SYRIA
THE LAND OF LEBANON
_By LEWIS GASTON LEARY_
THE REAL PALESTINE OF TO-DAY
ANDORRA, THE HIDDEN REPUBLIC
THE CHRISTMAS CITY
SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON
[Illustration: Evening in the harbor of Beirut]
SYRIA
THE LAND OF
LEBANON
BY
LEWIS GASTON LEARY, PH.D.
FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN THE AMERICAN
COLLEGE, BEIRUT, SYRIA
Author of _The Real Palestine of To-day_,
_Andorra, the Hidden Republic_, _etc._
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
1913
Copyright, 1913, by
MCBRIDE, NAST & CO.
_Second Printing
January, 1914_
Published, November, 1913
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
TO HIM WHO FIRST TURNED MY THOUGHTS
TOWARD SYRIA
MY FORMER PRECEPTOR AND ALWAYS
LOYAL FRIEND
GEORGE L. ROBINSON
PREFACE
Although Syria possesses a rare natural beauty and boasts a wealth of
historic and religious interest, its fame has been so overshadowed by
that of the neighboring Land of Israel that most travelers are content to
take the easy railway journey to Baalbek and Damascus, and know nothing
of the wild mountain valleys and snow-capped summits of Lebanon or the
many ancient shrines of a country whose history reaches far back of the
classic days of Greece.
It is therefore with great pleasure that I accede to the request of the
publishers of my “Real Palestine of To-day” and supplement the earlier
work by the present companion-volume on Syria; so that, though the books
may be read independently, the two together may give a complete view of
the lands of the Bible.
The chapter on Palmyra is from the pen of Professor Harvey Porter,
Ph.D., of the Syrian Protestant College; and for many of the hitherto
unpublished photographs I am indebted to other members of the faculty
of that institution. Grateful acknowledgment is also made to _The World
To-day_, _The New Era_, _The Sunday School Times_, _The Newark_ (N.
J.) _News_, and especially to _Travel_ and _Scribner’s Magazine_, for
permission to include material which originally appeared in these
publications.
In the writing of Arabic words, my aim has been smooth reading, rather
than a systematic transliteration of the numerous sounds which are not
found in English. As an aid to pronunciation, it should be noted that the
stress always falls upon a syllable bearing a circumflex accent.
It will be seen that this book is written from a more intimate and
personal viewpoint than the volume on Palestine. I could not write
otherwise of the country which was for years my own home and where to-day
I have many cherished friends among both Syrians and Franks. In fact, I
must write very slowly; for every now and then I lay down my pen and,
with a homesick lump in my throat, dream over again the happy days in
that land of wondrous beauty which I still love with all my heart.
LEWIS GASTON LEARY
Pelham Manor, N. Y., October 15, 1913.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE WHITE MOUNTAIN 1
II THE LEFT-HAND LAND 6
III THE CITY OF SATURN 26
IV THE SPIRIT OF OLYMPIA 44
V ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS 60
VI THE LAND OF UZ 72
VII THE EARTHLY PARADISE 88
VIII THE PORT OF THE WILDERNESS 95
IX THE RICHES OF DAMASCUS 110
X THE DESERT CAPITAL 128
XI SOME SALT PEOPLE 144
XII THE CEDARS OF THE LORD 163
XIII THE GIANT STONES OF BAALBEK 184
XIV HAMATH THE GREAT 201
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Evening in the harbor of Beirut _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
Along the coast north of Beirut 4
Looking up the western slopes of Lebanon 5
Lebanon soldiers 16
Village of Deir el-Kamr 17
Bay of Beirut and Mount Sunnin 26
Pine groves of Beirut 27
Bridge over the Dog River 36
Procession in Beirut 38
Students of the American College 48
Cape of Beirut viewed from Lebanon 49
Old Bridge over the Barada River 70
Cascade in the Yarmuk Valley 71
A caravan 82
Damascus—a distant view 83
Damascus—one of the more modern avenues 100
A Syrian café 101
Damascus—court of a private residence 112
Damascus—Moslem cemetery 113
Damascus—The Street called Straight 120
Damascus—The Omayyade Mosque 121
Palmyra—General view of the ruins 134
Palmyra—the Triple Gate 135
Funeral procession of the patriarch 160
A summer camp in Lebanon 161
The Cedar Mountain 170
Source of the Kadisha River 171
The oldest Cedar of Lebanon 182
Baalbek—the six great columns 183
Baalbek—the stone in the quarry 198
Hama—the Orontes River 199
MAPS AND PLANS
The railway from Beirut to Damascus 62
Cross-section of Syria 64
The Hauran 74
The temples of Baalbek 194
SYRIA
THE LAND OF LEBANON
_Syria, The Land of Lebanon_
CHAPTER I
THE WHITE MOUNTAIN
Far off on the eastern horizon the thin haze of an October dawn gently
blended into denser masses of silvery white, which rose like dream
mountains above the edge of the placid azure sea. The soft, ethereal
shapes did not change their outlines, however, as clouds do; and, as
the steamer drew nearer to them, the rounded forms gradually took on an
appearance of bulk and solidity. These were no mere piles of morning
mist, but the massive shoulders of the ancient, famous, glorious range
whose strange silvery tint when viewed from afar caused it long, long ago
to be called _Lebanon_—the “White Mountain.”
