Part 4

_Aleppo, October 2nd,_ 1809.

Mr. Burckhardt remained two years and a half in Syria, making daily additions to his practical knowledge of the Arabic language, and to his experience of the character of Orientals, and of Mohammedan society and manners. His principal residence was at Aleppo. Having assumed the name of Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah at Malta, he continued to bear it in Syria; but apprehensive of not having yet had sufficient experience, thoroughly to act the part of a Mussulman, and finding no necessity for such a disguise at Aleppo, he was not studious to conceal his European origin, and wore only such a Turkish dress, as is often assumed in Syria by English travellers, less for the sake of concealment than to avoid occasional insult. Thus he had the benefit of an unmolested intercourse with the Mussulman population of Aleppo, at the same time that he was not prevented from openly accepting the friendship and protection of Mr. Barker, the British Consul, nor under the necessity of denying himself the social resources afforded by the houses of the European residents; especially those of Mr. Barker, and of Mr. Masseyk, formerly Dutch Consul. Of his obligations to the former of these gentlemen, he omitted no opportunity of bearing testimony.

Besides two short tours which he made from Aleppo, he was absent from thence in the year 1810, for six months, during which time he visited Palmyra, remained three months at Damascus, and from thence made two journeys into the neighbouring districts; one through the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and the other through the unexplored country of the Haouran, or Auranitis. After his final departure from Aleppo, in February 1812, he again made some stay at Damascus, and performed a second journey in the Haouran, including a part of the ancient Decapolis. Upon quitting Damascus for Egypt, he visited Tiberias and Nazareth, and from thence having crossed to the Eastern side of the Jordan, proceeded through the countries to the east and South of the Dead Sea, until he arrived at Wady Mousa, where he had the satisfaction of discovering the remains of a large ancient city, consisting of a great number of buildings and monuments excavated in the rocks, a singularity which, added to the testimony of ancient history, marks the place for the site of Petra, the capital of Arabia Petræa. From Wady Mousa he pursued a westerly course towards the capital of Egypt, across the valley of Araba, and the desert of El Tyh.

A sketch of his travels in Syria is communicated in letters which he addressed from time to time to Sir Joseph Banks, or to Mr. Hamilton, Secretary of the Association. The following are extracts of the most interesting parts of this correspondence.

_Aleppo, May 12,_ 1810.

With the present I transmit to you in duplicate a short sketch of the recent history of Aleppo, and some notices concerning the Turkmans Rihanli, which I collected during a visit to them in the beginning of March last. They are a tribe of Nomade Turkmans, who encamp in winter time at one day’s journey from Aleppo. I got myself introduced to one of their chiefs as a physician in search of medicinal herbs, and spent a fortnight amongst them.

I am now so far advanced in the knowledge of Arabic, that I understand almost every thing that is said in common conversation, and am able to make myself understood on most subjects, although sometimes with difficulty. I have made acquaintance with some Shikhs, and some of the first literati amongst the Turks of Aleppo, who from time to time visit me. I owe this favour principally to Mr. Wilkins’s Arabic and Persian Dictionary. The common manuscript dictionaries, or Kamus, being generally very defective, the learned Turks are often very glad to consult Wilkins, and never do it without exclaiming “How wonderful that a Frank should know more of our language than our first Ulemas.” Learning at Aleppo is in a very low state; no science, the Turkish law excepted, is properly cultivated; not even that of Arabic grammar, which is so necessary to the interpretation of the Koran. I am assured by the best authority, that there are now in this town only three men, (two Turks and a Christian) who know this language grammatically. The chief quality of a literary man is that of getting by heart a great number of verses made upon different occasions, and of knowing the proper opportunity of reciting them; to this must be added, a knowledge of the different learned significations of one and the same word, and of the words which express the same idea. For example, the word Adjuz, which in common language means a decrepid old man, has in the learned language about sixty other different significations; and there are in Arabian poetry about one hundred and fifty different words for wine. But to interpret passages of difficult grammatical construction, or rationally to amend errors, or even to compose prose or verse free from grammatical blunders, is a task much above the capacity of an Aleppine Ulema.

Two Persian Dervishes arrived here about two months ago, who had lived upwards of two years at the Wahabi court of Derayeh. I got acquainted with one of them, a young man of twenty-two; the other has gone to Mosul, from whence his companion shortly expects his return. The latter has been in the habit, singular enough for a Mohammedan traveller, of keeping a regular journal of his travels, describing whatever struck his inquisitive mind, and abounding, as I understand, with geographical notices.

