Christians And Jews
Are Tolerated Because Mohammed And His Immediate Successors Granted Them
Protection, And Because The Turks Acknowledge Christ And The Prophets;
But There Is No Instance Whatever Of Pagans Being Tolerated.
The Ismaylys are generally reported to adore the pudendum muliebre, and
to mix on certain days of the year in promiscuous debauchery.
When they
go to Hamah they pray in the mosque, which they never do at Kalaat
Maszyad. This castle has been from ancient times their chief seat. One
of them asserted that his religion descended from Ismayl, the son of
Abraham, and that the Ismaylys had been possessed of the castle since
the time of El Melek el Dhaher, as acknowledged by the Firmahns of the
Porte. A few years since they were driven out of it by the Anzeyrys, in
consequence of a most daring act of treachery. The Anzeyrys and Ismaylys
have always been at enmity, the consequence, perhaps, of some religious
differences. In 1807, a tribe of the former having quarrelled with their
chief, quitted their abode in their mountains, and applied to the Emir
of Maszyad for an asylum. The latter, glad of an opportunity to divide
the strength of his enemies, readily granted the request, and about
three hundred, with their Sheikh Mahmoud, settled at Maszyad, the Emir
carrying his hospitality so far as to order several families to quit the
place, for the purpose of affording room for the new settlers. For
several months all was tranquil, till one day, when the greater part of
the people were at work in the fields, the Anzeyrys, at a given signal,
[p.153]killed the Emir and his son in the castle, and then fell upon the
Ismaylys who had remained in their houses, sparing no one they could
find, and plundering at the same time the whole town. On the following
day the Anzeyrys were joined by great numbers of their countrymen, which
proved that their pretended emigration had been a deep-laid plot; and
the circumstance of its being kept secret for three months by so great a
number of them, serves to shew the character of the people. About three
hundred Ismaylys perished on this occasion; the families who had escaped
in the sack of the town, fled to Hamah, Homs, and Tripoli, and their
treacherous enemies successfully attacked three other Ismayly castles in
the mountain. The Ismaylys then implored the protection of Youssef
Pasha, at that time governor of Damascus, who marched with four or five
thousand men against the Anzeyrys, retook the castles which had belonged
to the Ismaylys, but kept the whole of the plunder of the Anzeyrys to
himself. This castle of Maszyad, with a garrison of forty men, resisted
his whole army for three months.
In 1810, after Youssef Pasha had been exiled by the Porte, the Ismaylys
who had fled to Hamah, Homs, and Tripoli returned, and Maszyad is now
inhabited by about two hundred and fifty Ismayly families, and by thirty
of Christians.
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