第10章 DAMASCUS AND LONDON (II) 大马士革和伦敦（II）

Our cities are filled and ornamented with hotels, coffee-houses, hospitals, work-houses, prisons, and similar conspicuous buildings. Generally speaking, there are none of these in the East. Hospitals and institutions for the sick and the poor were the offspring of Christianity, and are, I am inclined to think, peculiar to Christian lands.

There are few prisons in the East, and these are very wretched. Imprisonment as a punishment is little practiced,and is altogether unsuited to the Mohammedan law and mode of thinking. Life is not so sacred as with us. It is urged that if a man deserves to be confined as a dangerous member of society, he deserves to die;society will never miss him, and some expense will be spared: “Off with his head;— so much for Buckingham.”

Hence in Damascus, and in the East generally, people are not liable to the reproach which is sometimes brought against us — that the best house in the county is the jail. Besides, in the East, punishment follows crime instantaneously. The judge, the mufti, the prisoner, and the executioner, are all in the court at the same time. As soon as the sentence is delivered, the back is made bare, the donkey is ready (for perjury, in Damascus, the man rides through the city with his face to the tail), or the head falls, according to the crime, in the presence of all the people. Awful severity, and the rapidity of lightning, are the principles of their laws; nor do they deem it necessary to make the exact and minute distinctions of crime that we do. The object is to prevent crime, and this is most effectually done by the principle of terror and the certainty of immediate punishment.

A certain baker in Constantinople used false weights in selling his bread: the Sultan ordered him to be roasted alive in his own oven, and afterwards boasted that this one act of severity had effectually prevented all similar crimes. Here you see the principle of government in the East; — it is nothing but terror and religious fanaticism.

As to coffee-houses, there are plenty of them in Damascus; but they can hardly be called houses, much less palaces: they are open courts with fountains of water, sheltered from the sun; and in many cases they have little stools, some six inches high, on which, if you do not prefer the ground, you can rest while you enjoy your sherbet, coffee, and tobacco. Pipes, nargilies, ices, eau sucre, sherbet, and fruits of all kinds, are in abundance, and of the lowest possible price.

These cafes are very quiet: there is no excitement, no reading of newspapers, no discussion of politics and religion; no fiery demagogue or popular orator to mislead the people; no Attic wit provokes a smile, and no bold repartee calls forth applauding laughter on the other side. But yet they have their own amusements, and they play earnestly at games both of chance and of skill. The traveller tells his escapes and dangers to an admiring little circle; the story-teller repeats one of the“Thousand and One Nights” to a wondering audience; and if memory fails, the imagination, fertile as an oriental spring, gupplies its boundless stores.

We have in the East great khans, but they bear little relation to our hotels. Ring, eat, and pay, is not the law in the East.They have no bells in Damascus, nor even the silver call or whistle which our grandmothers used in England. Bells in churches and in houses are alike an abomination to the Moslems; and the Maronites alone, by permission of the Government, have a right to use them.

The Khan in Damascus is a large circular building surmounted by a noble dome, in which the great merchants have their goods and wares of all kinds; and in which the traveller can find a resting-place for himself and his camels, and be supplied with water from the central fountain; — but there are no tables spread for the travellers, and no beds ready made for the weary pilgrims: you must find your dinner as you best can, make your own bed, and when you rise, take it up, and walk. The Khan is, however, a very noble building, and excites not a little astonishment among the Orientals.

In European cities your attention is arrested by book-shops, pictures, placards, caricatures, &c.; now in Damascus we have nothing of the sort. Among the Jews you may find a few miserable stalls, from which you may pick up a copy of the Talmud, or some old rabbinical prayer-book. The sheikh who sold me the Koran, laid his hand upon his neck, and told me to be silent, for were it known that he had done so, he might lose his head. In the schools they are taught only to read the Koran, and to master the simplest elements of arithmetic and writing.

Men of letters there are at present none, and the highest of their sciences is the knowledge of grammar. When I lived in Damascus, some wit (the first thing of the kind known) uttered a pun or squib reflecting on the corpulency of the pasha, and he was banished for it! The old observation of the caliph, as he fired the Alexandrian library, holds true in the East still — “If the books agree with the Koran, they are useless; if they oppose it, they are pernicious; and in both cases they are unnecessary.”

“But has not Damascus one hundred thousand inhabitants?” says the traveller.“Where are their newspapers, spreading light and knowledge through a portion of the sixty millions who use the noble Arabic language? Take me to the office of some Oriental Sun,Times,Globe,or Morning Chronicle.”

There is no such thing. Even in Constantinople there is only one newspaper, and the one half of it is in Turkish, and the other in French! Tyranny and superstition, like two monstrous mill-stones, rest upon and compress the energies of the oriental nations; even Greece, the fountain of science and literary and mental activity, was for a time blotted from the rank of nations, and the inquisitive character of its people all but annihilated by the stern rule of the Turks…….

