The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return on or before the Latest Date stamped below. .. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books | are reasons for disciplinary action and may | result in dismissal from the University. | University of Illinois Library DSC 1< tor ~ ' boJ — * : WAR i 1975 i * FEB 5 1975 FEB 2 6 1975 JUN 2 3 ic 77 CIC 8 1979 m kiss' feb g - SI j MAR 3 1 19 31 1 MAR 3 i 19t 1 MAR 0 9 11 [ p?v * 't L161— 0-1096 OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS 3153 B83t v.a . . . TRAVELS IN ARABIA, COMPREHENDING AN ACCOUNT OF THOSE TERRITORIES IN HEDJAZ WHICH THE MOHAMMEDANS REGARD AS SACRED. BY THE LATE JOHN LEWIS BURCKHARDT. PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING THE DISCOVERY OF THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1829. PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. f/5'3' 7 /» 2 _ in CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. Journey from Mekka to Medina . Pago 1 Medina . 38 Description of Medina • 138 Account of some Places of Zyara, or objects of pious Visitation, in the neighbourhood of Medina 145 On the Inhabitants of Medina . . 237 On the Government of Medina . 277 Climate and Diseases of Medina . 289 Journey from Medina to Yembo • 293 Yembo • 310 From Yembo to Cairo . . 341 Appendix, (comprising ten articles) , . 371 CORRIGENDA. Page 374 for Matsa read Matfa. %* The name of Kayd Beg , which frequently occurs, is sometimes spelt in the Ms. Kait Beg , and once erroneously Kail Beg. On reference to Burckhardt’s Nubian Travels, it appears that he entered Djidda on the 18th of July, and not on the 15th, as printed in the first page of this volume through a mistake of the figure 8 for 5 ; the ink with which he wrote having in many parts of his Journal faded considerably, and become of a pale reddish colour. As far, also, as the faded ink in some places of the Ms. allows the editor (and others who have seen it) to judge, Mekkawy is used to express a person of Mekka : in many pages of the Ms. Mekkan is distinctly written, but the Arabic derivative Mekky occurs only in the Author’s Introduction (p. xiv.) Local derivatives similar to Mekkawy occur in the various parts of Burckhardt’s works : the present volume, and his Syrian and Nubian Travels, ex- hibit Djiddawy, Yembawy, Kennawy, Dongolawy, Bornawy, Bedjawy, &c.from Djidda, Yembo, Kenne, Dongola, Bornou, Bedja, &c. T RAVELS IN THE HEDJAZ OF ARABIA. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. The time has passed, and probably for ever, when hadjys or pilgrims, from all re- gions of the Muselman world, came every year in multitudes, that they might visit devotionally the sacred places of the Hedjaz. An increasing indifference to their religion, and an increase of expense attending the journey, now deter the greater part of the Mohammedans from complying with that law of the Koran, which enjoins to every Moslim who can afford it, the performance of a pil- grimage to Mekka, once at least in his life. To those whom indispensable occupations confine to their homes, the law permits a VOL. II. A 2 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. substitution of prayers ; but even with this injunction few people now comply, or it is evaded by giving a few dollars to some hadjy? who, taking from several persons commissions of the same kind, includes all their names in the addition consequently made to the prayers recited by him at the places of holy visit. When Muselman zeal was more ardent, the difficulties of the journey being held to increase the merit of it, became with many an additional incitement to join the caravans, and to perform the whole journey by land ; but at present, most of the pilgrims do not join any regular Hadj catavan, but reach Djidda by sea from Egypt, or the Persian Gulf ; commercial and lucrative speculations being the chief inducements to this journey. In 1814, many hadjys had arrived at Mekka, three or four months previous to the prescribed time of the pilgrimage. To pass the Ramadhan in this holy city, is a great inducement with such as can afford the ex- pense, to hasten their arrival, and prolong their residence in it. About the time when the regular caravans were expected, at least four thousand pilgrims from Turkey, who had come by sea, were already assembled at Mekka, and perhaps half that number from THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 3 other distant quarters of the Mohammedan world. Of the five or six regular caravans which, formerly, always arrived at Mekka a few days before the Hadj, two only made their appearance this year ; these were from Syria and Egypt ; the latter composed en- tirely of people belonging to the retinue of the commander of the Hadj, and his troops ; no pilgrims having come by land from Cairo, though the road was safe. The Syrian caravan has always been the strongest, since the time when the Khalifes, in person, accompanied the pilgrims from Baghdad. It sets out from Constantinople? and collects the pilgrims of Northern Asia in its passage through Anatolia and Syria, until it reaches Damascus, where it remains for several weeks. During the whole of the route from Constantinople to Damascus, every care is taken for the safety and convenience of the caravan ; it is accompanied from town to town by the armed forces of the governors ; at every station caravansaries and public foun- tains have been constructed by former Sul- tans, to accommodate it on its passage, which is attended so far with continual festivities and rejoicings. At Damascus, it is neces- sary to prepare for a journey of thirty days, 4 THA HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. across the Desert to Medina ; and the camels which had transported it thus far, must be changed, the Anatolian camel not being able to bear the fatigues of such a journey. Almost every town in the eastern part of Syria furnishes its beasts for the purpose ; and the great Bedouin Sheikhs of the fron- tiers of that country contract largely for camels with the government of Damascus. Their number must be supposed very great, even if the caravan be but thinly attended, when it is considered that besides those carry- ing water and provisions for the hadjys and soldiers, their horses, and the spare camels brought to supply such as may fail on the road, daily food for the camels themselves must be similarly transported ; as well as pro- visions, which are deposited in castles on the Hadj route, to form a supply for the return. The Bedouins take good care that the camels shall not be overloaded, that the numbers wanted may thus be increased. In 1814, though the caravan consisted of not more than four or five thousand persons, including soldiers and servants, it had fifteen thousand camels.* * El Fasy relates that, when the mother of Motasem b’lllah, the last of the Abassides, performed the pilgrimage \ THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 5 The Syrian caravan is very well regulated though, as in all matters of oriental govern- ment, the abuses and exceptions are numer- ous. The Pasha of Damascus, or one of his principal officers, always accompanies this caravan, and gives the signal for encamping and starting, by firing a musket. On the in A. H. 631, her caravan was composed of one hundred and twenty thousand camels. When Solyman Ibn Abd el Malek performed the pilgrimage in A. H. 97, nine hundred camels were employed in the transport of his wardrobe only. It is observable that none of the Othman Emperors of Constantinople ever performed the pilgrimage in person. The Khalife El Mohdy Abou Abdallah Mohammed ex- pended on his pilgrimage in A. H. 160, thirty millions of dirhems. He carried with him an immense number of gowns to distribute as presents. He built fine houses at every station from Baghdad to Mekka, and caused them to be splendidly furnished ; he also erected mile-stones along the whole route, and was the first Khalife who carried snow with him, to cool sherbet on the road, in which he was imitated by many of his successors. Haroun el Rasheid, who performed the pilgrimage nine times, spent, in one of his visits, one million and fifty thousand dynars in presents to the Mekkawys and the poor hadjys. El Melek Nasir eddyn Abou el Maaly, Sultan of Egypt, carried with him, on his pilgrimage in A. H. 719, five hun- dred camels, for the transport of sweetmeats and confec- tionary only ; and two hundred and eighty for pomegranates, almonds, and other fruits: in his travelling larder were one thousand geese, and three thousand fowls. Vide Makrisi’s Treatise Man Hudj my a el Kholafa . 6 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. route, a troop of horsemen ride in front, and another in the rear, to bring up the strag- glers. The different parties of hadjys, dis- tinguished by their provinces or towns, keep close together ; and each knows its never- varying station in the caravan, which is determined by the geographical proximity of the place from whence it comes. When they encamp, the same order is constantly ob- served ; thus the people from Aleppo always encamp close by those of Homs, &c. This regulation is very necessary to prevent dis- order in night-marches.* The hadjys usually contract for the journey with a Mekowem, one who speculates in the furnishing of camels and provisions to the Hadj. From twenty to thirty pilgrims are under the care of the same Mekowem, who has his tents and servants, and saves the hadjys from all fatigue and trouble on the road : their tent, coffee, water, breakfast and dinner are prepared for them, and they need not take the slightest trouble about packing and loading. If a camel should die, the Me- * In our author’s Syrian Travels, (p. 242.) the reader will find some further remarks on this Hadj-caravan, and in the Appendix to that volume (No. 3.) an account of the route between Damascus and Mckka. — Ed. THE IIADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 7 kowem must find another; and, however great may be the want of provisions on the road, he must furnish his passengers with their daily meals. In 1814, the hire of one Me- kowem, and the boarding at his table, was one hundred and fifty dollars from Damascus to Medina, and fifty dollars more from Me- dina to Mekka. Out of these two hundred dollars, sixty were given by the Mekowem to a man who led the camel by the halter during the night-marches; a precaution ne- cessary in so great a caravan, when the rider usually sleeps, and the animal might other- wise easily w r ander from the path. In addi- tion to the stipulated hire, the Mekowem always receives some presents from his pil- grims. On the return to Syria, the sum is something less, as many camels then go un- loaded. Few travellers choose to perform the jour- ney at their own risk, or upon their own camels ; for if they are not particularly pro- tected by the soldiery, or the chief of the caravan, they find it difficult to escape the ill-treatment of the Mekowem at watering- places, as well as on the march ; the latter endeavouring to check, by every means in their power, the practice of travelling inde- 8 THE HAt>J, OR PILGRIMAGE. pendent of them, so that it is rarely done except by rich hadjys, who have the means of forming a party of their own amounting to forty or fifty individuals. At night, torches are lighted, and the daily distance is usually performed between three o’clock in the afternoon, and an hour or two after sun-rise on the following day. The Bedouins who carry provisions for the troops, travel by day only, and in advance of the caravan, the encampment of which they pass in the morning, and are overtaken in turn, and passed by the caravan on the following night, at their own resting-place. The jour- ney with these Bedouins is less fatiguing than with the great body of the caravan, as a regular night’s rest is obtained ; but their bad character deters most pilgrims from join- ing them. At every watering-place on the route are a small castle and a large tank, at which the camels water. The castles are garrisoned by a few persons, who remain during the whole year to guard the provisions deposited there. It is at these watering-places, which belong to the Bedouins, that the Sheikhs of the tribes meet the caravan, and receive the accustomed tribute. Water is plentiful on THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 9 the route : the stations are no where more distant than eleven or twelve hours’ march ; and in winter, pools of rain-water are fre- quently found. Those pilgrims who can travel with a litter, or on commodious camel- saddles, may sleep at night, and perform the journey with little inconvenience ; but of those whom poverty, or the desire of soon acquiring a large sum of money, induces to follow the caravan on foot, or to hire them- selves as servants, many die on the road from fatigue. The Egyptian caravan, which starts from Cairo, is under the same regulations as the Syrian, but seldom equals the latter in numbers, being composed of Egyptians only, besides the military escort. Its route is more dangerous and fatiguing than that of the Syrian caravan ; the road along the shore of the Red Sea leading through the territories of wild and warlike tribes of Bedouins, who frequently endeavour to cut off a part of the caravan by open force. The watering-places too are much fewer on this route than on the other ; three days frequently intervening between the wells, which are, besides, seldom copious, and, with the exception of two or three, are of bad brackish water. In 1814, 10 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. this caravan was composed of soldiers only, with the retinue of the sacred camel, and some public officers ; all the Egyptian pilgrims having preferred taking the route by Suez. In 1816, several grandees of Cairo joined the Hadj, one of whom had one hundred and ten camels for the transport of his baggage and retinue, and eight tents : his travelling ex- penses in going and coming must have amounted to ten thousand pounds. There were also about five hundred peasants, with their women, from upper and lower Egypt, who were less afraid of the fatigues and dangers of the Desert than of the Sea. I saw with them a party of public women and dancing-girls, whose tents and equipage were among the most splendid in the caravan. Female hadjys of a similar class accompany the Syrian caravan also. The Persian Hadj, which used to set out from Baghdad, and come through Nedjed to Mekka, was discontinued about the time when the Wahabys stopped the Syrian Hadj. After Abdullah ibn Saoud had made peace with Tousoun Pasha in 1815, it ventured to cross the Desert, and passed by Derayeh unmolested ; but within four days’ journey of Mekka, it was attacked by the Beni \ THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 11 Shammar, a tribe which had remained neuter during the war between Tousoun and the Wahabys. The caravan then returned to Deray eh : through the intercession of Saoud, the goods of which it had been plundered were restored ; and he sent a party of his own people to escort it to the holy city. The Persian caravan is usually escorted by the Ageyl Arabs, of Baghdad. As its pil- grims are known to be sectaries, they are exposed to great extortions on the road : Saoud exacted a heavy capitation-tax from them, as did Sherif Ghaleb at Mekka, amount- ing in latter times to thirty sequins per head. Persian hadjys are all persons of property, and no pilgrims suffer so much imposition as they during the whole route. Great num- bers of them come by sea : they embark at Bassora for Mokha, and if they fall in with the trade-wind, run straight to Djidda ; if not, they form themselves into a caravan, and come by land along the coast of Yemen. In 1814, when I was present at the Hadj, the few Persians who came by land, had passed through Baghdad to Syria, and had followed the Syrian caravan, accompanied by Baghdad camel-drivers. It deserves notice here, that the Persians 12 THE HADJ, Oil PILGRIMAGE. were not always permitted to come to the holy city ; being notorious heretics, who con- ceal their doctrines only during the Hadj, that they may not give offence to the Sunnys- In 1634, a few years after the temple of Mekka had been rebuilt, Sultan Murad IV. commanded that no Persian of the sect of Aly should be allowed to perform the pil- grimage, or enter the Beittullah. This pro- hibition was complied with for several years ; but the money expended by the Persians soon re-opened the way to Arafat and the Kaaba. We learn from Asamy, that, in 1625, a sectary of Aly was impaled alive at Mekka, because he would not abjure his creed. The Moggrebyn Hadj caravan has for many years ceased to be regular. It is usually accompanied by a relative of the King of Morocco, and proceeds from his residence by slow marches towards Tunis and Tripoly, collecting additional pilgrims in every district through which it passes. Its route from Tripoly is along the shores of the Syrtis to Derne, and from thence along the coast of Egypt, passing either by Alex- andria, or taking the direction of the Natron lakes straight for Cairo, from whence it follows the common pilgrim-route. This THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 13 caravan returning from Mekka always visits Medina, which the Egyptian Fadj never does, and sometimes extends its route by land as far as Jerusalem. Few troops accom- pany it ; but its pilgrims are well armed, and ready to defend themselves : of the two ,other great caravans, nobody fights but the escort. The lastMoggrebyn caravan passed through Egypt in 1811 ; the Wahabys permitted them to visit Mekka, as they saw that they were free from those scandalous practices with which they upbraided the Egyptians and Syrians ; but the caravan experienced many misfortunes on its return, from ene- mies, and from a want of guides, and pro- visions, in consequence of which many of its people died. The pilgrims from Barbary arrive now usually by sea at Alexandria, and re-embark at Suez, in parties of fifty or a hundred at a time. Although poorly dressed, they have generally sufficient money to de- fray their expenses, and few of them are beggars ; of this class, however, I saw a small party, Arabs from Draa, on the S. E. side of Mount Atlas, who had set out with the Egyptian caravan by land in September, 1816. They told me that they had obtained 14 THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE. a free passage by sea from Tunis to Alexandria. One of them was a Bedouin of the Sliilouh nation, whose encampment, when he left it, was at twenty days’ journey from Tom- buctou. In the Moggrebyn caravan also are gene- rally found some natives of the island of Djerba, or Girba, who are strongly suspected of being sectaries of Aly ; and some of whom are often stationary at Cairo, inhabiting the quarter called Teyloun, and keeping them- selves wholly separate from all other Mog- grebyns established in the town. But the far greater part of the caravan is from the kingdom of Marocco. I believe that two thousand is the largest yearly number of Barbary pilgrims. The last caravans comprised altogether from six to eight thousand men. Two Yemen pilgrim caravans used to arrive at Mekka, in former times, by land. The one called Hadj el Kebsy, started from Sada, in Yemen, and took its course along the mountains to Tayf and to Mekka. Two itineraries of this caravan, with some notices on it, will be found in the Appendix. The other, which was formed of natives of Yemen, and of Persians and Indians who had arrived THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 15 in the harbours of that country, came along the coast. This caravan was discontinued about 1803, and has not yet been re-esta- blished. It was once considerable, and rich in merchandize and coffee ; and sometimes enjoyed the honour of being accompanied by the Imams of Yemen. Like the Syrian and Egyptian caravans, it had a particular place assigned for its camp near Mekka, where a large stone tank was built to supply it with water. I have seen the route of an Indian pilgrim caravan, laid down in several maps as start- ing from Maskat, and coming by Nedjed to Mekka ; but I could obtain no information respecting it ; that such, however, existed formerly, appears from the frequent mention of it made by the historian Asamy. Those persons whom I questioned assured me that no such caravan had arrived within their memory ; but I believe that, in the time of peace, Indian, Persian, and Arab beggars, in small parties, sometimes arrive in the Hedjaz by the above route. Before the power of the Sherifs was bro- ken by the chief Sherif Serour, the former extorted from every caravan that came to Mekka considerable sums, besides the surra 16 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. to which they were entitled. As soon as they heard of the near approach of a caravan, they issued from Mekka with all their armed retinue and their Bedouin friends, and often disputed with the leaders of the caravan for several days before the amount of the tribute was settled. To the regular caravans above mentioned, must be added large bodies of Bedouins, which resort to Mekka, during peace, from every part of the Desert ; for even among the least religious Bedouins, the title of hadjy is respected : Nedjed sends its pilgrims, as do also the Southern Bedouins. When the Wahabys were in possession of Mekka? hosts of these sectaries came to Arafat, as much, perhaps, for the purpose of paying their court to the chief, who, it was knowrn, liked to see his Arabs collected there, as from religious motives. The last time the Waha- bys performed the Hadj was in 1811 , shortly after the first defeat of Tousoun Pasha at Djedeyde: they were accompanied by large bodies of Bedouins of Kahtan, Asyr, with others from the most interior part of the Desert. The plunder taken from the Turkish army was sold to the Mekkawys in the market at Arafat. I shall here observe that THE HAD J r OR PILGRIMAGE. 17 Aly Bey el Abassy has made a strange mis- take with respect to the host of Wahabys, whom he saw entering Mekka at the time of the pilgrimage ; for he fancied that they came to take possession of the town, and flattered himself that he was present at the first conquest of Mekka by the Wahabys, while every child in the place could have informed him that this event happened three years before his arrival in the Hedjaz. At present, as I have already mentioned, most of the hadjys arrive by sea at Djidda: those who come from the north embark at Suez or Cosseir, and among them are a large proportion of the Barbary pilgrims, many Turks from Anatolia and European Turkey, Syrians, and numerous dervishes from Persia, Tartary, and the realms watered by the Indus. The want of shipping on the Red Sea, occa- sioned by the increased demand for ships to accommodate the Turkish army of the Hed- jaz, renders the passage precarious ; and they sometimes lose the opportunity, and arrive too late for the pilgrimage, as happened to a party in 1814, who reached Mekka three days after the Hadj, having been long detained at Suez. From the bad quality of the vessels, and their crowded state, the passage is very disagreeable, VOL. n. B 18 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. and often dangerous. Nothing has yet been done by Mohammed Aly Pasha to make this voyage more commodious to the pilgrims ; but, on the contrary, he has laid a tax upon them, by forcing a contract for their passage to Djidda at a high price, (it was eighteen dollars a head in 1814,) with his governor at Suez, who distributed them on board the Arab ships, and paid to the masters of the vessels only six dollars per head. Formerly hadjys were permitted to carry with them from Suez as great a quantity of provisions as they chose, part of which they afterwards sold in the Hedjaz to some profit ; but at present none can embark with more than what is barely sufficient for his own consumption during the pilgrimage. The advantage of carrying along with them their provisions, chiefly but- ter, flour, biscuits, and dried flesh, purchased at cheap prices in Egypt, for the whole journey, was a principal reason for preferring a sea voyage ; for those who go by land must purchase all their provisions at Mekka, where the prices are high. If the foreign pilgrims, on their arrival at Cairo, cannot hear of any ships lying in the harbour of Suez, they often pursue their way up the Nile as far as Genne, and from thence THE HAD.T, OR PILGRIMAGE. 19 cross the Desert to Cosseir, from whence it is but a short voyage to Djidda. In returning from the Hedjaz, this Cosseir route is pre- ferred by the greater part of the Turkish hadjys. The natives of Upper Egypt go by Cosseir ; likewise many negro pilgrims, after having followed the banks of the Nile from Sennar down to Genne. The usual fare for hadjys from Cosseir to Djidda, is from six to eight dollars. In the last days of the Mamelouks, when they held possession of Upper Egypt, while the lower was conquered by Mohammed Aly, many Turkish hadjys who repaired to the Hedjaz in small parties, though it was then in the hands of the Wahabys, suffered much ill-treatment from the Mamelouks, on their return to Egypt ; many of them were stripped and slain in their passage down the Nile. The sanguinary Greek, Hassan Beg el Ya- houdy, boasted of having himself killed five hundred of them. These massacres of in- offensive pilgrims furnished Mohammed Aly with an excuse for his treachery in putting the Mamelouks to death at the castle of Cairo. Other pilgrims arrive by sea from Ye- 20 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. men and the East Indies, namely, Moham- medan Hindous, and Malays ; Cashmerians, and people from Guzerat; Persians, from the Persian Gulf ; Arabians, from Bassora, Maskat, Oman, Hadramaut ; and those from the coasts of Melinda and Mombaza, who are comprised under the generic name of the people of the Sowahel, i. e. the level coast ; Abyssinian Moslims, and many negro pilgrims, who come by the same route. All Moslims dwelling on the coasts of the ocean are certain of finding, towards the period of the Hadj, some ship departing from a neighbouring harbour for the Red Sea ; but the greater number, arrive with the regular Indian fleet in May, and remain at Mekka or Medina till the time of the Hadj ; soon after which, they embark on board country ships at Djidda for Yemen, where they wait till the period of the trade-winds to pass the Bab el Mandeb. Multitudes of beggars come to Mekka from the above-mentioned countries ; they get a free passage from charitable indi- viduals in their own country, or the cost of it is defrayed by those who employ them as their proxies in performing the Hadj ; but when they land, they are thrown entirely THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 21 upon the charity of other hadjys ; and the alms they collect, must serve to carry them back to their homes. Few pilgrims, except the mendicants, arrive without bringing some productions of their respective countries for sale ; and this remark is applicable as well to the merchants, with whom commercial pursuits are the main ob- ject, as to those who are actuated by reli- gious zeal; for to the latter, the profits derived from selling a few native articles at Mekka, diminish, in some degree, the heavy expenses of the journey. The Moggrebyns, for example, bring their red bonnets and woollen cloaks ; the European Turks, shoes and slippers, hardware, embroidered stuffs, sweetmeats, amber, trinkets of European manufacture, knit silk purses, &c. ; the Turks of Anatolia bring carpets, silks, and Angora shawls ; the Persians, cashmere shawls and large silk handkerchiefs ; the Afghans, tooth- brushes, called Mesouak Kattary, made of the spongy boughs of a tree growing in Bokhara, beads of a yellow soap-stone, and plain, coarse shawls, manufactured in their own country ; the Indians, the numerous productions of their rich and extensive region ; the people of Yemen, snakes for the Persian pipes, 22 THE HADJ, Oil PILGRIMAGE. sandals* and various other works in leather ; and the Africans bring various articles adapted to the slave-trade. The hadjys are, however, often disappointed in their expectations of gain ; want of money makes them hastily sell their little adventures at the public auctions, and often obliges them to accept very low prices. Of all the poor pilgrims who arrive in the Hedjaz, none bear a more respectable cha- racter for industry than the Negroes, or Tekrourys , as they are called here. All the poorer class of Indians turn beggars as soon as they are landed at Djidda. Many Syrians and Egyptians follow the same trade ; but not so the Negroes. I have already stated in a former journal, that the latter reach the Hedjaz by the three harbours of Mas- souah, Souakin, and Cosseir. Those who come by Sennar and Abyssinia to Massoua, are all paupers. The small sum of one dollar carries them from Massoua to the opposite coast of Yemen ; and they usually land at Hodeyda. Here they wait for the arrival of a sufficient number of their countrymen, to form a small caravan, and then ascend the mountains of Yemen, along the fertile valleys of which, inhabited by hospitable Arabs, they THE HADJ, OK PILGRIMAGE. 23 beg their way to Djidda or to Mekka * If rich enough to spare two dollars, they obtain, perhaps, a passage from Massoua direct to Djidda, where they meet w r ith such of their countrymen as may have landed there from Souakin or Cosseir. Immediately on their arrival at Djidda or Mekka, they apply them- selves to labour : some serve as porters, for the transport of goods and corn from the ships to the warehouses ; others hire them- selves to clean the court-yards, fetch wood from the neighbouring mountains, for the supply of which the inhabitants of Djidda and Mekka are exclusively indebted to them, as none of their own lazy poor will under- take that labour, although four piastres a day may be gained by it. At Mekka, they make small hearths of clay, (kanoun,) which they paint with yellow and red ; these are bought by the hadjys, who boil their coffee-pots upon * In 1813, a party of Tekrourys, about sixty in number, having taken that road, the Arabs of those mountains, who are Wahabys, and who had often seen black slaves among the Turkish soldiers, conceived that the negro hadjys were in the habit of entering into the service of the Turks. To prevent the party then passing from being ever opposed to them, they waylaid the poor Tekrourys on the road, and killed many of them. 24 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. them. Some manufacture small baskets and mats of date-leaves, or prepare the intox- icating drink called bouza ; and others serve as water-carriers : in short, when any occasion requires manual labour, a Tekroury from the market is always employed. If any of them is attacked by disease, his companions attend upon him, and defray his expenses. I have seen very few of them ask for charity, except on the first days after their arrival, before they have been able to obtain employment. From Mekka, they either travel by land, or sometimes make a sea voyage by way of Yembo to Medina, where they again supply the town with fire-wood. Indeed, the hadjys would be much at a loss in the Hedjaz, if they could not command the laborious ser- vices of these blacks. During the Wahaby conquest, they continued to perform the pil- grimage ; and it is said that Saoud expressed a particular esteem for them.* When these negroes have completed the * Makrisi states, in his treatise on the KhaJifes who performed the Hadj, that in A. H. 724, a negro king called Mousa arrived at Cairo on his way to Mekka, and was splendidly entertained by Kalaoun, then Sultan of Egypt. He had with him, according to Makrisi, fourteen thousand chosen female slaves. THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE. 25 Hadj, and the visit to Mekka, they repair to Djidda, where they continue to work till an opportunity offers of sailing to Souakin ; for very few, if any, return by way of Abyssinia. On leaving the Hedjaz, they all possess a sufficient sum of money, saved from the profits of their industry, to purchase some small adventure, or, at least, to provide, on their reaching Souakin, for a more comfortable passage through the Desert than that which they experienced on their outward journey, and then proceed homewards by Shendy and Cordofan. Many of them, however, instead of returning on the completion of the pil- grimage, disperse over Arabia, visit the mosque at Jerusalem, or Ibrahim’s (Abra- ham’s) tomb at Hebron, and thus remain absent from their home for many years, sub- sisting always upon the product of their own labour. The benefactors to the Kaaba have enriched the temple of Mekka, and the idle persons employed in it ; but no one has thought of forming any establishment for facilitating the pilgrimage of the poor negroes and In- dians, or of procuring for them a free passage across the gulf to the Hedjaz ; the expense of which, amounting to a dollar or two, is 26 THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE, that which they feel most heavily. They often arrive in the harbours of the African side of the gulf, after having spent the little they had taken with them from home, or having been robbed of it on the journey; and finding, perhaps, no means there of earning as much as will pay their passage across the Red Sea, are obliged to wait till the return of their richer companions from the Hedjaz, who charitably pay for their passage. The poor Indians afford a complete con- trast, both in appearance and character, to the negroes : more wretched countenances can hardly be imagined ; they seem to have lost not only all energy, but even hope. With bodies which appear scarcely capable of withstanding a gust of wind, and voices equally feeble, they would be worthy objects of commiseration, did not daily experience prove that they delight to appear in this plight, because it secures to them the alms of the charitable, and exempts them from labour. The streets of Mekka are crowded with them ; the most decrepid make their doleful appeals to the passenger, lying at full length on their backs in the middle of the street ; the gates of the mosque are always beset with them ; THE HADJ, Oil PILGRIMAGE. 27 every coffee-house and water-stand is a sta- tion for some of them ; and no hadjy can purchase provisions in the markets, without being importuned by Indians soliciting a portion of them. I saw among them one of those devotees who are so common in the north of India and in Persia: one of his arms was held up straight over his head, and so fixed by long habit, that it could not be placed in any other situation. From the curiosity which he excited, I was led to sup- pose that such characters seldom find their way to the Hedjaz. Dervishes of every sect and order in the Turkish empire are found among the pilgrims; many of them madmen, or at least assuming the appearance of insanity, which causes them to be much respected by the hadjys, and fills their pockets with money. The behaviour of some of them is so violent, and at the same time so cunning, that even the least charitably disposed hadjys give willingly something to escape from them. They mostly come from other countries ; for among the Arabians themselves there are fewer crazy of these people than in other parts of the east. Egypt chiefly abounds with them ; and almost every village in the valley of the Nile furnishes 28 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. some Masloub , or reputed madman, whom the inhabitants regard as an inspired being, and a blessing sent to them from heaven.* The arrival of strangers from all parts of the Mohammedan world, from Tombuctou to Samarkand, and from Georgia to Borneo, would render Djidda a most desirable resi- dence for an inquisitive European traveller? who, by affording assistance to poor hadjys, and spending a small sum in provisions for them, would attract large numbers to his house, and might thus collect much infor- mation respecting the most distant and un- known parts of Africa and Asia. All, except the higher classes of Mekkawys, let out their houses during the Hadj, and demand from their under-tenants as much for a few weeks or months as they pay to the proprietor for a whole year. I paid for one room with a small kitchen and a by-place for my slave, fifteen dollars for six weeks, which equalled the annual rent of the whole house received by the landlord ; and I should have been * In 1813, the Christian community of B Gous, in Upper Egypt, had the honour of possessing an insane youth, who walked about the bazars quite naked. But the Moslims of the place growing jealous, seized him one night, and converted him by circumcision into a Mohammedan saint. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 29 obliged to pay the same price if I had taken it only during the fortnight preceding and following the Hadj. The house in which I hired these rooms was divided into several lodgings, and was let altogether to different hadjys at one hundred and twenty dollars, the owners having retired into apartments so mean that strangers would not occupy them. Of the numerous pilgrims who arrive at Mekka before the caravan, some are pro- fessed merchants ; many others bring a few articles for sale, which they dispose of without trouble. They then pass the interval of time before the Hadj very pleasantly ; free from cares and apprehensions, and enjoying that supreme happiness of an Asiatic, the dolce far niente. Except those of a very high rank, the pilgrims live together in a state of free- dom and equality. They keep but few ser- vants : many, indeed, have none, and divide among themselves the various duties of house-keeping, such as bringing the provi- sions from market and cooking them, al- though accustomed at home to the services of an attendant. The freedom and oblivion of care which accompany travelling, render it a period of enjoyment among the people 30 THE HADJj< OR PILGRIMAGE. of the East as among Europeans ; and the same kind of happiness results from their residence at Mekka, where reading the Ko- ran, smoking in the streets or coffee-houses, praying or conversing in the mosque, are added to the indulgence of their pride in being near the holy house, and to the antici- pation of the honours attached to the title of hadjy for the remainder of their lives ; be- sides the gratification of religious feelings, and the hopes of futurity, which influence many of the pilgrims. The hadjys who come by the caravans pass their time very dif- ferently. As soon as they have finished their tedious journey, they must undergo the fatiguing ceremonies of visiting the Kaaba and Omra ; immediately after which, they are hurried away to Arafat and Mekka, and, still heated from the effects of the journey, are exposed to the keen air of the Hedjaz mountains under the slight and inadequate covering of the ihram : then returning to Mekka, they have only a few days left to recruit their strength, and to make their repeated visits to the Beitullah, when the caravan sets off* on its return ; and thus the whole pilgrimage is a severe trial of bodily \ strength, and a continual series of fatigues THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 31 and privations. This mode of visiting the holy city is, however, in accordance with the opinions of many most learned Moslim di- vines, who thought that a long residence in the Hedjaz, however meritorious the inten- tion, is little conducive to true belief, since the daily sight of the holy places weakened the first impressions made by them. Not- withstanding the general decline of Musel- man zeal, there are still found Mohammedans whose devotion induces them to visit re- peatedly the holy places. I knew Turks established at Cairo, who, even while the Wahaby faith predominated in the Hedjaz, went every year by way of Cosseir to Mekka ; and there are a few individuals who reside constantly in that city, that they may pass the remainder of their days in pious duties and abstraction from the world. During my stay, a Turkish grandee arrived from Con- stantinople ; he had been Kahwadjy Bashy to Sultan Selym ; and the present Grand Signior had permitted him to go, that he might die in the sacred territory, where his arrival was announced by princely donations to the mosque. The Syrian and Egyptian caravans always arrive at fixed periods; generally a day or 32 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. two before the departure of the Hadj for Arafat. Both caravans usually pass by Be- der, on the same day, or with an interval of one day only. The Syrian caravan coming from Medina, and the Egyptian from Yembo el Nakhel, prosecute their route from Beder to Mekka, at a short distance from each other. On the 5th of the month of Zul Hadj, A. H. 1229 , or the 21st of November, 1814, the approach of the Syrian caravan was announced by one of its Mekowem, who came galloping into the town, to win the prize which is always awarded to the Sabbak, or him who brings the first tidings of the safe arrival of that caravan. The loud acclamations of the mob followed him to the governor’s house, where his horse expired the moment he dis- mounted. The news was the more important, as nothing had been heard of this Hadj, and rumours had even been circulated of the Bedouins having plundered it on the road to the north of Medina. Two hours after, many other persons belonging to it arrived ; and in the night the whole body came up, and encamped, with the Pasha of Damascus at their head, in the plain of Sheikh Mah- moud. Early the next morning, the Egyptian THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. S3 caravan also arrived. The heavy baggage and the camels were sent to the usual place of encampment of the Egyptian Hadj, in the Moabede ; but the Mahmal, or holy camel, remained at Sheikh Mahmoud, that it might pass from thence in procession next day through the town. Mohammed Aly Pasha arrived unexpectedly this morning from Tayf, to be present at the Hadj, and to inspect the cavalry which had come with the Egyptian caravan, a reinforcement that strongly ex- cited his hopes of success against the Wa- habys. He was dressed in a very handsome ihram, having two large entirely white cash- mirene shawls wrapped round his loins and 4 shoulders : his head was bare ; but an officer held over it an umbrella to protect him from the sun, while riding through the streets. On the same morning, all the hadjys resident at Mekka took the ihram at their own lodgings, with the usual ceremonies, preparatory to their setting out for Arafat ; and at mid-day they assembled in the mosque, where a short sermon was preached on the occasion. The hadjys who had come with the caravan had already taken the ihram at Asfan, two sta- tions in advance of Mekka ; but a great number of them, especially the servants and VOL. II. e 34 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. camel-drivers, did not throw off their ordinary dresses, and even appeared in them at Arafat, without causing either surprise or indigna- tion. There is no religious police or inqui- sition here ; and every body is left to the dictates of his conscience, either to observe or neglect the precepts of the canonical law. Great bustle prevailed this evening in the town. Every body was preparing for his journey to Arafat ; Syrian hadjys came to engage lodgings, to inquire about the state of the markets, and to pay their first visits to the Kaaba. A number of pedlars and petty shopkeepers left the town to establish them- selves at Arafat, and to be ready there for the accommodation of the pilgrims. A num- ber of camel-drivers from Syria and Egypt led their unloaded camels through the streets, offering to let them out to the hadjys going to Arafat. The rate of hire this year was very moderate, on account of the great numr ber of beasts of burden : I engaged two of these camels, for the journey of four days to Arafat and back again, for three dollars. On the 8th of Zul Hadj, early in the morning, the Syrian Hadj passed in proces- sion through the town, accompanied by all its soldiers, and carrying the Malimal in front. THE HADJ } OR PILGRIMAGE. 35 All its baggage was left at Sheikh Mahmoud, excepting the tents that were to be pitched at Arafat. Most of the hadjys were mounted in the Shebrye, a sort of palanquin placed upon the camel. The great people, and the Pa- sha of Damascus himself, rode in takhtrouans , a kind of closed litter or box carried by two camels, one before and the other behind, and forming a very commodious conveyance, ex- cept that it is necessary always to have a ladder, by means of which one may mount or descend. The camels’ heads were decorated with feathers, tassels, and bells ; but their heads, bent down towards the ground, showed how much they were fatigued by their journey. While these passed, the streets were lined by people of all classes, who greeted the caravan with loud acclamations and praise. The martial music of the Pasha of Damascus, a dozen of fine caparisoned horses led in front of his litter, and the rich takhtrouans in which his women rode, particularly attracted attention. Soon after the Syrians had passed, the Egyptian procession followed, consisting of its Mahmal or sacred camel, (for each of the caravans carries one,) and the Shebryes of the public officers, who always accompany 36 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. the Hadj ; but not a single private pilgrim was to be seen in its suite. The good appear- ance of the soldiers who were with them, the splendour of the Mahmal, and of the equi- page of the Emir el Hadj, who was a com- mander of the. Turkish horsemen called Delhis, drew from the Mekkawys many signs of approbation, such as had been given to those who immediately preceded them. Both caravans continued their route to Arafat without stopping. Before mid-day, all the hadjys who had resided for some time at Mekka, likewise mounted their camels, and crowded the streets as they pressed forward to follow the Hadj. They were joined by the far greater part of the population of Mekka, who make it a rule to go every year to Arafat ; and by a similar portion of the population of Djidda, who had been assembled here for some time. During five or six days, the gates of Djidda, thus deserted by so many people, remain shut. I left my lodgings on foot, after mid-day, with a companion and a slave-boy mounted on two camels, which I had hired from a Syrian driver, a native of Homs. It is thought meritorious to make the six hours’ THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 37 journey to Arafat on foot, particularly if the pilgrim goes barefooted. Many hadjys did so ; and I preferred this mode, because I had led a very sedentary life for some months. We were several hours before we could reach the outskirts of the town beyond the Moa- bede, so great was the crowd of camels ; and many accidents happened. Of the half-naked hadjys, all dressed in the white ihram, some sat reading the Koran upon their camels ; some ejaculated loud prayers ; whilst others cursed their drivers, and quarrelled with those near them, who were choking up the passage. Beyond the town the road widens, and we passed on through the valleys, at a very slow march, for two hours, to Wady Muna, in the narrow entrance of which great confusion again occurred. The law enjoins that the hadjys shall recite five prayers at Muna, Mohammed having always done so ; that is to say, that they shall arrive there at noon, in time for the mid-day prayer, and remaining until the next morning, shall per- form the prayers of the Aszer, of Mogreb, and of Ashe, and that of the dawn on the ensuing day. The inconvenience, however, arising from a delay on the route has led to the neglect of this precept for some time 38 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. past ; and the Hadj now passes Mima, on its way to Arafat, without halting. In advance of Muna, we had the mosque of Mozdelife to our right, whither many pil- grims went to recite the Salat el Aszer and Salat el Mogreb ; but the caravan continued its march. Beyond Mozdelife, we again en- tered the mountains by the pass called El Mazoumeyn, on the eastern side of which we issued towards the plain of Arafat. Here the pilgrims passed between the two pillars called Alameyn, and, on approaching the vicinity of Djebel Arafat, dispersed over the plain in search of their place of encampment. I reached the camp about three hours after sun-set ; but the last stragglers did not arrive till midnight. Numberless fires were seen lighted on an extent of ground of three or four miles in length ; and high and brilliant clusters of lamps marked the different places of encampment of Mohammed Aly, Soleyman Pasha, and the Emir el Hadj of the Egyp- tian caravan. Hadjys were seen in every direction wandering among the tents in search of their companions, whom they had lost in the confusion on the road ; and it was several hours before the noise and clamour had subsided. Few persons slept during THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 39 that night : the devotees sat up praying, and their loud chants were particularly dis- tinguished on the side of the Syrian en- campment ; the merry Mekkawys formed themselves into parties, singing the jovial songs called djoh , accompanied by clapping of hands ; and the coffee-houses scattered over the plain were crowded the whole night with customers. The night was dark and cold, and a few drops of rain fell. I had formed a resting- place for myself by means of a large carpet tied to the back part of a Mekkawy’s tent; and having walked about for the greater part of the night, I had just disposed myself to sleep, when two guns, fired by the Syrian and Egyptian Hadj, announced the approaching dawn of the day of pilgrimage, and sum- moned the faithful to prepare for their morn- ing prayers. To illustrate the following account, a plan of Arafat is annexed ; and the figures and marks of reference which it contains are explained below.