Henry Harris Jessup - The Women of the Arabs

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THE WOMEN

OF

THE ARABS.

_WITH A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN._

BY

Rev. HENRY HARRIS JESSUP, D.D.,

_Seventeen years American Missionary in Syria._

EDITED BY
Rev. C.S. ROBINSON, D.D., & Rev. ISAAC RILEY.

"The threshold weeps forty days when a girl is born."
--_Mt. Lebanon Proverb._

NEW YORK:
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by
DODD & MEAD,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

_THIS BOOK_

IS DEDICATED TO THE

CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.

Beirut, Syria, _July, 1873_.

_Owing to the impossibility of my attending personally to the
editing of this volume, I requested my old friends_, Rev. C.S.
Robinson, D.D., _and_ Rev. Isaac Riley, _of New York, to superintend
the work, and would gratefully acknowledge their kind and
disinterested aid, cheerfully proffered at no little sacrifice of
time._

H.H. JESSUP.

PREFACE.

The Orient is the birthplace of prophecy. Before the advent of our Lord,
the very air of the East was resounding with the "unconscious prophecies
of heathenism." Men were in expectation of great changes in the earth.
When Mohammed arose, he not only claimed to be the deliverer of a
message inspired of Allah, but to foretell the events of futurity. He
declared that the approach of the latter day could be distinguished by
unmistakable signs, among which were two of the most notable character.

Before the latter day, the _sun shall rise in the West_, and God will
send forth a cold odoriferous wind blowing from _Syria Damascena_, which
shall _sweep away_ the souls of all the faithful, and _the Koran
itself_. What the world of Islam takes in its literal sense, we may take
in a deeper spiritual meaning. Is it not true, that far in the West, the
gospel sun began to rise and shed its beams on Syria, many years ago,
and that in our day that cold odoriferous wind of truth and life,
fragrant with the love of Jesus and the love of man, is beginning to
blow from Syria Damascena, over all the Eastern world! The church and
the school, the printing press and the translated Bible, the periodical
and the ponderous volume, the testimony of living witnesses for the
truth, and of martyrs who have died in its defence, all combine to sweep
away the systems of error, whether styled Christian, Moslem or Pagan.

The remarkable uprising of christian women in Christian lands to a new
interest in the welfare of woman in heathen and Mohammedan countries, is
one of the great events of the present century. This book is meant to be
a memorial of the early laborers in Syria, nearly all of whom have
passed away. It is intended also as a record of the work done for women
and girls of the Arab race; to show some of the great results which have
been reached and to stimulate to new zeal and effort in their behalf.

In tracing the history of this work, it seemed necessary to describe the
condition of woman in Syria when the missionaries first arrived, and to
examine the different religious systems, which affect her position.

In preparing the chapter on the Pre-Islamic Arabs, I have found valuable
materials in Chenery's Hariri, Sales and Rodwell's Koran, and Freytag's
Arabic Proverbs.

For the facts about the Druze religion, I have consulted Col.
Churchill's Works, Mount Lebanon, and several Arabic manuscripts in the
mission library in Beirut.

Rev. S. Lyde's interesting book called the "Asian Mystery," has given me
the principal items with regard to the Nusairiyeh religion. This
confirms the statements of Suleiman Effendi, whose tract, revealing the
secrets of the Nusairiyeh faith, was printed years ago at the Mission
Press in Beirut, and translated by that ripe Arabic Scholar Prof. E.
Salisbury of New Haven. The bloody Nusairiyeh never forgave Suleiman for
revealing their mysteries; and having invited him to a feast in a
village near Adana, 1871, brutally buried him alive in a dunghill!

For the historical statements of this volume, I am indebted to the files
of the Missionary Herald, the Annual Reports of the Syria Mission, the
archives of the mission in Beirut, the memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith,
and private letters from Mrs. Whiting, Mrs. De Forest, and various
missionary and native friends.

Information on the general work of the Syrian Mission may be found in
Dr. Anderson's "Missions to the Oriental churches," Rev. Isaac Bird's
"Bible Work in Bible Lands," and the pamphlet sketches of Rev. T. Laurie
and Rev. James S. Dennis.

The specimens of poetry from ancient Arabic poetesses, have been
gathered from printed and manuscript volumes, and from the lips of the
people.

