CAIRO

[p.630] were established on this road, to which we must also attribute

the date trees now found in a petrified state.

A road, called Derb el Ban [Arabic], leads from Adjeroud to Birket el

Hadj, by the north side of the mountain El Oweybe; it is the most

northern of all the routes to Suez, and is little frequented.

On the 13th of June, early in the morning, I entered Cairo; the plague

had ceased, and had been less destructive, than it was last year.

[p.631] APPENDIX.

[p.633] APPENDIX. No. I.

An Account of the Ryhanlu Turkmans.

Aleppo, May 12, 1810.

THE district inhabited by the Ryhanlu Turkmans begins at about seven

hours distance from Aleppo, to the north-westward. The intermediate

plain is stony and almost deserted, but it is in many parts susceptible

of culture, and contains a great number of villages in ruins. At five

hours march from Aleppo to the W.N.W. upon the ridge of a low hill are

some plantations of olive and fig trees; on the other side of the hill

lies a valley of an oval shape about eighteen miles in circuit, called

Khalaka [Arabic]; at the foot of the low hills which surround it, are

the following villages: Termine, Tellade, Hoesre, Tellekberoun, Bab,

Dana, and some others. The Fellahs or inhabitants of these villages live

in half ruined houses, which indicate the opulence of their ancient

possessors. The soil of the plain is a fine red mould, almost without a

stone. In March, when I visited the Ryhanlu, it was sown with wheat, but

it produces in another season the finest cotton. The whole plain is the

property of Abbas Effendi of Aleppo, the heir of Tshelebi Effendi, who

was in his time the first grandee of Aleppo[.] Having crossed the plain

of Khalaka, and the rocky calcareous hills which border it on the

western side, a very tedious passage for camels, the first Turkman tents

are met with at about six hours and a half or seven hours distance from

Aleppo. The Turkmans, who prfer living on the hills, erect their tents

on the declivities, and cultivate the valleys below them. These hills

extend in a N.W. direction, above forty miles, the mountain of St. Simon

[Arabic], is in the midst of them. Their average breadth, including the

numerous valleys which intersect them, may be estimated at fifteen or

twenty miles. They lose themselves in the plain of Antioch, which is

bounded on the opposite side by the chain of high mountains, extending

along the southern coast of the gulf of Scanderoun. The river Afrin

[Arabic] waters this plain; its course from the neighbourhood of Killis

to where it empties itself into the lake of Antioch, is fifteen or

twenty hours in length. At about seven hours above the lake, this river

is about the size of the Cam near Cambridge; it regularly but moderately

overflows in spring-time, and is full of carps and barbles; but the

Turkmans have no implements of fishing. Besides the Afrin there are

numerous smaller rivers and sources, which water the valleys. One of the

must considerable of these is the river of Goul, which takes its rise

near a Turkman encampment [p.634] of the same name, about six hours

distant from St. Simon, to the W. by N. in a small lake, about one mile

and a half in circumference, and joins the waters of the Afrin, eight

miles from its source. This beautiful little lake is so full of fish,

that the boys of Goul kill them by throwing stones at them. The river

turns several mills near Goul, and five or six more at six miles

distance, at a place called Tahoun Kash, near a spot where the chieftain

of the Ryhanlu, Mursal Oglu Hayder Aga, has built a house for his winter

residence, and has planted a garden. On the right bank of the Afrin,

about three quarters of an hour distant from it, and at three hours ride

to the N.-westward of the tent of Mohammed Ali, my Turkman host, are two

warm springs at half an hour's walk from each other. I only saw the

southernmost, which is strongly impregnated with sulphur, and made my

thermometer rise to 102°; it constantly bubbles from a bottom of coarse

gravel, in the middle of the bason, which is about twenty feet in

circumference, and four feet deep. The sulphureous smell begins to be

sensible at a distance of twenty-five yards from it, and I was told that

the northern spring was still more sulphureous. The Turkmans hold the

medicinal powers of these springs, as baths, in great estimation: women

as well as men use them for the cure of violent headaches, which are

very prevalent amongst them. The fields of the Turkmans are sown with

wheat, barley, and several kinds of pulse. Their wheat was sown only a

fortnight before my arrival, viz, about the twentieth of February. As it

is only a short time since they have become agriculturists, they have

not yet any plantations of fruit trees, although the olive, pomegranate,

and fig would certainly prosper in their valleys. Thirty years ago the

hills which they now inhabit were partly covered with wood; the trade of

firewood with Aleppo, however, has entirely consumed these forests. At

present they cut the wood for the Aleppo market, in the mountains of the

Kurds on the northern side of the Afrin, and when that shall fail,

Aleppo must depend for its fuel upon the coast of Caramania, from whence

Egypt is now supplied. The Turkman hills are inhabited by vast numbers

of jackals; wolves, and foxes are also numerous; and I saw flocks of

Gazelles, to the number of twenty or thirty in each flock; among a great

variety of birds is the Francoline, which the Syrian sportsmen esteem

the choicest of all game. In the mountains of Badjazze, which borders on

the Turkman plains, stags are sometimes killed. The Turkmans are

passionately fond of hawking; they course the game with grey-hounds, or

if in the plain, they run it down with their horses.

The population of the Ryhanlu Turkmans may be roughly calculated from

the number of their tents, which amount to about three thousand; every

tent contains from two or three to fifteen inmates. They can raise a

military force of two or three thousand horsemen, and of as many

infantry. They are divided into thirteen minor tribes: 1. The

Serigialar, or tribe of the chief of the Ryhanlu Turkmans, Hayder Aga,

has five hundred horsemen. 2. Coudanlut, six hundred. 3. Cheuslu, two

hundred. 4. Leuklu, one hundred. 5. Kara Akhmetlu one hundred and fifty.

6. Kara Solimanlu, fifty. 7. Delikanlu, six hundred. 8. Toroun, sixty.

9. Bahaderlu, one hundred. 10. Hallalu, sixty. 11. Karken, twenty. 12.

Aoutshar, twenty. 13. Okugu, fifty. The Serigialar derive their origin

from Maaden, the Cheuslu from the [p.635] neighbourhood of Badjazze, the

Babaderli from the mountains of St. Simon, the Halalis from Barak. Each

tribe has its own chief, whose rank in the Divan is determined by the

strength his tribe; Hayder Aga presides amongst them whenever it is

found necessary to call together a common council. His authority over

the Ryhanlus seems to be almost absolute, as he sometimes carries his

motions in the Divan even against the opinion and will of the assembled

chiefs. He settles the disputes, which occur between these chiefs, and

which are often accompanied by hostile incursions into one another’s

territory. The chiefs decide all disputes among their own followers

according to the feeble knowledge which they possess of the Turkish

laws; but appeals from their tribunal may be made to that of the grand

chief. The whole Ryhanlu tribe is tributary to Tshapan Oglu, the

powerful governor of the eastern part of Anatolia, who resides at

Yuzgat. They pay him an annual tribute of six thousand two hundred and

fifteen piastres, in horses, cattle, &c. He claims also the right of

nominating to the vacant places of chieftains; but his influence over

the Turkman Ryhanlu having of late much diminished, this right is at

present merely nominal. The predecessors of Hayder Aga used to receive

their Firmahn of nomination, or rather of confirmation, from the Porte.

When the tribute for Tshapan Oglu is collected, Hayder Aga generally

gives in an account of disbursements incurred during the preceding year

for the public service, such as presents to officers of the Porte

passing through the camp, expenses of entertaining strangers of rank,

&c. &c. The tribute, as well as Hayder Aga’s demands, are levied from

the tribes according to the repartition of the minor Agas; and each

chief takes that opportunity of adding to the sum to which his tribe is

assessed, four or five hundred piastres, which make up his only income

as chief. The Turkmans do not pay any Miri, or general land tax to the

Grand Signor, for the ground they occupy. Families, if disgusted with

their chief, often pass from one tribe to another without any one daring

to prevent their departure.

The Ryhanlu, like most of the larger Turkman nations, are a nomade

people. They appear in their winter quarters in the plain of Antioch at

the end of September, and depart from thence towards the middle of

April, when the flies of the plain begin to torment their horses and

cattle. They then direct their march towards Marash, and remain in the

neighbourhood of that place about one month; from thence they reach the

mountains of Gurun and Albostan. The mountains which they occupy are

called Keukduli, Sungulu, and Kara Dorouk, (upon Kara Dorouk, they say,

are some fine ruins). Here they pass the hottest summer months; in

autumn they repass the plains of Albostan, and return by the same route

towards Antioch.

The winter habitations of the Turkmans in the hilly districts are, as I

have mentioned before, erected on the declivity of the hills, so as to

be by their position somewhat sheltered from the northerly winds.

