Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/140

116 the old palaces was occupied at the command of the Grand Duke by an Oriental, the professor of a mysterious religion. Seeing that the Grand Duke treated him with marked courtesy, the nobility, piqued perhaps by curiosity, visited him and fêted him with great honour. Reports of this extraordinary visitor reached Naples, and the King sent for him to pay a visit. So the Emir proceeded to Naples, where he was comfortably housed and given a liberal allowance. But this life of soft inaction soon palled on the warrior, who had lived a life on horseback in his wild Lebanon. The novelty for the Italians, too, wore off. The King's hospitality proved to have a distinct object, for one day the Emir was asked what force he could muster to the aid of the Italians should they attempt to land in Syria. The Emir gave an equivocal answer, with the result that his allowance was promptly curtailed.

Greater Kings, however, showed an interest in him. Two royal offers he refused with his Eastern politeness. Louis XIII offered, through the French Consul, to mediate between the Emir and the Sultan. The King of Spain sent him a letter offering him a government "better than that of Lebanon" if he would become a Christian. After five years of European life, of which he had become thoroughly sick, he received a letter from home saying that his aged mother was dangerously ill and announcing that the Pasha of Damascus had confirmed him in the government of the Lebanon. When he had with some difficulty convinced the Italians that he did not mean to use his knowledge of their country against them, he was given a passport and sailed away, landing at Acre in 1620. He was received cordially by all his former rivals, and his son, 'Ali, who had beer, ruling the Lebanon for some time, handed over the government to his father.

And now the governor of Damascus, whose tenure of power always depended on his skilful manipulation of the local chiefs, by a cordial recognition of Fukhredeen's suzerainty over the other Sheikhs secured his assistance in collecting taxes long overdue to the Sultan. This suited Fukhredeen for he was able to pay off an old score against the Safas of Tripoli while apparently doing Imperial business. He turned out to be so valuable to the Sultan as a tax-gatherer that in 1626 he received a firman naming him governor of the entire mountains from Jerusalem to Tripoli and confirming his power over the Arab tribes between Damascus and the Dead Sea. The Pasha of Damascus naturally resisted these new rights of his nominal subject but the Emir took him prisoner and soon got a proper acknowledgment of his power. In 1627, in consequence of a new firman which gave him almost royal power, permitting him to repair roads, build forts and raise taxes, he made a grand progress from Antioch to Gaza. Entering Damascus, he quite eclipsed the Pasha. For five years he ruled undisturbed, with justice and wisdom, showing great toleration to the Christians, among whom, it will be remembered, he was brought up. Under him the Franks began to return to the seacoast as traders. But the Turks having got all they could out of the Emir and fearing his glowing power, sent in 1632 an army and a fleet against him.