A further acquaintance with Antioch did not destroy the impressions of
the first evening. The more I wandered through the narrow paved streets
the more delightful did they appear. Except the main thoroughfare, which
is the bazaar, they were almost empty; my footsteps on the cobble-stones
broke through years of silence. The shallow gables covered with red
tiles gave a charming and very distinctive note to the whole city, and
shuttered balconies jutted out from house to house. Of the past there is
scarcely a vestige. Two fine sarcophagi, adorned with putti and garlands
and with the familiar and, I fancy, typically Asiatic motive of lions
devouring bulls, stand in the Serāya, and one similar to these, but
less elaborate, by the edge of the Daphne road. I saw, too, a fragment
of a classical entablature in the courtyard of a Turkish house, and a
scrap of wall in the main street that may certainly be dated earlier
than the Mohammadan invasion--its courses of alternate brick and stone
resembled the work on the Acropolis. For the rest the Antioch of
Seleucus Nicator is a city of the imagination only. The island on which
it was built has disappeared owing to the changing of the river bed, but
tradition places it above the modern town. The banks of the Orontes must
have been lined with splendid villas; I was told that the foundations of
them were brought to light whenever a man dug deep enough through the
silt, and that small objects of value, such as coins and bronzes, were
often unearthed. Many such were brought to me for sale, but I judged
them to be forgeries of an unskilful kind, and I was confirmed in my
opinion by a Turkish pasha, Rifa't Agha, who has occupied his leisure in
making a collection of antiquities. He possesses a fine series of
Seleucid coins, the earlier nearly as good as the best Sicilian, the
later nearly as bad as the worst Byzantine, and a few bronze lamps, one
of which, in the shape of a curly-haired Eros head, is a beautiful
example of Roman work. The Agha presented me with a small head, which I
take to have been a copy of the head of Antioch with the high crown, and
though it was but roughly worked, it possessed some distinction borrowed
from a great original.
[Illustration 154: THE CORN MARKET, ANTIOCH]
Forty years ago the walls and towers of the Acropolis were still almost
perfect; they are now almost destroyed. The inhabitants of Antioch
declare that the city is rocked to its foundations every half-century,
and they are in instant expectation of another upheaval, the last having
occurred in 1862; but it is prosperity not earthquake that has wrought
the havoc in the fortress. The town is admirably situated in its rich
valley, and connected with the port of Alexandretta by a fairly good
road; it might easily become a great commercial centre, and even under
Turkish rule it has grown considerably in the past fifty years, and
grown at the expense of the Acropolis. To spare himself the trouble of
quarrying, the Oriental will be deterred by no difficulty, and in spite
of the labour of transporting the dressed stones of the fortress to the
foot of the exceedingly steep hill on which it stands, all the modern
houses have been built out of materials taken from it. The work of
destruction continues; the stone facing is quickly disappearing from the
walls, leaving only a core of a rubble and mortar which succumbs in a
short time to the action of the weather. I made the whole circuit of the
fortress one morning, and it took me three hours. To the west of the
summit of Mount Silpius a rocky cleft seamed the hillside. It was full
of rock-cut tombs, and just above my camp an ancient aqueduct spanned
it. On the left hand of the cleft the line of wall dropped by
precipitous rocks to the valley. Where large fragments remained it was
evident that the stone facing had alternated with bands of brick, and
that sometimes the stone itself had been varied by courses of smaller
and larger blocks. The fortifications embraced a wide area, the upper
part leading by gentle slopes, covered with brushwood and ruined
foundations, to the top of the hill. In the west wall there was a narrow
massive stone door, with a lintel of jointed blocks and a relieving arch
above it. The south wall was broken by towers; the main citadel was at
the south-east corner. From here the walls dropped down again steeply to
the city and passed some distance to the east of it. They can be traced,
I believe, to the Orontes. I did not follow their course, but climbed
down from the citadel by a stony path into a deep gorge that cuts
through the eastern end of the hill. The entrance to this gorge is
guarded by a strong wall of brick and stone, which is called the Gate of
Iron, and beyond it the fortifications climb the opposite side of the
ravine and are continued along the hill top. I do not know how far they
extend; the ground was so rough and so much overgrown with bushes that I
lost heart and turned back. There was a profusion of flowers among the
rocks, marigold, asphodel, cyclamen and iris.
[Illustration 155: ROMAN LAMP IN RIFA'T AGHA'S COLLECTION]
Beyond the gorge of the Iron Gate, on the hill side facing the Orontes,
there is a cave which tradition calls the cave of St. Peter. The Greek
communion has erected a little chapel at its mouth. Yet further along
the hill is a still more curious relic of ancient Antioch, the head of a
Sphinx carved in relief upon a rock some 20 ft. high. Folded about her
brow she wears a drapery that falls on either side of her face and ends
where the throat touches the bare breast. Her featureless countenance is
turned slightly up the valley, as though she watched for one that shall
yet come out of the East. If she could speak she might tell us of great
kings and gorgeous pageants, of battle and of siege, for she has seen
them all from her rock on the hill side. She still remembers that the
Greeks she knew marched up from Babylonia, and since even the Romans did
not teach her that the living world lies westward, I could not hope to
enlighten her, and so left her watching for some new thing out of the
East.
[Illustration 156: HEAD OF A SPHINX, ANTIOCH]
There was another pilgrimage to be made from Antioch: it was to Daphne,
the famous shrine that marked the spot where the nymph baffled the
desire of the god, the House of the Waters it is called in Arabic. It
lies to the west of the town, about an hour's ride along the foot of the
hills, and in the Spring a more enchanting ride could not be found. The
path led through an exquisite boscage of budding green, set thickly with
flowering hawthorn and with the strange purple of the Judas tree; then
it crossed a low spur and descended into a steep valley through which a
stream tumbled towards the Orontes.
