[p.193]The town of Deir el Kammar is situated on the declivity of the
mountain, at the head of a narrow valley descending towards the sea. It
is inhabited by about nine hundred Maronite, three hundred Druse, and
fifteen or twenty Turkish families, who cultivate mulberry and vine
plantations, and manufacture all the articles of dress of the
mountaineers. They are particularly skilful in working the rich Abbas or
gowns of silk, interwoven with gold and silver, which are worn by the
great Sheikhs of the Druses, and which are sold as high as eight hundred
piastres a piece. The Emir Beshir has a serai here. The place seems to
be tolerably well built, and has large Bazars. The tombs of the
Christians deserve notice. Every family has a stone building, about
forty feet square, in which they place their dead, the entrance being
always walled up after each deposit: this mode of interment is peculiar
to Deir el Kammar, and arose probably from the difficulty of excavating
graves in the rocky soil on which it is built. The tombs of the richer
Christian families have a small Kubbe on their summit. The name of this
town, signifying the Monastery of the Moon, originates in a convent
which formerly stood here, dedicated to the Virgin, who is generally
represented in Syria with the moon beneath her feet. Half an hour from
Deir el Kammar, on the other side of the valley, lies Beteddein
[Arabic], which in Syriac, means the two teats, and has received its
name from the similarity of two neighbouring hills, upon one of which
the village is built. Almost all the villages in this neighbourhood have
Syriac names.
March 19th.--The Emir Beshir, to whom I had letters of recommendation,
from Mr. Barker at Aleppo, received me very politely, and insisted upon
my living at his house. His new palace is a very costly edifice; but at
the present rate of its progress five more years will be required to
finish it. The building consists of a large quadrangle, one on side of
which are the
[p.194]Emir's apartments and his harem, with a private court-yard; two
other sides contain small apartments for his people, and the fourth is
open towards the valley, and Deir el Kammar, commanding a distant view
of the sea. In the neighbouring mountain is a spring, the waters from
which have been conducted into the quadrangle; but the Emir wishes to
have a more abundant supply of water, and intends to bring a branch of
the Nahr el Kadhi thither; for this purpose the water must be diverted
from the main stream at a distance of three hours, and the expense of
the canal is calculated at three thousand pounds sterling.
The Emir Beshir is at present master of the whole mountain from Belad
Akkar down to near Akka (Acre), including the valley of Bekaa, and part
of the Anti-Libanus and Djebel Essheikh. The Bekaa, together with a
present of one hundred purses, was given to him in 1810, by Soleiman
Pasha of Acre, for his assistance against Youssef Pasha of Damascus. He
pays for the possession of the whole country, five hundred and thirty
purses, of which one hundred and thirty go to Tripoli and four hundred
to Saida or Acre; this is exclusive of the extraordinary demands of the
Pashas, which amount to at least three hundred purses more. These sums
are paid in lieu of the Miri, which the Emir collects himself, without
accounting for it. The power of the Emir, however, is a mere shadow, the
real government being in the hands of the Druse chief, Sheikh
Beshir.[Beshir is a proper name borne by many people in the mountain.
The accent is on the last syllable: the sound would be expressed in
English by Besheer.] I shall here briefly explain the political state of
the mountain.