* 1 . Mount Arafat. 2. Mohammed's place of prayer on 5. Djatna es’ Szaklira. C. Wady Arna. 7. Tent of the lady of Mohammed Aly its summit. 3. Platform of the preacher. 4. Modaa Seydna Adam. Pasha. 8. The Egyptian caravan. 40 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. At sun-rise on the 9th of Zul Hadj, every pilgrim issued from his tent, to walk over the plains, and take a view of the busy crowds assembled there. Long streets of tents, fitted up as bazars, furnished all kinds of provisions. The Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by their chiefs early in the morning, while thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs of the plain all round the camp. I walked to Mount Arafat, to enjoy from its summit a more distinct view of the whole. This granite hill, which is also called Djebel er 9 Rahme , or the Mountain of Mercy, rises on the north-east side of the plain, close to the mountains which encompass it, but sepa- rated from them by a rocky valley; it is 9. Tent of Mohammed Aly. 10. Camp of the cavalry of Moham- med Aly. 11. The Syrian caravan. 12. Tent of Solyman Pasha of Da- mascus. 13. Camp of the cavalry of Solyman Pasha. 14. Tent of the family of Djeylany. 15. Camp of the chief persons of Mek- ka and Turkish hadjys who had not come with the caravans. 16. Camp of Indians and lower class of Mekka, where also I myself halted. 17. The market. 18. The house of the Sherif. 19. Tent of Sherif Yahy a. 20. Encampment of Bedouins. 21. The mosque called Djama Nimre. 22. El Aalameyn. 23. The well of Basan. a. a. a. Different reservoirs of water. The caravans and various parties of hadjys encamp every year exactly on the same spots. The Persian caravan from Baghdad, as soon as it arrives, en- camps near the Sherif ’s house, at the place marked b ; and the Yemen ca- ravan at c. I was inyself encamped at d. 40 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. At sun-rise on the 9th of Zul Hadj, every pilgrim issued from his tent, to walk over the plains, and take a view of the busy crowds assembled there. Long streets of tents, fitted up as bazars, furnished all kinds of provisions. The Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by their chiefs early in the morning, while thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs of the plain all round the camp. I walked to Mount Arafat, to enjoy from its summit a more distinct view of the whole. This granite hill, which is also called Djebel er 9 Rahme , or the Mountain of Mercy, rises on the north-east side of the plain, close to the mountains which encompass it, but sepa- rated from them by a rocky valley ; it is 9. Tent of Mohammed Aly. 10. Camp of the cavalry of Moham- med Aly. 11. The Syrian caravan. 12. Tent of Solyman Pasha of Da- mascus. 13. Camp of the cavalry of Solyman Pasha. 14. Tent of the family of Djeylany. 15. Camp of the chief persons of Mek- ka and Turkish hadjys who had not come with the caravans. 16. Camp of Indians and lower class of Mekka, where also I myself halted. 18. The house of the Sherif. 19. Tent of Sherif Yahya. 20. Encampment of Bedouins. 21. The mosque called Djama Nimre. 22. El Aalameyn. 23. The well of Basan. a. a. a. Different reservoirs of water. The caravans and various parties of hadjys encamp every year exactly on the same spots. The Persian caravan from Baghdad, as soon as it arrives, en- camps near the Sherif ’s house, at the place marked b ; and the Yemen ca- ravan at c. I was myself encamped at d. 17. The market. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 41 about a mile, or a mile and a half in circuit ; its sides are sloping, and its summit is nearly two hundred feet above the level of the plain. On the eastern side broad stone steps lead up to the top, and a broad unpaved path, on the western, over rude masses of granite, with which its declivity is covered. After mounting about forty steps, we find a spot a little on the left, called Modaa Seydna Adam, or the place of prayer of our Lord Adam, where, it is related, that the father of mankind used to stand while praying; for here it was, according to Mohammedan tradi- tion, that the angel Gabriel first instructed Adam how to adore his Creator. A marble slab, bearing an inscription in modern cha- racters, is fixed in the side of the mountain. On reaching about the sixtieth step, we come to a small paved platform to our right, on a level spot of the hill, where the preacher stands who admonishes the pilgrims on the afternoon of this day, as I shall hereafter mention. Thus high, the steps are so broad and easy that a horse or camel may ascend, but higher up they become more steep and uneven. On the summit the place is shown where Mohammed used to take his station during the Hadj ; a small chapel formerly 42 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. stood over it ; but this was destroyed by the Wahabys : here the pilgrims usually pray two rikats, in salutation of Arafat. The steps and the summit are covered with hand- kerchiefs to receive their pious gifts, and each family of the Mekkawys or Bedouins of the tribe of Koreysh, in whose territory Arafat lies, has its particular spot assigned to it for this purpose. The summit commands a very extensive and singular prospect. I brought my compass to take a circle of bearings ; but the crowd was so great, that I could not use it. Towards the western extremity of the plain are seen Bir Bazan and the Aalameyn ; somewhat nearer, southwards, the mosque called Djama Nimre, or Djama Seydna Ibra- him ; and on the south-east, a small house where the Sherif used to lodge during the pilgrimage. From thence an elevated rocky ground in the plain extends towards Arafat. On the eastern side of the mountain, and close to its foot, are the ruins of a small mosque, built on rocky ground, called Djama el Szakhrat, where Mohammed was accus- tomed to pray, and where the pilgrims make four prostrations in memory of the prophet. Several large reservoirs lined with stone are dispersed over the plain ; two or three are THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 43 close to the foot of Arafat, and there are some near the house of the Sherifs : they are filled from the same fine aqueduct which sup- plies Mekka, and the head of which is about one hour and a half distant, in the eastern mountains. The canal is left open here for the convenience of pilgrims, and is conducted round the three sides of the mountains, passing by Modaa Seydna Adam.* From the summit of Arafat, I counted about three thousand tents dispersed over the plain, of which two thirds belonged to the two Hadj caravans, and to the suite and soldiers of Mohammed Aly ; the rest to the Arabs of the Sherif, the Bedouin hadjys, and the people of Mekka and Djidda. These assembled multitudes were for the greater number, like myself, without tents. The two caravans were encamped without much order, each party of pilgrims or soldiers having pitched its tents in large circles or dowars , in the midst of which many of their camels were reposing. The plain contained, dispersed in different parts, from twenty to twenty-five thousand camels, twelve thousand of which belonged to the Syrian Hadj, and from five * At the close of the sixteenth century, according to Kotobeddyn, the whole plain of Arafat was cultivated. 44 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. to six thousand to the Egyptian ; besides about three thousand, purchased by Mo- hammed Aly from the Bedouins in the Syrian Deserts, and brought to Mekka with the Hadj, to convey the pilgrims to this place, previously to being used for the transport of army-provisions to Tayf. The Syrian Hadj was encamped on the south and south-west side of the mountain ; the Egyptian on the south-east. Around the house of the Sherif, Yahya himself was en- camped with his Bedouin troops, and in its neighbourhood were all the Hedjaz people. Here it was that the two Yemen caravans used formerly to take their station. Mo- hammed Aly, and Soleyman Pasha of Da- mascus, as well as several of their officers, had very handsome tents ; but the most magnifi- cent of all was that of the wife of Mohammed Aly, the mother of Tousoun Pasha and Ibra- him Pasha, who had lately arrived from Cairo for the Hadj, with a truly royal equipage, five hundred camels being necessary to transport her baggage from Djidda to Mekka. Her tent was in fact an encampment consisting of a dozen tents of different sizes, inhabited by her women ; the whole enclosed by a wall of linen cloth, eight hundred paces in circuit, THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 45 the single entrance to which was guarded by eunuchs in splendid dresses. Around this enclosure were pitched the tents of the men who formed her numerous suite. The beau- tiful embroidery on the exterior of this linen palace, with the various colours displayed in every part of it, constituted an object which reminded me of some descriptions in the Arabian Tales of the Thousand and One Nights. Among the rich equipages of the other hadjys, or of the Mekka people, none were so conspicuous as that belonging to the family of Djeylany, the merchant, whose tents, pitched in a semicircle, rivalled in beau- ty those of the two Pashas, and far exceeded those of Sherif Yahya. In other parts of the East, a merchant would as soon think of buying a rope for his own neck, as of dis- playing his wealth in the presence of a Pasha ; but Djeylany has not yet laid aside the cus- toms which the Mekkawys learned under their old government, particularly that of Sherif Ghaleb, who seldom exercised extortion upon single individuals ; and they now rely on the promises of Mohammed Aly, that he w r ill respect their property. During the whole morning, there were repeated discharges of the artillery which 46 THE HADJj OH PILGRIMAGE, both Pashas had brought with them. A few pilgrims had taken up their quarters on Djebel Arafat itself, where some small cavern or impending block of granite afforded them shelter from the sun. It is a belief generally entertained in the East, and strengthened by many boasting hadjys on their return home, that all the pilgrims, on this day, encamp upon Mount Arafat ; and that the mountain possesses the miraculous property of expan- sion, so as to admit an indefinite number of the faithful upon its summit. The law ordains that the wakfe , or position of the Hadj, should be on Djebel Arafat; but it wisely provides against any impossibility, by declaring that the plain in the immediate neighbourhood of the mountain may be re- garded as comprised under the term “ moun- tain,” or Djebel Arafat. I estimated the number of persons as- sembled here at about seventy thousand. The camp was from three to four miles long, and between one and two in breadth. There is, perhaps, no spot on earth where, in so small a place, such a diversity of languages are heard ; I reckoned about forty, and have no doubt that there were many more. It ap- peared to me as if I were here placed in a THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 47 holy temple of travellers only ; and never did I at any time feel a more ardent wish to be able to penetrate once into the inmost re- cesses of the countries of many of those per- sons whom I now saw before me, fondly imagining that I might have no more difficulty in reaching their homes, than what they had experienced in their journey to this spot. When the attention is engrossed by such a multitude of new objects, time passes rapidly away. I had only descended from Mount Arafat, and had walked for some time about the camp, here and there entering into con- versation with pilgrims ; inquiring at the Syrian camp after some of my friends ; and among the Syrian Bedouins, for news from their deserts, when mid-day had already passed. The prayers of this period of the day ought to be performed either within, or in the immediate neighbourhood of, the mosque of Nimre, whither the two Pashas had repaired for that purpose. The far greater number of hadjys, however, dispense with this observance, and many of them with the mid-day prayers altogether ; for no one concerns himself whether his neighbour is punctual or not in the performance of the prescribed rites. After mid-day, the pilgrims 48 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. are to wash and purify the body, by means of the entire ablution prescribed by the law, and called Ghossel, for which purpose chiefly, the numerous tents in the plain have been constructed ; but the weather was cloudy, and rather cold, which induced nine-tenths of the pilgrims, shivering as they were already under the thin covering of the ihram, to omit the rite also, and to content themselves with the ordinary ablution. The time of Aszer (or about three o’clock p. m.) approached, when that ceremony of the Hadj takes place, for which the whole assembly had come hither. The pilgrims now pressed forward towards the mountain of Arafat, and covered its sides from top to bottom. At the precise time of Aszer, the preacher took his stand upon the platform on the mountain, and began to address the multitude. This sermon, which lasts till sun-set, constitutes the holy ceremony of the Hadj called Khotbet el Wakfe ; and no pilgrim, although he may have visited all the holy places of Mekka, is entitled to the name of hadjy, unless he has been present on this occasion. As Aszer approached, therefore, all the tents were struck, every thing was packed up, the cara- vans began to load, and the pilgrims belonging THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 49 to them mounted their camels, and crowded round the mountain, to be within sight of the preacher, which is sufficient, as the greater part of the multitude is necessarily too dis- tant to hear him. The two Pashas, with their whole cavalry drawn up in two squa- drons behind them, took their post in the rear of the deep lines of camels of the hadjys? to which those of the people of the Hedjaz were also joined ; and here they waited in solemn and respectful silence the conclusion of the sermon. Further removed from the preacher, was the Sherif Yahya, with his small body of soldiers, distinguished by seve- ral green standards carried before him. The two Mahmals, or holy camels, which carry on their back the high structure that serves as the banner of their respective caravans, made way with difficulty through the ranks of camels that encircled the southern and eastern sides of the hill, opposite to the preacher, and took their station, surrounded by their guards, directly under the platform in front of him.* * The Mahmal (an exact representation of which i§ given by D’Ohsson,) is a high, hollow, wooden frame, in the form of a cone, with a pyramidal top, covered with a fine silk brocade adorned with ostrich feathers, and having VOL. II. 1 ) 50 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. The preacher, or Khatyb, who is usually the Kadhy of Mekka, was mounted upon a a small book of prayers and charms placed in the midst of it, wrapped up in a piece of silk. (My description is taken from the Egyptian Mahmal.) When on the road, it serves as a holy banner to the caravan ; and on the return of the Egyptian caravan, the book of prayers is exposed in the mosque El Hassaneyn, at Cairo, where men and women of the lower classes go to kiss it, and obtain a blessing by rubbing their foreheads upon it. No copy of the Koran, nor any thing but the book of prayers, is placed in the Cairo Mahmal. The Wahabys declared this ceremony of the Hadj to be a vain pomp, of idolatrous origin, and con- trary to the spirit of true religion ; and its use was one of the principal reasons which they assigned for interdicting the caravans from repairing to Mekka. In the first cen- turies of Islam, neither the Omeyades nor the Abassides ever had a Mahmal. Makrisi, in his treatise “ On those Khalifes and Sultans who performed the pilgrimage in person,” says that Dhaher Bybars el Bondokdary, Sultan of Egypt, was the first who introduced the Mahmal, about A. H. 670. Since his time, all the Sultans who sent their caravans to Mekka, have considered it as a privilege to send one with each, as a sign of their own royalty. The first Mahmal from Yemen came in A. H. 960; and in A. H. 1049, El Moayed Billah, king, and Imam of Yemen, who publicly professed the creed of Zeyd, came with one to Arafat; and the caravans of Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo, have always carried it with them. In A. H. 730, the Baghdad caravan brought it to Arafat upon an elephant (vide Asamy). I believe the custom to have arisen in the battle-banner of the Bedouins, called Merkeb and THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE. 51 finely-caparisoned camel, which had been led up the steps ; it being traditionally said that Mohammed was always seated when he here addressed his followers, a practice in which he was imitated by all the Khalifes who came to the Hadj, and who from hence addressed their subjects in person. The Turkish gen- tleman of Constantinople, however, unused to camel-riding, could not keep his seat so well as the hardy Bedouin prophet; and the camel becoming unruly, he was soon obliged to alight from it. He read his sermon from a book in Arabic, which he held in his hands. At intervals of every four or five minutes he paused, and stretched forth his arms to im- plore blessings from above ; while the assem- bled multitudes around and before him waved the skirts of their ihrams over their heads, and rent the air with shouts of “ Lebeyk, Allah huma Lebeyk,” (i. e. Here we are, at thy commands, O God!) During the wavings of the ihrams, the side of the mountain, thickly crowded as it was by the people in their white garments, had the appearance of a ca- Otfe, which I have mentioned in my remarks on the Be- douins, and which resemble the Mahmal, inasmuch as they are high wooden frames placed upon camels. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 52 THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE. taract of water ; while the green umbrellas, with which several thousand hadjys, sitting on their camels below, were provided, bore some resemblance to a verdant plain. During his sermon, which lasted almost three hours, the Kadhy was seen constantly to wipe his eyes with a handkerchief ; for the law enjoins the Khatyb or preacher to be moved with feeling and compunction ; and adds that, whenever tears appear on his face, it is a sign that the Almighty enlightens him, and is ready to listen to his prayers. The pilgrims who stood near me, upon the large blocks of granite which cover the sides of Arafat, appeared under various aspects. Some of them, mostly foreigners, were crying loudly and weeping, beating their breasts, and de- nouncing themselves to be great sinners be- fore the Lord ; others (but by far the smaller number,) stood in silent reflexion and adora- tion, with tears in their eyes. Many natives of the Hedjaz, and many soldiers of the Turkish army, were meanwhile conversing and joking ; and whenever the others were waving the ihram, made violent gesticula- tions, as if to ridicule that ceremony. Be- hind, on the hill, I observed several parties of Arabs and soldiers, who were quietly smok- THE HAOJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 53 ing their nargyles ; and in a cavern just by sat a common woman, who sold coffee, and whose visiters, by their loud laughter and riotous conduct, often interrupted the fervent devotions of the hadjys near them. Num- bers of people were present in their ordi- nary clothes. Towards the conclusion of the sermon, the far greater part of the assem- bly seemed to be wearied, and many de- scended the mountain before the preacher had finished his discourse. It must be ob- served, however, that the crowds assembled on the mountain were, for the greater part, of the lower classes ; the pilgrims of respecta- bility being mounted upon their camels or horses in the plain. At length the sun began to descend behind the western mountains ; upon which the Kad- hy, having shut his book, received a last greeting of “ Lebeyk and the crowds rushed down the mountain, in order to quit Arafat. It is thought meritorious to accelerate the pace on this occasion ; and many persons make it a complete race, called by the Arabs, Ad’dafa min Arafat. In former times, when the strength of the Syrian and Egyptian ca- ravans happened to be nearly balanced, bloody affrays took place here almost every year be- 54 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. tween them, each party endeavouring to out- run and to carry its mahmal in advance of the other. The same happened when the mahmals approached the platform at the com- mencement of the sermon ; and two hundred lives have on some occasions been lost in supporting what was thought the honour of the respective caravans. At present the power of Mohammed Aly preponderates, and the Syrian hadjys display great humility. The united caravans and the whole mass of pilgrims now moved forward over the plain ; every tent had been previously packed up, to be ready for the occasion. The pilgrims pressed through the Aalameyn, which they must repass on their return ; and night came on before they reached the defile called El Mazoumeyn. Innumerable torches were now lighted, twenty-four being carried before each Pasha ; and the sparks of fire from them flew far over the plain. There were continual dis- charges of artillery ; the soldiers fired their muskets ; the martial bands of both the Pa- shas played ; sky-rockets were thrown as well by the Pashas’ officers, as by many private pilgrims ; while the Hadj passed at a quick pace in the greatest disorder, amidst a deafen- ing clamour, through the pass of Mazoumeyn, THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 55 leading towards Mezdelfe, where all alighted, after a two hours’ march. No order was observed here in encamping ; and every one lay down on the spot that first presented itself, no tents being pitched except those of the Pashas and their suites ; before which was an illumination of lamps in the form of high arches, which continued to blaze the whole night, while the firing of the artillery was kept up without intermission. In the indescribable confusion attending the departure of the Hadj from Arafat, many pilgrims had lost their camels, and were now heard calling loudly for their drivers, as they sought them over the plain : I myself was among their number. When I went to the mountain of Arafat, I ordered my camel-driver and my slave to remain in readiness upon the spot where they then were, till I should return to them after sun-set ; but seeing, soon after I quitted them, that the other loaded camels pressed forward towards the mountain, they followed the example ; and when I returned to the place where I left them, they were not to be found. I was therefore obliged to walk to Mezdelfe, where I slept on the sand, co- vered only by my ihram, after having searched for my people during several hours. 56 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. On the 10th of the month of Zul Hadj, or the day of the feast called Nehar el Dhahye, or Nehar el Nahher, the morning gun awoke the pilgrims before dawn. At the first ap- pearance of day-break, the Kadhy took his station upon the elevated platform which en- closes the mosque of Mezdelfe, usually called Moshar el Haram, and began a sermon si- milar to that which he had preached the day before. The Hadj surrounded the mosque on all sides with lighted torches, and accom- panied the sermon with the same exclama- tions of “ Lebeyk Allah huma Lebeyk but though this sermon forms one of the principal duties of the pilgrimage, by far the greater number of the hadjys remained with their baggage, and did not attend it. The ser- mon is not very long, lasting only from the first dawn till sun-rise ; a space of time much shorter of course in this latitude, than in our northern countries. The Salat el Ayd, or the prayer of the feast, is performed at the same time by the whole community according to its rites. When the first rays of the sun shot athwart the cloudy sky, the pilgrims moved on at a slow march towards Wady Muna, one hour distant from hence. On arriving at Wady Muna, each nation THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 57 encamped upon the spot which custom has as- signed to it, at every returning Hadj. After disposing of the baggage, the hadjys hast- ened to the ceremony of throwing stones at the devil. It is said that, when Abraham or Ibrahim returned from the pilgrimage to Ara- fat, and arrived at Wady Muna, the devil Eblys presented himself before him at the entrance of the valley, to obstruct his pas- sage ; when the angel Gabriel, who accompa- nied the Patriarch, advised him to throw stones at him, which he did, and after pelt- ing him seven times, Eblys retired. When Abraham reached the middle of the valley, he again appeared before him, and, for the last time, at its western extremity, and was both times repulsed by the same number of stones. According to Azraky, the Pagan Arabs, in commemoration of this tradition, used to cast stones in this valley as they returned from the pilgrimage ; and set up seven idols at Muna, of which there was one in each of the three spots where the devil appeared, at each of which they cast three stones. Mohammed, who made this cere- mony one of the chief duties of the hadjys, increased the number of stones to seven. At the entrance of the valley, towards Mez- 58 THE HADJ, OB PILGRIMAGE. delfe, stands a rude stone pillar, or rather altar, between six and seven feet high, in the midst of the street, against which the first seven stones are thrown, as the place where the devil made his first stand: to- wards the middle of the valley is a similar pillar, and at its western end a wall of stones, which is made to serve the same purpose. The hadjys crowded in rapid succession round the first pillar, called 66 Djamrat el Awla and every one threw seven small stones suc- cessively upon it : they then passed to the second and third spots, (called “ Djamrat el Owsat,” and “ Djamrat el Sofaly,” or “ el Aka- ba,” or “ el Aksa,”) where the same ceremony was repeated. In throwing the stones, they are to exclaim, “ In the name of God ; God is great (we do this) to secure ourselves from the devil and his troops.” The stones used for this purpose are to be of the size of a horse-bean, or thereabouts ; and the pilgrims are advised to collect them in the plain of Mezdelfe, but they may likewise take them from Muna; and many people, contrary to the law, collect those that have already been thrown. Having performed the ceremony of casting stones, the pilgrims kill the animals which THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 59 they bring with them for sacrifice ; and all Mohammedans, in whatever part of the world they may be, are bound, at this time, to per- form the same rite. Between six and eight thousand sheep and goats, under the care of Bedouins, (who demanded high prices for them,) were ready on this occasion. The act of sacrifice itself is subject to no other cere- monies than that of turning the victim’s face towards the Kebly or the Kaaba, and to say, during the act of cutting its throat, “ In the name of the most merciful God ! O su- preme God !” (Bismillah ! irrahman irrahhym, Allahou akbar !) Any place may be chosen for these sacrifices, which are performed in every corner of Wady Muna ; but the fa- vourite spot is a smooth rock on its west- ern extremity, where several thousand sheep were killed in the space of a quarter of an hour* As soon as the sacrifices were completed, the pilgrims sent for barbers, or repaired to their shops, of which a row of thirty or ^ Kotobeddyn relates that, when the Khalife Mokteder performed the pilgrimage about A. H. 350, he sacrificed on this day forty thousand camels and cows, and fifty thousand sheep. Even now, persons of wealth kill ca- mels. The slaughtering may be performed by proxy. 60 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. forty had been set up near the favourite place of sacrifice. They had their heads shaved, except those who were of the Shafey sect, who shave only one-fourtli of the head here, reserving the other three-fourths till they have visited the Kaaba, after returning to Mekka. They threw off the ihram, and re- sumed their ordinary clothes ; those who could afford it putting on new dresses, this being now the day of the feast. So far the Hadj was completed, and all the pilgrims joined in mutual congratulations, and wishes that the performance of this Hadj might be acceptable to the Deity. “ Tekabbel Allah !” was heard on all sides, and every body ap- peared contented. But this was not quite the case with myself ; for all endeavours to find my camels had hitherto proved vain, such were the immense crowds that filled the val- ley ; and while the other hadjys were dressed in their clothes, I was obliged to walk about in my ihram. Fortunately, my purse, which I had hung about my neck according to the pilgrim custom, (the ihram having no poc- kets,) enabled me to buy a sheep for sacrifice, and pay a barber. It was not till after sun- set that I found out my people, who had encamped on the northern mountain, and THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 61 had been all the while under great anxiety about me. The pilgrims remain two days more at Muna. Exactly at mid-day, on the 11th of Zul Hadj, seven small stones are again thrown against each of the three places where the devil appeared ; and the same is done on the 12th of Zul Hadj, so that by the three repeated throwings, each time of twen- ty-one stones, the number of sixty-three is cast during the three days. Many pilgrims are ignorant of the precise tenor of the law in this respect, as they are of several other points in the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and either throw early in the morning the stones they should throw at mid-day, or do not throw the number enjoined. After the last throwing on the 12th, the Hadj returns to Mekka in the afternoon. Muna* is a narrow valley, extending in a right line from west to east, about fifteen hundred paces in length, and varying in * This name is said to be derived from Adam, who, during his stay in the valley, when God told him to ask a favour, replied, “ I ask (ytemuna) for paradise and this place received its appellation from the answer. Others say it derived its name from the flowing of blood in the day of sacrifice. 62 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. breadth, enclosed on both sides by steep and barren cliffs of granite. Along the middle, on both sides of the way, is a row of buildings, the far greater part in ruins : they belong to Mekkans or Bedouins of the Koreysh, by whom they are either let out, or occu- pied during the three days of the Hadj, and left empty the rest of the year, when Muna is never inhabited. Some of these are tolerable stone buildings, two stories high ; but not more than a dozen of them are kept in complete repair. On the farthest eastern extremity of the valley, stands a good house, belonging to the reigning Sherif of Mekka, in which he usually lives during those days. It was now occupied by the ladies of Mohammed Aly; Sherif Yahya, after throwing off the ihram, having returned to Mekka, where many hadjys also repair immediately after that ceremony ; but it is their duty to revisit Muna at noon on the 11th or 12th of this month, in order to throw the stones, as the neglect of this ceremony would render their pilgrimage imperfect. The remainder of those two days they may spend where they please. In the evening of the day of sacrifice, the merchant hadjys usually go to Mekka, that THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 63 they may unpack whatever merchandize they have brought there. In the open space between the Sherifs house and the habitations of the Mekkans, is situated the mosque called Mesdjed el Kheyf; it is a good solid building, the open square of which is surrounded by a high and strong wall. In the midst of it is a public fountain, with & small dome ; and the west side, where the pulpit is placed, is occupied by a colon- nade with a triple row of pillars. The mosque is very ancient; it was newly con- structed in A. H. 559, by the celebrated Salaheddyn ; but it was rebuilt in its pre- sent form by Kayd Beg, Sultan of Egypt, in A. H. 874. It is reported, according to Fasy, that at the foot of the mountain behind it, Mohammed received many revelations from heaven, and that Adam was buried in the mosque. Close by it is a reservoir of water, also founded, according to Kotobeddyn, by Kayd Beg ; it was now completely dry, as was a similar one where the Syrian Hadj encamped. The want of water at Muna subjected the poorer hadjys to great hard- ships. Some was brought either from Mez- delfe, or from the tank situated beyond Muna, on the road to Mekka, and the skin- 64 THE HAD J, OR PILGRIMAGE. full was sold for four piastres. In Fasy’s time, there were fifteen wells of brackish water at Muna : it seems that water may be found at a certain depth in all the country round Mekka. The annexed ground-plan shows whatever is worthy of notice in the town or village of Muna.* The house of Djeylany, the best that it contained, was constantly crowded by visiters, whom he treated sumptuously. * In this plan fig. 1 . indicates the house of the Sherif. 2. The tent of Mohammed Aly Pasha. 3. Cavalry of Mohammed Aly Pasha. 4. Egyptian caravan. 5. Tents of Solyman Pasha and his retinue. C. Tent of Ahmed Bey, commander of the Syrian cavalry. 7. Syrian caravan. 8. Syrian cavalry. 9. The mosque, called Mesdjed el Kheyf. 10. Reservoirs of water, then dry. 11. Camp of poor Indian, Yemen, and Negro pilgrims. 12. Tents serving as coffee-shops. 13. Ruined houses occupied by people of Mekka. 14. The first devil’s pillar. 15. The house of Djeylany, the mer- chant. 16. A row of shops. 17. The second devil’s pillar. 18. The house of the Kadhy of Mekka. 19. A vaulted hall, with shops on both sides. 20. A ruined mosque. 21. A large shop, where Abyssinian slaves were exhibited for sale. 22. The house of Sakkat, a rich mer- chant of Mekka. 23. Camp of Turkish, Iledjaz, and Bedouin pilgrims. (All this ground is uneven and rocky.) 24. The third and last devil’s pillar, or wall. 25. A row of barbers’ shops. 26. The rock upon which the victims were killed. 27. Paved steps on the road towards Mekka. 28. A small house of the Sherif, where he throws off the ihram, and dresses. 29. The spot where Abraham pre- pared to sacrifice his son, and close by the birth-place of Is- mayl. 30. The mountain called Djebel The- beyr. 628! Vol.lL.p 64 64 THE HAD J, OR PILGRIMAGE. full was sold for four piastres. In Fasy’s time, there were fifteen wells of brackish water at Muna : it seems that water may be found at a certain depth in all the country round Mekka. The annexed ground-plan shows whatever is worthy of notice in the town or village of Muna.* The house of Djeylany, the best that it contained, was constantly crowded by visiters, whom he treated sumptuously. * In tliis plan fig. 1 . indicates the house of the Sherif. 2. The tent of Mohammed Aly Pasha. 3. Cavalry of Mohammed Aly Pasha. 4. Egyptian caravan. 5. Tents of Solyman Pasha and his retinue. C. Tent of Ahmed Bey, commander of the Syrian cavalry. 7. Syrian caravan. 8. Syrian cavalry. 9. The mosque, called Mesdjed el Kheyf. 10. Reservoirs of water, then dry. 11. Camp of poor Indian, Yemen, and Negro pilgrims. 12. Tents serving as coffee-shops. 13. Ruined houses occupied by people of Mekka. 14. The first devil’s pillar. 15. The house of Djeylany, the mer- chant. 16. A row of shops. 17. The second devil’s pillar. 18. The house of the Kadliy of Mekka. 19. A vaulted hall, with shops on both sides. 20. A ruined mosque. 21. A large shop, where Abyssinian slaves were exhibited for sale. 22. The house of Sakkat, a rich mer- chant of Mekka. 23. Camp of Turkish, Hedjaz, and Bedouin pilgrims. (All this ground is uneven and rocky.) 24. The third and last devil’s pillar, or wall. 25. A row of barbers’ shops. 26. The rock upon which the victims were killed. 27. Paved stepson the road towards Mekka. 28. A small house of the Sherif, where he throws off the ihram, and dresses. 29. The spot where Abraham pre- pared to sacrifice his son, and close by the birth-place of Is- mayl. 30. The mountain called Djebel The- beyr. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 65 The houses of the Kadhy and the rich families of Sakkat were next to it ; and, on the same side of the way, a long, narrow hall had been lately repaired and fitted up, where about fifty lYiekkan and Turkish shopkeepers exhibited their wares. The houses of the northern row are almost totally in ruins: the row of shops (No. 16.) on that side were open without any doors. There were, besides, many sheds constructed in the midst of the street, where victuals might be purchased in great abundance, but at exorbitant prices. On the declivity of the mountain to the north, called Djebel Thebeyr, a place is visited by the hadjys, where Abraham, as some accounts inform us, requested permis- sion to offer up his son as a sacrifice. A granite block, cleft in two, is shown here, upon which the knife of Abraham fell, at the moment when the angel Gabriel showed him the ram close by. At the touch of the knife the stone separated in two. It is in comme- moration of this sacrifice that the faithful, after the Hadj is completed, slaughter their victims. The commentators on the law, however, do not agree about the person VOL. II. E 66 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. whom Abraham intended to sacrifice. Some state him to have been Yakoub (Jacob), but the far greater number Ismayl. In the im- mediate neighbourhood of the block is a small cavern, capable of holding four or five persons? where Hadjer (or Hagar) is said to have given birth to Ismayl ; this, however, directly con- tradicts even Mohammedan tradition, which says that Ismayl was born in Syria, and that his mother Hadjer carried him into the Hed- jaz, when an infant at her breast ; but the small cavern offering itself so conveniently, justified the substitution of Muna for Syria, as a fit birth-place for the father of the Be- douins, more especially as it attracts so many pious donations to the Mekkans, who sit around with outspread handkerchiefs. Where the valley terminates towards Mekka, is a small house of the Sherif, in which he makes his sacrifice, and throws off the ihram. It was mentioned, that in a side-valley leading from this place towards Djebel Nour, stands a mosque called Mesdjed el Ashra, where the followers of Mohammed used to pray ; but I did not visit it. According to Azraky, another mosque, called Mesdjed el Kabsh, stood near the cavern ; and Fasy says there was one THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 67 between the first and second' of the devil's pillars, which is probably that marked 20 in the plan. To every division of the liadjys, its place of encampment is appointed in Wady Muna, or at Arafat; but the space is here much narrower. The Egyptian Hadj alights near the house of the Sherif, where Mohammed Aly had pitched his tent, in the vicinity of his cavalry. Two large leathern vessels, constantly kept filled with water, were placed in front of his tent, for the use of the liadjys. At a short distance from it, towards the Mesdjed el Kheyf, stood the tent of Soleyman Pasha of Damascus, whose caravan was en- camped on the opposite side of the way ; before his tent was placed a row of ten field- pieces, which he had brought with him from Damascus. His ammunition had exploded on the way, while the caravan halted at Beder, and fifty people had been killed by the accident ; but Mohammed Aly had fur- nished him with a fresh supply ; and the guns were frequently discharged, as were twelve others which stood near Mohammed Aly ? s tent. The greatest number of hadjys had encamped without any order, on the rocky and uneven plain behind the village to 68 THE HAD J, OR PILGRIMAGE. the north. The tents of the Mekkans were very neatly fitted up ; and this being now the feast, men, women, and children were dressed in their best apparel. At night, few people ventured to sleep, on account of thieves, who abound at Muna. A hadjy had been robbed, on the preceding night, of three hundred dollars ; and at Arafat several dozen of camels were stolen by the Bedouins : two of the thieves had been pursued and seized, and carried before Mohammed Aly at Muna, who ordered them to be beheaded. Their mutilated bodies lay before his tent the whole of the three days, with a guard, to prevent their friends from taking them away. Such exhibitions create neither horror nor disgust in the breast of an Osmanly ; their continual recurrence hardens his feelings, and renders him insensible to the emotions of pity. I heard a Bedouin, probably a friend of the slain, who stood near the bodies, exclaim, “ God have mercy upon them ; but no mercy upon him who killed them !” The street, which extends the whole length of Muna, was now converted into a market and fair : every inch of ground not built upon, was occupied by sheds or booths, made of mats ; or by small tents, fitted up as shops. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 69 Provisions, and merchandize of every kind, had been brought here from Mekka ; and, contrary to the custom in other Mohammedan countries, where all commerce is laid aside during the feast-days, all the merchants, shopkeepers, and brokers, were busily em- ployed in traffic. The merchants who had arrived with the Syrian caravan, began their bargains for Indian goods, and exhibited samples of the articles which they had themselves brought, and which were lying in the warehouses at Mekka. A number of poor hadjys were crying their small adven- tures, which they carried along the street on their heads ; and as all business was confined to this single street, the mixture of nations, costumes, and merchandize, was still more striking than at Mekka. * This pilgrimage among the Pagan Arabs was, at all times, connected with a large fair held at Mekka. In the month before the pilgrimage, they visited some other neigh- bouring fairs, namely, those of Okath, the market of the tribe of Kenane ; of Medjna and Zou el Medjaz; the markets of the tribe of Hodeyl ; and of Hasha, that of the Beni Lazed. After having spent their time in amusements at those fairs, they repaired to the Hadj at Arafat, and then returned to Mekka, where another large fair was held (see Azraky). At Arafat and Muna, on the contrary, they 70 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. In the afternoon of the first day of Mima* the two Pashas paid mutual visits ; and their cavalry manoeuvred before their tents. Among the troops of Soleyman Pasha, about sixty Sambarek (Zembourek) attracted notice : these are artillerymen, mounted on camels, having a small swivel before them, which turned on a pivot fixed to the pommel of the camel’s saddle. They fire while at a trot, and the animal bears the shock of the dis- charge with great tranquillity. The Syrian cavalry consisted of about fifteen hundred men, principally delhys ; no infantry what- ever being with the caravan. Soleyman Pasha appeared to-day with a very brilliant equi- page ; all his body-guards were dressed in richly-embroidered stuffs glittering with gold, and were well mounted, though the Pasha’s own stud was very indifferent. After the two Pashas had interchanged visits, their officers followed the example, and were admitted to scrupulously abstained from any traffic during the days of their sojourning there, and the performance of the holy rites; but the Koran abrogated this observance, and by a passage in chap. ii. permitted trafficking even in the days of the Hadj ; at least it has been so explained. (See ’El Fasy.) THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 71 kiss the hands of the Pashas, when each of them received presents in money, according to his rank. The Kadhy, the rich merchants of Mekka, and the grandees among the had- jys, likewise paid their respects to the Pashas, and each of their visits lasted about five mi- nutes. An immense crowd was, at the same time, assembled in a wide semicircle round their open tents, to witness this brilliant sight. In the afternoon, a body of negro pilgrims, under a leader, made their way through this crowd, and, walking up to So- leyman Pasha, (who sat quite alone, smoking upon a sofa in the recess of his tent,) boldly saluted him, and wished him joy on the ac- complishment of the pilgrimage ; in return they received some gold coins. They after- wards tried the same experiment with Mo- hammed Aly Pasha ; but received only blows on the back from his officers, in return for their compliments. Among the curiosities which attracted the notice of the crowd, was a curricle belonging to the wife of Moham- med Aly, which stood in the gateway of the Sherif’s house. This lady had carried it on board her ship to Djidda, from whence she rode in it to Mekka and Arafat, her person being, of course, completely concealed; it 72 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. was drawn by two fine horses, and was seen frequently afterwards parading the streets of Mekka. At night, the whole valley blazed ; every house and tent was lighted up ; before the tents of the Pashas were fine illuminations ; and the Bedouins made large bonfires upon the summits of the mountains. The noise of guns continued throughout the night ; fire- works were exhibited ; and several of the Mekkans let off rockets. The second day of the feast at Muna was passed in the same manner as the first ; but the putrefying carcases of the sheep became excessively offensive in some parts of the valley, as very few of the richer hadjys can consume the victims which they kill. The Hanefys are not even allowed by the laws of their sect to eat more than one-eighth of a sheep. The greater part of the flesh falls to the lot of the poorer hadjys, and the en- trails are thrown about the valley and the street. The negroes and Indians were em- ployed in cutting some of the meat into slices, and drying it for their travelling pro- vision* * Until the sixteenth century, it was an established rule THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 73 To-day many hadjys performed their prayers in the Mesdjed el Kheyf, which I found crowded with poor Indians, who had taken up their quarters in it. The pavement was thickly spread with carrion ; and on cords extended between the columns were sus- pended slices of meat, for the purpose of being dried. The sight and smell were very disgusting ; and many hadjys seemed sur- prised that such indecencies should be al- lowed. In general, foreign hadjys see many practices at Mekka, which are not calculated to inspire them with great veneration for the holy places of their religion ; and although with the Sultans of Egypt, and afterwards with those of Constantinople, to furnish, at Muna, all the poor hadjys with food at the expense of the royal treasury. The Pagan Arabs distinguished themselves more particularly during the Hadj for their hospitality ; and such of them as went on the pilgrimage, were gratuitously entertained by all those whose tents they passed on the road ; they having previously prepared for that purpose large supplies of food. (See Kotobeddyn.) — Among the wonders which distinguish Muna from other valleys, El Fasy relates that it occa- sionally extends its dimensions to accommodate any number of pilgrims ; that on the day of sacrifice, no vultures ever carry off the slaughtered lambs, thus leaving them for the poor hadjys ; and that, notwithstanding the quantity of raw flesh, no flies ever molest the visiters at this place. That the last remark is false, I can declare from my own experience. 