Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 2, 2025
'But what of the Sheykh Yûsuf? I exclaimed, reminding him. 'Ah, to be sure! rejoined the Governor with a slight frown. 'Of what religion is he? 'I suppose a Druze. 'And the people who attacked him so unmercifully? 'Are Druzes too. 'Ah, then, it is all in the family, as the saying goes.
He sent for the chief Ulema and asked them if all he heard was true; and, when he found their ideas to be entirely in unison with the advice just given him, he commissioned the Sheykh el Islam to push forward the doctrine of his spiritual leadership by all the means in his power.
Bidding him remain with the two horses, I went back on foot to the castle, where I stayed only the time necessary to pay my respects. As I was returning towards the valley, a litter borne between two mules was leaving the meydân. Beside it walked the stern Sheykh Mustafa, and in it, I had little doubt, reclined the beautiful Abdul Hamid.
He combined in his person all the functions now divided between the Sheykh el Islam, the grand Mufti, and the executive authorities. He was king and priest and magistrate, doctor of civil and religious law, and supreme referee on all matters whether of opinion or practice; he was, in a word, the Pope of Islam. Nor did his three successors abate anything of Abu Bekr's pretensions.
'Allah! Allah! sighed the Sheykh Huseyn, telling his beads. 'Mon bère est triste, tu vois. Il aime bas quitter, murmured his hopeful son in tones of high delight, the feeling proper to express before a new acquaintance of my quality. 'Curse the religion of these flies! It is extremely hot! exclaimed the chief in momentary irritation.
Who, under Allah, could feel love for such a man? Though the reason of our coming, the Sheykh Yûsuf, had deserted us, we rode into the town and spent the night there, finding lodgings at a khan upon the outskirts of the place, of which the yard was shaded by a fine old carob tree.
Now, in an Arab tribe, when the Sheykh dies, the elders of the tribe, heads of its great houses and sections, assemble in one of their number's tent and, sitting in a circle, discuss the subject of his succession.
'They do not love the Sheykh Huseyn, who is a miser and a hypocrite. They say, please God, we shall humiliate him to the very depth of shame. He spoke as if we were at war, and within sight of victory, as if we were already settled in the place. And I was glad, because it augured well for my content if I should buy the place, which I was now resolved to do if I could anyhow afford it.
Their government is patriarchal, each tribe being ruled by its sheykh, the "father of his children," who administers their code of honour or justice, and whose decision is always implicitly obeyed.
The Sheykh Huseyn implored us to return to luncheon at his house, protesting that he had commanded a great feast to be prepared; but the chief declared we were too busy to allow ourselves that pleasure. As we were then some way below the village, we did not go back thither, but rode off along a path through orchards till we found the road to the ravine.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking