On arriving in Egypt he proceeded to Cairo, where he remained during seven months; after which, finding that there existed too many obstacles to a proper examination of the interior parts of the country, and that too little assistance in learning Arabic was to be obtained, he determined on travelling into Syria. M. Durozoir, the author of the Life of Volney, in the “Biographie Universelle,” to which I am greatly indebted, falls into a most unaccountable error in narrating this part of our traveller’s career. According to him, Volney had no sooner arrived in Egypt than he shut himself up in a Coptic convent, where he remained eight months, for the purpose of acquiring the Arabic; after which he traversed the country with more advantages than any other traveller had hitherto enjoyed. Volney himself asserts, on the contrary, that he resided but seven months in the country; that he was prevented by obstacles which appeared to him insurmountable from traversing more than a very small portion of Egypt; that he did not acquire a competent knowledge of Arabic until he arrived in Syria, where (and not in Egypt) he shut himself up during eight months in an Arabian convent, in order to render himself master of the language. M. Durozoir must have forgotten Pococke, and Shaw, and Hasselquist, and Niebuhr and Bruce, every one of whom were superior in external advantages to Volney, and probably understood the language of the country better than he did previous to his residence in Syria. It is surprising, therefore, to find a writer of respectable name speaking of the advantages which Volney possessed over all preceding travellers in Egypt, arising from his long residence and knowledge, while most of his predecessors saw ten times more of the country, enjoyed greater privileges, and possessed a more intimate knowledge of Arabic. The real advantage which Volney actually did possess over the majority of Egyptian travellers consisted in his superior genius, which enabled him to turn his short experience to good account, and to comprehend the meanings of things which thousands had seen without comprehending at all.
The mode in which Volney has given the results of his travels to the public precludes the possibility of our following his track. He sedulously avoids, as Daru has justly remarked, placing himself upon the stage, and neither tells you by what route he travelled through the country, nor what were the impressions which the sight of certain objects produced upon his mind. The fact must be admitted, whether it make for or against the author; but when the count proceeds to inform us, in his inflated rhetorical style, that the traveller is suddenly transformed into a native of the country, who, after mature observation, describes its physical, political, and moral condition, we smile at his boyish enthusiasm.
I cannot help regretting, however, that our traveller should have omitted to trace his route through Egypt, not only because his having done so would have been advantageous to me, but from a persuasion that the omission has been seriously injurious to his popularity. It is, moreover, a very great error, and one in which I myself formerly participated, to imagine that a traveller is more likely to impart just notions of the scene of his researches by giving the results only of his experience, suppressing the manner in which that experience was obtained. An attentive examination of the works of travellers of all ages and countries has at length created a contrary conviction in my mind. In a judicious personal narrative the traveller is but one interlocutor in a drama exhibiting innumerable characters and a perpetually changing scene. You in some sort behold him surrounded by strangers in a strange land; you observe them not, and hear them, as it were, converse together; and if the traveller himself sometimes feigns or walks in masquerade, it is rarely that the natives can be supposed to have sufficiently powerful motives for so doing. They exhibit themselves exactly as they are. It would seem to follow from this view of the case, that whatever its advantages in other respects may be, the method adopted by Volney is liable, on the grounds above stated, to very serious objections. It not only shuts out the traveller from our view, but, in lieu of an animated picture, presents us with reasoning and discussion, able, I admit, and frequently original, but wanting that irresistible charm which is possessed in so eminent a degree by beautiful narrative.