But there is another great difference between the general appearance of London and of Damascus, namely, in the eastern city you see not the bright, joyous countenance of woman — she is deeply veiled. In Egypt she is enveloped from head to foot in a dark, and in Syria in a white sheet, which effectually obliterates all traces of shape, absolutely equalizes to the eye all ranks, ages, and conditions, and suggests to the beholder the idea of a company of ghosts……

Conceive now how ludicrous the streets of London would appear, if green, white, black, and gray turbans moved indiscriminately, instead of the present hats;and if all the ladies, walking or on donkeys, instead of the present varieties of showy dress, beautiful bonnets, and smiling faces, presented only the appearance of headless ghosts clothed in white!

As to the general motion and life,the difference is immense between Damascus and a western city. Let us glance for a moment at two streets, and compare them:—

1.In Damascus there is more openness and publicity.The tradesmen of every kind work in the open bazaars; many of the merchants and artisans dine in public— that is, eat their bread and oil, bread and honey, or bread and grapes, in the street where they work. All are smoking, without exception, in the intervals of business. Some are engaged in reading the Koran, swinging their bodies to and fro in the most earnest and violent manner. Some are sleeping calmly, with the long pipe in their mouth! There a butcher is killing a sheep, surrounded by a circle of hungry, expectant dogs. Yonder is a company engaged at a game of skill. Everything is done in the open air, and nothing seems to be concealed but the ladies.

2. In the eastern city there is much more quiet. Their manners are sober, formal, and stately; arising partly, I believe, from the famous and universal dogma of obedience. There is, indeed, hardly any other law. The subject, the wife, the son, the slave obeys: to hear is to obey. This principle of unhesitating, unquestioning obedience leads to quiet. There is no contradiction. There is nothing to talk about. There is nothing like politics. There is no public opinion, of course; for that is upon private opinion, and determined, resolute will. This extraordinary quiet and solemnity of demeanour may rise partly, also, from a sense of danger. Every man has arms, and has the right both of wearing and of using them: and no man makes a journey, be it only to a neighbouring village, without sword and pistols. Now this tends to quiet, earnest, solemn manners. If a scuffle takes place, it is not a black eye or a bloody face that is the result, but the certain death of some of the parties; and hence they are taught the principle of self-restraint and moral control……

3. The Arabs, and Orientals in general, sit much more than we do. The tradesmen all sit at their work: the smith, the carpenter, and the merchant, the butcher, the joiner, and the spice-monger, sit quietly and transact their business. They sit as tailors do, cross-legged, but with their feet doubled in beneath them. They sit on their feet, and maintain that such is the most natural and easy position! They seem to have no pleasure in motion: no man goes out to take a walk; no man moves for the sake of exercise.They go out,as they say,to s mell the air,by some spreading tree or fountain of water. And yet they are capable of enduring great and long-continued labour. Abu Mausur travelled with us nearly forty days, during which we rode at the rate of from six to eighteen hours a day; and yet, though never upon a horse, he was always with us at the requisite time and place. He performed the journey on foot, and was rarely far behind.

Take, then, these things together, and you will easily perceive that in the city of Damascus everything is still and calm as the unclouded sky and the balmy air.The hoof of the camel falls noiselessly on the unpaved street; the sheep-skin foot-gloves of the Damascenes make no sound; and all the movements, both of men and of animals, are slow and solemn.

— Rev. Dr. Graham

Words

abomination,object of disgust.

amusements,entertainments.

annihilated,extinguished.

applauding,approving.

astonishment,wonder.

corpulency,fatness.

demean our,deportment.

distinction,discrimination.

dogme,Maxim,law.

effectually,thoroughly.

enduring,undergoing.

engaged,occupied.

excitement,stir.

expectant,waiting.

hospitals,infirmaries.

inclined,disposed.

indiscriminately,confusedly.

inquisitive,prying.

instantaneously,immediately.

ludicrous,ridiculous.

obliterates,destroys.

perjury,false swearing.

permission,sanction.

pernicious,mischievous.

principle,rule.

reflecting,animadverting.

reproach,censure.

sheltered,protected.

similar,of the same na.

solemnity,gravity ture.

superstition,fanaticism.

transact,discharge.

unsuited,inappropriate.

Questions

Of what public buildings are eastern cities generally destitute? Why are there few prisons in the East? What is the object of their penal system? How do they attain it? Describe the appearance of a Damascus coffee-house. What is a khan? What are the children taught in the schools? How is the absence of newspapers to be explained? How do women go about in Damascus? In comparing two streets, one in London, the other in Damascus, what three points of difference would be most noticeable?