Some accounts of child life in Syria and specimens of Oriental stories
and nursery rhymes have been gathered into a "Children's Chapter." They
have a value higher than that which is given by mere entertainment as
they exhibit many phases of Arab home life. The illustrations of the
volume consist of drawings from photographs by Bergheim of Jerusalem and
Bonfils of Beirut.

The pages of Arabic were electrotyped in Beirut by Mr. Samuel Hallock,
the skilful superintendent of the American Press.

I send out this record of the work carried on in Syria with deep
gratitude for all that the Lord has done, and with an ardent desire that
it may be the means of bringing this great field more vividly before the
minds of Christian people, of wakening warmer devotion to the missionary
cause, and so of hastening the time when every Arab woman shall enjoy
the honor, and be worthy of the elevation which come with faith in Him
who was first foretold as the seed of the woman.

HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.
Beirut, Syria, Nov. 28, 1872.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
_State of Women among the Arabs of the Jahiliyeh,
or the "Times of the Ignorance."_ 1

CHAPTER II.
_State of Women in the Mohammedan World._ 7

CHAPTER III.
_The Druze Religion and Druze Women._ 20

CHAPTER IV.
_Nusairiyeh._ 35

CHAPTER V.
_Chronicle of Women's Work from 1820 to 1872._ 45

CHAPTER VI.
_Mrs. Whiting's School._ 57

CHAPTER VII.
_Dr. De Forest's Work in Beirut._ 73

CHAPTER VIII.
_Re-opening of the School in Beirut._ 97

CHAPTER IX.
_Luciya Shekkur._ 114

CHAPTER X.
_Raheel._ 120

CHAPTER XI.
_Hums._ 140

CHAPTER XII.
_Miriam the Aleppine._ 151

CHAPTER XIII.
_Modern Syrian Views with regard to Female Education._ 158

CHAPTER XIV.
_Bedawin Arabs._ 180

CHAPTER XV.
_Woman between Barbarism and Civilization._ 191

CHAPTER XVI.
_Opinions of Protestant Syrians with regard to the
Work of American Women in Syria._ 200

CHAPTER XVII.
_Other Labors for Women and Girls in this Field._ 204

CHAPTER XVIII.
_The Amount of Biblical Instruction given in Mission
Schools._ 215

CHAPTER XIX.
_The Children's Chapter._ 233

THE

WOMEN OF THE ARABS.

CHAPTER I.

STATE OF WOMEN AMONG THE ARABS OF THE JAHILIYEH, OR THE "TIMES OF THE
IGNORANCE."

In that eloquent Sura of the Koran, called Ettekwir, (lxxxi.) it is
said, "When the _girl buried alive_ shall be asked for what sin she was
slain." The passage no doubt refers to the cruel practice which still in
Mohammed's time lingered among the tribe of Temim, and which was
afterwards eradicated by the influence of Islam. The origin of this
practice has been ascribed to the superstitious rite of sacrificing
children, common in remote times to all the Semites, and observed by the
Jews up to the age of the Captivity, as we learn from the denunciations
of Jeremiah. But in later times daughters were buried alive as a matter
of household economy, owing to the poverty of many of the tribes, and to
their fear of dishonor, since women were often carried off by their
enemies in forays, and made slaves and concubines to strangers.

So that at a wedding, the wish expressed in the gratulations to the
newly-married pair was, "with concord and sons," or "with concord and
permanence; with sons and no daughters." This same salutation is
universal in Syria now. The chief wish expressed by women to a bride is,
"may God give you an arees," _i.e._ a bridegroom son.

In the Koran, Sura xiv, Mohammed argues against the Arabs of Kinaneh,
who said that the angels were the daughters of God. "They
(blasphemously) attribute daughters to God; yet they _wish them not for
themselves_. When a female child is announced to one of them, his face
grows dark, and he is as though he would choke."

The older Arab Proverbs show that the burying alive of female children
was deemed praiseworthy.

"To send women before to the other world, is a benefit."

"The best son-in-law is the grave."

The Koran also says, that certain men when hearing of the birth of a
daughter hide themselves "from the people because of the ill-tidings;
shall he keep it with disgrace, or bury it in the dust." (Sura xvi.)

It is said that the only occasion on which Othman ever shed a tear, was
when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive, wiped the dust of
the grave-earth from his beard!

