Welcome to 'Little Syria': A missing historical piece of New York’s ethnic mosaic

The report further detailed the supposed aggression of the Irish toward other immigrants, particularly the Germans. It also mentioned that Syrians requested legal permission to carry arms to defend themselves against mounting aggressions by members of the Irish community.

Elsewhere in the paper, a different news item reported that a man, initially rumoured to be Syrian, shot one of his friends; the shooter was found to be a Moroccan from Marrakech after he was arrested and interrogated.

Combatting false stereotypes

"Kawkab America" had a goal – to combat widespread misconceptions that Americans held about Arabs (in general) and Syrians (in particular). At the time, Western orientalist perspectives painted Arabs as "barbaric" and culturally "backwards".

This became a game of chess in the media.

Arbeely – alongside other editors of the paper – would frequently publish articles that defended the dignity of Syrian and Arab communities, firing back against reports in the New York Times that described Syrian street vendors as "dirty Arabs" or "Arab thieves" who "intend to invade the United States".

Arbeely's efforts were far from futile.

Indeed, he left a mark on several American intellectuals. One of those was Henry Chapman Ford, who admired the Syrian community so much that he based his 1920 play, "Anna Ascends," on the real life of a young, female Syrian immigrant. The play was later turned into a silent romantic drama film.

While discussing his inspiration, Ford said that "their family life" and "clean way of living" impressed him.

"I figured here is a people who could read and write probably 6,000 years before the northern 'blue eyes'. Here is a race who had a fine culture along with the great Egyptian dynasties, and as criminology seems to be a statistical fad at the present writing, here are a people who have less, en ratio, in prisons, than any other in the world," he said.

It became clear, through Ford and others like him, that not everyone was buying into the popular stereotypes of Syrians at the time.

Cultural glory

Little Syria blossomed, culturally, during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, which marked 400 years of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the "New World".

Read more: The story behind America's Arabian horse dynasty starts with Chicago Expo 1893

The Arab neighbourhood just happened to be on the way to the fair. In fact, it served as the first pitstop, of sorts, for visitors arriving by sea from all over the world before they hopped onto a train to Chicago.

Around this time, the Arab arts scene in New York was booming. "Kawkab America" published several reports showcasing the cultural exchanges happening every day.

One report detailed a concert held by a popular Damascene singer, who had arrived in New York alongside six Syrian literary figures, all belonging to the Ottoman Literary Salon.

"We had a splendid night," it read. "The star of the night was Rogina Manko – well-known in Syria and Egypt thanks to her exquisite singing skills, clear voice, pretty posture, and striking beauty.

"As she sang, seasoned musicians accompanied her on the lute, zither, and violin, producing the sweetest music. The audience was captivated. We felt as if we were no longer in America, but back in our Syrian homeland, among our people."

The report also featured a few lines of poetry improvised by Elia al-Haj on the same night:

"No gathering could be more marvellous,

Words fail to describe such magnificence.

A gathering of grand and graceful people,

With hearts so pure and kind."

Another article announced the arrival of pioneering Syrian composer Abu Khalil Qabbani with his 50-member band in New York, before their trip to Chicago. And another discussed the arrival of the Syrian band 'Al-Marmah Al-Hamidi', whose "exotic" Bedouin costumes, horses, and camels were admired by Americans as they wandered through the alleys of Little Syria.

The start of the end

The publication continued to focus on the local community in Little Syria. It covered social events and news of community members coming and going. Advertisements by Arab business owners splashed its pages, too.

However, due to the little interest that Americans had in news of Syrian and Arab communities, the paper – primarily published in Arabic – eventually discontinued its English section.

Nonetheless, American publications seemed to be intrigued by Little Syria.

On 20 August 1899, The New York Times reported that the "Syrian Quarter" in Lower Manhattan sparked "curiousity". Its residents held diverse jobs – owning cafes, shops and wholesale centres. They lived in odd houses that stretched along the way to Battery Park.

The Springfield Daily News, issued in Massachusetts, similarly published an article on 22 January 1902 titled "New York's Little Syria". It described the neighbourhood as isolated – as though it had no interest in intermingling with other immigrant quarters.

It stated that Little Syria is home to merchants "descending from the ancient Phoenician coastline, where trade was born."

A Baltimore newspaper correspondent also visited Little Syria. In an article published on 26 December 1905, he wrote about the "ideal restaurants" he found and the "secret of good coffee" that he discovered there.

But, he observed, most Syrian dishes were laden with heavy meats and vegetables that wouldn't please the American palate.

On the western side of the Syrian Quarter, he added, kids with olive skin and black hair played while their beautiful, slim mothers chatted in the doorways to their houses. Vegetable stands, bakeries, and grocery stores stocked items that Americans had never seen – or tasted – before.

However, this fascination that the American media had with Little Syria didn't seem to extend to the pioneering Arab publication that had become its mouthpiece.

By 1908, following a coup carried out against Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Istanbul, "Kawkab America" shuttered its doors for good, ending a significant era in the history of Arab immigrants in North America.

Demolition and nostalgia

Little Syria's last moment in the spotlight, before the neighbourhood was relegated to the history books (or, rather, newspapers), was probably captured by the 1941 New York Times article titled "THE TIP END OF THE CITY; Downtown New York Is a Fascinating Region For the Hiker".

In it, writer Nathaniel Nitkin described a hiker's journey through "the churchyards" of New York to Rector Street. There, "they will have entered the Syrian Quarter." Middle Eastern restaurants dotted the roads, with names like "Little Egypt", "The Nile", or "Lebanon".

Stopping at one of these places – at least for a cup of Turkish coffee – is a must.

Nitkin described the countless grocery stores and shops that sold imported goods – like cigarettes and shishas – as well as metal utensils adorned with oriental designs. He also touched on Little Syria's very own printing press and the elegant Arabic letters that it produced.

According to Nitkin, however, the best part of the quarter was its people. Friendly and welcoming, they were always happy to chat to visitors about their homeland, customs and traditions.

Sadly, Nitkin's ode to Little Syria doubled as a "last chance" warning to readers. A considerable part of the neighbourhood would soon disappear as construction work began on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

(Even the parts of Little Syria that survived the tunnel's construction were later taken down in the 1960s and replaced by the World Trade Center.)

Nowadays, every now and then, an article or study will popsup that recalls this lost piece of history.

And despite other popular ethnic neighborhoods thriving in New York today, the glaring absence of this lively, colourful quarter still stirs up nostalgia among those who care about the city's full, true and eclectic past.