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ESSAYS
ON
EASTERN QUESTIONS.
\A
ESSAYS
ON
EASTERN QUESTIONS.
BY
WILLIAM GIFFOPvD PALGEAYE,
AUTHOR OF ' CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARABIA.'
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1872.
OXFORD:
BY T. COJIBE, MA., E. B. GABDNEK, E. PICKABD HAI.L, AND 3. H. STACY,
I'UINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
6 ^ /^5-
■P3
tOANi STACK
B y i ^ D
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF DERBY
WHOSE GUIDANCE OF ENGLAND'S FOREIGN POLICY
HAS BEEN ALWAYS MARKED
BY A STATESMANLIKE INSIGHT
INTO
CHARACTER AND RACE
THESE ESSAYS
ARE RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR
as
INTRODUCTION.
To expect that the collection of a few Essays from the
scattered periodicals in which they originally appeared,
and their republication in a more condensed form, can
have any material effect towards removing erroneous
ideas, or substituting exacter ones, about the Maho-
metan East of our own times, would be presumptuous
indeed. Yet even these writings may in a measure
contribute to so desirable a result; for correct appreci-
ations are, like incorrect ones, formed not at once but
little by little : true knowledge is a construction, not a
monolith.
These Essays, taken together, form a sketch, mostly
outline, part filled in, of the living East, as included
within the Asiatic limits of the Ottoman Empire.
Now, as for centuries past, the central figure of that
picture is Islam, based on the energies of Arabia and
the institutions of Mahomet, propped up by the memories
of Chaliphs, and the power of Sultans; and, though
somewhat disguised by the later incrustations of Tura-
nian superstition, still retaining the chief lineaments,
and not little of the stability and strength, of its former
days. Round it cluster the motley phantoms of Eastern
Christianity, indigenous or adventitious ; and by its
VI INTRODUCTION.
side rises the threatening Russian colossus, with its
triple asj»ect of Byzantine bigotry, Western centrali-
zation, and Eastern despotism. This group, in its whole
and in some of its details, I have at different times en-
deavoured to delineate ; and if the pencil be an unskilful
one, its tracings, so far as they go, have the recommen-
dation, not perhaps of artistic gracefulness, but at
least of realistic truth.
The first, second, and third of these Essays have for
their object the portraiture of Mahometanism, as it now
exists among its followers throughout the greater part
of the East-Turkish Empire. A fourth assigns its
special attitude at the present day ; and a fifth gives
the details of a local development of the same force in
a remote corner of its demesnes.
In the sixth Essay the most prevalent forms of
Eastern Christianity are passed in review; while its
'Greek' or Byzantine modification is more minutely
illustrated in the seventh. The eighth describes one
of the many struggles between the Christianity of
Russia on one side, and the Islam of the Caucasus on
the other.
The ninth and tenth supply the background of Arab
life and vigour in the times which immediately preceded
or followed the birth of Mahomotanism.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. MaHOMETANISM IX THE LEVANT .... 1
II. Mahomet ANiSM in the Levant — Continued . 43
III. Mahometanism in the Levant — Concluded . . 81
IV. The Mahometan 'Revival' . . . . Ill
V. The Turkomans and other Tribes of the North-
east Turkish frontier 142
VI. Eastern Christians 164
VII. The Monastery of Sumelas 225
VIII. The Abkhasian Insurrection .... 250
IX. Thk Poet 'Omar 271
X. The Brigand, Ta'abbet Shubran . . . 301
I.
MAHOMET ANISM IN THE LEVANT.
Dead and buried had they seen me, so their ready tale they spread ;
Yet I lived to see the tellers buried all themselves and dead.
Arah Poet.
(Published in "Feaser's Magazine," August, 1870.)
NOTICE.
This and the two following were Avi'itten at Trebizond, in Asia
Minor, after several years of residence or travel. In these three
Essays I have endeavoured to classify, so far as possible, the Maho-
metan population of the East Ottoman Empire, according to its
principal social divisions ; with a separate sketch of the characteristic
features of each. Those of official rank, civil and military, come first ;
the landowners and peasants next ; then the mercantile classes ; the
learned professions follow ; while the pastoral tribes, Koorde or Arab,
the maritime classes, and the ' mixed multitude ' of the Mahometan
Levant bring up the rear. Why I have marshalled them in this
order will sufficiently appear in the treatment of the subject itself.
Like the other writings in this volume, these particular Essays have
no pretensions to being exhaustive ; they supply samples, suggest
general effects, and no more. But the samples are all facts ; and the
general effects the results of actual and long-continued observation.
The only objection I anticipate from some, is that my view of
human and Islamitic nature in the East is over-favourable ; more so,
at least, than that taken by many other European travellers and
writers, modern ones especially. But, after all, as we see and hear,
so we judge ; and ' to speak of a man as we find him,' is just judg-
ment. Perhaps, then, I have been more fortunate in my Eastern
experiences ; perhaps less prejudiced. Besides, a disciple in this
B
2 MAHOMETAN TSM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
matter of Chrysostom, himself a native of Syria, I hold with him, that
man has naturally more good in him than evil, is of himself more
prone to virtue than to vice; and I find, or seem to find, that
Mahometanism,— the nearest approach made by any set creed to what
is called ' natural religion,' — has perhaps, on the whole, less tendency
than any other system I am yet acquainted with, to cramp and thwart
the innate excellence of human nature. Hence I am not surprised to
meet with much that deserves esteem, much that attracts sjTiipathy,
among the followers of Islam; though much also is wanting, much
positively awry. Yet the earth is, as Clough says, 'very tolerably
beautiful ; ' and so are the men on it too, even though Mahometans.
The East, the Levant East especially, abounds in
sights charming at a distance, and in general eifect,
but of which the details will not always bear too
near an inspection. Constantinople when viewed
from the Bosporus, Damascus from the heights of
Anti-Lebanon, are instances in point.
But there are other sights in the Levant, beautiful
alike from far or near, partly on their own account,
partly from association and suggestion, the perspectives
of the mind. And to this class belongs one that our
Western friends may at their pleasure share with us,
if they will join in a saunter this evening across the
busy Meidan or open space — square we cannot call it,
though it answers the purposes of one, for it is the
most irregular of polygons — that lies in the eastern
quarter of our j'^'^^o temj^ore home, the town of Tre-
bizond, on the Black Sea coast. Round the verge of
this Meidan, and visible from it further off at intervals
through the town, rises a forest of tall thin minarets,
ghostly white against the slaty star-si)riiikled ssky.
But now each minaret is gorgeous with circlets of
light, some more, some fewer, formed by rows of lamps,
three, four, and five deep, threaded at intervals on
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 3
the slender half-seen stem. And even now, before
we are well across the Meidan, bursts forth from every
turret, from every crowned gallery of rays, the loud
modulated cry that asserts the Unity of God and the
veracity of the Prophet.
Some commemoration of more than ordinary sanctity,
some night of note, is evidently on hand; but as we
do not happen to be at the moment aware of the
precise date in the Mahometan calendar, we stop a
turbaned passer-by, who has just saluted us on his way
mosque-wards, and enquire of him what mean all these
extra lamps and accompanying signs of extra so-
lemnity. His reply reminds us that this is ' Leylet-
ul-Raghey'ib,' or ' Night of Desires ; ' the night namely
preceding the first Friday in Eegeb, sacred month,
and prelude of Kamadan ; whence follow many super-
natural excellences and privileges ; not much better
known, mayhap, to the Western world in general than
are those of St. John's or of Hallowmas Eve at
Trebizond itself.
A few minutes more, and beneath the festooned
lamps that illuminate the interior of every mosque,
line after line of turbans, reaching back from the
* Mihrab ' or sanctuary (an analogous but not an exact
translation), where stands the prayer-reciting ' Imam,'
to the outermost door, will at one ' Allaho-Akbar,' ' God
alone is great,' ' bow prostrate to the dust ; and the
head of the Pasha will touch the floor-mat side by side
with that of the poorest day-labourer of the town in
one act of adoration, one without more or less in each
and all ; the act that, while it acknowledges the divine
mission of Islam, rejects every other creed, every other
system.
That Mahometanism is fast declining, fading, waning
away ; that the day is not distant, may already be
B 2
4 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
calculated, when the mosques of the Turkish Empu"e
from Galatz to Basrah will convert or re-convert them-
selves into churches (though in favour of what par-
ticular form of Christianity may not be so easy to
conjectiu-e — the choice is a large one!); that pigs will
soon lose their prescriptive immunity from Turkish
knives, and beer and \vine wash excellent Anatolian
hams down once Islamitic throats ; that Mecca will
only be known as a railroad terminus, and the
Koran be registered by some Constantinopolitan
Disraeli among Curiosities of Literature, are pleasing
speculations, more pleasing as hopes, and fit to cheer
the drooping spirits of those who mourn over the con-
secration of a heretic, or the disestabhshment of a
Church. Nay, even the cool-blooded Gallio of Pall
Mall has been found among the predictors of the fall
of Islam ; and the verdict of a Mill or a Lefevre might
be on this subject not dissimilar in the main from that
of a Spurgeon or a Manning.
For ourselves, neither prophets nor sons of prophets,
but mere lookers-on, by business of the State or other-
wise, in Turkey, we must sadly confess that some
sixteen years or so of Levant residence have as yet
opened to us no glimpse of a so 'devoutly to be wished'
consummation ; nor do the converging lines of the
Mahometan prospect indicate to our optics any vanish-
ing point, however distant. On the contrary, if the
future be, as runs the rule, foreshadowed in the }>resent,
and if sight and hearing avail anything to discern the
' signs of the times,' these readily lighted lamps, these
answering cries ' No god but God,' * Mahomet is the
Prophet of God,' these long lines of Mecca -turned
worshippers, among whom every rank and degree is
merged in the brotherhood of Islam, tell a very dif-
ferent tale.
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 5
The ostricli was believed to hide its head in the sand
on the approach of danger ; and when it had thus
insured the disappearance of the hunter from its own
field of vision, to infer il logically that the said hunter
had ceased to exist. Ostriches of this kind are
numerous, not in Africa only, but eveu in Europe ;
minds that, when their own horizon, often a very
limited one, does not include a given object, are prone
to conclude that there is no such object at all. Add
the paternity of wish to thought, add a fair amount
of prejudice, add misinformation, and we shall cease
to wonder at certain statements and opinions current
enough about numerous topics, where facts would, we
might naturally have thought, have warranted con-
clusions precisely opposite. Islam, in its present and
in its future, may stand for an example.
Take misrepresentation only. Thus, we have heard,
not once, but repeatedly, and on seemingly good au-
thority, that the fast of Ramadan can now scarce lay
a claim to even a decent pretext of observance ; that the
veil is already dropping from the faces of Mahometan
women, the harem opening its jealous gates ; that the
mosque is habitually deserted for the theatre, the
* medreseh ' for the ' cafe chantant ; ' in a word, that
European customs, dresses, inventions, organisations,
literature, and so forth, will have soon rendered the
Asia of the Muslims a thing of the past.
Let us endeavour to determine first how far all tliis is
true ; and next, if more or less true, what it portends.
And here, at tlie very outset, we may be met by a
plausible objection, the objection of those who say,
* What need of further research in so beaten a field ? and
how should Europe, how should England in particular,
not know the East, whether Mahometan or Christian,
land, and people, and all 1 Is not all that lies from the
6 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
^gean to the Tigris, from the Black Sea to the
Persian Gulf, pictured in the pages of Keith, and
written in the book, the red-bound book, of Murray ^
Have not a Lane and a St. John given us the entree of
houses and harems ? has not a Slade passed the armies
and the navies of the East in review before us ? has not
a Strangford unveiled, evening by evening, the Isis
of its politics, a Sale the Cybele of its religion 1 Who
can err with such guides ? or complain of darkness
with so many and so brilliant lights around '{ '
True, the guides are faithful, the lights brilHant,
and the authorities first-rate, each in his kind. But
a handful of gold-dust would not be more surely lost
if scattered over a Sahara of sand than are the opinions
and facts conveyed by informants like these, when
diluted beyond all recognition among the far greater
number of errors, prejudices, and misstatements that,
having once found currency, still abound on every side.
Witness the giant misconceptions so often reflected
from European opinion upon European statesmanship
and diplomacy, regarding the relative positions of
' Christians ' and ' Turks ; ' witness the popular por-
traits of either worthy to lank with Shakespeare's Joan
of Arc or Dryden's Aurungzebe ; witness nine-tenths
at least of our leading newspaper articles on the
Sultan's visit in 1867 ; witness the surprise evinced
when any truer view of Mahomet and Mahometanism,
as Mr. Deutsch's admirable, though somewhat one-
sided, Essay in a late Quartei'ly, for instance, is given
to the world ; surj^rise which avows ]^re-existent ideas
of a very different colour. It would not be too much
to say that the vulgarly received idea of Mahometanism
as it was, is, and may be, bears scarce a closer resem-
blance to the reality than do Luther's Reforniatioii in
the pages of Baronius or the French lie volution in
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 7
those of Alison to their historical counterparts. Nor
is the reason far to seek.
When false has to be sifted from true, it often
becomes no less necessary to enquire who was the
sayer than what was the said ; more especially when
rehgions, parties, public characters, and the like,
are under discussion.
Now, excepting the few already noticed, and setting
aside those whom evident interest or national sym-
pathy excludes from the impartial witness-box, we
find our usual masters in the Eastern school to be
three : the Tourist, the Resident, and the Levantine.
Let us call them up each in his turn.
The average Tourist need not detain us long. He
who has studied Turks in Pera or in the Frank quarter
of Smyrna, and Arabs at Alexandria or Beyrout ; he
who has never conversed save through the medium of
a Greek or Maltese dragoman ; he who with time
limited by a travelling ticket, and with a stock in
hand of knowledge regarding Mahometan history, lite-
rature, and customs, equal about to that of ' Tancred '
setting out for Mount Lebanon and the Queen of the
' Ansarey,' as it pleases him to call them ; such a one
has all the right to speak and to be listened to re-
garding Mahometan Turkey, present or future, that a
Japanese or a Spaniard would have on Irish Church
Disestablishment or the Landlord and Tenant question
after an equal time passed on the quays of Portsmouth,
or in the precincts of Leicester Square. And even
should his random guesses and hazardous assertions
ever happen to be right, small merit of his, — ' a hit,
but no aicher,' says the Arab proverb.
Nor can the resident Europeans, forty-nine out of
fifty, show a better title to their magisterial diploma.
Cigarette-smoking for four or five houis in an otfice or
8 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
chancery, lounging for two or three more along a
European-frequented road, or boating it on the Bos-
porus ; tlie rest of their time passed in society
exclusively European and mostly national, amid Euro-
pean cards and billiards, or reading the latest arrived
European periodicals ; unless the knowledge of Islam
and the solution of its problems be imparted like the
wisdom of Solomon during the hours of sleep, it is
hard to conjecture when or where our European friends
whom diplomatic, consular, or commercial interests
detain in the East, can possibly acquire them. The
truth is, that far the greater number neither possess
such knowledge, nor care to possess it.
But if the Resident, whatever his real or acquired
nationality, Latin or Teutonic, be not a genuine Euro-
pean, but a Levantine, that is, one born in the Levant,
and with a moiety of Greek or Armenian blood in his
veins to dilute the other half, French, English, or
Itahan, as luck may have it, then, 'oh thou, whom-
soever thou mayst be,' desirous of solving the Asian
mystery, pass on, nor hope in that office, in that par-
lour, at that table, to read the riddle of the East.
No man would seem by birth and circumstance better
entitled to cosmopolitanism than the Levantine ; no
one in fact passes through and out of this world in
completer ignorance of all except its Levantine aspect
even as regards that little corner where he has vege-
tated. To a more than Eur()i)ean non-acquaintance
with the spirit and often with the very letter of the
institutions around him, the Levantine adds a more
than Greek or any otlier 'native Christian' prejudice
against the Prophet and his followers. ' Rakee ' his
ordinary, sometimes his hourly, drink, cards his chief
pastime, dogs liis pet companions, swine-ilesh, where
attainal)le, his favourite food ; all four ol»jects as re-
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 9
pulsive to any true Maslini as the first could be to
a teetotaler, the second to a Quaker, the third to a
Goethe, and the fourth to a Jew ; no wonder that
his house is rarely visited by a disci j^le of Islam, and
then only under the compulsion of some immediate
necessity, some affair to be quickly and exclusively
despatched. Nor is the Levantine himself more fre-
quently found within the doors of his Mahometan
neighbours. A band apart, he and his colleagues pass
their hours in the tattle and scandle-mongering of
their tribe, aping, but never imitating, European
fashion, ' alia Franga,' as they call it ; of Europe it-
self, its politics and its tendencies, its feelings and
customs, they may possibly have what imported know-
ledge Galignani or Charivari can give at a distance;
with the Asiatic, the Mahometan world around them,
they have no communion whatever. The nearest, the
only point at which the circle touches the Islamitic
is in words of command or abuse to some Mahometan
out-of-door servant, whom poverty has induced to
accept the pay of the 'Giaour' he despises — ah, Byron,
Byron ! how came you ever to make the ' Giaour ' into
a hero ? — or in the fellowship of some ne'er-do-weel
' Be-lillah,' i.e. scapegrace of a young Turk, in whom
strong di'ink and its accompaniments have efiaced all
of Islam except the name.
Besides, if we look over to the other side of the
hedge, we shall find that the genuine turban-wearer,
be he Turk or Arab (of Persians we advisedly say
nothing), is on many grounds averse from too much
i'.itercourse with the hat-wearei", Levantine or Euro-
pean even. National pride, the pride of a conquering
though now a declining race, the haughty memories
of gxeat Caliphs and Sultans, the sack of Constanti-
nople, the siege of Vienna, the conquest of half a
10 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
world keep him at a distance from those whose every
gesture is an assumption, not of equality merely, but
of superiority ; rehgious pride, the pride of him who
bows to one God only, the Unchanging, the All-power-
ful, the Eternal, estranges him from the polytheist, the
idolater, the unbeliever ; personal pride contrasts his
own ceremonial purity with the uncleanness of the
unablutioned swine-eater ; family pride places a barrier
between the ' Beg,' the descendant of so many noble
chiefs, so many lords, and those of whose fathers he
knows nothing, except that they may have been, and
23robably were, shopkeepers or spirit-sellers.
Injurious and blameable such feelings may be, but
they exist ; nor are we now occupied on a diatribe or
a panegyric ; we only state simple facts.
But no such sentiments intervene to hold aloof
the ' native Christian ' from welcoming in the Euro-
pean resident or visitant, if not a man and a brother,
at least a tool and a gain. He f\istens on the stranger
as naturally, I once heard a Turk say, as a flea on
a dog ; and is not more easily to be shaken off". His
tongue is ready for any flattery, however gross ; his
hand for any service, however base ; while his eye is
steadily fixed on the lodestar of the European's pocket,
whither hand and tongue tortuously but surely direct
his course. He is the first to greet the new-comer
on the steps of the Custom-house, and the last to quit
him on the quarter-deck of the steamer ; the Alpha
and the Omega of the profits are his also. Thus re-
pelled on the one side, and attracted on the other,
what wonder if the traveller, ignorant of those he
foregathers with no less than of those from whom he
turns away, hears and sees only through Greek,
Maltese, or Armenian ears and eyes ; if the Levantine
herds with his kind, or, lower still, with the store-
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 11
house keepers and retail-job dealers of the native
Christian population ; while the resident gentleman,
diplomatic, consular, or business, strives to preserve
his own national mind and tone, by excluding the
contact of every other; and returns, after few years
or many, to Florence, Paris, or England, almost as
Italian, French, or English, as when he first arrived
in the East, and also almost as ignorant ? Nor can
he be much blamed for so doing ; better, in general,
no companionship at all than the companionship of
such as hang on the Europeans foot-track in the
Levant.
Enough of these and theirs. Let us now cast aside
(in imagination only, of course) the hat, don the tur-
ban, and survey the Islamitic world around us from
an Islamitic point of view. And, hey presto ! the
supposed unit ' Mahometan ' disentangles itself into a
round dozen of figures, each different from the other,
and each holding a distinct and separate place in the
gradations of Islam, as in those of nationality and
patriotism.
It is a very trite observation, yet one to be carefully
borne in mind, that in the Levantine East — that is,
throughout the entire tract of country included really
or nominally in the existing Asiatic Turkish Empire —
nationality and religion are almost convertible terms,
so much that not the specific differences only, but
even the intensitive degrees of the latter, go far on
investigation to trace out the limits of the former ;
which is itself again, historically considered, the
groundwork and often the ultimate cause of the latter.
Among Mahometans, however, the essential simplicity
of whose creed hardly admits of other dogmatic varia-
tions than shadings too faint almost for the eye of
an outsider, the correctness of this rule is at times
1 2 3fA IIOMETANISM ly THE L E VA X T. [i .
less evident than it is among the adherents of the
more modifiable, because more complicated, Cliristian
formula ; though it may in general be exemplified
not ambiguously in varieties of practice, even amid
apparent uniformity of theory. But these varieties,
which arrest at once the eve of an Eastern, miofht
prove unnoticeable, or, at least, unintelligible, to a
European.
Hence, while not forgetful of the general rule, we
will on this occasion assume a different classification,
and review our Levantine Mahometans accordinof to
their social rather than their national distribution.
To the Civil Service, so important in a country where
self-government is not even an aspiration, we will
assign the first place ; the military must content them-
selves with the second ; land-owners and peasants,
merchants and to^vnsmen, lawyers and divines, shall
follow in due order. Shepherds, sailors, dervishes, and
such like odds and ends of society will find their place
as occasion offers ; wholly anomalous classes, Koordes
and Bedouins for instance, require to be treated of
apart. Nor will we minutely distinguish in each class
between its ccjmponent Turks and Arabs ; though, as
our actual residence lies — much to our regret — among
the former, we will give their nationality the prece-
dence throughout.
''Tis known, at least it should be known,' that or-
thodox Mahornetanism admits four doctrinal schools,
slightly differing each from each in theory and in prac-
tice ; those, namely, of Moluunmed Ebn Idreescsh-Sha-
fey'ee ; of Malek Ebn Ins ; of Ahmed Ebn Hanbal ;
and of Nooman Aboo-Haneefali. Now wliile tlie three
former have found favour among Arabs and other
Semitic or African races, the Turks on their first con-
version to Islam adoi)ted and have ever since adhered
I.] MAHOMET AN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 13
to the fourth, or Hanefee school. It was well said by
the shrewd and learned Mohee-ed-Deen (of Hamah, in
Syria), that ' in the circle of orthodoxy, the teaching of
Ebn Hanbal' (the strictest among the four great
masters) ' might stand for the centre, and that of
Aboo-Haneefah for the circumference.' More indul-
gent than any of his brother doctors, Aboo-Haneefah
stretched the rigid lines of Islam almost to breaking ;
the doubtful concessions of a moderate indulgence in
fermented liquors, of non-Mahometan alliance, and of
considerable facilitations in the laborious ceremonies of
prayer and pilgrimage, with a general tendency, not
unlike that of the Eoman Catholic Liguori, to relax
whatever was severe, and soften whatever was harsh
in theory as in practice, all characterise his teaching.
At the same time, in obedience to a well-known y sycho-
logical law, the easiest-going of divines was — Liguori-
like again — the most superstitious. Omens and auguries,
dreams and amulets, the observance of lucky days, and
the annual visitation of tombs, these and more of their
kind found favour in the eyes of Aboo-Haneefah ;
while his dervish-Kke austerity of life, and his avowed
claim to no less than a hundred visionary admittances
within the celestial regions, revealed the great Doctor's
personal leanings, and encouraged that fanciful asce-
ticism which in Islam no less than in Christianity has
proved an outgrowth from, if not a corruption of, its
original simplicity.
Naturally enough the double trunk bore in due time
double fruit, and the Turkish Hanefee, even while
holdmg fast enough, in Cameronian phrase, 'the root
of the matter,' has been of all times notorious for his
proclivity now to the too much, and now to the too
little ; sometimes lax, sometimes observant in excess.
Specimens of either kind abound in all professions and
14 MAUOMETANISM IX THE LEVANT. [r.
modes of life tliroughout the Empire ; but in some
categories the one, in some the other, is more frequent.
However, the former, or lax type, is most often to be
met with in the Civil Service, our first field of inspec-
tion, and which has had the honour, more than all the
rest, of producing that peculiar being commonly desig-
nated by the epithet of * Stamboollee,' or ' Constantino-
politan,' to which derivative the title ' Effendee,' a word
equivalent in meaning to our * Mr./ but now-a-days of
a semi-official character, is liberally added. Let him
come forward and speak for himself.
He is easily recognised ; for besides his individual
frequency, especially since the publication of the last
new ' Tashkeelat,' or Eegulations, he is the first, and
not rarely the only, Mahometan whose acquaintance is
made by the European traveller or resident. Whether
our ' Stamboollee ' bears the rank of Efiendee, of Beg,
or of Pasha, matters little. The same loose black
frock-coat, black trousers, generally unbuttoned just
where European ideas would most rigorously exact
buttoning, the same padded underclothes, shiny boots,
and slight red cap, the same sallow pufly features, indi-
cative of an unhealthy regimen, the same shuffling
gait and lack-lustre eye, characterise every man of the
tribe : —
Facies non omnibus una,
Nee diversa tamen.
Let US follow our Effendee' s career from the day
when his father first held him up, a swathed infant,
with his face towards the ' Kibleh,' and thrice pro-
nounced the Mehemet, Osman, or Ahmed, by which
our hero is to be known in after life. We may, how-
ever, omit the gutter-] laying period of existence, that
almost indispensable i)reface to every Eastern biogra-
I.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 15
phy, be it gentle or simple ; and pass lightly over the
four, five, or six years at the Mekteb, or Grammar
School, where, however, the young idea learns, not
grammar, but the first rudiments of reading minus
spelling, and of writing mimes caligraphy, besides a
certain number of the shorter * Soorahs/ or chapters of
the Koran, consigned to sheer mechanical memory,
without so much as an attempt to form any notion of
the meaning. Issuing with these acquirements from
the ' Mekteb,' he passes another half-dozen years chiefly
under his father's roof, alternating between the ' Sa-
lamlik ' of hourly visitors, and the secluded apartments
of the Harem ; while day by day the spoilt child grows
gradually up into a spoilt boy ; humoured in every
whim by a fond and foolish mother, a fond and not
overwise father, and servants whose intimacy supplies
timely lessons of vice and roguery, wliile their obse-
quiousness promotes not less efficaciously his growth in
insolence and self-will. Of general knowledge, of moral
and mental discipline, of self-restraint and self-respect,
of the dignity of work, the bond of duty, the life of
honourable deed, he learns nothing ; these are growths
all too strange to the climate of his rearing. Besides the
parents and servants already mentioned is some poorly-
paid, salary-snatching iKhojah,' or private tutor, under
whose instruction he attains a fairly good handwriting,
a parrot-knowledge of ' Nahoo,' or grammar, that is, of
Arab grammar, wholly alien in its principles, and
mostly alien in its application, from whatever is Turk-
ish, Tatar, or Turanian, Mr. Ferguson might say, in
the vernacular language. To this he may, perhaps,
add a no less parrot-smattering of Arab and Persian
literature. Occasional attendance at a ' Mekteb Rush-
dee,' or ' School of guidance,' by which name the higher-
class establishments of public education are designated.
16 MAHOMETANTSM IX THE LEVANT. [i.
will probably have coated over his intellectual store
with a superficial varnish of French. Of history,
geography, mathematics, and positive sciences, as of
English, German, or any other European tongue, ex-
cept the all-supplementing French, he is, and will for
all his life, remain blissfully ignorant. But in cigarette-
smoking, in gambling, probably in vice, perhaps in
drinking, and certainly in the arts of lounging and time-
wasting, he is already a creditable proficient, almost a
master. If learning only went by contraries, he might
have further acquired the science of economy from the
paternal housekeeping, truthfulness and honour from
the ' Khizmetkars ' and ' Chibookjees ' (house-servants
and pipe-bearers), his earliest and closest associates,
diligence from the lads of his own age and standing at
school and in the street, and job-hating probity from
the French and Levantine examples held up to his
admiration as pattern types of civilisation and progress.
Needs not track our hero minutelv tlirouofh the
various phases of his after career, which we will
suppose an upward one, in service and in salary.
But whether his ultimate apotheosis rank him among
the ' Musheers,' or privy-councillors, those first mag-
nitude stars of the Ottoman Empire, or whether de-
ficiency of patronage and of purse detain him in the
dim nebula of * Kateebs,' or Government clerks ;
whether his lines be cast among the 'Mudeerliks'
and ' Kaimmakamliks' (local prefectures) of some dis-
tant half-barbarous province, or fall in pleasant places
under the immediate shadow (the broiling sun we
should rather say) of the august ' Kapoo ' or Con-
stantinople Downing Street itself, the man is still
the same. At twenty, at eighteen, at sixteen even,
his character was formed for life. The intellectual
coating, thinner or thicker, which French professors,
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 17
and a certain amount of contact with Gallo- or Italo-
Levantine associates may have given, will indeed rub
off; his cosmical science will return to, or sink below,
the level of El-Mas'udee ; his historical store shrink
within the limits of the ' Musteclrif ' or the 'Nowadir
Soheylee,' at best ; and so forth. But moral modifi-
cations are more quickly wrought, and, in the average
of things, more firmly retained, than intellectual.
Hence our ' StambooUee ' will all his life long be
ready, occasion given, to put in practice the lessons
taught in the school whence his real tutors issued,
the royal law of which patronage is the first table,
and dishonesty the second. ' Alia Franga ' has been
the motto of his youth, it will be the guide of his
advancing years. But what 'Alia Franga!' His
notions of family life, of social intercourse, of general
morality, will be a reflex of George Sand and of Bal-
zac ; his notions of probity, political or monetary, of
the Savoy and Jecker transactions ; his notions of
finance will be borrowed from Khaviar-Klian, the
Bourse of Galata ; his notions of statesmanship from
the charlatanism of Pera, and the expediencies of the
day. Of old Turkish courage, Turkish honour, Turk-
ish decorum, scarce a trace, if even a trace, will
remain. A Turkish Pasha afraid to mount a horse,
a high-titled Osmaulee jobbing Government lands and
public works to the profit of his own pocket, a Beg
the son of Begs openly drinking ' rakee ' in a street-
side tavern among Greek and Armenian rabble —
things little dreamt of by the Sokollis and Koprilees
of former times — are now not uncommon, are now of
daily occurrence, but among the StambooUee tribe.
The prospects of Islam if confided to the sole guar-
dianship of such as these may easily be guessed. Life-
less, spiritless, regardless of everything except the
c
18 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
most trifling amusemeuts, the meanest self-interest,
the coarsest pleasures, with all the apathetic negli-
gence of the degenerate Turk, united to all the
frivolous immorality of the degenerate Perote Levan-
tine ; without public spirit, without patriotism, with-
out nationality ; what place can the law of the austere
'Omar, the intrepid Khalid, the generous Mu'amah, the
energetic Ma'moon find in such breasts 1 How should
minds like these apprehend the stem, unchanging
unity of the all-ordaining, all-regulating Deity of
Islam, the operosus nimis Deus, whom even Cicero
recoiled from "? or how entertain one spark of the
single-minded enthusiasm of the soldier-Prophet, who,
having subdued an entire nation to his will, and
founded an empire scarcely less vast but more lasting
than that of the Csesars, left not in death where-
withal to give liis o\\m body a decent burial '?
In fact, were the type of modern Mahometanisra
and the presage of its destinies to be sought in this
class, and among these men, we might here lay aside
our task, leave our friends and readers to draw their
own conclusions, and for our own part subscribe to
the nearest date at which — his Infallible Holiness,
let us say — may choose to fix the doomsday of Islam.
But this would be, in French phrase, a ' massive error,'
though it is the very one to which Euro])eans, official
even, are prone, led astray by the identical circum-
stance which has led us to place our ' SUimboollee '
in the vanguard of the Mahometan procession, namely,
his bad prominence rather than eminence. The first
glance at a pool rests chiefly on the scum of the
surface ; the first object that comes into view on a
steeple is the weathercock. ' Stamboollees ' are but the
scum of the pseudo-centralisation of that very dirty
pool, tlie ca])ital, of the varnisli civilisation of Beg-
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 19
Ogloo ; they are the weathercock, an ominous one
undoubtedly, but indicative only of the Westerly
breeze that for some years past, sweeping over the
Bosporus and the -<^gean, is now awakening a yet
stronger counterblast of Easterly antagonism.
But before gladly dismissing them, to pass on to
other classes in the long catalogue yet before us, let
us add a word to anticipate a second error that some
might fall into, imagining the luilovely portrait just
drawn to be so far a family one that it might stand
at random for any member whatever of the present
Ottoman Civil Service.. It is not so. That the 'Ka-
lara,' or civil staff of the Porte, has much too large
a proportion of the men above described we cannot
deny ; but it contains also in its ranks, both upper
and lower, numerous individuals of a very different
stamp, — men whose souls know what it is to have a
cause, and whose cause is their duty and their coun-
try ; men of the old sturdy Osmaulee caste, not
wholly imadorned by European acquirements ; men
who, in Cromwell's words, ' bring a conscience to their
work,' and whose conscience is that of Islam. But it
is not among the ' Stambool-Effendee ' latter-day crea-
tion, among the selfish, the frivolous, the emasculate
set of those whose sham-Europeanism blossoms in the
atmosphere of Mabille and ' cafes chantants,' of gam-
bling-rooms and third-class theatres, that we must look
for specimens of this better, and in the Civil Service,
we say it with regret, this rarer type. They are
plants of another soil ; the offspring of classes which
will claim our attention further on. But they are
also less prominent from a stranger's point of view ; a
European may pass months and even years in Turkey,
and yet rarely come across these men, or recognise
them when he does. The others readily, and, as it
c 2
20 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
were, by a kind of prescriptive right, obtrude them-
selves on his notice, and form the staple material of
his opinions and judgments. On these, with their
stereotyped phrases of borrowed French about civili-
sation, progress, and so forth, he is apt to build alike
his hopes for Turkey and his prognostics of the eva-
nescence of Islam — hopes and prognostics which, to
be themselves firm, should rest on a deeper and wider
basis than the ejDhemeral Stamboollee clique, or even
the administration of which it forms a part. Any
given bureaucracy is a page easily turned over in the
history of an empire.
' The sword is a surer argument than books,' sang,
in the third century of Islam, its great poet Habeeb
et-Tai'ee ; and eminent as undoubtedly were the ad-
ministrative qualities which for so many lustres gave
the tribe of Osman the ascendency over the countless
races that bowed to their dominion, yet the sword
has always been their first boast and their ultimate
reliance. Nor even now that the Janissaries have
reddened the annals of the past with their blood, and
the very names of Sipahees, Segbans, Akinjees, Le-
wends, and Gunellees are almost forgotten, now that
the breech-loader and the rifled cannon have sup-
planted the horse-tails and lances of Varna and
Mohacs ; while annual conscription and the European
discipline of the Nizam, or standing army, have re-
placed the fierce charge of the irregular cavalry, and
the fantastic varieties of tributary and ])rovincial
troops ; not even now has the Osmanlee sabre wholly
lost its edge, or is it less than of old the ready
servant of the ' Ghazoo,' the Holy War of Islam.
During and after the Crimean war it was a common
fashion to speak slightingly, sneeringly even, of the
Turkish army and soldiery, and of the part they took
1.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 21
in the great struggle ; and although this tone was
more marked in the leaders and among the corre-
spondents of the European Daily Press than among
those actively present on the scene, yet even in many
of the Europeans there concerned, some of them high
iu rank and command, there was a fixed disposition
to consider the Osmanlee troops, army or navy, as
mere cannon's meat, a half-organised, poor-spirited,
unsoldierly rabble, deficient alike in discipline and
courage. How far such an idea was true, or rather
how far it was from all truth. Admiral Slade's faithful
and unprejudiced narrative might alone suffice to show.
And we may safely add, that not only they who, like
the gallant admiral, were themselves art and part of
the Turkish force, but those also who, present under
other colours, had the best opportunities for observing
with eyes undazzled by national self-glorification, and
of hearing with ears undeafened by national self-ap-
plause, came to no dissimilar conclusion from his. And,
perhaps, should a veracious account, not one cooked
up by Greek dragomans and Levantine consular agents,
of the late Cretan war, ever find its way to Europe,
it might prove a fair appendix to Slade's Crimean
War, in spite of Mr. Skinner and the Pirsean tele-
graph.
But, meanwhile, leaving the historical field, where
party spirit too often fights the battles o'er again in
ink, with scarce less animosity than they were first
fought in blood, we will have recourse to present
observation ; and in the study of the materials which
compose the existing Turkish army, seek a clue to a
tolerable estimate of the military class itself, officers
and soldiers ; after which we may judge what are
the justifiable hopes or fears of Islam in this quarter.
Born and bred on some green hill-side, in a wretched
22 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
single-roomed cottage, our Turkish lad, after years of
hoeing and reaping, sheep-tending, donkey-driving,
wood-cutting, or charcoal-burning, as the case may be,
arrives at the age of twenty, or near it. One day he
is summoned from his village, along with a dozen
other youths of his class, to the ballot-urn of the
conscription, and his lot is cast with the army for the
next five years at least, probably more. Finding
himself thus suddenly on the point of being separated,
perhaps without hope of return, from the almost des-
titute family of which he is the principal if not the
only stay, our raw recruit mingles his tears and
entreaties for exemption with those of his younger
brothers and sisters, his aged mother, and his anxious,
almost despairing relatives. But all is of no avail ;
so he and his say in joint resignation theu* 'kismet'
or ' God's allotment,' and Ahmed takes his place among
the ragged crowd of his fellow recruits, in accoutre-
ment and guise more scarecrow than any of Falstaff's
corps at Coventry ; in warlike spirit, a chance observer
might tliink, a fit companion for a Mouldy or a
Eullcalf.
Six months later we enquire in the 101st Regiment
after our tattered, weeping peasant. Summoned by
the ' cha'oush,' or sergeant, Ahmed answers the call ;
but how different from his former self on the ballot
day ! Light work, good food, comfortable lodgings —
all these, relatively, of course, to what he was ac-
customed to in his koilee or peasant stage of existence,
have reddened his cheeks, filled out his limbs, and
lighted up his once-dull eye ; a system of drill that
would hardly, perhaps, pass muster at Aldershot, but
which has all the practical advantages that even a
R. H. Commander-in-Chief should take into account ;
a practical though coarse uniform, sadly deficient, we
I.] MAEOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 23
allow, in the ingenious Western devices of bear-skins,
slioiilder-straps, and heart-disease, but not, perhaps,
the worse for that after all, have done their work,
and transformed every movement, gait, and bearing
of the clown into those of the soldier. Add, that
his drill and discipline have, so far as they go, been
acquired under the tutorage of a corporal whose
demeanour towards him has been that of an elder to
a younger brother, and beneath the eye of officers
with whom kindness to their men is the rule, harsh-
ness the occasional and rare exception. Democratic,
communistic, as is by nature every Turk, he is doubly
so in military life — round, in the old Osmanlee phrase,
one caldron, under, in the more refined language of
our time, one standard. Hence throughout the Turk-
ish army distinctions of rank are, when off duty,
frequently laid aside to a degree that would startle,
and justly so, a European officer, who would, for his
part, have good reason to fear the contempt bred of
familiarity. Of this, however, among Eastern soldiery
the danger, unless provoked by intrinsically degrading
conduct, is very slight. The professional fellow-feehng
which binds soldiers most of all men together is here
not only broad but deep, and not only pervades rank
and file, but passes upwards and downwards alike,
from the general to the bandsman.
But to return to our recruit. If sick he has been
tended in a good bed by doctors, less learned, perhaps,
than those of a Paris hospital, but also, it may be, less
often unfeeling or negligent, while his hours of illness
have been cheered by the easily-admitted visits of his
comrades, possibly more than once of his lieutenant or
captain. In barrack-quarters he has learnt orderly and
cleanly habits, not, indeed, of pipeclay severity, but
amply sufficient to the service and the climate, while at
24 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
all times the camp discipline, however strict in essen-
tials, has been what in Europe would be called easy-
going, almost to laxness in details. In a word, the man
has been made comfortable mentally no less than
physically, and he requites those who have made him. so
by willing obedience, and a respect no less real because
tempered by the confidence of attachment. At any rate,
no Turkish guard-room rings to the sound of a musket
discharged against an officer's head, or through the
bearer's own heart ; no sergeant need fear the finding
himself at a lonely corner with any private of the
regiment, however armed ; and no soldier leaves behind
him the ' in memoriam ' that the conduct of his captain
or his colonel has driven him to despair.
To this fortunate equilibrium of individual freedom,
and regimental subordination, or rather to the formation
of the temperament which allows and maintains it, many
causes have concurred, but none more so than that one
dictum of the Prophet's, ' Surely fermented liquor is a
snare of the devil ; avoid it if you hope to prosper.'
Pity almost that our Western code should be less
stringent in this particular ; its observance would ma-
terially benefit our soldiers, and our soldiers' wives and
children too, let alone others. In fact, how much evil
and misery this single prohibitory warning, attended to
in the main, has averted from lands which would else
have been very wretched, those are well aware who
have have had the opportunity of contrasting an East-
end Christmas or a Liverpool Saturday-night with a
Mahometan ' Beyram ' or festival-day at Damascus, for
example, or in Stambool itself (Pera and Galata always
excepted). But it is in the army, above all, that the ill
effects of strong drink, and, l)y contrast, the good effects
of its absence, are most clearly seen, and justify the fore-
sight of him who sought above all to ti'ain up a nation
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 25
of fighting-men ; and the temperance precept of the
Koran is in general as faithfully observed by the Ma-
hometan soldier as it is habitually violated by the
black-coated Effendee. But with the military jacket
the Osmanlee puts on also the mantle of zeal dropped
by the Prophet on his best followers ; and in this zeal,
whether we stigmatize it under the name of fanaticism,
or decorate it as patriotic enthusiasm, lies the true secret
of the strength of that young-old army ; hence its
endurance, its stubborn courage ; hence its daring when
worthily led, its amazing patience when neglected and
thrown away. The fire of Islam may have been covered,
seemingly choked, under the ashes of poverty and care,
while the future soldiers were yet in their village
homes ; once within roll-call the ashes are blown away,
and the flame bursts forth bright as ever. Witness the
annals of the army of the Danube in 1854 and 1855 ;
witness what gleams of military truth have pierced the
veil cast by partisanship and misrepresentation over the
campaigns of Montenegro and Candia ; we oiurselves
may yet live to witness more.
Sober, patient, obedient, cheerful, indifferent to
danger, ready for death, and a thorough-going Mahome-
tan in heart and practice, such is the average Turkish
private. And the officers'? It was till lately a common
saying that in the Ottoman army the men were better
than the officers by as much as in the Russian army the
officers were better than the men. With all due allow-
ance for the inaccuracy of generalisations, there is even
now some truth in this one — there was formerly much
more. Nor could it, indeed, be otherwise, in what
concerns the Turks at least. To form an officer, still
more to form a corps of officers, possessing the requisite
amount of technical knowledge, perfected by apt ex-
perience and animated by the true military spirit, is a
26 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
much slower work tlian to call together a body of
recruits and equip them with kit and musket. IMah-
mood II. could do the latter by an act of his will ; he
could not do the former ; time alone could. And time
is already fast doing it. Forty years since the shameful
treaty of Adrianople, thirteen years of comparative
leisure since the equivocal advantages of the Paris
settlement, have indeed been little better than thrown
away on the self-satisfied, French-phraseologising, in-e-
sponsible, irreformable 'Kalam' or civil service. They
have not been thrown away on the ' Kileej,' the sword,
the army. Even now we recognise the hope -giving
results of preliminary instruction and examination, of
promotion accorded more to merit and seniority, and
less to backstairs intrigue and vizierial favour; of active
service in the case of some, of long camp life with others,
and, in all, the energetic rivalry natural to men who,
while filling a post to which they feel belong of right
the highest honours of the empire, yet find themselves
sunk by the present order of things into a second and
subordinate category ; men capable of command, born
soldiers and trained officers ; men too, with but few ex-
ceptions, rarer and more anomalous every day, staunch
Islam as any of the soldiers in their ranks.
Closely connected with this is another feature of the
Ottoman army, which, rightly considered, bears strong
witness to the intensity of its Mahometanism, we mean
the general absence of that systematic peculation and
corruption which so widely pervade the civil service.
Since the day when the Vizier Shemsoe Pasha avenged,
such was his spiteful boast, the downfall of his ancestors,
the Kizil-Ahmedlees, on the Ottoman dynasty, by in-
oculating the latter with the corruption which he
himself derived, if traditicni says true, from his great
but greedy forefather Khalid Ebn-Walecd, bribery
I.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 27
and peculation, now direct and barefaced, now disguised
under the decent names of ' Bakhsheesh,' i.e. present, or
'Iltimas,' i.e. favour, have been the dry rot of the
Tuikish fabric in its ahnost every joist and beam. In
the military, and in the military service alone, they rarely
find place. True, the minute overhauling of accounts,
regimental or other, which has wisely been established
in the Ottoman army, renders dishonest dealing less
facile there than elsewhere ; but no control could long
be efficacious were it not sustained and verified by a
general spirit above unworthy doings, an honour dis-
dainful of profitable stain. This spirit was that of
'Omar, of Aboo-Bikr, of Mahomet himself. The 'proud
Moslem,' the ' bearded Turk that rarely deigns to speak,'
and many similar phrases have become in a manner
stereotyped from frequent use, and to a certain extent
they represent a truth. ' No higher nobility than Islam,'
says the three-foot character inscription over the main
entrance of our chief mosque at Fatimahpolis ; and it is
when enrolled in the ranks of the army that the MusHm
thoroughly feels himself a Muslim, and acts accordingly.
In the bureau and on the market-place his associations
are different, and so, but too often, are his dealings also.
But be he Turk or Arab, Negro or Circassian, his normal
standing-ground is the camp, his truest name a soldier,
and the whole honour of his heart and being is in each.
' My foot is on my native heath, and my name is
MacGregor,' is but a feeble counterjjart of the ' Allaho-
Akbar,' ' God and victory,' of the Mahometan onslaught.
Meanwhile, earnestness gives stability, and in time of
peace no men can be more orderly, more amenable, not
to military discipline only, but to the customary re-
straints of law and society, than Turkish soldiers. The
fact, from its very generality, passes without comment.
Thus it is only a few weeks since that we have seen
28 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
four thousand men who, after many weary weeks of hot
autumn march from the interior across mountams
rivalling the Pyrenees in height, were shipped off much
after the fashion of cattle from Hamburg, or negroes
from Zanzibar, to make part of the imperial holiday for
the crowned quidnuncs of Europe on the Bosporus, and
have now been once more disembarked in this our road-
stead of Fatimahpolis, here to wait days and weeks till
the intervals of winter-storm may permit them to recross
the mountain wall home again. Market, street, lane,
square, beach, fountain-head — all Turkish towns abound
in fountain-heads, often tastefully sculptured — every
place, in short, is thronged by soldiers, each with the
gratuity that French and Austrian liberality or decency
has bestowed, no insignificant sum for a peasant
youngster to carry about with him at his own disposal.
Yet not a single extra case is brought before the police
courts, not a voice of quarrel or complaint is to be heard
in the street; the few officers who accompany the men
may sit unanxious and undisturbed in the coffee-houses ;
evening after evening passes off quiet and orderly into
the unbroken silence of an Eastern night ; morning
dawns, and if the shops and baths are crowded, the
mosques are not less so ; not one of the four thousand
but turns to Mecca five times a day, in witness to the
unity of God and the mission of the Prophet.
The Kussian soldiers before Silistria, or beleaguered
in Sebastopol, were undoubtedly devoted to their Em-
peror, and zealous for the great orthodox faith. Yet
their zeal and devotion required to be moistened with
extra libations of Vodka, and fostered in the hot-house
atmosphere of fictitious weeping Theotokoi, and under-
ground communications affirmed and believed in with
Petersburg and Paradise. Tlie French army adored
Napoleon the Conqueror, and was jealous even to slaying
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 29
for the honour of 'la grande nation;' but for them,
too, the stimulant of forty ages had to be invoked from
the top of the Pyramids, and promised plunder did
much before Moscow. The British troops stood their
ground heroically at Waterloo, but then they had a
WeUington at their head. Unliquored, unstimulated,
unharangued, too often it has been unofficered, the Otto-
man soldier has gone unhesitating to the death which
gave new life to his empire in the days of Catherine
and of Nicholas. And the sword of Islam, though
rusted, has not lost its virtue.
So far of the Turkish uniform, civil and military, and
of the hopes thereby given to Mahometanism ; much
from the military, little, if truth must be said, from the
civil. Yet the future, after all, lies in the great masses,
Arab, Koorde, Turk, Turkoman, and Syrian, of the
Eastern empire.
These masses are chiefly agricultural, owners or
cultivators of the soil, and it is for that reason that we
have assigned to the landed proprietors, taken in con-
junction with the peasants around them, the priority of
order over the two remaining classes, namely, the
commercial and the learned, or legal. Manufacturing
interest, properly speaking, is, our readers know, none
in Turkey ; whatever manufacturing skill formerly ex-
isted and even, to a certain extent, flourished, having
been long since smothered well-nigh to death under the
bales of printed IManchesters and other products of
European machinery tha^t every steamer throws on
these coasts. The artificers and craftsmen who yet
survive will find place along with other townsmen in
general, when we call before us, in due place, the com-
mercial or trading class. But the deep and wide base
of the Mahometan Levant is agricultural industiy, and
it merits attentive consideration.
30 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
Landowners in all countries and at all times have
been, as a rule, and still are, conservative, the earth
they are possessors of seeming on its side to impart
something of its own immobility to their character.
Besides, men who inherit a position titled for genera-
tions, and dwellings and domains Avhere their 'fore-
gangers' have kinged it, perhaps for centuries, are,
and not unnaturally, inclined to look down with a
certain contempt, if not dislike, on recent dignities and
acquisitions of comparatively ephemeral date. Such
men when assumed into the body of a government give
it a special solidity of character, for good as for evil.
When they alone form a government it speedily passes,
by petrifactive degeneration, into a Spartan oligarchy,
or a Hohen Eulen-Schreckenstein principality.
Now it is a peculiar feature of modern Tiurkey, and
one Avhich essentially distinguishes it from its former
self, that the landed classes, once so intimately blended
with the militai-y, and together all-powerful in the
empire, are now carefully and systematically excluded
from any share whatsoever in the government. Read
over the long muster list of pashas and effendees,
viziers and musheers of the present day, and you will
hardly find among them one in thirty who owes a
name, an acre of land, or any title of recognised exist-
ence to his grandfather. With exceptions far too few
to be of any weight, these officials are all men of yester-
day, writers, Chibookjees, ' id genus onnie,' raised by
favour, by money, by intrigue, by what you will (birtli
and hereditary estate excepted) to their present posi-
tion. The son of a grand-vizier or of a musheer-pasha,
who was himself, perhaps, the son of a house-servant or
a coffee-shop keeper, is a very Stanley or Vere de Vera
among them. And this, to give the tribe a retrospec-
tive glance, is one reason, and not the least either, why
1.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 31
conservative principles are so rare among them. As well
expect sucli from the speculators of the Bourse, or the
managers of the Suez Canal.
This is the work of tlie too-famous reforms, or ' Tan-
zeemat,' which, under the Sultans Malimood II. and
'Abdul-Mejeed, levelled in the dust the old aristocracy
of Turkey, and made of the empire a tabula rasa
whereon Harem-Sultans and irresponsible ministers
might inscribe at will their caprices, to the multiplica-
tion of Bosporus palaces and the desolation of villages
and provinces. ' The Sultan has laid waste an empire
to raise himself a town,' said not long since a Persian
envoy at the Porte, and, though a Persian, said true.
For fifty years the French-imported word 'centralisa-
tion' has been the motto of Stambool policy, and the
first letter in its alphabet is the suppression of pro-
vincial existence by the weakening and abasement of
the landed proprietors.
Excluded from the official circles where government
means gambling, with a weathercock for its banner,
the conservative spirit has taken refuge among the
agricultural population, landowners and peasants, much
as what is sometimes called the fanatical, and might
more properly be entitled the national or imperial,
spirit has concentrated itself in the military and learned
classes, the Begs and the 'Ulemah. Though not iden-
tical, the conservative and the national spirit are here
in close connection, and together constitute a force that,
gathering intensity from the very fact of long repres-
sion, may some day culminate in an earthquake that —
But we are venturing into the bottomless gulf of future
and prophecy ; let us make haste and draw back our
foot to the solid ground of fact and present.
So to horse, to horse, since Asiatic raih'oads exist as
yet in concessions only, and carriage-ways are repre-
32 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
sented by the shortest possible 'stria' from the coast
inland, and, with an outrider in front, and a baggage-
horse with a servant or two behind, let us set out on
our country visits for the interior of Syria, Anatolia,
'Irak, or where you will, from the murky waters of the
Black Sea (odious pool !) to the glittering sands of
Ghazzeh and the Syro-Egyptian frontier. Let the
season of our rovings be the late spring or the early
autumn. Winter travelling is always unpleasant, and
we had rather, with all respect, be excused the honour
of being thy companion here, British reader, when
the suns of July and August are overhead. Spring,
then, be it, or autumn. We have already made some
hours of road, and, after the noon-day bait, under the
shelter of a tree, or nestling up against the narrow
strip of shadow afforded by chance wall or rock, we
remount our beasts and gaze forward over a wide
horizon of plain and valley, winding river-line, and
endless mountain cham, unable to distmguish among
the grey dust-haze of the distance even the faintest
indication of the resting-place promised us by our
guides and attendants for the evening. After repeated
enquiry and much straining of eyesight, a darkish speck
on the third, at nearest, of three bluish ridges will pro-
bably be pointed out, with the further indication of a
name that, after hearing half-a-dozen times repeated,
we give up in despair. But the gist of the matter
is, that in the village with the unpronounceable niime,
or close by it, lives some Tahir-Oghloo Beg, Kara-
Ibraheem-Oghloo Beg, Hasan Agha es-Soweydanee
Adhem Beg, as the case may be. Of this gentleman,
whatever be his personal designation, we next joyfully
learn that he is a ' /i7<aneh-dan ' or landed proprietor,
that he has a large house always open to guests, and,
better stUl, that he himself is * adablee,' well-mannered.
I.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 33
*kereem,' hospitable, and so forth, which being para-
phrased into Eastern fact means that the house-roof is
a wide one and covers plenty of spare room, that it
shelters, too, an indefinite number of hangers-on for our
own followers to gossip with, that rice and grease are
plenty in the kitchen, and that there is a large supply
of dirty coverlets ready for the night. By such attrac-
tions you are violently drawn, or if you are not, your
attendants are (which in the East is all one), towards
the hospitable loadstone, and on you jog through sun
and dust.
An hour or so before sunset, after much weariness
and many premature hopes of a speedy arrival at the
village in question, which your guides for the last three
hours at least have invariably stated to be at exactly
one hour's distance — you find yourself among the home-
bound kine, and accompanying peasants of the locahty ;
you thread five or six huge unprofitable manure heaps,
hardened into hillocks of respectable age, and several
cottages of earth and rubble, placed anyhow ; till, horse
and man, you draw up at the entrance of a huge strag-
gling building, with an amazing number of windows ;
a wonder no Stambool finance minister has yet thought
of taxing them. Those on one side are latticed, and
behind those latticed windows lives or live the Beg's
lady or ladies, who will have the satisfaction of pre-
paring your evening repast with her or their own fair
hands, but to whom you are of course much too well-
bred to expect a personal introduction. The windows
on the other side are in a state of unmodified openness,
without shutters, frames, or any other appendages.
You have, according to custom, sent on a fore-rider to
announce your coming, and have in consequence been
met outside the hamlet by the Beg himself, or, more
probably, by the Begs son or cousin, with some others
D
34 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
of his set : while at the entrance door of the dwelling
has already congregated a whole crowd of peasants,
partly from respect, partly also from curiosity. Like
the old French ' proprietaires,' and unlike their less
sociable English brethren, Turkish and Arab landowners
always fix their residence in the midst, or, at least, close
to the very entrance of the principal village they are or
were lords of. Close by the portal stand tliree or four
figures clad in long loose cloth robes, blue or green,
trimmed with cheap furs, which, though their best,
have evidently seen much service ; and the bearded
and turbaned wearers greet you respectfully but briefly,
addressing their main conversation, question and an-
swer, to your servants. The truth is, that till you have
spoken they seldom give you credit for a knowledge
of the vernacular. A tall young fellow now steps up
and holds the bridle of your horse while you alight.
Hardly have your feet touched the ground when you
are surrounded by the members present of your host's
family, brothers, uncles, cousins, &c., and led quickly
indoors up a most ancient and perhaps half-rotten stair-
case of wood. Safely landed at the top you find your-
self in a large room, on either side of which the floor is
slightly raised along a breadth of about three feet from
the wall, and divided ofi" from the central depression
which leads to the great open fireplace at the upper
end by a row of wooden pillars, forming a double
arcade, slightly but tastefully carved. A similar arcade
runs across the hall near its lower end and shuts ofl" that
portion of the apartment into a kind of ante-chamber,
where servants and the like constantly throng on duty
and ofl" duty, to gaze at or minister to the guests.
The centre passage is bare, or at best laid down
with brownish felt ; but the double estrade on either
side is carpeted with gaily-striped Kurdish druggets
I.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 35
or the motley-coloured work of Keer-Sbahr or Yuzgat,
the original of the much imitated Turkey carpet;
while the side furthest from the entrance is the more
richly decorated, and its upper end, on the left of the
huge smoky fireplace, is crowded with cushions, piled
up against the wall, sometimes two and three deep.
Here you are invited to take your seat, which, however,
if you are thoroughly well-mannered, you defer doing
till you have beckoned your faithful follower, Sa'eed
or Rihan, to pull off your travel-soiled boots, an office
in which possibly some one of your entertainers may
with couiteous empressement anticipate the menial.
After which you half tuck your legs up with an air
of graceful weariness, arrange the cushions comfortably
to your elbow, and thus reclining, somewhat between
the dignified and the easy, await the opening enquiries
of conversation. N.B. — Never when a guest oj)en the
discourse yourself. Meanwhile, the master of the house
and land, the 'Khaneh-dan' himself, becomes distin-
guishable from relatives and connections, with whom
you have, probably, thus far confounded him, by the
fact of his taking, but in a deferential and ' by your
leave' manner, the place next you, though considerably
lower, and modestly contenting himself with one
cushion. Relatives or intimate friends, local grandees,
arrange themselves opposite or on a line stUl further
down ; retainers and their kind stand below or busy
themselves m preparing the stereotyped refreshments
of immediate requisition, sherbets and coffee ; others
have disappeared to commence the necessary pre-
liminaries of supper, the measure for which has been
already taken on the news gleaned regarding you from
your outrider and domestics, partly too from your own
personal appearance at first sight ; all will, without
further notice, be ready some two hours later. That
D 2
36 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
your horses be well looked after and your luggage
safely stowed away is your servants' care ; they are
not worth their salt if they do not see to that without
prompting, and you are not worth yours if your ser-
vants be not attentive and faithful in these countries.
Salutations given and returned, follow questionings
as to your whence and whither (not the great ' whence'
and ' whither/ regarding neither of which any true
Mahometan ever felt the anxieties of doubtful con-
jecture, but the more proximate ones of your actual
journey) ; questions, however, put courteously and in
a round-about manner. You will do well to answer
plainly, but with the quiet unconcern of a man who
feels himself, his ways, and doings, to be above com-
ment as above interference. And here let us presume on
experience so far as to give a hmt of ' etiquette ' to our
lively French brother travellers, our energetic English,
and our busy, laborious German investigators. When
received as a guest among Mahometans, whether Turks,
Arabs, or Koordes, be ready to speak when called on,
but never show forwardness or desire of talk ; be
respectful in demeanour to the master of the house,
and civilly cool to all the rest ; be careful, above all,
of your own decorum ; take your ease easily, and yet
have somewhat an air of holdinsf back ; never, if
possible, notice a deficiency in attentions, material or
other, at the time, yet never pass it over altogether and
as if unperceived when occasion offeis later on ; if you
absolutely require anything which happens not to be
close at hand, call for it as quietly and simply as if
the house were your own ; in a word, reconcile in your
conduct the two opposite adages of the Levant, ' A
guest is a king,' and ' A guest should be modest.' If
in addition to all this you can conveniently, and at
an early date of the interview, show that vou are
I.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 37
fairly well acquainted with provincial antecedents,
ways and doings, and with the Ottoman East in
general, so much the better.
Our host meanwhile is somewhat reserved, too, on
his side, not feeling sufficiently sure of the dispositions
and intentions of his visitors. He keeps to generalities,
or asks questions of no great import. But a casual
sneer which escapes him when the name of some Con-
stantinople luminaiy or some neighbouring Stamboollee
official is mentioned in the course of conversation, per-
haps a disparaging comment on some late measure of
police or taxation, soon reveals the habitual direction
of his thought, and it requires little skill to draw him
out in full character, grievances and all.
By a firman, stamped with the autograph seal of
Suleyman the Great, Seleem the Conqueror, or Murad
the Terrible, the ancestral Beg, a Janissary perhaps,
a Lewend, an Akinjee, or under whatever title and
banner he may have been numbered among the then
invincible army, received in perpetual gift to himself
and his heirs this very village and land. Up to the
crest of yonder range, down to the rapid brook in yon
distant valley, far as the skirts of that dwarf-oak
forest opposite, all was his — soil, villages, rights, dues,
pasture, timber — in requital for deeds of daring done
in Hungary or Bosnia, at Mohacs or before Ofen, and
in consideration of future services proportioned to the
amplitude of this his first reward. A gift imperial
in its character, and in the donor's intention, partaking
of the stability of the empire itself which the Sipahee's
prowess had aided to confirm or extend. Here, ac-
cordingly, his campaigning over, the soldier-noble lived
on his estate, practically a Pasha, a Sultan, for those
around him: the peasants tilled his lands and handed
him over a lion's share of the produce ; others were
38 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
his attendants, his irregular soldiery, his local guard ;
all rendered him prompt obedience and feudal duty,
repaid by liberality, protection, and often maintenance.
Few and far between were his or their communications
with Stambool, except it were to send some occasional
remittance, more in the form of a present than of a
due ; or to answer to the call of military service when
Austria threatened the Western frontiers, or Cossack
marauders broke in too often on the north. Taking
all in all, the yearly state contributions of landlord
and tenants amounted to about one in forty, or 2^ per
cent. ; nor were the local burdens of the semi-serfs
much heavier. In fine, Kara-Ibraheem, or whatever
was the name of the Sipahee family-founder, had a
good time of it, and his tenants not a bad one.
Here, in like manner, but with a still increasing
absolutism of independence, his heirs lorded it after
him. Each and all registered in the chronicle of local
memorials and events : this one by his exploits in
Candia had merited a further extension of the heredi-
tary demesnes ; that one built the mosque close by,
and inscribed his name on the portal ; a third cast
the causeway, now broken up and disjointed, over the
adjoining marsh, or bridged the Kara-Soo torrent (half
the streams in Turkey are Kara-Soo, i.e. 'black water')
in the valley where the caravan road foils in from
Diar-Bekr ; a fourth erected the ogee-arched fountain
by the road-side, and the ' Tekkeh,' or chapel of ease,
under yon poplar group, where dwelt some dervish
much reputed for Mahometan sanctity. In those days
the peasantry on the lands amounted to three, foiu',
five thousand fiimilies ; a call of ' Jihad,' or Holy War
(all Mahometan wars are * holy,' on condition, so runs
tlie orthodox comment, that the commencement of
hostilities be on the other side), mustered two thousand
I.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 39
horsemen, armed and equipped for a visit to Tabreez
or Belgrade as the case might be. The yoke of serfage
was lighter, much lighter than ever it was in Europe
and Kussia ; taxation, if taxation it could be called,
was only occasional ; and the gathered wealth of the
peasantry remained to their own account or was repaid
by an equivalent in local advantages ; they too, indeed,
were lords and proprietors of the land, not nominally
but really. Meanwhile Christians and other hetero-
geneous unbelievers occupied a position in subservience
and servihty not imlike that of the Jews in mediaeval
Europe, or the Morescoes in later Spain ; though
deprived by Mahometan tolerance of those accompani-
ments of Inquisitions and martyrdoms, wdiich enlivened
heretic existence in Christian-Catholic countries. Our
heterodox Easterns enjoyed, however, like the Jews of
the Ghetto, two profitable monopohes ; the one of
contempt, which exempted them from military sei'vice,
and the other of usury, which made up for the depri-
vation of a share in military plunder.
Alas! With the reforms of Sultan Mahmood II.,
and the fatal ' Tanzeemat,' or ordinances of Sultan
'Abd-ul-Mejeed, all these golden days and doings have
come to an end. The firman has been cancelled by
a stroke of the pen ; the lands, nine-tenths of them,
have been resumed by Government and sold off to the
first buyers ; the feudal rights that boiuid peasant to
lord, and, not a little, lord to peasant, have been sup-
pressed, abrogated : the very title of Beg, or nobleman,
only survives by courtesy, but without authority,
without official recognition or social advantage. Per-
haps a life-annuity, equalling in value about one-
twentieth of the confiscated property, was granted by
way of compensation to the Beg of the epoch ; but it
has either been already biu-ied with him, or only
40 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [i.
lingers yet for a few months. As for the peasants,
in place of the one piastre which tliey formerly paid
to a resident and congenial master, who spent among
them what he received from them, and provided bread,
arms, and horses for the children out of the tillage-
produce of the fathers, they now pay ten to a distant
unsympathizing clique of unknown and unknowing
Effendees in a far-off capital, and receive not a single
benefit, direct or indirect, in return. They have in-
deed been permitted to purchase each his own plot of
ground, and so far, an Irishman at least would opine,
ought to be content at having passed en masse from
tenantsliip to proprietorship. But tenant rights have
at all times, as understood in Turkey, had all the main
advantages and only half the responsibility of pro-
prietorship ; and taxation at its present scale speedily
absorbs both the interest and the capital of the ground-
purchase alike, till ' the land that eateth up the in-
habitants thereof is but an overtrue description of
Turkey as regards her Mahometan peasants.
In fine, to hear our host, all are dissatisfied ; the
country gentry or nobility, call them which you will, at
the loss of their estates, position, and power ; the
villagers in their exchange of a light yoke for a heavy
one, and of occasional contributions to masters ac-
quainted with ever}'^ circumstance of the seasons and
the crops, with the weakness no less tlian the strength
of their vassals, with the wants as the means of every
family and individual, for the unmodified, unyielding
demands of a strange council board, where provincial
circumstances and local variations are neither considered
nor known ; while every year increases the burden, and
the back is broken before its loaders know so much as
that it is even bent. 'Meanwhile,' concludes our Beg,
' the Christians ' — alas ! he too probably says * the
I.] MAHOMETANISAI IN THE LEVANT. 41
Giaours ' or infidels ; but how do we ourselves in
common parlance designate those whose religious tenets
differ from our own 1 — ' the Christians enjoy all imagin-
able favours and exemptions ; their voice alone is heard,
their complaint attended to ; day by day they rise
above us, buy up with the fruits of usury the land won
of old by the sword and the bow of Islam ; and, un-
satisfied with equality, aim at avowed pre-eminence and
rule/ And with a ' Fair patience ! and God to help,'
quoted from the never-failing Koran, he relapses into
silence.
Has he said truth ? Bating the exaggeration mto
which the ' laudator temporis acti ' is always apt to run,
his statement is true ; and the deserted villages, ruined
X'hans, abandoned roads, broken bridges, and wide waste
lands all around, are there to confirm it.
Now in the minds of these men, Begs and Aghas,
who are still looked up to by the entire agricultural
mass, that is by two-thirds of the Mahometan popula-
tion, as their natural heads and chiefs, the idea of
Islam, of the Koran, of the five daily prayers, of
Eamadan, of Mecca and its pilgrimage, of God's Unity
and Mahomet's mission, is more than part of, it is one
and identical with the idea of those ' good old times *
that they so deeply and not altogether unreasonably
regret ; with Ottoman supremacy and the glories
of the Crescent, with wealth, honour, dominion ;
with all that men love or hoj^e ; with all that makes
life worth the living. And, in their minds also, the
present Government, the whole Stambool Effendee
clique, with their reforms, loans, French civilisation,
centrahsation, and novel taxes, are no better than
traitors to the Empire and to Islam : upstart intruders,
whom they would gladly thrust out of place and power,
gladly transfer, if they knew how, to the 'blessed'
42 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT.
plane-tree of At-Meidan, whose boughs so many an
oppressive Vizier, a rapacious Defterdar, or a corrupt
Muftee have adorned in former times — the 'lanterne'
of old Stambool.
The sun has set ; most of the company have already
slipped away to their ablutions preparatory to evening
prayers ; the unmusical voice of the village Mu'eddin is
heard from the low mosque roof and wood-spired tower
close by ; the master of the house, with an apology, rises
last ; and for a quarter of an hour we prayer less infidels
are left alone.
