Sun Jan 11. [11 January 1914] No answer. I drew out Kharaneh [Qasr
el Kharana] all the morning. In the afternoon - after lunch - went to see
the Q. whom I found lunching in the house of the richest inhabitant of
'Amman, Muhammad Beg. He has been here 40 years. His house is
near the old mosque which they say was built by 'Umar. The
Yuzbashi there too. They showed me a Dam. [Dimashq (Damascus,
Esh Sham, Damas)] paper with a quotation from the globe about a
Russian countess who has left Dam. for the south with 20 camels.
This they think is I, as it may be. I called on Ishaq's wife, a pretty little
woman from Beyrout [Beyrouth (Beirut)]. The Q. and I walked round to
the Nympheum and up to the citadel. The Moslem building there
must I think be Umayyad, or soon after. The Damascenes have
asked Halim if he will stand at the next election. He asked my advice.
I told him he could do nothing unless he sided with the Committee.
He talked politics, inveighed against the Moham. very bitterly but
admitted that the Xians were all disunited. He kept the Salt region
quiet in the time of the Kerak [Karak] rising. Says if he had been a
Moham. he wd have been a Mutesarrif by this time. They all came to
see me in the evening, Muhammad Beg, the Qadi etc.