Another traveller of a singular description passed here two years ago. He called himself Aly Bey, and professed to be born of Tunisian parents in Spain, and to have received his education in that country. Spanish appears to be his native language, besides which he spoke French, a little Italian, and the Moggrebyn dialect of Arabic, but badly. He came to Aleppo by the way of Cairo, Yaffa, and Damascus, with the strongest letters of recommendation from the Spanish Government to all its agents, and an open credit upon them. He seemed to be a particular friend of the Prince of the Peace, for whom he was collecting antiques; and from the manner in which it was known that he was afterwards received by the Spanish ambassador at his arrival in Constantinople, he must have been a man of distinction. The description of his figure, and what he related of his travels, called to my recollection the Spaniard Badia and his miniature in your library.[3] He was a man of middling size, long thin head, black eyes, large nose, long black beard, and feet that indicated the former wearing of tight shoes. He professed to have travelled in Barbary, to have crossed the Lybian Desert between Barbary and Egypt, and from Cairo to have gone to Mekka, and back. He travelled with Eastern magnificence, but here he was rather shy of shewing himself out of doors; he never walked out but on Fridays to the prayers of noon, in the great mosque. One of the beforementioned Dervishes told me that there had been a great deal of talking about this Aly Bey, at Damascus and Hama; they suspected him of being a Christian, but his great liberality and the pressing letters which he brought to all the people of consequence, stopped all further enquiry. He was busily employed in arranging and putting in order his journal during the two months of his stay at Aleppo.

_Aleppo, 2nd July,_ 1810.

My long stay in Syria having been determined upon, in consequence of the absolute necessity of my familiarising myself with the idiom of these countries, I shall deem it my duty to send you from time to time some vouchers of my application to Arabic literature. I have for some time past been engaged in an Arabic exercise, which has proved of great utility to me; it is the metamorphosis of the well known novel of Robinson Crusoe into an Arabian tale, adapted to Eastern taste and manners. A young Frank born at Aleppo, who speaks Arabic like a native, but who neither reads nor writes it, has been my assistant in the undertaking. I take the liberty of sending you here inclosed a copy of this travestied Robinson, or as I call the book in Arabic, Dur el Bahur, the Pearl of the Seas. Of the merits or defects of the translation I can claim at most forty per cent.; the handwriting excepted, which is my own.

I am on the eve of leaving Aleppo for an excursion into the Desert, and shall probably set out the day after to-morrow. My good luck conducted some days ago an Arab Shikh to town, who is the mightiest chief of all the Arabs between Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdad. He came for the purpose of receiving in person the passage duties upon certain goods which are shortly to be sent by means of a great caravan to Bagdad. He belongs to the wide extended tribe of the Aenezy, who have all become Wahabi; his own very powerful tribe is called the Tedhan, and his name is Duehy Ibn Ryeiben. I easily got acquainted with him; we ate and drank together, and I succeeded in making an agreement with him, that he should take me by way of Tedmor or Palmyra home to his family and tents, which he says are not far from Damascus in the plain of Haouran; he himself came to Aleppo accompanied only by a few people upon dromedaries. He is to shew me his tents and horses, of which latter I told him the English Consul here might be perhaps induced to buy some upon my recommendation; and he is then to set me down at Damascus.

He is known to all the principal Bagdad merchants of this town, and my agreement with him has been made in writing, signed by the most respectable of these merchants, as witnesses; I am so far in perfect tranquillity as to the security of my person under his protection. He is indeed a famous robber, but the Shikhs of the Desert have never been known to withdraw their protection from those to whom they have promised it.

_Damascus, August 15,_ 1810.