在我们的城市里，遍布酒店、咖啡屋、医院、工厂、监狱和类似显眼的建筑，它们同时也装饰了我们的城市。一般来说，这些在东方世界都是不存在的。医院及为病人和穷人而设置的机构是基督教的产物，我倾向于认为，这些是基督教国家所特有的。

在东方，很少有监狱，即使有也都几乎形同虚设。作为惩罚的监禁在东方很少执行，并且是完全不适应伊斯兰教法和思维方式的。他们的生活并不像我们这样。人们都认为，一个危险的社会成员应该受到限制，应该被处死；社会永远不会怀念他，有些代价也将不能幸免：“砍掉他的头——在白金汉宫是这样的。”

因此，在大马士革和普遍的东方世界一样，人们有时不应因为对我们提出的羞辱而负责，一个国家最好的房子就是监狱。此外，在东方，处罚和犯罪几乎同时进行。法官、法学家、囚犯和刽子手，都同时出现在法庭上。判决一旦交付，囚犯的后背会被脱光，驴子也会准备好（在大马士革，犯伪证罪的人，会被罚脸面对着驴子的尾巴，骑行穿城而过，或依据他所犯的罪行，在所有人面前被砍头示众。）可怕的严重程度以及闪电般的快速决断，是他们的法律原则；他们也不认为有必要确定犯罪之间精确和微小的区别，就像我们一样。他们这样做的目的是通过最有效的恐惧和惩罚的确定性原则，来防止犯罪。

某个面包师在君士坦丁堡以虚假的重量销售他的面包：皇帝就会下令，他将在他自己的烤箱中被活活烤死，事后再吹嘘这一行为的严重性。这样可以有效地阻止所有类似的罪行。通过这件事情，你可以看到在东方国家，政府的运行原则，仅在于恐怖和宗教狂热。

至于咖啡屋，在大马士革有很多；但它们也很难被称为房子，更不用说是宫殿了：他们是带有流水喷泉的开放庭院，处在太阳光线的隐蔽处；而且在许多咖啡屋里几乎没有凳子，如果你不喜欢坐在地上，你可以休息在大约六英寸高的地方，享受你的果子露、咖啡和烟草。烟斗、水烟斗、冰块、淡苏克雷、果子露，还有各种水果，在这里都十分充足，价格也极其低廉。

这些咖啡馆都非常安静：没有令人兴奋的事件，没有人读报，没有人讨论政治和宗教，没有狂热的煽动者或流行的演说者在这里误导民众，没有智者的话语挑逗其他人大笑，也没有大胆的辩论者让对方鼓掌欢呼。但是，他们有自己特有的娱乐方式，他们认真地玩游戏，机遇和技巧是他们的两大法宝。一名旅客会对着一小圈围在他周围显露出崇拜目光的听众，讲述他的逃逸和危险的故事。说书人对着许多好奇的听众一遍一遍地重复着“一千零一夜”的故事。如果他的记忆力减退，想象力却如东方的春天一样蓬勃，他就会无穷无尽地讲述他的故事。

在东方，我们会见到很多小客栈，但它们与我们这里的酒店似乎没有多大关系。摇铃，吃饭，付钱，这不是东方世界的规矩。在大马士革，你根本听不到铃声，甚至也没有银勺子敲击的声音或口哨声，就像我们英国的祖母做的那样。在教堂和房间里，钟声意味着对穆斯林的憎恶；只有马龙派教徒在政府的许可之下，有权使用它们。

大马士革的客栈是一个巨大的圆形建筑，最上方是一个壮观的圆顶，其中放置着许多商家自己的各种商品和器皿；而旅客可以在这里找到一个安身之处，中央喷泉可以为他和他的骆驼提供水源；但这里没有供旅客休息驻足的桌子，也没有为疲惫的朝圣者准备床铺：你必须自己准备晚餐，自己铺床，当你起床后，要将床支起，然后离开。然而，客栈是一种非常尊贵的建筑，对于东方人来说，它引起的不仅仅是一点兴奋的感受。

在欧洲的城市里，你的注意力可能会被书店、图片、标语、漫画等事物所吸引。然而，在大马士革，根本不是这回事。在犹太人中间，你可能会发现一些惨淡的摊位，从中你可以挑出一本犹太法典的副本，或者一些古老的犹太教的祈祷书。卖给我一本《古兰经》的酋长，把他的手放在他的脖子上，告诉我不要作声，因为如果有人知道他这样做，他可能会被砍头杀死。在他们的学校里，人们接受教育只能读《古兰经》，并掌握最简单的元素，那就是算术和写作。

迄今为止，那里还没有能读书识字的人。而那里，最高深的科学是语法知识。当我住在大马士革时，一些智者（类似事件的第一件）说出一个关于帕夏的肥胖病的双关语、嘲讽的话，很快他就被驱逐了！老国王焚烧了亚历山大图书馆，而他在东方拥有真正的权威。他说：“如果这些书与《可兰经》表达的意见相同，它们就是无用的；如果它们胆敢反对，它们就是有害的；而在这两种情况下，它们都是不必要的。”

“但大马士革不是拥有十万居民吗？”旅客会问。“哪里有他们的报纸，可以在这六千万高贵的阿拉伯语使用者中的一部分人群中，传播光明和知识？谁能带我找到东方的《太阳报》《泰晤士报》《环球时报》或《纪事晨报》?”

