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THE WOMEN
OF
THE ARABS.
_WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN._
BY
Rev. HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,
_Seventeen years American Missionary in Syria._
EDITED BY
Rev. C.S. ROBINSON, D.D., & Rev. ISAAC RILEY.
"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."
--_Mt. Lebanon Proverb._
NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by
DODD & MEAD,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
_THIS BOOK_
IS DEDICATED TO THE
CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.
Beirût, Syria, _July, 1873_.
_Owing to the impossibility of my attending personally to the
editing of this volume, I requested my old friends_, Rev. C.S.
Robinson, D.D., _and_ Rev. Isaac Riley, _of New York, to superintend
the work, and would gratefully acknowledge their kind and
disinterested aid, cheerfully proffered at no little sacrifice of
time._
H.H. JESSUP.
PREFACE.
The Orient is the birthplace of prophecy. Before the advent of our Lord,
the very air of the East was resounding with the "unconscious prophecies
of heathenism." Men were in expectation of great changes in the earth.
When Mohammed arose, he not only claimed to be the deliverer of a
message inspired of Allah, but to foretell the events of futurity. He
declared that the approach of the latter day could be distinguished by
unmistakable signs, among which were two of the most notable character.
Before the latter day, the _sun shall rise in the West_, and God will
send forth a cold odoriferous wind blowing from _Syria Damascena_, which
shall _sweep away_ the souls of all the faithful, and _the Koran
itself_. What the world of Islam takes in its literal sense, we may take
in a deeper spiritual meaning. Is it not true, that far in the West, the
gospel sun began to rise and shed its beams on Syria, many years ago,
and that in our day that cold odoriferous wind of truth and life,
fragrant with the love of Jesus and the love of man, is beginning to
blow from Syria Damascena, over all the Eastern world! The church and
the school, the printing press and the translated Bible, the periodical
and the ponderous volume, the testimony of living witnesses for the
truth, and of martyrs who have died in its defence, all combine to sweep
away the systems of error, whether styled Christian, Moslem or Pagan.
The remarkable uprising of christian women in Christian lands to a new
interest in the welfare of woman in heathen and Mohammedan countries, is
one of the great events of the present century. This book is meant to be
a memorial of the early laborers in Syria, nearly all of whom have
passed away. It is intended also as a record of the work done for women
and girls of the Arab race; to show some of the great results which have
been reached and to stimulate to new zeal and effort in their behalf.
In tracing the history of this work, it seemed necessary to describe the
condition of woman in Syria when the missionaries first arrived, and to
examine the different religious systems, which affect her position.
In preparing the chapter on the Pre-Islamic Arabs, I have found valuable
materials in Chenery's Hariri, Sales and Rodwell's Koran, and Freytag's
Arabic Proverbs.
For the facts about the Druze religion, I have consulted Col.
Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the
mission library in Beirût.
Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the "Asian Mystery," has given me
the principal items with regard to the Nusairîyeh religion. This
confirms the statements of Suleiman Effendi, whose tract, revealing the
secrets of the Nusairîyeh faith, was printed years ago at the Mission
Press in Beirût, and translated by that ripe Arabic Scholar Prof. E.
Salisbury of New Haven. The bloody Nusairîyeh never forgave Suleiman for
revealing their mysteries; and having invited him to a feast in a
village near Adana, 1871, brutally buried him alive in a dunghill!
For the historical statements of this volume, I am indebted to the files
of the Missionary Herald, the Annual Reports of the Syria Mission, the
archives of the mission in Beirût, the memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith,
and private letters from Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. De Forest, and various
missionary and native friends.
Information on the general work of the Syrian Mission may be found in
Dr. Anderson's "Missions to the Oriental churches," Rev. Isaac Bird's
"Bible Work in Bible Lands," and the pamphlet sketches of Rev. T. Laurie
and Rev. James S. Dennis.
The specimens of poetry from ancient Arabic poetesses, have been
gathered from printed and manuscript volumes, and from the lips of the
people.
Some accounts of child life in Syria and specimens of Oriental stories
and nursery rhymes have been gathered into a "Children's Chapter." They
have a value higher than that which is given by mere entertainment as
they exhibit many phases of Arab home life. The illustrations of the
volume consist of drawings from photographs by Bergheim of Jerusalem and
Bonfils of Beirût.
The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beirût by Mr. Samuel Hallock,
the skilful superintendent of the American Press.
I send out this record of the work carried on in Syria with deep
gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and with an ardent desire that
it may be the means of bringing this great field more vividly before the
minds of Christian people, of wakening warmer devotion to the missionary
cause, and so of hastening the time when every Arab woman shall enjoy
the honor, and be worthy of the elevation which come with faith in Him
who was first foretold as the seed of the woman.
HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.
Beirût, Syria, Nov. 28, 1872.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
_State of Women among the Arabs of the Jahiliyeh,
or the "Times of the Ignorance."_ 1