The travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant in three parts, viz. into I. Turkey, II. Persia, III. the East-Indies
Thévenot, Jean de, 1633-1667., Lovell, Archibald.
Page  19

CHAP. V. A Continuation of Observations at Damascus.

HAving taken a resolution, whilst I was at Damascus, to see what was most curious and worth the seeing in the Countrey about it; I made an appointment with some Friends to go to the place which is called the Forty Martyrs. We went out of the City by the Serraglio gate,* and crossing the horse-Market, kept our way along, a fair, broad and long paved Street, which does not a little resemble the Avenue of the Porta di Popolo at Rome: It led us almost to the Village called Salain Crache: Having passed this we went up a very rough and barren Hill, being nothing but a natural Rock. It behoved us to alight from our Asses and march on foot, ascending by ways so steep that they were almost perpendicular. With much trouble, at length we came to the place of the forty Martyrs, distant from the City a good half-League; I never in my life-time mounted a steeper Hill. There is a little house on it, where a Scheik liveth, who led us into a Grotto hollowed in the Rock; where he shewed us a place, where it is said Elias fasted sometimes,* and was fed by a Raven. In a hole hard by, he shewed us the place where the People of the Countrey say the forty Martyrs are buried; but no Tomb, Bones, nor Ashes are to be seen there. He shewed us besides in the Roof of that Grott, (which is a natural Rock, very hard, and like to Pit-coal, from which much water drops,) the figure of a hand, which they say is the hand of Elias, but which is indeed, no more but the Veines of the Rock, which represent (but very imperfectly) long and great fingers, to the number of more than five or six; and I cannot tell if ever Elias was there. As to the forty Martyrs, this is the Story they tell of them. A Jewish Child having secretly left his Excre∣ments in a Mosque; the King or Basha being informed next Morning that such a Packet had been found there, was highly enraged, and caused enquiry to be made after the Authour. The Jew who was an Enemy to the Chri∣stians, told him that he knew for a certain that they had done it in contempt of his Religion; whereupon he caused them all to be put into prison, and some time after forty of them, out of a charitable Zeal to save the rest, con∣fessed themselves guilty of the pretended Crime; upon which he caused all the forty to be put to death, though he knew very well they could not all have been guilty. Upon the same hill, (but at some hundreds of paces from thence,) is the place of the seven Sleepers,* as the People of the Countrey think. There they shew a Grotto where there are seven holes stopt; nay some say that they sleep there still; but in relating these things they confound so many Histories, that it is very hard to know the truth of what they believe: We came back to the Town by the Gate of Paboutches.

To have a full view of Damascus,* one must go to that place of the forty Martyrs. It lies towards the middle of a Mountain that is to the North of the City, is long and narrow, and reaches from East to West: to the East it draws into a point, and at the West-end is the Suburbs called Bab-Ullah, which I mentioned before, reaching in length above three or four Miles West∣ward.

This City is in the middle of a spacious Plain on all hands surrounded with Hills, but all distant from the Town almost out of sight; those on the North-side (is where that of the forty Martyrs,) are the nearest. On the North-side it hath a great many Gardens full of Trees, and most Fruit-trees; these Gardens take up the ground from the Hill of the forty Martyrs even to the Town; so that at a distance it seems to be a Forest.

Page  20Another day I went by the Bashas Serraglio, and having advanced a little North-wards, in the first street to rhe left hand, I found a Mosque which had formerly been a Church dedicated to St. Nicholas:* I entered it, and found it to have been a very large and stately Church, with a spacious Court, environed by a Cloyster, whereof the Arches are supported by many great marble-Pillars. All that Cloyster and Court, which is still paved with large fair Stones belonged to the Church, with a great space enclosed and covered, which they have changed into a mosque; and they have demolished all the Vaults which covered that which I call the Court, and brought into it one of the Rivers of Damascus called Banias that runs through the length of it. there they load the Camels that are to go to Mecha with Water; and for that end alone they have brought the Course of the River that way: There are a great many Trees also in it which render it a very pleasant place.

*Being come out of that Court I went to the Dervishes, which are a little farther on the same side: They are very well lodged, and have several Gar∣dens through which the River Banias runs, before it reaches the Church of St. Nicholas. The Name of Dervish is made up of two Persian words, to wit, of Der, which signifies Door, and Vish signifying Threshold, as if one should say the threshold of the door: Their founder took that Name, to intimate that his design was that that order should particularly make profession of humility, by comparing themselves to the threshold of a door that all People tread upon.

