Philibert  de  Naillac,  Pierre  Cardinal 
d'Aubusson,  Emery  d'Amboise,  and  Philippe  Villiers 
de  risle  Adam  are  pre-eminent  among  those  of  many 
other  famous  men  who  ruled  in  Rhodes  ;  and  to  this 
day  shields  of  marble,  bearing  their  arms  beside  those 
of  the  Order,  may  be  seen  in  many  places  on  the  walls 
which  they  raised  to  protect  it.  Their  arms,  and  those 
of  others,  likewise  adorn  the  facades  of  the  Auberges  in 
the  Street  of  the  Knights,  except  where  they  have  been 
displaced  by  the  overhanging  balconies  of  lattice  work 
which  the  Turks  call  shahnishin,  '  the  place  for  the  king 


46  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

to  sit.'  Yet,  however  much  the  addition  of  these  may 
be  deplored  by  the  visitor,  he  has  no  right  to  blame  the 
poor  Turks  who  now  own  houses  where  once  dwelt  the 
chivalry  of  Europe  for  adapting  them  as  far  as  possible 
to  their  requirements.  Unlike  Napoleon's  troops  in 
the  Peninsula,  the  Turks  are  no  vandals ;  they  rarely, 
if  ever,  destroy  for  the  sake  of  destruction  only,  and  to 
this  fact  we  owe  the  survival  of  many  a  splendid  basilica, 
of  many  a  priceless  mosaic.  Possibly  they  do  not  con- 
sider it  worth  the  trouble.  But  they  certainly  do  not 
understand  the  spirit  in  which  western  races  regard 
works  of  art,  nor  have  they  themselves  any  appreciation 
of  them.  They  only  consider  the  practical  aspect  of  the 
question  ;  and  if  the  defacement  or  the  preservation  of 
some  ancient  building  adds  in  any  way  to  their  con- 
venience, they  do  not  hesitate  either  to  deface  or  to 
preserve.  Otherwise,  they  merely  leave  it  alone  ;  won- 
dering mildly  at  the  fascination  which  the  antika  exer- 
cises over  the  stranger. 

Nevertheless,  there  have  flourished  in  Rhodes  two 
arts,  although  now  they  flourish  no  longer.  The  em- 
broideries with  which  the  peasantry  of  the  island  adorned 
their  skirts,  their  curtains,  and  their  bedspreads  are 
among  the  most  attractive  of  those  to  be  met  with  in 
the  Aegean,  where  nearly  every  island  produced  em- 
broideries, each  of  a  characteristic  type.  The  pattern 
of  the  Rhodian  work  is  most  original  :  it  consists  of 
lozenges  of  the  richest  colour,  alternately  red  and  bluish 
green,  bordering  and  in  rows  upon  a  fond  of  homely 
cotton.  The  rural  population  of  Rhodes  is  predomi- 
nantly Greek,  as  in  all  the  Archipelago,  so  that  no 
credit  can  on  this  account  be  given  to  the  Turks  ;  at 
Lindos,  however,'  in  the  south-east  part  of  the  island, 


RHODES  47 

where  a  lofty  castle  and  well-preserved  Gothic  houses 
remain  of  the  time  of  the  Knights,  was  made  much  of 
the  beautiful  class  of  Turkish  pottery  commonly  known 
as  Rhodian,  Tradition  ascribes  the  origin  of  the  Lindos 
kilns,  some  of  which  may  still  be  seen,  to  the  capture 
by  the  galleys  of  the  Order,  in  the  course  of  one  of 
their  raids,  of  a  large  Turkish  ship,  having  on  board 
some  Persian  or  Damascene  potters.  Wishing  to  utilize 
the  skill  of  their  prisoners,  the  Knights  established  them 
at  Lindos,  where  the  sand  was  particularly  suitable  for 
glazing ;  and  there  the  potters  and  their  successors  con- 
tinued under  the  Turkish  domination. 

The  most  noticeable  characteristic  of  Rhodian  pottery 
is  a  peculiar  red  pigment,  coralline  in  colour  and  pre- 
pared from  the  red  oxide  of  iron,  which  is  applied  so 
thickly  as  to  stand  out  in  relief.  Its  designs  are  mainly 
the  favourite  flowers  of  the  Turks,  roses,  carnations, 
hyacinths,  and  tulips,  interlacing  on  a  ground  of  faint 
and  running  green ;  and  so  much  favour  did  it  find  in 
Europe  that  although  from  the  sixteenth  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a  goodly  out- 
put from  Lindos  of  tiles,  jugs,  and  dishes,  the  island  is 
now  all  but  denuded  of  specimens  of  its  ware.  Only 
in  the  Mosque  of  Rejeb  Pasha,  also  called  the  Eski- 
Yeni  Jami'  or  Old-New  Mosque,  are  there  eight  panels 
of  perfect  tiles,  jealously  guarded  by  its  Imams ;  and 
the  collector  will  seek  for  them  in  vain  among  the 
(intikajis  of  Rhodes. 

The  climate  of  Rhodes  is  delightful,  its  vegetation 
rich  and  pleasant ;  and  for  this  reason,  no  doubt,  a 
kindly  Government  was  wont  to  select  it  as  the  place 
of  banishment  for  that  type  of  exile  which  seems  to  be 
peculiar  to  the  Ottoman  and  Celestial  Empires,  for  the 


48  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

individual  who  has  temporarily  incurred  its  displeasure, 
but  who  by  a  subsequent  turn  of  fortune  will  prob- 
ably be  restored  to  favour.  The  town  simply  teemed 
with  these  interesting  and  not  altogether  unfortunate 
people.  There  was  a  host  of  ample  Pashas  whose 
friends  at  headquarters  were  for  the  moment  out  of 
office,  an  Armenian  doctor  who  had  failed  to  cure  an 
Imperial  Prince,  and  a  mysterious  Sheikh  from  the 
Yemen  who  excited  much  attention  owing  to  the  fact 
that,  in  the  manner  of  certain  Persians,  he  dyed  his 
beard  a  brilliant  scarlet.  Even  the  Vali  (Rhodes  is  the 
capital  of  the  vilayet  of  the  Archipelago)  was  in  digni- 
fied exile,  as  will  be  related  anon.  In  former  times  the 
Governorship  of  the  Archipelago  was  held  ex  officio  by 
the  Qapitan  Pasha,^  the  Admiralissimo  of  Turkey,  and 
Rhodes  was  still,  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  naval  station 
of  considerable  importance  on  paper.  But  the  Admiral 
Commanding  was  more  renowned  as  an  equestrian  than 
as  a  seaman,  nor  would  his  fleet,  had  it  ever  gone  to 

^  While  on  the  subject  of  the  Qapitan  Pasha,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  that  prudent  traveller  Henry  Blount,  who  in  the  course  of  a 
journey  into  the  Levant  touched  at  Rhodes  in  1634  : 

"  Upon  my  first  landing  (at  Rhodes)  I  had  espyed  among  divers 
very  honourable  Sepultures,  one  more  brave  than  the  rest,  and  new  ;  I 
enquired  whose  it  was  ;  a  Turke  not  knowing  whence  I  was,  told  me 
it  was  the  Captaine  Basha,  slaine  the  yeare  before  by  two  English  Ships\ 
and  therewith  gave  such  a  Language  of  our  Nation,  and  threatening  to 
all  whom  they  should  light  upon,  as  made  me  upon  all  demands  pro- 
fesse  my  selfe  a  Scotchman,  which  being  a  name  unknowne  to  them, 
saved  mee,  nor  did  I  suppose  it  any  quitting  of  my  Countrey,  but 
rather  a  retreat  from  one  corner  to  the  other  ;  and  when  they  required 
more  in  particular,  I  intending  my  owne  safetie  more  than  their 
instruction,  answered  the  truth  both  of  my  King,  and  Country,  but  in 
the  ould  Greeke,  and  Latine  titles,  which  was  as  darke  to  them  as 
a  discourse  of  I  sis,  and  Osyris." 


I 


^f  •#•##♦## 


A    BEDSPREAD    OF    KHODIAX    EMBROIDERY    IX    THE    AUTHOR's    POSSESSION 


•^  J>- 


■■ -         <( 


I 


'jiialii^' 


LINDOs    AND    ITS    CASTLE 


Facing   p.   48. 


RHODES  49 

sea,  have  afforded  him  much  opportunity  of  testing  its 
or  his  own  capacity.  I  forbear  to  describe  his  ships  lest 
someone,  confronting  me  with  a  Turkish  Navy  List, 
call  me  a  liar  ;  but  those  who  knew  Turkey  and  its 
navy  under  the  old  regime  will  agree  that  in  the  realm 
of  romance  that  work  has  rarely  been  surpassed. 

Many  are   the  tales  which  are  told  of  the  Turkish 
navy  in  Its  unregenerate  days. 

An  Ottoman  man  of  war  was  once  ordered  at  very 
short  notice  to  demonstrate  against  certain  insurgents. 

"  Start  in  half  an  hour,"  said  someone  at  the  Ministry 
of  Marine  to  the  Commander. 

"  Pardon,  Excellency,  we  cannot." 

"  Fellow,  why  not  V 

"  Excellency,  there  Is  no  rudder." 

"  Imbecile,  start  at  once  ;  the  rudder  shall  be  sent  on 
by  post." 

A  Turkish  Admiral  ordered  his  squadron  to  go  for  a 
cruise. 

"  Where  to  } "  his  officers  Inquired. 

"  There  seems  to  be  plenty  of  room,"  replied  the 
Admiral,  glancing  at  the  chart  ;  "  let  us  go  straight 
ahead." 

They  did,  and  the  fleet  ran  ashore  on  the  north  coast 
of  Africa. 

Many  years  ago,  before  her  engines  had  been  sold  by 
her  Commander,  the  gunboat  at  Rhodes  was  perform- 
ing some  evolutions  in  the  harbour,  when  the  steering 
gear  developed  a  defect,  and  the  vessel  made  straight 
for  the  mole.  The  order  was  given  to  reverse  engines  ; 
but  the  chief  engineer  called  up  laconically  :  '  makina 
qizdi,'  a  delightful  phrase  somewhat  difficult  to  translate, 
which  meant  that  the  engines  had  got  excited  and  angry, 


50  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

and  would  not  agree  to  stop.  So  she  ran  on  to  the 
mole,  whence  she  was  hauled  off  by  the  delighted 
population. 

A  new  Admiral  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 
Mediterranean  squadron.  He  was  rowed  off  to  his 
flagship,  and  installed  himself  in  the  Admiral's  quarters 
which  opened  on  to  the  sternwalk. 

The  next  morning  he  awoke  and  said, 

"  Full  speed  ahead,  by  Allah  !  " 

So  presently  the  propeller  began  to  revolve,  and  as  it 
had  not  moved  since  the  ship  was  sold  to  the  Turks,  at 
more  than  cost  price,  by  a  Power  which  had  no  further 
use  for  her,  it  made  a  fearful  din. 

"Allah!"  cried  the  Admiral,  "what  in  the  name  of 
the  Prophet  is  this  uproar  .^" 

"  The  propeller,  O  Excellency." 

"  Stop  it,  then." 

"  But  the  ship  will  stop,  O  Excellency." 

"  Then  take  the  damned  thing  off,"  bellowed  the 
Admiral,  "  and  put  it  on  the  other  end." 

The  day  before  we  left  Rhodes,  the  Greeks  celebrated 
their  New  Year's  Eve.  Little  bands  of  children  peram- 
bulated the  Greek  faubourgs^  singing  carols  outside  the 
houses,  and  receiving  in  return  gifts  of  money  or  of 
food.  Were  any  of  them  aware,  I  wonder,  as  they  did 
so,  how  closely  they  were  following  in  the  footsteps  of 
their  Dorian  ancestors  }  In  ancient  times  it  was  the 
custom  in  Rhodes,  at  the  approach  of  spring,  for  boys  to 
carry  a  swallow  from  house  to  house,  singing  : 

r\kO\   •>/A^e   ^eAtSwi' 
KaAoLs  wpas  ayoi;cra, 
KoXov%  kvio-vrovs, 
hzi   ya(TT€pa  XevKa, 
€7ri   vwTa  [ikXaiva, 


RHODES  51 

The  swallow's  come,  wingino; 

His  way  to  us  here  ! 

Fair  hours  is  he  bringing, 

And  a  happy  new  year  ! 

White  and  black 

Are  his  belly  and  back. 

Then  came  the  request  : 

TraAa^av  crv  TrpoKVKXei. 

£K     TTtOl'OS    OLKOV 

OLVov  T€  Seiraa-Tpov 

Tvpov  re   Kavva-rpov 

Kai  TTvpva 

)(eAtSa)v  Koi  AeKt^trav 

OVK   aTTW^ctTat.      TTorep'   aTTiw/xes  •>)    \af3wp.e6a  ; 

€1  jj.ei'  Ti   8(6crets" 

Give  him  welcome  once  more, 

With  figs  from  your  store, 

With  wine  in  its  flasket. 

And  cheese  in  its  basket, 

And  eggs, — ay,  and  wheat  if  we  ask  it. 

Shall  we  go  or  receive  ?  yes,  we'll  go  if  you'll  give  ; 

but  if  the  master  of  the  house  was  close-fisted, 

€t     Se    fJLt],     OVK     ed(TOfJL€l', 

■))   Tav   Ovpav   (f)€p(ii)fjie<i   i]   dovTvepOvpov 
7)   Tav   yvvacKa  rav   eo-w   KaO^jfxevaV 
fiLKpa  fiiv  i(TTi,   /DctSicus   VLV   oi'cTO/xes. 

But,  if  you  refuse  us,  we  never  will  leave. 

We'll  tear  up  the  door, 

And  the  lintel  and  floor ; 

And  your  wife,  if  you  still  demur — 

She  is  little  and  light — we  will  come  to-night 

And  run  away  e'en  with  her. 

If,  however,  he  gave  freely, 

ai'  8t}   (fiepyi  ri, 
fxiya  8t]  Ti   (fiepoio. 


52  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

But  if  you  will  grant 
The  presents  we  want, 
Great  good  shall  come  of  it, 
And  plenty  of  profit  ! 

So, 

avoiy'   avoiye  xav   dvpav   ^^eXtSovi' 
ov   yap  yepovres   ecr/A£v,    aAAa  TratSia. 

Come,  throw  open  free 
Your  doors  to  the  swallow ! 
Your  children  are  we. 
Not  old  beggars,  who  follow.  ^ 

In  such  things  the  world  has  changed  but  little,  and 
the  same  feast  often  appears  in  a  variety  of  guises. 
The  children  who  sang  carols  in  honour  of  the  Ortho- 
dox New  Year  obeyed  the  same  impulse  as  did  the  little 
rascals  with  the  swallow;  the  announcement  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  same  rejoicings,  doubtless,  then  as  now. 
New  Year's  Day  at  Rhodes  was  a  day  of  piety  and 
conviviality.  In  the  morning  everyone  went  to  church, 
attired  in  their  best ;  after  mass,  they  repaired  home  to 
prolonged  family  banquets.  Suddenly,  at  half  past  two 
in  the  afternoon,  the  ancient  cannon  on  the  ramparts 
boomed.  It  was  ten  days  to  the  minute  since  the  new 
moon  had  been  discerned  in  the  sky,  and  the  Turkish 
gunners  who  had  been  standing  by,  watch  in  hand, 
announced  with  a  salute  the  advent  of  Qurban  Bairam. 
The  two  feasts  fell  together,  and  the  Turks,  no  less 
than  the  Christians,  prepared  due  celebrations  ;  every 
Turkish  household  killed  a  sheep,  whose  fleece  had 
been  dyed  vermilion,  in  remembrance  of  Abraham's 
uncompleted  sacrifice. 

^The  song  is  quoted  in  Athenaeus,  viii.,  60,  and  has  been  charm- 
ingly set  to  music  by  A.  M.  Goodhart.  I  have  borrowed  the  transla- 
tion of  E.  B.  C. 


RHODES  53 

At  night,  as  we  steamed  out  of  the  harbour  and 
looked  back  at  the  town,  we  beheld  a  sight  of  unwonted 
loveliness.  The  domes  of  the  mosques  and  the  bal- 
conies of  the  minarets  were  garlanded  with  rows  of 
little  lamps,  and  their  concentric  circles  of  light  revealed 
the  outlines  of  the  buildings  with  enchanting  and  fitful 
glimmer.  In  every  quarter  their  flickering  gleam  shone 
faintly  out  of  the  darkness,  and  even  so  the  crescent 
moon  illumined,  living  emblem  of  its  masters,  the 
defences  of  the  citadel.  As  the  ship  moved  onward, 
windmills,  towers,  and  cupolas,  vaguely  suggested, 
passed  slowly  out  of  sight,  and  the  last  view  we  had  of 
them  was  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of  all.  Not  in 
the  broad  light  of  day,  but  in  fairy-like  obscurity,  per 
speculum  in  aenigmate^  did  we  bid  farewell  to  the  mighty 
fortress,  to 

"  Rhodes,  des  Ottomans  ce  redoutable  ecueil, 
De  tous  ses  defenseurs  devenu  le  cerceuii." 


CHAPTER    III. 
CYPRUS. 


From  Rhodes,  the  inheritor  of  the  military  traditions 
of  the  Crusades,  we  proceeded  by  devious  stages  to 
Cyprus,  successor  to  their  commercial  heritage.  First 
we  touched  at  Mersina,  a  town  full  of  Armenians, 
full  of  camels,  and  surrounded  by  ruined  castles  ; 
then  at  Alexandretta,  the  port  of  Aleppo,  one  of  the 
many  places  where  the  whale  is  said  to  have  rejected 
Jonah.  In  Beirut,  a  city  whose  attractions  lie  solely  in 
its  situation,  we  had  to  wait  a  week  for  a  ship  going  to 
Cyprus ;  but  eventually  landed  at  Larnaca,  and  drove 
from  there  to  the  capital  of  the  island,  tree-embowered 
Nicosia. 

To  the  minds  of  many  the  name  of  Cyprus  will 
conjure  up  visions  of  an  island  teeming  with  shrines 
and  temples  of  pagan  divinities  ;  its  sites  of  Paphos 
and  Salamis,  of  Amathus  and  Idalium,  suggest  votive 
statues  and  columns  of  snowy  marble  gleaming  among 
the  groves  of  dark  green  myrtle  beloved  of  Aphrodite. 
Those  who  may  come  to  Cyprus  expecting  to  see  such 
things  will  be  disappointed :  evidence  of  the  artistic 
activity  of  the  classical  age  must  be  sought  in  the 
British  Museum,  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 
in  New  York,  and  in  the  attractive  little  Museum  of 


CYPRUS  55 

Nicosia,  rather  than  on  the  sites  which  once  made 
Cyprus  famous.  In  the  opening  sentence  of  this 
chapter  I  have  indicated  the  age  which  has  left  the 
most  enduring  monuments  on  the  soil  of  the  island. 
Enriched,  on  the  fall  of  the  Christian  states  of  Syria,  by 
the  arrival  of  their  knights  and  merchants  driven  to 
seek  refuge  on  its  shores,  the  mediaeval  Cypriot  king- 
dom raised  on  the  ruins  of  the  Crusades  a  fabric  of 
wealth  and  prosperity  unequalled  in  the  Levant.  To 
the  splendours  of  those  days  many  mediaeval  buildings 
of  great  beauty  most  eloquently  attest  ;  and,  set  amid 
lovely  surroundings  of  forest  and  mountain  and  sea, 
richly  reward  the  visitor  to  this  strangely  unvisited  isle. 
Few  countries  have  had  so  chequered  a  career  as 
Cyprus.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  its  history  it  was 
successively  under  the  dominion  of  more  races  than  it 
is  convenient  to  enumerate ;  then  passed,  after  a  brief 
spell  of  independence,  into  the  possession  of  Rome  and 
Byzantium.  Toward  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century 
A.D.  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  one  Isaac  Ducas  Comnenus, 
a  ruffianly  scion  of  the  imperial  house  of  Comnenus 
who  had  rebelled  against  Constantinople  and  proclaimed 
himself  Emperor  of  Cyprus.  He  must  have  been, 
from  all  accounts,  a  singularly  repellent  person  ;  and 
we  are  told  by  a  chronicler  of  the  period  that  he 
"  emitted,  when  angry,  strange  noises  resembling  the 
bubbling  of  a  kettle,  his  lower  jaw  trembling  all  the 
while  with  excitement."  Now  at  this  time,  or,  to  be 
precise,  on  the  loth  of  April,  1191,  King  Richard 
Coeur  de  Lion  set  sail  from  Messina  to  take  part  in  the 
third  Crusade  ;  and  in  his  fleet,  although  not  in  his  ship, 
were  his  betrothed  wife  Berengaria  of  Navarre  and  his 
sister  Joanna,   Queen   Dowager   of  Sicily.     On   Good 


56  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Friday,  the  12th  of  April,  an  ill  wind  dispersed  the 
fleet.  Richard  was  driven  to  Rhodes,  and  thence  into 
the  Satalian  Gulf;  while  many  of  his  vessels,  including 
the  'very  large  ship  of  the  sort  called  a  buss'  conveying 
the  royal  ladies,  were  blown  on  to  the  shores  of  Cyprus. 
Some  of  these  were  wrecked,  and  plundered  by  Isaac; 
but  the  Queen  and  the  Queen-to-be  found  anchorage 
off  the  roadstead  of  Limasol,  where  Isaac  tried  to 
inveigle  them  into  landing.  So  little  confidence,  how- 
ever, did  his  manner  inspire,  that  they  took  fright  at 
his  insistence.  Fortunately,  on  the  very  day  that  they 
had  been  obliged  to  promise  compliance  with  his  desire, 
"  behold,  there  appeared  in  the  distance,  like  crows,  on 
the  foaming  summit  of  the  curling  waters,  two  vessels, 
driven  forwards  and  sailing  swiftly  towards  them."  It 
was  the  van  of  King  Richard's  fleet,  arriving  in  the  nick 
of  time — to  the  great  relief  of  the  Queens,  and  to  the 
discomfiture  of  the  Emperor. 

He,  nevertheless,  assumed  an  air  of  defiance ;  and 
when  Richard,  on  hearing  what  had  occurred,  sent  two 
knights  to  ask  satisfaction  for  the  injuries  received, 
became  very  indignant.  Ejaculating  the  monosyllable 
'-  pruht^  he  dismissed  the  embassy  with  abuse,  whereupon 
Richard,  now  thoroughly  angry,  '  shouted  aloud  "  To 
arms !  " '  landed,  seized  Limasol,  and  drove  Isaac  to 
flight.  And  on  the  following  Sunday,  being  the  festival 
of  St.  Pancras,  he  married  Berengaria  in  the  chapel  of  the 
castle  of  Limasol,  which  you  may  see  to-day  ;  and  Beren- 
garia was  there  crowned  Queen  of  the  English.  The  con- 
quest of  the  island  was  completed  within  a  fortnight ;  and 
Isaac,  in  silver  chains,  was  handed  over,  for  safe  custody, 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Hospitallers,  in  whose 
Syrian  castle  of  Merkab  or  Margat  he  perished  in  1 194. 


CYPRUS  57 

Thus,  entirely  by  chance,  was  brought  about  the  first 
English  occupation  of  Cyprus,  an  occupation  remarkable 
principally  for  its  brevity.  It  had  been  no  part  of 
Richard's  plan  to  dally  in  the  Mediterranean  ;  five  days 
after  Isaac's  surrender  the  King  departed  for  Acre.  An 
offer  for  his  new  conquest  was  now  made  by  the  Knights 
Templar;  and  Richard,  needing  money  and  ill  able 
to  afford  to  keep  a  garrison  in  Cyprus,  sold  the  island 
to  them  for  a  hundred  thousand  bezants.  But  the 
Templars,  too,  discovered  Cyprus  to  be  a  burden,  and 
could  not  spare  from  Syria  a  sufficiency  of  men  to  keep 
the  turbulent  Cypriots  in  check.  At  this  juncture  Guy 
de  Lusignan,  a  noble  of  Poitou  who  jure  uxoris  had  been 
King  of  Jerusalem  and  had  lost  that  kingdom  in  an 
inglorious  manner  subsequently  to  be  related,  was  per- 
suaded by  Richard  to  seek  compensation  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  island.  So  in  1192  he  bought  it  of  the 
Templars  at  the  same  price  at  which  it  had  been  sold  by 
Richard,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  dynasty  which 
was  to  give  eighteen  sovereigns  to  Cyprus. 

"  The  three  hundred  years  during  which  it  was  ruled 
by  the  Kings  and  Queens  of  the  House  of  Lusignan," 
I  quote  from  what  I  have  written  elsewhere,^  "were  the 
most  brilliant  epoch  in  the  varied  history  of  Cyprus. 
In  every  aspect  of  mediaeval  civilization  the  little 
kingdom  played  a  distinguished  part  ;  its  remarkable 
achievements  in  every  domain  of  human  activity 
invested  it  with  an  importance  among  the  nations  of 
Europe  wholly  out  of  proportion  to  its  small  size  and 
population.  Its  constitution  was  a  model  of  that  of  the 
mediaeval   feudal  state  ;    its  laws,  as  embodied  in  the 

^  Lukach  and  Jardine,  The  Handbook  of  Cyprus,  London  :  Stanford, 
1913. 


58  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Assizes  of  Jerusalem^  a  pattern  of  mediaeval  juris- 
prudence. It  can  boast,  in  the  abbey  of  Bella  Paise,  in 
the  cathedrals  of  Nicosia  and  Famagusta,  in  the  castles 
of  St.  Hilarion,  Buffavento,  and  Kantara,  of  rarely 
beautiful  examples  of  mediaeval  architecture  ;  its  men 
of  letters,  Philippe  de  Novare,  Guillaume  de  Machaut, 
Philippe  de  Mezieres,  occupy  no  undistinguished  place 
in  the  realm  of  literature.  In  King  Peter  T.  it  possessed 
perhaps  the  greatest  Knight-Errant  the  world  has  ever 
seen  ;  in  his  Order  of  the  Sword  the  most  perfect 
expression  of  chivalrous  ideals.  To  Kings  of  Cyprus 
such  widely  different  writers  as  St.  Thomas  Aquinas 
and  Boccaccio  dedicated  works ;  the  wealth  of  its 
citizens,  especially  in  the  fourteenth  century,  evoked 
the  amazement  of  all  western  visitors.  The  rich 
merchants  of  Famagusta  were  wont,  we  are  told,  to 
give  to  their  daughters,  on  their  marriage,  jewels  more 
precious  '  que  toutes  les  parures  de  la  reine  de  France.' 
Admittedly  there  was  a  less  attractive  side  to  this 
efflorescence  of  French  civilization  on  the  rich  Levantine 
soil  :  *  Fastus  gallicus,  syra  mollities,  graecae  blanditiae 
ac  fraudes  quae  unam  videlicet  in  insulam  convenere ' 
is  the  epigram  by  which  a  contemporary  describes  the 
character  of  the  inhabitants  of  Cyprus  in  those  days." 

The  last  legitimate  sovereign  of  the  House  of 
Lusignan  was  Charlotte,  daughter  of  John  II.  and  his 
Greek  wife,  Helena  Palaeologus.  This  luckless  Queen 
had  reigned  for  barely  two  years  when  her  illegitimate 
brother  James,  son  of  King  John  by  a  lady  whose  nose 
Queen  Helena  had  bitten  off  in  an  access  of  jealous 
rage,  rose  against  her  and,  although  at  the  time 
Archbishop-elect  of  Nicosia,  seized  the  throne.  This 
was  in  1460,  and  the  end  of  the  kingdom  was  now  very 


LUSIGXAX  COAT  OF  ARMS  IX    KVREXIA  LUSIGXAX  COAT  OF  ARMS  IX  FAMAGUSTA 


^^L.     j^ll     x,/i                                '   "^'    '■ 

A    CYPRIOT    TURK 


Facing  p.   58 


CYPRUS  59 

near.  The  republics  of  Genoa  and  Venice  had  long 
coveted  the  island  ;  indeed,  Genoa  had  been  in  posses- 
sion of  Famagusta  since  1376.  James  II.  threw  In  his 
lot  with  Venice,  drove  the  Genoese  out  of  Famagusta, 
and  accepted  from  the  Signory  as  his  wife  the  beautiful 
Katharine  Cornaro.  Venice  only  used  him,  however, 
to  further  her  own  designs,  and  probably  instructed  her 
agents  in  Cyprus  in  the  sense  of  the  lines  : 

"  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  but  do  not  strive 
Officiously  to  keep  alive." 

At  all  events  James  died,  while  still  a  young  man,  in 
1473,  under  circumstances  which  suggested  poison  ;  and 
in  the  following  year  his  posthumous  child,  James 
III.,  also  expired.  Katharine  was  permitted  to  retain 
nominal  sovereignty  until  1489,  when  she  perforce 
abdicated  in  favour  of  Venice  ;  and  for  the  ensuing 
eighty  years  Cyprus  was  a  Venetian  dependency,  paying 
tribute  to  the  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

Seven  miles  west  of  the  town  of  LImasol,  In  one  of  the 
most  fertile  parts  of  this  very  fertile  country,  the  Gothic 
keep  of  KolossI  raises  Its  massive  walls  in  the  midst  of 
an  estate  which  was  once  the  '  Grand  Commandery ' 
and  headquarters  of  the  Hospitallers  in  Cyprus.  The 
Grand  Commandery  possessed  the  best  vineyards  of  an 
island  then  famous  throughout  Europe  for  its  wines  ; 
and  from  them  was  made,  and  is  made  to  this  day,  the 
sweet  and  heavy  wine  known  In  consequence  as 
Comanderia.  I  must  confess  that,  unless  the  vines  have 
deteriorated  much  in  later  times.  It  is  somewhat  difficult 
to  appreciate  the  enthusiasm  which  Comanderia  Inspired 
in  the  gourmets  of  the  middle  ages  ;  so  strongly  did  it 
tickle   the   palate  of  Sultan   Selim   II.,  pleasantly  nick- 


60  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

named  '  the  Sot,'  that  he  determined  to  annex  to  his 
dominions  a  land  producing  so  delicious  a  beverage. 
A  Jewish  adventurer  named  Joseph  Nasi  introduced 
Comanderia  to  the  notice  of  the  bibulous  monarch. 
Armed  with  his  potent  argument,  Nasi  craftily  urged 
the  conquest  of  Cyprus  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  it  as  a 
fief  from  his  imperial  boon  companion.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  had  to  content  himself  with  the  Duchy  of 
Naxos,  while  Selim  died  through  slipping  on  the  marble 
floor  of  his  bath  when  overfull  of  the  alluring  liquid. 
In  the  meantime,  however,  Selim's  general,  Lala 
Mustafa,  had  taken  Nicosia  and  Famagusta,  thereby 
making  himself  master  of  the  island.  Nicosia  sur- 
rendered to  the  Turks  on  the  9th  of  September,  1570, 
after  a  courageous  defence  of  six  weeks  ;  while  Fama- 
gusta, owing  to  its  superior  fortifications  and  to  the 
heroism  of  Bragadino,  its  commander,  was  able  to  hold 
out  from  the  i8th  of  September,  1570,  until  the  ist  of 
August  of  the  following  year.  The  defence  of  the  two 
towns  was  the  redeeming  feature  of  the  stupid  and 
oppressive  domination  of  Venice  ;  the  cruel  and 
treacherous  murder  of  Bragadino  the  darkest  blot  on 
the  rule  of  the  Turks.  Apart  from  this  incident 
Turkish  rule  in  Cyprus,  while  unprogressive,  was  not 
as  harsh  as  some  historians  have  asserted  :  it  abolished 
serfdom,  restored  the  Orthodox  archbishopric  which 
had  been  suppressed  by  the  Latins  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  gave  virtual  autonomy  to  the  Christian 
population. 

There  runs  along  the  north  coast  of  the  island,  and 
extends  into  the  Karpass  peninsula,  which,  like  an  index 
finger,  points  at  the  shore  of  Syria,  a  narrow  serrated 
ridge  called  the  Kyrenia  Mountains,  a  ridge  tinged  at 


INIKklDK    OF    ST.    SOFIA,    NICOSIA 


Facing  p.   60. 


CYPRUS  61 

sunset  with  hues  that  incarnadine  its  rocks  and  illumine 
with  deep  glow  its  scattered  patches  of  forest.  In  the 
south-west  part  of  the  island  a  more  compact  mass  of 
mountains  culminates  in  Mount  Troodos  or  Olympus. 
Between  the  two,  bounded  on  the  east  and  west  by  the 
sea,  stretches  the  treeless  but  fertile  Mesaoria  plain,  the 
granary  of  Cyprus,  in  the  middle  of  which  is  situated 
the  capital,  Nicosia,  despite  the  fact  that  the  capitals  of 
islands  do  not  lie,  as  a  rule,  inland.  And  a  very  pretty 
town  it  is,  partly  Gothic,  partly  Turkish,  enclosed 
within  the  now  somewhat  dilapidated  defences  hastily 
constructed  by  the  Venetians.  A  profusion  of  date- 
palms  and  minarets  rises  above  its  whitewashed  houses 
and  above  the  mud  walls  which  conceal  its  gardens  ; 
while  over  all  else  towers  the  Great  Mosque,  once  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia.  In  winter  time,  when  cold 
breezes  from  the  Taurus  or  from  snow-laden  Olympus 
blow  across  the  Mesaoria,  Nicosia  is  redolent  with  the 
fragrance  of  burning  olive  wood  ;  later  on,  it  is  per- 
vaded by  the  scent  of  jonquils  and  other  wild  flowers 
which  are  one  of  the  joys  of  spring  in  Cyprus.  As  you 
wander  through  its  tortuous  streets,  you  light  on  many 
a  sculptured  fragment,  a  porch,  a  coat  of  arms,  or  a 
cornice,  once  part  of  some  Lusignan  or  Venetian 
mansion  ;  many  churches,  foremost  among  them  St. 
Sophia,  survive  intact  or  tolerably  preserved  from 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  Nearly  all  the 
Gothic  churches  of  Nicosia  became  mosques  at  the 
Turkish  conquest,  and  only  one  is  still  used  as  a  place 
of  Christian  worship.  This  is  the  Church  of  Notre 
Dame  de  Tyr,  which  the  Turks  made  over  to  the 
Armenians. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  interests  of  Turks 


62  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

and  Armenians  have  always  been  at  variance.  Until 
the  year  1890,  when  their  aspirations  began  to  arouse 
the  distrust  of  the  Turkish  authorities,  the  Armenians 
were  called  millet-i-sadiqa,  '  the  loyal  nation ' ;  and  as 
such  had  served  the  Turks  for  centuries  in  the  capacities 
of  man  of  business,  dragoman,  and  go-between.  The 
Turks  rewarded  them  for  their  usefulness  with  protec- 
tion ;  and  preferred  them  to  other  rayahs  because  they 
were  Orientals,  and  therefore  in  closer  touch  than 
Serbs  or  Greeks  with  Turkish  habits  and  thoughts. 
Thus  it  was  that,  when  Latin  and  Greek  churches  in 
Cyprus  were  converted  into  mosques,  Notre  Dame 
de  Tyr  was  given  to  the  representatives  of  the  '  loyal 
nation.'  An  Armenian  community  had  long  been 
settled  in  the  island ;  its  connexion  with  Cyprus  was 
bound  up  with  the  near  relationship  between  the 
royal  Houses  of  Lusignan  and  Armenia,  a  relation- 
ship through  which,  on  the  death  in  1393  of  the 
Armenian  King  Leo  VI.  without  issue,  the  crown  of 
Armenia  (but  little  else  besides)  passed  to  his  cousin 
King  James  1.  of  Cyprus.  Lamartine,  impressed  by 
the  industrious  and  thrifty  qualities  of  the  Armenians, 
has  called  them  the  Swiss  of  the  East.  It  would 
be  truer  to  say  that  they  are  the  Jews  of  Christendom. 
Like  the  Jews,  they  are  scattered  all  over  the  world, 
yet  cling  with  remarkable  tenacity  to  their  national 
characteristics  and  religion ;  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Jews,  dispersion  is  due  to  the  lack  of  all  aptitude  for 
kingdom-building.  Both  peoples  possess  the  pliancy 
and  adaptability  acquired  in  the  service  of  other  races; 
both  have  that  genius  for  trading  and  finance  which 
makes  it  convenient  for  them  to  select  separate  spheres 
of  action.     You  very  rarely  find  communities  of  Jews 


THE    CAbiLl_ 


'WER,    FAMAGUSTA 


,jt.".»SiES^< 


^4ri::**feife^(i^' 


•^*v;^  :£ 


OUTSIDE    THE    WALLS,    FAMAGUSTA 


Facing  p.  62 


CYPRUS  63 

and  Armenians  in  the  same  small  town  ;  by  some  sort 
of  tacit  understanding  they  avoid  poaching  on  one 
another's  preserves.  The  only  Jews  in  Cyprus  are  the 
settlers  of  a  small  agricultural  colony ;  and  it  is  related 
that  when  a  Hebrew  more  commercially  inclined  came 
to  spy  out  the  land  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jewish 
community  of  Beirut,  he  retired  rapidly  in  disgust. 
This  gentleman  landed  at  Larnaca  with  his  donkey  in 
the  early  days  of  the  British  occupation.  On  the  wharf 
he  gave  a  metaliq  ^  to  a  small  boy,  and  said : 

"  Buy  me  some  food  for  myself,  some  food  for  my 
ass,  something  for  me  to  amuse  myself  with,  and  you 
may  keep  the  change." 

The  boy  ran  off  and  returned  with  a  water  melon. 

"  Here's  your  stuff,"  said  he. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? "  replied  the  Jew. 

"  Well,  you  can  eat  the  inside  of  the  melon  and  your 
donkey  can  eat  the  rind,  while  you  can  play  with  the 
pips ;  and  as  it  only  cost  2  paras,  I  get  8  for  myself, 
and  will  take  as  many  more  commissions  as  you  like  to 
give  me." 

The  Jew  ate  his  melon,  kicked  the  donkey,  and 
returned  to  Beirut  by  the  boat  which  had  brought  him. 

"  The  Fortresse  of  Rhodes,  and  that  Fortresse  Famo- 
gusta,  in  Cyprus,  are  the  two  strongest  holds  in  all  the 
Empire  of  the  great  Turke."  So  said  William  Lith- 
gow  in  i6io;  and  the  likening  of  Rhodes  to  Fama- 
gusta,  the  eastern  harbour  of  Cyprus,  must  have  been 
very  apt  when  that  persevering  Scot  made  his  journey 
into  the  Levant.  At  the  present  time  it  requires  quali- 
fication. Mr.  Maurice  Hewlett  remarks,  in  The  Road 
in  Tuscany^  that  Volterra  is  a  withered,  an  anaemic 
^  A  bronze  coin  worth  slightly  over  a  farthing. 


64  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Florence;  and  in  imitation  of  Mr.  Hewlett's  simile 
I  would  say  that  Famagusta  is  an  atrophied  Rhodes. 
Perhaps  I  should  go  further;  for  the  dour  little  Etruscan 
hill-town  is  inhabited  by  a  race  as  dour  as  itself,  whereas 
the  scene  of  the  tragedy  of  Othello  is  abandoned  but 
for  a  few  humble  Turkish  dwellings.  In  truth,  Fama- 
gusta is  more  than  atrophied  :  it  is  the  skeleton  of 
what  was  once  the  richest  mart  of  the  Levant.  Yet  it 
is  not  difficult  to  realize  to-day  how  great  must  have 
been  the  wealth  and  vigour  of  the  city  well  called  the 
'  mediaeval  Pompeii.'  If  few  traces  of  its  domestic 
buildings  have  survived,  the  profusion  and  beauty  of 
its  ecclesiastical  remains  bear  witness  to  its  past  glory, 
its  remarkable  fortifications  to  its  value  as  a  place  of 
war.  Within  the  walls,  still  happily  intact,  are  fields 
and  waste  lands  covered  with  debris,  and  the  stones  of 
its  palaces  have  been  sold  to  the  builders  of  Port  Said. 
But  scattered  over  the  fields  are  countless  churches, 
ruinous  and  roofless,  whose  exquisite  Gothic  arches 
emerge  from  the  desert  town  like  the  ribs  of  camels 
from  the  sands  of  the  Sahara.  And  although  their 
architecture  is  French,  they  were  not  all  of  the  faith  of 
the  ruling  class :  almost  every  creed  and  race  was 
represented.  In  short,  the  Famagusta  of  the  middle 
ages  was  a  cosmopolitan  city  of  immense  importance, 
famed  throughout  Europe  for  the  wealth,  luxury,  and 
lavish  living  of  its  inhabitants ;  and  notorious,  I  regret 
to  say,  for  the  laxity  of  its  morals.  Nobles  hunted  and 
jousted,  and  dyed  the  tails  of  their  dogs  and  horses 
scarlet  ;  merchants  built  churches  with  one-third  of  the 
profits  of  a  single  journey  ;  courtesans  enjoyed,  it  is 
related,  fortunes  of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
florins.     In  its  desolation   Famagusta   now   shares  the 


CYPRUS  65 

fate  of  its  predecessor  Salamis,  whose  scanty  ruins  lie 
six  miles  to  the  north  ;  nevertheless,  in  one  respect  its 
abandonment  is  less  complete.  The  city  within  the 
walls,  indeed,  is  all  but  deserted.  In  recent  years, 
however,  its  excellent  harbour  has  been  dredged  and 
enlarged  at  a  great  cost  ;  and  outside  the  walls  has 
grown  up  a  thriving  commercial  town  which  bids 
fair  to  recall  some  of  the  old  prosperity,  and  to 
make  of  Famagusta  once  more  the  principal  port  of 
Cyprus. 

This  extra-mural  Famagusta  is  the  eastern  terminus 
of  a  railway  which  runs  through  the  Mesaoria,  parallel 
with  the  Kyrenia  Mountains,  to  the  western  end  of  the 
island.  To  him  who  would  savour  something  of  the 
more  recondite  charm  of  Cyprus,  I  would  recommend 
to  reject  the  ease  of  the  train,  and  with  tent  and  mule  to 
travel  along  the  higher  level.  Clinging  to  the  steepest 
and  loftiest  crags  of  the  range  are  Lusignan  castles  of 
astounding  picturesqueness  ;  between  them  nestle,  un- 
suspected from  below,  such  fairy-like  spots  as  Khalevga 
and  the  forest  of  Qartal  Dagh.  Nor  are  the  names  a 
whit  less  beautiful  than  the  places.  The  most  easterly 
of  the  castles,  thickly  overgrown  by  the  spreading 
cypress,  is  Kantara,  from  whose  walls  you  survey  the 
Karpass  to  the  east,  the  Mesaoria  and  the  Bay  of  Fama- 
gusta to  the  south,  and  to  the  north,  beyond  the  inter- 
vening sea,  the  snow-capped  mountains  of  Asia  Minor. 
Further  westward,  beyond  Homerically  named  Pente- 
dactylos,  '  the  five-fingered  peak,'  comes  impregnable 
Buffavento,  rearing  its  turrets  in  defiance  of  the  winds 
on  the  very  summit  of  the  ridge.  Still  further  to  the 
west  is  St.  Hilarion  or  Dieu  d' Amour,  a  castle  as  lovely 
as  the  others,  and  connected,  besides,  with  the  oldest  of 


66  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Cyprian  myths.  The  early  history  of  Cyprus  is  lost  in 
the  mists  of  antiquity;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  Aphrodite,  by  all  accounts  a  goddess  of  discern- 
ment, rose  from  the  sea  on  the  drifts  of  white  foam 
which  to  this  day  are  borne  by  the  breeze  on  to  the 
rocky  shore  of  Paphos ;  and  that,  having  chosen  this 
delectable  island  for  her  realm,  she  further  selected  the 
castle  of  Dieu  d'Amour  in  which  to  give  birth  to  her 
son  Eros.  It  is  true  that  the  antiquary  will  find  little 
in  the  existing  buildings  to  confirm  this  belief;  and 
there  are  pedants  callous  enough  to  maintain  that  Dieu 
d'Amour  is  a  Prankish  corruption  of  Didymos,  which, 
they  say,  was  the  ancient  name  of  the  twin  crests  now 
occupied  by  the  castle.  If  we  grant,  however,  that 
Eros  was  born  somewhere,  then,  clearly,  St.  Hilarion, 
or  Dieu  d'Amour,  or  Didymos  (let  us  not  quarrel 
with  the  pedants),  must  have  been  the  place.  And 
as  Cyprus  is  a  land  of  bees,  here,  probably,  was  the 
scene  of  the  disaster  of  which  Anacreon  sings  in  the 
ode  beginning  : 

'  E/3WS    TTOt'    €V    poSoKTll' 

Koijxoijxkvr^v  [xkXiTTav 
ovK  eiSev    dW  erpuiOr] 
TOV   8a.KTi'\ov. 

St.  Hilarion  overlooks,  in  the  strip  of  land  at  the  foot 
of  the  northern  slope  of  the  mountains,  one  of  the  most 
charming  regions  of  Cyprus.  Here  the  olive  and  caroub 
trees  are  ampler  than  elsewhere,  the  verdure  richer  ; 
elsewhere  the  cyclamen  *  never  blows  so  red.'  Below 
Hilarion  lies  the  pretty  seaport  of  Kyrenia,  in  whose 
massive  castle  the  Emperor  Isaac's  daughter  sought 
refuge  and  Queen  Charlotte  held  out  for  four  years 
against  her  brother  James.     To  the  right  is  the  Abbey  ot 


CYPRUS  67 

Bella  Paise,  in  all  likelihood  the  most  important  as  well 
as  the  most  beautiful  monument  of  the  Latin  East  ;  to 
the  left,  Lapethos  with  its  monastery  of  Acheiropoietos, 
dedicated  to  the  image  of  Christ  '  not  wrought  by  the 
hand  of  man.'  ^  Of  the  beauties  of  Bella  Paise  it  is 
beyond  my  powers  to  give  an  adequate  description  ; 
paints,  and  not  phrases,  are  the  medium  for  the  purpose. 
In  a  delightful  article  on  '  Some  Aspects  of  Cyprus,'^  Mr. 
Bertram,  formerly  Puisne  Judge,  has  compared  Bella 
Paise  to  Tintern  ;  but  with  what  can  Tintern  match  the 
sweeping  curve  of  mountains,  the  blue  sea  and  distant 
Asian  ranges,  the  groves  of  oranges  and  lemons,  and  the 
stonework  tinged  with  gold  ? 

Of  a  different  kind  are  the  attractions  of  the  moun- 
tains which  occupy  most  of  the  south-western  part  of 
the  island.  Their  summits,  higher  but  less  abrupt  than 
those  of  the  Kyrenia  Mountains,  are  covered  with 
fragrant  pine  forests,  not  with  castles  ;  no  beautiful 
abbeys  lurk  in  their  deep  and  rugged  valleys.  In  the 
Kyrenia  Mountains  nature  and  art  compete  with  the 
happiest  results  ;  in  the  others,  nature's  efforts  are 
stimulated  only  by  the  Forest  Department  of  the 
Cyprus  Government.  And  it  is  well  for  Cyprus  that 
British  rule,  with  its  Forest  Department,  arrived  when 
it  did  ;  since  for  centuries  the  peasants  had  been  de- 
stroying, with  almost  incredible  improvidence,  one  of 
the  island's  most  precious  resources.  When,  during  the 
summer  months,  the  plains  become  unbearably  hot,  the 
Troodos  Mountains  provide  a  delightful  retreat.  The 
air  is  as  bracing  as  that  of  the  Engadine  ;  countless  rides 
through  the  forests  reveal  wide  views  over  the  vine-clad 

^  Cf.  p.  246. 

"^Travel and  Exploration^  October,  1909. 


68  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Districts  of  Limasol  and  Paphos  ;  the  nights  are  some- 
times cool  enough  for  fires  of  sweet-smelling  fir-cones. 
And  in  these  mountains,  especially  in  the  wild  valleys  of 
Stavros  and  Ayia  which  lead  down  to  Paphos,  are  the 
haunts  of  the  vanishing  and  elusive  moufflon,  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  bigger  game  of  Cyprus. 

Paphos,  or  Baffb,  in  the  Italianized  form  of  the  name 
surviving  in  the  parlance  of  the  people,  has  had  three 
different  situations.  The  Paphos  of  Aphrodite  is  now 
the  village  of  Kouklia.  Ten  miles  to  the  west  of  it  is 
the  Paphos  of  the  Romans,  where  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
after  travelling  from  Salamis  through  the  length  of  the 
island,  converted  Sergius  Paulus  the  Deputy,  and  where 
Paul  struck  Elymas  the  sorcerer  with  blindness.  A 
mile  and  a  half,  again,  from  Roman  Paphos  is  the 
modern  capital  of  the  District.  Another  vanishing  race, 
not  of  animals  but  of  people,  dwells  on  the  other  slope 
of  the  mountains,  in  the  region  of  Tylliria.  This  is  the 
sect  to  whose  members  the  name  of  Linobambakoi  or 
'Flax-cottons'  is  given,  because  their  religious  position 
oscillates  between  Christianity  and  Islam.  The  Lino- 
bambakoi lead  double  lives  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
phrase.  They  have  Moslem  and  Christian  names,  which 
they  use  as  the  occasion  requires,  and  they  impartially 
observe  the  feasts,  fasts,  and  ceremonies  of  both  religions. 
They  are  commonly  believed  to  be  descended  from 
Latin  Christians,  who  outwardly  embraced  Islam  to 
escape  inconvenience  at  the  time  of  the  Turkish  con- 
quest, while  secretly  retaining  their  old  faith.  On  the 
other  hand,  similar  sects  are  not  unknown  in  Asia  Minor, 
witness  the  Stavriotai  of  Lazistan  ;  and  it  may  be  that 
the  Linobambakoi  are  of  Moslem  origin,  and  that  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  very  old  superstition  they  were  baptized 


CYPRUS  69 

in  order  to  lose  the  peculiar  smell  which  that  superstition 
attributed  to  infidels.^ 

A  word,  too,  should  be  said  about  the  Orthodox 
Church  of  Cyprus.  The  fortunate  discovery  in  Salamis, 
in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Zeno,  of  St.  Barnabas's 
body  together  with  a  copy  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  in 
Barnabas's  handwriting  secured  from  that  Emperor  the 
confirmation  of  the  claim  of  the  Cypriot  Church  to  be 
independent  and  autocephalous.-  It  also  secured  to  the 
Archbishops  of  Cyprus  the  privileges  of  signing  in 
red  ink,  a  right  otherwise  exclusively  confined  to  the 
Emperor,  of  wearing  a  purple  cope,  and  of  carrying  an 
imperial  sceptre  in  place  of  the  ordinary  pastoral  staff. 
The  independence  of  the  Church  and  the  privileges 
then  accorded  to  its  primates  have  been  jealously  main- 
tained to  the  present  day  ;  lately,  however,  the  Church 
has  acquired  a  certain  amount  of  not  altogether  creditable 
notoriety  by  the  amazing  duel  for  the  archbishopric 
whereby  from  1900  to  1910  the  island  was  convulsed. 
I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  this  struggle  in  its  details, 
which  have  more  in  common  with  the  ecclesiastical  dis- 
putes of  the  Dark  Ages  than  with  proceedings  of  the 
twentieth  century;  but  will  confine  myself  to  an  outline 
of  what  took  place.  The  hierarchy  of  Cyprus  consists 
of  an  Archbishop  of  All  Cyprus  and  of  the  three 
Metropolitan  Bishops  of  Paphos,  Kition  (Larnaca), 
and  Kyrenia.  In  1 899  the  Bishop  of  Paphos  died  ;  and 
in  1900,  before  a  successor  had  been  elected,  the  Arch- 

^  In  1432  the  Burgundian  knight  Bertrandon  de  la  Brocquicre  re- 
lated of '  Ramedan,  lord  of  Turcomania '  that  his  mother  "  had  caused 
him  to  be  baptized  according  to  the  Greek  ritual,  to  take  from  him 
the  smell  and  odour  of  those  who  are  not  baptized." 

^C/p.  113. 


70  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE   EAST 

bishop,  Sophronios  H.,  also  died,  only  two  Bishops  thus 
remaining  in  the  island.  These  were  Kyrillos  of  Kition 
and  Kyrillos  of  Kyrenia,  between  whom  and  whose 
supporters  a  desperate  struggle  for  the  primacy  now 
ensued.  The  Bishop  of  Kition  was  the  popular 
favourite ;  he  of  Kyrenia  the  candidate  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  under  whose  supervision  the  elections  to  the 
archbishopric  are  carried  out.  Wherefore,  after  much 
wrangling,  the  Bishop  of  Kition  retired  from  the  Synod, 
pronouncing  its  constitution  to  be  uncanonical  and  its 
acts  void.  After  some  years  of  profitless  agitation  and 
intrigue,  which  divided  the  Greek-Christian  population 
of  the  island  into  two  camps,  and  provoked  much 
ill  feeling,  it  was  decided  to  refer  the  dispute  to  the 
Patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem. 
Their  intervention  failed,  however,  to  advance  matters, 
and  the  struggle  was  resumed,  when  suddenly,  on  the 
23rd  of  February,  1908,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople 
telegraphed  that,  as  no  way  out  of  the  impasse  could  be 
found,  he  and  his  Synod  had  elected  the  Bishop  of 
Kyrenia  to  the  vacant  primacy.  The  utmost  excite- 
ment was  produced  in  Cyprus  by  this  news.  There 
was  rioting  in  Nicosia,  and  the  Government  refused  to 
recognize  the  appointment  on  the  ground  that  it  con- 
stituted an  infringement  of  the  autocephalic  rights  of 
the  Church  of  Cyprus.  Eventually  legislation  was 
resorted  to  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  an  impossible  and 
scandalous  situation,  and,  as  the  Kition  party  was  in  a 
majority  among  the  Greek-Christian  members  of  the 
Legislative  Council,  the  Bishop  of  Kition  was  elected 
Archbishop  under  the  auspices  of  the  Extraordinary 
Synod,  principally  composed  of  foreign  prelates,  which 
was  created  by  the  '  Archiepiscopal  Election  Law  *   of 


THE    LATE    ARCHBISHOP    SOTHROXIOS    II      SITTIXC.    IN    ^TATi; 


I-'acing  p.   70. 


CYPRUS  71 

1908.  The  Kyrenia  party,  which  regarded  its  candi- 
date as  the  duly  appointed  Archbishop,  held  aloof  from 
the  election,  and  for  a  year  there  were  two  Archbishops 
in  Cyprus  and  schism  in  the  Church.  Finally,  in  19 10, 
the  Bishop  of  Kyrenia,  realizing  that  further  resistance 
was  hopeless,  made  his  submission  to  his  rival,  and  was 
permitted,  in  return,  to  assume  the  title  of  Beatitude  in 
recognition  of  his  status  as  an  ex-Archbishop. 

But  after  the  reconciliation  had  been  effected,  there 
remained  one  who,  plus  royaliste  que  le  rot,  refused  to 
abandon  the  Kyrenia  cause  and  accept  the  new  Arch- 
bishop. Although  the  politicians  of  the  opposing 
parties,  and  the  protagonists,  too,  were  at  peace,  the  old 
Archimandrite  Philotheos  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  arrangement.  He  was  verging  on  ninety 
when  Archbishop  Sophronios  died,  but  threw  himself 
with  the  utmost  energy  into  the  struggle  for  the 
election  of  his  successor.  From  honest  conviction  he 
opposed  the  attempts  of  the  Bishop  of  Kition  to  gain 
the  archbishopric,  and,  having  accumulated,  in  the 
course  of  his  long  life,  a  fortune  of  between  two 
and  three  thousand  pounds,  devoted  the  whole  of 
this  sum  to  promoting  the  candidature  of  the  Bishop 
of  Kyrenia.  Its  failure  was  a  heavy  blow  to  him, 
and  he  refused  to  be  a  party  to  the  rapprochement. 
The  new  Archbishop  had  agreed,  as  a  condition  of  the 
settlement,  to  recognize  Philotheos  as  Archimandrite  of 
the  archdiocese,  or  to  grant  him  a  pension  should 
he  wish  to  retire.  Philotheos  would  take  from  him 
neither  pension  nor  recognition,  and,  leaving  Nicosia  for 
ever,  sought  refuge  with  the  Abbot  of  Kykko,  another 
champion  of  the  Kyrenia  party,  in  his  monastery  in  the 
heart  of  the  Paphos   Mountains.     Here  he  was  given 


72  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

asylum,  and  here  he  is  determined  to  end  his  days, 
carrying  with  unshaken  vigour  into  his  twentieth  lustre 
the  convictions  for  which  he  has  sacrificed  wealth,  home, 
and  position. 

Such,  briefly,  is  the  history  of  this  unedifying  dis- 
pute, whose  like  it  would  be  hard  to  find  even  in  the 
annals  of  that  hotbed  of  ecclesiastical  bickering,  Jerusa- 
lem, whither  we  now  wended  our  way. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

JERUSALEM.    I. 

Jerusalem  has,  from  the  very  outset,  a  disconcerting 
effect,  and  is,  of  all  cities,  the  most  difficult  to  describe. 
No  other  place  has  had  so  long  and  varied  a  history, 
has  so  profoundly  affected  the  course  of  the  human 
race.  A  holy  city  before  it  was  chosen  by  the  Founder 
of  Christianity  as  the  site  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecies,  it  is  the  cradle  of  the  Jew,  the  goal  of  the 
Christian,  the  sanctuary  of  the  Moslem,  Its  annals  are 
so  amazing,  and  withal  so  diverse,  that  they  bewilder 
and  dismay.  Most  peoples  of  antiquity  and  many  of 
later  ages  have  been  its  masters.  Jews,  Egyptians,  and 
Babylonians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Byzantines,  and  Persians, 
Arabs,  Crusaders,  Turks,  and  several  others  have  been 
in  possession  for  greater  or  lesser  periods.  Some  have 
left  their  mark  and  some  have  not  ;  all  have  had  a  hand 
in  contributing  to  the  chaos  of  its  history  and  in  multi- 
plying the  aspects  under  which  it  presents  itself  to-day. 
Even  at  first  sight  Jerusalem  appears  as  a  place  apart, 
as  different  from  other  cities  of  the  East.  It  seems 
as  if  enshrouded  by  a  veil  of  sanctity  which  isolates  it 
from  the  outer  world.  It  has  always  been  a  spiritual 
rather  than  a  temporal  capital  ;  its  importance  has  owed 
nothing    to   riches   or   material  advantages,  nor  has  it 


74  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

attracted  them.  Commerce  has  avoided  it.  To-day  it 
is  still  poor  and  small ;  and  although  empty  spaces 
within  its  walls  are  no  longer  numerous,  the  bustle  and 
movement  usually  inseparable  from  the  life  of  eastern 
towns  are  noticeably  absent.  Its  bazaars  are  mean,  and 
only  adapted  to  the  needs  of  its  inhabitants  and  poorer 
pilgrims.  Its  streets  are  often  quiet  and  deserted  ;  its 
people,  except  at  certain  ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  grave 
and  preoccupied.  The  Arabs  who  stride  by  with  the 
dignity  of  their  race,  the  decrepit  and  picturesque  old 
Jews  shuffling  about  their  business  in  silence,  the 
bands  of  pilgrims  devoutly  following  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross,  seem  overcome  with  a  spirit  of  hushed  solemnity, 
a  spirit  which  permeates  and  almost  oppresses  the  Holy 
City  of  the  three  greatest  religions  of  the  world. 

It  is  because  of  the  place  which  Jerusalem  fills  in  the 
imagination  of  so  large  a  section  of  mankind  that  no 
description  of  minor  monuments  and  sites  would  appear 
to  be  required  here.  There  is  much  in  and  around 
Jerusalem  to  interest  the  pilgrim,  much  to  impress,  not 
a  little  to  disappoint  ;  but  two  places,  it  seems  to  me, 
sum  up  finally  and  completely  the  significance  of  the 
city  to  Christian,  Moslem,  and  Jew.  Towering  far 
above  all  else,  dwarfing  every  other  object  by  their 
stupendous  associations,  rise  the  two  strongholds  of 
rival  faiths  which  are  the  essence  and  core  of  Jerusalem. 
One  is  the  Haram  esh-Sherif  on  Mount  Zion  ;  the 
other,  that  strange  caravanserai,  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre. 

