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It was in the summer of 1825, that Asaad el-Shidiak became first personally known to the mission, as the instructor of Mr. King in the Syriac language. His case soon acquired an extraordinary interest, and will occupy a separate chapter. In March, 1826, several Greek vessels entered the port of Beirût, and landed five hundred men.
If thou leave me, I shall imagine a thousand things and suffer tortures of anxiety on thine account, for I cannot brook thine absence from me. 'Go then, rejoined Amjed, 'and do not tarry. So Asaad took money and leaving his brother awaiting him, descended the mountain and fared on, till he entered the city.
Moreover, Amjed, in his turn, related to Asaad all that had passed between the lady and himself and how he had escaped hanging and become Vizier; and they made moan, each to the other, of the anguish they had suffered for separation.
The princes wondered mightily at Behram's story and said, 'By Allah, this is indeed a rare story! They passed the night thus, and next morning, Amjed and Asaad mounted and riding to the palace, sought an audience of the King, who received them with honour.
King arrived from Jerusalem just in time to secure the services of Asaad before he went elsewhere. He was for several weeks Mr. King's instructor in Syriac. The two were well met, and in their frequent discussions, on the differences between the doctrines of the Gospel and those of the Papacy, Mr. King found him one of the most intelligent and skillful reasoners in all the mountains.
1 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 71-76, 97-101. He was at length deprived of his books, and severely threatened by the Patriarch. Asaad says, in his narrative: "A friend told me, that the Patriarch wondered how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion, and still converse in such abusive terms against it.
Wilt thou be my Vizier? 'I hear and obey, answered Amjed; whereupon the King bestowed magnificent dresses of honour on him and Behadir and gave him a handsome house, with servants and officers and all things needful, appointing him stipends and allowances and bidding him make search for his brother Asaad.
They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his grave, and offered to open it. The convent was thoroughly searched, but he was not found, and Mr. Tod was convinced that he was really dead.1 1 Missionary Herald for 1833, pp. 51-57. When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable.
Occasionally he was permitted to deliver public lectures. His text-book in the instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St. Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites. From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirût, and of several Arab chiefs.
The Patriarch offered to absolve him from the sin of falsehood, to which Asaad replied, "What the law of nature condemns, no man can make lawful." Accompanied by a priest, he visited his own college of Ain Warka, but gained no light; and the same was true of his visit to the superior of the convent of Bzummár, who desired to see him.
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