Having viewed that house I kept on my way, and came to the Green of Damascus that is not far from it. It is a large Field or Grass-plat which they call the Meidan, encompassed on all hands with Gardens, and the River Ba∣nias runs through it. About the middle of it there is a little Pillar in the ground,* about four foot high, and they say that that is the place where God made the first Man. It is a very pleasant place, and therefore when any Person of Quality passes by Damascus he pitches his Tents there.

*When I was come into that field, I turned to the right, and entered into the Morestan, which is at the middle of one of the sides of that field. I found my self in a square Cloyster, covered with little Domes, supported by mar∣ble Pillars, the first bases of which are of Brass; on the side I entered at, and just opposite unto it, there are Chambers for receiving Pilgrims of whatsoever Religion they be. Every Chamber is covered with a great Dome, and hath its Chimney, two Presses, and two Windows, to wit one towards the Green, and one on the other side. The Cloyster has twice as many Domes as the Chambers have, the side on the right hand is appointed for Kitchins, where there are many great Kettles, wherein daily, and even during the Ra∣madan, they boil Pilau, and other such Food, which they distribute amongst all that come of whatsoever Religion they be. On the side opposite to the Kitchins is the Mosque, and before it a lovely Portico, covered with Domes, as the rest of the Cloyster is, but they are somewhat higher, and supported by more lofty Pillars. This Mosque is covered with a very great Dome, having a lovely Minaret on each side, and all these Domes and Minarets are covered with Lead. Within the Green there is a fair Garden along the sides of the Cloyster, where many Trees are planted; it is railed with rails of Wood on the four sides of it, which are five or six foot high; so that it leaves in the mid∣dle a large Square paved with fair Free-Stone, wherein there is a Bason of an oblong Figure, or rather a very large Canal, through which the River Banias runs. This Hospital was built by Solyman the second who took Rhodes, for the accommodation of poor Pilgrims of all Religions; and when I was there, there were a great many Persons who were already come to perform the Pil∣grimage of Mecha. I went out of that Hospital by the opposite side to that which I entered it; and on the left hand I saw the Stables where the Pil∣grims Horses are put, if they have any. Pursuing my way I found to the right hand another Cloyster of the same Architecture as the former, and which belongs to the same Hospital; it is for poor Scholars, and hath also its Mosque.

Being come out of the Morestan, and going streight forwards, I went along a street, where on each side are little Chambers for poor Pilgrims also, and Page  21 over head Rooms for the Women Pilgrims. Then I came to a great House, which hath a square Court, where they make the Bisket for Mecha; and there I saw several hundred Sacks full, though it was as yet three Weeks to the time of their setting out upon the Journey; They made this Provision, because it is the custome, that at Damascus two hundred Camels are loaded with Biskets, and as many with Water at the Grand Seigniors expences, to be distributed in Charity amongst the poor Pilgrims on the way.

Keeping on my way I crossed the Horse-Market, where stands a great stone, between four and five foot high, about three foot broad, and half a foot thick, wherein some lines in Arabick are cut, but so worn out that they cannot be read but with great difficulty; the meaning of them is that when this stone shall be covered with water, then Damascus will be taken. Never∣theless Monsieur de Bermond who conducted me to these places, told me that some years before he had seen so great an inundation, that he believed the stone was covered with water; at least as far as he could perceive from a high place pretty near, from whence he discovered all that Market-place, and could not see the stone; near to which many Franciscan Friers were here tofore put to death for the faith.

We came in the next place to the bazar of Horse-saddles; it is so called, be∣cause that is the onely Commodity sold there; having advanced a little into it, we saw on the left hand the great Bagnio which I shall describe: then we entered into the City again by the Gate of Paboutches; on both sides of that Gate there is a great Flower-de-luce cut in the Stone.* We passed by the Gate called Bab-Fardis which was to our left, on our way to Bab-Salem, with out which, but close by it, is the conjunction of three Rivers; this is an ex∣traordinary pleasant place. Keeping still along the side of the Wall, we ente∣red the City again by the Gate called Bab-Thoma, and returned to our Lodging.

