Travels in Syria and the Holy Land

by John Lewis Burckhardt

SHYGHATA.

[p.149]direction came in an hour and a half to the Christian village Kefrbehoun Arabic]; and in two hours, to a hillock in the plain called Tel Afyoun [Arabic], i.e. the opium-hill, with an ancient well. The number of these insulated mounds of earth in the eastern plain of Syria is very remarkable; their shape is sometimes so regular, that there can be no doubt of their being artificial; in several places there are two standing close together. It is a general remark that wherever there is such a mound, a village is found near it, and a spring, or at least an ancient well. At two hours and a half from Hamah is El Dobbe, a small village near the road: here the ground begins to be uneven, covered with rocks, and little fit for cultivation. At three hours and three quarters is Tel Mowah [Arabic] upon elevated ground, with the ruins of a considerable village; from hence Tel Afyoun bears W. 1/2 S., Hamah E.N.E., Homs S.S.E. In four hours and a half we came to considerable heaps of large hewn stones, and ruined habitations, called El Feiryouny [Arabic], where a few families of Kurdines had pitched their tents. On the side of the road is a large and very neatly cut ancient well. The face of the country is hilly with a rocky soil, here and there cultivated. At the end of five hours and a half we reached Byszyn [Arabic], a village inhabited by Anzeyrys, where we slept.

February 28th.—One hour and a half from Byszyn is the village of Shyghata [Arabic] The road ascends, through a rocky country, overgrown with shrubs and low trees. At two hours and a half is a ruined bridge over the winter torrent El Saroudj, which we had passed in the plain below, between Seidjar and Hamah; it was now so much swelled by the heavy rains, that we were trying in vain to cross it in different places, when a shepherd came to our assistance, and shewed us a ford. Considerable as the stream was, it is dried up in summer. We proceeded from the bridge in a W.N.W. direction, and, after a march of an hour and three quarters, during [p.150]which we crossed several torrents, we reached the castle of Maszyad [Arabic], or, as it is written in the books of the Miri, Meszyaf [Arabic]. The approach to the castle on two sides is across a large moor; to the N. of it are the highest points of the mountain of Maszyad, at the foot of which it stands, upon a high and almost perpendicular rock, commanding the wild moor in every direction, and presenting a gloomy romantic landscape. On the W. side is a valley, where the inhabitants cultivate wheat and barley. The town of Maszyad is built between the castle and the mountain, on the declivity of the mountain; it is upwards of half an hour in circumference, but the houses are in ruins, and there is not a single well built dwelling in the town, although stone is the only material used. The town is surrounded by a modern wall, and has three stone gates, of more ancient construction; on one of them I saw the following inscription:

[Arabic].

The last line, as I was told by a man of Tripoli, contains the names of some of the deities of the Ismaylys. The mosque is now in ruins. There are several Arabic inscriptions in different parts of the town, which are all of the time of El Melek el Dhaher [Arabic]. The castle is surrounded by a wall of moderate thickness; and contains a few private habitations. Near the entrance, which is arched, stands a Corinthian capital, of indifferent workmanship, the only remain of Grecian architecture that I saw here. Within this gate is an arched passage, through which the road ascends to the inner and highest parts of the castle. Upon the vault I read the following inscription in large characters:—[Arabic]

MASZYAD.

[p.151]"The deed (or fabric) of the Mamlouk Kosta." On the top of the rock are some apartments belonging to the castle; which appear to have had several floors. From a Kyosk, which the present governor has built here, there is a beautiful view down into the western valley. Maszyad is remarkable from being the chief seat of the religious sect called Ismayly [Arabic]. Enquiries have often been made concerning the religious doctrines of this sect, as well as those of the Anzeyrys and Druses. Not only European travellers, and Europeans resident in Syria, but many natives of influence, have endeavoured to penetrate the mysteries of these idolaters, without success, and several causes combine to make it probable, that their doctrines will long remain unknown. The principal reason is, that few individuals among them become acquainted with the most important and secret tenets of their faith; the generality contenting themselves with the observance of some exterior practices, while the arcana are possessed by the select few. It will be asked, perhaps, whether their religious books would not unveil the mystery? It is true that all the different sects possess books, which they regard as sacred, but they are intelligible only to the initiated. A sacred book of the Anzeyrys fell into the hands of a chief of the army of Youssef Pasha, which plundered the castles of that sect in 1808; it came afterwards into the possession of my friend Selym of Hamah, who had destined it as a present to me; but he was prevailed upon to part with it to a travelling physician, and the book is now in the possession of M. Rousseau, the French consul at Aleppo, who has had it translated into French, and means to publish it; but it will probably throw little light upon the question. Another difficulty arises from the extreme caution of the Ismaylys upon this subject whenever they are obliged to visit any part of the country under the Turkish government, they assume the character of Mussulmans; being

[p.152]well aware that if they should be detected in the practice of any rite contrary to the Turkish religion, their hypocrisy, in affecting to follow the latter, would no longer be toleraled; and their being once clearly known to be pagans, which they are only suspected to be at present, would expose them to the heaviest exactions, and might even be followed by their total expulsion or extirpation. Christians and Jews are tolerated because Mohammed and his immediate successors granted them protection, and because the Turks acknowledge Christ and the prophets; but there is no instance whatever of pagans being tolerated.

The Ismaylys are generally reported to adore the pudendum muliebre, and to mix on certain days of the year in promiscuous debauchery. When they go to Hamah they pray in the mosque, which they never do at Kalaat Maszyad. This castle has been from ancient times their chief seat. One of them asserted that his religion descended from Ismayl, the son of Abraham, and that the Ismaylys had been possessed of the castle since the time of El Melek el Dhaher, as acknowledged by the Firmahns of the Porte. A few years since they were driven out of it by the Anzeyrys, in consequence of a most daring act of treachery. The Anzeyrys and Ismaylys have always been at enmity, the consequence, perhaps, of some religious differences. In 1807, a tribe of the former having quarrelled with their chief, quitted their abode in their mountains, and applied to the Emir of Maszyad for an asylum. The latter, glad of an opportunity to divide the strength of his enemies, readily granted the request, and about three hundred, with their Sheikh Mahmoud, settled at Maszyad, the Emir carrying his hospitality so far as to order several families to quit the place, for the purpose of affording room for the new settlers. For several months all was tranquil, till one day, when the greater part of the people were at work in the fields, the Anzeyrys, at a given signal,

[p.153]killed the Emir and his son in the castle, and then fell upon the Ismaylys who had remained in their houses, sparing no one they could find, and plundering at the same time the whole town. On the following day the Anzeyrys were joined by great numbers of their countrymen, which proved that their pretended emigration had been a deep-laid plot; and the circumstance of its being kept secret for three months by so great a number of them, serves to shew the character of the people. About three hundred Ismaylys perished on this occasion; the families who had escaped in the sack of the town, fled to Hamah, Homs, and Tripoli, and their treacherous enemies successfully attacked three other Ismayly castles in the mountain. The Ismaylys then implored the protection of Youssef Pasha, at that time governor of Damascus, who marched with four or five thousand men against the Anzeyrys, retook the castles which had belonged to the Ismaylys, but kept the whole of the plunder of the Anzeyrys to himself. This castle of Maszyad, with a garrison of forty men, resisted his whole army for three months.