(6) Present Condition. Syria is now one of the divisions of Asiatic Turkey, and contains about sixty thousand square miles. The popu lation is estimated at about 2,000,000, and consists of a very mixed race, including many wander ing tribes of Bedouins, poorly governed. In re ligion the people are Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians of various churches. The American missionaries have been very successful in estab lishing missions and churches, and Protestant missionary societies in Europe also have pros perous missions in the country. The language usually spoken is the Arabic. Syria has great natural resources, and, under a good government, it would have a promising future.
(7) Inhabitants, etc. Under Syrians proper are usually, classed all the descendants of the people who spoke Aramaic at the beginning of the Christian era, except the Jews. The Aramaic language has been displaced by the Arabic, the former being spoken in only a few (perhaps three) villages of Antilibanus. Some Greeks have recently settled in the country, but there are few, if any, descendants of those Greeks who settled in Syria during the supremacy of the Eu ropeans, which extended over nearly one thousand years. The Arabians are of two classes—the set tlers in towns, and the Bedouins, or nomadic tribes. The latter are professed Muslims, living a half savage life, dwelling in tents and preying upon the traveler, the settled inhabitants, and not infrequently upon one another. The Bedouin
regards with great scrupulosity the law of hos pitality, and protects a guest for three days after his departure from his camp, if he has been hospitably received. There are many small tribes of these nomadic Arabs, and they are generally at war with each other or have deadly blood feuds existing among them, rendering it unsafe to travel within any region over which they roam. About four-fifths of the whole population of Syria are believed to be Muslims and followers of Mohammed.
The Roman Catholic or Latin Church in chides several sects. Among them are the Ma ronites and the European monks. The Maronite population of Lebanon alone is upward of 200. 000. They live by agriculture, silk culture, and raising cattle. The Jews in Syria, and espe cially Palestine, are rapidly increasing, though they still form only a small fraction of the entire population in any section of the country. Syria has not been very thoroughly or scientific ally explored, and the ruins and inscrip tions, as those at Hamath. when investigated thoroughly, may hereafter throw much clearer light upon its early history. (Schaff, Bib. Diet.)