PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS.* Tan modest preface with which Mr.

Guy Le Strange intro-

duces his very valuable work to the public who are interested in the important work of the Palestine Exploration Fund, would appear to us an unnecessary sounding of the bass string of humility, were it not for its evident sincerity. Mr.

Le Strange lays stress on the fact that his book is merely meant to help to the future accomplishment of greater works upon his foundation ; he hopes that " others may be able to build with the bricks I have thus fashioned." It is with this

public-spirited purpose that he allows himself to point out (to use his own expression) that— "All the information contained in the present volume has been obtained at first-hand, for though I have been careful to consult the works of other Orientalists who have translated some of the texts I quote, the translations now published I have in every case made myself from the Arabic or Persian originals. In dealing with disputed points relating to the position of the Holy Places in Jerusalem, I have briefly stated the conclusions which I thought were to be deduced from the accounts given by the Moslem writers of the foundation and history of the various edifices. Theories in respect to the position of the Holy Places, however, form but a minor portion of my work, which has been to translate in full, and where needful, annotate, the texts I had before me."

We are almost inclined to quarrel with Mr. Le Strange for this modest introduction to a work which he might rather have presented to us as Thucydides did his, as a "possession for ever." It is quite true that the book before us will serve chiefly as a book of reference for future writers. The same thing might be said of the work of Rymer, or the invaluable series of historical documents at present published under the auspices of the Master of the Rolls. It is, in our opinion, impossible to over-value the work of Mr. Le Strange. The most skilful whist-player, learned in all the newest coups developed by English or American science, can never con- demn a partner who proves his play to have been strictly according to " Cavendish ;" in the same manner, we shall hold it as a sound defence for a future writer on subjects connected with Palestine, that he has studied Le Strange. The immense

Palestine under the Moslems: a Description If the Holy Land from A.D. 660 to 1500. Translated from the Works of the Medueval Arab Geographers by Guy Le Strange. Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration rand by A. P. Watt. 1890.

amount of work which has been spent upon this book, and the completeness with which all possible sources have been searched, will be sufficiently proved by the study of the intro- ductory chapter, containing the list of the Arab authors con- sulted, with such biographical details as can be found regarding their lives, and a careful note of the particular text used by the translator.

Our author in his preface anticipates criticism on points of detail ; but we think we shall be dealing more justly with his work by giving some idea of its general scope, and the principal points of interest to the general reader. The plan of the work is to give a synopsis of the accounts given by Maliommedan geographers, of Syria and Palestine in general, of Jerusalem, of Damascus, and of minor provincial capitals, such as Hebron, Acre, Tiberias, Tyre, and Sidon. The extracts concerning these cities, with explanatory remarks, form the first part; the second consists of an exhaustive dictionary of names of places, with the notices of each by Arab geographers. Great interest attaches to the early descriptions of the province itself, by which we find how little change has taken place in the manners and customs of Syria in the course of centuries. The

account of the Syrian dress given by Mukaddasi in the tenth cen- tury, as Mr. Le Strange points out, applies exactly to the present costume of the Palestine fellaheen " In reading the medireval writers, those who have travelled in modern Syria will be

constantly struck by the fact that most of the customs noticed by these authors are still kept up at the present day." It is, indeed, this extraordinary conservatism of thought and manners which gives so living an interest to travel in Palestine ; so little has been changed through all the vicissitudes of its history, that a picture can all the more easily be summoned up of the great scenes which have taken place there in old times. The surroundings are there just as they were many hundred years before the period of which our author speaks.

A singular instance of this was related to the present writer on Mount Carmel. The Sheikhs of a Druse village had suffered some injury from that very objectionable relic of barbarism, the Turkish soldier,—an animal who arro- gates to himself as much power and license as a mediaeval lanzknecht. The right was undoubtedly on the side of the Druses, whose cause was warmly taken up by the European residents of the neighbourhood. The Turkish Governor appeared inclined to do justice, but the injured parties could not be induced to bring forward their complaint in person, from fear of the revenge that might be taken by the soldiers. At last, when it had been pointed out to them that the latter dare not pursue the feud in face of the measures that would be taken by their own officers, they were asked to say what harm the soldiers could possibly do them ; and the oldest Sheikh replied, without a moment's hesitation,—as indicating the natural revenge an enemy would take,—" They would come by night and sow tares in our wheat ! "

The early descriptions of Jerusalem are among the most interesting portions of the book. We have, for instance, in the account of Al Mukaddasi—himself a native of the Holy City —a picture of its condition a hundred years before the First Crusade. This writer has nothing but praise (as is natural) for the climate and fertility of his native country. Indeed, we

find that he and a certain Kadi Abu-1 Kasim agreed that the climate was "just as is that of Paradise," which some later visitors may consider excessive praise. But of the inhabitants

and the social condition he speaks in very different terms, and these are extremely worthy of notice :—