Those  who  know  the  East  will  have  observed  the 
tenacity  with  which  religious  tradition  remains  attached 
to  certain  sites.  Of  this  phenomenon  the  Haram  is 
probably  the  most  notable  example. 


JERUSALEM.     I.  75 

In   the    middle   of  the    Haram    enclosure   is   a   rock 
called  by  the  Arabs  Es-Sakhra  and  surmounted  by  one 
of  the   triumphs  of  Arab  architecture,  a  rock  around 
which    in    the   course   of  ages   a   mass   of  legend   has 
accumulated.     It  is  believed  to  hover  without  support 
over  a  chasm  in  which  the  waters  of  the  flood  are  heard 
to  roar  ;  it  is  believed  to  be  the  centre  of  the  world, 
the  orate  of  hell,  and  much  else  of  a  fantastic  nature. 
It  is  also  believed,  and  this  belief  has  the  support  of  the 
Talmud,  to  have  been  the  site  of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac. 
According  to  Maundeville,  almost  every  event  in  sacred 
history  was  enacted  upon  it  :   "  And  Jacob  was  sleeping 
upon   that  rock  when  he  saw  the   Angels  go  up  and 
down  by  a  ladder,  and  he  said  '  Surely  the  Lord  is  in 
this   place  and  I    knew  it  not.'     And  there  an  Angel 
held  Jacob  still,  and  changed  his  name,  and  called  him 
Israel.     And  in  that  same  place  David  saw  the  Angel 
that   smote   the   people  with   a  sword,  and  put    it    up 
bloody   in   the   sheath.     And   St.  Simeon  was  on  that 
same  rock  when  he  received  our  Lord  into  the  Temple. 
On    that   rock   our   Lord    preached    frequently   to   the 
people,  and  out  of  that  same  Temple  our  Lord  drove 
the  buyers  and  sellers.     Upon  that  rock  also  our  Lord 
set  him  when  the  Jews  would  have  stoned  him,  and  the 
rock  clave  in  two,  and  in  that  cleft  was  our  Lord  hid. 
And  there  came  down  a  Star  and  gave  him  light,  and 
upon  that  rock  Our  Lady  sat  and  learned  her  Psalter, 
and  there  our  Lord  forgave  the  woman  her  sins  that 
was   found    in    adultery.       And    there   our    Lord    was 
circumcised,    and     there    the    Angel    gave    tidings    to 
Zacharias  of  the  birth  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  his  son  ; 
and  there  first  Melchisedek  offered  bread  and  wine  to 
our  Lord  in  token  of  the  sacrament  that  was  to  come, 


76  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

and  there  David  fell  down  praying  to  our  Lord  and  to 
the  Angel  that  smote  the  people,  that  he  would  have 
mercy  on  him  and  on  the  people,  and  our  Lord  heard 
his  prayer,  and  therefore  would  he  make  the  Temple  in 
that  place,  but  our  Lord  forbade  him  by  an  Angel 
because  he  had  done  treason,  when  he  caused  Uriah  the 
worthy  knight  to  be  slain,  to  have  Bathsheba  his  wife, 
and  therefore  all  the  materials  he  had  collected  for  the 
building  of  the  Temple  he  gave  to  Solomon  his  son^ 
and  he  built  it." 

Maundeville's  imagination  is  unequalled,  and  he 
revels  in  an  opportunity  of  this  kind,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  from  a  very  remote  period  the  Sakhra 
has  powerfully  affected  the  popular  imagination.  It  is 
impossible  to  say  when  it  was  first  regarded  as  holy, 
but  by  the  time  of  David  its  reputation  was  definitely 
established.  From  that  day  to  this,  notwithstanding 
the  startling  changes  which  have  come  over  Jerusalem, 
it  has  been  what  the  name  Haram  esh-Sherif  signifies, 
'  the  chief  sanctuary.'  Race  upon  race  has  possessed 
the  city,  faith  has  succeeded  faith,  but  the  Haram  has 
compelled  the  allegiance  of  every  master.  It  has  been 
possessed  in  turn,  and  is  revered  together  by  Jews, 
Christians,  and  Moslems  ;  it  has  been  successively  the 
site  of  temple,  church,  and  mosque.  The  Jews  regard 
it  with  awe  as  having  been  the  embodiment  of  their 
race,  religion,  and  traditions,  the  shrine  of  all  that  was 
most  holy  to  them.  The  Christians,  who  in  their 
loathing  for  the  Jews  treated  it  at  first  with  contumely, 
and  cast  dung  upon  it,  came  in  time  to  regard  it  with 
almost  equal  respect.  Under  the  Latin  Kingdom  of 
Jerusalem     the     Qubbet  ^    es-Sakhra    was     known     as 

^  Dome. 


JERUSALEM.    I.  77 

Templum  Domini,  and  had  a  foundation  of  abbot  and 
canons  regular;  the  Jami'  el-'Aksa  became  Templum 
Salomonis,  and  gave  housing  and  its  name  to  the 
Knights  Templar  ;  the  rock  was  embellished  with  an 
altar  at  which  mass  was  said  daily,  and  was  considered 
by  the  Crusaders  as  next  in  sanctity  to  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  itself. 

The  Moslems  also  regard  the  place  as  holy.  Moham- 
med had  ever  a  leaning  to  Jerusalem,  and  endeavoured 
to  communicate  his  sentiments  to  his  followers  by  con- 
necting it  with  various  incidents  in  his  own  career. 
Thus,  mounted  on  El-Buraq,  his  magic  steed  of  the 
human  face,  he  made  the  journey  from  Mecca  to 
Jerusalem  in  a  single  night;  and  again,  when  the 
time  for  his  final  journey  was  come,  so  says  a  legend, 
he  chose  the  Haram  as  the  point  of  his  departure 
for  heaven.  No  doubt  desirous  that  his  people 
should  have  a  share  in  what  seemed  to  him  a  sort  of 
universal  sanctuary,  he  made  Jerusalem  the  qibleh'^ 
of  Islam ;  and  although  he  was  compelled  by  political 
considerations,  some  years  afterwards,  to  transfer  that 
honour  to  the  city  of  his  birth,  Jerusalem  has  never 
lost  the  hold  which  it  had  once  gained  on  the  Moslems. 
Their  affection  for  it  has  been  as  sincere  as  that  of 
the  Christians,  as  constant  as  that  of  the  Jews ;  and  if 
the  two  great  cities  of  the  Hejaz  have  since  taken 
the  first  place,  it  remains  in  their  eyes  '  the  sister  of 
Medina  and  Mecca,'  rejoicing  in  the  epithets  of 
'  el-^ds,  esh-Sherif,  and  el-Mubarek — the  holy,  the 
noble,  the  blessed.'  The  Haram,  that  palimpsest  on 
which,  one  after  another,  its  masters  have  written  the 
record  of  their  works,  bears  eloquent  testimony  to  the 
^  Point,  or  direction,  of  .idoration. 


78  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

devotion  of  its  present  owners,  and  to  the   skill  with 
which  they  have  shown  it. 

The  real,  as  opposed  to  the  legendary,  history  of  the 
Haram  began  with  the  building  of  the  first  Temple  of 
the  Jews  by  Solomon,  King  of  Israel,  aided  by  Hiram, 
King  of  Tyre,  and  the  architect  Hiram,  a  widow's  son 
of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali.  There  was  no  hesitation  as  to 
the  choice  of  site.  Everything  pointed  to  Mount  Zion, 
Syon,  mons  coagulatus^  mons pingwis^  mons  in  quo  heneplacitum 
fuit  Deo  hahitare\  and  gradually  there  arose  on  it  the 
Temple  and  Solomon's  Palace,  whose  fame  soon  travelled 
into  distant  lands.  When  the  Babylonians  under 
Nebuchadnezzar  captured  Jerusalem  and  put  an  end  to 
the  existence  of  the  Kingdom  of  Judah,  the  Temple 
of  Solomon  was  destroyed  ;  but  seventy  years  later  the 
Jews  returned  from  captivity,  and  under  great  difficulties 
built  a  second  temple,  of  necessity  smaller  and  less  pre- 
tentious, on  the  site  of  the  former.  This,  in  its  turn,  gave 
way  to  the  Temple  of  Herod,  the  last  and  greatest  of  all. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  Herod  the  Great  was  King 
ot  the  Jews.  An  up-to-date  and  splendour-loving  prince, 
his  chief  characteristics  were  contempt  for  the  old  tradi- 
tions of  his  race,  unbounded  admiration  for  the  civiliza- 
tions of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  a  passion  for  building. 
He  was  very  much  a  modernist,  very  little  a  Jew  ;  filled 
with  western  ideas,  he  aspired  to  restore  the  glories  of 
his  capital,  and  by  the  brilliance  of  his  reign  to  eclipse 
the  magnificence  of  Solomon.  With  the  power  of  Rome 
to  support  him,  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  ambition  ;  and 
ot  him,  as  of  Augustus,  it  may  be  said  that  he  found  his 
capital  brick  and  left  it  marble.  His  residence  on  the 
west  of  the  city,  half  palace,  half  fortress,  was  a  marvel- 
lous combination   of  luxury  and    strength  ;    his  public 


JERUSALEM.     I.  79 

buildings  could  vie  with  those  of  any  provincial  city  ot 
the  Roman  Empire  ;  his  walls  and  defences  could  sur- 
pass them.  But  his  greatest  work  was  the  rebuilding 
of  the  Temple,  of  which  Josephus  has  left  a  detailed 
description — his  greatest,  and  withal  his  least  enduring; 
for  within  a  century  of  its  reconstruction,  this  Temple, 
with  which  he  fondly  hoped  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  of 
prosperity  for  Israel,  was  destined  to  perish  in  the 
death-struggle  of  the  Jewish  State. 

After  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Pompey,  in  63  B.C., 
had  put  an  end  to  the  dynasty  of  the  Maccabees,  the 
Romans  became  virtual  masters  of  Judaea.  In  40  b.c, 
in  consequence  of  an  invasion  of  the  Parthians,  they 
placed  Herod  on  the  throne  ;  and  for  some  years  after 
his  death  they  tolerated  a  succession  of  princes  of  his 
house,  to  whom  they  left  but  a  semblance  of  authority. 
Meanwhile  the  more  patriotic  among  the  Jews  had  been 
viewing  the  ascendency  of  the  Roman  element  and  the 
subservience  of  their  kings  with  intense  displeasure,  to 
which  they  were  not  long  in  giving  expression.  Always 
a  difficult  people  to  manage,  they  made  the  task  of  the 
Roman  Procurators  almost  impossible,  causing  more 
trouble,  by  their  perpetual  fractiousness,  than  any  other 
province  of  their  size.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Procura- 
tors, if  we  are  to  believe  Josephus,  were  anything  but 
conciliatory  ;  and  one  of  them,  Gessius  Florus,  incurred 
the  hatred  of  the  Jews  to  an  exceptional  extent.  The 
detestation  in  which  he  was  held,  coupled  with  some 
repressive  measures  tactlessly  undertaken,  precipitated 
the  crisis.  The  Jews  rose  in  open  revolt  against  him, 
overpowered  the  peace  party,  which,  consisting  as  it  did 
chiefly  of  rich  bankers  and  merchants,  had  everything 
to    gain    by    the    Roman    occupation,    and    estabHshed 


80  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

themselves  in  various  quarters  of  the  town  and  in  the 
Temple  precincts.  Cestius  Gallus,  Governor  of  Syria, 
besieged  the  city  with  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men, 
but  retired  when  within  an  ace  of  taking  it.  During  the 
interval  which  elapsed  between  his  unexpected  retreat 
and  the  arrival  of  Titus  with  four  legions,  the  leaders  of 
the  insurgent  factions,  John  of  Giscala,  Simon  Bar-Gioras, 
and  Eleazer,  son  of  Ananias  the  high  priest,  behaved  in 
a  manner  for  which  even  their  subsequent  gallantry  fails 
to  atone.  Not  content  with  treating  the  non-combatants 
among  their  own  people  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  they 
committed  the  folly  of  wasting  their  strength  on  purpose- 
less civil  war,  which  they  pursued  with  even  greater 
energy  as  the  siege  began.  By  an  unworthy  ruse,  John 
ot  Giscala's  party  annihilated  that  of  Eleazar ;  and  then 
ensued  a  fierce  struggle  between  the  two  surviving 
factions,  rarely  interrupted  for  a  joint  demonstration 
against  the  Romans.  How,  under  the  circumstances, 
they  were  able  to  make  so  long  and  so  effective  a  stand 
against  the  besiegers  is  little  short  of  marvellous  ;  for, 
despite  their  divisions,  they  kept  up  a  defence  which  has 
few  parallels  in  history.  And  after  all  hope  of  a  successful 
issue  was  gone,  after  the  Romans  were  in  possession  of 
three  quarters  of  the  city,  they  rallied  round  the  Temple 
with  a  frenzy  that  bordered  on  madness  ;  and  when 
that,  too,  was  lost,  the  survivors  rejected  Titus's  offers 
ot  clemency,  and  continued  their  despairing  resistance  to 
its  inevitable  end. 

The  third  and  last  Temple  of  the  Jews  was  destroyed 
by  the  troops  of  Titus  on  the  9th  of  August  of  the  year 
70,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  burning  of  the  first 
Temple  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  Its  treasures  were  carried 
away,  and   its   surviving    defenders,   after    gracing    the 


JERUSALEM.    I.  81 

triumph  which  may  be  seen  commemorated  upon  the 
Arch  of  Titus  in  Rome,  were  sold  into  slavery.  Thence- 
forth the  Haram  remained  in  other  hands  ;  a  temple  of 
Jupiter  rose  where  the  Temple  of  Jehovah  had  fallen, 
and  the  existence  of  the  Jews  as  a  nation  was  at 
an  end. 

The  next  few  centuries  were  comparatively  unevent- 
ful in  the  history  of  the  Haram.  Twice  more  the 
dying  flames  of  Judaism  flared  up  before  they  were  at 
last  extinguished  ;  twice  more  the  hearts  of  this  luckless 
people  were  filled  with  eager  hopes.  But  the  revolt  of 
Bar-Cochbas  failed,  Julian  the  Apostate  died  prema- 
turely, and  the  Jews,  weakened  by  disappointment, 
resigned  themselves  to  fate. 

Meanwhile  a  change  of  the  utmost  importance  had 
been  wrought  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Christianity  had 
taken  the  place  of  paganism  as  the  official  religion  of 
the  State,  and  among  the  first  of  the  provinces  to  be 
affected  by  the  change  were  Palestine  and  Syria.  The 
unaccustomed  interval  of  peace  which  the  country  was 
enjoying  enabled  Christian  pilgrims  to  visit  the  Holy 
City  with  security,  and  the  opportune  discovery  of  the 
True  Cross  and  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ  by  the  Empress 
Helena  aroused  enthusiasm  at  the  right  moment.  Con- 
versions were  now  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  the  country 
was  soon  dotted  with  churches,  chapels,  monasteries, 
and  the  retreats  of  hermits,  while  Jerusalem  was  pro- 
moted from  bishopric  to  patriarchate.  Hospices  were 
built  to  accommodate  the  ever-increasing  number  of 
pilgrims,  and  on  the  southern  end  of  the  Haram,  not 
far  from  the  rock  which  was  being  defiled  by  all  manner 
of  abominations,  Justinian  erected  a  large  basilica  of 
which  he  was  justly  proud.     Justinian's  reputation  as  a 


82  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

builder  was  well  earned;  of  the  many  pre-Islamic 
edifices  which  have  stood  on  the  Haram,  his  church  is 
the  only  one  which  has  continued  to  this  day.  The  Jami' 
el-'Aksa  is  far  from  being,  stone  for  stone,  the  same 
building  as  the  church  of  the  Panagia:  twice  it  was 
almost  destroyed  by  earthquakes;  several  times  recon- 
structed and  enlarged.  But  the  ground  plan  remains 
unchanged,  and  an  occasional  capital  and  pillar  show 
that  something  of  the  original  fabric  has  survived. 
Above  all,  however,  it  is  its  Byzantine  character, 
its  resemblance  to  the  great  churches  of  Salonika 
and  Ravenna,  and,  to  use  the  words  of  a  modern 
French  writer,^  "  sa  robuste  silhouette  d'antique  basi- 
lique  chretienne,"  which  justify  its  claim  to  con- 
tinuity with  the  work  of  Justinian,  and  contrast  it  so 
strikingly  with  that  masterpiece  of  another  art  beside 
it. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  Mohammedan  conquest  that 
the  Haram  began  to  assume  the  appearance  which  it  has 
to-day.  Toward  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  one 
'Abdallah  ibn-Zobeir  of  Mecca  rebelled  against  the 
Omayyad  Khalifs,  and  closed  the  sacred  cities  to  all  but 
his  own  supporters.  Khalif  'Abd  el-Melek,  by  way  of 
retaliation,  proposed  to  divert  the  stream  of  pilgrimage 
from  Mecca  to  Jerusalem,  and  with  this  object  under- 
took a  complete  reconstruction  of  the  Temple  area. 
An  immense  sum  of  money  was  set  apart  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  the  Khalif  himself  designed  a  treasure-house 
to  contain  it.  This  little  building,  when  finished,  so 
delighted  him  that  he  took  it  as  the  model  for  the 
Qubbet  es-Sakhra,  the  mighty  dome  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  build  on  the  rock  in  place  of  the  plain 
1  Charles  Dichl,  En  Meditcrrance. 


THE    SUMMER    PULPIT 


PORCH    OF    THE    DOME    OF    THE    ROCK 


Facing  p.  S2 


JERUSALEM.     I.  83 

wooden  structure  hastily  erected  thereon  by  the  Khalif 
'Omar.i 

It  often  happens  that  a  beautiful  building  loses  much 
of  its  effect  through  mean  surroundings  or  bad  situa- 
tion ;  the  cathedrals  of  Seville  and  Florence  are  cases  in 
point.  Often,  again,  a  magnificent  site  is  wasted  on  an 
unworthy  edifice.  But  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  for  a 
building  and  its  frame  to  be  so  entirely  complementary 
to  each  other  as  are  the  Qubbet  es-Sakhra  and  the  Haram 
esh-Sherif.  The  Haram  is  the  summit  of  Mount  Zion, 
levelled  on  the  north,  and  prolonged  on  the  south  and 
east  by  the  gigantic  substructions  of  the  Kings  of  Judah, 
so  as  to  form  a  vast  platform  enclosed  by  walls  and 
occupying  nearly  one  quarter  of  the  city.  It  is  the  one 
part  of  Jerusalem  where  Islam  is  supreme.  The  seven 
gates  leading  into  it  from  the  city  are  zealously  guarded 
by  Turkish  troops  ;  the  few  houses  overlooking  it  may 
only  be  inhabited  by  Moslems ;  while  from  the  north- 
west corner  the  Antonia  tower,  now,  as  ever,  part  of  the 
barracks,  commands  it  as  it  did  in  the  days  of  our  Lord 
and  of  St.  Paul. 

In  the  middle,  ten  flights  of  steps,  each  surmounted 
by  a  graceful  arcade,  lead  up  to  a  smaller  platform  paved 
with  marble,  and  on  this  pedestal  rises  the  Dome  of  the 
Rock,  majestic  and  detached,  visible  from  every  quarter 
of  Jerusalem  ;  a  few  paces  to  the  east  its  tiny  prototype, 
the  Dome  of  the  Chain,  once  'Abd  el-Melek's  treasury, 

^  The  Dome  of  the  Rock  is  sometimes  erroneously  called  the 
Mosque  of  'Omar.  The  real  Mosque  of  'Omar,  described  by  Bishop 
Arculf,  who  visited  Jerusalem  in  about  680,  as  "a  square  house  of 
prayer  erected  in  a  rough  manner  by  raising  beams  and  planks  upon 
some  remains  of  old  ruins,"  was  presumably  intended  only  as  a 
temporary  building.  At  all  events,  it  was  replaced  some  fifty 
years  after  its  construction  by  the  existing  Qubbet  of  'Abd  el-Melek. 


84  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

seems  to  look  as  though  in  wondering  admiration  at  its 
mighty  neighbour.  A  flat-roofed  octagon  surmounted  by 
a  dome  resting  on  an  hexagonal  drum — such  is  its  outline, 
simple  enough  to  define.  Less  simple  is  it  to  convey 
an  idea  of  its  splendid  isolation,  its  exquisite  proportions, 
and,  above  all,  of  the  revelation  in  colouring  afforded 
by  the  tiles  of  blue  and  green  and  yellow  and  creamy 
white  with  which  it  is  faced,  and  of  their  contrast  with 
the  sombre  hues  of  mad  Khalif  Hakim's  leaden  dome. 
This  contrast  is  repeated  within,  where,  but  for  the 
subdued  light,  the  eye  would  be  dazzled  by  the  brilliant 
mosaics  on  arches  and  drum,  the  multi-coloured  glass 
of  the  windows,  the  rare  marbles  of  the  pavement,  until, 
penetrating  beyond  the  richly  gilt  grille  of  the  Crusaders, 
it  lights  on  the  object  of  all  this  glory.  For  there,  in 
the  middle,  its  black  and  undulating  surface  suggesting 
the  lazy  heaving  of  an  oily  sea,  is  the  raison  d'etre  of  the 
Haram,  the  Sakhra  itself, 

"  monstrum  horrendum,  informe,  ingens,  " 
a  crude  and  shapeless  mass  of  rock,  all  scarred,  seamed, 
and  pitted  with  age  and  ill-usage;  venerable  survival 
of,  and  tangible  link  with  days  so  distant  as  to  seem 
unreal;  unlovely  to  behold,  but,  from  its  very  ugliness 
amid  so  much  beauty,  deeply  and  solemnly  impressive. 
Unconsciously  this  rock  has  done  much  to  shape  the 
destiny  of  Jerusalem,  and  has  had  in  remarkable 
measure  the  faculty  of  attracting  the  veneration  of  all 
kinds  of  men.  It  has  made  the  Haram  the  epitome  of 
the  history  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  assured  to  Jerusalem 
the  awe  of  the  ancient  world.  Moreover,  it  has  had  the 
not  inconsiderable  merit  of  calling  forth  all  that  is  best 
in  Saracenic  art,  that  it  might  be  housed  in  a  manner 
befitting  its  fame  and  holiness. 


JERUSALEM.    I.  85 

Outside,  scattered  haphazard  about  the  quadrangle, 
are  many  delightful  and  inconsequent  little  buildings 
connected  with  a  thousand  Mohammedan  superstitions: 
domes  of  every  size  and  shape,  pulpits  supported  by  the 
most  delicate  of  columns,  shrines  and  kiosks  inlaid  with 
priceless  tiles,  fountains  whose  gentle  plashing  is  the 
most  entrancing  form  of  music  the  Turk  or  Arab  knows. 
The  shade  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  sound  of 
running  water,  produces  the  blissful  state  of  keip 
(a  word  defying  translation,  but  implying  all  the  sensa- 
tions of  a  native  of  hot  and  barren  climes  as  he  takes 
his  ease  at  midday  on  the  greensward,  and  listens  to  the 
gurgling  of  the  stream  beside  him)  is  given  by  olive 
trees,  old  and  silvery  green,  also  by  the  avenue  of  giant 
cypresses  joining  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  to  the  Jami' 
el-'Aksa,  Justinian's  massive  seven-aisled  basilica  which 
fills  half  the  southern  end  of  the  Haram. 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  charm  of  this  sanctuary  of 
Islam.  It  is  peaceful,  it  is  dignified,  it  is  in  character- 
istically good  taste.  It  contains  nothing  that  can  offend 
or  jar,  nothing  to  disturb  the  admiration  of  the  beholder, 
or  the  meditations  of  the  reverend  Moslems  who  slowly 
pace  the  expanse  of  white  flagstone  which  stretches  in 
all  directions,  seemingly  without  end. 

In  such  a  place  as  this,  one  cannot  help  reflecting  as 
to  the  causes  which  produce  the  stateliness  and  the 
atmosphere  of  peace  that  so  distinguish  Mohammedan 
shrines  from  many  of  those  of  their  Christian  brethren 
in  the  East.  One  is  apt  to  feel,  after  observing  the  two 
side  by  side,  that  the  religions  of  the  East  are  better 

1  The  most  idyllic  exposition  of  keif  is  contained  in  Fitzgerald's 
rendering  of  the  1{ubaiyat  of 'Omar  Khayyam,  Quatrain  xii.  j  the  most 
material,  on  pp.  175-6  of  Mark  Sykes's  Dar-ul-lslam. 


86  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

digested  than  those  of  the  West.  Catholicism  and 
Protestantism  can  be  equally  demonstrative,  equally- 
exuberant  ;  Mohammedanism  seldom  becomes  so,  un- 
less it  goes  on  the  war-path  or  considers  itself  threatened. 
The  Oriental  is  religious  introspectively.  His  religion, 
much  of  which  consists  of  regulations  governing  his 
daily  life,  is  so  much  part  of  himself  that  he  rarely  feels 
the  need  of  emphasizing  it.  Observe,  for  example,  the 
passivity  of  the  Buddhist,  than  whom  none  takes  his 
religion  more  seriously.  And  the  Moslem — who  knows 
no  European  self-consciousness  in  these  matters  but 
interrupts  his  daily  task  to  say  his  prayers  in  the  most 
natural  way  in  the  world,  who  prostrates  himself  at  the 
appointed  hours,  wherever  he  may  find  himself,  what- 
ever he  may  be  doing,  quietly,  unobtrusively,  neither 
shyly,  as  though  fearing  to  be  seen,  nor  ostentatiously, 
as  seeking  to  attract  attention — the  Moslem,  I  say,  con- 
trives to  surround  Islam  with  a  wonderful  dignity. 
This  dignity  is  seen  in  the  manners,  the  deportment, 
the  hospitality  of  the  people,  and  very  particularly  in 
their  mosques,  which  may  be  rich,  but  are  never  vulgar, 
are  often  poor,  but  never  shoddy.  The  Haram  affords 
an  excellent  example  of  what  I  mean.  While  the  Dome 
of  the  Rock  is  decidedly  more  ornate  than  the  Church 
of  the  Sepulchre,  it  is  artistic,  harmonious,  restrained. 
Everything  it  contains  is  in  good  taste;  whereas,  in  the 
other,  even  precious  gold  contrives  to  wear  the  impres- 
sion of  tinsel.  And  while  the  open  space  before  the 
porch  of  the  Sepulchre  is  thronged  with  sellers  of  beads 
and  medals,  with  money-changers  and  the  like,  people 
who,  while  of  the  utmost  utility  and  worth,  do  not 
add  to  the  majesty  of  a  place  of  worship,  the  Haram  is 
really  a  sanctuary  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  the 


DOME    OF    THE    ROCK :     THE    CRUSADERS      GRILLE 


HARA^r    AND    AXTONIA    TOWER 


Facing  p.  86. 


JERUSALEM.    I.  87 

worthy  home  of  a  great  religion.  It  is  not  altogether 
to  be  wondered  at  that  Moslems  look  upon  it  as  the 
spot  to  which  on  the  Last  Day  Mohammed  and  Christ 
will  come  to  judge  the  world. 

All  along  the  eastern  length  of  the  Haram  runs  a 
wall,  serving  as  boundary  to  Haram  and  city  alike, 
from  which  one  looks  over  the  valley  of  Jehosha- 
phat  across  to  the  Mount  of  Olives.  Toward  its 
northern  end  is  the  Golden  Gate,  traditional  scene  of 
our  Lord's  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem  on  Palm 
Sunday,  through  which,  during  the  Crusades,  in  memory 
of  this  event,  the  Patriarch  would  ride  in  solemn  pro- 
cession upon  an  ass,  the  people  spreading  their  garments 
on  the  ground  before  his  way.  Between  the  Golden 
Gate  and  the  Jami'  el-'Aksa  the  wall  extends  in  unbroken 
severity,  save  where  the  stump  of  an  ancient  column 
projects  horizontally  on  either  side.  On  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  so  runs  the  story,  when  Christ  is  sitting  on 
the  wall,  and  the  Prophet  on  the  mountain  opposite,  a 
single  hair  will  be  stretched  from  this  column  across 
the  valley,  over  which  the  multitudes  assembled  on  the 
Haram  will  have  to  pass.  The  hills  will  recede  and 
the  valley  deepen,  and  the  righteous  will  walk  fearlessly 
across,  well  knowing  that,  if  they  falter,  their  guardian 
angels  are  ready  to  hold  them  up  by  their  forelocks,  and 
save  them  from  tumbling  headlong  into  hell  which  is 
gaping  beneath.  Thus  will  they  cross  until  only  a 
handful  are  left,  who  seem  ill  at  ease,  and  reluctant  to 
set  foot  on  so  narrow  a  bridge.  Mohammed  inquires 
why  they  linger,  and  is  informed  that  they  are  the 
wicked  Moslems,  who,  having  now  been  smitten  with  a 
sense  of  their  misdoings,  and  realizing  that  their  virtue 
will  not  suffice  to  help  them  over  the  abyss,  are  await- 


88  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

ing  the  Prophet's  pleasure  on  this  side  in  fear  and  mis- 
giving. Mohammed  looks  stern,  and  rebukes  them 
for  their  neglect  of  his  rule  and  ordinances  ;  then  smiles 
a  little  to  himself,  and  in  a  moment  is  across  the  bridge 
and  among  them,  dressed  as  a  shepherd  and  wearing  a 
large  sheepskin  cloak  with  the  woolly  side  turned  out- 
wards. With  a  wave  of  his  hand  he  turns  the  repentant 
sinners  into  fleas.  Eagerly  they  jump  upon  him,  and 
bury  themselves  in  the  wool  of  his  cloak;  and  Mo- 
hammed, laden  with  forgiven  souls,  slowly  and  thought- 
fully recrosses  the  bridge,  and  with  his  burden  disappears 
whence  he  came. 


CHAPTER   V. 

JERUSALEM.     II. 

Not  far  from  the  middle  of  the  city,  which  is  best 
defined  as  where  the  street  of  David  intersects  that  of 
the  Damascus  Gate,  two  domes  of  unequal  size  emerge 
from  the  midst  of  a  confused  and  indistinguishable 
cluster  of  buildings.  They  are  not  lofty,  these  domes  ; 
but  at  a  distance,  perhaps  because  they  are  such  an  ill- 
matched  pair,  they  never  fail  to  attract  attention. 
They  are  the  domes  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  ;  and  they  have  played  an  appreciable  part, 
not  only  in  the  history  of  that  edifice,  but  also  in  the 
causes  of  the  Crimean  war,  which  began,  as  Kinglake 
says,  "  in  the  heart  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
itself"  As  sign-posts,  however,  they  are  hardly  ade- 
quate, since,  on  being  approached,  they  vanish  ;  and  as 
the  Sepulchre,  unlike  that  ever-present  landmark,  the 
Haram,  chooses  to  seek  seclusion  within  a  labyrinth  of 
tortuous  streets,  it  needs  a  good  knowledge  of  the 
intricacies  of  the  Frank  quarter  to  bring  one  to  the 
little  doors  of  the  famous  courtyard,  that  courtyard 
which  forms,  as  it  were,  the  lobby  of  the  church,  and 
alone  gives  access  to  it.  For  the  heart  and  citadel  of 
Christian  Jerusalem  is  well  guarded  :  no  side  of  it  is 
open  to  the  street,  from  no  place  can  it  be  seen  in  its 


90  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

entirety.  Chapels  and  hostels,  convents  and  patri- 
archates, cling  to  it  with  limpet-like  tenacity,  masking 
its  outline,  and  concealing  from  view  every  part  of  it 
save  the  two-storied,  golden-brown,  Romanesque  facade, 
in  whose  upper  windows  Armenian  monks  can  generally 
be  seen  looking  down  upon  the  lively  scene  below. 

To  one  entering  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre  for 
the  first  time,  its  sights  and  contents,  however  fully 
anticipated,  cannot  but  convey  a  feeling  of  intense 
bewilderment.  He  sees  vague  aisles  stretching  away  in 
the  dim  obscurity  until  they  end  in  solid  blackness  ;  he 
guesses  at,  rather  than  sees,  mysterious  chapels  from 
which  proceed  strange  sounds,  the  plaintive  wailing  of 
the  wretched  cripples  who  haunt  them  as  it  blends  with 
the  nasal  chant  of  some  quaint  eastern  ritual.  Here 
are  babbling  Orthodox  priests  bustling  about  with  an  air 
of  proprietorship,  a  stolid  band  of  moujiks  in  their 
train  ;  there,  Franciscans  of  the  familiar  western  type 
side  by  side  with  coal-black  monks  from  distant 
Abyssinia.  In  one  corner  men  and  women  are  pro- 
strating themselves  at  some  sacred  spot  in  the  utter 
abandonment  of  adoration,  and  evidently  under  the 
stress  of  deep  emotion  ;  in  another  a  cheery  family  is 
squatting  on  the  ground,  unconcernedly  eating  its  mid- 
day meal.  A  group  of  European  tourists  passes  by 
him,  closely  followed  by  a  stately  patriarchal  procession, 
the  twentieth  century  succeeded  by  the  twelfth  ;  and, 
strangest  of  all,  high  up  in  the  galleries  of  the  big 
dome,  the  inmates  of  many  convents  are  watching  his 
movements  from  the  windows  of  their  bedrooms,  which 
open  into  and  overlook  that  part  of  the  building  which 
contains  the  very  Sepulchre  itself  The  contrasts  and 
anomalies  to  be  met  with  at  every  turn  may  well  ama?:e 


JERUSALEM.    II.  91 

even  the  most  indifferent ;  and  he  who  would  properly 
grasp  and  co-ordinate  in  his  brain  the  manifold  phases 
of  this  most  remarkable  of  religious  establishments, 
must  needs  return  to  it  many  times.  It  is  misleading 
to  call  the  Sepulchre  a  church,  for  it  means  and  contains 
much  more  than  is  commonly  understood  by  the  word. 
In  the  first  place  it  is  a  perfect  example  of  the  true 
mediaeval  cathedral,  that  comprehensive  scheme  which 
included,  in  addition  to  the  building  actually  set  apart 
for  the  celebration  of  the  liturgy,  the  dependent  schools 
and  orphanages,  hospitals  and  residences,  wherein 
religious  and  secular  life  could  be  lived  side  by  side. 
Secondly,  it  is  the  gathering-place  of  every  form  of 
Catholicism,  eastern  and  western,  a  home  of  strange 
races  and  forgotten  heresies,  a  very  Babel  of  Christianity 
in  which  Armenian  and  Jacobite,  Copt  and  Abyssinian, 
have  their  place  as  well  as  Latin  and  Orthodox. 
Thirdly,  it  is  the  incorporation,  under  a  single  roof,  of 
many  churches,  commemorating  many  sites.  In  his 
Life  of  Constandne  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  describes  how 
"  contrary  to  all  expectation  "  the  tomb  of  the  Saviour 
was  discovered  in  the  reign  of  that  Emperor  "  beneath 
a  gloomy  shrine  of  lifeless  idols  to  the  impure  spirit 
whom  they  (certain  impious  and  godless  persons)  call 
Venus."  At  about  the  same  time  Constantine's  mother 
Helena,  then  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  found  the 
True  Cross  at  a  spot  near  by.  Over  the  sites  of  these 
discoveries  two  churches  were  erected  close  to  each 
other,  and  close  to  a  small  hill  which  was  already  being 
venerated  as  the  scene  of  the  Crucifixion.  Chosroes 
the  Persian  destroyed  them  in  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century  ;  and  when,  soon  after,  they  were 
rebuilt,  a  church  of  Calvary  arose  beside  them,  followed 


92  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

in  course  of  time  by  several  other  religious  edifices. 
The  little  group  of  holy  places  thus  brought  into  being 
suffered  many  vicissitudes  in  the  ensuing  centuries,  was 
twice  damaged  by  fire  and  once  by  Moslems,  was 
rebuilt  and  was  again  destroyed,  this  time  by  the 
Crusaders,  who  thought  that  sites  of  such  sanctity  were 
deserving  of  worthier  housing.  But  instead  of  re- 
erecting  a  number  of  separate  churches,  they  proceeded 
to  enclose  within  the  walls  of  one  large  Romanesque 
building  almost  every  locality  connected  with  the  last 
scenes  of  our  Lord's  Passion.  It  is  this  building 
which,  subject  to  many  changes  and  additions,  exists 
to-day,  although  from  without  only  the  fa9ade  is 
visible.  A  triple  row  of  convents  encircles  it  on 
every  other  side,  invaded  in  places  by  its  outlying 
chapels  and  sanctuaries,  in  others  throwing  out, 
octopus-like,  wings  and  passages,  corridors  and  refec- 
tories, into  its  innermost  recesses.  It  is  a  world  in 
itself,  self-contained  and  self-sufficient.  Hundreds  live 
within  its  walls  ;  and  it  can  well  be  believed  that  not 
a  few  of  these  have,  for  a  generation  or  more,  never 
quitted  its  precincts  except  to  watch,  now  and  again, 
for  an  hour  or  so,  the  busy  chaffering  and  motley 
crowd  in  the  courtyard  outside. 

The  courtyard  is  bounded  on  either  side  by  monas- 
teries, principally  Orthodox,  and  of  no  great  beauty  or 
interest,  except  that  in  one  is  the  Sepulchre  pied  a  terre 
of  the  Church  of  England.  In  the  north-east  corner, 
however,  a  small  two-storied  chapel  projects  pictur- 
esquely, its  arches  modelled  on  those  of  the  fa9ade.  At 
the  foot  of  the  steps  which  lead  up  to  it,  and  level  with 
the  flags  which  pave  the  court,  lies  an  interesting  relic, 
the  tombstone  of  an  English  knight,  Philip  d'Aubigny, 


COURTYARD,    HOLY    SEPULCHRE 


Kacins  p.  92. 


JERUSALEM.    II.  93 

only  survivor  of  the  numerous  Crusading  memorials 
banished  by  the  intolerance  of  the  Greeks.  Fortunately 
the  porch  has  been  preserved  from  vandalism  ;  its  bas- 
reliefs  are  admirable  examples  of  the  transition  from 
Romanesque  to  Gothic  sculpture,  and  depict  the  entry 
into  Jerusalem  and  the  raising  of  Lazarus  with  the  na"ff 
realism  of  the  twelfth  century  craftsman  (who  was  then 
also  artist).  Within  the  porch  are  stationed  officious 
Greek  priests,  who  endeavour  by  their  ostentatious 
demeanour  to  show  that  theirs  is  the  preponderance  in 
this  cosmopolitan  encampment;  behind  them  is  a 
small  group  of  men,  silent  and  unobtrusive,  whose  pre- 
sence they  suffer  unwillingly,  although  without  them  they 
would  many  a  time  have  come  to  grief  These  are  the 
Turkish  guardians  of  the  Sepulchre,  members  of  an 
ancient  and  aristocratic  institution,  who,  in  an  unusually 
difficult  position,  maintain  the  courteous  dignity  of  their 
race.  Day  by  day  they  sit  smoking  their  narghiles  on  a 
low  wooden  platform,  and  take  no  notice  of  the  crowd 
as  it  comes  and  goes  save  to  answer  an  inquiry  or  to 
return  a  greeting.  In  times  of  turmoil,  however,  it  was 
different :  there  have  been  days  when  strife  was  frequent 
between  the  rival  sects  within  the  Sepulchre,  and  when 
the  firm  hand  of  the  Moslem  was  constantly  required  to 
keep  the  Christians  from  each  other's  throats.  Now, 
happily,  things  have  changed  for  the  better  ;  and  when, 
not  very  long  ago,  in  the  house  of  the  Anglican  Bishop 
in  Jerusalem,  the  Chief  Qadi  presented  the  Chief  Rabbi 
to  the  recently-appointed  Latin  Patriarch  with  the 
words  :  "  Here  is  the  Qoran  introducing  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  New,"  it  was  a  sign  that  the  bitter  religious 
animosity  for  which  Jerusalem  had  long  been  a  byword 
Avas  beginning  to  die  out. 


94  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

As   one  enters   the  church  by   the  vestibule   of  the 
Turkish  guards,  one  encounters  an  object  which,  while 
of  no  great  intrinsic  interest,  should  not  be  passed  by 
unnoticed,  because  it  illustrates  very  markedly  two  of 
the   Sepulchre's    most    characteristic   features.     It    is   a 
large,  oblong  slab  of  pink  marble,  set  in  the  ground,  and 
surrounded  by  a  garland  of  heavy  silver  hanging  lamps. 
It  was  brought  here  in  the  beginning  of  last  century  to 
replace  another  stone  which,  together  with  a  great  part 
of  the  building,  was  destroyed  in  the  disastrous  fire  of 
1808,  and  had  been  revered,  in  succession  to  several 
others,  as  the  'Stone  of  Unction'  on  which  Nicodemus 
is  said  to  have  laid  the  body  of  Jesus  when  he  anointed 
it  for  burial.     It  is  always  surrounded  by  pilgrims,  who 
reverently   kiss   it,   touch    it   with   their  foreheads,   lay 
rosaries  upon   it,  and  clearly  regard  it  as  a  very   holy 
thing.      It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  vexed  ques- 
tion of  the  authenticity  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.     For 
centuries  it  has  been  regarded  as  the  place  where  our 
Lord's  body  was  laid  to  rest ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  any 
conclusive  proof  to  the  contrary,  it  would  be  presump- 
tuous  to   dismiss   as    superstitious    or    unthinking   the 
devotion  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  look  upon 
it  as  the  most  sacred  spot  upon  earth.     But  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  in  the  course  of  years  the  influence  of  the 
priests  of  the  Sepulchre  has  been  used  to  invest  in  the 
minds  of  the  pilgrims  a   number  of  less  accepted  sites 
and  relics  with  similar,  if  not  equal  sanctity  ;  and  the 
devoted  pilgrims,  always  glad  of  additional  calls  upon 
their  piety,  have  accepted,  with  a  lack  of  discernment  for 
which  no  man   can   blame  them,  whatever  their  clergy 
have  told  them.     A  seventeenth-century  traveller  cata- 
logues with  astonishment  the  number  of  "  places  conse- 


JERUSALEM.    II.  95 

crated  to  a  more  than  ordinary  veneration,  by  being 
reputed  to  have  some  particular  actions  done  in  them 
relating  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ — as, 
first,  the  place  where  He  was  derided  by  the  soldiers; 
secondly,  where  the  soldiers  divided  His  garments  ; 
thirdly,  where  He  was  shut  up  whilst  they  digged  the 
hole  to  set  the  foot  of  the  cross  in,  and  made  all  ready 
for  His  crucifixion  ;  fourthly,  where  He  was  nailed  to 
the  cross  ;  fifthly,  where  the  cross  was  erected  ;  sixthly, 
where  the  soldiers  stood  that  pierced  His  side  ;  seventhly, 
where  His  body  was  anointed  in  order  to  His  burial ; 
eighthly,  where  His  body  was  deposited  in  the  Sepulchre; 
ninthly,  where  the  angels  appeared  to  the  women  after 
His  resurrection  ;  where  Christ  Himself  appeared  to 
Mary  Magdalen,  etc.  The  places  where  these  and  many 
other  things  relating  to  our  blessed  Lord  are  said  to 
have  been  done,  are  all  supposed  to  be  contained  within 
the  narrow  precincts  of  this  church,  and  are  all  dis- 
tinguished and  adorned  with  so  many  several  altars." 
The  result  of  this  process  is  seen  to-day  in  the  venera- 
tion accorded  to  a  number  of  ill-authenticated  objects, 
not  the  least  among  which  is  the  Stone  of  Unction. 
The  reverence  lavished  on  that  relic,  which  was  placed 
in  its  present  position  not  much  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  is  a  good  example  of  the  lengths  to  which  the 
pilgrims'  simple  faith  will  go. 

The  second  characteristic  is  the  mathematical  pre- 
cision with  which  are  defined,  in  accordance  with  nume- 
rous compromises,  agreements,  and  treaties,  the  position, 
the  rights,  and  the  property  of  the  Sepulchre's  com- 
ponent nationalities.  Although  the  Latins  rebuilt  the 
Sepulchre  unaided,  they  were  not  long  left  in  sole 
possession.     One  after   another   the   representatives   of 


96  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

other  churches  began  to  struggle  for  a  foothold  within 
it.  The  first  to  come  were  the  Greeks,  who  were  fol- 
lowed in  rapid  succession  by  Jacobites,  Armenians, 
Nestorians,  Maronites,  Copts,  Abyssinians,  and  Geor- 
gians. To  all  of  these  definite  quarters  were  assigned, 
and  all  paid  a  considerable  rent  to  the  Mohammedan 
masters  of  Jerusalem,  which  seems  to  have  become, 
after  a  while,  too  great  a  strain  on  the  resources  of  the 
poorer  among  them.  The  Nestorians  have  long  since 
disappeared,  and  the  Maronites  withdrew  during  the 
troubles  which  beset  their  native  Lebanon  in  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  The  Georgians  ceased  to  be  repre- 
sented separately  when  that  interesting  people  was 
conquered  by  the  Russians  ;  and  the  Jacobites  appear 
to  leave  their  chapel  empty  and  untended.  When 
Henry  Maundrell,  sometime  Fellow  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford,  and  chaplain  to  the  English  Factory  at 
Aleppo,  visited  Jerusalem  in  1697,  he  found  that  the 
Copts,  whom  he  calls  Cophtites,  had  "  only  one  poor 
representative  of  their  nation  left,"  and  that  the 
Armenians  "  are  run  so  much  in  debt  that  it  is  sup- 
posed they  are  hastening  apace  to  follow  the  example 
of  their  brethren,  who  have  deserted  before  them." 
Oddly  enough,  the  good  Maundrell's  anticipations  have 
not  been  fulfilled,  for  since  his  time  both  Copts  and 
Armenians  have  revived  considerably.  The  Coptic 
colony  to-day  is  small  but  solvent,  and  the  Armenians 
are  now  as  firmly  established  as  either  the  Latins  or  the 
Greeks.  The  two  latter  are,  of  course,  the  principal 
partners,  and  the  many  battles  of  the  Sepulchre  have 
been  fought  partly  to  assure  this  position  against  their 
weaker  brethren,  partly  to  contest  for  the  primacy  be- 
tween themselves;  although  in  justice  to  the  Latins  it 


JERUSALEM.    II.  97 

must  be  stated  that  the  aggressors  have  almost  invari- 
ably been  the  Greeks.  By  now,  however,  the  respec- 
tive domains  of  all  have  been  carefully  mapped  out. 
The  courtyard,  the  porch,  and  the  chapel  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  are  common  property;  and  the  remaining 
items  have  been  divided  among  the  six  Churches  in  pro- 
portion to  the  ability  of  those  who  originally  had  them 
to  maintain  their  hold.  And  the  regulations  governing 
those  parts  which  are  held  in  common  are  a  study  in 
minute  elaboration.  The  hours  at  which  mass  according 
to  the  different  rites  may  be  said  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Sepulchre  are  rigidly  fixed  and  time-tabled,  as  are  the 
times  when  processions  may  defile  around  it.  Rules 
devised  with  an  ingenuity  well  worthy  of  Greek 
theologians  exist  for  every  purpose,  and  for  every 
place  ;  but  nowhere  can  the  extent  to  which  detail 
is  pursued  be  seen  better  than  in  the  Stone  of 
Unction,  where  tradition,  now  codified  into  unbreak- 
able law,  lays  down  how  many  lamps  shall  burn  above 
it,  and  by  whom,  and  in  what  proportions,  they  shall 
be  owned. 

Lamps  also  play  an  important  part  in  the  chapel  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre.  This  chapel  is  to  the  church 
what  the  Sakhra  is  to  the  Dome  of  the  Rock.  It 
stands  alone  in  the  middle  of  the  Rotunda  (a  circular 
edifice  which,  together  with  the  adjoining  large  rect- 
angular building,  now  the  Cathedral  of  the  Greeks, 
formed  the  principal  part  of  the  Crusaders'  church),  and 
consists  of  two  small  chambers.  The  first  to  be  entered 
is  called  the  Angels'  chapel,  and  from  it  a  low  door 
gives  access  to  the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
properly  so-called,  in  which  the  tomb-stone  itself,  con- 
cealed from  the  earliest  times  beneath  slabs  of  marble, 


98  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

serves  as  altar.  In  both,  nearly  all  the  available  space 
is  taken  up  by  rows  of  beautiful  and  massive  silver 
lamps,  which  make  the  air  heavy  with  the  scent  of 
their  perfumed  oil.  Both  rooms  are  so  tiny  that  they 
will  barely  contain  more  than  three  or  four  people  at  a 
time ;  and  the  Orthodox  monk  who  sells  candles  at  the 
entrance  often  finds  himself  compelled  to  cut  short 
with  marked  lack  of  ceremony  the  devotions  of  those 
who  would  linger  within  longer  than  is  compatible  with 
the  exigencies  of  his  trade. 

At  the  Greek  Easter  this  chapel  is  the  scene  of  what 
is  known  as  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Fire,  one  of 
the  most  ancient  and  most  remarkable  ceremonies  of  the 
Christian  Church.  On  Easter  Eve  all  the  clergy  of  the 
Sepulchre,  by  common  consent,  expedite  their  offices  so 
as  to  leave  the  Rotunda  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks,!  who,  bearing  aloft  their  banners,  begin  to 
move  round  it  in  long  and  slow  procession.  The 
Russian  Consul  is  there,  supported  by  his  Cossack 
gavasses,  and  at  the  end  is  borne  the  Patriarch,  who 
moves  three  times  round  the  chapel,  and  then  enters 
alone.  All  lights  are  extinguished,  and  the  dense  crowd, 
which  has  been  in  the  church  since  the  previous  even- 
ing, awaits  the  miracle  in  feverish  suspense.  Suddenly 
a  shout  is  heard.  A  brand  lit  by  the  fire  which  has 
come  down  from  heaven  is  being  pushed  by  a  shaking 
hand  through  one  of  the  windows  of  the  chapel,  and  a 
frenzied  rush  is  made  by  the  crowd,  each  one  trying 
desperately  to  be  the  first  to  light  his  taper  from  it,  and 
thus  ensure  his  eternal  salvation.      In  the  indescribable 

^  For  centuries  the  Armenians  participated  with  the  Greeks  in  the 
celebration  of  the  miracle,  but,  after  a  long  period  of  hesitation,  they 
some  years  ago  committed  themselves  definitely  against  it. 


JERUSALEM.    II.  9» 

tumult  which  follows,  people  are  trampled  under  foot 
unmercifully  ;  and  only  those  run  no  risk  of  being 
killed  who  are  watching  from  the  galleries  above. 
Curzon,  in  his  Visits  to  the  Monasteries  of  the  Le- 
vant^ gives  a  vivid  description  of  the  performance  of 
the  miracle  on  the  disastrous  Easter  of  1834,  in  the 
presence  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  then  fresh  from  his  victories 
against  the  Turks.  17,000  pilgrims  were  supposed  to 
be  in  Jerusalem  at  the  time,  and  the  crowd  within  the 
church  was  almost  unprecedented,  Ibrahim  was  accom- 
modated in  the  gallery  of  the  Franciscan  convent,  "  and 
it  being  announced  that  the  Mohammedan  Pasha 
was  ready,  the  Christian  miracle,  which  had  been 
waiting  for  some  time,  was  now  on  the  point  of  being 
displayed." 

Owing  to  the  delay  which  had  taken  place,  the  people 
were  more  than  usually  excited  ;  and  after  the  miracle 
had  been  performed,  and  the  Patriarch  had  been  carried 
out  of  the  chapel  in  the  simulated  state  of  semi-con- 
sciousness affected  on  these  occasions  "  that  the  pilgrims 
may  imagine  he  is  overcome  with  the  glory  of  the 
Almighty,  from  whose  immediate  presence  they  believe 
him  to  have  returned,"  pandemonium  broke  loose.  The 
panic  increased  when  the  guards  outside,  thinking  that 
the  Christians  intended  an  attack  on  them,  rushed  into 
the  church,  and  began  to  use  their  bayonets.  Three 
hundred,  says  Curzon,  were  carried  to  their  burial  the 
next  morning,  and  two  hundred  more  were  badly 
wounded.  Ibrahim  himself  barely  escaped  with  his  life. 
Even  in  the  galleries  all  was  not  well  :  "  Three  unhappy 
people,  overcome  by  heat  and  bad  air,  fell  from  the 
upper  range  of  galleries,  and  were  dashed  to  pieces  on 
the  heads  of  the  people  below.     One  poor  Armenian 


100  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

lady,  seventeen  years   of  age,   died  where   she   sat,  of 
heat,  thirst,  and  fatigue." 

Probably  neither  before  nor  since  have  the  numbers 
of  dead  and  wounded  on  that  occasion  been  equalled  or 
even  approached.  A  limited  number  of  casualties  is, 
however,  almost  always  inevitable ;  and  as  the  miracle 
has  been  practised  since  the  ninth  century,  and  possibly 
even  earlier,  it  must  have  caused,  in  the  course  of  its 
history,  a  very  considerable  loss  of  life.  The  first 
description  of  it,  given  by  the  Breton  monk,  Bernard 
the  Wise,  in  867,  states  that  "an  angel  comes  and 
lights  the  lamps  which  hang  over  the  aforesaid 
sepulchre ;  of  which  light  the  patriarch  gives  their 
shares  to  the  bishops  and  to  the  rest  of  the  people,  that 
each  may  illuminate  his  own  house."  One  hundred 
and  forty  years  later  its  practice  involved  the  Chris- 
tians of  Jerusalem  in  great  disaster.  A  certain  monk 
named  John,  having  been  refused  consecration  as 
Bishop  by  the  Patriarch,  and  desiring  to  be  revenged, 
presented  himself  in  Cairo  before  Khalif  Hakim,  then 
at  the  height  of  his  madness,  and  told  him  that  "  when 
the  Christians  assembled  in  their  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
to  celebrate  Easter,  the  chaplains  of  the  church,  making 
use  of  a  pious  fraud,  greased  the  chain  of  iron  that  held 
the  lamp  over  the  tomb  with  oil  of  balsam  ;  and  that, 
when  the  Arab  officer  had  sealed  up  the  door  which  led 
to  the  tomb,  they  applied  a  match,  through  the  roof,  to 
the  other  extremity  of  the  chain,  and  the  fire  descended 
immediately  to  the  wick  of  the  lamp  and  lighted  it. 
Then  the  worshippers  burst  into  tears  and  cried  out 
kyrie  e/eison,  supposing  it  was  fire  which  fell  from  heaven 
upon  the  tomb  ;  and  they  were  thus  strengthened  in 
their  faith."     He  also  accused  his  enemy,  the  Patriarch, 


JERUSALEM.    II.  101 

of  trying  to  usurp  the  Khalif's  authority  ;  whereupon 
Hakim  gave  orders  for  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre  to 
be  destroyed,  and  the  Patriarch  to  be  arrested.  As  for 
the  monk  John,  his  subsequent  career  is  not  recorded  ; 
but  when,  shortly  before  his  death,  Hakim  relented 
toward  the  Christians,  one  may  well  imagine  the  Khalif's 
playful  fancy  devising  for  the  would-be  Bishop  some  not 
inappropriate  reward. 

Another  and  greater  eastern  king  is  also  connected 
with  the  Holy  Fire.  On  Easter  Eve,  1192,  "  Saladin, 
with  his  retinue,  paid  a  visit  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  of 
our  Lord,  to  assure  himself  of  the  truth  of  a  certain 
fact,  namely,  the  coming  down  from  heaven  of  fire, 
once  a  year,  to  light  the  lamp.  After  he  had  watched 
for  some  time,  with  great  attention,  the  devotion  and 
contrition  of  many  Christian  captives,  who  were  praying 
for  the  mercy  of  God,  he  and  all  the  other  Turks 
suddenly  saw  the  divine  fire  descend  and  light  the  lamp, 
so  that  they  were  vehemently  moved,  while  the 
Christians  rejoiced,  and  with  loud  voices  praised  the 
mighty  works  of  God.  But  the  Saracens  disbelieved 
this  manifest  and  wonderful  miracle,  though  they 
witnessed  it  with  their  own  eyes,  and  asserted  that  it 
was  a  fraudulent  contrivance.  To  assure  himself  of 
this,  Saladin  ordered  the  lamp  to  be  extinguished  ; 
which,  however,  was  instantly  rekindled  by  the  divine 
power  :  and  when  the  infidel  ordered  it  to  be  ex- 
tinguished a  second  time  it  was  lighted  a  second  time  ; 
and  so  likewise  a  third  time." 

"  God  is  all-patient,"  continues  the  chronicler  ;  "  of 
what  use  is  it  to  fight  against  the  invincible  power  ? 
There  is  no  counsel  against  God,  nor  is  there  any  one 
who   can   resist   His  will.     Saladin,  wondering  at  this 


102  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

miraculous  vision,  and  the  faith  and  devotion  of  the 
Christians,  and  exceedingly  moved,  asserted  by  the 
spirit  of  prophecy,  that  he  should  either  die  or  lose 
possession  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  And  his  prophecy 
was  fulfilled  ;  for  he  died  the  Lent  following."  ^ 

To  describe  fully  all  that  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre 
contains  would   require  a  volume.      Of  the  chapels  of 
Calvary,  a  flight  of  steps  above  the  floor  of  the  church, 
it  will  suffice  to  say  that  they  are  a  blaze  of  gold,  silver, 
and  mosaic  ;  of  the  chapel  of  St.  Helena,  a  flight  below, 
sombre  and   bare,  with  its  curious  dome  and  massive 
columns,  that   it   is   a   worthy   specimen   of  Byzantine 
austerity.     But  pass  through  the  Greek  patriarchate  and 
on  the  roof  of  the  church,  and  you  will  see  a  strange 
and    unexpected    sight.     Below    you   is   a    large   stone 
court   or    platform,    in   the   middle   of  which   rises   an 
object  somewhat  resembling  the  up-turned  half  of  an 
egg.     Around  the  sides  of  the  platform  are  some  hut- 
like excrescences  from  which  small   black   objects  can 
occasionally   be   seen   to   emerge  ;    similar   small    black 
objects    are    scattered    about    the    court,   some   in    the 
corners,  others  against  the  up-turned  egg  in  the  middle. 
It  is  some  time  before  you  realize  the  significance  of  the 
scene.     The  court  is  no  less  than  the  flat  roof  of  St. 
Helena's  chapel,  and  the  thing  in  the  middle  its  pro- 
jecting dome.     The  small  black  objects  are  Abyssinian 
monks,  who  have  chosen  this,  of  all  places,  for  their 
humble   abode.     Around   the   sides  they   have  erected 
huts  of  the  most  primitive  kind ;  and  here  these  gentle, 
timid,  and  unassuming  people  spend  their  time  labori- 
ously  deciphering   the   books   of  their   scanty   library. 
They  are  very  poor,  and  live  principally  on  flat  bread 
^Itinerarium  regis  Ricardi,  v.,  xvi. 