Sometimes five or six families live together on one spot in as many

tents, but for the greater part tents of single families are met with at

one or two miles distance from each other. In proportion to the arable

land, which the hilly parts contain, these districts are better peopled

than the plain, where a thousand tents are scattered over an [p.636]

extent, of the most fertile country, of at least five hundred square

miles. The structure of the habitations of these nomades is of course

extremely simple: an oblong square wall of loose stones, about four feet

high, is covered over with a black cloth made of goats hair, which is

supported by a dozen or more posts, so that in the middle of the tent

the covering is elevated about nine feet from the ground. A stone

partition is built across the tent, near the entrance: I found in every

tent that the women had uniformly possession of the greater half to the

left of the door; the smaller half to the right hand side is

appropriated to the men, and there is also a partition at H [figure not

included], which generally serves as a stable for a favourite horse of

the master or of one of his sons. The rest of the horses and the cattle

are kept in caverns, which abound in these calcareous hills, or in

smaller huts built on purpose. Besides those who live in tents, many of

the Turkmans, especially in the plain, live in large huts fifteen feet

high, built and distributed like the tents, but having, instead of a

tent covering, a roof of rushes, which grow in great abundance on the

banks of the Afrin. The women’s room serves also as the kitchen; there

they work at their looms, and strangers never enter: unless, when, as I

was told, the Turkmans meaning to do great honour to a guest, allow him

a corner of the Harem to sleep in quiet among the women. The men’s

apartment is covered with carpets, which serve as beds to strangers and

to the unmarried members of the family; the married people retire into

the Harem. The Turkmans have also a kind of portable tent made of wood,

like a round bird cage, which they cover with large carpets of white

wool. The entrance may be shut up by a small door; it is the exclusive

habitation of the ladies, and is only met with in families who are

possessed of large property. The tent or hut of a Turkman is always

surrounded by three or four others, in which the Fellah families live

who cultivate his land. These Fellahs are the remaining peasants of

abandoned villages, or some poor straggling Kurds. The Turkmans find the

necessary seed, and receive in return half the produce, which is

collected by a few of them who remain for this purpose in the winter

quarters the whole year round. The Fellahs live wretchedly; whenever

they are able to scrape together a small pittance, their masters take it

from them under pretence of borrowing it; I was treated by several of

them at dinner with the best dish they could afford: bad oil, with

coarse bread; they never taste meat except when they kill a cow or an

ox, disabled by sickness or age; the greater part of them live literally

upon bread and water, neither fruits or vegetables being cultivated

here; they are nevertheless, a cheerful good-natured people; the young

men play, sing, and dance, every evening, and are infinitely better

tempered [p.637] than their haughty masters. My host, Mohammed Ali,

began a few years ago to plant a small garden of fruit trees near his

tents; his example will probably be generally followed, because the

Ryhanlu families, at every returning season, pitch their tents on the

same spot. It is only about ten years, that the Ryhanlu have cultivated

the land; like the other Turkman hordes they had always preferred the

wandering life of feeders of cattle. Agriculture was introduced among

them by the persuasion of Hayder Aga, whose daughter having married a

chief of the neighbouring Kurds, an alliance took place, which enabled

the Turkmans to perceive the advantages, derived by the Kurds from the

cultivation of the soil. The principal riches of the Turkmans however

still consist in cattle. Their horses are inferior to those of the Arabs

of the desert, but are well adapted for the mountains. Their necks are

shorter and thicker than those of the Arab horses, the head larger, the

whole frame more clumsy: the price of a good Turkman horse at Aleppo is

four or five hundred piastres, while twice that sum or more is paid for

an Arab horse of a generous breed. Contrary to the practice of the

Arabs, the Turkmans ride males exclusively. The family of my host

possessed four horses, three mares, about five hundred sheep, one

hundred and fifty goats, six cows, and eight camels; he is looked upon as

a man in easy circumstances; there are few families whose property does

not amount to half as much, and there are many who have three or four

times as many cattle. I have heard of some who are possessed of property

in cattle and cash to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand

piastres. Such sums are gained by the trade with Aleppo and by usury

amongst themselves.

At the time of their departure for Armenia the Ryhanlu buy up buffaloes

and Arab camels, which they exchange in Armenia for a better breed of

camels and for some other cattle, for the Aleppo market. The Armenian or

Caramanian camel is taller and stronger than the Arab, its neck is more

bent, and the neck and upper part of the thighs are covered with thick

hair; the Arab camel, on the contrary, has very little hair. The common

load of the latter is about six hundred weight, or one hundred and

twenty rotolos, but the Armenian camel will carry one hundred and sixty

rotolos, or eight hundred weight. The price of an Arabian camel is about

two hundred and fifty piastres, that of an Armenian at Aleppo is twice

as much. This breed of camels is produced by a he-dromedary and a she-

Arabian camel. The people of Anatolia keep these male dromedaries as

stallions for the purpose of covering the females of the smaller Arabian

breed, which the Turkmans, yearly bring to their market. If left to

breed among themselves the Caramanian camels produce a puny race of

little value. The Arabs use exclusively their smaller breed of camels,

because they endure heat, thirst, and fatigue, infinitely better than

the others, which are well suited to hilly districts. The camels of the

Turkmans feed upon a kind of low bramble called in Turkish Kufan, which

grows in abundance upon the hills; in the evening they descend the

mountains and come trotting towards the tents, where each camel receives

a ball of paste, made of barley meal and water, weighing about one

pound. The expense of feeding these useful animals is therefore reduced

to the cost of a handful of barley per day. The Turkmans do not milk

their camels, but use them exclusively as beasts of burthen. Through

[p.638] their means they carry on a very profitable trade with Aleppo.

They provide the town with firewood, which they cut in the mountains of

the Kurds, distant about four hours to the N.W. of Mohammed Aga’s tent;

the Kurds themselves who inhabit those mountains have no camels, and are

obliged to sell their wood and their labour in cutting it at a very

trifling price. Besides wood the Turkmans carry to town the produce of

their fields, together with sheep and lambs, wool, butter and cheese in

the spring, and a variety of home made carpets. They transport the

merchandize of the Frank merchants at Aleppo from Alexandretta to the

city. The profits arising from the trade with Aleppo are almost entirely

consumed by the demands of their families for cloth, coffee, sweetmeats,

and various articles of eastern luxury; they seldom take back any cash

to their tents.

The manner of living of the Turkmans is luxurious for a nomade people.

Their tents are for the greater part clean, the floor in the men’s room

is furnished with a Divan or sophas, leaving only a space in the middle

where a large fire is continually kept up to cheer the company and to

make coffee, of which they consume a great quantity. Their coffee cups

are three times the size of those commonly used in the Levant, or as

large as an English coffee cup; whenever coffee is handed round, each

person’s cup is filled two or three times; when I was with them, I often

drank twenty or more cups in the course of the day. The servants roast

and pound the coffee immediately before it is drank. They pound it in

large wooden mortars, and handle the pestle with so much address, that

if two or three are pounding together they keep time, and made a kind of

music which seemed to be very pleasing to their masters.

The Turkmans taste flesh only upon extraordinary occasions, such as a

marriage or a circumcision, a nightly feast during the Ramazan, or the

arrival of strangers. Their usual fare is Burgoul; this dish is made of

wheat boiled, and afterwards dried in the sun in sufficient quantity for

a year’s consumption: the grain is re-boiled with butter or oil, and

affords a very palateable nourishment; it is a favourite dish all over

Syria. Besides Burgoul they eat rice, eggs, honey, dried fruit, and sour

milk, called Leben. They have none but goats milk. Their bread is a thin

unleavened cake, which the women bake immediately before dinner upon a

hot iron plate, in less than a minute. Breakfast is served at eight

o’clock in the morning, the principal meal takes place immediately after

sunset. The Turkmans, are great coxcombs at table, in comparison with

other Levantines; instead of simply using his fingers, the Turkman

twists his thin bread very adroitly into a sort of spoon, which he

swallows, together with the morsel which he has taken out of the dish

with it. I remember sitting with a dozen of them round a bason of sour

milk, which we dispatched in a few minutes without any person, except

myself, having in the least soiled his fingers.

The Turkman women do not hide themselves, even before strangers, but the

girls seldom enter the men’s room, although they are permitted freely to

talk with their father’s guests. I was much struck with the elegance of

their shapes and the regularity of their features. Their complexion is

as fair as that of European women; as they advance in age the sun browns

them a little. As to their morals, chastity becomes a necessary virtue

where [p.639] even a kiss, is punished with death by the father or

brother of the unhappy offender. I could mention several instances of

the extreme severity of the Turkmans upon this subject; but one may

suffice. Three brothers taking a ride end passing through an insulated

valley, met their sister receiving the innocent caresses of her lover.

By a common impulse they all three discharged their fire-arms upon her,

and left their fallen victim upon the ground, while the lover escaped

unhurt; my host Mohammed Ali, upon being informed of the murder, sent

his servant to bring the body to his tent, in order to prevent the

jackals from devouring it: the women were undressing and washing the

body to commit it to the grave, when a slight breathing convinced them

that the vital spark was not yet extinguished; in short the girl

recovered. She was no sooner out of immediate danger, than one of Ali’s

sons repaired to the tent of his friends, the three brothers, who sat

sullen and silent round the fire, grieving over the loss of their

sister. The young man entered, and saluted them, and said, “I come to

ask you, in the name of my father, for the body of your sister; my

family wishes to bury her.” He had no sooner finished than the brothers

rose, crying: “if she was dead you would not have asked for her, you

would have taken the body without our permission.” Then seizing their

arms, they were hurrying out of the tent, in search of the still living

victim; but Mohammed Ali’s son opposed the authority of his father and

his own reputation of courage to their brutal intentions; he swore that

he would kill the first who should leave the tent, told them that they

had already sufficiently revenged the received injury, and that if their

sister was not dead it was the visible protection of the prophet that

had saved her: and thus, he at last persuaded them to grant his request.