II.
MAHOMETANISM IN THE LY^Y ANT— Co7itinued.
(Published in "Fbaser's Magazine," September, 1870.)
That the old landholders, that is, the entire birth-
nobility of the Ottoman Empire, Turk, Arab, or other,
are profoundly discontented with the present position of
affairs, and would willingly restore — as above said — the
gone-by supremacy of Islam and their own , is an incon-
testable fact. That the peasants, ground down as they
now are by taxation, conscription, and all the tightening
screws of a purely fiscal administration, which takes all
it can and gives nothing in return, heartily sympathise
with the old landholders, and, like them, see, or fancy
they see, in a revival of Mahometanism the readiest
remedy to the evils they suffer, is no less certain. And
this very discontent, no less than education and custom,
makes them cling all the more firmly to their creed, the
one plank left them, so they deem, in the general ship-
w^reck, and sink or swim they will not leave it. Eastern
monotheism has a concentrated force that Western
polytheism, however fair its legends and philosojjhic their
meaning, never attained ; the fealty there dispersed and
diluted amongst many has here collected its entire
strength in one. And, be it noted, change of religion
implies to the Mahometan mind change of the Deity
itself.
44 MAHOMET AN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
Prayers are now over, and our host returns with his
retinue. Supper is spread with a copiousness unknown
to the parsimonious Greek or even the more hospitable
Armenian; and were the dishes a trifle less greasy, they
would for the most part, though simple, be not unpalat-
able. Besides, pure air and a hard day's exercise have
doubtless rendered us less fastidious than, it may be, we
had imagined ourselves to be, and quantity, of which
there is no scant, makes up for rustic deficiencies in
quality. Conversation is resumed ; and some chance
remark on the date inscribed under a recess gaily painted
in blue and red with an Arabic writing in its vicinity,
brings in a new and copious topic of Eastern talk. For
the niche indicates the ' Kibleh,' i.e. the direction of the
Meccan ' Ka'abeh,' the centre of the Mahometan world ;
and hitherward, when want of leisure or other causes
keep them away from the mosque, the faces of the
household are turned many times a day in their private
devotions. No Muslim house-interior is without this
religious sign-post; indeed, the principal rooms are often
constructed so that one side of the ajiartment may
exactly face the proper direction. A workman, who, in
an ordinary way, cannot be got to make two windows
on a hne in the same length of wall, or make level the
floor of a room ten feet square, never fails to direct the
'Kibleh' niche with unerring exactness, and to find to
a hair's-breadth the precise angle of the radius that
points to Mecca. What love is to the world at large,
that is Islam to the Eastern ; it renders him architect,
] .Get, metaphysician, carver, decorator, soldier, anything.
Taught by Islam, men who even in the long-drilled
jegiment can never dress a line or form a square with
tolcr;<.ble correctness, range themselves in the most per-
fect rank and file at the hour of prayer ; and clumsy
peasants, very Hodges and Dobsons for awkwardness in
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 45
all else, go through the simultaneous prostrations and
other accessories of their rite with a nicety that the best-
trained seminarists of St. Sulpice, or the acolyte per-
formers of St. Alban's, Holborn, can scarcely rival, never
surpass. Every feature of the village tells the same
tale. The cottages are the merest hovels — we here
except Syria — half earth, half rubble ; and no pretence,
not to speak of ornament, but even of common sym-
metry and neatness, reheves their ugliness. Even the
Begs house is a clumsy barrack, sadly in need too of
repair : its decorations are of the simplest and cheapest
kind. But on the village mosque neat stone-work,
subtle carving, elaborate art have all been lavished ;
here the injuries of time are immediately and accurately
made good ; here are to be found the best carpets, here
the gayest colours, here the most scrupulous cleanliness.
And it is worth our noting, while speaking of mosques,
that the care bestowed upon them is not due to any
notion of inherent sanctity or mysterious consecration
affecting the place or the buildings themselves, such
ideas being alien ahke from the letter and the spirit of
Islam : though abnormal superstition has in a few
instances succeeded, however unauthorised and dis-
avowed at large, in attaching such notion to a small
number of localities. It is not the building, it is the
religion itself, that they delight to honour ; the dweller,
not the house, that is the object of so respectful, and
often, in regard of the means of the worshippers, so
costly a veneration. All this does not look like an
enfeebled or decaying system.
Meanwhile, the date of the ' Kibleh-Nameh,' or
' Mihrab,' the Mecca-turned niche above mentioned, lias
led the conversation to that never-exhausted topic,
Arabia and its ancient capital ; the one spot on earth
where Islam does to a certain extent hold the place it
46 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
stands on to be liallowed ground. What Jerusalem
once was, and still, though in diminished measure, is to
the Israehte, that, and perhaps even more, is Mecca to
the Mahometan. Enormous as are the distances to be
traversed, heavy as is the expense to be incurred,
amounting often to 200/., 300Z., and more, nothing can
deter or diminish the yearly crowd of pilgrims, which
later muster-rolls have indeed much surpassed any
recorded of the preceding century. Increased facility
of communication has no doubt a large share in
this numerical augmentation ; but more must be as-
cribed to the wide-spread Eastern revival of Mahometan
zeal — a revival which itself owes much to that very
facility of communication. Even among the remote
villao;es and corners of the far-off land bv which our
imagmary journey is now leading us, Anatolia, Koor-
distan, or Armenia, two or three individuals are often to
be found in a single hamlet who have thrown pebbles
in the valley of Muna, passed the night upon the slopes
of Muzdelifah, stood to worship on Jebel 'Arafat ; com-
passed the Ka'abeh seven times, and kissed the black
stone of celestial origin ; while the lest of the popula-
tion, old and young, are never weary of hearing tales
about the pilgrimage, which many of them purpose one
day to make in person, and descriptions of the sacred
places which to visit is, to them, the highest privilege
of life. In such and the like talk the evening wears
on ; the cry for night-prayers, about two hours after
sunset, arrives ; all Easterns are early sleepers, but
Mahometans, whose morning devotions requu'e matu-
tinal rising, most so. Accordingly the house servants
now bring from out the recesses of the Harem the
mattresses and bedding destined for the guests of the
night, while the company one after another take their
leave, our host last.
II.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 47
Beds on the floor and fleas for bed-fellows are de-
cidedly promoters of early rising, so we will make a
virtue of necessity, and having got np with or before
the sun, we will take a stroll through the village and
look at the peasants, all also up betimes, before our
horses are yet saddled and breakfast ready.
They are a primitive set, these villagers, coarse-
featured, coarse-hmbed, and coarsely clad. The strong
family likeness prevalent among all those of the same
district is doubtless partly due to ties of clanship,
partly to the mere uniformity of a life confined to one
narrow groove and diversified by no more remarkable
incidents than a marriage just like all other marriages
for two hundred miles round, or a funeral hke all
other funerals. Pilgrim-deputies excepted, by far the
greater number never go beyond the limits of the land
where they were born and bred, and where they pass
their days in the most pattern agricultural monotony;
each generation treading to the best of its abihty
exactly in the steps of that which went before it.
Ploughs, harrows, yokes, spades, all the arsenal of
Ceres, are as simple as in the days when Proserpine
went a-maying through Enna ; houses, furniture (if
the words are applicable, a double point), garments,
customs, &c., are on the model of unknown years in
backward reckoning. Posts, newspapers, and the like
means of intercourse with the outer world, of course,
there are none ; visitors like ourselves are a rare and
memorable event to be discussed for years after — a
stray traveller of any kind is, in fact, a godsend. The
inhabitants, too, in their turn have little to communi-
cate to others, did they wish it ; Gray's and Gold-
smith's villagers were not less ambitious of fame.
The intellect of the hamlet, a star of the very smallest
magnitude, irradiates only the neighbourhood of the
48 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ir.
mosque, in the forecoui't of which daily gatherings of
idleness are held, and the 'Phosphor' himself is the
*Mollah/ legist, or 'Imam,' precentor. These men are
often pupils of some small provincial college fifty
miles distant: their profession gives them right to
somewhat of a magisterial tone : for the rest see the
Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of the Parish. In which
stagnation our readers may suppose they see a chief
reason for the entireness of rural Islam.
Yet it is not exactly so. Had these country-folk
wider knowledge, were they in more frequent mter-
course with their fellow-subjects or with strangers, the
result would most likely be — at least it has proved so
in many parallel instances — that not of weakening
but of strengthening the Mahometan element in their
character. The practical revelation of the great and
vigorous brotherhood of which they form part, the
contact of so many other nationalities, all Islam and
proud of being such; the very comparison, not always
a favourable one, that they wovild learn to draw be-
tween the conditions, social, moral, and even pohtical,
of some non-Islamitic nations and their own, all would
tend to mtensify rather than to slacken their attach-
ment to their own creed.
Another pecuharity of country life, and which
renders it also in a manner specially favourable to a
vigorous development of Mahometan practice, is the
relative importance of the female sex — 'fair' or 'softer'
we would have said, but cannot, for exposure and
hard work soon do away with all title to these coiu*-
teous adjectives in country life. No one acquainted
with tlie history of Islam ignores the part borne by
Khadijah, Fatiniah, and Ayesha, aU women of the
Prophet's own household, in its rise ; nor in subse-
quent epochs are the names of the other Fatimah,
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 49
daughter of Merwan, of the queenly Zobeydah, and
the saintly Zeynab, less prominent. It is a matter of
general experience that in what regards religious
fervour, if men are the coals women are often the
breath that blows them.
Now, of what kind are the women that mostly in-
fluence the ' Stamboollee ' we need hardly say ; there
are operas in the capital of Turkey, and 'Mabilles'
too after a fashion. The military classes are, from
the nature of their profession, little under female
agency, for good or bad ; but what they want in
* esprit de famille ' is made up to them amply in
' esprit de corps.' But the peasant woman, who shares
pretty equally her husband's labours in the field, and
has besides on her almost all the care of a house too
simple for seclusion or privacy, is a being of an equally
different stamp from the 'Light of the Harem' and
from the light of the opera-house. The interposing veil
excepted, to lay aside which is in Eastern ideas the
token not of freedom but of slavery, she mingles in
the daily life of the other sex not less freely, and
often not to less purpose, than her European sister
of similar rank ; and above all she aids to ferment
the general mass with that leaven of peculiar devoted-
ness and 'religiosity,' if the word be permitted, which
in all countries is pre-eminently hers.
To this circumstance may in no small degree be
attributed the prevalence among the peasantry of a
whole class of devotional practices, not indeed in strict
accordance with the severe monotheism of the Prophet
and his first companions, and even now reprobated with
more or less emphasis by the better instructed among
orthodox Mahometans, but for all that harmonising
admirably with the grosser conceptions of Turks, Turko-
mans, Koordes, Chaldaeans, and the other non-Arab races
E
50 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [n.
who together make up the bulk of the agricultural
population. First of these practices comes saint-
worshij), never indeed rising to the colossal hagiolatry
in vogue among Greek and Catholic Christians, but
holding a mid rank between that and the hero-wor-
ship of Carlyle and his school ; and uniting memorial
veneration with a hope of supernatural aid and inter-
cessory benefit. To this feeling, however, unauthorised
by the Koran, yet by pious ingenuity reconciled with
it somehow, we owe the countless little shrines known
in the north as ' Tekkehs/ in the south as ' Mezars,'
that stud the entire surface of Anatolia, Koordistan,
Irak (the Bagdad provinces), and great part of Syria ;
each one a memorial of some real or mythic saint or
champion of Islam. Four j^lain walls, a small dome
above ; two or tlu-ee trees without ; within, the cus-
tomary ' Kibleh ' niche and very often a tomb: such
is the Tekkeh. Hither the country folk, the women
especially, flock on stated days ; each brings his or
her small oflering of oil to the lamps, of provisions,
fruit, garden-stufi*, or copper coin to the guardian ;
others hang rags of cloth on some neighbouring bush
for preservative against disease or cure of it; all
recite prayers, not to the saint indeed, ' for that were
idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful' Mahometans,
but to God ; with honourable mention, however, of
the local saint, whose mediation they suggest. In
return, they receive from the saints earthly represen-
tative, the guardian before mentioned, scraps of paper,
whereon are inscribed verses of the Koran, names of
Prophets and the sons of Prophets, and such like gear,
mingled with pious ejaculations and cabalistic letters.
These are carefully guarded, sewn into little square or
triangular bags of leather, silver embroidered, and subse-
quently worn round arms and necks, hung upon children,
il] MAHOMETANISM in the levant. 51
horses and mules, inserted into caps, &c., in the same
manner and to the same ends as scapularies. Virgin-
medals, and so forth, nearer home — with equal efficacy.
The legends attached to the worthies of the Tekkeh
or Mezar are sometimes simply ascetic and miracu-
lous ; more often — for Islam in all its phases is
emphatically a Church militant — of a pugnacious
character. This holy man annihilated forty thou-
sand infidels with a single blow of his staff; that one,
more modest, contented himself with the amputation
of ten Greek patriarchs' heads ; three saints whom
we may still see — their tombstones at least — resting
side by side under the shade of a lovely little poplar
grove, here await the boastful and oversecure invasion
of the last great armies of Infideldom, commanded by
the Infidel Emperors, all of them, the Russian, the
French, and the Austrian probably, in person ; when
they — the saints, that is — will arise and drive the
Infidel Emperors discomfited back to Petersburg,
Vienna, Paris, or hell, as the case may be.
The guardian of the ' Tekkeh ' is, nine instances out
of ten, a dervish. Into the historical origin and pro-
gress of that curious class, or rather classes of men,
for their varieties like their numbers are legion, we
cannot here enter ; the subject would require a volume.
Offspiing of the great 'Alee schism ; fostered by the
infiltrated superstition of Magian and Hindoo ; accused,
and on no doubtful evidence, of secretly subverting
the very foundations of Islam, of substituting Panthe-
ism, Polytheism, nay, Androlatry itself, for its pure
Deism, and worse than Phallic rites and hcense for the
Mosaically severe code of the Prophet, prayer and the
decent Harem : they have, nevertheless, thanks to
legists like Aboo Haneefah, doctors like Ahmed El-
Ghazalee, and sultans like Bayazeed II. , succeeded
E 2
52 MAHOMET AN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
in vindicating to themselves a sufficient, though not
an unquestioned, reputation of orthodoxy, much as
Becky Sharp established her own disputed reputation
by presentation at Court, and are now at last in
tolerably secure possession of the same. But, like
many others in analogous situations, they have, wdth
the name and character of genuine Mahometans to
support, assumed much of the thuig also, and it is
with this alone, their present phase, that we are now
concerned.
A high, conical, Persian-looking cap, long unkempt
hair, dirty flowing garments, or no garments at all,
the Adamitic-saint species not being yet wholly extinct,
are the ordinary outward characteristics of the tribe.
To these must be added an ostentatious frequency in
prayer and other devout practices, some simply ridicu-
lous and offensive, like the over-famous performances
of the whirling, or, in Sir E. Wilson's phrase, waltzing
brotherhood, the glass and snake-eaters of Aleppo, &c. ;
others extravagant, howhng declamations and endless
reiteration of the Divine Name and attributes ; others,
Koran-readings for instance, and multiplied prostra-
tions, of a quieter description. Every dervish is of
course primed with legends and traditions, all equally
veracious, regarding some founder, prophet, or pet
saint, till one is tempted to suspect them of plagiarism
from the ' Golden Book' or the volumes of the Bolland-
ists. Yet the fire of their zeal, though much less
ethereal in quality than that lighted on the primal
altar of Islam, is not, in result and practice at least,
incompatible with it ; their arms are not those of the
Prophet and his companions, but they are ranged on
the same side of the battle-field ; and however little
their affected poverty, their renunciation of worldly
pleasmes and duties, their rules and ways, their charms
II.] MAHOMET AN ]8M IN THE LEVANT. 53
and amulets, would have met the approval of him who
said — blessings on him for saying it ! — ' no monkery
in Islam,' and 'a day of business equals in merit twenty
days of prayer,' still in the peasant mind these things
coalesce, however illogically, with the Koran itself,
and confirm the supremacy of the book which, rightly
understood, disowns them. In a word, the dervish
swarms are to Mahometanism allies, though irregular ;
excrescences, yet props. In the towns they are com-
paratively little heeded ; but in the country districts,
and, as above said, among the women especially, they
constitute a real and energetic force.
A strange trio of motives, social discontent, family
influence, and abnormal superstition, all three com-
bine in one result, common to the whole country
population ; in the production of one feeling, keen
ahke in the old descendant of the nobility of the
land and in the peasant who tills that land, per-
vading the dingy, decaying hall of what was once
the manor-house, and the smoke-browned, earth-floored
hovel of the poorest cottager ; and that feeling is
one of unswerving devotedness to Islam, and equal
antagonism to whatever weakens or menaces its
existence.
Widely differing in origin from the spirit that
animates the military class, the direction they tend
towards is the same. True, the Mahometanism of
the army is more in accordance with the original
tone of Islamitic institutions ; more imperial, more
unselfish, more ideal, so to speak ; whereas that of
the country-folk is more interested, more provincial,
more patriotic too, in the etymological sense of the
word, because based on the love of the birth-land
itself Both lines, however, converge to one point ;
and it was their very convergence, or rather the
54 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
tremendous force evoked by their contact, that so
often, when the incapacity or misconduct of its rulers
had brought the Ottoman Empire to the verge of
dissokition, hurled unworthy sultans from their thrones
and rolled the heads of corrupt and tyrannical ministers
in the dust. The revolutions that gave so abrupt, and
sometimes so bloody, a close to the reigns of the
capricious Osman II., the degraded Ibraheem, the in-
efficient Mehemet IV., and the luxurious Ahmed III.,
were no mere Janissary insurrections, as superficial
Western historians and court-salaried Eastern annalists
have represented them ; they were national and es-
sentially Mahometan risings against corruptions and
misrule ; the Janissaries and Sipahees were herein but
the representatives of the people, the sword in their
hand. That sword has now been shivered : and the
new one forged in its stead has been carefully placed
at safe distance from the hand which else might once
more grasp it to terrible effect. The destruction of
the Janissaries and Sipahees brought after it in the
most correct sequence of historical logic the ruin of
the provincial nobility and landed interest : this itself
to be soon followed by the ruin of the entire peasantry.
Since then we have had the old history of the latter
Byzantine Empire under the Comneni and the Palse-
ologi over again. And it is a remarkable proof of the
strong grasp maintained by Mahometanism over the
minds of its followers that the Turko-Arab popu-
lation, however wronged and betrayed by their own
Mahometan rulers, have never yet, like the French of
1792, confounded in one common hatred the creed of
their oppressors and the ojijjressors themaelves. Their
attachment to Islam has not for an instant slackened,
though that to the rulers of Islam ha^ been violently
shaken, if not loosened altogether.
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 55
A trace to politics ; the topic is an unsatisfactory
one in the Levant. Let us rather, before bidding
farewell to our Begs and villagers, look round once
more at them under their better, or positive, aspect,
that is as staunch and genuine Mahometans. An
anecdote, for the truth of which local and individual
knowledge enables us to vouch, brings this side of their
character into full view.
A small landowner, married but childless, was living
about twelve years since on his grounds, not far from
the town of Erzinghian in Anatolia. His neighbours
(an ordinary circumstance in the East) were mostly of
the same kith and kin ; but his only near relative was
a younger brother, a lad of eighteen or twenty, a
' Deli-kan ' or ' wild-blood ' — madcap Harry we might
say. One day this youth engaged in a quaiTel with
an individual of another village ; from words they
came to blows ; blows, in a country where every man
is constantly girt with the Kamah, a short, sharp-
pointed, double-edged sword, much like some of those
pictured in Adams's Roman Antiquities, mean wounds;
and our ' Deli-kan ' received so emphatic a one on this
occasion that his hot blood was cooled for ever. The
homicide, delaying to fly, was seized by the tribesmen
of the deceased, and by them delivered up bound to
the head of the family — namely, the elder brother —
to suffer condign punishment, surer at the hands of
a relative than of the law. It w^as evening ; and
Mohammed, after fixing the next morning for the
execution of due vengeance on the culprit, caused him
to be shut up, well manacled, in an inner room of his
own house ; while the captors dispersed, eager to
return at daybreak. But diu*ing the night Mohammed,
while all in the house slept, went secretly to the room,
unbound the prisoner, embraced him, and said, ' God
56 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
has taken my brother and has sent you ; I accept you
m his place/ He then set food and drink before him,
after which he added, ' I would gladly retain you here
as a guest, did I not know that my doing so would be
fatal to yourself Take this,' giving him a purse of
money, ' and make good yoiu- escape without delay ;
only do not tell me where.' The man did so ; and
in the morning when the avengers came, their victim
was gone. The truth of the matter was not divulged
till some years later ; and when it was, all the kinsmen
themselves joined in applauding Mohammed for ha\'ing
sacrificed the claims of his own brotherhood to save the
life of a Muslim.
There is plenty of making in men of this stuff, if
those whose real interest it is would only give their
minds to it.
Leaving our readers to draw their own conclusions,
which we would on no account forestall, regarding
the present and the future of Levant Mahometanism
among the country folk and their Begs, let us next
turn our imaginary horses' heads townwards ; and from
the study of a very numerous category pass to one
less largely represented on the Census lists ; yet in
importance almost or quite the equal of the former,
because much better endowed with means and
wealth. For even in the decayed, depopulated Levant,
the classic ground of ruined villages, and even
among the Mahometan inhabitants, whose commercial
reputation is, in the West, so absolutely eclipsed by
that of their more business-drivino; Christian fellow-
citizens, the lively Greek and the thrifty Armenian,
trade has a nowise insignificant representation ; and
towns, however small, take the lead by superior
development of mind over the comparatively unedu-
cated multitudes of the })lough.
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 57
Keysareeyali, Diar-Bekir, Aleppo, Mosool, Horns,
Bagdad, to whichever we direct our way we shall find
fair specimens of the urban and commercial class. We
thread with some difficulty to our horses, ourselves,
and the foot-walking throng, the narrow, crooked, ill-
paved or unpaved streets, enquiring for the abode of
Hasan Agha, the great corn-dealer, Mustapha el-Misree,
the cloth-merchant, or some other individual of the
kind with whom we purpose taking up our quarters ;
after repeated enquiries, endless windings in and out,
and miraculous escapes of riding over any number of
muffled women and heedless children, we find our-
selves at last before the outer door, and enter the court.
There is a considerable uniformity in the externals of
domestic architecture, or rather a general want of any-
thing worthy the name of architecture at all, in most
modern Eastern towns. Flat walls with oblonof holes
in them, a few more or less, for windows — sometimes
for an incredible length with no holes at all ; the
reason being that the apartments behind are lighted
up from the court-yard side — form a surface the in-
significance of which no superadded ornament can
really redeem, being wholly insufficient to remove the
effect of drear monotony which characterises the ex-
teriors of these buildings, one and all, from Palace
No. 3 on the dusty banks of the Alexandrian Canal,
to the house of Patronides or Dimitraki at the opposite
and drearier extremity of the empire on the Trebi-
zondian shore of the Black Sea.
Thus, in respect of true architectural value, modern
Eastern houses, whether Mahometan, Armenian, or
Greek, are, as before said, much on a level, and that
level a low one. Each has, however, something that
individualises it to a certain extent, and acts the sign-
board to make known the nationality of the indweller.
58 MAIIOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
Thus, the Greek is apt to try his hand, not over-suc-
cessf Lilly, at European imitation ; while the Armenian
displays a more Oriental taste by protecting ledges,
strong colouring, and so forth. The Mahometan towns-
man has also his own distinctive marks, whereby his
house may be very generally recognised at first sight.
Pious inscriptions, wherein the name of God figures
always, and that of Mahomet sometimes, decorate the
corners and the upper roof-sheltered lines of the walls
in all the graceful intricacy of Arab caligraphy. Thus,
for instance, a blessing on the Prophet takes the form
of a dodo-like bird, resolving itself, legs, wings, beak,
and all, on laborious anatomical deciphering, into
words and sentences ; an invocation of the Deity con-
tracts itself into a scriptural egg, or expands into
what may be supposed to represent a cypress, a jDalm-
tree, &c. Bona- fide flowers, too, wreaths, sj^ears,
swords, drums, banners, and other cheerful or martial
objects are often depicted ; and, in their complicated
combination of form and hue, recall something of the
gorgeous Saracenic colour school, familiar to Europeans
in the reUcs of the Alhambra. Ciu-ious carving, too,
is bestowed on lintels, eaves, and doorposts ; the wood-
work of the windows also is often tasteful, if considered
in itself, though wanting harmony with the general
lines and proportions of the building in which it is set.
Lastly, the greater extent of lattice along some of the
window ranges, those, of course, belonging to the
Harem, decisively indicates the Mahometan proprietor.
But it is in the interior that the characteristics of
life and custom must chiefly be sought. Besides the
Kibleh-Nameh, or Mecca-pointing niche already de-
scribed in the country Begs reception-room, but here,
as befits town elegance, more graceful in shape, more
brightly coloured, and more copiously adorned with
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 59
Arabic inscriptions, the entire domestic arrangement
betokens usages widely different from those which
regulate the ' native- Christian ' dwelHng. The ' Sa-
lamlik,' or men's apartment, being here exclusively
destined to guests and visitors, is smaller than the
Greek and Armenian parlour, which serves for family
accommodation also. But in the Mahometan dwelling
this guest-room is more carefully and completely fur-
nished. Carpets and cushions, often of costly work,
are laid down with prodigality ; chairs and tables are
decidedly scarce. Numerous ' sherbet ' glasses, gilt or
stained, are ranged in the open cupboards along the
walls ; pipes, pipetrays, nargheelehs and their accom-
paniments stand in rows, though more from a tra-
ditional idea of the suitability of their presence than
for actual use, so universally has the cigarette super-
seded them of late years ; arms, swords, daggers, guns,
pistols, occasionally even lances, bows and arrows, all
old-fashioned, and more commendable for their inlay
of gold, silver, and mother of pearl, than for any
practical utility, are distributed about the apartment.
Pictures, too, under certain restrictions, are not un-
common ; birds are a favourite subject ; another is
afforded by architectural views in ultra-Chinese per-
spective, purporting to represent some celebrated
mosque, that of Sultan Seleem, perhaps, or of Mehemet
the Conqueror ; or, more frequently still, the Meccan
Ka'abeh, the Prophet's tomb at Medineh, or the sacred
building at Jerusalem known by the name of El-Aksa,
or ' the extreme,' by some supposed to occupy the site
of Solomon's temple, by otheis elevated to the dignity
of the authentic Holy Sepulchre. Also, and in still
greater abundance, choice poetical inscriptions, framed
and glazed. Some are in Persian, some Arabic, many
in that old high-flown Stamboollee jargon, half of which
60 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [n.
was Persian, one-third Arabic, and the remainder at
best of Tartar origin, the despair of the ordinary
Turkish scholar, and seldom wholly intelligible to the
fortunate possessor himself; but all the more precious
on that very account, ' omne ignotum,' &c., holding
no less true in the East than in the West, Other
writings, like those before-mentioned, are only triumjihs
of caligra})h y, of illegibility, that is, ' Insha'-Allah,'
' God-willing,' a precautionary phrase frequent on the
lips, nor rare in the mind and heart ; ' Ya Hafiz,' ' Ya
Babb,' ' Ya Fettah,' all invocations of the Deity under
various propitiatory attributes, perhaps the oft-re-
currinor ' Es-selam w'es-Selat 'ala JcJiexr il-Ma^7dookat,'
' Salutation and blessings on the noblest of created
beings,' Mahomet, Inen entendu, are tortured into every
variety of Runic knot and pictorial misnomer. Other
gilded borders enclose congratulatory verses on occasion
of the birth of a son, the building of a house, the cele-
bration of a marriage, and so forth. In each of these
rhythmic performances the last hemistich gives, by
the decomposition and summation of its letters ac-
cording to their numerical value, the date of the
happy event in question, a favourite process of Oriental
ingenuity.
Besides the ' Salamlik,' there exists in the larger and
better style of houses one or more other rooms, also set
apart for the entertainment of guests. These are in
general less abundantly furnished, and are intended for
occupation by night rather than by day. They have
Divans, and little besides. Should it, however, be
winter, a large brass * Mankal,' vulgarly ' Mangal,' or
wide-mouthed copper vessel for holding charcoal, about
a foot and a half in diameter, and with a stem of about
equal height, the whole exquisitely burnished and
scoured, will adorn the centre of tht' apartment. Open
II.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 61
stoves, with dog-irons, common in country localities, are
rare in towns.
The welcome is hearty, not less so than that given by
our lural proprietor, but more refined in its manner.
Eating, drinking, and smoking come each in its time,
but early and abundantly. Conversation, as befits town
life, flows readily in various channels. Trade, politics,
literature, religion, all topics are freely discussed. But,
unlike what we have been accustomed to in Greek and
Armenian houses, there is seldom any particular anxiety
or even interest manifested regarding European news ;
whereas a word about Persia, Samarkhand, Balkh,
Bokhara, India, or even China, finds attentive listeners
and ready questioners. Above everything, the fortune
of the Mahometan dynasties, better perhaps called
anarchies, of Central Asia, now struggling against the
encroaching tide of Russian absorption, is a frequent
theme, and the possible or probable results of Muscovite
contiguity to the British possessions in India are dis-
cussed certainly with more earnestness and, it may be,
with more understanding of the case, than they com-
monly are within the precincts of the Victoria Tower
itself.
We have heard a French traveller — respect for a
great name shall here suppress it — seriously assert, and
assert believing, that at the bare mention of ' France '
or ' French,' every eastern heart, Turkish, Arab, Persian,
etc., instinctively thrills with sympathy, every face
beams with fraternal desire ; every hand is stretched
out for a loving and longing grasp. Our English
readers, young or old, are, we think, not likely to see
such visions or to dream such dreams regarding the
effect produced by an allusion to their o^vn * tight little
island ' and its belongings ; nor, we respectfully hope,
will they suspect us of seeing and dreaming them either.
G2 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
If trutli must out, liked in general we are not, loved
still less ; but we are respected, and more particularly
by the Mahometans of the East. To this feeling many
causes have contributed ; two alone need mention here.
And firstly, though England and her destinies be not
indeed, absolutely considered, matter of much sympathy
to Turk or Arab, Eussia is one of intense hatred ; and
in proportion that England is or may be a counterpoise,
is she cherished in their minds. Again, Protestantism,
in its more simple and intellectual character, shocks
Mahometan taste less than the tawdry finery and pious
sensuality of the Catholic system, or the gross hagio-
latry and complicated ceremonialism of Oriental Chris-
tianity. Thus the friendship of a common interest is
less chilled than it might otherwise be by offensive
adjuncts ; and the great gulf fixed between Eastern
and Western, if not bridged over, is at least perceptibly
narrowed where England forms the opposite brink.
Indeed, to govern a Mahometan population, that of
Egypt — we deprecate the faintest suspicion of sugges-
tion — for example, though a task difHcult enough for
a non-Mahometan race of whatever stamp and kind,
would yet be easier, far easier, for English rulers than
for any others. Such, in fact, is the general persuasion
among Mahometans themselves in the Levant ; the
eventuality is in their mind one by no means to be
desired ; yet one also that might, should events so
order, be submitted to with a good grace.
' Quo Musa tendis ? ' — From the dangerous pitfalls of
politics, conversation escapes to the safer grounds of
literature ; and liere a wide field opens out. We have
already seen how contracted are the limits of ordinaiy
Stamboollee acquirements ; while the military class in
Turkey, following for the matter of that the example of
'the Captain' in most countries, from the hero of
n.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 63
* Hamilton's Bawn ' to Marshal Soult inclusive, enjoy a
prescriptive freedom from the labours of the lamp. Nor
would any one expect in general to find much book lore
among the agricultural classes, whose talk is about oxen,
and whose whole soul is in the furrows of the plough.
Little more should we of Europe look for the represen-
tation of national learning among those whom we
emphatically term ' business men.' In the East this is,
however, precisely the class which divides with the
Legists or ' MoUas ' the chief literary honours of the
land.
The apparent anomaly is easily explained. For while
on the one hand the town-nurtured mind is naturally
predisjoosed to enquiry and research of all kinds, on the
other, business, as it is generally understood in the
Mahometan world, high and low, has little of the specu-
lative and venturesome character that renders it in
Europe and America so all-absorbing to the energies of
those concerned in it. What is the nature and what
are the precise causes of this diversity we shall j^resently
see. Meanwhile, except during the very hours of the
day when the counting-house and store-room are un-
locked, and the time that the merchant or shopkeeper
has his books and ledgers actually open before him (and
not always even then), the East-Mahometan ' man of
business' can, and in general does, as completely leave
aside the cares, anxieties, and even the very thought of
his 'bread-earning' labour as ever did Charles Lamb
himself when round the corner of Leadenhall Street.
But then no one in England would have ever dreamt of
calhng Charles Lamb a good ' business-man,' whereas he
might have been a very pattern specimen of the article
in the East. Freed from his commercial duties, the
intelhgence of the Oriental tradesman, already dis-
ciplined into activity by stated though light work,
64 MAHOMET ANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
readily seeks and finds occupation in studies congenial
to his personal bent, whatever that may be. Many
have when young received a tolerable education in the
local schools, ' Mektebs ' and ' Medresehs,' besides the
instruction derived from private ' A7iojas ' or tutors ;
and have acquired a knowledge of Arab and Turkish
literature, naiTow in its limits, but within those hmits
deep and complete of its kind. This foundation once
laid, individual diligence, undistracted by daily news-
papers, periodicals, and the plethora of books which
often overlays the Western student almost to suffocation,
perfects the task. ^ Cave hominem nrnus lihri' still
receives its full application in the East ; and the careful
study of a dozen Arabic volumes in the close Boolac
print, read over and over till they have been almost
retained by heart, can do much to store the reader's
head with material for thought and discussion. History,
poetry, and romance, these volumes contain little else ;
but so far the library is a very well furnished one, much
more so than is generally known in Europe, except
among that small idiosyncratic class denominated as
' Eastern scholars.' Abnormal beings ! for the poles of
European thought and deed, and of Asiatic, lie too far
asunder for any sympathetic communication between
the twain in the ordinary course of things. Meanwhile,
our amateur mercantile student becomes a 'well-read'
man in his line, and troubles himself little about
Western sciences and languages. Besides, man, in his
intellectual, social, and moral aspects, is still the main
topic of Oriental writings, and to him, one way or other,
nineteen out of twenty volumes refer. Next to this,
^ jproximns, scd loncjo j^^'oximus intervallo,' comes na-
tural history. Chemistry is still worse represented ; ,
geology, palteontology, astronomy, mechanical science,
and the like, it would be superfluous to expect.
II.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 65
Arab and Turkish poetry and romance ; chronicles of
the Early Arabs (very apocryphal) ; lives of Mahomet,
of his companions, of other Islamitic, and even of a few
non-Islamitic celebrities ; annals of the Caliphs, of the
Seljook dynasties, of the Ottoman Empire in war and
peace ; narratives of Persia and the trans-OxIan regions ;
abridgments even of universal history (Abool Feda's is
the most popular) ; an occasional book of travel ; religio-
moral, metaphysical, legal, medical, ultra -Galenian
treatises ; all our merchant's private studies, as the list
just given sufficiently shows, go to confirm his Maho-
metan ideas ; and while they widen them enough for
toleration, deepen them in precision and certainty.
Mr. G. H. Lewes, in his interesting Biographical
History of Philosophy, winds up with a trumpet blast
proclaiming the final triumph of Positivism over
Metaphysics ; and declares not inutility merely but
impossibility to be the term of all ontological and
speculative research. How far the European mind at
large acquiesces in such a conclusion may be questioned ;
but that the Levant-Mahometan mind is still very far
from it, we can confidently affirm. And in fact Maho-
metan Unitarianism — we employ the word in a purely
non-controversial, not in its special and sectarian appli-
cation — is highly congenial to the entire school of
thought initiated by Spinosa, and worked out by
Berkeley, in the West. Ebn-Farid, an authoritative
name in these lands, distinctly asserts in his master
lyric, the Teyyeeyat, that he who acknowledges any
duality whatever in the whole circle of Being is no true
Muslim. For him God is One, God is Force, God is
Mind, Matter is Force, Matter is Mind, Matter is One,
and so on, through the entire array of categories, eifects,
manifestations, transcendental s, &c. This doctrine of
Pantheistic sound in European ears, yet widely removed
F
66 MAHOMET ANISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
in Oriental apprehension from what Europeans ordi-
narily understand bv Pantheism, is widely spread in-
the East, and is indeed held by nine-tenths of the
thinking world there ; nor does it in any way interfere
with adherence to the Islamitic system ; on the contrary,
rather acts as a confirmation. With comparative ease it
accomplishes the feat aimed at, but hardly attained as
yet, by the so-called Rational Religion or Broad Church
school of England and Northern Europe — that, namely,
of co-adaptii^g the dogmatically narrow phrases of
canonical origin, with the later breadth of scientific
and philosophical discovery ; and of thus effecting not
so much an alliance — a suspicious term — as an identifi-
cation of the new, however rapid and imperious in its
progress, with the old. In this respect the comparative
simplicity, not to say barrenness, of the holograph
Koran, is undoubtedly much less embarrassing to the
liberal-minded commentator than is the multitudinous
array of fiict and dogma contained, or implied, in our
own more composite volume. The Mahometan specula-
tor, while reducing his miiverse with all its phenomena
present or possible to an absolute One, affirmation or
negation, only thereby develops to its ultimate conse-
quences, unforeseen perhaps but not unauthorised, the
great unity doctrine of the Koran and Islam ; the pillar
which not only sustains but which itself is almost the
whole of the edifice. Hence follows a tolerating spirit,
which, while admitting all, renders further change next
to impossible, because simply superfluous ; and a large-
ness of belief that no subsequent discoveries can discon-
cert, because all are pre-included.
But let us hear on this subject the most popular of
Mahometan didactic poets, Ebn-Farid, speaking as
mouthpiece of the personified Unity, in verses of which
the almost startling clearness may on this occasion
II.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 67
partly atone for the defects inherent to translation.
They occur towards the close of a long poem already
alluded to, and known, by name at least, to every
educated child of Islam, from Bosnia to Bagdad.
By ]\re the Koi'an Illuminates the prayerful recesses of the Mosque ;
And by Me the sanctuary of the Church is alike lighted up with the
Gospel.
In Me the volumes of the Old Testament wherein Moses addressed his
people
Evening by evening advantage those who listen to the chaunt of the
elders.
The savage who falls prostrate to the stone he worships in the plain,
It were folly to deny that he occupies a place among my adorers.
And they who danced round the Golden Calf may well be excused
From the slur of jiolytheism, by the ultimate meaning of things.
Thus it is : in uo sect or nation has the view been misdirected ;
And in no system has man's thought gone astray from Me.
Whoever has admired the sun in the splendours of its rising,
Has but seen in the brilliancy of its light an unveiling of mine.
The inextinguishable fire of old tales, the miracles of nature,
Mine they are, and all their wonders are included within my Law.
Existences ordained in the classification of nominal modalities,
And Law working by the diversification of atti'ibutes in the Oneness
of Substance.
That Law balances all for ever between affirmation and negation,
Between pleasm-e and pain, fullness and Avant, being and not-being.
Thus men saw the reflection of my brightness, and imagined it
substance :
And their very error was occasioned by and went no further than my
ray.
And were it not for the veil of existence I would proclaim myself;
But the maintenance of phenomenal Law imposes silence.
In One the All contemplates Me, and I that am contemplated am the
All,
And contemplating I behold it to be myself, and in my light is light
and bliss.
In Me the moon wanes not, and the sun never sets,
And in Me centre all the starry mazes in unerring order.
Mine is all Fact and all Energy of whatever lives and is ;
I am the ordainer and the ordinance of effect in all space and time.
F 2
68 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [n.
And were it not for the screen of Existences the splendour of my
Essence
Had consumed and annihilated the appearances of its own mani-
festation.
Welcome then to the everlasting Unity, the One, the Truth,
Before which the greybeards of learning and experience are the merest
infants.
With the special conckisions which an over-logical
mind might deduce from such vast premisses, we
have no concern. But whatever opinion be formed
regarding the value of the doctrine, it will hardly be
disputed that its immediate and natural result must
be a tone of mind alike tolerant towards others, and
averse to change in itself. To it we owe the
phenomenon, not uncommon, but at times misinter-
preted, of liberal-thinking Mahometans, capable of
feeling and of expressing high appreciation .and es-
teem for systems other than their own ; the Christian
for example. Whence occasionally follow hopes and
conjectures as to the reversionary prospects of our
Western ideas on the anticipated demise of Islam.
But the matter is not so. The standing-point which
the ' Broad Church ' Mahometan has reached is one
best, perhaps, defined as a pantheistic monotheism,
perfectly reconcilable with the exoteric locutions of
the Koran, and nearer in fact to the famous Chapter
of Unity, than to any other known formula. As
reasonably might a Mr. Maurice, or a Mr. Robertson,
be expected to coalesce with Islam, as these men
with Christianity.
But to pursue this topic further would lead us
beyond the limits of our present scope ; sufficed here
to have sketched the general ment;d pose of our
educated Levantine-Mahometan merchant.
Town-life has, however, furnished examples also of
H.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 69
a very different stamp ; instances, it will be said,
of religious intolerance and violent fanaticism, culmi-
nating in scenes like those which have from time to
time disgraced Aleppo, Nabloos, Damascus, and Cairo.
But the causes of these outbreaks invariably prove,
on investigation, to have been of a national or poli-
tical, nowise of a religious character. The few
educated and well-to-do individuals who have taken
an active part in these deplorable events, were
animated by motives nearer akin to those which
incited Elizabeth to her much harped-on persecution
of Catholics, than to those which lighted up the fires
of Smithfield under her devout and bloody prede-
cessor. The plot once laid, the hopes of license and
pillage would alone suffice to procure the compHcity
of the proletarian rabble never wanting in towns,
Asiatic or European. But it would be unjust to lay
either the malice of the leaders or the ferocity of the
rabble to the charge of a religion which has, in the
person of its most authentic representatives, Imams
and Mollas, invariably disowned such acts, and branded
them as the most atrocious of crimes. No Islamitic
Gregory XITI. has yet caused Te Deums to be sung
and medals to be struck in joyful commemoration of
massacred unbelievers ; no Meccan Holy Office has
sentenced to death an entire population, even though
of a creed difiering from their own no less widely
than that of the Protestant Netherlands from Spanish
Catholicity.
That individual cases of ill manners and insult
should here and there occur where the lower and
uneducated town-classes are concerned, can hardly be
a matter of surprise ; the wonder would be at the
contrary. Foreign usages and appearances occasionally
provoke them, especially in out-of-the-way places;
70 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [ir.
unseasonable displays of zeal, of national peculiarities,
of * pride in the port, defiance in the eye,' have some-
times led to very disagreeable results. Still more is
this the case where the foreign usages ostentatiously
paraded are in contravention to what the 'natives'
consider as conventional decorum or morality. Thus,
unveiled female faces, and street drunkenness, things
placed by Levant-Mahometan ideas on much the same
level, except, indeed, that the former is in their eyes
a sign of even deeper depravation than the latter,
have from time to time acted unfavourably, and pro-
voked impertinent or brutal demonstrations. But it
would be hardly fair to hold the Mahometan rehgion
as such responsible in this matter.
From the lower order of towns-folk, some of whose
defects we have just noted, but who, on the whole,
are quieter and more amenable by much to law and
discipline than their more intelligent turbulent Euro-
pean counterparts, we return to the upper or mer-
cantile category.
Very rare is avarice or even stinginess among this
class of men. One of them feeds twenty poor every
Friday from his kitchen and under his own roof; another
year after year equips two or three pilgrims and sends
them at his own expense to Mecca ; a third takes under
his charge and maintenance some bereaved family ; a
foiurth erects public fountains, endows schools, &c. ;
hardly one but does something in the charitable hue,
for ' expiation,' in their ordinaiy phrase. ' Fasting
conducts a man up to the gate of Heaven ; prayer
opens it ; but almsgiving brings him within,' said the
Prophet ; and in this, as in many other recommen-
dations, he has had the good fortune, rare among
moralists and lawgivers, to be not only honoured but
obeyed, even after the lapse of centuries.
IT.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 71
Hospitality is a praise which tlie city follv share in
common with the generahty of Eastern Mahometans.
But with larger means than those which civil, military,
or rural householders possess, merchant hospitality is
larger also ; that it should be more elegant is a
natural sequence of town-life. It is remarkable that
while the establishment of public hotels at Pera,
Smyrna, Beyrout, Alexandria, and many other points,
especially on the Levant sea-board, has considerably
modified Christian usage in this respect — so that
these lodging-places are often crowded with Greeks
and Armenians, who prefer them to the private
quarters now more sparingly offered among their
tribesmen — no perceptible change has yet taken place
among Mahometan travellers, who still, if not boarded
by some friend or cousin tenth removed, as is more
often the case, select for night-quarters the old-
fashioned khan ; and in the day-time take their
meals at the hap-hazard of friendly invitations, but
rarely within the khan itself; next to never at an
hotel.
Another quality widely diffused throughout the
Mahometan world, and of which the merchant enjoys
a full measure, is that of being satisfied with his
position. The restless striving after admittance to a
* higher sphere,' whether of rank, fashion, or wealth,
which chiefly influences the personages in Thackeray's
tales, and perhaps in real English and European life,
is here scarcely perceptible ; the tradesman has no
ambition to be classed among the ' Beg ' nobility ; and
his wife is not likely to chatter much with her visitors
and friends about noble acquaintances and decorated
connections. In a word, the man of business is con-
tent to be and to pass for a man of business, and
nothing more ; the merchant for a merchant ; the
72 2IA1I0MF.TANISM IN THE LEVA XT. [n.
private indmdual for private. This is partly a result,
one desirable iii some respects, but not without its
drawbacks also, of the ' Kena'at' or * contentment' doc-
trine, which forms so important an item in Islamitic
teaching, from the Prophet's time downwards ; it is
also due in part to that absence of conventional grada-
tions which characterises Levant-Mahometan life. No
one in these lands tliiiiks it anywise extraordinary
that of three brothers one should be, e. g. a small
shop-keeper, the second a General, and the thu'd a Pasha ;
nor would the latter two deserve or obtam any special
praise for condescension should they sit down to table
together with the first, or walk with him down the
most crowded and fashionable street of the Capital
itself. That again this very recognition of individual
worth and intrinsic fraternity, independent of social
rank, and even of wealth, is in some measm'e due to
Islam, we do not deny ; but the pre-Mahometan annals
of the East show that it has been at all times con-
genial to the national characters of Arabs and Koordes,
Turks and Turkomans. And this in its turn tends
to produce a certain ease and repose of manner, not
precisely that which stamps the caste of Vere de Vera,
but sufficient to remove the Levant-Mahometan, gene-
rally taken, to an infinite distance from the tyj^ical
* snob ' of our own satirists, and to make him, to a
certain extent at least, a gentleman both in thought
and bearing.
But it is time to consider our merchant in that
which must constitute liis chief praise or blame, his
professional capacity. And here, again, we find liim
equidistant from the Eiu'opean on one side, and
from the Levant-Christian of the same class on the
other.
Among the many items in which the Mahometan
II.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 73
system requires, if not mending, at least large adapt-
ation to an altered state of things, we must number
the restrictions it imposes on trade. These belong to
a whole category of precepts and prohibitions such
as have fettered most religions ; and the comparative
freedom from which was no small merit of Christianity
in its original institution. Simple, many would say
defective, on its dogmatic side, the Mahometan code
errs sadly by excess in its practical regulations, which
extend to almost every detail of life, social and per-
sonal. For some the Koran is responsible, for some
tradition. Many of these prohibitions were really
useful at the time and for the local and national
circumstances under which they were promulgated ;
but the inflexibility of religious sanction has rendered
them real evils to a later and altered age. Of this
kind are, for example, the laws regulating marriage,
iaheritauce, and slavery ; decided improvements, no
doubt, on what had existed in Arabia, and even in
the greater part of the world, before Mahomet's time ;
but, for all that, positively injurious when maintained
in the midst of an advanced or advancing order of
things. And to this list belong the limitations placed
on commerce by the Arab legislator ; and more espe-
cially his two great proliibitions — that of interest, and
that of conditional contract. By the first of these,
Credit, and by the second. Speculation, are absolutely
removed from the sphere of trade ; which is thus
simplified down to a process suflficient perhaps for an
inchoative society and restricted intercourse, but very
inadequate to the requirements, or rather to the essence
of business, as it is now carried on. Under the Maho-
metan system not only is the smallest percentage on
money held illegal, but even the exchange of like for
like within what, by Mr. Darwin's leave, we must.
Z4 MAIIOJfETAy/SM AV TII£ LEVANT. [ii.
for want of a better name, call species, as, e. g. the
barter of corn against barley, of wool against goat-
skins, of oxen against buflfaloes, nay, some doctors aver,
of metal against metal, is unlawful in itself; or at
least is rendered null and void by the fact of any
profit soever accruing from the exchange to either of
the parties concerned. The same principle applies to
all loan, use, or deposit. Again, by the second veto,
that placed on conditional contract, all foresale, or
bargain regarding a thing not yet in actual existence
vmder the precise form bargained for, as, for example,
corn while yet in blade, metal still in ore, and so
forth, is excluded. And, by the same principle, all
insurances, annuities, and speculations of every kind,
are excluded also.
Whether or not commerce and business in general
might ultimately be gainers were these regulations
observed everywhere and at all times, without the very
possibility of infraction, might be matter of theoretical
enquiry. Loss of activity might, it is possible, be
made up by gain in solidity ; and immunity from the
chances of bankruptcy might console for the certain
impossibility of accumulated fortunes. Thus much is
sure ; that the trading world would pass into a very
* Cathay ' of stagnation ; and better, perhaps, fifty
years of Europe, with all its national debts, insol-
vencies, crises, and joint-stock smashes, than that.
Anyhow, the thing is now simply out of the question ;
nineteen-twentieths of the world that is woild, have
adopted the credit system in its fullest extent ; and the
remaining twentieth must, it is clear, join in, under
penalty of an ostracism equivalent to extinction.
In matter of plain straight- forward interest on
money-loans, a sort of compromise has been allowed
.rather than accepted ; and twelve per cent, has passed
U.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 75
into permissive legality. Stambool set the example :
and the provinces have followed ; not readdy, indeed,
but passively ; and under the silent protest of abstain-
ing where possible, or at least ignoring. But in other
respects the Prophet's original theory has suffered no
infringement. Hence our Mahometan tradesman, im-
bued from his earliest youth with the persuasion that
new interest is but old usury writ large ; that insurance
is a presumptuous invasion on the rights of Provi-
dence, and that all games of chance, from the pack of
cards on the green table to the larger stakes played in
the courts of the Bourse and Stock Exchange, are alike
unlawful things, finds himself not unfrequently in sore
straits ; and is put to the strangest shifts by the press-
ing necessity of reconciling theory with practice, the
dictates of Meccan law with the axioms of modern, and,
above all, of European commerce.
True, where such questionable dealings regard a non-
Mahometan contracting party, results may be accej^ted
while the steps leading to them are prudishly sup-
pressed ; and, so long as a formal avowal is avoided,
the Muslim trader may flatter himself that he is no
party to the unrighteous process, however largely he
may share in its subsequent advantages. Casuistry is
a plant of all climates ; and the Molinas and the Ab-
besses of Andouillets of Western celebrity have their
counterparts, though pale ones, in the East. But
where the contracting parties are both Mahometans,
the flattering unction of self-deceit requires a thicker
laying on ; and evasions, which the moralist may laugh
or cry over according to his mood, are frequently re-
sorted to.
For instance, Ahmed Ebn-Tahir wishes to sell to
Mohammed el-Feyoomee the autumn produce of a vine-
yard which is not yet in so much as leaf; and reason
76 MAHOMETAN ISM IN TUE LEVANT. [ii.
good, the month is February. Thus, by all the tradi-
tions of El-Boaree, all the decisions of Aboo-Hanifeh,
and all the glosses of Aboo-Yoosef, a transaction for the
very tendrils would be illegal, let alone the grapes.
On the other hand, the bargain is an advantageous one.
How can it be brought about ?
Witnesses are summoned to the ' Divan ' of Ebn-
Tahir; and all other suitable preparatives for an act
of transfer are made in due form. The master of the
house then gives the word, and a servant enters the
assembly, conducting with him a cat, not harmless only
but necessary on tliis occasion. Our readers must not
push the association of ideas so far as to suppose that
the feline animal is specially selected on account of
certain hypocritical qualities with which it may be
endowed ; any other quadruped or biped would do as
well, but cats are generally most convenient to hand
indoors. Accordingly enter puss, with a couple of
grape branches suspended across her back by a string.
A pair of olives, of brick or stone chippings, of pieces
of soap, or of any substance whatever may hold place,
according to the subject-matter of the proposed con-
tract. ' Bear witness all you here present, that I have
sold this load of grapes to Mohammed el-Feyomee
for twenty thousand piastres,' says Ahmed. ' Bear
witness all present that I have bought them of Ahmed
Ebn-Tahir at the same price,' subjoins Mohammed.
Papers are signed and registered accordingly ; and a
private understanding transfers the entire transaction
to the vineyard produce at nine or ten months' date.
Meanwhile the consciences of the parties concerned are
quieted by the real existence of something belonging to
the kind recorded in the deed of sale at the actual time
of the sale itself
A very childish proceeding, and belonging to a class
ii.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT, 77
of ' reservations ' appositely defined elsewhere as ' a lie,
plus a shuffle.' For parallel illustrations vid. Liguori,
Molina, Bonacina, Gury, &c. passim.
Other evasions, more clearly, however, marked with
the broad stamp of dishonesty, are in frequent use.
Interest is concealed under a fictitious augmentation of
capital ; insurance is veiled by an imaginary transfer ;
usury, gambling, all can pass muster under analogous
disguises. How methods like these bring with them a
double evil, that of commercial insecurity, and that of
moral deterioration, may easily be understood. Yet
even at the cost of such sacrifices at the altar of trade,
the Mahometan merchant can but ill compete with the
more thorough-going and unhampered Christian vota-
ries of the golden goddess.
Very generally, however, and unless some extra-
ordinary gain or lu-gent need be in view, the Levant-
Mahometan trader eschews ' credit ' under all its forms,
and prefers to traffic in actual values. Hence, wliile
his operations are slow, they are commonly sure ; and
his name figures comparatively seldom on the great
Insolvency List, wherein his Greek, and even his
Armenian brethren occupy so distinguished a position.
Thus, for instance, in the great Levant crisis of 1858,
when every Maronite and Melchite tradesman in Bey-
root had to undergo whitewashing of some kind or
other, and but few of the Syrian, Orthodox Greek, or
Armenian dealers were able wholly to dispense with
the same daubing process, the substantial Mahometan
merchants of the city passed through the ordeal un-
scathed ; and if they profited little by the mishaps
of their colleagues, they at least lost nothing. Indeed,
it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that, in the
Levant business -world an insolvent Mahometan is as
rare a phenomenon as a solvent Greek. Thus far the
78 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [ii.
advantage derived from adherence to Koran and ' Sun-
neh ' is real ; though purchased at a price which may
be considered as above its value.
Setting aside the casuistical shufflings sometimes
induced, as above said, by religious constraint, a good
feature of Mahometan men of business is, due allow-
ance made for individual exceptions, their honesty.
This quality, from whatever cause, runs through all
Levant-Mahometan society, and contrasts it favourably
with the Levant^Christian ; but from the nature of
things it attracts most notice in the mercantile class.
A word among these men is, in general, as good as a
bond ; and both are respected. Indeed, we have known
large transactions, involving the value of thousands,
opened, continued, and satisfactorily concluded without
a single written cypher. Few Europeans of long re-
sidence in the East but would rather have to do with
a Mahometan than with any other 'native' soever,
where money or honour are concerned. Black sheep
are not wanting among them, indeed, no more than in
any other flock ; but they are the exception, not the
rule. Our own Levant experience has more than once
shown us mistakes in an account to the advantage of
the receiver corrected by the receiver himself; an ar-
ticle omitted by accident spontaneously made good ; an
extra profit on a bargain acknowledged before enquired
into, and paid before claimed. But these cases, one
and all, were among Maliometans.
Among the citizen classes women have less direct
influence than among the agricultural ; nor can it be
otherwise. Towns are the strongholds of etiquette,
and Eastern etiquette has in all times honoured women,
as some printers do the name of the Deity, by a blank.
Mahometanism, in an evil hour for itself, took up and
exaggerated tliis tendency. Still it would be strange if
II.] MAHOMETARISM IN THE LEVANT. 79
among races gifted with such intensity of family feel-
ing as Easterns commonly are, and under a system
which asserts to the married woman rights in property
and law equal in almost every respect to those of her
husband, female authority or persuasion should go for
nothing. Accomplished women, learned women, too,
are not wanting ; and in general it may be said that
the town ladies of the Mahometan Levant, if not quite
up to the standard of Miss Becker or of Dr. Elizabeth
Walker, have a fair share of the superior culture that
surrounds them. And if less accessible to saints and
dervishes than their rural sisters, they are equally with
them zealous supporters of Islam, only their zeal is
more according to knowledge.
Lastly, it may be asked, What is the 'attitude of the
mercantile class towards the existing Government, and
order of things % Briefly, it is one less positively hos-
tile than that of the agriculturists, yet far from
friendly. Some, not a few, indeed, of the merchants
are connected with the old Begs by birth or marriage,
and sympathise with their disestablished relatives.
Some, the better instructed from their studies, and the
comparatively uneducated from their ignorance, are too
zealous Mahometans to approve of measures emanating
from Paris, or at least imitative of that capital and its
Government. Some, again, murmur, with how much
cause we will not here enquire, against an administra-
tion which, say they, takes much and gives nothing ;
taxes heavily the produce to wliich it has in no way
contributed, and the commerce that it has rather
cramped and fettered than facilitated ; in a word, that
reaps where it has not sown, and gathers where it has
not scattered. Others are disaffected for all these
reasons conjointly. In fine, universal suffrage, were it
a possibility in these lands, would return opposition
80 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT.
candidates for the towns scarce less surely than for the
country. A formidable combination. But as neither
suffrage nor representation exist, the opposition is still
in posse only, and, for the present, seems likely to
remain so.
From the tradespeople and townfolk we come by
an easy transition to the learned Profession.
III.
MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEY ANT— Concluded.
[Published in ' Frasek's Magazine,' October, 1870.]
We now come to that class the members of which
are sometimes, but most erroneously, denominated in
European writings, French especiaUv, the ' Mahometan
Clergy/ How far they are in fact removed from any-
thing to which Western and Christian nomenclature
assigns the title of Clergy we shall soon see. This
class comprehends 'Mollas/ 'Kadees,' 'Muftees,' 'Imams,'
' Khateebs,' ' Sheykhs,' and some other professions of
minor importance. Of the names now given, the first,
* Molla,' more correctly ' Mawla,' literally ' Master,' is
generic, and applies to all who have gone through a
regular course of legal study, and received a diploma.
The attributions of a ' Kadee/ analogous to rather than
identical with those of a judge, are sufficiently known
to all readers of Oriental tales; the ' Muftee' is a Q.C.
or Sultan's Counsel, to speak correctly, for Turkey ;
*Imam' is best rendered by Precentor ; ' Khsiteeh' by
Preacher ; ' Sheykh ' is a vaguer term of religious, but
not of hierarchical, qualification.
Among these six categories, to which some minor
ones of subordinate office are attached, the first three
represent the legislative, and the latter three the doc-
trinal element of Islam. And as the legislative element
G
82 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [iir.
is imtneasiirably the more copious and complicated of
the two, so also the professions which it has originated
take a decided preference over the others in the social
scale. None of them can, however, be, with any pro-
priety of speech, designated as priestly, whether that
term imply hereditary caste, like the Levites of inde-
pendent Palestine, and the more enduring Brahmins
of the Indian peiiinsida ; or sacerdotal consecration,
after the fashion of Roman and Protestant Christianitv.
Self-consistent in this particidar, Islam, while it denies
all gradational distinctions in the Deity, all mediatory
and intercessory interposition, all the Court of circum-
stance with which Catholic divines love to surround
the divine Monarch, effaces also from the terrestrial
service of the absolute One all classification and sub-
ordinate ranks among the worshippers themselves.
' Each one for himself, and God for all,' is an almost
literal translation of what the Koran sums up, and
a hundred traditions confirm. Still, social fact recog-
nises in its way what dogmatic theory denies, and gra-
dations and classifications exist ; but without the
mysterious sanction of anointments, imposed hands,
transmitted succession, ineffaceable characters, and
whatever else is the dearest dream of ritualistic senti-
mentalism, and the despair of common sense even in
our own day. In a worrl, the functions to be dis-
charged by Mollas, Kadecs, Imams, and the rest, are
in many respects intimately connected with, and even
essential to the religion of the land ; but the religious
quality remains inherent in the functions alone, un-
communicatcd to the persons of those who profes-
sionally perform them. The ' Khateeb ' is not more
sacred tlian his hearers, the ' Imam ' than his congre-
gation. We are sj^eaking of 'Soonnee' Mahometanism ;
in the 'Shee'ah' and Persian theory the case is different.
III.] MAUOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 83
But if we would correctly understand the position
of the Turkish and Arab * Molla ' or Legist, let us take
a flight of some two thousand years back into the
domains of history and the regions of Palestine, among
the men designated as ' lawyers ' in our own version
of the New Testament ; men the expounders, and, in
part, administrators of a legal code based on the pre-
cepts and prohibitions of a Sacred Book, and stamjoed
in every detail of its decisions with divine authority.
The lawyer is thus at the same time in no small
measure theologian, and j)artakes of the well-known
qualities, good or bad, of either profession. Narrow-
ness of mind, bigotry of soul, uncharitable obstmacy
blended with casuistic suppleness, the unfavourable
features of the ' minister,' aggravated by the sharpness
of temper and disputatious acrimony which form the
' worser half of the legist character — all these may
be expected here, side by side with the cultivated and
widened intellect, the tolerant earnestness, the upright-
ness in judgment, and the sincere piety of thought and
practice which are never wanting among the ranks of
the ' learned professions.' Some individuals will par-
take more of the amiable, others of the unamiable
temperament ; some will in strange antithesis blend
both in one ; but most will exhibit two or three of
these characteristics in a sufficiently marked mamier ;
none will be wholly without them. Thus though the
essential constituents of a caste are wanting, something
of a caste-feeling exists — the inevitable result of similar
studies and similar pursuits, both restricted within the
narrow circles of dogma and custom. Nor is out-
ward caste-likeness wanting. A studied gravity of
demeanour, a countenance of pharisaical severity, an
avoidance of rich ornament and gay dress, a serious
tone, and a sententious elocution, are no less proper to
G 2
84 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [in.
the * legist ' than the contraries of all these are to the
* Deli-Kan,' or young buck of Turkey. Unlike, how-
ever, the barrister's gown or the bisliop's apron, the
pattern decorum of the Jesuit, and the no less pattern
slovenliness of the Capuchin, the outward ' notes ' of
the Mahometan ' Molla ' are not uniform and obligatory.
They are in fact the result of ' association of ideas '
merely, not of official regulation. If he affects flowing
robes and extensive turbans, it is because such habili-
ments seem becoming and natural to a learned, or at
any rate a sedentary man ; but neither robe nor turban
declare themselves by any invariable speciality of cut or
colour: and in these respects our 'Molla' verifies the
European application given to the cognate sobriquet of
* Mufti.' The motives and practice that determine his
style of dress are in fact precisely analogous to those
which clothe the majority of our own M.D.'s and LL.D.'s
in sober attire, or conversely decorate the sporting world
with spotted neckcloths and dog's-head breastpins. So
again a * Molla ' is less often to be seen on horseback
than one of equal wealth and standing but of difterent
profession; still nothing forbids the legist to mount
his * capering beast ' too, if he has a seat, and a mind.
Nor is a fowling-piece ordinarily in his hand ; and yet
we could instance a grave Mahometan judge, not far
from Trebizond, whose performances among partridges
and pheasants might almost provoke the jealousy of
H.Il.H. our own heir-apparent. And, to come to more
seiious matters, open infraction of Islamitic morality
or gross misconduct of any kind is rare among the
'Mollas.' But the love of gain, so says })opular rumour,
and says true, deeply infects tlie entire class ; few, very
few, of its members are inaccessible to a bribe in one
f(H-m or another.
These remarks are general ; but in addition the
III.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 85
* Kadees,' or judges, have some distinguisliing pecu-
liarities of their own, by no means unfavoiurable ones.
When our own Bench was to be purified from the
shameful contamination communicated to it by the
later Stuarts, the first, and with all deference to the
opinion of the great historian who assigns to tliis
measure but an inferior importance, the chiefest
measure taken was to render the judicial office a life
appointment. Nor is the reason far to seek. A judge
who depends hour by hour for the maintenance of liis
post on the Executive is much more likely to be its
servant than the minister of justice and law. Such
is precisely the case with the Turkish or Arab Kadee.
But if the circumstances of his position tend of ne-
cessity to render him servilely pliant with the great
and powerful, they are not less calculated to make
him venal and unjust towards other classes. The
absence of all effective control in a country where not
only orderly and official superintendence, but even the
restraint of public opinion, so powerful in Europe by
the means of newspapers and intercommunication, is
wanting, facilitates any amount of corruption ; and if
opportunity makes thieves, few Mahometan Kadees are
likely long to remain honest men. In fact, the wonder
is not that the Islamitic Bench is not better, but that
it is no worse. A judge dependent on favour and
independent of reputation is much more likely, as
human nature goes, to prove a Kirke than a ' Daniel.'
With the ' Muftees ' or Counsel, matters are much
the same. Their duty is to draw up and enounce
decisions for the guidance of the judges, and of the
numerous tribunals which the recent ' Tashkeelat,' or
Begulations, of 1867 especially, have multiplied on the
face of the Ottoman earth. But they also hold their
posts and their salaries at the caprice of the executive
86 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [in.
officials, their real masters, and are no more under
control, public or special, than the judges themselves.
However, a man whose fortune is yet to make is in
general more jealous of his own good name than one
whose fortune is already made ; and the ]\ruftee being
still a candidate for future advancement, is in most
instances less corrupt, though not less subservient,
than his judicial seniors.
To go into all the details of Mahometan law, and
anatomise its courts and procedures, is not here our
scope. We only sketch the mien, touching on systems
and institutions merely so far as is necessary to the
right understanding of the characters of those who
work them. Nor do we wish our readers to conclude
that eveiy Kadee is corrupt, every IMuftee servile ;
such a conclusion would, fortunately, be far from the
truth. We only state the too ordinary results of a
vicious organisation.
One cause which probably contributes much to save
these classes from sinking altogether into the utter
abasement of time-serving venality, is to be found in
the severe studies exacted from those who desire to
enter its ranks. Whatever be the faults of a ' Molla,'
ignorance of his duty is not likely to be one. The
* Softah,' more correctly, but less euphoniously pro-
nounced * Sootah,' or student, generally a child of the
middle or lower orders, has at an age varying between
eleven and fifteen donned the narrow white turban,
usual though not universal among the undergraduates
of Mahometan law, and exchanged the ' Mekteb ' or
school of his early years for the ' Medreseh,' or college
of more serious studies. A course, of which fifteen
years form the narrowest, sixteen or even eighteen the
not uncommon limit, now opens before him ; agreeably
diversified by live stifiish fences, or probationary trials
III.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 87
at proper intervals, and a six-foot wall, in the shape of
a general examination, at the end. The ground too to
be gone over, always heavy, is of perplexing variety.
First comes the minnte, the Jewishly-scrupulous study
of the Koran ; a study rendered additionally difficult
for non-Arab learners by the foreign language in which
it is composed, and for Arabs themselves by its nume-
rous archaisms, and a dialect now next- to -obsolete
beyond the limits of Nejed and Hejaz. Then follow
the commentators, an appalling array in number and in
bulk ; not always illustrative, often obscurative, and in
all cases a severe tax on the memory ; — let him try
who will. Concurrent with the commentators comes
tradition ; a vast and shapeless mass of sayings and
doings more or less correctly ascribed to the Prophet,
his associate contemporaries, and immediate successors ;
needs hardly say that much of this congeries is apo-
cryphal, an equal quantity futile, and not a little self-
contradictory. But the 'piece de resistance' in this
intellectual banquet is the 'Soonneh,' the Blackstone of
Islam ; a collection of opinions and decisions emanating
from the four great expounders of Mahometan law,
Aboo Haneefah, Malik, Esh-Shafey ee, and Ebn-Hanbal,
besides the scattered rays of other legal luminaries,
brilliant doubtless as the stars in the firmament — as
mazy also. Last in order of time, but not of importance
to the hapless student, comes the ' Kanoon,' or Civil
Law of the Empire, the Digest of Sultan Suleyman I.,
the Ottoman Justinian ; frequently revised, corrected,
superseded here, augmented there, by later Sultans,
and their Ministers. To these a Frenchified appendix
of Tanzeemats, Tashkeelats, Property- Codes, Penal-
Codes, and what other reproductions of the ' Code
Napoleon' the last three Sultans have poured like new
wine into the very old and bursting bottle of the
88 MAHOMET AN IHM IN TEE LEVANT. [ii.
empire, must now be added. Join to all this a running
educational accompaniment of ' Nahoo/ mentioned be-
fore, of ' Muntik,' or Logic, of ' By 'an,' or Rhetoric ;
join the complete study of the Arabic language with a
fair proficiency in Persian ; and the ordinary ' curri-
culum' of the average law-pupil or Softah lies before
you. ' Rat tlioree iv'baJiot sang ; ' a short night for
travel, and plenty of baggage to pack,' says the Hindoo
proverb.