我没有见到这样的事情。即使在君士坦丁堡，也只有一种报纸，而它的一半是在土耳其，另一半在法国！专制和迷信，就像两个怪异磨石，倚靠和压缩着东方国家的能源；甚至希腊这个科学、文学和心理活动的源泉，也有一段时间从国家的排名中被抹去，而它的人民所特有的好学的特性，也因土耳其人的规则而彻底泯灭了……

在大马士革和伦敦的普遍外观之间，还存在另一个巨大的区别，那就是，在东方的城市中，你看不到女人明亮、快乐的面容——她们的脸庞都深藏在面纱之下。在埃及，她们甚至从头到脚都包裹在深色的面纱之中。在叙利亚，女性则包裹在白色的蔓布之中，这有效地抹杀了任何她们身材的痕迹，而且让人们看到了绝对相同的阶层、年龄和生活条件……

设想一下，如果这样的街道出现在伦敦；如果绿色、白色、黑色和灰色的头巾到处移动，而不是现在我们这样的帽子；如果所有的女士，无论是走路或是骑在驴子上，不穿着多姿多彩的绚丽礼服，戴着美丽的头巾，显露出面带微笑的面孔，而是呈现出白色纱幔下无头的幽魂；这些场景，会是多么可笑！

至于一般化的运动和生命，大马士革和西方城市之间的不同也是巨大的。我们可以花片刻的时间瞥一眼两座城市的两条街道，并加以比较：

1.在大马士革有着更多的开放性和公众性。经营各种物品的商人都在露天集市做买卖，很多商人和工匠都在公共场合吃饭：也就是说，他们在他们工作的街道上吃面包和黄油、面包和蜂蜜，或者面包和葡萄。没有例外，所有人都在生意的间隔时间内吸烟。一些人会平静地睡着，口哨就在他们的嘴里含着！一个屠夫在杀一只羊，四周就会围着一圈饥肠辘辘、充满期待的狗。在街道的那边，一群人正在探讨游戏的技巧。这一切都是在户外进行，除了女士们，似乎没有什么是隐藏着的。

2.东方的城市安静得多。当地人的举止清醒、正式、庄重；我相信，这种现象的一部分原因是对著名的和普遍教条的服从。事实上，这里几乎不存在任何其他律法。归属物、妻子、儿子、奴隶都服从于此：听到便要服从。毫不犹豫的、无条件地服从，就会带来这样的安静。这里不存在矛盾。没有什么可谈论的。不存在政治。当然也不存在公众舆论；因为公众舆论是基于私人的意见而存在的，而且是坚决的、坚定的意志。这非凡的安静，庄严的神态可能一部分也来自于危险感。每个人都拥有武器，并有权佩戴、使用它们；没有人不佩戴着剑和手枪去旅行，即使只是去一个邻近的村子。如今，这些都带来了安静的、认真的、严肃的举止。如果混战发生，黑眼圈或血肉模糊的脸并不会是混战的结果，而一定是某些当事人的死亡；因此，他们学会了自我约束和道德控制的原则……

3.阿拉伯人和一般的东方人一样，比我们坐着的时候要多得多。商贩在工作的时候都是坐着的：铁匠、木匠、商人、屠夫、木匠和香料贩子，都静静地坐着，做着他们的生意。他们的坐姿像极了裁缝，盘着双腿，双脚重叠着放在双腿之下。他们坐在自己的脚上，认为这是最自然和简单的姿势！他们似乎在运动中没有什么乐趣：没有人出去散步；没有人为了锻炼而活动。他们走出去，正如他们所说的，在一些青翠的树下或喷泉周围去“呼吸空气”。然而，他们能够承受巨大的和长期持续的劳动。阿布·毛瑟与我们一起行进了近四十天，在此期间，我们以每天6至18个小时的速度骑行，然而，他虽然从未骑过马，他总是在必要的时间和地点跟得上我们。他一直是徒步前进，并很少落后于我们。

那么，将所有这些混杂在一起思考，你会很容易察觉到，在大马士革，一切都像万里无云的天空和温暖的空气一样安详、平静。骆驼的蹄子无声地落在了尚未铺砌的街道之上；大马士革人做成的绵羊皮脚套也完全不会发出任何声音；所有动物和人类的动作，都是如此的缓慢而庄重。

——雷夫·格雷厄姆