The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

The Moslems here are noted for their hatred of Christians, and one of the bloodiest massacres of modern times occurred in Damascus about sixty years ago. The people are little changed to-day, and they are about as ignorant as they were then. The chief books sold are religious. There are also some story books and copies of the “Arabian Nights,” either in parts or as a whole.

During our trip through the bazaars we find the tastes of the Mohammedan stomach everywhere in evidence. These people like good food, and it seems to me they eat from morning till night. Pedlars carrying candy, lemonade, and cakes march through the streets crying their wares while bread men sit on the sidewalks with their stocks. The most common bread is a flat, round cake as thick as the buckwheats we have for breakfast, and a foot or more in diameter. These cakes are white or brown. They are so pliable that they can be doubled up without breaking. They are often used to pick the meats out of a stew. The Orientals do not use forks, claiming that their own hands are much cleaner. They have a saying that “everyone knows whether he has washed his own hands, but no one knows who washed the forks.” Another kind of bread is like a gigantic shoe sole without the heel, and another is a round biscuit about an inch thick.

But here comes a man selling candy. Take a bite of it and your mouth will flow water like the rivers which feed this city and make fertile its plains. Damascus is noted for its sweetmeats, and its candies are shipped far and wide over the world. The sweets are sold in the bazaars, some of the merchants having large shops. There is one dear old turbaned sheik who has a cell in the candy bazaar where you can buy nuts and fruits fit for the queen of the fairies. His sugared almonds are the joy of the tourist, and his Turkish delight, a soft, sweet, transparent paste, with pistachios and other small nuts scattered through it, is a dish for the gods.

Stop a moment and listen to the cries of the pedlars. Shammas will interpret them for us. Here is a man selling bread hot from the oven. He yells: “Ya rezzak”, or, “God, send me a customer,” and follows by showing a cake and saying, “All this for two cents.” Another coming behind cries out in Arabic: “Buy my bread and the good God will nourish you,” and a third says: “My cakes are food for the swallows and the delight of tender and delicate girls.”

Here comes a lemonade man. He has a big glass jar slung to his back with a neck so shaped that he can tilt its contents into a cup. He has two brazen bowls which he holds in his hands and rattles as he shouts: “Drink and refresh thy heart.” Another pedlar has ice-cream the coolness of which he cries up in the words: “Balak sunnak,” or “Take care of your teeth,” meaning it is so cold it will make your teeth ache. Fruit is sold the same way, as well as cooked meats of various kinds. There is one salad which the men call out is so tender that if an old woman eats it she will find herself young in the morning.

A good deal of food is bought by the charitable and given to beggars. Some even buy bread for the dogs, hoping thereby to acquire merit and thus pave their road to the Mohammedan heaven.

Making our way through the crowds we reach a region of cook shops, restaurants, and cafés not far from the butcher shops. The latter sell most kinds of meat, including camel, beef, mutton, and lamb. The mutton is fine. The sheep are of the fat-tail variety, and when skinned and dressed for the market their tails are left on. These hang down over their backs in great lumps of fat, looking like a loaf of fresh dough ready for baking. Sometimes they have the form of a heart four or five inches thick and eight inches wide. Such a tail will weigh fifteen pounds. Upon a live sheep it hangs down at the rear like a woolly apron, and when raised looks like a miniature sail, showing an expanse of bare white skin beneath.

Another interesting part of business Damascus is composed of long streets of cave-like vaults floored with cement and divided up into compartments piled high with grain, beans, or flour. This is the grain bazaar. One of the compartments may hold a hundred bushels of wheat and another a like quantity of oats, barley, or lentils. There are bins filled with Indian corn and bins of caraway seeds. The grain lies on the floor and is scooped up and measured to order. Camels come in bringing great bags of wheat and go out carrying other grains to various parts of the city. The country about Damascus which can be irrigated is exceedingly rich and produces large crops. A great deal of grain is brought from the plains beyond the Jordan and on the east of the Sea of Galilee, known as the hauran, and this grain is shipped from Damascus to other parts of Syria and across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Indeed, the trade of Damascus is extensive. The city makes goods of various kinds which are shipped all over the world. It is noted for its beautiful brass and silver ware, its inlaid woodwork, and its oriental rugs. It has large caravan trade with Persia and other parts of Turkey, and long lines of camels are always bringing in and carrying out goods. There are some great buildings called khans devoted to wholesaling and warehousing. I visited one of these. It was shaped much like a mosque, being lighted by nine great domes the tops of which were at least one hundred feet above the dirt floor. The domes were upheld by stone pillars. The floor, which covered almost an acre, was packed with merchandise.

In one part of it were bags of wheat piled high toward the roof; in another hundreds of boxes of dates. In other parts were barrels and crates of fruit and bales of oriental rugs laid one upon the other. Some of the bales were enormous, one equalling a load for a two-horse wagon. I was told that they came from Bagdad. There were a number of these khans in Damascus at the time of Christ, and there are several now in use. The space in them is rented out to merchants, the owners doing a general warehousing business.