قصة الكتاب :
by Isabel Burton This book contains little History, Geography, or Politics; no Science, Ethnography, Botany, Geology, Zoology, Mineralogy, or Antiquities. Exploration and the harder travels, such as the Tullul es Safa the Hauran, the Leja'a, the Alah, and other wilder parts of Syria, have been described by Captain Burton and myself in "Unexplored Syria ; " but for all that, this book contains things women will like to know. I have followed my husband everywhere, gleaning only woman's lore, and I hope that the daily jottings of my private journal will yield a sketch of the inner life of the Holy Land in general, and of Damascus in particular. I wish to convey an idea of the life which an Englishwoman may make for herself in the East. In so doing I have found it difficult to avoid being too personal, or egotistical, or too frank, but I do not know how to tell my story in any other way, and I hope that in exchange for my experiences my readers will be indulgent. I have been often accused of writing as if it were intended as an address for the Royal Geographical Society, that is, in a 2'Mas^'-professional way. I conclude that this happened because I always wrote with and for my husband, and under his direction. This is my first in- dependent publication, and I try the experiment of writing as if viii Preface. talking with friends. I hope not to err too much the other way, and, in throwing off the usual rules of authorship, to gain by amusing and interesting those who read me, what I may lose in style. The British reading public, nay, all the world, likes personal detail. I trust, therefore, that they will excuse the incessant Ego of one who was only allowed to take a part in the events which happened during our residence in Syria ; and if this book proves to be the humble instrument that launches and prospers any one of my philanthropic projects for the Land of my heart, I shall have lived for some good purpose, and when I lie upon my death-bed I shall not be haunted by that nightmare thought—" I have never been of any use." Isabel Burton.rn14, Montague Place, Montague Square, London, April, 1875.