No trace remains of the temples that adorned this fairest of all
sanctuaries. Earthquakes and the mountain torrents have swept them down
the ravine. But the beauty of the site has not diminished since the days
when the citizens of the most luxurious capital in the East dallied
there with the girls who served the god. The torrent does not burst
noisily from the mountain side; it is born in a deep still pool that
lies, swathed in a robe of maidenhair fern, in thickets "annihilating
all that's made to a green thought in a green shade." From the pool
issues a translucent river, unbroken of surface, narrow and profound; it
runs into swirls and eddies and then into foaming cataracts and
waterfalls that toss their white spray into the branches of mulberry and
plane. Under the trees stand eleven water-mills; the ragged millers are
the only inhabitants of Apollo's shrine. They brought us walnuts to eat
by the edge of the stream, and small antique gems that had dropped from
the ornaments of those who sought pleasures less innocent perhaps than
ours by the banks of that same torrent.
[Illustration 157: DAPHNE]
It is impossible to travel in North Syria without acquiring a keen
interest in the Seleucid kings, backed by a profound respect for their
achievements in politics and in the arts; I was determined therefore to
visit before I pushed north the site of Seleucia Pieria, the port of
Antioch and the burial-place of Seleucus Nicator. Inland capital and
seaport sprang into being at the same moment, and were both part of one
great conception that turned the lower reaches of the Orontes into a
rich and populous market--in those days kings could create world-famous
cities with a wave of the sceptre, and the Seleucids were not backward
in following the example Alexander had set them. Like Apamea, Seleucia
has shrunk to the size of a hamlet, or perhaps it would be truer to say
that it has split up into several hamlets covered by the name of
Sweidiyyeh. (The nomenclature is confusing, as each group of farms or
huts has a separate title.) The spacing of the population at the mouth
of the Orontes is due to the occupation in which the inhabitants of the
villages are engaged. They are raisers of silkworms, an industry that
requires during about a month in the Spring such continuous attention
that every man must live in the centre of his mulberry-groves, and is
consequently separated by the extent of them from his neighbours. After
three hours' ride through a delicious country of myrtle thickets and
mulberry gardens we reached Sweidiyyeh, a military post and the most
important of the scattered villages. Here for the first and only time on
my journey I was stopped by an officer, the worse for 'arak, who
demanded my passport. Now passport I had none; I had lost it in the
Jebel Zāwiyyeh when I lost my coat, and it is a proof of how little
bound by red tape the Turkish official can show himself to be that I
travelled half the length of the Ottoman Empire without a paper to my
name. On this occasion the zaptieh who was with me demonstrated with
some heat that he would not have been permitted to accompany me if I had
not been a respectable and accredited person, and after a short wrangle
we were allowed to pursue our way. The reason of this meticulous
exactitude was soon made clear: the villages on the coast contain large
colonies of Armenians; they are surrounded by military stations, to
prevent the inhabitants from escaping either inland to other parts of
the empire or by sea to Cyprus, and the comings and goings of strangers
are carefully watched. One of the objects that the traveller should ever
set before himself is to avoid being drawn into the meshes of the
Armenian question. It was the tacit conviction of the learned during the
Middle Ages that no such thing as an insoluble question existed. There
might be matters that presented serious difficulties, but if you could
lay them before the right man--some Arab in Spain, for instance,
omniscient by reason of studies into the details of which it was better
not to inquire--he would give you a conclusive answer. The real trouble
was only to find your man. We, however, have fallen from that faith. We
have proved by experience that there are, alas! many problems insoluble
to the human intelligence, and of that number the Turkish empire owns a
considerable proportion. The Armenian question is one of them, and the
Macedonian question is another. In those directions madness lies.
It was with the determination not to waver in a decision that had
contributed, largely, I make no doubt, to happy and prosperous
journeyings, that I rode down to Chaulīk, the port of ancient Seleucia.
I found my resolve the less difficult to observe because the Armenians
talked little but Armenian and Turkish, at any rate the few words of
Arabic that some of them possessed were not sufficient to enable them to
enter into a detailed account of their wrongs. He who served me that
afternoon as a guide was a man of so cheerful a disposition that he
would certainly have selected by preference a different topic. His name
was Ibrahīm, he was bright-eyed and intelligent, and his cheerfulness
was deserving of praise, since his yearly income amounted to no more
than 400 piastres, under £2 of English money. From this he proposed to
save enough to bribe the Turkish officials at the port that they might
wink at his escape in an open boat to Cyprus: "for," said he, "there is
no industry here but the silkworms, and they give me work for two months
in the year, and for the other ten I have nothing to do and no way of
earning money." He also informed me that the Noṣairis who inhabited
the adjoining villages were unpleasant neighbours.
"There is feud between you?" said I.
"Ey wāllah!" said he with emphatic assent, and related in illustration
the long story of a recent conflict which, as far as it was
comprehensible, seemed to have been due entirely to the aggressions of
the Armenians.
"But you began the stealing," said I when he had concluded.
"Yes," said he. "The Noṣairis are dogs." And he added with a smile: "I
was imprisoned in Aleppo for two years afterwards."
"By God! you deserved it," said I.
"Yes," said he, as cheerfully as ever.
And this, I rejoice to say, was all that Ibrahīm contributed to the
store of evidence on the Armenian question.
The Bay of Seleucia is not unlike the Bay of Naples and scarcely less
beautiful. A precipitous ridge of the hills, honeycombed with rock-hewn
tombs and chambers, forms a background to the mulberry-gardens, and,
sweeping round, encloses the bay to the north. Below it lie the walls
and water-gates of the port, silted up with earth and separated from the
sea by a sandy beach. The Orontes flows through sand and silt farther to
the south, and the view is closed by a steep range of hills culminating
at the southern point in the lovely peak of Mount Cassius, which takes
the place of Vesuvius in the landscape. I pitched my camp near the
northern barrier in a little cove divided from the rest of the bay by a
low spur which ran out into a ruin-covered headland that commanded the
whole sweep of the coast, and I pleased myself with the fancy that it
was on this point that the temple and tomb of Seleucus Nicator had
stood, though I do not know whether its exact situation has ever been
determined. Below it on the beach lay an isolated rock in which a
columned hall had been excavated. This hall was fragrant of the sea and
fresh with the salt winds that blew through it: a very temple of nymphs
and tritons. Ibrahīm took me up and down the face of the precipitous
cliffs by little paths and by an old chariot-road that led to the city
on the summit of the plateau. He said that to walk round the enclosing
wall of the upper city took six hours, but it was too hot to put his
statement to the test. We climbed into an immense number of the
artificial caves, in many of which there were no loculi. They may have
been intended for dwellings or storehouses rather than for tombs. At
this time of the year they were all occupied by the silkworm breeders,
who were now at their busiest moment, the larvae having just issued from
the egg. The entrance of each cave was blocked by a screen of green
boughs to keep out the sun, and the afternoon light filtered pleasantly
through the budding leaves. At the southern end of the cliff there was a
large necropolis, consisting of small caves set round with loculi, and
of rock-hewn sarcophagi decorated, when they were decorated at all, with
the garland motive that adorns the sarcophagi at Antioch. The most
important group of tombs was at the northern end of the cliff. The
entrance to it was by a pillared portico that led into a double cave.