Pale and thin, the young student is easily recognised,
even independently of his white turban ; he has mostly
a hard time of it at his college, where idle men and
* fast ' men are unknown, no less than the Oxbridge
solaces of ' wines,' ' pinks,' and proof prints of drowning
martyrs. Here all is sad and sober earnest. Lodged in
an unfurnished cell, with a worn shred of carpet for
seat, table, and bed, between himself and the dank
stones or rotten planks of the floor ; bread and onions
almost his only food, and not too much of that either ;
far away from his parents and relatives, from the play-
fellows of his childhood, from the native town or village
to which he clung with the strong local affection of the
Eastern, stronger than Irishman ever felt for Bally-
shannon, or Swiss for the pastures of Uii ; the future
master in Islam has a weary time of it as well as a long
one. Many succumb altogether to the hardships, phy-
sical and mental, of the ' Medreseh,' and ' meurent a la
peine,' as the expressive French phrase gives it ; others
drag on, laying up for themselves in store much learning,
a sickly manhood, and a premature old age ; often to
keep too for life-companion the poverty that attended
them in their student boyhood ; a few come out of the
ordeal triumphantly, and issuing forth crowned with the
laurels of well-passed examinations, diploma in hand,
and health and strength yet in limb and frame, ascend
II.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 89
the gradations of preferment, and win the higher prizes.
But * the many fail, the one succeeds,' holds no less true
at the Medreseh than at the Palace of the Sleeping
Beauty or the London Inns of Court.
No traveller through the inlands of the Levant but
must have met on his way more than one band of these
thinly-clad, pale-faced youtlis, wending slowly on their
long foot journey to some distant but reno^vned centre of
learning, half pilgrims, half beggars, and more than half
starved and wearied out. ' There is no god but God,'
* I bear witness that there is no god but God,' lay
gasping one whom we ourselves once, on a hot summer
day among the dusty hills of Southern Anatolia, found
by the road-side dying of sheer exhaustion, amid half-
a-dozen companions, travelling students like himself,
unable to afford him any help but the support of their
own lean arms and the repeated assurance of Paradise.
One of our attendants hastened to fill a leathern cup
from a neighbouring fountain, and put it to the mouth
of the lad, if that might revive him. ' There is no god
but God,' repeated he, as the water he vainly tried to
swallow trickled back from his lips ; a few instants
later he was dead. We rode on to give the news at
the nearest village, and in its cemetery he now rests.
It should also be noted in favour of the ' Molla ' class,
that however questionable their career and deteriorating
its effects in after life, their first rise is, with rare
exceptions, the result of honest merit and sheer hard
work. A poor student, the son most often of some
nameless peasant or shopkeeper, seldom mherits patron-
age, nor can he afford to purchase it. Hence, unlike
the typical ' StambooUee,' the first ' ply ' given to his
character is an upright one ; nor is it always effaced by
all the later oblique foldings of a career which offers
every incentive to iniquity and corruption. Besides,
90 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [in.
the prolonged study of religion and law, when it
does not — and this is sometimes the case — narrow the
mind and harden the character, has, by a strange but
fortunate revulsion, precisely the opposite effect ; the
brightest no less than the blackest names have in all
lands and times been written on the muster-rolls of
divinity and law. Arab and Turkish treatises too,
however dry and abstract their subject, are always
thickly sprmkled wdth the inevitable Eastern anecdote ;
and the personal examples of justice, integrity, and for-
bearance with which Oriental law-books are jotted,
remam fixed in the memory of the student, and not
unfrequently influence liim for life.
From this school have come forth time by time
intrej)id Muftees, who with the sword over their necks
have refused to call evil good and good evil, to put
darkness for Hght and light for darkness, to sanction
injustice and to legalise oppression. Upright Kadees
have again and again given sentence for the weak
against the strong, the poor against the rich, the ruled
against the ruler ; Mollas of clear head and bold heart
have appeared in the presence of tyrannical pashas and
degenerate sultans, and have rebuked them to their
face, to the peril and sometimes to the loss of their ov\n
lives. Scattered in a thin but never-failing series, these
beacon-lights gleam on the path of duty and honoiu",
from the era of 'Omar the Discerner, the severe but
righteous Caliph, down to our own ; nor are examples
wanting in the Mahometan Levant at this day. Salt of
their class, they preserve it from total corruption, and
serve to show what judges, what counsel, what legists
Islam might ])roduce under a better order of things, not
one that would corrupt an Escalus, let alone an Angelo.
The second category, that including ' Imams,' ' KJia-
teebs,' and 'Shey/rAs,' with their subordinates, approaches
III.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 91
more nearly in the nature of its occupations, though
differing yet more widely in the manner of their per-
formance, to the Western ecclesiastical idea. An
* Imam,' as before said, is a kind of precentor or parish
clerk ; his duty is to stand in front of the congregation,
facing the ' Kibleh,' or Mecca-pointing niche, at the
appointed hours of devotion, that is, ordinarily, as
every one knows, five times a day, when he recites
aloud the public prayers, marks time for the various
devotional postures, and, in a word, acts as fugleman
to the worshippers ranged behind him, from whom,
however, he is distinguished by no special dress,
caste, or ' character.' Primus inter part's ; but nothing
more. The ' ^^ateeb,' or preacher, usually reads out of
an old well-thumbed manuscript sermon-book, or, though
much more rarely, delivers extempore the Friday dis-
course, a short performance, seldom exceeding ten
minutes in duration ; on the same day he recites the
' AViotbeh,' an official prayer, wherein the name of the
reigning sovereign has obligatory mention, ' The
Khoiheh. was read in the name of so-and-so,' is an
ordinary phrase in Eastern chronicles, equivalent to
' So-and-so was acknowledged ruler.' On other and ex-
traordinary occasions the ' A7mteeb ' may also ascend the
pidpit ; the fact is usually indicative of a crisis. Thus,
during the riots and massacres of Central Syria, in i860,
the already excited populations of Homs and Hamah
were restrained by the humane and judicious exertions
of their A'Aateebs from following the disgraceful example
set by the Damascene rabble. Of the Friday sermons
a fair specimen may be found in Lane's inimitable
Egyptians. Like the Imam, the ' A7iateeb ' is a func-
tionary at will, without any professional costume, either
when on duty or at other times.
' Sheyldi ' is a denomination of twofold import.
92 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [iii.
Sometimes it coincides in part with that of 'Imam,'
adding, however, an idea of general superintendence
over the mosque and whatever regards it, besides
suggesting a special degree of learning and personal
virtue in its bearer, and thus entitling him to high
reputation and influence more than common. Yet
even here the rank is neither mherent nor permanent,
nor attended ^^ath any invariable colour of robe or
width of turban. Sometimes the word implies con-
nection with one or other of the Dervish brotherhoods
or assemblies, which the 'Sheykh' leads, and where
he not unfrequently arrogates to himself supernatural
and mystic powers, acknowledged by his chque, doubted
or derided elsewhere, disavowed by genuine Islam.
The functions and position of mferior ' church-mice,'
of the * Mu eddin ' or Prayer-proclaimer, the ' Bowwab '
or door-keeper, 'Nakeeb' or Inspector, and so forth,
explain themselves.
These men, one and all (exce2:)ting only the latter
and anomalous ' SheyM ' subdivision, of whom we need
say nothing more at present, having sufficiently dis-
cussed Dervish facts and pretensions on a previous
occasion), as they are chosen from among the ranks
of the people, town or country, so they remain in those
ranks ; and hence their apparent weakness and their
real strength. Once outside the mosque, the ' Imam,'
the ' Khateeb,' and whoever else may have officiated
during the prayers, is a house-mason, a greengrocer,
a pipe-maker, or anything else as before : a somewhat
more than ordinary cleanliness of person and linen,
with a slight tendency to long dresses, can alone mark
him out to the practised eye ; the practised ear, too,
may detect in his conversation the results of private
study, and of familiarity with the phrases of the Koran.
But no regular course of education is required from
HI.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 9:
him ; a good general reputation, freedom from debt
and scandal, and the elective voice of the 'Harah*
town-quarter, or of the village, constitute his sole and
sufficient diploma. Any further acquirements, often
not inconsiderable, are his own individual affair. And
accordingly, while low in social and high in official
rank, he is high in popular influence and conventional
position. In fact, the influence exercised by these men
is apt to be under-estimated by those men who, from
the very absence of outward and distinctive signs,
are unacquainted with their numbers, and whose ear
fails to distinguish in the familiar tones of daily life
the respect with which they are looked up to by the
multitude. But that respect is not less real ; and on
the occiuTence of any public event, from the gathering
outside the village for the prayers ' in time of drought '
to the trooping together of an insurrection, some one
of this class is sure to come forward at once as the
natural leader of the people. That these men are
zealous, often bigoted, Mahometans, needs scarcely be
said. And their voice is all the more listened to because
comparatively unpaid for by stipends or emoluments;
things which exist, indeed, but in proportions so micro-
scopical that they can at most be considered an adjunct,
not a motive. Their zeal has thus the full credit of
purity, and is founded, so at least their followers
believe, in knowledge and practice. Were they a caste
apart, with means and interests of their own, they
would be much less influential, among the men at
least.
The decided preference given by Islam to marriage
over celibacy, or rather its unequivocal reprobation of
the latter, leaves no one unmarried in the learned
classes, ' Molla,' ' Imam,' or other. The women are,
however, in general of little consequence, hardly more
94 MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. [iii.
than housekeepers, though instances have occurred
where the wife of a ' Muftee ' or a ' /iTAateeb ' has
rivalled her husband in acquirements and, pretty cer-
tainly, excelled him in what is called ' fanaticism.'
In conclusion, we cannot refrain from remarking that
the Islamitic identification of religion and law is an
essential defect in the system, and a serious hindrance
to the development of good government and social
progress in these countries. True, no creed was ever
less multiple in its articles, less exacting in its practice,
and less superstitious in its adjuncts, than the Maho-
metan. Still it is a creed, and as such tends in
common with all rehgious systems yet devised to
narrow the mind, cramp the faculties, and, above all,
to lun precisely counter to the adaptability essential
in a law code made for men and their ever-changing
circumstances. On the other hand, there can be no doubt
that this blending of the two faculties into one gives
to each additional strength, and so far confirms the
edifice which it narrows.
We have thus passed in rapid but comprehensive
review before us the five principal categories which
form the bidk of the Levant-Mahometan world ; but
some classes, not numerous indeed, yet not wholly
unimportant, and included within the national, though
not within established social limits, remain for con-
sideration.
Among these are the pastoral tribes, occupying a
geographical space nearly half the surface of Asiatic
Turkey, but in numerical strength scarce one-twelfth
of the agricultural inhabitants. They belong to three
stocks, Koorde, Tnrkoman, and Arab. All three are
Mahometan ; but the quality of their Mahometanism
is as various as their descent.
in.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 95
And first, the Koordes ; wild men, of whom it may
be said, with even more truth than of the descendants
of Ishmael, that 'their hand is against every man's,
and every man's hand against them.' They are brave
to a proverb ; ' a cowardly Koorde, and a stingy
Bedouin'— meaning two things alike impossible to
find — runs the Eastern saying. They are in general
excellent horsemen also ; good shots — the more so con-
sidering the condition of their fire-arms, which have
rarely progressed beyond the ' stone age ' of flint ;
brawny fellows, often handsome, fond of dash and
display, of gay dresses and embossed accoutrements,
knowing in horses, sheep, and cattle, especially their
neighbours', and good for nothing else. Fickle as
water, treacherous beyond all belief, cruel, liars, and
withal more obstinate than mules on any point but
right and truth, they are the dregs of a vigorous
nation, the nation of Noor-ed-Deen, of Salah-ed-Deen,
of the Eyoobite Sultans, of great doings and iron rule,
but a nation whose brief day of turbulent and blood-
stained glory was soon over, whose flame flickered up
for once fiercely, and left for after ages a worthless
cinder, light though hard, glittering but sterile.
Split up into countless clans, that can now no more
coalesce into a nation than, to resume our former
metaphor, slags can unite into ore, they pass what
time they are not actually employed in the care of
their heids and horses, or, more rarely, in the culti-
vation of what grain may sufiice their own immediate
wants, in skirmishing with each other, and in free-
booting raids on those around them. Of art, even in
its simplest expressions, they have no skill, of know-
ledge no tincture.
These men, however, are they who, more than any
others, hold the key of the East Turkish frontier ; and
96 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [iii.
the doorkeeper, whatever he may be in himself, is
always an important personage from his very position.
That key the Koordes, though like the Ottoman race
Soonnee Mahometans, are always ready to hand over,
for. a consideration, to the Sheea'ee Persian, or the
Russian Giaour. This readiness of theirs they have
showed in fact over and over again ; nor ever more
clearly than in the war of 1854-56, when they
enjoyed the double satisfaction of alternately betraymg
either cause. Not that their own Mahometanism,
though little exemplified in prayer or fast, is doubtful ;
but because the shortsightedness which they share
with the generality of savages prevents them from
appreciating the drift and consequences of their own
deeds. In fact, they never thoroughly attained, and
now are further than ever from, that national self-
consciousness, that acknowledgment of obligations
wider than mere family and clan, which is the founda-
tion, if not the princij)al constituent, of any religion
worthy the name. He whose mental and moral sphere
extends no further than the relations of his own in-
dividuality, will naturally shape to himself an indi-
vidual god or Fetish ; the god of the mere clansman
Avill be himself a strong clan-chief, the tutelaiy divinity
of a tribe, not more. The common unity of mankind
must be recognised before a god of aU rnankmd can
be worshipped ; and the Universe as such, the har-
monious Kosmos, must be, however dimly, apprehended
before the idea of a Ruler of the Universe can be
imaged in the mind. Thus the Koorde, while adopting
the nomenclature of Mahometanism, fails to grasp the
meaning : his ' Allah ' is degraded from a universal to
a particular god ; his * Islam ' implies no brotherhood
beyond that of his own clan, no ties beyond those
limits: the title of 'Muslim,' one of more than Masonic
HI.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 97
sympathy among Turks and Arabs, awakes in the
Koorde little interest and commands no fidelity.
Veiy milike the Koordish clans, the Turkoman
pastoral tribes exhibit a decided tendency towards
settlement and ulterior organisation. A comparatively
slow, thick-headed race, they have in themselves first
principles of industry, steadiness, and order unknown
to their Carduchian neighbours. Hence, a colony of
Turkoman shepherds easily glides upward by pro-
gressive amelioration into a collection of villages and
villagers, and becomes in due time an additional
element of strength, stability, and productiveness to
the country.
Ignorant and rough these pastoral tribes naturally
are, such conditions being inseparable from tlieir mode
of life. But they possess the capability of progressive
civilisation ; and herein lies the essential difference
between them and what experience has thus far taught
us of the Koordes. Another of their characteristics
is superstition, and to the large admixture of Turko-
man blood in the peasantry throughout Asia Minor,
and some parts of Mesopotamia and Syria, may be
in a measure attributed the favour extended to dervish
practices and praeter-Mahometan hagiolatry by the pea-
santry. In fine, the tendencies of the Turkoman hordes
are, with due allowance for the modifications of tem-
perament produced by a different occupation, nearly
identical with those of the agricultural classes, and to
them and what has been already said of them we
accordingly refer. The prognostic is indeed a gloomy
one for the empire, but has slight bearing on Islam
itself.
What the Koordes are to the East and the Turko-
mans to the north and centre of the Mahometan Levant,
the Bedouins or pastoral Arabs are to the west and
H
98 MAHOMETANISM TN THE LEVANT. [in-
south. Few classes of men have been more frequently
and more fully described in prose and verse, in nar-
rative and fiction, nor need we in our present sun^^ey
mount a camel, or eat one under a tent. But it is
of importance to the right understanding of ' Bedouins '
in the point of view from which we must here consider
them, to mark the ' line of cleavage ' running through
their mass, and dividing it into two strata of veiy
unequal value.
Many of the genuine or thorough-going Bedouins
(' 'Arab-Bedoo ' in their own phrase) are scarcely, if at
all, Mahometans. Sun-worship, tree- worship — though
without the accompanying serpent, these two symbols
forming here at least by their disjunction an exception
to a well-known theory of late years — grave-worship,
any or no worship, are to be met among them. Yet
a Bedouin, however vague or low Ms religious ideal,
is rarely a savage in the common acceptation of the
word. He has imagination, eloquence, vivacity, good
taste, a great respect for human life (though coupled,
unfortunately, with an even greater want of respect
for human property), and, above all, he has a latent
capability of becoming, under favourable circumstances,
a social and even a civilised member of society, a fact
of which many of the best families in Syria and 'Irak,
whose ancestry can be undoubtedly traced back to
' Bedoo,' are sufficient proof. Qualities like these mark
him out for a scion of the 'nobler races,' however a
lawless and vagabond life may have degraded him
in actual semblance. ' God's likeness,' but only a
ground-plan. In the same manner * 'Arab-Bedoo,' after
having lost the practice of universals, often retain
somewhat of the theory, and while living in the nar-
rowest individuality, like Shanfaraor Ta'abbet-Shurran,
are yet capable of apprehending a general idea, and of
in.] MAHOMET ANISM IN THE LEVANT. 99
expressing it. Accordingly, what Islam they chance
to possess, when they possess it, is elevated and simple
in type, and can even be evoked as 'a cause' when
circumstances require it.
But the half-and-half nomad, the *'Arab-Deereh,' or
' Arab of the cultivated lands,' better, though less
literally, rendered ' frontier-Bedouin,' is a very different
creature. His summer encampment, never far removed
from the habitations of the peasantry, has about it an
air of comparative fixity and dirty comfort, that in
some measure assimilates it to a village ; while his
winter quarters are often in the villages themselves, or
even in the towns. He is in fine a Bedouin in the
transition stage, on the road to become a civilised
being, though not yet one. Seven or eight months of
the year he tends Ids horses and asses, his shee]^ and
camels, on the undulating grass-covered plains of the
inland ; with intervals of weeks, sometimes, especially
during winter months, passed in the hamlets of the
frontier Hues ; an unwelcome, troublesome, imperious
guest, but easily put down by a steady front and a
rough tongue. He has lived long enough with the
' Ahl-ul-Meder,' or ' inhabitants of bricks,' as he denomi-
nates peasant-folk and town-folk, to feel his own in-
feriority to them, and has learnt to regard with envy a
lot in which his own laziness and desultory habits, the
result of a half-savage life, do not yet allow him to
participate. ' A peasant sleeps in his bed, with jars of
butter and mollasses over his pillow,' we have heard
the ' 'Arab-Deereh ' say with an accent of bitter envy,
while contrasting his own hot, dusty suimner tents, and
unfurnished winter hovels, with the comparative luxury
of the neighbouring husbandman. But while contrast
generates envy, envy at times results in imitation.
Tents assume the more permanent character of hovels ;
H 2
100 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [in.
and hovels by degrees refine themselves into tlie de-
cency of cottages. Next the land around shows signs
of tillage, first patch-wise and after a desultory fashion ;
then lasting and regular ; till by a complete conversion
the Bedouin is metamorphosed into a villager. The
reverse process, or that by which villagers degenerate
into Bedoums, though much rarer, is not unknown.
These ' 'Arab-Deereh ' are not only Mahometans, but,
generally speaking, bigoted ones. The ' little learning '
said to be dangerous, not because it is a little, but be-
cause it is not much, gives them a knowledge of Islam
sufficient to render them devoted partisans, but not
enough for larger views and philosophical toleration.
Besides, even while acquiring more or less the stability
and other social conditions of the peasantry, these Arabs
long retain, indeed never wholly lose, something of their
old vivacity and Bedouin fire. Hobbes may have been
wrong or right when he assigned a state of war as the
natural condition of primitive man ; but that state is
undeniably normal to the Bedouin genus, from Aden to
Diar-Bekir. Accordingly a war-like creed, and such
Islam pre-eminently is, cliimes in with their first in-
stincts ; and they accept it not passively only, so to
speak, but actively. For all other purj^oses the insta-
bility of the Desert cleaves to them through genera-
tions ; and they are much more readily to be found on
the side of turbulence than on that of order and sub-
mission. But whatever be the banner of the moment,
they are always Mahometans to the backbone ; not a
whit the less so because their daily account of prayers
is often sadly in arrears ; their ' Ramadan ' of uncertain
observance ; their women not over-scrupulously veiled ;
and their children occasionally uncircumcised.
The description now given holds good for the entire
category of * Arab-Deereh ;' that is — putting aside
in.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 101
exaggeration, which in some narratives, Lamartine's for
example, magnifies them into hosts worthy of a Xerxes
— for about one hundred and sixty thousand male in-
habitants of Syria and Mesopotamia. And in most of
the quaUties here assigned they differ widely, it is
readily seen, from the ' 'Arab-Bedoo,' or real, absolute
Bedouins of the same territory ; whose number, vari-
ously estimated, seems to attain somewhat less than
the double of the former. It may be well to notice,
because furnishing the key to many seeming anomalies
in tale and story, that the experiences of most Eastern
travellers, stated by them to have occurred amongst
and to be illustrative of Bedouin life, are really refer-
able much more often to the ' 'Arab-Deereh' than to
the ' 'Arab-Bedoo ;' both being easily confounded by
the stranger, and occasionally in loose parlance by the
resident, under the geneiic denomination of ' Bedouin.'
The two classes bear to each other, in fact, a dog and
jackal affinity ; but between the former and domesti-
cated animal, which may stand for type of the 'Deereh,'
and the latter wild beast, the appropriate emblem of the
unreclaimed ' Bedoo,' there is a wide divergence. Should
our readers desire a criterion : whenever mention is
made in narrative of firearms, other than an occasional
and particularly inefficient matchlock ; wherever horses
appear as the ordinary mount, and wherever Mahomet-
anism is prominent in phrase or deed, the characters
designated as ' Bedouins ' were in reality, if so they
existed otherwhere than in the writer's fancy, not
' Bedoo,' but ' Deereh.' Such were, to judge by the
accounts given us, most of the 'Bedouins' who fought
under the standard of 'Abd-el-Kadir ; such certainly
were the * Moghrebins ' who followed him to Syria ;
such were also those who rallied for a moment of
shouting and gun-firing round Lady Hester Stanhope.
102 MAHOMETANISM IX THE LEVANT. [in.
Accordingly, while the * 'Arab-Bedoo ' are of little im-
perial consequence, and any leader, or rather any pay-
master, even a non-Islamitic one, might easily command
their allegiance of an hour, the "Arab-Deereh' must
be counted as a real item in the- calculations of any
government, Mahometan or other-\\dse, that occupies
or would occupy Syria.
Our land survey nears its end, and we turn sea-
wards. Here our way comes on a class of more real
importance than the widely-spread pastoral, yet one
for centuries neglected, undeveloped, despised. We
mean the coast or long-shore popidation. The merest
glance at the map is enough to show that their num-
bers cannot but be considerable. The extent of water-
line from the Turko-Kussian frontier at Nicolaieff on
the Black Sea to El-'Areesh on the Egyptian boundary
would, if unravelled, considerablv exceed two thousand
miles, and the same glance that scans its length reveals
its populousness in the multitude of villages that
fringe it with their names. Nature, which has dealt
out to this segment of the Asiatic coast in sadly par-
simonious measure, harbours suited to the requirements
of modern seamanship, to vessels of deep draught and
iron-clads, has made atonement in some degree by a
profuse liberality in little creeks or bays, excellently
suited to shelter a fisherman's boat or a long-shore
cruiser. Besides, the sea, whether by that name we
denote the brackish waters of the Euxine or the in-
tensely sidine waves of the Mediterranean, swarms with
fish, an additional incentive to human multiplication
along its brink.
As for the larger maritime towns, Trebizond, Smyrna,
Beyrout, and so forth, they have long since been, and
are now more than ever, the resort by predilection of
the Christian ' natives,' Greek and Armenian, especially
III.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 103
the former, Tlie determining causes, many in number,
of this confluence have some of them been explained
elsewhere, while others lie beyond our present scope.
The fact is notorious. But the same fact by no means
holds good of the coast villages, where the population
is, by a lai'ge majority, Mahometan.
That there is no better preparatory school for the
mercantile marine than a fishing-boat, and no apter
education for the imperial navy than the mercantile
marine, may seem a truism ; yet, if we may judge by
the degree in which it has been neglected, this truism
would be a discovery in some parts of the world, and
particularly in Turkey. During the long era of the
Abbaside Caliphs, and even till the latter days of the
Turkoman and Seljook dynasties, no ruler of these
countries would seem to have so much as thought of
a navy. The first appearance of one, at least under
a practical and somewhat organised form — for mere
individual piracy was at no time wanting — precedes
the establishment of the Ottoman power over Asia
Minor by scarce a centuiy. That power, which, with
all its defects, yet for two full centuries ranked among
the best organised of then existing empires, while it
bestowed its chief attention on its land troops, the first
standing army on the records of modern history, did
not wholly neglect naval advantages. The Turkish
marine, though never able to maintain an absolute
supremacy over the Eastern seas, was yet a formidable
rival to Venice and her allies ; and if Europe can
boast of Lepanto, Cheshmeh, and Navarino, Turkish
annals record the names of Prevesa, Jerbeh, and Mon-
deros with almost equal pride. But the Ottoman naval
administration was, even at its best, too fitful and un-
even for permanent results, and irregular success soon
subsided into habitual depression and defeat. How-
104 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [iii.
ever, the 'material/ both men and means, spite of
neglect and misuse, are still there, and the fishing and
coast-traffic population of the Mahometan Levant might
easily be rendered other than what they now are, a
mere sum for the yearly census when taken.
But political, or, as they are sometimes styled, im-
perial considerations, are not our actual concern ; and
with this, as with other classes, the horizon of our
survey is bounded by its social and Islamitic conditions.
These are sufficiently interesting in the present in-
stance.
Sea-coast men, however deficient their education and
scant the * scholards ' among them, are, cceteris paribus,
usually better informed and of livelier intelligence than
the ' land-lubbers ' of the interior. Nature, while offer-
ing to the latter only one page of her great book for
perusal, opens two at least before the eves of the
former ; often, by freer intercoiu'se with distant lauds,
she unfolds at least a score. Brisk sea aii* and hourly
changing skies may also have their influence on tem-
perament : thus much is certain, that the shore has
in all ages and in all countries been proportionally a
breathing place for mind, and that new ideas, progress,
and freedom have, as a rule, found better fortune within
hearing of the breakers than where the circling sky rests
on 'eternal hills' and monotonous plain. Athens and
Genoa, Venice and Holland, not to mention England,
have each in their turn, and after their fashion, illus-
trated this fact.
Now Mahomet, like all religious leaders, was at heart
a Conservative ; ' thus far and no farther ' has always
been the motto of the preaching tribe. ' Progress, but
up to my standard ; improvement, just so far as I
warrai^t it,' is the language of every theological legis-
lator from ]^)ud(llia to Dr. Cullen; nor coidtl tlie Arabian
III.] MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. 105
Phcenix be expected to sing on a different note than
the other birds of his feather. Accordingly, it is no
wonder if tradition, ' se non vera, ben trovata,' ascribes
to the Meccan Prophet a strong aversion to the sea and
the pursuits connected with it ; and fact does certainly
imply some degree of uncongeniality between salt-water
and Islam. M. Eenan, who so ingeniously derives
monotheism from the monotonous aspect of the Desert,
and polytheism from the multitudinous life of fountain
and foiest, could doubtless account for this mental phe-
nomenon also; but mere physical reasons, however
plausible, cannot be accepted as wholly adequate in such
matters ; moral and social causes must also be taken
into reckoning. What these latter are, the familiarity,
theoretical or practical, of our English readers with a
seafaring life, may excuse our dilating on. In the case
now before us the result is, that though professionally
and in all good faith Soonnee Mahometans, the fisher-
men and sailors of the Levant are, considered as a
whole, less zealous, less attached to Islam, less imbued
with its spirit than any other class, the ' Stamboollees '
and Koordes alone excepted. StiU they muster under
the green banner, and proper discipline and worthy
leaders would not fail even now to find among the
crews of the Ottoman navy responsive energy and
enthusiastic daring. But while the land army, or
' Nizam,' has made real and steady progress, and has
especially kej^t itself free from the peculation that is
the leprosy of a debilitated organism, little analo-
gous can be said for the less fortunate Ottoman marine.
For details we may safely refer our readers to the
authority of Admiral Slade, a trusty witness and a
kindly judge, equally well acquainted with the facts he
signalises and with the causes that have produced them.
Nor have the thirteen years since elapsed brought any
106 MAHOMETAN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [in.
serious improvement either of principle or of practice
to the Ottoman navy. Drunkenness, ignorance, and
gross dishonesty still too frequently disgrace the
officers ; whilst the men suffer as before from all the
evils, moral and physical, that tlie ill-conduct of their
superiors naturally entails on them. Both Cheshmeh
and Sinope witnessed the noblest deeds of Turkish self-
devotion, courage, and patriotism ; but they also
witnessed a more than counterpoise of incapacity,
mismanagement, and the deficiency of whatever should
characterise officers, and be by them imparted to their
men. May the present attempts at reform and improve-
ment be more effectual than the past ; they will be so
if undertaken in earnest. Any how these three, the
sea-faring population, the mercantile marine, ;ind the
imperial navy, form together a topic which ought to be
one of the very first in the consideration of the Otto-
man Government, as it is one of the first, if not the first
itself, in importance.
Last of what may be termed the social ' specialities '
of the Levant-Mahometan population comes the ' mixed
multitude' of the camp — Circassians, Abkhasians, Zig-
eths, and other children of the Caucasus, now scattered
thickly through large provinces of the Empire. Tatars,
exiles from the Crimea and Kuban ; Nogais, honest,
flat-faced, hard-working fellows, from the Caspian
shore ; Cossacks, who have here taken refuge from
their ' orthodox ' brethren ; negroes, mulattos, qua-
droons, octoroons, and every other tinge of African
blood, from Darfour, Kordofan, Abyssinia, Nubia, and
Heaven or Dr. Livingstone knows where else beside ;
all these have sought and found in one way or other a
comfortable home in a country where popular opinion
measures the individual by personal worth rather than
by the circumstances of descent, and in a brotherhood
in.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 107
which merojes colour and lank alike in the common
dignity of Islam.
These men, the guests of the Levant, are all, as a
rule, intensely Mahometan, though from different mo-
tives. The Caucasians, who a century since wavered
on a doubtful Hmit between local paganism and Orien-
tal Christianity, have been tutored into fervent Islam
by Eussian bayonets and an over-much proselytising
invader. The Crimean and Nogai Tatars have also
Christian wrongs to remember and to avenge. As for
the negroes, they bring to Islam the same enthusiastic
singleness of idea that tliey would have given to the
Baptist, the Wesleyan, or any other suitable modifica-
tion of Christianity, had their lines been cast in Jamaica
or in the States. But all alike form a real accession,
numerical and moral, to the Muslim cause, and infuse
something of the convert ardour into the general mass.
Half a million of such, to take them at the very least,
are no despicable allies.
The same can, however, hardly be said of the prose-
lytes properly so called, Hungarians, Poles, Italians,
and other Europeans who have at various times and
under various circumstances adopted the Osmanlee
nationality and religion. Passive sincerity, and a belief
that the system to which they have transferred them-
selves is for all essential purposes as good as that which
they have left; is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred
the most and best that can be expected of them.
Many have not even this. Others have, with a
chivalrous love of adventure, and much aptitude for
action, brought also with them wild unsettled charac-
ters, and habits incompatible with a prosperous career,
drunkenness, for instance, most often, gambling some-
times. Still the ' refugee ' list has to show some
names of Asiatic no less than of European celebrity.
108 MA no MET AN ISM IN THE LEVANT. [iii.
gallant souls, true to the red banner if not to the
green, and hearts noble as any of their comrades who
ever languished in an Austrian dungeon, or red-
dened the snows of Siberia with their blood. But the
greater number flag early, and fade like full-grown
trees on transplantation, and are soon nothing more
than withered, sapless trunks, useless to others as to
themselves. Few indeed, under any cii'cumstances, are
the Europeans gifted with the double vitality requisite
for thriving in the new-adopted life of the East. Hun-
garians, perhaps from ancient affinities of race, seem to
stand the best chance ; Italians and Frenchmen the
worst ; Englishmen have been known to succeed ;
Scotchmen, it is said, still oftener.
With the remaining non-Christian and abnormal
classes of the Ottoman Levant, Kizil-Bashes, Isma-
'eeleeyeh, Druses, Mete'waleh, and their likes, who,
while themselves in a real state of divergence, greater
or lesser, from Islam, yet, on the whole, rank under its
standard, and would in fact on a crisis rally round it
sooner than round any other, we will not here occupy
ourselves. These tribes or sects occupy a field apart,
a wide field, often investigated, never thoroughly ex-
plored as yet, and to enter on which would lead us
too far from our present track and goal.
Nor will we add a word regarding the actual admin-
istration of the Empire, executive, legal, and financial ;
nor will we speak of its pseudo-centralisation, nor of
its sieve-like treasury, nor of its unrepresented people,
nor of its irresponsible bureaucracy, nor of the palaces
on the Bosporus, nor of fixvouritism, nor of the ' nu)rl)us
Gallicus,' the itch of French imitation that has fastened
itself upon every department, nor of ' bakhsheesh,' nor
of • bakalem ' or ' we will see,' i. e. ' call again,' nor of
any of these things. Our study is the I\hiliometan
III.] MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT. 109
man, not the government under which he Hves ; the
inhabitants of the coantry, not its rulers, their ways
and doings.
Taking, however, a retrospective view of the ground
thus far traversed, we can hardly avoid the conclusion
that, however imperfect or vicious a system Islam may
be in itself, it is yet, in this part of the world at least,
a thing by no means devoid of vitality ; nay, one that
may well live on to bury many of those who now
confidently look forward to assisting at its funeral. It
is also clear that, although the downfall of the Ottoman
Empire, and the semi-Caliphate of the Stambool sul-
tans, would undoubtedly be felt as a severe shock to the
Mahometan world, that shock would be by no means
necessarily, or even probably, fatal to Islam itself;
perhaps might even, under the present circumstances,
prove an advantage. A more vigorous hand than that
of the effete Stambool-bred Effendees who now trail the
sceptre of Osman, might bring together the scattered
but glowing embers ; a more vital breath might kindle
them into a flame fierce as of old. Or. to change the
metaphor, the materials lie ready to hand, and show
few, if any, signs of disintegration ; only the architect
is feeble, decaying, wanting. That Constantinople is
sick, the Ottoman Empire sick, no unprejudiced ob-
server will deny ; though he may, without any discredit
to his right judgment, also hold that this sickness is
not unto death ; barring external violence, and the
'nimis cura medici,' the over-officious doctors. Some
patients recover best when most left to themselves ;
and of such, perhaps, this empire is one. But with
still less hesitation may he pronounce that Islam, taken
apart from the Government, exhibits very few symp-
toms of sickness, and none at all of decrepitude; and
that if either are to come upon her, they must come
no MAHOMETANISM IN THE LEVANT.
from causes yet undeveloped and unknown. A time
may indeed be in store when all dogmatic systems will
disappear, all sectarian differences be obliterated before
the communism of Humanity, and the Unity of Divine
Order ; but till then, and so long as the children of one
Father shall call on that Father by different names, and
the scholars of one Master repeat his lesson each di-
versely, we may with tolerable confidence assert that
the ' Allah ' of Arabia will not want worshijDpers, nor
the Koran of its Prophet those who read, revere, and
follow.
IV.
THE MAHOMETAN 'EEVIVAL.'
(Published in 'Fraser's Maqazixe/ February, 1872.)
^Mahomet said, ' Be joyful, be joyful ; my followers are like rain, of
which it is unknown whether the first or last fall will be best ; or
like a garden from which a multitude has been fed one year, and then
another the next year, and perhaps the last is more numerous than the
first, and better.' — Miscat-ul-Masabeeh, book xxiv.
NOTICE.
I was led to Avrite this Essay by the perusal of Mr. W. W. Hunter's
well-known book, Our Indian Mussulmans, to which it f(jrms in a
manner a kind of supplement or appendix. Its object is to show,
calmly and without sensational exaggeration, how wide-spread and
deep-rooted is the present 'revival' of Islam, particularly in that part
of the world which may be looked on as its stronghold, the Asian
Turkish Empire. Hence it is natural to infer with what caution and
steadiness of statesmanship we should deport ourselves towards such
manifestations of it as arise within the circle of our own dominion ;
though I have purposely abstained from specialized conclusions. A
month after the Essay was written arrived the news of the assassin-
ation of Lord Mayo.
1 will only add that, on careful revision, I find nothing to take away
from the Ai'ticle, thouirh much misfht be added to it.
* What we want is rather an increase of fanaticism
than a diminution of it/ once said, in close conversation
with a well-known EngUsh official, the late 'Aali Pasha,
112 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
then Prime Minister in name, as in fact, of the Ottoman
Empire ; and what 'Aali Pasha said, that he was in the
habit not of meaning only, but also of doing his best to
brinor about.
Unquestionably, when discoursing with Europeans,
especially if of high rank and station, 'Aali was apt to
hold a very different language, that, in fact, which has
for many years been the stereotyped conciliatory
phraseology of external Ottoman diplomacy ; but on
the occasion mentioned, he, for reasons known to himself
and to him wdiom he addressed, cast aside the con-
ventional mask, and spoke what he really thought and
felt. Yet few statesmen ever better understood than
he how much it imjDorts to sail, when possible, with, not
against the tide ; and in this instance he had certainly,
long before, well thought out his purposed line of action,
and knew that the current was fully set in the direction
which he himself then and there indicated and desired.
This current was no other than that of the great Maho-
metan 'Revival,' now running high, whether it be
between the broad banks of Ottoman rule, or among
the outlying waters of the lesser states and colonies of
Islam.
Our own Government, part-heir of the liabilities as
well as of the wealth of Asia, has felt with some
anxiety the sympathetic rise of level all over the
Mahometan surface, Soonnee or Sheea'h, but especially
the former, throughout our East Indian dominions ; and
the extent of Muslim disaffection to infidel supremacy,
with the causes, special or general, that have contributed
to maintain or excite it, have been ably set forth by one
of our best Peninsular writers, Mr. Hunter, in his recent
work, Oar Indian Mussulmans.
These causes, many in number, may be ultimately
reduced, so far as India is concerned, to two : one, the
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL.' 113
direct and aggressive action of Wahliabeeism preached
throughout the Nortliern Provinces, by the missionaries
of that sect, if indeed sect it can rio'htlv be called ; an
action hostile not to Christian or European dominion
only, but to every high thing that exalts itself against
what the followers of 'Abd-el-Wahhab conceive to be
the purity of Islam ; the other cause indirect, being, if
rightly summed up, nothing else than that the Maho-
metans of India have passed from the conditions of a
ruling to those of a subject race ; and have, as such, had
to endure the consequences partly of a want of pliability
on their side, partly of some neglect and even unfairness,
not to give it too harsh a name, on ours.
All this is clearly and convincingly stated by the
talented writer above mentioned, in a manner sufficient
for the Hmits of his observation and his work, which is
exclusively concerned with the Indian problem. But it
is curious that most of what he has written is, mutatis
mutandis, applicable in great measure to a very different
Empire, namely, the Ottoman, where, east of the Bos-
porus, similar causes have given rise to similar difficul-
ties, and have necessitated measures bearmg a consider-
able resemblance to some of those suggested by Mr.
Hunter, for the disentanglement of our own knots. The
topic is an interesting one ; and its investigation can
hardly fail to be, not exactly instructive, perhajDS, but
certainly suggestive. Let us, accordingly, cross the
bounds of the present century and the Himalaya, and
extend our survey over times reaching further back
than Assaye or Plassy, and to lands beyond the Indian
Ocean and the Sea of Hejaz.
A hundred years back, and he who, looking widely
down on the then enormous geographical tract of Islam,
and in particular on its choicest garden, the Turkish
Empire, should have predicted the near dismtegration
114 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
and decay, there and elsewhere, of everything like
Mahometan organisation and system, would hardly have
deserved the rebuke of rashness for his prophecy. The
dawn of multiplied nationalities, some indifferent, some
alien, some even hostile to the system and ideal of Islam,
was flashing up on the horizon; and before their
mingled rays the old symbol of the Crescent seemed
destined to fade away and disappear. The semi-Arab
revolt under 'Alee Beg the Georgian, with the avowed
Christian sympathies and secret Kussian alliances of its
leaders, had almost rent Egypt and Syria from the map
of the 'faithful;' the varied populations of Roumania,
Servia, and Greece had each become conscious of their
growing strength, and were already maturing, within
themselves and without, those fierce outbreaks against
Mahometan supremacy which marked the opening of the
modern epoch; while in Anatolia itself, in Koordistan,
'Irak, and the frontier-lands of the Black Sea, the
Caspian, and the Tigris, a chaos of indigenous Dereh-
Begs, Ameers, and Sheykhs, reigned lawless and su-
preme ; and, with one sole exception, that namely of
the Choban-Oghloo family of Yuzgat, were not less
noted for their laxity in Islam, both theory and practice,
than for their daring rebellion against its acknowledged,
and so to speak, official head, the Sultan of Constan-
tinople. Even where the ' Chaliph ' and the Kura'n
retained their apparent, they had lost their real supre-
macy. Throughout the great Empire, Turkish or
Turkoman, Koorde, Arab, or Moor, the most distinctive
precepts of * the Book ' were publicly set at nought,
nowhere more so than in Constantinople itself; nor
were the sacred cities themselves, Mecca and Medineh,
much better. The wine-taverns of the Janissaries, the
rakee-shops of the citizens, the prostitutes of the Hejaz,
and the *Be-lillahs' — 'sons of Belial,' we may not
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 115
unaptly translate the name — of Bagdad and Cairo, had
become recognised institutions ; opium-eating, too, was
next to universal : the mosques stood unfrequented and
ruinous ; while the public schools and colleges of
Mahometan law and dogma had fallen into dreary
decay, or feebly languished on amid poverty and neglect.
An eclipse, total it seemed, had overspread the Crescent,
of which a dim and darkened -outline alone remained
visible, foreboding disaster and extinction.
Pass a hundred years, and a change has indeed come
over the spirit of the Eastern dream. The great
reactionary movement, the ' Eevival,' originated where
scarce a spark of life had been left, by the too-famous
'Abd-el-Wahhab, in the land of Nejd, has gradually but
surely extended itself over the entire surface and
through all the length and depth of Islam ; while the
ever-increasing pressure of the Christian, or, at least,
non-Mahometan, West, has intensified the 'fanatical'
tendency, even where it has modified its special
direction. For ' Islam ' is a political not less than a
religious whole ; and the comparative feebleness of the
dogmatic element of its composition in some quarters —
in Northern and Western Turkey, for instance — is amply
compensated for by a greater strength of social and
administrative cohesion in those regions. It is hardly a
metaphor to say, that the rehgious and the civil systems
of Mahometanism are nothing else than two sides of the
same medal; and it does not matter much for its uses
which Hes uppermost.
'The signs of the times.' In the East Ottoman
Empire — that is, in those very countries whence
emanate the influences which, for good or for evil,
most surely and most effectually communicate them-
selves to and permeate the Mahometan populations
beyond the Indus — such signs are not wanting ; and
I 2
IIG THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
all point in one direction. I pass over, because well
known to every reader, the yet unbroken vehemence of
Arab Wahhabeeism, and its recent aggressive attempts,
and come to some less noticed, because less suddenly
startling, but in reality more deeply significant, indica-
tions of ' Revival ' in Oriental Turkey. And, certainly,
these indications are of more importance to us, the
rulers of twenty millions of IMahometans, and to the
world in general, than the fierce intolerance itself of
'Abd-Allah-Ebn-Feysul and his restless 'Metowwa's,'
because they are connected, not with special but
universal, not with transient but permanent causes of
grievance and strife. I will content myself with stating
a few remarkable facts, leaving collateral incidents and
results to inference or minuter observation.
The first is the recent modification of the non-deno-
minational or ' Rushdee ' pubhc schools.
These schools were, as everybody is aware, established
under official influence and patronage, and partly with
the aid of official subsidies, some twenty years since, in
every considerable town or centre, agricultural or mer-
cantile, over the face of the East Ottoman Empire.
Their avowed object was the promotion of a purely
secular and * non- denominational ' education. The
'course' pursued in them, at their first institution,
consisted partly of languages, amongst which those of
European family, especially French, held the foremost
place ; partly of general history, mathematics, natural
sciences, and the like. They were intended for, and
during some time were in fact frequented by the
cliildren of the middle and upper class Christian parents
no less than of Mahometan, without distinction of sect
or dogma; and their ultimate scope was to quid ify the
rising generation, of whatever religion or race, for a
closer and more amicable contact with the people and
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 117
the ideas of the West — a contact based on wider know-
ledge, and tending to cuhninate in intellectual and
moral fusion.
This was twenty, fifteen, years since. But, strange to
say, stranger still to see, there are now throughout the
Ottoman provinces no stricter ' denominational,' that is,
Muslim schools, than these very 'Kushdee' institutions;
and if we poll the lads who attend them, and they are
many, we shall scarcely find among a hundred turbaned
scholars one single child of Christian creed or parentage.
The education of the * Rushdee ' college so wide in its
original progTamme, has in almost every instance with-
out the walls of the capital, or rather of Europeanised
Pera, restricted itself to the study of the Turkish,
Arabic, and Persian languages, with grammar and logic
in accordance, 'Nahoo' and 'Muntik;' to the authors
who treat of Eastern, that is Mahometan history, insti-
tutions and laws, to the physics of Kazweenee, and the
geography of Masa'oodee ; European tongues, Eurojean
learning, European sciences have dwindled to absolute
extinction ; they have departed without being desired,
and no one seeks after them or regrets. Masters, pupils,
and teaching alike, let alone prayers, usages, and all the
daily or weekly accessories of school education, are, in
nineteen cases out of twenty, as thoroughly and em-
phatically Mahometan as an 'Omar or an Othman
himself could desire ; all else is combated or ignored,
the training and the trained are once more on the
narrow line of Islam, and Islam only. By whom
precisely and how this change was effected, needs not
here to investigate ; but the fact, the ' sign,' is there.
Another sign, one certainly good in itself, but ques-
tionable in its ulterior purport, is the great diminution
in the use, or rather abuse, of fermented and alcoholic
liquors among the Mahometan populations, high and
1 1 8 THE MA HOMETA N ' RE ] 7 I 'A L: [iv.
low, from the shores of the Bosporus to the 'river
of Egypt.' It would be superfluous to call to mention
the strictly proliibitive precepts of both Kura'n and
Hadeeth in this matter, or the continually recumng
violation of those precepts which every page of Eastern
history, from the reign of the Omeyyad Chaliphs down-
wards, bear witness to. But it is worthy of note that
an increasino* or decreasing non-observ^ance of this dis-
tinctive law has been at all times a kind of thermo-
metrical test of the degree of Mahometan fervour at
large ; and that each period of failing and decadence —
and Islam has gone through many such — has been in-
variably signalized by a public and audacious breach
of the negative commandment. Thus, for example, it
fell out in the dark decline of the Abbaside Chaliphate ;
thus again in the distracted epoch that preceded the
estabhshment of the Fatimite dynasty in Egypt ; thus
it was in the apjDalling chaos of Ottoman disorder
and decay whence the Empire was in part upraised
by the Kiiprilee administration. While, on the con-
trary, the abandonment, or even the total, though in
general only, temporary closing of the wine and spirit
shops has regularly coincided with a renewal of that
religious zeal which forms the supplement of patriotic
and national vitality in the East.
Now the most superficial observer can hardly fail
to be struck by the diflerence which has arisen in this
respect between the Turkish — I use the word in its
imperial sense — Mahometans of 1871 and those of only
thirty years since. The Turkish soldier is now as
eminent in his abstemious sobriety as his predecessor,
the Janissary, was in his shameless drunkenness; the
Turkish sailor has abandoned the grog-shop to the
Maltee, the Levantine, and the Greek ; the Turkish —
not unwashed, for an unwashed Mahometan is a
IV.] THE MA HOMETA N ' RE VI VAL.' 1 1 9
contradiction in terms, but he whose rank and station
in town or village would correspond to our unwashed,
no longer spends his chance piastre on a glass of
rakee and his night in the lock-up. Twice each year
the great Mahometan festivals turn the entire Turkish
population out to three or four days of continuous
idleness and amusement, yet no extra duty necessitated
by popular insobriety devolves on the patrol and police
force — a fact rendered still more remarkable by the
contrast afforded in this respect on the recurrence of
the drunken Christian festivals about Easter and the
New Year. This abstinence, the heads of the district
police have repeatedly assured me, was by no means
the rule twenty years since. Even the educated, or,
so to speak, modernised alia Franca Turk, however
lax he may be in other respects, is as shy of indulging
in, and as anxious to conceal any propensity he may
have to forbidden drinks, as he was formerly ostenta-
tious, and, after a manner, insolent in his display of
their abuse ; and the few of this class who might come
under the provisions of a * Habitual Drunkard's Act,'
did such exist in Turkey, are, with hardly an exception,
elderly men, whose habit dates from a generation now
almost passed away, and whom I have often heard
grumbling at the novel strictness which, in public as
in private festivities, has substituted water, or at least
coffee, for the customary wine and spirits of former
times. Egypt alone would seem, if accounts be correct,
to form in this particular an exception to the general
law of Mahometan progress, or retrogression ; yet even
in Egypt my own observation would lead me to think
that the westward and alcoholic tendencies of its upper
classes and rulers are only superficial, and find httle
or no correspondence among the masses.
Akin to this change is the exacter observance of
120 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
Ramadan. Travellers* books — Eothen among the rest,
if I remember rightly — used to abound in amusing
tales of the tricks and evasions to which Mahometans
of all classes were said to resort in order to elude the
penance of the monthly fast. If these tales were once
true, or at least had their foundation in truth, they
certainly are quite obsolete now-a-days. High and low,
the Stamboolee Field-Marshal Pasha, and the ragged
'kaikjee' or boatman, alike go through the respective
labours, sedentary or active, of their weary day, un-
refreshed by food, drink, or smoke, in equal self-denial,
discomfort, and piety ; and even when welcome night
has fallen, few in the midst of their merriment omit
attendance at the interminable 'Teraweeh' or prayer-
recitals of the mosque, peculiar to the season ; while
countless private devotions and Kura'n-readings claim
a lion's share of the vacant hours. That, after all
these, the Muslim finds no less pleasure in attendance
at the licentious spectacles of the ' Karaguz,' or still
more licentious doings of certain other places of resort,
where the theory that coffee acts as a check on the
grosser passions of men finds a too practical refutation,
no way proves laxity in his faith ; followers of Islam,
like those of every other known creed, being always
ready to
Compound for sins that they're inclined to,
By damning tliose they have no mind to ;
orthodoxy here, as elsewhere, covering the multitude
of what may be termed, in one respect, 'compatible'
transgressions.
A tliird, and, in its way, a very important ' sign,'
is the progressive diminution in the number of Euro-
peans, and, indeed, of Christians generally, in Turkish
employment, particularly in the JNIilitary and Public
Works Dcpartiiients. Twenty years ago, to be a
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 121
Frenchman, an Italian, a Hungarian, or a Pole, was
almost a sufficient title in itself for a good post, a high
salary, and a sure advancement in the Ottoman service,
where ' wanted, a Christian, and if possible a Euro-
pean,' seemed to be the stereotyped advertisements of
request. The numerous w^orks, or at any rate, con-
cessions of roads, bridges, landing-places, and the like,
were hence almost wholly in the hands or under the
direction of French adventurers and Polish refugees, so
much so, indeed, that to the mismanagement, dis-
honesty, or incompetence of these very men may be
not unfairly attributed much of the general absence of
solid progress in these undertakings ; the Mining and
Forest Dej^artments had a manifest tendency to follow
in the same direction, only that here ' Native Chris-
tians,' Greek or Armenian, have established a pre-
ference. Meanwhile, the various branches of the
medical profession were the favourite experiment-field
of Italian quackery ; while Hungarians, Croatians, and
their like, gravitated towards military and adminstra-
tive employments.
Turn to the present day, and we see the foreign
element in one and all of these departments undergoing
a rapid process of elimination by the Turkish, the
Christian by the Mussulman. The great military road
just completed, — after a fashion, it is true, — between
Trebizond and Erzeroom, a work five years back wholly
French, has, long before its termination, passed into
exclusively Turkish hands ; the only Chiistian engineer
retained on it to the end having been a native Ar-
menian ; the harbour works, civil or military, along
the south Black Sea coast have followed suit ; while
the concessions for similar undertakings promised or
made to Europeans elsewhere are, so far as may be,
persistently thwarted or nullified in their execution.
1 2 2 THE MA HO MET A N ' RE VI VAL: [i v .
Turkish doctors more and more replace, nor disadvan-
tageously, the normal Italian practitioner ; while in
the army the growing intensity of Mahometan spirit
and practice leaves but a narrow and an uncomfortable
berth for any one who does not regulate his life, pro-
fessedly at least, by the precepts of the Kura'n and
the Sunneh. In a word, the tendency to exclude Euro-
peans, and, where possible, native Christians, from the
ranks of service and public employment, is not less
marked than w^as the eagerness to make use of them
and to bring them forward a century ago. That the
Turks, once pupils in mechanical art, have latterly
become, or think that they have become, masters,
may be accepted as part explanation ; but the tone
adopted on these matters by Mahometan officials
leaves no doubt that more is to be ascribed to the
'purism' of revived Islam, and its jealousy of rivalry
or admixture.
Lastly, every traveller throughout Asia Minor, Syria,
and Koordistan, was formerly expected to note in his
journal and transfer to print remarks, not wholly then
unjustified by facts, on the declining energies of Islam,
evinced by decaying mosques, abandoned schools, and
ruined buildings of public hospitality or charity. Much
of this kind of book ' stuffing ' was, indeed, due to
misconception and exaggeration, still the deficiency of
new religious educational constructions during the first
half of the present century must have been real, inas-
much as it is noticeable even after this lapse of time.
But were I, on the other hand, to attempt the cata-
logue of mosques, colleges, schools, chapels, and the
hke, rei»aired or wlioily Iresh-built in the last fifteen
years within the circle of my own personal inspection
alone, several pages would liardly suffice to contain
it. Trebizoiid, Batooni, Sanisoon, Sivas, Keysareeyah,
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 123
Chorum, Amasia, and fifty other towns of names un-
known, or barely known, in Europe, each can boast
its new or renovated places of Mahometan worship ;
new schools, some of law, others of grammar, others
primary, have sprung up on every side ; new works
of charity and public bequest adorn the liighways.
The ' wakoof,' or mosque-lands, have latterly become a
frequent subject of official or semi-official enquiry ; not
in the view of resumption or confiscation, but of a
better and more efficacious administration to the ends
for which they were originally set apart. Meanwhile,
year after year sees a steady increase in the number
of pilgrims to the holy places of Islam ; and, although
the greater facilitation consequent on steam has un-
doubtedly contributed not a little to this result, much
must also be put down to the growing eagerness
manifested by all, high and low, to visit the sacred
soil, the birthplace of their religion and Prophet ;
while the pride that each town or village takes in its
'hajjees' is manifested in the all-engrossing sympathy
that accompanies their departure, and the triumphant
exultation of the entire populace that welcomes them
home. It may not have been less a thousand years
ago : it certainly could not have been more.
Other ' signs of the times ' might be added, but they
can be fairly reduced to the four already given, or
conjectured from them ; and all combine in witnessing
to the energy and the breadth of the Mahometan
* revival.' Enough to say, that from ' him that sitteth
upon the throne,' the Sultan of Constantinople, 'Abd-
el-'Azeez himself, down to the poorest 'hammal' or
street-porter on the Avharves, it embraces every class,
every nationality within the Ottoman Empire, north
and south, Turks, Turkomans, Koordes, Arabs, with
their respective sub-branches and cross-races ; that the
124 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
recent Circassian exiles, who, on their first arrival,
hardly knew a morning prayer or a verse of the Kura'n,
are now in IMiislim exactitude and fervour inferior to
none ; and that while all the temporal advantages
offered by European protection and support, not to
mention the direct persuasion and indirect subsidy of
well-to-do missionaries, can scarcely, or indeed more
truly not at all, procure a single convert from Islam
to any form of Christianity, Greek, Armenian, Catholic,
or Protestant, on the other hand a reverse process
yearly enrolls a very sensible number from one or
another, or all of these sects, under the unity of the
Green Banner. This in Turkish Asia ; while from
Africa reports reach us of whole Negro tribes aban-
doning their hereditary fetich for the religion called
of Abraham ; and, after all due allowance made for
distance and exaggeration, the current idea, that the
Libyan Peninsula will soon be, what its best portions
in North and East already are, a land of Islam, seems
by no means destitute of probabihty.
To sum up, Mahometan fervour has first been
thoroughly rekindled within the limits which its half-
extinguished ashes covered a hundred years ago ; and,
next, the increased heat has, by a natural law, ex-
tended over whatever lies nearest to but beyond the
former circumference.
Now all this should be borne in mind when we take
counsel on our Indo-Mahometan subjects ; and we
should accustom ourselves to look on them, not as
an isolated clique, girt in by our power, our institu-
tion, and, if need be, our bayonets, but as part and
parcel of the great brotherhood that radiates, so to
speak, from Mecca, as from its centre, to the shores
beaten by the wild waves of the Atlantic on the West,
and to the coral-reefs of tlu^ Pacific on the East ; from
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 125
the confine-steppes of frozen Siberia, to the banana
groves of the Malay Archipelago. With more justice
than the first converts of Christianity, the Muslim
may boast that 'the multitude of them that believe
are of one heart and of one soul;' loss or gain are
reckoned among them in common, the grievance of one
is the grievance of all ; and the enemy of one frontier
is hated up to, and, where possible, assailed from the
most distant other.
So strong, indeed, is the bond of union supplied by
the very name of Islam, even where that name covers
the most divergent principles and beliefs, that, in pre-
sence of the ' infidel,' the deep clefts which divide
Soonnee and Shee'ah are for a time and purpose ob-
literated ; and the most heretical sects become awhile
amalgamated with the most uncompromisingly orthodox,
who, in another, cause, would naturally reject and dis-
avow them. Very curious in this respect is the evidence
afforded by Mr. Hunter ; nowhere more so than in the
light he throws, almost unconsciously it would seem,
on the true character of the so-called Wahhabee
movement, spreading from the Rebel Camp of Sittana
to Lower Bengal, and re -concentrating itself in the
centres of Maldah, and at Patna in particular. Here
we have the most simple and rigid form that Islam has
ever assumed, namely, the puritanical Unitarianism of
the Nejdean Wahhabee, combined with all that the
Nejdean Wahhabee as such would most condemn : I
mean the superstitious belief in a coming ' Mahdee,' the
idea of personal and, so to speak, corporeal virtue and
holy efficacy in the * Imam ' of the day ; and, lastly,
with the organised practice of private assassination, a
practice long held for distinctive of the freethinking
Isma'eleeyeh, and their kindred sects among the Kafidee
heretics. How far the typical Wahhabees of Arabia are
126 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
from these credences and usages myself can best testify.
At Eiad I have repeatedly heard the abhoiTent phrases
with which, almost under breath, as rnen speaking of
something too horrible to mention, my friends cliarac-
terised the idolatrous reverence of the Persian ' Wakeel,'
then resident in the town, for his expected ' Mahdee,' a
title reserved by the Kura'n exclusively to God alone.
And, for what regards the Imamat, I have twice, once
in the village of Eovvdah on the frontier of Woshem,
once in the town of Jelajil, in the most orthodox pro-
vince of Sedeyr, been myself invested for the nonce
with the character and duties of Imam, and as such
have conducted the customary congregational worship.
Yet no townsman or villager, then gathered in the
mosque, was so deluded as to ascribe to me the very
least personal sanctity or spiritual superiority of any
kind. I was in their eyes a Muslim, of general
good character, not in debt, and of a more than average
acquaintance with the Kura'n and the stated forms of
prayer ; and this was all that was required in my in-
stance, as it would have been in any other throughout
Nejd, As to the assassinations recorded in my Central
Arabian History, and the subsequent murder of blind
old Fej'sul, these were due not to Wahhabeeism, but to
private revenge or external causes. But m India, and
most notably on its North- Western frontier, the Shee'ah
superstitions of Imam and ' Malidee,' with the secret
association and murderous practices of the Isma'eleeyeh,
or assassins, so long established in the neighbourhood
of these very provinces (a.d. 1000-1200 circiter), and
not Improbably, as I have heard suggested on excellent
authority, still maintaining an underhand existence
there, have all combined together, and been toiighly
welded into one formidable weapon of attack on the
common foe, the uncircumcised infidel of the land,
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 127
governing or governed. But how fervent must be the
Islamitic glow requu^ed for such a welding, let testify
the hopeless failure of analogous attempts made age by
age to bind in one the sundered branches of Christianity;
and Greeks and Catholics at internecine war within the
walls of Constantinople, while Mahomet II with his
monster artillery thundered at the gates.
This is no light thing; Islam is even now an enor-
mous power, full of self-sustaining vitality, with a
surplus for aggression ; and a struggle with its com-
bined energies would be deadly indeed. Yet we, at any
rate, have no need for nervous alarm, nor will its
quarrel, even partially, be with us and our Empire, so
long as we are • consistently faithful to the practical
wisdom of our predecessors, that best of legacies be-
queathed us by the old East India Company.
Here a word may not unsuitably find place on the
very shortsighted policy which, for the sake of a Httle
present saving, or to satisfy the ever-craving mania of
' paring down,' would reduce to a mere nothing our
most effective foreign representation, that is, our Con-
sular, in those very countries from the shores of the
Black Sea to those of the Hejaz, which are in an emi-
nent degree the focus of growing heat, and, it is far
from improbable, of future conflagration. To obtam a
trustworthy and accurate knowledge of the patient's
pulse, a fugitive visit and an inexperienced hand are
either insufficient; and. to ensure full and reliable in-
formation as to the conditions of Mahometan excite-
ment in the Asiatic districts, not less than to acquire
a certain ascendancy of position which may render that
excitement, if not wholly innocuous, at least less injurious
to ourselves, men of more than average power and cul-
tivation are required ; and, it might seem superfluous in
the case of any other profession to remark, such men
128 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
are not to be had for nothing. The imprudent ignorance
of an unquaUfied British resident appointed for any
other motive than for suitableness, acquired by patient
study or experience to the post he has been designated
to fill; the intriguing restlessness of a Levantine or a
Maltee, decorated with the British Consular title, at
Jiddah or Damascus, — and an inadequate salary or for-
tuitous patronage often implies something of this kind,
or worse, — may suffice to endanger not only our own
immediate interests at those very places, but may even
by its results compromise the enormous and tangible
stake of our Indian possessions.
But most idle, however seemingly shrewd it may be, is
the policy that would virtually sever our Indian from our
Imperial Government, and, while drawingbetweenthetwo
an unreal line of demarcation, would refuse to burden, as
the phrase goes, the latter with the most trifling measure,
the most fractional expense, referable, even indirectly, to
the advantage and benefit of the former. Islam is one ;
the British Empire, too, is one : and though a luimerous
class of purely local, or, it might be expressed, municipal
outlays ought to be and are properly referable to India
and its administration alone, yet rulers should remember
that in the wider category of cause and effect, reaching
to the very existence of our Indian dominion, that do-
minion, in virtue of which more than aught else we are
what we are, their sohcitude ought not to be limited by
the Bay of Bengal on the one side and the Persian Gulf
on the other ; no, nor even the Eed Sea. That this
proposition has a special significance where Islam and
its followers are concerned, my readers will have already
perceived, or I have written to very Httle purpose.
But to return to the universal 'revival' itself: to
what cause or causes shall we ascribe it 1 and is the
movement transient in its nature or Ukely to last 1 and
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 129
what difficulties or disturbances has it abeady produced,
or may yet pioduce, in the existing order of things,
that is, outside of India '? For with its immediate
results in India Mr. Hunter has made us sufficiently
acquainted. Those who have paid attention to the
somewhat analogous rejuvenescence, if the phrase be
allowed, of Christianity, and more particularly Catho-
licism, in the West, during the same period of time,
that is, the last hundred years, might be almost tempted
to ascribe both of these simultaneous phases of human
thought to some unseen, powerful Influence — some all-
pervading ' Weltgeist,' or at least ' Zeitgeist ' — thus
manifesting his action on our common race in Asia as in
Europe. But we can easily find more visible and de-
finite agencies at work in the present renovation of
Islam.
The first is, undoubtedly, the Wahhabeeism of Nejd.
However hostile in itself the ordinary practices and
received opinions of the ' Soonnee,' or orthodox body,
hostile, too, to the Turkish sceptre and to Ottoman
organisation, yet the zeal it contains for the cause of
Islam in general, and the immense energy of its pure
Monotheism, have not failed to arouse corresponding
feelings and sympathies even among those who, in other
respects, are its professed enemies, and to make half-
conquests where denied a complete victory. For cer-
tainly, political and national considerations apart, apart
also from the speciaHty of non-smoking, and some other
trifles of the same description, no genume Mahometan
but must feel that the doctrines of 'Abd-el-Wahhab are
in very truth the doctrines of the Kura'n and the
Prophet. Accordingly, the whole school of Islamitic
teaching has, while denouncing them in one phase,
accepted and been modified by them under another ;
and men at large have learned to set a higher value on
K
130 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
Islam, of which they have thus re-perceived the dignity.
Not the common people only, hut many of the highest
and best educated classes, even the Sultan himself
among the number, are distinctly incUned to the stricter
school, and so are most of the principal doctors and
teachers throughout the Ottoman East, as he will find
who visits the ' ^Medresehs ' at Of, Koniah, Damascus,
Gaza, and even JSIosool. Much in the same way as
Protestantism in the sixteenth century, though unable
wholly to overthrow Eomanism, yet exerted a real and
penetrating influence on it, and wrought the indirect
reform of many an abuse that it could not reach and
crush face to face, so has the Wahhabeeism of our own
times modified and purified the very system it condemns,
and sjDread its own tinge over the entire surface of
Islam.
A second cause is European pressure. The Ma-
hometan populations of the East have of late years
fully awakened to the manifold strength and skill of
theu' Western Christian rivals ; and this awakening, at
first productive of respect and fear, not unmixed with
admiration, now wears the type of antagonistic dishke,
and even of intelligent hate. No more zealous ^la-
hometans, no more exclusive ' Unitarians,' to adopt theii'
own phrase, are to be found in all the ranks of Islam
than they who have sojourned the longest in Europe,
and acquired the most intimate knowledge of its
sciences and its ways. It is a mistake, common among
Europeans, universal among Frenchmen, to imagine
that Asiatic Mahometans esteem or desire them the
more for their mechanical, artistic, or inventive skill.
Hailroads, steam-enginos, telcgraplis, and the like,
excite now indeed no prejudice, and are, where circum-
stances favour, willingly adojited ; but their inventors
are not thought one atom the better of for all these
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 131
things ; while, on the other side of the account, Ma-
hometans are keenly alive to the ever-shiftmg uncer-
tainties and divisions that distract the Christianity of
the day, and to the woeful instability of modern
European institutions. From their own point of view,
Muslims are as men standing on a secure rock, and sur-
veying the ships driven hither and thither on the
stormy seas around ; and they complacently — shall we
say, unreasonably "? — contrast the quiet fixity of their
own position with the unsettled and insecure restlessness
of all else.
Islam, rightly understood, is neither so flexible nor
so inflexible as outsiders would have it. It can heartily
admit all introduction of material improvement and
comfort, and has no serious objection, special causes
apart, to any given form of dress or habitation, of science
or government. But Western speculation and utili-
tarian positivism run off" from it like rain from a water-
proof; whfle, again, on the point which its followers
hold to be inherent and essential to their creed and to
the social relations necessarily deduced from it, they
neither know how to change, nor will. I praise not, as
I blame not ; but the facts are so.
