Syria: An Economic Survey 



1% million form the urban population and 2% million the 

 rural population, that is, the population living in villages and 

 tents. In the smaller towns as well as in the villages a large 

 number of the inhabitants are farmers and are to be considered as 

 part of the rural population. 



With the exception of Aleppo and Damascus practically all 

 the Syrian cities and towns developed only in the nineteenth 

 century, especially after 1880. 



1880 1915 



Beirut 80,000 200,000 



Jaffa 10,000 40,000 



Alexandretta 2,000 12,000 



Jerusalem 35,000 80,000 



Density* of Population. 



Vilayet of Aleppo 15 to the square kilometer 



Vilayet of Damascus 13 " " " " 



Vilayet of Beirut 34 " " " " 



Mutessariflik of Jerusalem 25 " " " " 



Mutessariflik of Lebanon 159 " " " " 



Religion. The predominant religion of Syria is Islam, em- 

 bracing about 4/5 of the total population. There are about % 

 million Christians of various sects, especially in the Lebanon, and 

 in Beirut, Nazareth, Bethlehem, etc., where they form the majority 

 of the population, and also in Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem, etc. 

 The Jews of Syria number about 115,000 souls, concentrated in 

 Jerusalem (45,000, 60 per cent of total population), Aleppo 

 (15,000), Damascus (10,000), Beirut (5,000), Safed (8,000), 

 Tiberias (4,000), Jaffa (10,000), Haifa (3,000), Hebron (1,000), 

 Sidon (500), and about 40 agricultural colonies in Palestine. 



Language. The language of the country is the so-called 

 Syrian dialect of Arabic. Turkish is the official language, spoken 

 by government officials and the more cultured classes, as well as 

 by part of the population in the district between Aleppo and 

 Asia Minor. The Jews speak either Arabic, Spaniolish (Ladino), 

 or Judeo-German, according to their origin, in addition to Hebrew 

 which is known to almost all. French is spoken by the upper 

 classes in the coast towns, and German in Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, 

 and the German colonies. 



The population Is very unevenly distributed. 



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