rapacious than the Turks, and several insurrections took place in IMount Lebanon and various districts of Syria in 1834. The presence of Mohammed Ali himself, with large reinforcements, suppressed for a moment the spirit of disaffection, and in the following year the Druses and Christians of Lebanon were disarmed. Groimd down, however, by the utmost tyranny, the Sj'rians again revolted in 1837; they were chastised by Ibra- him, and again reduced to subjection. In 1840, in con- sequence of a treaty between England, Russia, Austria, aud Prussia, the seaport towns of Syria were bombarded by a British squadron ; and, the F^gyptians being com- pelled to evacuate the whole of Syria, the supremacy of the Turks was once more established over the country, which they have ever since held.
VII. Literature. — See, in general, Smith, Diet, of Class. Geofj. s. v. ; M'Cullough, Geog. Diet. s. v. On the geography, see Pococke, Description of the East, ii, 88-209 ; Burckhardt, Travels in Syi'ia and the Holy Land, p. 1-309; Robinson, Later Biblical Researches, p. 419-625; Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 403-414; Por- ter, Five Years in Damascus ; Ainsworth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand, p. 57-70; Researches, etc., p. 290 sq. ; Wortabet, The Syrians (Lond. 1856); Chesney, Euphrates Expedition; Thomson, in the £i- hliotheca Sacra, vol. v ; Burton and Drake, Unexplored Syria (Lond. 1872). On the history under the Seleu- cidiB, see (besides the original sources) Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, vol. iii. Appendix iii, p. 308-346 ; Gardner, Se- leucid Coins (Lond. 1878) ; Vaillant, Imperium Seleuci- dannn (Par. 1681); Frolich, Annales Rerum et Regum Syrice (Vien. 1744) ; and Flathe, Gesch. Macedon. (Leips. 1834). On the history under the Romans, see Nori- sius, Cenotaphia Pisana, in 0pp. iii, 424-531 ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc. On the modern history and con- dition, see Castille, La Syrie sous Mehemet Ali; Bow- ring, Report on Syria ; Ritter, Syrien und Paldst. ; Murray and Biideker, Syria and Palest.
SYRIA, Missions in. The origin of the Syrian mis- sion dates back as far as 1823. When the two American missionaries Bird and Goodell arrived in that year, the civil and the social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine were such that these gentlemen were advised to make Beirvit the centre of their operations. Soon several English missionaries were added to the Protestant force at that time, and the papal Church became thor- oughly alarmed. Letters were addressed from Rome to the different patriarchs to render, if possible, the under- taking of the missionaries ineffectual. The letters were answered by the anathemas against the " Bible men ;" yet, notwithstanding all this, the missionaries took a hopeful view of tlieir prospects, and commenced schools in 1824 at Beirut. The first was a mere class of six Arab children, taught daily bj' the wives of the mis- sionaries. Soon an Arab teacher was engaged, and be- fore the year ended the pupils had increased to fifty. In 1827 tliey had alreadj- 600 children in thirteen schools, and more than 100 of these pupils were girls. That the Romish ecclesiastics were hostile to these schools need not be mentioned. The troubles which commenced in 1826 with the invasion of the Greeks, and the constant apprehension of an approaching war, made it necessary to suspend the mission for a time, which happened in the year 1828, and thus the first pe- riod in the Syrian mission closed. The second period commences with the year 1830, when the station at Beirut was resumed. In 1834 an Arabic press arrived at Beirut, which proved a great help in the mission- work, especially in the controversy which Mr. Bird had with the papal bishop of Beirut, In 1835 a high-school was commenced, but missionary work was impeded by the wars of Lebanon. These troubles lasted till the year 1842. In the year 1844 the missionaries held a convention, the result of which was that it was recog- nised as a fact of fundamental importance that the peo- ple within the bounds of the mission were Arabs, wheth- er called Greeks, Greek Catholics, Druses, or Maronites,
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