BlackHat's Journal: Digested benefactors whose silence deafens anything

I have not had time to type & edit the sections on Tamerlane. So this bit of Burckhardt will have to do to add some local color on the trip east from Istanbul to Calcutta. News and Texttoon too.

Quote:
The Haouran is inhabited by Turks, Druses, Christians, and Arabs, and is visited in spring and summer by several Arab tribes from the desert. The whole country is under the government of the Pasha of Damascus, who generally sends a governor to Mezareib, intituled Agat el Haouran.

The Pasha appoints also the Sheikh of every village, who collects the Miri from both Turks and Christians. The Druses are not under the control of the Agat el Haouran, but correspond directly with the Pasha. They have a head Sheikh, whose office, though subject to the confirmation of the Pasha, has been hereditary from a remote period, in the family of Hamdan. The head Sheikh of the Druses nominates the Sheikh of each village, and of these upwards of eight are his own relations: the others are members of the great Druse families. The Pasha constantly maintains a force in the Haouran of between five and six hundred men; three hundred and fifty or four hundred of whom are at Boszra, and the remainder at Mezareib, or patrolling the country. The Moggrebyns are generally employed in this service.

I compute the population of the Haouran, exclusive of the Arabs who frequent the plain, the mountain (Djebel Haouran), and the Ledja, at about fifty or sixty thousand, of whom six or seven thousand are Druses; and about three thousand Christians. The Turks and Christians have exactly the same modes of life; but the Druses are distinguished from them in many respects.

The two former very nearly resemble the Arabs in their customs and manners; their ordinary dress is precisely that of the Arabs; a coarse white cotton stuff forms their Kombaz or gown, the Keffie round the head is tied with a rope of camel's hair, they wear the Abba over the shoulder, and have the breast and feet naked; they have also adopted, for the greater part, the Bedouin dialect, gestures, and phraseology; according to which most articles of housebold furniture have names different from those in the towns; it requires little experience however to distinguish the adults of the two nations from one another.

The Arabs are generally of short stature, with thin visage, scanty beard, and brilliant black eyes; while the Fellahs are taller and stouter, with a strong beard, and a less piercing look; but the difference seems chiefly to arise from their mode of life; for the youth of both nations, to the age of sixteen, have precisely the same appearance. The Turks and Christians of the Haouran live and dress alike, and religion seems to occasion very little difference in their respective conditions. When quarrels happen the Christian fears not to strike the Turk, or to execrate his religion, a liberty which in every town of Syria would expose the Christian to the penalty of death, or to a very heavy pecuniary fine. Common sufferings and dangers in the defence of their property may have given rise to the toleration which the Christians enjoy from the Turks in the Haouran; and which is further strengthened by the Druses, who shew equal respect to both religions. Of the Christians four-fifths are Greeks; and the only religious animosities which I witnessed during my tour, were between them and the Catholics.

Among the Fellahs of the Haouran, the richest lives like the poorest, and displays his superior wealth only on the arrival of strangers. The ancient buildings afford spacious and convenient dwellings to many of the modern inhabitants, and those who occupy them may have three or four rooms for each family; but in newly built villages, the whole family, with all its household furniture, cooking utensils, and provision chests, is commonly huddled together in one apartment. Here also they keep their wheat and barley in reservoirs formed of clay, called Kawara [Arabic], which are about five feet high and two feet in diameter. The chief articles of furniture are, a handmill, which is used in summer, when there is no water in the Wadys to drive the mills; some copper kettles; and a few mats; in the richer houses some woollen Lebaet are met with, which are coarse woollen stuffs used for carpets, and in winter for horse- cloths: real carpets or mattrasses are seldom seen, unless it be upon the arrival of strangers of consequence. Their goat's hair sacks, and horse and camel equipments, are of the same kind as those used by the Bedouins, and are known by the same names. Each family has a large earthen jar, of the manufacture of Rasheiat el Fukhar, which is filled every morning by the females, from the Birket or spring, with water for the day's consumption. In every house there is a room for the reception of strangers, called from this circumstance Medhafe; it is usually that in which the male part of the family sleeps; in the midst of it is a fire place to boil coffee.

The most common dishes of these people are Burgoul and Keshk; in summer they supply the place of the latter by milk, Leben, and fresh butter. Of the Burgoul I have spoken on other occasions; there are two kinds of Keshk, Keshk-hammer and Keskh-leben; the first is prepared by putting leaven into the Burgoul, and pouring water over it; it is then left until almost putrid, and afterwards spread out in the sun, to dry; after which it is pounded, and when called for, served up mixed with oil, or butter. The Keskh-leben is prepared by putting Leben into the Burgoul, instead of leaven; in other respects the process is the same. Keskh and bread are the common breakfast, and towards sunset a plate of Burgoul, or some Arab dish, forms the dinner; in honour of strangers, it is usual to serve up at breakfast melted butter and bread, or fried eggs, and in the evening a fowl boiled in Burgoul, or a kid or lamb; but this does not very often happen. The women and children eat up whatever the men have left on their plates. The women dress in the Bedouin manner; they have a veil over the head, but seldom veil their faces.