Mr. Hunter mentions the effect lately produced at
Calcutta by the speech of a venerable Sheykh, Ahmed
Eflendee Ansaree by name, who recounted to an at-
tentive audience of Indo-Mahometans the favourable
impressions produced on his mind during a visit to
Constantinople ; and dwelt more especially on the
intimate alliance and mutual good-will existing, said
the Sheykh, between the Ottoman Sultan and the
English nation. Ahmed Effendee was a stranger and
a guest, seeing the outside of a capital city, and
coming in contact mainly, it would seem, with the
quietest and best of its inhabitants ; but had he fre-
K 2
132 THE MAHOMETAN ' revival: [iv.
quented the inner provinces, and lodged under the
roofs of dispossessed Dereli-Begs and their descendants,
his picture might, I fear, have exhibited fewer Ughts
and more shades. Anyhow, it was well that he spoke
as he did ; had he spoken otherwise he would have
deserved little commendation. But it is also well that
we, who are neither Indians nor Mussulmans, should
understand how much there was of truth in his ac-
count, how much of error. Thus far was error ; that
any real sympathy or stability of friendship on in-
trinsic motives has ever existed or exists between the
two tribes, the Asiatic and the European ; the good-will
of Turkey and England is one merely of mutual ad-
vantages, real or supposed ; and its intensity and
duration are to be measured by those advantages alone.
But the Slieykh's narration contained a truth, and a
most valuable truth, namely, that the tolerance, the
justice, and the steady adherence to our given word,
which have, on the whole, characterised us in our deal-
ings with Turkey and the East, let cynics and rhe-
toricians say what they Hst, have not indeed rendered
us the brothers, but have thus far removed us from
the category of the enemies, of Islam. And, it is no
less certain that, even without the support, valuable
though it reaUy is, of * Fatwahs ' and ' Hans,' so long as
we thus rule India, m toleration, in justice, and truth,
that country will always be to the genuine Muslim, if
not ' Dar Islam,' yet not ' Dar Harb ' either, but ' Dar
Aman;' an abode where the 'faithful' may dwell in
surety of conscience as of right ; and feel well assured,
even with the ' Hadeeth ' open before their eyes, and
the Kura'n in their ears, that they nowise imperil their
heritage of milk, honey, and 'kawther' in the next
world, by enjoying the peaceful blessings of this, under
Britisli protection, wliatever may in strict Mahometan
IV.] THE MA HOME TAN 'REVIVAL.' 133
credence be tlie future allotment of the Britons them-
selves in the Day of Decision.
But, this ' Bevival,' is it of a transient nature, or per-
manent ? Let those who can argue from causes to
eifects, look at the former, here faithfully assigned,
and then pronounce on the probable character of the
latter. Doubtless, no creed, no articled system, can be
absolutely lasting upon earth ; and the means which
Muslims, Christians, and whoever else, revere, will in
their turn pass away and be superseded. But of all the
forms and systems now extant, none has, it would seem,
a greater intrinsic power of resistance and persistence
than Islam ; and every 'Bevival' necessarily partakes in
its measure of the durability of that which is revived.
The Ottoman Government has felt this, and has
shaped its course accordingly. Threatened by dangers
and embarrassed by difficulties not much unlike those
which we have latterly experienced in India, they have
met them by a statesmanship, part of which may be
taken as a direct hint or landmark to ourselves, part, as
it stands, inapplicable to us, yet suggestive of what
might be done by us or left undone east of the Indus.
Thus, for instance, while we have had our Sittana
camp and its fanatics, Nejd and its warlike Wahhabees
have played a not wholly dissimilar part on the Otto-
man frontier. To these uncompromising foes the Turks
have steadily shown themselves equally uncompro-
mising adversaries, with no alternative to propose, but
submission or the sword ; — and God forbid that we
should be more milky to the rebels of the North- West,
or ever offer any other alternative than obedience or
death to the avowed enemies and rebels of our Empire.
But with Wahhabees and assassins the course is clear.
Setting these aside, we come to the more complicated
questions which regard the stajjle, and in ordinary
134 THE MAHOMETAN ' revival: [iv.
circumstances peaceably disposed Mahometan popu-
lation. This, too, in Asia Minor, Syria, and through-
out the East Ottoman territory, has, with its rehgious
'Eevival,' learned to feel and to repine against its
grievances ; and these grievances, curious to note,
have borne an unmistakable resemblance to those
of our own Indo-Mahometans, whose cause has been
so ably and judiciously pleaded by Mr. Hunter in
the concluding chapter of his work. Old famihes, once
rollers, now decaying in discouragement and neglect;
education diverted from its former Muslim channel
into courses more or less incompatible with Islam ;
careers once open to the true ' behever ' only, but from
which he now finds himself pointedly excluded ; public
funds once destined primarily and chiefly for the mainten-
ance of the 'straight faith,' and its lore, now turned aside
to other and even to hostile purposes ; the whole current
of official patronage and favour set in a direction
diametrically counter to Islam ; last and worst of all,
Muslim law, the law based on the Soonnah, Hadeeth,
and Kura'n, and as intimately and vitally connected
with them as a tree with its roots, superseded by codes
and courts of ' infidel ' origin, and at times of ' infidel '
members and ways of practice. None of these were
wanting in the Turkey of 1830-54; and, though to
every accusation a solid cause might have been assigned
and a plausible answer given, yet from a Mahometan
point of view the cause would have seemed insufficient,
the answer unsatisfactory, while the accusation and the
grievance would still remain heavy and real.
A little more, another Sultan on the throne like
'Abd-el-Mejeed, another minister at the head of the
Divan like Resheed Pasha ; and a crisis could hardly
have been averted. The general * Revival * was going
on and strengthening ; the not less general discontent
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL! 135
was ripening here and there into conspiracy; and the
alia Franca barriers of the modernised Stambool organ-
isation were openly menaced by the advancing tide.
Bat the Osmanlee is rarely taken at fault ; and though
slow to move is sure ; * The lame donkey/ says the
Arab alluding to Turkish pohcy, ' ends by catching the
hare/ The Crimean war and its successes, real at the
time for the Ottoman Empire, brought for a space a
seasonable diversion of feeling ; and before that had
passed away 'Abd~el-Azeez was Sultan, and the ship of
state trimmed her sails to the breeze anew rising into
a gale.
How the educational difficulty was got rid of, we
have already seen at the outset of this article ; all that
now remains to add on the subject is, that, although
the transformation of the non-denominational or 'infider
into denominational or Muslim schools, was in great
measure the spontaneous result of widespread popular
feeling, and the necessity of things, yet the Govern-
ment bore its share in the change, not only passively
by the absence of all opposition, but also actively by
quietly encouraging it through its servants and officials.
Christians of every sect, Greeks, Armenians, and what
else, continued to give the education they preferred to
their own rising generation, but on their own account ;
the public method of training for the young of Islam
was gently replaced under the direction of Islam
once more. We have also glanced at the widespread
foundation and endowment of new colleges, schools,
mosques, and similar institutions, by which the dis-
quietude occasioned through a different employment of
the resources of the land was obviated. In each of
these measures may be found, not indeed exactly a
lesson, yet a hint for ourselves ; a hint corroborative in
its way of Mr. Hunter's proposals regarding Indo-
136 THE MAHOMETAN ' revival: [iv.
Mahometan education, and which, in substance at least,
may be followed out not less satisfixctorily on the banks
of the Ganges than on those of the Euphrates and the
Haljs.
The more dangerous discontent of the old and dis-
occupied families of the land, has been in many
instances appeased by a judicious allotment of civil,
and more often of military employment. A noble, but
disaffected Koorde, on his way to Constantinople with
a burden of many, nor unfounded grievances, applied to
a friendly Turkish provincial Governor of Anatolia for
an introduction to the all-powerful 'Aali Pasha, Prime
Minister of the Empire. 'For sale; buy,' were the
words, written in Arabic, and unintelHgible to the
bearer, inscribed on the paper which was given liim
at his request, A couple of months later the Koordish
Bey and his two eldest sons, fine dark-eyed youths, the
very images of their father and fearing no created being
but him, were holding honourable and advantageous
commissions in the Turkish army. That this method
has not been more often pursued, and the old score
better wiped out, is the fault of the black-coated clique,
the Stambool bureaucracy ; a fault they may one day
have cause to rue. However, to the most urgent cases,
concihatory remedies, of which the above is a tolerable
specimen, have, in fact, been applied ; and here again a
useful hint, with appropriate modifications, of course,
and due regard to times, places, and circumstances, may
be taken.
But the difficulty of all difficulties was that created
by the application of non-Islamitic law to Islamitic
subjects. Law and religion are, most unfortunately on
the whole, not less bound up together in the Mahome-
tan than in the Judaic system ; and to tamper ^\^th the
one is to trench dangerously on the other. Yet the
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 137
ever-increasing influx of foreign settlement, enterprise
and policy, with the pressure exerted by foreign ideas
and ways, seemed to necessitate some modification in
this matter ; new tribunals were absolutely required,
and the frequent presence of Europeans, or the implica-
tion of their interests, direct and indirect, exacted the
introduction in one form or other of European law. To
use a somewhat technical phrase, the establishment of
non-denominational tribunals seemed no less inevitable
than that of non-denominational schools : and it was
precisely the having recourse to such that the Muslims
could not stomach. In Islam, and Islam alone, they
lived and moved and had their being ; and Islam, and
no other, should or could be, they held, their arbiter
and judge. Nothing, in fact, had so intensely irritated
Mahometan feeling throughout the length and breadth
of the land as the new-fangled courts of justice ; hate-
ful under any circumstances, they were intolerable to
the sensitiveness of the ' Revival.' Yet the mainten-
ance of these courts was, in the actual state of the East,
an undoubted necessity. How then should the Otto-
map Government, which, though secretly leaning to the
'Revival' as to its best ally, yet above all things
desired to conciliate each party and offend none, solve
the problem 1
The problem, like many others, was solved by an
evasion ; but the evasion was a skilful one. The new
courts were left, in seeming at least, untouched ; but,
the commercial and the mixed tribunals excepted, were
conducted, if not on the basis of, at least in fair accord-
ance with, the Sunneh code. Meanwhile all intra-
Mahometan causes, all questions of inheritance, contract,
purchase and the like between Muslims, all acts of
marriage or divorce, all incidents of social or family life
requiring legal intervention, were removed from tlie
138 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
recently-founded tribunals, and referred exclusively to
the ' Mahkemah,' the normal court of Islam, presided
over by the Kadee, with the Muftee for assessor, and
the 'Ulemah for counsel. Thus Mahometan life was
withdrawn from the dangers and inconveniences of non-
Mahometan law, and found itself securer than ever
within its own limits ; renouncing for good the vain
attempt to influence or mould others to itself, it was
guaranteed, in return, against being moulded or in-
fluenced by them.
Can we derive hence any lesson or hint for our own
guidance with regard to our Indo-Mahometan subjects'?
A preUminary objection must be explamed, before this
question can be answered.
There are lands where certain phases of thought
and conduct seem ever to reproduce themselves inva-
riably and infallibly whatever be the new race and
creed that cover the surface of the ground, just as
in certain soils the same weeds persistently re-appear,
whatever crop be sown there by the husbandman.
Thus it is, for example, with Egypt ; thus too, and
remarkably so, with India. There the sacerdotal
superstition so proper to the Hindoo, has re-risen
and infected with its taint the super-induced settler,
the severe monotheist Muslim ; so that we now see
the Indo-Mahometan regarding marriage, not to men-
tion other incidents of Hfe, no longer as a merely
civil and social, but as a religious contract, and in-
vesting the kadee — or kazee in his pronunciation — with
a semi-2)riestly function and character, wholly alien
from that personage in the genuine conception of
Islam. If additional evidence were wanted of this
Hindoo leaven, and how far it has leavened the
whole lump, it may be found in the fact that, within
the limits of Hindoostan, the judicial oftice, else-
IV.] THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 139
where strictly personal, and in degree capable of
hereditary transmission or successional right, is here
often looked on as a matter of birth, and is handed
down from father to son. A doubt has consequently
arisen in the minds of our own legislators — a doubt
justified by local conditions — whether in taking on
ourselves in India the nomination and the support of
the Mahometan 'kazees/ we may not be assuming,
or at any rate be plausibly accused of assuming, the
position of active promoters of Mahometanism itself ?
But it is not so. The semi-religious or sacerdotal
character of the Indo-Mahometan kadee and his func-
tions is purely subjective, not objective ; that is, it
may erroneously find place in some Hindoo minds
and appreciations, but has no real or legitimate foun-
dation in fact and in Islam. The kadee of Mahometan
orthodoxy is a civil officer, holding a civil appoint-
ment and performing civil duties, no others, for civil,
social, or private life ; and should the natural and
very pardonable ignorance of a British assembly on
such matters arouse a ' Mrs, Grundy ' outcry of ' re-
ligion in danger' against our Indian Government,
for doing what as the rulers of a Mahometan popula-
tion they cannot refuse in justice and equity to do,
the answer is ready and plain.
This preliminary objection removed, it may unhesi-
tatingly be affirmed that in what concerns the legal,
or, better said, the judicial dilemma, we may, in
respect of our Indo-Mahometan subjects, wisely take
a leaf from the book of our Ottoman friends. Where
plaintiif and defendant, where the parties contracting
in marriage or otherwise, or rescinding contract, where
testator and legatee are alike Muslims, let matters be
between them in a court cognizant of Muslim civil law,
and regulated, as near as may be, after Muslim fashion ;
140 THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: [iv.
and let the legal officers of such courts, from the
hiirhest to the lowest, be invested with all the sanction
that our own Indian Government — the only one on
Muslim no less than on non-Muslim jirinciples com-
petent to do so mthin Indian limits — can give. A
kazee-el-kuza't in each Presidency, with a Sheykh-
Islam at Calcutta, nominated by Government, salaried
by Government, dependent on Government, and re-
movable by Government — all conditions, be it obsei-ved,
of the Sheykh-Islam and of every kadee in the Ottoman
Empire itself — endowed with the appropriate patronage
for subordinate appointments, but requiring for the
validity of each and every nomination our own con-
fii-matory sign and seal ; good Mahometan law colleges
and schools, conducted under our supervision, and
maintained on our responsibility ; these are what would
give us a hold over the most important, because the
most dangerous, element in our Indian Empire, such as
notliing else could give : a hold that the disaffection,
did it ever occur, of others from within, or the assaults
of rival powers, not least of * infidel ones ' from north or
elsewhere without, would only strengthen.
Let us ' be wise and understand this,' and not incur
the reproach of those, rulers too in their day, who
* could not discern the signs of the times.' We can no
more check or retard the Mahometan * Eevival ' in
India than we can hinder the tide from swelling in the
English Channel — I am writing on its fair shore — when
it has risen in the Atlantic. The ' Revival' is a world-
movement, an epochal phenomenon ; it derives from the
larger order of causes, before which the lesser laws of
race and locality are swept away or absorbed into unity.
But we can turn it to our own advantage : we can
make the jaws of this young-old lion bring forth for us
honey and the honey-comb. And this we can do with-
IV. J THE MAHOMETAN 'REVIVAL: 141
out in the least compromising our own Christian cha-
racter as a Government or as a nation. The measures
required at our hands in our Indian heritage are simply
mercy, justice, and judgment ; and these belong to no
special race or creed ; they are the property of all,
Christian and Muslim alike — of West as of East, of
England as of Mecca.
V.
THE TUEKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES OF
THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER/
(Published in the 'Cornhill,' November, 1868.)
NOTICE.
This Essay is in its form topographical ; it contains some obser-
vations made by myself while on a tour of duty, more than four years
ago, through the extreme North-East provinces of the Ottoman
Empire. Since that time I have revisited these same districts, and
found the march of events to be much as I had at first anticipated.
Should, however, the proposed ' Euphrates Valley ' route, or rather,
that of the Tigris, be carried out, considerable modifications may be
expected in the Turkoman-Koorde development here indicated. And as,
if we do not take the Route into our hands, the Russians will into
theirs, such modifications may, under one form or another, be con-
fidently expected. But it is little likely that Islam will be a loser in
any case, though the Ottoman Empire, and the Anglo-Indian, too,
perhaps may.
Interesting as it is to watch the progress and
development of nations, stiU more interesting is it to
witness their first origin and beginnings ; not only from
the very rareness of opportunity for observing such
phenomena, but also from the peculiar and instructive
character of the circumstances which occasion and
accompany them. Now, duiing many years passed in
» This paper was, in substance, given by the writer at the meeting
of the British Association in Norwich, August, 1868.
THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES. 143
the East, the question has again and again occurred to
my mind, whether the productive powers of those
regions which have given birth to so many nationaUties,
so many dynasties, so many empires, — those regions
whence not only the outlying districts of Asia itself,
but even Europe and Africa, have been so often flooded,
were indeed wholly exhausted ; or whether any * new
blood' might yet be expected thence for transfusion
into the veins of this young-old world of ours, any new
outpourings into the stream of time ? For a long while
I could not find any satisfactory answer to tliis query.
Only thus much, that a protracted residence among
Arabs, Syrians, Persians and Indians, central or southern,
had convinced me that no such ' Revival ' could be ex-
pected from amongst them; that in those basins of
human life, the water, once so overflowing, had ebbed
back for good into its normal limits, and that although
Arabs, Persians, Syrians, Armenians, Mahrattas, Tamils
and the like, might long continue to exist as such, each
race moving on its gradually progressive or retrogressive
hne, yet that no new springs of nation or empire could
— within the reach, that is, of any probable calculation —
be expected to be broken up and opened in or from
that part of the great deep of mankind. But latterly,
during two years of residence, partly in Eastern Turkey
and partly in the adjoining Caucasus, I have found
myself the bystander of a weU-head of nationality, m
a region where the process of production and forma-
tion is rapidly going on, where the elements assume
fresh combinations, ferment, and in fermenting in-
crease; promising at no distant day to crystallize into
a new nationality, with a type and destiny of its own,
diJBfering from any that have as yet gone before it.
The scene of these vital energies, the region on which
we may now, not unprofitably, fix a half-hour's attention.
144 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
is the great Asiatic highland placed south-east of the
Black Sea and south-west of the Caspian. The limits
of this region are assigned: westward by the torrent-
river Kizil-Irmak, the Halys of the ancients; southwards
by the Tigro-Euphrates valley, and what adjoins it ; east-
wards by the deserts and tracks of Central Persia, and
northward by the Black Sea, Russian Georgia, and the
Caspian. The highland itself is formed by a huge
mountain -chain, or rather by several intertangled
chains, to which the collective name of Anti-Caucasus
might be not inaptly given, as the whole system runs
parallel to, and in formation and general character much
resembles, the well-kno'VNii Caucasus, from which it is
separated by the wide valley of Georgia and the plains
watered by the Rion or Phasis, and the Araxes. Thus
the direction of this Anti-Caucasus, this Asiatic Switzer-
land, lies from north-west to south-east ; that is, from
the Anatolian coast behind Trebizond to the lofty peak
of Demavend and the neighbourhood of Tebreez or
Tauris. It comprises the whole East of Anatolia, with
northern Kurdistan, both parts of the Ottoman domi-
nion, besides the Russian provinces of Erivan and
Kara-bagh, with the Persian province of Azerbeyjan ;
its central point is an old, almost a pre-historic, startmg-
point in the history of our kind, the double cone of
Ararat, and its never-melting snows.
No part of the world is, it would seem, better fitted
to become what men call the cradle of a nation. The
soil, everywhere fertile, is, up to a height of 6000 feet
and more above sea-level, rich to superabundance in
all kinds of cereals, — corn, rye, barley, oats, and the
like ; higher up are summer pasture lands, or ' yailas,'
to give them their local name, of vast extent, clothed
with excellent grass; in the valleys below ripen all the
products of ovu- own South-European climate, — vines,
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 145
fruit-trees, maize, rice, tobacco, and varied cultivation,
alternating with forests unexceptionally the noblest that
it has ever been my chance to see : ash, walnut, box-
wood, elm, beech, oak, fir, and pine. If to its above-
ground riches we add the metallic products of the land,
principally iron and copper, with not unfrequent silver
and lead, and also, I am informed, but must speak with
hesitation on a subject where so much technical know-
ledge is required, coal; add also a pure and healthy
climate, averaging in temperature that of Southern
Germany ; add perennial snows on the heights and
abundant rains in the valleys, whence flow down those
great rivers, Chorook, Araxes, Tigris, and Euphrates,
with all their countless tributaries, and other water-
courses of less historic note, but of scarce less fertilizing
importance, some to seek the Black Sea and the Caspian,
some the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf; — all
this, and we may reasonably conclude that few portions
of the earth's surface are, natural resources considered,
better adapted for the habitation, increase, and im-
provement of man.
The population, made up in the main from Armenians,
Turkomans, and Koordes, was however, till lately, not
dense, scarcely perhaps fifteen to the square mile, and
was, besides, somewhat on the decline. Want of roads,
and insufficient or mismanaged government, may be
assigned as the principal cause of so unsatisfactory a
condition. But now all is rapidly changing, Russian
pressure on the north-east is fast driving the Turkoman
tribes, once settled in farther lands, into the space just
described ; the same pressure, of which we in Europe
can scarcely form an adequate idea, has lately added a
numerous, energetic, and increasing population in the
myriads of Circassians and their kin, expelled from
their native mountains to find here, across the Tiu^kish
146 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
frontier, the tuleratioii and existence which Russia
persistently denies to her own non-Russian subjects.
Persian anarchy, for it is no better, supplies also its
yearly quota of emigrants, chiefly Turkoman ; while
the somewhat lax hospitality of Turkey receives all
these new forms of life within the bounds of the empire,
and allows them to combine and develope much as they
choose. And they are, in fact, now fast coalescing and
organizing themselves into a new nation.
It would be impossible within the limits assigned by
a notice like the present, to go over and investigate the
entire extent of territory above traced Out, or to follow
in detail the ethnological activities going on at each
point of its surface. I will accordingly restrict myself
for the present to the portion wliich I have most lately
and more thoroughly studied : that, namely, which lies
immediately along the north-east Turkish frontier, and
which comprises whatever lies between the latitude of
Batoum, Kars, and the town of Moosh to the west, and
the Russian boundary, from the Black Sea to Mount
Ararat, eastwards. From this strip we may estimate
much of what passes in the adjoining districts. During
August last duty required my presence at Kars, a place
well known to history as the stronghold of Eastern
Turkey, known also from its gallant though unavailing
defence, under British and Hungarian auspices, against
the overwhelming forces of Russia, headed by Mouravieff.
During my stay there I had the opportunity of forming
acquaintance with some of the native Begs, or hereditary
nobles, and between us we concerted a visit to the
nearer- lying Eastern provinces, namely, those of Ka-
gizmand, Shooragel, Ardahan, and Ajarah, provinces
situated, as 1 have before implied, between the latitude
of Kars and the Russian frontier, reaching from Ararat
to the Black Sea.
v.] OF TUB NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 147
South-east of the rocks of Kars, of its ruined citadel
and dismantled batteries, stretches a wide and undu-
lating highland, partly corn-field, partly pasture-land,
breaking up into abrupt ravines and craggy heights as it
ap'pruaches the deep bed of the Arpa-Chai, or ' Barley-
river,' now the limit of the Turkish empire in this
direction. Over this highland we set out on our way,
mounted on the hardy horses of the country ; and it
was a pretty sight as we descended from the heights of
Kars into the grassy level. All the garrison of the fort,
about a thousand in number, had been drawn up outside
the gates under arms, to salute us as we went by : so
willed the Pasha of Kars, who, in answer to my remon-
strances at such an excess of compliment, replied, ' It is
only right that all the people should see how Turks
honour and lespect a representative of the English
Government.' But besides the Ottoman Pasha, his
officials and soldiers, mth whom, however important
characters in their way, we have nothing special now to
do, there rode alongside and around a crowd of horse-
men, blending, in one gay and dashing multitude of two
hundred or more, eveiy specimen of the various elements
now combining, if the world's destinies permit, into one
national whole. Omitting names, I may mention among
the attending crowd, an old Beg, grave, silver-bearded,
and with featiu-es partaking alike of the harsh Turkoman
lines and of the more reo;ular Georgian mould. De-
cs o
scended from the great Atabegs who have held this
land in fief from the earliest Sultans, he was himself
father of the chief now ruling over the veiy province of
Shooragel on which we were now to enter. At a short
distance further on the young Beg himself, gaily dressed,
and with a large retinue of horsemen, met us : his
Koordish descent on the mother's side had given him a
wild, almost a brigand look, which, blending with the
L 2
148 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v-
austere harshness of his father's expression, made him
seem no less worthy than he really was to be ruler over
this populous but somewhat turbulent district, where a
tight hand and a sharp sword are often needed. In our
band rode also his kinsman, the chief of the greatest of
all the Koordish tribes, and decorated with the title of
Pasha ; he could command the obedience of at least
twenty thousand families, all bearing his own name of
Silowan ; his residence was at Alajah Dagh, or ' the
Variegated Mountain,' not far from Ararat ; and there
he lived in a style much resembling that of a Fergus
Maclvor and his likes in our own Highland North. His
dark complexion, long black hair, splendid figure and
powerful build, were well set off by his dress, all scarlet
and gold ; he was covered with arms and embroidery ; a
thorough Koorde ; a dangerous enemy, as he has often
proved himself, and a doubtful friend. But he is now
allied by marriage with the great Georgio-Tm'koman
family ; and while, mindful of his rank, he rode slow and
stately by my side, three handsome youths, his sons,
gaily dizened in scarlet, gold and steel, hke their father,
careered the plain, unmistakable Turkomans, in all
that their mother could make them so.
Such was a sample of the chiefs : their followers, as is
usually the case among the lower orders, were still more
characteristic in their dress and appearance. Some, the
greater number indeed, were genuine Turkomans, short,
thick-set, heavy-featured men, with small eyes, brown
or black and dusky complexions ; their dress made of
dark cloth, trousers and jackets ; and on their heads the
national black-wool coverings, slightly conical in shape,
which have earned the wearers the nickname of Kara-
Papacks, or ' Black Caps,' by which they are conunonly
known on these frontiers. Armed with spear and
pistol, rarely with sword or carbine, and mounted on
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 149
small, strong-built, fiery horses, the riders had never
enough of galloping after each other, lance-throwing
and pistol-firing in mock fight ; utterly regardless of
broken ground and rock, a severe tumble of horse and
man was a matter of constant occurrence, and of much
rough merriment. These Turkomans are fearless and
lovers of fight, but they possess also the more sterling
qualities of a dogged perseverance, and a power of
working to an end hardly inferior to that claimed by
our own Anglo-Saxon race. Their fathers, under the
Seljook dynasties, Kara-Koiounlis and Ak-Koiounlis, men
of the Black Shepherd clan and the White, long ruled
over Western Asia ; and the sons have a very distinct
intention of doing no less, should their turn come.
Whether they ever will or not, we shall try to guess
further on. Others, again, were Koorde^, handsomer
and more Semitic — to use a worn-out nor very accurate
phrase — than their Turkoman companions, in face and
appearance, gayer in dress, lovers of scarlet and bright
silk girdles, more addicted, too, to the use of the gun
and carbine than the Turkomans. More active and
fiery also, but less steady and dependable in work. In
the union, daily cementing, of these northern Koordes
with the Turkoman basi^, lies a great hope of power ;
each element seeming to supply that which is wanting
in the other. Others again, and these were the
most remarkable in appearance, were newly arrived
Circassians, still wearing their long mountaineer dress
of grey or yellow cloth ; the breast covered with in-
worked cartouche pouches ; knives are in their girdles,
long bright guns are slung at their backs, and on their
heads high cylindrical caps, of the kind that some
Cossacks also wear, of whitish wool the most. These
Circassians are generally taller and better proportioned
in stature than either Turkomans or Koordes, they are
150 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
more regular, too, and handsomer in feature by far: their
hair is generally brown, occasionally auburn ; their eyes
blue, grey, or hazel. All wear the silver-mounted
dagger of the Caucasus, a terrible weapon in close fight,
straight, broad, double-edged, and pointed. Their cha-
racter is much what might be expected of men who,
with their fathers before them, have been lifelong
engaged in guerilla war for liberty, religion, and even
existence ; such wars turn nobles into intriguers, and
peasants into brigands : it cannot be otherwise. At
first, too, they showed but little chsposition to unite, or
even to agree with the elder races of their exile home.
But now they, like the rest, are fast amalgamating, by
marriage and other social processes, with their Turkoman
neighbours ; and with this union they acquire more
orderly habits and steadier ways. In the Georgian
population too, freely sprinkled hereabouts from the
earliest times, especially where we go northwards to
the Black Sea, the Circassians find something of their
own blood and kinsmanship, not severed from them
here, as is the case in Kussian Georgia, by difference of
creed. For al 1 these various races are Mahometan ; and,
thanks to the violence of Eussian bigotry and its en-
croaching fanaticism, much more earnest Mahometans
than they used to be in past years.
To comi^lete our cavalcade we must add to the pic-
ture the provincial judge of Shooragel, in his green
turban and wide blue robes, an elderly grizzled per-
sonage, but a native of the land, and though a man of
the gown, not less good in the saddle than any of his
Turkoman kinsmen. Also a Mollah, or Queen's coun-
sel (Sultan's counsel, we should say), white-turbaned,
freshly arrived from his studies at Constantinople, now
for the first time mounted on a young Turkoman horse,
decidedly too much for the rider. Tliere are others,
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 151
begs and chiefs, allied in kindred, and of various rank ;
of these, cross-descent has often made it impossible
to say whether Turkoman, Koordish, Circassian, or
Georgian predominates in their blood and brain. There
are also a few negroes, lively and dashing, gaudily
dressed, and noisy as elsewhere ; great favourites
among all.
Such was our cavalcade, though varying from time
to time as to the precise individuals who composed it,
some dropping off and others replacing them, for a
good month. Every day in the saddle, morning and
afternoon, we traced from village to village, by valley
and mountain, a serpentine line, from Kars down to
Kagizmand, at the north-western foot of Ararat, close
under the ' Variegated jNTountain ' already mentioned.
Throughout this district, called of Kagizmand, the
Koordish element is numerically superior. Then up by
the strange ruins of Ani, once capital of Armenia, and
described by Sir W. Hamilton, now utterly desolate,
through the great districts of Lower and Upper Shoo-
ragel ; here the Turkoman population much out-
numbers all others. So is it also in the yet higher-
lying province of Ardahan, north, which we next
visited ; while in the two Ajarahs, higher and lower,
which we last traversed, till, through the noble forests
and wild ravines of the mountain-chain, we reached the
shores of the Black Sea near Batoum, Georgian and
Circassian blood prevails over all other. But in what
regards administration, feeling, and tendency, all these
provinces are in fact one, governed l:)y the same rulers,
and bound together by community of interest, rehgion,
and even topography.
The entire length of our line of journey was 450
miles ; the district itself comprises about 20,000 square
miles ; the fixed population, to the best of my reckoning
152 THE TURKOMANS AND OTUER TRIBES [v.
numbers about 700,000 souls, thus averaging thirty-
five to the square mile. The nomade or pastoral
population, if added to the above, would raise it to
sixty at least.
It would be pleasant to myself, for remembrance is
pleasant, nor, I think, uninteresting to my readers,
were I to describe in detail the memorials of past time
which stud that historical region, the grandeur of its
scenery, the fertility of its produce, the rushing clear-
ness of its many waters. Here are ruins more ancient
and not less vast or architecturally graceful than those
of Ani ; some are of Armenian, some of yet earlier date,
others of Georgian or Seljook construction. Nature, too,
has her wonders. The wild black rocks of Kaffizmand
clusteriug up toward Ararat ; the great clear lake of
Cliilder, fifteen miles in length by four or five in breadth,
pure as the Swiss Vier-Wald Stadter or Walen See,
and in winter one firm sheet of waggon-traversed ice ;
the pine-forests, the precipices, the waterfiiUs, the rich
mountain vegetation, bright flowers, dark caves, and
iron-laden springs of Ajarah, much surpassmg each
and all the boasts of the most tourist-sought nooks of
Switzerland or Tyrol, which now seem to me but tame ;
these also would deserve a notice, or at least an attempt.
But we must pass them over for the present, and occupy
ourselves rather with what is, after all, of higher im-
port, namely, the living inhabitants of the land and
their condition.
And, first, I could not but remark with some surprise
— for I had come hither imbued with the generally
prevailing notion that the Ottoman territory in its
interior w ould present little but waste lands and a di-
minishing population — that every height we crossed,
every valley we entered, opened out to us one or more
villages, many of quite recent construction, each con-
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 153
taining from thirty to two hundred or more houses,
and ringed by an inner belt of gardens and an outer
one of widely cultivated corn-lands. The flat-roofed
houses, their whitened walls, the barns and fences,
sometimes an oblong mosque with a little attempt at
dome or minaret, shone gaily in the sun ; often con-
trasting in their cheerful life with the black heavy stone
walls of some old Armenian church situated among
them, and now long since abandoned to the ruin of
disuse and neglect.
'Do you see those villages'?' said Yousef Beg, the
Turkoman governor of a ' kaza,' or sub-district, in the
province of Shooragel, as he accompanied me through
his territoiy. ' Thirty years ago there were only fifteen
villages here ; now there are eighty-three.' I asked
whence tliis increase, and how. ' It is all my father's
doing,' said he ; ' and these new-comers are all from
Eussia.' He then proceeded to explain to me the
system adopted by himself, and by others also, for
colonizing the land. ' The Turkomans,' said he, ' of
Erivan and Kara-Bagh,' — you will find these districts
in that part of the Anti-Caucasus chain which lies im-
mediately south of Eussiaii Georgia, and contains the
great towns of Erivan and Elizabethpol, with the lovely
Erivan lake : they reach from the Turkish frontiers to the
Caspian, — ' these Turkomans and the other Mahometan
tribes there dwelling are constantly on the look-out for
an opportunity to escape from the territory now that it
has been incorporated into Russia. We on our side
keep up a constant correspondence with them through
the means of our agents, and make them free offer of
lands, livelihood, and liberty among ourselves. Sooner
or later they come, though they have sometimes diffi-
culty in so doing, as the Cossack guards on the frontier
have charge to hinder their passage ; when possible,
154 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
they bring their cattle and goods with them ; sometimes
they cannot get them across. But whatever be their
condition, each family on arrival receives a plot oi
ground ; they find also help to build their houses, and a
three-years' exemption from any tax or duty soever.
They soon settle down comfortably ; till the soil ; and
in this way the district, from poor and desert, has
become rich and pojDulous.' To this explanation, given
by the Beg, I will add that these immigrations are of
constant occurrence; they are, indeed, in some years
more numerous than in others ; but the tide is always
flowing in, and at its present rate may fairly be
reckoned at i,ooo families, or about 6,000 individuals
of the Turkomans alone, per annum. By what exact
means or ways all this is effected, need not here be
said. Suffice that I have reason to believe, or rather to
know, that during the coming years the movement will
not only not slacken, but will assume an extent and
a rapidity fe,r exceeding anything that has gone before.
History, and, in the further East, the testimony 01
our own days, show us the Turkomans shepherds and
neatherds in the main ; rarely as fixed cultivators or
villagers. But from the pastoral life — unlike that ot
the hunter or savage — to the agricultural is but a step ;
and wherever an oppoitunity occurs, this step is readily
made ; once made, it always tends to become irrevocable.
The Turkomans are everywhere making it, and with it
find their consequent bettering in all M-ays. Theh* skill
in agriculture, the wide and harvest-covered fields that
surround their settlements, the comparative comfort of
their dwellings, and the constructive ingenuity of the
huge stables in which their sheep and cattle find refuge
and provender during the long winter months, all prove
that their nomade condition in Central Asia is more the
result of circumstance than of an innate and irrepressible
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 155
bent ; that under the forms of tribe they have the ma-
terials of a nation ; and that the city, with all its con-
sequences of wealth, culture, and peaceful civilization, is
at least as natural to them as the tent and the mountain
side. Sometimes gathered in groups, but now more fre-
quently intermixed among the flat Turkoman dwellings,
are the gabled roofs of Circassian cottages. When I
say Circassian, I mean to include under that general
term several tril^es, united often rather by community
in their mode of life, their aims and habits, than in their
origin ; at least so it would appear from their great
physical and lingual diversities. Among these the
readiest to renounce any acquu'ed ways of violence and
plunder are the Abkhasians of West Caucasus ; we
should also remark that amongst them the anti-Russian
guerilla war was comparatively of very short duration.
Their general conduct soon becomes excellent and
orderly, whether they settle down into peasants or
townsmen. The most unruly, on the coiitrary, are the
Chechen, a numerous clan, of East Caucasian origin ;
yet they, too, amend in time. All have begun to show
a tendency to intermarry with the natives around them,
which will probably, in this part of the world, soon
merge their nationality in that of the Turkomans. This
will indeed be a loss to the linguist and the ethno-
grapher ; but it will be a gain to the Asiatic cause in
general .
Of all the inhabitants hereabouts the most perti-
naciously pastoral, and, in consequence, nomade, are the
Koordes. The richer and nobler sort among them do
indeed take to fixed dwellings, much resembling in con-
struction those of the Turkomans ; but the greater
number remain shepherds, and prefer flocks to tillage.
Hence I less often found them in the villages, but fre-
quently witnessed or })assed among their black tents on
156 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
the high * yailas,' or summer pastures, and on the rapid
grassy slopes. UnUke the Turkomans, Circassians, and
Georgians, their feeHngs are more clannish, and even
individual, than national ; but they are pretty sure to
follow the general course of those around them, where
war or politics are concerned. In the former pursuit
they have always excelled ; their courage is proverbial ;
their chiefs are such in fact, not in name only.
But of all others the Georgians are they who, high
or low, best ally with the Turkomans, and that to
the greatest mutual advantage. Physically they are
higher endowed than any of the other races, and they
are so mentally also ; their only deficiency is in tenacity
of purpose, whence they are easily swayed to one
way or another ; still the obstinate fjinaticism and
the dreaded tyranny of Russia has done much to
steady the Mahometan Georgians in their new and
national cause. Another reason — nor can it be called
an undue one — which goes far to facilitate their union
with the Turkomans, lies in the treasures of female
beauty frequently to be found in a Georgian family ;
and thus it comes that their aUiance in marriaefe is
eagerly sought after. I have also noticed that in the
offspring of mixed marriages hereabouts, the Georgian
type is apt to predominate. Still, numbers, and what
for want of a better and equally concise word we may
teiTu ' basal ' qualities, will ultimately cause the
Georgian element to be merged in the Turkoman,
rather than the Turkoman in the Georgian.
Having thus noticed the various components of the
population, in what they differ, and in what they
combine, I will briefly mention the circumstances which
have tended here to prepare the way for, and to
facilitate, the rise of a new and determined nationality,
with a si)ecial bent and future. The ui)lands now tlius
tenanted, and, some thirty years ago, comparatively
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 157
empty, were before that time the abode of the dis-
persing and, on its own soil, decreasing Armenian race.
Their national capital, indeed, once was Ani, very near
the centre of the entire district. But their inde-
pendence was lost centuries ago, and since that time
commercial, and, I must add, usurial tendencies, with
little aptitude for pastoral or agricultural pursuits,
had been ever tending to remove them from the islands,
and to accumulate them on coasts and in cities, often
very far distant. At last, as if on purpose to complete
the emptiness of these regions, the Eussian Govern-
ment had, in the days of Paschievitch, by every meana
that its agents could comman"d, enticed away to within
its own limits — to Eussian Georgia and the fast de-
populating Caucasus — the greater portion of the Ar-
menian agricultural remnant. Thousands of Armenian
families then left their villages and fields from Erze-
roum to the frontier, and emigrated under the equivocal
Moses of Russian guidance towards Tiflis, where, how-
ever, not finding the expected blessings of a promised
land, they diminished, scattered, or perished. But in
their rear, a vacant space was thus formed, and it is
now teeming with Mahometan life; the Eussians have
done their appointed task, that of destruction : but
they have also unwillingly and unwittingly done the
work of Islam ; they have converted Armenia into
Turkestan. In another manner, too, the Eussians have
contributed towards the creation of a new and Ma-
hometan nationality. They have not only supphed
space, they have infused spirit. Pressure from without,
common hatred and well-grounded fear, have gone
further to weld these varied materials into one, and
to give the new whole a fixed direction, than any skill
or enthusiasm from within could ever have done. It
is probable that the effect will remain even after the
cause has ceased.
158 TUE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
A third circumstance, not less influential than tlie
two former, is the weakness of the very Government
within whose territory the centre of the new formation
is placed. True, the Ottoman Ministry, desirous of
assimilating this part of the empire to the rest, appoint
from time to time an occasional Stamboolee Pasha or
Beg, to govern by the name and in the authority of
the Porte. More still, by the fatal Tanzeemat of the
Sultans Mahmood and 'Abd-el-Mejeed, regulations
known as reforms, but in reality destructions, all local
and hereditary chieftancy here, no less than in the rest
of Turkey, has been legally and officially abolished, and
the old land-tenures, howsoever confirmed by firman
or usage, have been taken away. But on these
frontiers, and at the furthest end of the empire, ' it is
a far cry to Lochaber ;' and the native chiefs, Georgian,
Koorde, and Turkoman, or rather each a mixture of all
three, with a stronger proportion of the last, do really
exercise an authority and collect revenues scarcely less
than their predecessors did in the good old days of
Turkey.
Thus, in addition to the religious bond of Mahometan
union, a second powerful bond, namely, that of here-
ditary authority, exists and strengthens yearly. Nor
less efficacious to promote increase and vigour in the
new colony and nation is the land-system here ob-
served. Each peasant, — and between peasant and
noble there is no intermediaiy class, — is a proprietor,
owning acres more or less broad, for the use of which
he nuist, of course, pay fixed dues, and sometimes
arbitrary exactions, but from which neither he nor his
family can be ejected by the will of either chief or
governor. Land is never forfeited except where life is
forfeited also. Thus, goveined by their own nobles,
and cultivating their own soil, not tenants at will but
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 159
pioprietors in full right, this population is iii a position
much more favourable to every national and forward
development than is commonly the case throughout the
rest of the Ottoman empire. I should add that all
males hereabouts from their earliest childhood learn
to ride and to handle arms, and both with much skill ;
so that at a moment's notice all are soldiers.
Nor have the Turkomans, who form a fair three-
fourths of this confederation, and from whom the whole
takes its colouring and character, forgotten that they
are themselves the lineal descendants of the men who,
mider the great national d^masties of Seljook, Kara-Koi-
ounli,and Ak-Koiounli, ruled over these very lands, and
with them over all Western Asia, from the Sea of Aral
to the yEgean, — men of great military and no less
administrative power ; skilled in architecture also : the
ruins of theii- great constructions at Erzeroum, Sivas,
Kaisareeyah, and a hundred other spots still remain, w^it-
nessing to a grandeur of conception and graceful skill
of detail rarely surpassed even in the West. These
ruins, colleges the most, bear witness also to learning
and study, to a literature, histoiy, philosophy, juris-
prudence, jDoetry, imagination, once flourishing in
exuberant variety, nor even now, in the East that is,
wholly forgotten. Unable to withstand the Tartar
flood poured in wave after wave from the East, and
the steady encroaching organization of the Ottomans
on the West, these gTeat dynasties broke up and fell ;
but their ruins have for four centuries formed the
main bulk of the population in Eastern Anatolia and
North-western Turkey, and they await but the hour
and the man to reunite into an edifice stately and
sumptuous hke that of past time.
Thus not only withm the limits above traced, but
over vast tnicks east and north where Tui'koman
160 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
villages or tents lie scattered, the materials of a
powerful nation await reorganization, and tend rapidly
to coalesce round the point where that organization
has already begun ; invigorated by the infusion of new
blood, that of the keen Circassian, the daring Koorde,
and the more reflective Georgian. Here, too, is one
ruling family, men of practical good sense, tried courage,
and long experience in action, men from amongst
whom the hoped-for head may well arise. Nor should
we wonder, under the reaction which Kussian pressure
is daily intensifying, to see such a one arise very
suddenly. Growths are quick in the East.
Lastly, a remarkable symptom in this part of the
world, and one of deep significance, is the revival of
the old Mahometan spirit, and that too under a form
which may, in our day, be characterized as armed defen-
sive, but which may soon become distinctly ofiensive and
aggressive. This phenomenon is indeed partly due to
Kussian encroachment, and to a movement, felt rather
than reasoned out, of antagonism to western advance ; but
it is also, and perhaps equally due, to the conscious-
ness of youth and power. New mosques, new schools,
new teachers, all on the severer model of what may be
called the nineteenth-century Mahometan revival, the
same of which Arab Wahhabeeism is the exaggerated
prototype, are multiplying over the face of the land
even in excess of actual requirement ; and practices
contrary to the teaching of Islam, wine and spirit
drinking for instance, unfortunately too common some
years since, have now fallen into total discredit, and are
abandoned to those in whom custom has rendered them,
no less than many other vices, scarce a disgrace, Greeks
and Armenians. Thus too Eamadan is observed, and
prayers performed, with much greater exactitude than
formerly. High and low, the nation is in training.
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. IGI
And what will there be in the end thereof? The
destiny of this new frontier nation, of this Turkoman
rejuvenescence, may be one of three. Either they may
be, as many others have been, stamped out altogether,
and ejBfaced by the uniformity of Eussian supremacy
and despotism. This, though hardly probable, is
possible : Kussia does advance in Asia, and means to
advance ; that she covets, earnestly covets, the very
lands over which we have now been travelHng is, in
spite of all esoteric and official denials, a certain fact ;
whether she will be allowed to attempt their incorpora-
tion into her vast dead territories, and whether, if
allowed, she will have strength to do it, were hard to say.
Overrated by some, underrated by others, her resoui'ces
are, for all accurate conception, practically unknown. But
thus much can be said for certain : if she succeeds it
will be in an evil hour for Asia ; perhaps for other
countries also. Or, by a different course of events,
the Ottoman Government, akeady not wholly unaware
of the formation process now going on near its frontier,
may, by a wise skill, attract to itself the yet fermenting
elements, and gain for its empire an almost impregnable
barrier, not of fortresses but of men and mountains,
against Russian encroachment and the fraudulent rivalry
of Persia. Should the rulers of Constantinople, re-
nouncmg, for this district at least, the fatal policy and
pseudo-centralization of their later Sultans, honestly
and in good faith recognize the unaHenable authority
of the native nobility, legalize their titles, confirm or
restore the land-tenui'es, and, by a properly organized
militia commanded by its natural leaders, confer the
defence of the soil on those with whom its defence
is a present and personal interest, they may in their
turn rely on numerous and devoted subjects, on all
the advantages of free labour, and, in case of war, on
M
162 THE TURKOMANS AND OTHER TRIBES [v.
brave soldiers officered by men knowing their duty,
and doing it with a will. Old associations, established
prestige, and that religious sympathy which, in the
East, is almost a nationality, are all in their favour,
and help to assm-e success. And thus, while the
Turkish Empire slowly withers, as wither it eventually
must, to the West, and its branches fall off one by one,
new growth and vigorous shoots on the East may more
than repair its losses. But to put this policy in that
entireness of execution which alone can render it
availing, vigorous resolution is requu'ed ; and it is
to be feared that, what with the weakness of Ottoman
counsels, a weakness of latter growth, but now ren-
dered almost connatural by political timidity ; with
the habit of concentrating all serious attention on those
parts of the empire where talkative and supei'ficial
Europeans are for ever infiltrating, suggesting, and
meddUng with the half counsels of divided and doubting
minds; and the multitude of self-offered counsellors,
in whom, whatever Solomon may say, there is not
safety ; the Ottoman rulers will let the great chance
go by, and the neglected gain vnW only then be pro-
perly understood and regretted when changed to bitter
loss. And thus would follow and become fact the
third nor the more unlikely possibility, that is, of a
new Turkoman dynasty, with fresh destinies and a
future of its own.
But whatever be the event, we of the great English
empire cannot be indifferent to it. Anxiety is some-
times felt at the news of Russian conquests in Central
Asia, and the security of our Indian possessions is by
some thought to be jeoparded by the appearance of
the two-headed eagle in Bokhara or Samarcand. But,
in truth, the Russian flag over Alexaiidropol, ^^dthin
a day's ride of Kars, is much nearer India. Let the
v.] OF THE NORTH-EAST TURKISH FRONTIER. 1G3
line of country, the comparatively narrow line, of
which we have been now speaking, from Batoum and
the Ajaras on the Black Sea down to Bayazeed and
Van, once become Eussian territoiy ; and the entire
Tigro-Euphrates valley, now separated from Kussia
and from Eussia's obsequious ally, Persia, by Koordis-
tan alone, becomes Eussian also. The Persian Gidf
and the directest of all Indian routes, a route where
no wide desert tracts, no huge mountain- chains in-
tervene, nothing but the serviceable sea, will thus be
not only open to, but absolutely in the hands of, our
very doubtful friends. The exclusion of all commerce,
all communication by this most important line, except
what is Eussian and through Eussia, will be the first
and immediate consequence ; what may be the ulterior
results time alone can tell. But if India have a
vulnerable point, next after Egypt, it is the Euphrates
valley and its communications. Of all this the key,
held at present for Turkey and for England too, lies
in possession of these very races, the inhabitants
of the Turkoman-Koordish territory. To strengthen
-the hands of our friends, and to guard lest that key
be w^rested from them, were but good statesmanship,
if timely done.
M 2
VI.
EASTERN CHEISTIANS.
Published in the 'Quarterly,' June, i869.
NOTICE.
In this Essay, written at Trebizond during the Ci-etan insur-
rection, five of the principal sects, oi*, to use a common phrase,
churches, into which Eastern Christianity is divided, namely, the
orthodox Greek, the Ai-menian, the Maronite, the United Greek
or Melchite, and the Coptic, are successively sketched. The por-
traits are, in most respects, unpleasing. But should any one
view them Avith distaste, let him console himself with the thought
that the shadows might have been considerably deepened, and the
deformities of outline rendered even more apparent, without the least
violence to truth. Indeed much that the original manuscript con-
tained has been purposely suppressed, lest sobriety of judgment should
yield to disgust ; while praise has been besti)wed in full measure,
wherever possible. Races change little in the East, and the Byzantine
past, as mirrored in Fiulay's masterly volumes, bears a correct an-
cestral likeness to the Levantiue-Christian present.
The phrase 'Eastern Christians' is one frequent in
word and writing, but has very often no better defined
a meaning than the much-misappHed names of ' Turks '
and ' Arabs,' Still the jdirase is a symbol ; and many
who, were they asked Vhat ' Eastern Christians ' really
are, might be very much puzzled to dehne them with
anything like accuracy, have yet a tolerably precise idea
EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 165
of what they themselves mean by the name. Something
on IMahometan ground, but antagonistic to Mahomet-
anism and Mahometan traditions, something sympa-
thetic with Europe and the modern West, an ele-
ment of progress, a germ of civilisation, a beam of
day-dawn, a promise of better things.
Is it really so ? And first, who and what are these ,
' Eastern Christians '? '
In matter of nationality, it is well to begin by laying
down, where possible, certain geographical limits.
Accordmgly, for the subject now in hand, we will, at
our first start, exclude India, Persia, Asiatic Russia,
China, and their adjacent kingdoms or sub-kingdoms,
and we will take for the field of * Eastern Christians '
that contained within the bounds of the East Turkish
Empire, and Egypt ; to this last we may not unsuit-
ably add Abyssinia. ' Ask, where' s the North ? At
York 'tis at the Tweed,' said Pope. And where's the
East ■? might have no exactor answer. Be our ' East ' on
this occasion limited by Persia ; with Pussia on the
north, the Mediterranean on the west, and on the south
whatever African lands new Burtons and Spekes may
yet discover. Even after this narrowing, our range will
be wide enough.
But wide though it be, stiU wider and stranger in its
specific variety is the great ' Eastern Christian ' genus
included within it. We must, therefore, classify and
sub-classify a httle for clearness' sake.
The first class may consist of the Eutychian Mono-
physite, or anti-Chalcedonian school. Of the special
dogmas or ritualistic peculiarities impHed by these titles
our readers may very possibly be ignorant, at least in
part ; nor would it much advantage them to leam.
Laying aside therefore the investigation of microscopic
diversities in ceremony or belief — a tedious labour, and
166 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
of no general interest — it will suffice for our purpose to
note that the above denominations indicate a class of
Christians hating Greeks, Greek Church government,
and all that pertains thereto, worse than poison ; hating
also all Westerns, Cathohcs or Protestants, very sin-
cerely, but with a less violent form of hatred ; hating
Mahometans also not a little, yet less than the dissident
of their Christian brethren.
Now this class comprises four sub-classes, namely,
Copts, Armenians, Abyssinians, and Syrians. Gf these,
the Copts have their principal habitat in Egypt, Upper
and Lower, though they may be found not unfrequently
in Sjnia also ; the Abyssinians are limited to the
country which their name impHes ; the Armenians own
for head-quarters the eastern half of Asia JNlinor, or
Anatolia, with the Taurus ; they are also to be met
with in large communities throughout all the great
towns and commercial centres of the regions already
indicated ; the Syrians are, for the most part, inhabi-
tants of Syria proper, especially north of Damascus.
Besides their general hatred of outsiders, Mahometan
or non-Mahometan, these four* sub-classes have a
mutual sub-hatred of each other, varying, however, in
intensity and degree,
A second class of ' Eastern Christians ' is the Nes-
torian, or anti-Ephesian sect. Here again we need not
prolong the examination of distinctive rites or tenets ;
it may be enough to say that the more special hatred
of these Nestorians is directed against the Greeks ;
they bear also a f;iir hatred against ^Mahometans and
Westerns in general. There is no sub-class here ; all
are alike Nestorians or Chaldeans, though the first
appellation is more commonly given to the inhabitants
of Koordistaii mountains, the latter to their co-religion-
ists who dwell lower down in the Tigro-Euph rates
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 167
valley towards Bagdad. A few Nestorians are also
scattered about Syria.
A third and a very important class comprise those
belonging to the orthodox, or Greek, or Chalcedonian
formula. None are better haters than these ; in extent
their hatred is correlative with the hatred of those
already enumerated, but in intensity it surpasses them.
This class is divided into two sub-classes, namely,
Phanariot Greeks and Kussianized Greeks. Of these,
the first are to be met with in good numbers every-
where throughout Asiatic Turkey ; their head-quarters
are, however, in the western part of Anatolia, and the
islands of the coast. The second, much less numerous,
exist chiefly in Eastern Anatoha ; sheltered or attracted
by the close proximity of the Russian frontier.
The fourth class consist of ' Eastern Christians ' who,
while retaining their special rituahstic peculiarities,
profess obedience to the See of Rome ; they are some-
times called also ' Melcliite,' or ' United.' These rejoice
in five sub-classes — Greek, Aimenian, Syrian, Chaldean,
and Coptic, each with the prefix 'united,' and each
corresponding in geographical and other circumstances
with their non-united namesakes, for whom they reserve
their choicest hate, though with a tolerable superabun-
dance of it for each other : also for Mahometans some-
what ; less for Westerns.
The fifth class contains the well-known Maronites of
Mount Lebanon, colonies of whom may also be found
throughout Syria and Lower Egypt. Roman Catholics
in creed, and partly so in rite, they s}Tnpathise best of
all with the Westerns ; for all others their hatreds
coincide with those above enumerated.
The sixth class comprises native * Eastern Christians,'
who have adopted not only the creed and obedience,
but also the peculiar rites of Rome. These abound
168 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
most in the Cyprus, and in what once was Palestine ;
a few may also be seen wherever a Franciscan convent
can support a mendicant following. These last are of
no importance, either morally, intellectually, or numeri-
cally ; the mere Pariahs of their race.
We have thus fourteen distinct species of the ' East-
ern Christian ' genus ; each distinct from, and each
antagonistic to, the other. This number may suffice
us ; nor need we extend for the present our researches
and our symjoathies among certain curious Eastern
sects, or nationalities ; Christian in their origin, but
having since developed into strange forms, hardly
compatible with the received type of Christianity,
though still widely unlike ISIahometanism. Such are
the Yezeedis of MesojDotamia, the Anseyreeyeh of
Northern Syria, and the Sabaeans of extreme Chaldea.
Their condition and tendencies merit investigation, but
they lie apart from our actual subject.
Nor, indeed, should we have run through tliis long
catalogue of classes and sub-classes, were the hues of
demarcation merely dogmatic or ritualistic. In such
case it might have been enough to admit to the title of
' Eastern Christians ' all natives of the East who accept
the Gospel, after one fashion or another, and reject the
Koran. But these differences of rite and dogma, seem-
ingly so unimportant, are in reality the surface-lines of
deep clefts that centuries cannot obliterate ; they are
demarcations of descent and nationality, of blood, and
spirit. Each so-called sect is in fact a little nation by
itself, with its own special bearings and tendencies,
social and poHtical, not to be regarded in the same
hght, placed on the same level, or treated with on
the same principles as the nearest sect beside it.
Distmct conditions imply distinct relations ; the
latter are, or ought to Ije, determined by the former.
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 169
We should do well, accordingly, before we rush into
an embrace of general sympathy with our ' Eastern
Christian' brethren in a heap, to inspect them closer,
class by class; since thus we may learn with whom
we have to deal, what we may expect from them, and
they from us.
We will begm with those whose name has the widest
echo on Western ground, the most talked of, and in
some respects the best known of ' Eastern Cliristians ' —
the Greeks. No name has created greater interest or
embodied brighter hopes. Three causes have con-
tributed to this popularity. First, their claim of de-
scent, or at least of kinsmanship of that ancient nation
to which we owe so much in civiHsation, literature, and
art. Next, their Christianity, supposed to have special
points of affinity with our own. And, thirdly, because,
rightly or wrongly, they are regarded as containing in
themselves, more than any other * Eastern Christians,'
the vitalising element of progress. In England the
first consideration has, perhaps, served them best ; in
France the second ; in Europe generally the third.
There is little profit in trying to form an estimate of
a people's worth by vague generalisations and from a
distance. We will try a nearer, and, so far as possible,
an individual acquaintance ; and to do this let us go all
together and pay a visit to a Greek dwelling-house, be
it at Beyrout, Trebizond, Damascus, or Alexandria. It
shaU be a house belonging to one of the better, that is
the richer, class ; for Greek society, in Asiatic Turkey
at least, acknowledges no distinction based on superior
nobility or origin, rank, or talent ; the sole discrimina-
tion is the drachma. We mean among the laity ; for
the clergy form a band apart, and their position is
chiefly regulated by hierarchical precedence.
We stand before the house, a ts style, which presents
170 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
a certain approximation to the modern French street
architecture, the number and symmetrical arrangement
of its windows, and a general look of economical neat-
ness, distinguish it at first sight from a Mahometan, or
even from an Armenian dwelling. Lucky for us if his
eagerness to mimic European fashions has not induced
the master of the house to set up a closed outside door,
with a delusive bell, at which we pull and pull in vain
for a good quarter of an hour ; it being much more easy
to organise a European bell than European punctu-
ality in attendance on it.
At last we are within the small bare garden — for
whatever uses ancient Greeks may have made of
flowers, their now-a-days representatives have little
floral taste — and are met at the dwellmg entrance by
a slatternly barefooted maid-of-all-work, who being
expected, on inadequate or unpaid wages, to look after
everything in the large house, takes her revenge by
looking, so much as in her lies, after nothing at all.
Spacious in their buildings, costly in their dress,
Greeks are miserably parsimonious in what regards
servants ; their shortsighted selfishness does not com-
prehend community of interest with others. In this
respect they offer a striking contrast to the Tui'ks, with
their numerous retinues. A second consequence of
Greek economy is the employment of female domestics
rather than male, because cheaper. We inquire after
the master of the house, Dimitri Agathopylos be it ;
the barefooted Hebe scuttles ofl" to announce us. Pos-
sibly the door of the room where Dimitri is seated
opens out on tlie entrance passage, and we may thus
allow ourselves the benefit of hearmor the announce-
ment. This Thekla does by informing her master that
some cTKvXicfipai'Koi (lit. 'dogs of Europeans') are in wait-
ing on him. No particular disrespect is meant to us by
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 171
the canine denomination, but the Greeks have no other
name for Europeans ; that is when mentioning them
among themselves. English, French, all who took part
in the Greek War of Independence, all who furnished
the hitherto unpaid, nor ever to be paid loan, are alike
cTKvkia, (' dogs '). It is only fair, however, to say that
Russians are not herein included, possibly because not
held, in the East, for Europeans. But the most enthu-
siastic Philhellenes, even Mr. John Skinner himself, are,
to their Greek j^roteges, ' dogs,' along with the rest.
^ WeU, the 'dogs,' who, however, will to their faces
be rather more respectfully titled, are admitted into
the parlour, siding-room, or divan. The room and
its furnishings have something of an European charac-
ter, and something of an Eastern, being adroitly
managed so as best to miss the comfort of either.
Rows of weak-Kmbed, cushionless chairs, little un-
meaniQg tables, at best only fit for supporting a tray
of glasses and Curacoa, or for card-playing ; divans
pared down to their narrowest and most inconvenient
expression ; much cleanliness, however, — for the dust
in the out-of-the-way corners is the result, not of
wilful unneatness, but of insufficient sei-vice ; — such
is the apartment. On the walls a looking-glass, a
portrait (a twopenny-halfpenny one) of King George ;
another of some defunct Greek patriarch, now elevated
to the dignity of saint or martyr ; and possibly a third,
representing three brigand-heroes w^ho came to violent
end in the Greco-Turkish war ; these, with a few
coloured French prints of fancy female characters, of
questionable moral tendency, fill up the spaces on the
wall.
Dimitri rises to receive us. Not so the burly, bushy-
bearded figure, wrapped up bundle- wise in dark cloth
and fur linings, that, half-crouching, half-reclining,
172 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
occupies the uppermost corner of the divan. It is an
archbishop, one who never fails in his visits of pastoral
inquiiy to the fat lambs of his flock, and of these the
wealthy Dimitri is one. The muffled archiepiscopal
head slightly inclines in acknowledgment of our salute.
Dimitri himself is a middle-aged man, rather thin,
sallow, with brown eyes, browai hair, close-shaven face,
and an intelligent and pleasing expression of features.
Near him, in brisk conversation, are seated (for why
should not our fancy people the room no less than
construct it 1) two other Greeks, merchants also and
natives-born of the place ; a third, worse dressed, thin,
and hungry-looking, is at a distance ; his clothes and
appearance announce him for one come from a distance ;
in fact he is a volunteer-patriot, or brigand, just
returned from a visit to Crete.
We take our places next the master of the house,
the other Greeks politely exchanging their seats on
the divan for the rickety chairs ; the Archbishop, of
course, remains immoveable. The customary compli-
ments are exchanged ; and cigarettes, less expensive
than the wasteful Turkish chibouk, or the Persian
nargheelah, are passed round, or perhaps omitted. A
little later one of the females of the house, wife it may
be or daughter, will appear, a smile of unmeaning
generality on her face, and in her hands a silver tray
with sweetmeats ; of which every one takes an infini-
tesimal portion. Perhaps another lady, a sister-in-law
or the like, comes in at the same time, with the same
general smile, the same approach to prettiness, and the
same want of grace ; but as the ladies only talk modern
Greek, of which language our party may be supposed
ignorant, their stay is not long. Coffee may or may
not be served ; it is not ' de rigucur,' as among Turks
or Arabs.
Conversation o2)ens ; and Ihe first question ])ul by
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 173
our host, at the whispered suggestion of the Arch-
bishop, is about Crete. Before we have even had time
for an answer, the other Greeks present join in the
inquiry. They are all Turkish subjects, grown up and
fostered life-long under Turkish rule ; men on whom
difference of race and of religion has never entailed
a serious disability or burden ; on the contrary, it has
exempted them from many a load borne uncomplain-
ingly by their Mahometan fellow-countrymen. How-
ever, they do not avow, they proclaim by the very-
terms of their inquiry, their entire and active sympathy
with the Cretans, that is, with rebels against their own
Covernment ; and they go on rapidly (for the agiUty
of the Greek tongue is marvellous) to boldly-espressed
hopes for the near arrival of the moment when not only
Crete, but the whole KoumeUan territory, with Con-
stantinople itself, shall belong to the Greeks. To the
accomplishment of which ends they, the Greeks, alone
and unaided, are fully equal. So runs the discourse.
However, the Europeans in general are much to be
blamed for not joining in a general crusade for the
destruction of the Turks and the restoration of the
Greeks to their capital. Meanwhile, Russian co-opera-
tion is spoken of as certain; indeed, the Kussian
emperor is often entitled, ' our Sovereign,' or ' the
Sovereign,' ^Kir excellence ; though, after all, even he
is not to have Constantinople for the price of his co-
operative labours ; that belongs clearly to the Greeks
alone.
Very childish all this, and much out of harmony with
the reality of things, our readers may say. Possibly
so ; but childish or inharmonious, such is ordinary
Greek talk, the current index of the 'Eastern Christian'
Greek mind ; and it is this we are now portraymg. Let
us return to our seat by Dimitri.
Perhaps we venture on an opinion not wholly favour-
174 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
able to Cretan success, or express some doubt regarding
the exactitude of the latest triumphant telegram expe-
dited from the Piraeus ; or, worse still, liint that some
much-lauded feat of Christian heroism — the self-immo-
lation of some defenders of a convent, for examjole —
has mainly, if not wholly, existed in newspaper para-
graphs and photographic illustrations. Hereon even
pohteness is endangered ; and our Greeks declaim loudly
against the apathy of Europeans, and more especially of
the English, who seem one and all to lie under a strict
obligation — never ftdfilled as yet — of pouring out blood
and treasure ad libitum in the cause of the Hellenes.
The reasons for so doing are sometimes derived from
Homer, sometimes from the Gospel. We insinuate that
at any rate we English once of a time did, for our part,
something very material in the Philhellenic line, but
that the subsequent conduct of the Greeks, whether as
to policy or payment, has hardly corresponded to the
efforts of England, or of Europe in general, on their
behalf On which we are informed that Greece never
incurred any debt at all, either of gratitude or of any-
thing else, for that they were quite capable of doing
without us ; but meanwhile that a new loan may pos-
sibly be better acknowledged.
Nothing l)ut politics, and still poHtics. Vainly we
tiy to lead the talk to commerce, to literature, to
science ; all such topics drop like lead. Eeligion, that
is acrid, anti-Latin controversy, and the chronique
scandaleuse of the place, bid fair for better success ;
but we, on our side, have no predilection for either,
and conversation threatens to languish.
But here the Archbishop comes in to aid. Hitherto
he has said little, except when roused by the Cretan
discussion to some energetic expression of hatred for
Turks and Mahometans ; or, by the controversial talk,
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 17S
to some phrase of not inferior hatred for all non-orthodox
and Latins. Now, however, he slides into the special
object of his visit. It may be the leasing of a house or
shop on Church lands, or perhaps the purchase of some
acres for a monastery, or he desires to place out some
money at a moderate interest of 48 per cent. What-
ever is the tune, the key-note will assuredly be money.
Or, perhaps, our host himself (and this is no uncommon
circumstance) has in view a fraudulent bankruptcy, to
be brought about a few months hence ; and accordingly
discusses with his Grace, the form of a deed by which
one half of his real estate may be made over, for a con-
sideration, to the title of St. Spiridion or St. Charilem-
bos ; the other half has, by an equally authentic deed,
passed already to his wife's grandmother, or the like ;
and when the bankruptcy comes, and the hungry credi-
tors go in quest of assets, they may find shells in plenty,
but no oyster. The other Greeks join cheerfully in ;
one dilates on some petty local intrigue connected with
the Custom-house, or the Revenue ; another on the
supposititious claims of some pseudo-Greek subjects. In
topics like these the Hussian Consulate is tolerably sure
to be mixed up. And, in fact, while we are yet talking,
in comes the Russian dragoman — a Greek too, of course,
sallow, pliable, but with more than the ordinary inso-
lence. His talk is much like that of the others, only
more openly and avowedly seditious.
The Archbishop rises, and goes to visit the ladies of
the house ; he has been preceded to their apartments by
the handsome, long-haired young deacon, his companion;
but we will not intrude on interviews of, doubtless, a
purely spiritual and devotional character.
For our own part we have paid our visit, and are gone.
But, our readers may ask, how does the ordinary well-
to-do Greek pass the bulk of his day ?
176 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
Six or seven hours go to business, transacted partly
in his own house, and partly in his store-rooms or office,
but more by word of mouth than by writing. Five
hours more on an average are devoted to the ' Casino,'
that paradise of the modern Greek ; few of them but
visit it for two or more hours at a time, morning and
afternoon ; here, too, the unmarried Greek passes all his
evenings, the married one, some. Here coffee, * rakee,'
the favourite tipple of the modem Hellene, cards, and
sometimes billiards, on a decrepit table of the French pat-
tern, serve as supplements to that one great enjoyment
of his life — political talk. Here many an intrigue, many
a Philhellenic committee, many a lying telegram, many
an incendiary pamphlet, have birth ; here too the Greek
character comes out in its freest and its worst display.
Exercise, as exercise or amusement, is little to the taste
of the Greek, who, like most, though not all, as we shall
see, of his Christian brethren in the East, prefers the
use of his tongue to that of any other limb. However,
the married Greek, who is generally a kind and even an
easy-going husband, and always an affectionate and
over-indulgent father, gives much besides of his leisure
hours to his family, and there he appears to real advan-
tage. The young and unmarried Greek is seldom, if
ever, what we should call well-conducted ; he is not
immoral, because in truth he has no morals whatsoever;
and when the time comes for marriage, he quits a
career of profligacy as easily and with as little effort or
feehng of shock, as when first he entered on it. He has
no remorse for the ill-spent past, and no self-laudation
for the well-spent present in these mattei's ; on three
points alone is he accessible to anything like real feeling
— family ties, politics, and money. In a word, he has no
subjective conscience ; and often, thanks to his clergy,
of whom more hereafter, veiy little objective.
