PARFIT (J. T.).
Among the Druzes of Lebanon and Bashan.
An account of missionary work in Mount Lebanon, with a description of the Druze people, their history and faith.
Parfit narrates “seven years’ work amongst the secret sects of Syria,” focusing on the establishment of mission schools in the mountainous lands south and east of Beirut, where many Druze communities were based. He gives a particularly interesting description of the buildings used for the first school (at Ain Aanoub) – a once grand residence overgrown and “half-ruined” (p.39) — which had been home to the eccentric Mrs Worsley, who arrived in Lebanon with the intention of discovering descendants of the ancient Hittites.
To the main narrative of school-building and teaching, he adds much on relations between the Druzes and other communities (including animosities with the Maronites), and significant events such as the dangerously severe Winter of 1911.