All the Coffee-houses of Damascus are fair, and have much water,* but the fairest of all are in the Suburbs. Amongst the rest that which is in the Sinanie, and is called the great Coffee-house, because of its vast extent, is very de∣lightfull, by reason of the many Water-works that are in Basons full of Water there. That which is near the Serraglio Gate and is called the Bridge Coffee-house, because it is near a Bridge upon the River, is so much the more delicious that the River borders it on one side, and that there are Trees all along before it, under the shade of which they who are upon the Mastabez of the Coffee-house, have a pleasant fresh Air, and the view of the River running below them. The Coffee-house of the two Rivers which is near the Gate of the Paboutches, and where the length of the Castle ends, is also fair and large; two Rivers pass by it, which at the end of a great covered Hall, makes a little Island full of Rose-bushes and other Plants, whereof the ver∣dure and various Colours, with the smell of the Flowers delight at the same time several senses, and give a great deal of agreeableness to a scituation other∣wise so advantageous: For you must know that these Rivers which I call lit∣tle, are at least four fathom broad, and commonly five or six. All know what a Coffee-berry is, from which these places take their denomination; I have spoken of it in my former Travels, and shall onely add in this place what I learned of the qualities of that drink, to wit, that being drank very hot, it clears the head of vapours, moderately hot it binds up the body,* and cold it is laxative.

At Damascus there are Capucins, and Monks of the holy Land, whose houses are near to one another in the quarter of the Maronites, and just o∣ver against their Church, where also they say Mass: because each of these orders have their Chappel there. There are Jesuits also in that City, but they live a pretty way from thence in the quarter of the Greeks, and cele∣brate in their own house.

I stayed four and twenty days in Damascus, but could have been wil∣ling not to have stayed so long because of the troubles I was threatned with A false report being spread about the Town, by the malice of some, and per∣haps of a Servant whom I had turned away, that I had thirty thousand Che∣quins with me; all ways were used to snap some of these pretended Chequins:Page  22 and for that end (as I had information) the Capicoules or Janissaries lay seve∣ral times in wait to Arrest me upon some false pretext: nay the same Chorbagi whom I met upon the Rode as I came from Saide, having sent for Monsieur Bermond a French Merchant, who was his friend, told him, perhaps to pump him, that I had told him I was his Kinsman, but that, in short, he knew I was a great and rich Lord, and that I should look to my self, because several threa∣tened me, and that he would serve me, for his sake, if I stood in need of it. This report daily encreasing and I being very well known by face, the onely remedy I had was to leave Damascus: but seeing there was no opportunity of a Caravan, I could not be delivered by that means, so soon as I could have wished, and I was forced to resolve to keep within Doors, or at least not to stir abroad but as little as I could, whilst I stayed for the occasion of some Ca∣ravan; I could not doubt of the danger I was in, especially when I knew that they watched the Reverend Father George a Jesuit, who amongst other kindnesses he shewed me, took the pains to come and teach me the use of the Astrolabe, which obliged us for the future to correspond onely by Letters: Notwithstanding all these cautions my Quality and Purse augmented daily in the mouths of the people. In the mean time as luck would have it, the night before my departure, I had an express from Monsieur Bertet one of the chief Merchants of Aleppo upon occasion of my writing to him, to give me notice when there was a Caravan ready to part for Bagdad. In a trice all the Town knew of the coming of this Man, though it was in the night-time, and every one said, that he was come for all the Franks; but next morning the rumour run that it was onely for that Frank who was so rich; and a Turk told me, that there were some fools enough, to affirm I was the King of France his Brother. Seeing these honours exceedingly displeased me, and that I under∣stood there was a Caravan ready to depart; I bargained with a Moucre to conduct me to Aleppo, to carry my Bagage and pay the Caffares: we agreed for thirteen Boquelles which was very cheap; and we were to be gone with the Caravan that carried the Hazna of the powder of Caire to Constantinople, of which there was an hundred and fifty load, of threescore and ten or four∣score Oques a piece, carried on Camels and Mules: That Caravan was com∣manded by an Aga, and was to be guarded by fifty or threescore Troopers; so that being informed that it would consist of at least, two hundred Men, Masters and Servants, I was very glad I had the fortune to meet with it.

Having ordered my bagage to be loaded, I went to take my leave of fa∣ther George, and as I came out of his house, I perceived all the Terrasses full of Women gathered together to see me as I passed; then I went to wait on the Seignior Michael Topgi to thank him for all the Civilities he had shewn me at Damascus, and to bid him fare well: That gallant man would needs con∣tinue me his favour to the last, and gave me two Letters one in Arabick and and the other in Turkish, in form of a Pass-port, to all the Lords and Gover∣nours from Damascus to Bagdad: In these Letters he said I was his Brother, and called me Francis the Gunner; I cannot tell if I could have answered that Character if an occasion had offered. And being afraid they might stop me or offer me some affront, he obliged me to take horse at his Gate, though I pray∣ed him to let me walk on foot, because Christians dare not ride through the Town on horse-back; but he would have it so, and gave me two horse-men to serve me for a guard, commanding them to pass through the City the one before and the other behind me, and so to convey me safe to my first Nights Lodging, which they very civilly performed.