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 177
Well or ill conducted, however, married or single, the
Greek has no taste for literature, ancient or modern,
beyond that contained in a political newspaper or a
pamphlet ; these are the limits of his reading ; history,
poetry, science, art, all lie beyond his range. Of the
annals of the very country he Hves in — of the religion,
customs, studies, and even the laws of his Mahometan
neighbours — he is almost wholly or wholly ignorant ;
some stereotyped tales of Turkish oppression and of
apocryphal martyrs are all that he can impart ; and even
to these a recent date is commonly assigned. Of the
political side of Europe he knows a little ; of its other
aspects next to nothing. The clergy form no exception
in these matters.
In religion, those among ourselves who sympathise
with the Greek might be somewhat disagreeably startled,
were they aware how little he sympathises with them.
True, he is deeply superstitious and furiously bigoted
against all strange creeds, Mahometan, Latin, Armenian,
all much alike, perhaps the Latin most of all ; but he
has no deep belief, none of the intense confidence of the
Mahometan in God's providence. Greek levity and
gossiping in Church, and during prayers, contrasts
strangely with the respectful propriety of Turks and
Arabs in their mosques ; the religion of the Greek is a
party badge; a thing of no great intrinsic value, but for
which the professor is ready to fight at call, simply
because it is the badge of his party. Such are the
mass; the devouter sort, with their mixture of observ-
ance and irreverence, have a painful resemblance to
fetish-worshipping atheists. Of the unmarried clergy
or monks, from whose ranks the higher ecclesiastical
dignitaries are as a rule selected, least said is soonest
mended. In no respect can one say any good of them.
The non-celibatary, or parish priests, though generally
N
178 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
boorish and ignorant to the last degree, are, on the whole,
hard-working and honest men ; a better sort of peasants.
In agriculture and whatever belongs to it — in gar-
dening, planting, and the like — no class of men in the
East is so backward, and in fact so incapable, as the
Greeks. They cultivate little and badly. Hence, with
the most excellent soil and climate for their vineyards,
they have no wine worth mentioning. But for mari-
time pursuits, from coast-fishing up to deep-sea naviga-
tion, they have a decided turn, though not more than
some of the other neighbouring races — the Lazes for
example. In carpentry, though not equal to the Turks,
who seem to have a special talent for this craft, they are
fair artisans ; in stonework they are decidedly superior
to any, whether in Syria or Anatoha ; perhaps, though
here the Copts may dispute the palm, in Egypt. Their
chiefest skill, however, their speciality (if the term may
be allowed) is commerce, in the fullest acceptance
of the word. No men have a keener, a more
intuitive perception of the laws of exchange, of capital,
of productiveness, of fluctuation ; none a more hearty
relish of their detailed apj^lication. Yet here again
their inherent love of adventure and intrigue, with a
certain restlessness, and, above all, a total want of good
faith, frequently interfere with the solidity of their
busmess : hence Greek trade (we are speaking of Asiatic
Turkey, as our readers will remember) is seldom of
durable success. A Greek is always gaining and losing
money, unlike the tenacious Armenian, and the real-pro-
perty-loving Turk. A further reason of Greek reverses
lies in their passion for law-suits, and, we regret to add,
their want of lionesty in these, as in almost every-
thing else. Besides, although singularly parsimonious,
niggardly, indeed, in their table and their hospitality,
so much so, that the ' five olives for six guests ' of the
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 179
Greeks has passed into an Eastern proverb, they are
extravagantly fond of everything showy — new houses,
gay dresses, expensive furniture, and even, though a
Greek is rarely even a tolerable rider, handsome horses;
and on these points their expenditure often outgoes the
limits of their gains. The same love of show, joined
with the superstition which often outHves all that could
once have deserved the name of religion, renders them
also prone to ' outrun the constable ' in church building
and- ecclesiastical decoration of all kinds ; in this they
still show much traditional semi-Byzantine taste and
gorgeous skill, and thus justify the assertion that Messrs.
Mackonochie, Purchas, and their like would have done
much better to borrow their questionable finery, since
have it they must, from Eastern than from Western
models. Another and a more creditable cause for
profuse expenditure on the part of the Greeks is educa-
tion. On this point they are very liberal, founding and
maintaining large schools, well provided with masters
and teachers ; though it must be added that the courses
followed by the scholars would in Europe be considered
extremely superficial ; they consist almost wholly of the
study of modern languages, with a faint tincture of
classic and ecclesiastical history, but no other, not even
that of the country they live in. Science, art, mathe-
matics, and the Hke, are totally out of the question.
The profession of almost all the wealthier sort of
' Eastern Christian ' town Greeks is the mercantile ; a
few, however, hold offices under the Turkish Govern-
ment in the Custom-house and Eevenue Departments.
These are not unfrequently confounded by superficial
observers with the Turks themselves, and their rapacious
venality has thus brought discredit on the latter, and,
we must add, not wholly undeservedly, since the bad
character of the servant is a reflection on the master,
N 2
180 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
The poorer Greeks, when inhabitants of the interior, are
indifferent agriculturists ; when on the coast they are
more congenially employed in the fishing and coasting
trade, often in smuggling. In the to^A^lS they become
artisans, good or bad. A favourite Greek livelihood
also consists in keeping low spirit-shops and disorderly
houses. These last the Greek institutes wherever he
goes ; and as such establishments are on the one hand
alien from Mahometan usages, Turkish or Arab, and on
the other offer welcome asylums to the dregs of Eiu"ope
which are continually fl.owdng into Turkey, and above
nil into Egypt, it is not to be wondered at if Em-opeans
of a certain class are apt to proclaim that the Greeks
are the sole representatives of civilisation and good
fellowsliip in the Turkish empire. In this respect they
are certainly so, even to the exclusion of other ' Eastern
Christians.' Another, and, as the East goes, a scarcely
more reputable profession, almost monopolised by the
* Greeks,' is that of the dragoman — a profession which,
besides bringing in considerable emoluments, has the
further advantage of giving the Greeks, in nine cases
out of ten, the first word where European travellers,
and but too frequently where European residents, are
concerned. And this first word, echoed and re-echoed
in books and periodicals, is very often the last word of
European opinion on many a matter connected with the
past, present, or future of the Ottoman empire.
So much for occupation. But, before concluding, we
must give a glance — it shall be no more — at the special
feature which draws the sympathy of Western Chris-
tian», the Christianity of the Asiatic Greek.
It is a Christianity, the dogma of which is based on
the Nicene Creed. This, with a slight and well-known
variation, is identical with the formula adopted in the
West. Greek dogma extends also to many special
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 181
articles taught by the Church of Rome, such as Mass,
Transubstantiation, the Intercession of Saints, and Pur-
gatory, though the Purgatory of the Greeks is not in all
respects similar to the Latm ; Confession, and much else
of what is called the 'Administration of the Sacraments,'
resembles, on the whole, Roman practice. For image-
worship the Greeks have substituted, or perhaps main-
tained, picture-worship ; this last they push to the
extremest Hmits of what, when outside Christianity, is
commonly termed idolatry. Thus much for dogma and
ceremony. In its 'moral aspect the Greek religion is a
great enfranchisement from all restraint, united with an
intense, a more than Byzantine, hatred of Latinism and
Latins, summing up all in one great commandment,
' Thou shalt deceive tliy fellow, and hate every one else.'
A truly 'liberal' Greek is as rarely to be met with in
religion as in poHtics ; he is a bigot in both, sometimes
a fanatical — always a selfish one.
In matter of race, these ' Greeks ' are the mixed de-
scendants of Asiatic tribes converted to Christianity,
and amalgamated by ecclesiastical rule in the days of
Byzantine supremacy. Syrians, Arabs, Lazes, Galatian,
Cappadocian, and others, they have aU been for centuries
pupils of one school, namely, the Byzantine, and repre-
sent its teaching. Their Hellenism is a recent and
superficial varnish, a political banneret, and no more.
Even now their eyes are not on Greece, not on Athens
or Thebes, but on Constantinople.
Their numbers have been variously estimated : a
million is sometimes approximately given ; perhaps the
real cypher may somewhat exceed it. Like all other
inhabitants of the Ottoman empire, they have of recent
years been on the increase — more so, indeed, than the
Mahometan population, decimated as this latter is by
the military conscription, from which Christians alone
182 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
are exempt ; less, however, than the Armenians, of whom
we shall soon have to speak.
To the Turkish empire, considered as such, the
Greeks, always discontented — always seditious in inten-
tion, if not in fact — are a great political evil. Nor can
their su23erficial imitation of whatever is most super-
ficial in European manners and customs, French espe-
cially, be held for a real step, or even stepping-stone,
towards the civilisation of the East, whatever that
phrase may mean. To the military strength of the
country, of course, they contribute nothing ; to its
financial resources as little as they possibly can. Nor is
Turkey much indebted to them for the actual extension
of commerce, though to this extension they have, partly
in fact, more in show, added their quota, and continue
to take part in it.
On the whole, it may well be questioned whether
this first section of 'Eastern Christians' are entirely
worth the sympathy and encouragement bestowed on
them by their Western brethren, occasionally at the
proximate risk of disorganising or even disintegrating
the empire of which they form a part, however anoma-
lous ; perhaps Europe itself.
More numerous, and in all the intrinsic means of
strength far superior to the ' Greeks,' but less fortunate
in outside sympathy, and less favoured in particular by
the great creator and propounder of the ' Eastern Ques-
tion,' Russia, or by Russia's unconscious, purposeless
ally, French Foreign Policy, hence also less talked of in
Europe — no real disadvantage after all — are the Arme-
nians, Their head-quarters, as we have already indi-
cated, are at Constantinople ; also in a manner through-
out Anatolia, esi)ecially its easterly half; but they are
thickly scattered amid the towns of Syria, nor are they
rare in Irak and Egy})t.
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 183
We will suppose our readers acquainted — if they are
not already they may easily render themselves so — with
the Armenian history of classic and of Byzantine times ;
with the annals of Ani and of Sis, with the greater and
lesser kingdom, and the fortunes of a state, which
havmg like Poland the triple misfortune of three
powerful neighbours, has, like Poland, endured, but
with far less resistance, a triple partition. But here
the analogy ends. The Turks, unlike the Russians, have
never set themselves to the task of stamping out the
nationalities they have conquered ; and while the Poles
are being proselytized into Russians by the knout and
the mine, the Armenians, under centuries of Turkish
rule, remain unchanged, body, mind, religion, usages,
and even institutions. Here comes one before us ;
whether he be from Erzeroum, Kutahaia, or Aleppo
matters little. All have the same strong, heavy build ;
the same thick beetle eyebrows ; the full aquiline nose,
springing directly, and without the intervention of any
appreciable depression, from under the forehead ; the
same dark lustreless eye ; the same mass of clothes on
clothes, all dingy and baggy ; the same large brown
hand, and written in each curved finger tip, in every
line of the capacious palm, the same ' It is more blessed
to receive than to give.' A race more retentive than the
Jews themselves of their nationality ; more reten-
tive of their money too, and more acquisitive. ' Shut
up all the Jews and all the Armenians of the world
together in one Exchange,' old Rothschild is reported to
have said, ' and within half an hour the total wealth of
the former will have passed into the hands of the latter.*
We believe it.
Armenian energy is devoted, with few exceptions, to
three occupations — uiimely, to agriculture, to day-
labour, and to usury. The first two are creditable in
184 EASTERN CHRIST FANS. [vi.
their nature ; the last less so ; but in all three Arme-
nians excel.
And firstly, in agriculture. This has been of all times
a staple Armenian pursuit, and is still followed by about
two-thirds of the nation. In their hamlet-dwellings,
and in the general appurtenances of village life, the
Armenians are in most respects less neat, less compact,
so to speak, than are the Turkish or Turkoman peasants
around them ; but their tillage labour is persevering and
good ; their hamlet arrangements contain the germs of
municipahties ; the country population thrives, and,
unlike the Greek, has no great tendency of gravitation
towards large towns or to the coast. Very amusing it
is to pass an evening with these rustics. A cottage is
cleared out and assigned to the guest, a one-roomed
cottage, of course, with a low earth-divan on either side,
and a fire-place at the further end ; on, or rather let
into the walls, are countless wooden cupboards, carved
with some pretension to taste ; at the lower end of the
dwelling, near the entrance, is an undefined space,
where agricultural implements, mostly broken, large
earthen pots, and other rustic utensils stand or lie ; the
inner or raised floor is matted, the divans spread with
faded shreds of carpet, the wooden roof is black with
smoke. All denotes a comfortable untidiness, or an
untidy comfortableness, a sufficiency of everything, dirt
included ; but fastidiousness is out of place in a tra-
veller. So we take our corner seat of a fireside dignity,
propped on venerable and slightly decaying cushions,
probably of faded red silk ; and we may recognise the
advantage of Christian over Mahometan lodgings in the
absence of the dim burning lamp common to the latter,
here advantageously replaced Ijy two huge wooden
candlesticks, borrowed from the church hard by for the
nonce, and surmounted by large, shapeless, dirty tallow
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 185
dips, which require and receive snuffing with the fire-
tongs every five minutes. In comes the ' Miiktar,' or
* Elect,' the village headman, a burly, grey-headed,
venerable clown, in deportment and heavy dignity re-
calling the typical English beadledom ; follow four or
five other elders of the plough, probably a young clerk
too, travel-stained, but in succinct Stamboul dress, now
on his way from or to the capital ; he knows about fifty
words of French, and ten of Enghsh, which he parades
on all occasions. In come the dark blue robes of the
parish priest, a respectable peasant like the rest ; soon
the whole house is full of those whom age or compara-
tive well-being entitle to take rank among the gapers
and starers. Then they talk ; good heavens ! how they
talk ! — Christian loquacity is not precisely proverbial in
the East, but it ought to be so — but the talk is no
longer, Greek fashion, all politics ; news is indeed
discussed, but so are also literature, history, religion,
and the like ; one feels that one is here among the
inlieritors of something like an ancient civilisation and
a true history. Remark, too, that although special and
detail complainmgs are not unfrequent, there is no
settled ill-will against the Turkish Government, and
comparatively Httle rehgious bigotry against Mahome-
tans ; some grudge, national in origin, against Greeks ;
soriie priestly rivalry with the Latins ; and, thanks to
the missionary'- zeal of late years, some dislike of Pro-
testants also, may possibly show itself The crops,
their success and value, the amount of taxation, the
conditions of farming, some change in the local govern-
ment, some projected irrigation or water-mill, such are
the favourite topics of talk. European inventions, the
telegraph, for instance, the steam-engine, some new
machinery, or the like, come not un frequently under
discussion. There is much theoretical ignorance, but
186 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
considerable native shrewdness also in what is said.
Still the Armenian peasant has no pretensions to being
anything but a peasant ; he would gladly better himself,
but on the same line of life, unlike the restless and
ambitious Greek ; with more wisdom, perhaps.
But in large towns — at Constantinople, Smyrna, and
the hke — Armenian love of laboiu* takes another cha-
racter, varied by the circumstances of city life. Eveiy
traveller, on arriving at the Gates of the Bosporus,
must have seen and admired the huge, almost Herculean,
hammals or porters of Topkhaneh and Galata, the
workmen of the docks and arsenals ; these are, nine out
of ten, Armenians, heavy, muscular, large-calved, large-
boned men, come up from the country to earn a liveli-
hood ; earn it they will, and keep it too. A European
workman, accustomed to recruit his strength on meat,
beer, wine, or spirits, might well be at a loss to compre-
hend abstinence like theirs, coupled with hard, unremit-
ting labour. Bread and onions, washed down with cold
water, cheese and milk for occasional luxuries, such is
their bill of fare ; theii' night's lodging is in some
broken shed, anywhere, where nothing, or next to
nothing, is to pay. In the bitter cold of a Bosporus
winter, or the weary, heavy heat of its summer, all
work on, steadily, unremittingly ; and day by day their
earnings are put by, till the slow accumulation of copper
* paras ' entitles them to an honourable retirement and
comparative ease in their own villages.
In the refinements of mechanical work, where taste is
required, in carpentry, and in masonry, Armenians
seldom excel ; they are, however, tolerable tailore and
shoemakers, never hardly sailors or fishermen ; unlike
the amphibious Greek, the Armenian shuns the water :
he is of the earth earthy, more fitted for the inland than
the coast. But, whatever be his occujvation, he is pretty
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 187
certain, by diligence, perseverance, and frugality, to
attain a tolerable degree of comfort, occasionally of
wealth ; and capital once in Lis hands will not remain
idle ; it will increase and multiply, too often by the
means of which we have next to speak.
Thus far our picture, though not exactly brilliant in
colours, has been by no means ill-favoured. But the
business of which we have now to speak — a business in
the East almost exclusively Armenian, and one, un-
fortunately, much less creditable than those hitherto
enumerated — is that of money-lending, money-traffic,
usury, in short.
Every one knows that by Mahometan law not only
usury, but even ordinary money-interest, is severely
forbidden. The same prohibition extends to insurances,
to several kinds of investment, and, by a necessary
consequence, to the whole system of ' credit.' But the
result, like that of most excessive or sumptuary laws,
has precisely contradicted the intentions of the law-
giver ; and the necessity of borrowing, joined with the
impossibility of obtaining a loan on equitable, because
recognised and legal terms, has produced an entire
system, unlawful and usurious in character. Meanwhile
religion, law, custom, hold the wealthier Mahometans
back from exercising a profession anathematised by
their creed, and discreditable in the eyes of society.
And thus it has fallen into the hands of Christians, and
particularly of the wealthiest among 'Eastern Clu'is-
tians,' the Armenians, who pursue it much in the same
fashion, under the same conditions, and with the same
results, as the Jews once did in mediasval Europe.
Illegal interest soon becomes illegal usury, and illegal
usury has no limit. The Armenian scale varies from
twenty- four to sixty, or even one hundred per cent.,
sometimes by express contract, sometimes disguised
188 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
under a fictitious loan ; frequently by compound pro-
gression. All classes are victims, but the chief sufferers
are naturally the poor, and more especially the peasants.
No Turkish, no Arab landlord, would ever dream of
selling out or evicting a tenant, but an ' Eastern Chris-
tian ' usurer will ; and when, as is frequently the case,
the usurer, through means that we will shortly explain,
can gain to his help the strong arm of government,
eviction, with all its results of misery, crime, and
violence, for Whiteboys are not peculiar to Ireland, is
the result over wide tracts of country. Entire villages
have thus been unroofed, and cultivated lands left to
pasture or to downright desolation. The European
traveller, primed with staple ideas about Turkish op-
pression, the Sultan's horse-hoofs, barbarian rule, and
the like, sees the ruin along the wayside, and notes for
subsequent publication his observations on the decadence
of the Turkish empire, and the fatal results of Ottoman
or Mahometan rule — observations which his Greek
dragoman will sedulously confirm, and which will per-
haps be repeated and believed in Parliament. But
could he know the real, the active cause of all this
desolation, his visionary Pasha-tyrant would fade away,
and transform himself into no other than some wealthy
Armenian money-lender, the usurer whose cent, per cent,
has taken away the upper gamient and the very mill-
stone, not for pledge, but sale. The Turkish Govern-
ment is indeed not wholly guiltless in the matter, but
its guilt is not that of principal, but accomplice ; some-
times through omission to punish, sometimes through
tacit permission, or even piotection, accorded to tlie
Christian usurer ; a protection often extorted by the
Christianly zealous intervention of some European
consulate, to which the Arnienian, in his quality of
* Eastern Christian,' has had recourse ; perhaps of some
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 189
embassy. What, indeed, should the unlucky Pasha, the
governor of the ruined province, do in such a case \
Does he declare the usurious contract void, does he aid
the fleeced against the fleecer, immediately a cry of ' No
justice to be had for Christians in a Mahometan coLU-t of
law ' is raised by the Christian prosecutor ; and thence
may well be re-echoed, through consulate and embassy,
to the Porte itself, nervously susceptible, and no wonder,
to such reclamations ; thence, very likely, in due form,
to Europe.
Still more fatal is the result when the money-lender,
as is not mifrequently the case, unites in himself the
twofold character of usurer that is, and at the same
time ' Multezim,' or Farmer of the Public Eevenue.
Not fear alone, but self-interest, then engages the
Government m the prosecution of his destructive
claims.
This is the black spot on the Armenian character,
else the nation has in itself the materials of much good ;
but these materials must be looked for chiefly among
the poorer classes. Indeed we may remark, in a
general way, that in the moral classification of the
different stages of society the reverse generally obtains
in the East to what holds good in Europe ; for in the
latter the larger proportion of vice and crime is de-
cidedly among the lower classes, especially in cities ;
the richer and higher are comparatively free from social
evils — a fact of which the mam solution lies not exclu-
sively in better education and the like, but also in that
riches, throughout the greater part of Europe, subject
their possessors to that surest safeguard of morality,
public opinion, while the poor range comparatively
without its pale. But in the East, from opposite
causes, the poor are subject to public opinion, the rich
are emancipated from it, and have always been so ;
190 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
and hence the Scriptural canon regarding the good
effects of poverty, and the corresponding anathemas
on the wealthy, is a canon by no means of equal
literal correctness in Europe as it is, even in the
present day, in Asia.
In religion the Armenians, though dogmatically
distinct from, and even opposed to, the Greeks, have
yet a close resemblance with the latter on most points
of practice, discipline. Church government,' and so forth.
But the Armenian, with deeper religious feeling, has
less bigotry than the Greek, nor is his creed so con-
stant W subservient to political ends.
In matter of education the Armenians stand com-
paratively well. They erect large schools and maintain
them liberally ; the teaching, too, is to a certain degree
solid, and fairly in harmony with the requirements of
the East. Much attention is paid to the old Armenian
dialect — the Haikdn, so called, to national history and
literature ; Turkish, also, sufficient for elegant reading
and writing, is generally taught ; French and English
occasionally, but in a superficial manner ; Arabic or
Persian never. However, few Armenian lads, when
once out of school, pursue their studies, except, indeed,
it be in some monastery, where theology and Church
history find life-long votaries.
The Armenians, our readers may have already con-
jectured, are not a tastefid j^eople ; mentally and
artistically, no less than physically, they are a heavy
race. Their public architecture is heavy ; their churches
solid, spacious, and ungraceful — a striking contrast to
the elegance of Greco-Byzantine construction, ancient
or modern. In one respect only have the Armenians
a decided advantage, that is, in their dwelHng-liouses.
While the Greek spoils Ids architecture by an unwise
attempt at French or Italian imitation, the wealthy
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 191
Armenian builds on and adorns much after the old
Turkish fashion — a fashion remarkably well suited to
the climate and even to the surrounding scenery. Wide
balconies, curiously-carved lattices, deep shadowing
eaves, spacious entrances, gay colours in showy j^at-
tems ; all these he multiplies, and produces a pile
unsymmetrical indeed, but picturesque Avithout and
comfortable within, thanks to broad divans, good
carpets, and plenty of cupboards, painted bright red
and green, within which he folded up for the night's
use silk coverlets and embroidered pillows galore. The
guest's creature comforts will be further insured by a
copious kitchen and a good cook, plenty to eat and
drink, and all good: of all Easterns the Armenians
alone really understand culinary art ; in this, indeed,
they cede, yet only just cede, to Frenchmen. Singular
that on this one point the heaviest nation of the East
and the liveliest of the West should offer so marked a
resemblance. Cooking, like charity, covers a multitude
of sins, and we have for our part little courage to
expose faults hidden beneath such hospitable table-
covers as the Armenian. Ill got and well expended,
these feasts reverse our own proverb about who sends
good meat and who cooks : an Armenian cook is cer-
tainly the envoy of the Beneficent Power ; the meat
has, hardly less certainly, been furnished from a very
opposite quarter.
The clergy are, taken on the whole, respectable : to
say that they are grasping, can hardly be held a
reproach, since this quality they have in common with
all their kind of whatever nationality ; their morals
and their teachmg are neither below the average, cer-
tamly above those of their Greek brethren. Nor are
lay Armenians, taken altogether, so much addicted to
looser amusements, gambling and cura^oa drinking, for
192 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
example, as are the Greeks. Their hospitahty is truly
Eastern, that is, liberal in deed and manner ; not,
indeed, equal to that usual among Mahometans, yet in
itself not deficient.
It is curious that among all sects of ' Eastern Chris-
tians ' the Armenians alone have furnished to Protestant-
ism any considerable number of proselytes. This may
be ascribed partly to their greater zeal for education,
leading them more readily than others to avail them-
selves of the numerous American schools and libraries
established by missionary zeal throughout the land,
partly to a certain innate seriousness of thought and
character. Whether, however, the progress, such as it
is, of Protestantism among them be a benefit, may be
doubted ; much might be said on either side.
The total number of Armenians in Asiatic Turkey
has been variously estimated : three millions, including,
however, those resident at Constantinople, would be
perhaps nearest the mark.
In conclusion, we may say that among all ' Eastern
Christians' the Armenians (and in a measure, as we
shall afterwards see, the Copts) are those on whom
European sympathy would, if given, be perhaps least
thrown away. It is, however, on these precisely that
such sympathy is more rarely lavished. Yet, indeed, by
what special title even they deserve it, would be hard
to discover. What social merits they have they share
with the Mahometan popidation around them ; their
vices are their own. Nor are they the while subject to
any disadvantages, civil or otherwise, nor to any per-
secution, nor inconvenience even ; in fact, their exemp-
tion from military conscription, theu* national and
recognised tribunals, and their foreign appeal through
consuls, ambassadors, and newspapers, render them
objects of envy, not compassion. And the like may
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 193
be said of 'Eastern Christians' in general — it applies
to all.
But the Maronites ; those heroes of Lebanon ; those
darlings of France ; those pets of Eome ; that gem of
Eastern Christianity ; what shall we say of the Maro-
nites ?
If we are to believe the Maronite annals as chronicled
by themselves, the Maronites were from ancient times
a regal nation, come direct, or nearly so, from the
Tower of Babel to Mount Lebanon, with a dynasty and
kings of their own, ruling over entire Syria, Jerusalem
inclusive, and connected by equal alliance with the
greatest monarchies of Christendom. During the
Crusades their banners — how could it be otherwise ? —
floated foremost in the Western ranks ; and Maronite
valour not so much contributed to, as determined the
victory of the Cross. But when fortune turned against
the Franks, and Bibars-el-Dahir completed the work of
ruin which Salah-ed-Deen, alias Saladin, had begun, the
Maronites, unconquered though alone, still maintained
their mountains and their independence against count-
less infidel enemies, Arab, Turk, Druse, and what not.
Who even now hold the keys and balance, not of Leba-
non only, but of all Syria ; themselves the sole pledge
of Christian and European hope in the East ; who have
colonised Malta ; who, having received the Christian
faith from the Founder of Christianity liimself, trans-
figured, whatever evangelists may imply or commen-
tators say, not in Galilee, but on the ' exceeding high
mountain ' of Lebanon, have, with more than Petral or
Papal fidelity, kept it intact, inviolate, unaltered, infal-
lible, among schismatics, heretics, and infidels of all
sorts, for nigh two thousand years, Abdiels of the
Church, sole lily among thorns ; who in war, trade,
arts, literature, and religion, hold the distinct supremacy
194 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
over all nations and tribes of the East, aye, and of
the West also ; unless, indeed, France be allowed an
honorary equality. A Maronite Patriarch is second,
but just second, to the Pope alone ; each ^laronite
bishop is a saint ; each Maronite chief an Achilles ;
each Maronite scribe a Chrysostom ; each Maronite
peasant a prodigy of nature's best. And so on, and
so on.
Now let us descend to facts.
During the seventh and eighth centuries of our era
frequent bands of oriental Christians, Syro-Chaldaeans
especially, and mostly Monophysites, or at least Mono-
thelites — that is, in the judgment of Constantinople
and Rome alike, heretics — being driven from the up-
lands of Euphrates and Mesopotamia partly by the
irruption of the Arabs, partly by the orthodox persecu-
tion of Byzantme governors, successively took refuge
in the almost inaccessible, and, till then, almost unin-
habited, heights of Lebanon, and there settled. By
degrees these colonists organised themselves into a sort
of Ecclesiastico-civil Government, with a self-styled
Patriarch of Antioch, a Monophysite of course like
the rest, at their head, and a certain number of
see-less titular bishops for an administrative Cabinet.
Nobility or lay chiefs were none ; the total Maronite
system acknowledged but three classes — clergy, monks,
and peasants. Neglected by the Arab or Memlook
governors of the Syrian plain, who had little motive for
enterprise among barren rocks and unfurnished huts ;
in open but safe, because distant, hostility with the
Byzantine Government, which, orthodox or non-
orthodox, was in neither jihrase friendly to Syrian
dogmas, they remained tributary, but scarcely subject,
to the Mahometan rulers of Damiiscus, Bagdad, or
Aleppo.
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 195
But when the Crusaders, entering Syria, first opened
a prospect of successful aggression on Mahometans and
Byzantines alike, the Maronites — a name by whicli the
mixed refugees of North Lebanon were already called
after their first mountain Patriarch Maron — adjoined
themselves to the Franks, and claimed the kinship of
common hatred to Mecca and to Constantinople. The
better to cement this new-found alliance, they dis-
avowed or dissembled their Monophysite ideas, and
announced themselves Roman CathoHcs. The igno-
rance of the Latin clergy in whatever regarded the
languages or subtleties of the East, facilitated a union
seasonable to both parties ; and the Maronites were
embraced not as penitents but brothers. Their effective
share, however, in the labours and campaigns of the
Crusaders, reduced itself to some shght commissariat
assistance ; so slight that its unimportance eluded the
later perquisitions of Mahometan vengeance.
After the expulsion of the Crusaders, their Maronite
allies recontracted themselves within their rocky shell ;
and for two or three centuries v/e lose sight of them,
till they re-appear the obedient vassals of the Druse
house of Ma an, and of the Mahometan Ameers of Slie-
hab, their warlike neighbours, the former on the south,
the latter on the east.
During the period which we have thus summarily
reviewed, the frequent recurrence of politico-religious
pressure, analogous though not identical with that
which first peopled the northerly districts of Lebanon
with Syro-Chaldean Christians, filled the central ranges
of the same mountain with Druses, the southerly with
the Shee'ya' Metewalees, and the hill-lands from Lebanon
to Antioch with the enigmatic Ansejreeyes; while
the old Arab family of Shehab, the almost credible
claimants of kinsmanship with Koreysh and the Pro-
O 2
196 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. . [vi.
phet, asserted, and sometimes exercised, sovereignty
over the valley of Teym, the door and master-key of
the Druse mountain. Races differing in origin, and
every origin a history ; but united by the similarity of
the circumstances which clustered them together round
a common centre of security. Each was an enemy of
the powers that were in Syria for the time being,
Seljook or Memlook, Arab or Turk ; each, the Shehab
alone excepted, was a hereditary enemy to, or an apos-
tate from, the Mahometan creed ; each sought, in the
fortified refuge of the mountain, to maintain its own
usages, laws, and independence. But the Maronites, an
unwarlike race, more numerous in monks than in
soldiers, and better men with their tongues than with
their swords, unequal to isolation, sought a guarantee
of their existence in voluntary submission to their next^
door neighbours, the high-spirited and closely-organised
Druses ; and admitted for chiefs the Druse family of
Ma'an, who ruled over their Christian vassals, patri-
archs and priests, monks and peasants, with a rule,
arbitrary it might be but not unkindly, nor unprofit-
able to the subjects themselves. Meantime the noble
family of Shehab, whose high blood disdained the
supremacy of Circassian or Turk, strengthened gradually
and prospered on the East ; till, passing from inde-
pendence to sovereignty, they brought all Lebanon
under their power ; and, after fierce struggles with
which this narrative has no concern, saw the last heir
of Ma'an, and his vicegerent the treacherous Yobsef of
Jobeyl, submit to their ascendant, till Druse and Maro-
nite alike saluted them sole lords of the mountain.
But their elevation was their ruin. Influenced, i)artly
by the numerical superiority of their Maronite subjects
and partly by the delusive prospect of French support,
the Shehab chiefs in a fatal \\o\\y deserted the Crescent
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 197
for the Cross, announced themselves Christians, and
cast in their lot with the Maronites. All folly is con-
tagious, but politico-religious folly most so ; and the
only Druse family of any importance then actually
estabHshed within Maronite confines, the Benoo-Lama',
did after the Shehab example ; and thus it came that
the Maronite peasants discovered themselves for the
first time with Ameers, that is nobles, counted among
themselves. Sheykhs they had indeed numbered be-
fore, but 'Sheykh' among villagers implies simply a
village headman, with no title or claim to nobility ex-
cept in some dubious French patent, or the mere vaunt
of self-assumption. Now at last, by the recent Maroni-
tism of the Shehab and Benoo-Lama', the Maronites
became in fact for a few years sole rulers of Lebanon,
from Terabolos to Seyda.
* Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride — ' we
all know whither. The first vise made by the Maronites
of their new-found power was an abuse : it was to
harass and oppress their old lords and protectors the
Druses. Forgetting that the Shehab, however powerful
while Mahometans, had now by the very fact of their
becoming Maronites sunk to the ordinary Maronite
level, and coidd thus no longer uphold those amongst
whom they reckoned as equals, they set themselves to
cut away the only remaining prop of the independence
of the mountain, the Druse chieftains. Meantime 1840
inaugurated a new era for Syria : Lebanon was thrown
open to European arms and politics, and foreign inter-
ference combined with Maronite insolence in brmging
about the guerilla war of 1841, the bipartition of the
mountain, and the long series of double-dealing and
wrong which at last culminated in the bloody summer
of i860, and the calamities with which our readers are,
no doubt, already well acquainted. Since that time,
198 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi-
irremediably weakened from within, and subject to the
Porte and its Pashas from without, the Maronites have
talked much, intrigued much, and done nothing.
The Maronites of our day may best be divided into
three classes ; namely, the clergy (monks included), the
townsmen, and the peasants. Of the so-called Princes
or Ameers, the descendants of Shehab and Lama, the
newly-adopted Maronites, we will say nothing. 'Non
ragionar di lor, ma guarda e passa ;' the nobility of
their origin may be allowed to cast a veil of decent
silence over their present degeneracy. As for the
Sheykhs, Khazin, Hobeysh, Kerem, or others, they shall
be considered under the class of peasants from whom
they derive, and amongst whom they find their proper
place.
And first, the clergy : that is, the patriarch, the
bishops, the parish-priests, and the monks. All these,
partly owing to the circumstances under which Maro-
nite nationality first came into existence, partly to the
superstitious character of the Syro-Chaldoeans them-
selves, exercise in Lebanon an authority after which an
Innocent III. may have aspired, but never attained.
Nor do they either serve God or man for nought. On
every pleasant hill of Lebanon, in every fruitful valley,
the first object that attracts the traveller's notice is for
certain an episcopal residence, a snug convent, or a
comfortable priest's house ; the fattest olive-groves, the
most generous vineyards, the choicest tobacco-fields,
the good of the land is theirs ; and one-fourth of the
Maronite territory is, at the most modest computation,
the patrimony of the Chm-ch. No roof covers better
furnished apartments, no vaults hold goodlier stores,
than those of His Holiness the Patriarch ; whether he
descend to his winter residence at Zook, or refresh his
wearied sanctity in the summer coolness of his j^alacc
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 199
at Wadee-Kadeesho. Encircled by troops of attendants,
some in the appropriate garb of deacons, some in the
more dubious array of pipe-bearers or chibookjees, clad,
not metaphorically but literally, in the costliest of
purple and fine linen ; seated at a table, the copious-
ness of which may in the East be held for luxury ; or
haughtily admitting the homage of prescriptive super-
stition, the Maronite Patriarch is at once a parody and
a burlesque of an Italian Pontiff, and a model which
each of his hierarchical subordinates — bishop, priest, or
deacon — strives in due proportion and with tolerable
success to reproduce.
The monks, in habits of black serge and ascetic
girdles, parade an edifying modesty ; but their pro-
fession of poverty is belied by the size and construction
of their monasteries, by their well-built and better-
filled store-rooms, and yet more by the vast extent of
their lands. The thin veil of personal disappropriation
ill conceals from the eye of the laity, and perhaps from
their own, the insatiate greed of the community ; and
fi[-om the prior of the great Convent of Koshey'a, down
to the aged hermit of Wadee-Kadeesho, who extends his
venerable hand for a blessing and a ' bakhsheesh ' to the
visitor of his abnegation, the Maronite regular is the
most grasping, the most retentive of all his mendicant
brethren. West or East.
The first impression of the secular clergy, or parish
priests, is at times more favourable. A smattering of
studies, Latin, French, and Italian, is a frequent result
of connexion with Pome, of visits to Italy and France,
also in many cases of education received, or at least of
years passed, in the College of the Propaganda. The
names of Latin Fathers and of more recent theolo-
gians, strange elsewhere in the East, are familiar here ;
and the garbled history of ecclesiastical authors is re-
200 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
chronicled, and believed, under the roofs of Fetooh and
Kesrewan. Hence a Maronite priest not rarely obtains
the credit of being learned, while in truth only super-
ficial. To the same education they owe their special
hatred against Protestantism and Protestants, a hatred
bigoted and violent to a scarcely credible degree. In
the same they carefully instruct their flocks ; and tlieir
efforts are effectually seconded by Lazarists, Jesuits,
and Capuchins, thickly disseminated all over the moun-
tain ; who delight, moreover, to give a practical turn to
this anti-heretical fervour by carefully identifying in
common use the names of Protestant and of English. The
certain and universal salvation of all Maronites ; the
possible, but hardly probable, salvation of any other
Catholics ; and the inevitable, unexceptional damnation
of all non-Poman sects, schismatic, heretic, Mahometan,
Druse, and so forth, but especially of all Protestants ;
such is the foremost lesson in this Christian and clerical
school. And it is from their clergy that the Maronites,
more than any other tribe of the earth, take their
habitual direction of thought and action.
Such are the distinctive features of the Maronite
clergy ; in other respects they share the ordinary praise
or blame of average Eastern priesthoods.
These are the men who, in '59 and '60, after having
by their ceaseless and unscrupulous intrigues brought
on the bloody catastrophes of Jezzeen, Hilsbeva,
Pasheya, Jahleh, Deyr-el-Kamar, Damascus — after
having provoked a war in which thousands of their
people were slaughtered, some on the field of battle,
more in cold-blo(j(led massacre, and other thousands
utterly and irretrievably ruined — refused the sacrifice of
a piastre from their own full cofiers, of an acre from
their own ])r<)a(l lands, to support a cause, which they
proclaimed the cause of God, or to relieve and sustain
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 201
the widows and orphans whom they themselves had
made. Without a blush the wealthiest clergy of the
East saw the misery of their flocks comforted by Euro-
pean, and, in no small measure, by Protestant charity.
They snarled at the givers, and greedily swallowed the
gift. These are they who then — they had learnt the
trade before — paraded their long beards, sanctimonious
faces, and flowing robes in Europe ; and claimed the
alms intended by the easily-gulled charity of the West
to feed the orphan, house the homeless, cure the sick
and wounded, rebuild villages, schools, and churches ;
and w^hich in reality found their way so far as the
pocket of Bishop this and Prior that, but no further.
These are the men who unite all the pretentious bigotry
of Catholic Rome with all the vices and meanness of
the Christian East ; these are they who give to their
tribe and nation its special tone, a tone arrogant alike
and cringing, base and vainglorious, fanatical to a
degree no Greek ever attained, servile to a depth below
the servility of a eunuch or a Persian.
Next follows the lay portion of the Maronite nation ;
we will begin with the inhabitants of the towns.
As townsfolk, Maronites ofier in their ways a certain
resemblance, not wholly superficial, with the Eastern
Greeks. Substitute France for Russia, Catholicism for
Orthodoxy, and you will find in any Maronite house of
Beyrout, Damascus, or Aleppo, much the same style of
intrigue, the same restlessness, the same unabashed
disloyalty to their own, that is, the Turkish Government,
that characterise the Greeks of the Levant. But in
more essential respects the Maronite differs much from
the Greek Rey'ah. Colder in blood, duller in brain,
clumsy of hand, timid in heart, he is less dangerous,
and less interesting. Among all Easterns it is the
Maronite who most affects to copy Europeans ; but of
202 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
all Easterns also his copy is the most blurred l)y ill-taste,
or incomplete by niggardliness. In the same fashion a
Maronite will often hanker after trade, and will talk
much about it ; but here again his cowardice interferes,
and he seldom rises above the paltriest commercial
peddling. Shop-keeping is generally the limit of the
w^ealthier ; the poorer sort follow mostly those pursuits
which imply least enterprise, and least manly vigour ;
they are shoemakers, weavers, tailors, and house-servants.
Very rarely does a Maronite find place in a Government
bureau ; the Christian directors, writers, or accountants
in the Syrian Custom-houses or Serey's, are almost
invariably Greek or Armenian.
With want of spiiit the Maronite unites want of
taste ; his house, if he be himself an architect, is form-
less and gloomy ; his Church heavy and disfigured by
tawdry ornament. When indeed anything that indi-
cates architectural or decorative feehng occurs in a
Maronite building, public or private, we may be almost
sure that some strange artist has been called in, pro-
bably a Greek. The very dress of a Maronite, though
the same in the main with those of other Easterns, is
generally duller in colour, heavier in fold, and less
graceful in cut.
As might be expected from the patronage so long
accorded them by France, a patronage to which most of
their calamities, and in particular those of i860, are in
great measure due, the Maronites are eager in the study
of the French language, which they can often not only
speak, but even read and write with considerable fluency.
But of French literature they know little, having
neither the power nor the desire to appreciate it ;
indeed, the utmost goal of their European studies is the
position of Dragoman, or a place in a European counting-
house, or an employment under a French master.
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 203
Rarely do they learn Turkish or English ; indeed, they
have a kind of antipathy to both these languages ; nor
could it be otherwise considering their fanaticism, and
perhaps also the speciality of their European patronage.
It is, however, to their credit that, though with less
success than some other ' Eastern Christians ' their
neighbours, they carry their studies of Arab grammar
and literature to a considerable length, and are occa-
sionally not contemptible masters in this field.
Be it also told to Maronite credit, that, although the
standard of truth among them is certainly not our own,
and a European who should model his veracity on theirs
in word and deed would strongly risk passing for a
cheat and a liar, yet seldom do they push falsehood to
those lengths of deception, swindling, and treachery,
which have made the Levant infamous from Byzantine
times to the present. Perhaps it is slow-wittedness,
perhaps a modified honesty ; we willingly ascribe it
to the latter ; the more so that, left to themselves, the
Maronites are on the whole a good-tempered race, fairly
sociable, imitative, and, though not enterprising, la-
borious. Drink and gambling also are only occasional
vices among them ; their morality, in the narrower
acceptance of the term, was never severe, nor has
European contact tended to straighten it.
From the Maronites of the town we turn to the
Maronites of the country ; and here, as is usual among
races whose virtues and vices are the result of cir-
cumstance rather than of will, we find not much indeed
to admire, but less also to condemn. Still their visitor
will be startled by the grossness of their ignorance ;
for although schools are plenty among the Maronite
villages, the bigotry of the masters, mostly priests,
has in general narrowed down the teaching to some
childish Catechism, badly translated from the Italian
204 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vr.
or French. Another characteristic of the Maronite
peasant is dirt ; and, with every natural advantage
of situation and climate, the commonest expedients
of municipal cleanliness are so strangely neglected, or
unknown, that even the pure air of the Syrian
mountain-tops seems hardly a security against endemic
pestilence.
In the culture of the mulberry- tree and the rearing
of silk, in tobacco-growing and in the care of vine-
yards, Maronite husbandmen are commendable for
diligence and skill. Their industry, like that of the
up-country Armenians, is of the heavy, persevering
kind. Like the Armenians, also, they have little turn
for sea-pursuits ; and while the entire line of Maronite
coast, from St. George's Bay to the river of Terabolos,
is indented with countless creeks and shallow inlets,
well adapted to the small craft and fishing-boats of
Syria, the number of sailors or fishermen supplied from
among the Maronites is inconsiderable.
The village chiefs or Sheykhs, Khazin, Hobeysh, and
others, are distinguished from the peasants around
them by their habits of childish intrigue and pretentious
idleness, and are confounded with them by a clownish
awkwardness, the common badge of the ^laronite
mountaineer. This clownishness refines itself in tlie
Maronites of Beyrout and Terabolos into mere heavi-
ness and lack of taste. However, their kinsmen of
Damascus and Aleppo have, by long separation from
the bulk of the tribe and residence among strangers,
acquired somewhat of the courtesy and polish proper
to the natives of inner and Mahometan Syria.
The total number of the Maronite nation, or rather
clan, is variously estimated from 150,000 to 230,000,
or even more. We incline to the higher cypher : itself
not a very considerable one, after all. Yet it more
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 205
than doubles the census of the Druses, by whom the
JVIaronites were long held in subjection, and at last,
in i860, utterly discomfited, and that of the less re-
nowned nor over-courageous Metewalees, by whom
they are habitually insulted.
Here our reader may pause, and consult liis reason
or his sympathies.
We have now passed in review the three most
numerous or the most talked-of Christian populations
of the East : those with whose name Europe is not
unfamiliar, and to whom her pationage is most readily
extended. Eleven of the fourteen species of ' Eastern
Christian' yet remain ; but the minuter inspection
of some of these would be superfluous, and of others
uninteresting. Among the former we may number
the CathoUc or Protestant Armenians, in every respect
— niceties of creed excepted — closely resembling their
orthodox brethren ; the Russianised Greeks, hardly
distinguishable from the Phanariot ; while the Syrians
and Chaldseans, orthodox or Catholic, of Upper Syria
and Mesopotamia, are best comprised in a general
sketch of the inhabitants of those regions. The in-
significance of the Eastern Latins eludes research ; and
want of sufficient information to reconcile or reject
conflicting statements compels us to pass over in silence
two remarkable, though somewhat anomalous, offshoots
of Eastern Christianity, — the Nestorians of Kurdistan,
and the more recently famous Abyssinians. There yet
remain, however, two classes — the one a clan, the other
a nation — each possessed of high interest, and each
deserving a distinct, however cursory, notice. These
are the Greek Catholics, or Melchites, of Syria, and the
Copts of Egypt.
The former present a phenomenon startling in Euro-
pean eyes, easily explicable from an Eastern point of
206 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
view. Bearing the name of Greeks, they have yet
nothing in common either with the Hellenes of Atheos
or with the Byzantine Greeks of the Levant, except
the use of the same ritual and liturgy, and these, too,
not in Greek, but translated into excellent Arabic.
The history of the Greek Catholics of Syria shall
explain for us alike their name and their character.
Long before the Christian era several tribes of the
Yemen, Arab Arabs — so they style themselves, to in-
dicate the unmixed genuineness of their race — emi-
grated northwards, and, after many fortunes, settled
finally on the confines of Syria, to the east and south
of Damascus. Their colony was again and again re-
cruited, now from their Yemen brethren, now from the
tribes of Nejed and Hejaz ; but the superior dignity
and number of Benoo-Ghassan gave them a common
name as well as government ; and with Jefnah, the son
of 'Amr, began the series of Ghassanite kings, who
reigned for more than four hundred years, till the rising
sun of Mahomet eclipsed all the stars in the Aral^ sky.
But few tribes have shone with briofhter lustre in
pre-Mahometan peace or war than Benoo-Ghassan ;
few have attained equal celebrity in prose or verse.
Valour, generosity, eloquence — whatever forms the
staple of Arab worth— all is ascribed to them, and the
silence of their rivals admits the praise of their
eulogists.
Li common with their king, El-Harith, the Benoo-
Ghassan embraced Christianity towards the end of
the fourth century, and, like most converts, adopted the
ceremonial of their first aj)ostles, namely, the Byzan-
tine. Hence they derived, as Christians, the surname
of Greeks, and hence for many centuries the use of
the Greek language in their churches, or in the tents,
of which, as their annals and some relics of portable
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 207
sanctuaries yet show, these half-nomades made use for
the rites of worship. But that language, confined
within strictly Church limits, remained always alien
from the every-day life of Benoo-Ghassan ; and their
off-lying position, situated on the extreme verge of
Byzantine rule, allowed but a feeble union, pohtical
or ecclesiastical, with Constantinople.
When the Mahometan armies, led by Khalid-ebn-
Waleed and his brother generals, overran Syria, the
greater number of the Ghassan Arabs adopted the
congenial fixith which fused them with their conquerors ;
some, however, availed themselves of the tolerance of
'Omar and the Ommey'ah Khalifs, and remained
Christians. From their Mahometan neighbours they
had nothing to fear ; and their retired position beyond
the passes of the Leja sheltered them alike from the
dangerous sympathies or rivalities of their Western
brethren, and from the blood-stained vicissitudes of
Turkoman or Tartar conquest. Thus guarded, their
history presents an enviable blank, till in the seven-
teenth century the comparative centrahsation of the
Turkish empire brought the Greek- Arabs of Hawran
into a contact too intimate to be friendly with the en-
croaching Phanariotes of Constantinople; while at the
same time European and especially French influence
began once more to penetrate into the long-closed
East. The Christian-Arabs of Itursea and Traclionitis
had, in their own and almost in English phrase, no
* back ' to lean on ; and the desire of finding one to
prop them up against their overbearing co-religionists
on the one side, and against the possible or existing
hostilities of their non-Christian landsmen on the other,
induced the Benoo-Ghassan Greeks to change the name
of orthodox for Catholic : a name occasionally, by a
somewhat factitious reminiscence of ancient partizan-
208 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi
ship, commuted with that of Melchite. By this change
of title they separated themselves from the orthodox
or Byzantine Greeks of Syria, and obtained two things,
— a hierarchy of their own, and the permissive sub-
stitution of the Arabic for the Greek language in Iheir
Church service. And thus they have remained a clan
apart, readily distinguishable by the features of race
much more than by those of dogma from the orthodox
Greeks of the province ; still more alien from the
Syro-Chaldaean Maronite, also with much less Europe-
ward sympathy and imitation.
Divided from their Arab brethren of town or tent
by the profession of Christianity, they have, in idmost
every other respect, retained the distinctive charac-
teristics of pure Arab descent. Their courage has been
proved in many a well-fought fiay with the wild tribes
of the Desert and with the warrior Druses of the
adjoining Leja and the anti-Lebanon ; their endurance
has, within the last century, adorned the chronicles
of Aleppo with a respectable list of martyrs who have
preferred death to Phanariote subjection. In generosity
and hospitality they surpass — we can ourselves wit-
ness to it — not only all other ' Eastern Ciiristians,' but
even many non-Arab Mahometan populations. In the
national ornaments of eloquence and poetry they still,
as of old, outshine every competitor. The Arabic
language is spoken in an almost primitive purity even
by the lowest and most uneducated classes amongst
them, while it is cultivated in all its lexicographical and
grammatical refinements by the higher ; and the Greek-
Catholic author, Elias Yazjee, has in our own time
ventured to imitate and almost rival the exquisite
'Makamat' of the justly -celebrated Hareeree. But the
talent of the Melchite-Arab is principally shown in a
capacity for the management of afliiirs, which has
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 209,
peopled the palaces and residences of the governors
and chief men of Syria with Greek-Catholic counsellors,
treasurers, accountants, writers, till the number of posts
of trust filled by them throughout these regions amazes
by its disproportion with the scanty census of their
clan. This heritage, unimpaired by time, by rehgious
change, or by foreign influence, they have received and
kept from their ancestois of the Yemen. But they
share, with most other Arabs, an ineradicable, because
an inbred, aversion to Ottoman rule ; and when Ibra-
heem Pasha, acting as lieutenant for his still more
talented father Mehemet-'Alee, appeared in Syiia to
dismember that province from the Turkish empire and
unite it, so hope proclaimed, to a new and Arab king-
dom, nowhere did the Egyptian find a readier welcome
and a more cordial and effectual assistance to his pro-
jects than among the Melchite- Arabs of the land.
One fatal heritage, however, it must be allowed, the
Greek Cathohcs have, along with then- better heir-loom,
derived from their ancestors of the desert — the spirit
of divided counsels. The same impatient individualism,
the same inaptness for unity or even co-ordination,
which once, and only once, in Arab history yielded to
the colossal genius of Mahomet, but w-hich so soon after
his death re-appeared to break up his great national
work into countless fragments, never again to unite ;
this spirit still exists unabated, and repeats itself in
every tribe, in every clan ; nor has the brotherhood of
Christianity, nor the fellowship of belief and rite,
availed the Catholic-Greeks of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
of HawTan and the Belkad, from its fatal influence.
' See how these Christians hate one another,' may be
a true, though a most discreditable satire elsewhere ;
it is nowhere truer than among the Melchite-Aiabs,
nowhere more fatal in its consequences. At war more
210 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
or less open with all around them, children of Ismael,
their hand against every man, and every man's hand
against them, they are not the less at ceaseless con-
flict among: themselves, alwavs at variance, alwavs
disunited ; till not so much as a single village acknow-
ledges one hand, one purpose, or one action. No
sooner has an individual of their number attained by
energy or talent some superior position, than envy —
the curse of the Arab race — raises up ten others to
pull him down, and, after having done that, to quarrel
among themselves for the very honours of wliich they
have despoiled their tribesman, for no other reason
than that he was worthy of them. Blood is perhaps
shed ; and then the feud is irreconcilable to the tenth
generation. The quarrels of Beyt Aboo-Khatir and
Beyt Ma aloof, the rivalry of the Harat-Raseeyeh and
the Harat-et-Tahta, did more than even the arms of
the Druse Khotta'r and the cowardice or treason of
Yoosef Kerem for the ruin of Melchite Zahleh : nor
could all the losses of i860, in which fatal year none
suftered more, because none fought more, than the
Greek Catholics, persuade the Damascene survivors of
the family of Honeyneh to lay aside their hereditary
enmity with the survivors of the family of Foreyj, and
to remember at least the brotherhood of misfortune,
since they had forgotten that of race and faith.
Blame and praise, yet more, perhaps, the latter than
the former, are merited by another noted quality of
the genuine Arab mind, faithfully reproduced in the
Melchites of Central and Eastern Syria, namely, an
immense personal pride ; a i)ride based on self-con-
sciousness, and hence unaugniented by prosperity,
undiminished in adversity, — a pride independent of
circumstance of sect, of condition, and even of age.
As 'Abd-Allah, tlie son of iXm heroic Zobeyr, and a
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 211.
cliild then of some ten years old, was playing with his
young companions in one of the streets of Medeenah,
the Khalif Ma'aweyah passed by on horseback with
numerous attendants. ' Stand up out of the way of
the Commander of the Faithful,' said some one of the
riders to the boy. ' Neither are you my father that I
should stand up to you for respect's sake, nor is the
road so narrow that I should stand up to you for
room's sake,' answered the child. Similar in character,
but more dignified, was the reply of 'Omar, second of
the Khalifs. Feeling thirsty during a conversation
prolonged till late into the night with 'Amroo, the con-
queror of Egypt, 'Omar rose from his feet, and, treading
on tiptoe, lest he should disturb the slumber of an
attendant, who, tired of watching, had, like the Lucius
of Shakespeare, fallen asleep on the floor, crossed the
room, quenched his thirst from a pitcher of water, and
returned softly to his place. ' Commander of the
Faithful, you might as well have awakened the servant
and let him bring it you,' remarked 'Amroo. ' I got up,
and I was 'Omar ; I returned, and I am 'Omar/
answered the Khalif.
This is the pride which, among Mahometan Arabs,
is enhanced, while veiled, by the modest title of the
' servant of God ;' an affirmation which implies and
almost expresses the negation of any other service or
inferiority. Among the Pagans or Christians of the
race it dispenses with even this disguise. But the
defiant vaunts of a pre-Mahometan Ta'abbet-Shurran,
the self-laudatory lyrics of a sceptical Aboo-l-'Ola or
Mutenebbee, the devout exultations of innumerable
religious or ascetic poets, from the great Gheelanee
down to 'Abd-el-GhUnee En-Nabloosee, and the vigor-
ous, though imitative, war-notes of Nikola-el-Khooree,
Greek-Catholic priest of Aleppo, however they may
P 2
212 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
vary in the form and wording of the phrase, are truly
one in meaning, and that meaning is unconquerable
self-reliance. Christian humility may condemn, as
Mahometan humility has frequently done, the vice of
pride ; but a philosophical mind will hardly be severe
in its censure of what is the root of much real great-
ness, of noble exertion, of dignity in misfortune, and of
moderation in success. The Melchite-Arab is often
hated, but can rarely be despised ; and his independent
spirit, if it conciliate him few friends, merits him yet
an esteem impossible to bestow on the borrowed vanity
of the Greek, the boastful meanness of the Maronite,
and the tame servility of most other ' Eastern
Christians.'
The small number of the Melchite- Greeks — they
scarce come up to fifty thousand souls — is about
equally divided between the inliabitants of the towns
Damascus, Zahleh, Aleppo, Beyrout, Seyda, and the
rest, and the inhabitants of the open plains, of the
Bekaa, Hawran, and the lands beyond the Jordan.
We have already sketched the character of the towns-
people ; whoever visits them will be further struck by
the good taste of their domestic and ecclesiastical archi-
tecture, in which the true genius of the Arab or
Saracenic style is still conspicuous in graceful carvings,
airy porticos, bold arches, and slender columns, and by
the easy good manners of his Melchite host, who prides
himself on courtesy and hospitidity to his guests, after
the old Arab fashion. A Greek- Catholic house at
Damascus recalls the * Thousand and One Nights,' both
in the decorations of the building and in the refined
politeness of its inhabitants. But the Damascene
proverb, 'Like a rose, smell it from a distance, and
ware thorns,' is too often exemplified in prolonged in-
tercourse ; quarrels are of frequent occurrence, and
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 213
hard to appease ; and even a casual acquaintance,
however amiably welcomed, will do prudently to avoid
in his conversation whatever may wound a proud and
susceptible I'ace. But in literature, history, local
government, poetry, and the like, the visitor, if quali-
fied to enter on such topics, will find before him, in
Arab phrase, a wide and fertile meadow.
The Melchite peasants are, at first sight, scarcely
distinguishable from the Mahometan Arabs around
them, whether in dress, habitation, or manner. The
same broad cloak, dark, striped, or gaily embroidered —
the same yellow and red handkerchief, bound with the
same twist of camel s hair round the head — the same
old-fashioned arms, sword, lance, or pistol — the same
beard, the same idiom and language — the very churches
are in their simplicity hardly dissimilar from village
mosques. Nor only the Mahometan Arab peasant, but
even the half Bedouin, the ' 'Arab Deerah,' or Bedouin
of the frontier, is often reproduced among the Melchites
of Hawran and the Balkaa. Besides, the bonds of
union between Christian and Mahometan are in these
districts tightened by the doubtful neighbourhood of
Druses, and the visits, more frequent than welcome, of
the plundering Boo'ala and Woold-'Alee tribes. Who-
ever is not afraid of roughing it a little, may pass some
weeks with pleasure, nor without profit, in the study
of Arab manners and eloquence among the Greek-
Catholics of Trachonitis ; he will learn more there and
better in a week than Beyrout, or even AlejDpo, could
teach him in a year.
The Melchite clergy, like that of all ' Eastern Chris-
tians,' whatever their sect, have considerable influence ;
yet they do not constitute a ruling class, as among the
Maronites, or a caste apart, as among the Armenians
and orthodox Greeks. They are often men of much
214 EASTERN CURISTIASS. [vi.
public spirit, active and well furnished with the current
accompUshments of the East. Like all Eastern priest-
hoods, they are divided into two sorts — the married
secular clergy and the unmarried monks, from amongst
whom bishops and patriarchs are selected. These
monks, in particular, are much superior to the ordinary-
run of their fellow- ascetics in the East, and the
printing-press of the monastery of Showey'r — a press
unrivalled throughout Syria in beauty of type and
accuracy of labour — may almost atone for the ambitious
revolt of its celibate workmen aijainst the lawful autlio-
rity of the Prior of Damascus. We should, however,
not forget to add that similar praise is due, and for
similar reasons, to the Catholic -Armenian monks,
whether in Europe or Asia.
We have dwelt somewhat at length on the desciiption
of one of the smallest sections of Eastern Christianity,
because that section alone, among all others, offers the
agreeable spectacle of a race neither servile nor de-
generate. Yet the want of servility implies the want
of patrons, and the Melchite-Greeks of Syria neither
possess the sympathy of Europe, nor, indeed, much
desire its questionable advantage. European sympathy
in the East too generally implies, for those who seek
or enjoy it, a mendicant spirit, a dependent tone, an
aimless dissatisfaction, a new element of intrigue, a
loss of what one has for an unprofitable striving after
what one has not. Further, it implies the hatred of
the surrounding Mahometan jDopulations and of the
Ottoman Government itself, which, naturally enough,
sees with disgust that its subjects have their faces
habitually turned to the worship of another star than
its own. Hence it may occasionally, and in the progress
of events, imply violence and even massacre. Did not
the Mahometans in general, and the Turks more espe-
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 215
cially believe, nor without reason, that the Eastern
Christian population is the chosen field of European
intrigue, the door always open for European inter-
ference ; — did they, and could they, look on the
Christians simply as subjects of the Empire, diifering
from themselves in form of belief only, united and
loyal in all besides ; — the Christians of the East would
not be left in peace merely, but would take rank
among the most favoured subjects of the Porte, from
Constantinople to Bagdad. History testifies to their
honourable security in the days of the Khalifs ; and
we have ourselves witnessed their promotion under
the brief administration of Ibraheem Pasha. But now,
and as a general rule, none are so ill looked on, and
with but too much reason. The hatred, first originated
by the Crusades, has been continued and aggravated by
diplomatic protections and armed interference ; and
while we condemn the ferocity or fanaticism which
presided at the risings of Aleppo and Nabloos — at
the massacres of Jeddah and Damascus — we cannot
wonder ; rather, all things considered, might we think
that the Mahometans, with Clive, have reason ' to
be astonished at their own moderation.' Vexatious
attempts to extend a miserable and undue influence —
fallacious but incendiary hopes — promises even of
support from the West or the North — encouragement
to ready insolence, and irksome interference with the
normal course of local government — all these have
worked, and still work, till the Mahometan population
and the Porte alike lose their long-provoked patience,
and the debt of years is paid off in a day of blood and
fire. Thus it is that remonstrances against imaginary
oppressions and complaints of wrongs which do not
exist end in giving reality to the very subjects of
complaint and remonstrance ; and intriguing ambition
216 E ASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
has more than once viewed with open horror and
secret satisfaction the realisation of evils to justify the
protest which had preceded and caused them when as
yet they were not. ' Save us from our friends,' would
be the most rational prayer, did they but know it, of
Eastern Christians ; and in keeping aloof from Euio-
pean favour and influence the Melchite- Arabs of Syria
do but show their wisdom.
There is yet another race of Eastern Clu-istians,
more ancient in their Christianity than Syrians, Ma-
ronites, and Armenians — of more undoubted descent
than the Greeks of the Islands and Anatolia — a race
that dates its nationality from no special creed or
ritual, older than the Hebrew itself — old as the first
rational records of the inhabited world, the Copts of
Egypt.
By what fate a nation, born, it would seem, to com-
mand — the skilfid organisers of a mighty and long-
enduring kingdom — the claimants of eternity in the
imperishable monuments of their greatness — the
builders of Thebes and the Pyramids — the heirs of
Eameses and Pharaoh — have for more than two thou-
sand years remained the scarce impatient slaves, now
of Persia, now of Greece, Eome, and Byzantium, then
of Arab or Memlook princes, of Tartars and Turks,
till they have sunk to their present deep degradation,
were hard to say. The extinction of national encr<ry
is often a harder problem to solve than its origin and
development. Yet even now, after so long a servitude
and depression, they still retain, and this may increase
our wonder, many of those very qualities which once
rendered them lords, not of their own Egypt and Nile
only, but of Syria, and of no inconsiderable jiortion
of Asia also ; crushed, but scarcely changed.
Since, however, the Arab conquest in 638, the blood
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 217
of the now Maliometan inhabitants of the Nile valley
has so mingled with that of their Arab invaders, be-
sides what further modification it may have admitted
from Negro and Nubian, Circassian and Turk, that we
will in these pages restrict the nationality as the name
of Copt to the native Christians of the land, who have
along with their peculiar form of belief retained also
the purity of their national descent without any ap-
preciable admixture.
Except a few thousands, five at most, of so-called
Catholic Copts, who to all practical intents and pur-
poses resemble the rest of the nation, the Copts of
Egypt belong, by tradition if not by knowledge, to the
Eutychian or ultra-Monojjhysite school ; a circumstance
\Nhich, combined with the hereditary remembrance of
historical injuries, divides the Egyptian from the
Greek by a deep cleft of national and religious hatred.
Towards the Mahometan population around the Copts
have little ill-M^ill, though of all 'Eastern Cliristians'
they have had the most cause to complain. The tran-
sient atrocities of the mad Khalif Hakim can, indeed,
be scarcely laid to the charge of Islam, from which
Hakim himself was notoriously an apostate ; but there
is no doubt that in following and ])urely Mahometan
times oppression, and even persecution, have at fre-
quent intervals weighed heavily on the Copts. The
dangerous proximity of their Western co-religionists,
the intrusive sanctity of Louis IX, and the Crusades,
which involved the loss of other and better lives than
those of the Crusaders themselves, may explain the
anti-Christian bitterness of the rulers of Egypt ; and
the knowledge of the mediate cause may have rendered
the Copts less hostile than might have been else ex-
pected to their immediate oppressors. Besides, they
are a patient people.
218 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
In all times anii under every dynasty the Copts have
been the scribes and accountants of Egypt ; a position
productive of much influence to those who hold it, and
also of not a little wealth. Their natural turn for
calculation, however intricate — their habits of enduring
and accurate labour — their sedentary and somewhat
phlegmatic disposition — all agree to fit them for this
kind of work, and to render them pre-eminent in it.
The inventors of papyrus-scrolls and hieroglyphics are
still the best book-keepers of the East ; and the
calculating and mechanical skill of old days, to which
the hydraulic system, no less than the architectural
monuments of the land, bears witness, is yet theirs,
though employed at the bidding and for the behests of
strano;ers. Instances are not wanting — how should
they be in a land where law is arbitrary, and
where public opinion has no general expression ? — of
Coptic accountants who have scandalously abused the
confidence placed in them to their own personal ad-
vantage ; but, on the whole, opportunity makes fewer
thieves among the Copts than might have been reason-
ably anticipated ; and, under its present regime of
mercantile swindlers and foreign adventurers, the
Egyptian Government may have room to regret the
traditions of former times, and the diligent service and
average fidelity of the Copts.
Commerce, that, at least, which involves distant
venture, and speculation in general, have no special
attraction for this race. Whatever wealth they may
liave, much or little, is not to be looked for among the
investments of a Suez Canal or of a Government loan.
That wealth, if not placed in local and immediate trade,
in a corn-store or a w.arehouse, is by preference con-
verted, whcrc^ ])ossil)le, into buildings and land. The
Copt is fond of building ; and when he can keep clear
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 219
of the wretched pseudo-French taste which has dis-
figured Egypt with huge uncomfortable card-paper
edifices, and palaces or pavilions more suited, if even
that, to the banks of the Seine than of the Nile, his
style of architecture is not only, like that of his an-
cestors, solid and enduring, but handsome, and appro-
priate to the climate and scenery. Skilful and delicate
stone-carving, patterns intricate, yet in harmony with
the main lines of the building, nicely-balanced vaultings
and galleries, graceful pillars, wonderful lattice-work,
and bright colours so used as best to carry out the
general effect, such is the genuine Egyptian archi-
tecture of our times, where applied to lesser or domestic
edifices. But in larger constructions, and especially in
some recently-built churches, the solidity and polish of
the granite columns, and the bold grandiosity, almost
grandeur, of the general outlines, heavier than the
Saracenic, yet not so heavy as the older Byzantine,
vindicate the descendants of the Luxor and Esneh
architects from the imputation of degeneracy.
We enter the house of Markos or Georgios ; we
are received in roomy apartments, well carpeted, and
adorned with candlesticks or miiTor-frames of massive
silver, and furniture curious in carving and inlay.
From the windows we look out under far-projecting
eaves, into the dense shade of green gardens, where
the waters of the Nile, infiltrated through the earth,
and drawn up by the creaking water-wheel, or
Na'oorah, run divided and subdivided into a thousand
channels, under the broad leafage of bananas, mag-
nolias, and a hundred other trees gay in flower and
copious in fruit, or between luxuriant sugar-cane and
the famed pot-herbs of Egypt, the regret and envy
of Palestine ; within, gaily-dressed servants, mostly
negroes, bring in jewelled coffee or sherbet cups on
220 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
huge silver trays ; the amber mouth-pieces of the long
pipes are ringed with diamonds ; and when the lady
of the house appears, her massive gold ornaments, the
pearls and diamonds on her head-dress, her ponderous
bracelets and anklets, all gold, compel the exclamation
ascribed, truly or not, to the great Prussian General on
his view of London from the top of St. Paul's : 'My
, what a plunder !' Though, by the way, the word
'plunder' in German has often the simple meaning
of a multitude of good things, quite apart from the
idea of their forcible appropriation ; and Blucher, who
was better at tactics than at vocabularies, may very
possibly have only used the English word m its Ger-
man sense, by a too literal translation of his thought.