It is now about one hundred and twenty years since the government of the
mountain has been always entrusted by the Pashas of Acre and Tripoli to
an individual of the family of Shehab [Arabic], to which the Emir Beshir
belongs. This family derives its origin
[p.195]from Mekka, where its name is known, in the history of Mohammed
and the first Califes; they are Mussulmans, and some of them pretend
even to be Sherifs. About the time of the crusades, for I have been
unable to ascertain the exact period, the Shehabs left the Hedjaz, and
settled in a village of the Haouran, to which they gave their family
name;[A branch of the family is said to inhabit some mountains in
Mesopotamia, under the command of Emir Kasem.] it is still known by the
appellation of Shohba; and is remarkable for its antiquities, of which I
have given some account, in my journal of a tour in the Haouran. The
family being noble, or of Emir origin, were considered proper persons to
be governors of the mountain; for it was, and still is thought necessary
that the government should not be in the hands of a Druse. The Druses
being always divided into parties, a governor chosen from among them
would have involved the country in the quarrels of his own party, and he
would have been always endeavouring to exterminate his adversaries;
whereas a Turk, by carefully managing both parties, maintains a balance
between them, though he is never able to overpower them completely; he
can oppose the Christian inhabitants to the Druses, who are in much
smaller numbers than the former, and thus he is enabled to keep the
country in a state of tranquillity and in subjection to the Pashas. This
policy has long been successful, notwithstanding the turbulent spirit of
the mountaineers, the continual party feuds, and the ambitious projects
of many chiefs, as well of the Druses as of the reigning house; the
Pashas were careful also not to permit any one to become too powerful;
the princes of the reigning family were continually changed; and party
spirit was revived in the mountain whenever the interests of the Porte
required it. About eighty years ago the country was divided into the two
great parties of Keisy [Arabic], whose banner was red, and Yemeny
[Arabic], whose banner was white, and the whole Christian population
[p.196]ranged itself on the one side or the other. The Keisy gained at
length the entire ascendancy, after which none but secret adherents of
the Yemeny remained, and the name itself was forgotten. Then arose the
three sects of Djonbelat, Yezbeky, and Neked. These still exist; thirty
years ago the two first were equal, but the Djonbelat have now got the
upper hand, and have succeeded in disuniting the Yezbeky and Neked.
The Djonbelat [Arabic] draw their origin from the Druse mountain of
Djebel Aala, between Ladakie and Aleppo: they are an old and noble
family, and, in the seventeenth century, one of their ancestors was
Pasha of Aleppo; it forms at present the richest and most numerous
family, and the strongest party in the mountain.
The Yezbeky [Arabic], or as they are also called, El Aemad [Arabic], are
few in number, but are reputed men of great courage and enterprize.
Their principal residence is in the district of El Barouk, between Deir
el Kammar and Zahle.
The Neked, whose principal Sheikh is at present named Soleiman, inhabit,
for the greater part, Deir el Kammar; seven of their principal chiefs
were put to death thirteen years ago in the serai of the Emir Beshir,
and a few only of their children escaped the massacre; these have now
attained to years of manhood, and remain at Deir el Kammar, watched by
the Djonbelaty and the Aemad, who are united against them.
The Djonbelat now carry every thing with a high hand; their chief, El
Sheikh Beshir is the richest and the shrewdest man in the mountain;
besides his personal property, which is very considerable, no affair of
consequence is concluded without his interest being courted, and dearly
paid for. His annual income amounts to about two thousand purses, or
fifty thousand pounds sterling. The whole province of Shouf is under his
command, and he is in partnership
[p.197] with almost all the Druses who possess landed property there.
The greater part of the district of Djesn [Arabic] is his own property,
and he permits no one to obtain possesions in that quarter, while he
increases his own estates yearly, and thus continually augments his
power. The Emir Beshir can do nothing important without the consent of
the Sheikh Beshir, with whom he is obliged to share all the
contributions which he extorts from the mountaineers. It is from this
cause that while some parts of the mountain are very heavily taxed, in
others little is paid. The Druses form the richest portion of the
population, but they supply little to the public contributions, being
protected by the Sheikh Beshir. It will be asked, perhaps, why the
Sheikh does not set aside the Emir Beshir and take the ostensible power
into his own hands? Many persons believe that he entertains some such
design, while others, better informed perhaps, assert that the Sheikh
will never make the attempt, because he knows that the mountaineers
would never submit to a Druse chief. The Druses are certainly in a
better condition at present than they would be under the absolute sway
of the Sheikh, who would soon begin to oppress instead of protecting
them, as he now does; and the Christians, who are a warlike people,
detest the name of Druse too much ever to yield quietly to a chief of
that community. It is, probably, in the view of attaching the Christians
more closely to him, and to oppose them in some measure to the Druses,
that the Emir Beshir, with his whole family, has secretly embraced the
christian religion. The Shehab, as I have already mentioned, were
formerly members of the true Mussulman faith, and they never have had
among them any followers of the doctrines of the Druses. They still
affect publicly to observe the Mohammedan rites, they profess to fast
during the Ramadhan, and the Pashas still treat them as Turks; but it is
no longer matter of doubt, that the greater part of the Shehab, with
[p.198] the Emir Beshir at their head, have really embraced that branch
only of the family which governs at Rasheya and Hasbeya continue in the
religion of their ancestors.