74 THE hadj 5 , or pilgrimage. some may, nevertheless, retain all their reli- gious zeal undiminished, others, we may be assured, lose much of it in consequence of what they witness during the Hadj. It is to this loss of respect for religion, and to the nefarious and shameful practices in some measure legitimatised by their frequent oc- currence in the holy city, that we must attri- bute those proverbs which reflect upon the hadjys as less religious and less trust-worthy than any other persons. But our Christian holy-land is liable to some censure, for prac- tices of the same kind. The most devout and rigid Mohammedans acknowledge and de- plore the existence of this evil ; and prove that they are either more clear-sighted or more sincere than the Christian pilgrim Cha- teaubriand* At mid-day on the 12th of Zul Hadj, imme- diately after having thrown the last twenty- one stones, the hadjys left Muna, and re- turned along the valley to Mekka, evincing * Mons. C. may have had very statesman-like motives for giving in his Itinerary so highly coloured a picture of Palestine and its priesthood ; but, as a traveller, he can- not escape blame for having departed from the truth, and often totally misrepresented the facts that fell under his observation. THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 7 5 their high spirits by songs, loud talking, and laughter ; a contrast to the gloom which affected every body in proceeding here four days ago. On arriving at Mekka, the pil- grims must visit the Kaaba, which in the mean time has been covered with the new black clothing brought from Cairo, walk seven times round it, and perform the ceremony of the Say : this is called the Towaf el Ifadhe. He then takes the ihram once more, in order to visit the Omra ; and on returning from the Omra, again performs the Towaf and Say, and with this the ceremony of the Hadj is finally terminated. The principal duties incumbent upon the hadjy are, therefore : — 1. that he should take the ihram ; 2. be present, on the 9th of Zul Hadj, from afternoon till sun-set, at the ser- mon preached at Arafat ; 3. attend a similar sermon at Mezdelfe, at sun-rise of the 10th of Zul Hadj ; 4. on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of Zul Hadj, throw on each day twenty-one stones against the devil’s pillars at Muna ; 5. perform the sacrifice at Muna; or, if he is too poor, substitute for it a fast at some future time ; and, 6. upon his return to Mekka, visit the Kaaba and the Omra. The law makes so many nice distinctions, and increases so 76 THE HAD J, OR PILGRIMAGE. greatly the number of rules which are to guide the pilgrim at every step, that very few can flatter themselves with being quite regu- lar hadjys ; but as no ritual police is kept up during the ceremony, every one is completely his own master, and assumes the title of hadjy, whether he has strictly performed all the duties or not. It is enough for such that they have been at Arafat on the proper day — this is the least distinction : but a mere visit to Mekka does not authorise a man to style himself hadjy ; and the assumption of this title without some further pretensions, exposes him to ridicule. There is not any formal certificate given to hadjys at Mekka, as at Jerusalem ; but many of the great people purchase a few drawings of the town, &c. ; annexed to which is an attestation of four witnesses, that the purchasers were regular hadjys. If the 9th of Zul Hadj, or the day of El Wakfe, falls upon a Friday, it is held to be particularly fortunate. Some hadjys are anxious to acquire the title of “Khadem el Mesdjed,” or servant of the mosque, which may be obtained at the expense of about thirty dollars ; for this sum, a paper, bestowing that appellation upon him, is delivered to the purchaser, signed THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 77 by the Sherif and Kadhy. It is not uncom- mon to permit even Christians to obtain the privilege of calling themselves servants of the Mesdjed, and the honour is particularly sought for by the Greek inhabitants of the islands and shores of the Archipelago ; as, in case of their being captured by the Bar- bary pirates, such a certificate is often re- spected by the most rigid Moggrebyns. I saw a Greek captain who obtained one for two hundred dollars ; he had commanded one of Mohammed Aly’s dows, and was now on his way home ; and he felt satisfied that, whatever ship he might hereafter take under his charge in the Archipelago, would be se- cured by this certificate from the pirates. In former times, this title of Khadem appears to have been of more importance than it is now ; for I find, in the historians of Mekka, many great people mentioned, who annexed it to their names. After the return of the Hadj from Muna, the principal street of Mekka becomes almost impassable from the crowds assembled there. The Syrian hadjy merchants hire shops, and make the best use of the short time which is granted to them for their commercial trans- actions. Every body purchases provisions for 78 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. his journey home ; and the pursuit of gain now engrosses all minds, from the highest to the lowest. The two caravans usually leave Mekka about the 23d of Zul Hadj, after ten days’ stay in the town. Sometimes the lead- ers of them are prevailed upon by the mer- chants, who pay highly for the favour, to grant a respite of a few days ; but this year they did not require it, as the caravan was detained by Mohammed Aly, who, preparing to open his campaign against the Wahabys, thought proper to employ about twelve thou- sand camels of the Syrian Hadj in two jour- nies to Djidda, and one to Tayf, for the transport of provisions. As to the Egyptian caravan, which, as I have already mentioned, contained no private hadjys, it was wholly detained by Mohammed Aly, who ordered all the horsemen and camels that had accom- panied it, to assist him in his campaign. The Mahmal, or sacred camel, was sent back by sea to Suez, a circumstance which had never before occurred. The Syrian caravan did not leave Mekka till the 29th of Zul Hadj ; and the incessant labour to which its camels had been subjected, weakened them so much, that numbers of them died on their return through the Desert. The caravans of un- THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 79 loaded camels which were hourly leaving Mekka for Djidda, to take up provisions there, ^"facilitated the short journey to that place of those hadjys who wished to return home by sea. Having heard that the supply of money for which I had written to Cairo on my first reaching Djidda, had been received there, I rode over in the night of the 1st of Decem- ber, and remained in that town six or seven days. The hadjys who had, in the mean while, daily flocked into it on their return from Mekka, were seen encamped in every quarter, and thus it soon became as crowded as Mekka had just been. Among the ships in the harbour, ready to take hadjy passengers on board, was a merchant-vessel lately arrived from Bombay, belonging to a Persian house at that presidency, and commanded by an English captain, who had beat up to Djidda against the trade-winds, at this late season. I passed many agreeable hours in the com- pany of Captain Boag, on board his ship, and regretted that my pursuits should call me away so soon. Two other Europeans had ar- rived at Djidda about the same time, by way of Cairo ; the one an Englishman, who was going to India ; the other a German physi- 80 THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. cian. This gentleman was a Hanoverian by birth, and a baron : misfortunes of a very distressing nature had driven him from his home, and he had thought of practising his profession at Djidda, or of proceeding to Mokha ; but his mind was too unsettled to determine upon any thing; and he was of too independent a character to receive either counsel or assistance. I left him at Djidda when I returned to Mekka, and learnt after- wards that he died there in the month of March, of the plague, and that he was buried by the Greeks of Djidda upon an island in the harbour. When I returned to Mekka, about the 8th or 9th of December, I found no longer the same multitudes of people ; but the beggars had become so numerous and troublesome, that many of the hadjys preferred staying all day at home, to escape at once the impor- tunities, the expense of acceding to them, or the scandal of wanting charity. These beg- gars were soliciting alms to carry them home ; and their numbers were increased by many pilgrims of respectable appearance, whose money had been spent during the Hadj. It was my intention, in returning to Mekka, to join the Syrian caravan, and travel with it as THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 81 far as Medina; I therefore, in imitation of some other Syrian pilgrims who had arrived at Mekka before the caravan, engaged with a Bedouin of the Harb tribe for two of his camels ; although most of the hadjys, who, after the pilgrimage, visit Mohammed’s tomb at Medina, accompany the Syrian caravan, agreeing with some Mekowem to defray all expenses on the road ; but it is better, for many reasons, to travel with Bedouins than with towns-people, especially on a route across the Bedouin territory. An accident, however, prevented me from availing myself of this opportunity. The caravan being ready for departure on the 15th of December, I packed up my effects in the morning, and at noon a gun was fired, to announce that Soleyman Pasha had quitted the plain of Sheikh Mahmoud, where the caravan had been encamped ; but still my Bedouin had not arrived. I ran out towards Sheikh Mahmoud, when I under- stood that a rumour, whether false or true, having been spread, that Mohammed Aly was only waiting to see the camels all as- sembled in the morning upon the plain, that he might seize and send them to Tayf, se- veral Bedouins had made their escape during VOL. II. F 8£ THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. the night: it was evident that those with whom I had bargained were among the number. In the hurry and bustle of depar- ture no other camels could possibly be found ; and I was therefore obliged to return to the town, together with several Mekkans, who had been disappointed in the same manner. At the moment of starting, the leader of the Damascus caravan always distributes a certain quantity of provision to the poor. Soleyman Pasha had, for this purpose, heaped up two hundred camel-loads near his tent ; and when he mounted his horse, at a given signal it was seized upon by those who were waiting, in the most outrageous and disor- derly manner : a party of about forty negro pilgrims, armed with sticks, secured a consi- derable part of the heap to themselves. It is usual for the Syrian Hadj to stop two or three days, on its return, in Wady Fatme, the first station from Mekka, to allow the camels some fine pasturage in that neigh- bourhood ; but Soleyman Pasha, who enter- tained a great distrust of Mohammed Aly, and was particularly fearful lest he should make some further demand upon his caravan for camels, performed an uninterrupted march for two stations, and passed Wady Fatme ; THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 83 thus disappointing many Mekkan shopkeep- ers, who had repaired thither in hopes of establishing a market for the time. The Pa- sha became delirious during the journey, and, before he reached Damascus, was put under restraint by his own officers : he recovered his senses at Damascus, but died there soon after. I was obliged to remain at Mekka a whole month after the departure of the Hadj, wait- ing for another opportunity of proceeding to Medina. I might have easily gone from Djidda, by sea, to Yembo; but I preferred the journey by land. At this time the people of the Hedjaz were kept in anxious suspense, on account of Mohammed Aly, who was pre- paring to set out from Mekka, in person, against the Wahabys. They knew that, if his expedition should fail, the Bedouins of the Hedjaz would immediately resort to their wonted practices, and cut off the route to the interior from all travellers ; and experience had also taught them, that if the Wahabys obtained possession of the country a second time, the town of Mekka alone could indulge in any hope of escaping from being plundered. These considerations retarded the departure of caravans for Medina. A strong caravan 84 THE HADJj OR PILGRIMAGE. usually leaves Mekka on the 11th of Mohar- rem, (corresponding this year with the 2nd of January, 1815,) the day after the opening of the Kaaba, which always takes place on the 10th of Moharrem, or the day called Ashour, Towards the end of December, the inhabi- tants were alarmed by a false report of the arrival of a Wahaby force, by the way of the sea- coast, from the south : soon after, in the first days of January, 1815, Mohammed Aly set out from Mekka. He met the Wahaby army, four days after* at Byssel, in the neigh- bourhood of Tayf, where he gained the com- plete victory of which I have elsewhere given the details ; this was no sooner known at Mekka, than the caravan for Medina, which had long been prepared, set out, on the 15th of January. After the Syrian Hadj had departed, and the greater part of the other pilgrims retired to Djidda, waiting for an opportunity to em- bark, Mekka appeared like a deserted town. Of its brilliant shops, one-fourth only re- mained ; and in the streets, where a few weeks before it was necessary to force one’s way through the crowd, not a single hadjy was seen, except solitary beggars, who raised their plaintive voices towards the windows THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. 85 of the houses which they supposed to be still inhabited. Rubbish and filth covered all the streets, and nobody appeared disposed to re- move it. The skirts of the town were crowded with the dead carcases of camels, the smell from which rendered the air, even in the midst of the town, offensive, and certainly contributed to the many diseases now preva- lent. Several hundreds of these carcases lay near the reservoirs of the Hadj, and the Arabs inhabiting that part of Mekka never walked out without stuffing into their nostrils small pieces of cotton, which they carried suspended by a thread round the neck.* But this was not all. At this time the Mek- kans are in the habit of emptying the pri- vies of their houses ; and, too lazy to carry the contents beyond the precincts of the town, they merely dig a hole in the street, * The Arabs in general, even the Bedouins, are much more sensitive than the Europeans concerning the slightest offensive smell. This is one of the principal reasons why the Bedouins never enter a town without repugnance. They entertain a belief that bad smells affect the health by entering through the nostrils into the lungs; and it is for this reason, more than for the disagreeable sensation itself arising from the smell, that Arabs and Bedouins are often seen covering their noses with the skirts of their turbans, in walking through the streets. 86 . THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. before the door of the dwelling, and there deposit them, covering the spot only with a layer of earth. The consequences of such a practice may easily be imagined. The feasts of nuptials and circumcision now take place, being always celebrated im- mediately after the Hadj, as soon as the Mekkans are left to themselves, and before the people have had time to spend the sums gained during the residence of the pilgrims ; but I saw many more funerals than nuptial processions. Numbers of hadjys, already ill from the fatigues of the road, or from cold caught while wearing the ihram, are unable to proceed on their journey homewards ; they remain in the hope of recovering strength, but often terminate their existence here. If they have some companion or relative with them, he carries off the dead man’s property, on paying a fee to the Kadhy ; if he is alone, the Kadhy and Sherif are his heirs, and these inheritances are no inconsiderable source of income. When I quitted Mekka, there were still remaining there perhaps a thousand hadjys, many of whom intended to pass a whole year in the holy city, and to be present at another Hadj ; others to protract their re- sidence only for a few months. THE HADJj or pilgrimage. 87 On the day of quitting Mekka, it is thought becoming to pay a parting visit to the Kaaba, called Towaf el Wodaa, and to perform the Towaf and Say. The hadjys generally do it when every thing is ready for departure, and mount their camels the moment they have finished the ceremony. 88 JOURNEY FROM JOURNEY FROM MEKKA TO MEDINA. On the 15th of January, 1815, I left Mek- ka with a small caravan of hadjys, who were going to visit the tomb of the prophet : it consisted of about fifty camels, the property of some Bedouins of the Ryshye and Ze- beyde tribes, who either accompanied their beasts themselves, or had sent slaves with them. I had hired two camels, to carry my- self and my slave and baggage ; and, as is customary in the Hedjaz, I had paid the mo- ney in advance, at the rate of one hundred and eighty piastres per camel. My late ci- cerone, with whom I had every reason to be satisfied, though not quite free from those professional vices already mentioned, accom- panied me out of town, as far as the plain of Sheikh Mahmoud, where the camels had as- sembled, and from whence the caravan started MEKKA TO MEDINA. 89 at nine o’clock in the evening. The journey to Medina, like that between Mekka and Djidda, is performed by night, which renders it much less profitable to the traveller, and, in winter time, much less comfortable than it would be by day. Having proceeded an hour and a quarter,* we passed the Omra : thus far the road is paved in several parts with large stones, par- ticularly on the ascents. We passed through valleys of firm sand, between irregular chains of low hills, where some shrubs and stunted acacia-trees grow. The road, with few excep- tions, w T as perfectly level. At five hours from Mekka, we passed a ruined building called El Meymounye, with the tomb of a saint, the dome of which was demolished by the Wahabys. Near it is a well of sweet water, and a small birket, or re- servoir, built of stone : a little building an- nexed to the tomb serves as a' sort of khan for travellers. For the first six hours from Mekka our road lay N. W., when we turned a steep hill, which caravans cannot cross, and proceeded N.N.W. to Wady Fatme, which we * I had bought a watch at Mekka, and had obtained a good compass from the English ship at Djidda. 90 JOURNEY FROM reached at the end of eight hours from Mek- ka, just at the first appearance of dawn. January 16th. We alighted on the spot where the pilgrim caravans repose on the day before they reach Mekka, in a part of the valley of Fatme, called Wady Djemmoum. Wady Fatme is low ground, abounding in springs and wells ; it extends in an E.N.E. direction to the distance of four or five hours, until it nearly joins Wady Lymoun. To the west of our resting-place, it terminates at about an hour and a half’s distance, being about six hours in its whole length. The most western point is called Medoua. On the western side are the principal plantations ; to the east it is cultivated in a few spots only. It presented to the view on that side a plain of several miles in breadth, covered with shrubs, and flanked on both sides by low barren hills or elevated ground ; but to- wards its eastern extremity it is said to be very well cultivated. Wady Fatme has dif- ferent appellations in different parts ; but the whole is commonly known to the people of Djidda and Mekka by the name of El Wady , or the valley. By the Arabian historians it is usually called Wady Merr. Between Wady Fatme and Hadda, (the station so named on MEKKA TO MEDINA. 91 the Djidda road,) are the two places, called Serouat and Rekany. (See Asamy.) The cultivated grounds in Wady Fatme contain principally date-trees, which supply the markets of the two neighbouring towns ; and vegetables, which are carried every night on small droves of asses, to Mekka and Djid- da. Wheat and barley are also cultivated in small quantities. The Wady being well sup- plied with water, might easily be rendered more productive than it now is ; but the Hedjaz people are generally averse to all ma- nual labour. Near the place where we alight- ed, runs a small rivulet, coming from the eastward, about three feet broad, and two feet deep, and flowing in a subterranean channel cased with stone, which is uncovered for a short space where the caravans take their supply of water, which is much more tepid than that of the Zemzem at Mekka, and is much better tasted. Close by are several ruined Saracen buildings and a large khan ; and here also, according to Fasy, stood for- merly a Mesdjed called El Fath. Among the date-groves are some Arab huts belong- ing to the cultivators of the soil, chiefly of the Lahyan tribe ; the more wealthy of them belong to the tribe of the Sherifs of Mekka, m JOURNEY FROM called Dwy Barakat, who live here like Be- douins, in tents and huts. They have a few cattle ; their cows, like all those of the Hed- jaz, are small, and have a hump on their shoulders. Wady Fatme is also distinguished for its numerous henna-trees, with the odo- riferous flowers of which, reduced to powder, the people of the East dye the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, or the nails of both. The henna of this valley is sold at Mekka to the hadjys in small red leathern bags ; and many of them carry some of it home, as a present to their female relations. I think it probable that the Oaditae of Pto- lemy were the inhabitants of this valley, (Wady, Oadi). We found at our halting-place a party of about twenty servants and camel-drivers belonging to the Turkish army at Mekka, who had left that place secretly to escape the embargo laid by Mohammed Aly upon all persons of their description. They were with- out any provisions, and had very little mo- ney ; but hearing that there was a caravan to start for Medina, they thought they should be able to accompany it thither. Some of them, who were Egyptians, intended to go to Yembo ; others, who were Syrians, had MEKKA TO MEDINA. 93 formed the plan of returning home through the Desert by the Hedjaz route, and of beg- ging their way along the Bedouin encamp- ments, not having money enough to pay for their passage by sea to Suez. We left our resting-place at three o’clock r. m., and were one hour in crossing the Wady to its northern side ; from whence the Hadj road, on which we travelled, rises gently be- tween hills, through valleys full of acacia- trees, in a direction N. 40 W. The rock is all granite of the gray and red species. At the end of two hours, the country opens, the trees diminish, and the course changes to N. 55 W. Towards sun-set I had walked a little way in front of the caravan, and being tired, sat down under a tree to wait its ap- proach ; when five Bedouins crept along the bushes towards me, and suddenly snatched up my stick, the only weapon I had, which was lying on the ground behind me. Their leader said I was, no doubt, a deserter from the Turkish army, and therefore their lawful prize. I offered no resistance ; but seeing them much less determined than Be- douin robbers generally are, I concluded that they were not free from fear. I told them, therefore, that I was a hadjy, and belonged 94 JOURNEY FROM to a large caravan escorted by Harb Bedouins ; that they might wait a little before they stopped me, to assure themselves of this fact by the arrival of the caravan ; and that they had better not offer me any violence, as our guides would no doubt know the perpetrators, and would report it to those who had the power to punish them. I felt assured that they had no intention of doing me any bodily harm, and was under no apprehension, espe- cially as I had only a travelling dress and a few dollars to lose, should the worst happen. One of them, an old man, advised his com- rades to wait a little ; for that it would not be well to incur the consequences of rob- bing a hadjy. During our parley, I looked impatiently for the caravan coming in sight ; but it had stopped behind for a quarter of an hour, to allow the travellers time to per- form the evening prayers, a daily practice among them, of which I was yet ignorant. This delay was very much against me, and I expected every moment to be stripped, when, the tread of the camels being at last heard, the Bedouins retreated as suddenly as they had approached. Although the road from Mekka to Medina was considered safe even for caravans unarmed MEKKA TO MEDINA. 95 like ours, yet stragglers are always exposed; and had it not been for the terror with which, a few days before, Mohammed Aly’s victory over the Wahabys had inspired all the neighbouring Bedouins, I should proba- bly have been punished for my imprudence in walking on alone. We rode the greater part of the night, over a plain more gravelly than sandy, where some ashour trees grow among the acacias, the same species ( Ascle - pia gigantea) which I have so often men- tioned in my Nubian Travels. This ground is called El Barka. After a seven hours’ march, we stopped at El Kara. January 17 th. We slept a few hours du- ring the night, a circumstance that seldom occurred on this journey. El Kara is a black, flinty plain, with low hills at a great distance to the east : it bears a few thorny trees, but affords no water. I was struck by its great resemblance to the Nubian Desert, south of Shigre. Although in the midst of winter, the heat was intense the whole morning of our stay at Kara. Nobody in the caravan had a tent, and I was more exposed than any person ; all the others being mounted on a shebrye , or shekcloj \ a sort of covered camel- saddle, which affords some shelter from the 96 JOURNEY FROM sun, both while on the camel, and when placed on the ground : the shebrye serves for one person, and the shekdof for two— one sit- ting on each side of the camel. But I had always preferred the open seat upon a loaded camel, as more commodious, besides being more Arab-like, and affording the advantage of mounting or dismounting without the aid of the driver, and without stopping the ani- mal ; which it is very difficult to effect with those machines on their back, especially the shekdof, where both riders must keep con- tinually balancing each other. I formed to-day a closer acquaintance with my fellow-travellers ; for, in small caravans, every one endeavours to be upon friendly terms with his companions. They were Ma- lays,, or, as they are called in the Levant, Jawas ; and, with the exception of a few of them, who came from the coast of Malacca, all British subjects, natives of Sumatra, Java, and the coast of Malabar. The Malays come regularly to the Hadj, and often bring their women with them, three of whom were in our caravan. Many remain for years at Mek- ka, to study the Koran and the law, and are known among the Indians in the Hedjaz as scrupulous adherents to the precepts, or MEKKA TO MEDINA. 97 at least to the rites, of their religion. Few of them talk Arabic fluently ; but they all read the Koran, and, even when travelling, are engaged in studying it. They defray the expenses of their journey by selling aloe- wood, the best kind of which, called Ma Wardy, they told me, cost, in their country, between three and four dollars per pound, and sells at Mekka at between twenty and twenty-five dollars. Their broad, long fea- tures, and prominent forehead, their short, but stout stature, and their decayed teeth, which present a striking contrast to the pearly teeth of the Arabs, every where distinguish them, although they wear the common Indian dress. Their women, who all went unveiled, wore robes and handkerchiefs of striped silk stuff, of Chinese manufacture. They ap- peared to be people of very sober habits and quiet demeanour, but avaricious in the ex- treme ; and their want of charity was suffi- ciently proved by their treatment of the des- titute fugitives who had joined the caravan at Wady Fatme. They lived, during the whole journey, upon rice and salted fish : they boiled the rice in water, without any butter, a dear article in the Hedjaz, but which they did not dislike ; for several of VOL. II. (x 98 JOURNEY FROM them begged my slave to give them secretly some of mine, for seasoning their dish. As they were people of property, avarice alone could be the motive for this abstemious diet ; but they were sufficiently punished by the curses of the Bedouins, who had, of course, expected to partake of their dinners, and could not be prevailed upon to swallow the watery rice. Their copper vessels were all of Chinese manufacture, and instead of the abrik , or pot, which the Levantines use in washing and making their ablutions, they carried with them Chinese tea-pots. During this journey, I had frequent op- portunities of learning the opinion enter- tained by these Malays of the government and manners of the English, their present masters ; they discovered a determined ran- cour and hostile spirit towards them, and greatly reviled their manners, of which, how- ever, the worst they knew was, that they indulged too freely in wine, and that the sexes mixed together in social intercourse : none, however, impeached the justice of the government, which they contrasted with the oppression of their native princes ; and al- though they bestowed upon the British the same opprobrious epithets with which the fa- MEKKA TO MEDINA. 99 natic Moslims every where revile Europeans, they never failed to add, “ but their govern- ment is good.” I have overheard many si- milar conversations among the Indians at Djidda and Mekka, and also among the Ara- bian sailors who trade to Bombay and Surat ; the spirit of all which was, that the Moslims of India hate the English, though they love their government. We left our resting-place at ten o’clock p. m., and proceeded over the plain of Kara, in a direction N. 40 W. At the end of three hours we passed a ruined building called Sebyl el Kara, where a well, now filled up, formerly supplied the passengers with water. I saw no hills to the west, as far as my eyes could reach. The plain is here over-grown with some trees and thick shrubs. We conti- nued to cross it till six hours, where it closes ; and the road begins to ascend slightly through a broad woody valley : here is situated Bir Asfan, a large, deep well, lined with stone, with a spring of good water in the bottom. This is a station of the Hadj. There is another way from Wady Fatme to Asfan, four miles to the eastward of our route. We passed the well without stopping. Samhoudy, the historian of Medina, mentions a village at 100 JOURNEY FROM Asfan, with a spring called Owla ; there is now no village here. At seven hours begins a very narrow ascending passage between rocks, affording room for only one camel. The torrents which rush down through this pas- sage in winter have entirely destroyed the road, and filled it with large, sharp blocks of stone : the Hadj route seemed, in several places, to be cut out of the rock, but the night was too dark for seeing any thing dis- tinctly. At the end of eight hours we reached the top of this defile, where a small building stands, perhaps the tomb of a Sheikh. From hence we rode over a wide plain, sometimes sandy, and in other parts a mixture of sand and clay, where trees and shrubs grow. At fourteen hours, near the break of dawn, we passed a small Bedouin encampment, and alighted, at the end of fifteen hours, in the neighbourhood of a village called Kholeys. We had made several short halts during the night, and kindled fires to warm ourselves. Kholeys stands upon a wide plain, in se- veral parts of which date-groves are seen, with fields, where dhourra , bemye , and dokken are cultivated. Several hamlets appear scat- tered about, which are comprised in the ge- neral name of Kholeys ; the largest is called MEKKA TO MEDINA. 101 Es-Souk, or the market-place, near which the Hadj encamps. A small rivulet, tepid, like that in Wady Fatme, rises near the Souk, and is collected on the outside of the village in a small birket, now ruined, and then waters the plain. Near the birket there are also the ruins of a sebyl.* According to Ko- tobeddyn, the birket and sebyl were built by Kayd Beg, Sultan of Egypt, about A. H. 885. At that time, Kholeys had its own Emir, who was a very powerful person in the Hedjaz. I saw plenty of cattle, cows, and sheep ; but the Arabs complained that their plantations suffered from drought, no rain having yet fallen, though the season was far advanced. The water from the rivulet did not appear sufficient to irrigate all the cultivated grounds, and the supply was even less than it might have been, as half of the water was suffered, through negligence, to escape from the narrow channels. The village Es-Souk contains about fifty houses, all built of mud, and very low : its main street is lined with shops, kept by the * A sebyl is a small, open building, often found by the side of fountains; in these sebyls travellers pray, and take their repose. JOURNEY FROM 102 people of Kholeys, and frequented by all the neighbouring Bedouins. The principal ar- ticle for sale was dates, with which most of the shops were filled ; in the others were sold dhourra, barley, lentils and onions, (both from Egypt,) rice, and some other articles of provision ; but no wheat, that grain being little used by the Bedouins of this country : there were also spices, a few drugs, the bark of a tree for tanning the water-skins, and some butter. Milk was not to be found, for no one likes to be called a milk-seller. A tolerably well-built mosque stands by the rivulet, near some gigantic sycamore-trees. I found in it two negro hadjys from Darfour ; they had, the night before, been stripped on the road of a few piastres, earned at Mekka : one of them having attempted to defend him- self, had been severely beaten ; and they now intended to go back to Djidda, and endea- vour to retrieve their loss by a few months’ labour. One of the Bedouins who had strip- ped them, was smoking his pipe in the vil- lage ; but they had not the means of proving the robbery against him, nor of obtaining jus- tice, Kholeys is the chief seat of the Arab tribe of Zebeyd, a branch of Beni Harb, and the residence of their Sheikh. The greater MEKKA TO MEDINA, 103 part of them are Bedouins ; and many even of those who cultivate the ground, pass some part of the year under tents in the Desert, for the purpose of pasturing their cattle upon the wild herbage. A few families of Beni Amer, (or Aatner*) another branch of Harb, are mixed with this tribe at Kholeys. Before the Turkish conquest, the usual currency at this market was dhourra ; at pre- sent, piastres and paras are taken. Kholeys often sends small caravans to Djidda, which is two long days' journeys, or three caravan journeys distant. I was told that the neigh- bouring mountains were well peopled with Bedouins. About three hours distant, in a N. E. direction, is a fertile valley called Wady Khowar, known for its numerous plantations of bananas, by which the fruit-markets of Mekka and Djidda are supplied. January 18th. Having filled our water- skins, we set out at three o’clock p. m. Our road lay N. 20 E. over the plain. In two hours we came to a high hill, called Thenyet Kholeys, the steep side of which was deeply covered with sand, through which our camels * The Beni Aamer must not be confounded with Amer , another tribe of Harb. 104 JOURNEY FROM ascended with difficulty. Some ancient ruins of a large building stand on its top, and the road on both sides of the hill is lined with walls, to prevent too great an accumulation of the sand. It was covered with carcases of camels, the relics of the late Hadj cara- vans. On descending the other side, a plain extended before us to the north and east, as far as the eye could reach. To the E. N. E. high mountains were visible, distant between twenty and thirty miles. Descending into the plain, we took the direction N. 10 W. At three hours and a half the plain, which thus far had been firm gravel, changed into deep sand, with tarfa (or tamarisk) trees, which delight particularly in sand, and in the driest season, when all vegetation around them is withered, never lose their verdure. It is one of the most common productions of the Arabian Desert, from the Euphrates to Mekka, and is also frequent in the Nubian deserts : its young leaves form an excellent food for camels. At four hours and a quarter, we found the road covered with a saline crust, indicating the neighbourhood of the sea ; from hence, our course was in various directions. According to the usual practice in the MEKKA TO MEDINA. 105 Hedjaz, the camels walk in a single row — those behind tied to the tails of those that precede them. The Arab, riding foremost, was to lead the troop ; but he frequently fell asleep, as well as his companions behind ; and his camel then took its own course, and often led the whole caravan astray. After a twelve hours’ march, we alighted at the Hadj station called Kolleya, and also Ko- beyba. Every spot in the plains of Arabia is known by a particular name ; and it re- quires the eye and experience of a Bedouin to distinguish one small district from ano- ther: for this purpose, the different species of shrubs and pasturage produced in them by the rains are of great assistance ; and whenever they wish to mention a certain spot to their companions, which happens to have no name, they always designate it by the herbs that grow there ; as, for instance, Abon Shyli , Abou A gal, &c. About two hours distant from the spot where we rested, to the north-east, is water, with a small date-grove. I heard that the sea was from six to eight hours distant. The mountains continued to be seen between twenty and thirty miles on the east; their summits sharp, and presenting steep and in- 106 .TOURNEY FROM sulated peaks. They are inhabited by the tribe of Ateybe, which in the seventeenth century, according to Asamy, also inhabited Wady Fatme. In the morning some Be- douin women appeared, with a few starved herds of sheep and goats, which were search- ing for the scanty herbage. No rain had fallen in the plain, and every shrub was with- ered ; yet these Bedouins did not dare to seek for better pasturage in the neighbouring mountains, which did not belong to the terri- tory of their tribe ; for, whenever there is a drought, the limits of each territory are rigorously watched by the shepherds. I went out with several of the Malays to meet the women, and to ask them for some milk ; the Malays had taken money with them to buy it ; and I had filled my pockets with biscuit, for the same purpose. They refused to take the money, saying they were not accustomed to sell milk ; but when I made them a pre- sent of the biscuits, they filled my wooden bowl in return. During the passage of the Hadj, these poor Bedouins fly in all direc- tions, knowing the predatory habits of the soldiers who escort the caravan. January 19th. We left Kolleya at half- past one o’clock p. m., and proceeded over the MEKKA TO MEDINA. 107 plain. In three hours, we came to low hills of moving sand ; at four hours, to a stony plain, with masses of rock lying across the road : direction N. c 25 W. At the end of nine hours, w~e halted during the night near the village of Rabegh, our road having been constantly level. Three or four hamlets, little distant from each other, are all com- prised under this appellation ; the principal of which, like that of Kholeys, is distin- guished by the additional name of Es-Souk, or the market-place. The neighbouring plain is cultivated, and thick plantations of palm- trees render Rabegh a place of note on this route. Amongst the palm-trees grow a few tamarinds, or Thamr Hindy, the green fruit of which was now sufficiently ripe and plea- sant. A few of these trees likewise grow at Mekka. Some rain had fallen here lately, and the ground was, in many parts, tilled. The ploughs of those Arabs, which are drawn by oxen or camels, resemble those delineated by Niebuhr, and which are, I believe, gene- rally used in the Hedjaz and Yemen.* Ra- * I cannot conceive what could have led Ptolemy to place a river in the direction between Mekka and Yembo, as certainly no river empties itself into the sea any where in the Hedjaz. In winter time, many torrents rush down from the mountains. 108 JOURNEY FROM begh possesses the advantage of a number of wells, the water of which is, however, but indifferent : its vicinity to the sea, which, as I heard, was six or seven miles distant, though the view of it was hid by palm- groves, causes the coast of Rabegh to be visited by many country ships that are in want of water. The Bedouins of this coast are active fishermen, and bring hither from the more distant ports their salted fish; a quantity of which may always be found in the market, where it is bought up by the Arab ships’ crews, who consume a great part of it, and carry the rest to Egypt or Djidda. The inhabitants of Rabegh are of the above- mentioned Harb tribes of Aamer and Zebeyd, principally the latter. In the opposite moun- tains, to the east, live the Beni Owf, another tribe of Harb. The hadjys passing by sea from Egypt to Djidda, are obliged to take the ihram opposite to Rabegh, which they may do either on shore, or on board ship. An accident occurred here, which showed in the strongest light the total want of cha- rity in our companions the Malays. There were several poorer Malays, who, unable to pay for the hire of a camel, followed their comrades on foot ; but as our night journeys MEKKA TO MEDINA. 109 were long, these men came in sometimes an hour or two after we had alighted in the morning. To-day one of them was brought in under an escort of two Bedouins of the tribe of Owf, who told us that they had found him straying in the Desert, and that he had promised them twenty piastres if they would guide him to the caravan, and that they expected his friends would make up this sum, the man, as they saw, being himself quite destitute of money. When they found that none of our party showed any inclina- tion to pay even the smallest part of this sum, and that all of them disclaimed any knowledge or acquaintance with the man, who, they said had joined the caravan at starting from Mekka without his person be- ing in the least known to them, the Be- douins declared that they should take the little clothing he had upon him, and keep him a prisoner in their tents till some other Malays should pass, who might release him. When the caravan was preparing to start, they seized him, and carried him off a short distance towards the wood. He was so terri- fied that he had lost the power of speech, and permitted himself to be led away, with- out making the slightest resistance. Our 110 JOURNEY FROM own guides were no match for the Owf, a tribe much dreaded for its warlike and savage character ; there was no judge in the village of Rabegh, to whose authority an appeal might be made ; and the two Bedouins had a legitimate claim upon their prisoner. I should have performed no great act of gene- rosity in paying his ransom myself ; but I thought that this was a duty incumbent upon his countrymen the Malays, and therefore used all my endeavours to persuade them to do it. I really never met with such hard- hearted, unfeeling wretches ; they unani- mously declared that they did not know the man, and were not bound to incur any ex- pense on his account. The camels were loaded ; they had all mounted, and the lead- er was on the point of starting, when the miserable object of the dispute broke out in loud lamentations. I had waited for this moment. Relying on the respect I en- joyed in the caravan from being supposed a hadjy in some measure attached to Mo- hammed Aly’s army, and the good-will of our guides, which I had cultivated by dis- tributing victuals liberally amongst them ever since we left Mekka, I seized the leader’s camel, made it couch down, and exclaimed, MEKKA TO MEDINA. Ill that the caravan should not proceed till the man was released. I then went from load to load, and partly by imprecating curses on the Malays and their women, and partly by collaring some of them, I took from every one of their camels twenty paras, (about three pence,) and, after a long contest, made up the twenty piastres. This sum I carried to the Bedouins, who had remained at a distance with their prisoner, and, representing to them his forlorn state, and appealing to the honour of their tribe, induced them to take ten piastres. According to true Turkish maxims, I should have pocketed the other ten, as a compensation for my trouble ; I, however, gave them to the poor Malay, to the infinite mortification of his countrymen. The consequence was, that, during the rest of the journey, they entirely discarded him from their party, and he was thrown upon my hands, till we arrived at Medina, and during his residence there. I intended to have pro- vided him with the means of returning to Yembo, but I fell dangerously ill soon after my arrival at Medina, and know not what afterwards became of him. Several pilgrims were begging for charity in the market of Rabegh. These poor peo- 112 JOURNEY FROM pie, in starting from Mekka for Medina with the great caravan, fancy that they are suffi- ciently strong to bear the fatigues of that journey, and know that, in travelling with the caravan, charitable hadjys are to be found who will supply them with food and water ; but the long night-marches soon exhaust their strength, they linger behind on the road, and, after great privations and delays, are obliged to proceed on their journey by other opportunities. An Afghan pilgrim here joined our party ; he was an old man ? of very extraordinary strength, and had come the whole way from Kaboul to Mekka on foot, and intended to return in the same manner. I regretted his slight acquaintance with Arabic, as he seemed an intelligent man, and could no doubt have given me some in- teresting information respecting his country. January 20th. We left Rabeghat four p. m. Our road lay N. 8 W., in most parts of black flint, interspersed with some hills of sand, upon which were a few trees. Having en- joyed no repose whatever for the last two days, I fell asleep upon my camel, and can only say, that after a ride of eleven hours, over hilly and sandy ground, we alighted at Mastoura, a station of the Hadj. Two large MEKKA TO MEDINA. 