So be it far from us also to regard with violent
covetousness the festive treasures of our Coptic hostess.
Let us, now that coffee and sherbets are disposed
of, enter into conversation with the master of the
house. We find that he takes little interest in Euro-
pean news and politics ; the very names of Gladstone
and Disraeli are possibly unknown to him, and those
of Alexander II. or Napoleon III. excite no sympathy :
in a word, he has small science of the West, and even
less disposition to share or follow its movements. But
if our own reciprocal ignorance permits us to enter on
such topics, we shall find him well instructed in the
history of his own country ; well read, too, in Arab and
Mahometan literature ; shrewd and far-sighted in his
views of what may best befit Egypt and her govern-
ment, her agriculture, irrigation, trade, and so forth ;
we shall find in him, too, a kindly and tolerant dis-
position, an easy-going view of life, a keen relisli for
its pleasures, and a singular love of music, dance, and
song. Tlis tastes, though more refined, are not in kind
\nilike those of liis <hisky and ]H'rliaps elder brother
VI.] EASTERN CHRISTIANS. 221
the negro. In fact, some ethnologists go about to
prove the Copts of Caucasian, Arian, or Turanian
descent ; they quote analogies, real or imagined, of
language ; measure the length and breadth of skulls ;
and discover conformities of jawbone or forehead. All
this may be ; but this much is certain, that a Copt is
to all intents and purposes, in thought, ways, manners,
and even, so far as we can learn from history, in his
mode of government, when he had one, and fashion of
religion, a whiter and more intelligent negro ; not,
indeed, after the type of the western coast, but that of
Darfoor, Kordofan, Sennar, and the east inland districts.
The very skull of the Darfooree and that of the Copt
have the same well-arched, rounded form ; and it is
possible that the Copts, no less than the great bulk of
the Arab nation, are not of Asian but African origin.
Still, African or Asian, the Copt is always a son of
Cleopatra, and a brother of the too fascinating Pleiads
of our own day, the seven songstresses of Kena ; and
on near acquaintance, we shall be shocked or gratified
to find that Christianity, wdiatever inner and invisible
effects it may, doubtless, have on his spu'itual being,
has left the physical and moral man remarkably un-
changed. We see a book lying on a corner of his
divan — he was reading it when we came in — we take
it up ; it is not a political pamphlet, as, a hundred to
one, it would have been under a Greek roof; nor is it
a French or English vocabulary, the probable subject
of Armenian study; nor is it a devotional translation
of Liguori, or the ' Sacr^ Coeur,' the frequent ornament
of a Maronite cushion ; no, it is an odd volume of the
' Thousand and One Nights,' or the mirthful tales of
the Eowdet-el-Abrar, or the chronicles of Makreezee,
or a collection of Arab love-poems. The paper lying
bv is no Gazette, it -is a series of accounts calculated
222 EASTERN CHRISTIANS. [vi.
to a length of figures that might puzzle Bidder ; or,
perhaps, it is a copy of some choice passage from
Hareeree. Did we find the Koran itself in company
we need hardly be surprised.
Yet the Copt is a devout, indeed a superstitious
Christian ; only his Christianity, however intense in
belief and copious in rite and symbol, does not greatly
interfere with the general tenor of his practical and
daily life, either for better or for worse. Nor are his
dark-turbaned priests likely to teach him much of
what we should term morality ; guileless of it them-
selves, why or how should they impart it to their
flocks 1 A ' Coptic marriage ' has passed into a proverb ;
enough to say, that certain obliging and temporary
family arrangements, said to prevail among the Abyssi-
nians, are certainly and avowedly current among their
fairer brethren and sisters of Egypt. It would be hard
to suppose that the clergy deny themselves the indul-
gences which they permit or encourage in the laity ;
and the multiple precautions which fence in the exacter
celibacy of the Patriarch himself seem to imply the
rareness of the virtue they ensure. The fact is, that
in all respects, dress and ecclesiastical ceremonies ex-
cepted, the clergy and the laity are much alike ; unless
that the former, condemned by the endless Ritual of
Dioscoros to pass nigh half their lives in the mechanical
and unmeaning repetition of words, and thus deprived
of leisure for the studies and pursuits that in some
degree form and instruct the mind of the latter, are
considerably the more ignorant of the two. Even the
Patriarch, when in his ordinary out-of-church dress, and
seated among his towai friends on an informal divan,
might, to the unforewarned eye or ear, easily pass ior
a respectable landowner or a Cairo tradesman. Nor
probably would his inner man, could we see it, ofter
VI.] EAiSTERN CHRISTIANS. 223
any very distinctive mark of superiority either intel-
lectual or religious.
But a darker stain than that of ignorance or common
laxity of morals rests on the monks of Upper Egypt,
who for centuries past have constituted themselves the
purveyors and even the makers of that half-sex which
guards and disgraces the harems of the East. Many of
the unfortunate slave-children, brought into the convent
for the purpose, die under the knife ; and the infamy
of the ascetic operator is aggravated by the guilt of
murder. However, in our own time a revival of
humanity, perhaps of shame, has rendered the employ-
ment of eunuchs much rarer than formerly in most parts
of the Turkish empire ; and thus allows a hope that
the failure of demand may finally induce the successors
of Anthony and Pachomius to abandon a traffic insuffi-
cient to their greed, if not adverse to their conscience.
From the above sketch our readers may conclude,
that although the Copts are gifted by nature with an
intellect fully up to, and in some respects above, the
average standard, education among them is desultory,
partial, and following rather the local and Arab than
any special track of its ov/n. The ancient Coptic
language is, indeed, still maintained in church rituals
and the like ; but though all among the clergy can read,
we have never yet found any one of them who could
imderstand the meaning of its characters. Coptic was,
however, tiJl within recent memory, spoken by the
peasantry in some towns of Upper Egypt, at Achmim
in particular ; but want of school instruction has allowed
this curious remnant of the past to fade away and ulti-
mately disappear altogether. French or English is
rarely studied in a Coptic school, a subject of regret,
considering how widely these languages are diffused or
diffusing among the other inhabitants of Egypt. Thus
224 EASTERN CHRISTIANS.
in the general race the Copts are left behind, for want
of acquirements so necessary that they are fast becoming
common among the surrounding tribes of the land ; and
the old masters of Egypt have neglected, and still con-
tinue, with few and faint exceptions, to neglect the
opportunity of re-asserting the empire of mind, siuce
every other form of empire has irrevocably passed away
from them. In a word, the Copts are non-progressive,
a position equivalent, wdiere all else advance, to retro-
gressive ; their qualities, good or bad, they have received
by inheritance of birth, and still retam ; but the talent
not put out to interest, and that waapped up in a
napkin, or hid in the earth, are much alike in useless-
ness ; and the fate of such is often to be wholly taken
away.
The census of Copts in Egypt and its neighbourhood
is variously given from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred thousand ; it certainly does not exceed the
latter sum.
And with this brief notice of an aged, nor wholly
unvenerable nation, we will conclude our present survey
of 'Eastern Christians;' and recommend our own
Western Christians to love their brethren at least
wisely, before they love them perhaps too well.
VII.
THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS.
[Published in Teaser's Magazine,' Februaey, 187 i.]
NOTICE.
A sketch of travel, in which I have endeavoured all along to give
prominence to the pleasing rather than the unpleasing, the comely
than the ungraceful. Here, as in the Fifth Essay, much that is topo-
graphical is superadded to personal delineation. Nor are the monks
themselves deprived of their due of human sjTupathy ; nor is acknow-
ledgment wanting of their hospitality and other mei'its. But the
reader may in conclusion not inaptly ask, ' If such be the best results
of orthodox Greek training, what are the average ones 1 what the
worse 1 '
' In concluding the history of this Greek State, we
enquire in vain for any benefit that it confeiTed on the
human race,' says Finlay, as he winds uj) the crime-
stained scroll of the Byzantine empire of Trebizond.
A severer sentence could hardly have been passed ; yet
none perhaps has been ever more thorouglily borne out
by facts and memorials, in annal or in monument. Ori-
ginated, to borrow the same able historian's phrase
once more, in accident, continued in meanness, and
extinguished in dishonour, the Comnenian dynasty has
left on the Pontic coast but few endurmg records, and
Q
226 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
those few unmistakeably stamped with the leading
characteristics of the empire itself. The straggling,
loose-built walls of the ill-constructed citadel of Trebi-
zond ; the dwarfish littleness and tasteless ornamenta-
tion of the over-vaunted church of St. Sophia ; the still
feebler proportions of the churches of St. Eugenius,
St. John, and others, now doing duty as mosques in
different quarters of the toAvn, belong to and attest the
type of those who reared them ; and their defects are
rendered but the more glaring by a servile attempt
to copy the great though ungraceful models of earlier
Byzantine date. If this be true, as, begging Fall-
mereyer's pardon, true it is, of the quondam capital,
what can we expect in the less important and outlying
points of the ephemeral empire, where the littleness
of art is still more disadvantageously contrasted with
the gigantic proportions of nature 1
Yet even here, among these relics of a debased age,
we occasionally come across some grand constiTictional
outline indicative of others than the Comnenes ; of
nobler races, or at least of superior organisation. Such
are the Cyclopean fragments at Kerasunt, the broken
columns of Kyrelee, and the solid though shattered
walls of * Eski-Trabezoon,' or ' Old Trebizond,' situated
some sixty miles east of the present town. With these
may rank the rock-built monasteries scattered through-
out the mountains that line the coast ; and which,
though bearing the traces of later modification and,
too often, defacement, are yet not unworthy relics of
the time when Chrysostom preached and Pulcheria
reigned. And of these is the monastery of the Virgin,
the Panagia of Sumelas.
High-perched among the upper ranges of the Kolat
mountain chain, south-east of Trebizond, from which it
is distant about thirty miles inland, Sumelas is the
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 227
pilgrim-bourne of innumerable ' Greeks,' to use a cus-
tomary misnomer for the mongrel population of Byzan-
tine, Slavonian, and Lazic origin that here professes the
' orthodox ' faith, who flock to the shrine of the Panagia
on the yearly recurrence of her great festival day, the
27th of August in our calendar, the 15th in theirs. At
other seasons her visitors are comparatively few ; indeed,
snow, rain, and mist render the convent almost in-
accessible for full eight months of the twelve ; nor
can the road be called easy travelHng at any time.
Hence the convent, in spite of its wide-spread nor un-
deserved reputation, is visited by Europeans seldom, by
the inert and uninformed Levantines hardly ever. For
us, however, Ovid's fellow-convicts in our Pontine
Sydney, a trip to Sumelas, so managed as to coincide
with one of the rare intervals of clear weather on this
murky coast, and yet avoid the crowd and other incon-
veniences of the festival epoch, was too desirable a
break in the sameness of Turko-Levantine life not to be
undertaken ; and a fine week towards the beginnmg of
August at last afforded the \vished-for opportunity.
So in the early dawn, while the waning moon yet
glittered above the morning star in a calm slaty sky,
we started, a band of five horsemen in all, two negro
servants included, bound for the celebrated * Mariamana/
as the convent is here popularly called ; and rode out
of Trebizond with the huge bare mass of Boze-Tepeh,
or the ' Brown Hill,' once Mount Mithrios, on our right,
and the black and brackish pool, entitled by geogra-
phical courtesy a sea, on our left. We followed the new
road, that, when Tiurkish engineers shall have learnt
the first rudiments of their art, is to render the route
between Trebizond and Erzeroom amenable to wheeled
carriages instead of the classic caravans that now, as
for centuries bygone, alone thread the double mountain
Q 2
228 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
pass. For at present the roughest waggon that ever
lumbered along: a Devonshire lane could not venture on
four miles of the Erzeroom track without an unpleasant
certainty of being either upset or jolted to shivers on
the way. To us, however, on the present occasion tliis
matters little, for Tm'kish horses are sure-footed as
Spanish mules ; so on we ride ; and after rounding the
great corner cliff that, jutting right out on the water's
edge, retains the classic-sounding name of Eleusa, we
enter on the sandy delta of the Pixartes river, now
degraded into the ' Deyermend-Dereh,' or ' Mdl-Course *
of Turkish nomenclature. Its valley, penetrating south-
west far into the mountains, has at all times served as
dii'ecting line to the great commercial track that, bend-
ing eastwards to Erzeroom, brings Koordistan and
Persia into communication with the basin of the Black
Sea and Constantinople. Up this valley we now turn,
and soon cross a huge barrier-ridge of rolled stones, the
joint work of sea and river in glacial times, when the
now shrunk torrent was full fed by vast tracts of snow
and ice in its parent mountains. And here I may add
parenthetically that over all the highland of imier
Anatolia, from the Lazistan coast range to the water-
shed of the Euphrates, I have met with numerous
traces of that cold Post-Pliocene epoch, such as furrowed
rocks, erratic boulders, rounded prominences, and huge
moraines, stretching far down into the plains from the
summits that even now, though long suice bared of
their icy caps by a milder climate, maintain patches
of snow all the year through.
Next we thread a pass of remarkable beauty, where
picturesque rocks jut out among thick brushwood, or
steep slopes, all grass and wild flowers, run high uj)
against tlie sky ; at times the gorge narrows into a
ravine, where black volcanic crags barely leave room
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 229
for the pathway along the right bank of the brawling
torrent ; while the old traffic-route, despairing of a
footing below, passes by the heights several hundred
feet overhead. The general type of scenery recalls
North Wales, or the Rothen-Thurm pass of the Carpa-
thian district. At last, just as the eastern sun bursts
in full Hght and heat over the fir-crowned mountain
tops on our left, we reach a point where the valley
expands into a wide marshy plain, thick-planted with
maize, while the roadside is lined with rows of Khstus,
or halting-places — long low sheds, with no accommoda-
tion to offer beyond shelter from the weather, and the
possibility of fire-lighting : some are in good repair ;
others in various stages of broken roof and crumbling
wall ; others mere traces. For in Khaiis, as in every
other kind of building. Eastern custom or superstition
forbids repair, and prefers to supplement the injuries of
time or accident by a new construction in toto alongside,
rather than attempt the restoration of the old one once
decayed. Hence, among other causes, the frequent
vestiges of deserted houses, mosques, and the like, that
cumber the lines of traffic everywhere in Eastern
Turkey, and convey to the traveller's mind the idea
of even more ruin and decay than is really the case ;
being in fact the symbols of transportation as often
as of desertion.
Little shops, mixed up with the Khsms, ofier eggs,
sour apples, coarse tobacco, cigarette paper, matches,
nuts, cheese, and such like articles of cheap consump-
tion to the caravan-drivers and other passers-by. All
around the hill-sides, here more moderate in their slope,
and patched with corn, maize, and tobacco, are studded
with rubble-built cottages, each one at a neighbourly
distance from the other ; these, taken collectively, form
the village of ' Khosh-Oghlan,' or the ' Pleasing-Boy.'
230 TUB MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
Such is the name ; thouerh who was the individual
boy, and in what respect he made himself so particu-
larly agreeable, w^ere vain now to enquire. It is the
first stage of the inland journey ; so, obedient to the
usage of which our attendants have not failed with
a broad African grm to remind us, we alight at one
of the booths for a cup of coffee, over-roasted and over-
boiled as all Turkish coffee is, yet refreshing ; and then
go on our way. Seven or eight miles more lead us
still up the same ' Deyermend ' valley, past some pretty
Swiss-like wooden bridges, and many fine points of
mountain view, past the straggling hamlet of ' Yeseer-
Oghlou,' or the ' Son of the Prisoner ' — a Prisoner and
a Son now no less forgotten by history and tradition
than the ' Pleasing-Boy ' before mentioned — where, not
long since, two Frenchmen, hacked and slashed, paid
with their life-blood the penalty of the meddlesome
hectoring usual to their tribe among strangers ; till we
reach the high stone-arched bridge called of ' Matu-
rajik,' and, crossing by it to the other side of the
valley, climb aloft above the torrent as it forces its
way through huge clusters of columnar basalt, piled up
tier over tier of rusty brown ; then descend to the
little plain known, as are also the many scattered
houses that jot the green or brown mountain sides
all round, by the title of ' Jevezlik,' or the ' Place of
Walnut-trees : ' these last stand before us, green and
spreading by the water's edge. Here again the road
runs the gauntlet between shops and AVians, for we
have now done eighteen miles, the ordinary day's march
of a caravan from Trebizond. Besides, Jevezlik is a
place of some note, partly as the residence now of a
district sub-governor, formerly of a dreaded ' Dereh-
Bey,' or 'Lord of the Valley' — a euphemism for Lord
of Bobberies — but more so from its central position,
vii.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 231
which renders it the meeting-point of three great
tracks, and -which would in classic Italy have insured
its dedication to ' Diana Trivia : ' the winter road to
Erzeroom ; the summer ditto ; and the road of Sumelas
or Mariamana. Of these routes, the first follows the
main valley south-west up to where it culminates in
the far-off snow-flecked summits of Ziganah ; the
second, or summer road, scrambles rather than climbs
due south across the dreary heights of ' Kara-Kapan,'
or 'Black-Covering,' so called, I conjecture, from its
almost perpetual veil of cloud and mist, whence —
but it must have been on an unusually clear day — Mr.
Layard, if memory serves me right, makes Xenophon
and his Greeks shout their OaXarra^ OdXarra ; the third
path, that which leads to Sumelas, goes off south-east
by a side gorge that here falls into the Deyermend
valley. The sun is now high and hot ; so we halt
for a noon-tide bait in the spare room of a rickety
Turkish coffee-house overhanging the torrent ; receive
the visits of some land-farmers, conservative and dis-
contented as farmers are by prescriptive right all the
world over ; feast on brown bread and eggs fried in
grease, vice anything else, unattainable in this corner
of the gorgeous East ; and would fain have crowned
our midday rest with a nap on the floor, had not the
immemorial fleas of Asia IMinor pronounced their
absolute veto on any such proceeding.
Well ; Sumelas, not Jevezlik, is our goal. So, noon
over, we remount and turn south-east, following over
rock and grass the rise of the noble moimtain cleft,
hemmed in here and there by great basaltic masses,
suddenly protruding through the limestone rocks of
an older formation. Next to the cape of Hieros, or
Yoros, with its fan-spread columns, the basalt pillars
of Melas are the grandest — I have never visited either
232 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
Skye or the Giant's Causeway — that it has been my
fortune to witness anywhere. Next we cross the
fierce but now diminutive torrent on a covered wooden
bridge that might have been imported from Zug or
Luzem ; and begin the final Sumelas ascent.
It follows for several miles the upward course of
a deep and precipitous ravine, where huge rocks and
cliffs, many hundred feet in height, are interspersed
among or overhang forests of walnut, oak, beech,
and pine, that might do honour to the backwoods of
America themselves. Under the shade, now of the
branching trees, now of the wall-like crags, winds the
path, bordered by a dense fringe of laurel, dwarf fir,
azalea, rhododendron, and countless other tangled
shrubs; it is kept in fairly good order, propped up
by stone counterforts, and protected by trenches and
dykes against the descending watercourses, by the care
of the monks, whose convent we are now approaching.
On either side and in front glimpses of bare and lonely
heights, herbless granite, and jagged ridges far up in
the blue sky, show that we have penetrated far into
the Kolat-Dagh, the great Anatolian coast chain, that
even here averages ten thousand feet in elevation, and
ultimately out-tops the Caucasus, its northern rival
and parallel. At last a turn of the way brings us
half-round at the foot of a monstrous rock that has
for a long while barred our dh'ect view along the
ravine in front ; and there, suspended like a bird's-nest
in air far overhead, we see rejoicingly the white walls
of the convent, the object of our journey.
One last corkscrew ascent of almost Matterhorn steep-
ness brings us up through the dense forest that some-
how manages to cling to and girdle the cliff half-way;
till, just on the edge of the leafy belt, we reach the
narrow ledge, almost imperce2)tible from below, on
VII. J THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 233
which the convent is niched rather than built. Two-
thirds in length of this ledge are occupied every inch,
from precipice above to precipice below, by the mo-
nastic buildings ; the remaining third partly forms a
kind of landing-place, where visitors may wait admit-
tance within the claustral precincts, partly is occupied
by large stables and outhouses for horses and cattle.
From this shelf sixty-six stone steps, of recent con-
struction, conduct to a little iron-bound door in the
convent wall, conveniently commanded by some grated
windows above. Till within the last few years a long
wooden ladder, let down as circumstances required,
then drawn up again within, afforded the sole and
occasional link between the monastery and the outer
world ; while sinister arrivals might, if they tried
entrance by other means of their own, receive fiom
the flanking windows a warmer welcome than they
expected or desired.
Our coming has already been witnessed by the
monks ; and as we slowly climb the steps, the iron
door ahead half opens for a moment, in sign of re-
cognition, then closes again, while consultation goes on
within as to our admittance. After a short interval
the portal reopens, and displays an old monk, in the
dirty blue dress and black head-gear of his order,
that of St. Basil — I may as well remark here that
the orthodox Greek Cliurch recognises this one order
only ; a silent protest against the more modern multi-
plicity of Latin discipline — standing in the entry, while
other brethren group behind him in the dim perspective
of the narrow vaulted passage. Glancing at us, he
notices the dagger and silver-mounted pistol of our
principal negro attendant, and requests him to consign
these ornaments to monastic keeping before crossing
the thieshold. To this preliminary ceremony the Dar-
234 TUE MONASTERY OF SUM EL AS. [vii.
fooree objects ; nor does the argument that such is the
rule of St. Basil, with which the Sultan himself, were
he present in person, must, under penalty of non-admit-
tance, comply, produce any effect on African obstinacy.
So, armed as he is, he turns back to look after the
horses ; while the monks obligingly assure us that
neither animals nor groom shall want for anything
during our stay here.
We enter the passage. The ' Economos ' or Ac-
countant of the monastery, an elderly man, long-
bearded and long- vested, at his side a stout, jovial,
gray-haired, red-cheeked old monk, apparently verging
on the seventies, but hale and active, our destined
' bear-leader,' and several other brethren, all blue-
dressed, bearded, and dirty, came forward to greet
us ; and conduct us up and down by a labyrinth of
little corridors, ruinous flights of stairs, dingy cells,
and unsavoury well-like courtyards, all squeezed up
close between the rock on one side and the precipice
on the other ; till, having thus traversed the ' old
buildings,' which form an irregular parallelogram about
two hundred feet in length by forty in breadth, we
emerge on a little flagged space, neater kept than the
rest ; and find ourselves in presence of the famous
shrine of the Panagia herself.
The body of the church, a cavern natural in its
origin, but probably enlarged by art, is hollowed out
in the rock, which here faces due east. The sanctuary,
which, in accordance with the prescription of ecclesias-
tical tradition, also points eastwards, is here represented
by a small construction, double staged, about fourteen
feet in total height, and sixteen in length ; its general
appearance from without brings to mind the conven-
tional ark of Biblical pictures and children's toy-shops.
It projects at right angles from the stone wall with
vii.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 235
which the entrance of the cavern all round it has been
closed ; and, like that wall, is covered with the most
appalling specimens of modern Greek mural painting ;
impossible saints with plate-like halos ; crowded days
of judgment where naked but sexless souls are being-
dragged by diabolical hooks into the jaws of a huge
dragon, which is hell ; Scriptural scenes from the
stories of Moses, Elijah, &c., where large heads, no
perspective, and a stiffness unrivalled by any board
are the chief artistic recommendations ; red, yellow, and
brown the favourite colours ; the whole delicately
touched up with the names of innumerable pilgrims,
mostly terminating in * aki' or ' ides,' scratched, with
no respect of persons, across saints, souls, demons, and
deities alike. The entrance door is close alongside
of the sanctuary ; and three square grated windows
admit the light above. The roofing of the sanctuary
is sheet copper, thick encrusted with dirt ; so thick,
indeed, as to enable the monks to assure you, without
too violent a contradiction of your own ocular evidence,
that it is not copper, but silver ; the costly gift — so
continue the same chroniclers — of the famous Sultan
Murad IV. himself ; who, when on liis way from Con-
stantmople to Bagdad to fight the Persians, seems to
have led his army — Heaven only knows how or why — -
across the Kolat mountains, and to have encamped,
horse, foot, and artillery, on the goat's perch of the
ravine here opposite. That Sumelas Hes hundreds of
miles away from the route which the said Sultan really
took, and that Hannibal or Napoleon I. himself would
have been puzzled to drag the smallest field-piece
among these precipices, are considerations which matter
nothing in legend. Accordingly, so continues the tale,
when the ferocious Murad first turned his bloodshot
eyes on the convent, he enquired of his Begs and
236 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
Pashas what that buildmg miglit be ; and, on their
answer that it was the abode of Christian monks, gave
immediate orders to his artillerymen to batter it down.
But, lo ! no sooner were the cannon pointed at the
consecrated edifice than they spun round self-moved,
and began firing among the Sultans own troops.
Hereon Imperial amazement and further enquiiy; met
by the information that all this was the doing of
the miraculous Virgin, the Panagia, who, or whose
picture — for in popular orthodox as in Eoman devotion
the distinction between the symbol and the original is
inappreciable to any but a controversialist — tenanted
the monastery. Murad, deeply impressed, and no
wonder, by the miracle and its explanation, at once
abandoned his destructive intentions, did due honour
to the Panagia and her ministers, and amongst other
offerings presented the silver roof in question — only
he never did anything of the sort, and it is really
copper.
Looking up, we now perceive that the rock above,
which here overhangs sanctuary and court in an almost
threatening manner, suj^ports in one of its darkest re-
•cesses a little Byzantine picture, the Theotokos, of
•course. Dingy and faded, till at first sight hardly
•discernible from the damp stone against which it rests,
this ])ainting occupies the exact spot — we have the
monks' word for it — where in the fifth century some
goatherds discovered the original Panagia, the work
of St. Luke, here placed by angelic agency seemingly
•in order to keep it out of the way. Now, however,
it is deposited for more convenient veneration in the
sanctuary below, where we will visit it a little later;
but the copy has itself, like iron near a magnet,
acquired a good share of useful efficacy by juxtapo-
sition. From the rocky brow above, in front of the
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SVMELAS. 237
picture, fall Avitliout ceasing tiroes of water, which to
tlie eyes of faith are always three at a time, neither
more nor less ; but for all I looked I could not detect
any special numerical system in their fall ; these drops
carefully collected in a little cistern below possess
miraculous virtues equal to any recorded of the same
element in the veracious pages of Monseigneur Gaume.
While we have been thus gazing and listening, the
four church bells, hung outside in a pretty little open
belfry of four light columns and graceful arching — the
work and its costs having been alike furnished by the
devotion of a wealthy Russian pilgrim — have been
ringing a very hospitable though untuneable peal in
honoiu' of our arrival ; and the monks invite us to
enter the sanctuary without further delay. But it is
near sunset ; and the monotonous chanting of the
priests inside warns us that vespers are even now
going on, and the church full of worshippers. Un-
willing to disturb the congregation, we defer our visit ;
and, adding that we are somewhat tired by our day's
journey, we are conducted by our hosts across the court-
yard, and up a neat stone staircase to our evening
quarters, namely, the chief apartment in the ' new
buildings.'
These, completed only three years since, rise seven
stages in total height, vaults included, from the preci-
pice below to the beetling crag above ; the front faces
east ; and its white-painted masonry, its four tiers of
large square windows, and its handsome open gallery-
supported on slender stone pillarets that run along the
whole length of the topmost story, are what first
attract the admiration of the traveller as he reaches
the opposite point of the ravine. The edifice is eight
rooms in length and only one in thickness throughout ;
but the great solidity of the stone work, and the
238 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
shelter of the hollow rock in which it nestles, neutralise
the danger of over-height. From foundation to roof
a narrow space, protected from the weather by the
wide eaves above, is left between the building and the
crag behind ; and here winds an ingenious zigzag of
galleries and staircases, all stone, that afford entrance
to the several chambers of each story. Beneath, and
partly hollowed out in the living rock, are cellars and
store-caverns to which the monks alone have access ;
besides a large reservoir of excellent water, filled from
the oozings of the inner mountain. The entire work,
whether considered in itself or in the difficulties of
scaffolding and construction, where not a spare inch is
left of the narrow shelf on which the building stands,
balanced as it were hundreds of feet in mid-air, is one
of no small skill ; and its well-considered proportion of
wall, window, and gallery, with the just adaptation of
every part to the practical exigencies of domestic use,
claim high constructive praise, and evince a degree of
good taste not always to be found among the house-
architects of Western Europe. Yet the builders of
' Mariamana ' were from no European, not even from
the Constantinopolitan school ; they were mere in-
digenous stone-cutters, * Greek ' the most, from the
adjoining villages of Koroom, Mejid, and Stavros.
We stroll along the top-story corridor, the openings
of which are guarded by high iron raihngs, and look
across the dizzy depths below, whence rises the cease-
less roar of the Melas torrent, and beyond the dense
masses of beech and pine that cluster on the ravine
side opposite, to the lonely peaks of Kolat^Dagh,
seemingly close in front, and rose-tinted with the last
rays of the setting sun. Soon the evening air blows
cool ; at this elevation — 4, 1 00 feet above the sea, as
my aneroid informs me — the night temperature is
vii] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 239
rarely such as to detain one long out of doors. Five
months of the year on an average the convent snow
lies unmelted, and for five more of the remaining seven
mist and rain are the rule, not the exceptions. The
very cats of the establishment, large, tame, and well
fed, bear witness by their long fur and bushy fox-like
tails to the general coldness of the atmosphere in which
they live. Still the site is healthy, and in proof of
this an old centenarian monk presents liimself to
view hale and hearty among his comrades, who, to
judge by appearances, are mostly themselves in a fair
way to rival his longevity. But besides, absence of
care, and indeed of brain-work in general, has doubtless
something to do with this prolonged and vigorous
vitality. Nor have they many privations to endure,
except what the numerous fasts and abstinences of
their antique ritual impose ; the convent is wealthy
to a degree that might have long since moved the
greed of any but a Turkish Grovernment, while the
monks in residence are not over numerous — fifteen, in-
deed, is their average. However, besides its regular
inmates, this convent contains also several members of
distant monasteries from different parts of Anatolia,
Eoumelia, and even Syria, sent hither to a quiet re-
treat, or mitigated prison, or both, thus to expiate
some past breach of discipline, or to prevent some
menaced scandal. Lastly, a large number of the
monks — though how many my grizzled informant could
not, or perhaps would not, say — are scattered on longer
or shorter leave of absence without the walls, in quest
of the temporal welfare of the community, or super-
intending the numerous farms belonging to it, some
by purchase, more by legacy. For in the Orthodox,
no less than in the Latin Church, the passports of the
rich to a better world are seldom countersigned 'gratis.'
240 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
As a natural consequence, the fields and havings of the
Sumelas Panagia lie thick scattered along the entire
South Euxine coast from Trebizond to Constantinople,
and bring in revenues sufficient for a moderate-sized
duchy. Nor is all this wealth consumed in selfish in-
dulgence, or hoarded up by miserly precaution. While
the monks still, as before, content themselves with the
narrow and cranky buildings of the origmal convent,
the handsome and commodious lodgings of newer con-
struction, the cost of which cannot have fallen short
of 4,oooZ. at least, are freely abandoned to the eight
thousand pilgrims or guests who, on a rough calcu-
lation, pass from twenty-four hours to fifteen days,
some more, some less, within these walls, free of board
as of shelter. Nor should we forget the neat pathway,
solidly constructed and sedulously repaired by the sole
care and cost of the monks, along many difficult miles
of mountain ravme, which else would be not only
dangerous but almost inaccessible ; a path, thanks to
the self-taught workmen of Mariamana, now safe, and
even, comparatively speaking, commodious — qualities
estimable in roads and creditable to the road-makers
anywhere ; most creditable, because most rare, in Ana-
tolia.
Escorted by oiu' hosts we re-enter our night's lodging.
The large and handsome room — neat still, because new
— is garnished with divans, carpets, and a supple-
mentary stove for cold weather in the centre ; over the
fireplace hangs conspicuously a photographic print of
Russian manufactiu'e, representing an apocryphal act
of Cretan heroism, wherein a priest is enacting, torch
in hand, an imitation of ' Old Minotti's ' suicidal exploit
in Byron's Siege of Corinth. Perhaps it is meant as
a hint on occasion for the ' Economos ' of Sumelas : if
so, let us hope that he will be slow to take it. The
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 241
period of strict abstinence, which among the ' orthodox'
precedes the great festival of the Virgin, has already
commenced ; and as the hour for supper draws on, we
own to a horrible anticipation of finding ourselves in-
cluded among the eaters of olives and unseasoned
vegetables — poor restoratives after a long day's ride.
But such treatment of their guests forms no part of
our hospitable entertainers' programme. Soup, flesh,
fowl, eggs, caviare, butter, and so forth, soon cover the
table ; and the wine, produce of conventual vineyards,
is good enough to show how excellent a liquor might
be afforded by the AnatoHan grape under more skilful
culture. Coffee and tea follow, and when time comes
to rest we recline on well-stuffed mattresses beneath
quilted coverings of silk, embroidered with gold and
silver thread, not unworthy of the state-bed of Eliza-
beth at Kenilworth, or of James at Hatfield.
Next morning we pay our promised visit to the
church, and entering by the narrow door at the angle
of the sanctuary, fhid ourselves in a cavern about forty
feet in length and breadth, scarcely sixteen in height,
lighted up by the three east wmdows in the outer wall.
Sides and roof are decorated with paintings in the
style already described, where to disjoin art from de-
votion, and to throw ridicule on both, seems the aim ;
damp and incense-smoke have, however, charitably
done much to cover the multitude of pictorial sins.
Within the church are many other objects worthier of
observation, and some even of real interest. At the
entrance of the sanctuary hang, one over the other,
two small silk curtains, richly worked ; which being
withdrawn disclose to our view the identical Panagia,
the likeness (Heaven forfend it!) of the Virgin by
St. Luke — of equal merit in all respects, natural and
supernatural, as of equal antiquity, it would seem, and
R
242 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
certainly of equal authenticity, with the Madonna of
Santa Maria Maggiore at Eonie. A Llackish outline,
chiefly defined by the gold-leaf ground that limits head
and shoulders, indicates the figure. Close beside it
hang, obliquely from the ceiling, like masts in slings,
two huge wax tapers, Avrapped in some material, costly,
but now indistinguishable through its dingy encrust-
ments ; these form part of the praeter -historical peace-
offering of Sultan Murad IV., mentioned further back.
Near the tapers is also suspended an enormous circular
chandelier of silver gilt, with a quantity of little ex-
votos, silver boats, gold filagree ornaments, coins, and
the like, dangling from its rim : this too^ if we credit
the monks, is the memorial of the repentance of an-
other Sultan, Selim II. — on what occasion shall be
related in its place. Meanwhile we deposit the offering
that courtesy requires in the all-receiving platter before
the Panagia ; and are next called on to revere the
special object of devout pilgrimage, a small silver
rocking-cradle, of pretty but not ancient workman-
ship, consecrated to the goddess of the shrine. Into
this cradle a piece of money (the more precious the
metal, the greater its efficacy) is to be laid ; after
which the pilgrim, having thrice raised and lowered
the toy and its contents on the palm of his or her
hand, before the unveiled Panagia, deposits it on the
plate of offerings. Shoidd the cradle when thus set
down continue to rock, the happy votary will infallibly
become before long a father or a mother, as the case
may be ; its immobility, on the contrary, is a sad but
conclusive presage of married sterility. Now barren-
ness is at the present day no less an opprobrium in
the East than it was in the age of Hannah and
Phenimiah ; and its prevention or cure is the motive
of far the greater number of })ilgrimages to Maria-
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 243
inana ; even newly-married Mahometans, not to mention
Armenians, Latins, and other unorthodox Christians of
either sex, prove by tlieir frequent visits to the cradle
of Sunielas how catehing a thing is superstition. The
residue of the pilgrims are mostly petitioners for the
recovery of a sick child, or relative, or self, and for
them also the cradle obligingly extends the subject-
matter of its oracles. The origin of this particular
observance probably does not go back further than
Comnenian times ; though the monks refer it, like the
foundation of the convent itself, to the fifth century.
Passing rapidly over the inspection of a copious
store of ecclesiastical vestments and gewgaws, that
might call forth the raptures of a ritualist or a paw^n-
broker, we come in front of a small wooden cabinet,
placed in a recess of the cavern, and carefully locked.
This the monks now open, and draw forth from its
nook the famous Golden Bull of Alexios III., Emperor
of Trebizond, who in 1365 confirmed by this document
the privileges and exemptions of the Sumelas convent
and its possessions; and, amongst other precious tokens
of Imperial liberality, bestowed on them the right of
defending themselves as best they could against the
Turkoman inroads, which the sham empire was unable
to check, even at but a day's distance from the capital.
At the head of the ' Bull,' a long narrow strip of rolled
paper, appear the portraits of Alexios and his wife, the
Empress Theodora, holding between them on their
joined hands a small model church, much as ecclesi-
astical donors love to appear in Western monuments of
a corresponding age : the characters of the waiting are
large and fine drawn ; the Imperial autograph, in huge
red ink letters, sprawls below ; but the gold seals once
appended have long since disappeared from the foot
of the scroll. The most remarkable feature in this
R 2
244 THE MONASTERY OF SUM EL AS. [vii.
memorial of later Byzantine times (published at full
length by Fallmereyer in 1843) is the inflated ver-
bosity of the style ; a verbosity subsequently adopted
with many other vices of the degraded empire by the
victorious Ottomans.
Of more real importance, though inferior in anti-
quity, is the paper next unrolled before our eyes,
namely, the firman of the Sultan Selim II., also con-
firmatory, but this time to good purpose, of all the
old monastic rights, privileges, and exemptions. It is
remarkable that in this document the handwriting
conforms to the stiff and old-fashioned Naskhee of
Arab origin, instead of the elegant semi-Persian Di-
vanee of later official use. The quotations from the
Koran that garnish it from first to last exemplify a
tone frequently adopted by the Osmanlee rulers in
their day of power. Certainly no mii'acle is needed
to account for the concession of this favour, one in
entire accordance with Turkish and even -vvdth Ma-
hometan usage everywhere. The Sumelas monks have,
however, a legend ready to hand, and thus it runs :
Once on a time Sultan Selim came on a hunting-jDarty
to this neighbourhood, and while pursuing liis chase
up the Melas ravine beheld for the first time the great
monastery. To become aware of its existence and
resolve its destruction were one and the same thing in
the mind of the tyrant. But before he could so much
as form his guilty thought into words of command,
he was stricken with paralysis, and laid up a help-
less sufferer in a village close by. There he might have
remained to the end of his wicked life, had not the
Panagia graciously appeared to him in a vision, and
suggested the expiation of his crime and the simul-
taneous recovery of liis health by means of the docu-
ment in question, further accompanied by the douceur
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 245
of the great circular chandelier that we have already
seen suspended before tlie sanctuary ; and, to borrow
Smith the weaver's logic, the firman and the chandelier
are both alive at this day to testify the prodigy :
' therefore deny it not.' Anyhow, the firman of Selim
II. proved a more efficacious protection to the mon-
astery and its land than the ' Bull' issued by the
Comnenian emperor ; and its repeated renewals by
succeeding Sultans, from Selim II. to Abd-el-Mejeed,
form a comj)lete and not uninstructive series in the
Mariamana archives, to which we refer the denouncers
of Turkish intolerance and Islamitic oppression.
Here were also many other curious documents and
manuscripts laid up, say the monks; but a fire which
some yea,rs since consumed a part of the convent, and
pilfering archseological pilgrims, are assigned as the
causes of their disappearance. A Greek Testament,
supposed to be of great antiquity, was shown us ; but
the paper on which it is written, and the form of the
characters, bring its date down to the fourteenth or
thirteenth century at earliest.
We go the round of what else remains for notice in
the cavern : a fine carved readmg-desk, eagle-supported,
for the lessons of the day ; three or four more Panagias,
all miraculous ; more church plate ; a painted screen,
and the like ; but these objects have no exceptional
interest, and we soon find ourselves again in the
dazzling sunlight of the paved court outside. Next
w^e roam about the 'old buildings,' timber the most,
with huge overhanging eaves, and something of a S\\ass
cottage appearance. But nowhere does any inscription,
carving, or the like indicate date or circumstance of
construction, nor has any diary or ' log-book' of events
ever been kept within these walls. The memories of
the monks, mere uneducated peasants they, form the
24G THE MONASTERY OF SUMS LAS. [vii.
only chronicle ; and memory, like other mental faculties,
has but a narrow range when deadened by the same-
ness of a life that unites agricultural with conventual
monotony. Little is here known of the past, and that
little is uncertain in epoch and apocryphal in detail,
if not in substance. Nor has the establishment ever
undergone what, had it taken place, would have been
of all other thinofs a sio'n-mark in its annals — the
profanation of the spoiler. Roving bands, Koorde or
Tiu-koman, have indeed been often tempted by the
report of hoarded treasures to prowl about the woods
of Sumelas, and have cast wistful eyes at the Panagia's
rock-perched eyrie ; but the naiTow path that winds up
the precipice is available only at the good-will and
permission of the convent inhabitants themselves ; and
from all other sides, around, above, the birds that flap
their wings against the sheer crag of a thousand feet
and more could alone find access to Mariamana ; while
a blockade, if attempted, would be mdefinitely baffled
by the capacious store-rooms and cisterns of tlie fabric.
From the Ottoman Government itself the monks, like
most of their kind in other parts of the empire, have
experienced nothing but protection, or, better still, non-
interference ; and the freedom of their hos})itality, while
it does credit to the convent, bears also good witness
to its inviolate security. This hospitality is indeed
proportioned in some degree to the rank and social
position of visitors or pilgrims, but no one is wholly
excluded from it, nor is any direct recompense exacted
or received from rich or poor, ' Greek' or stranger. Of
course the shrine gets its offerings — small ones, as a
rule, from Greeks; larger from Russians and Georgians ;
most munificent in any case when prayers are believiHl
to have been heard. The birth or convalescence of a
child contributes to the wealth no loss than to the
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 247
fame of the Panagia. But payment for board and
lodging is unknown, however numerous the guests, and
however long their stay. Indeed, so scrupulous are
the monks regarding the gratuitousness of their wel-
come, that when, after having deposited our offerings
in the church, we wished before leaving the convent,
some hours later, to make an additional and more
general donation, it was at first absolutely refused, and
was at last only accepted under the assurance that it
had been originally meant for the sanctuary, where its
presentation at the foot of some shrine or other had
been, said we, unintentionally omitted.
Yet hospitality is after all a virtue that has no
necessary connection either with present civilisation
or with future progress ; one that to fail in is a re-
proach, but to possess no very high praise. Besides,
it is, with comparatively rare exceptions, a quality too
common in the East for special commendation ; Koordes,
Turkomans, Arabs, Armenians and the rest are all
hospitable after their kind, some profusely so. What
particular merit then shall we assign to the monks of
Sumelas to justify the existence of a not inconsiderable
number of men, and of widely extended demesnes,
withdrawn from the natural current of life, and the
' ringing "grooves ' of the onward world % Learning
these monks certainly neither store up in themselves,
nor encourage in others ; of moral science and teaching
they are wholly ignorant ; in agiicultural industry they
do not exceed the average or tend to improve the
practice ; from a religious point of view they represent
and aid to maintain one of the grossest compounds of
fable, bigotry, and superstition that has ever disgraced
the inventors. Individually benevolent, hospitable, in-
dustrious even, they belong to a system essentially
narrow, retrograde, odious. If this be the ' Cross' of
248 THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. [vii.
the East, what advantage has it over the ' Crescent 1 '
And is it from night like this we are to look for the
dawn of a better dav in the regions of the Levant ?
If there is little to commend in the Turkish Govern-
ment symbolised by the Mosque at Trebizond, was the
rule of Alexios III., the feeble and ostentatious patron
of Sumelas, a whit better \ nay, was it not the more
sterile, the more corrupt, the more worthless of the
two '? Whatever may be the handwriting on the wall
of the Ottoman palace, the ' Tekel' of ' Greek' rule and
' Greek' mind is unmistakably inscribed on the memorials
of the Byzantine past ; nor do the wonder-working
pictures and rocking cradles of Mariamana tend to
reverse, rather they deepen and confirm the sentence.
It is now mid-day ; and before we redescend into
the valley, thence to attempt some sketch of the
picturesque building from the opposite side, we stand
a few minutes in the gallery, and take a last look at
the lovely scene before us, now bathed in the silent
splendour of a southern noon. Far aloft stretch the
bare snow-streaked heights where passes the summer
track to Beybooit and Erzeroom ; below the dense
tree-tops are pierced here and there by fantastic rock
pinnacles, splinters detached centuries ago from the
precipice on either side ; ten of these grey islets in
the leafy depth are crowned by as many little white
chapels ; they also belong to the Mariamana jurisdic-
tion, and in each of them, when the appropriate
anniversary comes round, the festival of its peculiar
saint, Eugenius, John, or some one else of the ten
spiritual guardians of Trebizond, is duly celebrated by
the Basilian monks of Sumelas. Far beneath rushes
and foams the Alpine torrent, the waters of which we
have thus traced backwards from their marshy exit at
Trebizond almost to their fountain-liead.
VII.] THE MONASTERY OF SUMELAS. 249
The monks with undiminished hospitahty press us
to stay ; and when we insist on the necessity of setting
out, lest night should overtake us before regaining
Jevezlik, are warm in their farewell. ' You will make
your English friends acquainted with us and our con-
vent,' says, with an accent of request, the old monk
who has been our chief attendant ; we promise ; and
thus we keep our word.
VIII.
THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION.
' Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.'
(Published in the 'Cornhill,' September, 1867.)
NOTICE.
The events recorded in this Essay had some degree of publicity at
the time, and were considerably distorted and misrepresented in
European periodicals. Circumstances rendered me, shoi'tly after, a
resident in Abkhasia itself, and thus gave me special facilities for in-
vestigation of what had happened. In the facts here narrated, we
have a fair sample of one of those many outpost struggles, in which
Christian Kussia has been pitted against semi-barbarous Caucasian
Islam; the ultimate result has been much the same in every instance.
It may interest the reader to know, that in the following year between
twenty and thirty thousand of the Mahometan remnant in the "West
Caucasus provinces emigi-ated into Turkey, and settled there, thus
making the loss of Russia the gain of her neighbour.
' So'ouK-Soo,' or ' Cool Waters,' is one of the love-
liest spots in the lovely province of Abkhasia. Lying
only a few miles inland from the eastern Black Sea
shore, and on the first rise of the wooded Caucasus, a
day's ride north of the town and harbour of Soukhoum-
Kale, it was from old times a favourite summer residence
of the chiefs of Abkhasia ; their winter was more often
Tllli: ABKUASIAN INSURRECTION. 251
passed at Drand or Otchemchiri, further down the
coast.
But in addition to its natural beauty and residential
importance, this locality has acquired a special title to
almost European interest since August, 1866, when it
became the scene and starting-point of an outbreak
— disguised in distorted newspaper accounts under
fictions of brigandage, slave-driving, and the like, but
which was in fact nothing else than an Eastern re-enact-
ment of events familiar, since 1830, to Warsaw and the
Western Provinces of the Eussian Empire.
During the month of November, 1866, while the me-
mories of the Abkhasian insurrection were still recent,
and the lingering autumn of the Caucasus yet permitted
horse- travelling (for in winter these mountains become
totally impassable), we — that is, myself with a Ming-
relian servant and guide — arrived at So'ouk-Soo, after
a ten hours' ride from Soukhoum-Kale, through bush
and forest, stream and mire. Eoads are luxuries often
announced in programme, sometimes talked of, but
never seen in these provinces. It was already dark
when, after much clambering and slipping, we found
ourselves on a sort of plateau, entangled in a labyrinth
of hedges, where scattered lights glimmered among the
brushwood, and dogs barkmg in all directions gave us
to know that we had reached So'ouk-Soo. Like most
other Abkhasian villages, its houses are neither ranged
in streets nor grouped in blocks, but scattered as at ran-
dom, each in a separate enclosure. The houses them-
selves are one-storied and of wood, sometimes mere huts
of wattle and clay ; the enclosures are of cut stakes,
planted and interwoven latticewise ; the spaces between
these hedgerows serve for the passage of countless
goats and oxen that pass the night within their master's
precincts, and go out to pasture during the day. Old
252 THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. [viu.
forest-trees, fresh underwood, bramble, and grass grow
everywhere, regardless of the houses, which are often in
a manner lost among them ; one is at times right in the
middle of a village before one has even an idea of having
approached it.
After much hallooing and much answering in sibi-
lants and gutturals, — really the Abkhasian alphabet
seems to contain nothing else, — we prevailed on some
peasants to get up and guide us through the darkness
to the house of the ' Natchalnick,' or Governor of the
district. Here we passed the remainder of the night
with his Excellency, a Georgian by birth, and, like
every one else of these ilks, who is not of serfish origin,
a prince by title, but now an officer in the Russian army,
into which the * natives,' fond as negroes of gay dress
and glitter, are readily attracted by lace and epaulettes.
Many of the ' princes' of the land — elsewhere chiefs or
sheykhs at most — have, on this motive, with the addi-
tional hope of a decoration, assumed the badges of
Kussian military sei'vice, wherein they easily obtain
subordinate posts ; and there aid as spies or as tools
in disarming the constantly reciu'ring discontent of
their countrymen, till some day or other their own
personal discontent breaks out, and then the tool, no
longer serviceable, is broken and thrown aside, to be
replaced, where wanted, by another.
Early next morning, while the dew glittered on the
rank grass, and the bright sun shone slant through the
yet leafy trees, we rode, accompanied by the ' Natchal-
nick' and his whole suite of Georgians and Mingrelians
in Cossack dress, to visit the ' Mcidan' of So'ouk-Soo,
where the first shot of insurrection had been fired
four months before.
A ' Meidan,' or ' open ground,' is — all know who
have visited the East — the necessary adjunct of every
VIII.] THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. 253
town or village honoured by a chieftain's residence. It
serves for town-hall, for park, for parade-ground, for
scene of all public gathering, display, business, or
amusement. On it is invariably situated the chief's or
governor's abode ; a mosque, if the land be Mahometan,
a church, if Christian, is never wanting ; the main
street or artery of the locality terminates here. Lastly,
it is seldom devoid of a few large trees, the shade
of loiterers.
The Meidan of So'ouk-Soo offers all these character-
istic features, but offers them after a manner indicating
the events it has witnessed, and the causes or conse-
quences of those events. It is an open book, legibly
written by the Nemesis of history, 'the measiu-e for
measure,' the reciprocated revenges of national follies
and national crimes.
' Which living waves where thou didst cease to live/
says Byron, contrasting the quiet prolonged existence of
great nature with the short and turbulent period of
human life. Much the same feeling comes over one at
So'ouk-Soo. The green grassy plot dotted with noble
trees — beech, elm, and oak ; around, the swelling
uplands, between which the ' cool waters' of the torrent
— whence the name of the place — rush sparkling dow^i
to the blue sea ; beyond, the huge Caucasian mountain-
chain, here seen in all its central magnificence of dark
forest below and white fantastic peaks above, in un-
earthly wildness of outline beyond the dreams of the
most enthusiastic pre-Eaphaehte landscape-painter ;
above, the ever-varying sky ; around, the fresh hill-
breeze : the chiefs of Abkhasia could not have found in
all their domains a fairer, a more life-giving place for
their residence. But another story is told by the traces
of a ruined mosque on one side of the Meidan, and near
it some neglected tombs bearing on the carved posts —
254 THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. [viii.
which here replace monumental stones — the Mahometan
symbolic turban. Close by are four wooden crosses,
sunk and awry, freshly planted in the still loose mould
of as many recent graves. Next, the blackened walls
and empty windows of a large burnt house surrounded
by a broken stone- wall. Further on, a second fire-ruin,
amid the trees and shrubs of a yet thickly-growing
garden. Opposite, on the other side of the Meidan,
and alone intact and entire, as though triumphing over
the ruin it has in no small measure caused, stands a
church — a small building of the semi- Byzantine style
usual in Russian and Georgian ecclesiastical architecture
hereabouts. Close by is a large house, symmetrically
built, with a porch of Greek marble and other signs of
former display. But all within has been gutted and
burnt : the long range of stone windows opens into
emptiness, the roof has fallen in, and the marble columns
are stained and split with fire. Here, too, in the same
strange contrast of life and death, a beautiful garden,
where the mixture of cypress and roses, of flowering
trees and deep leafy shrubbery, betokens Turkish taste,
forms a sideground and a background to the chsmantled
dwelling. Some elms and a few Cossack-tenanted huts
complete the outer circle of the Meidan.
Each one of these objects has a history, each one
is a foot-print in the march of the Caucasian Nemesis,
each one a record of her triumph and of her justice.
The ruined mosque and turban-crowned tomb-posts
recall the time when Mahometanism and submission
to the great centre of orthodox Islam, Constantinople,
was the official condition of Abkhasia. This jmssed
into liussian rule and Cliristian lordship ; and the
Nemesis of this phase is marked by the wooden crosses
under which lie the mutilated corpses of Colonel Cognard,
Russian Governor-General of Abkluxsia, of Ismailoff,
VIII.] THE ABKIIASIAN INSURRECTION. 255
Russian ' Natclialnick ' of So'ouk-Soo, of Cheripoff, the
Tiflis Commissioner, and of Colonel Cognard's aide-de-
camp : they perished in the outbreak of August. The
large burnt house close by was the abode of Alexander
Shervashiji, brother of the last native chief of Abkhasia.
Less than half a century since the family bartered
national independence and Islam against Eussian popes
and epaulettes. Their Nemesis has come too. In this
very house Cognard and his suite were slaughtered.
The ruin close by was once the residence of the ill-
famed ' Natchalnick ' IsmailofF; it recalls the special
vengeance of licentious tyranny — how, we shall see
afterwards. The church, alone yet intact, is of old
date and of Georgian construction — once abandoned,
then revived and repaired by the regenade Shervashijis,
its Nemesis is now in its lonely silence. The ruin of
hewn stone, Turkish in style, was the palace of Michael
Shervashiji, the last native-born ruler of the province.
Russian in uniform, Abkhasian at heart, true to his
own interests, false to those of others, he constructed
this palace on his return from a visit to the west : it
inaugurated the beginning of a late return to the old
Ottoman alliance ; but with the general fate of return
movements — especially when undertaken after their
time — it inaugurated also his own ruin and that of his
nation. The Cossack and Abkhasian huts further on
were yet tenanted in November last : they are now
empty.
We alighted, visited these strange memorials one by
one, heard the story of each, remounted our horses,
galloped up and down the spiingy turf of the Meidan,
and then plunged into the deep wooded ravine north-
east, and left the scene of inconstancy, violence, and
blood, on our way to the districts of Bzibb and northern
Abkhasia.
256 THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. [viii.
But our readers must halt a little longer on the
Meidan if they desire to understand the full import
of the tragedy of which we have just seen the stage
decorations.
Of the early history of the Abkhazian race little is
known, and httle was probably to be known. More
than two thousand years since we find them, in Greek
records, inhabiting the narrow strip between the moun-
tains and the sea, along the central eastern coast of the
Euxine, precisely where later records and the maps of
our own day place them. But whence these seeming
autochthons arrived, what was the cradle of their infant
race, to which of the great ' earth-families,' in German
phrase, this little tribe, the highest number of which
can never have much exceeded a hundred thousand,
belonged, are questions on which the past and the
present are alike silent. Tall stature, fair complexion,
light eyes, auburn hair, and a great love for active and
athletic sport, might seem to assign them a Northern
origin ; but an Oriental regularity of feature, and a
language which, though it bears no discoverable affinity
to any known dialect, has yet the Semitic post-fixes,
and in guttural richness distances the purest Arabic
or Hebrew, would appear to claim for them a different
relationship. Their character, too, brave, enterprising,
and commercial in its way, has yet very generally a
certain mixture of childish cunning, and a total defi-
ciency of organising power, that cement of nations,
which removes them from European and even from
Turkish resemblance, while it recalls the so-called
Semitic of south-western Asia. But no tradition on
their part lays claim to the solution of their mystery,
and records are wanting among a people who have
never committed their vocal sounds to writing ; they
know that they are Abkhasians, and nothing more.
VIII.] THE ABKH ASIAN INSURRECTION. 257
Pagans, like all early nations, they received a slight
whitewash of Christianity at times from the Byzantine
Empire ; at times from their Georgian neighbours ; till
at last the downfall of Trebizond and the extension
of the Ottoman power on their frontier by sea and by
land rendered them what they have still mostly re-
mained, Mahometans. Divided from time immemorial
into five main tribes, each with its clannish subdivisions,
the un-euphonic names of which we pass over out of
sheer compassion to printers and readers, they first, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century, received a
common master in the person of Tahmuras-khan, a
Persian by birth, native of Sherwan, whence the family
name of Sherwajee, modified into Shervashiji, but claim-
ing descent from the ancient kings of Iran. Having in
the year 1625 lent considerable aid to the Turks in
their interminable contest with the Persians for the
mastery of Georgia, he was by them confirmed ui the
government of Abkhasia ; his residence was at Souk-
houm, whence for a while his descendants, still known
among the Turks by the by-name of ' Kizil-Bash,'
synonymous with ' Persian,' ruled the entire province.
But when somewhat later Soukhoum became the abode
of an Ottoman Pasha, the Shervashijis transferred their
quarters to So'ouk-Soo, which henceforth became in a
manner the capital of Abkhasia.
The treaty of Adrianople, in 1829, handed over the
Western Caucasian coast to Russian rule ; and the
ruling Shervashiji (Hamood Beg), then in the prime
of life, showed himself a devoted worshipper of the
rising, — if not sun, — Aurora Borealis of Petersburg.
Quitting his ancestral religion and name, he was bap-
tized into Russian Christianity under the title of
Michael Beg, received a high rank in the Russian army,
and, head and hand, did the work of his new masters.
s
258 THE ABKIIASIAN INSURRECTION. [viir.
For all the long years that the Circassian struggle
lasted, through the months wasted by Omar Pasha
in Mingrelia, and during all the squandered and lost
opportunity — squandered in 1855, lost in 1856 — of
restoring and of securing the freedom of the Caucasus,
perhaps of all Central Asia, from the yoke to which
more and more necks must daily bow, Michael Sher-
vashiji was by turns the main implement of Russian
diplomacy in disuniting Western Caucasus from the
common cause, and the military executioner to whom
was entrusted the subdual, and even extermination, of
his more patriotic neighbours. With the short-sighted
acuteness common among Easterns he saw only his own
present advantage, and took no heed that while helping
to destroy his petty though hereditary rivals he was, in
the Russian point of view, cutting away the last props
of his own rule. Meanwhile his every request was
granted, every privilege confirmed. Russian garrisons
were indeed at Soukhoum-Kale, at Gagri, at other
stations of the coast ; but inland Michael Shervashiji
was sole lord and master, and not even a Russian officer
could venture a 'werst' up the interior without his
permission and escort.
All this was very well for a time ; Shamyl was still
un conquered, and Michael Shervashiji was too valuable
an ally for the Russians not to be humoured — Shake-
speare might have said ' fooled ' — to the top of his bent,
even at some temporary sacrifice of Russian uniformiza-
tion and monopoly. But at last the circle of hunters
narrowed round the momitain deer at bay in the heights
of Gunib, and eyes less keen than Michael's could fore-
see near at hand the moment when the last independence
of the Caucasus would have ceased to be. Tua res
agitur paries cum proximus ardet^ can be thought in
Abkhasian no less than expressed in Latin ; and Michael
VIII.] THE A BK II ASIAN INSURRECTION. 259
grew uneasy at the prospect of a boundless horizon of
Russian friends. His health suddenly but opportunely
failed, a change of air, — of water, Eastern M.D.'s would
say, — became necessary ; a journey to Europe was
recommended ; a passport was taken, rather than
granted ; and the great Shervashiji, like many other
princes, went to try the waters.
That the said waters should in a few months have
restored his health was quite natural ; it was, however,
somewhat singular that they should at the same time
have had an Osmanlizing effect on his own constitution.
Some say they were the waters of the Bosporus that
acted on him thus ; others attribute it to a reaction
produced by the waters of the Volga, which, in a visit
to Moscow, he drank near their source about this very
time. Certainly on his return strange and anti-Muscovite
symptoms appeared. His new residence at So ouk-Soo,
the ancestral seat of his independence, rose on a Turkish
model ; his manners, his speech, grew less Russian. It
was noticed, too, that on entering church he no longer
uncovered his head, a decided hint, said the Russians,
that church and mosque were for him on much the
same footing. Perhaps the Russians were not far
wrong.
Then came 1864, the great Circassian emigi^ation —
i.e. the expulsion of well nigh a milhon of starving and
plundered wretches from their country, for the crime
of having defended that country against strangers —
was accomplished ; in Eastern phrase, the Abkhasian
' back was cut,' and now came their turn to receive the
recompense of their fidelity to Russia and their infi-
delity to their native Caucasus. The first and main
tool of Tiflis had been Michael Shervashiji ; he was
accordingly the first to receive his stipend.
Too late aware what that stipend was likely to be,
s 2
260 THE ABKUASIAN INSURRECTION. [viii.
he had retired into an out-of-the-way country residence
some hours to the interior, behind Otchemchiri. Here,
in November, 1864, the Russian 'pay-day' found him,
in the shape of a detachment of soldiers sent by his
Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael to invite
and escort him to the viceregal presence at Tiflis.
Whether thinking that resistance would only make
matters worse, or reckoning on the deceptive chances
of what is called ' an appeal to generosity,' the Beg at
once gave himself up to the troops. By them he was
forthwith conducted, not to Tiflis, but to the coast,
where lay the ship appointed to convey liim to Kertch,
whence began his destined journey to Bussia and
Siberia. A traitor, he met a traitor's recompense, and
that, as was most fitting, at the hands of those in whose
behalf his life had been for thirty-five years one pro-
longed treason to his country. Yet that country wept
him at his departure — he was their bom prince, after
all, and no stranger — and they wept him still more
when the news of his death — the ready consequence- of
exile at an advanced age into the uncongenial Siberian
chmate and Siberian treatment, but by popular rumour
attributed to Bussian poison — reached them in the
spring of 1866. His corpse was brought back to his
native mountains, and he was buried amid the tears
and wailings of his Abkhasian subjects.
They had, indeed, already other cause for their wail-
ings. Hardly had their last prince ceased to live, than
measures were taken by the viceregal Government
for the nominal demarcation, tlie real confiscation, of
the lands of the Abkhasian nobility ; while the peasants,
for their part, found the little finger of Bussian incor-
porization heavier than all the loins of all the Sher-
vashijis. Bussian custom-houses formed a cordon along
the coast ; Bussian Cossacks and Natchaliiicks were
VIII.] THE ABKUASIAN INSURRECTION: 261
posted everywhere up the country; the whole province
was placed under Russian law and military administra-
tion ; Abkhasian rights, Abkhasian customs and prece-
dents were henceforth aboHshed. More still, their
religion, the great supplement of nationality in the
East — because in its Eastern form it embodies whatever
makes a nation, its political and social, its public and
private being — was now menaced. Russian chrono-
logists discovered that the Abkhasians had once been
Christians, whence the Tiflis Government drew the self-
evident conclusion that they had no right to be at
present Mahometans. An orthodox bishop or arch-
bishop, I forget which, of Abkhasia, appeared on the
scene, and the work, or rather the attempt at prose-
lytism was diligently pushed forward by enticement
and intimidation under hierarchical auspices. Lastly,
a census of the population, — a process which ever since
David numbered the children of Israel and brought on
them the plague in consequence, has been in ill-odour
in the East, — was ordered.
Of the Shervashiji family many remained. Michael's
own brother, Alexander, still resided, though without au-
thority, at So'ouk-Soo ; George, Michael's eldest son, now
a Russian officer, and the Grand Duke's aide-de-camp,
had returned from Petersburg, where no amount of cham-
pagne and cards had been spared to make liim a genuine
Russian ; epaulettes and aigrettes would, it was to be
hoped, retain him such. But bred in the bone will not
out of the flesh, and he was still a Shervashiji, nor had
he forgotten the rights of heir-apparent. Another and
a powerful branch of the same family, the relatives of
Said Beg Shervashiji of Kelasoor, a Mahometan, and
who had died poisoned, it was said, by his Christian
kinsman and rival, Michael, were also in the country,
and seemed inclined to forget family quarrels in the
262 THE ADKHASIAN INSURRECTION. [viii.
common cause. Besides these were two other * houses'
of special note, the Marshians and the Ma'ans. The
former had, like the Shervashijis, been in general sub-
servient to Russia — some had even apostatized from
Islam ; but their chief, Shereem Beg a Mahometan, had
married Michael Shervashiji's sister, and state marriages
in the East are productive of other results than mere
non-interventions and children. The other family, the
Ma'ans, staunch Islam, had for some time previous
broken off Russian connection : one of them, Mustapha
Agha, had even taken service in tlie Ottoman army.
Their head, Hasan Ma'an, had quitted his Abkhasian
abode at Bambora, half way between Soukhoum and
So'ouk-Soo, for the Turkish territory of Trebizond,
where he lived within call, but without grasp.
Discontent was general and leaders were not wanting ;
yet just and judicious measures on the part of the
Russians might have smoothed all down ; but their
Nemesis and that of Abkhasia had decreed that such
measures should not be taken — the exact reverse.
In the month of July, 1866, a commission headed by
the civilian Cheripoff had come from Tiflis to comj)leto
the survey and estimate of the lands, those of the Sher-
vashijis in particular. This commiission had taken up
its head-quarters at So'ouk-Soo along witli tlie local
military Governor, Ismailoff, and a body of Cossacks
about two hundred strong. Some of these last were
stationed at the coast village of Gouda'outa, a few miles
distant. To So'ouk-Soo now flocked all the discontented
chiefs, and of course their followers ; for no Abkhasian
noble can stir a foot out of doors without a 'tail' of at
least thirty, each with his long slender-stocked gun, his
goat-hair cloak, his pointed luuid-drcss, and, for the rest,
a knife at his girdle, and more tears than cloth in his
tight grey trousers and large ciU'tritlgc-breasted coat.
VIII.] THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. 263
Some mezzotints in Hughes' Albanian Travels, old
edition, two volumes quarto, where Suliotes, Albanians,
and the like are to be seen clambering over rocks, gun
on shoulder, in the evident intention of shooting some-
body, give a tolerable idea of these fellows, only they
are more ragged than the heroes of the said mezzotints,
also less ferocious. The commission lodged in the
houses about the Meidan ; the Abkhasians — for it was
summer — camped on the Meidan itself, filling it with
guns and gutturals.
Much parleying took place. The Abkhasians were
higlily excited — why, we have already seen ; the Eus-
sians, not yet aware with whom they had to deal, were
insolent and overbearing, The fire of contest was, una-
vowedly but certainly, fanned by many of the Abkhasian
chiefs, not unwilling to venture all where they saw that
if they ventured nothing they must lose all. Alexander
Shervashiji was there in his own house on the Meidan;
his nephew George had arrived from Tiflis : the Kussian
decorations on his breast lay over a heart no less anti-
Russian than his uncle's and his fathers — so at least
said the Russians : perhaps it suited them to incrimi-
nate the last influential representatives of the Sher-
vashijifamily. There too were many of the Marshians :
was Shereem Beg amongst them 1 Some said, some
denied, ' Se non h vero e ben trovato,' was the Russian
conclusion. But more active than any, more avowedly
at the head of what now daily approached nearer to
revolt, were the two Ma' an brothers, Mustapha and
Temshook — the former lately returned from Turkey —
both men of some talent and of much daring.
Meanwhile news of all this was brought to Colonel
Cognard, the Russian Governor -General of Abkhasia,
and then resident at Soukhoum-Kale. A violent,
imperious man, full of contempt for all * natives,' and
264 THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. [vin.
like many of foreign origin, more Russian than the
Russians themselves, he imagined that his presence at
So'ouk-Soo would at once suffice to quell the rising
storm and awe the discontented into submission. Ac-
cordingly, on the first week of August, he arrived on
the scene, and lodged in the great house of Alexander
Shervashiji — whither, in consequence, the whole atten-
tion of either party, Russian and Abkhasian, was now
directed.