The girl was nursed for three months in Mohammed Ali’s family, and

married after her complete recovery to the young man who had been the

cause of her misfortune. Notwithstanding such severity the young

Turkmans boast of their intrigues, and delight in all the dangers of

secret courtship; and I have been assured, upon indisputable authority,

that there are few men among them who have not enjoyed the favours of

their mistresses before the consumnnation of their nuptials. If the

woman happens to become a mother, she destroys her illegitimate

offspring as the only means of saving her own life and that of the

father.

The Turkman ladies dress in the common style of Syrian women; their

bonnet is adorned with strings of Venetian zequins, or other gold

pieces. The dress of the men is that of the Turks of Anatolia. The

horsemen wear wide riding pantaloons, or Sherwalls, of cloth; their

head-dress consists of a red cap round which they twist a turban of

cotton or silk stuff; the wealthy wear turbans of flowered stuffs, or

even Persian shawls. Twenty years ago the national head-dress was a tall

and narrow cap of white wool, in the shape of a sugar-loaf, since that

time the Ryhanlu have left off wearing it, but I remember to have seen a

headdress of this kind during my stay with the Turkmans near Tarsus. The

Turkman women are very laborious; besides the care of housekeeping, they

work the tent coverings of goats hair, and the woollen carpets, which

are inferior only to those of Persian manufacture. Their looms are of

primitive simplicity; they do not make use of the shuttle, but pass the

woof with their hands. They seem to have made great progress in the art

of dyeing; their colours [p.640] are beauitful. Indigo and cochineal,

which they purchase at Aleppo, give them their blue, and red dyes, but

the ingredients of all the others, especially of a brilliant green, are

herbs which they gather in the mountains of Armenia; the dyeing process

is kept by them as a national secret. The wool of their carpets, is of

the ordinary kind; the carpets are about seven feet long and three

broad, and sell from fifteen to one hundred piastres a piece. While the

females are employed in these labours the men pass their whole time in

indolence; except at sunset, when they feed their horses and camels,

they lounge about the whole day, without any useful employment, and

without even refreshing their leisure by some trifling occupation. To

smoke their pipes and drink coffee is to them the most agreeable

pastime; they frequently visit each other, and collecting round the

fire-place, they keep very late hours. I was told that there are some

men amongst them, who play the tamboura, a sort of guitar, but I never

heard any of them perform. If the young men would condescend to assist

in agriculture, the wealth of the families would rapidly increase, and

the whole of the plains of Antioch might in time be cultivated: at

present, as far as I could observe, there are few families growing rich;

most of them spend their whole income.

A Turkman never leaves his tent to take a ride in the neighbourhood

without being armed with his gun, pistols, and sabre. I was astonished

to see that they do not take the smallest care of their fire arms: a

great number of them were shewn to me, to know whether they were of

English manufacture; I found them covered with rust, and they complained

of their often missing fire. They have no gunsmiths amongst them; nor

any artizans at all, except some farriers, and a few makers of bridles

and of horse accoutrements[.]

There are no lawyers or Ulemas among the Ryhanlu. Some families of

consequence carry with them a Faqui or travelling Imam, to teach their

children to read and to pray, and who in case of need performs likewise

the duties of a menial servant, much like the young German baron’s

governor. These Faqui are for the greater part natives of Albostan,

educated there in mosques: they follow the Turkmans to participate in

the pious alms which the Koran prescribes. They are generally ignorant,

even of the Turkish law: they are often consulted however by the chiefs,

and their sentence is generally confirmed by the chief whenever there is

no precedent or customary law in point to the contrary.

I did not see any books amongst the Turkmans, and I am certain that out

of fifty hardly one knows how to read or write. Even few of them know

the text of their prayers (which are throughout the Mohammedan countries

in the sacred language, the Arabic), and therefore perform the

prescribed prostrations silently and without the usual ejaculations. The

married people, men as well as women, are tolerably exact in the

performance of their devotions, but the young men never trouble

themselves about them.

I did not stay long enough among the Turkmans to be able to judge

correctly of their character, especially as I was ignorant of their

language. I saw enough, however, to convince me that they possess most

of the vices of nomade nations, without their good qualities. The

Turkmans are, like the Arabs and Kurds, a people of robbers, that is to

say, [p.641] every thing which they can lay hold of in the open country

is their lawful prize, provided it does not belong to their acknowledged

friends. The Arabs make amends in some measure for their robberies by

the hospitality and liberality with which they receive friends and

strangers. In this respect I soon found that I had been led to form a

very erroneous opinion of the Turkman character. I was introduced at

Aleppo to Mohammed Ali Aga, a man of considerable influence amongst the

Ryhanlu, as a physician who was travelling in search of herbs, and I

succeeded in supporting my assumed character during near a fortnight’s

stay under his tent. Before my departure from Aleppo, I made him a

present of coffee and sweetmeats, to the amount of sixty piastres, and I

promised him another present, when he should have brought me back in

safety to Aleppo. Notwithstanding these precautions, my reception in his

tent was rather cool, and I soon found that I was among men who had no

other idea than that of getting as much out of me as they could. They

were not under the least restraint, but calculated in my presence how

much my visit was worth to them, as I sufficiently understood, from

their animated tone and gestures, added to the few Turkish words, which

I learnt. To spare my dinner my host took me out a visiting almost every

day, just before the dinner hour; and that he might know how far it

would be prudent to incur expence on my account, he permitted one of his

friends to search my pockets, and was cruelly disappointed when he found

that my purse did not contain more than four or five piastres. My horse,

for the maintenance of which I had agreed with my host, was fed with

straw, until I told them that I should take care of it myself, when they

were obliged to deliver its daily portion of barley into my own hands.

Such was the liberality which I experienced in return for the medical

advice and medicines which they received without hesitation from me upon

demanding them. Their minds seemed intent only upon money, except among

the lovers there was no other subject of conversation, and instead of

the Arab virtues, of honour, frankness, and hospitality, there appeared

to be no other motive of action among them than the pursuit of gain. The

person of a Frank may be safe among them, but his baggage will be

exposed to close search, and whatever strikes the fancy of a powerful

man, will be asked of him in such a manner, that it is adviseable to

give up the object at once. I had fortunately hidden my compass in my

girdle, but a thermometer which they found in my pocket, attracted

general notice; if I had explained to them the use I meant to make of

it, it would have confirmed the suspicion already hinted to me by one of

them, that I intended to poison their springs. I pretended that the

thermometer was a surgical instrument, which being put into the blood of

an open wound served to shew whether the wound was dangerous or not. It

is not more from the behaviour of the Turkmans towards myself, that I

formed my opinion of their character, than from their conduct towards

each other. They are constantly upon their guard against robbers and

thieves of their own tribe; they cheat each other in the most trifling

affairs, and like most of the Aleppo merchants, make use of the most

awful oaths and imprecations to conceal their falsehood. If they have

one good quality it is their tolerance in religious matters, which

proves, on the other hand, how little they care about them.

[p.642] The men marry at fourteen or fifteen, the girls at thirteen.

Excepting Hayder Aga, and some of his brothers, there are very few who

have more than one wife. They celebrate their marriage feasts with great

pomp. The young men play upon those occasions at a running game much

resembling the “jeu de barre,” known on the continent of Europe. Their

music then consists in drums and trumpets, only, for the Turkmans, are

not so fond of music as the Aleppines and the Arabs, nor did I ever meet

among them with any of the story-tellers, who are so frequent amongst

the Arabs of the desert. Whenever a son reaches the marriageable age,

his father gives him, even before his marriage, a couple of camels and a

horse to defray, by the profits of trade, his private expenses. At the

death of the father, his property is divided amongst the family

according to the Turkish law. The Ryhanlu bury their dead in the burying

places which are found scattered among the ruins of deserted villages.

My observations were confined to the Ryhanlu. But they will probably in

great measure apply to all the large Turkman tribes which inhabit the

western parts of Asia Minor, and concerning which I obtained a few

particulars.

In the level country between Badjazze and Adena lives a tribe which is

tributary to the governors of these two places. They are called Jerid,

and are more numerous than the Ryhanlu; they likewise leave their plains

towards the approach of summer, and winter in the Armenian mountains, in

the neighbourhood of the Ryhanlu. Like the latter they have one head,

and several minor chiefs, and they are divided into six tribes: viz.

Jerid (chief Shahen Beg), Tegir (chief Oglu Kiaya), Karegialar (chief

Rustam Beg), Bozdagan (chief Kerem Oglu), Aoutshar (chief Hassan Beg),

Leck (chief Agri Bayouk). The Lecks speak, besides the Turkish, a

language of their own, which has no resemblance either to the Arabic,

Turkish, Persian or Kurdine; “it sounds like the whistling of birds,”

said the Turkman from whom I obtained this information, and the same

remark was confirmed by others. The name of the Leck, renders the

supposition probable that they are descendants of the Lazi, a people

inhabiting the coast of the Black sea, and who in the time of the great

Justinian opposed his forces with some success. Chardin mentions having

met descendants of the Lazi near Trebizond, whom he describes as a rude

sea-faring people, with a peculiar language.

