522 
Christians celebrate their marriages with more pomp 
than the Mussulmen. 
During the nights of the Ramadan the mosques and 
streets are illuminated, the people come and go, but all 
is tranquil, and there is no noise of any kind. With the 
exception of this, I do not believe that the inhabitants 
of Damascus have any public festival of consequence. 
Notwithstanding the advancement of civilization in 
this city, and though the subsistence of the greater part 
of the population depends upon the manufacture and 
commerce of linen and silks with which they are almost 
all dressed, there was a numerous party which wished 
for the arrival of the Wehhabites.* They are, however, 
aware that these sectaries consider the use of silk, to- 
bacco, &c. to be sinful, and that by their religious prin- 
ciples they would raise insurmountable obstacles to 
manufactures and commerce. 
The government of the city of Damascus, and a large 
extent of country to the south, as far as Halil or Hebron, 
beyond Jerusalem, and northward to the neighbourhood 
of Aleppo, is in the hands of a Pacha of the Grand 
Seignior, who, as well by the extent of his govern, 
ment, as by the noble charge of the safe conduct of the 
great caravan to Meeca every year, under the title of 
Emir-el-Hadj, or Prince of the Pilgrimage, enjoys the 
highest consideration at court, and is looked upon as 
one of the first dignitaries of the Ottoman empire. 
The fixed revenues of this pachalik are estimated at 
four thousand purses or five millions of francs; but the 
imports, presents, and concessions, increase the sum 
* Yet when the Wehhabites approached the city subsequently 
to the visit of Ali Bey, the inhabitants defended it with courage. 
(Note of the Editor.) 