Having examined such objects of curiosity in Lower Egypt as could easily be viewed, and collected ample materials for the defence of Herodotus, the greatest traveller of all antiquity, from the attacks of conceited and ignorant persons, Volney passed into Syria. “Here,” he observes, “eight months’ residence among the Druses, in an Arabian convent, rendered the Arabic familiar to me, and enabled me to travel through all Syria during a whole year.” His long residence in the mountains of Syria, during which he no doubt undertook numerous little excursions in various directions, furnished him with materials for a correct picture of the scene. This he has drawn with equal vigour and beauty. “Lebanon,” says he, “which gives its name to the whole extensive chain of the Kesraouan, and the country of the Druses, presents us everywhere with majestic mountains. At every step we meet with scenes in which nature displays either beauty or grandeur; sometimes singularity, but always variety. When we land on the coast, the loftiness and steep ascent of this mountainous ridge, which seems to enclose the country, those gigantic masses which shoot into the clouds, inspire astonishment and awe. Should the curious traveller then climb these summits which bound his view, the wide extended place which he discovers becomes a fresh subject of admiration; but completely to enjoy this majestic scene, he must ascend the very point of Lebanon, or the Sannia. There on every side he will view a horizon without bounds; while in clear weather the sight is lost over the desert, which extends to the Persian Gulf, and over the sea, which bathes the coasts of Europe. He seems to command the whole world, while the wandering eye, now surveying the successive chains of mountains, transports the imagination in an instant from Antioch to Jerusalem, and now approaching the surrounding objects, observes the distant profundity of the coast, till the attention, at length, fixed by distinctive objects, more minutely examines the rocks, woods, torrents, hillsides, villages, and towns; and the mind secretly exults at the diminution of things which before appeared so great. He contemplates the valley obscured by stormy clouds with a novel delight; and smiles at hearing the thunder, which had so often burst over his head, growling under his feet, while the threatening summits of the mountains are diminished till they appear only like the furrows of a ploughed field, or the steps of an amphitheatre; and he feels himself flattered by an elevation above so many great objects on which pride makes him look down with a secret satisfaction. When the traveller visits the interior parts of these mountains, the ruggedness of the roads, the steepness of the descents, the height of the precipices, strike him at first with terror, but the sagacity of his mule soon relieves him, and he examines at his ease those picturesque scenes which succeed each other to entertain him. There, as in the Alps, he travels whole days to reach a place that was in sight at his departure: he winds, he descends, he skirts the hills, he climbs; and in this perpetual change of position it seems as if some magic power varied for him at every step the decorations of the scenery. Sometimes he sees villages ready to glide from the steep declivities on which they are built, and so disposed, that the terraces of one row of houses serve as a street to the row above them. Sometimes he sees a convent standing on a solitary eminence, like Mar-shaya in the valley of the Tigris. Here is a rock perforated by a torrent, and become a natural arch, like that of Nahr-el-Leben. There another rock, worn perpendicular, resembles a lofty wall.”
The same difficulty of tracing the footsteps of our traveller of which I complained when speaking of his Egyptian journey occurs again in Syria. It is, in fact, impossible to discover from his works any particulars, excepting a few dates, which are perfectly unimportant. After a protracted residence at the convent of Mar-hanna, or “St. John,” where, as already observed, he matured his knowledge of Arabic, he descended into the lower districts, and visited a Bedouin camp, near Gaza, where he remained several days. I know not whether it was upon this or on some other occasion that he so far recommended himself to the chief of a tribe by his agreeable manners, as to inspire in the Arabs a desire to retain him among them. Having remarked that the Bedouins enjoy an extraordinary freedom from religious prejudices, and are consequently disposed to be tolerant, he adds, “Nothing can better describe, or be a more satisfactory proof of this, than a dialogue which one day passed between myself and one of their sheïkhs, named Ahmed, son of Bahir, chief of the tribe of Wahidia. ‘Why,’ said this sheïkh to me, ‘do you wish to return among the Franks? Since you have no aversion to our manners, since you know how to use the lance and manage a horse like a Bedouin, stay among us. We will give you pelisses, a tent, a virtuous and young Bedouin girl, and a good blood mare. You shall live in our house.’—‘But do you not know,’ said I, ‘that, born among the Franks, I have been educated in their religion? In what light will the Arabs view an infidel, or what will they think of an apostate?’—‘And do you not yourself perceive,’ said he, ‘that the Arabs live without troubling themselves either about the prophet, or the Book (the Koran)? Every man with us follows the dictates of his conscience. Men have a right to judge of actions, but religion must be left to God alone.’ Another sheïkh, conversing with me one day, addressed me, by mistake, in the customary formulary, ‘Listen, and pray for the prophet.’ Instead of the usual answer, I have prayed, I replied with a smile, ‘I listen.’ He recollected his error, and smiled in his turn. A Turk of Jerusalem who was present took the matter up more seriously: ‘O sheïkh,’ said he, ‘how canst thou address the words of the true believers to an infidel?’—‘The tongue is light;’ replied the sheïkh, ‘let but the heart be white (pure); but you who know the customs of the Arabs, how can you offend a stranger, with whom we have eaten bread and salt?’ Then, turning to me, ‘All those tribes of Frankestan, of whom you told me that they follow not the law of the prophet, are they more numerous than the Mussulmans?’—‘It is thought,’ answered I, ‘that they are five or six times more numerous, even including the Arabs.’—‘God is just,’ returned he; ‘he will weigh them in his balance.’”
