[p.122]supported in various places by round pillars with coarsely
wrought capitals; near this are several other excavations, all inhabited
by the poor peasants. Sermein belongs to the family of Khodsy Effendy of
Aleppo.
February 16th.--Half an hour to the left, near our road, is an insulated
hill, with the tomb of a saint, called Kubbet Denneit [Arabic]; the
plain is here well cultivated, but nothing is sown at present between
Khan Touman and Sermein. To the right of the road, on a similar hill,
stands Mezar Kubbet Menebya [Arabic]; and one hour to the right, also
upon a Tel, Mezar Tar [Arabic]. Half an hour S.E. from Denneit is the
village Gemanas.
In two hours and a half from Sermein we reached the town of Edlip
[Arabic], the approach to which is very picturesque; it lies round the
foot of a hill, which divides it into two parts; there is a smaller hill
on the N. side: the town is surrounded by olive plantations, and the
whole landscape put my companion, an English traveller, in mind of
Athens and its vicinity. Here again are many wells cut in the rocky soil
round the town. This place is called Little Edlip [Arabic]. Of Great
Edlip [Arabic], the name only remains: it stood at half an hour's
distance from the present town, which is of modern date, or about the
middle of the seventeenth century. I reckoned the number of its houses
at about one thousand. The inhabitants are for the most part Turks;
there are only eighty Greek Christian families, and three of Armenian
Greeks. They have a church, and three priests, and are under the
immediate jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarch of Damascus.
The principal trade of Edlip is in soap; there are some manufactories of
cotton stuffs, and a few dyeing-houses. The Bazars are well built, some
of them of stone. In the town are several Khans, two of which are
destined for the reception of strangers;
[p.123]but the best edifice is the soap manufactory (El Meszbane), a
large building. Edlip has no gardens, because there is no water but from
wells and cisterns; there are a few orchards of pomegranate and fig
trees, and some vine plantations. The place is supplied with vegetables
from Rieha, and from Aere, a village two hours distant, lying between
Darkoush and Djissr Shogher. There is a single spring in the town of
brackish water, which is never used but in seasons of great drought; a
man who had cleansed the bottom of the deep well in which the spring
issues, told me that he found two openings in the rock, near each other,
from the one of which flows sweet water, while that from the other is
brackish. I made the tour of the town in thirty-seven minutes; the rocky
ground is full of caverns, wells, and pits.
Edlip is held by the family of Kuperly Zaade of Constantinople; but a
part of its revenue is a Wakf to the Harameyn, that is to say, it
contributes to defray the expenses of the two holy cities Mekka and
Medina. The town pays annually to the above family, twenty purses for
themselves, and fifteen for the holy cities; the latter sum was formerly
sent to Mekka every year with the pilgrim caravan; but it is now paid
into the hands of the Kuperlys. The town of Djissr Shogher [Arabic],
distant six hours from Edlip, on the road to Ladikia, belongs to the
same family, and is likewise a Wakf attached to the holy cities; it pays
fifteen purses to the Kuperlys, and seven to the Harameyn. The revenue
arising from thirteen or fourteen villages in the neighbourhood of
Djissr Shogher has been assigned to the support of several hospitals
which the Kuperlys have built in that town, where a number of poor
people are fed daily gratis. Neither Edlip nor Shogher pays any land-tax
or Miri, in consequence of their being attached to Mekka; but there is a
custom-house at Edlip, where duties are levied on all kinds of
provisions, as rice, coffee, oil, raisins, tobacco, &c.
[p.124]the proceeds of which amount to nearly one hundred purses;
besides a house tax, which yields twenty purses. The duties levied on
provisions at Djissr Shogher amount to twenty purses.
The government of Edlip is in the hands of a Mutsellim, named by the
Porte; the real power had been for many years in the rich family of
Ayash [Arabic], till the present chief of that family, Mahmoud Ibn
Ayash, a man famous for his hospitality and upright character, had the
misfortune to lose all his influence. In 1810 his house became involved
in a deadly quarrel with that of Djahya, in consequence of a game of
Jerid, which took a serious turn, and in which much blood was shed.
Djahya left Edlip, and went to Rieha and Djissr Shogher, where he
succeeded in engaging in his interest Seyd Aga and Topal Aly, the rebel
chiefs of those towns, who only wanted a pretext to fall upon Edlip;
they accordingly stirred up the inhabitants against Mahmoud, who was
obliged to fly to Aleppo, and having sent the Mutsellim, Moury Aga, back
to Constantinople, they put Abou Shah, the brother-in-law of Topal Aly,
in his place, and brought Djahya back to Edlip. After some months the
two rebels came to a compromise with Mahmoud, who returned to Edlip, and
Djahya, in turn, fled to Aleppo; Mahmoud's power, however, was now at an
end: the two chiefs are at present masters of the town, and share its
spoils; but its wealth has much decreased since these events took place.
In eighteen months it has paid upwards of six hundred purses; and on the
day before our arrival a new contribution of two hundred had spread
despair among the inhabitants. A Kadhi is sent here early from
Constantinople. Sermein bears from hence S.E. by E. There are no
dependent villages in the territory of Edlip.
February 17th.--We left Edlip after mid-day. Our road lay through a wood
of olive trees, in a fertile uneven plain of red argillaceous soil. In
one hour we reached Sheikh Hassan, the tomb of