3

Time concerning the Massacres in the Arab Country, and I divided it into nine chapters, inserting into them what they contain of causes and effects.

(P. 4) First Chapter.

Statement regarding Mount Lebanon and the acts of injustice and iniquity there committed.

Second Chapter.

Narrative of the troubles and disturbances which occurred in al-Matn and as-Sāḥil.

Third Chapter.

Narrative of the treachery and deceit suffered by the people of adDubbiyah and Mu'allaqat ad-Dāmur.

Fourth Chapter.

Narrative of the heart-rending trials that befell the people of the district of Jazzīn and of at-Tuffāḥ and al-Kharnub.

(P. 5) Fifth Chapter.

Concerning the carnage at Ḥaşbayya, which was followed by the massacre of Rāshayyā.

Sixth Chapter.

Concerning the siege of Zaḥlah, which forced its inhabitants to emigrate.

Seventh Chapter.

Concerning the massacre at Dayr al-Qamar, which was pitiless and did not [seem to] cease.

Eighth Chapter.

Concerning the carnage at Damascus and the part played in it by the 'Amir 'Abd'al-Qadir, the Algerian, who, prompted by exceeding

The last two words of the title here repeated and half erased and rewritten in the Arabic text, bear the guilty look of a pun on the geographical term 'Arabistan, viz., "Arab Country" or "Land of the Arabs," used to designate both the Persian province of Khuzistan and the provinces of the Ottoman Empire where Arabs and their descendants or Arabic speaking peoples form the bulk of the population; cf Note 49 to the Introduction. As finally written, they may be read by the lover of such plays on words, "Arabs of the Garden (of Syria)."

kindness and solicitude, did the right thing with regard to the Christians.

(P. 6) Ninth Chapter.

Concerning the advent of the companion of Empire and high consideration and dignity, Fu'ad Pasha, and his honoring [visit to] Bayrut on the part of his Majesty the Sultān 'Abd'al-Majīd Khān for the purpose of restoring order in the affairs of Mount Lebanon.

I say: These [headings of the different] chapters are the substance of the contents of this book. But I have mentioned in them [still] more important events as appended to every subdivision.

FIRST CHAPTER

Statement about Mount Lebanon and the acts of injustice and iniquity there committed.

We, before we enter upon the narrative of the disturbances and of the occurrence (P. 7) of horrible and abominable actions, deem it proper to consider the aspect of the affairs of the Mount and to [state to] which confessions and nations' its inhabitants belong in order that more satisfaction and greater advantage be [derived from this book]. We say [therefore] that Mount Lebanon [is one] of the most famous mountains that exist and that its inhabitants have their origin in the most remote ages, preceding the epochs and times of the peoples who clung to vain beliefs. And now they [the peoples of the Lebanon, divided according to their creeds, are principally] Christians and Druzes, and among these [live] a few Moslemin and Mutawalies."

I. e. religious communities, to the patriarchs or other recognised heads of which welldisposed Ottoman rulers have granted, by successive firmāns, certain rights and privileges that actually give them the status of separate nations, differences of creed dividing the people like or even more strongly than differences of nationality. Only the Maronites among the Christian denominations are without such a firman. But, to quote Dr F. J. BLISS, op. cit., p. 23, "the fact that ever since 1516 they have enjoyed all the privileges of a "nation" recognised by the sultans, is considered to be sufficient. Precedent takes the place of formal authorisation."

The Mutawalies are Shi'ites who, in the Lebanon, greatly exceed the Sunnites in number. To the North they extend as far as Homs (Pliny's Hemesa of ancient renown), to the South as far as the Bahr Tabariya (Sea of Galilee). Counting some 120.000, they are said to

6

9

As regards the Christians in the aforesaid Mount Lebanon, their number reaches about ninety thousand males and most of them are of the Maronite persuasion. Among them, however, are also who belong to the Orthodox Greek Church and to the Greek Catholic [United Greek] Church.7 As regards the Druzes, their number reaches, roughly speaking, fifteen (P. 8) thousands and more. They deny the resurrection [of the body] and believe in the transmigration of the soul. They consider everything permitted if [only] it is done in secret. They assert the divinity of Adam whom they call Shaṭnil,10 and they say that his soul has migrated from one to another from generation to generation until it entered the Imam 'Aly Ibn Abū Talib, the Eminent, and then" [one of] the issue of his daughter12 be the descendants of Persian settlers in the time of 'Umayyad rule, have an ugly reputation and show themselves very suspicious of strangers. Their religious chief resides at Jabā'ah near Jazzin. Their leading family is that of the Ḥarfūsh.