As we approached the shore, the sun rose into a sky of brighter blue than
ever domed Italian seas, and great waves of color swept downward over the
round white mountainsides. I have traveled since in many lands; I know
the beauty of Amalfi’s cliffs, the rich tints of the southern coast of
Spain, the mystic alpenglow on the snow-clad peaks of Switzerland and
the delicate opalescence of the Isles of Greece; but I have never seen—I
never expect to see—another glory of earth which can compare with the
wondrous coloring of the mountains of Lebanon.
We watched floods of red and orange sweep across the lofty summits and
then brighten into crowns of mellow gold. We looked into gorges tinged
with a purple so rich and deep that the color itself seemed almost a
tangible thing. Nearer still we drew, and at the foot of the mountains
there came into view dark forests of evergreen and broad, sloping
orchards set here and there with tiny villages of shining white. Then
there appeared long lines of silvery surf and yellow sand; and we skirted
the northern edge of a rock-bound promontory to the crowded harbor of
Beirut.
* * * * *
The wording of the Old Testament might lead one to infer that Lebanon
is a single mountain, and the modern Syrians also familiarly refer to
it as _ej-Jebel_—“The Mountain.” It is not, however, an isolated peak,
but an entire range, which begins at the northern border of Palestine
and stretches for a hundred miles along the easternmost shore of the
Mediterranean. The narrow coastal plain cannot be distinguished at a
distance. Straight out of the water the thousand summits rise in ever
loftier ranks up to the level profile of the central ridge, two miles
above the sea.
This “goodly mountain,” which dying Moses longed to see, became to Hebrew
poets the consummate symbol of all that was most strong and virile, most
beautiful and enduring. The springs of Lebanon, the forests of Lebanon,
the glory of Lebanon—of these they dreamed and, in ecstatic eulogy or
lofty spiritual hope, of these they loved to sing. “Thou art a fountain
of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon,”
exclaims the hero of the Song of Songs. “The smell of thy garments is
like the smell of Lebanon.” The bride, too, sings of her lover, “His
aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.”[1] In more solemn vein,
the prophets who spoke of the coming Day of Jehovah drew imperishable
imagery from these northern mountains. “The desert shall rejoice,
and blossom as the rose.... The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto
it.”[2] Israel “shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
Lebanon.... They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall
revive as the grain, and blossom as the vine: the scent thereof shall be
as the wine of Lebanon.”[3] “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee,
the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together.”[4]
Toward evening I strolled out to the end of the cape and looked for the
first time upon what those of us who have called Beirut our home may be
pardoned for believing to be the loveliest prospect in all this beautiful
world. From this point can be viewed eighty miles of a coast which in
the time of Abraham had already seen the rise and fall of many a proud
civilization. To the south is the ancient city of Sidon, thirty miles
away, and the rocky point of Sarepta and, in the dim distance, the bold
headland of the “Ladder of Tyre.” To the north, beyond the gorges of the
River of Death and the Dog River, is the River of Adonis, where the loves
of heaven and earth were celebrated many centuries before there were
Greeks in Greece. Still farther north, Jebail—ancient Byblos—disputes
Damascus’ claim to be the oldest of cities; and thirty-five miles away
the view of the coast is closed by the cape which the Greeks called
_Theoprosopon_, the “Face of God.” The Syrians, however, have named this
_Ras esh-Shukkah_ or the “Split-off Point,” and say that it was torn
away from the mountain and thrown bodily into the sea during the great
earthquake of July 9, 551, A. D. In this land of fearful cataclysms, the
story is quite possible of belief.
[Illustration: View along the coast north of Beirut]
[Illustration: Looking up the western slopes of Lebanon]
At the west is the expanse of the “Great Sea.” At the east, just back
of the cape, are the great mountains. Everything along the shore of the
Mediterranean is warm, almost tropical in its verdure, and resplendent
in the orient hues painted by the Syrian sun. The lower slopes of
Lebanon are soft with vineyards and groves of olive, fig and mulberry.
Above the green orchards and white villages are dark pine forests, and
somber gorges cut deep between smooth, swelling moorlands. Higher still
the desolate, lonely slopes are quite bare of vegetation; yet, in the
clear atmosphere, they seem as soft as if they were overlaid with bright
velvets and shimmering silks. Last of all, the eye is drawn up to the
summits of Keneiseh and Sunnin, tinged with orange and purple in the
summer sunset, and in winter covered with vast sheets of snow.
From the tropics to the chill barrenness of the arctics—it is all
comprehended in one glorious panorama. What an Arabic poet wrote of
yonder towering Sunnin is true of the whole range—
“He bears winter upon his head,
Spring upon his shoulders,
Autumn in his bosom,
While summer lies slumbering at his feet.”
But Lebanon is more than a splendid spectacle. There would be no Syria,
no fertile mother of the olive and orange, no land of the long martial
history, no tale of ancient culture or modern enterprise, save for the
Mountain, whose lofty peaks break the rain-clouds borne hither by the
west winds and drop their precious moisture on the thirsty soil below.