Although the Christians of the mountain have thus become more attached
to their prince, their condition, on the whole, is not bettered, as the
Emir scarcely dares do justice to a Christian against a Druse; still,
however, the Christians rejoice in having a prince of their own faith,
and whose counsellors and household are with few exceptions of the same
religion. There are not more than forty or fifty persons about him who
are not Christians. One of the prince's daughters lately married a Druse
of an Emir family, who was not permitted to celebrate the nuptials till
he had been instructed in the doctrines of Christianity, had been
baptized, and had received the sacrament. How far the Shehab may be
sincere in their professions, I am unable to decide; it is probable that
if their interests should require it, they would again embrace the
religion of their ancestors.
In order to strengthen his authority the Emir Beshir has formed a close
alliance with Soleiman Pasha of Acre, thus abandoning the policy of his
predecessors, who were generally the determined enemies of the Turkish
governors; this alliance is very expensive to the Prince, though it
serves in some degree to counterbalance the influence of the Sheikh
Beshir. The Emir and the Sheikh are apparently on the best terms; the
latter visits the Emir almost every week, attended by a small retinue of
horsemen, and is always received with the greatest apparent cordiality.
I saw him at Beteddein during my stay there. His usual residence is at
the village of Mokhtar [Arabic], three hours distant from Beteddein,
where he has built a good house, and keeps an establishment of about two
hundred men. His confidential attendants, and even the porters of his
harem, are Christians; but his bosom friend
[p.199] is Sheikh el Nedjem [Arabic], a fanatical Druse, and one of the
most respected of their Akals. The Sheikh Beshir has the reputation of
being generous, and of faithfully defending those who have put
themselves under his protection. The Emir Beshir, on the contrary, is
said to be avaricious; but this may be a necessary consequence of the
smallness of his income. He is an amiable man, and if any Levantine can
be called the friend of an European nation, he certainly is the friend
of the English. He dwells on no topic with so much satisfaction as upon
that of his alliance with Sir Sidney Smith, during that officer's
command upon this coast. His income amounts, at most, to four hundred
purses, or about £10.000. sterling, after deducting from the revenue of
the mountain the sums paid to the Pashas, to the Sheikh Beshir, and to
the numerous branches of his family. His favourite expenditure seems to
be in building. He keeps about fifty horses, of which a dozen are of
prime quality; his only amusement is sporting with the hawk and the
pointer. He lives on very bad terms with his family, who complain of his
neglecting them; for the greater part of them are poor, and will become
still poorer, till they are reduced to the state of Fellahs, because it
is the custom with the sons, as soon as they attain the age of fifteen
or sixteen, to demand the share of the family property, which is thus
divided among them, the father retaining but one share for himself.
Several princes of the family are thus reduced to an income of about one
hundred and fifty pounds a year. It has constantly been the secret
endeavour of the Emir Beshir to make himself directly dependent upon the
Porte, and to throw off his allegiance to the Pasha; but he has never
been able to succeed. The conduct of Djezzar Pasha was the cause of this
policy. Djezzar, for reasons which have already been explained, was
continually changing the governors of the mountain, and each new
governor was obliged to promise him large sums for his investiture. Of
these sums few
[p.200]were paid at the time of Djezzar's death, and bills to the amount
of sixteen thousand purses were found in his treasury, secured upon the
revenue of the mountain. At the intercession of Soleiman Pasha,who
succeeded Djezzar at Akka, and of Gharib Effendi, the Porte's
commissioner (now Pasha of Aleppo), this sum was reduced to four
thousand purses, of which the Emir Beshir is now obliged to pay off a
part annually.
By opposing the Druse parties to each other, and taking advantage of the
Christian population, a man of genius and energy of the Shehab family
might perhaps succeed in making himself the independent master of the
mountain. Such an event would render this the most important government
in Syria, and no military force the Turks could send would be able to
overthrow it. But at present the Shehab appear to have no man of
enterprise among them.
The Shehab marry only among themselves, or with two Druse families, the
Merad [Arabic], and Kaszbeya [Arabic]. These and the Reslan [Arabic],
are the only Emir families, or descendants of the Prophet, among the
Druses. These Emirs inhabit the province called El Meten. Emir Manzour,
the chief of the Merads, is a man of influence, with a private annual
income of about one hundred and twenty purses.