CHAPEL    OF    ST.     HELENA 


THE    ABYSSINIAN    MONASTERY    ON    THE    ROOF    OF    ST.     HELENAS    CHAPEL 

Facing  p.   102 


JERUSALEM.    II.  103 

and  water  ;  most  of  them  go  barefooted  ;  and  their 
dress  consists  of  nothing  more  than  the  usual  rimless 
high  hat  and  a  tunic  of  washleather  or  black  cloth, 
encased  by  a  broad  belt.  On  feast-days,  however,  they 
sometimes  emerge  from  their  retreat  to  indulge  in  the 
dissipation  of  an  ecclesiastical  procession.  Arrayed  in  a 
variety  of  vestments,  mostly  presented  by  sympathetic 
visitors,  and  emitting  strange  noises,  they  dance  round 
in  circles  to  the  beating  of  cymbals  ;  finally,  they  repair 
to  one  of  the  chapels  assigned  to  them  inside  the 
Sepulchre,  where,  at  an  altar  laden  with  icons  depicting 
black-faced  saints,  they  proceed  to  the  celebration  of 
their  service.  God  and  His  angels  and  all  His  saints, 
they  firmly  believe,  are  black ;  and  They  figure  in  their 
illuminated  manuscripts,  some  of  which  are  of  the 
greatest  interest,  with  complexions  of  brownish  red. 
Maundeville's  description  of  the  Abyssinians  is  suffi- 
ciently amusing  to  be  worth  quoting  :  "  In  Ethiopia," 
he  says,  "  all  the  rivers  and  waters  are  troubled,  and 
•somewhat  salt,  for  the  great  heat  that  is  there.  And  the 
people  of  that  country  are  easily  intoxicated,  and  have 
but  little  appetite  for  meat.  And  they  are  afflicted  with 
■dysenteries  and  live  not  long.  In  Ethiopia  the  children, 
when  young,  are  all  yellow  ;  and  when  they  grow  older 
that  yellowness  turns  to  black."  In  addition  to  their 
roof-convent,  the  Abyssinians  have  another  settlement 
in  the  suburbs,  outside  the  walls  ;  and  here,  too,  is  the 
house,  known  to  the  irreverent  as  the  "  Palace  of  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,"  which  was  built  for  the  Empress 
Taitu,  wife  of  Menelik,  when  she  proposed  to  visit 
Jerusalem  a  few  years  ago. 

As  it  is  in   this  quarter  that  the  hospices  and  other 
establishments  of  the  principal  European   missions  are 


104  THE  FRINGE   OF   THE  EAST 

situated,  it  may  be  well  to  give  some  account  of  these, 
and,  what  is  more  important,  of  the  politics  they  practise. 
Jerusalem  politics  are  almost  entirely  religious — that  is 
to  say,  they  are  concerned  with  the  efforts  of  Russia, 
France,  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  of  Prussia,  to  establish 
their  influence  in  Palestine  by  means  of  religious  propa- 
ganda. The  first  to  enjoy  the  position  of  the  most- 
favoured  nation  were  undoubtedly  the  French.  From 
the  Crusading  days  of  gesta  del  per  francos  to  the  sixties 
of  the  last  century,  when  Napoleon  III.  sent  troops  to 
protect  the  Christians  in  Syria  after  the  massacres  in 
Damascus,  France  claimed  to  be  the  guardian  of  Roman 
Catholic  interests  in  the  East,  and  even  now  hesitates 
to  abandon  that  position.  French  anti-clerical  policy, 
initiated  at  the  French  Revolution,  partially  approved 
by  Napoleon  I.,  passionately  advocated  by  Gambetta, 
and  culminating  in  the  Combes-Briand  measures,  has 
naturally  detracted  somewhat  from  the  potency  of  this 
claim,  although  Gambetta's  celebrated  war-cry,  '^  Le 
cler'icalisme^  voila  V ennemi^''  was  admittedly  only  for  home 
consumption.  At  important  Roman  Catholic  functions 
Italian  Consuls  have  now  taken  the  place  of  French  ;  and 
the  Latin  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  an  Italian,  dispenses,  as 
a  rule,  with  French  intervention  in  his  dealings  with 
the  Ottoman  Government.^ 

Very  different  is  the  policy  of  Russia.  The  Russian 
Government  wisely  sees  that  in  the  simple  piety  of  its 
vast  peasant   population   it   possesses   a   most   valuable 

^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  the  rights  inherited  by  the 
Latin  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  as  successor  to  the  "  Custodian  of  the 
Holy  Land,"  is  that  of  maintaining  a  merchant  marine  flying  his  own 
flag  {cf.  Young,  Corps  de  Droit  Ottoman,  Vol.  IL).  This  flag,  argent  a 
cross  potent  between  four  crosses  gules,  was  flown  by  Christian-owned 
Cypriot  vessels  prior  to  the  British  occupation. 


JERUSALEM.    II.  105 

political  asset.  Every  year  thousands  of  pilgrims  from 
all  parts  of  Russia  leave  Odessa  for  the  Holy  Land  ;  and 
as  they  are  helpless  and  unused  to  travel,  what  is  more 
natural  than  that  a  paternal  Government  should  take 
steps  to  provide  for  their  comfort  and  accommodation  .'' 
On  the  brow  of  an  eminence  to  the  north-west  of  the 
city  was  once  the  Crusaders'  encampment,  whence  the 
knights  were  wont  to  descend  "a  grand  vacarme  de 
timbales  et  de  nacaires " ;  now  its  place  is  taken  by 
the  encampment  of  a  nation  whose  ambitions  in  the 
East  are  pursued  with  equal  enterprise.  A  large  con- 
sulate, larger  cathedral,  several  barrack-like  hospices^ 
capable  of  holding  the  population  of  a  small  town, 
together  with  hospital,  dispensary,  priests'  quarters, 
and  mission-house,  make  a  formidable  outpost,  when 
backed  by  a  ready  flow  of  money  and  a  constant 
stream  of  men.  Every  moujik  who  comes  to  Palestine 
with  the  hard-earned  savings  of  a  lifetime,  carefully 
put  by  for  the  happy  day  when,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
he  will  be  allowed  to  offer  them  up  at  the  Holy 
Places,  is  by  reason  of  his  blind  and  ardent  faith  a 
perfectly  disciplined  soldier,  enriching  the  institutions, 
and  increasing  the  prestige  of  his  country.  He  comes 
in  his  thousands,  year  by  year,  walking  from  Jaffa,  that 
he  may  have  the  more  to  give  to  the  wealthy  convents 
in  and  around  Jerusalem.  There  are  several  such  on  the 
road  to  Jericho,  and  in  each  one  that  he  visits  he  will 
leave  five,  ten,  and  sometimes  twenty  roubles,  much  for 
a  man  who  in  a  lifetime  has  only  saved  three  hundred. 

1  The  pilgrims  are  not  accommodated  free,  but  pay  so  much  a  day 
for  board  and  lodging.  There  are  three  types  of  hospice,  one  for  the 
well-to-do,  one  for  those  of  moderate  means,  and  one  for  the  poor,  and 
the  charges  vary  accordingly. 


106  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

It  cannot  justly  be  said  that  he  is  exploited,  because  to 
give  to  those  who  minister  at  Gospel  sites  is  his  greatest 
joy.  Watch  him  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
with  his  awkward  but  fervent  gestures,  with  a  look  of 
ardent  faith  illuminating  what  might  otherwise  seem  a 
dull  and  heavy  countenance,  and  compare  the  desperate 
earnestness  of  his  prayers  with  the  more  perfunctory 
devotions  of  the  sprightlier  Greek. 

These  people  are  not  trained  in  the  cold,  intellectual 
religion  of  the  reformed  North.  At  the  cost  of  great 
privations,  in  the  face  of  countless  difficulties,  with  much 
quiet  heroism  and  endurance,  they  painfully  wend  their 
way  to  the  Holy  City,  bent  on  seeing  with  their  own 
eyes,  on  touching  with  their  own  hands,  things  which 
their  Saviour  has  seen  and  touched,  and  happy  if  they 
are  allowed  to  die  in  the  place  hallowed  by  His  cruci- 
fixion. What  matter  if  the  priests  be  unworthy  and  the 
shrines  a  fraud  ?  Faith  such  as  theirs,  if  it  is  not,  per- 
haps, the  most  reasoning  form  of  Christianity,  is  certainly 
worthy  of  all  respect.  One  may  sometimes  be  inclined 
to  smile  at  the  simplicity  with  which  they  believe  whatever 
they  are  told  or  shown  ;  but  when  one  has  seen  them, 
on  arrival  in  Jerusalem  after  the  forty-mile  march  from 
Jaffa,  stand  around  in  a  circle  and  sing,  in  beautiful  har- 
mony, a  hymn  of  thanksgiving,  before  they  think  of 
rest,  one  cannot  but  admire  the  spirit  which  animates 
these  poor,  uneducated  people,  people  who  do  not  under- 
stand the  Filioque  clause  or  the  decisions  of  the  Council 
of  Nice,  but  who  show,  by  their  joyful  sacrifice  of  all 
they  possess,  that  they  understand  the  meaning  of  true 
religion. 

Such,  then,  is  the  material  of  Russia  for  her  new 
Crusade.     The  number  of  Russian  institutions  in  the 


JERUSALEM.    II.  107 

Holy    Land    is    growing    day    by    day,    and    there    is 
no  danger  of  their  being  allowed   to  suffer  from  want 
of  financial   support.      Russia,   to   use   a   colloquialism, 
"  does  things  well."     Her  Consuls  are  well  paid,  and 
supplied    with    an    imposing    escort  ;     her    Archiman- 
drite has  a  large   ecclesiastical  suite,   fully  in   keeping 
with    Jerusalem    traditions  ;i     her    pilgrim    colony    is 
patrolled  by  a  small  regiment  of  stalwart  Montenegrin 
guards,  kept  solely  for  the  purpose.     But  stronger  than 
any  outward  manifestation  of  wealth  or  power  is  the 
moral  force  underlying  the  pilgrim  movement.     There 
is  no  more  touching  episode  in  the  history  of  the  middle 
ages  than  that  which  is  known  as  the  Children's  Crusade. 
A  band  of  children,  impelled  by  crusading  enthusiasm, 
left  their  homes,  determined  to  fight  for  the  redemption 
of  the  Holy  Land  ;  and  no  remonstrances  were  able  to 
hold  them  back.     Young  and  helpless,  they  fell  into 
evil  hands,  and  not  one  of  them  ever  reached  his  desti- 
nation.    The  Russian  peasant  to-day,  in  many  ways  still 
a  child,  is  moved  by  much  the  same  spirit  as  were  the 
infants  who  streamed  to  Marseilles  and  Genoa  to  the 
war-cry  of  "  Lord  Jesus,  give  us  back  the  Holy  Cross  " 
seven  hundred  years  ago.     It  is  a  spirit  which  has  done 
much  in  the  past,  and  which  can  do  much  in  the  future. 
If  properly  handled,  it  may  become  a  very  formidable 
power ;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  Russia  realizes 
to  the  full  the  value  of  the  lever  which  she  possesses. 

Of  the  other  nationalities,  not  much  remains  to  be 
said.     The  Armenian  colony  is  large  and  flourishing, 

1  Every  Patriarch  has  a  suite  of  titular  Bishops,  or  matrans,  attached 
to  him,  whose  sole  function  it  is  to  enhance  his  dignity  by  their  pres- 
ence. The  more  important  the  Patriarch,  the  greater  the  number  of 
his  matrans. 


108  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

but  little  seen  outside  its  own  quarter.  The  establish- 
ments of  the  two  great  Catholic  powers,  Austria  and 
Italy,  are  exclusively  religious,  and  make  no  attempt  to 
acquire  political  influence.  The  Anglican  collegiate 
church  and  college  are  a  dignified  and  attractive 
group,  and  England  is  also  represented  by  the  oph- 
thalmic hospital  of  the  English  Knights  of  St.  John. 
Protestant  Germany,  owing  largely  to  the  energy  of 
William  H.,  is  rather  more  in  evidence,  possessing, 
besides  several  smaller  institutions,  the  large  Church  of 
the  Redeemer,  built  on  land  once  the  property  of  the 
Hospitallers,  and  presented  to  Prussia  by  the  Sultan  in 
1869.  It  somewhat  overshadows  the  Church  of  the 
Sepulchre,  which  is  only  a  few  yards  away  ;  but  from 
the  summit  of  its  tower,  better  than  anywhere  else,  you 
can  see  the  grey  old  city  lying  spread  at  your  feet,  and 
the  grey  old  hills  of  Judaea  fading  away  into  the  mists 
beyond. 

Every  Friday  afternoon  and  Saturday  morningthrough- 
out  the  year  there  can  be  witnessed  in  Jerusalem,  and 
has  been  witnessed  for  many  centuries,  a  scene  such  as 
only  the  unchanging  East  and  one  of  the  most  un- 
changing of  its  peoples  can  supply.  On  these  days 
there  is  an  air  of  unwonted  animation  in  the  streets. 
Many  strangely  and  sumptuously  clad  persons  are 
about,  some  wearing  kaftans  of  bright  blue  or  purple 
velvet,  and  large  fur-encircled  hats,  others  the  conven- 
tional Syrian  dress,  but  with  a  black  turban  tied  round 
the  fez.  All  seem  to  be  wending  their  way  in  the  same 
direction,  and  many  carry  old  and  well-thumbed  volumes 
which  have  the  appearance  of  books  of  prayer.  The 
Jews  of  Jerusalem  are  going  to  wail. 


JERUSALEM.    II.  109 

Everybody  has  heard  of  the  Wailing  of  the  Jews,  and 
many,  no  doubt,  have  been  inclined  to  laugh  at  the 
somewhat  grotesque  vision  which  such  an  appellation 
calls  forth. 

The  appellation  perfectly  describes  what  occurs  ;  but 
any  comic  element  which  the  name  evokes  is  dispelled 
the  moment  the  thing  is  seen. 

Imagine  a  long  and  narrow  cul-de-sac^  against  one  of 
the  walls  of  which,  an  ancient  and  massive  wall,  a  row 
of  men  and  women  are  gently  beating  their  heads,  while 
one  of  their  number  intones  a  verse,  to  which  the  rest 
reply  in  chorus.  This  constitutes  the  entire  ceremony 
as  far  as  the  physical  acts  of  the  participants  are  con- 
cerned ;  it  is  in  their  motives  that  its  full  significance 
lies. 

Since  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  the  Jews 
have  been  strangers  in  their  own  land  and  city.  Most 
of  them  were  scattered  abroad  at  the  Roman  conquest, 
and  the  few  who  remained  were  only  kept  on  suffer- 
ance. They  were  disliked  by  all,  protected  by  none. 
Their  Temple,  the  visible  embodiment  of  Judaism,  was 
destroyed,  and  its  site  devoted  to  the  housing  of  other 
faiths.  To  this  day  access  to  the  Haram  is  denied 
them,  although  they  do  not  look  upon  this  as  a  hard- 
ship ;  as  no  Jew,  even  were  he  permitted  to  do  so, 
would  dare  to  set  his  foot  within  the  enclosure,  lest  he 
should  tread  on  the  spot  where  the  Holy  of  Holies  once 
stood.  But  whether  in  exile  at  home  or  abroad,  the 
Jews  have  retained  their  devotion  to  Jerusalem  and  to 
its  Temple,  a  devotion  which  years  seem  to  have  inten- 
sified rather  than  diminished.  Every  week  those  who 
dwell  in  Jerusalem  come  to  this  wall,  all  that  is  left  to 
them  of  their  ancient  habitations,  to  weep  over  the  fall 


110  THE  FRINGE   OP  THE  EAST 

of  Zion,  to  make  atonement  for  the  sins  of  their  fathers, 
and  to  pray  that  the  hope  to  which  they  cling  with  such 
tenacity  may  some  day  see  fulfilment.  Let  it  not  be 
thought  that  in  doing  this  they  only  go  through  an 
empty  form.  Their  tears  are  genuine,  their  self-abase- 
ment deep.  Indifferent  to  the  ribald  comments  of  the 
curious,  unconscious  of  everything  but  the  grief  which 
weighs  so  heavily  upon  them,  a  national  grief  which  is 
also  a  personal  one,  they  kiss  the  stones  which  hide 
their  Temple  from  them  ;  and  utter,  in  this  admirable 
dialogue,  the  distressful  cry  of  a  captive  and  repentant 
people : 

Leader  :  For  the  palace  that  lies  desolate  : 

People  :  We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Leader  :  For  the  walls  that  are  overthrown  : 

People  :  We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Leader  :  For  our  majesty  that  is  departed : 

People  :  We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Leader  :  For  our  great  men  who  lie  dead : 

People  :   We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Leader  :  For  the  priests  who  have  stumbled  : 

People  :  We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Leader  ;  For  our  kings  who  have  despised  Him : 

People  :   We  sit  in  solitude  and  mourn. 

Rembrandt  should  have  painted  them,  leaning  against 
their  beloved  wall,  a  line  of  brilliantly  dressed  and  bent 
old  men,  stroking  its  surface  with  gnarled  and  crooked 
fingers,  and  caressing  its  stones  with  trembling  lips. 
All  cupidity  and  malice  have  left  their  poor  old  eyes, 
which  are  only  filled  with  tears  ;  but  for  this,  one  can 
almost  imagine  that  one  is  watching  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  the  Rabbis  and  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrin 
of  old.  I  chanced  to  be  present  one  day  when  an 
old  man  of  this  type,  of  humble  means  and  ignorant  of 


WAILING    OF    THE    JEWS 


Facing  p.   no. 


JERUSALEM.    II.  Ill 

English,  entered  a  ticket  office  in  London  accompanied 
by  a  friend,  through  whom  he  asked  the  clerk  for  a 
passage  to  Jerusalem.  The  interpreter  explained  how 
the  old  man,  feeling  that  the  end  of  his  days  was  near, 
was  undertaking  this  journey  that  he  might  die  in  the 
land  of  his  fathers.  Most  of  the  Jews  now  in  Palestine 
have  come  there  within  recent  years  ;  many  with  a 
similar  purpose,  others,  more  enterprising,  determined 
to  live  and  thrive  in  the  land  which  they  hope  may  yet 
again  be  theirs.  Jews  now  form  nearly  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  Jerusalem,  and  are  divided  into  two 
principal  groups.  The  Ashkenazim  come  from  North- 
ern and  Central  Europe — Germany,  Austria,  Poland, 
Russia,  Rumania.  They  speak  Yiddish,  adorn  the  sides 
of  their  faces  with  those  corkscrew  curls  without  which 
no  Shylock  is  complete,  and  present  a  squalid  appear- 
ance except  when,  on  feast-days,  they  don  their  velvet 
robes  and  fur-bound  bonnets.  The  Sephardim,  or 
Spanish  Jews,  are  of  a  higher  type,  and  can  always  be 
distinguished  in  Palestine  by  the  black  turban  which 
they  wind  around  the  fez.  Now  and  then,  too,  but  not 
often,  one  meets  a  few  of  those  interesting  people,  the 
Jews  of  the  Yemen,  who  disclaim  all  responsibility  for 
the  Crucifixion  by  asserting  that  they  went  from  Babylon 
direct  into  Arabia.  Entirely  shaven  save  for  the  side- 
locks,  they  have  acquired  in  a  large  measure  the  type 
of  the  Arab  of  the  desert.  Like  them,  they  are  divided 
into  tribes,  nomadic,  vigorous,  and  wild  ;  and  gave,  in 
the  days  of  Mohammed  and  his  immediate  successors, 
and  possibly  give  still,  much  trouble  to  their  Beduin 
neighbours.  But  they  are  not  characteristic  of  Jeru- 
salem. It  is  the  others,  those  old  men  of  indomitable 
devotion  to  the  faith  and  city  of  their  fathers,  who  are 


112  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

the  true  Jews  of  Jerusalem,  those  who  will  not  enter  the 
Haram,  but  weekly  weep  outside,  like  Rachel  who 
would  not  be  comforted,  those  in  whose  hearts  is  ever 
present  the  mingled  lament  and  prayer  : 

"  Oh  that  the  salvation  were  given  unto  Israel  out  of  Sion  : 
oh  that  the  Lord  would  deliver  his  people  out  of  captivity  ! 
Then  should  Jacob  rejoice  and  Israel  should  be  right  glad." 


JERUSALEM.    II.  113 

BRIEF   NOTE   ON   THE   EASTERN   CHURCHES. 

The  foundations  of  the  Holy  Orthodox  Eastern  Church,  and  the 
sources  from  which  all  eastern  Churches,  both  orthodox  and  heretical, 
have  sprung,  are  the  four  ancient  Patriarchates  of  Constantinople, 
Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem.  The  four  Patriarchs,  among 
whom  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  or  Oecumenical  (i.e.  Universal) 
Patriarch,  ranks  as  primus  inter  pares,  compose  the  ultimate  and  supreme 
governing  body  of  the  Orthodox  Church  as  a  whole  ;  but  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  they  are  the  rulers  of  separate  Churches  in  full 
communion  with  each  other,  and  only  take  joint  action  in  very  excep- 
tional cases,  as,  for  example,  in  the  archiepiscopal  dispute  in  Cyprus. 
Together  with  their  offshoots  they  form  the  thirty-one  independent 
Churches  into  which  eastern  Christendom  has  split.  Their  twenty- 
seven  offshoots  may  be  divided  into  three  classes  : 

(i)  Churches  in  communion  with  the  Patriarchates,  and  hence 
members  of  the  Holy  Orthodox  Eastern  Church,  having  the  rank  of 
*  autocephalous  and  isotimous  Churches '  ; 

(ii)  Heretical  Churches,  i.e.  Churches  not  in  communion  with  the 
Patriarchates  ; 

(iii)  Uniat  Churches. 
The  Church  of  the  Bulgarian  Exarchate  forms  a  category  of  its  own, 
for  while  doctrinally  in  full  communion  with  the  Patriarchates,  it  is 
excommunicated  on  political  grounds. 

The  majority  of  the  '  autocephalous  and  isotimous '  Churches  are 
the  national  Churches  of  countries  which  were  formerly  provinces 
of  the  Turkish  Empire.  Under  the  Turkish  regime  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  exercised  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  but,  as  the  pro- 
vinces obtained  their  independence  of  the  Sultan,  the  Churches 
demanded  theirs  of  the  Patriarch,  who  granted  it,  as  a  rule,  only 
under  compulsion  and  with  reluctance. 

From  some  of  the  orthodox,  and  from  all  of  the  heretical  Churches 
there  have  seceded  branches  which,  while  retaining  in  varying 
degrees  their  former  constitutions,  discipline,  and  rites,  acknowledge 
the  general  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  They  are  called  Uniat  Churches, 
and  are  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  Rome. 

Perhaps  the  genealogical  table  will  help  to  make  clear  a  complicated 
situation. 

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CHAPTER   VI. 

JUDAEA:    THE    SAMARITANS. 

In  Jerusalem  we  procured  tents,  servants,  and  horses 
for  our  journey  northward ;  and,  while  all  things  were 
being  got  into  readiness,  we  made  the  pilgrimage  to 
Jericho  and  the  Dead  Sea.  A  carriage  road  leaves 
Jerusalem,  crosses  the  valley  of  Hinnom,  and  winds 
gently  up  the  slope  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  whence  you 
see,  at  its  very  best,  the  eastern  flank  of  the  Haram 
esh-Sherif.  The  ridge  once  crossed,  the  road  makes  a 
bend  to  the  east,  passes  Bethany,  now  a  poor  Moslem 
village  which  lives  by  the  tomb  of  Lazarus  and  the 
house  of  Mary  and  Martha,  and  then  follows  a  succes- 
sion of  ravines  through  the  barren  hills  as  they  gradually 
descend  into  the  Jordan  valley.  The  scenery  becomes 
more  interesting  as  the  road  approaches  the  precipitous 
Wadi  el-Kelt,  upon  one  of  whose  walls  of  deep  red 
rock  a  monastery  finds  picturesque  but  precarious  foot- 
hold. This  monastery,  dedicated  to  that  favourite  of 
Christians  and  Moslems  alike,  St.  George,  is  anything 
but  a  popular  resort  of  the  monastic  community  of 
Jerusalem.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  penitentiary  for  the  refrac- 
tory and  weaker  brethren  ;  and  upon  their  discipline  its 
wild  and  desolate  environment  is  said  to  have  a  most 
improving  effect.     Three  miles  beyond  St.  George  the 


116  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

road  and  the  Wadi  el-Kelt  together  enter  el-Ghor,  the 
lower  Jordan  valley,  and  here  the  road  ends  at  the 
miserable  village  of  Jericho,  a  hot,  decayed,  and  squalid 
little  place  entirely  devoid  of  merit.  The  remains  of 
Old  Testament  Jericho  lie  about  a  mile  to  the  north, 
and  behind  them  the  Jebel  Qarantal  rises,  bare  and 
grim,  on  the  further  side  of  the  Wadi  el-Kelt.  The 
forbidding  aspect  of  this  gloomy  peak  well  justifies  the 
old  belief  that  on  its  heights  our  Lord  spent  the  forty 
days  of  His  temptation  in  the  wilderness.  Qarantal  is  a 
corruption  of  the  mediaeval  name  Quarantana,  and  in 
the  early  days  of  Christianity  the  mountain  was  a 
favourite  resort  of  hermits.  High  up  on  its  precipi- 
tous face  can  still  be  seen  the  remains  of  their  strange 
dwellings,  so  situated  that  one  marvels  how  they  ever 
reached  them,  and  feels  certain  that,  once  there,  they 
could  never  again  come  down.  Their  larders  must 
often,  I  fear,  have  been  empty,  since  their  retreats  were 
but  caves  protected  by  a  rough  sort  of  balcony,  with 
neither  space  nor  soil  for  the  poorest  of  kitchen  gardens ; 
indeed,  the  sole  amenity  of  their  lives  would  appear  to 
have  lain  in  the  view  which  they  enjoyed  of  that 
remarkable  region,  el-Ghor. 

Lying  between  the  mountains  of  Judaea  on  the  west, 
and  the  mountains  of  Ammon  on  the  east,  and  bisected 
by  the  river  Jordan,  el-Ghor  is  composed  of  two  strik- 
ingly different  types  of  country.  The  land  adjoining 
the  river  on  either  side  is  an  arid  desert  of  clay,  full  of 
deep  fissures,  without  a  trace  of  vegetation  except  at 
the  river's  marge,  and  in  rain  a  veritable  sea  of  slime ; 
that  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  is  among  the  most  fertile 
parts  of  all  Palestine.  The  Jordan,  concealed  along 
most    of    its    lower    course    by    a    border    of  poplars. 


JUDAEA:    THE  SAMARITANS  117 

tamarisks,  and  willows,  flows  muddily  but  swiftly 
through  the  middle  of  it,  and  some  six  miles  south- 
east of  Jericho  empties  itself  into  the  Dead  Sea. 
Thither  we  drove  while  the  wind  was  howling  a 
thousand  feet  above  the  sweltering  hollow,  halting  on 
the  way  at  the  Orthodox  monastery  of  St.  Gerasimos. 
Another  hour's  drive  brought  us  to  the  strange  sea 
which  is  at  the  lowest  depth  of  the  earth's  surface ;  and 
we  bathed  in  the  brine  of  what  the  Arab  has  named 
Bahr  Lut,  the  Lake  of  Lot,  "  salt,  wild,  all-swallowing, 
and  stinking."  Its  taste  is  vile,  and  deadly  to  all  fish ; 
but  its  banks  possess  a  solemn  beauty  which  it  is  right 
that  one  should  find  by  the  Sea  which  is  called  Dead. 
As  far  as  the  eye  can  see,  the  mountains  rise  almost 
sheer  from  the  water,  wrapped  in  a  nebulous  haze,  the 
product  of  much  evaporation ;  they  are  lined  and  fur- 
rowed by  a  hundred  wadis,  which  in  winter  become  a 
hundred  torrents,  and  in  summer  as  many  dry  and 
thirsty  gullies. 

Lying  high  and  dry  upon  the  beach  off  which  we 
bathed  we  noticed  a  small  vessel  of  uncertain  age  and 
in  very  indifferent  condition.  Surprised  to  find  a  craft 
of  any  description  here,  we  decided  to  inquire  about 
it  of  the  first  intelligent  person  whom  we  should 
encounter  on  our  return.  This  proved  to  be  the 
Abbot  of  a  monastery  which  appeared  to  go  by  the 
name  of  the  Castle  of  the  Jews,  although  its  proper 
designation  is  the  monastery  of  St.  John.  Like  St. 
Gerasimos,  this  monastery  is  of  ancient  origin;  but 
only  a  chapel  partly  hewn  in  the  rock,  a  few  scattered 
mosaics,  and  a  rough  Byzantine  capital  or  two  are  left 
to  it  of  the  earlier  structure.  It  too,  it  is  safe  to  say, 
lives  very  largely  (and  very  well)  on  the  generosity  of 


118  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Russian  pilgrims.  The  Abbot,  an  aged  but  cheery 
Greek,  produced  some  exceptionally  good  coffee  and 
the  usual  masticha,  and,  having  first,  as  in  duty  bound, 
explained  how  St.  John  the  Baptist  once  took  shelter 
in  the  cave  which  is  now  the  chapel,  proceeded  to  give 
us  the  history  of  the  vaporaki^  by  the  Dead  Sea.  It 
appears  that  a  few  years  ago  the  monks  of  the  adjacent 
monasteries  decided  to  combine  for  the  purchase  of  a 
small  steamer  to  ply  on  the  Dead  Sea,  needing  some 
means  of  transporting  the  produce  of  their  farms.  As 
we  have  observed  on  Mount  Athos,  the  monastic  com- 
munities of  the  Orthodox  Church  conceal  beneath  a 
mediaeval  exterior  a  very  keen  appreciation  of  the 
financial  benefits  which  can  be  derived  from  patronage 
of  modern  methods  and  inventions;  so  an  irade  to 
keep  the  vessel  was  obtained,  not  without  a  heavy 
outlay  of  bakhshish,  and  the  thing  was  brought  from 
Europe,  laboriously  piloted  through  the  Customs,  taken 
to  pieces,  and  carried  in  sections  to  its  destination. 
There  it  was  put  together  again  by  knowing  persons 
specially  imported  for  the  purpose  at  great  expense. 
When  at  last  it  was  ready,  great  festivities  were 
announced.  Mudirs,  Qaimaqams,  and  the  Mutesarrit 
were  invited,  and  duly  arrived  on  the  appointed  day, 
followed  by  a  herd  of  hungry  zaptiehs,  who  looked  to 
the  occasion  for  an  unaccustomed  fill.  Masticha  and 
koniak  were  freely  imbibed ;  many  a  rod  of  luqum  was 
eaten.  Then  the  distinguished  company  of  Abbots, 
Prelates,  Ofiicials,  and  all  '  Who's  Who'  beyond  Jordan 
went  on  board  for  the  trial  trip.  Just  as  the  senior 
Abbot  was  about  to  give  the  order  '  full  speed  ahead,' 
the  Mutesarrif  inquired : 

1  Little  steamer. 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  119 

*'  Has  your  All-Saintliness  an  irade  to  move  this 
vaporakiT^ 

"  Masha'Uah ! "  replied  the  Abbot;  "of  course  I 
have." 

*'  Let  me  see  it." 

"  Here  it  is." 

"Ah,  it  is  as  I  feared.  This  irade  permits  you  to 
keep  a  vaporaki,  very  true,  but  it  does  not  say  that  the 
vaporaki  may  be  moved.  Until,  therefore,  I  have 
referred  the  matter  to  Constantinople,  I  deeply  regret 
that  it  cannot  be  moved;  and,  should  the  makina  be 
obstinate  enough  to  ignore  my  order,  it  will  be  my 
painful  duty  to  arrest  it." 

"  The  makina  has  long  since  rusted,"  concluded  the 
Abbot,  "  but  the  matter  is  still,  no  doubt,  under  con- 
sideration in  Constantinople." 

As  I  commiserated  with  the  genial  old  coenobite 
upon  the  drawbacks  to  life  by  the  banks  of  the  Jordan, 
1  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  story  of  a  certain 
Turkish  man-of-war,  moored,  in  the  old  days,  to  the 
mud-flats  of  the  Golden  Horn.  A  British  Admiral 
who  was  then  lent  to  Turkey  for  purposes  of  naval 
reorganization  announced  one  day  that  on  the  morrow 
he  proposed  to  inspect  the  ship.  It  being  his  first 
visit,  commander  and  crew  determined  to  spare  no 
effort  to  make  the  inspection  a  success.  Decks  were 
scrubbed,  brasswork  was  polished,  officers  repaired  their 
uniforms,  the  men  advanced  the  date  of  their  weekly 
shave.  Filled  with  just  pride,  they  received  the 
Admiral,  who  appeared  to  be  agreeably  impressed  with 
what  he  saw  on  deck.  As  he  was  proceeding,  however, 
to  go  below,  the  commander  sought  politely  to  dis- 
suade   him.      He    called   attention    to    objects    as    yet 


120  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

unobserved  on  deck,  and  advanced  many  reasons  why 
the  Admiral  should  not  fatigue  himself  in  the  vessel's 
lower  portions.  But  the  Admiral  was  not  to  be 
deterred,  and  the  Turk,  muttering  '  kismet^'  courteously, 
but  with  fading  smile,  led  the  way — to  a  flourishing 
kitchen  garden!  For  so  many  years  had  the  ship 
remained  fast  to  her  moorings,  that  her  bottom  had 
become  rotten ;  and  the  mud  had  filtered  through 
innumerable  holes,  making  a  respectable  bed  of  soil. 
This  was  no  reason,  in  those  days,  for  removing  the 
ship  from  the  active  list,  and  her  officers  sensibly 
decided  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  business.  Toma- 
toes, cucumbers,  and  that  unromantic  but  succulent 
vegetable  so  beloved  of  the  Turk,  the  pumpkin,  were 
growing  in  abundance ;  and  although  the  Admiral 
could  scarcely  commend  the  vessel's  seaworthiness,  I 
have  no  doubt  that  he  was  able,  when  he  recovered 
from  his  astonishment,  to  praise  the  adaptability  of  her 
crew. 

On  the  following  morning  we  returned  from  Jericho 
to  Jerusalem,  and  overtook  strings  of  Russian  pilgrims 
homeward  bound  from  Jordan,  the  palmer's  staff  in 
their  hands.  The  men,  clad  in  cumbrous  padevki^ 
thickly  quilted  coats  reaching  down  to  the  knees, 
were  plodding  patiently  along  the  dusty  road  ;  some 
feeble  old  women  were?-  riding  donkeys.  Three  days 
later,  our  caravan  was  ready,  and  we  rode  out  of  the 
Damascus  Gate,  bound  for  the  north. 

A  good  illustration  of  the  variety  of  faiths  which 
flourish  among  Syrians  is  afforded  by  the  religious 
census  of  our  retinue.  The  dragoman,  a  native  of 
Jerusalem,  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  in 
which   his   brother   held   orders.      Our  handsome   old 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  121 

cook    Mubarek,   in   whose    veins    there    surely   flowed 
Crusaders'  blood,  was  a  Latin  :   so  also  was  the  head 
steward   Antonio   Salbo,   an   excellent   old   fellow  who 
derived  his  name  and  a  highly  prized  British  passport 
from  a  Maltese  forbear.     Shamali,  one  of  the  attend- 
ants, was,  I  think,  a  Uniat  Greek ;  the  other,  Georgie, 
a  R/lm  Urtudugs,  or  member  of  the  Orthodox  Church. 
Georgie  was  the   dandy  of  the   party,  and  was   called 
el-Halebi  because,  as  he  said,  some  ancestor  hailed  from 
Aleppo.     In  reality  it  was  on  account  of  his  love  of  fine 
clothes  ;   for   the   Aleppines  are   notorious  throughout 
Syria  for  their  vanity,  and  the  word  Aleppine  is  synony- 
mous with  a  swell.     Khalil,  master  of  the  horse,  whose 
lapse   from  duty  on  another  journey  and   subsequent 
repentance  have  been  recorded  by  Colonel  Mark  Sykes 
in   the  pages  of  Dar-ul-Islam^  was   a   follower   of  the 
Prophet,  together  with  his  equerry,  the  blithe  and  merry 
Faris.      So,    too,    were    the    seven    muleteers,    sturdy 
brothers  of  the  house  of  Zarta,  who  dwelt  in  that  home 
of  Moslem  orthodoxy,  Nablus. 

It  was  along  the  Nablus  road  that  the  first  stretch  of 
our  journey  lay.  Leaving  the  city,  the  road  makes  its 
way  northward  through  the  Judaean  uplands,  which  are 
grey,  bare,  and  very  faithfully  rendered  by  Tissot. 
Judaea  is  a  mournful  country,  unlike  Samaria  and 
Galilee,  which  are  green  and  wooded,  and  Syria,  which 
can  show  much  brilliant  colouring.  We  passed  Ramah 
of  Benjamin  and  El-Bireh,  where  according  to  legend 
Joseph  and  Mary,  returning  from  Jerusalem,  first  missed 
Jesus  from  their  midst.  Here  for  a  while  we  left  the 
road,  and  exchanged  barren  hills  and  stony  watercourses 
for  green  fields  and  groves  of  ancient  olives,  where  the 
sun   played   on   the   silvery  leaves,   and    the    owls   sat 


122  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

wearily  and  blinked.  Presently  we  were  in  the  road 
again,  and  camped  at  the  village  of  Turmus  'Aiya, 
21  miles  from  Jerusalem.  The  incidents  connected 
with  our  camps  require  small  description,  and  offer 
little  variety.  The  camp  pitched  in  the  form  of  a 
square,  the  population  crowding  round  it,  gazing  at 
everything  with  insatiable  curiosity,  the  bitterly  cold 
nights  punctuated  by  the  whistling  of  the  guard  to 
keep  each  other  awake,  the  incessant  howling  of  dogs, 
all  these  things  were  of  regular  occurrence,  and  need 
not  be  referred  to  again.  On  the  following  day,  passing 
the  ruins  of  Shiloh,  we  reached  Jacob's  Well  ;  and  a 
little  further,  in  a  rich  and  narrow  valley,  overlooked 
from  the  south  by  Mount  Gerizim,  tur-berik,  the  blessed 
mountain  (a  hill  so  holy  that  at  the  deluge,  according 
to  the  Samaritans,  the  waters  would  not  cover  it),  and 
from  the  north  by  Mount  Ebal,  the  cursed  mount, 
tur-lit^  rise  the  walls  and  gates  of  Nablus. 

Nablus  is  in  many  respects  a  peculiar  town.  An 
exception  to  the  general  rule,  it  goes  by  its  later,  in 
preference  to  its  earlier  name,  although  its  history  as 
Neapolis  fades  into  insignificance  before  the  events 
which  made  Shechem  a  stronghold  of  patriarchs,  judges 
prophets,  and  kings.  Again,  unlike  the  majority  of 
towns  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  it  is  peopled  by  Moslems 
of  a  fanatical  and  unfriendly  strain,  who  view  strangers 
with  displeasure.  To-day  it  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  the 
ancient  home  and  refuge  of '  the  oldest  and  the  smallest 
sect  in  the  world,'  the  tribe  of  the  Samaritans,  who, 
reduced  to  a  handful  of  not  two  hundred  souls,  yet 
struggle  doggedly  to  maintain,  amid  many  tribulations, 
their  sad  and  precarious  existence. 

Into  the  early  history  of  the  Samaritans  it  is  needless 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  123 

here  to  enter.  Ever  at  enmity  with  the  Jews,  since 
these,  on  their  return  from  captivity,  rejected  their 
advances,  they  have  clung  to  Mount  Gerizim  as  the 
one  true  site  for  the  temple  of  Jehovah,  as  the 
only  lawful  qihleh^  and  have  never  ceased  to  regard 
Jerusalem  and  its  temple  as  the  shrine  of  an  hereti- 
cal people.  Time  was  when  they  were  many,  and 
truculent  withal.  In  the  reign  of  Zeno  they  fell  upon 
the  Christians ;  in  Justinian's  time  they  killed  the 
Bishop  of  Sichem,  and  sacked  and  burnt  the  churches. 
"  Khoja,  if  thou  must  scratch,"  says  a  Turkish  pro- 
verb, "blame  not  the  lice,  but  thyself";  and  the  pitiful 
condition  of  the  Samaritans  at  the  present  time  is  perhaps 
the  result  of  the  reprisals  which  followed  upon  these 
acts  of  aggression.  For  many  of  them  were  scattered 
and  slain  ;  and  when  Rabbi  Benjamin  of  Tudela  visited 
Sichem,  he  found  only  one  hundred  survivors.  This 
was  in  about  1163  ;  but  after  the  battle  of  Hattin  the 
Samaritans  fell  on  yet  more  evil  days.  Those  in 
Caesarea,  Damascus,  and  elsewhere  dwindled  and  dis- 
appeared ;  and  from  that  time  onward  the  remnant  of 
the  sect  which  survived  has  dwelt  solely  in  Nablus. 
Here  they  have  lived  with  all  men's  hands  against 
them,  hated  by  Jew  and  Christian,  oppressed  by  Arab 
and  Turk.  Poor  and  friendless,  without  protectors, 
they  have  clung  to  hfe  for  the  pursuit  of  two  ideals: 
to  continue  their  worship  on  Mount  Gerizim,  and  to 
maintain  the  existence  of  their  race.  The  former  has 
not  always  been  possible.  For  many  years  Gerizim 
was  in  other  hands,  and  the  Samaritans  were  forbidden 
to  approach  it ;  only  in  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century 
was  access  to  it  granted  them  once  more.  They  never 
intermarry  with  strangers,  and  their  numbers  for  some 


124  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

time  past  seem  to  have  undergone  little  variation.  In 
1675  they  wrote  that  there  were  few  of  them  ;  70  years 
ago  they  counted  40  families;  in  1901  there  were 
152  persons,  97  males,  and  55  females.  At  the 
present  time,  although  a  man,  if  his  wife  is  barren, 
is  permitted  to  take  another,  it  is  doubtful  if  they 
can  muster   200. 

In  the  south-west  part  of  the  town  is  the  little 
Samaritan  quarter.  There,  in  a  small  whitewashed 
house  which  contains  synagogue,  school,  and  High 
Priest's  residence,  we  were  received  by  the  High  Priest 
and  his  family.  The  High  Priest's  name  was  Jacob, 
the  son  of  Aaron,  the  son  of  Solomon  ;  he  was  a  tall, 
thin  old  man  of  70,  whose  sad  and  dignified  mien  be- 
trayed weariness  and  dejection.  He  was  dressed  as  a 
well-to-do  Syrian,  but  his  turban,  like  those  of  all  his 
people,  was  red  ;  it  being  by  the  colour  of  the  turban  ^ 
that  the  different  nationalities  of  Syria  are  distinguished. 
Thus,  the  colour  adopted  by  Moslems  is  usually  white, 
with  gold  or  yellow  silk  embroidery  ;  by  the  hejdj^  or 
those  who  have  made  the  pilgrimage,  green.  That 
worn  by  the  Druses  is  snowy  white,  by  the  Sephardim 
black,  and  by  the  Samaritans  red.  It  is  a  convenient 
system  of  identification  in  a  country  where  the  cut  of 
the  clothes  is  not  necessarily  an  indication  of  the  origin 
or  religion  of  the  wearer.  Jacob's  predecessor  was  his 
uncle  Amram,  the  younger  son  of  Solomon,  his  own 
father  having  died  in  his  grandfather  Solomon's  life- 
time ;    on  his  uncle's  death  in   1872,  he  succeeded  in 

^  In  Syria  the  turban  does  not  assume  the  dimensions  which  it  has 
attained  in  India.  It  is  merely  a  scarf,  usually  of  silk,  wound  tightly 
round  the  base  of  the  fez.  The  Beduin  and  peasantry  wear  a  coloured 
cloth,  bound  with  camel  hair  cord,  instead  of  turban  and  fez. 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  125 

preference  to  Amram's  son  Isaac,  then  still  a  child. 
This  Isaac,  when  we  met  him,  was  a  red-haired,  jovial 
person,  as  far  as  any  Samaritan  can  be  said  to  be  jovial  ; 
and  was  evidently  a  man  of  more  vigorous  character 
than  his  cousin  the  High  Priest.  He  had  been  to  Ox- 
ford some  years  previously  in  an  endeavour  to  sell 
Samaritan  manuscripts  to  the  Bodleian  Library,  and  I 
suspect  that  he  is  the  power  behind  the  Nablus  throne, 
and  inclined  to  domineer  over  the  unhappy  High  Priest, 
cherishing,  perhaps,  some  grudge  at  his  having  inherited 
his  father's  office.  However  that  may  be,  he  proved 
useful  to  us.  Jacob  the  son  of  Aaron,  while  exceedingly 
courteous,  appeared  reluctant  to  display  the  famous  torah^ 
the  Samaritans'  oldest  codex  of  the  Pentateuch,  which  is 
shown  to  the  people  but  once  a  year,  and  to  strangers 
exceeding  seldom  ;  but  a  tactful  allusion  to  Isaac's 
travels,  a  cunning  display  of  our  familiarity  with  his 
movements,  made  Isaac  into  an  ally  before  whom  Jacob 
gave  way.  He  led  us  across  the  court  and  through  a 
small  door  that  opened  directly  into  the  synagogue,  a 
plain  whitewashed  room  with  a  vaulted  roof  and  scanty 
furniture,  and  from  a  recess  reverently  withdrew  the 
torah^  which  was  wrapped  in  a  cover  of  green  em- 
broidered silk. 

According  to  Samaritan  tradition,  the  torah  was 
written  at  the  door  of  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Congrega- 
tion by  Abishoa  the  son  of  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar, 
the  son  of  Aaron  the  High  Priest,  the  brother  of  Moses, 
in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  settlement  of  the  Jews  in 
Canaan  ;  according  to  modern  scholars  it  dates  from  the 
early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  It  consists  of  the 
Pentateuch  only,  all  of  the  Old  Testament  which  the 
Samaritans  accept,  and  is  written  in  the  Samaritan  char- 


126  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

acter  on  the  hair  side  of  a  roll  composed  of  the  skins  of 
lambs  offered  up  in  sacrifice.  The  roll  is  brown  and 
brittle  with  age,  and  is  encased  in  a  silver  cylinder,  '  the 
tomb  of  the  sacred  book,'  being  wound  on  two  rollers 
surmounted  by  silver  knobs.  The  cylinder,  on  the 
back  of  which  are  engraved  symbols  of  the  Tabernacle 
and  its  fittings,  is  in  three  sections,  joined  by  two  sets 
of  hinges,  and  when  open,  shows  a  column  of  text,  when 
shut,  encloses  the  entire  roll.  In  the  middle  is  a  third 
knob,  a  dummy,  and  its  total  height,  inclusive  of  the 
knobs,  is  about  two  feet  six  inches.  This  is  the  chief, 
and,  indeed,  the  only  treasure  of  the  Samaritans,  who  are 
miserably  poor.  The  High  Priest  complained  that  on 
account  of  their  poverty  his  people  were  forgetting  the  old 
Samaritan  language,  and  that  only  the  kahens  (priests) 
could  now  read  and  write  it.  Even  they  do  not  employ  it 
for  any  but  liturgical  purposes.  The  language  of  their 
everyday  life  is  Arabic,  and  Samaritan  has  become,  like 
Syriac  (except  in  three  villages  to  be  mentioned  later), 
Coptic,  and  some  of  the  old  Slav  languages  of  Russia 
and  the  Balkan  peninsula,  a  tongue  which  only  survives 
in  church  services,  books  of  prayer,  and  official  docu- 
ments. Not  a  few  of  the  latter  have  been  collected 
and  published  ;  and  one  epistle,  written  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  is  of  peculiar  interest,  as  it  not  only  throws 
light  on  the  vexed  question  of  the  genealogy  of  the 
High  Priests,  but  also  illustrates  the  curious  belief  held 
for  so  many  centuries  by  the  Samaritans  that  there 
existed  in  England,  France,  and  elsewhere  in  Europe 
large  and  prosperous  Samaritan  colonies,  descended  from 
captives  carried  away  by  the  Franks  from  Nablus  during 
the  Crusades. 

The  letter  is  addressed  to  the  Samaritan  colony  in 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  127 

England.  It  begins  by  stating  that  the  community  in 
Nablus  is  weak  and  unhappy;  that  it  has  suffered  a 
heavy  loss  by  the  death  of  its  High  Priest,  the  last  of 
the  race  of  Phinehas,  the  grandson  of  Aaron ;  and  con- 
cludes by  asking  its  brethren  over  the  seas  to  send  to  it 
a  priest  of  the  Aaronic  house,  that  the  high  priesthood 
might  not  be  extinguished.  The  reason  for  this  request 
was  that  a  member  of  the  Aaronic  family  alone  can 
perform  the  functions  of  the  high  priesthood,  the  ordi- 
nary Levites  being  only  able  to  undertake  lesser  priestly 
duties.  Finding  that  no  response  came  to  their  prayer, 
the  Samaritans  were  obliged,  no  doubt,  to  have  recourse 
to  one  of  the  latter,  even  though  not  properly  qualified  ; 
for  when,  in  1820,  the  French  OrientaHst  de  Sacy  in- 
quired of  the  then  High  Priest,  Shalmah-ben-Tobiah, 
as  to  his  origin,  Shalmah  replied  that  he  traced  his 
descent  from  Uzziel  the  son  of  Kohath,  the  son  of 
Levi,  the  head  of  one  of  the  principal  Levitic  families. 
In  1842,  however,  the  same  High  Priest,  in  the  name 
of  the  people,  addressed  a  petition  for  help  to  Louis 
Philippe,  appending  thereto  a  genealogy  of  his  family, 
which,  omitting  all  mention  of  Uzziel  the  son  of  Kohath, 
the  son  of  Levi,  showed  him  to  be  directly  descended 
from  Aaron.  It  may  have  been  that,  realizing  the 
interest  which  the  learned  world  was  beginning  to  take 
in  his  descent,  he  thought  it  well  to  go  more  thoroughly 
into  the  matter,  with  the  above  satisfactory  result;  as 
to  which  of  his  conclusions  was  correct  I  will  offer  no 
opinion.  In  other  respects  this  petition  is  a  most 
pathetic  document.  "  We  diminish  in  numbers,"  it 
says,  "  from  day  to  day.  We  adhere  with  all  our 
might  to  the  observance  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  from 
the  day  on  which  our  fathers  heard  the  voice  of  the 


128  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Eternal  on  Mount  Sinai  until  now,  we  have  not  departed 
one  whit  from  His  commandments." 

"  Ye  must  know,"  it  proceeds,  "  that  we  continue 
under  the  rule  of  the  Ishmaelites.  We  honour  them, 
and  are  satisfied  with  their  government.  Yearly  we 
give  them  money,  each  one  according  to  his  ability,  that 
they  compel  us  not  to  renounce  our  faith. 

"  But  in  these  latter  days  the  people  of  our  town 
have  turned  against  us,  and  will  no  longer  bear  with  us. 
They  forbid  us  to  fulfil  the  precepts  of  our  law,  and 
we  can  no  longer  openly  practise  our  religion.  There 
is  none  to  raise  up  our  head  ;  we  are  left  abandoned  to 
our  misfortunes,  broken-hearted,  and  knowing  neither 
security  nor  rest.  To  you,  therefore,  we  appeal,  knock- 
ing at  the  gate  of  your  compassion,  and  praying  you  to 
admit  us  to  the  shade  of  the  roof  of  your  mercy.  For 
without  you  " — here  comes  the  saddest,  the  most  de- 
spairing phrase  of  all — "  none  would  be  troubled  at  our 
disappearance." 

The  government  of  Louis  Philippe,  which  on  the 
receipt  of  the  petition  was  fully  occupied  with  European 
affairs,  did  not  judge  it  desirable  at  the  time  to  meddle 
with  those  of  Syria,  and  a  few  years  afterwards  itself 
disappeared.  The  prayer  of  the  Samaritans  thus  re- 
mained unanswered  ;  but  with  the  renewed  interest  which 
the  French  began  to  take  in  the  country  after  the  acces- 
sion of  Napoleon  III.,  their  situation  was  improved. 
If  not  befriended  by  the  Turks,  at  least  they  were 
tolerated  ;  and  to-day,  although  still  poor  and  few  in 
numbers,  their  lives  are  safe  and  their  worship  not 
interfered  with. 

An  American  writer  on  the  Samaritans,  Dr.  Barton, 
has  pointed  out,  ironically  perhaps,  that,  although  they 


1^    i 


THE    SAMARITAN     TOKAH 


SAMARITAN    INSCRIPTION    IN    THE    HIGH    PRIEST  S    COURT 


Facing  p.  128. 


JUDAEA:    THE   SAMARITANS  129 

still  outnumber  the  passengers  of  the  Mayflower,  whose 
descendants  now  are  legion,  there  is  little  likelihood  of 
their  leaving  so  vast  a  posterity.  Such  a  consumma- 
tion would  hardly,  indeed,  be  desirable.  It  is  to  be 
hoped,  however,  that  for  many  years  to  come  they  will 
be  preserved,  not,  as  Napoleon  once  said  of  another 
tiny  survival  of  a  former  age,  comme  echantillon  de 
republique^  but  comme  echantillon  du  passe  ;  for  there  still 
speaks  through  the  Samaritans  of  Mount  Gerizim, 
albeit  in  feeble  tones,  the  voice  of  a  past  of  which  all 
other  living  traces  have  long  since  ceased  to  be. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SAMARIA   AND    GALILEE. 

The  mosques  of  Nablus  are  of  great  interest,  and  four 
at  least  are  of  Crusading  or  pre-Crusading  origin. 
Unfortunately,  the  fanaticism  of  the  population  makes 
access  to  them  so  difficult  that  I  was  only  able  to  pene- 
trate into  two  ;  and  in  these  my  stay  was  sadly  restricted 
by  a  jealous  and  impatient  crowd. 

The  Jami'  el-Kebir,  or  Great  Mosque,  which  was 
founded  by  Justinian  and  restored  under  King  Amaury, 
has  preserved  its  basilical  character,  and  no  doubt  looked 
much  as  it  does  to-day  when  the  Council  of  Nablus, 
thinking,  perhaps  rightly,  that  the  misfortunes  of  the 
Latin  kingdom  were  a  divine  punishment  for  the  lax 
morals  of  the  Crusaders,  thundered  forth  its  decrees 
against  a  vicious  and  dissipated  clergy.  Its  five-arched 
porch  is  a  good  example  of  Romanesque  sculpture  ;  the 
harpv  perched  on  one  of  the  capitals  typical  of  twelfth 
century  realism;  and  the  north  court,  with  its  hand- 
some reservoir  and  tour  solitary  columns,  a  peculiarly 
happy  blend  of  Byzantine,  Romanesque,  and  Saracenic, 
one  of  the  chief  delights  of  Syrian  mosques.  Into  the 
Jami'  en-Nasr,  also  a  basilica,  I  was  allowed  no  more 
than  a  glimpse,  and  thereafter  I  had  to  abandon  the 
hope  of  seeing  any  more.     I  returned,  accordingly,  to 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  131 

the  camp,  to  find  that  I  had  been  preceded  by  the 
High  Priest's  sons,  who  were  hoping  to  turn  an  honest 
shekel  by  the  sale  of  Samaritan  writings. 

Two  hours  of  riding  over  pleasant  olive-clad  slopes 
brought  us  to  the  *  egg-shaped '  hill  of  Samaria,  now 
surmounted  by  the  Moslem  village  of  Sebastiyeh. 
"  Compared  with  Shechem  or  Jerusalem,"  says  Dean 
Stanley,  *'  Samaria  is  a  mere  growth  of  pleasure  and 
convenience — the  city  of  luxurious  princes,"  and  the 
truth  of  this  statement  becomes  apparent  on  approach. 
Herod's  street  of  columns,  which  once  completely 
encircled  the  hill,  guides  your  way  to  the  summit,  and 
with  the  vestiges  of  elaborate  terracing  on  its  slopes, 
the  ruins  of  temple  and  hippodrome,  and  the  friendli- 
ness of  the  surrounding  country,  indicates  that  Samaria 
was  the  Versailles  both  of  the  northern  kingdom  and  of 
the  Herodian  age.  There  is  now  very  little  of  it  left, 
and  the  best  preserved  of  its  monuments  is  the  Crusa- 
ders' Church  of  St.  John,  a  massive  building  in  fairly 
good  repair,  except  that  the  main  body  of  the  church  is 
roofless.  The  eastern  end,  however,  is  intact,  and  has 
been  walled  oflf"  from  the  rest,  to  be  converted  into  a 
mosque ;  in  a  corner  of  the  left  aisle  is  the  village  school. 

From  Samaria  we  rode  to  Dothan,  and  lunched  beside 
its  ruins;  then  continued  northward  up  and  down  hills 
and  through  shady  groves  of  olives  as  far  as  Jenin,  where 
we  pitched  our  camp. 

On  the  following  morning  our  way  took  us  across 
the  plain  of  Megiddo,  and  after  ten  miles  brought  us 
to  a  pleasant  spring  of  water,  which  a  depression  in  the 
ground  has  enlarged  into  a  pond.  The  pond  is  iden- 
tified by  tradition  with  Gideon's  Pool  and  with  Goliath's 
spring,  being  now  called  'Ain  Jalut ;  and  it  lies  at  the 


132  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

foot  of  the  north-western  extremity  or  spur  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Gilboa.  This  is  a  crescent-shaped  ridge  which, 
running  in  a  north-westerly  direction  from  the  Jordan 
valley,  forms  a  wedge  bifurcating  the  eastern  end  of 
the  great  plain  of  Jezreel,  dividing  it  into  two  branches, 
the  northern,  or  plain  of  Jezreel  proper,  and  the 
southern,  or  plain  of  Megiddo.  The  plains  diverge 
almost  at  this  very  spot;  you  look  south  and  see  the 
plain  of  Megiddo,  just  crossed ;  you  look  east  and  see 
the  green  plain  of  Jezreel  gradually  falling  toward 
Beisan  and  the  Jordan.  Here  the  camp  remained,  but 
we,  after  bathing  in  the  cool  clear  waters  of  the  pool, 
rode  over  the  plain  and  across  the  line  of  the  Haifa- 
Derat  railway  to  Kokab  el-Hawa,  a  Crusading  castle 
crowning  the  summit  of  a  hill  immediately  overhanging 
the  Jordan  valley. 

The  massive  monuments  of  military  architecture 
which  the  Crusaders  scattered  from  Arabia  Petraea  to 
the  northern  corner  of  Mesopotamia  are  admirable  in 
many  respects,  but  in  few  so  much  as  in  the  rapidity 
with  which  they  were  constructed.  Rarely  united,  often 
at  bay,  constantly  at  war,  the  Crusaders  were  able, 
within  a  space  of  time  so  short  as  to  make  the  achieve- 
ment seem  almost  miraculous,  to  protect  the  passes  and 
crown  the  heights  of  the  country  they  held  with  castles 
which  combine  in  quantities,  rarely  found  elsewhere, 
solidity,  vast  extent,  and  architectural  beauty.  Fre- 
quently beauty  of  site  is  also  present,  and  the  castles  of 
Tyrol  or  Lombardy  can  scarce  furnish  more  picturesque 
a  sight  than  Qal'at  el-Hosn  or  Baniyas.  The  castles 
vary  in  character  with  the  needs  which  provoked  their 
construction.  The  greater  ones,  especially  those  be- 
longing  to   the   knightly  Orders,   are   of  the   type   of 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  133 

which  Windsor  is  an  example,  stronghold  and  palace 
combined,  with  hall,  chapel,  and  chapter  house,  as  well 
as  barbican,  bastion,  and  keep.  Others  are  fortifica- 
tions enclosing  part  or  all  of  an  already  existing  town, 
as  at  Tartus;  others,  again,  are  highly  fortified  strong 
places,  partly  intended  as  places  of  refuge  in  times  of 
stress  for  the  population  of  neighbouring  villages.  Of 
the  latter  kind  was  Kokab  el-Hawa,  which  is  more 
remarkable  to-day  for  its  wonderful  situation  than  tor 
the  extent  or  preservation  of  its  remains.  It  is  built,  as 
I  have  said,  on  the  summit  of  a  hill,  and  from  its 
eastern  walls  you  look  down  upon  the  Jordan  valley 
beneath.  The  hill  stands  looo  feet  above  sea-level, 
and  1 800  feet  above  Jordan ;  immediately  below  you  is 
the  wide  and  fruitful  valley,  a  rich  green  carpet  through 
which  the  river,  a  streak  of  silver,  winds  in  slow,  cir- 
cuitous bends.  Opposite,  and  of  equal  height,  are  the 
wooded  mountains  of  Gilead ;  while  to  the  north  gleam 
the  waters  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  behind  it  the  snowy 
peak  of  Hermon.  The  Crusaders,  for  obvious  reasons, 
called  the  castle  Belvoir,  but  the  Arabs,  with  more 
poetry,  Kokab  el-Hawa,  '  star  of  the  air,'  challenging, 
for  once,  the  Frankish  supremacy  in  the  domain  of 
nomenclature.  For  in  Crusading  lands  the  Frankish 
names  are  as  a  rule  the  more  picturesque  of  the  two ; 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  match  for  their  air  of  medi- 
aeval glamour,  say.  Chateau  Pelerin,  Blanchegarde,  or 
La  Pierre  du  Desert.  The  castle  is  built  of  tufa  or 
black  basalt,  which  abounds  in  Galilee  and  beyond 
Jordan,  and  its  outline  and  moat  are  still  well  preserved. 
So  also  are  the  south  tower  and  one  of  the  western 
circular  bastions,  while  the  original  disposition  of  the 
interior  has  been  made  unrecognizable  through  the  use 


134  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

of  its  stones  as  building  material  for  the  village  which 
now  occupies  the  entire  precincts.  The  inhabitants  are 
hddari  or  '  settled '  Arabs  (to  be  distinguished  from  the 
nomadic  Arabs  or  Beduin),  poor  peasants  who  received 
us  with  pleasure  but  principally  with  curiosity,  for  it  is 
not  often  that  strangers  come  their  way. 

