[p.5] the dominions of the Emir of the Druses, who some years ago took
it by force from the Emir of Baalbec. On the southern side of the
village is a mosque, and adjoining to it a long building, on the eastern
side of which are the ruins of another mosque, with a Kubbe still
remaining. The long building contains, under a flat roof, the pretended
tomb of Noah [Arabic]; it consists of a tomb-stone above ten feet long,
three broad and two high, plastered all over; the direction of its
length is S.E. and N.W. The Turks visit the grave, and pretend that Noah
is really buried there. At half an hour from Kerak is the town of Zahle
[Arabic], built in an inlet of the mountain, on a steep ascent,
surrounded with Kerums (vineyards). The river Berdoun [Arabic] here
issues from a narrow valley into the plain and waters the gardens of
Zahle.
September 25th.--Took a walk through the town with Sheikh Hadj Farakh.
There are eight or nine hundred houses, which daily increase, by
fugitives from the oppressions of the Pashas of Damascus and of the
neighbouring petty tyrants. Twenty-five years ago there were only two
hundred houses at Zahle: it is now one of the principal towns in the
territory of the Emir Beshir. It has its markets, which are supplied
from Damascus and Beirout, and are visited by the neighbouring Fellahs,
and the Arabs El Naim, and El Harb, and El Faddel, part of whom pass the
winter months in the Bekaa, and exchange their butter against articles
of dress, and tents, and horse and camel furniture. The inhabitants, who
may amount to five thousand, are all Catholic Greeks, with the exception
only of four or five Turkish families. The Christians have a bishop,
five churches and a monastery, the Turks have no mosque. The town
belongs to the territory of the Druses, and is under the authority of
the Emir Beshir, but a part of it still belongs to the family of Aamara,
whose influence, formerly very
[p.6] great in the Mountain, has lately been so much circumscribed by
the Emir, that the latter is now absolute master of the town. The Emir
receives the Miri, which is commonly the double of its original
assessment (in Belad Baalbec it is the triple), and besides the Miri, he
makes occasional demands upon the town at large. They had paid him
forty-five purses a few weeks before my arrival. So far the Emir
Beshir's government resembles perfectly that of the Osmanlys in the
eastern part of Syria: but there is one great advantage which the people
enjoy under his command--an almost complete exemption from all personal
exactions, and the impartiality of justice, which is dealt out in the
same manner to the Christian and to the Turk. It is curious, that the
peace of so numerous a body should be maintained without any legal power
whatsoever. There is neither Sheikh nor governor in the town; disputes
are settled by the friends of the respective parties, or if the latter
are obstinate, the decision is referred to the tribunal of the Emir
Beshir, at Deir el Kammar. The inhabitants, though not rich, are, in
general, in independent circumstances; each family occupies one, or at
most two rooms. The houses are built of mud; the roofs are supported by
one or two wooden posts in the midst of the principal room, over which
beams of pine-wood are laid across each other; upon these are branches
of oak trees, and then the earth, which forms the flat terrace of the
house. In winter the deep snow would soon break through these feeble
roofs, did not the inhabitants take care, every morning, to remove the
snow that may have fallen during the night. The people gain their
subsistence, partly by the cultivation of their vineyards and a few
mulberry plantations, or of their fields in the Bekaa, and partly by
their shops, by the commerce in Kourdine sheep, and their manufactures.
Almost every family weaves cotton cloth, which is used as shirts by the
inhabitants and
[p.7] Arabs, and when dyed blue, as Kombazes, or gowns, by the men.
There are more than twenty dyeing houses in Zahle, in which indigo only
is employed. The Pike [The Pike is a linear measure, equal to two feet
English, when used for goods of home manufacture, and twenty-seven
inches for foreign imported commodities.] of the best of this cotton
cloth, a Pike and a half broad, costs fifty paras, (above 1s. 6d.
English). The cotton is brought from Belad Safad and Nablous. They
likewise fabricate Abbayes, or woollen mantles. There are above one
hundred horsemen in the town. In June 1810, when the Emir Beshir joined
with his corps the army of Soleiman Pasha, to depose Youssef Pasha, he
took from Zahle 400 men, armed with firelocks.
On the west side of the town, in the bottom of the Wady, lies the
monastery of Mar Elias, inhabited by a prior and twenty monks. It has
extensive grape and mulberry plantations, and on the river side a well
cultivated garden, the products of which are sold to the town's people.
The prior received me with great arrogance, because I did not stoop to
kiss his hands, a mark of respect which the ecclesiastics of this
country are accustomed to receive. The river of Zahle, or Berdoun, forms
the frontier of the Bekaa, which it separates from the territory
belonging to the Emir of Baalbec, called Belad Baalbec; so that whatever
is northward from the bridge of the Berdoun, situated in the valley, a
quarter of an hour below Zahle, belongs to Belad Baalbec; and whatever
is south-ward, to the Bekaa. Since Soleiman Pasha has governed Damascus,
the authority of the Emir Beshir has been in some measure extended over
the Bekaa, but I could not inform myself of the distinct laws by which
it had been regulated. The Pashas of Damascus, and the Emir Beshirs,
have for many years been in continual dispute about their rights over
the villages of the Bekaa.