The larger chamber contained some thirty to forty loculi and a couple of
canopied tombs, the canopies cut out of the living rock; the smaller
held about half the number of loculi, the roof of it was supported by
pillars and pilasters, and I noticed above the tombs a roughly cut
design consisting of a scroll of ivy-shaped and of indented leaves.
[Illustration 158: THE GARĪZ]
The builders of Seleucia seem to have been much preoccupied with the
distribution of the water supply. Ibrahīm showed me along the face of
the cliff a channel some 2 ft. wide and 5 ft. high, which was cut 3 or 4
ft. behind the surface of the rock, and carried water from one end of
the city to the other. We traced its course by occasional air-holes or
breaches in the outer wall of rock. The most difficult problem must have
been the management of the torrent that flowed down a gorge to the north
of the town. A great gallery had been hewn through the spur to the south
of my camp to conduct the water to the sea and prevent it from swamping
the houses at the foot of the cliff. The local name for this gallery is
the Garīz. It began at the mouth of a narrow ravine and was tunnelled
through a mass of rock for several hundred yards, after which it
continued as a deep cutting open to the air till it reached the end of
the spur. At the entrance of the tunnel there was an inscription in
clear cut letters, "Divus Vespasianus" it began, but the rest was buried
in the rocky ground. There were several others along the further course
of the Garīz, all of them in Latin: I imagine that the work was not
Seleucid, but Roman.
To one more spectacle Ibrahīm tempted me. He declared that if I would
follow him through the mulberry-gardens below the cliff he would show me
"a person made of stone." My curiosity was somewhat jaded by the heat
and the long walk, but I toiled back wearily over stones and other
obstacles to find a god, bearded and robed, sitting under the mulberry
trees. He was not a very magnificent god; his attitude was stiff, his
robe roughly fashioned, and the top of his head was gone, but the low
sun gilded his marble shoulder and the mulberry boughs whispered his
ancient titles. We sat down beside him, and Ibrahīm remarked:
"There is another buried in this field, a woman, but she is deep deep
under the earth."
"Have you seen her?" said I.
"Yes," said he. "The owner of the field buried her, for he thought she
might bring him ill luck. Perhaps if you gave him money he might dig her
up."
I did not rise to the suggestion; she was probably better left to the
imagination.
[Illustration 159: THE STATUE IN THE
MULBERRY-GARDEN]
Close to the statue I saw a long moulded cornice which was apparently
_in situ_, though the wall it crowned was buried in a cornfield: so
thickly does the earth cover the ruins of Seleucia. Some day there will
be much to disclose here, but excavation will be exceedingly costly
owing to the deep silt and to the demands of the proprietors of mulberry
grove and cornfield. The site of the town is enormous, and will require
years of digging if it is to be properly explored.
Near my tents a sluggish stream flowed through clumps of yellow iris and
formed a pool in the sand. It provided water for our animals and for the
flocks of goats that Armenian shepherd boys herded morning and evening
along the margin of the sea. The spot was so attractive and the weather
so delightful that I spent an idle day there, the first really idle day
since I had left Jerusalem, and as I could not hope to examine Seleucia
exhaustively, I resolved to see no more of it than was visible from my
tent door. This excellent decision gave me twenty-four hours, to which I
look back with the keenest satisfaction, though there is nothing to be
recorded of them except that I was not to escape so lightly from
Armenian difficulties as I had hoped. I received in the morning a long
visit from a woman who had walked down from Kabūseh, a village at the
top of the gorge above the Garīz. She spoke English, a tongue she had
acquired at the missionary schools of 'Aintāb, her home in the Kurdish
mountains. Her name was Kymet. She had left 'Aintāb upon her marriage,
a step she had never ceased to regret, for though her husband was a good
man and an honest he was so poor that she did not see how she was to
bring up her two children. Besides, said she, the people round Kabūseh,
Noṣairis and Armenians alike, were all robbers, and she begged me to
help her to escape to Cyprus. She told me a curious piece of family
history, which showed how painful the position of the sect must be in
the heart of a Mohammadan country, if it cannot be cited as an instance
of official oppression. Her father had turned Muslim when she was a
child, chiefly because he wished to take a second wife. Kymet's mother
had left him and supported her children as best she might, rather than
submit to the indignity that he had thrust upon her, and the bitter
quarrel had darkened, said Kymet, all her own youth. She sent her
husband down next morning with a hen and a copy of verses written by
herself in English. I paid for the hen, but the verses were beyond
price. They ran thus:
Welcome, welcome, my dearest dear, we are happy by your coming!
For your coming welcome! Your arrival welcome!
Let us sing joyfully, joyfully,
Joyfully, my boys, joyfully!
The sun shines now with moon clearly, sweet light so bright, my
dear boys,
For your reaching welcome! By her smiling welcome!
The trees send us, my dear boys, with happiness the birds rejoice;
Its nice smelling welcome! In their singing welcome!
I remain.
Yours truly,
GEORGE ABRAHAM.
I hasten to add, lest the poem should be considered compromising, that
its author was not George Abraham, who as I found in the negotiations
over the hen had no word of English; Kymet had merely used her husband's
name as forming a more impressive signature than her own. Moreover the
boys she alludes to were a rhetorical figure. I can offer no suggestion
as to what it was that the trees sent us; the text appears to be corrupt
at this point. Perhaps "us" should be taken as the accusative.