The Pehluvanlu are the most numerous tribe of the whole nation of

Turkmans. They are governed by a chief, (Mahmoud Beg), who is tributary

to Tshapan Oglu. A part of them have for a long period been cultivators,

others are shepherds. They inhabit the country from Bosurk to near

Constantinople, and pass the summer months at one day’s journey distance

from the Ryhanlu. They are in possession of a very profitable transport

trade, and their camels form almost exclusively the caravans of Smyrna

and of the interior of Anatolia. They drive their sheep for sale as far

as Constantinople.

The Rishwans are more numerous than the Ryhanlu, but their tribe is not

held in esteem among the Turkmans. They were formerly tributary to

Rishwan Oglu, governor of Besna, which lies at one day’s journey from

Aintab; and they used then to winter in the neighbourhood [p.643] of

Djeboul, on the borders of a small salt lake, five hours to the S. E. of

Aleppo. They are at present dependent on Tshapan Oglu, and winter in the

plains near Haimani in Anatolia; they pass their summer months in the

neighbourhood of the Ryhanlu. Their principal tribes are Deleyanli

(chief Ali Beg Oglu), Omar Anli (chief Omar Beg), Mandolli (Omar Aga),

Gelikanli (Hassan Beg Mor Oglu). The Rishwans are noted, even among

robbers, for their want of faith.

The great tribes of the Turkmans are often at war with each other, as

well as with the Kurds, with whom they are in contact in many places.

These wars seldom cause the death of more than three or four

individuals, after which peace is concluded. In a late war between the

Ryhanlu and the Kurds, which lasted five or six months, and brought on

several battles, the whole list of deaths was only six Kurds and four

Turkmans. In the mountains, the Turkmans are accompanied in their

military expeditions by foot soldiers, armed with muskets; these are men

of the tribe who cannot afford to keep a horse. Neither the lance, nor

the bow is used among them. Some tribes of Kurds, on the contrary, have

never abandoned the use of the bow.

The Tar, or blood-revenge, is observed among the Turkman nations, as

well among themselves, as with respect to foreigners. They have a

particular species of Tar which I have never heard of among the Arabs.

It attaches to their goods; the following incident will best explain it:

a caravan of Turkman camels laden with wood was seized last winter, just

before the gates of Aleppo, by a detachment of Karashukly (a mixt tribe

of Turkmans and Arabs, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates, in the

vicinity of Bir). One of the Turkmans was wounded, the loads were thrown

down, and fifty camels driven away, worth about five hundred piastres

apiece. The Turkmans immediately dispatched an old Arab woman as

ambassadress to their enemies, to treat for the restoration of their

camels, and she succeeded in recovering them at the rate of one hundred

and sixty piastres apiece, or eight thousand piastres, for the whole.

“Thus,” I was told by a Turkman chief, “the Tar between us will not be

for the whole sum of twenty-five thousand piastres, the real value of

the camels, but only for the sum of eight thousand piastres, for which

we shall, on the first opportunity take our revenge.”

There are no Sherif families, or families claiming a descent from the

prophet, amongst the Ryhanlu. But family pride is not unknown among

them. Descendants from ancient and renowned chiefs claim, though poor,

some deference from wealthy upstarts. In one of their late battles with

the Kurds, a young man of noble extraction, but poor, and without

authority, was crying out in the heat of action: “Comrades, let us

attack them on the left flank.” Hayder Aga, who heard it, exclaimed:

“Who are you? hold your tongue.” After the victory the young man, was

seen thoughtful and melancholy in the midst of the rejoicings of his

brethren; Hayder Aga, as proud a man as ever sat upon a throne, to whom

it was reported, sent for the young man, and when he entered the tent

rose, and kissed his beard, begging [p.644] him to forget whatever lie

might have said in the heat of action, when he was not always master of

himself.

Their ideas of decency appear singular, when compared with our own. A

Turkman will talk before his wife, daughter, or sister upon subjects

which are banished from our discourse; at the same time that he would be

much offended if any friend should in the presence of his females speak

in raptures or poetical terms of the charms of a beloved mistress.

Remains of Antiquity.

One of the principal motives of my visit to the Turkmans was my desire

to visit some ruins near their encampments, particularly those of Deir

Samaan, which at Aleppo I had heard compared to the temples at Baalbec.

I therefore made it a condition with my Turkman host, that he should

take me to Deir Samaan as well as to several other ruins whose names I

had collected from different Aleppines. The day after my arrival under

his tent, he set out with me towards the Deir, and we reached it after a

ride of four hours over the rocky hills which encircle the mountain of

St. Simon, called Djebel Samaan, or Sheikh Barekat. The Deir Samaan

consists of the ruins of a church, monastery, or episcopal palace, built

upon the top of an insulated hill, bearing from the top of the mountain

of St. Simon, N. 20 E., about eight miles distant. It is now inhabited

by several families of Kurds, who have their black goat hair tents

pitched in the middle of the ruins. They received us with much

hospitality; a sheep was immediately killed, and all the delicacies of

the season were served up to us. After dinner and coffee, Tshay[FN#1]

was served round, which the Aleppines and all Syrians esteem as one of

the greatest dainties: it is a heating drink, made of ginger, cloves,

rosewater, sugar and similar ingredients, boiled together to a thick

syrup. Mursa Aga, the chief, a handsome young man, then took up his

Tamboura or guitar, and the rest of the evening passed in music and

singing.

The whole summit of the hill, which is six hundred paces in length and

one hundred and seventy in breadth, was once covered with stately

buildings. A thick wall of square hewn stones, is traceable all round.

The principal ruins consist of two separate buildings, a palace, and a

church, or monastery, which were separated from each other by a court-

yard one hundred and ten paces in length. The palace, or perhaps the

high priest’s habitation, is not remarkable either for its size or

elegance. I could not enter it because it was occupied by the Harem of

Mursa Aga. A colonnade led from the palace to the church gate; the

broken fragments only of the columns remain. Of the church most of the

side walls are still standing, ornamented with pillars and arches worked

in the walls; it is divided into two circular apartments [p.645] of

which the inner may have been the sanctuary. On the eastern side of the

church is a dark vaulted room, which receives the daylight only from the

door, and which appears to have been a sepulchre. A number of niches (if

I recollect right, nine), not perpendicular like the Egyptian sepulchral

niches, but horizontal, have been built around the wall. Into this

chamber opens a subterraneous passage, which is said by the Kurds, to

continue a long way under ground, in the direction of Antakia. I could

not persuade any body to enter it with me. Adjacent to this sepulchre is

another vaulted, open hall, which has been changed by its present

proprietors into stables, and an apartment for receiving strangers in

the heat of summer. The softness of the calcareous stone from the

adjacent hills, with which the buildings are constructed, has caused all

the ornaments of the arches and columns and even the shafts themselves

to decay; enough remains however, of their clumsy and overcharged

ornaments, to shew that the edifices are of an advanced period of the

Greek empire. The columns are very small in proportion to the arches

which they support, and I did not see any above eighteen or twenty feet

high. The perishable nature of the stone has not left a single

inscription visible, if there ever were any, with the exception of some

names of Frenchmen from Aleppo, who visited the place eighty years ago.

The sign of the cross is visible in several places. If these buildings

were constructed in pious commemoration of the devout sufferings of St.

Simon Stylites, who passed thirty-five years of his life upon a column,

they are probably of the sixth century. St. Simon died towards the end

of the fifth century, and in the seventh century Syria was conquered and

converted to Islamism by the successors of Mohammed. The structures are

certainly not of the date of the Crusades. On the eastern side of the

building are the remains of an aqueduct, the continuation of which is

again met with on the opposite hill. The Kurdine inhabitants of these

ruins collect at present the rain water in cisterns.

Descending from the top of the hill on the western side, the remains of

a broad paved causeway lead to an arch, which stands about ten minutes

walk from the castle, and faces the ruins of a city, built at the foot

of the hill, of which a number of buildings are still extant. These

ruins, called Bokatur, are uninhabited, their circumference may be

estimated at about one mile and a half. Amongst the many private houses

a palace may be distinguished, surrounded by a low portico, at which

terminates the causeway leading from the arch. At half an hour’s

distance to the S.W. of Bokatur, are ruins resembling the former in

extent and structure. I saw several houses of which the front was

supported by columns, of a smaller size than those of the palace at

Bokatur. This place is now called Immature, at three quarters of an hour

to the W. of it, are other similar ruins of a town called Filtire, which

I did not see. The two latter places are now inhabited by some poor

Kurdine families. The style of building which I observed in the houses

of these ruined cities approaches more to the European than the Asiatic

taste. The roofs are somewhat inclined, and the windows numerous, and

large, instead of being few and small, as in Turkish houses. The walls,

most of which are still remaining, are for the greatest part without

ornament, [p.646] from one foot to about one foot and a half thick, and

built of calcareous squared stones, like Deir Samaan. The pillars which

are still to be seen in some of the ruined buildings are none of them

more than fifteen feet high. Their capitals, like those of the columns

in the Deir Samaan, are rude and unfinished; if any order is discernible

it is a corrupted Corinthian. The neighbourbood of these towns, at least

for five miles round, presents nothing but an uneven plain, thickly

covered with barren rocks, which rise to the height of two or three feet

above the surface. A few herbs grow in the fissures of the rocks, which

are scarcely sufficient to keep from starving half a dozen horses, the

property of the present miserable inhabitants. There are several wells

of good water in the neighbourhood of the ruins. To the S.S.E. of the

Deir, at an hour and a half’s distance, stands a single pillar about

thirty-five feet high, the base and capital of which are like those of

the Deir. No inscriptions are visible. At a few yards from the column is

the entrance to a spacious subterraneous cavern. I passed this spot on

my way to the Deir, and purposed to examine the contents of the cave on

our return; I returned however by another route.