Since that I had notice by Letters that the Bairam being come, the Basha's Lieutenant had demanded a present from our Moncks, and Monsieur Bermond; but that the Seignior Michael having told him that no presents were given, where there was no consul, he rested satisfied; and they all believed that that man had demanded a present, onely because he thought that I was still at Damascus.

*This Topgi Bassa, though he call himself a French-man, is a Candiot, who having rendered considerable services to Sultan Amurat in the Artillery at the taking of Bagdad, that Prince gave him in recompence a good Village in Timar, and many fair Privileges, amongst others that of riding on horse-back through Page  23 Towns, though in several Towns the Christians have not that permission, and he is Peer to the great Lords of the Countrey. He is obliged yearly to go visit the Fortifications of Bagdad, and he marches over the Desart with colours displayed, having two small Field-pieces with him, to terrifie the A∣rabians, amongst whom he lives at discretion; and at every Town he takes Soldiers entertained purposely for his guard to convey him to the next Town, where he takes others, and so on till he comes to Bagdad: These Arabs can∣not endure him, because he treats them somewhat rudely, but when he knows that they wait for him in one place, he takes up his Lodging at another; not but that they could kill him if they had a mind to it, for a Kinsman of his told me, that one day in a little skirmish he had with them, which was onely with Stones and Cudgels, though some shot were fired, an Arabian Scheick, presented his Lance three times betwixt his Shoulders, satisfying himself to let him see that it was in his power to have killed him: However they dare not do it, for they know very well that if they did, so many Soldiers would be sent out against them, that they would be utterly rooted out, if they did not flie the Countrey. These Arabs are notorious Robbers, and have not degenerated from their Ancestors the Sarazins, who without doubt were so called, because of the trade they followed. This brave man for whom the Capucins have procured the King's commission to be French Consul at Bagdad, protects them as far as his credit can go, nay and is very willing to be reckoned a French-man by the Turks; but he is somewhat haughty, and a Franck that is newly arrived must go and visit him, if he would win his favour, and make him some small present of Europe, which he values more for its novelty and the manner that it is made to him, than for its worth, and then he is wholly at his devotion; whereas if he should fail to go and visit him, he might receive bad Offices from him, it being in his power to do them many ways. He made it very evident in my time that his protection wat not unprofitable, not onely on my own account, in ordering a Janissary to wait on me, when I went to see him, in the danger I was in of being arrested by the Capicoules, but also upon account of our Religious; for the Capicoules of the Christians quarter, who yearly at Easter pretend to somewhat from the Maronites,* being unable to raise any thing from them be∣cause of their Poverty, (which is so great, that when I came to Damascus, their Curat had been a long while in Prison for three Piastres,) would needs have had that money from the Francks, because they say Mass in the same Church, but the Topgi hindered it, and got the Father president whom the Capicoules put several times into prison, always to be set at liberty again, nay he went so far, that the Bull being set upon the Capucin's house, so soon as he came to hear it, he carried the Cady along with him, and caused it to be taken off.

These Capicoules of Damascus,* are those who elsewhere are called Ja∣nissaries, of whom there are three or four thousand at Damascus sometimes more, sometimes less, and there are about fifty thousand of them dis∣persed over the Empire, of whom there are twelve thousand at Constantino∣ple, six thousand at Bagdad, as many at Caire, and as many at Buda, and these fifty thousand Janissaries are to be reckoned amongst the three hundred thou∣sand Men, whom, (as it is said,) the Grand Seignior keeps in constant pay.

Before I wholly leave Damascus, I must mention some remarks which I made, though there be no co-herence of matter nor order amongst them, for instance: In these Quarters and in the rest of Turky, they'l suffer no body to ride on Horse-back with both Legs on one side, as Ladies did in France, when I left it: the reason of that odd order is, because the Turks believe that the two Gyants Gog and Magog who were Rebels against God,* rode in that man∣ner; they are so prejudiced with that false Zeal, that so soon as they see any body in that posture they hurle stones at him till he has altered his way of sitting.

At Damascus and Aleppo, when they would whiten their Walls with Lime, they cut hemp into small bits, and mingle it with moistened Lime,* which they dawb the Wall over with, where it would not hold without the hemp, because the Walls are onely of Earth.

