The Two Latter Places Are Now Inhabited By Some Poor
Kurdine Families.
The style of building which I observed in the houses
of these ruined cities approaches more to the European than the Asiatic
taste.
The roofs are somewhat inclined, and the windows numerous, and
large, instead of being few and small, as in Turkish houses. The walls,
most of which are still remaining, are for the greatest part without
ornament, [p.646] from one foot to about one foot and a half thick, and
built of calcareous squared stones, like Deir Samaan. The pillars which
are still to be seen in some of the ruined buildings are none of them
more than fifteen feet high. Their capitals, like those of the columns
in the Deir Samaan, are rude and unfinished; if any order is discernible
it is a corrupted Corinthian. The neighbourbood of these towns, at least
for five miles round, presents nothing but an uneven plain, thickly
covered with barren rocks, which rise to the height of two or three feet
above the surface. A few herbs grow in the fissures of the rocks, which
are scarcely sufficient to keep from starving half a dozen horses, the
property of the present miserable inhabitants. There are several wells
of good water in the neighbourhood of the ruins. To the S.S.E. of the
Deir, at an hour and a half’s distance, stands a single pillar about
thirty-five feet high, the base and capital of which are like those of
the Deir. No inscriptions are visible. At a few yards from the column is
the entrance to a spacious subterraneous cavern. I passed this spot on
my way to the Deir, and purposed to examine the contents of the cave on
our return; I returned however by another route.
We left our friendly Kurds on the following day at noon. At taking my
leave I told the chief that I should be happy to make him some
acknowledgments for the hospitality shewn to me, whenever he should
visit Aleppo. He excused himself for not having been able to treat us
according to his wishes, and begged me to send him from Aleppo a few
strings for his guitar; which I gladly promised. These Kurds have been
for some time past at war with the Janissaries at Aleppo, which prevents
them from going there.
On our road back to Mohammed Ali’s tents, through Bokatur and Immature,
we met halfway a poor gypsy, or as they are called here, Kurpadh; these
Kurpadh are spread over the whole of Anatolia and Syria.
The Kurds have spread themselves over some parts of the plain which the
Afrin waters, as well as some of the neighbouring mountains. They live
in tents and in villages, are stationary, and are all occupied in
agriculture and the rearing of cattle. They form four tribes, of which
the Shum, who live in the plain, are the most considerable. The Kurds
seem to be of a more lively disposition than the Turkmans; the Aleppines
say that their word is less to be depended upon than that of the
Turkmans. My hosts at Deir Samaan asked me many questions relative to
European politics. I found the opinion prevalent among them which
Buonaparte has taken such pains to impress upon the winds of the
continental nations, that Great Britain is and ought to be merely a
maritime power. This belief, however, proves very advantageous to
English travellers in these countries. A Frenchman will every where be
taken for a spy, as long as the French invasion of Egypt and Syria is in
the memory of man, but it seems never to enter into the suspicions of
these people that the English can have any wish to possess the countries
of the Levant. I was astonished to find that all the Kurds spoke Arabic
fluently, besides the Turkish and their own language, which latter is a
corrupted mixture of Persian, Armenian, and Turkish. On the other hand,
I only met three or four Turkmans who knew how to express themselves
[p.647] in Arabic, though both nations are alike in almost continual
intercourse with Arab peasants and Aleppines.
Besides the ruins just described, there are many others dispersed over
the Turkman territories; which, to judge from the prevailing
architecture, are of the same date as those already mentioned. Tisin,
Sulfa, Kalaa el [B]ent, Jub Abiad, and Mayshat, all of them at two or
three hours distance from the tent of Mohammed Ali, are heaps of ruined
buildings, with a few remains of houses. Kalaa el Bent and Jub Abiad
contain each of them a square tower about sixty feet high. They have
only one small projecting window near the top; the roof is flat.
Tradition says that Kalaa el Bent or in Turkish Kislar Kalassi, (the
castle of girls), was formerly a convent; probably of nuns. At Mayshat,
a Turkman encampment on the top of a hill, at the foot of which is a
large deep well, with a solid wall, I was shewn a subterraneous chamber,
about twenty feet long and fifteen in breadth, hewn out of the rock, at
the entrance to which are two columns; there are two excavations in the
bottom of it, like the sepulchral niches which I saw in the Deir Samaan.
I have been told that near Telekberoun, a village situated at the foot
of the hills which encircle the plain of Khalaka, there are remains of
an ancient causeway elevated two or three feet from the ground, about
fifteen feet broad, running in the direction from Aleppo to Antioch; it
may be traced for the length of a quarter of an hour. In the plain of
the Afrin, about three miles from Mursal Oglu’s residence, and half an
hour from the Afrin, stands an insulated hillock in the plain with the
ruins of a Saracen castle, called Daoud Pasha; four miles to the N.E. of
it is situated another similar hillock, with ruins of a castle, called
Tshyie.
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