The village of yarboob

Honeymoon in beirut

"Abdullah 'Aziz' crowned 'Jamila', in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!" When Father Boulos uttered these words on the evening of the tenth of May, in a spacious hall, rich in seating and decoration, of the house of Aziz El-Karbaj, a silent calm descended upon the hundreds of wedding guests, enveloped in a heavenly solemnity. The children and adolescents, the virgins and youths, the elders and the aged - all held their breath as if listening to the flutter of unseen wings. And Father Boulos himself, who in his lifetime had bound in marriage nearly a thousand members of his flock entrusted to the Lord, uttered those words that night in a voice unlike his usual one, so that the listeners thought the Holy Spirit was speaking through his tongue. Perhaps that was because Father Boulos, in all his long life spent serving the Lord, had for the first time grasped the significance of his words, and his soul was enlightened to see matrimony as a divine sacred rite, not just a simple church ritual; or perhaps it was because the Father, from the day he assumed the honor of priesthood until that moment, had never raised his hand to bless the union of the bride and groom, Aziz El-Karbaj and Jamila Al-Bashtawi.

But the attendees suddenly felt they were in the presence of a superior power, and the hall, with all its flickering, dancing, upward-reaching candle lights, was transformed in their eyes into a pure sanctuary where a deep sacred mystery was being performed. That is why they were enveloped in silence and reverence.

There is no doubt that the sight of the bride and groom added majesty and grandeur to the scene. Aziz El-Karbaj, the only child of his parents, was the most handsome young man in the entire town and its surroundings, if not in all of Lebanon, as many had said about him that "God created him and raised his hand [over him]": tall in stature, full-bodied, fair-skinned, with a round face whose whiteness was suffused with the blush of youth. In his eyes, life laughed, and in his small mustache was manifest the power of self-reliance, self-confidence and pride in what he had done and would do in this world. He had left his parents at the age of 18 and come to America, where he succeeded in business and amassed around $5,000 in a short period. And during that time, he found time to devote to educating himself, so he studied and learned what thousands of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants could not acquire in decades. Then he heeded the call of his parents and returned to Lebanon, where he built a magnificent house, the best in the entire town, and opened a new business. All of that, and he had not yet reached..."

The people of the village spoke of his diligence, intellect, gentleness, and impeccable morals. He neither curses nor swears. He, does not drink, does not gamble, and does not smoke. He addresses every elderly man in the village ("my grandfather," "uncle," or "uncle") and every elderly woman ("my grandmother," "aunt," or "aunt"). He greets the young man as "my brother" and the young woman as "my sister." He greets the child and respects the elder before they greet him, and he removes his hat from his head with consideration and reverence when greeting women. Many of the young men present envied Aziz Al-Karbaj in the depths of their hearts and wished they were in his place that night! Some relate that this respected and venerable shaikh confessed that in the fifty years he had served the church, he had not once desired to exchange his priestly robes for all the wealth of the world. However, when he commanded the newlyweds, Aziz Al-Karbaj and Jamila Al-Bashtawi, to exchange a kiss of love, he wished in that moment that he was in the groom's clothes!

As for Jamila Al-Bashtawi, aside from her captivating beauty, she possessed qualities rarely found in a girl in that neighborhood or elsewhere. Whenever she was the topic of conversation, whether in a gathering of women, men, or both, the first thing mentioned was her stunning beauty, then the discussion would shift to her character, her education, and her wealth. One would say she is an "angel of the earth" - one cannot feel her presence. Another would add that she is a "scholar," meaning she had completed a boarding school for girls and obtained a degree.