It  was  dark  when  we  returned  to  Gideon's  Pool, 
having  travelled  40  miles  in  all  on  that  day.  On  the 
following  morning  four  hours  of  riding  across  another 
branch  of  the  plain  of  Jezreel  brought  us  to  Nazareth, 
or  rather,  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  whose  southern 
slope  Nazareth  lies.  In  appearance  Nazareth  resembles 
some  Tuscan  or  Umbrian  hill-town,  in  character  it  is  a 
small  Jerusalem.  With  its  many  buildings  of  Italian 
aspect,  white-walled,  red-roofed,  with  its  campanili,  its 
fig-trees  and  cypresses,  and  its  background  of  hills,  it 
is  not  unlike  Assisi,  although  lacking  Assisi's  charm; 
but  the  countless  sacred  sites,  the  colonies  of  the  many 
sects  who  live  here  in  their  own  quarters  of  the  town, 
the  monasteries  and  churches,  hospitals  and  orphanages, 
make  it  in  truth  a  detached  fragment  of  Jerusalem. 
Even  the  detachment  is  now  confined  to  geographical 
separation,  for  within  recent  years,  in  response  to  pres- 
sure from  Russian  and  other  Orthodox  interests,  it  has 
been  taken  out  of  the  vilayet  of  Beirut,  of  which  it  is 
now  an  enclave,  and  made  part  of  the  mutesarrifliq  of 
Jerusalem,  being  thus  united  politically  as  well  as  in 
nature  with  that  great  centre  of  the  pilgrim  traffic. 
That  centre,  in  return,  sends  forth  a  constant  stream  to 
Nazareth,  of  which  the  Russians  form  no  small  part; 
but  it  cannot  be  said  that,  apart  from  associations, 
Nazareth  has  much  to  show.  None  of  its  buildings 
can  be  compared  in  interest,  even  approximately,  to  the 


SAMARIA   AND  GALILEE  135 

Church  of  the  Sepulchre  ;  and  what  is  probably  its 
oldest  relic,  the  synagogue  in  which  Our  Lord  preached, 
is  now,  after  having  suffered  many  vicissitudes  and 
known  many  uses,  a  bare  annexe  of  the  ugly  new 
church  of  the  Uniat  Greeks.  Its  principal  attraction  is 
the  Latin  monastery,  the  property  of  the  Franciscans; 
and  although  the  church,  a  stately  building,  only  dates 
from  the  eighteenth  century,  it  is  not  devoid  of  interest. 
Beneath  the  church  are  shown  the  spot  where  the  angel 
delivered  his  message  to  the  Virgin,  the  site  of  her  house 
before  its  miraculous  journey  to  Loretto,  and  beyond  it, 
up  a  flight  of  steps,  a  rock  cavern,  perhaps  an  old 
stable,  which  is  called  the  Virgin's  kitchen. 

But  the  prettiest  sight  in  Nazareth  is  Mary's  Well, 
when  towards  evening  the  women  come  to  draw  water 
in  long,  graceful  pitchers,  and  then  slowly  return, 
balancing  them  on  their  heads.  Here  the  inhabitants 
foregather,  the  day's  work  being  done,  to  sit  and  gossip 
and  smoke,  forgetting  for  awhile  their  divisions  and  their 
differences  in  the  need  which  all  have  of  the  well.  The 
well  or  the  spring,  even  if  it  be  no  more  than  a  slender 
trickle,  is  the  most  precious  possession  ot  all  Arab 
towns  ;  it  is  not  infrequently,  indeed,  the  cause  of  the 
town's  existence.  It  is  the  indispensable  thing,  the 
joint  heritage  of  all  the  people ;  and  it  becomes,  in 
consequence,  the  forum^  the  meeting-place,  and  the 
club.  Thus,  in  the  unchanging  East,  it  is  around 
the  well,  which  also  changes  not,  that  are  to  be  sought 
the  traditions  of  the  town's  past,  and  the  life  of  the 
present. 

It  is  right  that  before  leaving  Nazareth  a  word 
should  be  said  of  one  of  whose  kingdom  it  was  almost 
the  central   point.     Towards  the   year   1740   a   certain 


136  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Zahir  el-'Omar,  of  the  powerful  tribe  of  the  Beni 
Ziadneh,  a  man  of  enterprise  and  great  ambition,  took 
advantage  of  the  Turks'  loose  control  to  improve  upon 
his  position  as  Sheikh  of  an  Arab  tribe.  Gradually 
gathering  round  him  an  army  largely  consisting  of 
fugitives  from  Turkish  justice,  and  allying  himself  to 
the  dreaded  Druses,  he  succeeded  in  carving  out  for  him- 
self a  kingdom  extending  from  Acre,  his  capital,  across 
Palestine  to  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  Here,  with  varying 
fortunes,  he  maintained  himself  for  no  less  than  fifty 
years,  losing  a  fight  now  and  again,  but  succeeding,  on 
the  whole,  in  keeping  the  Turks  at  bay,  and  in  con- 
ferring upon  his  dominions,  for  he  was  a  good  ruler,  an 
unaccustomed  spell  of  prosperity.  Disaster  came  to 
him  at  last,  as  to  Henry  II.  of  England,  through  the 
treachery  of  his  own  family.  His  sons,  tempted  by  the 
bribes  of  his  rival,  Jezzar  Pasha,  sold  him  to  the  Turks; 
and  the  old  man  of  ninety,  still  fighting,  still  at  the 
head  of  his  Druse  horsemen,  fell  into  an  ambush  pre- 
pared by  the  brutal  Jezzar,  who  cut  off  the  head  of  this 
'  King  Lear  of  the  Desert,'  and  sent  it,  pickled,  to  Con- 
stantinople. 

As  one  travels  along  the  high  road  which  connects 
Nazareth  with  what  was  his  third  great  town,  Tiberias, 
passing  Cana,  now  Kafr  Kenna,  where  both  a  Latin 
and  a  Greek  Church  claim  to  occupy  the  site  of  the 
miracle  and  where  the  girls  wear  Austrian  4-ducat 
pieces,  thinnest  and  widest  of  modern  2:old  coins, 
attached  to  their  plaits  by  strange  cylindrical  fastenings 
of  silver,  one  comes  to  the  field  of  a  battle,  compared 
with  which  old  Zahir's  bloodiest  encounter  was  nothing 
but  a  skirmish.  This  is  the  two-horned  hill  of  Hattin, 
which  decided  the  fate  of  the  Crusaders  in  the  Holy 


SAMARIA  AND   GALILEE  137 

Land.  In  1185,  after  a  disastrous  reign,  Baldwin  IV., 
the  leper  King  of  Jerusalem,  died,  to  be  followed  to 
the  grave  soon  after  by  his  little  nephew  Baldwin  V. 
Upon  the  child's  mother  and  his  step-father  Guy  de 
Lusignan  the  succession  now  devolved,  not  without 
protests  from  the  Hospitallers  and  the  barons ;  for  Guy, 
whose  subsequent  acquisition  of  Cyprus  has  already 
been  chronicled,  was  so  incapable  that  when  his  brother 
Geoffrey  heard  of  his  election,  he  remarked  :  "  If  they 
have  made  him  a  king,  I  suppose  they  would  have  made 
me  a  god,  had  they  known  me."  The  one  mitigation 
of  incapacity  is  recognition  of  the  fact  by  the  in- 
capable one,  but  Guy  possessed  not  even  this  redeeming 
virtue. 

Saladin  was  then  besieging  Tiberias,  and  Guy,  having 
raised  an  army  with  the  treasure  which  Henry  II. 
had  been  sending  yearly  since  the  death  of  Thomas  a 
Becket,  was  for  marching  to  its  relief.  In  vain  did 
Raymond  of  Tripoli,  to  whom  Tiberias  belonged, 
urge  the  folly  of  the  attempt.  He  pointed  out,  very 
rightly,  that  there  was  no  water  between  Seffuriyeh, 
where  the  army  was  encamped,  and  Tiberias ;  and 
added  that  he  preferred  to  lose  his  city  for  a  while 
rather  than  see  the  whole  army  perish.  But  Guy, 
abetted  by  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Templars,  who 
hated  Raymond,  persisted  in  his  course,  with  the  result 
which  Raymond  had  predicted.  On  the  march  the 
army  suffered  greatly  from  want  of  water,  from  the 
heat,  from  the  burning  of  the  grass  under  foot  by  the 
enemy,  and  from  the  continual  harassing  of  the  Saracen 
cavalry.  It  halted  for  the  night  on  the  top  of  the  arid 
plateau,  in  sight  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  on  the 
following  morning,  in  despair,  gave  battle.    The  troops, 


138  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

having  had  no  water  for  twenty-four  hours,  were  ex- 
hausted, and  Saladin  '  broke  the  Franks  on  the  Horns 
of  Hattin,  and  slew  a  great  multitude,  and  took  their 
kings  prisoner.'  The  True  Cross  was  lost,  and  the 
King  a  captive.  This  was  the  greatest  disaster  which 
had  as  yet  overtaken  the  Crusaders.  Saladin  now 
marched  south.  Nablus,  Caesarea,  Jericho,  Jaffa,  opened 
their  gates  to  him  without  resistance ;  and  on  the  2nd 
day  of  October,  1187,  he  took  Jerusalem,  granting  to 
the  besieged  terms  of  almost  unparalleled  generosity. 
Henceforth  Jerusalem  remained  a  Moslem  city,  with 
the  exception,  later  on,  of  a  period  of  ten  years,  when 
the  world  witnessed  the  amazing  spectacle  of  an  Emperor, 
first  excommunicated  for  not  going  on  the  Crusade,  and 
then  excommunicated  for  going,  becoming  master  of 
Jerusalem  without  shedding  blood,  only  to  find  that 
after  taking  possession  of  the  town,  for  the  recapture  of 
which  Europe  had  sent  out  five  Crusades  (one,  indeed, 
went  sadly  astray),  the  services  of  the  Church  could  not 
be  celebrated  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  because  the  Pope 
had  laid  every  town  in  which  Frederick  found  himself, 
the  goal  of  the  Christian  world  not  excepted,  under  an 
interdict.  But  Stupor  Mundi  did  not  very  much  mind. 
"'  I  am  not  here,'  he  said,  '  to  deliver  the  Holy  City,  but 
to  maintain  my  own  credit.' 

Hattin  is  situated  almost  on  the  edge  of  the  plateau 
along  which  we  had  been  travelling  since  leaving  Naza- 
reth ;  and  hitherto  the  weather  had  been  cold  and 
windy.  As  soon  as  we  began  the  descent  into  the 
hollow  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  the  air  became  still,  and 
bleakness  was  changed  to  torrid  heat.  The  road, 
instead  of  dropping  suddenly,  winds  gently  down 
the    hill-side,    aff)rding    constantly    varying    views    of 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  139 

the  sun-baked  little  town  on  the  shore  of  the  blue, 
mountain-girt  lake  ;  and  as  one  comes  closer,  one  is 
able  to  distinguish  the  crumbling  walls  of  black  basalt 
and  the  picturesque  towers  and  battlements,  relics  of 
Sheikh  Zahir.  On  reaching  the  bottom,  we  skirted  the 
town,  and,  riding  southward  between  the  black  city 
walls  and  the  white  tombs  of  the  Jews,  pitched  our 
camp  one  mile  away,  on  the  very  banks  of  the  lake, 
facing  those  '  steep  places '  of  Gadara  down  which  it 
required  but  little  imagination  to  picture  great  herds  of 
swine  still  rushing  violently  to  their  destruction.  A 
pretty  town,  Tiberias,  from  without,  a  most  untidy  one 
within.  Owing  to  its  great  depth  beneath  the  level  of 
the  sea,  nearly  700  feet,  the  vegetation  of  the  narrow 
strip  of  plain  which  fringes  the  lake  is  almost  tropical, 
and  date  palms  and  banana  trees  mingle  with  the  domes 
and  minarets  of  the  city's  mosques.  To  these,  to  its 
citadel  and  walls,  and  above  all  to  the  lake,  which  is 
a  gem,  Tiberias's  beauty  is  due  ;  the  rest  is  squalid  and 
poor.  There  are  no  churches  of  interest,  there  is  not 
even  a  road  running  alongside  the  lake;  all  streets  at 
right  angles  to  it  terminate  in  cuh-de-sac  made  bv 
the  water's  edge.  But  for  this  shabbiness  there  is  a 
reason.  Most  towns  and  districts  in  Syria,  although 
possessing  long  and  varied  histories,  are  pre-eminently 
associated  with  one  particular  epoch,  one  particular 
race,  one  particular  aspect  of  civilization  :  Antioch 
with  the  Seleucidae,  Nablus  with  the  Samaritans,  the 
Lebanon  with  the  feud  between  Maronite  and  Druse. 
Tiberias's  association,  and  that  of  the  whole  Decapolis, 
which  once,  as  a  garland  of  fair  cities,  encircled  the 
lake,  has  always  been  with  the  Jews  ;  and  although, 
when    it    was    built    by    Herod    Antipas    to    succeed 


140  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Sefl-uriyeh  as  the  capital  of  Galilee,  its  Judaism,  as 
in  the  case  of  all  Herodian  towns,  was  tinged  with 
foreign  influences  and  was  looked  at  askance  by  the 
orthodox  of  Jerusalem,  it  underwent,  after  that  city's 
fall,  a  complete  and  radical  change.  'From  being  a 
centre  of  western  and  Hellenistic  culture,  it  became  the 
repository  of  Jewish  tradition,  the  seat  of  the  Sanhedrin 
and  of  a  Jewish  '  patriarch,'  the  home  of  Talmudic  and 
rabbinical  learning ;  and  the  fruits  of  Tiberian  scholar- 
ship acquired  fame  throughout  the  Jewish  world.  During 
the  middle  ages,  under  various  masters,  the  Jewish 
element  remained  predominant ;  and  somewhat  later, 
again,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Tiberias  was  the  pioneer 
of  what  is  known  as  Zionism,  since  Joseph  Nasi,  Duke 
of  Naxos,  of  whom  mention  has  already  been  made, 
anticipated  a  modern  movement  by  obtaining  of  Suley- 
man  the  Magnificent  permission  to  rebuild  it  as  the 
capital  of  a  Jewish  state.  Within  the  last  few  decades 
Jewish  Tiberias  has  entered  upon  another  aspect  of  its 
history  in  becoming  one  of  the  destinations  of  Jewish 
emigration  from  Europe.  A  few  Sephardim  have  long 
been  established  in  Tiberias,  but  it  is  only  latterly  that 
it  has  been  filled  with  fur-bonneted  Ashkenazim  from 
Poland,  Austria,  and  Germany,  who  come  to  await  the 
Messiah,  or,  at  least,  to  leave  their  bones  beside  those  of 
their  ancestors.  Four-fifths  of  the  town's  population 
are  now  composed  of  these ;  and  as  they  are  not  pre- 
occupied with  mortal  affairs,  poor  things,  but  rather 
strain  after  some  elusive  hope  of  a  new  dispensation  for 
Israel,  the  prosperity  and  appearance  of  the  town  suffer 
accordingly.  Tiberias  has  never  been  renowned  for 
cleanliness,  and  it  is  there  that  that  powerful  potentate, 
that  master  of  millions,  Sultan  el-Baraghit,  the  king  of 


THE    SYNAGOGUE,     NAZARETH 


TIBERIAS 


Facing  p.   140. 


SAMARIA  AND   GALILEE  141 

the  fleas,  holds  his  court.     One  of  the  old  Arab  geo- 
graphers quotes  a  sayhig  which  still,  no  doubt,  applies  : 

"  Of  the  people  of  Tiberias  it  is  said  that  for  two 
months  they  dance,  and  for  two  more  they  gorge ;  that 
for  two  months  they  beat  about,  and  for  two  more  they 
go  naked ;  that  for  two  months  they  play  the  reed,  and 
for  two  more  they  wallow.  The  explanation  of  this  is 
that  they  dance  from  the  number  of  fleas,  then  gorge 
off  the  nabak^  fruit;  they  beat  about  with  fly-laps  to 
chase  away  the  wasps  from  the  meat  and  the  truits, 
then  they  go  naked  from  the  heat;  they  suck  the 
sugar-canes,  and  then  have  to  wallow  through  their 
muddy  streets."  ^ 

On  the  day  after  our  arrival  we  received  a  visit  from 
the  Qaimaqam  and  his  staff,  a  body  of  varied  composi- 
tion. The  Qaimaqam  himself  was  a  Damascene  Christian 
married  to  a  Greek,  the  Commandant  of  Zaptiehs  a 
Cretan,  the  garrison  doctor  a  Syrian,  and  the  Com- 
mandant of  the  troops  a  Turk.  They  were  most 
friendly;  and,  indeed,  throughout  our  journey,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  say  how  much  we  owed  to  the 
kindness  and  good  offices  of  the  Turkish  officials.  1 
am  certain  that  our  caravan  was  often  regarded  with 
suspicion,  and  I  know  that  our  movements  were  tele- 
graphed from  vilayet  to  vilayet,  from  qaza  to  qaza,  with 
watchful  accuracy  and  promptitude.  The  Turks,  who 
have  never  been  travellers  except  for  the  purposes  of 
conquest,  find  it  difficult  to  understand  why  foreigners 
should  wish  to  leave  their  comfortable  homes  in  order 
to  wander  through  a  strange  country,  except  from  some 

^The  fruit  of  the  tree-lotus. 

^  For  this  and  other  quotations  from  Arab  geographers  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr.  Guy  Le  Strange's  Palestine  under-  the   Modem:. 


142  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

ulterior  motive.  By  the  time  that  we  had  attained  our 
journey's  end  our  acquaintance  with  Turkish  officials 
had  become  extensive,  as  visits  were,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  exchanged  at  every  place;  and  everywhere, 
without  exception,  did  we  experience  the  utmost  cour- 
tesy, and  in  many  cases  acts  of  genuine  kindness,  which 
the  suspicions  entertained  against  us  made  all  the  more 
honourable. 

I  make  no  complaint  whatever  of  these  suspicions, 
and  I  am  fully  prepared  to  admit  that,  as  a  class,  the 
traveller  very  often  invites  them  by  conduct  which 
must  appear  to  the  natives  of  the  countries  he  wanders 
through  as  either  eccentric,  or  incomprehensible,  or 
unpleasant.  Upon  few  except  innkeepers  and  dealers 
in  antiquities  (not  usually  natives)  does  he  confer  any 
real  benefit ;  and,  as  regards  this  particular  journey  of 
ours,  we  traversed  many  districts  where  those  profes- 
sions were  totally  unrepresented,  or  represented  by  the 
crudest  of  amateurs.  Moreover,  when  Europeans  insist 
on  visiting  the  more  outlying  portions  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  they  throw  upon  the  officials  in  charge  of  them 
a  very  real  responsibility  ;  and  there  have  been  some 
who,  by  foolhardily  omitting  to  take  simple  precautions, 
have  got  themselves,  and  those  held  responsible  for 
their  safety,  into  difficulties.  If  a  European  is  robbed, 
or  captured,  or  murdered,  the  unfortunate  functionary 
in  whose  province  the  event  occurs  knows  that  there 
will  be  the  devil  to  pay,  although,  more  likely  than  not, 
he  duly  warned  the  victim  of  his  risks,  and  dissuaded 
him  from  his  adventure.  Hence  I  repeat  that  the 
treatment  we  received  from  Valis,  Mutesarrifs,  and 
Oaimaqams  was  more  than  generous  in  view  of  the 
anxiety  which  we  probably  caused  them  ;  and  I  consider 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  143 

that  the  telegrams  were  in  every  way  justifiable.  How 
could  they  know  that  we  were  full  of  the  virtues  by 
which  so  rarely,  and  free  from  the  vices  by  which  so  con- 
stantly, the  traveller  is  beset  ?  I  do  not  suppose  that 
they  had  ever  read  Sir  Charles  Eliot's  masterly  work 
Turkey  in  Europe,  because,  prior  to  the  revolution,  the 
importation  into  Turkey  of  foreign  works  dealing  with 
that  Empire  was  strictly  prohibited.  Doubtless,  how- 
ever, they  had  learned  by  observation  the  truth  of  the 
remark  made  in  that  book  that  "  travelling  generates 
an  immoral  habit  of  mind."  The  author  justifies  the 
aphorism  with  the  following  reflections.  "  You  do 
many  things  in  a  place  where  you  are  going  to  stop 
only  a  few  hours  which  you  would  not  do  in  your 
permanent  residence.  Observe  the  undisguised  selfish- 
ness and  greed  of  ordinary  railway  travellers,  the 
brutal  violence  with  which  they  seize  eligible  seats  or 
other  comforts,  the  savage  gluttony  with  which  they 
ravage  the  buffet  and  carry  off  their  food.  Explorers 
apparently  go  further,  and  deal  very  lightly  with  the 
lives  and  persons  of  the  natives  through  whose  country 
they  pass."  The  accuracy  of  all  this  is  patent ;  and, 
had  Sir  Charles  Eliot  pursued  the  subject  further,  he 
might  perhaps  have  added  an  allusion  to  the  danger 
that  the  traveller  in  the  East  may  supplement  his 
imported  stock  of  vices  with  others  acquired  on  the 
road.  For  example,  his  conscience  cannot  fail  to  be 
numbed  when  he  learns  that  the  dealer  whom  he  is 
trying  to  cheat  is  trying  to  cheat  him  ;  and  many  of  the 
episodes  from  every  day  life  which  chance  to  come  to 
his  ears  tend  to  confirm  the  consoling  theory  that  in 
this  imperfect  world  the  knave  is  often  successful.  I 
will  freely  admit  that  I  was  moved,  not  to  indignation, 


144  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

but  to  laughter  when  I  heard  the  following  tale  of  a 
small  Turkish  town  which  shall  be  nameless.  The 
town  possessed  two  doctors,  who  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances should  have  been  sufficient  for  its  needs. 
But  one  of  the  doctors,  when  summoned  to  a  patient, 
always  inquired  first  if  the  case  was  infectious,  and  the 
other  was  usually  in  hiding  from  his  creditors.  Similar 
was  the  effect  produced  on  me  when  1  was  told  the 
perfectly  true  story  of  the  man  who,  having  murdered 
his  father,  appealed  to  the  Government  for  clemency 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  an  orphan.  And  when  I 
turn  for  moral  guidance  to  our  old  friend  the  Khoja  of 
Aqshehir,  what  lesson  does  that  respected  personage 
preach  ? 

One  day  he  borrowed  a  black  tenjere  (saucepan)  from 
a  neighbour,  and  detained  it  for  a  very  long  time. 
Finally  the  owner  made  anxious  inquiries,  to  which 
the  Khoja  replied : 

*'  You  cannot  have  your  tenjere  yet,  for  she  has  only 
just  had  kittens,  and  is  not  yet  well  enough  to  be 
moved." 

The  man  went  away  in  amazement,  for  he  had  never 
heard  before  that  tenjeres  were  wont  to  have  kittens. 
On  the  following  day,  however,  he  was  surprised  and 
pleased  to  receive,  with  the  Khoja's  compliments,  a  tiny 
tenjere  and  a  message  to  say  that  it  was  the  pick  of  the 
litter,  and  that  the  mother  was  doing  well.  Shortly 
afterwards  his  own  tenjere  was  duly  returned  to  him. 

Next  year  the  neighbour  begged  the  Khoja  to 
borrow  the  saucepan  again,  and  to  superintend  the 
arrival  of  another  family.  But  ever  after,  the  Khoja, 
when  asked  to  return  the  utensil,  would  anxiously 
whisper: 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  145 

"  Hush,   O   my   uncle,   do    not   disturb   the   tenjere. 
You  may  frighten  her  into  a  miscarriage." 

By  the  beautiful  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  we 
spent  two  delightful  and  peaceful  days.  On  the  third 
morning,  we  sent  the  caravan  ahead  overland  to  meet 
us  at  its  northern  end,  and,  ourselves  embarking  in 
a  fishing-boat,  sailed  across  to  Capernaum,  now  Tell 
Hum,  which  is  almost  at  the  apex  of  the  lake,  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  to  the  west  of  where  the  Jordan  enters 
it.  A  strong  breeze,  almost  a  squall,  took  us  over  in 
two  hours,  while  the  boatmen  droned  in  nasal  meiopees 
the  latest  love-songs  from  Beirut.  From  Capernaum, 
where  the  Franciscans  were  restorino;  a  beautiful  old 
synagogue,  possibly  that  of  the  centurion  Cornelius,  we 
sailed  on  to  Khan  Minyeh.  Here  we  rejoined  our 
caravan,  and  commenced  the  ascent  of  3400  feet  out  of 
the  hollow  up  to  the  mountains  once  more,  to  the 
ancient  town  of  Safed.  Halfway  up  is  the  large  but 
decayed  khan  of  Jubb  Yusuf,  Joseph's  pit,  a  typical 
specimen  of  the  old  caravanserai,  consisting  of  a  huge 
quadrangle  with  accommodation  for  a  multitude  of 
men  and  beasts,  built  close  to  the  Jubb  itself,  the 
very  pit,  one  is  told,  into  which  Joseph  was  thrown  by 
his  brethren.  From  the  khan  a  climb  of  an  hour  and 
a  half  brings  one  to  Safed,  highest,  and  undoubtedly 
windiest  town  in  Galilee,  reputed  birthplace  of  St.  Anne, 
and  according  to  Jewish  tradition  the  spot  to  which  the 
Messiah,  after  appearing  in  Tiberias,  will  mount  to  set 
up  His  throne.  On  this  account  it  is,  like  Tiberias,  a 
city  of  Jews,  but  they  have  not,  as  in  Tiberias,  mono- 
polized its  history.  During  the  Crusades  its  possession, 
as  commanding  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  was  fiercely  con- 
tested ;  and  the  town  is  built  round  three  sides  of  the 

K 


146  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

castle  which  then  topped  the  summit  of  the  hill.  Con- 
stant assaults,  and  also  earthquakes,  have  left  the  castle 
a  hopeless  ruin,  with  little  beyond  two  big  cisterns  still 
in  good  repair ;  nor  could  I  see  that  famous  well  which 
Dimashki  (who  died  at  Safed)  with  pardonable  pride 
asserted  to  be  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world,  that 
well  at  whose  mouth  were  iron  arms  with  iron  hands 
and  fingers,  which  seized  the  full  casks  as  they  came  up 
from  the  bottom,  and  poured  the  water  automatically 
into  a  tank,  whence  it  ran  by  a  conduit  into  the  cistern. 
From  the  castle  mound  one  obtains  an  unobstructed 
survey  of  the  country  all  around.  The  lake,  to  the 
south,  looks  wonderfully  small  and  far  away,  simmering 
in  the  sunshine ;  but  over  to  the  north  great  Hermon, 
shaggy  and  white,  looms  most  deceptively  near.  Every 
day  it  seemed  as  if  the  next  would  bring  us  to  his  foot, 
every  day  new  valleys  and  hills,  hitherto  unsuspected, 
interposed  themselves  between  us  and  him.  We  slept 
that  night  in  an  olive-grove  at  the  foot  of  the  castle, 
close  to  the  serai  ^  which  was  erected,  I  fancy,  in  grati- 
tude for  25  years  of  'Abdu'l  Hamid's  reign;  and 
during  the  evening  our  tents  were  nearly  blown  away 
by  the  wind.  On  the  following  day  we  departed,  but 
before  passing  out  of  the  town  accepted  the  friendly 
invitation  of  the  Mission  doctor  to  see  the  hospital  of 
the  London  Mission  to  the  Jews.  In  this  out-of-the- 
way  little  Arab  town,  many  miles  from  a  good  road,  on 
the  top  of  a  mountain  which  is  now  not  even  on  a  main 
caravan  route,  it  was  certainly  a  surprise  to  find  so 
admirable,  almost  palatial,  an  installation  as  this  Mission 
and   hospital   possess.      The   houses   are   well   built   of 

1  A  building  in  which  arc  united  the  offices  of  the  various  Govern- 
ment departments.     The  equivalent  of  the  Turkish  qo)iaq. 


SAMARIA  AND   GALILEE  147 

local  stone,  on  the  operating  room  no  expense  has  been 
spared,  the  wards  are  clean  and  cheerful,  and  there  is 
excellent  accommodation  for  the  doctor,  the  English 
nurses,  and  for  the  school.  We  went  through  the 
wards,  where  aged  Jews  were  happily  reposing,  or 
gently  muttering  in  Yiddish  to  each  other  and  them- 
selves. The  old  people  love  the  hospital,  a  thing 
not  difficult  to  understand  when  one  has  seen  their 
filthy  and  miserable  hovels  in  the  ghetto;  but  the 
children  do  not  like  the  restraint,  and  always  pine  to  be 
discharged.  As  there  is  much  disease  among  the  Jews 
here,  principally  ophthalmia,  the  hospital  does  an 
immense  amount  of  good;  but  I  doubt  if  the  Mission 
entirely  fulfils  the  expectations  of  the  philanthropic 
people  at  home  who  support  it.  It  is  but  seldom  that 
conversion  follows  cure. 

Over  hills  and  across  dales,  per  valli,  per  hoschi,  we 
journeyed  on,  now  seeing  for  the  first  time  Lake  Huleh, 
smallest  and  northernmost  of  the  three  lakes  of  the 
Jordan  valley,  the  only  one  above  sea-level ;  and  pass- 
ing, at  the  village  of  Deishun,  a  settlement  of  Moghre- 
bins  who  fled  from  their  native  Algeria  after  some 
rising  against  Napoleon  IIL  Soon  after,  we  reached 
Qades,  or  Kedesh-Naphtali,  and  camped  in  a  pleasant 
hollow  below  the  village  by  the  ruins  of  El-'Amara. 
Qades  is  one  of  the  villages  inhabited  by  the  people 
called  Metawileh  ;  and  as  it  is  in  the  religion  of  this 
strange  race  that  its  principal  interest  lies,  it  may  be 
well  briefly  to  recall  how  Islam  was  rent  by  schism,  and 
how  this  little  Shiah  sect  is  found  to-day  in  the  midst 
of  a  Suni  stronghold. 

Mohammed  had  paved  the  way  for,  had,  in  fact, 
created,  a  spiritual  and  temporal  monarchy  embracing 


148  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

all  true  believers,  in  which  the  spiritual  and  secular 
authority  was  not  shared,  as  in  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  by  a  Pope  and  an  Emperor,  but  was  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  one  person,  the  Khalif.  The  word 
khalif  means  successor,  lieutenant,  or  vicar ;  and  under 
the  first  three  Khalifs,  Mohammed's  immediate  succes- 
sors, 'Abu  Bekr,  'Omar,  and  'Othman,  the  conquering 
Arabs  carried  Islam  into  Syria,  Persia,  and  Egypt. 
'Othman,  a  kindly,  incompetent  old  man,  was  mur- 
dered in  655  ;  and  there  succeeded  to  him  as  fourth 
Khalif  the  Prophet's  son-in-law  'Ali,  who  was  destined, 
unconsciously,  to  be  the  rock  upon  which  Mohamme- 
danism split  into  its  two  principal  divisions.  The  first 
step  towards  schism  was  the  refusal  of  Mu'awiya,  of 
the  powerful  Omayyad  family  and  'Othman's  governor 
of  Syria,  to  acknowledge  the  new  Khalif.  He  alleged 
as  his  reason  'All's  neglect  to  punish  'Othman's  mur- 
derers. In  point  of  fact,  he  himself  had  for  some  time 
cherished  the  ambition  of  becoming  Khalif;  and  with 
the  support  of  the  Syrians  resisted  by  force  'All's 
demand  for  his  submission.  In  the  meantime,  the  politi- 
cal centre  of  gravity  of  the  Mohammedan  Empire  had 
shifted  from  Mecca  and  Medina.  'Ali,  turning  for  sup- 
port toward  Persia  and  Iraq,  concentrated  his  forces  at 
Kufa  in  Lower  Mesopotamia;  Mu'awiya's  headquarters 
were  at  Damascus.  The  civil  war  which  ensued  was 
not  only  a  struggle  between  the  two  rivals,  it  repre- 
sented the  struggle  between  the  Syrian  and  the  Persian 
elements,  the  Semite  and  Aryan,  for  the  dominant 
position  in  the  Moslem  world.  In  661,  after  five  years 
of  war  during  which  he  steadily  lost  ground,  'Ali  was 
murdered  at  Kufa ;  whereupon  his  son  Hasan,  much 
against   the  wishes  of  his   brother  Husein,  abandoned 


SAMARIA  AND   GALILEE  149 

the  contest  and  resigned  his  claims  to  Mu'awiya,  The 
latter  was  now  sole  Khalif,  and  the  Mohammedan 
world  once  more  politically  united,  for  the  present 
under  the  leadership  of  Syria.  Spiritually,  however, 
the  breach  between  the  two  parties  grew  ever  wider,  and 
in  Persia  'All  became  posthumously  the  object  of  venera- 
tion far  greater  than  that  which  he  had  enjoyed  in  his 
lifetime,  became,  in  fact,  the  central  figure  of  that  branch 
of  Islam  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  Shiah.  He  was 
soon  believed  to  be  an  incarnation  of  the  divine  spirit, 
as  great  as,  if  not  greater  than,  Mohammed  himself, 
and  the  latter's  immediate  successor ;  and  the  Shiahs 
regarded  the  three  first  Khalifs  and,  still  more,  those  of 
the  Omayyad  dynasty  founded  by  Mu'awiya,  as  heretics 
and  usurpers. 

Meanwhile,  under  the  latter  there  had  been  growing 
up,  as  a  complement  to  the  Qoran,  the  so-called  '  Tradi- 
tion '  or  Suna,  in  which  were  embodied  miracles  alleged 
to  have  been  performed  by  Mohammed,  incidents,  true 
and  fictitious,  in  his  life,  as  well  as  many  precepts  and 
regulations  of  the  three  first  Khalifs  and  of  their 
Omavyad  successors.  For  this  reason,  much  of  the 
'  Tradition  '  was  rejected  by  the  Shiahs,  while  from  it 
the  other  party  took  its  name  ;  and  Suni  and  Shiah  to 
this  day  divide  the  Mohammedan  world,  the  Shiahs 
comprising,  roughly  speaking,  the  inhabitants  of  Persia 
and  about  five  millions  in  India,  principally  in  Oudh, 
the  Sunis  the  remainder  of  the  Moslems, 

Whatever  importance  may  be  attached  to  the  doc- 
trinal questions  on  which  Suni  and  Shiah  divide,  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  fundamental  cause  of  the 
breach  was  a  national  or  racial  one.  Their  religious 
differences,    although    not    as    slight    as    those    which 


150  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

separate  the  Armenian  from  the  Orthodox  Church,^ 
were  originally  secondary  to  the  rivalry  between  the 
two  peoples,  and  they  have  been  wittily  satirized  by 
Thomas  Moore  in  the  sixth  letter  of  the  Twopenny 
Post  Bag  : 

"  You  know  our  Sunnites, — hateful  dogs  ! 
Whom  every  pious  Shiite  flogs 
Or  longs  to  flog — 'tis  true,  they  pray 
To  God,  but  in  an  ill-bred  way  ; 
With  neither  arms,  nor  legs,  nor  faces, 
Stuck  in  their  right  canonic  places ! 
'Tis  true,  they  worship  Ali's  name— 
Their  Heaven  and  ours  are  just  the  same — 
(A  Persian's  Heav'n  is  eas'ly  made, 
'Tis  but — black  eyes  and  lemonade). 
Yet — though  we've  tried  for  centuries  back — 
We  can't  persuade  the  stubborn  pack. 
By  bastinadoes,  screws,  or  nippers. 
To  wear  th'  established  pea-green  slippers  !- 
Then — only  think — the  libertines! 
They  wash  their  toes — they  comb  their  chins — 
With  many  more  such  deadly  sins  ! 
And  (what's  the  worst,  though  last  I  rank  it) 
Believe  the  Chapter  of  the  Blanket ! 

"  Yet,  spite  of  tenets  so  flagitious, 
(Which  must^  at  bottom,  be  seditious ; 
Since  no  man  living  would  refuse 
Green  slippers,  but  from  treasonous  views; 
Nor  wash  his  toes,  but  with  intent 
To  overturn  the  Government !) — 
Such  is  our  mild  and  tolerant  way, 
We  only  curse  them  twice  a  day, 

^  To  describe  these  is  a  task  which  taxes  even  the  cunning  Armenian. 

2  "  The  Shiites  wear  green  slippers,  which  the  Sunnites  consider  as 
a  great  abomination." — Mariii. 


SAMARIA  AND  GALILEE  151 

(According  to  a  Form  that's  set), 

And,  far  from  torturing,  only  let 

All  orthodox  believers  beat  'em, 

And  twitch  their  beards,  where'er  they  meet  'em. 

"  As  to  the  rest,  they're  free  to  do 
Whate'er  their  fancy  prompts  them  to, 
Provided  they  make  nothing  of  it 
Tow'rds  rank  or  honour,  power  or  profit ; 
Which  things,  we  nat'rally  expect, 
Belong  to  US,  the  Establish'd  sect. 
Who  disbelieve  (the  Lord  be  thanked  !) 
Th'  aforesaid  Chapter  of  the  Blanket." 

Suni  and  Shiah,  again,  have  split  into  a  host  of  sub- 
divisions. One  day,  it  is  related,  Mohammed  prophesied 
that  his  followers  would  separate  into  seventy-three  sects, 
and  that  of  these  all  but  one,  the  Najiyeh  or  '  Saved 
Ones,'  would  go  to  hell.  Despite  the  risk,  this  figure 
has  been  far  exceeded.  The  Shiahs  alone  number  more 
sects  than  the  Prophet  had  allowed  for  the  whole  of 
Islam  ;  and  to  one  of  these  sects  the  Metawileh  un- 
doubtedly belong,  notwithstanding  the  assertions  of 
some  writers  that  they  are  the  descendants  of  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Galilee,  and  of  others,  that 
they  are  a  branch  of  the  Assassins.  The  Metawileh 
are  strangers  in  Syria ;  and  as  their  faith  tallies  with 
that  of  the  orthodox  or  Imamiyeh  Shiahs  of  Persia, 
having  nothing  in  common  with  the  mystical  beliefs 
of  the  Assassins  and  Isma'iliyeh,  nor  with  the  yet 
wilder  and  more  esoteric  mixture  of  religions  prac- 
tised by  the  Nosayriyeh  and  the  Druses,  it  is  safe  to 
conclude  that  they  entered  the  country  during  one  of 
the  Persian  invasions,  and  settled  in  the  villages 
of  the  Bilad  Beshara,  the  district  between  Qades  and 


152  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Tyre  which  they  still  inhabit.  They  maintain  a  close 
connexion  with  the  sacred  shrine  of  Kerbela,  to  which 
all  Persia  goes  on  pilgrimage,  and  when  they  bow  to 
the  ground  in  prayer,  they  touch  with  their  heads  a 
cake  of  earth  brought  from  the  site  of  the  murder  of 
Husein.  They  alone  among  the  dwellers  in  Syria 
possess  teachers  of  the  rank  of  Mujtahid,  that  most 
exalted  order  of  Mohammedan  divine  which  exercises 
much  influence  in  Persia,  although  it  no  longer 
exists  among  the  Sunis ;  and  they  still  govern  their 
personal  affairs  according  to  Shiah  civil  law.  Certain 
travellers,  unaware  of  this  fact,  have  accused  them  of 
exceptional  moral  degradation  because  temporary  mar- 
riages, known  as  "  marriages  of  privilege,"  are  permitted 
by  them,  in  addition  to  permanent  alliances ;  but  this 
institution,  while  unknown  to  the  Suni  jurists,  is  per- 
fectly legitimate  according  to  the  Imamiyeh  code. 
Marriages  of  privilege  may  be  for  any  period  specified 
in  the  contract,  and,  on  its  expiry,  may  be  renewed  by 
a  fresh  contract,  but  then  for  life  only ;  if  this  is  not 
done,  they  are  ipso  facto  dissolved. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  Metawileh  are  strict  in  their 
religious  observances,  keep  themselves  aloof  from  their 
neighbours,  and  are  cordially  disliked  by  these  in  return. 
They  are  supposed  also  to  resent  the  presence  of 
strangers,  and  to  avoid  all  intercourse  with  them  ;  but 
we  found  them  friendly,  cheerful,  and  interested ;  as 
interested  in  us  as  were  we  in  them,  apparently  undis- 
mayed by  their  isolation,  and,  unlike  the  Samaritans, 
well  able  to  hold  their  own  in  foreign  and  unfriendly 
surroundings. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

HERMON   AND    DAMASCUS. 

The  old  Via  Maris,  the  mediaeval  caravan  route  which 
connected  Egypt  with  Damascus  and  beyond,  branched 
ofF  from  Safed,  and,  crossing  the  Jordan  south  of  Lake 
Hdleh,  keeping  to  the  south,  also,  of  Hermon,  reached 
Damascus  by  Jisr  Benat  Ya'qub,  the  Bridge  of  the 
daughters  of  Jacob,  and  El-Quneitra,  present  head- 
quarters of  the  former  Gaulanitis.  Our  route,  a  longer 
one,  took  us  north  of  the  lake  ;  only  after  we  had 
passed  the  castle  of  Hunin,  the  Chateauneuf  of  the 
Crusaders,  did  we  bend  to  the  east,  and,  descending 
some  two  thousand  feet  into  the  low,  swampy  ground 
of  the  'Ard  el-Huleh,  commence  to  cross  the  numerous 
streams  which  here  combine  to  form  the  Jordan. 

Our  first  camp  after  leaving  Qades  was  by  the  Beduin 
settlement  of  Ez-Zuq,  on  an  island  formed  by  two 
branches  of  the  Nahr  el-Hasbany,  artificially  separated 
so  as  not  to  flood  the  plain  when,  after  the  winter  rains, 
the  streams  are  heavy  with  water.  On  the  plain  graze 
the  cattle  whose  care  is  the  Beduin's  occupation,  on  the 
plain,  too,  by  the  edge  of  the  lake,  grows  the  papyrus 
of  which  they  build  their  huts.  They  are  Ghajars, 
an  inferior  class  to  the  Beduin  of  the  desert,  and  their 
existence  here   is  commemorated  in   the   name  of  the 


154  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

three-arched  Roman  bridge,  Jisr  el-Ghajar,  by  which  on 
the  following  day  we  crossed  the  other  branch  of  the 
Hasbany,  and  passed  on  to  Tell  el-Oadi.  Here  El- 
Leddan,  the  main  source  of  the  Jordan,  emerges  in 
a  lovely  pool,  here  two  large  ilexes,  decked  with  in- 
numerable bits  of  rag,  mark  the  site  of  the  ancient 
frontier  town  of  Dan.  This  is  a  region  of  green  boscage 
and  running  water,  more  like  a  scene  from  the  Black 
Forest  or  a  wood  in  the  Scottish  Lowlands  than  the 
slope  of  a  Syrian  mountain.  For  we  are  now  on  the 
ascent  once  more,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  from  Dan 
reach  the  hill  of  Baniyas,  which  the  Wadi  Khashabeh 
cuts  off  from  the  southern  flank  of  Hermon.  This  hill 
is  of  threefold  interest,  illustrates  three  different  periods 
of  its  history.  At  its  foot  is  the  grotto  anciently  dedi- 
cated to  Pan  (hence  the  name  Paneas,  of  which  Baniyas 
is  a  corruption),  together  with  the  beautiful  spring 
which  with  the  Hasbany  and  El-Leddan  forms  the  three 
principal  Jordan  sources  ;  close  by  is  the  town,  the 
Caesarea  Philippi  of  the  New  Testament  ;  towering 
above  these,  magnificently  dominating  from  the  summit 
the  whole  country-side,  rises  Oal'at  es-Subeibeh,  one  of 
the  greatest  and  one  of  the  best  preserved  Crusading 
castles  in  all  Syria. 

The  hill  terminates  in  a  massive  wall  of  rock.  Here 
is  the  cave,  dark,  profound,  and  not  lacking  either  in 
mystery  or  grandeur,  whence  issued,  until  on  the  first 
day  of  the  year  1837  a  terrific  earthquake  destroyed 
Safed  and  upheaved  the  watercourses,  the  source  of 
Jordan  which  now  in  countless  little  rills  bursts  forth 
immediately  beneath  it.  The  majesty  of  the  cave,  the 
impressive  sound  of  ever-running  waters,  and  the  deep 
green  shadows  of  its  densely  wooded  approaches,  thick 


QAL  AT    ES-SUBEIBEH 


Facing   p.    154. 


HERMON  AND  DAMASCUS  155 

with  ilex  and  sycomore,  oak  and  pine,  make  this  spot  a 
fitting  site  for  the  mysteries  of  the  pagan  god.  Here 
was  the  grove  of  Pan,  here,  carved  in  the  rock  beside 
the  cave,  are  three  niches  to  his  honour.  The  inscriptions 
of  the  two  lower  niches  have  been  almost  entirely  worn 
away  by  time  ;  but  under  the  one  nearest  the  cave,  v/hich 
once  enshrined,  no  doubt,  a  statuette  of  the  goddess 
Echo,  can  still  be  deciphered  the  legend  : 

THNAeoeANANeOHKe 
4)|AeY[-X(J0AIOnANI 
OYIKTOOPAPHTHPAYCI 
A\AXOIOrONOC 

Victor,  Lysimachaean,  a  priest,  to  the  lover  of  echo 
Zeus-Pan,  great  Zeus-Pan,  raised  this  divinity  here. 

And  as  if  proclaiming  to  the  traveller  the  many-sidedness 
of  Syria,  a  turheh  of  St.  George  on  a  higher  slope  of  the 
hill  distracts  him  from  the  shrine  of  paganism  to  one 
which  claims  the  allegiance  of  Moslem  and  Christian, 
as  its  many  fluttering  rags,  the  attribute  of  sanctity, 
betoken. 

It  is  strange  that  a  saint  whose  career  is  shrouded  in 
such  obscurity,  whose  very  existence  has  not  infre- 
quently been  called  in  question,  should  have  acquired 
so  wide  a  measure  of  popularity  as  has  the  Patron  Saint 
of  England.  Introduced  into  England  by  Richard 
Coeur  de  Lion,  he  there  recalls  such  desirable  things  as 
Garters,  golden  sovereigns,  and  barons  of  beef ;  in 
Portugal,  until  the  recent  revolution  deprived  him  of 
his  rank,  he  was  a  Lieutenant-General  on  the  active  list 
of  the  army  (more  fortunate,  thus,  than  St.  Anthony  of 
Padua,  who  was  only  a  Colonel  of  infantry  in  the  garri- 
son of  Cascaes).  Venice  and  Genoa  were  under  his 
protection  ;    and  throughout   the   Levant,   in   Anatolia 


156  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

and  in  Rum,  he  is  regarded  as  a  friend  both  by 
Nazarene  and  by  follower  of  the  Prophet.  Here, 
then,  is  one  of  his  numerous  shrines,  while  still  higher, 
surmounting  the  symbol  of  conciliation,  stands  the 
castle,  emblem  of  strife.  From  the  modern  village, 
which  is  scattered  through  the  somewhat  confused 
remains  of  another  and  earlier  castle  (for  the  most  part 
of  Arab  origin,  but  showing,  here  and  there,  a  vestige 
of  the  ancient  town),  we  climbed  laboriously  to  the 
wasp-shaped  structure  with  which  the  Crusaders  have 
crowned  the  elongated  summit  of  the  hill.  Sloping 
downwards  from  east  to  west,  and  affording  a  splendid 
view  of  the  water-laden  'Ard  el-Huleh,  Qal'at  es- 
Subeibeh  illustrates  better,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
castle  in  Syria  how  much  the  Crusaders  were  able 
to  effect  in  a  brief  space  of  time.  They  were  in  con- 
tinuous possession  of  Baniyas  for  barely  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ;  but  within  that  period  they  constructed,  on 
earlier  foundations,  a  castle  five  hundred  yards  long, 
and  two  hundred  yards  wide  at  its  greatest  breadth. 
And  it  was  no  mere  fortified  hill-top,  but  a  castle  in 
the  truest  sense  of  the  word.  Several  of  its  vaulted 
chambers  are  still  intact  ;  and  its  vast  cistern,  now  a 
beautiful  sight  in  its  decay,  gives  ample  evidence  of  the 
thoroughness  with  which  the  builders  did  their  work. 

We  leave  the  castle  and  turn  our  faces  eastward, 
cross  the  intervening  wddi^  and  finally  set  foot  on 
Hermon.  And  now  a  change  comes  over  the  face  of 
the  country.  Whether  on  the  slopes  of  Hermon,  or 
on  the  flat  approaches  to  Damascus,  arid  and  treeless 
expanse  succeeds  the  sylvan  glades  of  the  Jordan  sources. 
Hermon,  of  course,  is  Alpine;  he  is  the  Jebel  esh- 
Sheikh,   the    hoary-headed   among   mountains,  and  the 


»  "J 


f'mm  \^  ^  'N 


lllL    ul;u\\L    ul     l'A.\ 


JAL  AT    ES-SUBEIBEH  ;     THE    CISTERN 


Facing  p.   156. 


HERMON  AND  DAMASCUS  157 

Mount  of  Snow.  Bare  rock  and  biting  winds  he  offers, 
and  it  is  natural  that  he  should.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  to  the  east  of  him  begins  the  Syrian 
desert ;  and  that  Damascus  is  an  oasis,  rich  and  wide 
itself  and  not  separated  by  much  from  the  fertile 
country  to  the  west,  but  an  oasis  nevertheless.  This 
does  not  mean  that  nowhere  between  it  and  Baniyas  is 
a  living  thing  to  be  seen.  On  the  contrary,  our  last 
camp  before  Damascus  was  in  the  lovely  orchards  of 
Kafr  Hawar;  and  a  day's  journey  before  that,  on  a 
plateau  on  Hermon's  side,  5000  feet  high,  whence  to 
the  right  we  surveyed  the  plain  of  the  Hauran,  vine- 
yards bore  testimony  to  the  richness  of  the  volcanic 
soil.  Cultivated  patches  there  are,  wherever  there  is 
water ;  but  the  presence  of  vegetation  is  no  longer  to 
be  taken  for  granted.  Where  there  is  vegetation, 
it  comes  as  a  welcome  and  refreshing  change ;  and 
that  is  why  Damascus,  the  metropolis  of  the  desert,  is 
the  pride  of  its  citizens  and  the  desire  of  the  Beduin. 
Its  rivers  and  its  girdle  of  living  green,  more  than 
pleasing  to  those  who  have  never  seen  a  desert,  seem 
almost  like  Paradise  to  those  who  have  never  seen 
anything  else. 

For  two  days  we  rode  along  the  eastern  spurs  of 
Hermon,  often  over  snow,  crossing  the  boundary  where 
Galilee  ends  and  Syria  proper  begins  somewhere  near 
the  village  of  Mejdel  esh-Shems,  a  short  journey  from 
Baniyas.  This  village  is  inhabited  by  Druses,  an  out- 
post of  those  who  since  1861  have  migrated  from  the 
Lebanon  to  the  Jebel  Hauran  ;  and  I  must  chronicle 
our  astonishment  at  being  greeted,  as  we  neared  the 
village,  by  white-turbaned  noblemen  mounted  on  pran- 
cing Arabs  with  a  nasal  '  Waal,  strangers,  come  right 


158  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

up.'  That  the  low-class  Syrians  ot  the  coast  emigrate 
to  the  United  States  is  well  known  ;  but  that  the  high- 
born Druses  of  the  mountain  did  likewise,  and  then 
returned,  to  resume  the  customs  and  costumes  of  the 
desert,  was  a  fact  which  we  undoubtedly  had  not  realized 
before.  Emigrants  to  America  may  be  divided  into  two 
categories,  those  who  go  with  the  intention  of  remaining, 
and  those  who,  regarding  existence  there  as  a  stage  of 
purgatory  or  as  an  episode  in  their  lives  necessary  but 
unpleasant,  not  to  be  recalled  to  mind  in  after  years, 
return  as  soon  as  they  have  put  by  a  sum  of  money 
sufficient  to  enable  them  to  enjoy  life  at  home.  To  the 
first  class  belong  Germans,  Scandinavians,  and  Poles  ;  to 
the  second,  Syrians,  Italians,  and,  as  we  now  learnt, 
Druses  also.  Our  friends,  however,  were  not  at  home 
for  good  ;  they  were  merely  enjoying  a  holiday  or 
respite.  In  a  few  months  they  would  go  forth  once  more, 
once  more  don  the  uniform  of  flat-brimmed  bowler  and 
elastic-sided  boots  ;  but  in  five  years  they  would  come 
back,  never  to  leave  again,  and  would  ride  for  the  rest 
of  their  lives  the  finest  mares  in  the  Hauran. 

And  now  we  approach  the  ancient  capital  of  Syria. 
Descending  the  slopes  of  Hermon,  we  see  in  a  haze  the 
white  city  embosomed  in  green,  the  green,  again,  an 
island  in  the  brown  desert  tints  ;  and  after  riding  over 
the  barren  plain  beside  the  equally  barren  Jebel  Qasyun, 
suddenly  find  ourselves  in  the  most  marvellous  and 
unbroken  series  of  orchards  which  it  is  possible  to 
imagine.  Almond  and  apricot  trees  in  full  flower, 
interrupted  only  by  low  mud  walls  dividing  the  gardens 
and  by  the  narrow  lanes  between  them,  encompass  the 
town  with  a  ring  of  blossom  and  verdure  so  thick  that 
to  traverse  it  and  to  reach  the  beginnings   of  the   city 


HERMON  AND  DAMASCUS  159 

itself  was  the  matter  of  an  hour.  Many  and  varied 
have  been  the  descriptions  which  travellers,  eastern  and 
western,  have  given  of  Damascus.  The  former,  for 
reasons  stated  above,  have  been  as  a  rule  redundant  in 
their  praise  ;  the  latter  range  over  the  whole  gamut 
between  enthusiasm  and  disappointment.  No  longer  is 
Damascus  to  the  outward  eye  a  city  of  gorgeous  palaces 
and  fairy-like  mosques,  bursting  with  the  choicest  and 
richest  treasures  of  the  East  and  spreading  out  its  glories 
to  every  passer-by  ;  the  rendezvous  of  Emirs,  Khans, 
Nabobs,  and  other  fabulous  personages  such  as  might 
have  been  met  with  in  the  days  of  Marco  Polo.  It  is  a 
large  and  still  very  oriental  city,  but  its  great  monu- 
ments are  few,  and  the  beauties  of  its  private  houses  are 
concealed  within  \}a€\r  patios  and  hidden  from  the  street. 
It  is  crowded,  indeed,  with  Asiatics  of  almost  every  race, 
but  these  are  for  the  most  part  poor  pilgrims  going  to, 
or  on  their  way  from,  Mecca  ;  and  its  bazaars,  although 
still  offering  carpets,  silks,  and  other  eastern  wares,  are 
yet  more  replete  with  European  manufactures,  before 
which,  alas,  the  native  handicrafts  are  slowly  giving  way. 
But  it  is  a  town  full  of  charm  although  not  full  of 
splendour  ;  and  when  the  traveller  sees  with  a  shudder 
that  the  bazaars  are  roofed  with  corrugated  iron  and 
Stocked  with  the  produce  of  Birmingham,  he  can  console 
himself  with  a  hundred  delightful  little  corners  reminis- 
cent of  the  Arabian  Nights,  or  with  some  humble  and 
decaying  mosque  made  beautiful  by  a  dado  of  tiles  on 
whose  creamy  ground  the  turquoise  blue  melts  imper- 
ceptibly into  the  loveliest  of  greens.  Damascus,  while 
no  longer  a  city  of  luxuriant  oriental  magnificence,  is  not 
wholly,  or  very  appreciably,  westernized  and  spoilt  ; 
much  there  is,  no  doubt,  which  is  out  of  place,  but  it  is 


160  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

not  yet  sufficient  to  ruin  the  general  effect,  or  to  mar 
the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  detail. 

A  splendid  city,  however,  it  must  once  have  been, 
especially  when,  as  the  seat  of  the  Omayyad  Khalifate,  it 
enjoyed  for  a  strangely  brief  span  the  position  of  capital 
of  an  independent  kingdom.  It  is  one  of  the  curiosities 
of  Damascene  history  that,  important  as  the  city  has 
always  been,  its  periods  of  independence  have  been  few 
and  short.  Into  the  eighty-nine  years  of  the  Omayyad 
dominion  it  crowded  its  days  of  glory  as  the  fountain  of 
an  Arabian  civilization  which,  spreading  far  beyond  the 
confines  of  Asia,  gave  Mohammedanism  and  art  to 
North  Africa,  and  a  brilliant  era  to  Spain.  From  this 
period  dates  its  greatest  architectural  achievement,  the 
Omayyad  Mosque,  as  much  the  heart  of  Damascus  as 
the  Sepulchre  is  of  Jerusalem  ;  perhaps  more  so,  since 
the  allegiance  of  Jerusalem  is  divided  between  the 
Sepulchre  and  the  Sakhra,  whereas  since  the  Arab 
conquest  Damascus  has  always  been  essentially  a 
Mohammedan  city,  despite  its  large  Christian  popula- 
tion. With  the  Sepulchre  it  has  a  further  feature  in 
common  :  as  that  establishment  houses  in  its  numerous 
chapels  a  variety  of  forms  of  the  Christian  faith,  so  the 
Omayyad  Mosque  assigns  prayer-niches  to  the  principal 
Suni  sects  or  schools.  There  remain  to-day  those  of  the 
Shafi'iyeh,  the  Malekiyeh,  the  Hanefiyeh,  the  law-givers, 
and  the  Hanbaliyeh  ;  and  Dimashki  also  mentions 
another,  which  has  presumably  shared  the  fate  of  the 
Nestorians  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  '  wherein  is  a  cistern 
of  water,  and  which  belongs  to  the  people  of  Zeyla,^  who 
are  negroes.' 

Like  the   Popes  of  the  Renaissance,  the  Omayyad 

^In  the  Somaliland  Protectorate. 


A    CORNER    OF    DAMASCUS 


THE    COURT,    LOOKING    WEST,    OMMAYAD    MOSQUE 


Facing  p.   i6o. 