6

• According to a Table of the Statistics of Mount Lebanon, already mentioned, the number of Christians capable of carrying arms was 190.055 of whom 102.105 were Maronites. As regards those Maronites, "ils résidèrent longtemps dans le Nord du Liban (Batroun et Djebail) sans dépasser le Nahr Ibrahim. Ils se sont graduellement avancés dans la direction du Sud et de l'Est, poussés par les Ansariah et poussant eux-mêmes les Druses; ils ont ainsi occupé les districts de Kesrouan, Meten, Djezzin. Leur prise de possession du littoral phénicien et de la Bekaa se continue encore à l'heure actuelle." A. BERNARD, op. cit.

7 The members of the Orthodox Greek and the Greek Catholic or United Greek Churches, are, after the Maronites, numerically the strongest among the Christians of the Lebanon. The number of Protestants, Roman Catholics, Syrian Catholics (United Syrians) and United Armenians is very small in that region, not to mention the Gregorian Armenians, Jacobites, Orthodox Nestorians and United Nestorians or Chaldaeans.

8 Males understood.

'Rather more: the table again referred to in Note 6, gives 56.035, a number which has considerably shrunk in consequence of the Druze exodus to Ḥauran that followed the events of 1860 and European intervention.

10 Cf H. GUYS, Théogonie des Druses: "Adam, l'Élu [to be distinguished from the two other Adams, the rebellious or partial and the forgetful or material one] a eu, d'ailleurs, plusieurs apparitions avant qu'il êut reçu le nom de Schatnil et on le fait naître dans une ville de l'Inde. Puis il est envoyé pour être adoré par les anges.”

11 After several other migrations; see SILVESTRE DE SACY, Exposé de la Religion des Druzes, 1838, still the standard work on its subject, to which and La Nation Druse by H. GUYS, 1864, we refer for clearer notions than those possessed by our author anent the Syrian unitarians, who claimed that the secret of their religion was better guarded from the uninitiated than the track of a black ant perambulating a piece of black marble on a black night. P. WOLFF, Die Drusen und ihre Vorlaufer, 1845; F. TOURNEBIZE, Les Druzes, in the Études des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus, October 5, 1897; and C. F. SEYBOLD, Die Drusenschrift Kitāb al-Nogaṭ wal-Dawā'ir, 1902, may also be consulted. 12 Viz. the Prophet's daughter, who was 'Aly's wife.

Fatimah, who was one of the Fatimide Khalifs, 13 called al-Manşūr,14 and after his investment [with the Khalifate], received the surname of al-Hakim-bi-'amri'llah.15 Thereupon he surnamed himself alḤākim-bi-'amri-hi,16 reposing confidence in his being He." And the first to believe in him [as such] was his wazir Ḥamzah Ibn 'Aly al-Majūsy, and then the Sheikh Ma'n Ibn Şafiyyah and the Sheikh Husayn ad-Darazy. And the latter is he from whom (P 9) of yore this community originated18 because he was strenuous in its faith and in the furtherance of its success, always ready to urge people to the worship of al-Ḥakim above all [other] beliefs and religions. And the first place where he made his appearance19 was the Wady Taym-Allah Ibn Tha'labah20 in Mount Lebanon. And part of the people of the aforesaid Wady at-Taym and Iqlīm al-Ballān put their trust in him. Thereupon these dissenting opinions spread to the Jabal ash-Shuf21 and the Jabal ash-Sheikh22 and the Jabal al-A'lā 23 and the countries of Şafad and Ḥauran24 where, however, they [who 13 Hakim, son of Aziz-billah Abū Manşūr Nazār and a Christian woman, sixth of the Fatimide Khalifs and third of the Fatimide rulers of Egypt.

14 The Victorious because assisted by God.

15 The one who exercises authority by the decree of God.

16 The one who exercises authority by his own decree.

17 I. e. God incarnate.

18 Deriving its name from his cognomen ad-Darazy. Of Persian extraction, he was called Muḥammad Ibn Isma'il, not Husayn as our author has it, and in the books of the Druzes he bears the Turkish prænomen Nashtagin. Cf B. CARRA DE VAUX, Encyclopaedia of Islam, v. Darazi.