113 and deep wells, cased with stone, afford here a copious supply of good water. Near them stood the tomb of a saint called Sheikh Ma- dely, which had been demolished by the Wahabys. About ten miles east of this is a high mountain, called Djebel Ayoub , “Job’s Mountain,” overtopping the other summits of the chain of which it forms a part, and covered in many spots with trees. It is in- habited by the Owf tribe. The whole road from Kolleya to this place is dangerous on account of the robberies of these Bedouins ; and the caravan never passes without losing some of its loads or camels. In the time of the Wahabys it was completely secure ; the Sheikhs of the Harb, and the whole tribe being made responsible for all depredations committed in their territory. The Wahabys, however, had not been able to subdue the Owf in their own mountains ; and a proof of their independence appeared in the long hair which this tribe wore, contrary to the Wahaby precept, which had established it as a universal law to shave the head bare. We found, at the wells of Mastoura, several flocks of camels and sheep, which the Owf shepherds and shepherdesses were watering. I bought from them a lamb for a few pias- VOL. II. H 114 JOURNEY FROM tres and some tobacco, and divided it among our guides and those who accompanied us on foot. The Malays came to ask me for their share, giving me to understand that their compliance with my entreaties in favour of their poor countryman, was deserving of re- ward ; but the Bedouins who were with us, saved me, by their taunting reprimands, the trouble of answering them. Several tombs of hadjys were seen near the wells, which the Wahabys had respected ; for they seldom in- jured any tombs that pride or bigotry had left unadorned. January 21st. We set out at three o’clock p. m. The plain we crossed is either flinty, or presents spots of cultivable clay. The direction was north. After proceeding over a sandy plain, covered with low brush-wood, for two hours and a half, we had Djebel Ayoub about six miles distant : then begins a lower ridge of mountains, running parallel to the road. Here we quitted the great Hadj route, which turns off in a more westerly direction, and we proceeded towards the mountains N. 15 E. to reach Szafra by the nearest route. After a march of thirteen hours, over uneven ground and low hills, we halted near day-break, in a sandy plain, by MEKKA TO MEDINA. 115 the well called Bir-es’-Sheikh. It will have been observed, that our night marches were always very long ; but the rate of the camel’s walk was very slow, scarcely more than two miles an hour, or two and a quarter. Bir-es’- Sheikh is a well between thirty and forty feet deep, and fifteen feet in diameter, solidly cased with stone ; the work of men who felt more anxiety for the convenience of travellers to the holy cities, than the present chiefs of the faithful evince. If pressed for time, the Hadj sometimes takes this route ; but it goes usually by Beder, where the Egyptian and Syrian caravans, on their road to Mekka, follow each other, at the interval of one day or two, their time of setting out upon the journey invariably taking place on fixed days. We were now close to the great chain, which, since we left Kholeys, had been on our right : a ridge of it, a few miles north of Bir-es’- Sheikh, takes a westerly direction towards the sea, and at its extremity lies Beder. We met Bedouins at this well also ; they were of the tribe of Beni Salem, or Sowaleme : our guides bought a sheep of them, and roasted it in the Mecljba , a hole dug in the sand, and lined with small stones, which are heated ; the flesh is laid upon them, and 116 JOURNEY FROM then covered by cinders and the wet skin of the animal, and closely shut up with sand and clay. In an hour and a half the meat is cooked, and, as it loses none of its juices, has an excellent flavour. January 22nd. We left the well at half- past three p.m. Route N. 10 W. ascending over uneven ground. In an hour and a half we entered the mountains, at the angle formed by the great chain on one side, and the above-mentioned branch, which extends towards Beder, on the other. From hence we continued N.N.E. in valleys of sandy soil, full of detached rocks. High mountains with sharp-pointed summits, and entirely barren, enclosed the road on both sides. The Eastern mountain, which here runs parallel with it, is called Djebel Sobh ; the territory of the powerful tribe of Beni Sobh, a branch of the Beni Harb. Their mountains contain many fertile valleys, where date-trees grow, and some dhourra is sown. It is here that the Mekka balsam-tree is principally found ; and the Senna Mekka, or Arabian senna, which the Syrian caravan exports, is collected ex- clusively in this district. The passage into the interior parts of this mountain is de- scribed as very difficult, and could never be MEKKA TO MEDINA. 117 forced by the Wahabys. Numerous families of the other tribes of Harb had retreated thither, with all their goods and cattle, from the arms of Saoud ; and while all the Hedjaz Bedouins submitted to the Wahaby dominion, the Sobh was the only tribe which success- fully defended their territory, and boldly asserted their independence. After a march of six hours and a half, the road began to ascend among low rocky hills. At seven hours and a half we entered Wady Zogag, a narrow valley of gentle ascent, full of loose stones, and over-grown with acacia- trees. In proceeding up, it grew narrower, the path became steeper, and more difficult for the camels. At the end of thirteen hours, we came to level ground at its top, and there entered the valley of Es’ Szafra, close by the village of the same name, at which we alighted. January 23d. Our camels being tired, having found very little food on the road, though they always had the whole morning to pasture, and several of them threatening to break down, the drivers stopped here the whole day. Like the before-mentioned Be- douin villages, Szafra is a market-place for all the surrounding tribes: its houses are 1 1 8 JOURNEY FROM built on the declivity of the mountain, and in the valley, which is narrow, leaving scarcely room enough for the date-groves which line both sides of it. A copious rivulet flows down the valley, the water of which is dis- persed among the date-trees, and irrigates some cultivated fields in the wider parts of the windings of this valley. Wheat, dhourra, barley, and dokhen are sown here ; of vege- tables the Badendjan, or egg-plant, Me- loukhye onions and radishes are cultivated; and vines, lemon, and banana-trees abound. The soil is every where sandy, but rendered fertile by irrigation : copious rains had fallen three days since in the mountains, and a tor- rent twenty feet broad, and three or four feet deep, was still flowing. The date-groves ex- tend about four miles; they belong to the inhabitants of Szafra, as well as of neigh- bouring Bedouins, who keep some of their own people, or Arab labourers, employed in irrigating the grounds, and repair hither themselves when the dates are ripe. The date-trees pass from one person to another in the course of trade, and are sold by the single tree ; the price paid to a girl’s father on marrying her, consists often in date-trees. They all stand in deep sand, which is col- MEKKA TO MEDINA. 119 lected from the middle parts of the valley, and heaped up round their root, and must be renewed annually, as the torrents usually wash it away. Every small grove is enclosed by a mud or stone wall ; the cultivators in- habit several hamlets, or insulated houses, scattered among the trees. The houses are low, and generally have only two rooms, and there is a small court -yard for the cattle. Several springs of running water, and many wells, are found in the gardens; the prin- cipal rivulet has its source in a grove close to the market; a small Mesdjed or mosque is built beside it, and it is overshadowed by a few large wild chesnut-trees. I saw no others of that species in the Hedjaz. Here, too, the water of the spring was tepid, but in a less degree than at Rabegh and Kholeys. The inhabitants of this valley, the name of which is celebrated in the Hedjaz for the abundance of its dates, are of the Beni Salem tribe, the most numerous branch of Harb, and, like most other tribes of the Hedjaz, partly Bedouins and partly settled inhabitants ; the latter remaining in their houses and gardens the whole year round, though they dress and live in the same manner as their brethren under tents. The Wahaby chief had been 120 JOURNEY FROM aware of the importance of this station ; and having succeeded, after a long resistance, in overpowering the Beni Harb, who held the key of the Northern Hedjaz,* thought it necessary to keep a watchful eye over this valley, and there built several strong block- houses or towers, in which the collectors of his revenues resided, and where they depo- sited the taxes collected from the valley. All these Bedouins were decidedly hostile to the Wahaby system : even now, though free from their yoke, they load them with as many re- proaches, as the Mekkans bestow praises on them. Before the Wahaby invasion, the Be- ni Harb had never known a master, nor had the produce of their fields ever been taxed. The Sherif of Mekka certainly assumed a no- minal supremacy over them ; but they were in fact completely independent, and their Sheikhs seconded the Sherif’s views so far only as they were thought beneficial, or of # In this enterprise he was assisted by Medheyan, for- merly a chief of Harb, who had been deprived of his post by Djezy, a fortunate rival. Medheyan was afterwards treacherously seized by the Turks at Medina, and beheaded at Constantinople ; and Djezy, a friend of Mohammed Aly, was killed by the Turkish governor of Medina, for having spoken too highly of his services. MEKKA TO MEDINA. 121 pecuniary advantage to their own people. The latter now complained greatly of the heavy taxation imposed by the Wahabys, and said that, besides the money they were obliged to pay into Saoud’s treasury, the chief oi all the Wahaby Sheikhs of the Hedjaz, Oth- man el Medheyfe, had extorted from them many additional sums. I thought the accu- racy of this information doubtful ; for I knew that the Wahaby chief had always shown particular care in preventing such acts of injustice in his officers, and punished those who were guilty. They also told me that not only had their gardens and plantations been taxed, but the very water with which they irrigated them had been assessed at a yearly sum. The dress of the people of Szafra consists of a shirt, and a short gown of coarse Indian coloured calico, over which they wear a white abba of light texture, the same as that worn by the Bedouins of the Euphrates, near Aleppo, and which is similar to the dress of all the Beni Harb who have become set- tlers ; while the Bedouins of the tribe wear the brown and white striped abba. The pro- fits which they derive from the passage of caravans, and their petty dealings, seem to 122 JOURNEY FROM have had a baneful influence upon their cha- racter, for they cheat as much as they can : they are, however, not destitute of commise- ration and hospitality towards the poor hadjys, who, in their passage, contrive to collect from the shops as much as is necessary for their daily food. We here met several poor pil- grims on their way to Medina, who had no- thing to subsist upon but what they obtained from the generosity of the Bedouins on the road. This was not the first time that I re- flected how ill had been applied the splendid liberality of many Khalifes and Sultans, who, while they enriched Mekka and Medina, and spent enormous sums to provide for the sump- tuous passage of the great Hadj caravans through the holy land, yet entirely neglected to provide for the comfort and security of the immense number of poor pilgrims who are continually travelling through that coun- try. Half-a-dozen houses of charity, esta- blished between Mekka and Medina, with an annual endowment of a few thousand dol- lars, would be of more real service to the cause of their religion, than all the sums spent in feeding the idle, or keeping up a vain show. On the whole of this route be- tween Mekka and Medina, there is not a MEKKA TO MEDINA. 123 public khan, nor has any thing been done for the benefit of travellers, beyond keeping the wells in repair. The only instance of a truly charitable act in any of the sovereigns who enriched Mekka, recorded by the historians? is the building of an hospital at Mekka, in A. H. 816, by order of Moayed, Sultan of Egypt. No traces of it now remain. In the market-street of Szafra, which is called Souk-es’-Szafra, dates are the principal article for sale. The pound, which costs twenty-five paras at Mekka, was sold here for ten. Honey, preserved in sheep-skins, forms another article of trade here. The neigh- bouring mountains are full of bee-hives. In those districts which are known to be fre- quented by bees, the Bedouins place wooden hives upon the ground, and the bees never fail to take possession of them. The honey is of the best quality ; I saw one sort of it as white, and almost as clear, as water. Drugs and spices, and some perfumes, of which the Bedouins of those countries are very fond, may here also be purchased. Szafra and Beder are the only places in the Hedjaz where the balsam of Mekka, or Balesan, can be procured in a pure state. The tree from which it is collected grows in 124 JOURNEY FROM the neighbouring mountains, but principally upon Djebel Sobh, and is called by the Arabs Beshern . I was informed that it is from ten to fifteen feet high, with a smooth trunk, and thin bark. In the middle of summer, small incisions are made in the bark ; and the juice, which immediately issues, is taken off with the thumb-nail, and put into a vessel. The gum appears to be of two kinds; one of a white, and the other of a yellowish-white colour : the first is the most esteemed. I saw here some of the latter sort, in a small sheep- skin, which the Bedouins use in bringing it to market : it had a strong, turpentine smell, and its taste was bitter. The people of Szafra usually adulterate it with sesamum oil, and tar. When they try its purity, they dip their finger into it and then set fire to it ; if it burn without hurting or leaving a mark on the finger, they judge it to be of good qua- lity ; but if it burn the finger as soon as it is set on fire, they consider it to be adulte- rated. I remember to have read, in Bruce’s Travels, an account of the mode of trying it, by letting a drop fall into a cup filled with water; the good Balesan falling coagulated to the bottom, and the bad dissolving, and swimming on the surface. I tried this ex- MEKKA TO MEDINA. 125 periment, which was unknown to the people here, and found the drop swim upon the water ; I tried also their test by fire upon the finger of a Bedouin, who had to regret his temerity : I therefore regarded the balsam sold here as adulterated ; it was of less den- sity than honey. I wished to purchase some ; but neither my own baggage, nor any of the shops of Szafra, could furnish any thing like a bottle to hold it : the whole skin was too dear. The Bedouins, who bring it here, usually demand two or three dollars per pound for it, when quite pure ; and the Szafra Arabs re-sell it to the hadjys of the great caravan, at between eight and twelve dollars per pound in an adulterated state. It is bought up principally by Persians. The Balesan for sale at Djidda andMekka, from whence it comes to Cairo, always un- dergoes several adulterations ; and if a hadjy does not casually meet with some Bedouins, from whom he may purchase it at first hand, no hopes can be entertained of getting it in a pure state. The richer classes of the had- jys put a drop of Balesan into the first cup of coffee they drink in the morning, from a notion that it acts as a tonic. The seeds of the tree from which it is obtained, are 126 JOURNEY FROM employed in the Hedjaz to procure abor- tion. I must notice here, as a peculiarity in the customs of the Beni Salem tribe, that, in case of the Dye , or the fine for a man slain, (amounting here to eight hundred dollars,) being accepted by the deceased’s family, the sum is made up by the murderer and his family, and by his relations ; the former pay- ing one-third, and the kindred two-thirds ; a practice which, as far as my knowledge extends, does not prevail in any other part of the Desert. Our Bedouin guides had here a long quar- rel with the Malays. The guides had bar- gained in the market for two camels, to re- place two that were unfit to continue the journey; but not having money enough to pay for them, they required the assistance of the Malays, and begged them to lend ten dollars, to be repaid at Medina. The Malays refused, and being hardly pressed, endea- voured to engage my interposition in their behalf ; but the Bedouins forced the money from them by the same means which I had employed on a former occasion : the purse of a Malay, which had been concealed in a bag of rice, now came to light ; it probably MEKKA TO MEDINA. 127 contained three hundred dollars. The owner was so much frightened by this discovery, and the apprehension that the Arabs would murder him on the road for the sake of his money, that by way of punishment for his avarice, they contrived to keep him in a constant state of alarm till we arrived at Medina. January 24th. We left the Souk-Es’-Sza- fra* at 3 p. m., and rode along the valley, which widens a little beyond the market- place. The brilliant verdure of the date- trees and plantations forms a singular con- trast with the barren mountains on each side Our direction was N. 10 E. I found the rock here composed throughout of red Thon stone, with transverse strata of the same substance, but of a green colour ; beyond Djedeyde, a little higher up, I found, in my return from Medina, feldspar rocks. At one hour from the Souk, we passed a similar village in the valley, called El Kharma, which is comprised within the Wady Szafra. At the end of two hours, we came to a public fountain in ruins, * During the night, a Kurd courier, mounted upon a dromedary, escorted by several Bedouins, passed through Szafra; he came from the head-quarters of Mohammed Aly, and was the bearer of the intelligence of the captu~ of Tarabe to Tousoun Pasha, at Medina. 188 JOURNEY FROM on the road, near a well half choked up. The valley here divides ; one branch turns towards the N. W. ; the other, which we followed, N.N.E. Two hours and a half, we passed a hamlet called Dar el Hamra, with gardens of date-trees, and plantations, inhabited by the tribe of Howaseb, another branch of Harb. Several small watch-towers had been built here on the summits of the neighbouring mountains, on both sides of the valleys, by Othman el Medheyfe, to secure this passage. Plenty of bananas were offered us for sale, as we passed this place. At the end of two hours and three quarters, the road begins to ascend, and the soil of the valley, which thus far from Szafra is gravel intermixed with sand, now becomes stony. In four hours and a quarter we passed the village called Mokad, which also produces dates. We stopped here for a quarter of an hour ; where we were surrounded by many of the inhabitants ; and on remounting my camel, I found that several trifling articles had been pilfered from my baggage. This defile is particularly dreaded by the Hadj caravans ; and stories are related of daring robberies committed by the Arabs which appear almost incredible. They dress sometimes like Turk- ish soldiers, and introduce themselves into MEKKA TO MEDINA. 129 the caravan while on their march during the night ; and in this manner they carried off, the year before, one of the finest led horses of the Pasha of Damascus, the chief of the Syrian caravan. They jump from behind upon the camel of the sleeping hadjy, stop his mouth with their abbas, and throw down to their companions whatever valuables they find upon him. If discovered, they draw their daggers and cut their way through ; for, if taken, they can expect no mercy. The usual mode of punishment on such occasions is to impale them at the moment the ca- ravan starts from the next station, leaving „ them to perish on the stake, or be devoured by wild beasts. The horrors of such a punish- ment, however, do not deter others from com- mitting the same crimes ; and individuals among the Bedouins pride themselves in be- ing reckoned expert Hadj -robbers, because great courage and dexterity are necessary to such a character. From hence our road lay N. 20 E. A barren valley about three hun- dred yards across begins here, which, at the end of six hours and a half, conducted us with many windings to Djedeyde, situated in a spot where the road becomes straight and has a steep ascent. I saw a great many date- VOL. II. i 1 30 JOURNEY FROM trees on both sides of the valley, which takes the general name of Djedeyde, and is divided into several villages. Near the southern entrance is the market-place, or Es’-Souk Djedeyde, which appeared to be of greater extent than that of Szafra; but it is now al- most in ruins. From thence the valley be- comes still narrower, running between steep rocks for about one hour. It was in this spot that Mohammed Aly’s first expedition against the Wahabys, under the command of his son Tousoun Beg, was defeated in autumn 1811 . They had possession of both moun- tains, and the discharges of musketry from each side reached across the valley, where the Turkish army attempted in vain to pass. Most of the Sheikhs of the tribe of Harb, and the two great southern Wahaby chiefs, Oth- man el Medheyfe and Tamy, were present, with two of the sons of Saoud, At seven hours and a half, we passed El Kheyf, the last village in the valley of Dje- deyde ; several insulated groups of houses are also scattered along the valley. About eighty tents of Turkish soldiers were pitched here, to guard this pass ; one of the most important positions in the Hedjaz, because it is the only way by which caravans can pro- MEKKA TO MEDINA. 131 ceed from Mekka or Yembo to Medina. The Harb tribe are well fitted, by their warlike temper, to defend this post. Even before the Wahaby conquest, they had repeatedly been at war with the Syrian caravan, and Djezzar Pasha himself had been several times repulsed here, and obliged to take the eastern Hadj route, at the back of the great chain, rather than submit to the exorbitant demands of the Beni Harb for permitting the Hadj to pass through their territories. Abdullah Pasha of Damascus, who conducted the Hadj eighteen times in person to Mekka, was compelled to do the same. Whenever the Harb are in amity with the caravan, they have a right to a considerable passage duty, which is paid at Djedeyde. Szafra appeared to me better peopled, and to contain more houses, than are now in Dje- deyde. In speaking of this pass, the Arabs generally join the two names, and say, “ the valley of Szafra and Djedeyde.” Beyond El Kheyf the valley widens, and forms many windings. Our caravan was here in constant fear of robbers, which kept us awake, though the severe cold during the night would not have suffered us to sleep. Our main direc- tion from Kheyf was N. 40 E. At twelve 132 JOURNEY FROM hours, gently ascending through the valley we entered a plain, situated in the midst of the mountains, about ten miles in length, called El Nazye, where we alighted. January 25th. We remained encamped here the whole day, some passengers having acquainted us that disturbances had broken out on the road before us, which we did not discover to be a false report till the next day. The rocks surrounding this plain are partly of granite, and partly of lime-stone. The plain is thickly covered with acacia-trees. Good water is found on the side of the mountains, but not in the plain itself. Some Bedouins of Beni Salem, to which tribe the inhabitants of Djedeyde also belong, pastured their flocks here : they were chiefly occupied in collecting food for their camels from the acacia-trees ; for this purpose, they spread a straw mat un- der the tree, and beat its boughs with long sticks, when the youngest and freshest leaves, from the extremities of the twigs, fall down : these are esteemed the best food for camels. I saw them sold in measures, in the market at Szafra. We exchanged some biscuits for milk with these Bedouins ; and one, to whom I had given a small dose of rhubarb, brought me some fresh butter in return. MEKKA TO MEDINA. 133 January 26th. We started at two f. m., and an hour and a half’s march over the plain brought us to the mountain. The whole breadth of this plain is about six miles. We then entered the mountain in the direction N. 50 E. The mixed rocks of granite and lime-stone present no regular strata. We next passed through a short defile, and, at the end of two hours and a half, entered a small plain called Shab el Hal, between the mountains, where were several encampments of Bedouins. At five hours, we entered a broad valley, running in a straight line, and covered with white sand. The night was cold, and the moon shone beautifully ; I therefore walked in front of the caravan, whose pace being slow, I soon advanced, without perceiving it, to a considerable dis- tance a-head. Finding that it did not come up, I sat down under a tree, and was going to light a fire, when I heard the tread of horses advancing towards me. I kept hidden behind the trees, and presently saw some Bedouins of very suspicious appearance pass by. After waiting a long time for the cara- van, and unable to account for its delay, I retraced my steps, and found the camels standing at rest, and taking breath, and every 134 JOURNEY FROM soul upon them fast asleep, the foot-passen- gers being still behind. This happened to us several times during our journey. When the camel hears no voices about it, and is not urged by the leader, it slackens its pace, and at last stands still to rest ; and if the leading camel once stops, all the rest do the same. I roused the Arabs, and we proceeded. The next day, we learnt that some travellers had been plundered this night on the road — no doubt by the horsemen who passed me, and who probably dispersed when they saw a large caravan approaching. The valley in which we were travelling is called Wady es ’ Shohada , or the “Valley of Martyrs,” where many followers of Moham- med are said to have been killed in battle : their remains are covered by rude heaps of stones in different parts of the valley. Here also are seen several tombs of hadjys ; and I observed some walls, much ruined, where a small chapel or mosque appeared to have stood : no water is found here. This is a station of the Hadj caravan. At the end of nine hours, we issued from this wady , which is on a very slight ascent ; and then taking a direction E. N. E. we crossed a rocky ground, and entered a wide plain called El MEKKA TO MEDINA. 135 Fereysh, where two small caravans from Me- dina bound to Yembo passed us. At the end of eleven hours and a half we alighted. The plain of Fereysh, according to the historian Asamy, was the scene of a sangui- nary battle, between the Sherif of Mekka and the Bedouin tribes of Dhofyr and Aeneze, in A. H. 1063. The Dhofyr, who are now set- tled in Mesopotamia, towards Baghdad, were at that time pasturing their herds in the neighbourhood of Medina. January 27th. The rocks here are all of red granite. A party of Bedouins, with their women, children, and tents, passed us ; they belonged to the tribe of Harb, called El Ha- mede, and had left the upper country, where no rain had yet fallen, to seek better pasturage in the lower mountains. While we were encamped, a heavy storm, with thunder and lightning, overtook us, and the rain poured down : as it threatened to be of long dura- tion, and we had no tents, it was thought ad- visable to proceed. We started in the after- noon ; and it continued to rain during the rest of the day and the whole night, which, joined to the cold climate in these elevated re- gions, was severely felt by all of us. Our road 136 JOURNEY FROM ascended through rocky valleys full of thorny trees ; it was crossed by several torrents that had rapidly swollen, and which we passed with difficulty. After seven hours’ march we reached the summit of this chain of moun- tains, when the immense eastern plain lay stretched before us : we passed several insu- lated hills. The ground is covered with black and brown flints. In nine hours we passed at some distance to the west of the date- plantations, and the few houses built round the well called Bir Aly. At the end of ten hours, in the middle of the night, just as the weather had cleared up, and a severe frost succeeded the rain, we arrived before the gate of Medina. It was shut, and we had to wait till day-light before it could be opened. Being unable to light a fire on the wet ground with wet fuel, and being all completely soaked with the rain, the sharp frost of the morn- ing became distressing to us, and was proba- bly the cause of the fever which confined me so long in this town ; for I had enjoyed perfect health during the whole journey. We entered Medina at sun-rise on the 28 th of January, the thirteenth day after our leaving Mekka, having halted two days on MEKKA TO MEDINA. 137 the road. The Hadj caravan usually per- forms the journey in eleven days, and, if pressed for time, in ten. The Bedouins apply to the whole country between Mekka and Medina, west of the mountains, the name of El Djohfe, which, however, is sometimes understood to mean the country from Mekka to Beder only. 138 MEDINA. MEDINA. The caravan alighted in a large court- yard in the suburb, where the loads were deposited; and all the travellers who had come with it immediately dispersed in quest of lodgings. With the help of a Mezowar, a professional class of men, similar to the de- lyls at Mekka, I procured, after some trouble, a good apartment in the principal market- street of the town, about fifty yards from the great mosque. I transported my baggage to those lodgings, where I was called upon by the Mezowar to visit the mosque and the holy tomb of Mohammed ; it being a law here, as at Mekka, that a traveller arriving in the town must fulfil this duty, before he under- takes the most trifling business. The ceremonies are here much easier and shorter than at Mekka, as will be presently seen. In a quarter of an hour I had gone through them, when I was at liberty to re- MEDINA. 139 turn home to arrange my domestic affairs. My Mezowar assisted me in the purchase of all necessary provisions, which were not ob- tained without difficulty ; Tousoun Pasha, the governor of the town, having, by his in- considerate measures, frightened away the Bedouins and camel-drivers, who used to bring in provisions. Flour and butter, how- ever, those prime articles in an Eastern kitchen, were to be had before sun-set, though not found in the public market ; but it was three days before I could procure any coal, the want of which was sensibly felt at this cold season of the year. Hearing that Yahya Effendi, the physician of Tousoun Pasha, the same person who in July last had taken my bill upon Djidda, was here, I paid him a visit next day, and showed him a letter re- ceived at Mekka, before I had left that town, from my Cairo banker, mentioning the pay- ment of the bill, no news of which had yet reached Yahya himself. Much as this gen- tleman’s acquaintance had been of service to me on that occasion, a good deal took place now to detract from it. At a visit which he paid me soon after, he happened to see my small stock of medicines, the same that I had in my Nubian journey, during 140 MEDINA. which it never was touched, some emetics and purges only having been used whilst I staid at Djidda and Mekka ; I had therefore half a pound of good bark in my medicine sack, untouched. Several persons of the Pa- sha’s court were at this time ill of fevers ; Tousoun Pasha himself was in an indifferent state of health, and his physician had few medicines fit for such cases. He begged of me the bark, which I gave him, as I was then in good health, and thought myself al- ready in the vicinity of Egypt, where I hoped to arrive in about two months. I owed him, moreover, some obligations, and was glad to testify my gratitude. Two days after I had cause to repent of my liberality ; for I was attacked by a fever, which soon took a very serious turn. As it was intermittent, I wished to take bark ; but when I asked the phy- sician for some of it, he assured me that he had already distributed the last dram, and he brought me, instead of it, some of the powder of the Gentiana, which had lost all its virtue from age. My fever thus in- creased, accompanied by daily and repeated vomiting, and profuse sweats, being for the whole first month quotidian. The emetics I took proved of no service ; and after having MEDINA. 141 from want of bark gone through the course of medicines I thought applicable to the case, and being very seldom favoured with a visit from my friend Yahya Effendi, I left my disease to nature. After the first month, there was an interval of a week’s repose, of which had I been able to profit by taking bark, my disorder would, no doubt, have been overcome ; but it had abated only to return with greater violence, and now became a ter- tian fever, while the vomiting still continued, accompanied by occasional faintings, and end- ed in a total prostration of strength. I was now unable to rise from my carpet, without the assistance of my slave, a poor fellow, who by habit and nature was more fitted to take care of a camel, than to nurse his drooping master. I had by this time lost all hope of return- ing to Egypt, and had prepared myself for dying here. Despondency had seized me, from an apprehension that, if the news of my death should arrive in England, my whole Hedjaz journey would, perhaps, be con- demned as the unauthorised act of an impru- dent, or at least over-zealous missionary ; and I had neither books, nor any society, to divert my mind from such reflections : one book 142 MEDINA. only was in my possession, a pocket edition of Milton, which Captain Boag, at Djidda, had kindly permitted me to take from his cabin-library, and this I must admit was now worth a whole shelf full of others. The mis- tress of my lodgings, an old infirm woman, by birth an Egyptian, who during my stay took up her quarters in an upper story, from which she could speak to me without being seen, as it opened into my own room below, used to converse with me for half an hour every evening ; and my cicerone, or Mezowar, paid me occasional visits, in order, as I strongly suspected, to seize upon part of my baggage in case of my death. Yahya Effendi left the town in the month of March, with the army of Tousoun Pasha, which marched against the Wahabys. About the beginning of April, the return- ing warmth of the spring put a stop to my illness ; but it was nearly a fortnight before I could venture to walk out, and every breeze made me dread a return of the fever. The bad climate of the town, its detestable water, and the great number of diseases now preva- lent, made me extremely desirous to leave Medina. My original intention was, to re- main here, at most, one month, then to take MEDINA. 143 some Bedouin guides, and with them to cross the Desert to Akaba, at the extremity of the Red Sea, in a straight direction, from whence I might easily have found my way to Cairo. In this route I wished to visit Hedjer, on the Syrian Hadj road, where I expected to find some remains of the remotest antiquity, that had not been described by any other travel- ler, while the interior of the country might have offered many other objects of research and curiosity. It was, however, utterly im- possible for me to perform this journey in my convalescent state ; nor had I any hopes of recovering, in two months, strength sufficient for a journey of such fatigue. To wait so long, continually exposed to suffer again from the climate, was highly unadvisable ; and I panted for a change of air, being convinced that, without it, my fever would soon return. With these feelings I abandoned the long- projected design of my journey, and now de- termined on going to Yembo, on the sea-coast, and from thence to embark for Egypt; a decision in some degree rendered necessary by the state of my purse, which a long stay at Medina had greatly reduced. When I found myself strong enough to mount a ca- mel, I looked out for some conveyance to 144 MEDINA. Yembo, and contracted with a Bedouin, who, together with his companions, forming a small caravan, started for that place on the 21st of April, within six days of three months after my arrival at Medina, eight weeks of which time I had been confined to my couch. My remarks on Medina are but scanty ; with good health, I should have added to them : but as this town is totally unknown to Europeans, they may contain some ac- ceptable information. The plan of the town was made by me during the first days of my stay, and I can vouch for the correctness of its outlines ; but I had not the same leisure to trace it in all its details, as I had that of Mekka. FLAM ©If ME3MMA. ir DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA 145 r~ DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA* Medina is situated on the edge of the great Arabian Desert, close to the chain of * EXPLANATION OF THE PLAtf OF MEDINA. 1. The great Mosque, called El Haram. 2. The Prophet Mohammed’s tomb, called El Hejra. 3. House of the Sheikh el Haram. 4. Principal Market-street. 5. Street called El Bel&t. 6. Public School, called Medrese el Hamdye. 7. Street called Zogag el Towal. 8. House of the Kadhy. 9. Ruined quarters. 10. The Castle. It).* A small gate. 11. A public bath. 12. A corn magazine. 13. Quarter of Beni Hosseyn. 14. Quarter of El Agowat. 15. Steps leading down to the canal, in different parts of the town. 15. * Wells, at the bottom of which the canal water flows. 16. The gate called Bab el Djoma. 17. Burial-ground, called El Bekya. 18. Gate called Bab el Shamy. 19. Gate called Bab el Masry. 20. Shops and huts. 21. The open space called El Mo-' n&kh, the halting-place of Be- douins and soldiers. 22. A quarter of the suburbs called El Wadjeha, with fields and ruined houses. 23. House of the Turkish Governor. J 24. A basin filled with canal water. 25. The best private building of the town, where the Pasha’s women reside. 26. The mosque called Mesdjed Omar. 27. Another mosque. 28. A bridge on the bed of the tor- rent. 29. The Pasha’s house, with a large garden. 30. Street and quarter called El Am* barye. 31. The gate called Bab el Ambarye. 32. A small tower, built of the skulls ofWahabys killed when the Turks took the town. VOL. II K 146 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. mountains which traverses that country from north to south, and is a continuation of Le- banon. I have already stated in my Journal through Arabia Petraea, that the chain on the east of the Dead Sea runs down towards Akaba. From thence, it extends along the shore of the Red Sea as far as Yemen, some- times close to the sea, at others having an intervening plain called by the Arabs Ta- hama , a name which, in Yemen, is also be- stowed upon a particular part of it. I have likewise mentioned in that Journal, that the eastern descent of these mountains, all along the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the valley called Araba, down to Akaba, is much less ' than the western, and that therefore the great plain of Arabia, which begins eastward of these mountains, is considerably elevated above the level of the sea. I made the same remark in going to Tayf, after having crossed 33. Quarter of the suburbs called Es’ 38. Reservoir of water for the Syrian Salih. pilgrims. 34. A large court-yard where the cara- 39. Different wells of brackish wa- vans from Mekka halt. ter. 35. A small gate called Bab Koba. 40. Camp of the Syrian pilgrim cara- 36. The bed of the Seyl or torrent. van. 37. Quarters with habitations and gar- 41. A small dome called El Koreyn. dens. — a. The Quarter called El 42. Date-groves and fields on three Shahrye. — b. Quarter called El sides of the town. Hamdye. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 147 the mountain called Djebel Kora, which forms part of that chain ; and the same is to be observed at Medina. The mountain which we had ascended in coming from Mekka, when seen from the coast, presents peaks of considerable height ; when we reached the upper plain, in the neighbourhood of Medina, these summits appeared on our left like mere hills, their elevation above the eastern plain being not more than one-third of that from the western sea-shore. The last undulations of these mountains touch the town on the north side ; on its other side, the country is flat, though not always a completely even plain. A branch of the chain, called Djebel Ohod, projects a little into the plain, at one hour’s distance from the town, bearing from the latter N.N.E. to N.E.* At eight or ten hours’ distance* (E. 6 N. — E. 6 S.) a chain of low hills rises in an eastern direction, across which lies the road to Nedjed. Similar hills, at the same distance, are to the S. E. The country to the south extends on a perfect level as far as can be seen. On the S. W., about an hour, * In these bearings the variation of the needle is not computed. 148 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. or an hour and a half distant, a branch called Djebel Ayra projects, like Djebel Ohod, from the main chain, into the plain. The town itself is built on the lowest part of the plain ; for it receives the torrents from the western mountains, as well as the cur- rents from the S. and S. E. quarters ; and they produce in the rainy season numerous pools of stagnant water, which is left to evaporate gradually ; the gardens, trees, and walls, with which the plain abounds, interrupting the free current of air. These gardens, and date- plantations, interspersed with fields, enclose the town on three sides, leaving only that part of the plain open to the view 7 , which is on the side of the road towards Mekka, where the rocky nature of the ground renders cul- tivation impossible. Medina is divided into the interior tow r n, and the suburbs ; the interior forms an oval, of about tw T o thousand eight hundred paces in total circuit, ending in a point. The castle is built at the point, upon a small rocky ele- vation ; and the whole is enclosed by a thick stone w r all, between thirty-five and forty feet high, flanked by about thirty towers, and sur- rounded by a ditch, (the w r ork of the Waha- bys,) w 7 hich is in many places nearly filled DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 149 up. The wall is in complete repair, forming, in Arabia, a very respectable defence ; so that Medina has always been considered as the principal fortress of the Hedjaz. The wall was built A. H. 360 ; and till that time the town was quite open, and daily exposed to the incursions of the neighbouring Bedouins. It was subsequently rebuilt at different times, but principally in A. H. 900, a ditch having been previously carried round it in 751 (v. S.) According to Asamy, it was built as it now stands, with its gates, by order of Solyman ibn Selym, at the close of the sixteenth cen- tury of our era. Three fine gates lead into the town : Bab el Masry, on the south side, (which, next to Bab el Fatouh, at Cairo, is the finest town-gate I have seen in the East) ; Bab es’ Shamy, on the north side ; and Bab el Djoma, on the east side : a smaller by- gate, called Bab es’ Soghyr, in the south wall, had been closed up by the Wahabys. Near the Bab es’ Shamy, close to the castle, is a niche in the town-wall, where, it is related, a small chapel once stood, called Mesdjed es’ Sabak, from whence the warlike adherents of Mohammed used to start in their exercise of running. Medina is well built, entirely of stone ; 150 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. its houses are generally two stories high, with flat roofs. As they are not white-washed* and the stone is of a dark colour, the streets have rather a gloomy aspect ; and are, for the most part, very narrow, often only two or three paces across : a few of the principal streets are paved with large blocks of stone ; a comfort which a traveller little expects to find in Arabia. It is, on the whole, one of the best-built towns I have seen in the East? ranking, in this respect, next to Aleppo. At present, it has a desolate appearance : the houses are suffered to decay; their owners, w r ho formerly derived great profits from the crowd of visiters which arrived here at all times of the year, now find their income di- minished, and decline the heavy expense of building, as they know they cannot be re- imbursed by the letting out of apartments. Ruined houses, and w r alls wanting repair, are seen in every part of the tow T n ; and Medina presents the same disheartening view as most of the Eastern towns, which now afford but faint images of their ancient splendour. The principal street of Medina is also the broadest, and leads from the Cairo gate to the great mosque : in this street are most of the shops. Another considerable street, called DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 151 El Belat, runs from the mosque to the Syrian gate ; but many of its houses are in ruins : this contains also a few shops, but none are found in other parts of the town ; thus dif- fering from Mekka, which is one continued market. In general, the latter is much more like an Arab town than Medina, which re- sembles more a Syrian city. I had no time to trace all the different quarters of the town ; but I shall here give the names by which they are at present known. The quarter comprised between the two main streets leading from the Egyptian and Syrian gates to the mosque, are, Es-Saha, Komet Hasheyfe, El Belat, Zogag el Towal, (here is situated the Mekkam, or house of the Kadhy, and several pleasant gardens are at- tached to the larger buildings ;) Zogag el Dhorra, Sakyfet Shakhy, Zogag el Bakar. The quarters lying to the north of the street El Belat, extending to the north of the mosque, as far as the gate El Djoma, are : — El Hamata, Zogag el Habs, Zogag Ankyny, Zogag es’ Semahedy, Haret el Meyda, Haret es’ Shershoura, Zogag el Bedour, Haret el Agowat, where the eunuchs of the mosque live. The quarters from the gate El Djoma, 1 52 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. along the southern parts of the town, as far as the Egyptian gate, and the great market- street, are: Derwan, Es-Salehye, Zogag Yahou, Haret Ahmed Heydar, Haret Beni Hosseyn, the tribe of Beni Hosseyn living here ; Haret el Besough, Haret Sakyfet, Er-Resas r Zogag el Zerendy, Zogag el Kibreit, Zogag el Had- jamyn, Haret Sydy Malek, where Malek ibn Anes, the founder of the Malekite sect, had his house, and Haret el Kamashyn. Very few large buildings, or public edifices? are found in the precincts of the town. The great mosque, containing the tomb of Mo- hammed, is the only temple. A fine public school, called Medrese el Hamdye, in the street El Belat ; a similar one, near the mosque, where the Sheikh el Haram, or its guardian, lives ; a large corn-magazine, en- closing a wide yard, in the southern quarter of the town ; a bath, (the only one,) not far distant from it, built in A. H. 973, by Mo- hammed Pasha, vizier of Sultan Soleyman, are all the public buildings which fell under my observation* This want of splendid * The historian of Medina mentions several Okals, or public khans, in this town ; but 1 saw none, nor do I be- lieve that they now exist. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 153 monuments was likewise remarked by me at Mekka. The Arabians, in general, have little taste for architecture ; and even their chiefs content themselves in their mansions with what is merely necessary. Whatever public edifices are still found in Mekka and Medina, are the w^ork of the Sultans of Egypt or of Constantinople ; and the necessary expenses incurred annually by these distant sovereigns, for the sake of the two holy cities, were too great to allow of any augmentation for mere show. For the want of public buildings, however, in the town, a compensation is made by the number of pretty private habitations, having small gardens, with wells, the water of which is used in irrigation, and fills marble basins, round which, in summer-time, the owners pass the hours of noon under lofty sheds. The castle, which I have mentioned above, is surrounded by very strong walls, and several high and solid towers. I was not permitted to enter it, on applying at the gate. It con- tains sufficient space for six or eight hundred men ; has many arched rooms, bomb-proof ; and, if well garrisoned, and furnished with provisions, may be deemed impregnable by an Arabian force, as it is built upon a rock, and 154 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. therefore cannot be undermined. To Eu- ropean artillery, however, it would appear an insignificant fort. It contains a deep well of good water. Two or three guns only are at present mounted on its towers ; nor were there more than a dozen serviceable guns to defend the whole town. On the west and south of the town extend the suburbs, which cover more ground than the town itself. They are separated from it by an open space, narrow on the south side, but widening on the west, before the Cairo gate, where it forms a large public place, called Monakh ; a name implying that cara- vans alight there, which is really the case, as it is always crowded with camels and Be- douins. Several rows of small huts and sheds are erected here, in which provisions are sold, principally corn, dates, vegetables, and butter; and a number of coffee-huts, which are beset the whole day with visiters. The side of the suburbs fronting the Monakh has no walls ; but on the outside, to the west and south, they are enclosed by a wall, of inferior size and strength to the interior town wall. In several parts it is completely ruined ; on the south side only it is defended by small towers. Four gates lead from the suburbs into the DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. J 55 open country ; they are small wooden doors, of no strength, except that leading from the Cairo gate, which is larger and better built than the rest. The greater part of the suburbs consists in large court-yards, with low apartments built round them, on the ground-floor, and separated from each other by gardens and plantations. These are called Hosh , (plur. Hyshan ,) and are inhabited by all the lower classes of the town, many Bedouins who have become settlers here, and all those who are engaged in agriculture. Each hosh contains thirty or forty families ; thus forming so many small separate hamlets, which, in times of unsettled government, are frequently en- gaged in desperate feuds with each other. The cattle is kept in the midst of the court- yards, in each of which is a large well ; and the only gate of entrance is regularly shut at night. On the S. and N. W. sides of the town, within the precincts of the wall, the suburbs consist entirely of similar court-yards, with extensive gardens between and behind them. On the west side, directly opposite the Cairo gate and the Monakh, the suburb consists of regular and well-built streets, with houses re- sembling those of the interior of the town. 156 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA, The broad street, called El Ambarye, crosses this part of the suburb, and has good build- ings on both sides. In this neighbourhood lived Tousoun Pasha, in a private dwelling ; and near it, in the best house of the town, be- longing to the rich merchant Abd el Shekour, lived the Pasha’s mother, the wife of Mo- hammed Aly, and his own women, who had lately come on a visit. The principal quarters of the suburbs are Haret el Ambarye, Haret el Wadjeha, Haret es’ Sahh, Haret Abou Aysa, Haret Masr, Haret el Teyar, Haret Nefyse, Haret el Ham- dye, Haret el Shahrye, Haret el Kheybarye, Haret el Djafar. Many people of the interior town have their summer houses in these quar- ters, where they pass a month in the date- harvest. Every garden is enclosed by mud walls, and several narrow by-lanes, just broad enough for a loaded camel to cross the sub- urbs in every direction. There are two mosques in the Monakh: the one, called Mesdjed Aly, or the mosque of the Prophet’s cousin, is said to be as old as the time of Mohammed ; but the building, as it stands, was rebuilt in A. H. 876. Mo- hammed is said to have often prayed here ; and, for the convenience of the inhabitants DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 157 of the suburbs who are at a distance from the great mosque, the Khotbe , or Friday’s prayer, is likewise performed in it. The other mosque, called Mesdjed Omar, to which a public medrese, or school, was attached, serves at present as a magazine, and quarters for many soldiers. To both these mosques the historian of Mekka applies the name of Mes- djed el Fatlr: he calls the one Mesdjed el Aala, from standing on the highest part of the town. Two other mosques, the one called Mesdjed Aly Beker, and the other Mesdjed Zobab, stood in this neighbourhood in the sixteenth century ; and the Monakh at that time bore the name of Djebel Sola, the Ara- bians applying the name of Djebel (or moun- tain) to any slightly elevated spot of ground. In the same author’s time there were fifteen mosques in this town and its neighbourhood, all now ruined ; and he gives the names and history of thirty-seven that were erected in the former ages of Islam. I was told, that in the quarter El Ambarye the house where Mohammed lived is still shown ; but many doubt this tradition, and the spot is not visited as one of the holy places. Here, as in Mekka, no ancient build- ings are found. The winter rains, the nitrous, 158 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. damp atmosphere during the rainy season, and the intense heat which follows it, are destructive to buildings ; and the cement em- ployed in their construction being of a very indifferent quality, the stones soon become loosened and the walls decay. The town is supplied with sweet water by a fine subterraneous canal, carried hither from the village of Koba, about three quarters of an hour distant, in a southern direction, at the expense of Sultan Solyman, the son of Selym I. The water is abundant, and, in several parts of the town, steps are made down to the canal, where the inhabitants supply themselves with water, but are not, like the people of Mekka, obliged to pay for it. On the skirts of the Monakh, a large re- servoir, cased with stone, has also been made, on a level with the canal, which is constantly kept full. The water in the canal runs at the depth of between twenty and twenty-five feet below the surface ; it is derived from several springs at Koba, and, though not dis- agreeable to the taste, is nevertheless of bad quality. If left for half an hour in a vessel, it covers the sides of it with a white nitrous crust ; and all foreigners, who are not accus- tomed to it from their earliest youth, com- DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 159 plain of its producing indigestion. It is tepid at its source in Koba, and even at Medina slightly preserves its temperature. There are also many wells scattered over the town ; every garden has one, by which it is irrigated ; and wherever the ground is bored to the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet, water is found in plenty. Of some wells the water is sweet enough for drinking ; of others quite brackish. The fertility of the fields and gar- dens is in proportion to the quality of the well-water ; those irrigated with brackish water, repay badly the labour of their owners ; the date-trees alone thriving equally well in any place. In addition to the water of the wells and the aqueduct, the town in winter time re- ceives a supply from the considerable torrent called Seyl el Medina, or Seyl Bathan, which flows from S. to N. passing across the suburbs^ and losing itself in a stony valley to the N. W.* A heavy rain for one night will fill its bed, though it usually decreases as fast as it swells. In that part of the suburb, called # All the neighbouring torrents lose themselves in a low ground in the western mountains, called El Gh&ba, and also E! Zaghaba. See Samhoudy. 160 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA* El Ambarye, we find a good arched stone bridge thrown across its banks, where it is about forty feet in breadth. The neighbour- ing country abounds with similar torrents* which fill many ponds and low grounds, where the water often remains till the sum- mer months : these, together with the wells, contribute to render the environs of this town celebrated for the abundance of water, surpassing, in this respect, perhaps, any other spot in northern Arabia, and which had made this a considerable settlement of Arabs, long before it became sacred among the Mos- lims, by the flight, residence, and death of Mohammed, to which it owes its name of Medina, or Medinet el Neby. The great abundance of water has made cisterns of little use in the town ; and I do not believe that more than two or three houses have them ; though it would be very desirable to collect the rain-water for drink- ing, from the torrents, in preference to the nitrous water of Koba. During heavy rains the Monakh, between the suburbs and the town, becomes a complete lake, and the S. and S. E. environs are covered with a sheet of water. The inhabitants hail these inunda- tions as a sure promise of plenty, because DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 161 they not only copiously irrigate their date- trees, but likewise cause verdure to spread over the more distant plains inhabited by Bedouins, on whose imports of cattle and butter Medina depends for its consumption. The precious jewel of Medina, which sets the town almost upon a level with Mekka, and has even caused it to be preferred to the latter, by many Arabic writers,* is the great mosque, containing the tomb of Mohammed. Like the mosque of Mekka, it bears the name of El Haram, on account of its inviolability ; a name which is constantly given to it by the people of Medina, while, in foreign parts, it is more generally known under the appel- lation of Mesdjed en’ Neby, the mosque or temple of the Prophet, who was its original founder. The ground-plan will show that this mosque is situated towards the eastern extremity of the town, and not in the midst of it, as the Arabian historians and geogra- phers often state. Its dimensions are much smaller than those of the mosque at Mekka, being a hundred and sixty-five paces in length, and a hundred and thirty in breadth ; but it * This is particularly the case with the sect of the Ma- lekites, who pretend that Medina is more to be honoured than Mekka. VOL. II. L 162 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. is built much upon the same plan, forming an open square, surrounded on all sides by covered colonnades, with a small building in the centre of the square.* These colonnades are much less regular than those at Mekka, where the rows of pillars stand at much the same depth on all sides. On the south side of this mosque, the colonnade is composed of ten rows of pillars behind each other ; and on the west side are four rows ; on the north, and part of the east side, only three rows. The columns themselves are of different sizes. On the south side, which contains the Pro- phet’s tomb, and which forms the most holy part of the building, they are of larger di- mensions than in the other parts, and about * The representations of this mosque, given both by Niebuhr and D’Ohhson, are very incorrect, being copied, probably, from old Arab drawings. I had intended to make a correct plan of it, but was prevented by my illness ; and I should not wish to add one from mere recollection. Samhoudy states its dimensions as quite different, and says that it is two hundred and forty pikes in length, one hundred and sixty-five pikes in breadth on the S. side, and one hundred and thirty on the N. side. He adds that there are two hundred and ninety-six -columns. I am not quite sure whether the building has been materially changed since his time, and after the fire in A. H. 886; but I be- lieve not, and regard his account as much exaggerated. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 163 two feet and a half in diameter. They have no pediments, the shafts touching the ground ; and the same diversity and bad taste are as conspicuous in the capitals here as in the mosque at Mekka, no two being alike. The columns are of stone, but, being all plastered white, it is difficult to decide of what species. To the height of about six feet from the ground they are painted with flowers and arabesques, in a coarse and gaudy style ; by which means, probably, it was intended to remedy the want of pediments. Those stand- ing nearest to that part of the southern co- lonnade called El Rodha, are cased for half their height with bright glazed green tiles or slates, decorated with arabesques of various colours: the tiles seem to be of Venetian pottery, and are of the same kind as those used to cover stoves in Germany and Switzer- land. The roof of the colonnade consists of a number of small domes, white-washed on the outside, in the same manner as those of Mek- ka. The interior walls are also white-washed all round, except the southern one, and part of the S. E. corner, which are cased with slabs of marble, nearly up to the top. Several rows of inscriptions, in large gilt letters, are con- 164 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. ducted along this wall, one above the other* and have a very brilliant effect upon the white marble. The floor under the colonnades, on the west and east sides, and part of the north, is laid out with a coarse pavement ; the other part of the N. side being unpaved, and merely covered with sand ; as is likewise the whole open yard. On the south side, where the builder of the mosque has lavished all this ornament, the floor is paved with fine marble across the whole colonnade; and in those parts nearest to the tomb of Mohammed, this pave- ment is in mosaic, of excellent workmanship, forming one of the best specimens of that kind to be seen in the East. Large and high windows* with glass panes, (of which I know not any other instance in the Hed- jaz,) admit the light through the southern wall ; some of them are of fine painted glass. On the other sides, smaller windows are dis- persed along the walls, but not with glass panes.* Near the S. E. corner stands the famous tomb, so detached from the walls of the mosque, as to leave between it and the S. * The art of painting glass with durable colours seems never to have been lost in the East, DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 165 wall a space of about twenty-five feet, and fif- teen between it and the E. wall. The enclo- sure, which defends the tomb from the too near approach of visiters, forms an irregular square of about twenty paces, in the midst of the colonnade, several of its pillars being included within it: it is an iron railing, painted green, about two-thirds the height of the columns, filling up the intervals be- tween them, so as to leave their upper part projecting above it, and entirely open. The railing is of good workmanship, in imitation of filligree, and is interwoven with open- worked inscriptions of yellow bronze, sup- posed by the vulgar to be of gold, and of so close a texture, that no view can be gained into the interior, except by several small win- dows, about six inches square, which are placed in the four sides of the railing, about five feet above the ground. On the south side of the railing, where are the two princi- pal of these windows, before which the visit- ers stand when praying, the railing is thinly plated over with silver, and the often-repeated inscription of “ La Illaha il Allah al hak al Mobyn,” (“ There is no God but God, the evi- dent Truth,”) is carried in silver letters across the railing all round these windows. This 166 DE SCRIPT ION OF MEDINA. enclosure is entered by four gates, three of which are constantly kept shut, and one only is opened, every morning and evening, to ad- mit the eunuchs, whose office it is to clean the floor and light the lamps. Each of these gates has its particular name : Bab en’ Neby, Bab Errahme, Bab et Touba,Bab SetnaFatme. The permission to enter into this enclosure, which is called El Hedjra, is granted gratis to people of rank, as Pashas, or chiefs of the Hadj caravans, and may be purchased by other people from the principal eunuchs, at the price of about twelve or fifteen dollars, distributed in presents among them : but few visiters avail themselves of this privilege, because they well know that, on entering the enclosure, nothing more is to be seen than what falls under their observation when peep- ing in at the windows of the railing, which are constantly kept open ; and I was myself not inclined to attract general notice, by thus satisfying my curiosity. What appears of the interior is a curtain carried round, which takes up almost the whole space, having be- tween it and the railing an open walk, of a few paces only in breadth. The curtain is equal in height to the railing ; but I could not distinguish from below, whether, like the DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 167 latter, it is open at the top. There is a co- vering, (as the eunuchs affirm,) of the same stuff of which the curtain is made ; this is a rich silk brocade, of various colours, inter- woven with silver flowers and arabesques, with a band of inscriptions in golden characters, running across the midst of it, like that of the covering of the Kaaba. This curtain is at least thirty feet high : it has a small gate to the north, which is always shut ; no person whatever being permitted to enter within its holy precincts, except the chief eunuchs, who take care of it, and who put on, during the night, the new curtain sent from Constanti- nople, whenever the old one is decayed, or when a new Sultan ascends the throne. The old curtains are sent to Constantinople, and serve to cover the tombs of the sultans and princes* According to the historian of Medina, the curtain covers a square building of black stones, supported by two pillars, in the in- terior of which are the tombs of Mohammed, and his two earliest friends and immediate * See D’Ohhson. The historian of Medina says, that in his time it was changed every six years, and that the income from several villages in Egypt was set apart at Cairo for the manufacturing of those curtains. 168 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. successors, Abou Beker and Omar. As far as I could learn here, these tombs are also co- vered with precious stuffs, and in the shape of catafalques, like that of Ibrahim in the great mosque of Mekka. They are said to be placed in the following order : □ a □ The largest being that of Mohammed, and the one above it Abou Beker’s. The histo- rian says, that these tombs are deep holes ; and that the coffin which contains the dust of Mohammed, is cased with silver, and has on the top a marble slab, inscribed, “ Bis- millahi Allahuma Sally aley.” (“ In the name of God, bestow thy mercy upon him.”) They did not always stand in their present position : Samhoudy places them at different times thus : n □ □ □ □ □ □ n □ The stories once prevalent in Europe, of the prophet’s tomb being suspended in the air, are unknown in the Hedjaz; nor have DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 169 I ever heard them in other parts of the East, though the most exaggerated accounts of the wonders and the riches of this tomb are propagated by those who have visited Me- dina, and wish to add to their own impor- tance by relating fabulous stories of what they pretend to have seen. Round these tombs the treasures of the Hedjaz were for- merly kept, either suspended on silken ropes, drawn across the interior of the building, or placed in chests on the ground. Among these, may be particularly mentioned a copy of the Koran, in Cufic characters, kept there as a precious relic, from having belonged to Othman ibn Affan. It is said still to exist in Medina ; but we may doubt whether it escaped the conflagration which destroyed the mosque. I have related, in my history of the Wahabys, that during the siege of Medina considerable portions of the treasures, more particularly all the golden vessels, were seized by the chiefs of the town, ostensibly for the purpose of being distributed among the poor, but that they were, finally, divided among themselves. When Saoud took the town, he entered the Hedjra himself, and penetrated behind the curtain, where he seized upon every thing valuable he found ; of this he 170 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. sold a part to the Sherif of Mekka, and the rest he carried with him to Derayeh. Among the precious articles which he took, the most valuable is said to have been a brilliant star set in diamonds and pearls, which was sus- pended directly over the Prophet’s tomb. It is often spoken of by the Arabs, who call it Kokab ed’durry. Here were deposited all sorts of vessels, set with jewels, ear-rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments, sent as presents from all parts of the empire, but brought principally by great hadjys who passed through Medina. There is no doubt that the whole formed a collection of consi- derable value, but far from being inestimable, as the people are inclined to fancy. Sherif Ghaleb estimated that part of it which he bought, at one hundred thousand dollars. The chiefs of the town are said to have car- ried off about one hundred weight of golden vessels, at most worth forty or fifty thousand dollars ; and what Saoud took with him is said to have consisted chiefly in pearls and corals, and was certainly not worth more than Ghaleb’s purchase. The total value, therefore, might have amounted to about three hun- dred thousand dollars. Money never appears to have been deposited here ; for whatever DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 171 presents were made to the mosque in cash, were immediately distributed among its at- tendants. There is good reason for supposing, however, that the donations of the faithful, which accumulated here for ages, amounted to a much greater sum than what is stated above ; but it would be strange if the go- vernors of Medina, who were often indepen- dent, or the guardians of the tomb themselves, should not have made occasional draughts upon this treasure, in the same manner as the olemas of Mekka, about three hundred years since, stole the golden lamps of the Kaaba, and carried them out of the temple, hid under their wide sleeves, according to Kotobeddyn the historian. Tousoun Pasha, on his arrival at Medina, made search for the golden vessels, which had been re-sold by the chiefs of the town to some other of the inhabitants, and not yet melted. He found several of them, which he bought from the owners for about ten thousand dollars, and replaced them in their original situation. The floor between the curtain and the rail- ing, and of all this part of the mosque, is laid with various coloured marble in mosaic : here glass lamps are suspended all round the cur- 172 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. tains, which are lighted every evening, and remain burning all night. The whole of this enclosure, or Hedjra, is covered with a fine lofty dome, rising far above the domes which form the roof of the colonnades, and visible at a great distance from the town ; and the visiters coming to Medina, as soon as they catch the sight of it, repeat certain prayers. The covering is of lead surmounted with a globe of considerable size, and a cres- cent, both glittering with gold.* It is reported that they are of massy gold ; which can scarcely be believed, if we consider the little inclination that even the richest and most powerful of the Sultans have shown, to ornament with splendour either the mosque of Mekka or Medina. The Wahabys, allured by the appearance of the globe, and acting upon their invariable practice of destroying all domes or cupolas erected over the tombs of mortals, among whom Mohammed was to be reckoned, attempted to destroy the dome, and throw down the globe and crescent ; but * The globe was gilt, and the crescent sent from Con- stantinople, by the Sultan Soleyman ibn Selym. (See Asamy.) The cupola, and the whole of the temple as it now stands, was built by Kait Beg, Sultan of Egypt, from A. H. 881 to 892. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 173 their solid construction, and the lead covering, rendered this a difficult undertaking : two of the workmen slipped from the smooth roof, and were precipitated below, after which the work of destruction was aban- doned ; a circumstance which is now cited as a visible miracle worked by the Prophet in favour of his monument. Near the curtain of the Hedjra, but separated from it, though within the pre- cincts of the railing, which here, to admit it, deviates a little from its square shape, is the tomb of Setna Fatme, the daughter of Mo- hammed, and wife of Aly : it consists of a catafalque forming a cube, covered with a rich embroidered black brocade, and without any other ornament. But some difference of opi- nion exists, whether her remains actually rest here or in the burial-ground called Bakya, beyond the town. Till this dispute, however, be settled, the pilgrims are conducted to both places, and made to pay double fees. On the E. wall of the mosque, nearly opposite to this tomb, a small window is shown, at the place where the archangel Gabriel is said to have repeatedly descended from heaven, with mes- sages to Mohammed. It is called Mahbat DjybraiL 174 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA, Mohammedan tradition says, that when the last trumpet shall sound, Aysa (Jesus Christ) is to descend from heaven to earth, and to announce to its inhabitants the great day of judgment : after which he is to die, and will be buried in this Hedjra, by the side of Mo- hammed : that, when the dead shall rise from their graves, they will both rise together, ascend to heaven, and Aysa, on that day, will be ordered by the Almighty to separate the faithful from the infidels. In conformity with this tradition, the spot is pointed at through the curtain of the Hedjra, where the tomb of Aysa will be placed. Outside the railing on the north, close by the tomb of Fatme, is a square bench in the mosque, elevated above the ground about four feet, and fifteen paces square, called El Meyda, or the table. Here the eunuch guardians of the mosque sit ; and the councils of the pri- mates of the town, or their principal assem- blies, are often held here. A wooden partition about eight feet high, and richly painted with arabesques, runs from the western side of the railing across the mosque, parallel with the south wall, and about twenty-five feet distant from it, and terminating near the gate called Bab-es-Salam, DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 175 thus extending from the Hedjra nearly across the whole breadth of the mosque. It has several small doors, and is made to separate the holy place called El Rodha from the common passage of the visiters, who, on en- tering through Bab-es’-Salam, pass forward towards the Hedjra, along the columns stand- ing between this partition and the south wall. Next to the Hedjra, that part of the southern colonnade north of the partition is consi- dered the most holy place in the mosque, and called Rodha, i. e. a garden, or the Gar- den of the Faithful ; a name bestowed upon it by Mohammed, who said : “ Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the gar- dens of Paradise.” The pulpit of the mosque stands close to this partition, about midway between the Hedjra and the west wall of the mosque, and the name Rodha strictly belongs to that space only which is between the pul- pit and the Hedjra, though the w^hole south- ern colonnade of the temple to the north of the partition is often comprised under that appellation. It is on account of this name of Rodha, or garden, that the columns within its limits are painted to the height of five or six feet with flowers and arabesques, to assist the imagination, which otherwise might not 176 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. readily discover any resemblance between this place and the Garden of Eden. Two mahrabs , or niches, towards which the people turn when praying, as they indicate the exact bearing of the Kaaba,* are placed on both sides of the pulpit, and are, together with it, of exquisite workmanship, being the finest mosaic. One niche was sent from Egypt, as a present to the mosque, by Kait Beg, and the other from Constantinople by Sultan Soleyman ibn Selym. The floor of the Rodha is covered with a number of handsome car- pets, sent hither from Constantinople ; and, as at Mekka, they are the only articles of real value that I saw in the mosque, and may be worth, altogether, about a thousand pounds. The upper part of the colonnades is covered with mats. The congregation assembles upon the car- pets of the Rodha, this being the favourite spot for prayers. No ceremony is observed in the seats ; every one may place himself where he likes: it is however understood? that the first row nearest to the partition, and those especially in the immediate neighbour- * The Mahrab was turned S. 11 W. (variation not com- puted), which is therefore taken here as the exact bearing 1 of Mekka. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 177 hood of the Imam, are destined for people of rank, and no one who does not belong to that class intrudes himself there. The entrance to the Rodha, near Bab-es’-Salam, has a splendid appearance : the gaudy colours dis- played on every side, the glazed columns, fine carpets, rich pavement, the gilt inscriptions on the wall to the south, and the glittering railing of the Hedjra in the back-ground, dazzle the sight at first ; but, after a short pause, it becomes evident that this is a dis- play of tinsel decoration, and not of real riches. When we recollect that this spot is one of the holiest of the Mohammedan world, and cele- brated for its splendour, magnificence, and costly ornaments, and that it is decorated with the united pious donations of all the devotees of that religion, we are still more forcibly struck with its paltry appearance. It will bear no comparison with the shrine of the most insignificant saint in any Catholic church in Europe, and may serve as a convincing proof, that in pious gifts the Mohammedan have at no period equalled the Catholic de- votees ; without noticing many other circum- stances, which help to strengthen the belief that, whatever may be their superstition and fanaticism, Mohammedans are never inclined VOL. II. M 178 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. to make as many pecuniary sacrifices for their religious establishments, as Catholic, and even Protestant Christians do for theirs. The ceremonies on visiting the mosque are the following : — At first the pilgrim, before he enters the town, is to purify himself by a total ablution, and, if possible, to perfume his body with sweet odours. When he arrives in sight of the dome, he is to utter some pious ejaculations. When he intends to visit the temple, the cicerone, or, as he is here called, Mezowar, leads him into the gate called Bab- es’-Salam, passing his right foot first over the threshold, which is the general custom in all mosques, and particularly insisted upon here. While reciting some prayers, he steps forward into the Rodha, where he performs a short prayer, with four prostrations, as a salutation to the mosque, during which he is enjoined to recite the two short chapters (109th and 1 12th) of the Koran. He then passes through one of the small doors of the partition of the Rodha, and walks slowly towards the railing of the Hedjra, before the western window of which, on its south side, he takes his stand ; with arms half raised he addresses his invo- cations to Mohammed, in the words “ Salam aleyka ya Mohammed, Salam ya Rasoul illah/* DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 179 &c. recapitulating about twenty of the dif- ferent surnames or honorable titles of Mo- hammed, and prefixing to each of them “ Salam aleyk.” He next invokes his inter- cession in heaven, and distinctly mentions the names of all those of his relations and friends whom he is desirous to include in his prayers : it is for this reason, that an inhabi- tant of Medina never receives a letter from abroad, without being entreated, at the end of it, to mention the writer’s name at the tomb of the Prophet. If the pilgrim is dele- gated on the pilgrimage for another, he is bound here to mention the name of his prin- cipal. In this prayer an expression is used, as at all the places visited for their sanctity about the town, but which appeared to me little calculated to inspire the visiter with humane or charitable feelings ; among other favours supplicated in prayer to the Deity, the following request is made : “ Destroy our enemies, and may the torments of hell-fire be their lot.” After these prayers are said, the visiter is desired to remain a few minutes with his head pressed close against the window, in silent adoration ; he then steps back, and performs a prayer of four prostrations, under the 180 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. neighbouring colonnade, opposite the railing ; after which he approaches the second win- dow, on this same side, said to face the tomb of Abou Beker, and goes through prayers similar to those said at the former window, (called Sfiobak-en’-Neby ,) which are recited in honour of Abou Beker. Stepping back a second time to the colonnade, he again per- forms a short prayer, and then advances to the third window on this side of the railing, which is opposite that part of the curtain behind which the tomb of Omar is said to lie : similar prayers are said here. When this ceremony is finished, the visiter walks round the S.E. corner of the Hedjra, and presents himself before the tomb of Setna Fatme, where, after four prostrations, a prayer is addressed to Fatme-c-Zohera , or the bright blooming Fatme, as she is called. He then returns to the Rodha, where a prayer is said as a salutation to the Deity on leaving the mosque, which completes this ceremony, the performance of which occupies at most tw r enty minutes. On every spot where prayers are to be said, people sit with handkerchiefs spread out to receive the gifts of the visiters, which appear to be considered less as alms, than as a sort DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 181 of toll ; at least, a well-dressed visiter would find it difficult to make his way without pay- ing these taxes. Before the window of Setna Fatme sits a party of women, (Fatme being herself a female saint,) who likewise receive gifts in their handkerchiefs. In the Rodha stand the eunuchs, or the guardians of the temple, waiting till the visiter has finished his last prayer of salutation, to wish him joy on having successfully completed the zyara or visit, and to receive their fees ; and the great gate of Bab-es’-Salam is constantly crowded with poor, who closely beset the visiter, on his leaving the mosque : the porter also expects his compliment, as a matter of right. The whole visit cost me about fifteen piastres, and I gave ten piastres to my cice- rone ; but I might, perhaps, have got through for half that sum. The ceremonies may be repeated as often as the visiter wishes : but few perform them all, except on arriving at Medina, and when on the point of departing. It is a general practice, however, to go every day, at least once, to the window opposite Mohammed’s tomb, and recite there a short prayer : many persons do it whenever they enter the mosque- It is also a rule never to sit down in the 182 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. mosque, for any of the usual daily prayers, without having previously addressed an invo- cation to the Prophet, with uplifted hands, and the face turned towards his tomb. A similar practice is prevalent in many other mosques in the East, which contain the tomb of a saint. The Moslim divines affirm, that prayers recited in the mosque of Medina are peculiarly acceptable to the Deity ; and in- vite the faithful to perform this pilgrimage, by telling them that one prayer said in sight of the Hedjra is as efficacious as a thousand said in any other mosque except that of Mekka. I have already stated, that the north and east sides, and part of the west side, of the mosque are by no means so well built as the south side, where are the Hedjra and Rodha. The columns in those parts are more slen- der, and less carefully painted ; the pave- ment is coarse, and no kind of ornament is seen on the white plastered walls, except on the east side, where the coarsely painted representations of the mosque of St. Sophia, of Sultan Ahmed, of Bayazed Waly, and of Scutari, celebrated temples in the capital, attract some notice : they are painted in water-colours, upon the white wall, without DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 183 the smallest attention to perspective. The whole north side was at present under repair ; and the old pavement had been removed, to be replaced by a better one. The open court enclosed between the colon- nades is unpaved, and covered with sand and gravel. In the midst of it stands a small building, with a vaulted roof, where the lamps of the mosque are kept. Near it is a small enclosure of low wooden railing, which contains some palm-trees, held sacred by the Moslims, because they are said to have been planted by Fatme, and another tree, of which the stem only now remains, and which I be- lieve to have been a nebek, or lotus-tree. By it is a well, called Bir-en-Neby, the water of which is brackish, and for this reason, probably, enjoys no reputation for holiness. Samhouciy says that it is called Es-Shame. In the evening lamps are lighted round the colonnades ; but principally on the south side, where they are in greater numbers than on the others ; they are suspended from iron bars, extending from column to column. The eunuchs and the servants of the mosque are employed in lighting them ; for a small donation to the latter, the visiters to the tomb are permitted to assist, and many foreign 184 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. hadjys are anxious to perform that office, which is thought meritorious, and for which they are particularly praised by the eunuchs : but they are never allowed to light the lamps in the interior of the Hedjra. On the sides of the Mambar, or the pulpit, and of both the Mahrabs, large wax candles are placed, as thick as a man’s body, and twelve feet high, which are lighted in the evening by means of a ladder placed near them. They are sent from Constantinople. The lady of Mohammed Aly, who was now at Medina, had brought several of these candles as a present to the mosque, which had been trans- ported with great difficulty from Yembo to this place. The mosque has four gates : 1 . Bab-es’- Salam, formerly called Bab Merouan, (ac- cording to Samhoudy), on the south-west corner, is the principal one, by which the pilgrim is obliged to enter the mosque at his first visit. It is a beautiful arched gate- way, much superior to any of those of the great mosque at Mekka, though inferior in size to several of them, and handsomer than any gate of a mosque I had before seen in the East. Its sides are inlaid with marble and glazed tiles of various colours ; and a DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 185 number of inscriptions in relief, in large gilt characters, above and on the sides of the arch, give it a very dazzling appearance. Just before this gate is a small fountain, filled by the water of the canal, where people usually perform their ablutions, if they do not choose to do it in the mosque itself, where jars are kept for the purpose. 2. Bab Errhame, formerly called Bab Atake, in the west wall, by which the dead are carried into the mosque, when prayers are to be read over them. 3. Bab Ed’ Djeber, called often likewise Bab Djybrail ; and 4. Bab el Nesa, on the east wall, the first close to the tomb of Setna Fatme, the other a little farther on. A few steps lead from the neighbouring streets up to the gates, the area of the mosque being on a somewhat higher level, contrary to what is seen at Mekka. About three hours after sun-set the gates are regularly shut, by means of folding-doors coated with iron, and not opened till about an hour before dawn ; but those who w T ish to pray all night in the mosque, can easily obtain permission from the eunuch in guard, who sleeps near the 186 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. Hedjra. During Ramadhan, the mosque is kept open the whole night. On the north-west and north sides are several small doors opening into the mosque, belonging to public schools or medreses ori- ginally annexed to it, but which have now forfeited their ancient distinction. On this side the schoolmasters sit with the boys in a circle round them, and teach them the rudi- ments of reading. The police of the mosque, the office of washing the Hedjra and the whole of the building, of lighting the lamps, &c. &c. is entrusted to the care of forty or fifty eunuchs, who have an establishment similar to that of the eunuchs of the Beitullah at Mekka ; but they are persons of greater consequence here : they are more richly dressed, though in the same costume ; usually wear fine Cashmere shawls and gowns of the best Indian silk stuffs, and assume airs of great importance. When they pass through the Bazar, every body hastens to kiss their hands ; and they exercise considerable influence in the internal affairs of the town. They have large sti- pends, which are sent annually from Con- stantinople by the Syrian Hadj caravan ; they DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 187 share also in all donations made to the mosque, and they expect presents from every rich liadjy, besides what they take as fees from the visiters of the Hedjra. They live together in one of the best quarters of Medina, to the eastward of the mosque, and their houses are said to be furnished in a more costly manner than any others in the town. The adults are all married to black or Abyssinian slaves. The black eunuchs, unlike those of Europe, become emaciated ; their features are ex- tremely coarse, nothing but the bones being distinguishable ; their hands are those of a skeleton, and their whole appearance is ex- tremely disgusting. By the help of thick clothing they hide their leanness ; but their bony features are so prominent, that they can be distinguished at first sight. Their voice, however, undergoes little, if any change, and is far from being reduced to that fine feminine tone so much admired in the Italian singers. The chief of the eunuchs is called Sheikh el Haram ; he is also the chief of the mosque, and the principal person in the town ; being consequently of much higher rank than the Aga, or chief of the eunuchs at Mekka. He is himself a eunuch, sent from Constanti- 188 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. nople, and usually belonging to the court of the Grand Signor, who sends him hither by way of punishment or exile, in the same manner as Pashas are sent to Djidda. The present Sheikh el Haram had been formerly Kislar Agassi, or prefect of the women of the Emperor Selym, which is one of the first charges in the court. Whether it was the dignity of his former employ, of which the eastern grandees usually retain the rank through life, even if they are dispossessed of it, or his new dignity of Sheikh el Haram, that gave him his importance, I am unable to say ; but he took, on every occasion, pre- cedence of Tousoun Pasha, whose rank was that of Pasha of Djidda, and of three tails ; and the latter, whenever they met, kissed the Sheikh’s hands, which I have seen him do in the mosque. He has a court composed in a manner similar to that of a Pasha, but much less numerous. His dress is given with the most minute accuracy in D’Ohhson’s work : it consists of a fine pelisse, over a rich em- broidered silk gown, made in the fashion of the capital ; a khandjar, or dagger, set with diamonds, stuck in his belt ; and a kaouk, or high bonnet, on his head. The present Sheikh kept about a dozen horses : whenever DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 189 he walked out, a number of servants, or Ferrashyn of the mosque, armed with large sticks, walked before him. The person of the Sheikh el Haram was respected by the Wahabys : when Saoud took Medina, he permitted the Sheikh, with several other eunuchs, to retire to Yembo, with his wives, and all his baggage and valuables ; but would not receive another into the town ; and the eunuchs themselves then appointed one of their number to preside over them, till after an interval of eight years, when the present chief was sent from Constantinople ; but his influence over the affairs of the town is reduced to a mere shadow of what it was. A eunuch of the mosque would be highly affronted if he were so termed by any person. Their usual title is Aga. Their chief takes the title of Highness, or Sadetkom, like a Pasha, or the Sherif of Mekka. Besides those eunuchs, the mosque reckons among its servants a number of the inhabi- tants of the town ; these are called Fer- rashyn, a name implying that their duty con- sists in keeping the mosque clean, and spread- ing the carpets. Some of them attend at the mosque to light the lamps, and to clean the floor, together with the eunuchs ; with 190 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. others it is a mere sinecure, and some of the first people of the town belong to this body. I am unacquainted how the office is ob- tained, but believe that it is purchased from the Sheikh el Haram. The name of each Ferrash is put down in the lists which are yearly sent to Constantinople, and they all share in the stipends which the town re- ceives from that capital, and the whole Turk- ish empire, in which there is always a consi- derable portion for the Ferrashyn. It would appear that the office is hereditary ; at least often transmitted from father to son. The number is fixed at five hundred; but to increase it, an expedient has, according to D’Ohhson, been adopted, of dividing each number into half, and third, and eighth shares ; and any fractional part may be be- stowed upon an individual, who thus becomes an inferior member of the corps. Many of these Ferrashyn are in portibus , the title having been given to great foreign hadjys, dispersed over the whole empire, who think themselves honored in possessing it. Many of these Ferrashyn are at the same time ciceroni, or Mezowars, and exercise also, the very lucrative profession of saying prayers for the absent. Most hadjys of any con- DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 191 sequence who pass here, form an acquaintance with some of these men, their guides over the holy places. On their return home, they often make it a pious rule to send annually some money, one or two zecchins, to their ancient cicerone, who is thus bound in honour to recite some prayers, in the name of the donor, before the window of the Hedjra. These remittances, wrapped up in small sealed papers, with the address upon them, are collected in every province or principal town of Anatolia, or Turkey in Europe, from whence they are principally sent, and brought to Medina by the Surra writer of Constanti- nople, who accompanies the pilgrim caravan, and is at the head of its financial department. Some of the principal Ferrashyns have mo- nopolized whole towns and provinces ; the natives of those parts, who pass through Me- dina, being introduced to them by their coun- trymen. The correspondents of others are dispersed over the whole empire. The pro- fits which they derive from this profession, which resemble those accruing to Roman Catholic priests for the reading of masses, are very considerable : I have heard that some of the principal Ferrashyn have from four to five hundred correspondents dispersed over 192 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. Turkey, from each of whom they receive yearly stipends, the smallest of which is one Venetian zecchin. The number of Ferrashyn, as well as of Mezowars, is very great. The duties of their office can be so easily performed, that they are for the greater part a very idle class. During the time of the Wahabys, however, their perquisites ceased ; and, as few pilgrims then arrived, they were reduced to great extremities, from which they are now be- ginning slowly to recover. They complain, that the long cessation of the yearly stipends has accustomed so many original correspon- dents to withhold their gifts, that, although the caravan intercourse is re-established, little inclination appears to renew them. The Wahabys are forbidden by their law to visit the tomb of the Prophet, or to stand before the Hedjra and pray for his interces- sion in heaven. As Mohammed is consi- dered by them a mere mortal, his tomb is thought unworthy of any particular notice. It was as much a strict religious principle, as a love of plunder, that induced Saoud to carry off the treasures of the Hedjra, which were thought little adapted in decency and hu- mility to adorn a grave. The tomb itself he DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA, 193 left untouched ; and, for once, gave way to the national feelings of the Arabians, and perhaps to the compunctions of his own conscience, which could not entirely divest itself of earlier impressions ; he neither re- moved the brocade from the tomb, nor the curtain which encloses it. Dreams, it is said, terrified him, or withheld his sacrilegious hand ; and he in like manner respected that of Fatme : but, on the other hand, he ruined, without exception, all the buildings of the public burial-ground, where many great saints repose, and destroyed even the sculptured and ornamented stones of those tombs, a simple block being thought by him quite sufficient to cover the remains of the dead. In prohibiting any visit to the tomb, the Wahabys never entertained the idea of dis- continuing the visit to the mosque. That edifice having been built by the Prophet, at the remarkable epoch of his flight from Mek- ka, which laid the first foundations of Islam, it is considered by them as the most holy spot upon earth, next to the Beitullah of Mekka. Saoud had indeed once given or- ders, that none of these Turkish pilgrims, who still flocked from Yembo to this tomb, even after the interruption of the regular pilgrim- VOL. II. N 194 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. caravans, should any more be permitted to "enter Medina : and this he did to prevent what he called their idolatrous praying; a practice which it was impossible to abolish without excluding them at once from the mosque ; this prohibition Saoud did not think proper to enforce : he therefore preferred keeping them from the city, under pretence that their improper behaviour rendered such a proceeding necessary. He himself, with all his adherents, often paid a devout visit to the holy mosque ; and in the treaty of peace which his son Abdallah concluded with Tou- soun Pasha in 1815, it is expressly stipulated that the Waliabys should be permitted to visit the Mesdjed-e’-Neby, or the mosque of the Prophet, (not his tomb,) without moles- tation. Even with the orthodox Moslims, the visit to this tomb and mosque is merely a merito- rious action, which has nothing to do with the obligations to perform the Hadj, incum- bent upon the faithful ; but which, like the visit to the mosque at Jerusalem, and the tomb of Abraham at Hebron, is thought to be an act highly acceptable to the Deity, and to expiate many sins, while it entitles the vi- siter, at the same time, to the patronage of DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 195 the Prophet and the Patriarch in heaven : and it is said, that he who recites forty prayers in this mosque, will be delivered from hell-fire and torments after death. As saints, however, are often more venerated than the Deity himself, who it is well known accepts of no other offerings than a pure conscience or sincere repentance, and is therefore not so easily appeased ; so the visit to Medina is nearly as much esteemed as that to the house of God, the Beitullah at Mekka ; and the visiters crowd with more zeal and eagerness to this shrine, than they do even to the Kaaba. Throughout the year, swarms of pilgrims arrive from all parts of the Mohammedan world, usually by the way of Yembo. The Moggrebyns especially seem the most fervent in their visits : they are, however, brought hereby another object ; for in this town is situated the tomb of the Imam Malek ibn Anes, the founder of the orthodox sect of the Malekites, to which belong the Moggrebyns. The mosque at Mekka is visited daily by female hadjys, who have their own station assigned to them. At Medina, on the con- trary, it is thought very indecorous in women to enter the mosque. Those who come here from foreign parts, visit the tomb during the 196 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. night, after the last prayers, while the wo- men resident in the town hardly ever ven- ture to pass the threshold : my old landlady, who had lived close to it for fifty years, as- sured me that she had been only once in her life within its precincts, and that females of a loose character only are daring enough to perform their prayers there. In general, women are seldom seen in the mosques in the East, although free access is not forbid- den : a few are sometimes met in the most holy temples, as that of the Azhar at Cairo, where they offer up their thanks to Provi- dence, for any favour which they may have taken a vow thus to acknowledge. Even in their houses the women seldom pray, except devout old ladies ; and it is remarked as an extraordinary accomplishment in a woman, if she knows her prayers well, and has got by heart some chapters of the Koran. Women being considered in the East as inferior crea- tures, to whom some learned commentators on the Koran deny even the entrance into Paradise, their husbands care little about their strict observance of religious rites, and many of them even dislike it, because it raises them nearer to a level with themselves ; and it is remarked, that the woman makes a bad DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA, 197 wife, who can once claim the respect to which she is entitled by the regular reading of prayers. There are no sacred pigeons in this mosque, as in that at Mekka ; but the quantity of woollen carpets spread in it, where the most dirty Arabs sit down by the side of the best dressed hadjys, have rendered it the favourite abode of millions of other animals less harm- less than pigeons, and a great plague to all visiters, who transfer them to their private lodgings, which thus swarm with vermin. This mosque being much smaller than that of Mekka, and a strict police kept up in it by the eunuchs, it is less infested with beggars and idle characters than the former. It should seem also, that the tomb of Moham- med inspires the people of Medina with much greater awe, and religious respect, than the Kaaba does those of Mekka; which senti- ment deters them from approaching it with idle thoughts, or as a mere pastime: much more decorum is therefore observed within its precincts than within those of the Bei- tullah. As at Mekka, a number of Khatybs, Imams, Mueddins, and other persons belonging to the body of Olemas, are attached to the 198 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. mosque. The olemas here are said to be more learned than their brethren of Mekka ; and those of former days have produced many valuable writings. At present, how- ever, there is less appearance of learning here than at Mekka. During my visits to the mosque I never saw a native Arab teach- ing knowledge of any kind, and only a few Turkish hadjys explaining some religious books in their own language, to a very few auditors, from whom they collected trifling sums, to defray the expenses of their journey home. Tousoun Pasha, the only one of his family who is not an avowed atheist, fre- quently attended those lectures, and sat in the same circle with the other persons pre- sent. I was told, that in the medrese called El Hamdye some public lectures are deli- vered ; but I had no opportunity of ascer- taining the fact. I believe that there is not in the whole Mohammedan empire a town so large as Medina where lectures are not held in the mosques ; that this was formerly the case also in this town, is proved by the many pious foundations established exclusively for this purpose, the emoluments of which many olemas still enjoy without performing the duties. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 199 The haram or mosque of Medina, like that at Mekka, possesses considerable property and annuities in every part of the empire. Its yearly income is divided among the eu- nuchs, the olemas, and the Ferrashyn. The daily expenses of lighting and repairing the building are made to account for the expen- diture of the whole. As, excepting the pre- cious articles contained in the Hedjra, no money-treasure has ever been kept in the mosque, a double advantage accrues to the inhabitants of the town, numbers of whom gain a comfortable livelihood, while all are exempted from the danger and the internal broils which would, no doubt, occur, were it known that a large sum of money might be obtained by seizing the mosque. The days are past, in the East, when a public treasure can be deposited in a place sufficiently sa- cred to guard it from the hands of plun- derers. The smallest part of the income of all public foundations is spent in the relief of the poor, or the pious purpose to which it was destined : it serves merely to pamper a swarm of idle hypocrites, who have no other motives for acquiring a smattering of learning, than the hope of sharing in the 200 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. illegal profits that accrue to the guardians or agents of these institutions. Like most of the public buildings in the East, the approach to the mosque is choked on all sides by private habitations, so as to leave, in some parts, only an open street between them and the walls of the mosque ; while in others the houses are built against the w T alls, and conceal them. Either three or five minarets (I forget which) are erected on different sides of the building ; and one of them is said to stand on the spot where Belial, the Abyssinian, the Mueddin of Mo- hammed, and one of his great favourites, used to call the faithful to prayers. The following brief history of the mosque is taken from Samhoudy, the historian of Me- dina : “ The mosque of Medina was founded by Mohammed himself, and is therefore called his mosque, or Mesdjed-e’-Neby. When he reached the city, at that time an open set- tlement of Arabs, called Yathreb, (subse- quently Medina,) after his flight from Mekka, and was sure of being now among friends, he erected a small chapel on the spot where his camel had first rested in the town, having DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 201 bought the ground from the Arabs ; and he enclosed it with mud walls, upon which he placed a roof of palm-leaves, supported by the stems of palm-trees for pillars : this edi- fice he soon after enlarged, having laid the foundations with stone. Instead of the Mah- rab, or niche, which is placed in mosques to show the direction in which the faithful ought to turn in their prayers, Mohammed placed a large stone, which was at first turned to the north, towards Jerusalem, and placed in the direction of the Kaaba of Mekka, in the second year of the Hedjra, when the ancient Kebly was changed. “ Omar ibn el Khatab widened the mosque with mud walls and palm-branches, and, in- stead of the stems of palms, he made pillars of mud. He first carried a wall round the Hedjra, or the place where the body of Mo- hammed had been deposited at his death, and which was at first enclosed only by palm-branches. The square enclosed by the walls of the mosque was increased to one hundred and forty pikes in length, and one hundred and twenty in breadth, A.H. 17. “ Othman built the walls of hewn stone : in A. H. 29, he renewed the earthen pillars, strengthening the new ones with hoops of 202 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. iron, and made the roof of the precious In- dian wood called Sadj. The square was en- larged to one hundred and sixty pikes by one hundred and fifty ; and six gates were opened into it. “ Wolyd, he to whom Damascus owes its beautiful mosque, called Djama el Ammouy, further enlarged the Mesdjed-e’-Neby in A. H. 91. Till then, the houses where the wives and daughter and female relations of Mohammed had resided, stood close to the Hedjra, beyond the precincts of the mosque, into which they had private gates. Not- withstanding the great opposition he en- countered, Wolyd compelled the women to leave their houses, and to accept a fair price for them ; he then razed them, and extended the wall of the mosque on that side. The Greek Emperor, with whom he happened to be at peace, sent him workmen from Constan- tinople, who assisted in the new building ;* several of whom, being Christians, behaved, # Makrisi, in his account of various sovereigns who per- formed the pilgrimage, says that the Greek Emperor (whom he does not name) sent one hundred workmen to Wolyd, and a present of a hundred thousand methkal of gold, together with forty loads of small cut stones, for a mosaic pavement. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 203 as it is related, with great indecency ; one of them, in particular, when in the act of de- filing the very tomb of the Prophet, was killed by a stone which fell from the roof. New stone pillars were now placed in the mosque, with gilt capitals. The walls were cased with marble variously adorned, and parts of them likewise gilt, and the whole building thus completely renewed. “ About A. H. 160, the Khalife El Mohdy still further enlarged the enclosure, and made it two hundred and forty pikes in length ; and in this state the mosque remained for several centuries. “ Hakem b’amr Illah, the mad King of Egypt, who sent one of his emissaries to de- stroy the black stone of the Kaaba, also made an unsuccessful attempt to take from the mosque of Medina Mohammed’s tomb, and transport it to Cairo. In A. H. 557, in the time of El Melek el Adel Noureddyn, king of Egypt, two Christians in disguise were discovered at Medina, who had made a sub- terraneous passage from a neighbouring house into the Hedjra, and stolen from thence ar- ticles of great value. Being put to the torture, they confessed having been sent by the King of Spain for that purpose ; and they paid for 204 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. their temerity with their lives. Sultan Nour- eddyn, after this, carried a trench round the Hedjra, and filled it with lead, to prevent similar attempts. “ In A. H. 654, a few months after the erup- tion of a volcano near the town, the mosque caught fire, and was burnt to the ground ; but the Korans deposited in the Hedjra were saved. This accident was ascribed to the Persian sectaries of Beni Hosseyn, who were then the guardians of the tomb. In the fol- lowing year its restoration was undertaken at the expense of the Khalife Mostasem Bil- lah, Ibn el Montaser Billah, and the lord of Yemen, El Mothaffer Shams eddyn Yousef, and completed by El Dhaher Bybars, Sultan of Egypt, in A.H. 657. The dome over the tomb was erected in 678. Several kings of Egypt successively improved and enlarged the building, till A. H. 886, when it was again destroyed by fire occasioned by lightning. The destruction was complete ; all the walls of the mosque, and part of those of the Hedjra, the roof, and one hundred and twenty columns fell : all the books in the mosque were destroyed ; but the fire appears to have spared the interior of the tomb in the Hedjra. Kayd Beg, then king of Egypt, to whom that DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 205 country and the Hedjaz owe a number of public works, completely rebuilt the mosque, as it now stands, in A. H. 892 . He sent three hundred workmen from Cairo for that purpose. The interior of the Hedjra was cleared, and three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish ; but the author of this history, who himself entered it, saw no traces of tombs. The original place of Mohammed’s tomb was ascertained with great difficulty. The walls of the Hedjra were then rebuilt, and the iron railing placed round it which is now there. The dome was again raised over it ; the gates were distributed as they now are ; a new mambar, or pulpit, was sent as a present from Cairo, and the whole mosque assumed its present form. Since the above period, a few immaterial im- provements have been made by the Othman Emperors of Constantinople.” 206 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. Gardens and plantations, as I have al- ready said, surround the town of Medina, with its suburbs, on three sides, and to the eastward and southward extend to the dis- tance of six or eight miles. They consist principally of date-groves and wheat and barley fields ; the latter usually enclosed with mud walls, and containing small habitations for the cultivators. Their houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the town are well built, often with a vestibule supported by columns, and a vaulted sitting-room ad- joining, and a tank cased with stone in front of them. They are the summer residence of many families of the town, who make it a custom to pass there a couple of months in the hottest season. Few of the date- groves, unless those dispersed over the fields, are at all enclosed ; and most of them are ir- rigated only by the torrents and winter rains. The gardens themselves are very low, the earth being taken from the middle parts of them, and heaped up round the walls, so as to leave the space destined for agricul- ture, like a pit, ten or twelve feet below the DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 207 surface of the plain : this is done to get at a better soil, experience having shown that the upper stratum is much more impreg- nated with salt, and less fit for cultiva- tion, than the lower. No great industry is any where applied ; much ground continues waste ; and even where the fields are laid out, no economy whatever is shown in the culture of them. Many spots are wholly barren ; and the saline nature of the soil prevents the seed from growing. The ground towards the village of Koba, and beyond it, in a south and east direction, is said to consist of good earth, without any saline mixture ; and in value it is consequently much higher than that near the town, which, after rains, I have seen completely covered for several days with a saline crust, partly deposited from the waters, and partly evaporated from the soil itself, in the more elevated spots which the waters do not reach. Most of the gardens and plantations belong to the people of the town ; and the Arabs who cultivate them (called nowakhele) are mostly farmers. The property of the gardens is either rnulk or wakf ; the former, if they belong to an individual ; the latter, if they belong to the mosque, or any of the medreses 208 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. or pious foundations, from which they are farmed, at very long leases, by the people of Medina themselves, who re-let them on shorter terms to the cultivators. They pay no duties whatever. Not the smallest land- tax, or miri, is levied ; an immunity which, I believe, all the fertile oases of the Hedjaz enjoyed previous to the invasion by the Waliabys : these, however, had no sooner taken possession of the town, than they taxed the soil, according to their established rule. The fields were assessed, not by their pro- duce in corn, but in dates, the number of date-trees in every field being usually propor- tionate to the fertility of the soil, and also to its crop of grain. From every erdeb of dates the Wahaby tax-gatherers took their quota either in kind or in money, according to the market-price they then bore. These regulations caused the Wahaby s to be dis- liked here much more than they were at Mekka, where the inhabitants had no fields to be taxed ; and where the tax which the Wahabys had imposed was dispensed with, or rather given up to the Sherif, the ancient governor of the town, as I have already re- marked. The Mekkans, besides, carried on commerce, from which they ^could at all DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 209 times derive some profit, independent of the advantages accruing to them from the foreign hadjys. The people of Medina, on the con- trary, are very petty merchants ; and their main support depends upon the pilgrims, the yearly stipends from Turkey, or their landed property. As they were obliged entirely to renounce the former, and were curtailed in the profits from the latter ; and as the Wa- habys showed much less respect for their venerated tomb than they did for the Bei- tullah at Mekka, we cannot wonder that their name is execrated by the people of Medina, and loaded with the most oppro- brious epithets. The principal produce of the fields? about Medina, is wheat and barley, some clover, and garden-fruits, but chiefly dates. Barley is grown in much larger quantity than wheat ; and barley-bread forms a principal article of food with the lower classes. Its harvest is in the middle of March. The crops are very thin ; but the produce is of a good quality, and sells in the market of Medina at about fifteen per cent higher than the Egyptian. * They are here called Beled , (plur. Bolclan ) : the beled of such a one. VOL. II. O 210 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. After harvest, the fields are left fallow till the next year ; for though there is sufficient water in the wells* to produce a second irri- gation, the soil is too poor to suffer it, with- out becoming entirely exhausted. No oats are sown here, nor any where else in the Hedjaz. The fruit-trees are found princi- pally on the side of the village of Koba. Pomegranates and grapes are said to be excellent, especially the former : there are likewise some peaches, bananas, and, in the gardens of Koba, a few water-melons, and vegetables, as spinach, turnips, leeks, onions, carrots, and beans, but in very small quan- tities. The nebek-tree, producing the lotus, is extremely common in the plain of Medina, as well as in the neighbouring mountains; and incredible quantities of its fruit are brought to market in March, when the lower classes make it a prime article of food. But the staple produce of Medina is dates, for the excellence of which fruit this neigh- bourhood is celebrated throughout Arabia. * Every garden or field has its well, from whence the water is drawn up by asses, cows, or camels, in large lea- thern buckets. I believe there are no fields that are not regularly watered, and the seed of none is left merely to the chance of the winter-rains. DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 211 The date-trees stand either in the enclosed fields, where they are irrigated together with the seeds in the ground, or in the open plain, where they are watered by the rains only : the fruit of the latter, though less abundant, is more esteemed. Numbers of them grow wild on the plain, but every tree has its owner. Their size is, in general, inferior to that of the Egyptian palm-tree, fed by the rich soil of the country, and the waters of the Nile ; but their fruit is much sweeter, and has a more fragrant smell. The many different uses to which almost every part of the date-tree is applied, have already been mentioned by several travellers ; they render it as dear to the settled Arab, as the camel is to the Bedouin. Mohammed, in one of the sayings recorded of him, com- pares the virtuous and generous man to this noble tree. 64 He stands erect before his Lord ; in his every action he follows the im- pulse received from above, and his whole life is devoted to the welfare of his fellow crea- tures.” * The people of the Hedjaz, like the Egyptians, make use of the leaves, the outer * See also the 1st Psalm, v. 3 . — “ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,” &c. 212 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. and inner bark of the trunk, and the fleshy substance at the root of the leaves where they spring from the trunk ; and, besides this, they use the kernels of the fruit, as food for their cattle : they soak them for two days in water, when they become softened, and then give them to camels, cows, and sheep, instead of barley ; and they are said to be much more nutritive than that grain. There are shops at Medina in which nothing else is sold but date-kernels ; and the beggars are continually employed, in all the main streets, in picking up those that are thrown away. In the province of Nedjed the Arabs grind the kernels for the same purpose ; but this is not done in the Hedjaz. Various kinds of dates are found at Me- dina, as well as in all other fruitful valleys of this country ; and every place, almost, has its own species, which grows no where else. I have heard that upwards of one hundred different sorts of dates grow in the immediate neighbourhood of the towm ; the author of the description of Medina mentions one hun- dred and thirty. Of the most common sorts are the Djebely , the cheapest, and I believe the most universally spread in the Hedjaz ; the II doua ; the Heleija , a very small date, DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 213 not larger than a mulberry ; it has its name from its extraordinary sweetness, in which it does not yield to the finest figs from Smyrna, and like them is covered, when dried, by a saccharine crust. The inhabitants relate, that Mohammed performed a great miracle with this date : he put a stone of it into the earth, which immediately took root, grew up, and within five minutes a full-grown tree, covered with fruit, stood before him. Ano- ther miracle is related of the species called El Syhtiny , a tree of which addressed a loud “ Salam Aleykum” to the Prophet, as he passed under it. The Birny is esteemed the most wholesome, as it is certainly the easiest of digestion : it was the favourite of Mo- hammed, who advised the Arabs to eat seven of its fruit every morning before breakfast. The Djeleby is the scarcest of them all : it is about three inches in length, and one in breadth, and has a peculiarly agreeable taste, although not so sweet as the Htleya. It seems that it grows with great difficulty ; for there are, at most, not more than one hundred trees of this species, and they are less fertile than any of the other. They grow in no part of the Hedjaz, but here and in the groves of Yembo el Nakhel. The price of the Bir?iy 214 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. is twenty paras per keile, a measure, con- taining at least one hundred and twenty dates, while the Djeleby is sold at eight dates for twenty paras : they are in great request with the hadjys, who usually carry some of these dates home, to present to their friends, as coming from the city of the Prophet ; and small boxes, holding about one hundred of them, are made at Medina, for their con- veyance. Dates form an article of food by far the most essential to the lower classes of Medi- na : their harvest is expected with as much anxiety, and attended with as much general rejoicings, as the vintage in the south of Europe ; and if the crop fails, which often happens, as these trees are seldom known to produce abundantly for three or four suc- cessive years, or is eaten up by the locusts, universal gloom overspreads the population, as if a famine were apprehended. One species of the Medina dates, the name of which I have forgotten, remains perfectly green although ripe, and dried ; another retains a bright saffron colour : these dates are threaded on strings, and sold all over the Hedjaz, where they go by the name of Kalayd es ’ Sham , or necklaces of^the North ; DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 215 and the young children frequently wear them round the neck. The first dates are eaten in the beginning of June, and at that period of their growth are called Rotab ; but the general date-harvest is at the end of that month. In Egypt it is a month later. Dates are dressed in many different ways by the Arabs ; boiled in milk, broiled with butter ; or reduced to a thick pulp by boiling in water, over which honey is poured ; and the Arabs say that a good housewife will daily furnish her lord, for a month, a dish of dates dif- ferently dressed. In these gardens a very common tree is the Ithel , a species of tamarisk, cultivated for its hard wood, of which the Arabs make their camels’ saddles, and every utensil that requires strong handles. In the gardens we seldom find the ground perfectly level, and the cultivation is often interrupted by heaps of rocks. On the N.W. and W. sides of the town, the whole plain is so rocky as to defeat all attempts at im- provement. The cultivable soil is clay, mixed with a good deal of chalk and sand, and is of a grayish white colour : in other parts it con- sists of a yellow loam, and also of a substance very similar to bole - eajrth ; small conical 216 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. pieces of the latter, about an inch and a half long, and dried in the sun, are sold, suspended on a piece of riband, to the visiters of Me- dina. It is related that Mohammed cured a Bedouin of Beni Hareth, and several others, of a fever by washing their bodies with water in w T hich this earth had been dissolved ; and the pilgrims are eager to carry home a me- morial of this miracle. The earth is taken from a ditch at a place called El Med- shounye, in the neighbourhood of the town. All the rocky places, as well as the lower ridge of the northern mountainous chain, are covered by a layer of volcanic rock : it is of a bluish black colour, very porous, yet heavy, and hard, not glazed, like schlacken, and contains frequently small white substances in its pores of the size of a pin’s head, which I never found crystallised. The plain has a completely black colour, from this rock, and the small pieces with which it is overspread. I met w 7 ith no lava, although the nature of the ground seemed strongly to indicate the neighbourhood of a volcano. Had I enjoyed better health, I should have made some ex- cursions to the more distant parts of the gardens of Medina, to look for specimens of minerals ; but the first days of piy stay were DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 217 taken up in making out a plan of the town, and gaining information on its inhabitants ; and I was not afterwards capable of the slightest bodily exertion. It was not till my return to Cairo, that, in reading the descrip- tion of Medina, which I had purchased at the former place, (and of which, and of the descriptions of Mekka, I could never find copies in the Hedjaz, notwithstanding all my endeavours,) I met with the account of an earthquake and a volcanic eruption which took place in the immediate neighbourhood of Medina about the middle of the thirteenth century ; and upon inquiry I learnt from a man of Medina, established at Cairo, that the place of the stream of lava is still shown, at about one hour E. of the town. During my stay, I remember to have once made the observation to my cicerone, in going with him to Djebel Ohod, that the country ap- peared as if all burnt by fire ; but I received an unmeaning reply ; no hint or information afterwards in the town which could lead me to suppose that I was near so interesting a phenomenon of nature. Some extracts from the work to which I have alluded, describing this eruption, may 218 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. be thought worthy of the reader’s attention, and are given in the subjoined note.* * “ On the first of the month Djomad el Akhyr, in A. H. 654, a slight earthquake was felt in the town ; on the third, another stronger shock took place, during the day ; about two o’clock in the ensuing morning, repeated violent shocks awakened the inhabitants, increasing in force during the rest of the morning, and continuing at intervals till Friday the sixth of the month. Many houses and walls tumbled down. On Friday morning a thunder- ing noise was heard, and at mid-day the fire burst forth. On the spot where it issued from the earth a smoke first arose, which completely darkened the sky. To the east- ward of the town, towards the close of day, the flames were visible, a fiery mass of immense size, which bore the appearance of a large town, with walls, battlements, and minarets, ascending to heaven. Out of this flame issued a river of red and blue fire, accompanied with the noise of thunder. The burning waves carried whole rocks before them, and farther on heaped them up like high mounds. The river was approaching nearer to the town, when Pro- vidence sent a cool breeze, which arrested its further pro- gress on this side. All the inhabitants of Medina passed that night in the great mosque ; and the reflection of the fire changed that night into day-light. The fiery river took a northern direction, and terminated at the mountain called Djebel Wayra, standing in the valley called Wady el Shathat, which is a little to the eastward of Djebel Oliod [two miles and a half from Medina]. For five days the flame was seen ascending, and the river re- mained burning for three months. Nobody could approach DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 219 From this account the stream of lava must be sought at about one hour distant to the E. of the town. The volcanic productions which cover the immediate neighbourhood of the town and the plain to the west of it, are probably ow r ing to former eruptions of the same volcano ; for nothing is said, in the relation, of stones having been cast out of the crater to any considerable distance, it on account of its heat. It destroyed all rocks ; but, (says the historian,) this being the sacred territory of Medina, where Mohammed had ordained that no trees should be cut within a certain space, it spared all the trees it met with in its course. The entire length of the river was four farsakh, or twelve miles; the breadth of it four miles; and its depth, eight or nine feet. The valley of Shathat was quite choked up ; and the place where it is thus choked, called from this circumstance El Sedd, is still to be seen. The flame was seen at Yembo and at Mekka. An Arab of Teyma (a small town in the N.E. Desert from six to eight days’ journey from Medina) wrote a letter during night by the light reflected from it to that distance. “ In the same year, a great inundation of the Tigris happened, by which half the town of Baghdad was de- stroyed ; and at the close of this same year the temple of Medina itself was burnt to the ground. “ The Arabs were prepared to witness such a conflagra- tion ; for they remembered the saying of Mohammed, that * the day of judgment will not happen until a fire shall appear in the Hedjaz, which shall cause the necks of the camels at Basra to shine.’ ” 220 DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. and the whole plain to the westward, as far as Wady Akyk, three miles distant, is covered with the above-described volcanic produc- tions. I have little doubt that on many other points of that great chain of moun- tains, similar volcanoes have existed. The great number of warm springs found at al- most every station of the road to Mekka, authorises such a conjecture. I am here induced, by a passage in the extract contained in the last note, to offer the following remark. According to the strict precept of Mohammed, that part of the territory of Medina which encompassed the town in a circle of twelve miles, having on the S. side Djebel Ayre, and on the N. side Djebel Thor, (a small mountain just behind Djebel Ohod,) as the boundary, should be considered sacred ; no person should be slain therein, except aggressors, and enemies, in self-defence, or infidels who polluted it ; and neither game should be killed nor trees cut in such a holy territory. This interdiction, however, is at present completely set aside ; trees are cut, game is killed, bloody affrays happen in the town itself and in its imme- diate vicinity ; and though an avowed fol- lower of any other religion than the Mo- DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA. 221 hammedan is not permitted to enter the gates of the town, yet several instances oc- curred, during my stay there, (and while I resided at Yembo,) of Greek Christians em- ployed in the commissariat of the army of Tousoun Pasha encamping within gun-shot of Medina, previous to their departure for the head-quarters of the Pasha, then in the province of Kasym. ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES 222 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES OF ZYARA, OR OBJECTS OF PIOUS VISITATION, IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MEDINA. On the day after the pilgrim has per- formed his first duties at the mosque and the tomb, he usually visits the burial-ground of the town, in memory of the many saints who lie buried there. It is just beyond the town- walls, near the gate of Bab Djoma, and bears the name of El Bekya. A square of several hundred paces is enclosed by a wall which, on the southern side, joins the suburb, and on the others is surrounded with date-groves. Considering the sanctity of the persons whose bodies it contains, it is a very mean place ; and perhaps the most dirty and miserable burial-ground in any eastern town of the size of Medina. It does not contain a single OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 323 good tomb, nor even any large inscribed blocks of stone covering tombs ; but instead, mere rude heaps of earth, with low borders of loose stones placed about them. The Wahabys are accused of having defaced the tombs ; and in proof of this, the ruins of small domes and buildings are pointed out, which formerly covered the tombs of Othman, Abbas, Setna Fatme, and the aunts of Mohammed, which owed their destruction to those sec- taries : but they would certainly not have annihilated every other simple tomb built of stone here, which they did neither at Mekka nor any other place. The miserable state of this cemetery must have existed prior to the Wahaby conquest, and is to be ascribed to the niggardly minds of the town’s-people, who are little disposed to incur any expense in honouring the remains of their celebrated countrymen. The whole place is a confused accumulation of heaps of earth, wide pits, and rubbish, without a single regular tomb-stone. The pilgrim is made to visit a number of graves, and, while standing before them, to repeat prayers for the dead. Many persons make it their exclusive profession to watch the whole day near each of the principal tombs, with a handkerchief spread out, in 224 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES expectation of the pilgrims who come to visit them ; and this is the exclusive privilege of certain Ferrashyns and their families, who have divided the tombs among themselves, where each takes his post, or sends his ser- vant in his stead. ♦ The most conspicuous personages that lie buried here are Ibrahim, the son of Mo- hammed, who died in his youth ; Fatme, his daughter, according to the opinion of many, who say that she was buried here, and not in the mosque ; several of the wives of Mo- hammed ; some of his daughters ; his foster- mother ; Fatme, the daughter of Asad, and mother of Aly ; Abbas ibn Abd el Motalleb ; Othman ibn Affan, one of the immediate successors of Mohammed, who collected the scattered leaves of the Koran into one volume ; the Martyrs, or Shohada, as they are called, who were slain here by the army of the heretics under Yezyd ibn Mawya, whose commander, Moslim, in A. H. 60, (others say 62 ,) came from Syria and sacked the town, the inhabitants of which had ac- knowledged the rebel Abdallah ibn Hantala as their chief; Hassan ibn Aly, whose trunk only lies buried here, his head having been sent to Cairo, where it is preserved in the OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 225 fine mosque called El Hassamya ; the Imam Malek ibn Anes, the founder of the sect of the Malekites. Indeed so rich is Medina in the remains of great saints that they have almost lost their individual importance, while the relics of one of the persons just men- tioned would be sufficient to render cele- brated any other Moslim town. As a for- mula of the invocation addressed here to the manes of the saint, I shall transcribe that which is said with uplifted hands, after hav- ing performed a short prayer of two rikats, over the tomb of Othman ibn Affan : “ Peace be with thee, O Othman ! Peace be with thee, O friend of the chosen ! Peace be with thee? O collector of the Koran ! Mayest thou de- serve the contentment of God ! May God ordain Paradise as thy dwelling, thy resting- place, thy habitation, and thy abode ! I de- posit on this spot, and near thee, O Othman, the profession everlasting, from this day to the day of judgment, that there is no God but God, and that Mohammed is his servant and his prophet.” The inhabitants of Medina bury all their dead on this ground, in the same homely tombs as those of the saints. Branches of palm-trees are stuck upon the graves, and VOL. II. p 226 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES changed once a year, at the feast of Ra- madhan, when the family visits the grave of its relations, where it sometimes remains for several days. Visit to Djebel Ohod. — One of the prin- cipal Zyara or places of sacred visitation of Medina, is Ohod, with the tomb of Hamze, the uncle of Mohammed. The mountain of Ohod forms part of the great chain, branching out from it into the eastern plain, so as to stand almost insulated. It is three quarters of an hour’s walk from the town. In the fourth year of the Hedjra, when Mohammed had fixed his residence at Medina, the ido- latrous Koreysh, headed by Abou Sofyan, in- vaded these parts, and took post at this mountain. Mohammed issued from the town, and there fought, wfith great disparity of force, the most arduous battle in which he was ever engaged. His uncle Hamze was killed, together with seventy-five of his fol- lowers : he himself was wounded, but he killed with his own lance one of the bravest men of the opposite party, and gained at last a complete victory. The tomb of Hamze and of the seventy-five martyrs, as they are called, form the object of the visit to Djebel Ohod. I started on foot, with my cicerone, by the OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 227 Syrian gate, in the company of several other visiters ; for it was thought unsafe to go there alone, from fear of Bedouin robbers. The visit is generally performed on Thursdays. We passed the place where the Syrian Hadj encamp, and where several wells and half- ruined tanks, cased with stone, supply the pilgrims with water during their three days’ stay at this place, in their way to and from Mekka. A little further on is a pretty kiosk, with a dome, now likewise half-ruined, called El Goreyn, where the chief of that caravan usually takes up his temporary abode. The road further on is completely level ; date-trees stand here and there, and several spots are seen which the people only cultivate when the rains are copious. About one mile from the town stands a ruined edifice of stones and bricks, where a short prayer is recited in remembrance of Mohammed having here put on his coat of mail, when he went to engage the enemy. Farther on is a large stone, upon which it is said that Mohammed leaned for a few minutes on his way to Ohod ; the visiter is enjoined to press his back against this stone, and to recite the Fateha, or open- ing chapter of the Koran. In approaching the mountain, we passed 228 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES a torrent, coming from E. or S.E. with water to the depth of two feet, the remains of the rain that had fallen five days ago. It swells sometimes so high as to become impassable, and inundates the whole surrounding coun- try. To the east of this torrent, the ground leading towards the mountain is barren, stony, with a slight ascent, on the slope of which stands a mosque, surrounded by about a dozen ruined houses, once the pleasure villas of wealthy town’s-people ; near them is a cistern, filled by the torrent-water. The mosque is a square solid-built edifice of small dimensions. Its dome was thrown down by the Wahabys, but they spared the tomb. The mosque en- closes the tomb of Hamze, and those of his principal men who were slain in the battle ; namely, Mesab ibn Omeyr, Djafar ibn Shem- mas, and Abdallah ibn Djahsh. The tombs are in a small open yard, and, like those of the Bekya, mere heaps of earth, with a few loose stones placed around them. Beside them is a small portico, which serves as a mosque : a short prayer is said here, and the pilgrims then advance to the tombs, where they recite the chapter of Yasein (from the Koran), or the short chapter of El Khalas forty times ; after which Hamze and his OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 229 friends are invoked to intercede with the Almighty, and obtain for the pilgrim and all his family, faith, health, wealth, and the utter destruction of all their enemies. Money is given, as usual, at every corner, to the guardians of the mosque, of the tombs, to the Mueddin, Imam, &c. &c. A little further on, towards the mountain, which is only at a gun-shot distance, a small cupola marks the place where Mohammed was struck in battle by a stone, which knocked out four of his front teeth, and felled him to the ground.* His party thought he was killed; but the angel Gabriel immediately appeared, and exclaimed that he was still alive. At a short distance from this cupola, which like all the rest has been demolished, are the tombs of twelve other partisans of the Prophet, who were killed in the battle. They form together several mounds of rub- bish and stones, in which their respective tombs can no longer be distinguished. Pray- ers are again recited, with that passage of the Koran which says, in speaking of the slain : “ Do not think that those who were * This story is related here, though the historians of the Prophet do not agree on the subject. %30 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES killed in war with the infidels are dead ; no, they are living, and their reward is with their Lord:” a sentence still used to encourage, even in our days, the Turkish soldiers in their battles with Europeans. The mountain of Ohod consists of different coloured granite ; on its sides I likewise found flint, but no lava. The entire mountain is almost four miles in length, from west to east. Having been the scene of the famous battle, which so much contributed to strengthen the party of Mohammed and his new reli- gion, it is not surprising that Djebel Ohod should be the object of peculiar veneration. The people of Medina believe that on the day of resurrection it will be transported into Paradise ; and that when mankind shall ap- pear before the Almighty for judgment, they will be assembled upon it, as the most fa- voured station. The mountain of Ayra, men- tioned above as situated to the S. W. of the town, (about the same distance from it as Ohod is, on the other side,) will on that day experience a much less enviable fate. Having denied water to the Prophet, who once lost his way in its valleys, and became thirsty, it will be punished for inhospitality, by being cast at once into hell. ^ OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 231 The people of Medina frequently visit Ohod, pitching their tents in the ruined houses, where they remain a few days, espe- cially convalescents, who during their illness had made a vow to slaughter a sheep in ho- nour of Hamze, if they recovered. Once a year, (in J uly, I believe,) the inhabitants flock thither in crowds, and remain for three days, as if it were during the feast days of the saint. Regular markets are then kept there : and this visit forms one of the principal public amusements of the town. Koba.