Excerpt from Damascus and Its People: Sketches of Modern Life in Syria Damascus is one of the very few ancient cities of the world that still retain anything of their former greatness. Nineveh and Babylon are buried in ruins, and Tyre is w a small fishing village; but Damascus, boasting of an antiquity of 4,000 years, is still a prosperous city, with a large, industrious and lively population. It has associations with great names in the past, and a busy, stirring life in the present; it is a city of ancient art and of modem activity, peopled by men of various races and of various creeds, in themselves a study of more abiding interest than the 'blades, ' the 'damasks' and the 'roses' with which the name of Damascus is commonly connected. It is with the present that this little volume is mainly occupied. No attempt has been made to give any historical sketch of this long-surviving city; my chief desire has been to awaken fresh interest in its present inhabitants, with many of whom a residence of seven years in Damascus has given me opportunities of forming an intimate acquaintance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.