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Syria after Napoleon's Expedition.—The nineteenth century opened on the morrow of Napoleon's retreat from Palestine, his renunciation of designs on Syria, and his departure from Egypt. His expedition was barren of military advantage, and left the political state of Syria to continue as in the century past. But by attracting Sir Sydney Smith, with a British fleet, to the Lebanon coast, in March 1799, Napoleon brought into being the somewhat antagonistic views regarding Syria which still exist. For that reason the birth of the century marks an epoch in Syrian history. For that reason, however, only. The broad lines of political and economic life were to remain for another generation practically unchanged. What they had been during the eighteenth century has been sketched in the general survey of Asiatic Turkey. If we look at Syria a decade after Napoleon's expedition we find it still in much the same state. During the years 1810 to 1812 the Swiss traveller, J. L. Burckhardt, lived in Aleppo, and wandered in Arab guise over most of Syria as far south as Petra and Sinai. He has left, in his Travels, a special description of the political situation as he found it, and general indications.

Various Local Rulers.—He represents Syria as a decentralised country, parcelled among divers local autonomies, under the rule of native chiefs or foreign pashas. The latter had generally been introduced by the Porte, but thereafter were quit of Ottoman control for the payment of tribute. Nominally the whole area was, divided into five pashaliks, which, however, had come to be under three, or even only two, rulers, the Pasha of Damascus being also ruler