HERMON  AND  DAMASCUS  161 

Khalifs  were  mighty  builders  and  splendour-loving 
princes;  'Abd  el-Melek's  Dome  of  the  Rock  is  no 
unworthy  specimen  of  their  great  conceptions,  lavish 
expenditure,  and,  above  all,  of  their  excellent  taste. 
'Abd  el-Melek  had,  as  we  have  seen,  a  political  motive 
for  devoting  attention  to  Jerusalem  ;  his  son  and  suc- 
cessor Al-Walid  was  occupied  in  erecting  for  his  capital 
Damascus  a  mosque  which,  although  lacking  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  almost  prehistoric  Sakhra,  was,  as  far  as 
human  artificers  could  make  it,  a  noble  companion  to 
that  splendid  shrine.  And  yet  it  was  not  altogether 
without  traditions.  On  its  site  once  stood  a  heathen 
temple,  possibly  to  the  god  Rimmon,  which  gave  way 
in  its  turn  to  the  church  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  the 
principal  place  of  Christian  worship  in  Damascus  during 
the  Byzantine  supremacy.  This  supremacy  was  shat- 
tered in  636  at  the  disastrous  battle  of  the  Yarmiik,  by 
which  the  invading  Arabs  put  an  end  to  Byzantine 
dominion  in  Syria,  having  become,  a  year  or  so 
previously,  in  a  most  curious  manner,  masters  of 
Damascus.  One  'Abu  'Ubaida,  in  command  of  Khalif 
'Omar's  army,  was  besieging  the  city  on  the  western 
side,  while  Khalid,  victor  on  the  Yarmuk,  KctXe^o?,  ov 
Xeyovcri  /ma-^aipai^  rod  Oeov,  was  assaulting  it  on  the  east. 
The  siege  was  long,  and  the  Christians,  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  help  from  the  Emperor  Heraclius,  who  was  then 
at  Horns,  made  a  good  stand.  After  a  time,  however, 
seeing  that  help  was  not  forthcoming,  the  cavalry 
despatched  by  Heraclius  having  been  intercepted  on 
the  Homs  road,  they  began  to  despair;  and  finally,  one 
night,  sent  a  deputation  to  'Abu  'Ubaida,  who  was 
known  to  be  the  more  merciful  of  the  two  besieging 
generals,  with  terms  of  surrender,  which   he  agreed  to 


162  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

accept,  confirming  them  in  the  occupation  of  their 
churches.  As  he  was  proceeding,  however  to  take 
peaceable  possession  of  the  town,  Khalid,  who  in 
ignorance  of  what  was  occurring  had  just  stormed  the 
walls  on  his  side,  approached  from  the  east,  burning 
and  pillaging  as  he  came.  The  two  commanders  and 
their  hosts  met  near  St.  John's  Church,  both  utterly- 
amazed  at  the  rencontre^  and  Khalid,  who,  according  to 
the  chroniclers,  was  full  of  the  lust  of  slaughter,  refused 
at  first  to  abide  by  the  terms  made  by  the  other. 
Finally,  he  was  persuaded  to  acquiesce,  but  only  on 
condition  that  the  matter  should  be  referred  to  the 
Khalif  'Omar  decided  that  each  was  to  keep  what  he 
had  taken ;  and  thus  it  came  about  that  Damascus  was 
treated  half  as  a  conquered  place  and  half  as  one  that 
had  surrendered.  The  rights  of  the  Christians  to  four- 
teen of  their  churches  were  preserved,  but  a  compromise 
was  made  with  regard  to  that  of  St.  John.  As  that 
edifice  was  close  to  the  spot  where  the  generals  had 
met,  it  was  divided  into  two  parts ;  the  western  half 
was  retained  by  the  Christians,  the  eastern  passed  to 
the  conquerors,  and  was  converted  into  a  mosque. 
This  arrangement  continued  until,  some  seventy  years 
later,  Al-Walid,  who  wished  to  enlarge  it  and  beautify 
it,  compelled  the  Christians  to  cede  their  portion  in 
return  for  compensation  elsewhere.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded, while  retaining  something  of  the  old  structure, 
to  erect  what  the  Arab  writers  are  unanimously  agreed 
in  designating  as  the  greatest  and  most  costly  mosque 
of  Islam  ;  and  although  their  statistics  are  somewhat 
wild,  the  mosque,  even  as  it  stands  to-day,  fully 
confirms  their  praises. 

The  result  of  his  outlay,  of  the  ransacking  of  churches 


HERMON   AND  DAMASCUS  163 

for  marble  columns  and  of  Byzantium  for  skilled 
workers  in  mosaic,  is  the  spacious  and  airy  basilica 
which  we  see  to-day.  Three  fires,  one  the  result  of  a 
riot  between  the  orthodox  Shiahs  and  the  Fatimites, 
another,  and  this  the  most  serious,  when  Timur  sacked 
the  city  in  1400,  and  a  third  which  occurred  in  1893, 
have  not  greatly  altered  its  form,  although  much  of  the 
mosaic  is  gone,  gone,  too,  the  600  golden  chains  from 
which  in  Al-Walid's  day  were  hung  the  lamps.  The 
mosque  is  about  450  feet  long  and  125  feet  wide,  and 
on  its  floor  are  spread,  as  far  as  we  could  estimate, 
close  on  1400  carpets,  some  new,  but  some  of  great  age 
and  beauty.  The  most  prominent  object  of  the  interior 
is  the  shrine,  under  which  is  said  to  repose  the  head  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist ;  although  there  is  also  a  tradition 
that  it  contains  the  remains,  not  of  John  the  son  of 
Zacharias,  but  of  John  the  son  of  Sergius,  secretary  to 
one  of  the  Khalifs,  who,  having  been  buried  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  St.  John  before  its  annexation,  was  subse- 
quently confused  with  the  Forerunner,  its  patron  saint. 
The  shrine  is  a  mosque-like  structure  standing  between 
two  columns,  and  surmounted  by  a  green  dome ;  over 
the  sarcophagus,  which  is  very  large,  lies  a  heavy  green 
velvet  pall,  embroidered  in  golden  letters  with  Arabic 
texts. 

Not  to  its  interior,  however,  nor  to  its  lofty  dome — 
'  the  Eagle  Dome ' — does  the  Omayyad  Mosque  owe 
its  effect,  but  to  the  great  court  of  which  it  is  the 
southern  boundary,  the  court  which  is  as  indispensable 
a  factor  in  its  beauty  as  is  the  Haram  plateau  in  that  of 
the  Dome  of  the  Rock.  The  court,  as  long  as,  but 
wider  than  the  mosque,  is  indeed  a  lovely  place.  Wide 
galleries  form  its  border,  containing  rooms  for  the  use 


164  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

of  scholars,  and  supported  on  horseshoe  arches  which,  if 
they  cannot  rank  in  gracefuhiess  of  design  with  those 
in  the  Omayyad  masterpiece  of  Cordova,  are  yet  not 
unworthy  of  the  position  they  occupy.  In  the  open 
space  of  the  centre  stand  three  admirable  little  cupolas, 
the  Dome  of  the  Treasure,  the  Dome  of  the  Fountain, 
also  called  the  Water  Cage,  and  the  Dome  of  the 
Hours ;  three  minarets,  on  which  the  builders  have 
lavished  all  their  skill,  seem  to  carry  its  praises  to  the 
skies.  At  its  eastern  end  is  a  like  number  of  chambers, 
collectively  known  as  the  Mosque  of  Hasan  and  Husein, 
the  sons  of  'All,  the  fourth  Khalif.  In  the  middle 
chamber,  concealed  by  a  black  silk  curtain,  rests  the 
head  of  Husein,  enclosed  in  a  silver  niche ;  and  in  the 
one  adjoining  are  the  turbehs  of  both,  although  neither 
is  buried  here.  Hasan  lies  at  Medina,  where  he  died, 
probably  of  poison,  in  the  year  669  (not,  however,  in 
the  Prophet's  tomb,  for  Mohammed's  widow  Ayesha, 
*  the  Mother  of  the  Faithful,'  would  not  allow  it) ;  and 
Husein's  headless  trunk,  after  being  exposed  on  the 
field  of  his  murder  for  a  full  day,  was  interred  where  he 
fell,  at  Kerbela  near  Babylon,  which  with  Nejeb,  the 
shrine  of  'All  himself,  has  become  the  principal  object 
of  Shiah  pilgrimage  and  veneration. 

In  the  busy  hum  of  the  bazaars  without,  this  court  is 
an  enclave  of  stillness  and  repose  ;  as  the  one  repre- 
sents the  material  side  of  Damascene  life,  so  the  other 
typifies  the  spiritual,  none  the  less  real  because  out- 
wardly more  subdued.  Not  always,  however,  has  it 
been  so.  Too  recent  easily  to  be  forgotten  are  the 
events  of  i860,  that  dark  year  in  which  the  Christians 
of  Damascus  were  massacred  by  the  fanatical  Moslems, 
abetted,  possibly,  by  their  Governor,  and  for  once  by 


HERMON  AND   DAMASCUS  165 

the  Druses  also — 'Abd  el-Qader,  the  great  Algerian 
Emir,  alone  protesting,  alone  the  refuge  of  the  perse- 
cuted wretches  among  those  who  had  lost  all  reason 
and  mercy  and  were  only  intent  to  kill.  The  Vali, 
Ahmed  Pasha,  may  have  connived  at  the  massacre,  he 
may  only  have  vacillated,  feeling  himself  unable  to  cope 
with  the  wave  of  frenzy  which,  communicated,  perhaps, 
by  the  Indian  Mutiny,  and  stimulated  by  what  true 
believers  felt  to  be  the  intolerable  pretensions  of  the 
European  Consuls,  had  overwhelmed  the  people.  At 
all  events  he  paid  the  penalty  and  died,  like  a  man  it 
must  be  said,  at  the  hands  of  Fuad's  executioners;  and 
there  were  those  who  whispered  that,  had  he  but 
spoken  the  word,  the  soldiers  would  have  thrown 
down  their  arms  and  refused  to  perform  their  hateful 
task.  With  him  were  put  to  death  more  than  two 
hundred  others  who  had  participated  in  the  massacre 
or  who  were  suspected  of  having  done  so.  Fuad 
Pasha,  sent  by  the  Porte,  which  had  been  stirred  into  a 
distasteful  activity  by  the  indignation  of  Europe,  to 
repress  and  to  punish,  took  no  half  measures ;  he  knew 
well  that  the  least  remissness  on  his  part  would  see  the 
French,  then  attending  to  the  Druses  in  the  Lebanon, 
within  the  gates  of  Damascus.  He  hit  swiftly  and 
hard,  if  sometimes  astray  of  the  mark,  and  for  fifty 
years  Damascus  has  been  at  peace. 

'Abd  el-Qader  had  in  his  day  fought  well,  but  unsuc- 
cessfully, against  the  French.  With  him  another  great 
Moslem  sheds  lustre  on  Damascus ;  like  him,  too,  a 
stranger,  but  unlike  him  victorious  in  his  wars  against 
the  Franks.  This  is  Saladin,  perhaps  the  noblest  figure 
on  either  side  in  the  history  of  the  Crusades,  a  man 
who    met    treachery   with    magnanimity,  and    for    evil 


166  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

returned  good.  His  life  is  too  well  known  to  need 
recounting  here.  All  that  could  ever  be  brought 
against  him  by  the  Christian  chroniclers  was  his  failure 
to  comprehend  the  theory  of  the  papal,  episcopal,  and 
priestly  dispensations  which  enabled  the  Crusaders  to 
break  oaths  and  treaties  without  offending  their  con- 
sciences, and  to  slaughter  a  cityful  of  hostages  whom  in 
return  for  a  similar  undertaking  given,  and  carried  out, 
by  the  Moslems,  they  had  engaged  to  spare.  He  is 
buried  here,  in  a  beautiful  little  mausoleum  off  the 
northern  side  of  the  Mosque,  decorated  only  with 
lovely  tiles,  and  in  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  its 
character  not  unlike  him  who  rests  there,  with  the  two 
vases,  the  Mameluke  device,  at  his  feet.  "  His  memory 
God  render  fragrant,  and  on  him  may  He  confer  a 
thousand  mercies;  and  may  He  make  many  like  to  him 
among  the  sons  of  Adam." 

West  of  his  tomb,  in  a  square  near  the  Barada  river, 
the  Abana  of  the  ancients,  is  a  large  modern  monument 
of  bronze  ;  it  does  not  offend  against  the  Moslem  law 
prohibiting  images  of  living  objects,  for  the  top  of  the 
monument  is  a  model  of  the  great  Meccan  Mosque, 
while  telegraph  lines  twine  up  the  sides.  It  com- 
memorates the  construction  of  the  Hejaz  Railway, 
whose  northern  terminus  is  Damascus,  a  railway  which, 
already  at  Medina,  is  intended  to  make  Mecca  easily 
accessible  to  the  Moslem,  and  more  particularly  to  the 
Turkish,  pilgrim  world.  The  railway,  peculiar  for  this 
reason,  is  remarkable  also  in  other  respects.  It  is  the 
product  of  Mohammedan  enthusiasm,  of  Mohammedan 
generosity,  and  in  a  measure,  too,  of  Mohammedan 
'  benevolences  '  (a  certain  percentage  of  the  salaries  of 
Turkish  officials  was  deducted  for  the  purpose)  ;  and  its 


HERMON   AND  DAMASCUS  167 

construction  by  the  Turkish  Government,  with  the  help 
of  contributions  from  Moslems  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
but  without  the  support  of  European  capital,  evoked 
the  surprise  of  European  statesmen,  and  the  disgust  of 
the  Sherif  of  Mecca,  who  has  never  taken  kindly  to  the 
Khalif  in  Constantinople.     Not  only  does  this  railway, 
a  striking    proof  of  'Abdu'l    Hamid's   statesmanship, 
facilitate   very   greatly   the   long    and   often   dangerous 
pilgrim  journey,  but,  and  this  is  perhaps  more  impor- 
tant, it  has  linked  the  centre  of  the  Empire  with  its 
turbulent   Arabian    outposts,   making   the   despatch   of 
troops  to  the  Yemen,  a  perennial  necessity,  no  longer 
so  slow  and  costly  an  undertaking.     Since  the  advent  of 
steamships  to  the  Red  Sea,  Damascus  has  ceased  to  be 
to  the  same  extent  as  formerly  the  pilgrims'  starting 
point.     Egyptians,   Tunisians,   Algerians,  and  Moors, 
as  well  as  Persians,  East  Indians,  and  Malays  have  no 
need  of  the  railway,  as  they  now  disembark  at  Jeddah, 
the  port  of  Mecca,  which  lies  only  forty  miles  from  the 
Holy  City.     To  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  and  Turke- 
stan,  however,   the   Hejaz   Railway   offers    the    easiest 
route ;  and  the  streets  of  Damascus  teem  with  Bokharans, 
Turkomans,  Circassians,  Afghans,  and  other  denizens 
of  Central  Asia,  southward  or  homeward  bound.     These 
people,   with    their    thick   quilted    garments    and    high 
astrakan   caps,   add    very   greatly   to    the   interest  and 
colour  of  the  place  ;  and,  as  you  sit  in  one  of  Damascus's 
numerous  cafes,  sipping  your  cup  of  coffee  or  of  cinna- 
mon and  inhaling  the  fragrant  product  of  the  Turkish 
rigie   (only   a    bold    man   will   venture   on    the    potent 
narghile),  you  see,  as  on  the  Galata  Bridge,  half  Asia 
pass  before  you.     Types  range  from  the  seedy  Govern- 
ment  official   in    fez   and    Stambuli    frock-coat    to    the 


168  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Mongolian-looking  gentleman  from  somewhere  east  of 
the  Hindu  Kush,  from  the  dervish  in  camel  hair  garb, 
which  looks  (and  must  feel)  like  brown  felt,  and  a  hat 
of  the  same  material,  shaped  like  a  beehive,  to  the 
hardy  bandit  from  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan.  Or 
you  may  see  two  Turks  walking  to  the  bazaar  hand  in 
hand,  as  is  the  habit  of  these  friendly  creatures,  and 
stop  at  the  fez-blocker's  stall  for  new  stiffness  to  be 
infused  into  their  headgear.  The  shops  and  sights  of 
the  big  city  afford  endless  satisfaction  to  the  strangers 
from  far  away.  Mosques,  baths,  and  coffee  houses  fill 
them  v/ith  constant  wonder ;  and  the  life  of  the  streets 
is  to  them,  no  less  than  to  the  European,  a  source  of 
keen  delight.  In  the  East  the  street  is  the  appropriate 
place  for  both  business  and  diversion.  Fairs  and  side- 
shows enliven  it ;  and  as  I  walked  one  day  down  the 
'  Street  which  is  called  Straight,'  I  found  a  crowd  eagerly 
watching  a  fakir  as  he  forced  bodkins  through  his  neck 
and  cheeks  without  drawing  blood,  or,  apparently, 
inflicting  pain,  a  sight  which  I  had  seen  once  before, 
not  in  the  East  but  at  Thomar  in  Portugal,  at  the  foot 
of  the  enchanting  castle-convent  of  the  Knights  of 
Christ.  Although  the  Moslems  close  their  shops  on 
Fridays,  the  Jews  theirs  on  Saturdays,  and  the  Chris- 
tians theirs  on  Sundays,  so  that  business  in  Damascus 
and,  in  fact,  in  all  big  cities  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  is  in 
full  swing  on  only  four  days  out  of  the  seven,  this  pro- 
longed week-end  is  scarcely  noticed.  Great,  too,  are 
the  attractions  of  the  Saddle  Market  and  of  the  Cloth 
Bazaar.  All  trades,  all  handicrafts,  have  here  their 
appointed  sites.  Confectioners,  silk  merchants,  copper- 
smiths, and  the  rest,  instead  of  posting  themselves  in 
strategic  positions  as  far  as  possible  from  each  other. 


HERMON  AND   DAMASCUS  1^9 

prefer  to  concentrate  in  their  own  bazaars ;  and  resigna- 
tion,^ not  resentment,  is  shown  by  one  and  all  if  their 
neighbour's  stall  is  favoured.  To  the  inhabitants  of 
this  part  of  the  East  time  is  of  little  or  no  importance, 
principally  for  the  reason,  I  imagine,  that  they  rarely 
have  interests  outside  their  profession  or  occupation  to 
make  demands  upon  it ;  and  eastern  shops  are  not 
places  where  one  buys  hastily,  thereupon  to  depart.  One 
smokes,  drinks  coffee,  eats  Turkish  Delight,  and  passes 
the  time  of  day  with  the  owner  ;  and  bargaining  is  far  from 
being,  consequently,  the  animated  and  voluble  struggle 
to  which  one  is  accustomed  in  Southern  Europe.  To 
complete  a  purchase  is  often  a  matter  of  days,  even  of 
weeks ;  and  the  vital  point,  the  price,  is  led  up  to  ever 
so  skilfully,  ever  so  cautiously,  ever  so  slowly.  This 
sometimes  involves  many  visits  on  the  part  of  the 
prospective  purchaser,  and  only  then  does  the  real 
contest  begin.  Sometimes  an  appeal  is  made  similar  to 
the  adjuration  of  ancient  Greece:  "For  my  beard's 
sake  make  it  less!"  or:  "Will  you  disappoint  my 
beard .? "  To  the  onlooker,  however,  it  frequently 
resolves  itself  into  a  matter  of  nods  and  shakes  of  the 
head,  the  interpretation  of  which  is  the  reverse  of  the 
Occidental's  ;  a  backward  jerk  of  the  head,  accompanied 
by  a  click  of  the  tongue  against  the  roof  of  the  mouth, 
is  an  emphatic  negative,  a  gentle  shake  sideways  indicates 
assent. 

Before  leaving  Damascus,  we  called  on  the  Vali  in  his 
fine  new  serai  by  the  river-side.  Chukri  Pasha  was 
formerly  at  Rhodes ;  and  Nazim  Pasha,  who  was 
Governor  of  Rhodes  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  Vali  of 

^  This  is  in  accord  withi  the  principles  of  Mohammedanism.  The 
word  'Islam'  means  'resignation,'  i.e.  to  the  will  of  God. 


170  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Damascus,  or,  correctly  speaking,  of  the  vilayet  of  Syria, 
which  comprises  the  country  between  the  Jordan  and 
the  Lebanon  on  the  west  and  the  desert  on  the  east, 
from  south  of  the  Dead  Sea  to  north  of  the  town  of 
Hama.  Nazim  was  an  energetic  and  reforming  Gover- 
nor, keen  on  progress  and  sanitation,  and  very  popular 
in  the  vilayet  ;  hence,  in  accordance  with  one  of  the 
most  baleful  characteristics  of  the  old  regime^  he  was 
regarded  with  grave  suspicion  in  Constantinople.  It 
was  decided  that  he  was  *  dangerous ' ;  and  by  a  truly 
Turkish  process  he  and  Chukri  changed  places,  Chukri 
obtaining  thereby  very  great  promotion,  but  Nazim 
going  into  virtual  banishment  as  Vali  of  the  Archi- 
pelago. Chukri  was  a  pleasant  and  an  able  man, 
and  spoke  French  well  ;  but  he  appeared  apprehen- 
sive and  oppressed  by  the  cares  of  the  State,  and  did 
not  convey  the  impression  of  a  powerful  personality. 
Indeed,  his  post  is  no  bed  of  roses  ;  and  it  may  well  be, 
when  he  returns  in  the  evening  to  the  large  house 
which  his  predecessor  built  in  the.  faubourg  o^^dXtYAy^h^ 
after  an  arduous  day  spent  in  settling  grievances,  ad- 
justing conflicting  claims,  and  trying  to  keep  in  check 
the  ever  turbulent  Druses  and  the  impudent  Beduin 
Sheikhs,  that  he  thinks  regretfully  of  the  pleasant  wind- 
mills and  fresh  sea  breezes  of  Rhodes  ;  and  that  Nazim 
Pasha,  surveying  from  his  castle  the  distant  mainland 
shore  with  its  equally  distant  cares,  is  able  to  find  in 
his  sea-girt  ease  and  calm  some  compensation  for  the 
turn  of  the  wheel  which  took  him  from  a  province,  and 
set  him  to  rule  a  parish  instead.^ 

^  This  was  written  before  the  Italian  occupation  of  Rhodes. 


SCENE    IX    THE    BAZAAR,    DAMASCUS 


A    PILGRIM    FROM    RUSSIAN- 
TURKESTAN 


MOSLEM    PILGRIMS    ON    THE 
HEJAZ    RAILWAY 


Facing  p.    170. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

DAVID,,  SOLOMON,   AND    QUEEN    BALKIS. 

One  afternoon,  as  I  was  passing  by  the  Booksellers' 
Bazaar,  now  a  mere  vestige  of  what  it  was  in  the  days 
when  scholarship  was  cultivated  in  Damascus,  I  stopped 
before  the  booth  of  a  wizened  little  old  man,  and  asked 
to  be  allowed  to  examine  some  of  his  wares.  Lying  on 
a  shelf  I  noticed  three  or  four  Qorans,  apparently  of 
great  age  and  covered  in  folding  bindings  of  well-worn 
lambskin.  I  was  making  to  take  them  down  when,  almost 
angrily,  the  owner  forbade  me  to  touch  them.  Indicat- 
ing, contemptuously,  a  pile  of  other  old  manuscripts 
heaped  in  a  corner,  he  informed  me  that  only  those 
among  which  were  no  copies  of  the  sacred  book  might 
be  inspected  by  the  unbeliever.  One  of  the  bundle 
I  bought  for  the  sum  of  two  mejidiyehs,  the  old  man 
appearing  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  I  took  it  or 
left  it.  It  proved  to  be  a  collection  of  the  legends 
which  Moslem  tradition  has  woven  round  those 
characters  of  biblical  history  who  have  a  place,  too, 
in  the  Kalendar  of  Mohammedan  prophets;  and  these 
are  some  of  the  stories  which  it  was  discovered  to 
contain : 


172  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

A  Tradition  about  Daud — The  Blessing  of  God  upon  him. 

As  soon  as  he  was  chosen  to  be  king,  Talut^  mustered 
the  army  of  the  Israelites,  and  advanced  against  the 
Philistines  at  the  head  of  seventy  thousand  men.  One 
day,  as  the  host  was  marching  through  the  desert,  it 
could  find  no  water,  and  there  arose  a  murmuring 
against  Samwil  and  against  Talut.  But  Samwil  prayed 
to  God,  and  immediately  there  bubbled  out  of  the 
rocky  ground  a  spring  of  water  fresh  as  snow,  sweet  as 
honey,  and  white  as  milk.  Then  said  Samwil  to  the 
soldiers,  who  were  hastening  forward  :  "  Through  your 
discontent  and  your  murmurings,  you  have  sinned 
against  your  king  and  against  God.  Deny  yourselves, 
therefore, 'this  water,  that  ye  may  make  atonement  for 
your  sin  by  self-restraint." 

But  the  words  of  Samwil  found  no  hearing.  Only 
three  hundred  and  thirteen  men,  the  same  number  as 
that  which  fought  in  the  first  encounter  of  the  Moslems 
against  the  unbelievers,"  conquered  their  thirst,  and 
refreshed  themselves  but  moderatelv ;  the  remainder  of 
the  host  resisted  not  the  temptation  to  drink  deeply  of 
the  spring.  When  Talut  saw  this,  he  dismissed  all 
his  army ;  and,  relying  on  the  help  of  God,  went  forth 
against  the  enemy  with  only  the  handful  of  men  who 
had  overcome  their  desire,  beseeching  the  Almighty  to 
fill  their  hearts  with  patience,  to  confirm  their  feet,  and 
to  grant  them  the  victory  over  their  oppressors. 

Now  among  this   small  band  were  six  sons  of  one 

'Isa,  a   man  worthy  and  of  good   repute.     Alone  the 

seventh  son,  who  was  named  Daud,  had  remained  at 

home  with  his  father;  but  now  that  the  encounter  was 

^  Saul.  '-^The  encounter  at  Bedr,  a.h.  z. 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS    173 

long  delayed,  for  none  would  accept  the  challenge  to 
single  combat  with  the  giant  Jalut^,  'Isa  sent  his  seventh 
son  also  to  the  camp,  partly  to  take  fresh  provisions  to 
his  brethren,  partly  to  bring  news  of  their  condition. 

On  his  way  to  the  camp  Daud  heard  a  voice,  issuing 
from  a  stone  that  lay  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  which 
called  to  him  : 

"Take  me  with  thee!  I  am  one  of  the  stones  with 
which  the  prophet  Ibrahim  drove  away  Satan  when  he 
sought  to  turn  him  from  sacrificing  his  son,  as  God  had 
commanded  him  to  do." 

Daud  placed  the  stone,  which  was  inscribed  with  the 
Holy  Name,  in  the  pocket  of  his  outer  garment,  for  he 
was  clad  not  as  a  warrior  but  as  a  wanderer.  Having 
gone  a  little  further,  he  again  heard  a  voice  from  another 
stone,  saying  : 

"  Take  me  with  thee,  for  I  am  the  stone  which  the 
angel  Gabril  displaced  from  the  ground  with  his  foot, 
when  he  caused  a  spring  to  flow  for  Isma'il  out  of 
the  desert." 

So  Daud  took  this  stone  also,  and,  placing  it  with  the 
other,  continued  on  his  way.  But  soon  he  heard  issuing 
from  a  third  stone  the  following  words  : 

"  Take  me  with  thee !  I  am  the  stone  with  which 
Ya'qub  fought  with  the  angels  whom  his  brother  'Isa 
had  sent  against  him." 

Daud  took  this  stone  also,  and  continued  his  journey 
without  further  interruption  until  he  reached  the  camp 
of  the  Israelites,  where  he  heard  a  herald  proclaim  that 
whosoever  should  kill  Jalut,  would  receive  Talut's 
daughter  to  wife,  take  part  with  him  in  his  kingdom, 
and,  lastly,  become  his  successor.     As  none,  however, 

1  Goliath. 


174  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

came  forward  to  accept  the  challenge,  Daud  went  to 
Talut  and  offered  himself;  but  the  king,  amazed  at  his 
youth,  first  inquired  of  his  brethren  how  so  tender  a 
lad  could  hope  to  face  the  dreaded  giant. 

"  Whenever  a  wolf,"  said  they,  "  attacks  his  sheep, 
Daud  runs  after  him  and  cleaves  him  in  twain  ;  and 
when  he  shoots  with  his  sling,  he  never  fails  to  hit 
his  mark." 

Talut,  satisfied  with  this,  summoned  Daud  to  his 
presence,  and,  clothing  him  with  fine  raiment  and 
making  him  one  of  his  retinue,  bade  him  be  of  good 
courage  in  the  encounter. 

Meanwhile,  Jalut  had  come  forth  at  the  head  of  his 
mighty  army.  He  was  mounted  on  an  elephant,  and 
clad  in  armour,  and  the  weight  of  his  armour  was  fifteen 
hundred  pounds.  When  the  two  armies  were  face  to 
face,  Jalut  contemptuously  awaited  the  Israelitish  cham- 
pion, but  great  was  his  surprise  when  Daud  stepped 
forth  to  meet  him,  armed  only  with  his  sling. 

"  Who  art  thou,  lad,"  he  asked,  "  that  comest  out 
against  me  with  a  sling }  Go  thou  home  and  play  with 
the  children  of  thy  years.  Knowest  thou  not  that  I 
am  the  slayer  of  kings,  the  vanquisher  of  armies,  and 
that  the  sling  is  only  meet  for  dogs.''" 

"  A  dog  I  hold  thee,"  replied  Daud,  "  because  thou 
hast  offended  against  God  and  against  His  apostles  "  ; 
and  thus  saying,  drew  the  stones  from  his  pocket.  The 
giant,  infuriated  by  the  boy's  speech,  charged  down  upon 
him  on  his  elephant  ;  but  Daud,  calling  upon  the  God 
of  Ibrahim,  of  Ishaq,  and  of  Ya'qub,  fitted  one  of  the 
stones  in  his  sling,  and  taking  aim,  shot  Jalut  through 
the  nose,  and  the  stone  passed  through  his  head  and 
came  out  at  the  back  of  his  neck.     With  the  second  stone 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS    175 

he  then  drove  back  the  right  wing  of  the  Philistines,  and 
with  the  third  the  left ;  and  these  deeds  are  confirmed 
in  the  words  of  the  Qoran  :  '*  And  by  the  will  of  God 
they  routed  them  ;  and  Daud  slew  Jalut,  and  God  gave 
him  the  kingship  and  wisdom,"  ^  namely,  power  and  the 
gift  of  prophecy,  '*  and  taught  him  according  to  his  will," 
that  is,  the  arts  of  fashioning  coats  of  mail  and  of 
understanding  the  language  of  birds. 

But  Talut  became  jealous  of  Daud,  because  all  Israel 
praised  him  as  the  greatest  of  heroes ;  and  he  sought 
secretly  many  times  to  kill  him.  Yet  Daud  always 
forestalled  his  plots,  and  because  he  would  not  be 
revenged,  Talut's  hatred  grew  but  the  greater  on 
account  of  his  generosity.  One  day,  while  her  husband 
was  away,  he  visited  his  daughter,  Daud's  wife,  and 
commanded  her  to  deliver  Daud  to  him  in  the  night, 
threatening  her  with  death  if  she  refused,  and  com- 
pelling her  to  take  an  oath  that  she  would  do  as  he 
wished.  When  Daud  returned  home  his  wife  came 
forth  to  meet  him  in  great  distress,  and  told  him  what 
had  passed  between  her  father  and  herself. 

"  Remain  true  to  thy  oath,"  said  Daud  to  his  wife, 
"  and  when  I  am  asleep,  open  to  thy  father  the  door  of 
my  bedchamber.  God,  who  has  watched  over  me 
waking,  will  protect  me  in  sleep  also,  and  will  show  me 
the  way  to  render  his  sword  harmless,  as  He  did  that  of 
Ibrahim  against  Isma'il,  even  when  Isma'il  stretched 
forth  his  neck  to  slaughter."  ^ 

Daud  then  went  into  his  workshop,  and  made  himself 
a  shirt  of  mail  which  covered  the  upper  part  of  his  body 

1  Sura  ii.,  252. 

2  According  to  Mohammedan  belief,  it  was  Ishmael,  and  not  Isaac, 
whom  Abraham  was  commanded  to  sacrifice. 


176  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

from  his  neck  downwards.  This  shirt  of  mail  was  as 
thin  as  a  hair,  clung  to  his  body  like  wool,  and  with- 
stood every  kind  of  weapon  ;  for  Daud  had  received  of 
God  the  power  to  melt  iron  without  fire,  to  weld  it 
without  a  hammer,  and  to  fashion  it  with  his  hands  into 
any  shape  he  pleased. 

Daud  was  sleeping  peacefully  as  Talut,  guided  by  his 
daughter,  entered  into  his  bedchamber ;  nor  did  he 
awake  until  his  father-in-law  pressed  heavily  upon  him 
in  his  endeavour  to  pierce  with  his  sword  his  impene- 
trable armour.  Then  he  arose,  took  the  sword  from 
Talut's  hand,  and  without  uttering  any  reproach  against 
him,  broke  it  into  pieces  as  a  man  might  crumble  up  a 
cake. 

On  Talut's  death  Daud  was  chosen  to  be  king  over 
Israel,  and  became  not  only  a  mighty  warrior,  but  a  good 
ruler,  a  great  prophet,  and  a  wise  judge. 

One  day  the  angel  Gabril  brought  him  an  iron  rod 
and  a  bell,  and  said  : 

"  God  sends  thee  this  rod  and  bell,  that  it  may  be 
easy  for  thee  to  maintain  justice  in  Israel,  and  never  to 
pronounce  an  unjust  sentence.  Set  this  rod  up  in  thy 
judgment  hall  and  hang  the  bell  in  the  centre  thereof; 
place  the  accuser  on  one  side  of  the  rod,  and  the  accused 
on  the  other,  and  always  pronounce  in  favour  of  him 
who  by  touching  the  rod  is  able  to  draw  a  note  from  the 
bell." 

Daud  rejoiced  greatly  over  this  gift,  and  by  its  means 
he  was  ever  victorious  who  had  the  right  on  his  side,  so 
that  soon  none  durst  bring  forward  a  false  charge  lest 
the  bell  should  disclose  his  evil  intentions.  One  day, 
however,  there  came  before  the  king  two  men,  one  of 
whom  asserted  that  he  had  given  a  pearl  into  the  other's 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS      177 

keeping,  and  that  this  man,  whom  he  had  trusted,  now 
refused  to  restore  it.  The  accused  swore  that  he  had 
returned  the  pearl.  Daud,  as  was  his  habit,  caused  both 
to  touch  the  rod,  but  the  bell  was  silent  ;  and,  being 
thus  at  a  loss  to  know  which  of  them  spoke  the  truth,  he 
began  to  doubt  the  efficacy  of  the  bell.  But,  having 
again  ordered  both  to  touch  the  rod  repeatedly,  he 
noticed  that  whenever  the  accused  approached  the  rod 
he  gave  his  stick  to  his  accuser  to  hold.  So  he  required 
the  latter  to  touch  the  rod  once  more,  but  himself  took 
hold  of  the  stick,  and  immediately  the  bell  began  to 
peal.  Daud  then  caused  the  stick  to  be  examined  : 
it  was  hollow,  and  the  disputed  pearl  was  concealed 
within  it.^ 

But  after  this  occurrence,  and  because  Daud  had 
doubted  the  power  of  the  rod  which  God  had  given 
him,  the  rod  was  taken  back  into  heaven ;  and  thence- 
forth he  often  erred  in  judgment,  until  his  son  Suley- 
man  helped  him  with  his  counsel.  In  him  Daud 
placed  full  reliance,  consulting  him  in  all  difficulties, 
for  in  the  night  of  his  birth  he  had  heard  the  angel 
Gabril  call  out  : 

"  Satan's  dominion  is  at  an  end,  for  this  night  a 
child  is  born  who  will  be  the  Lord  of  Iblis  and  all 
his  hosts.  Earth,  water,  and  air,  with  all  the  living 
things  that  are  in  them,  will  become  his  servants  ;  and 
he  will  be  gifted  with  nine-tenths  of  all  the  knowledge 
and  wisdom  which  God  has  revealed  unto  mankind, 
and  will  understand  the  language  of  men,  and  beasts,  and 
birds." 

^  The  Dome  of  the  Chain  in  the  Haram  area  takes  its  name  from  a 
chain,  once  stretched  across  its  entrance,  concerning  which  a  similar 
legend  is  related. 

M 


178  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE   EAST 

A  Tradition  about  Suleyman,  the  Prophet^  the  Son  of 
Daiid — The  Blessing  of  God  upon  them. 

Suleyman  was  the  foremost  of  all  the  people,  and  the 
essence  of  the  light  thrown  by  the  Psalms.  The  bright- 
ness of  his  countenance  surpassed  that  of  the  moon  ;  in 
truth,  it  was  marvellously  white.  His  two  eyebrows 
were  delicate  and  the  pupils  of  his  eyes  pools  of  dark- 
ness. Without  doubt,  he  was  the  most  elegant  of  men 
in  feature,  in  manner  the  most  urbane,  whose  speech 
and  utterance  were  profound  and  true,  and  whose  king- 
dom the  most  glorious  among  the  children  of  men. 

One  day  3.jinni  related  to  Suleyman  that  in  the  south 
of  Arabia  a  great  queen  named  Balkis  ruled  over  the 
land  of  Saba.  This  queen,  he  said,  had  reigned  for 
some  years  with  wisdom,  and  dispensed  justice  to  all 
her  people;  she  attended  the  meetings  of  her  Viziers, 
seated  on  a  golden  throne  inlaid  with  precious  stones, 
which  the  thinnest  of  veils  concealed  from  the  eyes  of 
men  ;  yet,  like  many  of  the  kings  of  that  region,  she 
was  a  worshipper  of  the  sun.  Suleyman,  on  hearing 
this,  took  paper  and  reed,  and  wrote  a  letter,  in  these 
words : 

"  From  Suleyman,  the  son  of  Daud,  the  servant  of 
God,  to  Balkis,  Queen  of  Saba. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merci- 
ful. A  blessing  on  all  those  who  follow  the  direction. 
Be  thou  also  obedient  unto  my  summons,  and  come 
before  me  as  a  true  believer." 

He  sealed  this  letter  with  musk  and  pressed  his  seal- 
ring  upon  it,  then  gave  it  to  the  Jinni,  commanding  him 
to  carry  it  swiftly  to  the  queen.  When  the  Jinni  reached 
his   destination,  Balkis  was  surrounded   by  her   coun- 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS    179 

cillors.  On  perceiving  the  mighty  seal  of  Suleyman, 
she  started,  and  opened  the  letter  hastily;  then,  after 
perusing  it  in  silence,  she  read  it  aloud  to  her  advisers, 
and  asked  their  counsel  in  this  grave  affair.  With  one 
accord  they  declared  themselves  ready  to  follow  her 
into  war,  should  she  so  decide,  but  to  this  Balkis 
rephed  : 

"  Before  I  resolve  on  war,  which  ever  brings  much 
tribulation  upon  the  land,  I  will  send  presents  to  King 
Suleyman,  and  will  observe  the  manner  in  which  he 
receives  my  embassy.  If  he  is  bribed  by  my  gifts,  then 
he  is  no  more  than  the  other  kings  who  are  subject  to 
our  power  ;  if,  however,  he  rejects  them,  then  he  is 
a  true  prophet,  to  whose  belief  it  were  well  that  we 
should  conform." 

Thereupon,  she  took  five  hundred  pages,  and  clad 
them  like  girls,  curling  their  hair,  too,  after  the  fashion 
of  women,  and  clad  as  many  girls  as  pages  ;  command- 
ing the  former  to  demean  themselves  before  Suleyman 
as  maidens,  and  the  latter,  as  youths.  With  them,  she 
sent  a  thousand  carpets,  worked  beautifully  with  silver 
and  gold,  also  a  crown  set  with  gems,  and  many  loads 
of  musk,  frankincense,  amber,  and  other  rare  produce 
of  the  Yemen.  To  these  she  added  a  locked  casket 
which  contained  an  unpierced  pearl  and  a  diamond 
through  which  a  winding  and  circuitous  hole  had  been 
made,  and,  lastly,  a  beaker  of  crystal. 

"  Thou,  as  a  true  prophet,"  she  wrote,  "  wilt  be  able 
to  distinguish  the  youths  from  the  virgins,  to  divine 
the  contents  of  the  casket,  to  pierce  the  pearl,  to  draw 
a  thread  through  the  diamond,  and  to  fill  the  beaker 
with  water  that  has  neither  come  down  from  heaven 
nor  yet  sprung  up  from  the  earth." 


180  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

All  these  gifts,  together  with  the  letter,  she  confided 
into  the  charge  of  wise  and  nimble-minded  men,  and  at 
their  departure  gave  them  this  last  word  of  advice  : 

"  If  Suleyman  receives  you  with  pride  and  disdain, 
be  not  afraid,  for  these  are  signs  of  human  weakness  ; 
but  if  he  comes  toward  you  with  kindness  and  con- 
descension, then  be  on  your  guard,  for  by  that  shall  ye 
know  that  ye  are  dealing  with  a  prophet." 

The  jinni  listened  to  all  this,  for,  until  the  departure 
of  the  ambassadors,  he  had  hovered  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  queen.  Then,  without  taking  rest,  he  flew  straight 
to  Suleyman's  tent,  and  related  all  that  he  had  heard. 

Suleyman  thereupon  commanded  the  jinni  to  weave 
him  a  carpet  nine  parasangs  long,  and  to  spread  it 
southwards  before  his  tent.  On  the  eastern  edge  of 
the  carpet  he  erected  a  lofty  wall  of  gold,  and  on  the 
west,  one  of  silver,  and  bade  all  manner  of  strange 
beasts,  y^;/;z,  and  demons  take  their  place  on  either  side 
of  the  throne.  When  the  ambassadors  arrived  at  the 
tent,  they  were  plunged  into  consternation  at  the  sight 
of  wealth  and  wonders  such  as  they  had  never  imagined. 
To  approach  the  king,  they  had  to  pass  through  rows 
of  the  beasts  ^nd  jann\  but  their  misgivings  ceased 
when  they  came  face  to  face  with  Suleyman  (the  bless- 
ing of  God  upon  him),  the  King  of  Kings  and  the 
Sultan  of  Sultans,  for  he  greeted  them  with  great 
friendliness  and,  smiling,  inquired  of  them  the  object 
of  their  mission.  The  ambassadors  prostrated  them- 
selves before  him,  and  the  most  venerable  among  them, 
handing  him  the  letter,  announced  that  thev  brought  a 
message  from  Queen  Balkis. 

"  I  know  what  the  letter  contains,"  replied  Suleyman, 
without  opening  it,  "  and  likewise  what  is  within   the 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS     181 

casket  ye  have  with  you.  Moreover,  by  God's  power, 
I  will  pierce  the  pearl  and  draw  a  thread  through  the 
diamond  ;  but  first  I  will  fill  the  beaker  ye  have  brought 
with  water  that  has  neither  come  down  from  heaven 
nor  yet  sprung  up  from  the  earth,  and  will  distinguish 
the  virgins  from  your  beardless  youths." 

Commanding  his  slaves  to  bring  a  thousand  jugs  and 
basins  of  silver,  he  desired  of  the  youths  and  maidens 
that  they  should  wash  themselves.  The  former  carried 
the  hand  on  which  the  water  had  been  poured  straight- 
way to  the  face,  but  the  latter  first  wetted  the  right 
hand  with  the  water  which  had  been  poured  into  the 
left,  and  then  washed  their  faces  with  both  hands. 
And  thus,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  ambassadors,  did 
Suleyman  recognize  their  sex.  Next,  he  ordered  a  slave 
to  gallop  a  young  and  fiery  horse  through  the  camp 
and  to  return  to  him  with  the  utmost  speed ;  when  the 
slave  brought  back  the  steed,  the  sweat  was  streaming 
from  it  so  freely  that  the  beaker  of  crystal  was  filled 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 

"  Here,"  he  said,  "  ye  have  water  that  is  neither  from 
heaven  nor  earth." 

He  then  proceeded  to  pierce  the  pearl  with  a  stone 
which  the  raven  had  given  him ;  but  the  threading 
of  the  diamond,  the  hole  through  which  had  been  most 
subtily  and  crookedly  made,  caused  him  great  perplexity 
until  a  demon  brought  him  a  worm  which  crawled 
through  it,  leaving  a  silken  thread  in  its  trail.  Suley- 
man, who  was  greatly  comforted  to  find  that  his  reputa- 
tion as  a  prophet  had  thus  been  preserved,  inquired  of 
the  worm  how  he  could  reward  it  for  so  great  a  service ; 
to  which  the  worm  replied  that  it  desired  nothing  so 
much  as  a  fine  fruit  tree  for  a  dwelling-place.     Suleyman 


182  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

gladly  granted  the  request,  and  settled  it  in  the  mulberry- 
tree,  which,  ever  since,  has  provided  the  silk-worms  with 
sure  refuge  and  nourishment. 

"  Ye  have  now  seen,"  said  Suleyman  to  the  ambas- 
sadors, "  how  I  have  been  successful  in  all  the  tests 
with  which  your  queen  has  tried  me.  Return,  there- 
fore, to  Balkis,  with  your  presents,  of  which  I  have 
no  need,  and  declare  unto  her  that  unless  she  accept  the 
true  faith  and  give  me  her  submission,  I  will  invade  her 
land  with  a  force  which  no  mortal  power  can  withstand, 
and  will  carry  her,  a  prisoner,  to  my  capital." 

The  ambassadors  accordingly  returned,  convinced  of 
Suleyman's  power,  and  related  all  that  had  happened  to 
Balkis,  who  agreed  with  their  conclusion.  She  decided 
that  she  herself  would  visit  Suleyman,  and  immediately 
made  ready  for  the  journey  ;  but  before  setting  out, 
she  locked  her  throne,  which  most  reluctantly  she  left 
behind,  in  a  room  which  could  only  be  approached 
after  passing  through  six  other  rooms,  all  most  carefully 
locked  and  guarded  by  faithful  retainers  and  enclosed 
within  six  other  palaces  which  were  built  one  outside 
the  other. 

When  Balkis,  followed  by  twelve  thousand  captains, 
each  in  command  of  several  thousand  men,  had  ap- 
proached to  within  a  parasang  of  Suleyman's  camp,  the 
latter  asked  of  his  assembled  retinue  : 

"  Which  of  you  will  bring  me  the  throne  of  the 
Queen  of  Saba  before  she  arrives  here  as  one  of  the 
faithful,  so  that  I  may  take  this  rare  work  with  right 
while  it  is  yet  the  property  of  an  unbeliever  ? " 

Then  said  2.  jinni  of  hideous  aspect  and  as  large  as  a 
mountain  :  "  I  will  bring  it  thee,  Lord,  by  noon,  before 
the  audience  is  at  an  end." 


DAVID,  SOLOMON,  AND  QUEEN  BALKIS     183 

But  the  time  was  drawing  near,  for  already  Suleyman 
•could  see  in  the  distance  the  dust  of  the  advancing  host. 
Then  spake  his  Vizier  Assaf,  the  son  of  Barakhia,  to 
whom,  through  his  knowledge  of  the  Ineffable  Name  of 
God,  nothing  was  impossible: 

"  Turn  thine  eyes  towards  heaven,  and  before  thou 
hast  cast  them  down  again  to  the  earth,  the  throne 
of  Balkis  will  stand  before  thee." 

Suleyman  looked  up  to  heaven,  while  Assaf  called 
upon  God  by  His  most  Holy  Name  to  send  him  the 
throne  of  Balkis.  And  immediately  the  earth  opened 
before  him,  and  the  throne  rose  from  out  of  the  ground 
and  remained  before  Suleyman. 

"  How  great  is  the  goodness  of  God,"  cried  he  ;  and, 
after  he  had  admired  the  throne,  he  commanded  some 
of  his  servants  to  change  it  somewhat,  for  he  would  see 
if  Balkis  would  recognize  it  as  her  own.  So  the  servants 
moved  some  of  the  animals  which  were  fashioned  at  the 
base  of  the  throne,  and  affixed  them  in  other  places. 
But  when  the  queen  arrived,  and  was  asked  if  her  throne 
bore  any  resemblance  to  this  one,  she  replied  : 

"  It  seems  as  though  it  were  the  very  one." 

This  answer  of  the  queen  and  many  others  proved  to 
Suleyman  that  she  was  of  great  understanding  ;  for 
without  doubt  she  had  recognized  the  throne  as  her 
own,  and  yet  her  reply  was  of  so  ambiguous  a  nature  as 
not  to  appear  a  reproach  or  an  accusation.  But  before 
he  knew  her  more  closely,  he  was  desirous  of  seeing  her 
body,  for  many  of  the  demons,  fearful  lest  he  should 
wed  her  and  thus  raise  up  seed  more  powerful  than  him- 
self, had  told  him  that  although  from  the  waist  upward 
she  was  built  as  a  woman,  her  legs  were  as  the  legs  of 
asses.     So  he  led  her  across  a  great  room  whose  floor 


184  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

was  of  crystal,  beneath  which  flowed  water,  teeming 
with  fish.  Balkis  had  never  seen  a  floor  of  crystal,  and, 
imagining  that  she  would  have  to  wade  through  the 
water,  raised  her  dress  up  to  the  knees,  so  that  Suleyman 
saw  to  his  joy  that  her  feet  were  the  feet  of  a  beautiful 
woman.  Then,  having  satisfied  his  eyes,  he  called  to 
her  : 

"  Come  hither,  Balkis,  for  this  is  no  water,  but 
crystal  ;  come  hither,  and  acknowledge  thy  belief  in  the 
one  and  only  God." 

Balkis  approached  his  throne,  which  was  raised  at  the 
end  of  the  room,  and,  standing  before  him,  abjured  the 
worship  of  the  sun.  Then  Suleyman  espoused  her,  and 
established  her  once  more  as  Queen  of  Saba,  and  passed 
with  her  three  days  out  of  every  month. 

And  Suleyman  reigned  many  years  over  Israel,  and, 
when  he  died,  the  angels  carried  him  and  his  seal-ring 
into  a  cave  whereof  no  man  knoweth  ;  and  there  they 
guard  him  until  the  day  of  resurrection. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    NORTH    ROAD.     I. 

"  The  coldest  place  in  Syria  is  Ba'albakk  and  the  coun- 
try round,  for  among  the  sayings  of  the  people  it  is 
related  how,  when  men  asked  of  the  cold,  '  Where  shall 
we  find  thee?'  it  was  answered,  'In  the  Balka '  ;  and 
when  they  further  said,  '  But  if  we  meet  thee  not  there  ?' 
then  the  cold  added,  '  Verily  in  Ba'albakk  is  my  home.'  " 

And  in  Ba'albek  its  home  is  still,  although  nine  hun- 
dred years  and  more  have  passed  since  these  words  were 
written.  Snow  lay  on  the  Anti-Libanus,  at  the  back  of 
the  town,  and  snow  lay  on  Lebanon  opposite,  from 
whose  heights,  now  all  but  denuded  of  their  cedars,  icy 
breezes  blew  across  the  valley  and  chilled  the  veins  of 
mortals.  And  in  Ba'albek,  no  doubt,  its  home  has 
always  been  ;  so  that  it  is  no  cause  for  wonder  that  the 
shivering  Coelesyrians  worshipped  the  element  which 
was  their  foremost  benefactor,  and  made  of  Ba'albek  the 
great  shrine  of  the  sun-god,  who  was  first  Ba'al,  then 
Helios,  lastly  Jupiter  Heliopolitanus. 

It  was  to  his  last  impersonation  that  the  Romans 
erected  the  buildings  which  by  the  delicacy  and  pro- 
fusion of  their  ornament,  by  the  sensuous  beauty  of 
their  golden  temples  silhouetted  against  a  sky  of 
Syrian  blue,  have  evoked  the  admiration  of  travellers 


186  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

ever  since  the  western  world  has  been  aware  of  their 
existence.     Yet    Ba'albek's   most    striking    feature   lies 
not   in  these,   but   in  the  dimensions  of  some  of  the 
stones  of  its  outer  wall,  quarried  and  raised  by  masons 
of  an  age  when  Rome  was  still  unborn,  and  forming 
the  substructions  of  the  platform   on  which  the  later 
people,  with  a  later  art,  built  the  temple-world  which 
we   see   to-day.     The   names   and   race   of  those   who 
could    move    blocks    of   stone    over    twenty    yards    in 
length,  weighing  probably  a  thousand  tons  apiece,  and 
lay  them  as  truly  as  if  they  were  so  many  bricks,  are  lost 
in  the  mists  of  antiquity  ;  and  those  who  wrought  this 
great  achievement,  greater,  surely,  than  the  making  of 
handsome  temples,  have  gone,  carrying  their  secret  with 
them.     All  attempts  to  explain  how  these  stones  were 
quarried,   moved,  raised  to  a  considerable  height,  and 
then   most  accurately  laid,   have  ended  in  vague  con- 
jecture.    To  the  many   detailed  accounts  of  Ba'albek 
will  not  be  added  here.     Suffice  it  to  say   that  on  the 
vast  substructions  of  the  ancient  Syrian  sun-worshippers 
the  Romans  erected  at  a  far  later  date,  in  the  second  and 
third   centuries  a.d.,   an  elaborate  group   of  buildings 
dedicated   to  Jupiter  Heliopolitanus,  whom  they   had 
dovetailed  on  to  the  Ba'al  of  the  earlier  shrine,  and  also 
to  Bacchus,  to  whose  benign  influence  the  Lebanon  owed 
the  sweetness  of  its  ever-fruitful  vines. 

A  graduated  series  of  courts,  consisting  of  oblong 
propylaea,  hexagonal  forecourt,  and  square  Court  of  the 
Altar,  leads  up  to  the  great  temple  of  Heliopolitan 
Jupiter,  whose  six  surviving  columns  are  a  landmark  in 
all  the  plain  of  the  Bika'.  The  effect  of  the  long  vista 
of  golden-brown  buildings,  behind  which  appears  the 
Lebanon,  snow-clad,  white-clouded,  is  very  wonderful, 


iL'BSXKUL  IIOXS,    BA'ALBEK,     ,S}IO\VING    BIG    STONES 


DETAIL  ;    BA'aLBEK 


Facing  p.   iS6. 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    I  187 

and  due  as  much,  perhaps,  to  the  skill  and  symmetry 
with  which  the  accessories  of  the  great  temple  (for  such 
is  the  purpose  of  the  courts)  are  marshalled,  as  to  the 
wealth  of  ornament  and  to  the  incidental  beauty  of 
colouring  and  background.  The  symmetry  is  some- 
what oddly  broken  by  the  temple  of  Bacchus,  which  is 
purposely,  no  doubt,  left  out  of  the  scheme  to  stand 
alone,  sturdily  independent,  to  the  left  of  the  main 
group.  It  loses  nothing,  however,  by  its  isolation,  but 
asserts  its  due  importance  in  not  forming  a  part  of  the 
other  temple's  frame  ;  and  it  well  deserves  a  place  by 
itself  Unlike  the  great  temple,  it  is  in  good  preserva- 
tion. Corinthian  capitals,  coffered  ceiling,  and  sculptured 
portal,  if  a  trifle  florid,  a  trifle  baroque,  are  admirable  in 
their  way  ;  and  with  the  courts,  niches,  basins,  and 
towers  of  the  other  buildings,  combine  to  make  of 
Ba'albek  a  fine  ensemble  of  later  Roman  architecture, 
which  decadence  in  the  shape  of  lavish  ornamentation 
has  already  begun  to  touch. 

It  is  fully  in  keeping  with  the  practice  of  those  who 
succeeded  the  Romans  in  the  ownership  of  Syria  to 
contribute  their  quota  to  the  monuments  of  their  prede- 
cessors ;  and  thus  we  find  a  Byzantine  basilica,  surviving 
in  little  more  than  outline,  in  the  Court  of  the  Altar, 
and  Arab  fortifications  on  the  enclosing  walls  of  the 
acropolis.  One  who  visited  Ba'albek  a  generation  back 
has  remarked  on  the  comment  which  these  successive 
additions  to  its  buildings  make  on  the  vaunted  progress 
of  the  human  race.  The  contribution  of  each  consecu- 
tive age  is  more  flimsy,  more  ephemeral,  than  that  of 
the  age  which  preceded  it  ;  and  the  best  preserved  of  its 
remains  are  those  whose  origin  is  the  most  remote. 

The  acropolis  stands  a  little  way  apart  from  the  town, 


188  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

and  contains,  with  two  exceptions,  everything  that  there 
is  of  interest  in  Ba'albek.  Of  these  exceptions,  which 
symbolize  the  extremes  seen  in  the  temple-area  itself, 
one  is  a  small  temple  of  Venus,  contemporary  with  the 
other  two,  ornate,  trivial,  rococo,  but  eminently  pretty, 
a  characteristic  product  of  the  decadence  ;  the  second  is 
a  much  graver  affair.  To  the  south-west  of  the  town 
are  the  quarries  of  the  ancient  builders  ;  and  here,  still 
adhering  to  the  rock,  is  a  block  whose  measurements, 
according  to  Baedeker's  accurate  handbook,  are  70  feet 
by  14  feet  by  13  feet.  But  for  some  great  disturbance 
long  since  lost  in  oblivion,  some  war,  some  overwhelm- 
ing invasion,  this  stone,  by  means  unknown  to  us 
to-day,  would  have  joined  its  companions  in  the  temple's 
foundation  walls.  Fate,  however,  has  decreed  that  it 
should  never  leave  its  matrix,  and  therein  it  has  decreed 
wisely  ;  for  in  its  freedom  from  surmounting  courses, 
with  all  its  dimensions  laid  bare,  it  illustrates  the  more 
clearly  the  dauntless  enterprise  of  an  heroic  race  of 
builders. 

Twenty  miles  east  of  Ba'albek,  on  the  road  from 
Damascus  to  Palmyra,  is  the  little  cluster  of  Anti- 
Libanus  villages— Ma'lula  (the  village  of  bakers), 
Bakha'a,  and  Jubb'Adin — where  dialects  of  the  old 
Syriac  or  Aramaic  tongue,  varying  slightly  in  each 
village,  are  still  the  language  of  the  people  ;  and  three 
days'  journey  beyond  these  is  Ba'albek's  sister-city, 
Palmyra.  We  resisted  the  temptation  to  make  these 
digressions  from  our  route,  and,  in  order  to  cover  with 
economic  speed  a  relatively  uninteresting  stretch  of 
country,  entrained  in  the  Chemin  de  fer  T)amas-Hama 
et  Prolongements  for  the  city  of  Horns. 

Homs,  the  ancient  Emesa,  is  the  southernmost  of  the 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    I  189 

three  big  inland  towns,  the  others  being  Hama  and 
Aleppo,  which  form  the  backbone  of  the  western  portion 
of  the  great  North  Syrian  plain,  now  beginning  to  open 
out  before  us.  Lebanon  and  Anti-Libanus  disappear  ; 
and,  while  the  former  is  continued  by  the  Nosayriyeh 
Mountains,  a  coastal  range  which  connects  it  with  the 
Taurus,  to  the  east  there  spreads  the  fertile  but  only 
partially  cultivated  flat  land,  bounded  on  the  north  by 
the  mountains  of  Kurdistan,  and  extending  across 
Mesopotamia  to  the  frontier-ranges  of  Persia. 

In  the  middle  ages  Homs  was  a  place  of  considerable 
importance,  and  is  now  a  town  of  some  60,000  inhabi- 
tants ;  of  the  old  Arab  writers  who  have  described  its 
people,  some  declare  that  they  are  handsome,  others, 
that  they  are  witless,  others,  again,  that  they  are  both. 
Neither  of  these  qualities  were  to  us  peculiarly  apparent ; 
their  most  noticeable  feature,  in  so  far  as  we  had  occasion 
to  become  aware  of  their  characteristics,  was  an  inor- 
dinate and  apparently  unquenchable  curiosity.  I  regard 
the  power  of  a  stranger  to  inspire  this  feeling  in  Syria 
as  nothing  short  of  a  calamity  to  himself;  for  Syrians, 
particularly  the  lower-class  Christians  and  dwellers  in 
towns,  are  as  shameless  in  displaying  it  as  the  crowds  at 
American  society  weddings.  They  are  totally  lacking 
in  that  consideration  which  I  have  experienced,  when 
travelling  in  the  interior  of  West  Africa,  at  the  hands 
of  the  '  barbarous  '  natives,  from  comparison  with  whom 
these  heirs  to  millennia  of  civilization  would  most 
indignantly  shrink.  It  is  true  that  after  we  left  Pale- 
stine for  regions  less  frequented  by  tourists,  our  passage 
through  the  villages  and  hamlets  was  no  longer  accom- 
panied by  clamourers  after  bakhshish  ;  but  there  is  little 
-doubt  that  to  be  an  object  of  constantly  sustained  and 


190  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

actively  expressed  interest  is  more  productive  of  dis- 
comfort than  to  be  a  potential  object  of  plunder.  It  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  crowds,  varying  in  numbers 
from  a  few  hundreds  to  some  three  thousand,  formed  a 
living  barrier  round  our  camp  at  Homs  from  sunrise  to 
sunset  during  every  day  of  our  sojourn,  and  would 
have  invaded  our  very  tents  but  for  the  restraining 
hands,  and  qurbash,  of  the  sorely  tried  guard.  Nor 
could  we  walk  abroad  to  see  the  sights  without  a  fol- 
lowing of  cumbersome  dimensions ;  so  that  our  stay  in 
this  otherwise  eminently  pleasant  town  was  attended  by 
the  feeling  of  malaise  inseparable  from  being  under  close 
and  incessant  observation.  Sometimes,  while  resting 
in  one's  tent  in  the  afternoon,  one  would  observe  a 
slight  movement  at  the  bottom  of  the  tent-flap,  to  dis- 
cover a  pair  of  beady  eyes,  whose  owner  has  eluded  the 
vigilance  of  the  zaptiehs,  greedily  devouring  oneself 
and  one's  surroundings.  After  a  time  these  eyes 
became  an  obsession  ;  and  one  would  wake  up  in  the 
middle  of  the  night  with  the  uncomfortable  sensation 
that  from  every  side  of  the  tent  equally  beady  pairs 
were  avidly  focussed  on  one's  defenceless  person. 

