44-2 



T H E X A TTO X A I . G EOG R A P H f C M A G A Z I X K 



MECCA I'lI.CKI.MS I'KO.M CENTRA!, 



ASIA PREPARING 

 AT BEIRUT 



■-■_■ -• 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 

 TO COOK THEIR EVENING MEAL 



Beirut was the chief Mohammedan pilgrim port of Syria before the World War. and 

 when the pilgrimage was over and the travelers returned to this city to embark for the Black 

 Sea ports and Central .Asia, the wharf and all the vacant lots in the vicinity were filled with 

 strange types. These Sarts from Samarkand, with their inevitable teapot and copper kettle. 

 have camped-out here in a way that comes natural to the semi-nomad. The son and pride 

 of the family seems most affected, for he has substituted the Turkish tarboosh for the Central 

 Asian skull-cap. 



(«ivc the Turk credit for something. 

 When he smashed his way to the gates 

 of Vienna he started European greatness. 

 When he spread unrest in Syria he drove 

 Columbus across the Atlantic and Vasco 

 da Gama around the Cape. 



The Turk robbed Syria of greatness 

 for three hundred years. Then came de 

 Lesseps. When he opened the Suez 

 Canal the world thought that Syria 

 would henceforth be a wallflower among 

 the nations. 