Throughout the whole of this affair, it is curious
to observe how the Russians, men of no great sensi-
bility themselves, ignored the sensibilities of others,
and seemed to think that whatever the injury, what-
ever the wrong, inflicted by a Russian Government, it
ought to arouse in its victims no other feeling than
resignation at most. Here in Abkhasia the hereditary
ruler of the country had, after life-long services, in time
of profound tranquillity, with nothing proved or even
distinctly charged against him, been suddenly dragged
into exile and premature death ; his family, those of
all the Abkhasian nobility, had been deprived of their
rights, and threatened with the deprivation of their
property ; ancestral customs, law, religion, national ex-
istence, — for even Abkhasians lay claim to all these, —
had been brought to the verge of Russian absorption into
not-being; and all the while Cognard with his friends
could not imagine the existence of any Abkhasian dis-
content that would not at once be appeased, be changed
into enthusiastic, into Pan-slavistic loyalty, by the
appearance of that ' deiis ex machiud,' a Russian
Governor-General. Vide Warsaw 2^<'(^sim.
Nemesis willed it otherwise. Coirnard's demeanour
was brutal, his every word an insult. The nobles
presented their griefs; he refused to recognize them
as nobles. The peasants clamoured ; lie informed
VIII.] THE ABKHASIAN INSURRECTION. 2G5
them that they were not Abkhasians but Russians. In
vain Alexander Shervashiji and the Marshians, sensible
and moderate men the most, expostulated and repre-
sented that the moment was not one for additional
irritation ; Cognard was deaf to expostulation and
advice ; his fate was on him. It did not delay. On
the 8th of August a deputation composed of the
principal Abkhasian nobility laid before him a sort
of Oriental ultimatum in the form of an address ; the
Russian Governor -General answered it by kicking
address and nobles out of doors. It was noon : a
cry of vengeance and slaughter arose from the armed
multitude on the Meidan.
The assault began on the Cossacks stationed about
the house ; they were no less unprepared than their
masters, and could offer but little resistance. Already
the first shots had been fired and blood had flowed
when Cognard sent out George Shervashiji to appease
ihose who should by right have been his subjects —
whose rebellion was, in fact, for his own father's sake.
That he never returned is certain. By his own account,
which was confirmed on most hands, he did his best
to quiet the insurgents, but unsuccessfully. They
forced him aside, said he, and detained him at a
distance while the outbreak went on. The Evissians
ascribed to him direct participation in what followed ;
the reasons for such imputation are palpable, the fact
itself improbable.
In a few minutes the Cossacks before the gate
were overpowered and slaughtered ; the Abkhasians
burst into the house. Its owner, Alexander Shervashiji,
met them on the inner threshold, and implored them
to respect the sanctity of their chief's hearth. But
that moment had gone by, and the old man was laid
hold of by his countrymen and led away — respectfully
26G THE ABKUASIAN INSURRECTION. [mil
indeed, but in a manner to preclude resistance — wliile
the massacre begun without doors continued within.
Whatever was Eussian perished : the luckless Com-
missioner from Tiflis first ; Cognard s aide-de-camp and
his immediate suite were cut down ; but the main
search of the insurgents was after Cognard himself.
A Russian picture, largely copied and circulated, repre-
sents him seated composedly in his chair, unblenched in
feature, unmoved in limb, confronting his assailants.
Pity that so artistic a group should have existed only
in the artist's own imagination. The Colonel had
not, indeed, made good his retreat, but he had done
his best thereto by creeping up the large fireplace,
of Abkhasian fashion, in the principal room. Unfor-
tunately for him his boots protruded downwards into
the open space ; and by these the insurgents seized
him, dragged him out to the mid apartment, and there
despatched him. His colleague, Ismailoff, had a worse
fate. Specially obnoxious to the inhabitants of So ouk-
Soo for the impudence of his profligacy, he was first
mutilated and then hewn piecemeal, limb by limb.
It is said that the dogs were already eating morsels
of his flesh before life had left his body. Such atrocities
are not uncommon in the East where female honour
is concerned, rare else. At So'ouk-Soo, Ismailoff was
the only instance.
All was now in the hands of the insurgents, who sacked
and burnt the houses of Eussian tenants, killing all
they found. Only twenty Cossacks escaped, and these
owed their lives to the humane exertions of the wife
of Alexander Shervashiji, who gave them refuge in her
own apartments, and kept them there safe till the
massacre was over. A few Georgians and Mingrelians,
a Pole too, though wearing the Russian unifonn, were
also spared. ' You are not Russians, our quarrel is
VIII.] THE ABKU ASIAN INSURRECTION. 267
not with you/ said the Abkhasians, as they took the
mens arms, and sent them off uninjured to Soukhoum.
On the same afternoon the insurgents attacked the
nearest Russian post, that of the Cossacks stationed
on coast-guard at Gouda'outa. Here, too, the assailants
were successful, the Russians were killed to a man, and
their abode was burnt. The Nemesis of Abkhasia had
completed another stage of her work.
' To Soukhoum ' was now the cry ; and the whole
mass of armed men, now about three thousand in
number, were in movement southwards along the coast,
through thickets and by-paths, to the Russian strong-
hold. Next morning, from two to three hundred had
already crossed the Gumista, a broad mountain torrent
north of Soukhoum, and were before, or rather behind
the town.
A small crescent of low one-storied houses, mostly
wood, Soukhoum-Kale lies at the bottom of a deep bay
with a southerly aspect. At its western extremity is
the Old Fort, ascribed to the Genovese, but more
probably of Turkish date, whence Soukhoum derives
the adjunct of ' Kela'at,' or 'Castle' (Kale is erroneous,
but we will retain it for custom's sake), a square
building, with thick walls of rough masonry and a
few flanking bastions ; witliin is room for a mustered
regiment or more. From the town crescent some
straight lines, indications of roads, run perpendicularly
back across the plashy ground for about a quarter
of a mile to the mountains ; along these lines are
ranged other small wooden houses, mostly tenanted
by Russian ofiicers. The garrison-camp, situated on
the most unhealthy site of this unhealthy marsh, lies
east. Behind is a table-land, whereon in August last
there still stood the barracks of a Russian outpost,
a hospital, a pu])lic vapour-bath, and a few houses.
268 THE ABKU ASIAN INSURRECTION. [viii.
The coast strip is low and swampy, a nest of more
fevers than there are men to catch them ; the moun-
tains behind, thickly wooded and fern-clad between
the trees, are fairly healtliy.
At the moment of the first Abkhasian onset, the 9th
of August, three Russian vessels — a transport, a cor-
vette, and a schooner, all three belonging to the long-
shore fleet of Nicolaiefi" — were lying in the harbour.
But the number of men in the camp was small, falling
under a thousand, and of these not above one-half were
fit for duty.
Had the Abkhasians been able at once to bring their
whole force to bear on Soukhoum-Kale, town and fort
would probably have alike fallen into their hands. At
the first approach of the enemy, the Russian garrison
had abandoned the plateau and all the upper part of
the town, confining themselves to the defensive in the
lines along the shore, where they were in a measure
covered by the fire of the ships, and in the Fort itself.
Meanwhile all the 'mixed multitude' of Soukhoum —
small Greek and Armenian shop-keepers, Mingrelian
and Georgian camp-followers, a few Jews and the like
— had fled for refuge, some into the Fort, some on
])oard the vessels in the harbour. But their best auxi-
liary on this occasion was a violent rain-storm, which
at this very moment burst over the mountains, and in
a few hours so swelled the Gumista torrent that the
main body of Abkliasians mustered behind it were for
the whole of the ensuing day unable to cross over to
the help of tlieir comrades, the assailants of Soukhoum.
These last had already occupied the plateau, burnt
whatever was on it, and, descending into the plain,
plundered and set fire to the dwellings of several
Russian officers close l)elow. They then advanced some
WHy down the central street, ostentatiously called the
VIII.] THE ABKIIASTAN INSURRECTION. 2G9
' Boulevard ' in honour of some little trees planted along
it. But here they were checked by the fire of the
Russian vessels, and by the few troops whom their
officers could persuade to remain without the fort in
the lower part of the town.
Two days, two anxious days, matters remained on
this footing. But news had been despatched to Poti,
and on the third morning arrived a battalion from that
place, just as the main body of the Abkhasians, headed
by the two sons of Hasan Ma'an, Mustapha and Terns-
hook, crossed the now diminished Gumista and entered
Soukhoum.
Fighting now began in good earnest. The numbers
on either side were pretty fairly matched, but the
Abkhasians, though inferior in arms, were superior in
courage ; and it required all the exertions of a Polish
colonel and of two Greek officers to keep the Russian
soldiers from even then abandoning the open ground.
However, next morning brought the Russians fresh
reinforcements ; and being by this time fully double
the force of their ill-armed, undisciplined enemy, they
ventured on becoming assailants in their turn. By the
end of the fifth day the insurgents had dispersed amid
the woods. The Russian loss at Soukhoum-Kale was
reckoned at sixty or seventy men, that of the Abkhasians
at somewhat less ; but as they carried their dead and
wounded away with them, the exact number has never
been known. During the short period of their armed
presence at Soukhoum they had killed no one except in
fair fight, burnt or plundered no houses except Russian,
committed no outrage, injured no neutral. Only the
Botanical Garden, a pretty copse of exotic trees, the
creation of Prince Woronzoff, and on this occasion the
scene of some hard fighting, was much wasted, and a
Polish chapel was burnt. Public rumour ascribed both
270 THE ABKUASIAN INSURRECTION.
these acts of needless destruction, the first probably,
the latter certainly, to the Russian soldiery themselves.
The rest of the story is soon told. Accompanied by
a large body of troops, the Eussian Governor-General of
the Western Caucasus went to So'ouk-Soo. He met
vv^ith no resistance. Cognard and his fellow-victims
were buried — we have seen their graves — and the house
of Alexander Shervashiji, that in which Cognard had
perished, with the palace of the Prmce Michael, was
gutted and burnt by a late act of Russian vindictive-
ness. The Nemesis of Abkhasia added these further
trophies to her triumph at So ouk-Soo.
Thus it was in November last. A few more months
have passed, and that triumph is already comj)lete.
After entire submission, and granted pardon, the rem-
nant of the old Abkhasian nation — first their chiefs and
then the people — have at last, in time of full peace and
quiet, been driven from the mountains and coast where
Greek, Roman, Persian, and Turkish domination had
left them unmolested for more than two thousand years,
to seek under the more tolerant rule of the Ottoman
Sultan a freedom which Russia often claims ^vithout
her own limits, always denies within them. The Meidan
of So'ouk-Soo is now empty. Russians and Abkhasians,
Shervashijis and Cossacks, native and foreigner, have
alike disappeared, and nothing remains but the fast
crumbling memorials of a sad history of national folly
rewarded by oppression, oppression by violence, violence
by desolation.
TX.
THE POET 'OMAR
[POBLISHED IN ' FrASER's MaGAZINE,' ApRIL, 1871.]
NOTICE.
This Essay, as well as the following, or Tenth, is here inserted in
order to illustrate the Arab mind and character taken wholly, or in
great measure, apart from the reaction produced by the Mahometan
system which originated amidst them. No code or religion can be
correctly estimated without a knowledge of the life and thought of
which it was an outgi'owth or development ; later ages retain the
letter, but the spirit and meaning are only to be gathered from the
contemporaiy surroundings of its first origin. In the life and writings
of the poet 'Omar, we see the civilization and refinement, in those of
the brigand Ta'abbet-Shurran and his companions, the barbarous
energy by both of which Islam was cradled, and to which the Book
owed much of its inspiration, and the Sword of its conquests.
The princes of Benoo-Omeyyah, who during ninety-
four years (a.d. 661-755) ruled from their throne at
Damascus over the already immense extent of the
Mohammedan world, enjoyed a title to sovereignty
peculiarly their own ; one denied to all Caliphs and
Sultans of later date ; whether the orthodox monarchs
of Bagdad and Constantinople, or the schismatical
Imams of Cairo or Teheran ; that, namely, of being
governors genuinely and unreservedly co-national with
272 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
the main body of* those they governed, not in descent
only, but also in character, manners, and system.
Even the four elective Caliphs, Mohammed's im-
mediate successors, though themselves essentially Arab,
were yet too much cramped, 'Alee in particular, by
excessive zeal and righteousness overmuch, to be a
faithful expression of the real national type. Deeply
imbued though Arabs are, more so indeed than the
generality of men, with reverence for the eternal law
that, as one of our own poets has unconsciously ren-
dered an e very-day Arab phrase, ' On every side our
being rings,' few people are less inclined than they to
multiply complicated observances, and to make of
religion and its ceremonies the staple of practical life.
Hence it came that Aboo-Bekr, 'Omar, 'Othman, and
'Alee, however congenial, the first three at any rate,
to the special phase of mind through which their
countrymen were then passing, which was in fact the
inflammatory oi* fever stage of Islamitic inoculation,
were yet even then, in common parlance, almost too
much for them : 'Alee was so decidedly. Indeed, before
the initial half-century was over, the Kharajee or free-
thinking reaction of avowed infidelity and license had
already set in ; and the dagger of Ebn-Muljem did
but give effect to the general desire of freedom from
a yoke which for some years past the Arabs had felt
and declared that neither they nor their children were
able to bear.
But in the splendid, jovial, adventure-loving, devil-
may-care sons of Omeyyah, ' very heathens in the
carnal part,' however sad, good Mohammedans at heart
they may have been, and indeed unquestionably were,
the Arabs had not merely their own flesh and blood,
but, what was much more, their own heart and soul,
^o reign over them ; and it was accordingly during the
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 273
period of their supremacy that the Arab ' geist,' to
plagiarise the convenient German word, breathed freest
and obtained its fullest expansion. Hence we may not
inaptly, before approaching the Damascene Court itself,
and the principal figures that gave it splendour and
importance, take a general survey of the social con-
ditions around in town or country, as illustrated by
those individual sketches of which the records of the
age furnish us with abundant choice.
The almost pre-historic winter, the early and the
mid-spring of Arab civilisation had already passed
away ; it was now summer, the time of brightest
bloom and of most abundant vigour. Simple in their
innate restlessness, and restless in their innate sim-
plicity, as Arabs still were, the young manhood of
the nation imparted itself to every individual, and
heightened the aims of life, while giving them at the
same time a depth and a breadth unknown before.
War, counsel, eloquence ; these had always formed the
triple excellence that Arabia claimed for her sons as
their noblest praise ; and it was now, under the star
of Benoo-Omeyyah, that she fully realised her own
ideal, and gave simultaneous birth to her greatest
warriors, her most skilful statesmen, and her choicest
poets. The change which had come over the spirit
of these last is in itself a remarkable illustration of
profoundly modified social conditions throughout the
entire peninsula.
Poverty of means, isolation of circumstance, and
insecurity of life, had, during the long ante-Islamitic
period, cramped the energy, narrowed the ideas, and
marred the taste of almost all, indeed in some degree of
all Arab poets. The circle they moved in was rough,
barren, and contracted ; their genius dwarfed itself
into proportion with the limits which it could not
274 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
overpass. The high rank and noble birth of the
pre-Islamitic 'Amroo-ben-Kelthoom and 'Amroo-1-Keys
had not exempted them from ever-recurring personal
dangers and privations on the road and in the
field ; while the vigorous spirit of Shanfara', Ta'abbet-
Shurran, and their Hke, was distorted by the physical
misery and the savage loneliness to which their
writings bear such fiequent witness. All this had
now passed away. Union had given security, con-
quest riches ; while intercourse and Islam had de-
veloped the intellect of the nation. Two entirely new
classes of society henceforth came into existence — the
men of pleasure, and the men of literature : the former
heirs of a wealth they cared rather to enjoy than
to increase ; the latter seekers after wealth, fame, and
name, but by intellectual, not by physical distinction.
Love and song tissued the career of the former ; poetiy
and eloquence, but chiefly poetry, were the business
of the latter. Meanwhile a select few, the spoilt
children of destiny, the Mirandolas or Byrons of their
land and day, combined the advantages of birth and
fortune with those of genius. Foremost among these
stands the nobleman, the warrior, the libertine, but
above all the poet — the Don Juan of Mecca, the
Ovid of Arabia and the East — 'Omar the Mogheeree,
the grandson of Aboo-Eabee'ah.
He, by universal award, placed on the head of his
kinship, the great Koreysh clan, the only garland that
had heretofore been wanting there. In every respect
but one, Koreysh had long occupied the first place, not
in the Hejaz only, but throughout the whole extent
of the Arabian Empire. The elevation of their tribes-
men, the sons of Omeyyah, to the Caliphate, had added
the temporal supremacy to the spiritual leadership
already bequeathed to them in another branch of their
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 275
family by the great Prophet : KhaHd, the sword of
Islam, 'Amroo, the conqueror and legislator of Egypt,
and Moosa, the terror of Spain, had each in his turn
contributed to the common heirloom of glory ; and
from the frontiers of India to the sea of Cadiz their
will was obeyed by subject millions to whose fathers
the very names of Hejaz and Koreysh had been un-
known. But in literature, and especially in the choicest
form of literature, poetry, the foremost rank was still
monojioHsed by names of other lineage, by the children
of Nejd and Yemen. The Koran, indeed, written as
it was by a Koreyshee of the Koreyshees, was truly
theirs ; but its supernatural pretensions exempted this
work, though first-rate of its kind, from literary praise,
no less than from literary criticism. Besides, though
hardly prose, at least in the ordinary acceptance of the
word, the Koran, unfettered by metre, and abounding
in rhythm rather than rhyme, could not pass muster
as poetry. It was reserved to the grandson of Aboo-
Rabee'ah to achieve by his undoubted pre-eminence in
that art the last crowning triumph for the hereditary
princes of Mecca.
Five generations reckoned backwards united the
branch of Koreysh to which 'Omar belonged with that
which had given origm to Mohammed himself, to
Hashim, the ancestor of the Abbaside Caliphs, and to
'Abdesh-Shems, from whom descended Mua'wiah and
his royal hue. 'Omar's own great-gTandfather, Mog-
heerah, had by his marriage with the noble and
wealthy Reytah re-united two powerful subdivisions
of Koreysh descent, and had thereby become the
founder of a clan which imder the title of the Children
of Mogheerah rapidly acquired a leading position both
in peace and war. All were men of renown ; but dis-
tinguished among them was Hodeykah Aboo-Rabee'ah,
T 2
27G THE POET 'OMAR. ' [ix.
the grandfather of 'Omar : his gigantic stature had
earned him the surname of ' Two-spears,' equivalent
in meaning to our own historical ' Longshanks;' and
in the decisive battle of 'Okad, wliich, shortly before
the birth of the Prophet, assured to Koreysh the ex-
clusive guardianship of the Ka'abeh and the lasting
signiory over their Nejdean rivals, Hodeykah was by
all admitted to have won the first honours of the day.
But however great the reputation of Hodeykah, it
was in a manner echpsed by that of his son Bojeyr,
the contemporary of Mohammed, by whom in person
he was converted to Islam, and from whom he received
on that occasion the new name of 'x\bd-Allah, or
' Servant of God.' It was an ancient, almost imme-
morial, custom at Mecca, that the expenses — no
inconsiderable ones — of decorating the Ka'abeh, or
central shrine, for the yearly sacrificial solemnity,
should be supported by its guardians, once the chief-
tains of Khozaa'h, now of Koreysh, who shared
amongst themselves ahke the cost and the honour.
But the grandson of Mogheerah took on himself alone
the entire responsibility of each alternate year, thus
earning the title of 'El'Idl,' or, 'the Equipoise,' as
having shown himself equal singly to the entire clan
in this their reliijious munificence. His wealth was
indeed enormous ; its sources were partly hereditary,
through his grandmother Beytah (for the fatal law of
testamentary partition, rendered obligatoiy by Mo-
hammed, had not yet come into force), and were partly
derived from the trade in metals, cloth, and spices —
coffee was still unknown — witli Abyssinia and Yemen,
which he had in a manner monopolised, not by official
privilege, but by superior skill and enterprise. A
whole army of attendants, Abyssinian and Negro,
followed in his train ; and the greatest part of the
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. Ill
province of Tehamah, as the sea-coast south of Mecca
to the neighbourhood of Mokha was then and is popu-
larly still called, obeyed his bidding.
The offered assistance of 'Abd- Allah's negroid soldiery
was declined by Mohammed, who may have prudently
shunned the imputation of subjugating his own fair-
skinned countiymen by the help of a dusky and alien
race. But the democratic and yet absolutist tendency
which led the Prophet systematically to depress, and
even where possible to destroy, the existing aristocracy
of the land had perhaps a greater share in the motives
of this refusal. In Bojeyr, alias 'Abd-Allah the Mog-
heeree, we see the type of a class then recently
originated yet already preponderant in Arabia, and
which would have soon become supreme, but for the
military despotism, based on popular equality, intro-
duced by Mohammed : a system often tried, with slight
and superficial modifications, from the days of Alexander
and of the Caesars down to those of Napoleon III., and
invariably resulting in a brief and delusive splendour,
followed by rapid and irretrievable decay. Had the
aristocratic element survived, Arabia would probably
have boasted less extensive conquest, but she would
have made far greater and more durable acquisitions
in progressive civilisation and real prosperity. But
the Koranic equipartition of land and property, and
the absorption of all effective and hereditary dignity
in one only family, soon effaced the aristocracy, and
with it, by a necessary consequence, the future of the
nation. In the merchant-noble, 'Abd-Allah the M02:-
heeree, we see the fulness of a type that might have
ensured alike advance and permanence ; with its
disappearance scarce a century later begin rapid
decadence and anarchical dissolution.
Two wives, one an Arab woman of Hadramout, a
278 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
province famed in all times for female beauty, the
other a Christian and native of Abyssinia, gave to
'Abd- Allah two children, Avidely differing in character
and in pursuits both from himself and from each other :
the dusky half-blood Hirth, an austere Muslim, whose
life was passed in the discharge of Government employ-
ments, some of the highest trust ; and the gay, idle,
talented poet, 'Omar.
This latter was born, so it chanced, on the very
same day that the great Caliph, his namesake, was
assassinated by the Persian slave Firooz, ' What
Verity then set, and what Vanity rose!' said 'Omar's
sarcastic half-censor, half-admirer, Ebn-'Abbas ; who,
like many others of the poet's contemporaries, mani-
fested more annoyance at the scandals of his personal
than admiration for the brilliancy of his literary career.
' Beware of permitting your children to read the com-
positions of 'Omar-Ebn-Abee-Rabee'ah,' said the austere
Ebn-'Orwah, a great authority on such matters in his
time, ' unless you wish to see them plunge headlong
into vice.' And 'Abd-Allah Ebn-Musa'b, the high-
born rival of the reigning Caliphs, having once on a
time, while seated in his porch, noticed a maidservant
of his about to enter the house with a book in her
hand, called her to him to look at it ; and on finding
that the book in question was no other than a collection
of 'Omar's poems, ordered her to return it unread
without a moment's delay to those from whom she had
borrowed it ; adding, ' Are you mad, to bring a book
like that into a house for girls to read ? Do you not
know that 'Omar's verses steal away the heart, and
insinuate themselves into the very soul? Oif with it!'
Had the poet himself been by, he might not improbably
have pardoned the censure for the compliment it
implied.
IX.] . THE POET 'OMAR. 279
His half-brother Hirth, the respectable, incorruptible,
unimpeachable Governor of Basrah, had plenty of
trouble on his brother's account ; and many, though
ineffectual, were the efforts he made to recall 'Omar
from the evil of his ways. An instance recorded by the
poet's best biographer, Aboo-1-Faraj, is too character-
istic of the men and the times to be omitted.
One year, on the very high day of the great annual
festival, when the pilgrhns, assembled from all quarters
of the Mohammedan world at Mecca, were engaged in
the evening performance of their solemn traditionary
rite, pacing seven times in prayer round the sacred
Ka'abeh, Zeynab, a young girl of noble birth, happened
to be present among the crowd of worshippers, from
whom, however, she was easily to be distinguished by
her surpassing beauty and the gay dresses of her
numerous attendants. What next followed 'Omar may
best recite after his own fashion, and in his own metre,
which we have as far as possible preserved in the
translation ; though the rhyme, which if rendered
would have necessitated too frequent divergence from
the original style and imagery, has been omitted : —
Ah for the throes of a heart sorely Avounded I
Ah for the eyes that have smit me with madness !
Gently she moved in the calmness of beauty,
Moved as the bough to the light breeze of morning.
Dazzled my eyes as they gazed, till before me
All was a mist and confusion of figures.
Ne'er had I sought her, and ne'er had she sought me ;
Fated the love, and the hour, and the meeting.
There I beheld her as she and her damsels
Paced 'twixt the temple and outer enclosure ;
Damsels the fairest, the loveliest, the gentlest,
Passing like slow-wending heifers at evening ;
Ever surrounding with courtly observance
Her whom they honour, the peerless of women.
280 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
Then to a handmaid, the youngest, she whispered,
* 'Omar is near : let us mar his devotions.
Cross on his path that he needs may observe us ;
Give him a signal, my sister, demurely.'
' Signals I gave, but he marked not or heeded,'
Answered the damsel, and hasted to meet me.
Ah for that night by the vale of the sand-hills !
Ah for the dawn when in silence we parted !
He who the morn may awake to her kisses
Di'iuks from the cup of the blessed in heaven.
The last four lines of this lyric seem, however, to have
been written under the influence of poetical anticipa-
pation ; for many weeks and even months passed with-
out any closer intercourse than that of love-messages,
and glances at a distance. Zeynab, with her father
Moosa, and her two elder sisters, prolonged their visit
at Mecca. ' Omar was now in the prime of youth
and personal beauty, advantageously set off by rank,
wealth, and idleness. No wonder that his reputation
as a lady-killer was already pretty well established ;
and that Zeynab, young herself, and only too suscep-
tible of attentions like ' Omar's, should have received
from her alarmed relatives much prudent cautioning ;
with what result her lover thus gives us to judge : —
Still of me their converse : they at length beheld me
Scarce a furlong distant on my white-starred charger.
Said the eldest, ' Tell us, who the youth ajjproaching ] '
Said the second, ' Sure 'tis no one else, 'tis 'Omar.'
Said the youngest, she whom deep my love had smitten,
' He, 'tis he ; and can the full moon hide her splendour 1 '
Diffidence of his own merits was certainly not among
the poet's defects ; and we can scarcely, in a character
like his, wonder even at the impudence which dictated
the following verses : —
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 281
Then I called a handmaid of my liousehold,
Saying, * Take good heed, let nought betray thee,
Whisper gently, gentlier yet, to Zeynab,
" But one kiss for him, thy own, thy 'Omar." '
Zeynab heard, and shook her laughing tresses —
Laughing answered, ' Whence so pert an envoy ?
Thus would 'Omar trick the hearts of women ?
'Tis a tale oft told ; I know the sequel.'
Spring and summer passed thus, but 'Omar's suit
advanced little ; thanks to the coyness of the lady, and
still more, it may be well believed, the vigilance of her
guardians. The lover's passion had meanwhile risen to
white heat ; but fear of offence prohibited even his
customary solace of verses, except under the disguise of
an assumed object. ' Hind ' was a name of historical
reputation of beauty among Arabs, no less than ' Helen '
among Greeks ; and to ' Hind ' accordingly several
pieces of poetry, inspired by no other than Zeynab the
daughter of Moosa, were now dedicated by the young
Mogheeree ; they rank among the freshest and spright-
liest of Ills whole collection. One in particular, a
popular favourite, and often selected for song by Arab
musicians even at the present day, must not be here
omitted : —
Ah that Hind would keej) the word of love she promised,
Keep the word, and heal the heart herself has woimded ;
And for once at least be fairly self-dependent ! —
Weak indeed who never dares be self-dependent.
Once she stood with maidens in the tent conversing ;
Hot the day, and naked she to cooling waters ;
' Am I,' said she, ' ffiLr indeed as 'Omar sings me 1
Tell me, tell me truly, or does he but flatter % '
To each other then apart they smiled, and answered,
' Lovely in the lover's eye was aye the loved one.'
Not from truth they answered thus; 'twas all from envy ;
• Woman's envy still was beauty's shadow.
282 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
Love, however, at last prevailed; and a rendezvous
was given at some distance from the town, iu one of the
valleys that lie south-east of Mecca, bordered by high
abrupt rocks, and green in its winding course below
with thick gardens and palm groves ; the very place
for a stolen interview. Thither Zeynab was to betake
herself for an afternoon stroll with a few chosen attend-
ants ; while 'Omar was to meet her * quite promiscuous,'
as if returning from a journey. The plan succeeded ;
its opening scene is thus described by 'Omar in verses
which long remained the envy and despair of rival
poets : —
Late and early Love between us idle messenger had gone,
Till his fatal ambush in the valley of Khedab was laid :
There we met; nor sign, nor token, needed but a glance — no more ;
All my heart and all its passion mirrored in her heart I saw ;
And I said, ' 'Tis evening cool ; the gardened houses are not far ;
Why unsocial bide we seated weary on the weary beasts 1 '
Turned she to her damsels with, ' What say ye % ' They replied,
' Alight ;
Better far the cool earth's footing than the uneasy saddle perch.'
Down they glided, clustering starlike round the perfect queen of night,
Calmly wending in her beauty, as to music's measui'ed beat.
Shyly drew I near and greeted, fearful lest some jealous eye
Should behold us, or the palm-trees tell the story of our loves.
Half withdrawn her veil, she whispei-ed, ' Fear not ; freely speak your
mind.
Kinsmen none are here to watch us ; thou and I may claim our own.'
Bold I answered, ' Were there thousands, fearless would I bide their
worst ;
But the secret of my bosom brooks no ear, no eye but thine.'
Then the maidens — ah the miiidens ! — noted how apart we drew ;
Well they guessed unspoken wishes, and the inmost thoughts of love.
Said they, ' Give us leave to wander ; bide thou here alone awhile ;
We will stroll a little onwards, 'neath the pleasant evening star,'
* Be not long,' she answered ; said they, ' Fear not ; we will straight
return —
Straight be with thee ;' and at once like trooping fawns thoy slipped
away..
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 283
Little need to ask their meaning; if tliey came or if they went —
Known to her, to me, the purpose : yet we had not said a word.
It may be easily imagined that Zeynab's attendants
were too discreet to return in a hurry ; and the lovers,
regardless of time, prolonged their meeting till evening
had passed into night, when there came on a sudden
storm of rain, such as is not uncommon among the hills
of the Hejaz coast. 'Omar, gallantly fearful lest the
hght dress of his fair companion should suffer, took off
his cloak, one of red embroidered silk and wool, such as
still may be often seen worn by the upper classes in the
peninsula, and cast it over her shoulders ; while she
playfully refused to accept the shelter except on condi-
tion that he should keep a part of it over himself ; and
in this amiable proximity they remained a while till
the shower had blown over, and the approach of dawn
warned them to separate.
Thus far all was well, and might perhaps have con-
tinued so but for the vanity of 'Omar himself, who a
few days afterwards published the whole adventure,
not forgetting the circumstance of the shower and the
cloak, in verses that expressed much and suggested
more. In spite of the thin disguise of fictitious person-
ages, Zeynab's name, joined with that of 'Omar, was
soon in every mouth ; and Moosa, the father of the
young lady, began to have serious fears as to the conse-
quences of so compromising a courtship. Young 'Omar,
wealthy and powerful, not only in the popularity of
rising genius, but in the near relationship of princes and
caliphs, was beyond the reach of his anger ; and Moosa
determined accordingly to seek for his daughter in
flight the security which he could not hope from open
contest. Silently and secretly he prepared his depar-
ture from the Hejaz ; but 'Omar had notice of it in time
284 THE FOET 'OMAB. [ix.
to obtain yet one more interview with the young lady.
Zeynab, however, took her jorecautions, and brought
with her this time, not her own attendants only, but
several others of her Meccan female friends, easily
induced to accompany her by their curiosity to make a
nearer acquaintance with the first poet of the day. The
rendezvous was in a valley at some distance out of town ;
and there the whole party remained from evening to
sunrise ; the result was a serious proposal of marriage
on 'Omar's part, accepted by Zeynab ; but on condition
that, after her own and her father's removal to their
projected establishment in the neighbourhood of the
Persian Gulf, 'Omar should follow them thither, and
there make his offer in due form. In the meantime he
was neither to see her nor speak with her, either in
public or in private.
'Omar accepted the conditions, intended probably
in part as a trial of his constancy ; and, with charac-
teristic levity, had hardly accepted than he broke them.
Only a few days later he learnt that Zeynab, before
quitting Mecca, designed a visit to some one of the
numerous memorials in its vicinity ; and, thereon,
mounted his celebrated 'white-starred charger' Komeyt,
and alone, but armed, set out on a side-track in hopes
of a meeting with the daughter of Moosa. On his way
he fell in with another horseman, also armed and alone,
travelling in the same direction. Conversation fol-
lowed ; and 'Omar, finding his new acquaintance
sprightly and accomplished, was led on to treat him
with a recital of his latest poem, commemorative of the
very rendezvous just described. 'It would seem you
do not know that the lady is my cousin,* said the other,
with a dark look. 'Omar, disconcerted, did not even
venture explanation or excuse, but turned his horse's
head, and rode back full speed for Mecca.
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 285
Further concealment was impossible, and the worst
consequences might be reasonably expected. Hirth,
in great distress at the follies of his young half-brother,
called him up ; and, giving him a large supply of
money for the road, sent him off to look after some
family estates in the extreme south of Yemen, after
a serious warning and a solemn promise exacted that
he would amend his doings in future. 'Omar obeyed ;
but once alone, a male Mariana in the south, separation
and solitude proved too much for him ; and before
many weeks of his banishment were over, he had
begun to solace his loneliness with several pathetic
effusions, to all of which Zeynal) was the key-note.
The following may serve as a specimen : —
Ah ! where have they made my dwelling ? Far, liow far, from her, the
loved one,
Since they drove me lone and parted to the sad sea-shore of 'Aden.
Thou art mid the distant mountains ; and to each, the loved and
lover,
Nought is left but sad remembrance, and a share of aching sorrow.
Hadst thou seen thy lover weeping by the sandhills of the ocean,
Thou hadst deemed him sti'uck by madness : was it madness ? was it
love?
I may forget all else, but never shall forget her as she stood.
As I stood, that hour of parting ; heart to heart in speechless
anguish ;
Then she turned her to Thoreyya, to her sister, sadly weeping ;
Coursed the tears down cheek and bosom, till her passion found an
utterance ;
' Tell him, sister, tell him ; yet be not as one that chides or murmurs,
Why so long thy distant tarrying on the unlovely shores of Yemen 1
Is it sated ease detains thee, or the quest of wealth that hires thee %
Tell me what the price they paid thee, that from Mecca bought thy
absence 1 '
These verses, repeated, though without the name
of the composer, and taken up from mouth to mouth,
ended by reaching Hirth, who on hearing them ex-
286 THE POET 'OMAN. [ix.
claimed, ' 'Omar, by Allah ! he has broken his word
already ; ' and for a time he seems to have given up
the hope of reclaiming the irreclaimable,
'Omar returned to Mecca ; and in exquisite poetry-
continued, now to lament the absent Zeynab, now to
make love to other girls and women for five or six
years. Meanwhile Zeynab's father, Moosa the Joma-
hee, with the sale-money of his Hejaz property had
purchased houses and lands between Basrah and
Koweyt, and Hved there awhile in comfort, though in
exile. His two elder daughters mamed ; but Zeynab,
whether faithful to 'Omar's memory or from some other
motive, remained single. At the end of this "time
her father died ; and Zeynab, while attending his
funeral, noticed with alarm that among the crowd
gathered on the occasion not a single kinsman or re-
lative appeared ; all were strangers. Returning home
she summoned an old negress, once her nurse, and said,
' My father is now dead, and there is no one to protect
or care for us here ; why should I remain any longer in
a strange country '? Let us return to Mecca.' The old
nurse made no ojiposition ; so Zeynab sold her share
in her father's newly-acquired estates, and having made
a good bargain (for Basrah was then a rising town),
took advantage of the yearly pilgrim caravan and
returned with it Hejaz-wards. 'Omar happened to be
at Mecca that yeai" ; and, as was his wont on these
occasions, he had mounted his best horse, and gone out,
splendidly dressed and attended, to divert himself by
the sight of the new arrivals, and to coquet, wherever
possible, witli any pretty faces that might happen to
be among them. While thus employed he saw ap-
proaching in an open litter, amid a respectable retinue,
two persons : one a woman, evidently beautiful, thougli
veiled ; the other an aged negress. The contrast
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 287
piqued his curiosity. ' Who are you, and whence do
you come "? ' said he, addressing the black. The answer
was a Scotch one in substance, if not in form : ' God
has set you a weary task if you have to enquire of
every one in this crowd who they are, and whence they
come.' 'I beg your pardon, aunt,' repHed the polite
'Omar, ' but pray do me the kindness of telling me ;
perhaps I may have a good reason for making the
question.' * Well,' said the negress, ' if you will have it,
we are just now come fiom Basrah, but by our origin
and birthplace we are of Mecca ; so now we are
returning to our birthplace and origin.' 'Omar smiled.
The negress looked at him, and noticed that two of his
front teeth were discoloured (this had been done by
a blow received during boyhood, some said in a battle,
some in a love adventure), and rejoined, ' We know
you at any rate.' ' And who may I be ? ' * 'Omar,' she
answered, * the grandson of Aboo-Rabee'ah.' ' How do
you come to know me 1 ' asked he. ' By those dis-
coloured teeth of yours, and by your whole appearance
and manner.' 'Omar burst into poetry : —
Captive my heart had been, a slave to sorrow,
Since first she left me, bound on distant journey ;
Years blurred the past with change and seeming solace,
But unforgot love once is love for ever.
Soft blew the wind, the garden rose and jasmine
Breathed all of her ; ' She is not far,' they whispered.
' Who may you be 1' I said : she frowned and answered,
' What wouldst thou have, of strangers thus enquiring 1
This road we came from Basrah, but our dwelling
Once stood beside the sacred walls of Mecca.
Truth have we told ; but say, thyself who art thou 1
Answer : the question is not void of purpose.
Sm-e we have known thee, and thy name ; conjecture
Is ours at least ; and certitude may follow.
Stained are thy teeth : thy stature and appearance
Give thee for one long sundered, long remembered.'
288 TEE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
One thou and I ; how could I brook thy absence 1
Is there who brooks that self from self be parted ?
Blind to all else, my eyes behold thee only ;
Cold to all else, to thee my heart is burning.
The courtship, thus resumed, was now carried on
in good earnest. 'Omar married Zeynab ; she bore
him two children, a son, the stately and austere Ju'an,
and a daughter. Am at-el- Wahid, of whom 'Omar seems
to have been very fond : she finds an affectionate
mention in some of his poems.
Wliatever the beginning and progress of this intrigue
may have been, its end at least was honourable suc-
cess ; but the ' universal lover ' met sometimes with
the rebuff which his conduct uKjre frequently deserved.
Thus, we learn that a young and lately married woman
of the noble Dey'lee clan happening to be present on
a pilgrim-visit to Mecca, 'Omar saw her during prayers
within the ' Haram,' or inclosure of the Ka'abeh, and
was struck by her beauty : he approached and spoke
to her, but received no answer. On a second evening
he dogged her steps till he found an opportunity for
again addressing her ; when she turned sharp on him
with * Away, fellow ! Are you not on sacred ground 1
and is not this the time of prayer and worship *? *
Unabashed, 'Omar continued to pm-sue her with his
attentions ; till she had reason to fear some open
scandal. So on the third evening she said to her
brother (one version gives it her husband, Aboo-1-
Aswad), ' I cannot easily find my way in these streets :
would you come with me 1 ' They set out together.
'Omar, who had perceived the lady at a distance,
was already approaching, when tlie sight of the brother
and his sword warned him off, just in time to hear
repeated behind him a well-known couplet of the poet
Jereer : —
IX. ] THE POET 'OMAR. ^S'g
Wolves attack the unguarded flock : of the sheep they have no fear ;
But aloof they stand, and howl, if a watchdog grim be near.
The seventy or eighty years — for his biographers
with true Eastern contempt of accuracy vary as to the
number of decades they assign him — of 'Omar's hfe
offer few of what are called leading events. Our hero
was a gentleman, or rather a nobleman, at large, with
a good income, the result of his father's mercantile
energy, and the produce of his own estates. His cus-
tomary residence was on the coast in the province of
Tehamah, south of Mecca, to which latter place he
punctually made his yearly pilgrimage, with what
devotional zeal may be sufficiently inferred from the
adventures already related. Nor did he make any
secret of the matter.
When this chanced we were on pilgrim journey ;
Heaven best knows the pilgrims and their object !
are the lines with which he concludes a lyric of intrigue
and dissipation. Not unnaturally did his friend Ebn-
'Akeek subjoin, ' The facts of your pilgrimage are a
sufficient indication of its object, and no need to look
further.'
'Omar is twice mentioned as taking part in the
numerous military expeditions of the time : one, against
the restless inhabitants of Hasa, then fermenting into
the rebellion which ultimately separated them from the
body of the Empire ; the other, when he was already
over seventy, if dates be exact, against the Byzantine
capital itself during the reign of Suleyman, the seventh
Caliph of the Omeyyah family. In this latter expe-
dition the poet, according to Ebn-Khallikan, found a
soldier's, and, in Mohammedan estimation, a martyr's
death ; perishing with countless others by the Greek
fire that consumed the beleaguering Arab fleet. On
u
290 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
the other hand, the Isphahanee chronicler Aboo-1-Faraj
brings him back to die some years later in his bed, at
the advanced age of eighty. The former account is
probably the more correct one ; but in no case has the
charge of military incapacity been laid against 'Omar ;
and personal cowardice, a fault rare among Arabs,
whatever their tribe or clan, would have been indeed
a prodigy in one descended from Koreysh.
Active, however, and energetic as he was in the
pursuit of pleasure, 'Omar was incapable of the serious
attention and steady work required for public and
political duty. Leaving these cares to others of his
kindred, his own most serious business in hfe seems
to have been the administration of his large estates,
some of wliich lay many hundred miles away from
Mecca ; and an occasional visit of couiiesy to his
kinsman, the ruling prince of the time being at
Damascus. But he never took serious part with any
of the countless factions that eddied over the seething
surface of Mohammedan torrent, and already prenoted
its ultimate and irreparable divergence into the two
great streams, Sonnee and Shee'ah. Love and verse
were all in all to him ; and, like the founder of
* Strawberry Hill,' he made pleasure the constant busi-
ness, business the occasional diversion, of his life.
At a later period of history Mohammedanism becomes
almost synonymous with despotism in public life, and
didness in private. Rulers separated from their people
by the multiple fences of a slavish court, and a weari-
some, semi-idolatrous ceremonial ; peoples stagnating
in stupid ignorance and unmeaning fanaticism ; women
sundered from men by eternal veils, lattices, and
eunuchs ; apathy, monotony, varied only by frantic
sensuality and joyless debauch — such is the picture
that Western imagination is apt to form of the Islamitic
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 291
East ; and though undoubtedly overcharged, it is a
picture not, alas! wholly unfaithful to truth and to
fact. But they are the facts of another age, and
of other lands than those of 'Omar the Mogheeree.
Persian satrapism and Turkish heaviness had not
yet overshadowed and crushed Arab nationality and
manners ; and the innate tendency to freedom, almost
equality, of intercourse between rulers and ruled,
between men and women, with the semi-republican
influences of commerce and literary genius, and the
intensely social spirit that has made the generic name
of * man' identical in Arabic with ' companionship,' had
yet their way, and held their own against the mystic
and unamiable fanaticism breathed from Persia and
Turkistan, and the despotic austerity of the family of
'Alee, that evil genius of the Mohammedan world.
In fact the anecdotes thus far selected from or in
connection with 'Omar's biography show us the Arab
life of the day in its true form, and hint, not obscurely,
what it might ultimately have become had Damascus
remained its capital, and the children of Omeyyah its
leaders. Two more adventures, taken almost at
random from the mass of narrative that the poet's
best chronicler, Aboo-l-Faraj, has left us, may serve
further to illustrate and complete the picture.
It is a hot autumn afternoon, the third before the
yearly commemorative sacrifice of Mecca ; north, south,
and east the dusty roads and red slopes leading to
the town are closely studded with bands of pilgrims,
from Damascus, from Nejd, from Yemen, from the
banks of the Euphrates ; riders on horses, on asses,
on mules, on camels, on dromedaries ; all travel-stained
and sunburnt ; some weaiy and silent ; others, the
greater number, singing, laughing, and shouting for
joy to find themselves at the end of their long and
U 2
292 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
tedious journey. Men and women, black and white,
wealthy and poor, young and old, splendidly dressed
or in rags, crowded together as they moved on, slowly
nearmg the low mud walls and taper minarets yet
concealed from view by the rising grounds amid which
the religious and patriotic centre of the Mohammedan
world lies buried ; or pitched their black travelling
tents against the approach of evening among the sandy
valleys that branch off from the main roads on every
side. Mingled with the wayfarers, gazing or greeting,
are knots of Meccan townsmen, brought out thus far
to meet the new arrivals by general curiosity or special
expectation ; their light gay robes contrasting strangely
with the coarse and soiled equipments of the pilgrims.
Handsomest of the handsome, gayest of the gay,
our friend 'Omar the Mogheeree is easily distinguished
among the multitude, or rather attracts to himself the
notice of all. He is mounted on a cream-coloured
Oman di'omedary, its smooth coat tastefully stained
with saffron and henna ; its saddle and housings em-
broidered with silk and gold ; tlie sword sheath that
hangs by the rider's side is golden also. 'Omar's
favourite negro Jennad follows him on foot, leading
his master's choicest horse, a bay with a white off hind
leg and a white mark on its forehead : this is * Stai*,'
who has often carried his master on visits of gallantry
to the mountain-girls of 'A seer and Nejd, and has been
rewarded with a gold collar round his neck, besides
what immortality verse can give.
Alongside of 'Omar, on a white mule, and gorgeous
in embroidered robes of Heera manufacture, rides Ebn-
Soreyj, the Mario of Hejaz singers : his dusky and
irregular features, half-hidden by a veil, betray his
mulatto origin ; he is known everywhere as the first
musician, the sprightliest boon-companion, and the
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 293
Ugliest face of his day. A large train of attendants,
'Omar's men, dressed in the light yellow garments
still popular in Yemen, surround their master. The
whole party had strolled out of Mecca in the direction
of Mina, gazing and gazed at, till they came to where a
nobleman of Hejaz, a descendant of 'Abd-Menaf, wealthy
and proud like all his kindred, had pitched for himself
and his suite a whole cluster of tents — their temporary
abode during the solemnities, which they had come
like the rest to share. Stopping ta look at them, 'Omar
caught among the curtains of the encampment a
glimpse of a lovely girl : it was the chieftain's only
daughter, who had at that moment stepped out un-
veiled to take the air ; several maids waited on her,
to form as it were a screen between her and the
passers-by. ' Omar urged his dromedary a step forward,
and came full in view of the young lady. She, too,
looked up ; her attendants exclaimed, ' That is 'Omar
the grandson of Aboo-Rabee'ah ; ' her eyes met his ;
but at the same instant the servants, prudent a mo-
ment too late, hurried her back into the tent and
closed the hangings. 'Omar remained staring like one
mazed ; then, after a short silence, broke out into
the following verses : —
lu the valley of Mohassib I beheld her where she stood :
Caution bade me tui'n aside, but love forbade and fixed me there.
Was it sunlight ? or the windows of a gleaming mosque at eve
Lighted up for festal worship 1 or was all my fancy's dream 1
Ah those earrings ! ah that necklace ! Nowfel's daughter sui-e the
maid,
Or of Hashim's princely lineage, and the Servant of the Sun !
But a moment flashed the splendour, as the o'er-hasty handmaids drew
Round her with a jealous hand the jealous curtains of the tent.
Speech nor greeting passed between us ; but she saw me, and 1 saw
Face the loveliest of all faces ; hands the fairest of all hands.
Daughter of a better earth, and nurtured by a better sky ;
Would I ne'er had seen thy beauty ! Hope is fled, but love remains.
294 THE POET 'OMAR. [is.
However, the favourable occasion had gone by, and
even 'Omar's tried ingenuity could not forecast a second
meeting. Desirous to distract his thoughts, he ad-
dressed himself to Ebn-Sorejj, and said, ' I have been
thuiking how disagreeable it would be for us to return
this evening to Mecca through such a crowd and dust.
What do you say to our going on a little further till
we find some quiet spot where we can lie all alone,
and overlook at a distance the comers and goers, the
pilgrims and the townspeople '? We could stop there
and pass the night undisturbed, and get back into town
at our leisure in the morning.' ' Nothing better,'
answered Ebn-Soreyj ; ' but do you know of any such
convenient place in particular ? ' ' Yes,' said 'Omar,
'the hillock called 'Aal-Shajrah, just above the road
that joins Mina and Senef : we can sit up at the top,
while the pilgrims pass on their way below; and thence
we shall see them all distinctly, without their being
able to see us.' Ebn-Soreyj joyfully agreed to the
plan ; and 'Omar, calHng some of his attendants,
ordered them, ' Go back to my house in town, and get
ready a good supper, and bring it with plenty of wine
to the hill 'Aal-Shajrah; we mean to ride round a little
way, and shall find you ariived there before us.'
The hill in question is about six miles out of Mecca
on the north-east ; it stands between the branch road
to Medinah and tlie direct road to Damascus ; the
summit is pointed, and overlooks the whole country
to some distance. So thither 'Omar and Ebn-Soreyj
went, and clambered up to the top, wliere they sat,
eating and drinking, till the wine got somewhat tlie
better of them. Then Ebn-Soreyj took up a cymbal,
sounded it, and began to sing one tune after another,
unremarked by the pilgrims who ])assed on their way
below, till the evening darkened in. Then he raised
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 295
his voice to its utmost pitch, and sang the very verses
that 'Omar had composed a few hours before ; till all
who were going by, horse or foot, in the deep shadow of
the sunken road stopped to listen ; and some one called
out through the darkness, ' O, you who are singing up
there, have you no fear of God, that you thus hinder
the pilgrims from the accomplishment of their duty l '
Then he stopped singing, and the crowd beneath moved
on ; till after a little while he forgot, and raised his
voice higher than ever, for he was now fairly drunk;
and so he continued, sometimes bewitching the pilgrims
into a halt, and sometimes pausing to let them go on
townwards; while 'Omar sat by enjoying the sport
till it was now midnight. Then there came by along
the road from Damascus one mounted on a blood horse
of the highest breed ; he too stopped to listen like one
under a spell : then suddenly he turned out of the
path, and rode right up the hill till he came close under
the crest ; when, folding one leg over the saddle,
he called out, ' O singer, whoever you are, can you, so
Allah bless you, do me the favour to go over that last
tune of yours again?' Ebn-Soreyj answered, 'Yes,
and twenty others, may Allah bless you into the
bargain : which tune is it you wish for ? ' The horse-
man named it ; and when Ebn-Soreyj had sung it,
called for a second and a third ; but on his asking
for a fourth, *With all my heart,' rejoined Ebn-Soreyj,
* but on condition that you alight from your horse, and
come up hither and sit and drink with us.' 'That
I cannot do,' answered the other from the darkness ;
' but I beseech you to excuse me, and to sing me but
one more tune, and regard not my being on horseback.'
Ebn-Soreyj complied : when he had finished, the rider
called out, ' In Allah's name are you not Ebn-Soreyj ? '
'Yes I am he.' 'Life and happiness to you, Ebn-
296 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
Soreyj ! And is not the other, who is sitting with
you, 'Omar the grandson of Aboo-Rabee'ah ■? ' 'Yes.'
' Life and happiness to you also, 'Omar, son of Aboo-
Eabee'ah ! ' 'To you also,' called out 'Omar ; ' but
now that we have told you our names, pray what is
yours ■? and who are you \ ' ' That is a question which
I may not answer,' replied the horseman. On this
Ebn-Soreyj grew angry and exclaimed, ' By Allah, if
you were Yezeed himself, the son of 'Abd-el-Mehk (the
reigning Caliph), you could not be more insolent.' 'You
are right ; I am Yezeed, the son of 'Abd-el-Melik,' was
the answer. On this 'Omar jumped up and ran down
the hill to greet him ; Ebn-Soreyj followed. ' I would
willingly have stayed the night with you here,' said
the heir-apparent of the Mohammedan throne, 'but it
is festival-time as you know ; and my attendants have
all gone on before me to the town ; so that my absence
the whole night alone would certainly be remarked ;
and scandalous conjectures might be made ; but here,'
turning to Ebn-Soreyj, 'take this cloak and ring —
they will do for a remembrance ;' and with this,
throwing the cloak from his shoulders, and drawing
the ring from his finger, he set off at full gallop. Ebn-
Soreyj, the singer, left in the dark with the presents,
turned round without a moment's delay and made them
over to 'Omar, saying, 'They will become you better
than me.' 'Omar, not to be outdone, put a purse
of three hundred gold pieces into the hands of
the musician ; and next day, when the mosque was
at its fullest with townsmen and stranirers from all
quarters of the empire, appeared at ])ublic prayers
wearing the imperial cloak and ring, at once recog-
nised by all present ; nor was 'Omar behindhand in
taking to himself the full honour implied by such
decorations.
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 297
It was a merry life ; and Caliph, poet, and musician
seem one and all to have been bent on enjoying it to
the utmost. In this story art and talent level the
barriers of rank ; in the next they go further, and
almost do away with those which in the East have been
of all times yet more insuperable, the barriers of sex.
One spring morning 'Omar, lately arrived from his
estates in the south, had pitched his travelling gear in
the valley of Mina near Mecca ; and had seated himself
to enjoy the fresh air at the tent door, while his atten-
dants stood around. A fine- looking middle-aged woman,
handsomely dressed, approached the group, and wished
them good morning. 'Omar returned the salute. 'Are
not you 'Omar grandson of Aboo-Rabee'ah % ' said the
woman. He answered, ' The same ; what do you want
with me \ ' 'Omar's servants had discreetly withdrawn
behind the tent, ' Long and happy life to you,' said
the woman ; ' have you any wish for an interview with
the loveliest face, and the sweetest disposition, and the
perfectest breeding, and the noblest birth of all living
creatures'?' 'Omar answered, ' What could I wish for
more % ' ' But under one condition.' ' Say it.' ' You
must allow me,' continued the woman, ' to blindfold
you with my own hands, and thus to lead you myself,
till I have brought you into the very place which I
intend ; there I w^ill undo the bandage ; but before
you leave I will tie up your eyes again, and so lead
you back to your tent.' 'Omar, whose curiosity was
only the more roused by such a proposition, consented.
' When,' said he, in his own version of the adventure,
' she had brought me to my destination, and taken the
bandage off my eyes, I found myself in presence of a
woman whose Hke for beauty and bearing I had never
seen. She was seated on a kind of throne. I saluted
her ; she motioned to me to seat myself on the ground
298 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
opposite. "Are you 'Omar, the grandson of Aboo-
Rabee'ah 1 " said she. " My name is 'Omar," I
answered. "You," she continued, "are the man who
takes away the character of noble ladies." " How so,
in Heaven's name?" said I. She answered, "Are not
you the author of these verses V —
" By my brother's manhood," said she, " and my father's honoured age,
I will wake the whole encampment if thou leav'st not straight the
tent."
And I tui'ned, in fear departing, for the maiden's oath was strong :
But she smiled, and oath and menace in that smile dissolved away.
Followed kisses, followed raptures : — known to her and me the rest ;
Think your will, and ask no questions : closed the tent, and dark the
night.
Then she exclaimed " Up and off with you !" At the
word the woman who had brought me there re-entered,
blindfolded my eyes, led me out, and conducted me
back to my own quarters, where she left me alone. I
undid the bandage, and then sat down to pass the rest
of the day in sorrow and heaviness of mind — God only
knows how heavy. Night came at last. Next morning
I took my place at the tent door, when lo ! I beheld
the same woman coming to me and saying, " Do you
wish to pay a second visit 1" "At your bidding," I
answered. Hereupon she did exactly as she had done
the day before, and took me with her to the rendezvous.
I entered, and when permitted to look, saw the same
lady on the throne. " So," said she, " it is you, the
slanderer of damsels." '* How so, in Heaven's name V
said I. She answered, " By your verses."
Swelled licr lovely throat and bosom, as I said " Recline awhile
On the sand-hill :" half she leant her, half her fears forbad the couch ;
And she said, " My plighted i)romise ; — I submit to thy behest ;
Though I tremble, and I know not — all so new ; what wouldst thou,
dear ? "
IX.] THE rOET 'OMAR. 299
Passed the night ; cool broke the dawning. " Thou hast ruined me,'
she said ;
" Rise and 'scape ; I would not bid thee : — if thou wilt, return
again."
After which, " Off with you !" she exclaimed. I rose
and was led out as before : then she recalled me, and
said, " Were it not that we are on the eve of de-
parture, and I fear lest I should hardly be able to
contrive another meeting (besides the real desire I have
to hear you talk, and that I wish to make the most
of our interview), I would have sent you away this
time too. Come now, take your ease, talk, and let
me hear some more of your naughty poetry." I did
as she bid me, and found that I was indeed addressing
a woman the first of her sex in grace and learning.
After a long conversation she rose and left the
apartment. Meanwhile the middle-aged woman, her
attendant, delayed a minute or two, so that I found
myself all alone. On this I began looking about me,
and saw close by an open vase, containing some kind
of sweet-smelling ointment ; into this vase I dipped
my fingers, and then hid my hand under my cloak.
Immediately afterwards the woman came in, bound up
my eyes, and led me out of the room. But when I
felt the fresh air, and knew that I was just at the
entrance of the tent, I quietly slipped the hand, which
I had smeared with the ointment, out from under my
cloak, and laid it on the outside canvas ; then drew it
in again. Once back at my own place, I called some
of my slaves, and said, " Wlioever of you vAW find out
for me a tent, on the canvas of which near its entrance
is a grease-stain, scented, and looking like the mark of
a palm and fingers, I will give him his liberty and five
hundred gold pieces into the bargain." I had not long
to wait when one of them ran in with, " Sir, come this
300 THE POET 'OMAR. [ix.
way." I went with him : the tent he brought me to
bore in fact the mark of five fingers freshly impressed.
It was the tent of Fatimah, the daughter of 'Abd-el-
Melik, son of Merwan ; and close by were the
attendants and slaves, already busy in getting all
things ready for their departure.' 'Omar returned
home ; but hardly had Fatimah set out than he started
too, keeping the same road, though at a little distance.
Arrived at a halting-place she looked out, and seeing
not far off another pavilion with travelling tents round
it, and a goodly suite, she enquired to whom they
belonged : the answer was, ' To 'Omar, the grandson
of Aboo-Rabee'ah.' She now became seriously alarmed
on his account ; and calling the woman whom she had
before employed as a go-between, said to her, ' Tell
him that I beseech him, in the name of God and of our
common relationship, not to disgrace himself and me.
What has he got in mind ? and what can he want ?
Let him take himself away before I be shamed, and
his own blood be shed.' The woman conveyed him the
message in Fatimah's very words. But 'Omar answered,
* Come what may, I will not turn back unless she send
me for a keepsake and token her under garment, the
very one she has on her at the moment, next her
person.' Fatimah consented, and the gossamer shirt
was sent ; but on receiving it 'Omar's indiscreet passion
only increased, and he continued following in her track
till she was within a few miles of Damascus, when,
after a last interview, he gave up the hopeless pursuit,
and returned unmolested to his own land, where
he dedicated several poems to the adventm"e and to the
praises of Fatimah.
The opening scene of that in which he describes his
daring nocturnal visit is among the most spirited as
the most graphic in liis collection: —
IX.] THE POET 'OMAR. 301
* Whence, friend, so pale 1 ' tliou ask'st lue ; 'tis remembrance :
Tents furled, and laden beasts, and crowds departing.
Midmost her place, closed in with crimson curtains,
From wind and sun, from lover's eyes secluded.
By hill and dale they passed, the North-star leading.
Band after band in long procession winding.
Night fell ; they pitched their rest ; disguised I ventured ;
Well tried the sword, sole helpmate of my venture.
Dark rose the tent ; within the watch-light flickered
O'er beauty's self on silken couch reclining.
All round the guards in iron-vested circle,
Prostrate they lay, of watch and post forgetful ;
Death-like they seemed to strew some field of battle,
Not dead, but toil outworn, and drunk with slumber.
Eoused at my step, she started ; woke the damsel ;
Woke to her call a sister maiden hastening ;
' 'Tis he,' she cried, ' himself ; 'tis he, 'tis 'Omar !
What brought him here, through midmost foes and darkness 1
Ah me ! too mad the love ! too rash the lover !
How 'scape the death 1 how bide the shame, the danger 1 '
' Fear not ; my fame, my life for thine,' I answered,
* From thousand foes secure this arm to shield thee.'
And SO on, through sixty more couplets, containing
much of love, and not a little of vanity.
Under the later Abbaside Caliphs, the fate of a poet,
whatever his rank or talent, who should have dared
to make free with the name of the reigning sovereign's
daughter in amatory verse, would have been doubtful
at best ; and under Persian or Turkish rulers it would
not have been doubtful at all. But the Benoo-
Omeyyah, though often despotic and even sanguinary
at the bidding of ambition or policy, were yet genuuie
Arabs ; and among Arabs, not the Benoo-'Adra only,
Heine's favourites, ' who when they love they die,' but
throughout the tribes of Nejd, and the northern penin-
sula, adventures like those of 'Omar the Mogheeree
and Fatimah the Caliph's daughter were neither im-
common nor even disreputable. True, when pushed
302 THE POET 'OMAR.
too far, or when the principal parties concerned
happened to belong to hostile tribes, or when some
particular hot-tempered cousin or jealous rival came
on the stage, the issue might be serious, and, in rare
instances, fatal ; but under no cu'cumstances did
disgrace attach itself to the loved or the lover so long
as their affection was proof against inconstancy and
unstained by vice. The so-called chivalrous feeling,
that lays the laurels won by sword or pen at the feet,
not of a chief or a party, but of female beauty and
excellence — that consecrates its efforts to the honour
of woman, and ennobles daring and danger by her
name and behoof, had always existed in germ among
the Arab tribes, even during the epoch of the first
barbarism, and may be yet found among the inhabi-
tants of Nejd, where the first ranks of battle are even
in our day, as in old time, headed by a maiden, the
standard-bearer and arbitress of the fight. But it was
in the genuine days of Arab leadership, from the estab-
lishment of the Damascene throne till its removal to
Bagdad, that this form of Arab life-poetry spread
widest and produced its most brilliant examples.
To return, however, to 'Omar. Though unvisited by
any direct chastisement for his rashness, he underwent
for some time the indirect penalty of exclusion from
the Court, where indeed his presence, so long as the
daughter of 'Abd-el-Melik remained there, could hardly
have been permitted ; but at last her marriage with
one of her numerous cousins, and shortly afterwards
the death of her father, did away with this exclusion ;
and his son and successor the Caliph Waleed, on a visit
to Mecca during the first year of his reign, restored the
poet to all his former favour and easy intimacy. The
prudence of family decorum seems to have abstained
from any notice of Fatimah's share in the adventure.
X.
THE BKIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHaRRAN.
[Published ih 'Macmillan's Magazine,' 1872.]
A FEW months' experience of Arabia Proper suffices to
teach the traveller of our day that the terms ' Arab'
and ' Bedouin,' though not unfrequently used as i f
convertible, are by no means such in reality. It may
further teach him, if he knew it not before, that
* Bedouin' and robber are also not necessarily synony-
mous; that the latter designation is no less ill-sounding
to the ordinary Arab ear, than it would be to the
European ; and that the class which it represents is
amenable to whatever penalties Arab law and society
can inflict, much as it would be in more civilized lands
of juries and police-force. Nor is this, so far as Arabia
itself is concerned, a recently introduced order of things,
due to comparatively modern influences, social or po-
litical ; on the contrary, a retrospective view of the
national annals, even when carried back to the first
day-dawn of prae-Islamitic history, presents no other
aspect ; and full five centuries before the appearance of
the Meccan lawgiver, we find the thief, the robber, and
the brigand already paled ofl" from and at war with
established order and right ; already marked with the
outlaw's brand, and subject to all. its sternest conse-
quences. And yet, in spite of these facts, it cannot
304 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SnURRAN. [x.
be denied that, in these same earliest times, the great
peninsula bore, as it still, and to a certain extent not
undeservedly, bears, an evil name for the number and
the audacity of its robbers. The cause is inherent, and
not far to seek.
A population much too scanty in proportion to the
geographical extent of the land it occupies, as also,
though from different reasons, one notably overcrowded,
must always render the efficacious protection of indi-
vidual life and property a difficult task, even for the
strongest and most energetic administration : and the
difficulty will, under a weak or negligent rule, amount
to absolute impossibility. Thus, for example's sake,
the open spaces of the lonely Campagna, the wild
glens of Albania or Koordistan, the parched sierras of
central Spain, and the defiles of southern Greece, have
long been, and, bating external influences, may long
remain, under the feebleness of decrepit or malformetl
Governments, Papal or Turkish, Spanish or Hellene,
the dread of the wayfaring merchant and the defence-
less tourist. In lands like these, the town gates are
often the ultimate limits of security. Indeed it is not,
as we all know, many centuries since, that scantiness
of inhabitants, combined with a defective, because an
incipient, organization, rendered large tracts of France,
of Germany, and of England itself, dangerous travelling
for the unarmed and unescorted.
But nowhere, perhaps, in the old world at least, does
there exist an equal extent of land in which all the
sinister conditions that favour brigandage are so per-
plexingly combined and aggravated, as in Arabia
Proper. There, for distances measured, not by miles
but by degrees, vast expanses of stony, irreclaimable
desert, of pathless sands and labyrinthine rocks, place
utterly disproportionate intervals of enforced solitude
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 305
between the watered valleys and green slopes where
alone anything like settled life and social union can
make good its footing. A week of suns may not
seldom rise and set on the slow-moving caravan
without bringing into view a single roof: indeed, the
known life-sparing clemency of the Arab robber is
chiefly due, not to any favourable speciality of charac-
ter, but to this very circumstance of solitude ; in other
words, to the brigand s certainty that long befose his
plundered victims can reach help, or even give tidings,
he himself and his booty will be far beyond pursuit.
* Desert means license,' says the Arab proverb ; the
wild lands breed wild men ; and thus it is that centu-
ries of comparative law and order, the organizing
vigour of Mahomet and his first successors, the sceptre
of the Caliphs, and the military discipline of the Turks,
have each in their turn failed to render the sand- waves
of the ' Nefood' and the gidlies of * Toweyk' wholly
safe ventures for the traveller ; while even the rigour,
amounting almost to tyranny, of the more recent
Wahhabee rulers, who avowedly tolerate no spoilers
besides themselves, cannot render permanently secure
the intercoui'se and traffic of one Arab province — oasis,
I might better say — with another.
But during the latter years of the prae-Islamitic
period, when the entire centre of the peninsula, and no
small portion of its circumference — that is, whatever
was not immediately subject to the rule of the Ye-
menite kings, and of their or the Persian viceroys —
resembled best of all a seething cauldron, where the
overboihng energies of countless clans and divisions of
clans dashed and clashed in never-resting eddies ; when
no fixed organization or political institution beyond
that of the tribe, at most, had even a chance of per-
manence in the giddy whirl, — open robbers were, as
X
306 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SUURRAN. [x.
might have naturally been expected, both numerous
and daring ; nor can we wonder if, when every man
did more or less what was right in his own eyes, the
list of the colour-blind to the moral tints of 'mine'
and 'thine' should have been a long one, and have
included many names of great though not good renown.
Indeed, it might almost have been anticipated that the
entire nation would have been numbered in the ill-
famed category, till the universality of fact absorbed
the distinction of name ; and none would have been
called robbers, because all were so.
Fortunately the clan principle interfered ; and by
tracing certain, though inadequate, limits of social
right and wrong, rendered trangression alike possible
and exceptional. He who, led astray by private and
personal greed, plundered, not on his clan's account,
but on his own ; who, without discrimination of peace-
time or war, of alliance or hostility, attacked the
friends no less than the foes of his tribesmen, was, from
the earliest times, accounted criminal ; while he who,
in concert with his kin, assailed and spoiled a common
and acknowledged enemy, was held to have performed
an honourable duty. After this fashion the Arabs
learned to draw the line — in no age or country a very
broad one — between war and brigandage ; and by ve-
hement reprobation of the latter, stood self-excused for
their excessive proneness to the former.
From such a state of things, where geograpliical
configuration and political confusion conspired to en-
courage what nascent organization and primal morality
agreed to condemn, arose the prai-Islamitic brigand
class. This, although recruited in the main, after the
fashion of other lands, by idleness, want, and the half-
idiocy that has much, if physiology tell true, to do with
Jiabitual vice, yet comprised also men who under more
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 307
propitious circumstances might have led a different and
an honourable career. These were they who, having,
in consequence of some special deed of blood, sudden
mishap, or occasionally sheer innate fierceness of tem-
perament, become nearly or quite detached from their
own particular clan and its alliances, led, henceforth
at large, a life of ' sturt and strife,' of indiscriminate
plunder and rapine ; disavowed by all, hostile to all,
yet holding their own; and that, strange though it may
seem, not by physical force merely, but also by intel-
lectual pre-eminence. They stand before us in the
national records, apart from the great cliiefs and leaders
of their age, apart from the recognized heroes, the
'Antarahs and Barakats of epic war, wild, half-naked,
savage, inured to hardship, danger, and blood ; yet
looked upon by their countrymen with a respect
amounting almost to awe ; and crowned with a halo
of fame visible even through the mist of centuries, and
under the altered lights of Islam ; men to be admired,
though not imitated ; to be honoured while condemned ;
a moral paradox, explained partly by the character of
the times they lived in, partly by their own personal
qualities.
