CHAPTER V.
CHRONICLE OF WOMEN'S WORK FROM 1820 TO 1872.
It must not be inferred from what has been said on a preceding page with regard to the favorable position occupied by the women of the nominal Christian sects of Syria as compared with the Mohammedan women, that the first missionaries found the Greek and Maronite women and girls who speak the Arabic language eager or even willing to receive instruction.
Far from it.

The effects of the Mohammedan domination of twelve hundred years have been to degrade and depress all the sects and nationalities who are subject to Islam.

Not only were there not women and girls found to learn to read, but the great mass of the men of the Christian sects could neither read nor write.

Many of the prominent Arab merchants in Beirut to-day can neither read nor write.

I say Arab merchants, and yet very few of the Arabs of the Greek Church have more than a mere tinge of Arab blood in their veins.