Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/859

 SYRIA 823 Arab elements of popu- lation. to the district stretching eastwards from the latter range. (3) Syria II., or Syria Salutaris, with Apamea (Arab. Fdmiya, the modern Kal'at el-Mudik) on the Orontes as capital. (4) Phcenice Maritima ; capital, Tyre. (5) Phcenice ad Libanum ; capital, Emesa (Hims). To this division Damascus and Palmyra belonged ; occa- sionally they were reckoned to Ccelesyria, the middle strip of coast being designated Syrophcenicia. (6, 7, 8) Palestina I., II., and III. For these, which from the time of Vespasian had governors of their own, see vol. xviii. p. 177. (9) Arabia (capital, Bostra), which embraced all the region from the Hauran to the Arnon, and skirted the Jordan valley, stretching southwards to Petra. Through the kingdom of the Nabataeans Roman influence pene- trated from Syria far into northern Arabia. In 616 Syria was subjugated for a brief period by the Persian Chosroes II. ; from 622 till 628 it was again Byzantine ; 636 and the immediately following years saw its conquest by the Moham- medans (see MOHAMMEDANISM, vol. xvili. p. 562). Mo'awija, the first Ommayad caliph, chose Damascus for his residence ; but in 750 the capital of the empire was removed by the 'Abbasids to Baghdad. Under the early caliphs the Arabs divided Syria into the following military districts (cjonds). (1) Filistin (Palestine), consisting of Judsea, Samaria, and a portion of the territory east of Jordan ; its capital was Ramleh, Jerusalem ranking next. (2) Urdun (Jordan), of which the capital was Tabariye (Tiberias) ; roughly speaking, it consisted of the rest of Palestine as far as Tyre. (3) Damascus, a district which included Baalbec, Tripoli, and Beyrout, and also the Hauran. (4) Hims, including Hamath. (5) Kinnasiin, corresponding to northern Syria ; the capital at first was Kinnasrm to the south of Haleb (Aleppo), by which it was afterwards superseded. (6) The sixth district was the military frontier ('awdsim) bordering upon the Byzantine dominions in Asia Minor. The struggles of the Mohammedan dynasties for the possession of Syria cannot be gone into here ; suffice it to say that throughout their course the country still enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity. In the crusading period the kingdom of Jerusalem, whose rulers were never able to establish a foothold to the east of the Jordan, extended northwards to Beyrout ; next it was the countship of Tripoli on the coast ; and beyond that in north Syria was the principality of Antioch. Syria suffered severely from the Mongol invasions (1260), and it never recovered its former prosperity. In 1516 the Ottomans took it from the Egyptian Mamelukes. Under the Turks its administrative divisions again varied at different times ; out of the five pashalics of Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus, Sidon (later 'Akka), and Jerusalem two vilayets were subsequently formed, having their capitals at Aleppo and Damascus. Quite recently south Palestine has been made a separate vilayet from that of Damascus. Rude stone monuments (circles and dolmens) and other prehistoric remains show that Syria must have been inhabited from a very early period. Within historic times a great number of different nation- alities have fought and settled within its borders, the majority belonging to the Semitic stock. This last circumstance has ren- dered possible a considerable degree of fidelity in the tradition of the oldest local names. After the AramiBans had absorbed what remained of the earlier population, they themselves were very powerfully influenced by Gneco-Roman civilization, but as a people they still retained their Aramaean speech. At present an Aramaic dialect largely mixed with Arabic is spoken in three villages on the eastern slope of Antilibanus (in Ma'lula, Bakh'a, and Jub'adi'n), but this small survival is on the point of disappearing. Through- out the whole country elsewhere the language spoken is Arabic, but with Aramaic elements, especially in the language of the pea- sants. Ethnographically the Aramaic element of the population admits of being distinguished from the Arabic type ; it is specially strong in the mountain districts. The majority of the Christians dwelling in Syria may be regarded as representatives of the Aramaean race. No traces of the earlier races, such as the Canaanites or Phoenicians, can any longer be distinguished ; and every trace of the presence of Greeks, Romans, and Franks has completely disappeared. In the Arab immigration, two principal types are to be distin- guished, the pure Arab type of the nomad tribes (Bedouins) and the type of the sedentary town Arabs and peasants, which shows an intermixture of foreign and older elements. The two confront each other in sharp contrasts. Bedouin tribes are scattered throughout the whole country ; despising agriculture and the settled life, they are found with their camels, sheep, and goats on the borders of the territories appropriated by the peasants. Being more or less inde- pendent of the Government, especially in the district bordering on the steppe, they are able to exact black mail from their sedentary brethren. Taxed thus on both hands, the life of the peasant is economically far from an easy one ; hence it should be the duty of Government to restrain the influence of the nomads and to force them as far as possible to form fixed settlements. In this respect the policy of the Turks during the 19th century to ensure the safety of the peasants and of travellers has been on the whole successful. In the districts bordering on the coast there are no large nomadic tribes, and on the higher plateaus