Part 1 — Notes to part I

Time Table

A.D. Year of the Hejra (Lunar)

622 (16th of July) The flight of Muhammed the Prophet from Mecca to Medina —

1831 Ibrahìm 1256–7

1831–1840 A time of great prosperity for all classes, Christians and Moslems alike, under an enlightened government —

1840 Syria signed back to the Sultàn at Conference of London —

1858 Bombardment of Jedda by the French as a punishment for the massacre there 1275

1860 (March-April) Saïd leaves his native town, his house and his fig-tree by the seashore —

1860 (June) The Maronites attack the Drûz and are slaughtered all over Lebanon 1277

1860 (June-July) Great massacre of Damascus 1277

1860 (September) Execution of Ahmed Pasha, Wâly of Damascus, for culpable incompetence shown during the massacre 1278

Chapter xv.—“Jesus the Prophet, whom the faithful call Ruh’Allah.” It has been told me for a fact that when the exiled Khedive Ismaìlcafé for having dared to insult a Prophet of his (the Egyptian’s) religion. The man had been blaspheming, it appeared, as only a Neapolitan or a Tuscan knows how to blaspheme, heaping foul epithets on the name of his Saviour and the Blessed Virgin. A duel, my informant assures me, actually took place on these grounds.

Chapter xix.—“The House of IslâmAn adol, or the Last Home of the Faithful.)

Chapter xix.—“When the first of the sevens,” etc. It was predicted in the beginning of the present century by a much-revered sheikh that when the first of the sevens falls the ruin of Islâm will commence, and when the second falls it will have been completed. We are now in the year of the Hegira 1277; the year about to open will invert the first of the two Arabic sevens read from right to left—V becoming ɅRambles in Syrian Deserts.)

Chapter xxv.—“The garrison was divided into two companies” (Selìm loquitur). Ahmed Pasha sent some troops under the command of two colonels into the streets. They soon applied to him for instructions, under the impossibility of keeping the peace without resorting to violence. He ordered them in writing to fire upon the people. One of the colonels in command of the regulars obeyed his order and dispersed the mob, proving thus that the evil might have been checked. The other colonel, who had charge of the irregulars, was won over by a Mussulman sheikh, who adjured him in the name of the Prophet and their common religion to join them and clear the holy city of Damascus of infidels. He went over to the insurgents with his troops. (Skene, as above.) For further particulars of the massacre, see Skene, already quoted, Churchill: Druzes, and Ten Years in Mount Lebanon, and the newspapers of the latter half of 1860.

Glossary of Arab Expressions and Names of Places

Abd = A servant, a slave, much used with an epithet of the Deity in the formation of proper names, as Abdullah

Abu = Father of. A man assumes his son’s name with this prefix as an honourable title, letting his own name be almost forgotten.

Afrìt = A devil, a jinni (pl. afærìt).

Ayûb = Job.

Bara = Para. The Arabs have no letter “P” and cannot pronounce it.

Basha = Pasha.

Bedelíeh askerieh = Tax in lieu of military service, levied on unbelievers.

Cabil = Cain.

Caimmacàm = A local governor, inferior to the provincial governor (Wâly or Mutesarrif) and appointed by him.

Damashe-ush-Shâm (or simply Es-Shâm) = Damascus. Shâm in this name is generally taken to mean “Left” in contrast with “Yemen” meaning “Right.” But it has more likely to do with Shem (Ar. Shâm); Syria is called Es-Shâm or Birr-ush-Shâm.

Daûd = David.

Dejìl = Antichrist.

Dìn = Religion, faith—e. g., dìn Muhammed = El Islâm.

Durzi = A Druze (pl. Drûz).

Ebn = Son—e. g., ebn Ali = the son of Ali.

Effendi = A title of respect given generally to Mahometans.

El Ajem = Persia.

Eljizar = Algiers or Algeria (often confused with Eljezireh = Mesopotamia).

El Khalìl = An epithet of the patriarch Abraham appropriate to his city of Hebron.

Emìr = Prince, an hereditary and purely Arab title of nobility, having nothing to do with the Turkish gamut of dignities which, like the Russian, are purely official. It is given, for instance, to all the kindred of the Prophet, in addition to the epithet Sherìf ( = honourable, holy).

Fellah = A husbandman, a peasant (pl. fellahìn).

Fulân = An imaginary person (cp. Span. Don Fulano) as we say Mr. So-and-so.

Habil = Abel.

Haleb = Aleppo, surnamed the White (Esh-Shahbah).

In sh’Allah = (lit., if God will) I hope.

Isa = Jesus (Mahometan).

Iskendería = Alexandria.

Istanbûl = Constantinople.

Jebel Târic = Gibraltar.

Jinni = A geni, a fallen angel dwelling on earth and sharing with man the chance of salvation (pl. jin or jân

Kâfir = Infidel, heathen.

Khawaja = A title of respect given exclusively to unbelievers.

Kibleh = The point towards which the face is turned at prayers (for Jews, Jerusalem, for Mahometans, Mecca).

Lûndra = London.

Marûni = A Maronite (pl. Mowarni).

Masr = Egypt.

Ma sh’ Allah = (What does God wish!) the commonest exclamation of surprise.

Mehkemeh = A court of law presided over by the Cadi

Miriam = Mary.

Mufti = A religious judge in every city.

Mûsa = Moses.

Muslim = A Mahometan (pl. Muslimûn).

Mutesarrif = A governor of a province, less than a Wâly in dignity, but, like a Wâly, dependent directly on the Sultàn.

Nabuli = Naples.

Neby = Prophet.

Nûh = Noah.

Oäh = A cry equivalent to “Look out!”

Rûm = Greece.

Sheykh = An old man; hence (age implying precedence) a chief, the headman of a tribe, a village, or indeed of any community.

Suleyman = Solomon.

Tarabulus = Tripoli (Tarabulus-Esh-Shâm, Tripoli of Syria; not Tarabulus el Gharb, Tripoli in Barbary).

The Chief of Mountains (Jebel-ush-Sheikh) = Mount Hermon.

The City of Peace (Medinat us Salam) = Baghdad.

The Mountain (El Jebel) = Lebanon.

The Sunset-Land (El Maghrib, el Gharb) = The north coast of Africa west or Egypt: The Barbary States.

Wâly = The governor-general of a province, appointed directly by the Sultàn (or at least from Constantinople) and for a period of five years.

Wilayet = The province governed by a Wâly.

Yafez = Japheth.

Y Allah! = (O God) the commonest of all exclamations, meaning whatever you please, oftenest with a sense of “Make haste!” or “Forward!”

Yesua = Jesus (Christian).