But

19 In 1017. Cf F. A. MÜLLER, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, I, 632. F. WÜSTENFELD, Geschichte der Fatimidenchalifen, puts the date some three years later, in the last year of Ḥakim's life.

20 Still revered as the cradle of the Druze religion.

21 With Ba'aqlin, a focal point of Druze religious life, still a centre of Druze activity

in the Lebanon.

22 Mount Hermon.

23 The High Mountain.

24 The Arabic form of Auranitis and therefore Ḥauran, not the Ḥauran as we commonly find. King James's translators of the Bible, too, EZEKIEL, XLVII, 16 & 18, have the word without the definite article. Probably of inconsiderable extent in biblical times when it corresponded with Bashan, the famous King Og's territory, Ḥaurān was enlarged under the Greeks and the Romans. Still farther increased since those days it "now includes not only Auranitis but Ituraea also, or Ittur, of which Djedour is perhaps a corruption, together with the greater part of Basan or Batanaea and Trachonitis.......From Strabo and Ptolemy we learn that Trachonitis comprehended all the uneven country extending along the eastern side of the plain of Haouran from near Damascus to Boszra.......The two Trachones into which Trachonitis was divided, agree with the two natural divisions

had adopted them] concealed their real religion and made an outward show of professing Islām. And they provided themselves with secret sanctuaries for those to pray in who knew the mysteries of their religion. These were called the 'uqqal25 in distinction from those who knew but the name [externals] of [their] creed, and they (P. 10) [were called] the juhhal.26 And with regard to the [religious] services of the Moslemin, they used only to recite the burdah before the raising of the dead [on his bier when about to be] carried [to his grave], the [poem] namely, composed by the Sheikh Muḥammad Ibn Sa'yd adDilaşy27 in praise of the Prophet, the opening lines of which run:

Is it from a recollection of associates of the possessor of salvation that thou minglest the tears which flow from the eye with blood? Or does the wind blow right in the face, obstructing [advance], and lightning flash in the darkness of wrath?

[and so on] until he says in refinement of praise:

And how could necessity call to the world him without whom the world would not have come forth from naught?

Muḥammad, the lord of the two universes [all that exists], of the two kinds of creatures [men and spirits] and the two classes [of mankind], Arabs and aliens.

of the Ledja and Djebel Haouran... Boszra, the principal town in the Haouran, [is] remarkable for the antiquity of its castle and the ancient ruins and inscriptions to be found there." BURCKHARDT, op. cit. Cf SIR GEORGE ADAM SMITH, op. cit., pp. 30/2: "The northern levels of Hauran are from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea, but on the south the plateau shelves off by broad degrees of about 1600 and 1300 feet to its limit in the deep valley of the Yarmuk.. the plateau bears abundant wheat Before the war the annual yield

.in repute all round the Levant.

......"

of grain was said to be 320.000 tons." The definite settlement of Ḥauran by the Druzes began after the battle of 'Ayn Darah in 1711. The changes in the administration of Mount Lebanon after the massacres of 1860, again caused many of them to seek safety from the Maronites in the Jabal Durūz.

25 The initiated, lit. the knowing or intelligent, "durchgeistigt" as OPPENHEIM expresses it, to add, op. cit., I, 137, Note 1, "Diese Bezeichnung für die eigentlichen Träger der drusischen Religion ist in Verbindung damit, dass der erste Minister Gottes Maulai 'Akl, 'Monseigneur l'Esprit,' als Verkörperung des Geistes gedacht wird, ein Beweis für die hohe Verehrung welche die Drusen dem Geist und dem Wissen entgegenbringen, worauf sie besonders stolz sind." Women can become initiated as well as men and the most meritorious, who attain a degree of perfection rarely met with, are called ajawid. 26 The uninitiated, lit. the ignorant, uneducated.

27 Sharaf ad-Din Muḥammad Ibn Sa'yd Ibn Ḥammad Ibn Muhsin, born March 7, 1213, in Abūşir or in Dilaş, whence the cognomen al-Buşiry or ad-Dilaṣy. His celebrated poem of the mantle received that name because it was said to have been composed after his cure of a paralytic stroke by the miraculous properties of the Prophet's mantle thrown over his shoulders. Cf RENÉ BASSET, Encyclopaedia of Islām, v. Burda.