We left our friendly Kurds on the following day at noon. At taking my

leave I told the chief that I should be happy to make him some

acknowledgments for the hospitality shewn to me, whenever he should

visit Aleppo. He excused himself for not having been able to treat us

according to his wishes, and begged me to send him from Aleppo a few

strings for his guitar; which I gladly promised. These Kurds have been

for some time past at war with the Janissaries at Aleppo, which prevents

them from going there.

On our road back to Mohammed Ali’s tents, through Bokatur and Immature,

we met halfway a poor gypsy, or as they are called here, Kurpadh; these

Kurpadh are spread over the whole of Anatolia and Syria.

The Kurds have spread themselves over some parts of the plain which the

Afrin waters, as well as some of the neighbouring mountains. They live

in tents and in villages, are stationary, and are all occupied in

agriculture and the rearing of cattle. They form four tribes, of which

the Shum, who live in the plain, are the most considerable. The Kurds

seem to be of a more lively disposition than the Turkmans; the Aleppines

say that their word is less to be depended upon than that of the

Turkmans. My hosts at Deir Samaan asked me many questions relative to

European politics. I found the opinion prevalent among them which

Buonaparte has taken such pains to impress upon the winds of the

continental nations, that Great Britain is and ought to be merely a

maritime power. This belief, however, proves very advantageous to

English travellers in these countries. A Frenchman will every where be

taken for a spy, as long as the French invasion of Egypt and Syria is in

the memory of man, but it seems never to enter into the suspicions of

these people that the English can have any wish to possess the countries

of the Levant. I was astonished to find that all the Kurds spoke Arabic

fluently, besides the Turkish and their own language, which latter is a

corrupted mixture of Persian, Armenian, and Turkish. On the other hand,

I only met three or four Turkmans who knew how to express themselves

[p.647] in Arabic, though both nations are alike in almost continual

intercourse with Arab peasants and Aleppines.

Besides the ruins just described, there are many others dispersed over

the Turkman territories; which, to judge from the prevailing

architecture, are of the same date as those already mentioned. Tisin,

Sulfa, Kalaa el [B]ent, Jub Abiad, and Mayshat, all of them at two or

three hours distance from the tent of Mohammed Ali, are heaps of ruined

buildings, with a few remains of houses. Kalaa el Bent and Jub Abiad

contain each of them a square tower about sixty feet high. They have

only one small projecting window near the top; the roof is flat.

Tradition says that Kalaa el Bent or in Turkish Kislar Kalassi, (the

castle of girls), was formerly a convent; probably of nuns. At Mayshat,

a Turkman encampment on the top of a hill, at the foot of which is a

large deep well, with a solid wall, I was shewn a subterraneous chamber,

about twenty feet long and fifteen in breadth, hewn out of the rock, at

the entrance to which are two columns; there are two excavations in the

bottom of it, like the sepulchral niches which I saw in the Deir Samaan.

I have been told that near Telekberoun, a village situated at the foot

of the hills which encircle the plain of Khalaka, there are remains of

an ancient causeway elevated two or three feet from the ground, about

fifteen feet broad, running in the direction from Aleppo to Antioch; it

may be traced for the length of a quarter of an hour. In the plain of

the Afrin, about three miles from Mursal Oglu’s residence, and half an

hour from the Afrin, stands an insulated hillock in the plain with the

ruins of a Saracen castle, called Daoud Pasha; four miles to the N.E. of

it is situated another similar hillock, with ruins of a castle, called

Tshyie. The sight of these numerous ruins fills the minds of the

Turkmans and Kurds with ideas of hidden treasures, and they relate a

variety of traditionary tales of Moggrebyn Sheikhs, who have been once

on the point of getting out the treasure, when they have been

interrupted by the shrieks of a woman, &c. &c. Having provided myself at

Aleppo with a small hammer to break off spesimens of rocks, the Turkmans

could not be pursuaded that this instrument was not for the purpose of

searching for gold. Several Turkmans pressed me to do them the favour of

working for a day in their behalf. I endeavoured to persuade them that

the hammer was to assist me in procuring medicinal herbs.

[FN#1] Tshay is the Chinese word for tea; and our word is corrupted from

it. The word Tshay is used all over Tartary and Turkey, where the dried

herb, which is brought over land from China, is also well known. In

Syria and Egypt, where the word is better known than the herb, real tea

is generally distinguished by the name of Tshay Hindy (tea of India).

Ed.

APPENDIX. No. II.

On the Political Division of Syria, and the recent Changes in the

Government of Aleppo.

THE political division of Syria has not undergone any changes, since the

time of Volney.

The Pashaliks are five in number. To the pashalik of Aleppo belongs the

government of Aintab, Badjazze, Alexandretta, and Antakia. Damascus

comprehends Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablous, Bostra, Hums, and Hama. The

Pashalik of Tripoli extends along the seacoast from Djebail to Latikia;

that of Seide or Akka, from Djebail nearly to Jaffa, including the

mountains inhabited by the Druses. The Pasha of Gaza governs in Jaffa

and Gaza, and in the adjacent plains. The present Pasha of Damascus is

at the same time Pasha of Tripoli, and therefore in possession of the

greater half of Syria. The Pashalik of Gaza is at present annexed to

that of Akka.

Such is the nominal division of Syria. But the power of the Porte in

this country has been so much upon the decline, particularly since the

time of Djezzar Pasha of Akka, that a number of petty independent chiefs

have sprung up, who defy their sovereign. Badjazze, Alexandretta, and

Antakia have each an independent Aga. Aintab, to the north of Aleppo,

Edlip and Shogre, on the way from Aleppo to Latikia, have their own

chiefs, and it was but last year that the Pasha of Damascus succeeded in

subduing Berber, a formidable rebel, who had fixed his seat at Tripoli,

and had maintained himself there for the last six years. The Pashas

themselves follow the same practice; it is true that neither the Pasha

of Damascus nor that of Akka has yet dared openly to erect the standard

of rebellion; they enjoy all the benefits of the protection of the

supreme government, but depend much more upon their own strength, than

on the caprice of the Sultan, or on their intrigues in the seraglio for

the continuance of their power. The policy of the Porte is to flatter

and load with honours those whom she cannot ruin, and to wait for some

lucky accident by which she may regain her power; but, above all, to

avoid a formal rupture, which would only serve to expose her own

weakness and to familiarize the Pashas and their subjects with the ideas

of rebellion. The Pashas of Damascus and of Akka continue to be dutiful

subjects of the Grand Signior in appearance; and they even send

considerable sums of money to Constantinople, to ensure the yearly

renewal of their offices. (The Pashaliks all over the Turkish dominions

are given for the term of one year only, and at the beginning of the

Mohammedan year, the Pashas receive [p.649] their confirmation or

dismissal) The Agas of Aintab, Antakia, Alexandretta, Edlip, and Shogre,

pay also for the renewal of their offices. There are a few chiefs who

have completely thrown off the mask of subjection; Kutshuk Ali, the Lord

of Badjazze openly declares his contempt of all orders from the Porte,

plunders and insults the Sultan’s officers, as well as all strangers

passing through his mountains, and with a force of less than two hundred

men, and a territory confined to the half ruined town of Badjazze, in

the gulf of Alexandretta, and a few miles of the surrounding mountains,

his father and himself have for the last thirty years defied all the

attempts of the neighbouring Pashas to subdue them.

The inhabitants of Aleppo have been for several years past divided into

two parties; the Sherifs (the real or pretended descendants of the

Prophet), and the Janissaries. The former distinguish themselves by

twisting a green turban round a small red cap, the latter wear high

Barbary caps, with a turban of shawl, or white muslin, and a Khandjar,

or long crooked knife in their girdles. There are few Turks in the city

who have been able to keep aloof from both parties.

The Sherifs first showed their strength about forty years ago, during a

tumult excited by their chiefs in consequence of a supposed insult

received by Mr. Clarke, the then British Consul. Aleppo was governed by

them in a disorderly manner for several years without a Pasha, until the

Bey of Alexandretta, being appointed to the Pashalik, surprised the town

and ordered all the chief Sherifs to be strangled[.] The Pasha however,

found his authority greatly limited by the influence which Tshelebi

Effendi, an independent Aleppine grandee, had gained over his

countrymen. The immense property of Tshelebi’s family added to his

personal qualities, rendered his influence and power so great that

during twenty years he obliged several Pashas who would not yield to his

counsels and designs to quit the town. He never would accept of the

repeated offers made by the Porte to raise him to the Pashalik. His

interests were in some measure supported by the corps of Janissaries;

who in Aleppo, as in other Turkish towns, constitute the regular

military force of the Porte; but until that period their chiefs had been

without the smallest weight in the management of public affairs. One of

Tshelebi’s household officers, Ibrahim Beg, had meanwhile been promoted,

through the friends of his patron at Constantinople, to the first

dignities in the town. He was made Mutsellim (vice governor), and

Mohassel (chief custom house officer), and after the death of Tshelebi,

his power devolved upon Ibrahim. This was in 1786.

