Beirut

“ To the casual visitor, Beirut seems therefore a very peaceable, matter-of-fact place. He does not experience the feeling of half-confessed uneasiness which marked his strolls through the native quarters of other Oriental cities. Yet the busy every-day life of the seaport moves upon the thin crust of a seething volcano of hate, which all too often breaks out into murderous rage.
The Moslem inhabitants are, of course, backed by all the power of the government, legal and illegal; but they are much inferior in numbers and in wealth to the Christian population. ”

“ Beirut is a curious town. The architecture is substantial, perfectly different from any seen in other parts of Asia until you arrive in Syria; quite Saracenic, arches in abundance and curious tesselated pavements of coloured stones. But this is not Turkish, though now in possession of the Turks, but the architecture of its former inhabitants remains. I made short excursions into the country with some English and Armenian missionaries who have resided some years in the country, but except the beauties of nature little else remarkable is to be seen. ”

“ Jebel Sunnin, which seems so mighty when viewed from the harbor of Beirut, now lies far below us. Mount Hermon rises still majestic seventy miles away, yet even the topmost peak of great Hermon is not so high as the spot on which we stand. To the east, across the long, broad valley of the Bikaʿ, rises the parallel range of Anti-Lebanon. Westward the magnificent amphitheater which we have come to think of as peculiarly our own opens out to where the Mediterranean, like a sheet of beaten gold, seems to slope far up to the azure sky. ”

“ The traveler who journeys to Beirut from the west is naturally impressed by its scenes of Oriental life; but to one who has come hither from Lebanon or Damascus or even from Jerusalem, it seems almost a European city. Here is a French gas company, an English waterworks, a German hospital and an American college; here are post and telegraph offices, a harbor filled with shipping, and the terminus of a busy railway system. Four lines of electric tram-cars furnish quick transportation through the main streets to the attractive suburbs, and many of the wealthier residents possess automobiles. ”

“ I felt sure I was going to die when we arrived in the harbor of Beirut, and decided that it would be better to die on deck; so I crawled out and dressed, and crept into a steamer-chair, and tried to appreciate the beautiful city that had arisen out of the sea—the upper gateway to Syria.
The Patriarch came along, highly elate. This was where he belonged; this was home; this was Phœnicia itself! Fifteen hundred years b.c. Beirut had been a great Phœnician seaport, he said, and most of the rare handiwork mentioned in ancient history and mythology had been wrought in this neighborhood. ”

“ Although the Bay of Beirut opens to the Mediterranean at an obtuse angle, it is so well protected from storms by the long cape that it provides the safest anchorage between Port Said and Smyrna. I remember only one tempest which blew so strongly that anchors could not hold and steamers had to leave the port for the open sea. The harbor is crowded with shipping of all sizes and shapes, from the little coast-wise barks and the queer, low Egyptian boats with their one triangular sail to the great transatlantic liners which bring multitudes of tourists on cruises to the Holy Land. ”

“ Around the central fountain between the pillars of the largest dome and crowding through the gateway and thronging the street outside, a vociferous throng of muleteers and camel-drivers are unloading the caravans which have come from Beirut on the coast and from northern Aleppo and across the desert from the Euphrates, bearing the choicest merchandise of the East, and some few machine-made products of the West, to swell "the riches of Damascus." ”

“ The first day we were in Beirut the sirocco was blowing a hot, enervating wind. Beirut looks beautiful, either from the sea or land. It is built along the shore at the foot of Mount Lebanon. We find several American and English missionaries, many of whose schools we have visited and have been much interested in them; also attended some religious meetings. As it is the rainy season, the Friends are not able to get [218] on quite so fast with their work as might otherwise be the case; but they have been warmly received, and their visit seems to be a very opportune one. ”

“ Many important things are being learned and done at the Syrian Protestant College; but what strikes the observant visitor as most admirable of all is the spirit of the institution, a spirit of thoroughness and manliness and loyal fraternity and encouraging optimism. More than anything else in Beirut—yes, more than anything else in western Asia—the "S. P. C," as its students and alumni call it, stands for the best gifts of Western civilization and for a new hope which, lighted first in beautiful Syria, is already beginning to shine on many a land far out of sight of heavenward-reaching Lebanon. ”

“ Beirut gradually attained a new lease of prosperity. Under the Egyptian rule its sea-borne commerce increased, while Saida and Tripoli declined. In 1840 the town was bombarded by the British fleet and recaptured for the Turks. After the massacre of Christians in 1860 (see p. 485) many Christians from central Syria settled at Beirut.
The Moslem inhabitants (about 65,000) are in a considerable minority. Among the Christians there are 64,000 Greeks, 40,000 Maronites, and 2100 Protestants. The Jews number about 5500. An unusually large percentage of the natives can read and write. ”

“ Beirut offers few sights. The poor and closely built Old Town contains the Great Mosque (Pl. F, 2) , once a Crusader’s church, the Greek Churches, and the Maronite Cathedral (Pl. F, 2) .
The Sûks or markets have lost much of their Oriental character. Most of the genuine native products come from Lebanon (keffîyehs or head-cloths, embroidery, woven stuffs, slippers, bridal chests, etc.) ”

“ This spirit of union, even more than the desire for political reform which gave it birth, promises a new era of peace and prosperity for the most progressive city of beautiful, blood-stained Syria.
As has been said, however, the ordinary traveler sees no evidences of strife in the streets of Beirut. The largest and most conspicuous class of people whom he meets are not assassins or revolutionists, but students. This is no new thing, for the city has long been famous as a seat of learning. ”