Homs  is,  as  I  have  said,  an  eminently  pleasant  town. 
All  its  houses  are  built  entirely  of  black  basalt,  which 
gives  to  the  city  a  curious,  although  very  neat,  appear- 
ance ;  and  its  streets,  strange  to  say,  are  paved  with 
stone,  the  just  pride  of  Homs  for  many  centuries  past. 
Its  bazaars,  much  frequented  by  the  landed  gentry  and 
peasantry  of  the  neighbourhood,  have  a  goodly  supply 
of  the  beautiful  silk  whose  preparation  is  the  principal 
industry  of  the  inhabitants ;  and  outside  the  town  the 
Orontes,as  yet  young  and  slender,  meanders  lazily  north- 
wards past   leafy  arbours   where   on   sunny   afternoons 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    I  191 

the  towns-folk  enjoy  their  keif.  Of  monuments,  Homs 
has  none,  unless  be  so  reckoned  the  tell^  sole  exception 
to  the  unbroken  flat  of  its  surroundings,  on  which  are 
the  scanty  remains  of  its  ancient  citadel.  The  place 
was  blown  up  with  such  thoroughness  by  Ibrahim  Pasha 
that  only  the  most  meagre  fragments  remain  of  a  fortress 
long  famous  for  its  strength,  a  fortress  of  importance, 
no  doubt,  as  far  back  as  the  time  when  Heliogabalus, 
that  eminent  burgher  of  Homs,  was  ministering  at  the 
shrine  of  the  local  Ba'al. 

This  crapulous  and  ignoble  individual,  ne  Bassianus, 
is  said  to  have  owed  his  election  as  Roman  Emperor  to 
the  fact  that  the  soldiers  of  Caracalla  detected  in  him 
some  resemblance  to  that  lamented  divus.  The  reign  of 
Homs's  solitary  contribution  to  the  roll  of  the  Ever 
August,  shedding  little  lustre  on  his  birthplace,  his 
electors,  and  himself,  has  preserved  him,  by  its  orgies, 
from  a  more  profitable  oblivion  ;  but  the  elevation  of 
so  obscure  a  provincial  to  the  highest  position  of  the 
ancient  world  is  interesting  in  the  parallel  which  it 
offers  to  the  Empire  which  has  succeeded  Rome  in  the 
rule  of  its  eastern  dependencies.  The  Ottoman  Empire, 
with  all  its  faults,  possesses  one  conspicuous,  and  to 
those  unacquainted  with  its  many  contradictions,  doubt- 
less surprising  merit:  namely,  that  the  highest  posts  in 
its  service  are  attainable  by  all  its  subjects  of  Turkish 
race,  irrespective  of  rank  or  riches.  In  accordance 
with  the  traditions  of  its  nomadic,  military  beginnings, 
when  personal  qualities  alone  won  the  right  to  lead, 
every  Turk,  however  humble  his  origin,  however  small 
and  distant  the  place  of  his  birth,  has  as  good  a  chance 

^A   hill,  in    this  region  usually  flat-topped  and  of  artificial  con- 
struction. 


192  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

of  becoming   Mushir   or   Vizier   as   the   Effendiler   of 
Constantinople. 

Once  there  lived  in  Horns  a  certain  Syriac  bishop, 
ambitious,  and  well  versed  in  the  arts  of  intrigue. 
This  astute  prelate  cherished  the  hope  of  becoming,  at 
the  next  vacancy,  Patriarch  of  the  Syriac,  or  Jacobite 
Church;  and,  in  order  to  equip  himself  with  the  sinews 
of  war,  undertook  a  visit  to  England,  accompanied  by 
a  picturesquely  clad  deacon,  for  the  ostensible  purpose 
of  collecting  money  for  a  printing  press.  He  was 
befriended  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  raising  ;/^5000,  with  which  he  returned  to 
Homs ;  but  years  passed,  and  the  printing  press  did 
not  materialize.  At  last  the  Patriarch  died,  and  our 
friend  prepared  to  accept  the  call  to  a  higher  sphere  of 
usefulness ;  but  to  his  consternation  he  was  passed  over 
in  favour  of  the  abbot  of  the  big  Jacobite  monastery 
near  Mosul.  In  great  disgust  he  retired  to  Diarbekr, 
where  he  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Roman 
Catholics,  promising  that  if  received  by  them,  as  a 
Uniat,  he  would  induce  his  flock  to  follow  his  example. 
So  he  was  accepted,  on  the  strength  of  this  undertaking, 
as  Syriac  Uniat  bishop,  and  no  sooner  was  he  thus 
installed  than  he  schemed  to  be  made  Patriarch  of  his 
newly  adopted  church.  Unfortunately,  his  people  did 
not  follow  him  to  the  extent  which  he  had  led  the 
Roman  Catholics  to  believe ;  and  the  latter,  feeling  that 
they  had  been  tricked,  declined  to  do  anything  further 
for  him.  Again  foiled  in  his  ambition  to  become 
Patriarch  at  any  price,  and  of  anything,  he  commenced 
silently  to  make  preparations;  and,  when  they  were 
completed,  suddenly  returned  to  the  fold,  did  penance  at 
the  Mosul  monastery,  made  his  peace  with  the  Patriarch, 


PERISTYLE,    TEMPLE    OF    BACCHUS,     BAALBEK 


FRAGMENTS,    BA  ALBEK 


Facing  p.    192. 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    I  193 

and  showed  such  sincere  signs  of  repentance  that  the 
old  man  not  only  forgave  him  freely,  but  was  actually 
prevailed  upon  to  designate  him  as  his  successor.  And 
his  successor  he  duly  became,  managing  his  church  since 
then,  it  is  reported,  with  all  the  skill  which  he  had 
shown  in  the  management  of  his  own  career.  This 
story  illustrates,  not  inaptly,  a  phase  of  ecclesiastical 
tactics  as  still  practised  in  the  East;  and  was  recalled 
to  my  mind  by  seeing,  not  long  ago,  the  following 
paragraph  in  a  well-known  London  morning  paper : 

"  The  Patriarch  of  Syria  was  present  at  even- 
song in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  occupied  a  seat 
in  the  choir  near  Archdeacon  Sinclair,  who  was 
the  preacher.  The  aged  prelate  is  on  a  visit  to 
this  country  to  invoke  financial  help  towards 
repairing  his  historic  church  and  school,  and  to 
provide  a  new  printing  press — all  these  having  been 
damaged  by  hordes  of  fanatics  who  descended 
from  the  neighbouring  mountains.  Thirty-four 
years  ago,  when  Syrian  Bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
he  came  to  this  country,  and  was  received  by 
Archbishop  Tait.  On  that  occasion  the  first  dona- 
tion he  received  towards  his  church  was  £^o  from 
Queen  Victoria,  and  he  was  also  presented  by 
her  Majesty  with  a  personal  badge  to  be  worn 
by  him." 


CHAPTER   XL 

IN   THE   MOUNTAINS   OF   THE   NOSAYRIYEH. 

From  Horns  we  rode  to  Qal'at  el-Hosn,  a  Crusaders' 
castle  in  the  Nosayriyeh  Mountains,  and  thereby  made 
in  a  single  day,  so  vivid  are  the  contrasts  in  this  strange 
Syrian  land,  the  transition  from  a  prosaic  provincial 
town  in  an  unromantic  plain  to  a  stronghold  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  dominating  mountain  fastnesses  even 
now  considered  to  be  '  unsafe.'  For  some  four  hours 
after  leaving  Homs  we  travelled  along  the  Tripoli  road,^ 
one  of  the  few  good  roads  in  Syria,  and  the  only  one, 
probably,  which  pays  its  way.  Its  traffic  is  brisk,  and 
its  tax  on  every  vehicle  passing  between  Tripoli  and 
Homs  no  less  a  sum  than  six  mejidiyehs,  equivalent, 
according  as  you  adopt  the  rate  of  exchange  of  the 
Government,  of  Jerusalem,  of  Beirut,  of  Damascus,  or 
of  Jaffa,  to  nineteen  shillings,  twenty-three  shilHngs, 
twenty-three  and  twopence,  twenty-four  shillings,  or 
twenty-six  shillings  respectively  ;  from  which  calcula- 
tions, achieved  with  no  little  labour,  it  will  be  seen  that 
financial  problems  of  magnitude  beset  Turkey's  visitors 
as  well  as  her  statesmen.  To  the  left  of  the  road  were 
a  number  of  shallow  pools,  and  behind  them  the  lake  of 
Homs,  abounding  in  fish  ;  while  overhead  there  circled, 
••  A  railway  has  since  been  built  along  it. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    195 

with  the  discipline  of  perfectly  drilled  soldiers,  gigantic 
flocks  of  storks,  who  from  time  to  time  would  abandon 
their  evolutions  and  descend  for  a  footbath  in  the  water. 
Near  El-Hadideh  we  left  the  road,  branched  off  sharply 
to  the  north,  and  pursued  a  villainous  and  marshy  track 
which  led  into  the  hill  country,  and  afforded  such  bad 
going  for  the  caravan  that  we  were  compelled  to  leave 
it  behind.  So  we  rode  on  alone,  and  directed  the  camp 
to  make  its  way  as  best  it  could  to  the  foot  of  the 
mountain,  first  of  the  higher  peaks  of  the  Jebel  Nosay- 
riyeh,  from  which  the  Qal'a  frowns  down  upon  the 
surrounding  country. 

We  arrived  there  late  in  the  afternoon  ;  and  as  we 
wended  our  way  up  the  steep  ascent  to  the  summit,  we 
could  see  the  inmates  issuing,  as  they  might  have  done 
in  the  days  of  old,  forth  from  the  great  castle  gate,  to 
watch  the  approach  of  the  invaders.  But  if  they, 
unused  to  the  sight  of  strangers,  had  cause  to  wonder, 
how  much  the  more  had  we  .?  For  as  we  toiled  up  the 
final  incline  we  saw  what  distance  had  hitherto  partially 
obscured,  the  full  magnitude  of  this  truly  astonishing 
fabric.  On  the  highest  point  of  the  hill,  an  L-shaped 
hill  2450  feet  above  sea-level,  commanding  with 
unrivalled  effect  the  defile,  all-important  to  the  Cru- 
saders, through  which  was  the  only  communication 
between  Homs  and  Hama  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Tripoli  and  Tartus  on  the  other,  we  beheld  a  castle  of 
vast  extent  and  apparently  in  perfect  preservation. 
Within  its  massive  outer  wall,  straddling  the  ridge  with 
crenellated  bastions,  rose  another  and  higher  enceinte, 
and  above  this,  again,  emerged  the  three  mighty  towers 
of  the  keep.  The  Qaimaqam,  attended  by  his  retinue, 
was    awaiting    us    outside    the    gate,   and,    bidding    us 


196  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

welcome  in  excellent  French,  ordered  two  sheep  to  be 
killed  forthwith  in  honour  of  our  coming.  Eager  to 
show  hospitality,  he  insisted  that  we  should  dine  and 
sleep  at  the  castle  ;  and  as  our  camp,  still  struggling  in 
the  morasses  below,  had  not  yet  heaved  in  sight,  we 
accepted  his  proposal.  Remounting,  we  followed  him 
through  the  gate,  and  plunged  straightway  into  a  long 
vaulted  gallery  or  tunnel,  which  led  upward  through 
the  thicknesses  of  the  outer  fortifications,  and  after 
many  turns  and  windings  brought  us  at  last  into  the 
inner  precincts  of  the  castle.  But  the  term  castle,  a 
romantic  word,  and  therefore  well  applied  to  a  place 
such  as  this,  a  place  which  one  might  dream  of,  but 
would  scarcely  expect  to  see,  does  not  adequately 
convey  the  immensity  of  Qal'at  el-Hosn.  Ludwig  of 
Bavaria's  castles,  large,  fairy-like,  and  fantastic,  have 
something  of  Qal'at  el-Hosn ;  but  this  place  is  also  the 
capital  of  a  district.  When  we  emerged  from  the 
tunnel  into  the  lower  court,  the  entire  population, 
numbering  between  1500  and  2000,  poured  out  of 
their  dwellings  to  meet  us.  The  sight  before  us  was  a 
strange  one.  The  castle's  splendid  preservation,  we 
now  realized,  was  largely  external  ;  inside  the  court 
reigned  confusion  and  decay.  Black  galleries,  similar 
to  the  one  whence  we  had  issued,  gaped  openly  behind 
us,  tumbling  vaults  seemed  on  the  point  of  collapse, 
towers  and  passages  were  choked  with  loose  stones  and 
other  rubbish.  On  all  sides  the  hovels  of  the  inhabi- 
tants lurked  among  the  debris ;  and  when  we  dismounted, 
our  horses  were  led  into  the  chapter-house  of  the 
Knights,  still  displaying  the  beautiful  traceries  of  its 
windows,  but  within  all  blackened  with  soot  from  the 
smoke  of  the  stable-boys'  fires.     Yet  so  solid  was  the 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH     197 

construction  of  the  place  that  its  decay  was  little  more 
than  skin-deep  ;  beneath  the  crumbling  outer  layers 
one  perceived  the  massive  masonry  still  sound,  and 
only  needing  a  little  attention,  which  it  is  never  likely 
to  get,  to  preserve  it  for  many  centuries  to  come.  A 
flight  of  steps  led  from  the  lower  to  the  upper  court, 
where,  in  the  keep,  in  the  south-eastern  of  the  three 
towers  which  protected  the  castle  on  its  most  vulnerable 
side,  the  Qaimaqam's  quarters  were  situated.  By  this 
time  it  was  growing  late,  but  before  the  last  streaks  of 
sunset  had  died  away  in  the  west,  I  climbed  up  the 
highest  of  the  towers  and  looked  toward  the  sea.  To 
the  north-west,  about  sixteen  miles  away,  rose  the  peak 
and  castle  of  Safita,  companion  to  the  Qal'a,  with 
which  it  seemed  to  guard  the  approaches  to  the  north. 
At  our  feet  lay  the  densely  wooded  valley,  a  stony  river 
bed  marking  its  course  ;  and  the  white  dome  of  the 
monastery  of  Mar  Jirjis,  faintly  gleaming  in  the  dusk, 
nestled  in  the  dip  halfway  between  these  two  sentinels 
of  the  Jebel  Nosayriyeh.  Far  away  beyond  Safita  the 
sun's  dying  rays  lit  up  the  sea  with  a  last  flush  of 
colour  ;  but  to  the  north  the  mountains,  now  in  deep 
shadow,  loomed  black,  gloomy,  and  forbidding.  And 
the  kestrels,  shrilly  calling,  flew  round  and  round  the 
tower,  or  darted  suddenly  into  the  moat  below,  seeking 
hungrily  for  their  prey. 

The  site  of  Qal'at  el-Hosn  first  belonged  to 
Raymond  of  Tripoli,  and  was  ceded  by  him  to  the 
Hospitallers,  who  built,  or  at  least  reconstructed,  the 
castle.  They  called  it  Krak  des  Chevahers,  the  Castle 
of  the  Knights  ;  and  as  long  as  they  held  it,  it  was  the 
bulwark  of  the  Christians'  eastern  frontier.  It  terrorized 
its  Moslem  neighbours,  and  exacted  annual  tribute  from 


198  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Hama  and  from  the  Assassins  at  Masyad.  But  in 
1 27 1  the  Mameluke  Sultan  Baibars  captured  it  after  a 
siege  of  seven  weeks,  and  commemorated  the  event  by 
an  inscription  near  the  moat,  which,  flanked  by  lions, 
reads  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  Compassionate,  the 
Merciful.     Hath  been  commanded  the  restoration 
of  this  blessed  castle  in  the  reign  of  our  Master, 
the  Sultan  El-Melek  ed-Daher,  the  wise,  the  just, 
the    champion    of  the    holy   war,   the    pious,   the 
defender  of  frontiers,  the  victorious,  the  pillar  of 
the  world  and  of  the  faith,  the  father  of  victory 
Baibars  .  .  .  ,  and  this  on  the  .  .  .  day  of.  .  ." 
Meanwhile,  in   the  tower,  they  were  preparing   for 
our  entertainment.     An  Effendi  who  owned  land  in  the 
neighbourhood  was  on  a  visit  to  the  Qaimaqam  ;  and 
after  the  necessary  introductions  had  been  made,  we  sat 
down  to  a  preliminary  snack  of  coffee  and  hors  d'ceuvres. 
The  Qaimaqam's  residence  was  typically  Turkish.    Had 
it   been   occupied   by   people   of  any  other   nation,  its 
occupants  would,  instinctively,  have  set  about  to  make 
the   best   of  their  material,  and  to  render  the  ancient 
tower   as   comfortable   and   homelike   as  circumstances 
would  permit.     Not  so  the  Turk.     In  him,  after  close 
on  six  centuries  of  comparatively  settled  existence,  the 
nomad  spirit   has   survived  with   undiminished   force  ; 
and  he  is  ready  at  any  time  to  change  his  habitat  for 
another  with  expedition  and  without  demur.     Conse- 
quently there  is  nothing  in  his  houses  to  indicate  that 
he  regards  them  as  permanent  dwellings.     They  possess 
neither   luxuries   nor  any  of  the  things  which  we  call 
*  fixtures ' ;  they  are  never  repaired  until  actually  on  the 
point  of  collapse  ;  and  although  everything  inside  them 


OAL  AT    EL-HOSX 


CHAPTER-HOUSE,    OAL'AT    EL-HOSN 


Facing  p.  19S. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH     199 

is  scrupulously  clean,  only  the  indispensable  and  the 
easily  portable  do  they  contain.  And  so,  here,  the  roof 
leaked,  the  wind  blew  through  the  broken  window 
panes  and  through  the  chinks  of  a  wall  innocent  of 
paper,  into  rooms  bare  of  all  but  the  scantiest  furniture. 
Only  a  few  good  rugs,  spread  on  the  floor,  gave  a  touch 
of  comfort  and  of  warmth,  and  served  as  a  reminder 
that  this  land  has  at  least  one  admirable  handicraft. 

Everybody  who  knows  his  Book  of  Snobs  will 
remember  how  Mr.  Snob,  while  employed  on  a  delicate 
diplomatic  mission  in  Constantinople,  was  banqueted 
together  with  his  Russian  opponent,  Count  de  Diddloff, 
by  Leckerbiss  Pasha,  Chief  Galeongee  of  the  Porte  ; 
and  how  he  got  the  better  of  his  rival  because  he  was 
able  to  swallow  the  selected  morsels  of  meat  which, 
following  oriental  custom,  the  Pasha  with  his  own 
fingers  placed  in  his  guests'  mouths,  with  greater 
appreciation  of  the  compliment  and  of  the  succulence 
of  the  gobbets  than  the  more  fastidious  Count.  Who- 
ever does  not,  and  who  would  fain  read,  in  more 
entertaining  language  than  the  author  of  this  book  is 
capable  of,  a  description  of  a  feast  such  as  our  Qaimaqam 
in  his  hospitality  produced,  should  turn  to  the  afore- 
mentioned work  ;  for  in  like  manner  to  the  Galeongee 
did  Ahmed  Bey  place  in  the  mouth  of  his  right-hand 
neighbour,  who  is  telling  the  tale,  the  juiciest  pieces  of 
mutton  from  his  own  plate,  rolling  them  up  for  the 
purpose  into  immense  pills  with  the  help  of  rice,  fat, 
and  the  various  condiments,  such  as  onions,  pine- 
kernels,  cinnamon,  and  garlic,  with  which  the  sheep 
sacrificed  at  our  arrival  had  been  stuffed.  And  as,  in 
continuation  of  old  Turkish  custom,  no  drinks  were 
produced  until  the  meal  was  over,  I  was  unable  to  do 


200  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

as  the  Count  de  DiddlofF  and  drown  the  pills  in  a  pint 
of  French  brandy.  The  dinner,  however,  was  excellent, 
despite  the  attentions  of  the  Qaimaqam  and  the  absence 
of  all  eating  utensils.  First  came  poulet  au  riz,  which 
in  Turkey  is  always  good,  followed  by  a  dish  of  spinach, 
whose  flavour  would  have  made  a  French  chef  turn  its 
colour  with  envy,  but  which  presented  certain  difficulties 
until  the  hand  had  trained  itself  to  assume  the  form  and 
functions  of  a  spoon.  After  the  spinach,  the  sheep 
already  alluded  to  made  their  appearance  as  pieces  de 
resistances  to  be  removed  by  wild  artichokes,  which 
were  fresh  and  sweet  after  the  rich  and  heavy  mutton. 
Dessert  consisted  of  a  sour  cream,  called  leben^  and 
oranges,  after  which  the  company  rose,  persons  who 
were  thirsty  finding  glasses  of  water  on  the  sideboard. 
Altogether  it  was  a  very  cheery  meal.  The  Qaimaqara 
was  the  soul  of  geniality,  delighted  to  have  someone 
from  the  outer  world  to  talk  to  ;  and,  considering  the 
remoteness  and  isolation  of  the  locality,  the  quality  of 
the  repast  was  pleasantly  surprising.  Moreover,  to 
remove  any  inconvenience  which  might  result  from 
eating  with  our  fingers,  the  old  negro  slave,  whom  the 
Qaimaqam  had  brought  from  Mecca,  washed  our  hands 
in  rosewater  between  every  course.  Ahmed  Bey  was 
intelligent  as  well  as  hospitable,  a  very  good  specimen 
of  the  higher  Turkish  official.  His  knowledge  of 
French  was  remarkable  for  a  man  who  had  never  left 
Turkey  ;  he  took  an  interest  in  the  affiiirs  of  other 
countries  besides  his  own  ;  and  he  contemplated  the  pur- 
chase of  a  camera.  He  came  of  a  distinguished  Kurdish 
family,  being  the  son  and  grandson  of  a  Mutesarrif,  the 
brother-in-law  of  an  Imperial  Chamberlain,  and  own 
brother  to  that  important  functionary,  the  Director  of 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    201 

the  Mecca  pilgrimage,  the  Emir  ul-Hajj  ;  and  he 
entertained  reasonable  hopes  of  speedy  promotion. 
"  Ce  n'est  pas  un  poste  pour  un  homme  comme  moi," 
he  said  ;  and  it  was  easy  to  sympathize  with  him  in  his 
desire  for  a  change.  In  all  his  qaza  of  several  hundred 
little  villages  clustering  on  the  slopes  of  the  Jebel 
Nosayriyeh  there  was  no  one  above  the  status  of  a 
village  headman,  no  town  to  compare  with  the  mighty 
ruin  in  which  he  lived.  For  company,  he  had  his 
family,  the  Imam,  the  Qadi,  and  the  Commandant  of 
a  small  detachment  of  troops  ;  for  recreation,  an 
occasional  day's  shooting  ;  for  intellectual  refreshment, 
nothing.  One  month's  leave  every  year,  which  he 
spent  in  Damascus,  gave  him  his  only  means  of  access 
to  the  world  at  large  ;  and  thus  it  will  be  seen  that,  like 
the  policeman's,  a  cultured  Qaimaqam's  lot  is  not 
always  a  happy  one. 

Rugs  had  meanwhile  been  spread  for  us  in  the  recep- 
tion room,  and  thither,  after  further  conversation,  we 
retired,  and  slept.  On  the  morrow  my  companions 
descended  at  an  early  hour  to  the  camp,  which,  with 
many  a  yallah  on  the  part  of  the  muleteers,  had  arrived 
late  on  the  evening  before  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  ;  while 
I  remained  at  the  castle.  It  was  arranged  that  the 
Qaimaqam  should  lunch  with  us  at  noon,  and  that  I 
should  accompany  him  to  the  camp  ;  in  the  interval,  I 
proposed  to  ride  to  the  monastery  of  Mar  Jirjis,  or  St. 
George,  which  I  had  seen  from  the  tower  on  the  pre- 
vious day.  Having  to  wait  some  time  for  my  horse,  I 
returned  with  the  Qaimaqam  to  the  reception  room, 
and  there  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  something 
of  Syrian  etiquette  in  a  form  unadulterated  by  western 
influences.     The  room  was,  as  usual,  divided  into  diwdn 


202  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

and  Hwdn,  the  diwdn  being  the  back  part,  and  the  honour- 
able part,  of  the  room,  and  raised  a  step  above  the  front 
part,  or  liwdn.  On  the  diwdn  sits  the  master  of  the 
house  with  his  guests,  while  servants  and  dependants 
stand  on  the  liwdn,  below  the  step.  Round  the  three 
sides  of  the  diwdn  are  placed  seats  or  cushions,  that  of 
the  host  being  in  the  middle,  opposite  the  door,  and  the 
places  of  greatest  honour  being  those  nearest  to  his. 
On  this  particular  morning  the  Qaimaqam  appeared  to 
be  holding  a  levee.  Clad  in  an  ^abayeh  of  the  finest 
camel  hair,  richly  embroidered  with  gold,  below  which 
could  be  discerned  a  dressing-gown,  quilted  and  bright,  he 
sat  in  his  chair,  smoking  endless  cigarettes  ;  beside  him 
there  sat  and  smoked  the  Effendi  and  myself.  Presently 
the  notabilities  already  alluded  to  made  their  appearance 
one  by  one  :  the  Imam,  the  Qadi,  and  the  Commandant 
of  the  small  detachment  of  troops.  All  left  their 
slippers  on  the  liwdn,  not  excluding  the  Commandant, 
for  Turkish  officers,  when  not  on  parade,  are  apt  to 
combine  full  uniform  and  sword  with  a  certain  neglige 
as  to  the  feet.^  As  each  one  entered,  he  saluted  host 
and  assembly  by  carrying  his  right  hand  from  his  heart 
to  his  forehead,  and  all  those  already  in  the  room 
returned  the  salute  in  like  manner.  As  soon  as  they 
had  resumed  their  seats,  the  new  arrival  rose  and  bowed 
once  more.  Similarly,  whenever  anyone  left  the  room, 
he  saluted,  and  everybody  rose  and  saluted  in  return. 
Some  village  Agas,  carrying  enormous  curved  swords, 
completed  the  party,  and  the  Qaimaqam  was  kept  busy 
calling  out  *■  ya  weled'  (O  boy  !),  a  summons  to  his 
elderly  retainer  to  bring  the  coffee.     For  coffee  is  one  of 

^  Not,  of  course,   in   Constantinople,  where  the  officers   equal    in 
elegance  those  of  Vienna  and  Berlin. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    203 

the  essentials  of  Turkish  social  life.     Not  to  offer  coffee 
to  a  guest  is  an  insult  unthinkable  ;  and  for  a  guest  to 
take   his   leave  before   his  coffee  has  come  is  conduct 
comparable  to  that  of  a  man  who,  arriving  at  a  house 
where  he  has  been  invited  to  dinner,  and  finding  that 
dinner  is  late,  becomes  impatient  and  goes  away  before 
the  meal  is  served.     Consequently  the  host  can  regulate 
fairly  exactly  the  duration  of  his  visitors'  calls,  one  of 
many   proofs   that  in   some  respects  the  East  is  more 
practical  than  the  West ;  and  when  he  wishes  to  show 
somebody  particular  courtesy,  he  delays  his  departure  by 
retarding  the  appearance  of  the  coffee.     This,  of  course, 
has  its  drawbacks  if  the  visitor  is  in  a  hurry,  as  1  myself 
found  on  that  very  morning  ;  for  by  the  time  that  my 
horse  had  arrived  and  I  had  reached  Mar  Jirjis,  more 
than  an  hour's  ride  from  the  castle,  1  realized  that,  in 
order  to  return  there  and   bring  the  Qaimaqam  to  the 
camp  by  noon,  I  would  have  to  curtail  very  considerably 
my  visit  to  the  monastery.     When,  therefore,  I  observed 
that  the  Abbot  was  taking  pleasure  in  my  conversation 
and  was  delaying  the  arrival  of  the  conge  de  partir,  my 
agony  was  intense,  until,  at  the  risk  of  offending  against 
all   rules   social,  canonical,  and  monastic,  I   clamoured 
loudly  for  coffee.     The  Abbot  was  a  stately  personage 
and  of  noble  girth.     Like  Saint  John  the  Evangelist, 
he  was  followed  about  wherever  he  went  by  a  retinue  of 
two  Carpaccionesque  grey  partridges,  and  like  one  of  the 
eleven  Saints  Cyril  who  figure  in  the  Major  Kalendar, 
he  was  a  Cretan ;  whether  or  not  he  was  afflicted  with 
the  national  peculiarity  I  did  not  discover.     His  monas- 
tery was  an  imposing  and  fortress-like  pile  of  golden 
limestone,  standing  on  a  gentle  slope  above  the  stream, 
and   embowered  in   the  usual  grove  of  cypresses  and 


204  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

olives.  The  dome  of  its  church,  large  and  whitewashed, 
could,  as  already  remarked,  be  seen  distinctly  from 
Qal'at  el-Hosn  ;  in  its  picturesque  courtyard  a  number 
of  men  and  women  were  lounging  peacefully  under  the 
arcades.  The  place  seemed  prosperous  and  in  good 
repair.  The  Abbot's  reception-room  was  spacious  and 
well  furnished,  the  floor  was  covered  with  old  and  costly 
rugs,  and  in  the  middle  stood  the  Abbot's  chair  of  state, 
richly  and  curiously  carved.  Twelve  monks  formed 
the  establishment,  all  Syrians  except  the  Abbot,  and 
helped  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  twenty-five 
neighbouring  Christian  villages  belonging  to  the  Ortho- 
dox Patriarchate  of  Antioch.  Be  it  mentioned,  in  passing, 
that  the  Orthodox  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  in  conformity 
with  the  practice  adopted  by  the  Latin,  the  Jacobite,  the 
Syriac  Uniat,  the  Maronite,  the  Melchite,  and  such  other 
Patriarchs  of  Antioch  as  may  have  escaped  my  notice,  is 
an  absentee  prelate.  He  neither  inhabits  nor  visits  his 
titular  city,  but  resides  in  Damascus,  where,  boycotted 
by  his  brothers  of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and 
Jerusalem,  because  he  is  a  Syrian  and  not  a  Greek,  he 
comforts  himself,  we  will  hope,  with  the  reflection  that, 
although  not  privileged  to  be  a  Hellene,  he  is  and  remains 
The  Most  Blessed  and  Holy  Patriarch  of  the  Divine 
City  Antioch,  Syria,  Arabia,  Cilicia,  Iberia,  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  All  the  East  ;  Father  of  Fathers  and  Pastor 
of  Pastors.     Sufficient  consolation,  one  would  think  ! 

Having  seen  the  church  and  crypt,  and  taken  my 
leave  of  the  Abbot,  I  hurried  back  to  the  castle,  very 
late,  and  confident  that  I  should  find  the  Qaimaqam 
ready  to  come  down  to  the  camp.  But  here  I  reckoned 
without  Turkish  etiquette.  For  a  man  in  the  Qaima- 
qam's  position  to  be  punctual  at  a  meal  would  be  very 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    205 

derogatory  to  his  dignity  ;  and  so  I  had  to  sit  and  wait 
while  he  assessed  the  Verghi  tax  of  his  district  for  the 
coming  financial  year,  not  that  he  ever  did  so,  under 
normal   circumstances,    until    the   year    was    over,    but 
merely  that  he  might  emphasize  his  importance  by  the 
delay.     Finally  I   got  him   to  move,  but  now  another 
unpleasant  aspect  of  eastern  custom  was  revealed  to  me. 
It   appears  that   when  you   desire  to  show   your   host 
particular    regard,    you    do    so    by   displaying   an    un- 
bounded  confidence    in    his    hospitality;    consequently 
that    soul   of  politeness,  the  Qaimaqam,  had   collected 
his  son,  the  EfFendi,  and  eleven  retainers  to  do  honour 
to  our  lunch.     Hastily  a  runner  was  sent  ahead  to  pre- 
pare the  camp  for  the  invasion  ;  and  thus,  fortunately, 
there  was   room  and  food   for  all.     I  sat  next  to  the 
Qaimaqam,    and    constantly    popped    things   from    my 
plate  into  his  mouth.     I  found  this  a  novel  and  fasci- 
nating diversion,  which  was  greatly  heightened  by  the 
Qaimaqam's    very    evident    gratification  ;    and    I    have 
often    regretted    since    that    the    custom    might    seem 
outre  at  home.     At  trying  dinner-parties  such  a  man- 
ceuvre  would   be  of  inestimable  value   in   filling  con- 
versational   blanks   due    to    a    reserved    neighbour,   or 
the   mouths    of  those    neighbours  whose    reserve  was 
insufficient. 

After  lunch,  our  camp  prepared  for  departure.  The 
Effendi  made  noises  to  show  his  repletion,  the  omission 
of  which  would  have  been  a  reflection  on  the  quality 
of  the  meal,  a  messenger  was  despatched  to  Homs  with 
a  telegram  to  the  Sultan,  thanking  him  for  his  repre- 
sentative's hospitality,  a  photograph  of  the  party  taken 
(at  the  Qaimaqam's  request)  to  commemorate  the  festive 
occasion  ;  and  then  we  said  good-bye. 


206  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

It  was  late  that  night  when  we  reached  our  destina- 
tion, Barin,  the  Mons  Ferrandus  of  the  Crusades. 
Throughout  the  afternoon  we  were  travelling  over  the 
mountains,  partly  along  stony  tracks,  but  more  often 
over  country  absolutely  trackless,  true  robber-country, 
most  congenial  to  the  habits  of  the  marauding  bands 
which  infest  it.  Towards  sunset,  as  we  crossed  the 
summit  of  the  Dahr  el-Quseir,  a  rounded,  barren  knoll, 
we  passed  two  cairns  of  loosely-piled  stones,  marking 
the  graves  of  a  robber  pair,  father  and  son,  who,  after 
terrorizing  the  district  for  many  years,  had  met  their 
just  doom  a  decade  or  so  ago  at  the  hands  of  the 
exasperated  peasantry.  The  population  of  Syria  is 
exceptionally  mixed.  The  Syrians  proper,  themselves 
the  descendants  of  a  combination  of  races,  have  inter- 
mingled to  a  considerable  extent  with  the  Arabs  of  the 
towns  and  with  the  settled  peasantry;  and  it  is  the 
latter  who  suffer  so  much  at  the  hands  of  the  nomadic 
or  Beduin  Arabs  in  such  districts  in  which  they  meet. 
The  Beduin  derive  much  of  their  substance  from  prey- 
ing upon  the  poor,  patient,  and  timid  hddari,  who  are 
often  content  to  purchase  at  a  fixed  annual  rate  im- 
munity from  their  depredations,  much  as  do  the 
Sicilian  peasantry  when  blackmailed  by  the  Mafiosi. 
There  comes  a  time,  however,  when  even  the  worm 
will  turn,  as  is  witnessed  by  the  mounds  on  the  Dahr 
el-Quseir;  no  peasant  ever  passes  them,  even  now, 
without  adding  his  quota,  launching,  as  he  casts  a 
stone  on  each,  an  ample  curse  against  the  souls  of  the 
malefactors. 

Barin,  village  and  castle,  the  second  containing  the 
first,  and  no  better  preserved  than  Kokab  el-Hawa,  is 
inhabited  by  the  strange  people  who  give  their  name  to 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    207 

this  mountain  range.  The  Nosayriyeh  ^  are  a  truculent 
lot,  and  their  reputation  is  even  worse  than  that  of  the 
Beduin  as  robbers  and  oppressors  of  the  weak.  But 
in  justice  to  them  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  they 
are  hated  by  orthodox  Moslems,  who  rarely  lose  an 
opportunity  of  blackening  the  name  of  this  ancient  and 
singular  tribe. 

Mohammedanism  failed,  no  less  than  Christianity,  to 
reach  maturity  without  throwing  off,  from  time  to  time, 
sparks  which  rekindled  the  dying  embers  of  more 
ancient  religions  and  philosophies,  and  in  fusion  with 
these  flickered  up  for  a  while,  in  some  cases  keeping 
alive  until  now,  chaotic  combinations  of  reason,  of 
mysticism,  of  formalism,  of  secrecy,  of  magic.  In  the 
West,  in  an  age  when  the  beliefs  of  men  were  in  fer- 
ment, Gnostics  and  Manichaeans,  and,  later,  their 
mediaeval  successors,  the  Cathars,  Patarenes,  and  Albi- 
genses,  illustrated  the  amalgam  of  Christianity  with  the 
elements  of  dualism,  oriental  philosophy,  and  ancient 
paganism  ;  and  through  the  Bogomils  have  perpetuated 
to  this  day  among  some  of  the  Russian  Raskolniki  a 
strange  mixture  of  ill-assorting  beliefs.  In  Syria  such 
elements,  tinged,  not  with  Christianity,  but  with  a 
Moslem  heresy,  form  the  basis  of  the  religions  of  the 
Nosayriyeh  and  the  Druses. 

The  origin  of  the  former  has  given  rise  to  no  little 
speculation.  According  to  one  view,  their  name  is 
derived  from  nasrdni^  Nazarene  or  Christian,  whence 
they  were  sometimes  known  as  '  Little  Christians ' ;  a 
more  accepted  theory  attributes  the  foundation  of  their 

^  This  name  is  sometimes,  but  erroneously,  written  Ansayriyeh. 
The  mistake  has  probably  arisen  through  the  fact  that  in  common 
parlance  Syrians  usually  elide  its  first  vowel. 


208  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

religion  to  the  ninth-century  Shiah  Sheikh  Mohammed 
ibn-Nosair.  But  M.  Rene  Dussaud  ^  has  shown  con- 
clusively, I  think,  that  they  were  a  race  apart  in  Syro- 
Phoenician  times,  and  in  support  quotes  no  less  an 
authority  than  Pliny,  who  mentions  the  city  of  Apamea 
as  "  separated  by  the  river  Marsyas  (Orontes)  from  the 
tetrarchy  of  the  Nazerines."^  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  paganism  of  the  Phoenicians  still  predominates  in 
the  beliefs  of  the  Nosayriyeh.  They  adore  sun,  moon, 
and  sky,  worship  not  in  mosques  but  in  high  places, 
and  pay  great  reverence  even  now  to  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  Phoenician  sanctuaries,  the  intermittent  spring 
near  Mar  Jirjis  which  has  gone  by  the  name  of  the 
Sabbatic  Fountain  since  Josephus  declared  that  its 
waters  flowed  every  seventh  day.  At  one  time,  no 
doubt,  such  beliefs  were  common  not  only  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Syrian  Coast,  but  also  to  the  peoples 
of  Haran  and  Palmyra ;  but  whereas  the  latter  eventu- 
ally came  entirely  under  the  influence  either  of  Chris- 
tianity or  of  Islam,  the  Nosayriyeh  were  protected  by 
the  isolation  of  their  mountains  from  contact  with 
foreign  ideas.  The  Arab  invasion  left  them  practically 
untouched ;  the  Crusaders,  while  scattering  castles  over 
their  country,  in  no  sense  modified  their  religion.  It 
was  left  for  the  Assassins  to  do  this  when  they  estab- 
lished themselves  in  their  territory  during  the  first  half 
of  the  twelfth  century ;  and  the  Nosayriyeh  faith  at  the 
present  time  is,  therefore,  a  blend  of  the  paganism  of 
Aradus  with  the  Shiah  heresy  of  the  Isma'iliyeh. 

It  would  be  too  long  a  task  to  describe  this  blend  in 
detail.     Briefly,  the  Nosayriyeh  have  derived  from  the 

1  Histoire  et  Religion  des  Nosairh,  Paris,  1900. 
-Hist.  Nat.,  v.,  81. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    209 

Isma'iliyeh,  like  the  Druses,  the  important  distinction 
between   initiated   and   uninitiated.     The  bulk   of  the 
people  are  of  the  latter  class,  and  only  to  the  select  few 
is  the  full  knowledge  vouchsafed.     To  the  category  of 
the  uninitiated  also  belong  all  women,  but  the  Nosayriyeh 
dissent  from  the  Druse  theory  that  the  souls  of  women 
perish  with  their  bodies  ;  their  belief  in  the  metempsy- 
chosis of  the  male  soul  is  of  very  ancient  origin.     They 
have,  however,  reduced  to  three  the  nine  degrees  of  the 
Isma'iliyeh  initiation,  although  adding  a  wealth  of  ritual 
entirely  unknown  to  the  latter,  which  comprises,  among 
other  things,  the  ceremonial  drinking  of  wine.     This 
practice,  which  occurs  at  the  third  and  last  degree,  has 
given  rise  to  a  belief  that  they  celebrate  a  form  of  com- 
munion.    The   neophyte,  who    must   be   the   child   of 
Nosayriyeh    parents,    is    prepared    and    presented    for 
initiation  by  a  sponsor,  who  may  not  be  his  father  or 
any  near  relative.     The  initiate   is   regarded   as   being 
born   anew,^  and   the  sponsorship  establishes   between 
him  and  his  sponsor  a  very  close  spiritual  relationship; 
the  bond  is  so  strong  that  he  is  precluded  from  wedding 
the  latter's  daughters,  now  become  in  the  spiritual  sense 
his  sisters.2 

Needless  to  say,  the  name  of  'Ali  figures  very  pro- 
minently in  the  part  of  the  Nosayriyeh  religion  derived 
from  the  Assassins.  It  is  a  fairly  safe  rule  to  measure 
the  unorthodoxy  of  a  Moslem  sect  by  the  extent  to 
which  it  exalts  'Ali ;  and  among  the  Nosayriyeh  he  is 
not  only  regarded  as  being  greater  than  Mohammed,  he 

iThe  same  fiction  is  maintained  with  regard  to  the  initiates  in 
the  West  African  Porro  Bush. 

2  C/  the  law  of  the  Orthodox  Church  which  prohibits  marriage 
between  any  person  and  the  child  of  his  or  her  god-parent. 

O 


210  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

is  actually  confounded  with  the  very  God-head  itself. 
But  no  Nosayriyeh  knows  who  'All  really  was.  To  them 
he  is  nothing  more  than  a  word,  a  symbol ;  and,  indeed, 
it  has  often  been  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate  fourth 
Khalif  to  be  but  the  new  name  under  which  superficially 
converted  Mohammedans  have  continued  to  worship 
their  ancient  deities.^  It  is  now  time,  however,  to  say 
something  of  the  Assassins,  whose  chief  town,  Masyad, 
we  reached  in  three  hours  from  Barin ;  and  in  order  to 
make  their  origin  clear,  it  will  be  necessary  to  continue 
from  a  previous  chapter  the  history  of  the  Mohammedan 
schism. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the  Omayyad 
Mu'dwiya  established  the  Suni  Khalifate  at  Damascus, 
the  Persians,  rejecting  both  his  religious  and  his  political 
authority,  founded  the  Shiah  branch  of  the  Moslem  faith, 
which  glorified  the  name  and  family  of 'Ali.  The  duration 
of  the  Omayyad  Khalifate  was  brief.  After  89  years  of 
existence  it  was  overthrown  by  the  'Abbasids,  descend- 
ants of  'Abbas,  the  Prophet's  paternal  uncle,  who  estab- 
lished their  capital  at  Baghdad,  and  there  reigned  as 
Khalifs  from  750  until  1258.  In  that  year  Baghdad 
was  captured  by  the  Mongul  Hulagu,  and  with  its  fall 
the  eastern  Khalifate,  as  a  state,  expired.  A  scion  of  the 
'Abbasids  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  to  Egypt, 
where  he  was  proclaimed  Khalif  by  Sultan  Baibars  under 
the  name  of  Hakim  bi-amri'llah  ;-  but  the  Khalifate 
which  he  and  his  descendants  henceforth  enjoyed  in 
Cairo  as  long  as  Egypt  remained  independent,  was  a 

^  Cf.  Goldziher,  Muhammedanische  ^tudien. 

2  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  Fatimite  Khalif  of  the  same  name 
who  built  the  dome  of  the  Qubbet  es-Sakhra  and  founded  the  religion 
of  the  Druses. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    211 

spiritual  dignity  only.  It  was  a  Moslem  Papacy  bereft 
of  its  Temporal  Power,  and  existed  by  and  under  the 
protection  of  Moslem  Kings.  Nevertheless,  the  title  of 
Khalif  ensured  to  its  bearers  the  deep  respect  of  all 
Sunis ;  and  when  the  Turkish  Sultan  Selim  I.  took 
Cairo  in  1517  and  incorporated  Egypt  in  his  dominions, 
he  regarded  it  as  of  such  value  that  he  acquired  its 
reversion  from  the  last  'Abbasid  Khalif,  Motawakkil. 
Since  then  the  Khalifate  has  remained  an  appanage  of 
the  Ottoman  Sultans;  and,  as  being  borne  by  the  rulers 
of  the  principal  Mohammedan  state,  has  recovered  very 
largely  its  original  significance.  'Abdu'l  Hamid  in  par- 
ticular owed  much  of  his  influence  to  its  judicious 
exploitation ;  and  although  the  claims  of  the  House  of 
'Othman  to  it  are  not  flawless,  being  rejected,  for 
example,  by  the  Moors,  they  are  fully  accepted  by  the 
vast  majority  of  Sunis. 

Meanwhile  the  Shiahs,  who  use  the  term  Imam  in 
preference  to  that  of  Khalif,  remained  constant  to  the 
family  of  'Ali ;  and  were  divided  among  themselves 
chiefly  on  the  question  as  to  which  particular  branch  of 
his  descendants  had  inherited  the  dignity.  Their  main 
body,  the  Imamiyeh,  whom  we  may  regard  as  the  expo- 
nents of  Shiah  orthodoxy,  believe  in  a  succession  of  twelve 
Imams,  who  are  'Ali,  Hasan,  Husein,  and  Husein's 
direct  descendants  from  father  to  son,  ending  with 
Mohammed  'Abu'l  Qasim.  The  latter  is  called  the 
Imam  al-Mahdi,  and  is  believed  to  be  not  dead,  but 
only  withdrawn  from  the  world ;  he  will  reappear  in 
the  last  days  to  reign  over  it  for  seven  years  with 
equity  and  justice,  assuming  the  title  of  Mahdi  or 
'  Director.'  In  the  course  of  time  not  a  few  pretenders 
have  appeared,  claiming  to  be  the  Mahdi.     The  best 


212  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

known  to  Englishmen,  and  perhaps  the  most  successful, 
was  the  Mahdi  Mohammed  Ahmed  of  Dongola,  under 
whose  tyranny  and  that  of  his  successor  the  Sudan  was 
for  so  long  the  scene  of  bloodshed  and  desolation.  Of 
another,  Baha'u'llah,  and  of  the  remarkable  influence 
exercised  by  his  teachings,  something  will  be  said  later. 
The  Shiah  heresies,  however,  do  not  recognize  all  of  the 
twelve  Imams  ;  and  their  most  powerful  sect,  that  of 
the  Isma'iliyeh,  breaks  away  from  the  orthodox  after 
the  death  of  Ja'far  as-Sadiq,  the  sixth,  Ja'far  had  dis- 
inherited his  eldest  son  Isma'il  in  favour  of  the  next 
son  Musa  for  being  seen  in  a  state  of  drunkenness;  and 
while  the  Imamiyeh  accepted  Musa  as  seventh  Imam, 
a  number  of  dissidents,  mystics,  and  others,  adhered  to 
Isma'il,  arguing  that  his  intoxication  showed  that  he 
attached  greater  weight  to  the  hidden  precepts  of  Islam 
than  to  the  observance  of  its  outward  formalities  ! 

The  Isma'iliyeh  emerged  into  prominence  outside 
their  native  Persia  in  the  tenth  century,  when  one  of 
their  number  founded  the  Fatimite  dynasty  in  North 
Africa.  Their  influence  was  increased  by  the  arrival  at 
the  Cairene  court  of  'Omar  Khayyam's  schoolfellow  of 
Naishapur,  the  Dai  Hasan  ben  Sabbah.  This  remark- 
able man  soon  gained  great  ascendancy  over  the  Fati- 
mite Khalif  Mostansir,  but  was  eventually  compelled  to 
leave  Egypt  by  his  enemies.  He  then  established  him- 
self after  many  adventures  in  the  mountain  fastness  of 
Alamut,  south  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  where  he  organized 
his  followers  into  the  secret  society  of  the  Assassins. 
The  religious  principles  of  the  Assassins  differed  in  no 
wise  from  those  of  their  parent  society,  the  Isma'iliyeh. 
As  with  these,  a  rigid  observance  of  Islam  was  enforced, 
for  the  sake  of  discipline,  on   the   masses  ;    while  the 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE   NOSAYRIYEH    213 

initiated,  the  ruling  caste,  were  secretly  scoffers,  cynics, 
unbelievers,  ignoring  and  rejecting  every  moral  and 
religious  law.  At  the  head  of  their  organization  stood 
the  ruler,  the  Sheikh  al-Jebal^  the  Chief  or  '  Old  Man  * 
of  the  Mountains ;  next  under  him  were  three  grand 
priors,  Dai  al-Kirbal,  who  ruled  the  three  provinces  of 
the  Assassins.  Next  came  the  Dais  or  priors,  who  were 
fully  initiated ;  the  Refiqs^  who  were  in  process  of  initia- 
tion ;  and  then  the  Fedais,  that  is  to  say,  the  '  devoted 
ones,'  young  men  employed  to  carry  out  the  secret 
murders  whereby  the  chiefs  of  the  Assassins  rid  them- 
selves of  their  enemies,  and  perpetuated  in  half  the 
languages  of  Europe  the  sinister  associations  of  their 
name.  The  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  Fedais  was 
their  unquestioning  obedience.  When  about  to  be 
employed,  they  were  intoxicated  with  an  opiate  of  hemp 
leaves,  hashish  (hence  the  word  Assassin),  and  in  the 
blissful  condition  induced  by  the  drug  were  conducted 
into  the  Sheikh's  gardens.  Here,  where  every  worldly 
delight  was  at  hand,  they  were  granted  that  foretaste  of 
Paradise  which  made  them  blind  tools  of  their  ruler's 
will;  and  the  conviction  that,  should  they  lose  their 
lives  in  the  execution  of  their  mission,  those  joys  would 
be  renewed  to  them  in  the  next  world  gave  them  an 
indifference  to  death  by  which  they  carried  out  murders 
of  the  most  fantastic  audacity.^  In  the  twelfth  century 
a  Syrian  branch  of  the  Assassins  was  established  in  the 
Nosayriyeh  Mountains;  and  from  their  two  walled 
towns,  Masyad  and  Qadmus,  the  Fedais  glided  forth 
into  the  camps  of  both  Moslems  and  Crusaders.  After 
a  while  the  activities  of  the  Assassins  assumed  a  more 
vulgar  tinge.  They  no  longer  confined  themselves  to 
1  Cf.  Marco  Polo,  Bk.  I.,  ch.  xxii. 


214  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

despatching  their  own  enemies ;  they  undertook,  for  a 
consideration,  commissions  from  outside,  and  in  addition 
to  being  a  religious  sect  became  an  organization  of  hired 
murderers.  By  this  time  the  Syrian  Assassins  had  be- 
come independent  of  those  in  Persia;  but  the  thirteenth 
century  saw  the  end  of  both.  Hulagu  in  the  East, 
Baibars  in  the  West,  extinguished  their  nefarious  prin- 
cipalities ;  and  the  survivors  were  merged  in  the  main 
body  of  the  Isma'iliyeh.  In  Syria,  however,  they  have 
never  ceased  to  inhabit  their  former  haunts.  It  is  true 
that  in  1809  ^^^  Nosayriyeh,  who  have  always  hated 
them  although  they  have  in  part  adopted  their  religion, 
captured  Masyad  by  treachery ;  they  were  soon  driven 
out  of  it  by  the  Mutesarrif  of  Hama,  yet  not  without  a 
booty  of  one  million  piastres.^  Since  then,  the  Assassins 
have  sunk  into  almost  complete  oblivion.  They  are  few, 
they  are  poor,  they  are  disliked  by  the  Government; 
and  the  Qaimaqam  of  Masyad,  a  Syrian,  explained  to  us 
his  views  about  them  on  the  afternoon  of  our  arrival. 

"  When  first  I  came  to  Masyad,"  he  related,  "  I 
summoned  their  Sheikhs.  I  said  to  them  :  '  The  Mos- 
lems have  mosques,  and  a  muezzin  to  call  them  to 
prayers,  the  Christians  have  churches  and  bells.  But 
what  have  ye  for  a  place  of  worship  .?'  And  they  could 
not  answer  me.  So  I  said  :  '  It  is  a  bad  thing  for  men 
to  hide  their  religion,  and  ye  cannot  be  good  people.' 
And  as  they  still  answered  nothing,  I  had  them  arrested  ; 
and  the  Mutesarrif  has  granted  my  request  that  they 
should  be  sent  away." 

It  did  not  require  the  Qaimaqam's  deprecating  smile, 
when  he  said  "  as  they  still  answered  nothing,"  to  make 
quite  clear  that  the  answer  he  had  expected  was  the  oiling 
^  Von  Hammer,  Geschichte  der  Jssassinen,  Stuttgart,  1818. 


THE  MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  NOSAYRIYEH    215 

of  his  palm.  The  Assassins  have  not  forgotten  their 
origin  ;  poor  as  they  are,  they  yearly  send  one-fifth  of 
their  scanty  revenues  to  the  Aga  Khan  ^  in  India,  the 
head  of  all  the  Isma'iliyeh.  Such  waste  of  good  material 
must  be  truly  galling  to  the  underpaid  Turkish  official, 
and  one  quite  understands  his  objection  to  a  tribute 
which,  as  he  maintains  with  simple  casuistry,  argues  dis- 
loyalty to  the  Sultan.  So  the  position  of  the  Assassins 
in  these  days  is  not  an  enviable  one.  Their  appearance, 
certainly,  was  cowed  and  wretched,  although  this  may 
have  been  due  to  the  rain,  which  never  ceased  while  we 
were  at  Masyad  ;  and  their  houses  were  mean  and 
crumbling.  But  the  walls  of  Masyad,  albeit  thin,  are 
intact ;  and  the  great  castle  on  the  eastern  side  is  still 
inhabited  by  four  or  five  families.  It  contains  some 
Byzantine  capitals,  also  some  Kufic  inscriptions  ;  and 
here  the  attractions  of  this  ancient  fortress  end. 

We  now  left  the  Nosayriyeh  Mountains,  and,  turning 
eastward  along  their  outlying  spurs,  dropped  gently 
into  the  plain.  Everything  was  green  from  the  recent 
rains  ;  and  where  the  soil  of  the  plain  covered  the  last 
rocks  of  the  hills  was  spread  a  rich  feast  of  wild  flowers, 
cyclamen,  tulips,  anemones,  and  black  arums.  One 
night  we  spent  at  the  village  of  Rabo,  a  cold,  wet, 
uncomfortable  night  ;  and  for  one  more  day  we  rode 
across  the  plain.  At  the  end  of  that  day  the  Orontes 
announced  that  we  had  reached  our  destination,  and  we 
pitched  our  tents  by  a  burial  ground  outside  the  town 
of  Hama. 

^  The  Aga  Khan  is  the  descendant  of  the  Imam  Isma'il.  His 
family  dwelt  in  Persia  until  1838,  when  his  grandfather,  the  Aga 
Khan  Mahallati,  having  risen  unsuccessfully  against  Fath  'Alt  Shah's 
Grand  Vizier,  was  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  India. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  NORTH   ROAD.     II. 

You  see  nothing  of  Hama  until  you  are  close  upon  it, 
for  the  reason  that  it  is  concealed  in  a  declivity  made 
by  the  beds  of  the  Orontes,  the  new  and  the  old.  Part 
of  the  town  lies  along  the  former,  part  in  the  latter  ; 
and  the  whole  completely  encircles,  as  with  a  moat,  the 
tell  which  rises  in  the  middle. 

The  usual  Arabic  name  for  the  river  Orontes  is  Al- 
'Urunt.  In  Hama,  however,  and  its  neighbourhood  it 
is  called  El-'Asi,  the  Rebel  ;  and  three  reasons  are  given 
why  this  invidious  designation  has  been  bestowed  upon 
it.  The  first  is  that,  unlike  most  rivers  of  Syria,  it 
flows  from  the  south  to  the  north  ;  the  second,  that  in 
so  doing,  it  abandoned  the  lands  of  Islam  for  those  of 
Antioch,  in  the  old  time  the  country  of  the  Infidels,  the 
Greeks  ;  the  third,  that  it  refuses  to  do  as  other  rivers 
and  freely  water  the  meadows  on  its  borders,  but  insists 
on  being  raised  by  water-wheels  before  it  will  consent  to 
irrigate  the  fields. 

If  the  latter  is  the  true  cause,  then  Hama  owes  much 
to  its  river's  rebelliousness.  For  the  water-wheels,  the 
nauras,  are  to  Hama  what  her  canals  are  to  Venice,  or 
its  towers  to  San  Gimignano  ;  and  to  few  places  is  it 
given  to  possess  so  charming  a  distinguishing  feature^ 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  217 

By  day  and  by  night  the  town  is  pervaded  by  the 
presence  of  the  naura.  All  along  the  curving  river  side 
you  see  these  high,  narrow,  graceful  wheels,  which 
attain,  sometimes,  a  diameter  of  as  much  as  sixty  feet, 
slowly  lifting  the  river  water  in  their  buckets  and  pour- 
ing it  into  lofty  aqueducts  ;  and  where  you  cannot  see 
them,  you  hear  the  beautiful  noises  which  they  make  as 
they  revolve.  From  the  bridge  by  the  serai  no  less  than 
five  are  visible  ;  and  when,  after  dark,  the  citizens  have 
returned  to  their  houses  and  are  preparing  for  sleep, 
they  are  lulled,  in  whatever  part  of  Hama  they  may  be, 
by  the  lovely  discords  of  their  drone.  Each  naura  has 
its  name  :  there  is  the  Hamidiyeh,  the  Derwishiyeh,  the 
Jisriyeh,  and  so  forth  ;  and  each,  as  it  creaks  lazily  on 
its  axis,  sings  its  own  particular  song.  Their  music  is 
mournful  and  deep,  deep  as  the  organ  tones  of  a  64-foot 
pipe,  mournful  as  the  wailing  of  the  double-bass  ;  and 
although  they  blend  wonderfully  well,  the  ear  can  pick 
out,  after  a  little  practice,  the  different  parts  of  the  great 
choir's  everlasting  chant.  This  is  the  tune  of  the  Jisriyeh 
wheel,  the  one  by  the  serai  bridge  : 

lento. 


m^ 


Ped.     '^' *  Fed.      '^' 


0»' 


and  this  the  reiterated  groan  of  another,  easily  distin- 
guishable in  the  general  melee  of  sound  by  its  persistent 
and  plaintive  melody  : 

lenio. 


|y_zrg=lEEEgE^=p 


Ped.  Ped. 


