If I Had Shewn A Disposition To Pay
This Sum Immediately, Every Body Would Have Thought That I Had Plenty Of
Money, And More Considerable Sums Would Have Been Extorted; In Every
Part Of Turkey It Is A Prudent Rule Not
[P.379] to grant the Turks their demands immediately, because they soon
return to the charge.
Had I not shewn my letter to the Sheikh, I should
have procured a guide with little trouble, I should have had it in my
power to see the borders of the Dead sea, and should have been enabled
to depart sooner; but having once made my agreement with him, I was
obliged to wait for his departure, which was put off from day to day,
and thus I was prevented from going to any distance from the town, from
the fear of being left behind. I remained therefore at Kerek for twenty
successive days, changing my lodgings almost every day, in order to
comply with the pressing invitations of its hospitable inhabitants.
The town of Kerek (Arabic), a common name in Syria, is built upon the
top of a steep hill, surrounded on all sides by a deep and narrow
valley, the mountains beyond which command the town. In the valley, on
the west and north sides, are several copious springs, on the borders of
which the inhabitants cultivate some vegetables, and considerable
plantations of olive trees. The principal of these sources are, Ain Sara
(Arabic), which issues from the rock in a very romantic spot, where a
mosque has been built, now in ruins; this rivulet turns three mills: the
other sources are Ain Szafszaf (Arabic), Ain Kobeyshe (Arabic), and Ain
Frandjy (Arabic), or the European spring, in the rock near which, as
some persons told me, is an inscription in Frank characters, but no one
ever would, or could, shew it me.
The town is surrounded by a wall, which has fallen down in several
places; it is defended by six or seven large towers, of which the
northern is almost perfect, and has a long Arabic inscription on its
wall, but too high to be legible from the ground; on each side of the
inscription is a lion in bas-relief, similar to those seen on the walls
of Aleppo and Damascus. The town had originally only two entrances, one
to the south and the other to the north; they are
[p.380] dark passages, forty paces in length, cut through the rock. An
inscription on the northern gate ascribes its formation to Sultan Seyf-
eddin (Arabic). Besides these two gates, two other entrances have been
formed, leading over the ruins of the town wall. At the west end of the
town stands a castle, on the edge of a deep precipice over the Wady
Kobeysha. It is built in the style of most of the Syrian castles, with
thick walls and parapets, large arched apartments, dark passages with
loop-holes, and subterraneous vaults; and it probably owes its origin,
like most of these castles, to the prudent system of defence adopted by
the Saracens against the Franks during the Crusades. In a large Gothic
hall are the remains of paintings in fresco, but so much defaced that
nothing can be clearly distinguished. Kerek having been for some time in
the hands of the Franks, this hall may have been built at that time for
a church, and decorated with paintings. Upon an uncouth figure of a man
bearing a large chain I read the letters IONI, painted in large
characters; the rest of the inscription was effaced. On the side towards
the town the castle is defended by a deep fosse cut in the rock; near
which are seen several remains of columns of gray and red granite. On
the south side the castle hill is faced with stone in the same manner as
at Aleppo, El Hossn, Szalkhat, &c. On the west side a wall has been
thrown across the Wady, to some high rocks, which project from the
opposite side; a kind of Birket has thus been formed, which formerly
supplied the garrison with water. In the castle is a deep well, and many
of the private houses also have wells, but their water is brackish;
others have cisterns, which save the inhabitants the trouble of fetching
their water from the Wady below. There are no antiquities in the town,
excepting a few fragments of granite columns. A good mosque, built by
Melek el Dhaher, is now in ruins. The Christians have a church,
dedicated to St. George, or El Khuder, which has been
[p.381] lately repaired. On the declivity of the Wady to the south of
the town are some ancient sepulchral caves, of coarse workmanship, cut
in the chalky rock.
Kerek is inhabited by about four hundred Turkish, and one hundred and
fifty Christian families; the former can furnish upwards of eight
hundred firelocks, the latter about two hundred and fifty. The Turks are
composed of settlers from all parts of southern Syria, but principally
from the mountains about Hebron and Nablous. The Christians are, for the
greater part, descendants of refugees from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and
Beit Djade. They are free from all exactions, and enjoy the same rights
with the Turks. Thirty or forty years ago Kerek was in the hands of the
Bedouin tribe called Beni Ammer, who were accustomed to encamp around
the town and to torment the inhabitants with their extortions. It may be
remarked generally of the Bedouins, that wherever they are the masters
of the cultivators, the latter are soon reduced to beggary, by their
unceasing demands. The uncle of the present Sheikh of Kerek, who was
then head of the town, exasperated at their conduct, came to an
understanding with the Arabs Howeytat, and in junction with these,
falling suddenly upon the Beni Ammer, completely defeated them in two
encounters. The Ammer were obliged to take refuge in the Belka, where
they joined the Adouan, but were again driven from thence, and obliged
to fly towards Jerusalem.
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