ABSTRACT
Such was not the case in Syria, which in the nineteenth cen tury comprised the Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan of to day. There, since the beginning of the century, Presbyterian missionaries from America had vied with the Catholics (chiefly Jesuits and Lazarists from France) in educating the younger generation. Ibrahim Pasha’s conquest o f Syria, in 1834, had also given a strong impetus to the enlargement of the Muslim scholastic system. Printing presses were soon established by the missionaries, and cadres of teachers instructed. By mid-century there were evident signs of an Arabic literary revival in Syria, which was to reach its peak some years later and start a national movement rolling181. One o f the symptoms of this literary revival was the inception o f the modern Arab theater.