When a nation is either wholly barbarous or wholly
civilized, the records of its ' criminal classes' are of little
interest, and of less utility. In the former case they
form, indeed, the bulk of the local chronicle ; but the
tale they tell of utter and bestial savagery, the mere
repetition of brute force, cunning, and cruelty, is alike
purportless, tedious, and disgusting. On the other
hand, among nations well advanced in civihzation, the
ban laid on exceptional rebels against the reign of law
is so withering, and the severance between them and
the better life of the land so entire, that nothing re-
mains to a Jack Sheppard or a Bill Sykes but stupid,
X 2
308 THE BRIGAiXD, TA' ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
hateful, unmeaning vice, unfit either to point the moral
of the novelist or to adorn the tale of the historian.
But between the two extremes of barbarism and
of culture, the records of most nations exhibit a middle
or transition period, when the bonds of society, though
formed, are still elastic ; while public morahty is
already sufficiently advanced to disallow much that
public order is as yet too feeble to repress. In such
a period the highway robber is apt to be regarded with
a sort of half-toleration, as a relic of the 'good old
times ; ' and even becomes in the estimation of many
a sort of conservative protest against the supposed
degeneracies and real artificialities of progress ; a semi-
hero, to be, metaphorically at least, if not in fact,
hung in a silken halter, and cut down to the tune of
a panegyric. On these frontier lines between order
and anarchy, in this twilight between license and law,
flourish Eobin Hoods, Helmbrechts, Kalewi-Poegs, and
their like ; equivocal celebrities, brigands by land and
corsairs at sea; feared, respected, and hated by theii'
injured contemporaries ; more honoured by later and
securer generations, and ultimately placed on pedestals
of fame side by side with their betters in the national
Valhalla. And what the era of King John was to
England, the 'Interregnum' to Germany, the days of
Sueno and his peers to Scandinavia, that were to
Arabia the two centuries that preceded the appearance
of Mahomet, but chiefly the former. Heroes had ceased
to be robbers, but robbers had not wholly ceased to be
heroes.
A more special reason for the peculiar and prominent
rank held in proe-Islamitic Arab story by these wild
rovers of the desert, is to be sought in the intense
vigour and activity of the prevailing national spirit,
of which these very men were an ill-regulated and
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SUURRAN. 309
exaggerated, yet by no means an unfaithful repre-
sentation. To the physical advantages of strength,
fleetness, quickness of eye, and dexterity of hand — all
objects of deliberate and systematic culture in Pagan
Arabia, no less than in Pagan Greece — they added
many of the moral qualities then held in the highest
esteem by their countrymen — patient endurance, fore-
thought, courage, daring, and even generosity ; while
some of them in addition attained lasting fame for
excellence in poetry, then, as now, the proudest boast
of the Arab. Thus it was that -although rapine, blood-
shed, and, not rarely, treachery, might dim, they could
not wholly echpse the splendour of their better
qualities and worthier deeds.
Such was the classical prse-Islamitic brigand, as
portrayed to us in the pages of the Hamasah, of Aboo-
1-Faraj, Meydanee, and others ; not indeed the full
image, but the skeleton and ground-plan of his race ;
a type in which the Arab character, not of those ages
only but of all succeeding generations, is correctly
though roughly given ; untameable, self-reHant, defiant,
full of hard good sense and deep passion, a vivid though
a narrow imagination, and a perfect command of the
most expressive of all spoken languages ; while at the
same time these very men, by their isolation, their
inaptitude for organized combination, their contempt
for all excellence or development save that of the
individual, their aversion to any restraint however
wholesome, and above all their restless inconstancy
of temper, give the measure of Arab national weakness,
and too clearly illustrate that incoherent individualism
which ruined the Empires of Damascus, Bagdad, and
Cordova, and blighted even in its flower the fairest
promise of the Arab mind.
Their muster-roll is a long one ; but at its head
310 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
stand eminent three names of lenown, illustrated by
records of exceptional completeness. These are Ta'ab-
bet-Shurran, Shanfara', and Soleyk, men each of whom
deserves special mention, bectiuse each represents in
himself a peculiaT subdivision of the great brigand
class.
' Ta'abbet-Shurran,' or, ' He has taken an evil thing
under his arm,' is the composite appellation by which
Arab story recognizes its robber-hero of predilection.
His real name was Thabit, the son of Jabir ; the clan
of Fahm, to which he belonged, formed part of the
great Keys-'Eglan family, the progeny of Modar ; and
accordingly of 'Most'areb, that is 'adscitious Arab,'
or, in mythical phrase, of Ismaelitic, not of 'Aarab,'
' pure Arab,' or of Southern and Kahtanee origin.
The Fahm Arabs, nomade once, but tamed down by
the process of the suns into semi-agriculturists, still,
as in the century, the fifth of our era, when Ta'abbet-
Shurran lent his sinister lustre to their name, frequent
the wild and secluded, but well- watered gorges that
lie immediately behind the mountains of Ta'if and
Aseer, south-east of Mecca, somewhat apart from the
main Hues of Arab land communication ; and while
they have secured a practical independence by nominal
acquiescence in the political or religious phases of their
more powerful neighbours, scarcely bear themselves
a trace of the many influences that have again and
again remodelled the not distant capital of the Penin-
sula. A few earth villages with low yellowish walls,
a somewhat larger number of black tent-groujis ; liere
and there a scraggy enclosure of palms, melons, and
vetches, or a thinly verdant patch of pasture ; a fair
allowance of goats and camels, of rock and sand be-
tween ; lean dusky men in long shirts and tattered
cloaks, striped or black ; near the houses some muflled
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 311
women in dark-blue cloth, and glass arm-rings ; some
very brown and naked children, seemingly belonging
to no one in particular, — such is the land and tribe
of Fahm, rich in blood and genealogies, miserably poor
in all besides, and a fit nursing-stock for robbers, even
now.
How the Fahmite Thabit, son of Jabir, came by
the denominative sentence which has almost superseded
his original name in his country's literature, is variously
related. According to one account, he had gone out
while yet a mere boy on some lonely errand, probably
to look after some stray camel, and had advanced far
into the desert, when suddenly he saw what seemed
a large goat perched upon a rock before him. At his
approach the thing darted away ; the lad followed, and
being fleet and sure of foot, soon overtook and captured
it. But to bring it home was no easy matter, for the
brute, not content with kicking and struggling, took
to becoming heavier and heavier every minute, till
Thabit, whose strength had only just sufficed to carry
it up to the limits of the encampment, was forced to
let it drop. But hardly had it touched the ground
than, in full view of all the horrified bystanders, it
assumed its proper form, that of a Ghowl, or demon,
and vanished. ' Ta'abbet-Shurran ' ('He has brought
a mischief under his arm') said the clansmen one to
another ; and this henceforth was Thabit's name. In
this story is adumbrated what the Greeks, like the
Arabs, would have called the ' dgemon ' character of
the man himself Another and a more prosaic version
substitutes for the goat-ghowl, Thabit's own sword,
which he was in the habit of thus carrying no less
persistently than Louis Philippe his umbrella, and
which certainly wrought mischief enough, as we shall
soon see.
312 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
On details like these historical criticism would be
a mere waste of learning and ingenuity ; the general
truthfulness of a portrait is more to our present pur-
pose than the minute precision of a photograph. All
annalists agree in representing Ta'abbet-Shurran as an
essentially 'wild man;' clever, talented even, but
irreclaimable ; a born rebel to all social law and
custom ; one of the fercB naturd whom the literature
of modern times is wont to paint in somewhat rounded
contours and prismatic colours, but whose real linea-
ments stand out harsh and vigorous in one of the
son of Jabir's authentic poems, where his own ultimate
hero-ideal is thus portrayed : —
Nor exults he nor complains be ; silent bears whate'er befalls him,
Much desiring, much attempting ; far the wanderings of his venture.
In one desert noon beholds him ; evening finds him in another ;
As the wild ass lone he crosses o'er the jagged and headlong ridges.
Swifter than the wind unpausing, onward yet, nor rest nor slackness,
While the howling gusts outspeeded in the distance moan and faulter.
Light the slumber on his eyelids, yet too heavy all he deems it ;
Ever watchful for the moment when to draw the bitter faulchion ;
When to plunge it in the heart-blood of the many-mustered foemen,
While the Fates bystanding idly grin to see their work accomi^lished.
Loneliness his choice companion ; and the guide-marks of his roam-
ing.—
Tell me, whither guide the mazes of the streaky-spangled heavens 1
* As the dawn, so the day,' says an Arab proverb ;
and the circumstances under which Ta'abbet-Shurran
quitted his flxmily and tribe while yet a mere boy, give
a tolerable insight into what his character even then
was, and what an after career might be augured for
him. The 'frightful, desperate, wild, and furious' of
Shakespeare's young Kichard is no less applicable to
the former stage of Ta'abbet's life, than ' daring, bold,
and venturous' to the latter. To Western ears the
tale may sound a strange one ; but to those who have
x.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SUURRAN. 313
passed a day among the tents of Wadee-1-Kora, or
a night on the gravel-strewn plains of 'Aared, it has
little startling, and nothing incredible.
The mother of Ta' abbe t-Shar ran, left a widow by
the death of her first husband Jabir, while our hero
and his four brave but less celebrated brothers were yet
mere children, had married again, and this time her
choice had fallen on a man named 'Amir, of the tribe
of Hodeyl ; a clan famous alike for warriors and poets,
the latter of whom have bequeathed to posterity an
entire volume, or Divan, of verses, oftener studied than
understood, even by Arab commentators and critics.
'Amir himself was a poet ; and some by no means con-
temptible performances of his in this line have come
down to us. Second, or even third and fourth marriages
have never involved any discredit in Arab opinion,
whether Pagan or Mahometan ; nor would the merry
wife of Bath have needed much argument to make good
her case, had her pilgrimage been to 'Okad, or Mecca,
instead of Canterbury. The only inconveniences a
. buxom and well-to-do Arab widow needed, or for the
matter of that, still needs carefully to avoid, were
family jealousies and clannish dissensions : the relict
of Jabir ran her matrimonial ship in its second voyage
on both these rocks. Hodeyl, though a neighbouring
was not a kindred clan to Fahm ; and Ta'abbet-Shurran,
or, to give him his domestic name, Thabit, who was
the eldest and fiercest among his brothers, soon learned
to look on his stepfather as an intruder, and on his
position in the household as an abiding insult. When
'Amir (so continues the narrative) saw the lad beside
him growing up with evident signs in his face of a
hatred which he took no pains to conceal, he said one
day to his wife, * By heaven, this youngster's manner
causes me real uneasiness : our marriage is the cause ;
314 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SUURRAX. [x.
had we not better separate at once before worse
happens % Divorce is a less evil than bloodshed.' But
the woman, who seems to have hked the company of
her new husband better than the children of her old
one, answered : ' First try if you cannot clear the
fellow out of the way by some stratagem.' 'Amir
accordingly waited his opportunity, till when a con-
venient time came he said to the lad, ' Are you dis-
posed to accompany me on a raid V ' With all my
heart,' was the ready answer. * Come along, then,' said
'Amir. So they set out both of them together ; but
'Amir purposely omitted to take any provisions with
them for the road. They journeyed on all that night
and the next day, without once halting, till the second
evening closed in, by which time 'Amir made certain
that the lad must be well-nigh famished for went of
food. Thus thinking, he led the way in a direction
where enemies were hkely to be, till at last there ap-
peared the gleam of a fire burning at some distance in
front. 'Amir then stopped and said to his stepson,
' Halloa, boy ' we are short of food, and must get some-
thing to eat ; go over to where you see that fire, and
ask the folk who are cooking by it to give us a share
of their meal.' Thabit answered, ' What, man ! is this
a time for eating?' 'Time or not, I am hungry,'
'Amir rejoined, 'so off with you, and bring me some
supper.' Thabit made no further answer, but went.
As he neared the fire he saw two of the most notorious
ruffians in the whole land sitting by it ; they were in
fact the. very men into whose hands his stepfather had
designed that he should fall. When the reflection of
the fire fell on the lad, the ruffians saw him and sprang
up to seize him; he turned and ran; they followed ;
but he was lighter of foot than they, and kept ahead,
till looking over his shoulder he observed that one of
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA' ABBET-SHURRAN . 315
his pursuers had outstripped the other ; then suddenly
turning on the nearer of the two, he closed with him,
and laid him dead at a blow. This done, without a
moment's pause he mshed on the other, who stood
bewildered, and disposed of him in the same manner.
He then walked leisurely to the fire which they had
lighted, and there found some unleavened bread baking
under the cinders ; this he took, and brought it,
without tasting it, to his stepfather, saying, * Eat —
may it choke you ! ' But he himself refused to touch
a morsel. 'Amir said, 'Tell me all about it, and how
you came by it.' The lad answered, ' What is that to
you \ eat, and ask no questions.' So 'Amir ate, but
more from compulsion than appetite, while his fear of
the young devil increased every instant, till, unable to
contain his curiosity, he again begged the boy, adjuring
him by all the rights of companionship to tell him the
whole adventure. Thabit did so, and the result was
that 'Amir now feared him worse than ever. After
some hours' rest they again went on, and soon reached
the pasture grounds of the hostile tribe, whence they
succeeded in driving off some camels, and then turned
homewards with their booty, taking, however, a distant
and circuitous way to avoid pursuit. For three suc-
cessive nights on the road 'Amir said to his stepson,
' Make choice which half of the night you would best
like to keep watch over the camels ; as for me, I will
take charge of them for the other half, while you
sleep.' But Thabit as regularly answered, ' Make
your choice yourself; it is all one to me.' Free thus
to arrange matters according to his own liking, 'Amir
used to sleep during the first half of the night, while
his stepson sat up and kept guard ; at midnight 'Amir
rose and relieved the lad, who then went and lay down
for a few hours ; but when Thabit seemed once to be
316 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
fast asleep, 'Amir took the opportunity to lie down and
go to sleep also ; so that in fact he never kept watch
at all. Thus passed three nights. On the fourth and
last — for they were now nearing their own land — 'Amir
thought that the lad must certainly be overcome with
fatigue and drowsiness. So he lay down as usual and
took his fill of sleep, while Thabit remained keeping
good watch till midnight came, when it was 'Amir's
turn to rise and guard. This he did, till after a while
he saw the lad to all appearance sound asleep, when he
said within himself, ' Surely the fellow must now be
tired out, and hard of waking ; now or never is the
time to get rid of him altogether.' Not feeling, how-
ever, quite sure whether his stepson's slumbers were in
reality as deep as they seemed, he thought it best to
try an experiment first ; so, taking up a pebble from
the ground beside him, he flung it to some distance,
when lo ! hardly had the stone touched the sand, than
the lad started up bolt upright, with * What noise was
that V 'Amir, feigning surprise, answered, * On my
life I do not know ; but it seemed to me to come from
the direction where the camels are. I heard it, but
could not make it out clearly.' Hereon Thabit went
and prowled about, searching on all sides in the dark-
ness, till, having discovered nothing, he returned and
lay down. A second time the stepfather waited, long
enough as he thought ; then took a little pebble,
smaller than the first, and jerked it away. It fell a
long way off ; but no sooner had it struck the plain,
than the boy was on his feet again, exclaiming, ' What
was that V * Really I cannot say,' was the answer ;
* this is the second time I have heard it ; perhaps one
of the camels has got loose.' Instantly Thabit began
prowling hither and thither in the dark night, but of
course could find nothing on which to fix his suspicion ;
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. 317
SO he returned to his place and laid him down once
more. A third time 'Amir waited till a full hour had
passed, and then took up the very smallest pebble he
could find, and flung it away with all his force as far
as possible. But the result was all one ; up leaped the
lad, fresh as at first, only that this time he asked no
questions, but, setting off without a word, searched
thoroughly on all sides around; then returned, and
coming close up to his stepfather, said, ' Fellow, I do
not like these doings of yours ; so I give you now fair
warning, the next time I hear anything more of this
kind, by G — d you are a dead man.' With this he
went a little apart and settled himself again to sleep ;
while 'Amir, as he himself afterwards told the story,
passed the remaining hours of darkness wide awake,
and in mortal fear, lest by some accident any one of
the camels should really stir, and the lad jump up and
kill him. Next day they reached the tents of Fahm ;
but Thabit, who guessed rightly enough that a plot
had been laid against him, and that his mother had
been privy to it, would not remain any longer in the
family, but took to the desert. 'Amir also shortly after
found his position in the tribe, who had got an inkling
of the matter, an unpleasant one ; so he divided his
goods with his wife, and divorcing himself from her,
returned to the pastures of Hodeyl.
However, Thabit, or Ta'abbet-Shurran, as, in compli-
ance with his Arab chroniclers, I shall henceforth call
him, became subsequently reconciled with his mother ;
and often when weary, or hard-pressed by pursuers,
availed himself of the temporary repose and shelter of
her tent. With his own tribe too, the men of Fahm, he
always remained on friendly terms, though he took no
part henceforth in their public affairs ; nor was he re-
garded by them as entitled to their protection, much
318 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
less assistance. But for all others whatever, he was
simply an outlaw and a robber ; while the clan of
Hodevl, which he had early learned to hate on his step-
father's account, was, his whole life through, the special
object of his depredations.
There is a region which, while it belongs to none of
the three great provinces of Western and Central
Arabia — to Hejaz, that is, Nejd, or Yemen — yet forms a
kind of junction-tract between them, and is in conse-
quence traversed by most of the great Arab routes that
lead from all directions to the old centre of commercial
and social activity, the territory of Mecca. From the
earliest times down to our own, this border-land has
been a favourite resort of highwaymen ; partly on
account of the frequent opportunities of plunder af-
forded by passing travellers and caravans, partly from
its own topographical peculiarities, which seem to make
it out as a fitting repair for brigands and outlaws. It
is an intricate labyrinth of valleys, narrow and winding
where they first descend from the rugged ranges of
Jebel Aseer on the west, but widening out as they
approach the low level of the great desert or ' Dahna','
and assuming the form of long shallow gullies where
they rise again towards the table-land of Nejd. West-
ward the hills are frequently wooded with ' Ithel,' the
Arabian tamarisk, with * Rind,' or wild laurel, with
' Sidr,' a pretty dwarf acacia, besides the spreading
' Markh,' and other large semi-tropical trees ; while
under the shade of these coverts numerous wild ani-
mals make their lair ; wolves, foxes, jackals, hyrenas,
and especially the small but ferocious Arabian panther,
black-spotted on a light yellow ground, the terror of
the herded gazelles, and sometimes of the hunter also.
In other places the rocks are precipitous, bare and
inaccessible to all but the wild goats that browze the
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. 319
occasional tufts of thin grass or dwarf shrubs springing
from their clefts. The valleys, where narrow, form
water-courses in the rainy season ; and even in the heats
of mid-summer not unfrequently shelter deep pools,
protected from sun and wind by some over-hanging
rock ; little patches too of cultivation occur here and
there, marking the permanent establishment of a few
families, or a moderate stretch of green justifies the pre-
sence of some herdsmen's tents. But nowhere do the
conditions of the land allow of anything like real popu-
lousness ; and the abruptness of the local barriers tends
to divide tlie scanty inhabitants into small, almost iso-
lated clusters, while by the same fact it detains them in
a state of semi-barbarism, scarcely, if at all, affected by
centuries of comparative civihsation around.
Further on however, where these valleys enter the
' DahnaV the prospect is dreary indeed ; rock and sand,
the latter light and ever shifting, the former abrupt
and rugged, or spreading into miles of continuous stone-
sheet ; the whole appearing much as the bottom of the
ocean might possibly do were it upheaved and left
exposed to the sun ; an imagination not far removed, it
may be, in this case, from the geological reality of
things. But, jotted as at random through the waste,
where least expected amid the utter seeming drought,
and discoverable only by long practice and that inti-
macy with the desert which few but outlaws are likely
to acquire, lie small pale green spots, marked out by
the wild palm, the feathery ' Ithel,' and the tangled
' Semr' thorn. Here water is to be found when duo- for
at the depth of a few feet under earth ; here also is
wood enough for the modest requirements of Arab
cookery ; here the traveller may occasionally halt at
mid-day or night-fall ; and here the robber, flying or
pursuing, may take a few hours' stolen repose.
320 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
This is the land now known as El-Kora, Soleyyel,
Bisha', and Aftaj ; a land long unchanged, and likely
long to remain so, both in itself and in its inhabitants.
On its outskirts west and north spread the pastures
of Hodeyl, a tribe once numerous and powerful, and
even now not only independent of, but actively hostile
to, the powers that be ; to the soutli are the small but
many villages of Bajeelah, a Yemenite or ' 'Arab ' tribe,
who, with others of their kindred, extend down to the
frontiers of rich and populous Nejran ; to the east
stretched, in Ta'abbet-Shurrans time, the vast encamp-
ments of Temeen and Aamir, the chief of all the central
* Most'areb,' or * adscitious ' clans ; but these last are
now crystallized into Wahhabee provinces.
On all of these, now one, now the other, Ta'abbet-
Sliurran made his predatory attacks, disregardful alike
of national alliance or enmity ; sometimes alone, more
often in compan}'- with other outlaws, to whom he acted
as a temporary leader. Many of these raids have been
recorded at great length by Arab chroniclers, who have
besides preserved to us the verses in which the robber-
hero, not more modest in self-praise than the generality
of poets, celebrated his own prowess. A few of these
anecdotes, rendered as literally as may be, consistently
with transferring, or at least attempting to transfer, the
vividness of the original Arab picture to the dissimilar
canvas of the European mind — no easy task — will best
illustrate the man, and those amongst whom he lived.
Once of a time he had led a band of fellow-brigands
on an expedition directed against the herds and havings
of the Benoo Hodeyl, not far from Ta'if On their way
the party passed beneath a precipice of great height ;
its face showed far up the entrance of a cavern, above
which Ta'abbet-Shurran's practised eyes could detect a
swarm of bees hovering. Now, wild honey — for art-
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 321
made hives and tame bees were yet unknown — was the
only substitute possessed by the Arabs of those days
for sugar, and ranked accordingly as a choice, almost
indeed a necessary, dainty. Ta'abbet and his crew at
once postponed their original design on sheep and
camels in favour of this rarer booty ; and by long and
circuitous paths clambered up the moimtain till they
stood on its brow, right above the caverned cliff. Next,
Ta'abbet tied a camel-rope round his waist, while his
comrades made fast the other end to the stump of a
tree, and taking with him a couple of empty skins,
allowed himself to be lowered against the mountain
face, till he dangled opposite to the mouth of the cave,
into which he then contrived to swing himself; much
like Shakespeare's samphire-gatherer, or a Norwegian
in quest of sea-fowl. As he had conjectured, a large
store of excellent honey had collected within the
cavern, and he proceeded at his leisure to fill the skins
he had brought with the desired prize, unsuspicious of
any danger from without. But while he thus busied
himself, some men of Hodeyl, who, hidden in the brush-
wood on the upper slope, had watched all these doings,
suddenly rushed out on the associates of the Fahm
brigand, and drove them off from their post. The
Hodeylees, now masters of the jDosition, began twitch-
ing the upper end of the rope that girdled Ta'abbet' s
waist, and thus apprised him of an unfriendly presence.
Without hesitation he cut the cord with his dagger, and
then advancing to the mouth of the cave looked up.
' Caught,' exclaimed his enemies.
' Caught, indeed !' sneeringly replied Ta'abbet ; ' that
we have yet to see. Do you mean to take ransom and
let me go unharmed V
' No conditions with such as you,' they answered
from above.
322 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
* Aha ! is that your game \ ' rejoined the robber. ' You
think that you have already caught me, and killed me,
and eaten my honey too, which I have been at such
pains to get. No, by G — d ! that shall never be/
Thus saying, he brought the skins to the mouth of
the hole, and poiu*ed out all the honey, so that it went
trickling down the face of the precipice in their sight ;
next he took the empty skins, honey-smeared as they
were, and tied them tight against his breast and body ;
and then, while the men of Hodeyl stood looking on in
stupid amazement, let himself shp feet foremost down
the crag, with such dexterity that in a few minutes he
was safe at the bottom, some hundreds of yards below ;
and long before his mtended captors, descending by the
ordinary path, had circled the mountain and reached
the other side, was far away beyond all chance of
pursuit.
So brilliant an escape deserved to be commemorated
by its hero in a spirited poem, from which I will quote
a few Hnes : —
This my answer to the foemen, when alone I stood defenceless,
Closed the paths hehiud, before me, in the hour of doubt and danger.
' Is it thus the choice ye give me 1 rausomed life, and scornful mercy 1
These, or death 1 — not two the offers ; one alone befits the freeman.
Yet a third is mine, ye know not ; reason scarce admits the venture ;
Daring pronipts it ; and the peril bids me test it to the utmost.'
Iron-hard the rocks, and 'neath them Death securely waits his
victim ; —
Harder than the rocks my breast ; and Death askance beholds my
safety.
The image of Death enraged at his escape, like that
of the Fates, idly grinning, their occupation gone, over
the enemies he had .slaughtered without biding their
permission, was, it would seem, in Ta'abbet-Shurran's wild
fancy, more than a mere poetical figure of speech. For
him — so the Arab narrative, half credulous, half sceptic,
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. 323
records — the desert was peopled with weird phantom
shapes, all horrible, and befitting the guilty imaginings
or companionship of a man of blood. Foremost among
these was the ' Ghowl,' a monster half flesh, half spirit ;
tangible, yet ever changing its form ; endowed with
speech and reason, but for evil only ; hating man, and
ever seeking his harm. It may not be amiss here to
remark, that proe-Islamitic Arab spiritualism, in the
metaphysical sense of the word, seems, like that of the
Jews, to have been nearly if not quite exh.austed by the
sole conception of a Supreme Kuler ; all else, whatever
is known among other races as soul, ghost, spectre, angel,
demon, fairy, sprite, goblin, and so forth, was for them
corporeal, or at best quasi-corporeal, and subject, though
with certain appropriate modifications, to the principal
conditions of animated matter, such as we experimen-
tally reckon them. Nor was Mahomet himself, the
Koran to witness, much ahead of his ancestors in this
respect. It is not till a later date, when Persian, Greek,
and Tatar ideas had infiltrated the national mind, that
anything like the Teutonic, Celtic, or even Norse spirit
appears among the phantasmagoria of Arab literature.
As for the ' Ghowl,' that most popular of prse-Islamitic
superstitions, and the nearest approach to a genuine
Arab ' devil,' it was, to complete its corporeality, male
and female, and, though remarkably tenacious of life,
mortal ; but when it happened at last to be killed, its
carcase had the facultv — an anno vino- one for curious
investigators — of disappearing altogether, or of pre-
senting at most the appearance of a small piece
of burnt leather, or some equally uninstructive sub-
stance. Masa'oodee, the author whose discursive work,
the * Golden Meadows,' has procured him the over-
flattering title of the ' Arab Herodotus,' speculates
not quite unreasonably on the matter, and inclines
Y 2
324 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. [x
to the opinion that the ' Ghowl ' of old times was
nothing else than some ferocious and ill-favoured
wild beast, probably of the ape genus, rarely met
with, and exaggerated by excited imaginations into
a demon. Thus much is certain, that in proportion as
Arab records approach an era of increased population
and of freer intercourse between province and province,
the ' Ghowl ' becomes less frequent, and ultimately dis-
appears altogether ; while more spiritual conceptions,
such as ' Jinn,' ' Hatif ' or Banshee, ' 'Ay id ' or ' haunting-
ghost,' and the like, take its place. However, even at
the present day, the inhabitants of Beja' on the Nubian
frontier, and the negroes of Kordofan and Darfoor, have
the good fortune to retain their ' Ghowls ' — ' Kotrobs '
they call them — of the genuine Arab kind, perhaps
their gorillas.
But in Ta'abbet's epoch the 'Ghowl,' whether demon,
ape, or fancy, was no rarity ; and a night-long duel be-
tween the great robber and one of these unamiable
beings in the dreary valley of Roha-Batan, near Kalaat-
Bisha', a few days' journey to the south-east of Mecca,
may at least claim what authenticity Ta'abbet-Shurran's
own verses can give it. The curiosity of the record,
almost unique of its kind in its completeness, may serve
to excuse the childishness of the subject : —
bear ye tlie tidings to all of my dan,
The wondrous encounter in Roha's lone dell.
The fiend-guarded land, where the Ghowl of the waste
In horror and blaekness contested my path.
1 said, * We are kinsniates, our fortunes are one
Thou and I ; why assail me 1 in peace get thee gone.'
It spoke not, but darted to rend me ; I turned,
Upraised in my hand ilie keen faulehion of Yemen ;
Then fearless I struck, and the spectre before me
Lay shapeless and prone on the earth at my feet.
' Depart,' so it groaned ; but T answered, ' Await,
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 325
Not threats cau avail thee, nor guile set thee free.'
Slow wore the long night as I grappled the foe,
Till morning should show me what darkness concealed.
Then gleamed to the dawn the green fire of its eye,
The jaws of the panther, the snake's cloven tongue ;
Distorted the foot ; — who the monster would know
May seek where I sought it, and find where I found.
This lasi>mentioned diabolical peculiarity, the distorted
or cloven foot, reappears in every Arab or negro tale
of the kind, from the earliest to the latest. By what
law of analogy or derivation this peculiar feature
has been selected to identify the embodied power of
e\T.l in the popular myths of almost every, if not of
every nation, Turanian, Arian, Celtic, or 'Semitic,' is
a question to which Mr. Tylor alone can perhaps
supply a satisfactory answer.
So far, however, as daring and violence carried to
an almost preternatural degree are coDcerned, Ta'abbet-
Shurran himself seems to have deserved a place among
the worst ghowls of his day. I pass over the long list of
plundering excursions that fill page after page of Aboo-
1-Faraj, his best chronicler, with lances, swords, and
blood ; nor need his adventures in the southern ' valley
of tigers,' where, out of sheer bravado, he passed the
night unarmed and alone, nor his cattle-drivings in
Nejd, nor his vengeance on the chiefs of Bajeelah,
who had, treacherously enough, attempted to poison
him, be here related in detail. ' What on earth do
you want with the doings of Ta'abbet-Shurran V said
his own tribesmen of Fahm, some five centuries later,
to the inquisitive 'Omar-esh-Sheybanee, an annalist
of some note, when he paid them a visit in their remote
encampments, on purpose to learn what memories the
clan might still retain of their equivocal hero ; ' do you
too want to set up for a highwayman V An answer
not wholly without a moral. Nor need we wonder
326 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. [x.
if, where such was tlie general f'eehng, Ta'abbet-Shur-
ran, however distinguished for personal bravery and
poetical talent, was yet, in spite of these recommenda-
tions, ordinarily so attractive, no favourite with those
whose goodwill should have been the best reward of
his exploits, the fair ones of the land ; nay, he has
himself handed down to us in verse the refusal with
wdiich a Nedjee girl of high birth met his proposals
of man'iage ; though he consoles himself with the
ungallant reflection that after all he was perhaps too
good for her.
Before quitting him, however, I will relate, or rather
translate at length, one more of his adventures, a very
spirited one in itself, and, besides, associated with
another name almost equal in the records of brigand-
age, and much higher on the list of prte-Islamitic
poets than that of Ta'abbet-ShuiTan himself, the name
of Shanfara' the Azdite.
With some insio^nificant variations, due to the
remoteness of the era and the uncertainty inherent
in hearsay Arab tradition, the story is as follows : —
One summer Ta'abbet-Shurran, Ebn-Barrak, also a
first-class brigand, and from the same tribe of Fahm,
and Slianfara' the Azdite, set out all three together
on a plundering expedition against the Yemenite or
southern tribe of Bajeelah, and drove off some of their
cattle. Intelligence of the raid soon spread through
the injured clan, and a considerable band of Bajeelah
warriors set themselves on the track of the marauders,
who, abandoning their booty, fled northwards, till they
reached the higldands of Sorat, somewhat east of the
Meccan territory, wherti they hoped to find refuge,
and thence to pass on beyond reach into the laby-
rinthine entrances of Nejd. But their pursuers, aware
of their intentions, anticipated them by a sliort cut ;
x] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 327
and Ta'abbet-Shurran with his companions were com-
pelled to tm-n aside intp the low grounds behind Ta'if,
westwards. It was summer, and no water fit for
drinking was to be had for miles around, except in
the well-known pool, or rather reservoir, of Waht, a
deep hollow, overarched by rocks, and sheltered from
the scorching air and sunbeams all the year through.
Here the men of Bajeelah hastened to arrive the first,
and here they laid ambush, certain that the brigands,
parched with thirst after their long wanderings on the
dry stony hills, and unable of course to carry water
with them in so precipitate a flight, must necessarily
attempt to refresh themselves at Waht ; there was
no other place. The calculation proved correct ; and
after nightfall Ta'abbet-Shurran, Ebn-Barrak, and
Shanfara', aU unsuspecting of the snare, arrived at the
water. But while they stood a moment to take breath
on the sheeted rock near the pool's edge, Ta'abbet
turned short round, and said to his comrades, —
'Better dispense with drinking just now; we shall
need all our wind for another good run this night.'
' What makes you think that V they answered.
' Because,' he replied, ' there are men here in am-
bush ; I can hear the beating of their hearts vibrating
through the rock under my feet.'
'Nonsense,' rejoined the others, whose senses were
naturally less acute, or perhaps were dulled by fatigue;
*it is only the palpitating of your own heart that
you hear.'
' My heart ! no, by G-d,' said Ta'abbet, as he grasped
the hands of both his fellows, and pressed them close
against his breast ; ' feel for it ; it never palpitated yet,
nor is it subject to weaknesses of that kind.' Then
he stooped down, and ])lacing his ear against the ground,
said, ' I hear it distinctly ; there are several of them.'
328 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. [x.
' Be that as it may,' exclaimed Ebn-Ban-ak, ' I for
my part am almost dead with thirst, and drink I must ;
so here goes/ With this he advanced a few steps
along the ledge into the cavern, and then going down
on his hands and knees, took a full draught of the
water. Meanwhile, the Bajeelah ambuscade, hidden
under the hollow rock further within, could, from where
they were, distinctly see his form against the glimmer
at tlie cave's mouth, for it was near moonrise ; but
as he was not the one they had specially set their
minds on taking prisoner, they gave no signs of their
presence. So when Ebn-Barrak had drunk his fill,
he got up and returned to his associates outside, saying,
' I have been there, and you may take my word for
it, that there is never a man hidden in the cave.'
' There are, however, and many, only it is not you
but me they want to catch,' rejoined Ta'abbet-Shurran.
Next Shanfara' went in and drank, but he also was
not the one, and the men of Bajeelah let him come
and go quietly ; so he too returned uninterfered with
to the others. ' Now,' said Ta'abbet-Shurran to Shan-
fara', ' is my turn to try the cavern ; and I know
beforehand that the moment I stoop to drink, the
water-ambuscade will spring out on me and make me
prisoner. The instant this happens you must run off,
as though you meant to escape altogether ; but when
you are near that rock,' pointing to one at no great
distance, 'turn aside and hide up under cover of its
shadow, and there keep quiet, till you hear me cry,
" Catch him ! catch him !" then rush suddenly back and
cut my ])onds.' Next addressing Ebn-Barrak : ' As
for you, you must make as though you were willing
to surrender yourself to them, yet take good care they
do not actually get hold of you ; keep clear of them,
but do not go too fai' ofl'.'
X.] THE BRIGAND, TAABBET-SHURRAN. 329
After giving tliese directions, lie entered the gloom
of the cavern, and hardly had he stooped and ^''ut liis
lips to the water, when the men of Bajeelah rushed
on liim from their hiding-place ; some grappled him,
while others bound him fast with a cord ; when they
had him safe, they led him out a prisoner into the
open air.
Shanfara', as had been already agreed on, started
off like a deer, till he hid himself out of sight under
the rock ; Ebn-Barrak, meantime, also made a feint
of escaping, but stopped short at easy distance, where
he could be clearly distinguished by the level moon-
light down the valley. Then Ta'abbet-Shurran said
to his captors, 'I will make you a fair offer : will you
spare my life and let me go free on ransom, on con-
dition that Ebn-Barrak also shall give himself up as
prisoner, and pay you a handsome ransom too?' To
this they, nothing suspecting, gave a ready assent.
Hereon Ta'abbet-Shurran raised his voice and shouted,
' Halloa, you there, Ebn-Barrak ! Shanfara' has got
off already, and will this very night be comfortably
seated before the night-fires of such and such a tribe ;
let him go, he is a stranger to us, and may shift for
himself; but you and I are blood-relations, and have
always held together for better for worse. Will you
now prove yourself a friend in need, and give yourself
freely up of your own accord to these men on my
account, that so we may both be ransomed together?'
Ebn-Barrak at once perceived his ulterior pur^iort,
and shouted back, —
' Agreed to ; but whoever wants to have me must
be at the pains of catching me first; and I do not mean
to let these fellows make me their prisoner till I have
first taught them how easily I could have escaped them
had I chosen.'
330 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
Thus saying, he ran off at full speed towards the
mountain, then doubled back, repeating this manoeuATe
two or three times, as though out of sheer ostentation,
while the men of Bajeelah amused themselves lookmg
on. At last they thought he must be tired, and set
after him in good earnest, while Ta'abbet-Shurran, as
like one who enjoyed the sport, called out after them,
* Catch him ! catch him !'
At the signal, Shanfara' rushed suddenly out of his
hiding-place, came up to Ta'abbet-Shurran, and cut his
bonds. The two without delay joined Ebn-Barrak; and
then the whole band, now reunited, turned for an
instant on the top of the hill, while Ta'abbet-Shurran
called out to his bewildered captors, —
' My friends of Bajeelah, you have no doubt admired
Ebn-Bariak's speed of foot, but now, by this heaven, I
will show you something to put all else out of mind.'
He turned and fled with the swiftness of the wind ;
his comrades followed, and all three had soon escaped
into the depths of the deseit, this time not to be
retaken.
But Shanfara', he who figures in this story, was no
mere ordinary or professional robber like Ta'abbet-
Shurran and Ebn-Barrak, with whom chance rather
than mode of life associated him on the present occa-
sion. Not plunder, but revenge, was the motor
principle of Shanfara' s life. By birth he was of
Yemenite or ' 'Aarab' origin, and belonged to the tribe
of Azd, being thus, according to Eastern genealogists,
a direct descendant of Saba, the Sheba, it would seem,
of Jewish records. While yet a child he was captured
by the hostile tribe of Shebabah, on the southern
frontiers of Nejtl, where M;uifoohah now stands amid its
palm-groves and gardens ; subsequently lie was sold by
those of Shebabali to the tribe of Benoo-Salaman,
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 331
Kevsite Arabs, hostile from time immemorial to the
races of Yemen. The lot of a slave was a veiy easy
one among the pastoral Arabs of that early age ; and
hardly, if at all, differed, so far as treatment was con-
cerned, from that of ordinary servants ; while, on the
other hand, the general conditions of free life were so
hard and rough that, except for the social inferiority
attached to the servile designation, slave and freeman
were much on a level, and the former might easily lose
even the consciousness of his own degraded state, unless
purposely and exceptionally reminded of it by a taunt
or a blow. This was yet more the case where, as it
often happened, a slave, taken young, and brought up
with the children of the family, would find little or no
practical difference day by day between himself and
those of his own age around him ; that is, in an Eastern
household, where, as a Hebrew writer has justly
remarked, ' the heir differeth in nothing from a bonds-
man,' whatever be his dormant rigiits and his ultimate
prospects. And thus it fell out with little Shanfara,
who, purchased by a tribesman of Benoo-Salaman, grew
up among his master's children, and for many years
never doubted in the least that he was really one of
them, till one unlucky day, while playing indoors with
a girl, his master's daughter, he requested her to do
him some piece of household service, addressing her at
the same time by the title of ' my little sister.' The
answer was a slap on the face, and a flat denial of any
relationship whatever. Surprised and offended, the
lad however kept his counsel, till his supposed father,
who had been at the moment absent in the })astures,
returned to the tent, when he at once demanded what
was his own true origin and parentage. The man,
wholly unaware of what had passed in the meanwhile,
told him the facts. Shanfara' replied, ' For you, I have
332 THE BRIGAND, T^i'ABBET-SUURRAN. [x.
been an inmate of your dwelling, and I will not harm
you ; but for your tribe, the Benoo-Salaman, by God
I will never rest till I have killed a hundred men of
them, in requital for the wrong they have done me in
detaining me so long among them as a slave ; me,
free-born and noble as I am.' That very day he betook
himself alone to the desert on the outskirts of the
tribe, there to bide his time for the vengeance to which
henceforth he devoted his whole mind and soul. For
subsistence, he had perforce recourse to plunder, of
which he went in quest the most often unaccompanied,
more rarely attended by others, as, for instance, we
have just seen him associated with Ta'abbet-Shurran
and Ebn-Barrak. But whether banded or single, he
never lost sight of his sworn purpose upon the Benoo-
Salaman. On the tracks that led to their pastures, in
the neighbourhood of their encampments, by their wells
at which they watered their cattle, he would lie for
days and weeks together in patient, venomous wait ;
till when at last some one of the doomed clansmen
came in view, he would draw his bow, and, Gudrun-like,
exclaiming ' At your eye,' would send an unerring
shaft into the right eye of his victim. Thus he con-
tinued to do, year after year, keeping careful record of
the slain, till their total amounted to ninety-nine in
number, and only one remained to complete the
list. But here, so recounts the popular legend, fate
interposed.
What follows is savage beyond the wont of prae-
Islamitic story, nor can it be read without a mixed
feeling of horror and disgust. Yet it should not be
omitted, because it presents us with a true picture of
the daiker side of the Arab character ; of that strange
ferocity which is indeed ordinarily concealed from view
in the later and more civilized history of the nation ;
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 333
yet even there, from space to space breaks out through
the outer siu-face of acquired refinement ; hke plutonic
rock, cropping up through the superimposed tertiary
level. Nor, indeed, taking the Arab nature as a whole,
could it be otherwise ; for the man who has no ' devil,'
or, better said, no ' beast,' in his composition, is apt to
prove on emergency but half a man ; and the nation
that has no understratum of coarse brutality among its
masses, will also — there is experience both positive and
negative to show it — seldom bring a hero to light.
And with this apology, if apology it can be called, I
proceed to the closing scene in Shanfara's career.
Three men, two bv name Khazim and Aseed, with a
third, a youth and nephew of the latter, all belonging
to the Salaman tribe, had pledged themselves to destroy
the enemy of their race, and had long dogged his
footsteps in vain. But at last they received certain
intelligence of his whereabouts, and laid their ambush
for him in the narrow rock-cleft guUey of Abeedah, not
far from Wadee Haneefah, in the very heart of Nejd.
•It was night, and Shanfara', who wisely thought pre-
vention better than cure, was accustomed, whenever he
saw before him on his roamings the outline of anything
that seemed a living creature through the darkness, to
let fly an arrow at it, and so make sure. On the present
occasion, as he came along all alone down the valley,
he did not fail to discern the darker outline that, this
time at least, indicated a real danger ; so, stopping a
moment, he said aloud, ' You are something, I think ;
but what you are I will soon find out,' and drew his
bow. The dart, surely aimed, rent the arm of Aseed's
nephew from the elbow to the shoulder, but the youth
neither uttered cry nor stirred. ' If you are anything
I have settled for you, and if you are nothing I have
put my own mind at ease,' said Shanfara', and kept
334 THE BllIGAND, TA'ABBET-SUURRAN . [x.
forward on his way. But when he was close to the
place where Kliazim lay flat along upon the ground,
right in the path waiting for him, Aseed, who had
posted himself at a little distance on one side under the
deep shade of the rock that edged the gulley, called
out, ' Khazim> draw.' ' Oho/ said Sbanfara', ' that
looks as though you meant to strike next,' and in-
stantly unsheathing his own sword, he aimed a blow at
Khazim, and cut off two of liis fingers. But Khazim,
though wounded, threw his arms round Shanfara's
waist, and grappled him, till in the struggle both fell,
Khazim undermost, yet still holding fast. Meanwhile
the other two came up. It was pitch dark. Aseed
caught hold of a foot and called out, ' Whose foot is
this V ' Mine,' at once replied Slianfara', but Khazim
yelled out, ' No, it is mine,' on which Aseed let it go,
and this time grasped Shanfara' himself, and kept him
down, while the three together managed to bind his
hands. He said nothing more, and there the others
sat beside him in silence till the morning, when they
brought him prisoner to the tents of the tribe ; that is,-
to death. Young and old, all gathered round to see
him who had been so long the evil genius of Benoo-
Salaman, now helpless in their power. As they led
him out to the open ground behind the encampment,
one said mockingly, ' Now recite us a poem of yours,
Shanfara'.' ' Poems are for rejoicings,' answered Shan-
fara'. At the place of execution they tied him to
a palm-tree, and one of them, exclaiming ' At your
eye,' let fly an arrow at him and blinded him. ' Just
my way,' was all Shanfara' said. Next, they struck
ofl" his right hand ; he looked at it as it lay quivering
on the ground, and said, * Why leave me ? 'tis the
worse for thee,' but neither groaned nor complained.
When, however, his executioners, before giving him the
X.] TUB BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIUHRAN. 335
third and death blow, asked him, ' Where do you wish
us to bury you V in the belief that such a comj^liance
with his last request would serve to avert any re-
veno-eful visits from the other world — a common and
o
yet existmg Eastern superstition — he answered in
verse : —
At your hands a tomb I take not ; right or portion in my burial
Yours is none ; but hear and welcome thou, hysena of the desert :
Thou my heir ; my head they claim it ; once my glory, now their
troi)liy ;
But to thee the rest abandoned on the naked sands, thy portion.
Then no better life awaits me, dark and hopeless the hereafter,
Endless night to night succeeding ; unatoned my crimes for ever.
Defiant of this world, defiant of the next, such was
Shanfara' at all times, and not least so at the moment
when that very hidden thing, the real self of man, is
often most revealed. But nowhere is his indomitable
self-reliance more savagely expressed than in his famous
poem, famous so long as Arab literature shall exist,
and known under the title of ' Lameeyat-ul-'Arab,' the
completest utterance ever given of a mind defying its
age and all around it, and reverting to, or at least
ideahzing, the absolute individualism of the savage ;
a poem the spirit of which, tamed down in accordance
to our later day, and enfeebled by the atmosphere in
which ' the individual withers, and the world is more
and more,' still breathes in ' Locksley Hall,' and after a
mitigated fasliion in the ' Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich.'
To attempt a translation of this remarkable lyric,
remarkable alike in itself and in its author, would too
much exceed the limits here allowed to poetical illus-
tration ; and isolated passages, if extracted, would not
do it justice. It is a monolith, complete in itself; and
if ever rendered, though I doubt the possibility, into
English verse, must stand alone. Yet so deeply rooted
33G THE BRIGAyD, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAX. [x.
is the wild feeling that gave it origin in every Arab
breast, even where law and system might most have
been expected to have levelled its native roughness and
smoothed away every irregular line, that we find no
other a person than the austere legislator and devout
Calii^h, 'Omar Ebn-el-Khattab, ex^^ressly recommending
the ' Lameeyat-ul-'Arab' to the careful study of the
youth of his time, as a lesson of genuine manliness for
their riper years. It was the manliness of the old
Pagan times, which perhaps the shrewd Caliph had
already perceived to be endangered by the incipient
asceticism of Persianized and Christianized Islam.
It should not pass unremarked that the six verses
already quoted belong to the very few of prte-Islamitic
date — nor indeed are there over many later on — in
which an illusion is made to a future personal ex-
istence ; a topic about which the early Arabs, like the
Jews of the Pentateuch, seem to have troubled them-
selves but little ; though without positively denying
such a hope — rather the reverse. It is curious too
that whatever other scanty notices of Pagan Arab
next-world conjecture have come down to us, do not
go beyond a dreamy shadowy continuation of this life,
much akin to the Odyssean Hades; Shanfara' alone
hints at a retributive hereafter. But however isolated
in tlieir significance, criticism leaves no doubt as to
the genuineness of the verses ; and if the sentiment so
moodily expressed in them be indeed peculiar to
Shanflxra', it only proves that his range of thought
was in this respect wider and deeper than that of his
contemporaries.
The Azdite had vowed the death of a hundred from
among Benoo-Salamaii ; he accomplished it — so con-
cludes the legend — but not till after his own. Years
had passed, and his dry and fleshless skull lay
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. 337
whitening on the field of doom, when a man of the
hated tribe passing by, noticed and kicked the reHc,
in ungenerous insult to the dead. A sphnter of bone
entered his foot ; the wound festered incurably ; and
in a few days more the tale of the hundred and of
Shanfara's vengeance was complete.
To these two, the 'Most'areb,' or 'adscitious' Ta'abbet-
Shurran, and the 'Arab, or pure blood, Shanfara', must
be added one belonging to the numerous ' Muta'areb,' or
half-caste Arab class, namely Soleyk, the son of So-
lakali. His name is more than once coupled with those
of two others in the annals of pr£e-Islamitic brigandage ;
but his career, though not a whit more creditable, was
yet in many respects different from theirs.
By his father's side Soleyk belonged to the great
clan, or rather confederation of clans, named Benoo
Tameem, the occupants then, as now, of the central
provinces 'Aared, Yemamah, Aftaj, Hareek, and their
adjoining pastures. His mother Solakah — after whom,
either on account of resemblance in duskiness of com-
plexion and African features, or, it may be, owing to
the mere assonance of the words, he is generally sur-
named ' Soleyk Ebn-Solakah,' or ' the son of Solakah '
— was a negress. A remarkable knowledge of topo-
graphy, and an unerring skill in the right choice of
routes, however intricate, procured him farther the
title of Soleyk-el-Makanib, or ' of the tracks.' As a
poet he stands high on the prse-Islamitic list, though
on the whole inferior to Ta'abbet-Shurran, and yet
more to Shanfara'; as a robber hero, he ranks as their
equal, or even their superior. Nor is the estimation in
which Arab annalists and litterateurs hold him impaired
by his semi- African descent ; for intermarriages be-
tween Arabs and negroes, especially in the midland
and southern districts of the Peninsula, have been at
338 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
no period rare or abnormal ; to such admixtures,
indeed, the East owes not a few .of her best cele-
brities: Noseyyeb the poet, Ebn-Soreyj the musician,
and 'Ambarah the warrior, are well-known examples,
each in his kind.
Soleyk, the son of Solakah, comes nearer to the
absolute individual robber- type than either of his
fellows in the historical brigand-triumvirate. Ta'abbet-
Shurran organized his predatory expeditions on a scale
so vast as to raise them almost to the dignity of wars ;
while Shanfara' had for the ultimate goal of his lawless
career revenge, plunder being with him a mere ac-
cessory, necessitated by the position of an outlaw.
But Soleyk, in whom the savage instincts of Africa
seem to have been heightened and intensified, rather
than diluted, by the infusion of Arab blood, gives us
in his story and adventures an unmitigated portrait
of the prae-Islamitic 'wild man;' and indicates even
more distinctly than Shanfara' himself the peculiar and
transition stage of Arab civilization, which rendered
brigandage almost an acknowledged institution of that
epoch, as in Greece now.
South-east of Mecca, on tlie high road to Ta'if and
Yemen, spreads a wide, open, sandy space, called the
plain of 'Okkad ; it is within an easy ride from the
capital itself Here, from the earliest ante-historic
times down to the era of Mahomet and the establish-
ment of Islam, a great meeting, representative of the
entire Arab nationality, used, to be held every year,
beginning witli the first and ending with the twentieth
day of the month that preceded the then Pagan cere-
monies of the annual Hejaz pilgrimage. This ' ga-
thering' of 'Okkad, as it was called, bore a mixed
resemblance to the Amphictyonic Council of old Greece,
to the games of Elis, and to a modern Leipsic lair.
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 339
Like Elis, 'Okkad was the theatre of public and inter-
national trials of strength and skill, of horse-races,
foot-races, wrestling matches, and the like ; but above
aU, of those famous poetical contests to which we owe
the seven ' Mu allikat,' the most finished productions
of the primal Arab muse. Meanwhile the innate com-
mercial spirit of the race, a spirit that has survived the
extinction of almost every other energy in Syria and
Arabia, took advantage of the games and their attendant
crowd to add the attractions of a yearly mercantile
exhibition, in which the choicest produce of every part
of the Peninsula, as also that of neighbouring and trade-
connected countries, was exposed to admiration or for
sale. But over and above all this, the ' gathering,' or
' fair,' of 'Okkad, had a more important, because a po-
litical and Amphictyonic, or parliamentary, character ;
and while the multitude betted — as Arabs no less than
Englishmen will — on the horse-race, or chaffered over
the wares, the chiefs of the entii'e Arab confederacy,
or at least of what part of it was not subject to
the Himyaritic sceptre, here met to discuss topics of
national interest — war, alliances, treaties ; to settle dis-
putes ; to regulate the conflicting claims of the social
tribes ; to impose new laws or abolish old ; and the
Hke. Aristocratic, in that it was composed of chiefs
and leaders ; democratic, in that all who met there
were equal among themselves, and moreover separated
by no distinction of caste or of inherent prerogative from
those they governed ; occasionally elective-monarchical,
by the common choice of some one chieftain, pre-
eminent in wisdom, valour, or influence, to whom all
the rest agreed for the time to defer, — it was an
institution excellently adapted to the unstable, im-
patient, yet reflective Arab character ; and, had it sur-
vived the Islamitic crisis, might, and probably would,
Z 2
340 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
have ultimately acquired that consistency and executive
power which alone were wanting to render it a real
Arab Congress. A matter of regret, when we con-
sider how much more likely to be fortunate in its
results such an institution would have been than the
theo-monarchical rule substituted by Mahomet and his
successors for the confederation sketched out in the
Gathering of 'Okkad.
One year, in the midst of the innumerable crowd
there collected from every Arab province — chiefs, mer-
chants, athletes, poets, jockeys, buyers, sellers, loungers,
and the rest — there suddenly appeared a lean, dusky,
half- naked figure ; on foot, dust-soiled, bare-headed,
bare-footed, with a waist-cloth alone round its gaunt
loins, and a spear in its sinewy hand. It was Soleyk,
who, cool and unabashed amid the general astonishment
of Arab respectability and fashion, wound in and out
among the various groups assembled on the racecourse,
calling aloud to each and all, ' Who will tell me the
haunts of his tribe 1 and I will tell him the haunts of
mine,' — words in technical import of unlimited defiance,
and which may thus be rendered : ' Any one here
present is free to attack me, and I am free to attack
him in turn.' All stared and wondered, but no one
seemed inclined to take up this extraordinary challenge,
till a young chieftain, by name Keys, son of Maksooh,
a Yemenite of the Murad clan, confronted the mulatto
with ' I will tell you the haunts of my tribe, and do
you tell me those of yours.' A crowd gathered round,
and the two challengers mutually pledged their word
of honour that neither would in any way disguise the
truth from the other. Keys then said, ' Set your face
between the points of the horizon whence blow the
south-east and the south winds ; then go on your way
till you lose sight of the shadows of the trees,' —
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 341
meaning, far enough south to have the sun vertical
overhead, or nearly so, — ' and you will come on toiTcnt
beds : cross them, and journey on four more,' — that is,
four days, — ' till you come in view of a sandy plain ;
take the mid track tliat threads it, and you will reach
my tribesmen, who are Murad and Kha'them, much at
your service/
Soleyk replied : ' Take your direction between the
rising of Soheyl ' (Canopus), ' and the left hand of
Gemini which reaches up towards the top of the
heavens' (indicating north-east-by-east on the compass),
' and foUow straight before you ; this wiU lead you
to the haunts of my tribe, and their name is Benoo-
Sa'ad, of Zeyd Menat.'
Herewith the challengers separated, and Soleyk,
having obtained his object, disappeared as abruptly
as he had come. Keys remained at 'Okkad till the
meeting was over, and then returned to his clan, to
whom he recounted his strange adventure with the
unknown mulatto. But when his father MaJ^sooh
had heard the story, he exclaimed, —
* A plague on you, Keys ; are you aware whose
challenge it was that you accepted 1 '
'How should I know"?' answered Keys. *It was
a half-naked black fellow on foot, who looked more
like a waif than anything else. What might he be,
thenr
' By heaven, it was no other than Soleyk Ebn-Sola-
kah ; and a good day's work you have done for us
all,' replied his father.
Meanwhile Soleyk had betaken himself to his
customary haunts in Nejd ; and there had got together
about him several young fellows of his acquaintance,
belonging to the families of Benoo-Sa'ad, and Benoo-
'Abd-Semeea, both branches of the restless Tameem
342 THE BRIGAND, TAABBET-SIIURRAN. [x.
stock, the same who now form the kernel of the
Wahhabee coalition. Now Soleyk had for some time
past been in the habit of laying in a store of empty-
ostrich egg-shells ; these it was his wont from time to
time to fill with water, and after stopping them
carefully, to bury them in the sand, one here and
another there, in the loneliest tracks that led across
the desert to Yemen : and when afterwards he went
on his plundering raids in the full heat of summer,
he was thus able, by shaping his course according
to these hidden reservoirs, of which he alone had the
secret, to traverse tracts of country generally believed
impassable in that season of the year for want of
water. On the present occasion he led his companions
by one of these lonely paths. They followed, relying
on his guidance ; but when they were now far in the
desert, and their supply of drink failed them, with no
means of renewing it in view, the band turned on
Soleyk, saying, ' You have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill us with thirst.'
Soleyk laughed, and answered cheerily, ' Take heart,
boys ; there is water close at hand.'
Unluckily, so it happened, that when they came a
little further on to the place where he knew that he
had formerly hidden a supply, he missed the precise
landmarks, and began in great distress to search back-
wards and forwards in every direction, like one dis-
tracted ; while some of his associates said to the others :
' Whither do you mean to let this negro lead you 1
By heaven he will be the death of us all.'
Soleyk heard them, but took no apparent notice,
and went on digging in silence, till at last he redis-
covered the shells, and the whole party drank their
fill. Now, however, that the injustice of the suspicion
thrown upon him was clearly sshown, he went a little
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 343
apart, and deliberated with himself whether he should
not fall on the mutineers sword in hand and kill them ;
yet he restrained himself, and returning, merely coun-
selled those who were fearful and discontented to
go back, which they did then and there. The lesser
number remained firm, and amongst them a young man,
Sard by name, who however wept bitterly when he
saw his companions disappearing in the distance.
Soleyk consoled him with the remark that ' none so
lucky as those despaired of.' So they w^ent bravely
on, till the diminished band reached at last the borders
of their furthest goal, the territory of Kha'them. Here
they halted awhile on the frontier ; but during the
night Sard's camel got loose ; and its owner, after vainly
trying to re-capture it in the darkness, was at first
break of dawn descried by some of the villagers about,
who, recognizing him at once by his appearance for an
interloper from Nejd, laid hands on him and made
him prisoner. The alarm-cry was raised, and before
the sun w^as well above the horizon a troop of Kha-
themite horsemen, with Keys the son of Maksooh at
their head, came out to meet Soleyk. A sharp fight
ensued, and the marauders were akeady beginning
to yield to the superior numbers of the ' true men/,
when Soleyk, singling out Keys, made straight at him,
and dealt him a blow which laid him disabled on the
ground. This event, Homeric fashion, decided the day ;
and the Kha'themites fled, leaving Keys and some
other prisoners in the hands of the victors. Soleyk
now took as much booty as he could conveniently drive
off, exchanged Keys against Sard, let the other captives
go free, and returned northwards with such good haste,
that he overtook those who had abandoned him yet
on their way home. Once within the limits of Nejd,
Soleyk divided the booty among the few companions
344 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
who had remained by him staunch to the last, refusing
any share in it to the mutineers; and further celebrated
the whole affair from first to last in a poem, some
verses of which have been preserved in the pages of
Aboo-Faraj the Ispahanee.
Like others of his kmd, Soleyk underwent great
vicissitudes of fortune, in which his ingenuity, for
which he was not less celebrated than for his courage,
had full opportunity of displaying itself Once, when
reduced to the severest straits, he found himself at
nightfall alone, supperless and shelterless, on an open
plain, where the moon was slowly rising full and bright
over patliless sand and stone. Soleyk, unwilhng to
form too conspicuous a part in a landscape where, as
the only moving object, he could not fail to be at once
observed by any chance comer, lay down as he was on
the ground, and wrapping himself in the coarse dark
mantle that forms the entire upper clothing of the
poorer Arab, as the long shirt does the whole of his
under raiment, was soon fast asleep. About midnight
a man passed by, and, noticing the sleeper, stopped ;
then suddenly throwing himself upon him, pressed him
down with all his weight, saying at the same time,
' Give yourself up ; you are my prisoner.'
Soleyk, whose hands were entangled in his cloak,
raised his head, and looking his captor in the face,
quietly remarked, —
'The night is long, and the moon at the full;' a
proverbial expression equivalent to ' take your time
about it.'
The other, provoked at his coolness, began hitting
him with his fist, repeating all the while, —
* Give yourself up, wretch ! you are my prisoner.'
At last Soleyk grew tired of this game, and having
managed unperceived to disengage one of his arms
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. 345
from under his cloak, slipped it round the man who
was still above him, and drawing him down, pressed
him with so terrible a grip that the would-be aggressor
yelled for pain.
' What ! yelling, and uppermost ! ' observed Soleyk ;
words which have passed among the Arabs for a pro-
verb when one who seems to have the best of it leally
has the worst.
' Who are you 1 ' he added, after the other had
sufficiently felt his iron strength.
* I am one,' replied the man, ' who was once rich and
prosperous, but have now fallen into utter want, till
for very shame I have abandoned my tribe, vowing that
I would never return among them till I should, some-
how and somewhere, have regained my former wealth.'
' All right ! ' answered Soleyk ; * do you come along
with me.'
When morning dawned they went on together, and
chanced on a third man, in much the same condition
as themselves, and who readily associated with them.
Soleyk now took the lead, and all together shaped their
way for the ' Jowf,' or ' hollow ; ' not the Jowf of
Northern Arabia, on the confines of Syria, but the
large Oasis, low-lying as an oasis always does in
tropical deserts, and situated amid the sands of the
' Dahna',' behind mid- Yemen. It is a region, so Arab
travellers inform us, of wonderful fertility, but Httle
visited from without, owing to the encircling sands,
and, so far as Europeans are concerned, wholly, I
believe, unexplored. After many weary days Soleyk
and his companions arrived at their land of promise,
and, sheltered from view by a ledge of rock, peeped
down into a long green valley, full of sheep and camels
grazing securely among unarmed herdsmen : an easy
prey, it seemed. But the marauders, who had never
346 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
visited the spot before, feared lest some encampment or
village might be near, where alarm could be given in
time to prevent their own escape with their meditated
booty. After some deliberation Soleyk said, —
' I will go down, alone, and have a talk with the
shepherds, while you two remain ensconced here, and
keep a sharp look out. If then I learn that the
owners themselves of the cattle are in the neighbour-
hood, I will turn quietly back, as if nothing were the
matter, and rejoin you ; should they however happen
to be a good way off, I will give you a signal, and do
you two then rush down and help me drive off the
plunder,'
Accordingly the associates remained croucliing in
their place, w^iile Soleyk, after rounding some way
behind the hill, began sauntering down into the valley
from another direction, with an easy, careless air, till
he reached the herdsmen, negroes hke himself. Sitting
down beside them, he engaged them in conversation,
till, from question to answer, he found out who were
their masters, and that they belonged to a village
situated at a considerable distance from the grazing
ground. Satisfied on this point, Soleyk stretched him-
self lazily on the grass, and proposed a song to while
away the time. The herdsmen, fond of music as be-
seemed their colour, approved the idea, and Soleyk,
raising his voice so as to be heard by his friends in
their hiding-place, thus began : —
O ! the valley, — lone and peaceful ; not a soul amid the rocks,
But the maids that milk the cattle, and the slaves that guai-d the
flocks !
Come and see them, nearer yet ; 'tis a i)leasant sight to view ;
Or we'll rove amid the pastures by the morning breeze and dew.
There was no mistaking the hint ; out rushed the
bandits, off ran the sheplicrds, while Soleyk and his
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA' ABBET-SHURRAN. 347
accomplices drove off cattle enough to enrich them all
three, and were far away from pursuit long before the
owners could come to the rescue.
On another occasion, however, Soleyk had nearly
come to grief. While prowlmg about the grazing-
grounds of the 'Awara tribe, on the frontiers of Nejd,
he was observed and surrounded in such a manner
that to fight or to ily seemed alike impossible. Hereon
he made straight for the tents of the tribe itself, and,
reaching them, entered the nearest at a venture ;
within he found no one but a young girl, Fakihah
by name, whom he besought to protect him from the
fury of her own clanspeople. Without hesitation she
cast the skirt of her long garment — the trailing robe
worn by Arab women up to the present day, and
which the fiction of Mahometan tradition affirms to
have been introduced by Hagar, the mother of Ishmael,
when cast out by Abraham — over him ; caught down
a sword from where it hung on a tent-pole, unsheathed
it, and thus stood waiting the pursuers, who soon
crowded in. Enraged at finding themselves baulked
of their certain prey, they began by reviling the girl ;
and, when she took no heed of words, prepared to drag
away her suppliant by force. But Fakihah, nothing
daunted, tore off her veil and cast it on the ground,
while bare-headed and sword in hand she loudly called
on her own brothers for help. At her cry they came,
and, putting every other consideration aside, took their
sister's part so effectually, that Soleyk got away un-
harmed, and, in grateful acknowledgment, afterwards
presented Fakihah with the following verses : —
Be thy fame far-spread as thy Jeservings,
Trustiest friend, fair daughter of 'Awara !
In their child her parents well may glory,
In their sister's honour vaunt her brothers.
348 THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SHURRAN. [x.
Perfect as her mind eacli outward feature,
Perfect beauty linked to perfect virtue.
Not the free, the flaunting, wins afi'ection,
But the chaste, the bashful, leads me captive ;
She the fearless, when her pledge redeeming
Sword in hand, unveiled, she faced the danger.
Outlaws, and in many respects savages as these men
undoubtedly were, they yet contrast favourably with
the average robbers and brigands of mediaeval and later
times ; not least so in the care they took to maintain
fresh the intellectual and poetical element in theii' own
nature, as though seeking by it to colour or gild actions
else unseemly, and to avoid the commonplace vulgarity
of mere prosaic crime. Nor were they — the pressure
of imminent danger or special motives of revenge, such
as animated Shanfara', for instance, apart — cruel or
bloodthirsty ; on the contrary, they seem to have
derived from the old Mephistophelian doctrine, often
sung in Arab verse, that ' blood is quite a peculiar sort
of juice,' the very anti-MeiDhistophelian conclusion, that
therefore it should not be needlessly shed. If to the
Bob Roy of Walter Scott — not the Eob Roy of history
— were added the poetical faculty and imaginative
range of a Skald or a Minnesanger, the momitain
borders of Scotland would, in fiction at least, have had
their Ta'abbetrShurrans and Soleyks no less than the
debateable lands of Nejd and Yemen. Meanwhile, it
is evident that men of this stamp could take their
rise only among a people of excessive, though as yet
unorganised, energy ; and that such sparks could ouly
be thrown out from a mighty and glowing volcano,
not far off some general eruj^tion. Soleyk was earliei-,
but the eia of Ta'abbet-Shurran preceded that of
Mahomet by scarce a century.
However, for all their better qualities, the ban of
X.] THE BRIGAND, TA'ABBET-SIIURRAN. 349
the 'bloody and deceitful' was on them. Shanfara's
end we have already seen ; and Ta'abbet-Shurran and
Soleyk, both of them, closed their Avild and restless
lives by a violent death : the former being killed while
on a raid against his old enemies of Hodeyl, within the
confines of Jebel Aseer, where he was buried in a cave
that tradition yet points out at the present day ;
the latter met his fate far away in the depths of Yemen.
It was long before the particulars of the precise how
and where of his death reached Nejd ; and during this
interval Soleyk's epitaph was composed by his negress
mother, Solakah, from whom it would seem that her
son inherited his poetical talent. It is a wail not
unbefitting such a life and such an end : —
Far he wandered ; but when farthest
Fated death o'ertook the wanderer.
! my loved one ! would thy mother
But could know how died her offspring.
Was it sickness lone and dreaiy,
None to aid thee, none to comfort 1
Was it guile of hidden foeman 1
Was it that, the unknown shadow
That outspeeds the bird of passage 1 —
Man is ever death-attended,
Ambushed death, and we the victims.
Yet adorned with all that honours,
Satiate of success he found thee.
Answerest not ] — how wide the sevrance
That forbids my call thy answer.
Still, one hour, my heart ; — it stills not.
How console me 1 Drear the silence,
Drear the path whence no returning.
Would for thine, my son, my hero.
Were thy mothei-'s death the ransom.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
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