The most singular people, however, who came under the observation of Volney during his eastern travels, were unquestionably the Druses. Extraordinary stories respecting their origin and manners had from time to time prevailed in Europe. By some they were supposed to be the descendants of the crusaders, particularly of the English; others attributed to them a different origin; but all agreed in accusing them of believing in strange absurd dogmas, and of practising monstrous rites. At length he obtained from oriental writers the following account of the rise of this remarkable sect. In the year of the Hegira 386 (A. D. 996) the third calif of the race of the Fatimites, called Hakem-b’amr-ellah, succeeded to the throne of Egypt, at the age of eleven years. He was one of the most extraordinary princes of whom history has preserved the memory. He caused the first calif, the companion of Mahomet, to be cursed in the mosques, and afterward revoked the anathema. He compelled the Jews and Christians to abjure their religion, and then permitted them to resume it. He prohibited the making slippers for women, to prevent their coming out of their houses. He burnt one-half of the city of Cairo for his diversion, while his soldiers pillaged the other. Not content with these extravagant actions, he forbade the pilgrimage to Mecca, fasting, and the five prayers; and at length carried his madness so far, as to desire to pass for God himself. He ordered a register of those who acknowledged him to be so; and the number amounted to sixteen thousand. This impious pretension was supported by a false prophet, who came from Persia into Egypt; which impostor, named Mohammed-ben-Ismael, taught that it was not necessary to fast or pray, to practise circumcision, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, or observe festivals; that the prohibition of pork and wine was absurd; and that marriage between brothers and sisters, fathers and children, was lawful. To ingratiate himself with Hakem, he maintained that this calif was God himself incarnate, and instead of his name being Hakem-b’amr-ellah, which signifies governing by the order of God, he called him Hakem-b’amr-eh, governing by his own order. Unluckily for the prophet, his god had not the power to protect him from the fury of his enemies, who slew him in a tumult, almost in the arms of the calif, who was himself massacred soon after on Mount Mokattam, where he, as he said, had held conversation with angels. The death of these two chiefs did not prevent the progress of their opinions: a disciple of Mohammed-ben-Ismael, named Hamzaben-Ahmud, propagated them with indefatigable zeal, in Egypt, in Palestine, and along the coast of Syria, as far as Sidon and Berytus. His proselytes, it seems, underwent the same fate as the Maronites; for being persecuted by the sect in power, they took refuge in the mountains of Lebanon, where they were better able to defend themselves; at least it is certain, that shortly after this era we find them established there, and forming an independent society like their neighbours.
