The Druzes and the Maronites Under the Turkish Rule from 1840 to 1860

1862. Colonel Charles Henry Churchill writes in the preface that: Although some months have elapsed since the appalling intelligence of the massacres in Syria burst upon the civilised world...a full appreciation of their meaning can only be attained by a consideration of the various causes which, accumulating and gathering strength through the preceding twenty years, at last culminated in that extraordinary calamity. Through his residence in Lebanon, Churchill gained firsthand knowledge of the mind of the two great sects, the Druzes and the Maronites, into which its population is divided, and shares his insights as to what brought about this horrific turn of events.