— In this neighbouring village all the pilgrims visit the spot where Mohammed first alighted on coming from Mekka : it lies to the south of the town, distant about three quarters of an hour. The road to it passes through a plain, overgrown with date-trees, and covered in many spots with white sand. At half an hour from the town begin gar- dens, which spread over a space of four or five miles in circuit, and form, perhaps, the most fertile and agreeable spot in the Northern Hedjaz. All kinds of fruit-trees (with the exception of apple and pear, none of which I believe grow in Arabia,) are seen in the gar- dens, which are all enclosed by walls, and ir- rigated by numerous wells. It is from hence 232 ACCOUNT OF SOME PEACES that Medina is supplied with fruits : lemon and orange trees, pomegranates, bananas, vines, peach, apricot, and fig trees, are planted amidst the date and nebek trees, and form as thick groves as in Syria and Egypt, while their shade renders Koba a delightful re- sidence. The k hero a (Ricinus, or Palma Christi,) is likewise very common here. The village is frequently visited by the people of Medina ; parties are continually made to spend the day, and many sick people are carried to enjoy the benefits of a cooler at- mosphere. In the midst of these groves stands the Mesdjed of Koba, with about thirty ox forty houses. It is a mean building, and much decayed. In the interior of it several holy spots are visited, at each of which a short prayer of two rikats is performed, and some additional invocations recited in honour of the place. We first see here the Mobrak el Naka, the very spot on the floor of the mosque where the she-camel which Moham- med rode, in his flight from Mekka, crouched down, and would not rise again, thus ad- vising her master to stop here, which he did for a few days, previous to his entering Me- dina, It was to consecrate this spot, that the OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 233 mosque was founded by Mohammed himself with loose stones, which were changed into a regular building the year after, by Benou Ammer ibn Owf ; but the present building is of modern construction. Further on is shown the spot upon which Mohammed once stood, after his prayers, and distinctly saw from thence Mekka, and all that the Koreysh were doing there ; and, thirdly, the spot where the Koranic passage relating to the inhabitants of Koba was revealed to Moham- med : “ A temple, from its first day founded in piety ; there thou best standest up to prayers. There men live who like to be pu- rified : and God loves the clean.” In this passage an allusion is discovered to the ex- traordinary personal cleanliness of those who inhabited Koba, more especially in certain acts of ablution. I saw no inscriptions in this mosque, ex- cept those of hadjys who had written their names on the white-washed walls ; a practice in which Eastern travellers indulge as fre- quently as European tourists, adding often to the names some verses of favourite poets, or sentences of the Koran. The mosque forms a narrow colonnade round a small open court- yard, in which the Mobrak el Naka stands, 234 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES with a small cupola over it, rising to the height of about six feet. On issuing from the mosque, we were assailed by a crowd of beggars. At a short distance from it, among the cluster of houses, stands a small chapel, called Mesdjed Aly, in honour of Aly, the cousin of Mohammed. Close to it, in a gar- den, a deep well is shown, called Ayn Ez- zerka, with a small chapel, built at its mouth. This was a favourite spot with Mohammed, who used often to sit among the trees with his disciples, enjoying the pleasure of seeing the water issuing in a limpid stream ; an ob- ject which at the present day powerfully at- tracts the natives of the East, and, with the addition of a shady tree, is perhaps the only feature of landscape which they admire. When he once was sitting here, the Prophet's seal-ring dropped into the well, and could never be again found ; and the supposition that the ring is still there, renders the well famous. The water is tepid at its source, with a slight sulphureous taste, which it loses in its course. It is collected together with that of several other springs into the canal which supplies Medina, and which is kept constantly flowing by the supply of various channels of well-water. Omar el Khatab OF PIOUS VISITATION NEAR MEDINA. 23 5 first carried the spring to Medina ; but the present canal was built at the expense of the Sultan Soleyman, son of Selim I., about A. H. 973: it is a very solid subterranean work. This canal, and that of Mekka, are the greatest architectural curiosities in the Hedjaz. Near to the mosque of Koba stands* a building erected by Sultan Morad, for dervishes. A little beyond the village, on the road towards the town, stands a small chapel, called Mesdjed Djoma, in remem- brance of the spot where the people of Me- dina met Mohammed upon his arrival. El Kebletyn. — Towards the N. W. of the town, about one hour distant, a place is visited bearing this name. It is said to consist of two rude pillars, (for I did not see it my- self,) and was the spot where Mohammed first changed the Kelly, or the direction in which prayers are said, in the seventeenth month after the Hedjra, or his flight to Medina. Together with the Jewish Bedouins, his own adherents had till then Jerusalem as their Kebly; but Mohammed now turned it to- wards the Kaaba, to which that fine passage of the Koran alludes : “ Say, to God belong the east and the west ; he directs whomsoever he pleases in the road of piety a sentence 286 ACCOUNT OF SOME PLACES, &C. written to convince the Moslims, that where- ever they turned, in their prayers, God stood before them. Near this spot stands a small ruined chapel. The above are the only places visited by pilgrims. The country round Koba, and to- wards the S. E. of the town, presents many spots of nearly equal beauty with Koba, which in summer are places of recreation to the people of Medina ; but I believe there are no villages any where to be seen, only insulated houses, or small groupes of buildings, scat- tered amongst the date-trees. ON THE INHABITANTS OF MEDINA. 237 ON THE INHABITANTS OF MEDINA. Like the Mekkans, the people of Medina are for the greater part strangers, whom the Prophet’s tomb, and the gains which it in- sures to its neighbours, have drawn to this place. But few original Arabs, descendants of those families who lived at Medina when Mohammed came from Mekka, now remain in the town ; on the contrary, we find in it colonies from almost every quarter of the Muselman empire, east and west. I was in- formed, that of the original Arab residents, to whom the Mohammedan writers apply the name of El Ansar, and who at Mohammed’s entrance were principally composed of the tribes of Ows and Khezredj, only about ten families remain who can prove their descent by pedigrees, or well-ascertained traditions : they are poor people, and live as peasants in the suburbs and gardens. The number of 238 ON THE INHABITANTS Sherifs descended of Hassan, the grandson of Mohammed, is considerable ; but most of them are not originally from this place, their ancestors having come hither from Mekka, during the wars waged by the Sherifs for the possession of that town. They almost all be- long to the class of olemas, very few mili- tary sherifs, like those of Mekka, being found here. Among them is a small tribe of Beni Hosseyn, descended from Hosseyn, the bro- ther of Hassan. They are said to have been formerly very powerful at Medina, and had appropriated to themselves the chief part of the income of the mosque : in the thirteenth century, (according to Samhoudy,) they were the privileged guardians of the Prophet’s tomb ; but at present they are reduced to about a dozen families, who still rank among the grandees of the town and its most wealthy inhabitants. They occupy a quarter by them- selves, and obtain very large profits, parti- cularly from the Persian pilgrims who pass here. They are universally stated to be he- retics, of the Persian sect of Aly, and to per- form secretly the rites of that creed, although they publicly profess the doctrines of the Sunnys. This report is too general, and con- firmed by too many people of respectability, OF MEDINA. 239 to be doubted : but the Beni Hosseyn have powerful influence in the town, in appear- ance strictly comply with the orthodox prin- ciples, and are therefore not molested. It is publicly said that the remnants of the Ansars, and great numbers of the peasant Arabs who cultivate the gardens and fields in the neighbourhood of the town, are ad- dicted to the same heresy. The latter, called Nowakhele, (a name implying that they live among date-trees,) are numerous, and very warlike. They had offered determined re- sistance to the Wahabys, and in civil contests have proved always superior to the towns- people. They are said to be descendants of the partisans of Yezid, the son of Mawya, who took and sacked the town sixty years after the Hedjra. They marry only among themselves ; and exhibit on all occasions a great esprit de corps . Many of them publicly profess the creed of Aly when in their date- groves, but are Sunnys whenever they come to town. Some of them are established in the suburbs, and they have monopolised the occupation of butchers. In quarrels I have heard individuals among them publicly called sectaries and rowafedh , without their ever de- nying it. In the Eastern Desert, at three or 240 ON THE INHABITANTS four days’ journey from Medina, lives a whole Bedouin tribe, called Beni Aly, who are all of this Persian creed; and it is matter of astonishment to find the two most holy spots of the orthodox Muselman religion sur- rounded, one by the sectaries of Zeyd, and the other by those of Aly, without an attempt having been made to dislodge them. Among the ancient families of Medina are likewise reckoned a few descendants of the Abassides, - now reduced to great poverty : they go by the name of Khalifye, implying that they are descended from the Khalifes. Most of the inhabitants are of foreign ori- gin, and present as motley a race as those of Mekka. No year passes without some new settlers being added to their number ; and no pilgrim caravan crosses the town without leaving here a few of its travellers, who stop at first with the intention of remaining for a year or two only, but generally continue to reside here permanently. Descendants of people from northern Turkey are very nume- rous ; but the greater part trace their origin to settlers of the southern countries of Ara- bia, Yemen and Hadramaut, and from Syria, and Egypt, and many also from Barbary. My cicerone was called Sheikh iSad-eddyn el OF MEDINA. 241 Kurdy, because his grandfather was a Kurd who had settled here : the proprietor of the house in which I lived was Seyd Omar, a Sherif of the Yafay tribe of Yemen, whose ancestors had come hither several hundred years since. Indians are likewise found, but in less number than at Mekka. As there, they are druggists, and petty shopkeepers ; but I believe that no Indian wholesale deal- ers in their native products are to be found at Medina. They adhere to their national dress and manners, forming a small colony, and rarely intermarry or mix with the other inhabitants. The individuals of different nations settled here have in their second and third gene- rations all become Arabs as to features and character ; but are, nevertheless, distinguish- able from the Mekkans ; they are not nearly so brown as the latter, thus forming an in- termediate link between the Hedjaz people and the northern Syrians. Their features are somewhat broader, their beards thicker, and their body stouter, than those of the Mek- kans ; but the Arab face, the expression, and cast of features, are in both places the same. The Medinans in their dress resemble more the Turkish than their southern neighbours : VOL. II. Q 242 ON THE INHABITANTS very few of them wear the be den, or the na- tional Arab cloak without sleeves ; but even the poorer people dress in long gowns, with a cloth djobbe , or upper cloak, or, instead of it, an abba , of the same brown and white stripe as is common in Syria and all over the Desert. Red Tunis bonnets and Turkish shoes are more used here than at Mekka, where the lower classes wear white bonnets, and sandals. People in easy circumstances dress well, wearing good cloth cloaks, fine gowns, and, in winter, good pelisses, brought from Constantinople by way of Cairo ; which I found a very common article of dress in January and February, a season when it is much colder here than Europeans would ex- pect it to be in Arabian deserts. Generally speaking, we may say that the Medinans dress better than the Mekkans, though with much less cleanliness : but no national costume is observed here ; and, particularly in the cold of winter, the lower classes cover themselves with whatever articles of dress they can ob- tain at low prices in the public auctions ; so that it is not uncommon to see a man fitted out in the dress of three or four different countries— like an Arab as high as his waist, and like a Turkish soldier over his breast and OF MEDINA. 243 shoulders. The richer people make a great display of dress, and vie with each other in finery. I saw more new suits of clothes here, even when the yearly feasts were terminated, than I had seen before in any other part of the East. As at Mekka, the Sherifs wear no green, but simple white muslin turbans, ex- cepting those from the northern part of Turkey, who have recently settled here, and who continue to wear the badge of their noble extraction. Prior to the Wahaby conquest, when the inhabitants were often exposed to bloody affrays among themselves, they always went armed with the djombye , or crooked Arabian knife : at present few of these are seen ; but every body, from the highest to the lowest, carries in his hand a long heavy stick. The rich have their sticks headed with silver ; others fix iron spikes to them ; and thus make a formidable weapon, which the Arabs handle with much dexterity. The women dress like those of Mekka ; blue gowns being worn by the lower classes, and silk rnellayes by the higher. The Bedouins settled in and near the suburbs, use exactly the same costume as those of the Syrian Desert : a shirt, abba, a 244 ON THE INHABITANTS kessye on the head, a leathern girdle in which the knife is stuck, and sandals on the feet. Even those who have become settlers, form a distinct race, and do not intermix with the rest of the town’s-people. They preserve their national dress, language, and customs, and live in their houses as they would under tents in the Desert Of all Eastern nations, the Arabian Bedouins perhaps are those who abandon their national habits with most re- luctance. In Syria, in Egypt, and in the Hedjaz, settlements are seen, the members of which have become cultivators for several centuries back ; yet they have adopted only few of the habits of peasants, and still pride themselves on their Bedouin origin and man- ners. The Medinans have not the same means of gaining a living as the Mekkans. Although this town is never free from foreign pilgrims, there is never that immense influx of hadjys which renders Mekka so populous for several months in the year, and which makes it a market for all parts of the East. The hadjys who come to Medina are seldom merchants, or at least do not go there for mercantile pursuits, and therefore leave on the coast their heavy baggage. Even the Syrian mer- OF MEDINA. 245 chants who pass with the great caravan sel- dom engage in trade, unless it be for some camel-loads of tobacco and dried fruits. The Medina trade is therefore merely for home consumption, and to supply the neighbouring Bedouins with articles of dress and provi- sions. These are received by way of Yembo, and come almost exclusively from Egypt. No great merchants are settled in Medina : the trade is merely retail ; and those who possess capital, generally invest it in goods, as usual throughout Syria and Egypt, there not being any public institution like banks, or trading societies, or national funds, from which the capitalist might derive interest for his money. The Turkish law rigorously for- bids the taking of interest ; and even if it were otherwise, there is not any government nor any class of men to which the people would intrust considerable sums. The in- vestment of capital in landed property is also liable to great risk* The usual method is * By a decree of Mohammed Aly in 1813, the purchase of land in Egypt is rendered impracticable ; for it orders all the Moltezims (or landed proprietors who shared in the possession of villages and grounds, and who formed a class living on their rents in the country towns,) to re- ceive their yearly revenue from the Pasha’s treasury, where £46 ON THE INHABITANTS to enter into partnership with different petty merchants or retail dealers, and obtain a share of their profits ; but it is subject to almost as much anxiety as an active trade, from the necessity of keeping a constant account with the partners, and incessantly watching them. Usury is practised, and an annual interest from thirty to fifty per cent is paid at Cairo for money : but few of the Turkish merchants descend to this practice, which is reckoned dishonorable. Usury is wholly in the hands of Jews, and Christians the outcasts of Eu- rope. There is, perhaps, nothing in the pre- they suffered every kind of humiliation and injustice ; and the whole of the soil was declared to be the property of government, or in other words of Mohammed Aly himself, who leaves the cultivation of it to the fellahs on his own terms. It happened lately that the Fellahs, who farmed five thousand acres belonging to the village of Damkour near Cairo, were deprived of their leases on the land being declared public property, because the Pasha wished to sow clover for his cavalry upon the soil that the Fellahs had possessed. Landed property in Syria also subjects the owner to great inconveniences : he is oppressed by every governor of a district, and by every soldier who passes ; be suffers in bis receipts from the extortions of the Pashas, which generally fall more heavily upon the cultivator than upon the monied man : and if he do not constantly watch his peasants, he is most probably cheated Out of all his profits. . OF MEDINA. 247 sent deplorable state of eastern society that has a more baneful effect upon the minds and happiness of the people, than the neces- sity of continuing during their whole lives in business full of intrigues and chances. The cheering hopes which animate a European, the prospect of enjoying in old age the pro- fits of early exertions, are unknown to the native of the East, whose retirement would bring nothing but danger, by marking him as wealthy in the eyes of his rapacious go- vernor. The double influence of the Turkish government and Muselman religion has pro- duced such a universal hypocrisy, that there is scarcely a Mohammedan (whose tranquil air, as he smokes his pipe reclining on the sofa, gives one an idea of the most perfect contentment and apathy,) that does not suffer under all the agonies of envy, unsatisfied avarice, ambition, or the fear of losing his ill- gotten property. Travellers who pass rapidly through the East, without a knowledge of the language, and rarely mixing with any but persons in- terested in misrepresenting their true charac- ter, are continually deceived by the dignified deportment of the Turks, their patriarchal manners and solemn speeches, — although they 5248 ON THE INHABITANTS would ridicule a Frenchman who, after a few months’ residence in England, and ignorant of the English language, should pretend to a competent knowledge of the British character and constitution ; not recollecting that it is much easier for a Frenchman to judge of a neighbouring European nation, than for any European to judge of Oriental nations, whose manners, ideas, and notions, are so different from his own. For my own part, a long resi- dence among Turks, Syrians, and Egyptians, justifies me in declaring that they are wholly deficient in virtue, honour, and justice ; that they have little true piety, and still less charity or forbearance ; and that honesty is only to be found in their paupers or idiots. Like the Athenians of old, a Turk may per- haps know what is right and praiseworthy, but he leaves the practice to others ; though, with fine maxims on his lips, he endeavours to persuade himself that he acts as they direct. Thus he believes himself to be a good Muselman, because he does not omit the per- formance of certain prayers and ablutions, and frequently invokes the forgiveness of God. At Medina several persons engage in small commercial transactions, chiefly concerning OF MEDINA. 249 provisions ; a lucrative branch of traffic, as the town depends for its support upon the caravans from Yembo, which are seldom re- gular, and this circumstance causes the prices of provisions continually to fluctuate. The evil consequence of this is, that the richer corn-dealers sometimes succeed in establish- ing a monopoly, no grain remaining but in their warehouses, the petty traders having been obliged to sell off. Whenever the cara- vans are delayed for any considerable time, corn rises to an enormous price ; and as the chiefs of the town are thus interested, it can scarcely be supposed that the magistrates would interfere. Next to the provision-trade, that with the neighbouring Bedouins is the most consi- derable : they provide the town with butter, honey, (a very essential article in Hedjaz cookery,) sheep, and charcoal ; for which they take, in return, corn and clothing. Their arrival at Medina is likewise subject to great irregularity ; and if two tribes happen to be at war, the town is kept for a month at the mercy of the few substantial merchants who happen to have a stock of those articles in hand. When I first reached Medina, no but- ter was to be had in the market, and corn 250 ON THE INHABITANTS was fifty per cent dearer than at Yembo; soon after, it was not to be had at all in the market : at another time salt failed ; the same happened with charcoal ; and in general the provision-market was very badly regu- lated. In other eastern towns, as at Mekka and Djidda, a public officer, called Mohteseb , is appointed to watch over the sale of provi- sions ; to take care that they do not rise to immoderate prices, and fix a maximum to all the victualling traders, so that they may have a fair but not exorbitant profit. But this is not the case at Medina, because the Moh- feseb is there without any authority. Corn is sold twenty per cent dearer in one part of the town than in another, and the same with every other article, so that foreigners unacquainted with the ways of the place are made to suffer materially. During my stay, the communication with Yembo was kept up by a caravan of about one hundred and fifty camels, which arrived at Medina every fortnight, and by small parties of Bedouin traders with from five to ten camels, which arrived every five or six days. The far greater part of the loads was destined for the army of Tousoun Pasha ; the rest consisted of mer- chandize and provisions ; but the latter were OF MEDINA. 251 very inadequate to the wants of the town. I heard from a well-informed person, that the daily consumption of Medina was from thirty to forty erdebs, or twenty-five to thirty-five Hedjaz camel-loads. The produce of the fields which surround the town, is said to be barely sufficient for four months’ consump- tion ; for the rest, therefore, it must depend upon Yembo, or imports from Egypt. In time of peace there is plenty : but lately, since the Turkish army has been stationed here, the Bedouins fear to trust their camels in the hands of the Turks, and the supply has fallen much below the wants of the town. The inhabitants were put to great incon- venience on that account, and had greatly reduced their consumption of corn, and eaten up the last of their stock on hand. Tousoun Pasha had very imprudently seized a great number of the Bedouins’ camels, and obliged them to accompany his army, which had so terrified them, that, previous to Mohammed Aly’s arrival, famine was apprehended from the want of beasts of transport. The Pasha endeavoured to restore confidence, and some of the Bedouins began to return with their beasts. In time of peace, corn caravans arrive 252 ON THE INHABITANTS also from Nedjed, principally from that dis- trict of it called Kasym ; but these were altogether interrupted. I was informed that the transport trade in provisions from Yembo had been shut up for several years after the conquest of Medina by the Wahabys, whose chief, Saoud, wished to favour his own sub- jects of Nedjed; and that Medina in the mean time drew all its supplies from Nedjed, and its own fields. Provisions were now ex- cessively dear : the lower class lived almost entirely upon dates, and very coarse barley bread ; few could afford a little butter, much fewer meat. The fruit of the lotus, or Nebek, which ripened in the beginning of March, induced them to quit the dates, and became almost their sole nourishment for several months ; large heaps of it were seen in the market, and a person might procure enough to satisfy himself for a pennyworth of corn, which was usually taken in exchange instead of money, by the Bedouins, who brought the fruit to the town. The vegetables cultivated in the gardens are chiefly for the use of foreigners, and are of very indifferent flavour. Arabs dislike them, and they are only used by those who have acquired the relish in OF MEDINA. 253 foreign countries. Fresh onions, leeks, and garlic, are the only vegetables of which the Arabs are fond. The prime article of food at Medina, as I have already stated, is dates. During the two or three months of the date-harvest, (for this fruit is not all ripe at the same time, each species having its season), from July till Sep- tember, the lower classes feed on nothing else ; and during the rest of the year dried dates continue to be their main nourishment. The date-harvest is here of the same impor- tance as that of wheat in Europe, and its failure causes general distress. “ What is the price of dates at Mekka or Medina ?” is al- ways the first question asked by a Bedouin who meets a passenger on the road. Of these dates a considerable part is brought to Me- dina from distant quarters, and especially from Fera, a fertile valley in the possession of the Beni Aamer tribe, where there are numerous date-groves: it is three or four days’ journey from Medina, and as many from Rabegh in the mountains. The dates are brought from thence in large baskets, in which they are pressed together into a paste, as I have alreadv mentioned. •/ Although commercial dealings are pretty 254 ON THE INHABITANTS universal, yet few of the inhabitants osten- sibly follow them. Most of the people are either cultivators, or, in the higher classes, landed proprietors, and servants of the mosque. The possession of fields and gar- dens is much desired ; to be a land-owner is considered honorable ; and the rents of the fields, if the date-harvest be good, is very considerable. If I may judge from two in- stances reported to me, the fields are sold at such a rate, as to leave to the owner, in ordi- nary years, an income of from twelve to six- teen per cent upon his capital, after giving up, as is generally done, half the produce to the actual cultivators. Last year, however, it was calculated that their money yielded forty per cent. The middling classes cannot afford to lay out their small capital in gar- dens, because to them sixteen or twenty per cent would be an insufficient return ; and, in the Hedjaz, no person who trades with a trifling fund is contented with less than fifty per cent annually ; and in general they contrive, by cheating foreigners, to double their capital. Those, therefore, only are land- owners, who by trade, or by their income from the mosque, and from hadjys, have already acquired considerable wealth. OF MEDINA. 255 The chief support of Medina is from the mosque and the hadjys. I have already men- tioned the Ferrashyn, or servants of the mosque, and their profits ; to them must be added a vast number of people attached to the temple, whose offices are mere sinecures, and who share in the income of the Haram ; a train of ciceroni or mezowars ; and almost every householder, who lets out apartments to the pilgrims. Besides the share in the income of the mosque, the servants of every class have their surra or annuity, which is brought from Constantinople and Cairo ; and all the inhabitants besides enjoy similar yearly gifts, which also go by the name of surra. These stipends, it is true, are not always re- gularly distributed, and many of the poorest class, for whom they were originally destined, are now deprived of them ; the sums, how- ever, reach the town, and are brought into circulation* Many families are, in this man- ner, wholly supported by the surra, and re- * Kayd Beg, Sultan of Egypt, after having, in A. H. 881 , rebuilt the mosque, appropriated a yearly income of seven thousand five hundred erdebs for the inhabitants of the town, to be sent from Egypt ; and Sultan Soleyman ibn Selim allowed five thousand erdebs for the same pur- pose. (See Kotobeddvn and Samhoudy.) 256 ON THE INHABITANTS ceive as much as 100/. and 2001. sterling per annum, without performing any duty what- ever. The Medinans say, that without these surras the town would soon be abandoned to the land-owners and cultivators ; and this consideration was certainly the original mo- tive for establishing them, and the numerous wakfs , or pious foundations, which in all parts of the Turkish empire are annexed to the towns or mosques. At present the surra is misapplied, and serves only to feed a swarm of persons in a state of complete idleness, while the poor are left destitute, and not the smallest encouragement is given to industry. As to want of industry, Medina is still more remarkable than Mekka. It wants even the most indispensable mechanics ; and the few that live here are foreigners, and only settle for a time. There is a single upholsterer, and only one locksmith in the town ; car- penters and masons are so scarce, that to repair a house, they must be brought from Yembo. Whenever the mosque requires workmen, they are sent from Cairo, or even from Con- stantinople, as was the case during my stay, when a master-mason from the latter place was occupied in repairing the roof of the building. All the wants of the. town, down OF MEDINA. 257 to the most trifling articles, are supplied by Egypt. When I was here, not even earthen water-jars were made. Some years ago a na- tive of Damascus established a manufacture of this most indispensable article ; but he had left the town, and the inhabitants were re- duced to the necessity of drinking out of the half-broken jars yet left, or of importing others, at a great expense, from Mekka No dying, no woollen manufactures, no looms, no tanneries nor works in leather, no iron-works of any kind are seen ; even nails and horse- shoes are brought from Egypt and Yembo. In my account of Mekka, I attributed the ge- neral aversion of the people of the Hedjaz from handicrafts, to their indolence and dis- like of all manual labour. But the same remark is not applicable to Medina, where the cultivators and gardeners, though not very industrious in improving their land, are nevertheless a hard-working people, and might apply themselves to occupations in town, without undergoing greater bodily la- bour than they endure in their fields. I am inclined to think that the want of artisans here is to be attributed to the very low esti- mation in which they are held by the Ara- bians, whose pride often proves stronger than VOL. II. R 258 ON THE INHABITANTS their cupidity, and prevents a father from educating his sons in any craft. This aversion they probably inherit from the ancient inha- bitants, the Bedouins, who, as I have re- marked, exclude, to this day, all handicrafts- men from their tribes, and consider those who settle in their encampment as of an inferior cast, with whom they neither associate nor intermarry. They are differently esteemed in other parts of the East, in Syria, and in Egypt, where the corporations of artisans are almost as much respected as they were in France and Germany during the middle ages. A master craftsman is fully equal in rank and consideration to a merchant of the second class ; he can intermarry with the respectable families of the town, and is usually a man of more influence in his quarter, than a mer- chant who possesses three times more wealth than himself. The first Turkish emperors did every thing in their power to favour in- dustry and the arts ; and fifty years ago they still flourished in Syria and Egypt : in the former country they are now upon the de- cline, except, perhaps, at Damascus ; in Egypt they are reduced to the lowest state : for, while Mohammed Aly entices English and Italian workmen into his service, who labour OF MEDINA. 259 on his sole account, and none of whom pros- per, he oppresses native industry, by mono- polizing its produce, and by employing the greater part of the workmen himself, at a daily salary thirty per cent less than they might get, if they were permitted to work on their own account, or for private indivi- duals. The only industrious persons found in Medina are the destitute pilgrims, especially those from Syria, who abound here, and who endeavour by hard labour, during a few months, to earn money sufficient for the ex- penses of their journey homewards. They work only at intervals, and on their depar- ture the town is often without any artisans for a considerable time. Whilst I resided in Medina, there was but one man who washed linen ; when he went away, as the Arabian women will rarely condescend to be so em- ployed, the foreign hadjys were all obliged to wash for themselves. Under these circum- stances a traveller cannot expect to find here the most trifling comforts ; and even money cannot supply his wants. Here is, however, one class of men, to whom I have already referred in describing Mekka, and who ren- der themselves equally useful at Medina. I 260 ON THE INHABITANTS mean the black pilgrims from Soudan. Few negroes, or Tekayrne , as they are called, come to Mekka, without visiting Medina also, a town even more venerable in their estimation than Mekka. The orthodox sect of Malekites, to which they belong, carry, in general, their respect for Mohammed further than any of the three other sects ; and the negroes, little instructed as they usually are, may be said to adore the Prophet, placing him, if not on a level with the Deity, at least very little below him. They approach his tomb with a terrified and appalled conscience, and with more in- tense feelings than when they visit the Kaaba; and they are fully persuaded, that the prayers which they utter while standing before the window of the Hedjra, will sooner or later obtain their object. A negro hadjy once asked me, after a short conversation with him in the mosque, if I knew what prayers he should recite to make Mohammed appear to him in his sleep, as he wished to ask him a particular question ; and when I expressed my ignorance, he told me that the Prophet had here ap- peared to a great many of his countrymen. These people furnish Medina with fire-wood, which they collect in the neighbouring moun- tains, and sell to great advantage. If none, OF MEDINA. 261 or only few of them, happen to be at Medina, no wood can be got even for money. They likewise serve as carriers or porters ; and Such of them as are not strong enough for hard work, make small mats and baskets of date-leaves. They usually live together in some of the huts of the public place called El Menakh, and remain till they have earned money enough for their journey home. Very few of them are beggars ; of forty or fifty whom I saw here, only two or three resorted to mendicity, being unfit for any other voca- tion. In general beggars are much less nu- merous at Medina than at Mekka ; and most of the foreign beggars, as at Mekka, are In- dians. Few hadjys come here without either bringing the necessary funds, or being certain of gaining their livelihood by labour, the dis- tance of Medina from the sea being much greater than that of Mekka, and the road through the Desert being dreaded by absolute paupers. It may be calculated that only one- third of the pilgrims who visit Mekka go also to Medina. The Egyptian caravan of pilgrims seldom passes by the town* Me- * Whenever the Egyptian caravan passes by Medina, it is always on its return from Mekka, and then remains, 262 ON THE INHABITANTS dina has pilgrims during the whole year, there being no prescribed season for visiting the tomb ; and they usually stay here about a fortnight or a month. They are in the greatest number during the months following the pilgrimage to Arafat* and likewise during the month of Rabya el Thany, on the 12th of which, the birth-day of Mohammed, or Mouled el Naby, is celebrated. The Medinans make up for the paucity of beggars in their own town by going else- where to beg. It is a custom with those in- habitants of the town who have received some education, and can read and write, to make a mendicant journey in Turkey once or twice in their lives. They generally repair to Con- stantinople, where, by means of Turkish hadjys, whom they have known in their own town, they introduce themselves among the grandees, plead poverty, and receive consi- derable presents in clothes and money, being held in esteem as natives of Medina, and neighbours of the Prophet’s tomb. Some of these mendicants serve as Imams in the houses of the great. After a residence of a couple like the Syrian, for three days only. In going from Cairo to Mekka, this caravan never visits Medina. OF MEDINA. 263 of years, they invest the alms they have col- lected in merchandize, and thus return with a considerable capital. There are very few individuals of the above description at Me- dina, who have not once made the grand tour of Turkey : I have seen several of them at Cairo, where they quartered themselves upon people with whom their acquaintance at Me- dina had been very slight, and became ex- tremely disagreeable by their incessant crav- ing and impudence. There are few large cities in Syria, Anatolia, and European Turkey, where some of these people are not to be found. For their travelling purposes, and for the duties incumbent upon them as ciceroni in their own town, many individuals learn a little Turkish ; and it is their pride to persuade the Turkish pilgrims, that they are Turks, and not Arabians, however little they may like the former. The Medinans generally are of a less cheerful and lively disposition than the Mek- kans. They display more gravity and auste- rity in their manners, but much less than the northern Turks. They outwardly appear more religious than their southern neigh- bours. They are much more rigid in the ob- servance of their sacred rites, and public de- 264 ON THE INHABITANTS corum is much more observed at Medina than at Mekka : the morals, however, of the inha- bitants appear to be much upon the same level with those of the Mekkans ; all means are adopted to cheat the hadjys. The vices which disgrace the Mekkans are also prevalent here ; and their religious austerity has not been able to exclude the use of intoxicating liquors. These are prepared by the negroes, as well as date-wine, which is made by pouring water over dates, and leaving'it to ferment. On the whole, I believe the Medinans to be as worth- less as the Mekkans, and greater hypocrites. They, however, wish to approach nearer to the northern Turkish character ; and, for that reason, abandon the few good qualities for which the Mekkans may be commended. In giving this general character of the Medinans, I do not found it merely on the short expe- rience I had of them in their own town, but upon information acquired from many indivi- duals, natives of Medina, whom I met in every part of the Hedjaz. They appear to be as expensive as the Mekkans. There were only two or three people in Medina reputed to be worth ten or twelve thousand pounds sterling, half of which might be invested in landed property, and the other half in trade. OF MEDINA. 265 The family of Abd el Shekour was reckoned the richest. The other merchants have ge- nerally very small capitals, from four to five hundred pounds only ; and most of the people attached to the mosque, or who derive their livelihood from stipends, and from pilgrims, spend, to the last farthing, their yearly in- come. They outwardly appear much richer than the Mekkans, because they dress better ; but, not the slightest comparison can be made between the mass of property in this town and that in Mekka. In their own houses, the people of Medina are said to live poorly, with regard to food ; but their houses are well furnished, and their expense in dress is very considerable. Slaves are not so numerous here as at Mekka ; many, however, from Abyssinia are found here, and some females are settled, as married women. The women of the cultivators, and of the inhabitants of the suburbs, serve in the families of the town’s-people, as domes- tics, principally to grind corn in the hand- mills. The Medina women behave with great decency, and have the general reputation of being much more virtuous than those of Mek- ka and Djidda. The families that possess gardens go to 266 ON THE INHABITANTS great expense in entertaining their friends, by turns, at their country houses, where all the members, men and women, of the fami- lies invited assemble together. It is said that this fashion is carried to great excess in spring-time, and that the Medinans vie with each other in this respect, so that it becomes a matter of public notoriety, whether such a person has given more or less country par- ties, during the season, than his neighbours. A few families pass the whole year at their gardens ; among these was the large family of a saint, established in a delightful little garden to the south of the town. This man is greatly renowned for his sanctity, so much so, that Tousoun Pasha himself once kissed his hands. I paid him a visit, like many other pilgrims, in the first days of my ar- rival, and found him seated in an arched recess or large niche adjoining the house, from whence he never moved. He was more polite than any saint I had ever seen, and was not averse to talk of worldly matters. I had heard that he possessed some historical books, which he would perhaps sell ; but upon inquiry, I learnt from him that he did not trouble himself with any learning except that of the Law, the Koran, and his language. OF MEDINA. 267 He gave me a nargyle to smoke, and treated me with a dish of dates, the produce of his own garden ; and after I had put, on taking leave, a dollar under the carpet upon which I sat, (an act usual, as it was said, on such an occasion,) he accompanied me to the garden- gate, and begged me to repeat my visit. Smoking nargyles, or the Persian pipe, is as general here as at Mekka ; common pipes are more in use here than in other parts of the Hedjaz, the climate being colder. The use of coffee is immoderate. In the gardens fruit can be bought with coffee-beans as well as with money ; and the fondness for tea in England and Holland is not equal to that of the Arabians for coffee. The people of Medina keep no horses. Except those of the Sheikh el Haram, and a few of his suite, I believe there is not one horse kept in this town. In general, these parts of Arabia are poor in horses, because there is no fine pasture for them : the Be- douins to the N. and E. of the town, in the Desert, have, on the contrary, large breeds. The gardens of Medina might afford pastur- age; and formerly, when there were warlike individuals in the town, horses were kept by them, and expeditions planned against Be- 268 ON THE INHABITANTS douins with whom they happened to be at war. At present the spirit of the Medinans is more pacific ; and the few horses yet kept when the Wahabys captured the town, were immediate- ly sold by their owners, to escape the mili- tary conscription to which principally the horsemen in the Wahaby dominions were subjected. Some of the richer families kept mules, and also dromedaries. Asses are very common, especially among the cultivators, who bring to town upon them the produce of their fields. They are of a smaller breed than those of Mekka and the Hedjaz. The wants of the Turkish army had caused a great diminution in the number of camels formerly kept by the cultivators, who sold them, under the apprehension of their being placed in re- quisition. The Bedouins of the eastern De- sert, at three or four days’ journey from the town, are rich in camels ; a strolling party of the horsemen of Tousoun Pasha sent in, du- ring my stay, seven hundred of them, which they had taken from a single encampment of the Beni Hetym tribe. It is not unworthy of remark, that Medina, as far as I know, is the only town in the East from which dogs are excluded: they are never permitted to pass the gate into the OF MEDINA. 269 interior, but must remain in the suburbs. I was told that the watchmen of the dif- ferent quarters assemble once a year to drive out any of those animals that might have crept unperceived into the town. The ap- prehension of a dog entering the mosque, and polluting its sanctity, probably gave rise to their exclusion ; they are, however, tole- rated at Mekka. Among the sheep of this neighbourhood, a small species is noticed with a white and brown spotted skin ; the same species is likewise known about Mekka. It is of a di- minutive size : they are bought up by fo- reigners, and carried home with them as rarities from the Holy Land. At Cairo they are kept in the houses of the grandees, who cause them to be painted red, with henna, and hang a collar with little bells round their necks, to amuse the children. I believe the people of Medina have no other times of public rejoicing than the re- gular feast-days, except the Mouled el Naby or Prophet’s birth-day, on the twelfth of the month of Rabya el Thany. This is consi- dered a national festival : all the shops are shut during the day, and every one appears in his best dress. Early in the morning the 270 ON THE INHABITANTS olemas and a number of well-dressed people assemble in the mosque, where one of the Khatybs, after a short sermon, reads an ac- count of Mohammed’s actions, from his birth to his death ; after which the company, at least the chief people present, are treated with lemonade, or liquorice- water. The zea- lous Muselmans pass the night preceding this day in prayer. The lady of Mohammed Aly Pasha, who, having performed the pilgrimage to Mekka, came here to visit the tomb, and see her son Tousoun Pasha, passed the greater part of the night in devotion at the mosque : when she returned to a house she had taken for that purpose, close by the gate of the mosque, her son paid her a short visit, and then left her to repose, while he himself or- dered a carpet to be spread in the middle of the street, and there slept, at the threshold of his mother’s dwelling ; offering a testimony of respect and humility which does as much honour to the son, as to the character of the mother who could inspire him with such sen- timents. The wife of Mohammed Aly is a highly respectable woman, and very charita- ble without ostentation. Her son Tousoun I believe to be the only one of the family, whose breast harbours any noblq feeling ; the OF MEDINA. 