[p.153]killed the Emir and his son in the castle, and then fell upon the Ismaylys who had remained in their houses, sparing no one they could find, and plundering at the same time the whole town. On the following day the Anzeyrys were joined by great numbers of their countrymen, which proved that their pretended emigration had been a deep-laid plot; and the circumstance of its being kept secret for three months by so great a number of them, serves to shew the character of the people. About three hundred Ismaylys perished on this occasion; the families who had escaped in the sack of the town, fled to Hamah, Homs, and Tripoli, and their treacherous enemies successfully attacked three other Ismayly castles in the mountain. The Ismaylys then implored the protection of Youssef Pasha, at that time governor of Damascus, who marched with four or five thousand men against the Anzeyrys, retook the castles which had belonged to the Ismaylys, but kept the whole of the plunder of the Anzeyrys to himself. This castle of Maszyad, with a garrison of forty men, resisted his whole army for three months. In 1810, after Youssef Pasha had been exiled by the Porte, the Ismaylys who had fled to Hamah, Homs, and Tripoli returned, and Maszyad is now inhabited by about two hundred and fifty Ismayly families, and by thirty of Christians. The chief, who resides in the castle, is styled Emir; his name is Zogheby [Arabic], of the family of Soleiman; he informed me that his family had been possessors of the Emirship from remote times, and that they are recognised as such by express Firmahns from the Porte; Zogherby is a nephew of Mustafa, the Emir who was slain by the Anzeyrys. Some of his relations command in the Ismayly castles of El Kadmous, El Kohf, El Aleyka, and El Merkah, in the mountains towards Ladakie. After what has lately taken place, it [p.154]extreme: they are, apparently, at peace, but many secret murders are committed: "Do you suppose," said a handsome young man to me, while his eyes flashed with anger, "that these whiskers shall turn gray before I shall have taken my revenge for a slaughtered wife and two infant children?" But the Ismaylys are weak; I do not think that they can muster eight hundred fire-locks, while the Anzeyrys are triple that number. The principal produce of the neighbourhood of Maszyad is silk. They have large plantations of mulberry trees, which are watered by numerous rivulets descending on all sides from the mountain into the valley; and as few of them dry up in summer, this must be a delightful residence during the hot season. There are three or four Ismayly villages in the neighbourhood of Maszyad.