I shall now subjoin such few notes on the Druses as I was able to
collect during my short stay in the mountain; I believe them to be
authentic, because I was very careful in selecting my authourities.
With respect to the true religion of the Druses, none but a learned
Druse can satisfy the enquirer's curiosity. What I have already said of
the Anzeyrys is equally applicable to the Druses; their religious
opinions will remain for ever a secret, unless revealed by a Druse.
Their customs, however, may be described; and, as far as they can tend
to elucidate the mystery, the veil may be
[p.201] drawn aside by the researches of the traveller. It seems to be a
maxim with them to adopt the religious practices of the country in which
they reside, and to profess the creed of the strongest. Hence they all
profess Islamism in Syria; and even those who have been baptised on
account of their alliance with the Shehab family, still practise the
exterior forms of the Mohammedan faith. There is no truth in the
assertion that the Druses go one day to the mosque, and the next to the
church. They all profess Islamism, and whenever they mix with
Mohammedans they perform the rites prescribed by their religion. In
private, however, they break the fast of Ramadhan, curse Mohammed,
indulge in wine, and eat food forbidden by the Koran. They bear an
inveterate hatred to all religions except their own, but more
particularly to that of the Franks, chiefly in consequence of a
tradition current among them that the Europeans will one day overthrow
their commonwealth: this hatred has been increased since the invasion of
the French, and the most unpardonable insult which one Druse can offer
to another, is to say to him "May God put a hat on you!" Allah yelebesak
borneita [Arabic].
Nothing is more sacred with a Druse than his public reputation: he will
overlook an insult if known only to him who has offered it; and will put
up with blows where his interest is concerned, provided nobody is a
witness; but the slightest abuse given in public he revenges with the
greatest fury. This is the most remarkable feature of the national
character: in public a Druse may appear honourable; but he is easily
tempted to a contrary behaviour when he has reason to think that his
conduct will remain undiscovered. The ties of blood and friendship have
no power amongst them; the son no sooner attains the years of maturity
than he begins to plot against his father. Examples are not wanting of
their assailing the chastity of their mothers, and towards their sisters
such
[p.202] conduct is so frequent, that a father never allows a full grown
son to remain alone with any of the females of his family. Their own
religion allows them to take their sisters in marriage; but they are
restrained from indulging in this connexion, on account of its
repugnance to the Mohammedan laws. A Druse seldom has more than one
wife, but he divorces her under the slightest pretext; and it is a
custom among them, that if a wife asks her husband's permission to go
out, and he says to her "Go;" without adding "and come back," she is
thereby divorced; nor can her husband recover her, even though it should
be their mutual wish, till she is married again according to the Turkish
forms, and divorced from her second husband. It is known that the
Druses, like all Levantines, are very jealous of their wives; adultery,
however, is rarely punished with death; if a wife is detected in it, she
is divorced; but the husband is afraid to kill her seducer, because his
death would be revenged, for the Druses are inexorable with respect to
the law of retaliation of blood; they know too that if the affair were
to become public, the governor would ruin both parties by his
extortions. Unnatural propensities are very common amongst them.
The Akal are those who are supposed to know the doctrines of the Druse
religion; they superintend divine worship in the chapels or, as they are
called, Khaloue [Arabic], and they instruct the children in a kind of
catechism. They are obliged to abstain from swearing, and all abusive
language, and dare not wear any article of gold or silk in their dress.
Many of them make it a rule never to eat of any food, nor to receive any
money, which they suspect to have been improperly acquired. For this
reason, whenever they have to receive considerable sums of money, they
take care that it shall be first exchanged for other coin. The Sheikh El
Nedjem, who generally accompanies the Sheikh Beshir, in his visits to
the Emir, never tastes
[p.203] food in the palace of the latter, nor even smokes a pipe there,
always asserting that whatever the Emir possesses has been unlawfully
obtained. There are different degrees of Akal, and women are also
admitted into the order, a privilege which many avail themselves of,
from parsimony, as they are thus exempted from wearing the expensive
head-dress and rich silks fashionable among them.
A father cannot entirely disinherit his son, in that case his will would
be set aside; but he may leave him a single mulberry tree for his
portion. There is a Druse Kadhi at Deir el Kammar, who judges according
to the Turkish laws, and the customs of the Druses; his office is
hereditary in a Druse family; but he is held in little repute, as all
causes of importance are carried before the Emir or the Sheikh Beshir.