“ During the past few months there has developed a new and unexpected phase of Beirut strife. Since the revolution of the Young Turks, a vigorous demand for political righteousness and even-handed justice has, in spite of all set-backs, been growing steadily among every race and faith of the empire. In Syria the new ideals and hopes found expression in the organization of a "Committee of Reform," which demanded such elemental rights as the appointment of an Arabic-speaking governor of Beirut and the use of the vernacular in the courts of justice. ”

“ The triangular cape on whose northern shore the city is situated projects from the foot of Lebanon five miles into the Mediterranean and has an area of about sixteen square miles. This level broadening of the coastal plain appears in striking contrast to the country just north and south of it, [30] where there is often hardly room for a bridle-path between the cliffs and the sea. Beirut itself has a population of nearly 200,000, and within sight are many scores of flourishing villages. ”

“ We desire to accomplish a definite object with as little unpleasantness as possible. I shall regret the necessity of sending you to Beirut, but that is for your safety. An additional and very sound precaution which you yourselves might take would be to preserve complete silence regarding the events of the last two days. Subject to that condition, you will be given facilities for leaving Beirut by sea in any direction you may wish. Do we understand one another? ”

“ In summer most of the richer residents reside on the Lebanon, and in winter the governor of the Lebanon and many Lebanon notables inhabit houses in Beirut. The town has many fine houses, but the streets are unpaved and the bazaars mean. The Moslem inhabitants, being in a minority, have often shown themselves fanatical and turbulent. ”

“ The danger of the enterprise tended to reconcile me to deserting my family and comrades and seeking safety for myself. As I racked my brain for a promising plan, a letter came from my sister in Beirut with two pieces of news which were responsible for my final escape. The American College was shortly to close for the summer, and the U.S.S. Chester was to sail for Alexandria with refugees aboard. Beirut is a four days' trip from our village, and roads are unsafe. ”

“ THE most impressive of all the ancient temples of Syria can now be reached by a comfortable railway journey from either Damascus or Beirut. But this way the traveler comes upon the ruins too quickly to appreciate adequately their splendid situation and marvelous size. I shall always be thankful that, on my first visit to Baalbek, I approached it very slowly as I rode from our camp among the cedars of Lebanon. ”

“ Gay young prodigals from Beirut clattered recklessly along on blooded mares, or lolled back in rickety barouches, talking French to pretty girls whose silk dresses were so nearly correct that our masculine eyes could not detect just what was the matter with them. ”

“ In addition to such Arab cities as Palmyra and Damascus — less important in Roman times than it had formerly been and would again be — and such Greek cities as Antioch and Latakia, northern Syria had two important Roman cities : Beirut and Baalbek. Of the maritime cities Beirut was the only one important for reasons other than the commercial and industrial activity which characterized and enriched Sidon and Tyre. As a Roman veterans' colony and a garrison town it became an isle of Romanism in a sea of Hellenism. ”

“ Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel ”

“ A family council was held in my home, and it was decided to send my sister, a girl of twenty-three, to some friends at the American Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, so that we might be able to move freely without the responsibility of having a girl at home, in a country where, as a matter of course, the women-folk are seized and carried off before a massacre. At Beirut we knew that there was an American Consul-General, who kept in continual touch with the battleship anchored in the harbor for the protection of American interests. ”

“ The salt monopoly is assigned to and managed by the Ottoman Public Debt, which has two administrative centres, Aleppo for the vilayet of Aleppo, and Beirut for the vilayets of Beirut and Damascus and the mutessariflik of Jerusalem, with depôts in numerous places. In 1913-14 the amount sold in the administrative area of Beirut was 13,455,000 kg., fetching, at pre-war prices, about 1,500,000 frs., so that the sale in the whole country may well approximate to 2,500,000 frs. ”

“ A large general business is conducted by what is, perhaps, the most important firm, the Etablissements Orosdi Back, which has branches at Beirut and Aleppo, besides other places in the East. Elsewhere than at Beirut, German and Austrian firms are prominent, including, besides some large commercial houses, a number of minor traders such as hotel-keepers, tailors, clockmakers, jewellers, chemists, stationers, &c. These are especially numerous at Jaffa, near which are the German colonies Wilhelma and Sarona, at Haifa, and Jerusalem. ”

“ In the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which has branches in Syria, French influence predominates. Agencies of a number of insurance companies (life, fire, transport) are found in Beirut, Aleppo, Damascus, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Tripoli, &c., the principal being British, French, German, Austrian, and American. In miscellaneous trade and commerce the foreign firms are, for the most part, concentrated in the seaports of Beirut, Jaffa, and Haifa, and the three large inland towns, Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem; French, German, Austrian, Italian, and Greek houses predominate. ”

“ On the other hand, there are Druse hamlets where no Maronite would trust himself. Ten years ago, when Beirut was in one of its periodic tumults, five thousand Lebanon soldiers, stalwart, brave and well-armed, encamped just outside the city limits, waiting for one more anti-Christian outbreak—which fortunately did not come—as an excuse for wiping out the Moslem population. Looking across a deep gorge of Lebanon, I once saw a file of Turkish soldiers laboriously making their way up the steep mountainside. ”

“ With the development of trade there is a tendency to advance from indirect to direct relationship; Damascus, Jaffa, and Haifa, for instance, have to some extent established independent European connections. Beirut, however, remains the chief emporium for foreign manufactures, especially the valuable textile imports from England. It also has an active export business; its merchants and the local agents of Lyons firms control the silk industry, and wool, barley, eggs, and other produce are collected there for shipment. ”

“ From the time men first began to fight, this land has hardly had opportunity to learn what peace and quiet mean. There are people on the campus of the American College this afternoon who can remember when the slopes of the mountain ran with blood; some of the best sprinters know what it is to flee for their lives, and even this week there has been killing on the streets of Beirut. ”