The Arab Shikh mentioned in my last kept true to his engagements only during the two first days of our journey. Instead of conducting me, on the third day, in person, to Hamah, he gave me one of his men as a guide. Returning the next day towards the watering place seven hours east of Hamah, where we had left the Shikh, we were attacked and stript by a party of Mawáli Arabs, who, unfortunately for me, happened to be engaged in a quarrel with the Aenezy tribe of the Shikh. A watch and compass were the only articles I regretted to have lost; as to cash, I had not a single farthing in my pocket. We returned to the town, to refit ourselves as well as possible, and then set out again the next night, to rejoin our chief. The latter had however in the interval left the watering-place; we were obliged to run after him in the Desert for thirty-six hours, and finding him at last at another watering-place he declared to me that he could not possibly conduct me himself any further, because his people had very much pressed his return, afraid as they were of the approaching Wahabi. In reply to my remonstrances, he offered me another guide to take me to Tedmor, and from thence to the Haouran. With this guide I reached Tedmor after a march of thirty hours, and contemplated the wonders of the Palm city for nearly two days. The Shikh of Tedmor, in consideration of my empty purse, contented himself with taking my saddle from me. Leaving Tedmor we reached by a forced march Kariatein in one day, and from thence Yerud, a village about twelve hours to the N. E. of Damascus. Duehy, the Arab chief, had passed there a few days before, and knowing that my guide would likewise take that route, he had left at the village-Shikh’s house, an open letter to my address, in which he peremptorily told me not to proceed any farther in my journey towards the Haouran, but to go direct to Damascus, because he was determined to fly with his tribe away from the Wahabi. The fact was, that he did not wish to feed me under his tents for two months, according to our contract. Convinced that the whole was but a trick, I insisted upon proceeding in the original direction. My guide, however, refused to accompany me; he even left me in the evening; there were no other trusty people present to guide my steps through the Desert, I was therefore at last obliged to follow Duehy’s advice, and came to this place with a salt caravan from Tedmor, which I had found at Yerud. Two days after my arrival Duehy likewise made his appearance, and there being nobody present to take up my cause against him, I was obliged strictly to fulfil the stipulations of our contract, which he on his side had thus shamefully eluded.

Notwithstanding these disappointments, which often occur to travellers in these countries, my tour to Tedmor has given me much satisfaction. Besides the pleasure of seeing those interesting ruins, I have had some good opportunities of observing the Bedouins under their own tents; we alighted every day at different encampments, and were every where received with hospitality and kindness.

I should have put my project of visiting the Haouran in execution, even before now, had not the recent changes in the government of this city, and the state of suspense which it naturally occasions, in the districts depending upon it, rendered the roads insecure, and the inhabitants more than usually suspicious of strangers, until the new Pasha shall have had time firmly to establish himself in his newly acquired territory. A few days after my arrival at Damascus, Yussef Pasha, who had governed the town and its territory for the last four years, was turned out, and his place occupied by Soleiman Pasha of Akke (Acre.) This change being connected with the interruption of the pilgrim caravan to Mekka, and with the late Wahabi affairs, some details concerning it may perhaps be thought acceptable. As to the state of the Wahabi power in the southern parts of Arabia, I must confess that I am in perfect ignorance of it. Without being an eye witness, or meeting by chance with a credible eye witness, it is impossible to guide oneself through the labyrinth of false reports, which policy, fanaticism, and party spirit spread on their account. To mention but one instance: at my leaving Aleppo the general voice was, that the Wahabi were at the gates of Damascus.

It is now the sixth year since the Damascus pilgrim caravan, which included the Hadjis of the greatest part of the Turkish dominions, has not been able to reach Mekka. In 1805, Abdallah Pasha, then Pasha of Damascus, set out at the head of a caravan; having arrived in the neighbourhood of Medineh, the Wahabi governor of that city, by orders of Ibn el Saoud the great Wahabi chief, refused entrance to the caravan. The Hadjis were obliged to pass on the outside of the walls, and thus continued their way towards the Kaaba. They were yet three days journey from it, when they found themselves surrounded by the innumerable host of Saoud’s army. The two parties came to a parley, when Saoud declared to the Pasha, that he should thenceforward suffer no Turkish army to march through his territory, and that the army must therefore immediately return; but that those Hadjis who were determined to complete their pilgrimage might continue their way in safety, on condition that they should go unarmed, and promise to stay only three days at the holy city. None of the pilgrims were tempted to accept the offer of a free passage. Abdallah himself, frightened by the Wahabi numbers, made Saoud conceive hopes that he would be a convert to the new religion. Before he returned, it was stipulated that in case of any caravan taking its departure the following year, there should be neither Pasha nor army to convoy it; that all the Hadjis should be unarmed and without ammunition; that there should be no Mahmal (the camel which carries the new carpet for the decoration of the Kaaba); and that arrived at the same place where they then were, Saoud should have the right of selecting the individuals who were to proceed, while the others should wait there for the speedy return of their brethren. It is said that Abdallah Pasha was obliged by his officers to give his consent to these shameful articles. He insisted upon their attesting with their signatures that he had declared his determination to appeal to the sword, but that he was prevented from doing so, by their unanimous opinion that it was better not to shed blood. The Hadj returned to Damascus and Constantinople, and Abdallah sent the attestation of his officers to Constantinople, to excuse his retreat. Instead of recruiting and strengthening his forces, and protecting the next year the caravan with an army capable of forcing its way through the Wahabi tribes, Abdallah set out in 1806, with a corps not exceeding 8000 men, and a very small caravan of Hadjis. They were met, at three days journey from Mekka, by the Sherif of Mekka, who is a subject of the Wahabi. He told them that he had positive orders to refuse to any armed force the entrance into the holy city; but he again offered to let the unarmed Hadjis complete their pilgrimage. It is said that Abdallah had beforehand entered into some secret negociations with the Sherif, and that the latter had declared his wish to join the Pasha, with the Mekka people, against the Wahabi; thinking, of course, that the Pasha would not hazard the Hadj, without being accompanied by a considerable force; but that when he saw the small number of the troops and the mutinous spirit which reigned amongst them, he remained true to his former engagements with Ibn Saoud.