It was with real regret that I left Seleucia. Before dawn, when I went
down to the sea to bathe, delicate bands of cloud were lying along the
face of the hills, and as I swam out into the warm still water the first
ray of the sun struck the snowy peak of Mount Cassius that closed so
enchantingly the curve of the bay. We journeyed back to Antioch as we
had come, and pitched tents outside the city by the high road. Two days
later we set off at 6.30 for a long ride into Alexandretta. The road was
abominable for the first few miles, broken by deep gulfs of mud, with
here and there a scrap of pavement that afforded little better going
than the mud itself. After three hours we reached the village of
Kāramurt, and three-quarters of an hour further we left the road and
struck straight up the hills by a ruined khān that showed traces of
fine Arab work. The path led up and down steep banks of earth between
thickets of flowering shrubs, gorse and Judas trees, and an undergrowth
of cistus. We saw to the left the picturesque castle of Baghrās, the
ancient Pagræe, crowning a pointed hill: I do not believe that the
complex of mountains north of Antioch has ever been explored
systematically, and it may yet yield fragments of Seleucid or Roman
fortifications that guarded the approach to the city. Presently we hit
upon the old paved road that follows a steeper course than the present
carriage road; it led us at one o'clock (we had stopped for three
quarters of an hour to lunch under the shady bank of a stream) to the
summit of the Pass of Bailān, where we joined the main road from Aleppo
to Alexandretta. There was no trace of fortification, as far as I
observed, at the Syrian Gates where Alexander turned and marched back to
the Plain of Issus to meet Darius, but the pass is very narrow and must
have been easy to defend against northern invaders. It is the only pass
practicable for an army through the rugged Mount Amanus. The village of
Bailān lay an hour further in a beautiful situation on the northern
side of the mountains looking over the Bay of Alexandretta to the bold
Cilician coast and the white chain of Taurus. From Bailān it is about
four hours' ride to Alexandretta.
As we jogged down towards the shining sea by green and flowery slopes
that were the last of Syria, Mikhāil and I fell into conversation. We
reviewed, as fellow travellers will, the incidents of the way, and
remembered the adventures that had befallen us by flood and field, and
at the end I said:
"Oh Mikhāil, this is a pleasant world, though some have spoken ill of
it, and for the most part the children of Adam are good not evil."
[Illustration 160: LOWER COURSE OF THE GARĪZ]
"It is as God wills," said Mikhāil.
"Without doubt," said I. "But consider, now, those whom we have met upon
our journey, and think how all were glad to help us, and how well they
used us. At the outset there was Najīb Fāris, who started us upon our
way, and Namrūd and G̣ablān--"
[Illustration 161: SARCOPHAGUS IN THE SERAYA, ANTIOCH]
"Māsha'llah!" interrupted Mikhāil. "G̣ablān was an excellent man.
Never have I seen an Arab so little grasping, for he would scarcely eat
of the food that I prepared for him."
"And Sheikh Muḥammad en Naṣṣār," I pursued, "and his nephew
Fāiz, and the Ḳāimaḳām of Ḳal'at el Ḥuṣn, who lodged us for
two nights and fed us all, and the Ḳāimaḳām of Drekish, who made a
great reception for us, and the zaptieh Maḥmūd----" (Mikhāil gave a
grunt here, for he had been at daggers drawn with Maḥmūd.) "And
Sheikh Yūnis," I went on hastily, "and Mūsa the Kurd, who was the best
of all."
"He was an honest man," observed Mikhāil, "and served your Excellency
well."
"And even Reshīd Agha," I continued, "who was a rogue, treated us with
hospitality."
"Listen, oh lady," said Mikhāil, "and I will make it clear to you. Men
are short of vision, and they see but that for which they look. Some
look for evil and they find evil; some look for good and it is good that
they find, and moreover some are fortunate and these find always what
they want. Praise be to God! to that number you belong. And, please God!
you shall journey in peace and return in safety to your own land, and
there you shall meet his Excellency your father, and your mother and all