Now    booming,    now    moaning,    now    pleading,    now 
despondent,  as  though  they  know  well  that  theirs  is  the 


218  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

labour  of  Sisyphus,  the  nauras  accomplish  their  never- 
ending  circuits,  delightful  to  eye  and  ear.  Long  after  I 
had  left  Hama,  there  came  back  to  me  at  times,  while  at 
others  I  undoubtedly  missed,  their  curiously  haunting, 
curiously  soothing,  curiously  sad  refrain,  imprisoned 
beneath  no  other  roof  than  '  that  inverted  Bowl  we  call 
the  Sky,'  and  marred  by  none  of  the  imperfections 
which  the  best  of  human  performers  are  not  always  able 
to  avoid. 

But  Hama,  even  without  its  nauras,  would  be  an  attrac- 
tive town.  While  Homs  is  built  of  unrelieved  black, 
Hama  goes  one  better  ;  black  and  white  are  its  colours, 
basalt  and  limestone  its  materials.  Either  they  lie  in 
alternate  layers,  as  in  Siena  and  Orvieto,  or  else  the 
black  picks  out  patterns  on  the  white,  like  no  other 
place  that  I  have  seen.  Not  only  dwelling-houses,  but 
square  towers  and  round  minarets,  of  which  there  are  in 
plenty,  do  honour  to  the  treatment,  which  is  seen  at  its 
best,  perhaps,  in  the  Great  Mosque.  Golden  limestone 
and  dull  volcanic  black,  alternating  effectively  in  the 
paving  of  the  court  and  in  the  tower,  throw  into  greater 
relief  the  dazzling  whitewash  of  the  mosque  itself  and 
the  age-worn  grey  of  the  beautiful  ^«i'/^^/ outside  it.  In 
the  mosque  and  its  accessories  are  many  traces  of  their 
Byzantine  origin.  The  large  wooden  minbar,  or  pulpit, 
is  supported  on  Byzantine  columns  ;  other  columns  and 
capitals  are  embedded  in  the  walls  ;  others  stand  at 
random  by  the  fountain  of  the  court  ;  on  the  most 
delicate  of  all  is  borne  the  qubhet.  With  a  foreground 
such  as  the  court  affords,  and  the  five-domed  mosque  in 
the  background,  you  have  as  pretty  a  sight  as  you  could 
wish  to  see.  But  if  you  care  to  cross  the  Orontes  to  the 
Derwishiyeh  quarter,  the  quarter  of  the  dervishes,  you 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  219 

may  see  yet  a  prettier  one.  On  a  slight  eminence  above 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  facing  the  /^//now  bare  of  all 
traces  of  its  castle,  is  a  plain  little  mosque,  unadorned 
within  save  by  a  stone  dado  round  three  sides  of  the 
wall,  engraved  with  texts  from  the  Qoran.  The  fourth 
side  is  latticed  and  open  to  the  river  ;  and  in  the  middle, 
dividing  the  lattice,  is  the  pillar  which  gives  to  the  place 
its  name  of  the  Serpent  Mosque.  This  pillar  is  com- 
posed of  four  smaller  pillars,  each  of  which,  again,  is 
subdivided  into  four  double  strands,  intertwined  and 
interlacing,  and  more  bewildering  in  their  spirals  than 
the  snakes  of  Medusa's  head.  In  the  courtyard,  by 
the  small  and  crumbling  minaret,  is  the  tomb  of  the 
geographer-prince,  'Abu'l  Fida,  who  reigned  in  Hama,  as 
El-Melek  el-Muayyad,  from  1 310  to  1 331,  and  gave  to 
his  city,  before  it  relapsed  into  a  placid  provincialism 
from  which  it  has  never  issued  since,  one  last  epoch  of 
distinction.  And  below,  the  Orontes  flows  swiftly  by, 
growing  wider  as  it  approaches  the  centre  of  the  town  ; 
but  crossed  on  the  left,  where  it  is  still  narrow,  by  a 
quaint  old  bridge  crowded  with  tumbling  little  booths 
and  houses,  for  all  the  world  like  the  Ponte  Vecchio  of 
an  oriental  Florence. 

Having  alluded  to  a  dervish  quarter,  and  to  a 
dervish's  costume,  I  feel  that  I  may  well  be  asked  to 
give  some  definition  of  what  a  dervish  is.  To  begin 
with,  the  term  is  used  in  more  than  one  connexion  ;  and 
it  is  desirable  to  remember  that  it  has  not  everywhere 
the  same  significance.  We  know  the  dervish  as  the 
'  fuzzy-wuzzy  '  of  the  Sudan  ;  we  know  him  also  as  the 
follower  of  the  Mollah  unjustly  designated  Mad.  Again, 
to  those  acquainted  with  the  immortal  Hajji  Baba,  he  is 
the  plausible  vagabond,  cynical  and  lazy,  who  lives  by 


220  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

imposing  on  the  credulity  of  the  foolish.  But  the 
dervish  in  his  usual  guise,  that  is  to  say,  as  a  member  of 
one  of  the  religious  confraternities  of  Islam,  is  neither 
a  fanatically  inspired  warrior  nor  a  sturdy  beggar.  The 
dervishes  represent  the  element  in  Mohammedanism, 
by  no  means  negligible,  which  seeks  a  wider  sphere  for 
its  emotions  than  that  generally  afforded  within  the 
confines  of  rigid  orthodoxy.  An  intellectual  mysticism 
describes  the  religious  attitude  of  the  more  speculative 
among  them,  a  wide  tolerance  their  attitude  towards 
people  and  life  in  general.  They  are,  however,  best 
known,  at  all  events  to  foreigners,  on  account  of  certain 
spiritual  exercises  whereby  they  produce  a  condition  of 
ecstasy  designed  to  withdraw  their  minds  from  earthly 
things  and  bring  them  into  closer  communion  with  the 
Divine.  In  the  Mevlevi  sect,  whirling,  in  the  Rufa'i 
and  Naqshibendi,  the  prolonged  repetition  of  a  religious 
formula,  is  the  means  employed  for  the  purpose ;  and 
the  popularity  of  these  Orders,  vulgarly  known  to 
Europeans  as  Dancing  and  Howling  Dervishes,  is  wide- 
spread among  the  people.  Their  lay  brethren  are  found 
in  almost  every  walk  of  life  ;  and  in  a  small  town  I  know 
of,  a  khoja,  a  qavass,  a  muezzin,  a  coppersmith,  and  a 
butcher  regularly  participate,  among  others,  in  their 
seances.  I  confess  that  I  have  avoided  their  ceremonies 
in  Constantinople  and  other  great  cities,  where  they  are 
said  to  degenerate  into  shows  provided  for  the  curious ; 
but  I  have  witnessed  them  in  smaller  towns,  where 
their  solemnity  as  acts  of  devotion  is  convincing  and 
impressive. 

A  tekye  of  Mevlevi  dervishes  generally  contains  a 
mosque  for  the  performance  of  the  ordinary  namaz  (the 
five  daily  prayers  obligatory  on   all   Moslems),  and  a 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  221 

sema-khane,  or  dancing  room,  where  the  ritual  peculiar 
to  the  Order  is  performed.  At  one  end  ot  the  sema- 
khane  is  a  minstrels'  gallery ;  and  somewhere  about  the 
premises  will  probably  be  found,  painted  on  glass,  the 
representation  of  a  large  dervish  cap  bound  with  a  green 
turban,  and  a  conventionalized  picture  of  the  tomb  of  the 
founder  of  the  Order.  This  was  the  Sheikh  Jelalu'd-Din, 
often  called  Mevlana,  '  Our  Lord,'  who  instituted  the 
sect  in  the  thirteenth  centurv  at  Konia  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  embodied  his  teaching  in  a  mystical  poem  known  as 
the  Mesnevi.  The  headquarters  of  the  Order  are  still 
at  Konia,  and  to  the  founder's  hereditary  successors, 
who  bear  the  title  of  Chelebi  of  Konia,  falls  the  honour 
of  girding  each  Sultan  of  Turkey,  on  his  accession,  with 
the  historic  sword  of  'Osman.  At  the  opening  of  the 
ceremonv  of  dancino-  the  dervishes  are  seated  in  a 
semi-circle  on  the  floor,  their  Sheikh  in  the  middle. 
Somebody  up  in  the  minstrels'  gallery  commences  to 
intone  passages  from  the  Mesnevi  in  the  original 
Persian  ;  and  presently  the  Sheikh  gives  the  signal  for 
dancing  to  begin.  Two  or  three  musicians  in  the 
gallery  play  plaintive  melodies  on  reed  pipes,  another 
accompanies  on  a  tomtom.  The  dervishes  rise  and 
defile  past  the  Sheikh  in  order  of  seniority,  kissing  the 
hem  of  his  sleeve  in  passing.  They  wear  the  high 
dervish  cap  of  camel  hair,  a  zouave  jacket,  and  a  long 
skirt  pleated  like  that  of  a  ballerina ;  their  feet  are  bare. 
Once  more  they  gravely  perambulate  the  room  ;  and 
each  dervish,  as  he  goes  by  the  Sheikh,  turns  and  bows 
to  the  man  behind  him.  Then,  with  arms  extended, 
for  balance,  and  with  the  right  palm  turned  up,  the  left 
turned  down,  they  proceed  very  slowly  to  rotate  .as  far 
as  possible  on  the  same  spot.     The  pleats  of  their  skirts 


222  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

open  with  the  motion,  and  the  room  seems  to  be  filled 
with  revolving  peg-tops.  As  the  exercise  continues, 
the  look  of  abstraction  on  the  faces  of  the  performers 
becomes  more  and  more  marked ;  while  to  the  imagina- 
tive onlooker,  affected  by  the  weird,  unearthly  music, 
the  singular  and  mysterious  spectacle  seems  as  a  vision 
from  another  world.  From  time  to  time,  to  prevent 
exhaustion,  there  is  a  brief  interval,  at  the  end  of  which 
the  Sheikh  bows  to  the  musicians'  gallery  and  gives 
the  signal  to  resume.  Should  the  occasion  be  one  of 
sufficient  importance  for  the  Sheikh  himself  to  take 
part,  the  musicians  strike  up  a  tune  only  played  when 
he  dances.  With  grave  dignity  he  comes  forward  into 
the  middle  of  the  floor,  and  becomes,  as  it  were,  the 
pivot  around  which  the  others  gyrate. 

When  all  is  over,  attendants  hasten  to  throw  cloaks 
over  the  dancers,  who  by  this  time  are  bathed  in  perspira- 
tion. For  a  few  moments  they  still  appear  as  in  a  trance, 
then  slowly  come  back  to  earth.  Again  they  defile 
past  the  Sheikh  and  kiss  his  hand,  which  he  raises  to  his 
lips ;  and,  in  returning  to  their  places  for  the  prayers 
whereby  the  service  is  concluded,  embrace  one  another 
in  token  of  the  brotherhood  which  unites  them  within 
the  Order. 

When  journeying  in  Turkey  by  caravan,  it  is  necessary, 
from  time  to  time,  to  give  camp  servants,  grooms,  and 
mukaris  a  day  of  thorough  rest;  and  it  is  desirable,  at 
rarer  intervals,  to  fortify  them  against  fatigues  to  come 
by  judicious  presents  of  sheep.  This  practice  should  be 
avoided,  however,  if  on  the  following  day  it  is  proposed 
to  travel ;  as  the  orgy  which  a  gift  of  this  kind  entails 
is  apt  to  produce,  for  at  least  twenty-four  hours  after,  a 
condition  not  far  removed  from  coma.     But  as  we  were 


THE   NORTH  ROAD.    II.  223 

'  sitting  down  '  in  Hama  for  three  days,  the  opportunity, 
we  were  reminded,  was  too  good  to  be  lost;  and  a 
couple  of  sheep  with  monstrous  fat  tails,  the  usual 
Syrian  breed,  were  duly  produced  to  an  expectant  but 
none  the  less  thankful  retinue.  I  may  mention,  paren- 
thetically, that  the  fat  of  the  tail,  insurmountably 
nauseous  to  the  majority  of  strangers,  is  to  the  people 
of  these  regions  both  a  delicacy  and  a  necessary  of  life, 
the  common  medium  of  cookery,  and  a  substitute  for 
butter,  suet,  and  oil.  The  ingratiating  Georgie  having 
been  deputed  to  borrow  the  biggest  copper  cauldron  to 
be  found  in  Hama,  and  returning  successful,  he  and  his 
companions,  after  garnishing  the  animals  with  rice  and 
leben^  and  lubricating  them  with  the  fat  of  the  tails, 
proceeded  to  boil  them  therein  whole,  and  then  invited  us 
to  watch  them  eat.  This,  although  hardly  a  pretty  sight, 
was  one  full  of  interest,  as  showing  how  widely  the  diges- 
tions of  Syrians  must  differ  from  those  of  Europeans: 
silent  and  intent,  they  sat  round  the  cauldron,  tearing 
pieces  of  meat  from  the  bone,  mixing  them  with  rice 
and  leben^  consolidating  them  by  means  of  the  fat  into 
balls  or  dumplings  of  terrifying  size,  and  then,  ap- 
parently, gulping  them  down  whole.  Had  their  necks 
been  longer,  one  would  have  seen  an  effect  similar  to 
that  produced  by  an  ostrich  swallowing  oranges.  As, 
under  these  circumstances,  mastication  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  it  follows  that  the  flavour  of  the  bolus  is  a 
very  secondary  consideration ;  and,  in  point  of  fact, 
they  derive  their  principal  enjoyment,  not  from  the 
taste  of  the  dish,  but  from  io-^Xxw^  their  distended 
stomachs  press  against  the  surrounding  organs.  Nor 
do  they  love  to  linger  over  their  food.  The  instant  the 
last  pill  has  been  inserted,  they  get  up  abruptly,  leave 


224  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

the  scene  of  the  banquet  for  the  shade  of  some  neighbour- 
ing tree,  and  straightway  plunge  into  slumber  which  can 
only  be  described  as  hoggish. 

When  our  men  had  thoroughly  recovered,  we  set 
forth  once  more,  now  bound  for  the  city  of  Haleb, 
better  known  in  the  West  by  its  pretty  Italian  name 
Aleppo,  a  name  which  recalls  the  bygone  era  when 
Genoese  and  Venetian  commerce  held  first  place  in  the 
eastern  basin  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  spacious  days 
of  Bassaws  and  Levant  Companies,  of  Beglerbegs  and 
the  Grand  Signor.  From  Hama  to  Aleppo  there  are 
two  ways:  one,  going  almost  due  north,  which  roughly 
follows,  though  it  never  meets,  the  line  of  the  railway ; 
and  the  other,  longer  and  more  interesting,  which  breaks 
off  to  the  west,  and,  in  passing  Mudik  and  El-Bara, 
traverses  the  curious  district  of  the  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh, 
where  the  traveller  from  the  south  meets  for  the  first 
time  the  well-preserved  remains  of  an  interesting  and 
obscure  period.  In  this  period,  from  the  fourth  to  the 
eighth  century  a.d.,  the  domains  of  the  former  Seleucid 
kingdom  of  Antioch  were  sown  with  ecclesiastical  and 
domestic  buildings,  executed  in  the  hard,  grey  stone  of 
the  country  by  architects  who  blended  with  the  traditions 
of  their  not  yet  forgotten  classical  art  the  new  symbolism 
of  Christianity.  Later  on,  we  were  to  meet  many 
examples  of  the  activity  of  this  age,  but  for  the  time 
being  deemed  it  better  to  choose  the  shorter  route, 
itself  by  no  means  lacking  in  interest,  although  for  three 
days  it  led  us  across  the  flattest  regions  of  the  great 
plain.  For  the  absence  of  natural  features  was  counter- 
balanced by  subterranean  excavations  so  numerous  that 
the  ground  continually  gave  out  hollow  sounds  as  we 
rode   over   it.     The    loamy,   highly  cultivated    surface 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  225 

seemed  to  be  no  more  than  a  crust  covering  an  endless 
succession  of  underground  chambers ;  and  we  thought 
at  times,  so  resonant  was  the  clang  of  the  horses'  hoofs 
against  it,  that  it  would  prove  all  too  thin  for  its  burden. 
There  were  tombs,  there  were  cisterns  whose  apertures 
had  very  carefully  to  be  avoided,  and,  most  numerous 
of  all,  there  were  corn-holes,  that  is  to  say,  bell-shaped, 
underground  granaries,  in  which  the  villagers  are  wont 
to  store  their  grain.    Their  small,  round  mouths,  slightly 
raised  above  the  level  of  the  plain  so  as  to  throw  off  the 
rain  water,  are  veritable  traps  for  the  unwary.     And  the 
habitations  of  the  people  here  assume  an  unaccustomed 
form.     Instead  of  the  flat-roofed  houses  of  stone,  their 
clusters  separated   by    narrow,  winding   streets,  one  is 
surprised  to  find  kraals  of  conical  mud-huts,  tapering 
to    a    point,    and    standing    apart    from    one    another, 
even  when  two  or  three  are  enclosed  within  a  single 
compound. 

In  one  of  these  villages,  Et-Tayyibeh,  we  took 
refuge,  an  hour  after  riding  out  of  Hama,  from  a 
downpour  of  rain,  heavy  as  only  Scotland  and  Syria 
can  produce;  and,  huddling  round  a  fire  which  was 
promptly  kindled  in  the  guest-house,  awaited  the  abate- 
ment of  the  storm.  Although  the  village  was  utterly 
poor — a  condition  due,  possibly,  to  the  tax-farmer  or  to 
the  thievish  Nosayriyeh,  certainly  not  to  the  soil — its 
inhabitants  did  not  forget  that  they  were  Arabs  and 
our  hosts ;  and  were  making  to  kill  a  sheep,  no  com- 
monplace, I  am  sure,  but  one,  very  likely,  which  had 
been  kept  carefully  against  some  high  feast-day,  when 
we  became  aware  of  their  intentions  and  averted  the 
sacrifice,  without,  I  trust,  wounding  their  feelings. 
Undoubtedly,  it  is  as  hosts  that  the  Arabs  are  seen  at 


p 


226  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

their  best:  few  peoples  have  so  high  and  so  disin- 
terested a  conception  of  the  obligations  of  hospitality, 
few  will  make  the  same  sacrifices  to  carry  them  out. 
It  is,  therefore,  the  more  surprising  that  they  should 
combine  with  this  quality  others  which  one  would 
suppose  it  would  necessarily  exclude.  In  every  village 
of  the  Hauran,  for  example,  the  traveller  is  entertained 
for  three  and  a  half  days,  during  which  he  is  lodged 
and  fed  at  the  expense  of  the  community,  without 
being  required  to  make  any  return ;  yet  these  very 
people  frequently  show  themselves  to  be  cruel,  revenge- 
ful, greedy,  treacherous,  and  breakers  of  their  word. 
On  the  one  hand  the  maxim  noblesse  oblige  is  followed  as 
it  rarely  is  elsewhere;  on  the  other,  its  relevance  is 
entirely  ignored.  Perhaps  the  same  anomaly  would  be 
found  in  the  West  to-day,  had  not  a  spirit  arising  from 
the  Crusading  era,  a  spirit  manifested  in  the  respect 
paid  to  women  and  in  the  growth  of  the  Orders  of 
Knighthood,  imposed  on  public  opinion,  with  a  force 
which  could  not  be  gainsaid,  the  two  conceptions, 
Chivalry  and  Honour;  perhaps  the  coexistence  in  the 
Asiatic  of  such  diverse  traits  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
points  of  difference  between  him  and  the  European. 
Whichever  is  the  case,  one  should  give  credit  for  the 
good,  and  discount  the  bad  ;  and  it  was  certainly  diffi- 
cult to  see  anything  but  good  in  the  pathetic  attempt 
of  the  poor  people  of  Et-Tayyibeh  to  follow  precepts 
which  were  dictated  by  no  expectation  of  advantage  to 
themselves. 

In  lieu  of  the  respited  sheep,  our  hosts  set  bowls  of 
milk  before  us,  while  one  of  the  younger  men  pounded 
coffee  in  a  wooden  mortar.  The  Arabs  drink  their 
coffee  unsweetened  and  mixed  with  cardamom ;  and  to 


THE   NORTH   ROAD.     II.  227 

those  accustomed  to  the  highly  sweetened  coffee  of  the 
towns  it  has  a  bitter  taste  until  they  have  learnt  to 
appreciate  its  exquisite  aroma.  And  as  the  tribes  of 
certain  parts  of  West  Africa  may  be  recognized  by  the 
beat  of  their  drums  as  they  paddle  their  canoes  down 
the  great  rivers  or  along  the  myriad  creeks  which  inter- 
sect the  steamy  mangrove  swamps,  so  may  each  Beduin 
clan  be  distinguished  by  the  particular  rhythm  with 
which,  in  pounding  the  coffee,  the  pestle  is  knocked 
against  the  sides  of  the  mortar. 

Presently  the  heavens  smiled  again,  and  we  passed 
on,  thankful  to  the  rain  for  having  thrown  us  among 
these  nice  people ;  and  soon  we  came  to  Murik,  another 
beehive  village,  lying  between  two  of  the  tulul'^  which 
here  alone  break  the  monotony  of  the  view.  As  we 
approached,  we  observed  that  an  important  ceremony 
was  in  progress.  The  villagers  were  welcoming  back 
one  of  their  number  who  had  returned  (many  do  not) 
from  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  and  we  overtook  the 
procession  just  as  it  was  nearing  the  outskirts  of  the 
village.  The  haji  was  surrounded  by  his  fellow-towns- 
men, who  had  ridden  forth  a  considerable  distance 
to  meet  him,  and  were  making  of  his  entry  into  his 
humble  native  place  a  veritable  Roman  triumphus.  The 
men  galloped  ahead,  racing  us  for  a  furlong  or  so  from 
sheer  light-heartedness,  then  turned  back  and  galloped 
forward  again;  while  the  children  appeared  to  be 
tumbling  about  under  the  very  feet  of  the  pilgrim's 
steed.  There  was  much  laughter,  much  shouting,  and 
much  singing  of  those  weird  Arab  melodies  which  seem 
to  have  no  beginning  and  no  end.  And  a  proud  man 
was  he  that  day  whose  house  was  first  reached  by  the 

1  Plural  of  tell 


228  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

haji ;  his  was  the  privilege,  which  many  would  covet,  of 
killing  a  sheep,  and  of  setting  it  before  the  traveller 
who  had  safely  accomplished,  to  his  own  renown  and  to 
the  edification  of  his  friends,  the  duty  of  every  good 
Moslem. 

We  camped  at  Khan  Sheikhun,  yet  another  beehive 
village  at  the  foot  of  another  flat-topped  tell\  and  at 
noon  of  the  following  day  reached  Ma'aret  en-No'man, 
where  two  fine,  but  now,  alas,  ruinous  khans  recall  that 
Midhat  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Sinan  Pasha,  whose 
end  indicates  that  the  energetic  and  reforming  Governor 
in  the  days  of  Sultan  Murad  HI.  was  regarded  with 
much  the  same  feelings  as  in  those  of  his  nineteenth 
century  successors.  But  Ma'aret  en-No'man  has  memo- 
ries more  tragic  than  this.  In  the  penultimate  year  of 
the  eleventh  century  it  was  invested  by  the  Crusaders, 
who  were  advancing  southward  after  the  capture  of 
Antioch.  For  a  long  time  Marra,  as  it  was  then  called 
by  the  Christians,  held  out ;  and  as  the  people  of  the 
country  had  led  all  their  cattle  off  to  the  mountains, 
in  anticipation  of  the  enemy's  arrival,  the  besiegers  were 
driven  to  great  straits  for  want  of  food.  One  graphic 
writer  says  that  "  some  roasted  boys  whole  on  spits,  or 
boiled  them  like  chickens,"  while  Foucher  of  Chartres 
attributes  to  them  in  their  need  the  perpetration  of 
even  greater  horrors.  Meanwhile  the  besieged  poured 
Greek  Fire  on  them  from  the  castle,  this  being,  it  is 
said,  the  first  occasion  on  which  the  Moslems  used  it 
against  the  Crusaders.  But  the  arrival  of  Bohemond, 
the  newly-made  Prince  of  Antioch,  stimulated  the  latter 
to  make  a  desperate  effort :  after  a  great  assault  the  place 
was  carried  at  last  and  the  defenders  put  to  the  sword; 
and  shortly  afterwards,  to  remove  the  dissensions  which 


CAMELS     RESTING 


CHURCH,    RUWEIHA 


Facing  p.  228. 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  22» 

had  arisen  as  to  its  possession,  the  town  was  levelled  to 
the  ground. 

On  leaving  Marra,  we  made  a  slight  detour,  and 
turned  off  the  road  to  the  west,  to  where  the  fourth 
century  town  of  Ruweiha  proves  in  no  uncertain 
manner  the  enterprise,  the  wealth,  the  security,  the 
piety,  and  the  culture  of  the  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh  in  the 
centuries  immediately  preceding  the  conquest  of  Syria 
by  'Omar  and  his  Arab  hordes.  No  city  this,  like 
Ba'albek  and  Palmyra,  of  proud  palaces  and  resplen- 
dent temples,  whose  purpose  would  not  infrequently 
seem  to  have  been  the  glorification  of  the  worshippers 
rather  than  of  the  worshipped ;  but  a  quiet  little 
country  town  whose  affluence  is  shown  by  its  sub- 
stantial dwelling-houses  of  stone,  whose  security  by  the 
absence  of  defences  of  any  kind,  whose  piety  and 
culture  by  its  simple  but  admirable  church,  standing 
some  three-quarters  of  a  mile  away  from  the  town 
itself.  Ruweiha  gives  in  its  excellent  preservation  a 
striking  object  lesson  of  the  age  and  of  the  people.  It 
was  not  an  era  of  great  monuments,  its  people  per- 
formed no  brilliant  exploits  which  carried  their  fame 
into  other  lands.  The  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh  held  a  self- 
contained  little  community,  peaceful,  prosperous,  con- 
tented, a  community  of  yeoman  farmers  who  derived  a 
good  competence  from  their  fields,  their  cattle,  and 
their  vines,  and  who,  satisfied  with  the  bounteous  gifts 
of  their  soil,  did  not  seek  to  supplement  them  by  the 
harassing  pursuit  of  commerce  in  the  big  cities  by  the 
sea.  They  were  good  Christians,  as  is  shown  by  the 
number  of  their  monasteries  and  churches ;  and  seem 
to  have  been  a  sound,  hardworking,  and  well-balanced 
people,  who  preferred  solid  comfort  to  lavish  display. 


230  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

but  knew  how  to  give  to  their  religious  and  public 
buildings  a  befitting  measure  of  dignity.  Now  their 
towns  stand  deserted,  although  in  many  cases  still 
fit  for  habitation  ;  while  beside  their  houses  wretched 
Beduin  of  the  poorest  class,  harried  by  their  stronger 
fellow-tribesmen  on  the  one  side,  on  the  other  by  the 
Nosayriyeh,  eke  out  in  their  black  camel-hair  tents  a 
miserable  existence  from  the  land  which  provided  one 
so  comfortable  for  their  industrious  predecessors.  As 
we  passed  out  of  Ruweiha  to  rejoin  the  road  once 
more,  they  emerged  from  their  tents,  and  offered  us, 
true  to  their  traditions,  their  humble  hospitality.  One 
could  not  but  pity  these  squalid  and  oppressed  children 
of  Ishmael ;  and  when  one  compared  their  dwellings 
with  those  whose  occupants  had  flourished  some  fifteen 
■centuries  before,  one  realized  that  the  dark  ages  in 
the  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh  were  not  contemporaneous  with 
the  dark  ages  in  Europe.      Yet, 

ad  ogni  uccello 
suo  nido  e  bello  ; 

and  their  tents,  miserable  though  they  may  be,  doubtless 
appear  to  them  more  attractive  abodes  by  far  than  would 
the  most  substantial  of  stone  mansions. 

That  night  we  slept  at  Khan  es-Sebil,  the  khan  itself 
possessing  a  Mameluke  gate  with  stone  door  and 
hinges;  and  on  the  next,  having  passed  many  beehive 
villages,  at  Zirbe.  Early  on  the  following  morning  we 
perceived  the  hill  upon  which  Aleppo's  citadel  is  built, 
the  hill  round  which  the  city  lies.  The  country  was 
very  bare,  and  in  the  distance  the  hill  rose  above  the 
roofs  of  Aleppo  as  bare  and  naked  as  its  surroundings. 
After   a   further  interval   of   dreary   plain,  we   crossed 


THE  NORTH  ROAD.    II.  231 

the  flooded  and  swiftly  rushing  Kuweik,  and,  skirting 
what  is  left  of  town  wall  and  bastions,  entered  at  last 
the  city  where  Abraham,  the  Friend  of  God,  departing 
out  of  Haran,  sat  down  and  milked  his  cow. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

FROM   ALEPPO   TO   THE    EUPHRATES. 

I  DO  not  know  if  the  tale  that  Abraham  milked  his  cow 
in  the  citadel  of  Aleppo  rests  on  any  surer  foundation 
than  the  similarity  of  the  name  Haleb  with  the  Arabic 
verb  meaning  '  to  milk.'  There  is,  however,  no  doubt 
that  Aleppo  was  a  very  ancient  city  when  Seleucus 
Nicator  rebuilt  it  as  Beroea;  and  it  was  then  and  during 
many  subsequent  centuries  a  place  of  much  commercial 
importance  as  the  emporium  where  the  goods  of  Persia 
and  India  were  sold  to  the  merchants  of  the  West.  The 
discovery  of  the  Cape  route  to  India,  and,  later,  the 
cutting  of  the  Suez  Canal,  reduced  very  considerably 
the  overland  trade  to  Aleppo  ;  but  even  now  its  khans 
are  the  most  spacious  in  Syria,  its  bazaars  not  without 
importance.  The  nucleus  of  Aleppo  is  the  citadel  which 
crowns  the  stone-faced  tell  in  its  midst,  the  citadel  whose 
entrance  is  even  in  its  decay  a  thing  of  great  beauty  ; 
vestiges  of  all  periods  of  its  history  are  contained  within 
its  walls.  The  little  Mosque  of  Abraham  on  the 
plateau  inside  the  fort  preserves  associations  with  that 
Patriarch  ;  Hittite  lions  and  the  Kufic  inscriptions  of 
Melek  ed-Daher,  the  son  of  Saladin,  in  the  vestibule 
bridge  a  period  of  two  thousand  years  and  more;  in  the 
casemates  lies   rusting   the  ammunition  which  Ibrahim 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE   EUPHRATES     233 

Pasha  the  Egyptian  left  behind  him  in  1840.  And  the 
interlacing  serpents,  apparently  devouring  one  another 
over  the  arch  of  the  entrance  into  the  castle,  might  well 
be  symbolical  of  the  immortality  which  Aleppo  seems 
likely  to  achieve.  From  a  tower  on  the  highest  part  of 
the  citadel  you  obtain  an  all-embracing  view  of  the  city 
and  its  surroundings,  of  minarets  and  towers,  of  stone- 
roofed  bazaars  and  the  domes  of  Turkish  baths,  of  the 
white  suburbs  inhabited  by  thousands  of  Levantines  and 
Jews.  In  the  hands  of  these  people  rests  much  of  the 
commerce  of  the  place;  and  on  Sundays  and  holidays 
the  Pont  Neuf  is  crowded  with  the  carriages  of  Levan- 
tine ladies,  who,  attired  in  silks  of  every  hue  and  thickly 
powdered,  drive  to  the  countless  arbours  outside  the 
town  to  consume  sherbet  and  cigarettes  and  to  listen 
with  delight  to  the  raucous  wheezings  of  cheap  gramo- 
phones. The  quantity  of  powder  lavished  on  com- 
plexions naturally  pallid  was  the  cause  of  some  surprise, 
until  one  had  seen  on  the  countenances  of  those  less 
vain  the  ravages  wrought  by  the  '  Aleppo  boil  '  or 
'  button.'  This  affliction  spares  few  who  have  resided 
tor  any  length  of  time  in  Aleppo,  and  with  irritating 
perversity  attacks  for  preference  those  parts  of  the  body 
which  are  exposed  to  view,  especially  face  and  hands. 
The  form  of  the  ailment  is  a  pimple  which  remains  for 
a  year  and  then  disappears,  leaving  in  its  place  a  perma- 
nent mark  or  scar.  Its  cause  is  disputed,  and  no  cure 
appears  yet  to  have  been  discovered  ;  but  as  a  prophy- 
lactic the  following  procedure,  pace  F.  Walpole,^  seems 
to  have  been  in  vogue  two  generations  ago  : 

'*  A  fat  child  was  brought  with  an  atrocious-looking 
button,  and  my  arm  received  in  various  punctures  the 

^  The  Jnsayriiy  zvith  Travels  in  the  Further  East,  London,  185 1. 


234  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

matter.  It  was  as  well  to  avoid  a  nasty  sore  if  it  could 
be  done  at  so  cheap  a  rate  ;  and  though  the  vaccination 
never  took,  yet,  as  I  also  escaped  the  button,  there  was 
no  great  harm  done." 

Aleppo  is  the  capital  of  a  vilayet  of  the  same  name 
which   extends   from   the   coast  across   the   Euphrates, 
very   nearly  to    the  banks  of  the   upper  Tigris.     The 
Vali  Pasha  who  at  the  time  of  our  visit  ruled  over  this 
wide  territory  was   an   elderly   and  affable  gentleman, 
bearded  and  corpulent,  an  Old  Turk  de  la  vieille  roche^ 
who  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  house  preferred  oriental 
costume  to  the  constraining  garments  of  Europe,  and  sat 
cross-legged  on  the  divan  instead  of  enduring,  like  his 
more   modern  colleagues,  discomfort  on  a  chair.     He 
was  also  by  virtue  of  his  dignity,  in  the  official  language 
of  Turkey,  a  basis  of  the  order  of  the  world,  who  with 
penetrating  thought  directed  affairs  of  the  nation,  and 
with  sound  prescience  concluded  the  grave  concerns  of 
mankind,  a  consolidator  of  the  structure  of  the  State 
and  of  prosperity,  a  support  of  the  pillars  of  happiness 
and  grandeur,  possessed  of  a  right  in  the  various  rewards 
of  the    Most  High,   and   particularly    adopted   by   the 
bountiful  favour  of  God  the  Sovereign  Lord.     Above 
all,  he  was  kindness  personified,  gave  us  access  to  the 
citadel,  and  sent   his  aide-de-camp  to  conduct  us  over 
the  Mosque  of  Zacharias.     This  is  the  principal  mosque 
of  Aleppo,  and  at  this  time  Christians  were  very  rarely 
admitted.     The    mosque   is   flanked    by    a   large   court 
containing  two  handsome  fountains,  and  is  itself  a  long, 
low,  flat-roofed  building  divided  by  a  wooden  screen  into 
two   unequal   parts.     The   smaller   section  is   used  for 
daily  prayer  ;    the  larger  contains,  under  a  green  velvet 
pall  heavily  embroidered,  and  in  an  enclosure  lined  with 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO   THE   EUPHRATES     235 

green  and  blue  tiles,  the  tomb  of  Zacharias,  father  of  the 
Baptist.  The  Halewiyeh  Mosque,  close  by,  possesses 
cornice  and  capitals  of  the  same  architectural  period  as 
the  buildings  of  the  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh  ;  the  Mosque  of 
Sultan  At-Trush,  opposite  the  citadel,  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  examples  in  Aleppo  of  Saracenic  art.  Aleppo 
contains  few  great  monuments,  but  the  houses  of  the 
inhabitants  are  well  and  solidly  built,  and  testify  to  the 
city's  prosperity.  Doubtless,  in  the  seventeenth  century 
its  prosperity  was  greater.  In  those  days  it  was  the 
headquarters  of  the  English  Levant  Company,  and  close 
on  fifty  English  merchants  were  able  to  thrive  despite 
the  competition  of  French,  Dutch,  and  Venetians.  We 
read  much  in  contemporary  accounts  of  the  luxury  then 
prevailing  in  Aleppo,  of  marble  courts  and  plashing 
fountains  concealed  by  windowless  outer  walls,  of 
wainscoted  rooms  and  gilded  ceilings,  traces  of  which 
may  still,  indeed,  be  seen.  And  so  great  was  the 
opulence  of  the  native  Christians  and  Jews,  that  their 
houses  were  provided  with  vaults  for  the  custody  of 
treasure  in  times  of  danger,  and  with  underground 
passages,  whereby  secret  communication  could  be  main- 
tained throughout  their  respective  quarters.  Of  the 
prosperity  of  the  English  merchants  we  may  judge  from 
the  fact  that  at  Easter,  1697,  fourteen  made  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Jerusalem  ;  upon  which  occasion  Henry  Maun- 
drell,  chaplain  to  the  Factory  and  cicerone  to  the  party, 
wrote  his  well-known  description  of  A  Journey  from 
Aleppo  to  Jerusalem^  quoted  in  a  previous  chapter. 
From  another  clerical  source  we  derive  much  amusing 
information  concerning  the  life  and  doings  of  the  English 
colony.  Henry  Teonge,  a  chaplain  in  the  Royal  Navy, 
paid    a    visit    to    Aleppo     in     1676,    riding     up    from 


236  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

Alexandretta  with  the  officers  of  the  small  English  fleet 
which  had  put  into  that  port.  According  to  his  Diary 
(published  in  1825)  the  members  of  the  little  community 
must  have  led  a  very  agreeable  existence.  Sport,  in 
the  shape  of  'duck-hunting,  fishing,  and  shooting,* 
was  plentiful  ;  at  other  times  they  diverted  themselves 
with  '  hand-ball,  krickett,  scrofilo.'  They  entertained 
lavishly  and  often  ;  and  the  reverend  gentleman,  who, 
like  the  true  Cavalier  that  he  was,  thoroughly  appre- 
ciated good  cheer,  waxes  eloquent  over  descriptions  of 
the  banquets  at  which  he  was  regaled.  Foremost 
among  many  entertainments  in  honour  of  the  fleet  was 
"a  treate  of  our  Consull's  providinge;  but  such  a  on  as 
I  never  saw  before.  The  perticulars  whereof  you  may 
see  below  ;  the  dishes  being  all  placed  as  they  stood  on 
the  table." 

On  a  cold  and  rainy  morning  we  departed  from 
Aleppo,  bound  for  the  Euphrates  and  beyond.  On  our 
left,  as  we  rode  out  of  the  town,  rose  the  stately  dervish 
tekye  of  Sheikh'u  Bekr,  which  rejoices,  I  believe,  in 
the  biggest  cypress  tree  of  the  neighbourhood  ;  on  our 
right  was  the  Moslem  burial  ground,  where  lie  the 
remains  of  the  celebrated  General  Bem.  This  man,  a 
Pole  by  birth,  quitted  his  country  after  the  Polish  rising 
in  the  thirties,  and  with  a  number  of  his  compatriots 
took  refuge  in  Hungary  to  avoid  the  severities  of 
Russian  reprisals.  Every  family  of  the  Hungarian 
aristocracy  had  pledged  itself  to  give  asylum  to  one 
Polish  guest  ;  and,  in  return,  many  Polish  refugees, 
including  Bem,  took  service  in  the  Hungarian  army. 
In  1848,  when  Hungary  rose  against  Austria,  Bem  was 
given  the  command  of  a  division  in  Transylvania,  where 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE  EUPHRATES     237 

A  DISH   OF  TURKEYS  A  DISH  OF  TARTS 

A   PLATE  OF  SAUCEAGES 

A  DISH  OF  GELLYS  A   DISH   OF  GAMMONS  AND  TONGS 

A  BISQE    OF  EGGS 

A   DISH   OF   GEESE  A  DISH   OF   BISCOTTS 

A   PLATE  OF  ANCHOVIES 

A   DISH   OF   HENS  A  VENISON   PASTY 

A   PLATE  OF  ANCHOVIES 

A  DISH  OF   BISCOTTS  A  DISH   OF  GREEN  GEESE 

A  GREAT   DISH   WITH   A   PYRAMID 
OF   MARCHPANE 

A   DISH   OF  TARTS  A   DISH    OF   HENS 

A   DISH   OF   HARTICHOCKS 

A  PASTY  A   DISH    OF    MARCHPANE   IN   CAKES 

A   DISH   OF  SAUCEAGES 

*A   DISH    OF   GAMMONS  A   DISH   OF    BISCOTT 

A   PLATE    OF   HERRINGS 

A   DISH   OF   GEESE  A   DISH   OF   TURKEYS 

A   PLATE   OF  ANCHOVIES 

A   DISH   OF   MARCHPANE  A   PASTY 

HARTICHOCKS 

A  DISH   OF  HENS  A   DISH   OF  GELLYS 

A   PYRAMID  OF   MARCHPANE 

A   DISH    OF    BISCOTT  A   DISH   OF  GAMMONS 

*  *  *  *  ANCHOVIES  *  *  *  *. 


238  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

he  was  able  to  keep  the  Austrians  and  their  allies,  the 
Russians,  at  bay.  In  1849,  however,  he  took  the 
offensive  ;  and,  being  a  poor  general  although  a  dashing 
fighter,  was  beaten  at  Temesvar.  Thereupon  he  fled  to 
Turkey,  became  a  Mohammedan,  and,  having  taken  the 
name  of  Murad,  died  as  a  Turkish  Pasha  in  Aleppo. 
About  ninety  Hungarians  followed  Bern  to  Aleppo,  and 
also  embraced  Islam. 

It  is,  of  course,  most  unusual  for  bodies  of  Christians 
to  leave  a  Christian  country  and  settle,  as  Moslems,  in  a 
Moslem  land.  It  frequently  happens,  however,  that 
Mohammedan  natives  of  countries  which  have  passed 
from  Mohammedan  into  non-Mohammedan  control 
leave  their  homes  and  seek  grants  of  land  in  the 
Turkish  Empire,  so  that  they  may  continue  to  live 
under  a  Mohammedan  ruler.  In  many  parts  of  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor  are  colonies  of  Algerians,  Cretan 
Moslems,  and  Circassians  who  voluntarily  left  their 
countries  when  they  ceased  to  be  governed  by  Moham- 
medans. At  Bab,  for  example,  where  we  camped  on 
the  first  night  after  leaving  Aleppo,  we  found  a  number 
of  Circassians  ;  and  Manbij,  the  ancient  Bambyke  and 
Hierapolis,  where  we  camped  on  the  following  day,  is 
almost  wholly  a  Circassian  town.  Although  one  does 
not  hear  much,  as  a  rule,  to  the  credit  of  government  in 
Turkey,  one  must  concede,  in  the  face  of  such  facts, 
that  in  the  opinion  of  some  people  who  are  not  Turks 
there  are  worse  alternatives  than  Turkish  rule.  Evidently 
there  are  men  who  preferTurkish  government  to  Russian, 
or  to  the  sway  of  a  Greek  majority  in  Crete.  Circassians 
in  Russia  and  Algerians  under  the  French  are  probably 
more  strictly  supervised,  more  closely  controlled,  than 
they  are  in  Turkey  ;   but  I  do  not  think  that  they  come 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE  EUPHRATES     239 

to  Turkey  because  opportunities  for  villainy  are  greater, 
nor  have  I  heard  that  the  immigrant  colonists  conduct 
themselves  worse  than  their  neighbours.  No  one  will 
denv  that  the  Circassians  in  Turkey,  despite  their  in- 
clination to  sheep-stealing,  compare  favourably  with  the 
followers  of  the  Kurdish  chief,  Ibrahim  Pasha,  who  until 
recently  terrorized  this  and  adjacent  districts.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  test,  if  it  were  possible,  the  strength  of 
Mohammedanism  as  a  bond  between  different  peoples. 
In  some  respects,  but  not  in  all,  it  is  unquestionably  a 
stronger  bond  than  Christianity.  The  late  Mr.  Meredith 
Townsend  remarked  in  his  enlightening  book  Asia  and 
Europe^  when  comparing  the  progress  of  Islam  and 
Christianity  in  India,  that  the  Mahommedan  missionary 
possesses  "a  fury  of  ardour  which  induces  him  to  break 
down  every  obstacle,  his  own  strongest  prejudices  in- 
cluded, rather  than  stand  for  an  instant  in  a  neophyte's 
way.  He  welcomes  him  as  a  son,  and  whatever  his 
own  lineage,  and  whether  the  convert  be  Negro  or 
Chinaman  or  Indian  or  even  European,  he  will  without 
hesitation  or  scruple  give  him  his  own  child  in  marriage, 
and  admit  him  fully,  frankly,  and  finally  into  the  most 
exclusive  circle  in  the  world."  He  observed  further 
that  the  Christian  missionary  "  who  dies  a  martyr  to  his 
efforts  to  convert  the  Indians  would  die  unhappy  if  his 
daughter  married  the  best  convert  among  them."  In 
some  respects  the  bond  of  Islam  astonishes  by  its 
strength,  in  others  by  its  weakness.  It  is  strong  enough 
to  attract  Cretan  and  Circassian  Moslems  from  their 
countries  to  Turkey  ;  but  not  strong  enough  to  take 
the  place  in  that  Empire  of  a  national  patriotism,  the 
existence  of  which  racial  diversity  has  hitherto  made 
impossible.     The  Turkish  Empire  does  not  rest  upon 


240  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

unity  of  aspirations  and  mutual  consent,  but  upon  the 
fact  that  the  Turks  are  the  ruling  race  ;  and  it  is  here 
that  the  bond  of  Mohammedanism  breaks  down.     It  is 
unable  to  inspire  with  enthusiasm  for  the   Empire  the 
non-Ottoman   Moslem  inhabitants  of  Kurdistan,  or  to 
prevent  the  natives  of  the  Yemen  from  being  almost 
constantly  in  a  state  of  revolt.     The  Turks  have  found 
it  almost  as  difficult  to  deal  with  the  Kurds  in  Asia  as 
they  have  with  the  Albanians  in  Europe.     Although  in 
the  course  of  their  history  the  Kurds  have  produced 
some  great  men,  Saladin  among  them,  they  are  a  cruel, 
unsettled,  and  apparently  untameable  people.    They  dis- 
regard the  Turks,  harry  the  Armenians,  and  plunder  the 
poor  little   communities   of  Jacobites   and    Nestorians 
which  are  sparsely  scattered  over  the  vaguely  defined 
region    known   as   Kurdistan.     The   Turkish   Govern- 
ment's expedient  to  preserve  a  semblance  of  authority 
over  the  nomadic  Kurdish  tribes  has  been  to  give  official 
recognition    to    their    fighting    men    as    regiments    of 
irregular  light  cavalry,  under  the  name  of  Hamidiyeh 
regiments  ;  and  to  provide  them  with  arms  and  ammu- 
nition.    It   could    really   do    little   else    unless    it   was 
prepared  to  treble  the  strength  of  its  garrisons  ;  and  to 
a   certain  extent   intertribal  warfare   has  weakened   the 
power  of  the  Kurds  for  mischief.     The  expedient  was 
disastrous,  however,  in  the  case  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  the 
chief  of  the  Melli  Kurds  alluded  to  above.     Happily, 
this  man's  career  of  brigandage  and  murder  has  now 
closed  ;  but  at  the  time  of  our  journey  he  was  still  the 
terror  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  vilayets  of  Aleppo  and 
Diarbekr  and  of  the  mutesarrifliq  of  Zor.     At  his  capital 
of  Vairanshehir,  the  Roman   Antoninopolis,  which  lies 
between  Urfa  and   Diarbekr,  he  commanded  an  army 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE   EUPHRATES     241 

largely  composed  of  refugees  from  justice  and  of  the  worst 
scoundrels  of  Northern  Mesopotamia  ;  and  travellers 
wishing  to  cross  the  region  under  his  control  had  meekly 
to  seek  his  permission.  Unfortunately,  Ibrahim  and  his 
men,  while  a  blight  upon  the  land,  were  in  good  odour 
in  Constantinople  ;  and  in  1905  Ibrahim  was  permitted 
to  come  to  the  capital  and  to  parade  his  regiment  at 
Yildiz.  Posing  as  the  defender  of  the  Ottoman  throne 
in  Kurdistan  against  disloyal  Arabs  and  conspiring 
Armenians,  he  was  given  a  magnificent  reception  ;  and 
he  profited  by  the  occasion  to  secure  with  rich  gifts  the 
friendship  of  those  in  authority  at  headquarters.  On 
his  return  to  Mesopotamia,  his  oppression  of  the 
wretched  population  increased  ;  but  the  heavy  bribes 
which  he  continued  to  send  to  Constantinople  diverted 
attention  from  the  complaints  and  accusations  brought 
against  him  by  the  local  officials.  It  was  not  until  after 
the  revolution  that  Turkey  was  rid  of  this  pest. 

Four  hours  of  riding  across  the  flat,  treeless  plateau 
brought  us  from  Manbij  to  a  low  bank  below  which  the 
great  river  Euphrates,  flooded  and  swollen,  rushed  very 
swiftly  by.  The  river,  at  this  time  and  point,  was 
about  nine  hundred  yards  wide  and  full  of  sandbanks  ; 
and  the  ferry-boat  which  conveyed  us  over  it  a  strange, 
triangular  craft  terminating  at  one  end  in  a  high  poop, 
at  the  other  end  flat-bottomed  and  open,  like  a  barge,  to 
enable  carriages  to  be  taken  on  board.  On  this  occasion 
were  embarked  two  carriages  of  the  peculiar  Mesopo- 
tamian  type  known  as  yailzyeh,  conveyances  suggestive 
of  coffins  on  wheels ;  and  from  them  issued  throughout 
the  crossing  the  shrieks  of  the  terrified  Turkish  ladies 
their  occupants.  Nor  were  their  apprehensions  baseless  ; 
for  horses,  donkeys,  and  an  undue  number  of  human 

Q 


242  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

beings  filled  our  crazy  craft  almost  to  overflowing.  The 
pilot  sat  at  the  poop,  to  which  was  attached  a  long  pole, 
weighted  at  the  end,  forming  the  handle  of  a  second 
pole  that  did  duty  as  rudder  and  propeller.  At  the 
other  end  of  the  boat  two  men  rowed,  also  with  poles, 
while  a  third  punted  whenever  we  were  in  danger  of 
running  on  to  a  sandbank.  By  allowing  the  current  to 
turn  us  round  and  round,  by  skilfully  dodging  islands 
and  banks,  and  with  no  little  luck,  we  landed  in  Meso- 
potamia after  an  exciting  voyage  which  lasted  thirty-five 
minutes  and  all  but  reduced  the  Turkish  ladies  in  the 
yailiyehs  to  unconsciousness.  The  current  had  carried 
us  nearly  two  miles  down  stream,  and  we  disembarked 
at  the  Kurdish  village  of  Tell  Ahmar  that  lies  at  the 
foot  of  the  Hittite  mound  from  which  it  takes  its  name. 
Three  weeks  before,  Mr.  Hogarth  had  come  here,  the 
first  western  scholar  to  examine  its  Hittite  and  Assyrian 
remains  ;  so  that  only  one  before  us,  and  he  but  three 
weeks  earlier,  had  seen  with  seeing  eyes  the  stele,  the 
sculptured  slabs  of  basalt,  and  the  lions  of  Shalmaneser 
the  Second,  which  lay  scattered  about  the  village  and 
the  tell. 

As  from  the  tell  one  surveyed  the  vast  plateau  of 
Mesopotamia,  extending  from  the  great  river  to  the 
north  and  east  and  south,  utterly  bare  of  trees,  nearly 
devoid  of  villages,  it  was  difficult  to  conjure  up  a  vision 
of  the  Mesopotamia  which  we  know  to  have  existed,  a 
thickly  populated,  smiling  land,  full  of  splendid  cities, 
and  cultivated  almost  throughout  its  length  and 
breadth.  Not  only  in  the  far  distant  days  of  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Empires  was  Mesopotamia 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  regions  of  the  world;  her 
prosperity  extended  well  into  the  Christian  era,  and  was 


MOSOUE    OF    ZACHARIAS,    ALEPPO 


OUR    FERRY    ACROSS    THE    EfPHRATES 


Facing  p.   242. 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE   EUPHRATES     243 

possibly  at  its  height  only  thirteen  centuries  ago,  under 
the  Sassanian  kings  whose  towns  and  palaces  have  lately 
been  described  and  illustrated  by  Miss  Gertrude  Bell  in 
Amurath  to  Amurath,  a  sequel  to  her  equally  interest- 
ing book  on   Syria,   The  Desert  and  the   Sown.     It   is 
remarkable   that  a  country  which  could   support  cities 
so  great,  and  produce  monuments  so  wonderful,  should 
have  sunk  into  its  present  condition  of  decay  in   the 
relatively  short  period  which  has  elapsed  since  its  con- 
quest by  the  Arabs  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century, 
A.D.     There  is  no  doubt  that  the  soil  of  El-Jezireh  is 
still  rich,  and  every  probability  that  with    irrigation   it 
would  again  produce  heavy  crops.     But  in  place  of  a 
large   population,    industrious,   civilized,   and   cultured, 
Mesopotamia  now   nourishes  at  her  withered  bosom  a 
scanty  brood  of  wanderers  and  marauders,  people  who 
have  neither  the  inclination  nor  the  fitness  to  undertake 
the   regeneration   of   their   land.      Even    in    the   cities 
which  have  survived,  a  diminished  population  occupies 
only  a  portion   of  the  space  enclosed  by  massive   but 
now  decaying  walls ;  and  in  some  life  and  property  are 
barely   more   secure   than   in    the   open   desert.     Thus, 
there   now   attaches   to  Urfa  or   Edessa,    the   principal 
town  of  this  sanjaq  of  the  vilayet  of  Aleppo,  a  sinister 
reputation   in  consequence  of  the  Armenian   massacres 
of   1896;    but    during    part   of  the    Crusading    epoch 
Edessa  was  the  flourishing  capital  of  the  principality  of 
the  same  name,  the  first  of  the  Prankish  states  in  the 
East;  and  at  a  previous  period  the  prosperous  seat  of 
that  dynasty  of  tributary  kings,  most  of  whom  bore  the 
name  of  Abgar.      It  was  also  the  first  home  of  Chris- 
tianity east  of  the  Euphrates,  and  as  such  the  fountain 
of  several  legends  which  penetrated    into  Europe  and 


244  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

were  handed  down  in  the  eastern  and  western  Churches 
in  a  variety  of  guises.  The  most  persistent  of  these 
tell  of  the  correspondence  between  Abgar  V.,  Ukkama 
or  'the  Black,'  the  fifteenth  king  of  Edessa  of  the 
dynasty  of  the  Abgars,  with  our  Lord ;  and  of  the  gift 
of  Christ  to  Abgar  of  a  cloth  upon  which  He  had 
impressed  His  features.  Abgar  V.  was  an  historical 
personage  who  is  known  to  have  reigned  from  13  to 
50  A.D.  The  legend  relates  that,  suffering  from  an 
incurable  disease,  he  invited  our  Lord,  of  whose  miracles 
he  had  heard,  to  visit  Edessa  and  heal  him.  The  prin- 
cipal authority  for  his  letter  of  invitation  and  for  our 
Lord's  reply  is  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  who  states,  in  his 
Ecclesiastical  History,  that  he  translated  both  from  the 
Syriac  text  which  he  found  among  the  archives  of  the 
reign  of  Abgar  in  Edessa.  The  Armenian  historian, 
Moses  of  Khorene,  gives  a  similar  version  of  the  letters, 
while  a  third  version,  differing  somewhat  from  the  two 
others,  is  contained  in  a  Syriac  manuscript  known  as 
Doctrina  Jddaei,^  which  was  discovered  in  the  middle  ot 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  authenticity  of  the  letters 
is  still  in  dispute,  although  the  balance  of  opinion 
inclines  to  regard  them  as  apocryphal.  The  text  of  the 
letters,  according  to  Eusebius,  is  as  follows  : 

"  Abgarus,  Ruler  of  Edessa,  to  Jesus,  the  excellent 
Saviour  who  has  appeared  in  the  country  of  Jerusalem, 
greeting  !  1  have  heard  the  reports  ot  thee  and  of  thy 
cures  as  performed  by  thee  without  medicines  and 
herbs.  For  it  is  said  that  thou  makest  the  blind  to  see 
and  the  lame  to  walk,  that  thou  cleansest  lepers  and 
castest  out  impure  spirits  and  demons,  and  that  thou 

1  Thaddaeus,  one  of  the  seventy,  and  according  to  the  legend  the 
first  apostle  to  Edessa. 


FROM  ALEPPO  TO  THE  EUPHRATES     245 

healest  those  afflicted  with  lingering  disease,  and  raisest 
the  dead.  And  having  heard  all  these  things  concern- 
ing thee,  I  have  concluded  that  one  of  two  things  must 
be  true :  either  thou  art  God  and  having  come  down 
from  heaven  thou  doest  these  things,  or  else  thou,  who 
doest  these  things,  art  the  son  of  God.  I  have  there- 
fore written  to  thee  to  ask  thee  that  thou  wouldst  take 
the  trouble  to  come  to  me  and  heal  the  disease  which  I 
have.  For  I  have  heard  that  the  Jews  are  murmuring 
against  thee  and  are  plotting  to  injure  thee.  But  I 
have  a  very  small  yet  noble  city  which  is  great  enough 
for  us  both." 

"  Blessed  art  thou,"  runs  our  Lord's  reply,  sent  by 
the  courier  Ananias,  "  who  hast  believed  in  me  without 
having  seen  me.  For  it  is  written  concerning  me,  that 
they  who  have  seen  me  will  not  believe  in  me  and  that 
they  who  have  not  seen  me  will  believe  and  be  saved. 
But  in  regard  to  what  thou  hast  written  me,  that  I 
should  come  to  thee,  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  fulfil  all 
these  things  here  for  which  I  have  been  sent,  and  after 
I  have  fulfilled  them  thus  to  be  taken  up  again  to  him 
who  sent  me.  But  after  I  have  been  taken  up  I  will 
send  to  thee  one  of  my  disciples,  that  he  may  heal  thy 
disease  and  give  life  to  thee  and  thine." 

The  legend  concerning  the  portrait  of  Christ  is  a 
sequel  to  that  of  the  letters ;  and  as  Eusebius  makes 
no  mention  of  it,  it  was  probably  unknown  to  the 
archivist  of  the  reign  of  Abgar.  In  its  earlier  form 
it  relates  that  Abgar's  courier  returned  from  Jerusalem 
to  Edessa  with  a  likeness  of  Christ  which  he,  the 
courier,  had  painted.  So  says  Moses  of  Khorene. 
Subsequently  the  picture  becomes  possessed  of  miracu- 
lous properties,  and  heals  King  Abgar  of  his  sickness. 


246  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

In  its  next  stage  it  is  '  not  wrought  by  the  hand  of 
man  '  (^axeipoTroi^To?)^  but  is  the  impression  of  our 
Lord's  features  on  a  cloth  or  towel ;  and  from  this  form 
has  arisen  in  the  western  Church  the  legend  of  St. 
Veronica.^  It  is  undisputed  that  the  image  was  of 
great  antiquity.  In  944  it  was  brought  to  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogennetus, 
and  the  day  of  its  translation  became  an  important  feast 
in  the  Orthodox  Church;  to  the  image  is  dedicated  the 
monastery  of  Acheiropoietos  near  Lapethos  in  Cyprus, 
mentioned  on  a  previous  page.  At  the  sack  of  Con- 
stantinople in  1453  the  image  disappeared,  and  its 
possession  is  now  claimed  by  the  Church  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew in  Genoa. 

It  had  been  our  intention  to  continue  eastward  to 
Urfa,  and,  if  possible,  to  Mardin.  Unexpectedly,  how- 
ever, circumstances  now  arose  which  made  our  return 
to  Aleppo  imperative.  We  therefore  recrossed  the 
Euphrates  a  little  above  Tell  Ahmar,  and  rode  north- 
ward along  its  right  bank,  past  cliffs  honeycombed  with 
caves  which  once,  perhaps,  were  inhabited,  to  where  it 
is  entered  by  the  river  Sajur.  For  a  few  miles  we  rode 
beside  the  Sajur,  and  then  returned  by  Manbij  and  Bab 
to  Aleppo. 

