File:Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra, the edom of the prophesis (1836) (14779114884).jpg

Identifier: gri_000033125009344702 (find matches)
Title: Journey through Arabia Petraea, to Mount Sinai, and the excavated city of Petra, the edom of the prophesis
Year: 1836 (1830s)
Authors: Laborde, Léon, marquis de, 1807-1869 Murray, John, 1778-1843, publisher Spottiswoode, Andrew, printer Day & Haghe, lithographer
Subjects: Fouilles (Archéologie)
Publisher: London : John Murray, Albemarle Street
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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great solidity : eachkind of provision has its pur-veyor. The bake-house and dis-tillery are still kept up upon alarge scale. The best bread is ofthe finest quality ; but a secondand third sort is made for theBedouins who are fed by the con-vent. In the distillery they makebrandy from dates, which is theonly solace these recluses enjoy,and in this they are permitted toindulge even during the fasts. Most of the monks are na-tives of the Greek islands: ingeneral they do not remain morethan four or five years, when theyreturn to their own country, proudof having been sufferers amongBedouins; some, however, havebeen here forty years. A few ofthem only understood Arabic ; butnone of them write or read it.Being of the lower orders of so-ciety, and educated only in con-vents, they are extremely ignorant.Few of them read even the modernGreek fluently, excepting in theirprayer-books, and I found butone who had any notion of theancient Greek. They have a goodlibrary, but it is always shut up ;
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■ ■ -i HistnajrU^IS^i GRAND MOSAIC. c>$5 and more especially the fine mosaic which em-bellishes the vault, beneath which the relics of St.Catharine are preserved. It is the narrowest part of it contains about fifteen hundredGreek volumes, and seven hundredArabic manuscripts; the latter,which 1 examined volume aftervolume, consist entirely of booksof prayer, copies of the Gospels,lives of saints, liturgies, &c. ; athick folio volume of the works ofLokman, edited, according to theArab tradition, by Hormus, theancient king of Egypt, was theonly one worth attention. Theprior would not permit it to betaken away, but he made me apresent of a fine copy of the Al-dine Odyssey, and an equally fineone of the Anthology. In theroom anciently the residence ofthe Archbishop, which is very ele-gantly paved with marble, andextremely well furnished, thoughat present unoccupied, is pre-served a beautiful ancient manu-script of the Gospels in Greek,which I was told was given tothe convent by

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