Abdallah returned to Damascus a second time, without having been able to accomplish the pilgrimage, which he had formerly led fifteen times to Mekka and back to Damascus. He soon afterwards fell into disgrace with the Grand Signor, when Yussef Aga, an upstart, who from the rank of a simple soldier, had raised himself to the first dignities in the town, was named Pasha of Damascus. His military temper and courage were known, and he had promised to conduct the Hadj. It may be necessary to explain here the policy of the Pasha of Damascus and of the Porte respecting the Hadj. The Miri, or land tax, of the Pashaliks of Damascus and Tripoli, which, according to the original assessment amounted to about 3500 purses, (it is now worth more than triple that sum,) has been abandoned to the Pasha of Damascus for the necessary expense of the Hadj; and to the Pasha of Tripoli for the expense of the Djerde, or caravan of provisions, which meets the Hadjis on their return. Besides these 3500 purses, the Pasha of Damascus contributes at least 1000 more, out of his own treasury, because the expenses, particularly the tribute paid to the Arab tribes on the pilgrim route, are yearly increasing. Abdallah Pasha, who had already given apparent proofs of his zeal for the Hadj, seeing the power of the Porte daily decreasing, and knowing the terror which the Wahabi name had inspired, thought that the time was come, when, without inculpating himself, he might at last put a stop to the Hadj, and add its expenses to the revenue of the Pashalik. For this reason, he neglected to recruit the forces, which were to accompany the pilgrims, as he might have done, if it had been his real intention to favour the Hadj, and he returned the second year to prove to the country that if he himself, who had so often led the Hadj to Mekka, was no longer able to do so, certainly any other person who should attempt it, would be equally unsuccessful. The Porte however prevented his design; before the conclusion of 1806, Yussef Pasha was named to the command of Damascus, and Abdallah Pasha, who was much disliked in the town, peacefully retired to Aleppo, where he lives now as a private grandee. Yussef Pasha governed the territory of Damascus and Tripoli for four years, without once conducting the caravan. What Abdallah had projected his successor executed; the Miri, instead of defraying the expenses of the Hadj, or being accounted for to the Porte, entered into the Pasha’s chests. In the present degenerate and tottering state of the empire, the Porte has forgot that the religious and fanatical spirit which is diffused over its subjects by the visitors of the Kaaba, is perhaps the last supporter of its political existence. She thinks no longer of the religious importance of the pilgrimage; her troubles and cares are all for money; as if money alone would uphold an empire.

Yussef Pasha was the best Pasha Damascus ever had; his firmness and justice kept the turbulent Damascenes in order; he never committed avanies upon the inhabitants, and was respected and even liked by every honest man. He had one vice however which the Porte never forgives in its officers, that of avarice. Instead of transmitting the greater part of the Miri to the Porte, who had a claim to it all, as not being employed in the expense of the Hadj, the sums carried by his yearly envoys to Constantinople, every thing included, did not amount to more than fifteen hundred purses; he thought himself sure of the attachment of his troops and the country people; and slighted the Porte’s remonstrances.