Damascus house reminds of a British woman's love story
Syria, History, 4/24/1999

In a lecture she recently delivered in Damascus in April, renowned British biography researcher Mary Lovell told the story of the British aristocrat Jane Dibgy and the Syrian Bedouin el-Mezrab.

She said that Dibgy came to Damascus in 1853 when she was 46 years old. She was the daughter of an aristocratic family. As a child, she lived in a palatial house which is still one of the grandest stately homes in England. Despite the fact that she was very beautiful and very rich she had had a rather unhappy life, and had been married and divorced three times. In fact, it was probably because she was beautiful, and rich that she inevitably attracted the attentions of the wrong sort of men.

When she planned to visit Syria it was to buy Arabian horses for the man she planned to marry as her fourth husband, but after she discovered that he was being unfaithful to her she broke off the engagement and decided to spend several months in Syria. She was a proficient artists and she decided she would like to see and sketch some of the ancient sites, many of which -Palmyra for example- had only recently become known to Europeans. Her guide to Palmyra was Sheikh Medjeulel-Mezrab.

The Mezrabis were one of the smaller tribes of the Anazeh Bedouins. For centuries the Mezrab tribe had escorted travellers and caravans on the road from Damascus to Palmyra and as they were the only people who knew the sites of the wells there and there was not a lot of competition for the job.

Medjeul was twenty years younger, he was only 26, young enough to be her son, but nevertheless they fell in love. Surprisingly, however, it was a very successful match. At first of course there was much hear searching on both sides but eventually Jane decided to accept Medjuel "proposal of marriage and in Syria, they married according to Muslim law and had a very romantic honeymoon at Palmyra. Afterwards she built a palatial villa outside the old city walls of Damascus (near Bab Tuma) where she could live during the very coldest and hottest parts of the year which she found difficult to cope with in the desert. For the rest of the time Jane lived with the Mezrab tribe in the desert tents.

Jane spoke eight languages fluently, most of the major European ones and also Turkish and Slav; but when she first arrived in Syria she spoke no Arabic. Medjuel, was an educated man, and something of a linguist himself he could speak Turkish, Arabic naturally, and a little Italian which was then the "Lingua Franca " in the eastern Mediterranean which he had probably picked up while escorting caravans. So they had no problem in communicating with each other and later Medjuel learned English while Jane learned Arabic.

On Jane's background, Mrs. Lovell said that Jane had spent her entire life in huge houses and palaces being spoiled and waited on by dozens of servants. Life for her in the black tents was very different. And even though she was wife of a Sheikh, she still had to learn from the women how to milk camels and sheep, how to cook for Medjuel over an open fire, how to make a home of their tent, and to fetch the water and gather firewood. The thing that first won for Jane the respect of the tribe was her immense knowledge of horses, something that was very important to the men. Not only could she ride better than most of them but she had a considerable knowledge of vetinary matters and could treat sick animals.

Eventually, she won their respect and their love and became the tribal matriarch. The women knew that she would listen to their grievances and argue their case with the Sheikh and ensure they received fair treatment. She also used her personal wealth wisely, and purchased the best sheep and camels -for the tribe- to improve breeding stock, and she was also able to speak on an equal footing with the Turkish Governor on behalf of the tribe in any disputes.

Describing her house in Damascus Jane said in her diaries: "The house stood in a great garden and was built around three sides of a central courtyard. The fourth side was bounded by a high wall into which was set an arched gate-house. The main room of the house was used for receiving important visitors and consisted of a huge octagonal atrium which opened into a liwan strewn with cushions and carpets. The Atrium had a domed octagonal skylight set into the flat roof and the room was decorated in typical Damascenes porcelain. The unusual shape of the room had been suggested by the priceless gift to the newly-wed couple of a lamp which had once hung in the Great Mosque at Mecca, and on one of the eight side panes of this lamp the Sultan has scratched his seal "in token of special consideration." Also on the ground floor of the house were the kitchens, the house-keepers room and staff quarters, stores, stables and a gate-house were the guards lives On the upper floor Jane and Medjuel each had a suite, Jane's boudoir gave on to a English style drawing room furnished in European fashion. There were several guest apartments and all the upper rooms led out onto a flat roof.

But the garden was her chief pride. In the courtyard was a large pool and fountain, and doves fluttered from a dovecote. She had planted trees - citrus, flowering hibiscus, pomegranate, mulberry and - to remind her of her childhood home - a pear tree which was unheard of then in Damascus. She laid paths which wound informally through borders of English herbaceous plants, and rose-beds.

Climbing roses and jasmine scrambled in profusion up arches, along walls and over the little kiosk she had built where she could sit and read. There were lots of animals, which she called her menagerie; stray cats, a large collection of poultry and dogs, her own pet dogs and some Kurdish guard dogs and Medjuel's salukis. Sometimes the Bedouins brought Jane abandoned gazelle kids and these seemed to live quite happily among the other animals. In the huge outer garden there were large established trees which gave shade and under these trees the couple these town horses were tethered eating piles of grass. And here any member of the tribe, or other Bedouins could camp when they were in Damascus. Jane died in 1881, aged 74, after she caught a fever and it developed into dysentery. She was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Damascus and her grave is still intact today.

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