your brothers and sisters in health and in happiness, and all your
relations and friends," added Mikhāil comprehensively, "and again many
times shall you travel in Syria with peace and safety and prosperity,
please God!"
"Please God!" said I.
INDEX
ABĀDEH tribe, the, 23
Abana River, the, 152
'Abdul 'Aziz ibn er Rashīd, 146
Ḥamed Pasha Druby, 189,
194
Hamid Rafi 'a Zādeh, 201-219,
339
Ḳādir, the great Algerian,
145-46
Ḳādir el Aẓam, 224-27,
237
Mejīd, Kurdish zaptieh, 210-11
Wahhāb Beg, 182
'Abdullah Pasha, the Amīr, 145-49
'Abd ur Raḥmān Pasha, 239
Abraham, George, 335
Abrash River, the, 210
Abu Kbesh, castle of, 218
Zreik, village of, 101
'l Fīda, sarcophagus of, 230
Acropolis, Athens, 167; Antioch,
322, 324-25
Adana, 271
Aden, 265
'Adwān tribes, 16
Afrīn, valley of the, 288
Agha, Muḥammad 'Ali, 311-14
Reshīd, 339
Rifa't, collection of, 322-23, 325
Rustum, 311-12
Aḥmed, son of Ghishghāsh, 111-12, 128
'Ain esh Shems, 7, 217
'Aintāb, missionary schools at, 334
Ajlūn hills of, 16
'Akabah, Gulf of, 14
Al Ḥerdeh, village of, 233
'Ala, Jebel el, 276, 302,
305, 309, 310
Alāni, 314-16
Aleppo, 66, 222_n._, 232,
244, 250, 251,
256, 270-72,
311, 314;
description, 260-69
Alexander the Great, 242, 336
Alexandretta, 262, 265,
270, 324, 336
Alexandria, 240
Ali id Diāb ul 'Adwān, Sultān ibn, 16
Muḥammad, Pasha of Aleppo,
148, 268
Pasha, Amīr, 145-47, 149
Allāt, 95
'Alya, Jebel el, 51-52, 64
Amanus, Mount, 336
Amereh, mound of, 26
American College, Beyrout, 208, 230
Survey, the, 77, 171,
276, 297
'Ammān, 13, 20, 27, 56, 164
'Anazeh tribe, the, 24, 25, 65, 127, 152,
172, 197
Anglo-Japanese alliance, 229
'Antara, poetry of, 59-60
Anti-Libanus, 111, 121, 159, 167
Antioch, 175, 270, 277, 278, 281, 310;
description and relics, 318-27, 336
Apamea, 242, 327
Apostles' Well, the, _see_ 'Ain esh
Shems
Arabic inscriptions, 122, 242
Arabs, 14, 16, 23 _et seq._, 56-58, 66-67;
hospitality, 32-33, 37, 55-57;
customs, etc., 36-37, 42, 49, 67;
poetry, 60-63; inter-tribal relations, 65-66
'Areh, village of, 81, 85
'Arjārmeh, the, 14
Armenians, 140; the Armenian question, 328-29
Asad Beg, 171
Asbā 'i, Muṣṭafa el, 148
'Asī, swamp of the, 242
Assassins, sect of the, 196
At Tabari, history of, 80
Athens, 297; the Acropolis, 167
Awād, the Arab, 121-23, 127
'Awais, Yūsef el, 160
Aẓam Zādeh family at Ḥamāh, 223-24
Azrak, Kala 'at el, 84
BA'ALBEK, 159-160; Temple of The
Sun, 164-169; Temple of Jupiter,
172, 176; Basilica of Constantine,
183; Ras ul 'Ain, 187; Christian
church at, 214
Bāb el Hawa, the, 297, 301
Bābiska, village, 297-98
Babylonia, 241
Baghdad, 66, 111; the railway to,
261-62
Baghrās, castle of, 336
Bailān, Pass of, 336
Baitocaicē, 214
Bāḳirḥa, ruins of, 278, 298-303
Balad, Sheikh el, 58
Barād, village of, 287-89
Barada, the Wādi, 159
Barāzi family, Ḥamāh, 224
Barāzi, Muṣṭafa Pasha el, 147, 148, 236
Bārisha, Jebel, 276, 298, 301, 302
Bashan, 84
Basilica of Constantine, Ba'albek, 183
Bāsufān, church at, 288, 291
Bathaniyyeh, 131
Bawābet Ullaḥ, the, Damascus, 133
Bedouins, 10, 23, 56, 122, 197, 256
Bedr, battle of, 62
Behā'is, religion of the, 150, 193
Beiḍa, Ḳal'at el, 34, 123-28
White Land, 108, 121
Belḳa plain, 19, 23-24; tribes of the,
23-26, 56-58
Beni 'Atiyyeh, the, 239, 240
Awājeh tribe, the, 66
Ḥassan tribe, the, 65, 68, 96
Ṣakhr, 24, 33, 38, 41, 43
Sha 'alān, the, 25
Beyrout, 99, 198, 208, 230, 231, 262
Birijik, railway at, 261-62
Birket Umm el 'Amūd, the, 25-26
Bizzos, Tomb of, 253-54, 277-78
Bḳei'a, the plain, 198
Black Sea, 8
Stone at Mecca, 96
Blunts, the travellers, 84
Boer War, the, 229
Bologna, 254
Boṣrā, 20, 74, 81
el Harīr, 229
Brāk, village of, 132
Brünnow, "Die Provincia Arabia,"
34_n._, 52_n._
Būkhālih, 125
Burj el Kās, 282
Ḥeida, 292
Burjkeh, village of, 280-81
Busān, the Wādi, 107
Butler, Mr., 75, 244, 276-78, 286
CALCUTTA, 227
Calycadnus River, the, 241
Cassius, Mount, 330
Cave villages, in
Caves, Namrūd's, 31-37
Chamberlain, Mr., 105
Chaulīk, 329
Circassians, 56, 132, 238-39
Coffee, customs, 19-20
Coins, Roman, 27; Seleucid, 322
Constantine, coins of, 27
Constantinople, 48, 104
Crete, Moslems of, 152
Cromer, Lord, 58, 105, 229
Crown of Thorns, the, 11
Crusaders, 205-6
Cufic inscriptions, 80, 122-23
Curzon, Lord, 229
Cyprus, 229, 328, 335