Before the Seventh Century this practice seems to have been gradually
abandoned, but was retained the longest in the tribe of Temim. Naman,
king of Hira, carried off among his prisoners in a foray, the daughter
of Kais, chief of Temim, who fell in love with one of her captors and
refused to return to her tribe, whereupon her father swore to bury alive
all his future female children, which he did, to the number of ten.

Subsequent to this, rich men would buy the lives of girls devoted to
inhumation, and Sa Saah thus rescued many, in one case giving two milch
camels to buy the life of a new-born girl, and he was styled "the
Reviver of the Maidens buried alive."

The following Arabic Proverbs having reference to women and girls _will
illustrate_ the ancient Arab ideas with regard to their character and
position, better than volumes of historic discourse:

"Obedience to women will have to be repented of."

"A man can bear anything but the mention of his women."

"The heart of woman is given to folly."

"Leave not a girl nor a green pasture unguarded."

"What has a girl to do with the councils of a nation?"

"If you would marry a beauty, pay her dowry."

"Fear not to praise the man whose wives are true to him."

"Woman fattens on what she hears." (flattery)

"Women are the whips of Satan."

"If you would marry a girl, inquire about the traits of her
mother."

"Trust neither a king, a horse, nor a woman. For the king is
fastidious, the horse prone to run away, and the woman is
perfidious."

"My father does the fighting, and my mother the talking about it."

"Our mother forbids us to err and runs into error."

"Alas for the people who are ruled by a woman!"

The position of woman among the Arabs before the times of Mohammed can
be easily inferred from what has preceded. But there is another side to
the picture. Although despised and abused, woman often asserted her
dignity and maintained her rights, not only by physical force, but by
intellectual superiority as well. The poetesses of the Arabs are
numerous, and some of them hold a high rank. Their poetry was impromptu,
impassioned, and chiefly of the elegiac and erotic type. The faculty of
improvisation was cultivated even by the most barbarous tribes, and
although such of their poetry as has been preserved is mostly a kind of
rhymed prose, it often contains striking and beautiful thoughts. They
called improvised poetry "the daughter of the hour."

The queen of Arabic poetesses is El Khunsa, who flourished in the days
of Mohammed. Elegies on her two warrior brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiyeh are
among the gems of ancient Arabic poetry. She was not what would be
called in modern times a refined or delicate lady, being regarded as
proud and masculine in temper even by the Arabs of her own age. In the
eighth year of the Hegira, her son Abbas brought a thousand warriors to
join the forces of the Prophet. She came with him and recited her poetry
to Mohammed. She lamented her brother for years. She sang of Sakhr:

"His goodness is known by his brotherly face,
Thrice blessed such sign of a heavenly grace:
You would think from his aspect of meekness and shame,
That his anger was stirred at the thought of his fame.
Oh rare virtue and beautiful, natural trait,
Which never will change by the change of estate!
When clad in his armor and prepared for the fray,
The army rejoiceth and winneth the day!"

Again, she lamented him as follows:

"Each glorious rising sun brings Sakhr to my mind,
I think anew of him when sets the orb of day;
And had I not beheld the grief and sorrow blind
Of many mourning ones o'er brothers snatched away,
I should have slain myself, from deep and dark despair."

The poet Nabighah erected for her a red leather tent at the fair of
Okaz, in token of honor, and in the contest of poetry gave her the
highest place above all but Maymun, saying to her, "If I had not heard
him, I would say that thou didst surpass every one in poetry. I confess
that you surpass all women." To which she haughtily replied, "Not the
less do I surpass all men."

The following are among the famous lines of El Khunsa, which gave her
the title of princess of Arab poetesses. The translation I have made
quite literal.

"Ah time has its wonders; its changes amaze,
It leaves us the tail while the head it slays;
It leaves us the low while the highest decays;
It leaves the obscure, the despised, and the slave,
But of honored and loved ones, the true and the brave
It leaves us to mourn o'er the untimely grave.
The two new creations, the day and the night,
Though ceaselessly changing, are pure as the light:
But man changes to error, corruption and blight."

The most ancient Arab poetess, Zarifeh, is supposed to have lived as
long ago as the Second Century, in the time of the bursting of the
famous dyke of Mareb, which devastated the land of Saba. Another
poetess, Rakash, sister of the king of Hira, was given in marriage, by
the king when intoxicated, to a man named Adi.