Kussa Pasha, a man of probity and talents, was sent at that time as

Pasha to Aleppo. Being naturally jealous of Ibrahim Beg’s influence, he

endeavoured to get possession of his person, by ordering him to be

detained during a visit, made by Ibrahim to compliment the Pasha [p.650]

upon his arrival, for a debt which Ibrahim owed to a foreign merchant,

who had preferred his complaints to the Pasha’s tribunal. Ibrahim paid

the debt, and was no sooner out of the Pasha’s immediate reach, than he

engaged Ahmed Aga (one of the present Janissary chiefs), to enter with

him into a formal league against Kussa. The Janissaries, together with

Ibrahim’s party, attacked the Pasha’s troops; who after several days

fighting, were driven out of the town, and Ibrahim was soon afterwards

named Pasha of three tails, and for the first time Pasha of Aleppo. From

that period (1788-89) may be dated the power of the Janissaries. Ibrahim

had been the cause of their rising into consideration, but he soon found

that their party was acquiring too much strength; he therefore deemed it

necessary to countenance the Sherifs, and being a man of great talents,

he governed and plundered the town, by artfully opposing the two parties

to each other. In the year 1789, Ibrahim was nominated to the Pashalik

of Damascus. Sherif Pasha, a man of ordinary capacity, being sent to

Aleppo, the Janissaries soon usurped the powers of government.

At the time of the French invasion of Egypt, the intrigues of Djezzar

Pasha of Akka drove Ibrahim from his post at Damascus, and he was

obliged to follow the Grand Vizir’s army into Egypt. When after the

campaign of Egypt the Grand Vizir with the remains of his army, was

approaching Aleppo upon his return to Constantinople, Ibrahim conceived

hopes of regaining his lost seat at Aleppo. Through the means of his son

Mohammed Beg, then Mobassei, the Janissaries were persuaded that the

Vizir had evil intentions against them, forged letters were produced to

that effect, and the whole body of Janissaries left the town before the

Vizir’s arrival in its neighbourhood. Their flight gave Ibrahim the

sought for opportunity to represent the fugitives to the Vizir as rebels

afraid to meet their master’s presence; they were shortly afterwards, by

a Firmahn from the Porte, formally proscribed as rebels, and the killing

of any of them who should enter the territory of Aleppo was declared

lawful. They had retired to Damascus, Latikia, Tripoli, and the

mountains of the Druses, and they spared no money to get the edict of

their exile rescinded. After a tedious bargain for the price of their

pardon, they succeeded at last in obtaining it, on condition of paying

one hundred thousand piastres into the Sultan’s treasury. Ibrahim Pasha,

who had in the meanwhile regained the Pashalik of Aleppo, was to receive

that sum from them, and he had so well played his game, that the

Janissaries still thought him their secret friend. The principal chiefs,

trusting to Ibrahim’s assurances, came to the town for the purpose of

paying down the money; they were a few days afterwards arrested, and it

was generally believed that Ibrahim would order them the same night to

be strangled. In Turkey however, there are always hopes as long as the

purse is not exhausted. The prisoners engaged Mohammed, Ibrahim’s

beloved son, to intercede in their favour; they paid him for that

service one thousand zequins in advance, and promised as much more: and

he effectually extorted from his father a promise not to kill any of

them. It is said that Ibrahim foretold his son that the time would come

when he would repent of his intercession. A short time afterwards

Ibrahim was nominated a second time to the Pashalik of Damascus, which

[p.651] became vacant by Djezzar’s death, in 1804. His prisoners were

obliged to follow him to Damascus; from whence they found means to open

a correspondence with the Emir Beshir, the chief of the Druses, and to

prevail upon him to use all his interest with Ibrahim to effect their

deliverance. Ibrahim stood at that time in need of the Emir’s

friendship; he had received orders from the Porte to seize upon

Djezzar’s treasures at Akka, and to effect this the co-operation of the

Druse chief was absolutely necessary. Upon the Emir’s reiterated

applications, the prisoners were at last liberated.

When Ibrahim Pasha removed to Damascus, he procured the Pashalik of

Aleppo for his son Mohammed Pasha, a man who possesses in a high degree

the qualification so necessary in a delegate of the Porte, of

understanding how to plunder his subjects. The chief of a Sherif family,

Ibn Hassan Aga Khalas (who has since entered into the corps of the

Janissaries, and is now one of their principal men), was the first who

resolved to oppose open force to his measures; he engaged at first only

seven or eight other families to join him, and it was with this feeble

force that the rebellion broke out which put an end to the Pasha’s

government. The confederates began by knocking down the Pasha’s men in

the streets wherever they met them, Janissaries soon assembled from all

quarters to join Hassan’s party; and between two or three hundred Deli

Bashi or regular troops of the Pasha were massacred in the night in

their own habitations, to which the rebels found access from the

neighbouring terraces or flat roofs. Still the Pasha’s troops would have

subdued the insurgents had it not been for the desperate bravery of

Hassan Aga. After several months daily fighting in the streets, in which

the Pasha’s troops had thrown up entrenchments, want of food began to be

sensibly felt in the part of the city which his adherents occupied near

the Serai, a very spacious building now in ruins. He came therefore to

the resolution of abandoning the city. At Mohammed’s request a Tartar

was sent, from Constantinople, with orders enjoining him to march

against Berber, governor of Tripoli, who had been declared a rebel.

Having thus covered the disgrace of his defeat, he marched out of Aleppo

in the end of 1804, but instead of proceeding to Tripoli, he established

his head quarters at Sheikh Abou Beker, a monastery of Derwishes

situated upon an elevation only at one mile’s distance from Aleppo,

where he recruited his troops and prepared himself to besiege the town.

His affairs, however, took a more favourable turn upon the arrival of a

Kapidgi Bashi or officer of the Porte from Constantinople, who carried

with him the most positive orders that Mohammed Pasha should remain

governor of Aleppo, and be acknowledged as such by the inhabitants, The

Kapidgi’s persuasions, as well as the Sultan’s commands, which the

Janissaries did not dare openly to disobey, brought on a compromise, in

consequence of which the Pasha re-entered the city. So far he had gained

his point, but he soon found himself in his palace without friends or

influence; the Janissaries were heard to declare that every body who

should visit him would be looked upon as a spy; on Fridays alone, the

great people paid him their visit in a body. The place meanwhile was

governed by the chiefs of the Janissaries and the Sherifs. At length the

Pasha succeeded, by a secret nightly correspondence, to detach the

latter from the Janissaries, who were gaining the ascendancy. The

Sherifs are the natural supporters [p.652] of government in this

country; most of the villages round Aleppo were then in their

possession, they command the landed interests, all the Aleppo grandees

of ancient families, and all the Ulemas and Effendis belong to their

body, and the generality of them have received some education, while out

of one hundred Janissaries, there are scarcely five who know how to read

or to write their own names. The civil war now broke out afresh, and

Mohammed had again the worst of it. After remaining three months in the

town, he returned to his former encampment at Sheikh Abou Beker, from

whence he assisted his party in the town who had taken possession of the

castle and several mosques. This warfare lasted nearly two years without

any considerable losses on either side. The Sherifs were driven out of

the mosques, but defended themselves in the castle.

Generally, the people of Aleppo, Janissaries as well as Sherifs, are a

cowardly race. The former never ventured to meet the Pasha’s troops on

the outside of their walls, the latter did not once sally forth from the

castle, but contented themselves with firing into the town, and

principally against Bankousa, a quarter exclusively inhabited by

Janissaries. The Pasha on his side would have ordered his Arnaouts to

take the town by assault, had not his own party been jealous of his

military power, and apprehensive of the fury of an assaulting army, for

which reason they constantly endeavoured to prevent any vigorous attack,

promising that they would alone bring the enemy to terms. After nearly

two years fighting, during which time a considerable part of the town

was laid in ruins, the Pasha with the Sherifs were on the point of

succeeding, and compelling the Janissaries to surrender. The chiefs of

the Janissaries had applied to the European Consuls for their mediation

between them and the Pasha, the conditions of their surrender were

already drawn up, and in a few days more their power in Aleppo would

probably have been for ever annihilated by a treacherous infraction of

the capitulation, when, by a fortunate mistake, a Tartar, sent from

Constantinople to Mohammed, entered the town, instead of taking his

packet to Sheikh Abou Beker; the Janissaries opened the dispatches, and

found them to contain a Firmahn, by which Mohammed Pasha was recalled

from his Pashalik of Aleppo. This put an end to the war; Mohammed

dismissed the greater part of his troops and retired: the Janissaries

came to a compromise with the Sherifs in the castle, and have since that

time been absolute masters of the city.