DA'JA tribe, the, 24-27, 40, 51, 96
Damascus, 77, 99, 128-33, 198, 231
History, 134-58; houses of,
136-51, 227; the Great
Mosque, 142, 150-51, 153
Friday in, 152
Dāna, 298; tomb at, 31, 254, 259, 299
Danīdisheh family, 207
Daphne Road, Antioch, 322; shrine, 326
Dār Kīta, 286
Dark Tower, Ḳal'at el Ḥuṣn, 201
Dead Sea, 10; Dead Sea Fruit, 11-12
Decimus of the Flavian Legion, 214
Deḥes, 297, 302
Deir es Sleb, 219
Deiret 'Azzeh, village of, 297
Dera'a, cave village, 111
Derwīsh, soldier, 171, 172
Dīn, Sheikh ed, 58
Drekish, village of, 211-12
Drusūra, 95
Druze, the Jebel, 20, 43, 64, 70, 164
Druzes, the, 38, 43, 51, 58, 67, 70
Habits and customs, 79-80, 82,
83, 86, 128; the fight against
the Ṣukhūr, 88-106; dread
of the Mohammadans, 306-309
Dussaud, Monsieur, 75, 84, 102, 122-23, 125, 175
EFFENDI, Dervish, 227
Yūsef, 85-87, 135
Effendim, 219-220
Egypt, English rule in, 57-58
Ej Jeita, village of, in
El, the God, 124
Ajlāt, 111
Bahra, lake of, 310
Bārah, village of, 245, 247, 249
Ḥayyāt, mosque of, 230
Khuḍr, Well of, 94, 96
Mughāra, village of, 255
Muwaggar, 52-54, 126
Emesa, Roman city, 181, 186
Epiphaneia, fortress of, 221
Ethreh, 84
Euphrates, the, 268
Euting, M., 84
FĀFERTĪN, village of, 274, 282
Fāiz, nephew of Muḥammad en
Nassār, 107, 111-12, 128, 339
el Aṭrash, Sheikh of Kreyeh, 77, 81
Talal ul, 24, 25
Fāris, muleteer, 270 _et seq._, 302, 310
Ḥabīb, 19-20, 22, 339
Fayyād, Agha of Karyatein, 152
Fedhāmeh, village of, 111
Fellahīn, the, 56; social condition,
206-7, 217-18
Bank, the, 58
Fendi, guide, 77, 78, 88
Fīda, Abu 'l, 22
France, Baghdad railway scheme, 261
G̣ABLĀN, the Arab, 39-40, 44, 49, 52,
54, 55, 59-60, 65, 76, 339
Garīz, the, Seleucia, 331, 333, 334, 337
Gates of God, the, 133
Germany, Baghdad railway scheme, 261
Gethsemane, valley of, 4
Gharz, the Ghadīr el, 116, 121-23
the Wādi el, 125
Ghassānid forts, 34, 52, 126
Ghawārny, the, 41
Ghazu, the sport, 66-67
Ghiāth, the, 96, 119-28
Ghishghāsh, Sheikh of Umm Ruweik,
107, 111-12, 120
Ghōr, the, 11, 16-19, 23
Giour Dāgh, the, 288, 301
Greek inscriptions, 122-23, 242, 253-54
Greeks, 140
ḤABĪB, muleteer, 3, 16, 74, 112, 124,
168, 172, 270
Hadūdmadūd, 293
Haida, Dr., 171
Haifa, 19
Ḥāil, town of, 44, 47, 48, 84
Ḥājj Railway, the, 22, 34
road, the, 239-40
Ḥamād, the, 111, 112
Ḥamāh, 168
Roman road from, 218-220;
description, 221-23; the
Mosque, 223; people, 223-29
Hamdān, son of Sheikh Understanding, 120
Ḥamūd, 51
of Sweida, 82, 94
Hanelos, 125
Ḥārim, 306, 309-310; the castle,
310-311
Hārith, Ibn el, 62
Harra, the Burnt Land, 108
Harūn er Rashīd, 212
Ḥaseneh tribe, the, 172, 197
Hāss, Jebel el, 260
Ḥassan Beg Nā'i, 182-85
Ḥassaniyyeh tribe, the, 24, 65-70, 88
Ḥaurān, mountains of, 18, 58, 70, 75, 76
Hayāt, Kalybeh at, 131
Heart of God, 116
Ḥejāz Railway, the, 136
Ḥelbān, mud village of, 256
Hermon Mountains, 121, 159
Heshbān, 16
Hind, the land of, 195, 196
Hira, 126
Hīt, village of, 131
Hittites, the, 175
Hober, village of, 260
Holy Sepulchre, Church of the, 2
Ḥomṣ, 111, 168, 175, 176, 193-94
Castle of, 179, 181; people of,
180-81, 186-90; houses of,
182-86; the Marj ul' Asi, 186;
Stony Plain of, 197
Homsi, Nicola, 266
Ḥoweiṭāṭ, the, 65, 239, 240
Hurmul, Tower of, 172, 175
Ḥuṣn es Suleimān, 213-17
Ḳal'at el, 195, 199, 201-209,
339; Greek Monastery at,
209-210
IBRAHĪM, the Armenian, 329-30, 333-34
muleteer, 3
Pasha, 36, 180
Iliān, Milḥēm, 85, 86, 96-99, 102, 105
Imtain, 70, 82, 92
Iron Gate, Antioch, 325
'Isa, Fellāḥ ul, 51, 55-57, 69-70, 164
Islāmism, 227-29
Ismailis, 195; religion, 233-35, 279
'Izzet Pasha, 149, 212-13
JADA 'llah, 69, 85
Jaffa, 8
Japanese War, 103-4, 156, 160, 182
Jebel Ḥalaḳah, the, 297
Jebeliyyeh Arabs, the, 75, 96
Jericho, the road to, 10, 11
Jerūn, oasis of, 152-53
Jerūdi, the brigand, _see_ Muḥammad
Pasha, Sheikh of Jerūd
Jerusalem, 4, 99, 160, 266
Jisr el Wād, bridge of, 210
Jōf, 47, 84
Jordan valley, 10 _et seq._
Judæa, 7-10
KABUL, 227
Kabūseh, village of, 334, 335
Kadesh, 176-79
Kāf, 84
Ḳais, Amr ul, 59, 60, 67
Kalam, Mushḳin, 148, 149
Ḳalb Lōzeh, church of, 278, 302-6
Kalōteh, 282, 285; church of, 286-87
Kāmu'a Hurmul, 172, 175
Ḳanawāt, 164; the basilica, 111;
illustrations, 108, 112, 115
Ḳantarah, the, 119
Kāramurt, village of, 336
Karyatein, oasis of, 152
Ḳaṣr el Ahla, _see_ Ḳaṣr el 'Alya