Alas, in these days the Moslem Arabs do not wait until blinded by wine,
to give their daughters in marriage to strangers. I once overheard two
Moslem young men converging in a shop, one of whom was about to be
married. His companion said to him, "have you heard anything about the
looks of your betrothed?" "Not much," said he, "only I am assured that
she is _white_."

In a book written by Mirai ibn Yusef el Hanbali, are the names of twenty
Arab women who improvised poetry. Among them are Leila, Leila el
Akhyaliyeh, Lubna, Zeinab, Afra, Hind, May, Jenub, Hubaish, Zarifeh,
Jemileh, Remleh, Lotifeh, and others. Most of the verses ascribed to
them are erotic poetry of an amatory character, full of the most
extravagant expressions of devotion of which language is capable, and
yet the greater part of it hardly bearing translation. It reminds one
strikingly of Solomon's Song, full of passionate eloquence. And yet in
the poetry of El Khunsa and others, which is of an elegiac character,
there are passages full of sententious apothegms and proverbial wisdom.

CHAPTER II.

STATE OF WOMEN IN THE MOHAMMADAN WORLD.

Our knowledge of the position of women among the Mohammedans is derived
from the Koran, Moslem tradition, and Moslem practice.

I. In the first place, the Koran does not teach that women have no
souls. Not only was Mohammed too deeply indebted to his rich wife
Khadijah, to venture such an assertion, but he actually teaches in the
Koran the immortality and moral responsibility of women. One of his
wives having complained to him that God often praised the men, but not
the women who had fled the country for the faith, he immediately
produced the following revelation:

"I will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be
lost, whether he be male or female." (Sura iii.)

In Sura iv. it is said:

"Whoso doeth good works, and is a true believer, whether male or
female, shall be admitted into Paradise."

In Sura xxxiii:

"Truly, the Muslemen and the Muslimate, (fem.)
The believing men and the believing women,
The devout men and the devout women,
The men of truth and the women of truth,
The patient men and the patient women,
The humble men and the humble women,
The charitable men and the charitable women,
The fasting men and the fasting women,
The chaste men and the chaste women,
And the men and women who oft remember God;
For them hath God prepared
Forgiveness and a rich recompense."

II. Thus Mohammedans cannot and do not deny that women have souls, but
their brutal treatment of women has naturally led to this view. The
Caliph Omar said that "women are worthless creatures and soil men's
reputations." In Sura iv. it is written:

"Men are superior to women, on account of the qualities
With which God has gifted the one above the other,
And on account of the outlay they make, from their substance for them.
Virtuous women are obedient....
But chide those for whose refractoriness
Ye have cause to fear ... _and scourge them_."

The interpretation of this last injunction being left to the individual
believer, it is carried out with terrible severity. The scourging and
beating of wives is one of the worst features of Moslem domestic life.
It is a degraded and degrading practice, and having the sanction of the
Koran, will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islamism as a
system and a faith prevails in the world. Happily for the poor women,
the husbands do not generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in
case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest the excruciating
screams of the suffering should reach the ears of her parents and bring
the husband into disgrace. But where there is no fear of interference or
of discovery, the blows and kicks are applied in the most merciless and
barbarous manner. Women are killed in this way, and no outsider knows
the cause. One of my Moslem neighbors once beat one of his wives to
death. I heard her screams day after day, and finally, one night, when
all was still, I heard a dreadful shriek, and blow after blow falling
upon her back and head. I could hear the brute cursing her as he beat
her. The police would not interfere, and I could not enter the house.
The next day there was a funeral from that house, and she was carried
off and buried in the most hasty and unfeeling manner. Sometimes it
happens that the woman is strong enough to defend herself, and conquers
a peace; but ordinarily when you hear a scream in the Moslem quarter of
the city and ask the reason, it will be said to you with an indifferent
shrug of the shoulder, "that is only some man beating his wife."