The Druses do not circumcise their children; circumcision is practised
only in the mountain by those members of the Shehab family who continue
to be Mohammedans.
The best feature in the Druse character is that peculiar law of
hospitality, which forbids them ever to betray a guest. I made
particular enquiries on this subject, and I am satisfied that no
consideration of interest or dread of power will induce a Druse to give
up a person who has once placed himself under his protection. Persons
from all parts of Syria are in the constant practice of taking refuge in
the mountain, where they are in perfect security from the moment they
enter upon the Emir's territory; should the prince ever be tempted by
large offers to consent to give up a refugee, the whole country would
rise, to prevent such a stain upon their national reputation. The mighty
Djezzar, who had invested his own creatures with the government of the
mountain, never could force them to give up a single individual of all
those who fled thither from his tyranny. Whenever he became
[p.204] very urgent in his demands, the Emir informed the fugitive of
his danger, and advised him to conceal himself for a time in some more
distant part of his territory; an answer was then returned to Djezzar
that the object of his resentment had fled. The asylum which is thus
afforded by the mountain is one of the greatest advantages that the
inhabitants of Syria enjoy over those in the other parts of the Turkish
dominions.
The Druses are extremely fond of raw meat; whenever a sheep is killed,
the raw liver, heart, &c. are considered dainties; the Christians follow
their example, but with the addition of a glass of brandy with every
slice of meat. In many parts of Syria I have seen the common people eat
raw meat in their favourite dish the Kobbes; the women, especially,
indulge in this luxury.
Mr. Barker told me that during his two years residence at Harissa and in
the mountain, he never heard any kind of music. The Christians are too
devout to occupy themselves with such worldly pleasures, and the Druses
have no sort of musical instruments.
The Druses have a few historical books which mention their nation; Ibn
Shebat, for instance, as I was told, gives in his history of the
Califes, that of the Druses also, and of the family of Shehab. Emir
Haidar, a relation of the Emir Beshir, has lately begun to compile a
history of the Shehabs, which already forms a thick quarto volume.
I believe that the greatest amount of the military forces of the Druses
is between ten and fifteen thousand firelocks; the Christians of the
mountain may, perhaps, be double that number; but I conceive that the
most potent Pasha or Emir would never be able to collect more than
twenty thousand men from the mountain.
The districts inhabited by Druses in the Pashalik of Saida are the
following. El Tefahh, of which one half belongs to the
[p.205] Pasha. El Shomar [Arabic], belonging for the greater part to the
Pasha. El Djessein, one half of which belongs to the Porte. Kesrouan. El
Metten. El Gharb el Fokany. El Gharb el Tahtany; in which the principal
family is that of Beit Telhouk [Arabic]. El Djord [Arabic], the
principal family there is Beit Abd el Melek. El Shehhar [Arabic]; the
principal family Meby el Dein [Arabic]. El Menaszef, under Sheikh
Soleiman of the family of Abou Neked [Arabic]. El Shouf [Arabic], the
residence of the Sheikh Beshir. El Aarkoub [Arabic], or Ard Barouk
[Arabic], belonging to the family of Aemad; and El Kharroub [Arabic],
belonging to the Djonbelat.
In 1811, the Druses of Djebel Ala, between Ladakie and Antioch, were
driven from their habitations by Topal Aly, the governor of Djissr
Shogher, whose troops committed the most horrible cruelties. Upwards of
fifteen hundred families fled to their countrymen in the Libanus, where
they were received with great hospitality; upwards of two hundred purses
were collected for their relief, and the Djonbelat assigned to them
convenient dwellings in different parts of the mountain. Some of them
retired into the Haouran.
March 21st.--It was with difficulty that I got away from Beteddein. The
Emir seemed to take great pleasure in conversing with me, as we spoke in
Arabic, which made him much freer than he would have been, had he had to
converse through the medium of an interpreter. He wished me to stay a
few days longer, and to go out a hunting with him; but I was anxious to
reach Damascus, and feared that the rain and snow would make the road
over the mountain impassable; in this I was not mistaken, having
afterwards found that if I had tarried a single day longer I should have
been obliged to return along the great road by the way of Beirout. The
Emir sent one of his horsemen to accompany me,