'Alya, 52
Banāt, 255, 256
Ḳasṭal, 34, 126
Katurā, 282
Kbēs, Monsieur, 222-24, 230, 231
Kbeshīn, hamlet of, 273
Kefr 'Abīd, 260
Anbīl, 244, 246
Lāb, 292-95
Nebu, 288
Keifār, village of, 288
Kerak, 205-6
Khabbāz, Hanna, 194
Khālid Beg 'Aẓam, 227
Kharāneh, ruins of, 54
Khayyām, Omar, 23
Khirāb esh Shems, 282, 283; church
at 285-86
Khīrbet Hass, village of, 244-45
Khittāb, 112, 119, 128
Khuḍr, prisoner, 196
Khureibet es Sūḳ, temple and mausoleum, 28-31
Kiāzim Pasha, Vāli at Aleppo, 262-66
Kiepert, maps, 168-71, 259, 260, 273
Killāni family at Ḥamāh, 224, 227, 235
Killāniyyeh Tekah, Ḥamāh, 224, 227
Killiz, 261
Knights Hospitallers, 205-6
Knights Templars, 206, 211
Konia, 171, 270
Kreyeh, 78, 81
Ḳṣeir, town of, 172-75
Ksejba, village of, 297
Ḳūbbeh in Mosque at Ḥamāh, 223
Ḳubbet el Khazneh, the, 141, 147, 148
Kuda'a, tribe of, 139
Kuleib, 83
Kulthūm, Ibn, song of, 139
Ḳur'ān, reading of the, 233-34
Kurds, 103, 273-74, 288, 291-96
Kurumfuleh, the, 160-63
Kuruntul, monastery of, 11
Ḳuṣeir es Sahl, 28
Kutaila, dirge of, 62
Kuweēk River, the, 259
Kweit, 48, 265
Kymet, the Kurdish woman 4-35
LAHITEH, 132
Laodocia ad Orontem, 176
Larissa, town of, 235
Lava, 121, 124, 126
Lebanon, Mount, 163, 164, 176
Lebīd, poetry of, 60, 61
Lebweh, ruins at, 171
Lejā road, the, 132
Littinann, Dr., 75, 77, 123_n._
Loculi, 329, 330
Lütticke of Damascus, 134
Lyall, Sir Charles, 63_n._
Lysicrates, monument of, 297
MA'ALULA, monastery of, 209
Ma'ān, 13, 14, 22, 239
Mabūk, the Arab, 14
Mādeba, 16, 22, 24, 26
Maḥmūd, Ḥājj, the zaptieh, 231-46,
250, 252, 259, 272, 339
Malek ed Dāher, Sultan, 206
Manuscripts, illuminated, 148
Mār Eliās, church of, 182
Mar Saba, monastery of, 15
Marāh, teut marks, 127
Marj ul 'Asi of the Orontes, 186
Marlborough Club, the, 196
Masyād, 217-19
Maṭkh swamp, the, 259, 269
Mazār of Sheikh Serāk, 123
Mecca, 265
Railway, 13, 171; pilgrims, 68;
239; the Black Stone at, 96;
customs, 259
Medā'in Ṣāleh, 239
Medīna, 239, 259, 265
Meḥes, 297, 302
Meidan, the, Damascus, 133, 151
Mersina, 262
Mesopotamia, 135, 279
Meskīn, 37
Metawīleh sect, the, 160, 168, 171
Mezērib, 111
Mikhāil, the cook, 3, 4, 12, 14, 15, 19,
21, 43, 73, 78, 82, 88, 92, 101, 112,
116, 120, 128, 131, 160, 168, 172,
175, 217-19, 243-46, 256, 270-72,
297, 302, 306, 314, 317-19, 336-40
Milḥēm, Emir Muṣṭafa, 219
Moab, 10, 38
Mohammadan invasion, seventh century,
76, 77
Morris, William, 254
Mosaics, 260
Mosul, 293
Mounds, 26-28, 52, 54, 122, 219, 221, 223
Moyemāt, village of, 259
Mshitta, 24, 28, 34, 45, 47, 48, 126
Mu'āwiyah, 134
Mudīk, Ḳal'at el, 231, 238; ruins
of, 241-43
Mughāra Merzeh, mud village, 256
Muḥammad Effendi, Muftī, 229-30
el Aṭrash, Sheikh, 69, 79
muleteer, 3, 16, 43, 56, 82, 172
Pasha, Sheikh of Jerūd, 152-57
Sāid ul Khāni, Ḳāḍi, 189-94
Bedouin, 120
the Agha Khān, 196-97, 233
uncle of Ibn er Rashīd, 14, 48
Mujēmir, Sheikh, 51
Mūsa, Kurdish guide, 279-82, 285,
288, 291-97, 339
Mushennef, Temple at, 111, 116
Musil, 55_n._
Mutanabbi, poetry of, 108, 208
Muwaggar, _see_ El Muwaggar
Muwāli tribe, the, 212, 256
NABATŒAN necropolis, 75; inscriptions, 80
Nahār, Sheikh, 37-39, 43
Nahr el 'Awāj, the, 133
Najēreh, ruins, 54
Najīb, Ḥājj, zaptieh, 272-73, 285,
297-98, 301, 302, 305, 306, 314,
317-19
Nakshibendi, Sheikh Ḥassan, 143,
145, 155, 157
Namrūd, Abu, guide, 19, 20, 26-41,
44, 50-52, 56-57, 339
Napoleon III., 146
Nasīb el Aṭrash, Sheikh of Ṣalkhad,
84-85, 93-99
Naṣṣār, Muḥammad en, 81, 82, 96,
102-106, 339
Nāzim Pasha, Vāli of Syria, 135-39,
141-45, 156-57, 268
Nebi Mendu, Tell, 175-79
Negroes, 38
Nejd, 14, 47, 84, 139
Nejha, village of, 133
Noṣairis, the, 175, 190, 210-13, 233-35, 329
Noṣairiyyeh, the Jebel, 176, 195, 198
OG, King, 84, 111
Olives, Mount of, 7
Omar, Amīr, 149, 159
Omer, 111
Oppenheim, book of, 102, 112, 125, 168
Ormān, village of, 100, 154
Orontes, the, 171, 172, 176, 186, 221,
222, 232, 235, 242, 244, 310, 320,
322, 326-28, 330
PALMYRA, 28, 111, 129, 176, 209
Petra, 14
Pieria, 241
Poets of the Ignorance, 60-63, 208
Princeton archaeological expedition,
256
RĀ'IB Effendi el Ḥelu, 213
Railways
Ḥājj, 22, 34; Ḥejāz, 136; Mecca,
13, 171; Rayak-Ḥamāh,
261; Baghdad, 261-62; the
French, 222
Rājil, Wādi, 101
Rāmeh, 111
Rās Ba'albek, 171
Ras ul 'Ain, Ba'albek, 185
Rashīd, Ibn er, 14, 25, 44-48