of the cultivated land the power of the Bedouins is much reduced ; but south of Palestine and everywhere on the edge of the steppe they continue much as before. The most powerful tribe of the Syrian desert is that of the 'Aneze, falling into numerous subdivisions, of which the Ruwala, Wuld 'All, Hesene, and Bischer may be mentioned. The tribe, estimated to number 300,000 in all, extends far into Arabia and reaches the Euphrates. The other Bedouin tribes of Syria have for the most part tolerably definite and circumscribed territories. East of the Jordan the best known are the 'Adwin on the Balka and the Bani Sakhr in Moab. The Bedouins to the south of the Dead Sea are called Ahl el-Kibli ("the people of the south") in contradistinction to those of the north (Ahl esh-Shemal). Finally, there occur sporadically in central and northern Syria nomadic Turkish tribes. Gipsy hordes are also met with in con- siderable numbers. The religious as well as the ethnographical types are strongly divergent. The bulk of the population are Mohammedan ; the Bedouins have not much religion of any kind, but they profess Islam. Besides orthodox Moslems there are also Shi'ite sects, such as that of the Metawile (especially in northern Palestine), as well as a number of religious communities whose doctrine, combining philosophical and Christian with Mohammedan elements, is the outcome of the process of fermentation that characterized the first centuries of Islam. To this last class belong the Ishmaelites, ISTosairians, and especially the DRUSES (q.v.). In many cases it is obvious that the political antipathy of natives against the Arabs has found expression in the formation of such sects. The Nosairians, for instance, and no doubt the Druses also, were originally survivals of the Syrian population. The Jews are found exclusively in the larger centres of population ; in every case they have immigrated back from Europe. The Christians are an important element, con- stituting probably as much as a fifth of the whole population ; the majority of them belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, which has two patriarchs in Syria, at Antioch and Jerusalem. Catholics United Greeks, United Syrians, and Maronites are numerous. The mission of the American Presbyterian Church, which has had its centre in Beyrout for the last sixty years, has done much for Syria, especially in the spread of popular education ; numerous publications issue from its press, and its medical school has been extremely beneficial. The Catholic mission has done very good work in what relates to schools, institutes, and the diffusion of literature. The Christians constitute the educated portion of the Syrian people ; but the spirit of rivalry is producing stimulative effects on the Mohammedans, who have greatly fallen away from that zeal for knowledge which characterized the earlier centuries of their faith. Accurate statistics of any kind for Syria cannot be had ; even the area of the land under cultivation is unknown. The returns of population are, according to the Turkish official documents, only approximations. The total population may safely be put at less than 2,000,000 ; an official estimate in 1872-73 gave 1,365,680, of whom 976,322 were Mohammedans. Probably, however, this was an under-estimate. Reclus (Nouv.G6ogr. Univ., Paris, 1884) gives the area of Syria as 183,000 square kilometres (70,638 square miles) and the population as 1,450,000. From the Egyptian and Assyrio-Babylonian monuments we learn that in ancient times one of the principal exports of Syria was timber; this has now entirely ceased. But it continues to export wheat, and with good roads the amount could be very largely in- creased. Other articles of export are silk cocoons, wool, hides, sponges, and fruits (almonds, raisins, and the like) ; the amounts of cotton, tobacco, and wine sent out of the country are small. The only good harbours are those of Beyrout and Alexandretta (Scan- deroon). The caravan trade with the East has almost entirely ceased, and the great trade routes from Damascus northwards to Aleppo and eastwards through the wilderness are quite abandoned. The traffic with Arabia has ceased to be important, being limited to the time of the going and returning of the great pilgrim caravan to Mecca, which continues to have its mustering-place at Damascus. The native industries in silk, cotton, and wool have been almost entirely destroyed by the import trade from Europe. The land is poor in minerals, including coal ; water-power also is deficient, so that the introduction of European industries is attended with difficulties even apart from the insecurity of affairs, which forbids such experiments as the improvement of agriculture by means of European capital. As regards the cultivation of the soil Syria remains stable; but the soil is becoming relatively poorer, the value of the imports constantly gaining upon that of the exports. Literature. Ri tier, Erdkunde von Asien, vol. xvii., parts 1 and 2, Berlin, 1854-55 ; Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, London, 1822 ; Lortet, La Syrie d'aujotird'hui, Paris, 1884; Baedeker, Palestine and Syria; Murray's Syria and Palestine ; Porter, Five Years in Damasciis, 2 vols., London, 1855 ; Bui-ton and Drake, Unexplored Syria, 2 vols., London, 1872 ; A. v. Kremer, Mittelsyrien u. Damascus, Vienna, 1853. For the art history of Syria De Vogue's Syrie Centrale : architecture civile et religieuse du ler an 7me siecle (Paris, 1865- 77) may be consulted, aiid on its trade Zwiedineck v. Siidenhorst, Syrien v. seine Bedeutung fur den WeltlMndel, Vienna, 1873. (A. SO.) Reli- gions. Area and popu- lation. Com- merce and in- dustry.