I cannot omit mentioning that during the whole of the civil war, the

persons and property of the Franks were rigidly respected. It sometimes

happened that parties of Sherifs and Janissaries skirmishing in the

Bazars, left off firing by common consent, when a Frank was seen

passing, and that the firing from the Minarets ceased, when Franks

passed over their flat roofs from one house to another. The Janissaries

have this virtue in the eyes of the Franks, that they are not in the

smallest degree fanatical; the character of a Sherif is quite the

contrary, and whenever religious disputes happen, they are always

excited and supported by some greenhead.

Since the removal of Mohammed Pasha the Porte has continued to nominate

his successors; but the name of Pasha of Aleppo is now nothing more than

a vain title. His first successor was Alla eddin Pasha, a near relation

of Sultan Selim: then Waledin Pasha, Othman [p.653] Pasha Darukly,

Ibrahim Pasha, a third time, and the present governor Seruri Mohammed

Pasha. Except the last, who is now in the Grand Vizir’s camp near

Constantinople they have all resided at Aleppo, but they occupied the

Serai more like state prisoners than governors. They never were able to

carry the most trifling orders into effect, without feeing in some way

or other the chiefs of the Ja[n]issaries to grant their consent.

The corps of Janissaries, or the Odjak of Aleppo, was formerly divided,

as in other Turkish towns, into companies or Ortas, but since the time

of their getting into power, they have ceased to submit to any regular

discipline: they form a disorderly body of from three to four thousand

men, and daily increase their strength and number by recruits from the

Sherifs. Those who possess the greatest riches, and whose family and

friends are the most numerous, are looked upon as their chiefs, though

they are unable to exercise any kind of discipline. Of these chiefs

there are at present six principal ones, who have succeeded in sharing

the most lucrative branches of the revenue, and what seems almost

incredible, they have for the last six years preserved harmony amongst

themselves; Hadji Ibrahim Ibn Herbely is at this moment the richest and

most potent of them all.

The legal forms of Government have not been changed, and the Janissaries

outwardly profess to be the dutiful subjects of the Porte. The civil

administration is nominally in the hands of the Mutsellim, who is named

by the Pasha and confirmed by the Porte. the Kadhi presides in the court

of justice, and the Mohassel or chief custom house officer is [a]llowed

to perform his functions in the name of his master, but the Mutsellim

dares not enforce any orders from the Porte nor the Kadhi decide any law

suit of importance, without being previously sure of the consent of some

of the chief Janissaries. The revenue which the grand Signior receives

at this moment from Aleppo is limited to the Miri, or general landtax,

which the Janissaries themselves pay, the Kharatsh or tribute of the

Christians and Jews, and the income of the custom house, which is now

rented at the yearly rate of eighty thousand piastres. Besides these

there are several civil appointments in the town, which are sold every

year at Constantinople to the highest bidder: the Janissaries are in the

possession of the most lucrative of them, and remit regularly to the

Porte the purchase money. The outward decorum which the Janissaries have

never ceased to observe towards the Porte is owing to their fear of

offending public opinion, so as to endanger their own security. The

Porte, on the other hand, has not the means of subduing these rebels,

established as their power now is, without calling forth all her

resources and ordering an army to march against them, from

Constantinople. The expense of such an enterprize would hardly be

counterbalanced by the profits of its success; for the Janissaries,

pushed to extremities, would leave the town and find a secure retreat

for themselves and their treasures in the mountains of the Druses: both

parties therefore endeavour to avoid an open rupture; it is well known

that the chief Janissaries send considerable presents to Constantinople

to appease their master’s anger, and provided the latter draws supplies

for his pressing wants, no matter how or from whence, the insults

offered to his supreme authority are easily overlooked.

The Janissaries chiefly exercise their power with a view to the filling

of their purses. [p.654] Every inhabitant of Aleppo, whether Turk or

Christian, provided he be not himself a Janissary, is obliged to have a

protector among them to whom he applies in case of need, to arrange his

litigations, to enforce payment from his creditors, and to protect him

from the vexations and exactions of other Janissaries. Each protector

receives from his client a sum proportionate to the circumstances of the

client’s affairs. It varies from twenty to two thousand piastres a year,

besides which, whenever the protector terminates an important business

to the client’s wishes, he expects some extraordinary reward. If two

protectors happen to be opposed to each other on account of their

clients, the more powerful of the two sometimes carries the point, or if

they are equal in influence, they endeavour to settle the business by

compromise, in such a way as to give to justice only half its due. Those

Janissaries, who have the greatest number of clients are of course the

richest, and command the greatest influence. But these are not the only

means which the Janissaries employ to extort money. They monopolize the

trade of most of the articles of consumption, (which have risen in

consequence, to nearly double the price which they bore six years ago),

as well as of several of the manufactures of Aleppo; upon others they

levy heavy taxes; in short their power is despotic and oppressive; yet

they have hitherto abstained from making, like the Pashas, avanies upon

individuals by open force, and it is for that reason that the greater

part of the Aleppines do not wish for the return of a Pasha. Though the

Janissaries extort from the public, by direct and indirect means, more

than the Pashas ever did by their avanies, each individual discharges

the burthen imposed upon him more readily, because he is confident that

it insures the remainder of his fortune; in the Pasha’s time, living was

cheaper, and regular taxes not oppressive; but the Pasha would upon the

most frivolous pretexts order a man of property to be thrown into prison

and demand the sacrifice of one fourth of his fortune to grant him his

deliverance. Notwithstanding the immense income of the chief

Janissaries, they live poorly, without indulging themselves in the usual

luxuries of Turks-women and horses. Their gains are hoarded in gold

coin, and it is easy to calculate, such is the publicity with which all

sort of business is conducted, that the yearly income of several of them

cannot amount to less than thirty or forty thousand pounds sterling.

It is necessary to have lived for some time among the Turks, and to have

experienced the mildness and peacefulness of their character, and the

sobriety and regularity of their habits, to conceive it possible that

the inhabitants of a town like Aleppo, should continue to live for years

without any legal master, or administration of justice, protected only

by a miserable guard of police, and yet that the town should be a safe

and quiet residence. No disorders, or nightly tumults occur; and

instances of murder and robbery are extremely rare. If serious quarrels

sometimes happen, it is chiefly among the young Janissaries heated with

brandy and amorous passion, who after sunset fight their rivals at the

door of some prostitute. This precarious security is however enjoyed

only within the walls of the city; the whole neighbourhood of Aleppo is

infested by obscure tribes of Arab and Kurdine robbers, who through the

negligence of the Janissaries, acquire every day more insolence and more

confidence in the [p.655] success of their enterprises. Caravans of

forty or fifty camels have in the course of last winter been several

times attacked and plundered at five hundred yards from the city gate,

not a week passes without somebody being ill-treated and stripped in the

gardens near the town; and the robbers have even sometimes taken their

night’s rest in one of the suburbs of the city, and there sold their

cheaply acquired booty. In the time of Ibrahim Pasha, the neighbourhood

of Aleppo to the distance of four or five hours, was kept in perfect

security from all hostile inroads of the Arabs, by the Pasha’s cavalry

guard of Deli Bashi. But the Janissaries are very averse from exposing

themselves to danger; there is moreover no head among them to command,

no common purse to pay the necessary expences, nor any individual to

whose hands the public money might be trusted.

[p.656] APPENDIX. No. III. The Hadj Route from Damascus to Mekka.

IN later times the Hadj has been accustomed to leave Damascus on the

15th Shauwal. On the 26th or 27th it leaves Mezerib, and meets the new

moon at Remtha or Fedhein.

The Hadj route from Damascus to Mekka has changed three different times;

at first it passed on the eastern side of Djebel Haouran; the fear of

the Arabs made the Pashas prefer afterwards the route through the Ledja

and Boszra; about eighty years ago the present caravan route was

established.

1st. day. The Emir el Hadj leaves the town about mid-day, and remains

the night at Kubbet el Hadj el Azeli [Arabic], an ancient mosque at a

quarter of an hour from Bab Ullah or the southern gate of Damascus. Near

the Kubbe lies the village of Kadem [Arabic].

2. At four hours is the village of Kessoue [Arabic], with a well

provided Bazar. One hour Khan Denoun [Arabic], situated on the river

Aawadj [Arabic], which comes from Hasbeia and empties itself into the

Ghouta of Damascus. The Khan is in ruins. At a quarter of an hour to the

S.E. from it lies the village of Khiara [Arabic].

3. Four hours from Denoun is the village Ghebaib [Arabic]; it has a

small Khan to the left of the Hadj route, to the right of it is a Birket

or reservoir of water, which is supplied by the river Shak-heb [Arabic],

whose source, Ain Shak-heb, with a village called Shak-heb, lies to the

N.W. of Ghebaib. In that source the barbers of Damascus collect leeches

[Arabic], The Shak-heb loses itself in the plain of the Haouran, after

having watered the gardens and Dhourra fields of Ghebaib. Three hours

farther the village Didy [Arabic]; one hour farther the ruins of a town

and castle called Es-szanamein [Arabic], where there are two towers

built of black stone, still remaining. The Fellahs have a few houses

there. An hour and a half farther a hill with a small Birket at its

foot, called El Fekia [Arabic], containing a source which loses itself

in the eastern plain. The Hadj passes the night sometimes here, and

sometimes at Szannamein.