That thirty-eighth verse of Sura iv. is one of the many proofs that the
Koran is not the book of God, because it violates the law of love.
"Husbands love your wives," is a precept of the Gospel and not of the
Koran. Yet it is a sad fact that the nominal Christians of this dark
land are not much better in this respect than their Moslem neighbors.
The Greeks, Maronites and Papal Greeks beat their wives on the slightest
provocation. In the more enlightened towns and cities this custom is
"going out of fashion," though still often resorted to in fits of
passion. Sometimes the male relatives of the wife retaliate in case a
husband beats her. In the village of Schwire, in Lebanon, a man beat his
wife in a brutal manner and she fled to the house of her brother. The
brother watched his opportunity; waylaid the offending husband, and
avenged his sister's injuries by giving him a severe flogging. In
Eastern Turkey, a missionary in one of the towns noticed that not one
woman attended church on Sunday. He expostulated with the Protestants,
and urged them to persuade their wives to accompany them. The next
Sunday the women were all present, as meek and quiet as could be wished.
The missionary was delighted, and asked one of the men how they
persuaded them to come? He replied, "We all beat our wives soundly until
they consented to come!" This wife-beating custom has evidently been
borrowed by the Christian sects from their Moslem rulers and oppressors,
and nothing but a pure Christianity can induce them to abandon it.

III. Some have supposed that there will be no place in the Moslem
Paradise for women, as their place will be taken by the seventy-two
bright-eyed Houris or damsels of Paradise. Mohammed once said that when
he took a view of Paradise he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be
the poor, and when he looked down into hell, he saw the _greater part_
of the wretches confined there to be _women_! Yet he positively promised
his followers that the very meanest in Paradise will have eighty
thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the Houris, _besides the wives
he had in this world_. The promises of the Houris are almost exclusively
to be found in Suras, written at a time when Mohammed had only a single
wife of sixty years of age, and in all the ten years subsequent to the
Hegira, women are only twice mentioned as the reward of the faithful.
And this, while in four Suras, the proper wives of the faithful are
spoken of as accompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.

"They and their wives on that day
Shall rest in shady groves." (Sura 36.)

"Enter ye and your wives into Paradise delighted." (Sura 43.)

"Gardens of Eden into which they shall enter
Together with the just of their fathers, and their wives." (Sura 13.)

An old woman once desired Mohammed to intercede with God that she might
be admitted to Paradise, and he told her that no old woman would enter
that place. She burst into loud weeping, when he explained himself by
saying that God would then make her young again.

I was once a fellow-passenger in the Damascus diligence, with a
Mohammedan pilgrim going to Mecca by way of Beirut and Egypt, in company
with his wife. I asked him whether his wife would have any place in
Paradise when he received his quota of seventy-two Houris. "Yes," said
he, looking towards his wife, whose veil prevented our seeing her,
although she could see us, "if she obeys me in all respects, and is a
faithful wife, and goes to Mecca, she will be made more beautiful than
all the Houris of Paradise." Paradise is thus held up to the women as
the reward of obedience to their husbands, and this is about the sum and
substance of what the majority of Moslem women know about religion.

Women are never admitted to pray with men in public, being obliged to
perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the Mosques, it must
be at a time when the men are not there, for the Moslems are of opinion
that the presence of women inspires a different kind of devotion from
that which is desirable in a place set apart for the worship of God.

The Moslem idea of woman is vile and degraded. A Moslem absent from home
never addresses a letter to his wife, but to his son or brother, or some
male relative. It is considered a grievous insult to ask a Moslem about
the health of his wife. If obliged to allude to a woman in conversation,
you must use the word "ajellak Allah," "May God elevate you" above the
contamination of this subject! You would be expected to use the same
expression in referring to a donkey, a dog, a shoe, a swine or anything
vile. It is somewhat like the Irish expression, "Saving your presence,
sir," when alluding to an unpleasant subject.

A Greek christian (?) in Tripoli came to an American Missionary
physician and said, "there is a woman, 'ajell shanak Allah' here who is
ill. I beg your pardon for mentioning so vile a subject to your
excellency." Said the doctor, "and who may it be?" "Ajellak, it is my
wife!"

I remember once meeting the Mohammedan Mufti of Beirut in Dr. Van Dyck's
study at the printing press. The Mufti's wife, (at least _one_ of them,)
was ill, and he wished medical advice, but could not insult the Doctor
by alluding to a woman in his presence. So he commenced, after
innumerable salutations, repeating good-morning, and may your day be
happy, until he could decently proceed to business. "Your excellency
must be aware that I have a sick man at my house. May God grant you
health! Indeed, peace to your head. Inshullah, it is only a slight
attack!" "He has pain in his back, headache, and he will not eat." "Has
he any fever?" "A little." "I will come and see _her_ this afternoon."
"May God increase your good. Good morning, sir!"

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