Rayak, 261-62
Redīfs, the, 14, 16
Rhodes, island of, 136
Riāḍ, 14, 47
Riza Beg el' Ābid, 211-13, 339
Rolandino, monument in Bologna, 254
Roman coins, 27, 219; camps, 34;
tanks, 35; roads, 74, 160, 218,
219, 297; forts, 125
Rōẓah, the, 233
Ruḥbeh plain, the, 107-12, 123
Russia, pilgrims, 7-9
Ruwalla, the, 146, 175
Ruweiḥā, the churches at, 253-55,
277-78
SACHAU, M., 250
Sacrifice, Feast of, 68-69
Ṣafa, the, 96, 105, 107-128
Safaitic inscriptions, 122
Ṣāfiṭa Castle, 210, 211
St. Peter, Cave of, 325
St. Simon Stylites, church of, _see_
Sim'ān, Kala 'at
St. Stephen's Gate, 4
Ṣalaḥiyyeh, 136, 152, 155
Salamis, Gulf of, 167
Salcah, city of, _see_ Ṣalkhad
Ṣāleh, guide, 82-83
Ṣāleh village, 101-6
Salisbury, Lord, 105
Saikhad, 60, 82-100
Salkīn, town of, 310-14
Sallūm, Syrian doctor, 230-31
Salt, village of, 16, 18-19, 22-23
Samaria, 266
San Gimignano, 181
Sanctuaries, 95-06
Sandūk, the Sāhib es, at Ḳal'at el
Housn, 206
Sāneh, village of, 107
Sa'oud, Ibn, 14, 44-48
Saphathenos, Zeus, 124
Sarut, the River, 219
Safīnet Nuh (Noah's Ark), 176
Seijar, Kal' at es, 232, 235-38
Seijari, Sheikh Aḥmed, 235-38
Selemiyyeh, 195
Seleucia, Bay of, 329-30
Pieria, 327-36
Nicator, temple and tomb of,
241, 313, 322, 327, 330
Selīm Beg, 141, 147, 148, 155-57
Seljuk, 206, 230
Selmān, 81
Serāk, Sheikh, 123-24
Serāya, the, Ḥomṣ, 182; Antioch, 322
Serge, Archduke, 135
Serjilla, town and ruins, 249, 250, 252
Sermeda, plain of, 297, 302
Sēs, Jebel, 126
Shabha, village, 76
Shabhīyyeh, village, 76
Shahbah, 132
Shakka, the Kaisarieh at, 131
Shām, Wādi esh, 111
Shāmmaṝ, the, 14, 25, 47, 48
Sheikh Barakāt, Jebel, 280, 297
Sheikhly, 111
Shekīb el Arslān, 151-52
Sherarāt tribe, the, 38-41, 96
Shibbekeh, 111
Shibly Beg el Aṭrash, 77, 309
Shuraik, 125
Sidr bushes, the, 11-12
Siena Cathedral, 181
Silk industry, 313-17, 330
Silpius, Mount, 321, 324
Sim'ān, Ḳal'at, 274-81; the villages,
276-96
Sīr, the Wādy, 23, 25
Sirhān, the Wādy, 77, 84
Sitt Ferīdeh, the, at Ḳal'at el Ḥuṣn,
202, 206
Slime Pits of Genesis, the, 12-13
Smātiyyeh Arabs, the, 235-38
Smyrna, 8, 99
Soktan, Sheikh, 35
Sommar, Mon. Luiz de, 164
Spina Christi, legend, 11
Stones, lettered, 122
Suḳ Wādi Barada, 159, 161
Ṣukhūr tribe, the, 14, 25, 31, 65, 88
Sukkar, Yūsef Effendi, 19-21
Surkanyā, village, 281-82
Sweida, 82, 85, 92, 164
Sweidiyyeh, the, 327, 328
Sykes, Mr. Mark, 3, 4, 164, 218
Syria, rule in, 140-41; condition of
the poor, 206-7; the term, 228
Syriac inscriptions, 292
ṬĀHIR, the Amīr, 147
ul Jezāiri, Sheikh, 147
Tārafa, poetry of, 61
Ṭarutīn, ruins at, 256
Teifūr family at Ḥamāh, 224
Tell esh Shīh, 78
Tell Selma, 259
Tellāl, Abu, of Shahba, 82
Temples
Khureibet es Sūḳ, 28-31; Mushennef,
111, 116; the Sun,
Ba'albek, 164, 168; the Lebweh,
171; Jupiter, Ba'albek,
172, 176, 214; Ḥuṣn el Suleimān, 213-17
Theleleh, 49
Thelelet el Hirsheh, 49
Tigris, 242
Ṭneib, mound of, 20, 26, 27, 32
Tombs
Yadudeh, 26-28; Bizzos, 253-54;
Seleucia Nicator, 330
Tripoli, 195, 197
Gate, the, 195
Tufa, 115-16, 181
Tulūl, 259
es Safa, the, 121
Turkey, rule of, 14, 16, 22, 35, 44-48
85, 86, 139-41, 207, 267-68
Turkmān Jāmi'a, the, Ḥomṣ, 182
Turkshān, the, 81-83, 309
ULLAḤ Beha, Persian prophet, 148
'Umar, Amīr, _see_ Omar
Mosque of, Jerusalem, 1
Umm ej Jemēl, ruins, 70, 74
er Resās, ruins, 54
Rummān, village, 69-70,
78-79
Ruweik, village, 107, 111
Ummayah, house of, 135
Understanding, Sheikh of the Ghiāth, 120
Uneif, Kureyt ibn, 99
United States, emigration to the, 17-18,
163, 211
Urfa, on the Euphrates, 19
Uthail, 62
VAN, lake, 4
Victoria Hotel, Damascus, 133
Vogüé, Monsieur de, 76, 125, 131,
244, 250, 297
WAD el Ḥassan'yyeh, 18
Waddington, M., 250
Wall of Lamentation, Jerusalem, 17
Wa'r Ḥomṣ, 197
White Castle of the Knights Templars, 211
YADUDEH, tombs of, 26
Yaḥfūfa, the, 160
Yahya Beg el Atrāsh, 81, 309
Yaḳit 'Ades, 272
Yemen, 126, 229; the insurrection
in, 13, 82, 262; the soldier in, 240
Yezīdis, beliefs of the, 279, 282, 293-94
Yildiz, 268
Yūnis, Sheikh of El Bārah, 250-53,
255, 339
Yūsef, zaptieh guide, 23, 26, 100, 103
ZA'BIEH, family of the, 207
Ẓābit, the, at Safita Castle, 211-13
Zādeh, Reshīd Agha Kakhya, 311-19
Zāwiyyeh, Jebel, 244 _et seq._, 256, 276
Zebdāny, 159
Zerka River, the, 51, 56
Kala'at ez, 74
Ziza, Roman tank at, 35
Zuhair, poetry of, 61