4. At four hours from Szannamein is a hill called the hill of Dilly

[Arabic], with a ruined village at the top. At its foot flows a river

whose source is at Tel Serraia [Arabic], a hill two hours W. of Dilly,

likewise with a ruined village. The river works a mill near Dilly. In

winter and spring time the district of Dilly is a deep bog; at four

hours farther is a village [p.657] called Shemskein [Arabic], of

considerable size, and in a prosperous state. Three hours farther is

Tafs [Arabic], a village, ruined by the Wahabis in June 1810. One hour

farther is El Mezareib [Arabic], with a castle of middling size, and the

principal place in the Haouran next to Boszra.

5. At one hour from Mezareib is the Wady el Medan [Arabic], which comes

from the Djebel Haouran. In winter time the Hadjis were often

embarrassed by it. Djezzar Pasha ordered a bridge to be built over it.

The ground is a fine gravel; even in summer time, when the Wady is dry,

water is found every where underground by digging to the depth of two or

three ells. At three hours is the village El Remtha [Arabic], inhabited

by Fellahs, who have about ten cisterns of rain-water, and a small

Birket in the neighbourhood of the village. Most of them live in caverns

underground, which they arrange into habitations; the caverns are in a

white rock. The Sheikh of Remtha is generally a Santon, that dignity

being in the family of Ezzabi [Arabic], who possesses there a mosque of

the same name. On account of the sanctity of his family, the Pasha does

not take any Miri from the Sheikh Ezzabi. The Hadjis sometimes sleep at

Remtha, at other times they go as far as Fedhein [Arabic], also called

Mefrak [Arabic], a castle four hours from Remtha, where the Pasha keeps

a small garrison, under the orders of an Aga, or Odabashi. The Arabs of

the Belka are in the habit of depositing in the castle of Fedhein their

superfluous provisions of wheat and barley, which they retake the next

year, or sell to the Hadj, after having paid to the Aga a certain

retribution. From Fedhein runs a Wady E. which turns, after one day’s

journey towards the S. and is then called Wady Botun. The Djebel Heish,

which continues its southerly course to the W. of the Hadj route,

changes its name in the latitude of Fedhein into that of Djebel Belka

[Arabic]. To the east of Fedhein the Djebel Haouran terminates, not far

to the North of Boszra. At one day’s journey from where the mountain

finishes lies the village of Szalkhat [Arabic]. From Fedhein to the

south-east the plain is uncultivated, and without habitations.

6. The castle of Zerka [Arabic] is at one day’s journey from Fedhein.

The Hadj rests here one day, during which the Hadjis amuse themselves

with hunting the wild boars which are found in great numbers on the

reedy banks of Wady Zerka. The castle is built in a low Wady which forms

in winter-time the bed of a river of considerable size, called Naher

Ezzerka [Arabic], whose waters collect to the south of Djebel Haouran.

In summer time the Wady to the E. of the castle has no water in it, but

to the west, where there are some sources, the river is never completely

dried up. It then enters the Djebel Belka and empties itself into the

Sheriat el Kebir. The Pasha of Damascus has an Aga in the castle, who is

always an Arab of the tribe of Ehteim [Arabic], part of whom live in

tents round the castle and sow the ground. They have plenty of grapes,

and sow Dhourra and wheat.

7. One day’s journey is Kalaat el Belka [Arabic]. The name of Kalaat, or

castle, is given on the Hadj route, and over the greater part of the

desert, to any building walled in, and covered, and having, like a Khan,

a large court-yard in its enclosure. The walls are sometimes of stone,

but more commonly of earth, though even the latter are sufficient to

withstand an [p.658] attack of Arabs. The castle of Belka has a large

Birket of rain-water. Its commander or Odabashi is always chosen from

among the Janissaries of Damascus. It serves the Arabs of the Djebel

Belka as a depot for their provisions. To the west of the castle the

mountain of Belka terminates. The Arabs of Belka live in tents round the

castle, and are Felahein or cultivators of the ground.

8. One day’s journey from the latter is the Kalaat el Katrane [Arabic],

whose Odabashi is likewise a Janissary from Damascus. It has a Birket of

rainwater. At one day’s journey to the N.W. of it is the Kalaat Kerek

[Arabic], from whence the Arabs of Kerek bring wheat and barley for sale

to the Odabashi of Katrane, who sells it again to advantage to the

Hadjis.

9. One day’s journey Kalaat el Hassa, [Arabic], with a fine source,

whose water is drawn up by means of a large wheel. The castle is built

in the middle of a Wady running from E. to W.; in the winter a river

runs through the Wady, which is dry in summer; but at a quarter of an

hour W. from the castle, there are several springs of good water, which

are never dry. They collect into a river which empties itself into the

Jordan or Sheriat el Kebir at two days’ journey from El Hassa. The

Fellahs who live round the castle in the Wady, in several small

villages, sow Dhourra and barley, those that live towards the western

mountains, sow for their masters the El Hadjaia Arabs [Arabic], and

receive from them half of the harvest in return. To the S.E. of El

Hassa, on the northern side of the Wady, about five hours distance from

El Hassa, is a high hill, called Shehak [Arabic], which is visible from

Masn and Akaba. At the same distance due east from El Hassa is a

watering place called Meshash el Rekban [Arabic], where water is found

on digging to a small depth. To the S. of Wady el Hassa, in the Djebel

Shera, is the town of Tafyle. South of it the Shera spreads into four or

five branches, and embraces the whole country as far as Djebel Tor. At

two days journey from Wady el Hassa, is a road leading along the summit

of the mountain towards Gaza; this road is called Akaba, or more

frequently Eddhohel [Arabic]; it is much frequented by the people of

Tafyle and the Arabs Toueiha.

10. Half a day’s journey is Kalaat Aeneze [Arabic], with a Birket of

rain-water.

11. Another half day’s journey Kalaat Maan [Arabic], where the Hadjis

remain for two days. Maan has a large well of water. The town consists

of about one hundred houses on both sides the Hadj route, which divides

the town; the eastern part is called Shamie, the western Maan. The

inhabitants cultivate figs, pomegranates, and plums in large quantities,

but do not sow their fields. They purchase wheat from Kerek, which their

women grind; and at the passage of the Hadj they sell the flour as well

as their fruits to the pilgrims; which, is their means of subsistence.

They purchase articles of dress and luxury from Ghaza and El Khalil.

12. A long day’s journey to the castle of Akaba Esshamie [Arabic], or

the Syrian Akaba, so called in opposition to the Akaba el Masri or the

Egyptian Akaba which is on the eastern branch of the Red-sea, at one

day’s journey from the Akaba Esshamie; here is a Birket of rain-water.

The Hadj road, as far as Akaba, is a complete desert on both sides, yet

not incapable [p.659] of culture. The mountain chain continues at about

ten hours to the west of the Hadj route. Akaba is in the hands of the

Arabs el Howeytat [Arabic], who are in communication with Cairo. From

the foot of the castle walls the Hadj descends a deep chasm, and it

takes half an hour to reach the plain below. The pilgrims fear that

passage, and repeat this prayer before they descend; “May the Almighty

God be merciful to them who descend into the belly of the dragon”

[Arabic]. The mountain consists of a red gray sand stone, which is used

at Damascus for whetstones. There are many places where the stones are

full of small holes. When the pilgrims reach the bottom of the descent

they fire off their pistols for the sake of the echo. The mountain sinks

gradually, and is lost at a great distance in the plain, which is very

sandy.[FN#1]

13. Medawara [Arabic], one day’s journey, a castle with a Birket of

rainwater.

14. Dzat Hadj [Arabic], a castle surrounded by a great number of wells,

which are easily found on digging two or three feet. It has likewise a

Birket of rainwater. At four hours from it is a descent, rendered

difficult by the deep sand. It is called El Araie [Arabic], or Halat

Ammar [Arabic]; it was here that in the time of Daher el Omar, Pasha of

Acre, and of Osman, Pasha of Damascus, the Arabs Beni Szakher plundered

the Hadj in the year 1170 of the Hedjra (1757), the only example of such

an event in the last century. From Halat Ammar the plain is no longer

sandy, but covered with a white earth as far as Tebouk. The vicinity of

Dzat Hadj is covered with palm trees: but the trees being male, they

bear no fruit, and remain very low. The inhabitants sell the wood to the

Hadj.

15. One day from Dzat Hadj is Tebouk [Arabic], a castle, with a village

of Felahein, of the tribe of Arabs Hammeide. There is a copious source

of water, and gardens of fig and pomegranate trees, where Badintshaus

(egg plant), onions, and ether vegetables are also cultivated. The

Fellahs collect in the neighbouring desert the herb Beiteran (a species

of milfoil), which the Hadjis buy up, and bring to Damascus. The castle

is also surrounded by shrubs with long spines called Mehdab, which the

Fellahs sell to the Hadj as food for the camels, and likewise two other

herbs called Nassi and Muassal. They thus earn their livelihood. If the

Hadj arrives in the neighbourhood of Tebouk at night, the bones of dead

camels indicate the way to the castle. The Hadj rests here one day: and

on its return is met by the Djerde, or provision caravan, headed by the

Pasha of Tripoli, by which all the Syrian pilgrims, receive

refreshments, sent by their families.

16. Akhdhar [Arabic], a castle with a Birket of rainwater, upon a small

ascent. Two or three hundred years ago, the Hadj went to the E. of the

present route, and it is even now called the eastern road.