'  Lipsius,  Die  Edessefiische  Abgar-Sage,  Brunswick,  1880. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PRINCIPALITIES   OF   THE    CRUSADERS. 

From  Aleppo  westward  to  Antioch,  through  a  country 
deeply  marked  with  the  impress  of  the  capital  of  the 
House  of  Seleucus ;  and  from  Antioch  southward 
through  the  principalities  of  the  Crusaders — these  were 
the  concluding  stages  of  our  journey.  Guided  by  an 
old  Turk  who  remembered  the  entry  into  Aleppo  of 
the  Egyptian  Ibrahim  Pasha,  we  rode  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  to  the  stony  hills  of  the  Jebel  Sim'an, 
a  region  rich  in  villages  and  monuments  akin  to  those 
of  the  Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh,  Our  route  derived  additional 
interest  from  the  fact  that  it  was  nearly  conterminous 
with  a  frontier,  a  frontier  not  political  but  linguistic; 
for  to  the  north  of  the  line  between  Antioch  and 
Aleppo  the  flowery  Arabic  language  ceases,  giving  way 
to  the  laconic  but  expressive  speech  of  the  Turk.  The 
history  and  distribution  of  languages  in  the  Turkish 
Empire  are  subjects  of  deep  interest  as  affording  much 
insight  into  Turkish  political  conditions;  and  they  pro- 
vide anomalies  in  abundance.  There  are,  for  instance, 
villages  in  Asia  Minor,  inhabited  solely  by  Greeks 
belonging  to  the  Orthodox  Church,  where  the  Greek 
language  is  barely  understood,  and  where  priests  read 
the  services  of  the  church   in  Turkish  to  make  them 


248  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

comprehensible  to  the  people.  There  are  also  Turkish 
villages  in  Cyprus  whose  inhabitants  only  know  Greek. 
Again,  to  take  another  kind  of  example,  it  is  no  un- 
common thing  to  find  Armenians  writing  and  printing 
the  Turkish  language  in  Armenian  characters.  In  Syria, 
and  especially  in  the  districts  through  which  Antioch  had 
disseminated  art,  learning,  and,  later,  Christianity,  the 
predominant  language  among  educated  people,  prior 
to  the  Arab  conquest,  was  Greek.  The  centuries  of 
Seleucid  and  Byzantine  rule  had  not  availed,  however, 
completely  to  hellenize  the  Syrian.  Although  he  had 
absorbed  a  certain  amount  of  Greek  culture,  his  helleniza- 
tion  was,  in  most  cases,  superficial.  Even  in  religion  he 
made  frequent  efforts  to  break  away  from  orthodoxy  as 
enunciated  by  Greeks ;  and  although  the  Nestorian, 
Monophysite,  and  Monothelete  heresies  were  not 
formulated  by  Syrians,  it  is  only  in  Syria  and  its 
neighbour  lands  that  they  have  found  permanent 
acceptance.  When,  therefore,  the  Arabs  invaded  Syria, 
the  native  population  evinced  more  sympathy  with 
their  new  conquerors,  Semites  like  themselves,  than 
with  their  late  masters.  For  some  time  longer  Greek 
continued  to  be  spoken  by  the  upper  classes  in  the 
towns,  and  Syriac  by  the  peasantry,  but  Arabic  gradually 
took  the  place  of  both.  Again,  while  many  remained 
true  to  Christianity,  townsfolk,  peasantry,  and  Beduin, 
the  bulk  of  the  people  embraced  the  religion  of  the 
Arabs,  rarely  because  they  were  confronted  with  the 
alternative  of  Islam  or  the  sword.  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  Christians  were  compelled  to  pay  two  taxes,  a 
capitation  fee  and  a  tax  on  land,  from  which  Moslems 
were  exempt,  they  were  no  mean  source  of  revenue  to 
the  state ;    and  for  economic  reasons  the  Khalifs  dis- 


PRINCIPALITIES   OF  THE   CRUSADERS    249 

couraged  proselytism  of  too  vigorous  a  nature.  Syrian 
Christians  were  able,  particularly  under  the  Ommayad 
and  Fatimite  princes,  to  follow  their  pursuits  un- 
molested, take  a  share  in  the  administration,  and 
contribute  appreciably  to  the  culture  of  the  land. 

It  was  during  the  period  of  Byzantine  rule  in  Syria, 
which  began  at  the  partition  of  the  Roman  Empire  on 
the  death  of  Theodosius,  that  a  profusion  of  towns, 
churches,  and  monasteries  arose  on  the  Jebel  Sim'an, 
their  style  a  development  of  that  of  Antioch,  modified 
by  the  needs  and  symbolism  of  Christianity.  An  apse 
at  Dershin  (there  is  not  much  certainty  as  to  the 
identification  of  these  ruined  villages)  and  a  church  at 
Oufr  Tin  gave  us  a  foretaste  of  what  we  were  to  see  at 
Oal'at  Sim'an,  the  most  important  monument  of  the 
Jebel.  Qal'at  Sim'an  is  Arabic  for  the  Castle  of 
Simeon  ;  and  the  Castle  of  Simeon  is  the  monastery  of 
St.  Simeon  Stylites,  fortified  at  a  later  date  by  the 
Arabs.  The  saint  who  has  given  his  name  to  this 
region  was  the  leader  of  the  school  of  ascetics  who 
sought  holiness  by  spending  their  lives  on  the  summits 
of  pillars.  Simeon,  whose  eccentric  method  of  acquiring 
merit  found  many  imitators  among  eastern  Christians, 
but  was  rigidly  suppressed  on  its  attempted  introduction 
into  the  western  Church,  died  in  459,  after  having 
edified  an  admiring  world  from  the  top  of  his  '  pious 
perch  '  for  the  space  of  thirty  years.  After  his  death  a 
large  monastery  was  built  on  the  site  hallowed  by  his 
austerities;  and  around  his  column,  of  which  the 
base  alone  now  remains,  rose  the  monastery  church,  the 
finest  building  of  its  kind.  The  church  consists  of  four 
arms  of  equal  length,  placed  in  the  form  of  a  Greek 
cross  ;  and  the  arms,  in  meeting,  combine  to  produce  a 


•250  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

remarkable  octagon  which,  never  roofed,  was  designed 
as  the  enclosure  of  the  pillar.  The  decoration  is  very 
beautiful ;  and  in  the  south  porch,  the  most  impressive 
part  of  the  buildings,  are  capitals  ornamented  with  the 
lovely  Byzantine  motive  of  the  blown  acanthus  leaf. 
The  extensive  monastic  buildings  lie  to  the  south-east 
of  the  church  ;  and  beyond  them  is  a  domed  church 
whose  octagonal  nave  is  contained  within  a  square 
outer  structure.  In  scouring  the  surrounding  country 
through  our  glasses  we  saw  many  other  groups  of 
buildings  of  the  style  and  period  of  which  Qal'at 
Sim'an  is  the  masterpiece,  all  built  of  the  local  grey 
stone  and  not  easily  distinguishable  from  the  rocky  out- 
crops of  the  Jebel.  As  soon,  however,  as  we  descended 
into  the  alluvial  plain  of  the  Orontes,  the  aspect  of  the 
country  changed  completely.  Water  was  everywhere, 
bringing  with  it  vegetation  ;  and  we  overtook  a  band 
of  Turcoman  nomads  carrying  down  to  Antioch  bales 
of  the  liquorice  which  is  extensively  cultivated  around 
the  shallow  lake  of  El  Bahra.  To  our  right  we  now 
saw  the  snow-clad  chain  of  the  Amanus;  and  when,  at 
night,  we  arrived  at  Birkeh,  we  dined  off  some  excellent 
fish  that  abound  in  its  rippling  stream.  In  other 
respects  Birkeh  calls  for  no  comment,  but  only  a  few 
miles  distant  from  it  is  the  interesting  tell  of  Harim. 
This  tell  is  artificial  and  faced  with  stone,  and  is  sur- 
mounted by  a  Saracenic  castle  which  for  a  time  was 
held  by  the  Crusaders.  From  a  chamber  in  the  castle 
a  narrow  passage  of  ingenious  construction  leads  down 
into  the  heart  of  the  mound  to  a  depth  of  about  a 
hundred  feet.  Here  a  lateral  opening  gives  access  to 
the  face  of  the  tell^  but  the  passage  evidently  continues. 
1  observed  a  cross  within  a  circle  carved  on  one  of  the 


OAL  AT    SIM  AN,     THE    SOUTH    PORCH 


OAL  AT    SIM  AX,    LOOKING    SOUTH 


F'acing  p.  250. 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE   CRUSADERS    251 

stones  which  line  it,  and  a  rosette  on  one  of  the  steps. 
The  villagers  asserted  that  the  passage  not  only  went 
to  the  base  of  the  mound,  but  under  the  moat  and  up 
the  hill  on  the  other  side.  Beyond  Harim  the  plain 
was  flood-sodden  and  heavy ;  and  no  sooner  were  the 
baggage  mules  dragged  out  of  one  morass  by  their 
blaspheming  mukaris  than  straightway  they  plunged 
into  another.  Presently  we  came  to  the  banks  of  the 
swiftly  flowing,  much  winding  Orontes,  camped  at  Jisr 
el-Hadid,  the  famous  Iron  Bridge  which  played  so 
important  a  part  in  the  military  operations  of  the 
Crusades,  and  early  on  the  following  morning  rode 
into  Antioch. 

Of  cities  once  great  which  in  later  years  have  sunk 
into  insignificance,  not  a  few  strive  to  pretend  that  the 
days  of  their  greatness  continue.  Not  so  Antioch. 
Shrunken,  and  huddling  to  the  Orontes  within  one 
tenth  of  the  space  which  it  formerly  occupied,  it  makes 
no  such  endeavour.  Nay,  far  from  supporting  the 
traditions  of  the  past,  it  does  its  best  still  further  to 
destroy  them  by  using  the  ancient  walls  as  a  quarry  on 
the  rare  occasions  when  it  has  need  of  stone.  It  is  now 
a  pretty  little  town  of  eminently  provincial  character, 
and  its  red  roofs,  as  seen  from  the  top  of  Mount 
Silpius,  are  distinctly  picturesque.  But  there  is  no 
suggestion,  except  in  the  walls  which  enclose  a  wide 
expanse  of  cultivated  plain  and  half  a  mountain,  that 
here  stood  one  of  the  greatest  and  richest  cities  of  the 
world.  Antioch  taught  architecture  to  Northern  Syria; 
it  now  contains  barely  a  fragment  of  its  ancient 
buildings,  and  its  arts  and  crafts  are  reduced  to  the 
making  of  slippers.  It  was  long  the  nursery  of  Greek 
culture  in    Syria,  so   long,    in    fact,    that   coins   of  the 


252  THE   FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Crusading  Princes  of  Antioch  sometimes  bore  Greek 
legends ;  no  Greek  is  spoken  there  now.  At  one 
time  the  chronology  generally  adopted  in  the  Levant 
was  that  of  the  Seleucid  era  of  Antioch  ;  alone  a  few 
Jacobite  monks,  lurking  forgotten  in  obscure  mona- 
steries, now  retain  it  for  their  reckoning.  "  The 
disciples  were  called  Christians  first  in  Antioch,"  which 
ranked  as  the  third  of  Christian  cities  and  became  the 
seat  of  some  half-a-dozen  Patriarchs  of  different  rites. 

1  do  not  suppose  that  Antioch  has  seen  a  Patriarch  for 
many  centuries,  or  that  the  patriarchial  throne  in  its 
shabby  little  Greek  church  has  ever  been  occupied. 
Three  priests  to-day  represent  the  Orthodox  Church  in 
the  '  Metropolis  and  Eye  of  Christendom.' 

There  is  a  tradition,  mentioned  by  St.  Chrysostom 
and  St.  Jerome  and  firmly  believed  in  the  middle  ages, 
that  St.  Peter  was  the  first  Bishop  of  Antioch.  The 
festum  Antiochiae  Cathedrae  Petri  was  celebrated  on  the 

2  2nd  of  February  ;  and  by  the  south  gate  of  Antioch 
stood  the  now  vanished  St.  Peter's  Church.  This 
church  was  connected  with  an  event  which  contributed 
very  appreciably  to  the  capture  of  Antioch  by  the 
Christians  in  the  first  Crusade.  In  June,  1098,  after  a 
siege  of  several  months,  the  Crusaders  were  admitted 
into  the  town  by  a  traitor,  but  the  Moslem  defenders 
still  held  the  citadel  on  Mount  Silpius  in  expectation  of 
reinforcements  from  Kerboga  of  Mosul.  With  the 
citadel  untaken  and  Kerboga's  army  on  the  way,  the 
besiegers  were  little  better  off  than  the  besieged  ;  and 
some  deserted  to  the  coast,  while  others  advocated 
making  terms  with  the  enemy.  At  this  juncture  St. 
Andrew  appeared  in  a  vision  to  a  poor  Proven9al 
soldier,  Peter   Bartholomew   by   name,  and    bade    him 


PRINCIPALITIES   OF  THE   CRUSADERS    253 

follow  him  to  St.  Peter's  Church.  The  man  did  as  he 
was  told,  and,  on  arrival  at  the  church,  saw  St.  Andrew 
disappear  beneath  the  ground  and  reappear  with  the 
Holy  Lance  in  his  hand.  "  Ecce  lancea  quae  latus 
aperuit  unde  totius  mundi  salus  emanavit,"  said  the 
saint,  who  then  hid  the  Lance  in  the  place  whence  he 
had  taken  it,  enjoining  on  Peter  Bartholomew  to  return 
to  seek  it  with  twelve  companions,  and  to  relate  what 
he  had  seen  to  Count  Raymond  of  Toulouse  and  to 
Bishop  Adhemar  of  Puy.  After  being  fortified  by  five 
further  visions  of  St.  Andrew,  the  man  ventured  to 
approach  these  great  lords  ;  on  the  14th  of  June  the 
Lance  was  found,  and  the  circumstances  attending  its 
discovery  told.  Count  Raymond,  whose  piety  often 
caused  astonishment  and  sometimes  inconvenience  to 
his  comrades-in-arms,  at  once  believed  the  story  of  the 
visions,  but  the  Bishop  declared  it  to  be  '  nought  but 
words.'  And  as  the  camp  now  divided  into  two 
parties,  one  which  believed  the  Lance  to  be  a  true  relic 
of  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  other  which  did  not,  Peter 
Bartholomew  declared  his  readiness  to  pass  with  it 
through  the  ordeal  of  fire.  Two  stacks  of  wood, 
fourteen  feet  long,  four  feet  high,  and  one  foot  apart, 
were  set  alight  ;  and  Peter  Bartholomew,  after  being 
blessed,  and  holding  the  Lance,  '  boldly  and  fearlessly ' 
entered  the  narrow  passage.  As  he  was  passing 
through  it  many,  watching,  saw  a  bird  hover  over  his 
head.  And,  in  truth,  he  emerged  unhurt  ;  but  the 
people,  seeing  the  miracle,  and  crying  out  '  Deus 
adjuva^  fell  upon  him  in  order  to  snatch  pieces  of  his 
clothing  as  relics,  so  that  he  would  have  been  killed 
had  he  not  been  rescued  by  Raymond  Pelez,  a  noble 
knight.      Indeed,  so  severe  were   the  injuries   inflicted 


254  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

upon    him    by   the   crowd    that    he    died    twelve   days 
after. 

Cheered  and  emboldened  by  the  discovery  of  the 
Lance,  the  Crusaders  attacked  Kerboga,  whom  they 
defeated  on  the  28  th  of  June.  A  week  later  the  citadel 
surrendered,  and  Antioch  became  the  capital  of  a 
Christian  principality  under  the  Norman  Bohemond, 
son  of  Robert  Guiscard.  Later,  Raymond  of  Tou- 
louse, Bohemond's  rival,  founded  the  Latin  county  of 
Tripoli. 

One  of  the  chroniclers  relates  that  prior  to  the  first 
Crusade  Raymond  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 
As  he  entered  the  Holy  Places,  he  proferred  his  ducat^ 
the  usual  fee,  to  the  Moslem  gate-keeper,  but  the  man 
demanded  more  from  so  important  a  pilgrim.  Raymond 
refused,  and  in  the  scuffle  which  ensued  his  right  eye 
was  knocked  out.  "  He  kept  the  eye,"  says  the 
chronicler,  "  wrapped  it  in  the  corner  of  his  garment, 
brought  it  to  Rome,  showed  it  everywhere,  and  thus 
aroused  such  indignation  that  great  counts  rose  up,, 
collected  large  armies,  and  marched  on  Constantinople." 
The  Crusades  were  not,  however,  the  result  of  this 
episode,  or,  indeed,  of  any  sudden  wave  of  emotion. 
The  desire  to  wrest  the  Holy  Land  and  the  Holy  City 
from  the  Infidel  had  long  been  nursed  in  the  West, 
and  was  fed  by  the  complaints  of  the  pilgrims  who, 
outlining  year  by  year  the  routes  of  future  Crusading 
armies,  brought  back  tales  of  the  wrongs  endured  by 
them  and  by  the  Cliristian  population  of  Jerusalem  at 
the  hands  of  the  Moslems.  Europe  was  then  passing 
from  the  barbarous  age  into  one  of  sordid  materialism 
curiously  tempered  with  idealism  ;  and  it  saw  in  the 
East  a  mysterious  goal  of  high  enterprise  where  men 


IN      I  H  K     l;.\/AAK,     AN  I  1<  n    H 


MOSQUE    OF    SULTAN    IBRAHIM,    JERELEH 


Facing  p.  254. 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE   CRUSADERS    255 

might  win  great  fame  for  themselves  on  earth,  and 
lasting  reward  in  heaven.  A  crusade,  with  all  that  it 
involved,  appealed  strongly  to  the  growing  spirit  of 
chivalry  and  adventure,  and  mediaeval  literature  pro- 
claims how  largely  the  theme  preoccupied  men's  minds. 
While  troubadours  dwell  upon  the  lighter  sides  of  such 
an  expedition,  and  gentle  Jaufre  Rudel  sings  of  the 
Princesse  lointaine  over  the  seas,  awaiting  the  coming  of 
the  Christian  knight,  the  author  of  the  Chanson  de 
Roland  is  in  more  serious  mood  when  he  summons 
Charlemagne,  the  epic  champion  of  Christendom,  to 
lead  his  hosts  eastward  : 

"  Charle  est  couche  dans  sa  chambre  voutee  ; 
Saint  Gabriel  de  par  Dieu  lui  vint  dire  : 
'  Charles,  convoque  encor  ta  grande  armee, 
Va  conquerir  la  terra  de  Syrie. 
Tu  secourras  le  roi  Vivien  d'Antioche 
Dans  la  cite  que  ces  payens  assi^gent  ; 
La  les  Chretiens  te  reclament  et  orient.'  " 

The  rapid  spread  of  Islam  along  the  southern  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean,  its  activity  in  Spain,  and  its 
incursions  into  Sicily,  precipitated  the  wish  for  a 
crusade  ;  but  the  eloquence  of  preachers  and  the 
religious  enthusiasm  aroused  thereby  were  insufficient 
of  themselves  to  make  a  crusade  practicable.  The  co- 
operation of  those  prompted  by  military  and  commercial 
ambitions  was  required,  and  readily  obtained. 

The  successes  of  ambitious  Norman  barons  in  Apulia 
and  in  Sicily  had  shown  to  the  world  that  kingdoms 
could  still  be  made  and  held  by  a  strong  right  arm.  If 
this  was  possible  in  Europe,  why  not  in  the  East  } 
Here  were  profit  and  piety  combined  ;  and  to  the 
religious   element   produced    by    the    pilgrims'   tales   of 


256  THE  FRINGE  OF  THE  EAST 

woe;and  the  advance  of  Islam  we  must  add  the  desire 
of  able  and  impecunious  younger  sons  to  emulate 
Guiscard  and  his  enterprising  tribe  in  lands  whose  riches 
were  proverbial,  lands  where  there  was  no  Emperor  to 
advance  embarassing  claims  of  suzerainty.  The  com- 
mercial element  was  supplied  by  the  great  maritime 
republics  of  Italy,  by  Amalfi,  Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice, 
whose  eastern  trade  was  of  such  vital  importance 
that  they  could  not  fail  to  derive  benefit  from  the 
conquest  of  the  Holy  Land.  The  part  played  by 
Venice  in  the  fourth  Crusade,  and  the  tenacity  with 
which  one  and  all  clung  to  their  special  privileges  in  the 
coast  towns  of  Syria  when  the  Crusading  states  were 
weak  and  in  need  of  support,  indicate  the  motive  of 
their  participation  ;  but  they  were  as  necessary,  in  their 
way,  as  priest  and  knight,  and  did  not  disguise  their 
aims. 

Impelled,  therefore,  by  faith,  love  of  glory,  and  love 
of  gold,  young  and  mail-clad  Europe  hurled  herself 
time  and  again  at  the  wise  old  East,  spending  much 
blood  and  energy  to  no  purpose.  It  was  more  to  the 
fallacy  inherent  in  the  scheme  than  to  the  disunion  of 
the  Crusaders  that  the  failure  of  the  Crusades  was  due. 
The  tree  of  western  feudalism  could,  with  violence,  be 
planted  in  an  eastern  garden,  but  neither  the  untiring 
efforts  of  King  Baldwin,  nor  the  unorthodox  diplomacy 
of  Frederick  II.,  nor  yet  the  belated  perseverance  of 
St.  Louis,  could  make  it  to  grow.  Many  years  passed, 
however,  before  this  was  realized,  and  the  hope  of 
eventual  success  died  hard.  Even  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  age  of  cynicism  and  doubt,  it  was  strong 
enough  to  inspire,  and  to  kill,  by  its  nonfulfilment,  so 
typical  a  product  of  the  Renaissance  as  Aeneas  Sylvius 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE   CRUSADERS    257 

Piccolomini.  The  most  lasting  tangible  results  of  the 
Crusades  were  commercial ;  but  with  the  discovery 
of  new  waterways  these,  too,  have  long  since  dis- 
appeared. The  only  visible  traces  in  the  lands  of  the 
Crusades  of  those  days  of  piety  and  cunning,  of 
greed,  violence,  and  holy  zeal,  are  a  few  stupendous 
castles,  a  few  ruined  churches  of  golden  sandstone, 
and  here  and  there  amidst  the  sallow  Syrian  crowd 
a  flaxen-haired,  blue-eyed,  white-skinned  man  and 
woman,  proclaiming  in  their  persons  their  unmistake- 
able  descent. 

But  to  return  to  our  wanderings.  Between  Antioch 
and  Latakia  we  traversed  the  loveliest  region  of  Syria, 
a  region  of  mountain  and  forest  and  of  many  rivers 
running  westward  to  the  sea,  a  region,  too,  little  known 
to  travellers,  to  judge  from  the  faultiness  of  maps.  At 
the  laurels  and  waterfalls  of  Daphne,  where  the  nymph 
cheated  Apollo  of  his  design,  we  turned  south  and 
began  to  climb.  To  the  green  of  the  undergrowth  on 
the  lower  slopes  the  Judas  Tree  lent  a  touch  of  more 
brilliant  colour  :  higher  up,  orchards  and  their  flowering 
hedges  gave  way  to  the  fragrant  Aleppo  pine.  That 
night  we  camped  on  the  ridge  of  the  Jebel  el-Quseir  by 
the  village  of  Qurbas ;  and  the  next  day,  having 
descended  its  further  slope,  at  Jisr  esh-Shogul.  This 
is  a  big  village  named  after  the  bridge  of  thirteen  arches 
which  here  spans  the  Orontes,  and  we  chanced  to  arrive 
at  the  time  of  its  annual  donkey  fair.  The  place 
swarmed  with  donkeys  of  all  sizes,  shapes,  and  hues, 
with  donkeys  gaily  caparisoned  and  donkeys  that  lacked 
their  full  complement  of  hide,  with  donkeys  despondent 
and  donkeys  that  brayed  confidently  the  night  through. 
We,  also,  had   donkeys  in   our  caravan,  well-favoured 


258  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

beasts  which  bore  the  cook  and  his  satellites;  and  it 
will  not  surprise  the  reader  to  learn  that  on  the  morrow 
the  best  of  them  was  missing.  The  result  was  a  visit 
to  the  Qaimaqam,  whom  we  found  in  his  music  room 
enjoying  the  strains  of  his  private  band.  He  was,  it 
appeared,  a  man  of  fretful  temper,  and,  like  Saul, 
required  music  to  soothe  his  troubled  nerves.  Hence 
a  fiddler  and  one  that  played  upon  the  lyre  formed  part 
of  his  establishment.  But  in  the  matter  of  the  donkey 
he  was  prompt  and  businesslike.  He  promised  that,  if 
our  beast  could  not  be  found,  we  could  choose  from 
three  others  which  should  be  at  our  tent  doors  that 
evening ;  and  he  was  as  good  as  his  word.  We  might 
have  hesitated  to  exact  the  uttermost  ass  from  an 
innocent,  underpaid,  and  needy  official  had  we  not 
known  full  well  that  the  Qaimaqam  would  take  the 
opportunity  thus  afforded  to  mulct  every  ruffian  in 
Jisr  esh-Shogul  of  a  donkey,  both  on  account  of  past 
misdeeds,  and  in  the  hope  that  among  so  many  the 
present  culprit  might  be  included.  I  do  not  doubt, 
nay,  1  confidently  hope,  that  he  derived  a  handsome 
profit  from  the  occurrence.  The  old-fashioned  Turkish 
system  of  administration  had  the  merit  of  making  it 
possible  for  notorious  scoundrels  to  suffer  for  their  evil 
ways,  without  the  expensive  and  often  vain  formalities 
as  to  proof  demanded  by  the  more  complicated  procedure 
of  the  West. 

But  donkeys  and  their  attendant  worries  were  for- 
gotten as  on  the  morrow  we  journeyed  onward  by  the 
pellucid  waters  of  the  Nahr  ez-Zuq.  At  one  time  this 
lovely  little  stream  cuts  its  way  through  rocky  gorges, 
at  another  it  flows  peacefully  along  the  verdant  valley 
bed  between  hill-sides  clad  with  pine.     The  forest  bower 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE   CRUSADERS    259 

where  we   camped   that  evening  was  a   place  of  pure 
delight,  an  enchanted  nook 

"whose  tender  Green 
Fledges  the  River-Lip  on  which  we  lean." 

Here  were  solitude  and  peace,  here  was  nature  rarely 
seductive;  and  as  I  was  lulled  by  the  gentle  sound  of 
plashing  water,  I  was  filled  with  understanding  and 
sympathy  of  the  Turk's  conception  of  keif.  Alas,  that 
our  "  green  days  in  the  forest "  ended  on  the  following 
afternoon,  when  along  a  dusty  chaussee  we  rode  into 
Latakia.  Nevertheless,  the  coast  offered  compensation 
in  the  shape  of  long  gallops  along  its  sandy  marge  and 
delicious  bathes  among  caves  and  rocks.  Except  for 
two  expeditions  inland  to  the  castles  of  Merkab  and 
Safita,  the  remaining  stretches  of  our  journey  lay  by 
the  sea ;  and  thus  we  crossed  the  mouths  of  countless 
rivers,  some  by  picturesque  and  decaying  old  bridges, 
many  by  plunging  through  their  marshy  waters  and  dis- 
turbing the  wallowing  buffalo.  Also,  we  passed,  day 
by  day,  large  numbers  of  local  sportsmen,  engaged  in 
the  indigenous  sport  of  hawking  at  small  sea  birds  and 
quail. 

Our  next  camping  place  was  the  little  town  of 
Jebeleh.  Of  its  Roman  theatre  there  remain  several 
vaults  and  tiers,  which  the  inhabitants  use  as  a  kitchen 
garden  ;  its  Mosque  of  Sultan  Ibrahim,  with  two 
colossal  cypresses,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  mosques 
1  have  seen  in  Syria.  Continuing  past  two  Circassian 
villages,  we  came  to  another  Baniyas,  whose  name  is 
derived,  not  from  Pan,  but  from  Balanaea.  Without 
stopping  in  the  insignificant  little  township,  we  crossed 
the  narrow  strip  of  plain,  and   rode  up  to   the   black 


260  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

castle  of  Merkab,  which  stands  on  a  rocky  spur  ot  the 
Jebel  Nosayriyeh.  The  castle  was  until  1885  the 
capital  of  the  qaza,  and  is  still  inhabited  by  Nosayriyeh, 
and  by  orthodox  Moslems,  who  use  its  mediaeval 
chapel  as  a  mosque.  To  this  castle  the  Emperor  Isaac  of 
Cyprus  was  committed  by  the  Hospitallers,  whom  King 
Richard  had  appointed  his  keepers,  and  here  closed  that 
ignoble  potentate's  career. 

It  was  somewhat  surprising  to  see  from  the  heights 
of  Merkab  a  small  island  close  to  the  shore  some 
few  miles  to  the  south,  for  in  the  matter  of  islands 
the  Syrian  coast  is  very  different  from  that  of  Asia 
Minor.  In  the  days  of  the  Phoenicians  this  island, 
then  called  Aradus  and  now  Ruad,  played  a  part 
in  history  similar  to  that  played  in  a  later  age  by 
Zanzibar.  From  their  tiny  islet,  not  half  a  square  mile 
in  area,  the  Aradians  went  forth  as  seamen  and  soldiers 
into  many  parts,  and  by  far  the  larger  portion  of  their 
dominions  lay  opposite,  on  the  mainland.  Antaradus, 
the  Crusading  Tortosa  and  the  modern  Tartus,  was  one 
of  their  colonies;  another,  a  little  further  south,  was 
Marathus,  now  an  uninhabited  site  with  extensive 
Phoenician  remains.  The  town  of  Tartus  is  all  inter- 
mingled with  the  Crusaders'  castle,  from  whose  frag- 
ments its  streets  and  houses  emerge  in  picturesque 
and  haphazard  fashion  ;  but  its  Church  of  Our  Lady 
of  Tortosa  is  singularly  well  preserved.  This  church 
enjoyed  a  considerable  reputation  in  the  middle  ages 
for  the  miracles  effected  at  its  shrine ;  and  during  the 
course  of  St.  Louis's  Crusade  the  Sieur  de  Joinville 
obtained  his  master's  leave  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  it. 
St.  Louis  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  charge  his 
faithful  companion  with  a  commission  to  buy  for  him 


CASTLE    OF    MERKAB 


BURJ     SAFITA 


Facing  p.   260. 


PRINCIPALITIES   OF  THE  CRUSADERS    261 

a  hundredweight  of  camlets,  a  costly  eastern  stuff  made 
of  camel  hair  and  silk.  The  camlets  were  bought,  and 
the  good  Seneschal  was  also  fortunate  enough  to  obtain 
some  relics,  news  of  which  was  brought  to  the  queen. 
When  he  returned  to  the  king's  headquarters,  he 
sent  one  of  his  knights  to  the  queen  with  a  present 
of  four  pieces  of  the  camlet ;  "  and  when  the  knight 
entered  her  apartment,  she  cast  herself  upon  her  knees 
before  the  camlets,  that  were  wrapped  up  in  a  towel, 
and  the  knight,  seeing  the  queen  do  this,  flung  him- 
self on  his  knees  also.  The  queen,  observing  him, 
said: 

'  Rise,  sir  knight,  it  does  not  become  you  to  kneel, 
who  are  the  bearer  of  such  holy  relics.' 

My  knight  replied  that  it  was  not  relics,  but  camlets, 
that  he  had  brought  as  a  present  from  me.  When  the 
queen  and  her  ladies  heard  this,  they  burst  into  laughter, 
and  the  queen  said  : 

'  Sir  knight,  the  deuce  take  your  lord  for  having 
made  me  kneel  to  a  parcel  of  camlets.' " 

One  Sunday  morning  we  sailed  from  Tartus  across 
the  strait  to  Ruad,  probably  over  the  fresh  springs  in 
the  sea  from  which  the  Aradians  drew  their  water  when 
supplies  from  the  mainland  were  cut  off.  With  its  sea 
wall,  its  bastions,  and  its  castle,  the  island  suggests  a 
tiny  Rhodes,  lacking  only  the  windmills  to  complete  the 
resemblance.  Everything  is  on  a  minute  scale,  but  I 
have  seen  few  places  more  beautiful.  And  the  view 
from  its  lighthouse  tower  not  only  includes  Tartus  and 
its  surroundings,  but  ranges  over  the  snow-clad  Lebanon 
which  rises  abruptly  where  the  Nosayriyeh  Mountains 
tail  away. 

On   one  of  the  southermost  eminences  of  the  Jebel 


262  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

Nosayriyeh  stands  the  Hospitallers'  castle  of  Safita, 
which  we  saw,  it  may  be  remembered,  from  the  tower  of 
Qal'at  el-Hosn.  Only  the  large  keep  emerges  distinctly 
from  the  confused  mass  of  hovels  into  which  the  other 
parts  of  the  castle  have  degenerated.  The  keep  con- 
tained the  chapel  of  the  knights,  a  most  unusual  thing 
for  the  castle  stronghold  to  do,  and,  what  in  Syria  is 
even  more  unusual,  the  chapel  has  retained  its  use.  The 
inhabitants  of  Safita  are  Syrian  Christians,  and  many  of 
them  have  been  to  America,  to  the  detriment  of  their 
manners  and  of  their  taste  in  dress.  It  cannot,  unfor- 
tunately, be  denied  that  the  influence  of  the  West,  and 
of  the  Far  West,  is  not  always  happy  in  its  effects  upon 
the  Syrian.  I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  upper  classes, 
among  whom  are  found  many  persons  of  European 
culture  and  taste,  but  of  the  lower  classes,  whose  power 
of  discrimination  is  necessarily  more  restricted.  Such  of 
the  latter  who,  through  emigration,  have  been  subjected 
to  that  influence,  are  apt  to  affect  unpleasantly  the 
passer-by.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  are,  in  detail,  the 
faults  of  this  type  of  Syrian  ?  He  is  prone  to  cease 
from  honouring  his  father  and  his  mother,  believing 
himself  to  be  better  than  they.  Often  he  is  afflicted 
with  an  insuperable  aversion  to  manual  labour.  By 
some  fatality,  he  exhibits  a  preference  for  the  less 
edifying  forms  of  western  civilization  rather  than  for 
its  more  attractive  manifestations  ;  and  he  discards  his 
picturesque  costume  for  a  travesty  of  Occidental  modes 
by  which  even  the  least  aesthetic  cannot  fail  to  be 
offended.  And  if  he  is  of  literary  bent,  he  rejects  the 
plain  tales  of  his  own  language,  wherein  a  spade  is  called 
a  spade  and  the  imagination  is  taxed  but  little,  for  the 
more  restrained  but,  oh,  so  much  more  tantalizing,  more 


PRINCIPALITIES   OF  THE  CRUSADERS    263 

piquant,  more  suggestive  romances  of,  say,  Marz  el- 
Prevo  or  Dum  Afiz.  Arrogant  to  those  of  his  country- 
men whom  he  considers  less  advanced,  less  progressive 
than  himself,  intolerably  familiar  with  Europeans  unless 
it  suits  his  purpose  to  cringe,  he  becomes  by  his  contact 
with  Occidentals  neither  more  trustworthy  nor  more 
polite  than  nature  had  intended  him  to  be.  I  admit 
that  I  am  describing  the  type  probably  at  its  worst,  and 
I  should  deeply  regret  if  my  remarks  were  taken  to 
imply  criticism  of  the  efforts  of  the  high-minded  and 
self-sacrificing  missionaries  who  labour  on  the  coast  of 
Syria,  Although  the  missionaries  are  not  altogether 
fortunate  in  their  material,  for  it  would  seem  as  if  the 
Syrian  peasant  were  designed  by  Providence  to  remain  an 
Oriental,  their  educational  work  has  been  a  true  boon  to 
the  country.  To  them  is  due,  for  example,  the  intro- 
duction of  the  printing  press  ;  and  were  it  not  for  the 
missionary  Colleges  of  Beirut,  the  ignorant  hakim^  with 
his  futile  nostrums  and  preposterous  remedies,  would 
not  have  been  replaced  in  Syrian  country  districts  by 
competent  native  doctors.  Nor  are  natives  the  only 
ones  to  be  thankful  for  their  presence,  as  I  myself  have 
good  reason  to  know.  For  as  1  rode  in  to  Tripoli, 
the  fever  which  for  several  days  had  been  upon  me 
became  very  much  worse  ;  and  my  deep  gratitude 
is  due  to  Dr.  Harris,  the  American  Mission  Doctor 
and  Acting  British  Vice-Consul,  who  combined  the 
skill  appertaining  to  the  former  capacity  with  the 
hospitality  of  the  latter,  and  set  me  on  my  feet  once 
more. 

Before  bringing  the  tale  of  this  journey  to  a  close,  I 
think  it  right  to  pause  for  a  moment  at  the  little  port 
of  Acre  ;  for  with  Acre  is  connected  one  of  the  few 


264  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE   EAST 

religious  movements  of  importance  which  have  emanated 
from  Asia  since  the  birth  of  Islam.  The  Shiah  belief 
with  regard  to  the  Messianic  Advent  of  the  Twelfth 
Imam,  or  Imam  Mahdi,  has  been  briefly  stated  in  a 
previous  chapter.  In  1844  a  young  Persian,  Mirza 
'All  Mohammed  by  name,  proclaimed  himself  as  the 
Bab,  or  Gate,  whereby  communication  was  to  be  restored 
between  the  Twelfth  Imam  and  his  followers  on  earth. 
A  little  later,  he  announced  that  he  himself  was  the 
long-expected  Mahdi  ;  and  as  such  he  was  accepted  by 
his  rapidly  growing  band  of  followers.  From  the  out- 
set the  sect  encountered  the  hostility  of  the  Persian 
Government,  and  in  1850  the  Bab  was  executed  by  its 
order  in  Tabriz.  Before  his  death  he  designated  as  his 
successor  a  lad  named  Mirza  Yahya,  upon  whom  he 
conferred  the  title  of  Subh-i-Ezel^  '  the  Dawn  of 
Eternity  '  ;  and  in  1852,  in  consequence  of  further  per- 
secution, Subh-i-Ezel,  his  elder  half-brother  Baha'u'llah, 
and  such  other  Babi  leaders  as  escaped  with  their  lives, 
took  refuge  in  Baghdad.  Baghdad  now  became  the 
headquarters  of  the  Babis  until  the  year  1864,  when  the 
Persian  Government,  alarmed  at  their  increase,  induced 
the  Porte  to  remove  them  from  their  immediate  proximity 
to  the  Persian  frontier  and  to  the  shrines  of  Nejeb  and 
Kerbela.  They  were  accordingly  transferred,  as  political 
prisoners,  to  Constantinople  and  later  to  Adrianople, 
where  they  remained  for  a  period  of  four  years.  Here, 
although  in  exile,  they  were  unable  to  escape  from  the 
disruptive  tendencies  which  seem  to  assail  most  religious 
bodies.  In  a.h.  1283  (a.d.  1866-67)  Baha'u'llah,  who 
had  been  slowly  displacing  the  more  retiring  Subh-i-Ezel 
in  the  active  leadership  of  the  sect,  declared  that  he  was 
the   Mahdi,  '  He  whom  God   shall    manifest,'  and   not 


suBH-i-EZEL,  ael.   bo 


Facing  p.  264. 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE   CRUSADERS    265 

only   repudiated    Subh-i-Ezel's    position   as   the    Bab's 
successor,  but  asserted  that  the  Bab  himself  was  only 
the    herald    of   his,   Baha'u'llah's,   advent.      The    Babi 
community  was  rent  in  twain.    Between  the  two  parties, 
Ezelis  and  Baha'is,  strife  waxed  fierce  ;  and  charges  of 
attempted  poisoning  were  freely  exchanged  between  the 
brothers.!    At-  this  point  the  Turkish  Government  inter- 
vened by  separating  the  factions.     Baha'u'llah  and  his 
followers  were  despatched  to  Acre  ;    Subh-i-Ezel  and 
his    party    relegated    to    Famagusta,   where  they  were 
found  as  State  prisoners  at  the  British  occupation.  Now 
occurred  a  curious  phenomenon.     Although  doctrinally 
there  was  little  to  distinguish  the  two  parties,  the  basis 
of  the  schism  being  a  personal  question,  the  one  waxed 
exceedingly  while  the  other  waned.     Rapidly  the  Ezelis 
dwindled  to  a  handful,  and  soon  were  confined,  almost 
entirely,    to    the    members    of    Subh-i-Ezel's    devoted 
family.     Very  austerely,  and  in   poverty,   Subh-i-Ezel 
continued  to  dwell  in  Famagusta,  supported  only  by  an 
allowance  from   the  Government  of  Cyprus  ;    and   he 
died  there  on  the  29th  of  April,  1 912,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-two,  and  was  buried  half  a  mile  outside  the  walls, 
in  a  field  given  by  a  friendly  Turkish  judge.    With  him 
the  Ezeli  sect  may  be  said  to  have  expired. 

Acre,  on  the  other  hand,  has  become  the  centre  of  a 
living  force  which  is  spreading  far  and  wide,  and  is 
attracting  to  the  little  town  pilgrims  from  many  lands. 
Baha'u'llah  died  in  1892,  and  his  son  'Abbas,  now 
known  as  'Abdu'l  Baha,  was  accepted  as  his  successor 
by  the  majority  of  his  adherents,  among  whom  the 
designation  of  Baha'i  has  superseded  that  of  Babi.    The 

1  See  E.  G.  Browne,  A  Traveller  s  'Narrative  tvritten  to  illustrate  the 
Episode  of  the  Bab,  ii.,  pp.  365-9,  Cambridge,  1891. 


266  THE  FRINGE   OF  THE  EAST 

purpose  of  Baha'ism  is  twofold.  It  aims,  in  the  first 
place,  at  the  reformation  of  Islam,  at  shedding  the  dross 
of  superstition  and  the  tutelage  of  the  priesthood,  and 
at  uniting  Sunis  and  Shiahs  into  a  regenerated  whole. 
Its  ultimate  object  is  a  wider  one.  By  freeing  all 
religions  of  doctrines  and  rites,  by  proclaiming  as  its 
only  dogma  a  belief  in  God  and  in  His  manifestations, 
Zoroaster,  Moses,  Jesus,  Mohammed,  and  Baha'u'Uah, 
it  hopes  to  join  the  whole  world  in  a  religion  of  neigh- 
bourly love,  peace,  and  goodwill  towards  men,  dispens- 
ing with  creeds,  liturgies,  and  ceremonial.  It  tolerates 
the  clergy  to  a  certain  point,  and  up  to  that  point  even 
commends  them.  Man,  it  says,  has  in  his  earliest 
spiritual  weakness  to  support  himself  by  props  ;  and 
his  first  prop  is  the  priest.  The  priest  is  the  tutor,  the 
teacher,  a  very  necessary  person  in  the  initial  stages  ; 
but  he  is  not  to  continue  when  the  pupil  has  no  further 
need  of  him,  when  he  has  become,  that  is  to  say,  no 
longer  a  prop  but  a  hindrance.  As  man  gradually 
moves  upwards,  the  mission  of  the  priest  is  accom- 
plished, and  all  mankind  will  become  a  community  of 
priests. 

Baha'ism  is  now  estimated  to  count  more  than  two 
million  adherents,  mostly  composed  of  Persian  and 
Indian  Shiahs,  but  including  also  many  Sunis  from  the 
Turkish  Empire  and  North  Africa,  and  not  a  few 
Brahmans,  Buddhists,  Taoists,  Shintoists,  and  Jews.  It 
possesses  even  European  converts,  and  has  made  some 
headway  in  the  United  States.  Of  all  the  religions 
which  have  been  encountered  in  the  course  of  this 
journey,  the  stagnant  pools  of  Oriental  Christianity,  the 
strange  survivals  of  sun-worship  and  idolatry  tinged 
with    Mohammedanism,    the    immutable    relic    of    the 


THE    FUNERAL    OF    SUBH-I-EZEL  :     THE    PROCF.SSIOX    LEAVING    FAMAGUbTA 


THE    INTERMENT    OF    SCBH-I-EZFL 


Facing  p.   266. 


PRINCIPALITIES  OF  THE  CRUSADERS    267 

Samaritans,  it  is  the  only  one  which  is  alive,  which  is 
aggressive,  which  is  extending  its  frontiers  instead  of 
secluding  itself  within  its  ancient  haunts.  It  is  a  thing 
which  may  revivify  Islam,  and  make  great  changes  on 
the  face  of  the  Asiatic  world. 


INDEX 


'Abbasid  Khalifs,  zio-il. 
'Abdallah  ibn-Zobeir,  82. 
'Abd   el-Melek,  Khalif,   82-83, 

161. 
'Abd  el-Qader,  165. 
'Abdu'l  Baha,  265. 
'Abdu'l  Hamid  II.,  Sultan,  146, 

167,  211. 
Abgar    V,,     King     of     Edessa, 

Legends  of,  243-4.6. 
'Abu  Bekr,  Khalif,  148. 
'Abu'l  Fida,  219. 
'Abu  'Ubaida,  161-62. 
Abyssinians,  90-gi,  96,  102-3. 
Acre,  57,  263,  265. 
Aga  Khan,  the,  215. 
Ahmed  Bey,  Qaimaqam  of  Qal'at 

el-Hosn,  195-206. 
Ahmed  Pasha,  Vali  of  Damascus, 

165. 
'Ain  Jalut,  131-32. 
Alamut,  2  12. 
Aleppo,  54,  121,  189,  224,  230- 

38,  247. 
"Aleppo  boil,"  233-34. 
Aleppo,  Vali  of,  234. 
Alexandretta,  54,  236. 
'All,  Khalif,  148-50,  164,  209- 

1 1. 
Al-Walid,  Khalif,  161-63. 


Amalfi,  27,  256. 
Amanus  Mountains,  250. 
Anti-Libanus,  185,  188-89. 
Antioch,   139,   216,    224,   228, 

251-55,  57- 
Antioch,  Patriarchs  of,  204,  252. 
Aqshehir,  i,  144. 
Arabs,  225-27. 
Archiepiscopal  dispute  of  Cyprus, 

69-72,  113. 
'Ard  el-Huleh,  153-54,  156. 
Armenians,    54,    61-63,    90-91, 

96,   98 ».,   107-8,    150,    240, 

248. 
Assassins,     151,     198,     208-10, 

212-15. 
Athos,  Mount    {sec    also    under 

Monasteries),    9,    12,    19-32, 

118. 

Ba'albek,  185-88. 

Bab,  238,  246. 

Bab,  the,  264. 

Babis,  264-67. 

Baha'is,  265-67. 

Baha'u'llah,  212,  264-66. 

Baibars,  Sultan,  198,  210,  214. 

Bairam,  Ourban,  52. 

Bakha'a,  188. 

Baniyas  (Balanaea),  259. 


INDEX 


269 


Baniyas      (Caesarea      Philippi), 

153-57. 
Barin,  206. 
Beduin,  124;/.,  134,   153,  206, 

227,  230. 
Beehive  villages,  225,  230. 
Beirfit,  54,  263. 
Bella  Paise,  Abbey  of,  58,  67. 
Bern,  General,  236,  238. 
Bethany,  I  15. 
Birkeh,  250. 
Bragadino,  60. 

Brigandage,  36-37,  206,  240-41. 
Budrun,  castle  of,  39. 
Buffalo,  259. 
Buffavento,  castle  of,  58,  65. 

Capernaum,  145, 
Chakirji,  36-38. 
Chalcis,  14. 
Chanaq  Qal'esi,  33-36. 
Chelebi  of  Konia,  the,  221. 
Circassians,  238-39,  259, 
Comander'ta  wine,  59-60. 
Coptic  language,  126. 
Copts,  91,  96. 
Cornaro,  Katharine,  59. 
Crusades,    38,    54-55>     I32-33j 
138,    156,     166,    226,    228, 

243,  252-57. 
Currency,  Turkish,  194. 
Cyprus,  8,  54-72,  137,  246,  265. 
Cyprus,  Church  of,  69-72. 

Dahr  el-Quseir,  206. 
Damascus,  148,  156-71. 
Daphne  (Mount  Athos),  20,  25, 

33- 
Daphne  (near  Antioch),  257. 


Dead  Sea,  11 7- 19. 
Deishun,  147. 
Delphi,  6-7. 
Dervishes,  168,  219-22. 
Dimashki,  146,  160. 
Dothan,  131. 

Druses,     124,    136,    139,     151, 
157-58,  170,  207,  209. 

Eastern  Churches,  1 13-14,  248, 

266. 
Edessa,  Principality  of,  243. 
El-'Amara,  147. 
Et-Tayyibeh,  225-27. 
Euphrates,  river,   236,    241-42, 

246. 
Eusebius  of  Caesarea, 91, 244-45. 
Exiles,  Turkish,  47-48. 
Ezelis,  265. 
Ez-Zuq,  153. 

Famagusta,  58,  60,  63-65,  265. 
Fatimites,  163,  210  ;/.,  212,  249. 
Fuad  Pasha,  165. 

Galilee,  Sea  of,  137-39,  145. 
Georgians,  27,  96. 
Gideon's  Pool,  131. 

Hajj,  the,  166-68,  201,  227-28. 
Hakim,  Khalif  ('Abbasid),  210. 
Hakim,   Khalif  (Fatimite),    84, 

loo-i,  210  «. 
Hama,  189,  195,  215-25. 
Haram  esh-Sherif,  74-88,  115. 
Harim,  250-51. 
Hasan  and  Husein,  sons  of  'Ali, 

148-49,  152,  164,  211. 
Hasan  ben  Sabbah,  212-13. 
Hattin,  battle  of,  136-38. 


270 


INDEX 


Hauran,  the,  157,  226. 

Hawking,  259. 

Hejaz  Railway,  166-67. 

Heliogabalus,  191. 

Hermon,     Mount,     133,     146, 

153-54,  156-58. 
Holy  Fire,  miracle  of  the,   98- 

lOI. 

Holy    Lance,    miracle     of    the, 

252-54. 
Holy  Sepulchre,  Church  of  the, 

74,  86,  89103,  138,  160. 
Homs,  161,  188-95,  218, 
Hospitality,   Moslem,    86,    199- 

200,  225-27. 
Hulagu,  210,  214. 
Huleh,  Lake,  147,  153. 
Hunin,  I  53. 

Ibrahim  Pasha  (of  Egypt),  99, 

191,  233,  247. 
Ibrahim  Pasha  (Kurd),  239-41. 
Imamiyeh,  151-52,  212. 
Imbros,  33. 
Iron  Bridge,  251. 
Isaac,  Emperor  of  Cyprus,  55- 

56,  66,  260. 
Islam,  77,  85-88,   147-52,  220, 

238-40. 
Isma'iliyeh,  151,  208,  212-15. 
Itea,  6-7. 

Jacob,      High      Priest     of     the 

Samaritans,  124-26. 
Jacobites,  91,  96,   192-93,  240, 

252. 
James  I.,  King  of  Cyprus,  62. 
James  II.,  King  of  Cyprus,  58- 

59- 
James  III.,  King  of  Cyprus,  59. 


Jebeleh,  259. 

Jebel  ez-Zawiyeh,  224,  229-30, 

247. 
Jebel  Qarantal,  116. 
Jebel  Sim'an,  247,  249-50. 
Jelalu'd-Din,  Sheikh,  221. 
Jenin,  131. 

Jericho,  105,  116-17,  138. 
Jerusalem,  72-112,  138. 
Jerusalem,    Latin    Patriarch    of, 

93,  104. 
Jews,    42,    62-63,    74,    78-81, 

139-40,  146-47,  235. 
Jews,  Wailing  of  the,  108-12. 
Jezzar  Pasha,  136. 
Jisr  esh-Shogul,  257-58. 
Jordan,  river,    116-17,    l32-33» 

H5»  153-54- 
Jubb  'Adin,  188. 
Jubb  Yusuf,  145. 

Kafr  Hawar,  157, 

Kafr  Kenna  (Cana),  136. 

Kalabaka,  14-15. 

Kantara,  castle  of,  58,  65. 

Karpass  peninsula,  60,  65. 

Karyaes,  21,  23,  25-27. 

Kavalla,  19-20. 

Keif,  85,  191,  259. 

Kerbela,  152,  164,  264. 

Khalid,  161-62. 

Khalifate,  the,  167,  210-11. 

Khan  es-Sebil,  230. 

Khan  Sheikhun,  228. 

Khoja  Nasr  ed-Din,   1-5,   144- 

45- 

Kition,  Bishop  of,  69-71. 

Klephts,  37. 

Knights    of    St.    John    (Hospi- 
tallers), 38-47,  59,  197,  262. 


INDEX 


271 


Knights  Templar,  57,  77. 
Kokab  el-Hawa,  132-34. 
Kolossi,  castle  of,  59. 
Konia,  i,  220. 
Kurds,  239-42. 
Kuweik,  river,  231. 
Kyrenia,  66. 

Kyrenia,  Bishop  of,  69-71. 
Kyrenia  Mountains,  the,  60-61, 
65-67. 

Lapethos,  67,  246. 

Larnaca,  54. 

Latakia,  257,  259. 

Lebanon,  96,  139,  185-86,  189, 

261. 
Legends,   Christian,    see    Abgar, 

Holy  Fire,   Holy  Lance,   St. 

Nicephorus. 
Legends,  Mohammedan,  87-88, 

171-84. 
Lemnos,  20. 

Leo  VL,  King  of  Armenia,  62. 
Levant  Company,  English,  235- 

37- 
Limasol,  56,  59. 
Lindos,  46-47. 
Linobambakoi,  68-69. 
Longos,  peninsula  of,  20. 
Lusignan  dynasty,  57-59,  62. 
Lusignan,  Guy  de,  57,  137. 

Ma'aret  en-No'man,  228-29. 

Mahdi,  the,  211-12,  264. 

Ma'lula,  188. 

Manbij,  238,  241,  246. 

Marathus,  260. 

Marco  Polo,  159,  213/7. 

Mardin,  246. 

Maronites,  96,  139. 


Masyad,  198,  210,  213-15. 
Maundrell,  Henry,  96,  235. 
Megiddo,  plain  of,  132. 
Mehmed  'Ali,  Pasha  of  Egypt, 

19-20. 
Mejdel  esh-Shems,  157. 
Merkab,  castle  of,  56,  259-60. 
Mersina,  54. 
Mesnevi,  the,  221. 
Mesopotamia,  148,  189,  240-43. 
Metawileh,  147,  151-52. 
Mevlevi  Dervishes,  220-22. 
Mitylene,  35. 
Moghrebins,  147,  238. 
Mohammed,   the    Prophet,    77, 

87-88,  147,  209. 
Mohammedansects,  147-52, 207- 

14,  264-67. 
Monasteries,  6-32. 

Acheiropoietos,  67,  246. 
Kykko,  71. 

Mar  Jirjis,  197,  203-4. 
Meteora,  Monasteries  of,   14- 

19. 
Mount  Athos  : 
Iveron,  27-31. 
Lavra,  26. 
Omorphono,  27. 
Pantokrator,  31. 
Rossikon      (St.      Pantelee- 

mon),  24-25,  32. 
Stavroniketa,  31. 
Vatopedi,  27,  32. 
Xeropotamou,  25. 
St.George  (near  Jericho),  115. 
St.  Gerasimos,  117. 
St.  John  (near  Jericho),  117- 

19. 
St.  Luke  in  Stiris,  7,  12-14, 
32. 


272 


INDEX 


Motawakkil,  Khalif,  211. 

Moufflon,  68. 

Mu'awiya,  Khalif,  148-49,  210. 

Mudik,  224. 

Murik,  227. 

Nablus,  122-31,  138-39. 
Nablus,  Council  of,  130. 
Nahr  ez-Zuq,  258-59. 
Naqshibendi  Dervishes,  220. 
Nasi,  Joseph,    Duke   of  Naxos, 

60,  140. 
H auras,  216-18. 
Navy,  Turkish,  48-50,  119-20. 
Nazareth,  134-36. 
Nejeb,  164,  264. 
Neophytos,        Archbishop        of 

Nevrekop,  30-31. 
Nestorians,      96,       160,      240, 

248. 
Nicosia,  54,  58,  60-61. 
Nosayriyeh,    151,   207-10,  214, 

225,  230,  260. 
Nosayriyeh      Mountains,      189, 

194-215,  260-62. 

Old  Man  of  the  Mountains,  the, 

213. 
'Omar,  Khalif,  83,  148,  161-62, 

229. 
'Omar  Khayyam,  85  n.,  212. 
Ommayad  Khalifs,  82,   148-49, 

160-63,  210,  249. 
Ommayad  Mosque,  160-65. 
Orontes,     river,     190,     215-19, 

25i»  257. 
Orthodox    Church,    15,    17-18, 

29.  93»  1 1  3-14,  204,  209//., 

247. 
'Othman,  Khalif,  148. 


Pan,  Grove  of,  154-55. 
Papayanni    Bey,    Qaimaqam    of 

Mount  Athos,  25,  33. 
Paphos,  54,  dd,  68. 
Parnassus,  7,  13. 
Persia,   148-49,  151,  189,  212,. 

264. 
Peter  I.,  King  of  Cyprus,  58. 
Prnar  Dagh,  20. 

Qades,  147,  151,  153. 
Qadmus,  213. 

Qal'at  el-Hosn,  194-202,  204-5, 
Qal'at  es-Subeibeh,  154-56. 
Qal'at  Sim'an,  249-50. 
Qapitan  Pasha,  the,  48-49. 
Qartal  Dagh,  65. 

Rabo,  215. 

Rhodes,  34,  39-54,  63,  261. 
Rhodes,  Vali  of,  48,  1 70. 
Rhodian  embroidery,  46. 
Rhodian  pottery,  31,  46-47. 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  55-57, 

260, 
Ruad  (Aradus),  208,  260-61. 
Rufa'i  Dervishes,  220. 
Russian    influence   in   the    East,. 

23-25,  98,  104-7. 
Russian     pilgrims,     38,     104-7, 

120,  134. 
Ruweiha,  229-30. 

Sabbatic  Fountain,  208. 

Safed,  145-47,  153-54- 

Safita,  197,  259,  262. 

St.  George,  155-56. 

St.  Hilarion,  castle  of,  58,  65-66. 

St.  Nicephorus,  29-31. 

Sajur,  river,  246. 


INDEX 


273 


Saladin,  101-2,  137-38,  165-66, 

240. 
Salamis  (Cyprus),  65. 
Salamis  (Greece),  7. 
Salonika,  19,  82. 
Samaria  (Sebastiyeh),  131. 
Samaritan  language,  126. 
Samaritans,  122-29,  '39'  ^^7- 
Sefturiyeh,  137,  140. 
Selim  II.,  Sultan,  59-60. 
Shiahs  and  Sunis,  148-52,  210- 

12,  266. 
Silpius,  Mount,  251-52. 
Smyrna,  34-36. 
Stavriotai,  68. 
Stylites,  15,  249-50. 
Subh-i-Ezel,  264-65. 
Swallow   Song  of  Rhodes,   the, 

50-52. 
Sword,  Order  of  the,  58. 
Syriac  Church,  see  Jacobites. 
Syriac  language,  126,  188,  248. 
Syrians,  206,  262-63. 

Tartus,  133,  195,  260-61. 
Tell  Ahmar,  242,  246. 
Tenedos,  35. 


Teonge,  Henry,  235-37. 

Thasos,  19-20,  25. 

Tiberias,  136-41. 

Tripoli,  195,  263. 

Tripoli,  Raymond  of,  137,  197, 

253-54- 
Troodos  Mountains,  61,  67-68. 
Turcomans,  250. 
Turkish  language,  247-48. 
Turkish   officials,    141-43,    169- 

70,  200-1,  234,  258. 
Turks,    I,   46,   60-62,    198-99, 

238-41. 

Urfa  (Edessa),  240,  243-46. 

Vairanshehir,  240. 
Venice,  59-60,  224,  256. 

Wadi  el-Kelt,  115-16. 
Wadi  Khashabeh,  154. 

Yarmuk,  battle  of  the,  161. 

Zahir  el-'Omar,  136,  139. 

Zirbe,  230. 

Zor,  mutesarrifliq  of,  240. 


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