"Jerusalem," he tells us, "has some disadvantages. Thus it is reported as found written in the Torah (or Books) of Moses, that Jerusalem is as a golden basin filled with scorpions.' Then you will not find anywhere baths more filthy than those of the Holy City; nor anywhere the fees for the same heavier. Learned men • are few, and the. Christians numerous, and the same are un- mannerly in the public places. In the hostelries the taxes are heavy on all that is sold; there are guards at every gate, and no one is allowed to sell of the necessities of life except in the appointed places. In this city the oppressed have no succour ; the meek are molested and the rich envied. Jurisconsults remain unvisited, and erudite men have no renown ; also the schools are unattended, for there are no lectures. Everywhere the Christians and the Jews have the upper hand; and the mosque is void of either congregation or assembly of learned men."

As the writer has stated a short time before that "in Jerusalem are all manner of learned men . and doctors, and for this reason the heart of every man of intelligence yearns towards her," some parts of this account appear rather inconsistent. But it is, in any case, as Mr. Le Strange remarks, "a curior

and noteworthy fact, that the Christians and Jews had the upper hand in Jerusalem in the century preceding the first crusade." Yet the same author tells us, perhaps to redeem the character of Jerusalem, that " wine is not publicly con- sumed, and there is no drunkenness At one time, when it became known that the Governor drank wine, they built up round his house a wall, and thus prevented from getting to him those who were invited to his banquets." One cannot help feeling some compassion for the bibulous but hospitable Governor, who was thus debarred from enter- taining his friends. But Christians would hardly have so strong a prejudice against wine-bibbing, though it is not perhaps a common vice in Southern and Eastern countries. Indeed, it is a great proof of the astute policy of Mahommed, the manner in which his law was moulded to suit the inclina- tions of his followers, strict in commandments against indul- gence in things with regard to which they were proverbially abstemious, and proportionately lax in the matter of tempta- tations to which they were naturally inclined. In our Northern climes, the Mahommedan rule would not have been accepted with so much readiness. Perhaps, if Gibbon's dream of turbaned teachers holding forth from Oxford pulpits to a circumcised congregation had come true, we might have had a chapter of the Koran, brought down from Heaven by special messenger, to give indulgence to our little pet failings also.

Mr. Le Strange has given us copious extracts from Mahom- medan writers, detailing the first entry of the Khalif Omar into Jerusalem, and his search for the holy places there, under the guidance of the Christian Patriarch. There are few stranger traditions than that, universally received among Moslem writers, which tells how the site of the Temple had been converted into a dungheap by the Christians, to mark their contempt for the Jews. We have sometimes wondered if the story could be in any way connected with the con- temptuous name conferred by the Mahommedans themselves on the holiest Christian shrine. The Church of Constantine was originally known among the Arabs by the name of Al Kayamah, a rendering of its proper title, " the Resurrection," but this was altered into Al Kumaro.ah, or " the dunghill," out of contempt for the Christians. Is it possible to trace any connection between these circumstances ? It would be im- portant to know to what date the story of the dungheap- which would have been only a few yards from the gate of a great Christian church—can be traced. The authorities given by Mr. Le Strange are the Muthir al Ghircim, a work written in the middle of the fourteenth century, seven hundred years after Omar's time, and the still later works of Suyeiti and Mujir ad Din, who both borrowed largely from the Muthir. It should be remembered that Y6,ktit (who was a Greek by birth), writing early in the thirteenth century, gives a different and a not unreasonable derivation of the term Hunamah, as signifying " the dunghill of the in- habitants of the city, which stood anciently without the town, being the place where they cut off malefactors' bands, and where they crucified thieves." Calvary must, of course, have been an unclean place to the Jews. Still, the Mahommedan geographers do not seem, as a rule, to be strong in philology, as witness the odd attempts to explain the name of MA, often applied to Jerusalem by Arabic writers, which is, indeed, a mere transliteration of Hadrian's .]lia Capitolina. The same writers have a light-hearted manner of mixing up historical characters of the same name, which is truly refreshing. Thus, Zacharias, the father of St. John the Baptist, is identified not only with Zacharias the son of Barachias—concerning whom, by-the-way, Mr. Le Strange gives an incorrect reference, a heinous crime, which we trust may be attributed to his printer —but also with Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who was stoned by the command of King Joash. It is true that the good Moslems are only in these cases following the example set them by their prophet in the singular parody of the Scriptures which is accepted as the book of their law.

We have not space, to enter into the details of Mr. Le Strange's book; but we have probably said enough to indicate the general scope of the work, and to show the great advan- tage that future writers are likely to reap from it. The dictionary of place-names, with the mention made of them by Mahommedan writers, is in itself a work of great value, and must have required an immense amount of labour. In the index, Mr. In Strange has given the names in Arabic as well as in English letters. We do not remember any matter which He has thnitted.