In the opinion of Volney the great body of the Druses are wholly destitute of religion; “yet,” says he, “one class of them must be excepted, whose religious customs are very peculiar. Those who compose it are to the rest of the nation what the initiated are to the profane; they assume the name of Okkals, which means spiritualists; and bestow on the vulgar the epithet Djahel, or ignorant; they have various degrees of initiation, the highest orders of which require celibacy. These are distinguishable by the white turban they affect to wear, as a symbol of their purity; and so proud are they of this supposed purity, that they think themselves sullied by even touching a profane person. If you eat out of their plate, or drink out of their cup, they break them; and hence the custom so general in this country, of using vases with a sort of cock, which may be drunk out of without touching the lips. All their practices are enveloped in mysteries. Their oratories always stand alone, and are constantly situated on eminences: in these they hold their secret assemblies, to which women are admitted. It is pretended they perform ceremonies there in presence of a small statue resembling an ox or a calf; whence some have pretended to prove that they are descended from the Samaritans. But, besides that the fact is not well ascertained, the worship of the ox may be deduced from other circumstances.
“They have one or two books which they conceal with the greatest care, but chance has deceived their jealousy; for, in a civil war, which happened six or seven years ago, the Emir Yousef, who is Djahel, or ignorant, found one among the pillage of their oratories. I am assured by persons who have read it, that it contains only a mystic jargon, the obscurity of which doubtless renders it valuable to adepts. Hakem-b’amr-ellah is there spoken of, by whom they mean God, incarnated in the person of the calif. It likewise treats of another life, of a place of punishment and a place of happiness, where the Okkals shall of course be most distinguished. Several degrees of perfection are mentioned, to which they arrive by successive trials. In other respects these sectaries have all the insolence and all the fears of superstition: they are not communicative, because they are weak; but it is probable that, were they powerful, they would be promulgators and intolerant.”
On returning to France after an absence of nearly three years (which M. Durozoir, who loves to differ with the traveller upon such points, will have to be nearly four years), Volney employed himself in preparing his “Travels” for the press. Upon the appearance of the work the public, which is seldom in the wrong in such matters, received it as a masterpiece of its kind; and from that time to the present its reputation may be said to be on the increase. I am averse from adopting the unmeaning or exaggerated panegyrics of his French biographers, who are satisfied with nothing short of regarding Volney as the continuator of Herodotus, with whom they seem to consider him upon a par. No person can be more desirous than myself to enhance the just praises of Volney, who has exhibited, in his description of Syria and Egypt, remarkable force and depth of thinking, and powers of delineation of no ordinary class. But in Herodotus we have a picture of the whole world, as far, at least, as it was known in his time, sketched with inimitable truth and brevity, and adorned with a splendour of colouring which with matchless skill he has known how to unite with the severest accuracy. To many of the excellences of this writer Volney has no pretensions. Others he may have possessed in an equal degree; but I will not continue a comparison in itself absurd, never dreamed of by the traveller himself, and which could only have suggested itself to writers blinded by national vanity.
To proceed, however, with the events of our traveller’s life. No sooner had the travels appeared, than the Empress Catherine II., who, besides her desire to wheedle every writer of distinction in Europe, was really actuated by an admiration for genius, sent him a gold medal in token of her satisfaction. This was in the year 1787. In the following year he published his “Considerations on the War between the Turks and Russians.” In this political pamphlet the knowledge which he had acquired in his travels was of course the basis of his reasoning; but he had likewise received, perhaps from the Russian court, information which would appear to have been correct, respecting the resources of the Scythians; for events, says his French biographer with a kind of triumph, have realized nearly all his predictions. He did not, continues the same writer, forget, in the consideration of this great quarrel, the interests of France, and dwelt more particularly on the project of seizing upon Egypt, in order to counterbalance the aggrandizement of Russia and Austria. But to the execution of this project he foresaw numerous obstacles. “In the first place,” said he, “it will be necessary to maintain three separate wars: the first against Turkey, the second against the English, and a third against the natives of Egypt, which, though apparently the least formidable, will be the most dangerous of the three. Should the Franks venture to disembark in the country, Turks, Arabs, and peasants would all arm against them at once: and fanaticism would serve them instead of art and courage.”