Hospitality to strangers is another characteristic common to the Arabs, and to the people of Haouran. A traveller may alight at any house he pleases; a mat will be immediately spread for him, coffee made, and a breakfast or dinner set before him. In entering a village it has often happened to me, that several persons presented themselves, each begging that I would lodge at his house; and this hospitality is not confined to the traveller himself, his horse or his camel is also fed, the first with half or three quarters of a Moud[The Moud is about nineteen pounds English.] of barley, the second with straw; with this part of their hospitality, however, I had often reason to be dissatisfied, less than a Moud being insufficient upon a journey for a horse, which is fed only in the evening, according to the custom of these countries. As it would be considered an affront to buy any corn, the horse must remain ill-fed, unless the traveller has the precaution to carry a little barley in his saddle-bag, to make up the deficiency in the host's allowance. On returning to Aaere to the house of the Sheikh, after my tour through the desert, one of my Druse guides insisted upon taking my horse to his stables, instead of the Sheikh's; when I was about to depart, the Druse brought my horse to the door, and when I complained that he had fallen off greatly in the few days I had remained in the village, the Sheikh said to me in the presence of several persons, "You are ignorant of the ways of this country [Arabic]; if you see that your host does not feed your horse, insist upon his giving him a Moud of barley daily; he dares not refuse it." It is a point of honour with the host never to accept of the smallest return from a guest; I once only ventured to give a few piastres to the child of a very poor family at Zahouet, by whom we had been most hospitably treated, and rode off without attending to the cries of the mother, who insisted upon my taking back the money.

Besides the private habitations, which offer to every traveller a secure night's shelter, there is in every village the Medhafe of the Sheikh, where all strangers of decent appearance are received and entertained. It is the duty of the Sheikh to maintain this Medhafe, which is like a tavern, with the difference that the host himself pays the bill: the Sheikh has a public allowance to defray these expenses, &c. and hence a man of the Haouran, intending to travel about for a fortnight, never thinks of putting a single para in his pocket; he is sure of being every where well received, and of living better perhaps than at his own home. A man remarkable for his hospitality and generosity enjoys the highest consideration among them. --Burckhardt

News:
The Chewbacca Defence gets a Persian twist [spin surly!]. Pathetic attempt to hide the corpse of a 16 year old girl under the carpet. On the other hand the UK is an old hand at the ploy. While the little French girls kick asses. Bravo! At school on Friday she said: "I will respect both French law and Muslim law by taking off what I have on my head and not showing my hair."

Columbians push again. For the second time in a few days the territorial integrity of Ecuador has been violated. According to the locals of the northern border zone, Colombian government troops clearly violate Ecuadorean sovereignty by entering Ecuador in order to operate against Colombian guerrilla forces. Thus the warnings made during the last many years by the Ecuadorean social forces concerning the US strategy of regionalising the internal conflict of the neighbouring country in a military way, the "Plan Colombia", have come true. So, on Wednesday the 8th of September a group of 70 men from the Colombian Army entered violently in Ecuadorean territory, according to information printed by the Ecuadorean newspaper "Diario El Comercio de Quito" on the 10th of September. According to the testimonies of various farmers from the Ecuadorean border town Buena Vista, the foreign soldiers came around 10 am on Wednesday the 8th of September, violently breaking into and searching farms. They detained 5 young men for further questioning. "They held me for hours and asked me if I knew where the Colombian guerrilla fighters are", said one of the five.

"Provisionally" Certified != "Certified"

Audio tape? Agit-prop? Cut-up Sampler fun? Or just good old fashion bills in an unmarked envelope? "US Central Intelligence Agency analysts are said to have concluded that the voice on the broadcast is indeed Zawahiri." Right uh huh.

Never a frown with Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown yesterday masked his private hurt and bemusement over Tony Blair's announcement that he wanted to serve a full third term when he insisted in Washington that he was happily fulfilling his duties as chancellor at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund. Although he saw the timing and manner of the prime minister's statement as a personal snub and deeply divisive act for the party, he brushed aside questions about the political furore at home, saying it was business as usual.

Free and not dead press. And Carl managed to shoot up both parties? On Friday Mr Julia said that a convoy bringing the captives to Syria came under US fire, scuppering their release. However, the American military say they have had no reports of such an incident. Add an ess to 'incident'.

OYAITJ:
47748 : Tenet skips out of the cupid line, Yahoo st^h^hlinks, Tleilaxu Girls, and some other stuff.

47867 : The CIA official in charge of the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq has said no such weapons have so far been found. However, the interim report says significant amounts of equipment and weapons-related activities have been discovered, all of which were concealed from United Nations inspectors. and more.

Texttoon:
Fumetti : Video capture of George W. Bush speaking at the first debate. Overlayed speech bubble has him singing; "I've never gone so wrong as for telling lies to you/
What you see is what I've been/
There is nothing I could hide from you/
You see me better than I can/
Out on the road that lies before me now/
There are some turns where I will spin/
I only hope that you can hold me now/
Til' I can gain control again/"