Page  24*I observed at Damascus, that the Turks leave a hole of three fingers breadth in diametre on the top of their Tombs, where there is a Channel of Earth over the dead body: That serves to cool the dead; for the Women going thither on Thursday to pray, which they never fail to do every Week, they pour in water by that hole to refresh them and quench their thirst, and at the end of the grave stick in a large branch of Box, which they carry with them purposely, and leave it there to keep the dead cold. They have ano∣ther no less pleasant custome; and that is, when a Woman hath lost her husband,* she still asks his counsel about her affairs. For instance, a Woman, sometimes two years after her husband's death, will go to his grave, and tell him that such a person hath wronged her, or that such a Man would mar∣ry her, and thereupon asks his counsel what she should do; having done so she returns home expecting the answer, which her late husband fails not to come and give her the Night following, and always conform to the Widows desire.

*It is a pretty ridiculous thing too, to see the Mourning which the Women at Damascus appear in, at the death of their relations, and even the Christian women. I had that diversion one Evening about eight a Clock at Night when I was at the Capucins gate. I perceived several Maronite women returning from the lodging of one of their relations, who died three hours before; there was above twenty of them, and they made a great deal of noise, some singing, and others crying, knocking their breasts with their hands joined together, and two Men carried each a Candle to light them. When they were over against the Maronites Church, which is before the house of the Capucins, they stopt, and put themselves in a ring, where for a long time they snapt the fingers of the right hand, as if they had been Castanets, a∣gainst one anothers Noses, keeping time to the songs they sung, as if they rejoyced, whilst some of them from time to time howled and cried like mad Women: At length having performed that Musick a pretty long while, they made many bows to the East lifting up the right hand to their head, and then stooping it down to the ground; having done so they marched fore∣ward, with the same Musick as before.

*At Damascus and almost all Turkey over, they thresh not the Corn; but after it is cut down, they put it up in heaps, and round the heap, they spread some of it four or five foot broad, and two foot thick: This being done they have a kind of sled made of four pieces of Timber in square; two of which serve for an Axle-tree to two great rowlers, whose ends enter into these two pieces of Timber, so as that they easily turn in them; round each of these rowlers there are three Iron-pinions about half a foot thick, and a foot in diametre; these pinions are full of teeth like so many saws; there is a seat placed upon the two chief pieces of Timber, where a man sits, and drives the horses that draw this Machine round upon the lay of Corn that is two foot thick, and that cutting the straw very small makes the Corn come out of the ear without breaking it, for it slides betwixt the teeth of the Iron. When the straw is well cut, they put in more, and then sepa∣rate the Corn from that hashed Straw, by tossing all up together in the Air with a wooden shovel; for the Wind blows the Straw a little aside, and the Corn alone falls streight down:* They feed their Horses with that cut Straw. In some places, that Machine is different, as I have seen in Mesopo∣tamia; where in stead of these pinions round the rowler, they have many pegs of Iron about six Inches long, and three broad, almost in the shape of wedges, but somewhat broader below than above, fastened without any order into the rowlers; some streight and others cross ways; and this Engine is covered with Boards over the Irons, whereon he that drives the Horses sits, for he has no other seat to sit upon, they take the same course in Persia; nevertheless in some places they cut not the Straw, but onely make Oxen or Horses tread out the Corn with their feet, which they separate from the Straw as I have said.

Of all the Corn which they prepare in this manner, Barley is the oneiy grain they feed their Horses with: In the Morning they give every Horse an Ocque of that Barley, and four at Night which they mingle with cut Straw, Page  25 and that's all they have the whole day. In Persia the Horses have Barley onely at Night, but in the Day-time they give them a Sack of Straw.

Let us now see how they make Butter at Damascus,* which is the same way all Turkey over. They fasten the two ends of a stick to the two hind feet of a Vessel, that's to say, each end of the stick to each foot; and the same they do to the fore-feet, to the end these sticks may serve for handles: Then they put the Cream into the Vessel, stopping it close, and then taking hold on it by the two sticks, they shake it for some time, and after put a little water into it: Then they shake it again, untill the Butter be made; which being done, they pour off a kind of Butter-milk by them called Yogourt, which they drink. When they would have this Yogourt more delicious, they heat the Milk, and put a spoonfull of sower Milk to it, which they make sower with runnet; and by that mixture all the Milk becoming Yogourt, they let it cool and then use it; or if they have a mind to keep it, they put it with Salt into a bag which they tye very fast, that what is within may be pressed; and let it drop until no more come out: Of that matter there remains no more in the bag but a kind of a Butter or rather white Cheese, of which when they have a mind to have Yogourt they take a morcel, and steep it in water, which they drink with great pleasure; they use much of it to refresh themselves, especially in the Caravans, where they have always good store. This Yogourt is very sharp, but especially that which remains after they have made the Butter.

I conclude my observations of Damascus with this advertisement, that the Wines there are treacherous and strong;* and that the Smirnium Creticum grows in this Town upon all the Terrasses of the Houses.