Nablus is the very furnace of Mahometan bigotry; and I believe that
only a few months before the time of my going there it would have
been quite unsafe for a man, unless strongly guarded, to show
himself to the people of the town in a Frank costume; but since
their last insurrection the Mahometans of the place had been so far
subdued by the severity of Ibrahim Pasha, that they dared not now
offer the slightest insult to an European. It was quite plain,
however, that the effort with which the men of the old school
refrained from expressing their opinion of a hat and a coat was
horribly painful to them. As I walked through the streets and
bazaars a dead silence prevailed; every man suspended his
employment, and gazed on me with a fixed, glassy look, which seemed
to say, "God is good, but how marvellous and inscrutable are His
ways that thus He permits this white-faced dog of a Christian to
hunt through the paths of the faithful."
The insurrection of these people had been more formidable than any
other that Ibrahim Pasha had to contend with. He was only able to
crush them at last by the assistance of a fellow renowned for his
resources in the way of stratagem and cunning, as well as for his
knowledge of the country.
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