[p.225] Deir Senan [Arabic]. There is only a small Kurdine village in
the road between Soueida and Aaere.
April 26th.--I remained this day at Aaere, in the house of the Druse
chief the Sheikh Shybely Ibn Hamdan, where I alighted. The Sheikh
appeared to be greatly pleased at my reappearance. Since my former
visit, I had cultivated his friendship by letters and presents, which I
had sent to him from Aleppo, and by which he was so much gratified, that
he would have loaded me with presents in return, had I not thought
proper to decline every thing of that kind, contenting myself with some
very strong letters of recommendation from him to the authorities in
those places which I intended to visit. Shybely is the kindest and most
generous Turk I have known in Syria: and his reputation for these
qualities has become so general, that peasants from all parts of the
Haouran settle in his village. The whole of the Christian community of
Soueida, with the Greek priest at their head, had lately arrived, so
that Aaere has now become one of the most populous villages in this
district. The high estimation in which the Sheikh is held arises from
his great hospitality, and the justice and mildness with which he treats
the peasants, upwards of forty of whom he feeds daily, besides
strangers, who are continually passing here in their way to the Bedouin
encampments; the coffee pot is always boiling in the Menzoul or
stranger's room. He may now, in fact, be called the Druse chief of the
Haouran, though that title belongs in strictness to his father-in-law,
Hossein Ibn Hamdan, the Sheikh of Soueida. In the mosque of Aaere, a low
vaulted building, I copied the following inscription from a stone in the
wall:
[Greek].