271 rest are corrupted by the numerous vices in- separable from a Turkish grandee : but he has given, in many instances, proofs of ele- vated sentiment ; and even his enemies can- not deny his valour, generosity, filial love, and good-nature. We must regret, that he is as much inferior in intellect to his father and his brother Ibrahim, as he is superior to them in moral character. His mother had appeared here with all the pomp of an eastern queen : from her donations to the temple, and to the poor, she was regarded by the people as an angel sent from heaven. She brought to her son presents to the value of about twenty-five thousand pounds sterling, among which were remarked twelve complete suits, including every article of dress, from the finest Cashmere shawl down to the slip- pers ; a diamond ring worth five thousand pounds ; and two beautiful Georgian slaves. In her retinue there was also a Georgian slave of great beauty and rare accomplish- ments, whom Mohammed Aly had lately married at Mekka; but as she had not yet borne any children, she was considered much inferior in rank to Tousoun’s mother, who counted three Pashas as her own sons.* * Ismayl Pasha is the younger brother of the two 272 ON THE INHABITANTS This slave had belonged to the Kadhy of Mekka, who brought her from Constanti- nople. Mohammed Aly, who had heard his own women praise her beauty and accom- plishments, obliged the Kadhy, much against his will, to part with her for the sum of fifty thousand piastres, and soon after presented her with the marriage contract. I can say little of any customs peculiar to the Medinans, having had so few oppor- tunities of mixing with them. I may, liow r - ever, mention, that in the honours they pay to the dead, they do not comply with the general rules observed in the East. I believe this to be the only town where women do not how l and cry on the death of a member of the family. The contrary practice is too generally know T n to need repetition here ; or that, in other parts of the Levant, a particular class of women is called in, on that occasion, whose sole profession is that of howling, in the most heart-rending accents, for a small sum paid to them by the hour. There is no mentioned above. It is reported that Ibrahim Pasha is not the son of Mohammed Aly, but was adopted by him when he married his mother, then the widow of an Aga of Karala, on the Hellespont, the native town of the pre- sent Pasha of Egypt. OF MEDINA. 273 such practice here, (though it is known in other parts of the Hedjaz,) and it is even considered disgraceful. The father of a fa- mily died in a house next to that where I lived, and which communicated with it. His death happened at midnight, and his only boy, moved by natural feelings, burst into loud lamentations. I then heard his mother exclaiming, “ For God’s sake, do not cry: what a shame to cry ! You will expose us before the whole neighbourhood and after some time she contrived to quiet her child. There is also a national custom observed at funerals : the bier, on issuing from the house of the deceased, is carried upon the shoulders of some of his relations or friends, the rest of whom follow behind ; but when the proces- sion advances into the street, every by-stander, or passenger, hastens to relieve the bearers for a moment ; some giving w r ay to others, who press forward to take in their turn the charge, which is done without stopping. The bier, thus unceasingly passes from shoulders to shoulders, till it is finally deposited near the tomb. If we could suppose for a mo- ment, that this simple and affecting custom was the offspring of true feeling, it would prove much more sensibility than what is VOL. II. s 274 ON THE INHABITANTS displayed in the funeral pomp with which Europeans accompany their dead to the grave. But in the East every thing is done ac- cording to ancient custom : it originated, no dorfet, in the impulse of feeling, or a sense of duty and piety in those who introduced it ; but has become, in these days, a mere matter of form. The women of Medina never wear mourn- ing ; in which respect they differ from those of Egypt. It has been often stated by tra- vellers, that the people of the East have no mourning dresses ; but this is erroneous, as to Egypt at least, and part of Syria. The men, it is true, never indulge in this practice, which is prohibited by the spirit of the law ; but the women, in the interior of the house, wear mourning in every part of Egypt : for this purpose, they first dye their hands blue, with indigo ; they put on a black borko , or face-veil, and thus follow the funeral through the streets ; and if they can afford it, they put on a black gown, and even a black shift. They continue to wear their mourning for seven, or fifteen, or sometimes for forty days. As to the state of learning, I shall add that the Medinans are regarded as more accomplished olemas than the Mekkans ; OF MEDINA. 275 though, as I have mentioned above, there are few, if any, public schools. Several indivi- duals study the Muselman sciences at Da- mascus and Cairo, in both of which cities there are pious foundations for the purpose. As at Mekka, there is no public book-market, the only books I saw exposed for sale were in some retail clothes-shops near the Bab es’ Salam. There are said to be some fine pri- vate libraries ; I saw one in the house of a Sheikh, where at least three thousand volumes were heaped up ; but I could not examine them. As it often happens in the East, these libraries are all wakf , that is, have been pre- sented to some mosque by its founder, or en- tailed upon some private family, so that the books cannot be alienated. The Wahabys are said to have carried off many loads of books. Notwithstanding my repeated inquiries here, as well as at Mekka, I could never hear of a single person who had composed, or even made short notes of, the history of his own times, or of the Wahabys. It appeared to me, on the whole, that literature flourished as little at Medina as in other parts of the Hedjaz ; and that the sole occupation of all 27 6 ON THE INHABITANTS OF MEDINA. was getting money, and spending it in sensual gratifications. The language of the Medinans is not sq pure as that of the Mekkans ; it approaches much nearer to that of Egypt; and the Sy- rians established here continue for several generations to retain a tinge of their native dialect. It is common to hear natives talk, or at least utter a few words of Turkish. The gardeners and husbandmen in the neigh- bourhood have a dialect and certain phrases of their own, which often afford subject for ridicule to the inhabitants of the town. OX THE GOVERNMENT OF MEDINA. 277 ON THE GOVERNMENT OF MEDINA. Medina, since the commencement of Islam> has always been considered as a separate prin- cipality. When the Hedjaz came under sub- jection to the Khalifes, Medina was governed by persons appointed by them, and indepen- dent of the governors of Mekka. When the power of the Khalifes declined, the chiefs of Medina made themselves independent, and exercised the same influence in the northern Hedjaz that those of Mekka did in the southern. Sometimes the chiefs of Mekka succeeded in extending a temporary autho- rity over Medina ; and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this power seems to have been well established ; but it often became dependent on the mighty Sultans of Egypt, whenever they assumed the sovereignty over 278 ON THE GOVERNMENT Mekka. When the family of Othman mount- ed the Turkish throne, the Emperor Selym I., and his son Soleyman, (who paid, in general, more attention to the welfare of the Hedjaz than any of their predecessors,) thought it necessary to acquire a firmer foot- ing in this town, which is the key of the Hedjaz, and became of so much importance to the great pilgrim caravans. They sent hither a garrison of Turkish soldiers, com- posed of Janissaries and Spahies, under the command of an Aga, who was to be the mili- tary commander of the town ; while the civil government was placed in the hands of the Sheikh el Haram, or Aga el Haram, the pre- fect of the temple, who was to correspond regularly with the capital, and to have the same rank as Pashas in other towns. With the exception of a short period towards the end of the seventeenth century* when the Sheikh el Haram and the whole town fell under the jurisdiction of the Sherif of Mekka, this mode of government continued until the period of the Wahaby invasion. An Aga was at the head of a few soldiers, some of whom were in possession of the castle ; and the Aga el Haram, who also had a small train of sol- diers, was the nominal chief of the town. But OF MEDINA. 279 great abuses had prevailed for the last cen- tury : the military commander was no longer chosen by the Sultans, but by his own peo- ple, and there were no longer any Turkish soldiers, but only the descendants of those originally sent hither, who had intermarried with the natives. This Aga had become the real master of the town, and his party was spread over all the first families. He had no other soldiers than the rabble of the town itself, and was chosen by the first officers of the garrison, whose employments were still kept up by their descendants, as they had been settled in former times, although the greater part of them had renounced the mili- tary profession. This tribe of soldiers, called Merabetdn , had been enlarged to strengthen the Aga’s party, and its privileges extended to many other inhabitants of the town, and foreigners who settled here. They were en- titled to share in the yearly salaries originally fixed by the Sultan, for the pay of the garri- son, and regularly transmitted from Constan- tinople ; and had, besides, usurped a share of the surra or stipends sent to the mosque and to the whole town. The Aga el Haram, together with the Kadhy, who was sent hither annually from 280 ON THE GOVERNMENT Constantinople, to preside over the tribunal of justice, became, under the above circum- stances, mere ciphers. The former was usually a eunuch, who knew nothing of Arabic, and who received the appointment rather in the way of exile, than as a preferment. His income, which he received from Constanti- nople, although handsome, did not enable him to keep up any military guard suffi- cient to cope with his rival, the Aga of the town ; and he soon found himself only left in the charge of the temple, and the com- mand of the eunuchs and Ferrashyn. But the Aga of the town himself was not com- plete master ; several of the chiefs of the different quarters had great authority ; the Sherifs settled here had their own chief, called Sheikh-es’-Sadat, a man of great power ; and thus, much disorder prevailed. The peo- ple of the town, and the gardeners and in- habitants of the suburbs, were often contend- ing for months together : in the interior of the town itself bloody affrays often occurred between the inhabitants of the different quarters, on which occasions they sometimes barricadoed the streets, and kept up a firing upon each other from the tops of their houses. Instances are related of people; firing even OF MEDINA. 281 into the mosque upon their enemies, while engaged in prayer. Within the last twenty years a man named Hassan had been appointed Aga of the castle, which gave him the surname of Hassan el Kalay. Born among the dregs of the peo- ple, his great skill and cunning, and deter- mined hardihood, had raised him to this office. He was a man of a very short stature and a limping gait, but notwithstanding of great bodily strength ; and his voice, when he was in anger, is said to have terrified even the boldest. After several years’ hard struggle, this man succeeded in becoming complete master and tyrant of the town : he kept a guard of town’s-people, of Bedouins, and Moggrebyns in his service, and had all the rabble on his side. He was guilty of the most flagrant acts of injustice ; he oppressed the pilgrims, extorted money from them, confiscated the property of all the hadjys and foreigners who died here, withheld the surra brought from Constantinople by the Hadj, from the people for whom it was destined, and amassed great wealth. Instances are re- corded of tyranny and brutality which cover his name with infamy. A rich old widow, with her daughter, having arrived at Medina, 282 ON THE GOVERNMENT from Constantinople, to visit the tomb, he seized on her, and compelled her to marry him ; two days after, she was found dead, her property was seized by him ; and a short time after he forced the daughter to yield to his embraces. Many complaints were made at Constantinople against this man, but the Sultan had not power enough to dispossess him ; and whenever the caravan arrived from Syria, Hassan el Kalay showed so imposing an attitude, that its chiefs could attempt no- thing against him. He threw great obstacles in their way ; and it is generally ascribed to him, that the last caravan from Damascus, which attempted to perform the journey after the Wahaby conquest, was obliged to return to Syria. When the Wahabys began to make in- roads into the Hedjaz, and to direct their forces against Medina, the conduct of Hassan became still more violent. During the two or three years which preceded the capture of the town, he set no bounds to his oppres- sions, and was often seen to inflict the se- verest punishments upon persons who hap- pened to be laughing among themselves when he passed by, pretending that his limping gait was the cause of their mirth. \ During the OF MEDINA. 283 night shops were robbed by the Arabs in his service, who patrolled the streets in large parties, and no justice could be obtained against them. When he saw the impossibility of holding the town longer against the Wa- habys, after all the surrounding Bedouins, and Mekka itself, had surrendered, he gave up the place to Saoud, on condition that he should be continued in his command ; this was promised, and the promise was kept : a Wahaby garrison was then placed in the castle ; the Aga el Haram, with all the Turks residing in Medina, were obliged to leave the town, where he had been for several years a mere shadow ; and Hassan el Kalay remained governor under the Wahabys. Being now unable to act with the same injustice as he had before done, he affected the greatest zeal for the new religion, and oppressed the inha- bitants, by enforcing upon them, with the most scrupulous severity, the precepts of the Wahaby creed. Saoud showed much less re- spect for Medina than he had done for Mek- ka : the income of the latter town was left, as it was, in the hands of the Sherif, and the inhabitants were exempted from the zekat , or tribute, which the other Wahaby subjects paid to the chief, who here abandoned his 284 ON THE GOVERNMENT right in favour of Ghaleb. The same conci- liatory system was not observed at Medina : the inhabitants, who had never before known what imposts were, except the payment of some trifling land-tax, found themselves griev- ously oppressed ; and Hassan el Kalay, with the tax-gatherers of Saoud, enforced the taxes with the utmost rigour. The Hadj caravans now ceased ; few pil- grims arrived by way of Yembo ; Saoud, soon after, prohibited the passage to the town to all Turkish pilgrims ; and the surra or sti- pends were of course withheld. Under these circumstances the Medinans felt most heavily the pressure of the times, and became ex- asperated against the Wahabys. Some fur- ther details on the subject will be found in my account of Mohammed Aly’s campaign. When Mohammed Aly first prepared an expedition against the Hedjaz, a strong gar- rison was placed in Medina, consisting prin- cipally of warlike Bedouins from Nedjed and the southern provinces, under the command of Medheyan, whom Saoud had named Sheikh of the tribe of Harb. Hassan el Kalay showed great zeal for the common cause ; and, after the first defeat of Tousoun Pasha at Djedeyde, was confirmed in his situation at Medina ; OF MEDINA. 285 but when Tousoun returned a second time with a larger force, Hassan, foreseeing his success, entered into secret negociations with him, and received the promise of being con- tinued in his office, provided he would faci- litate the capture of the town by the Os- manlys. On their arrival before its gates, he joined them, and was received by Ahmed Bonaparte, the Turkish commander, with dis- tinguished honours ; the town was soon after attacked, and the castle taken by capitula- tion : but after the Wahaby party was totally suppressed in these parts, both Medheyan, to whom safe-conduct had been promised, and Hassan el Kalay, were seized, put in chains, and sent by way of Cairo to Con- stantinople, where they experienced the fate which, the latter at least, well merited, though his crimes can never excuse the treachery of those who seized him. Soon after the above events, the Aga el Haram, a Kislar Agassi of Sultan Selym, re- turned, and partly recovered his authority; but the real command was now in the hands of the Turkish governor. Towards the end of the year 1814, Tousoun Pasha came here as governor, preparatory to his intended at- tack upon Nedjed ; and here I found him on £86 ON THE GOVERNMENT my arrival. His government was not bad, because his intentions were good, and he was liked by the inhabitants for his generosity and devotion ; but his proceedings were foolish enough : he frightened away the Be- douins, by seizing their camels ; he thus cut off the supplies from the town, created a general want of every kind of provision, and other necessaries ; and his soldiers then soon began to commit excesses, which he neg- lected to suppress by punishment. After Tousoun's departure, his father, Mohammed Aly, arrived here in April, 1815, and with his more experienced judgment immediately took the proper measures for repairing the errors of his son. Medina now continues under the govern- ment of a Turkish commander ; a post filled for a few months by the Scotchman, Thomas Keith, or Ibrahim Aga, whom I have men- tioned as being the treasurer of Tousoun Pasha. The Aga el Haram keeps about sixty or eighty soldiers, a motley crew of Turks, Arabs, Moggrebyns, and people of Medina ; and all ecclesiastical affairs, and the pecu- niary business of the mosque, are left in his hands. Next to him in importance stands the Kadhy, who, in the time of the Wahabys, OF MEDINA. 287 had been obliged to retire. The Sheik li of the Sherifs, or Sadat, continues to enjoy great respect, as well as several other Sheikhs of the town ; and I believe, after all, that the Medinans dislike their present masters, the Turks, less than any other class of the peo- ple of the Hedjaz, although they certainly have not yet been cordially reconciled to them. Prior to the Vv r ahaby invasion, the Sherif of Mekka kept an officer here of inferior rank, to receive some trifling duties upon vegetables, flesh, and other provisions brought to market ; the only tax of the kind paid by the Medinans, and the last remnant of the jurisdiction once enjoyed by the Sherif of Mekka over Medina, and which, in later times, has been entirely lost. Sherif Ghaleb had no authority here whatever ; but I be- lieve, though I am not quite sure, that he still assumed the nominal superiority, or the title of Chief of Medina ; and that Medina was supposed by the Porte to form part of the Hedjaz, under the command of the Sherif of Mekka. Several respectable Arabian writers affirm, that Medina forms a part of Nedjed, and not of the Hedjaz, situated as it is on the eastern 288 ON THE GOVERNMENT OF MEDINA. side of the great chain ; and this opinion seems to be well founded, if the natural boundary be considered ; but, in the com- mon acceptation of the word on the coast, and at Mekka and Medina, the latter town is supposed to form part of the Hedjaz, although the Bedouins of the interior give quite a different meaning to this appella- tion. CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF MEDINA. 289 CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF MEDINA. I found the climate at Medina, during the winter months, much colder than that of Mekka. Snow is unknown here, though I heard that some old people remembered to have seen it in the neighbouring mountains. The rains have no fixed period in winter, but fall at intervals, and usually in violent storms, which last for one day, or perhaps two days, only : sometimes a whole winter passes with- out more than one fall of rain, excepting a few light showers ; the consequence of which is a general dearth. The Medinans say, that three or four gushes of rain are necessary to irrigate their soil ; the water of the torrents then inundating many parts of the country especially the pasturing grounds of the Be- douins. Uninterrupted rains for a week, or longer, such as often occur in Syria, are quite VOL. II. T 290 CLIMATE AND DISEASES unknown here ; and after every gush of rain, which lasts for twenty-four hours, the sky clears up, and the finest spring weather pre- vails for several weeks. The last storms are usually in April, but occasional showers are not unfrequent even in the middle of summer. The Medinans, and many foreigners, assert, that the summer-heat is greater here than in any other part of the Hedjaz : I was not able to judge myself. I have already stated that the saline nature of the soil and water, the stagnant pools of rain-water round the town, and perhaps the exhalation and vapours pro- duced by the thick date-groves in its neigh- bourhood, render the air of Medina little favourable to health. Fevers are the most common disease, to which many of the inhabitants themselves are subject, and from which strangers who remain here any time seldom escape, espe- cially in spring. Yahya Effendi, the physi- cian of Tousoun Pasha, assured me, when I was sick, that he had eighty persons ill of fever under his care ; and it appeared that he was more fortunate in their cure than in mine. The fevers are almost all intermittent, and attended after their curd by great lan- OF MEDINA. 291 guor : relapses are much dreaded. When I went out after my recovery, I found the streets filled with convalescents, whose ap- pearance but too clearly showed how nume- rous were my fellow-sufferers in the town. If not cured within a certain time, these fevers often occasion hard swellings in the stomach and legs, which are not removed without great difficulty. The Medinans care little about this intermittent fever, to which they are accustomed, and with them it seldom proves fatal ; but the case is otherwise with strangers. In some seasons it assumes an epidemic character, when as many as eighty persons are known to have died in one week ; instances of this kind, however, seldom happen. Dysenteries are said to be rare here. Bi- lious complaints, and jaundice, are very com- mon. There appears to be in general a much greater mortality here than in any other part of the East that I have visited. My lodgings were very near to one of the principal gates of the mosque, through which the corpses were carried when prayers were to be said over them ; and I could hear, from my sick bed, the exclamations of “ La illah il Allah,” with which that ceremony was accompanied. Du- 292 CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF MEDINA. ring my three months’ confinement one fu- neral at least, and often two, passed every day under my window. If we reckon on the average three bodies per day carried into the mosque through this gate, as well as the others, besides the poor Arabs who die in the suburbs, and over whose bodies prayers are said in the mosque situated in the Monakh, we shall have about twelve hundred deaths annually, in this small town, the whole po- pulation of which I believe to be at most from sixteen to twenty thousand ; a mortality which cannot be repaired by births, and would long ago have depopulated the place, did not the arrival of foreigners continually supply the loss. Of this population I reckon about ten or twelve thousand for the town itself* and the rest for the suburbs. JOURNEY FROM MEDINA TO YEMBO. 293 JOURNEY FROM MEDINA TO YEMBO. April 21st. 1815. Our small caravan as- sembled in the afternoon near the outer gate of the town, and at five o’clock p. m. we passed through the same gate by which I entered, on my arrival, three months ago. Then I was in full health and spirits, and indulging the fond hopes of exploring unknown and interesting parts of the Desert on my return to Egypt ; but now, worn down by lingering disease, dejected, and desponding, with no more anxious wish than to reach a friendly and sa- lubrious spot, where I might regain my health. The ground leading to the town on this side is rocky. About three quarters of an hour distant, the road has a steep short descent, hemmed in by rocks, and is paved, to faci- litate the passage of caravans. Our direction was S.W. by S. In one hour we came to the 294 JOURNEY FROM bed of a torrent called Wady el Akyk, which during the late rains had received so copious a supply from the neighbouring mountains, that it had become like a deep and broad river, which our camels could not attempt to pass. As the day was fine, we expected to see it considerably diminished the next morn- ing, and therefore encamped on its banks, at a place called El Madderidje. Here is a small ruined village, the houses of which were well built of stone, with a small birket or reservoir, and a ruined well close by. Its inhabitants cultivate some fields on the bank of Wady Akyk, but the incursions of the Bedouins had obliged them to retire. Wady Akyk is celebrated by the Arabian poets* On its banks stand a number of ashour trees, which were now in full flower* * Samnoudy says, that this torrent empties itself into the same low ground called El Ghaba, or Zaghaba, to the west of Medina, in the mountains where all the torrents in this neighbourhood discharge themselves. He says also, that on the banks of this torrent, eastward, stood the small Arab fortification called Kasr el Meradjel ; and from thence towards Ghaba the torrent crosses a district called El Nakya. About five miles distant from Medina was a station of the Hadj, called Zy’l Haleyfe, situated on the banks of Wady Akyk, with a small castle and a birket, which was rebuilt in A. H. 861. Perhaps thi& Madderidjd is meant by it. MEDINA TO YEMBO. 295 We were accompanied thus far by a number of people from Medina, in compliment to one of the Muftis of Mekka, who had been on a visit to the town, and was now returning to his home, intending to leave our caravan at Szafra, He had several tents and women with him. My other fellow-travellers were petty merchants of Medina going to await at Djidda the arrival of the Indian ships, and a rich merchant from Maskat, whom I had seen at Mekka, where he was on the pil- grimage : he had ten camels to carry his women, his infant children, his servants, and his baggage ; and he spent, at every station, considerable sums in charity. He appeared, in every respect, a liberal and worthy Arab. April 22nd. The torrent had decreased, and we crossed it in the afternoon. We rode for &n hour in a narrow valley, following the torrent upwards. At the end of an hour and half we left the torrent : the plain opened to the east, and is here called Es- selsele ; pur road over it was in the direction W.S.W. The rocks spread over the plain were calcareous. At the end of three hours and a half we again entered the mountain, and continued in its valleys, slowly descend- ing, for the whole night. At the break of day 29 6 JOURNEY FROM we passed the plain called El Fereysh, where I had encamped the day before I reached Me- dina ; and alighted, after a march of twelve hours and a half, in the upper part of Wady es Shohada * April 23rd. We had no sooner deposited our baggage than a heavy rain set in, accom- panied with tremendous peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. The whole Wady was flooded in a moment, and we expected that it would be necessary to pass the whole day here. I found shelter in the tent of the mer- chant of Maskat. In the afternoon the storm ceased. At two p.m. we started, and at the end of an hour passed the tombs of the Mar- tyrs or Shohada, the followers of Mohammed, forty of whom, it was said, lie buried there. We continued slowly descending in the Wady, mostly in the direction S.S.W. At the top of Wady Shohada, the granite rocks begin, the upper ranges of that chain being calcareous. At the end of five hours we issued from the Wady. In the night we passed the plains of Shab el Hal and Nazye ; and, after a * The distances of this journey do not exactly agree with those given in coming to Medina ; but I prefer stating them as I found them noted down in my jqurnal. MEDINA TO YEMBO. 297 march of thirteen hours and a half, encamped in the mountains, in the wide valley called Wady Medyk, which lies in the road from Nazye to Djedeyde, two hours distant from the former, and which we had passed at night in my former journey. I heard that in these mountains between Medina and the sea, all the way northward, mountain-goats are met with, and that leopards are not uncommon. April 24th. A few Arabs of Beni Salem here sow some fields with durra, which they irrigate by means of a fine spring of running water issuing from a cleft in the mountains, where it forms several small basins and pretty cascades — the best water I had drank since leaving the mountains of Tayf. We started from hence in the afternoon, and encountered more heavy rain from mid-day to sun-set. In the caravan were several sick and conva- lescents, especially women, who were all com- plaining. I had had a strong attack of fever during the night, which returned to-day, and lasted till I reached Yembo. It was particu- larly distressing to me, being accompanied by profuse perspiration during the night, fol- lowed by shivering fits towards day-break ; and as the caravan could not halt on my ac- count, I had no opportunity to change my 298 JOURNEY FROM linen. We were, moreover, obliged to en- camp upon wet ground ; and as the number of camel-drivers was very small, considering the quantity of baggage, I could not avoid assisting to load, my own Bedouin being one of the most ill-natured and lazy fellows I ever met with among people of his nation. We rode in the winding valley for two hours and a half, to El Kheyf, the begin- ning of Wady Djedeyde, where the chief of the Turkish post stationed there inquired for news from head-quarters : he had been a whole fortnight without hearing what was done at Medina. During the whole Turkish campaign in the Hedjaz, no regular couriers had been any where established. Tousoun Pasha was often left for months at Medina, ignorant of the state of the army under his father ; and even the latter usually received his intelligence from Mekka and Djidda by ordinary conveyances of caravans ; expresses were seldom despatched, and still less any regular communication established over land between Cairo and Mekka. Not merely in this respect, but in many other details of warfare, the best Turkish commanders show an incredible want of activity or foresight, which causes the surprise even \ of Bedouins, MEDINA TO YEMBO. 299 and must expose their operations to certain failure whenever they encounter a more vi- gilant enemy with no disparity of force. The camp of the soldiers at Kheyf was completely inundated, and the whole breadth of the wady covered with a rapid stream of water. Without stopping any where we passed Djedeyde at the end of three hours and a half, and further on Dar el Hamra, where the inhabitants had cultivated several new plantations, since I passed this way in January. The copious rains were a sure prog- nostic of a plentiful year, and the ever- recurring questions put to our guides by the people they passed on the road were, whether such and such a spot in the upper country was well drenched with rain. In seven hours we came to Szafra. The party from Mekka that was with us, separated here, having hired their camels only thus far, from whence they intended to take others for the journey to Mekka ; and those which had carried them thus far, followed our party to Yembo. All those camels which are engaged in the trans- port and carriage between the coast and Me- dina, belong to the Beni Harb tribe. We remained a few minutes only, about midnight, at Szafra, to drink some coffee in 300 JOURNEY FROM one of the shops, and then continued our road to the westward of the route by which I reached Szafra in coming from Mekka. Thick date-plantations form an uninterrupted line on both sides of the narrow valley in which we slowly descended. After nine hours and a half we passed a village called El Waset, built among the date-groves, and having ex- tensive gardens of fruit-trees in its vicinity. At every step water is found in wells or fountains. A little beyond this village we left the valley to the right, and took our way up a steep mountain, this being a nearer road than that through the valley. The route over the mountain was rocky and steep ; our guides obliged us to walk, and it was with difficulty that I mustered strength suf- ficient to reach the summit : from thence we descended by a less rough declivity, and, after twelve hours’ march, again fell into the road in the valley, near a small village called Djedyd. The mountain we had crossed has the name of Thenyet Waset. The val- ley we had left to our right takes a western circuitous tour, and includes several other villages, of which I heard the following men- tioned : Hosseynye, (nearest to Waset) ; then, lower down, Fara and Barake, inj the vicinity MEDINA TO YEMBO. 301 of Djedyd. Below Waset the valley is consi- dered as belonging to Wady Beder, and above it to Szafra. Djedyd has very few date- trees and fields ; it stands upon a plain, through which the torrent passes, after having irrigated the upper plantations of the wady. We continued on this plain for one hour, direction S. 50 W. After a thirteen hours’ march we entered a chain of mountains, ex- tending westward, the same which I have mentioned in my journey to Medina, as branching out westward from the great chain near Bir-es’-Sheikh. Our road lay in a broad sandy valley, with little windings, which brought us, after a very fatiguing march of fourteen hours and a half, to Beder. April 25th. Beder, or as it is also called, Beder Honeyn, is a small town, the houses of which are built either of stone or mud, and of better appearance, although less numerous than those of Szafra. It is surrounded by a miserable mud wall, ruined in many places. A copious rivulet flows through the town, which rises in the ridge of mountains we had just passed, and is conducted in a stone channel : it waters extensive date-groves, with gardens and fields on the south-west side of the place ; and, although at a distance from 302 JOURNEY FROM its source, is still somewhat tepid. El As- samy, the historian of Mekka, says that El Ghoury, Sultan of Egypt, built a fine re- servoir at Beder, for the Hadj ; but I did not see it, and am ignorant whether it be yet in existence. Beder is situated in a plain bounded to- wards the N. and E. by steep mountains ; to the S. by rocky hills, and to the W. by hills of moving sand. The Hadj caravans usually make this a station ; and we found the place where they had encamped just by the gate of the town, four months ago, still covered with carcases of camels, rags of clothes, and re- mains of broken utensils, &c. Beder is famous in Arabian history for the battle fought here by Mohammed, in the second year of the Hedjra, with a superior force of the Koreysh Arabs, who had come in aid of a rich caravan expected from Syria, which Mohammed in- tended to waylay on this spot. Although very ill, I walked out with the Maskat hadjys, to inspect the field of battle, to which we were guided by a man from Beder. To the south of the town, about one mile distant, at the foot of the hills, are the tombs of the thirteen followers and friends of the Pro- phet, who fell by his side. They are mere MEDINA TO YEMBO. 303 heaps of earth, enclosed by a row of loose stones, and are all close together. The Ko- reysh, as our guide explained to us, were posted upon the hill behind the tombs, while Mohammed had divided his small force into two parts, with one of which he himself ad- vanced in the plain against the enemy, and the reserve was entrusted to Aly ibn Aby Taleb, with orders to take his post upon the sand-hill on the western side. The battle could not be won without the interposition of heaven ; and three thousand angels, with Gabriel at their head, were sent to Moham- med’s assistance. The above-mentioned thir- teen persons were slain in the first onset. The Prophet, hard pressed, hid himself be- hind a large rock, which opened miraculously to admit him, and enabled him to reach his reserve ; he then made a second attack, and with the heavenly auxiliaries was victorious, not losing another man, although seventy of his adversaries were killed on the spot. A handful of stones, or dust, which he (or ac- cording to the Koran, which God) threw towards his enemies, caused them to fly. After he had forced their position, he rested a little upon a stone, which, sensible of the honour, forthwith assumed the form of a seat. The 304 JOURNEY FROM rock and the stone are shown ; and, at all events, answer one good purpose, which is to excite the visiter’s charity towards the poor of Beder, who assemble at it whenever a ca- ravan arrives. The position of Aly’s troop upon the distant hill, that of the party of Mohammed close to the enemy, and the plain beyond that hill, where the caravan from Syria pursued its route during the battle, are made to explain the passage of the Koran, which alludes to it thus ; “ You were on the nearer side of the valley, and they on the fur- ther side, and the caravan was below,” (Sur. 8.) : but I could not well understand that passage, according to the usual interpreta- tion ; and rather believe that by the word rukb, which is taken here as synonymous with caravan, the party of horsemen under Aly must be understood, whose position, al- though upon a hill, was, with relation to Beder, a low one, the ground descending slightly. Several small domes, which had been erected here, were ruined by the Walla- by s. In returning to the village, we walked, on its south side, into the mosque called Mesdjed el Ghemame, built on the spot where Mohammed once sat exposed to the sun’s rays, and prayed to God Tor a cloud MEDINA TO YEMBO. 305 which might overshadow him ; this was im- mediately granted ; and the mosque derives its name from the cloud. It is better built and more spacious than might be expected in such a poor place. The market of Beder is furnished with the same articles as that of Szafra. Some water- melons, the produce of the gardens, were offered for sale. The Maskat merchant pur- chased, without my knowledge, five pounds of Mekka balsam, all that remained in the market, which he intended for a present to the Imam of Maskat. It was in the same adulterated state as that I had formerly seen at Szafra. The inhabitants of Beder are chiefly Bedouins of the tribe of Sobh, belong- ing to Harb, some of whom have become settlers here. Others only have their shops here, and return every evening to the tents of their family in the neighbouring moun- tains. Beder being a place much frequented by Bedouins and travellers, the houses are in great request, and a small shop in the market pays as much as twenty dollars a year rent* Some Sherif families are also established here, to whom the Hadj pays at passing consider- able stipends. In the evening several hundred camels VOL. II. u 806 JOURNEY FROM belonging to Bedouins bame to be watered at the rivulet, escorted principally by women* who freely entered into conversation with us* The Beni Harb established at Djedeyde, Szafra, and Beder, give their daughters in marriage to strangers, and even to settlers ; and a few Turkish soldiers, attracted by the beauty of some Bedouin girls, had fixed themselves here, and married them : one of them, an Arnaut, who spoke good Arabic* and had been accustomed from his youth to the wild life of warlike mountaineers, in- tended to follow his young wife to the moun- tain. In the neighbouring mountains are immense numbers of the eagle (rakham) ; hundreds of them were constantly hovering about us ; and some actually pounced down, and carried off the meat from our dishes. April 26th. We had remained here the whole of yesterday. Some people of Beder kept watch at night over our caravan, for which they received a small compliment* This place abounds with robbers, and we were encamped outside the gate of the town. We left Beder in the evening, and took a direc- tion N. 45 W* After proceeding for three quarters of an hour, we came to the ridge of sand-hills above mentioned, the highest sum- MEDINA TO YEMBO. 307 mit of which is called Goz Aly, in memory of the position occupied there by Aly, during the battle of Beder. We crossed these hills for half an hour with difficulty, the sands being very deep, and then descended into the great western plain, extending as far as the sea, which is reached from Beder in one night’s march, at a small harbour, south of Yembo, called Bereyke, much frequented by shipping. The plain, which we entered in the direction W. 1 N. is overgrown with shrubs. During our night-march we saw the fires of different Bedouin encampments. We met two negro pilgrims, who had started from Yembo by themselves, and were in great dis- tress for water : we gave them both meat and drink, and directed them towards the Bedouin encampments. Without a compass, these en- terprising travellers find their route across deserts : the direction of the road is shown to them at starting, and they pursue it in a straight line by night and by day, until they arrive at the destined spot. After a ride of ten hours from Beder, we encamped at the break of day in a part of the plain, where low acacia-trees grow, called Adheyba. April 27 . I found myself in a very low 308 JOURNEY FROM state this morning. Violent vomiting and profuse sweats had rendered the last night one of the most disagreeable nights I passed in my travels. A quarrel with my guide, about victuals, further increased my fever to-day, to which perhaps the late relaxation of my nerves through illness contributed. To our right, northwards, about six hours dis- tant, a chain of high mountains extends towards the sea. Nearer to us a lower ridge takes the same direction. The plain upon which we encamped is sandy, covered with small pebbles and petrosilex. We set out after mid-day. Four hours and a half, direc- tion N. W. by N., trees and shrubs are no longer seen; a few saline shrubs only indi- cate the proximity of the sea; and a little further on, the ground becomes covered with a salt crust, while the air is strongly impreg- nated with sea-vapours. At the end of seven hours and a half, we again found some trees in the plain, interspersed with salt-incrusted spots. At fourteen hours, having travelled the whole night over bad ground, we saw Yembo at sun-rise ; and after a ride of fifteen hours and a half, at a very slow pace, we reached the gate of the town : just before MEDINA TO YEMBO. 309 it we crossed an inlet of the harbour, it being then low water, but which extends to a considerable distance inland at high tide. 310 YEMBO, YEMBO. It was with some difficulty that I could find a room in one of the okales or khans of the town, which were filled with soldiers, who had received permission to return to Cairo, after their last expedition against the southern Wahabys, and had come here from Djidda and Mekka ; and, besides them, there were many hadjys, who, after their return from Medina, intended to embark for Suez or Cosseir. Among the latter was the lady of Mohammed Aly Pasha, who had arrived from Medina ; for the transport of whose escort, suite, and baggage, four ships were in a state of preparation. After having deposited my baggage in an airy room, on the terrace of an okale, I walked towards the harbour, to inquire about a passage to Egypt. This, I soon understood, it was impossible to obtain at present. Positive orders had been given, YEMBO. 311 that none should embark but soldiers, who had already engaged three or four ships, then ready to sail ; and of whom upwards of fif- teen hundred, including many Turkish had- jys, who passed for soldiers, being armed and dressed like them, were still waiting for con- veyances. While I was sitting in a coffee-house near the harbour, three funerals passed at short intervals ; and upon expressing my surprise at this, I learned that many people had died within these few days of feverish complaints. I had heard, when at Beder, that a bad fever prevailed at Yembo, but then paid little at- tention to the report. During the rest of the day I saw several other funerals, but had not the slightest idea to what so many deaths were to be attributed, till night, when 1 had retired to my room up-stairs, which over- looked a considerable part of the town ; I then heard, in every direction, innumerable voices breaking out in those heart-rending cries, which all over the Levant accompany the parting breath of a friend or relative. At that moment the thought flashed upon my mind, that it might be the plague : I at- tempted, in vain, to dispel ray apprehensions, or at least to drown them in sleep ; but the 312 YEMBO; dreadful cries kept me awake the whole night. When I descended early in the morn- ing into the okale, where many Arabs were drinking their coffee, I communicated to them my apprehensions ; but had no sooner mentioned the word plague, than they called me to order, asking me if I was ignorant that the Almighty had for ever excluded that dis- order from the holy territory of the Hedjaz ? Such an argument admits of no reply among Moslims ; I therefore walked out, in search of some Greek Christians, several of whom I had seen the day before, in the street, and from them I received a full confirmation of my fears. The plague had broken out ten days ago : it had been raging at Cairo with the greatest fury for several months ; and at Suez a large part of the population had died : from that port two ships laden with cotton stuffs had carried it to Djidda, and from thence it was communicated to Yembo. No instance of the plague had ever before been witnessed in the Hedjaz, at least none within the memory of man ; and the inhabitants; could with difficulty persuade themselves that such an event had occurred, especially at a time when the holy cities had been recon- quered from the Wahabys. The intercourse YEMBO. 313 with Egypt had not at any time been greater than now, and it was, therefore, no wonder that this scourge should be carried to the Hedjaz. While ten or fifteen people only died per day, the Arabs of the town could not believe that the disease was the plague, al- though the usual appearance of the biles upon the bodies of the infected, and the rapid pro- gress of the disorder, which seldom lasted more than three or four days, might have been convincing proofs. In five or six days after my arrival the mortality increased ; forty or fifty persons died in a day, which, in a population of five or six thousand, was a terrible mortality. The inhabitants now felt a panic : little disposed to submit as patiently to the danger as the Turks do in every other part of the East, the greater part of them fled into the open country, and the tow n became deserted ; but the disease follow ed the fugi- tives, who had encamped close together ; and thus finding no remedy to the evil, many of them returned. They excused their flight by saying, 44 God in his mercy sends this dis- ease, to call us to his presence ; but we are conscious of our unworthiness, and feel that we do not deserve his grace ; therefore, we think it better to decline it, for the present, 814 YEMBO. and to fly from it an argument which I heard frequently repeated. Had I been my- self in full strength, I should, no doubt, have followed their example and gone into the Desert ; but I felt extremely w T eak, and inca- pable of any exertions. I thought also that I might escape the disease, shut up in my insulated room, and indulged moreover the hope of a speedy passage to Egypt ; in the latter, however, I was deceived. By making a few presents, and a little bribery, I might perhaps have found means to embark forth- with ; but the vessels now ready to sail were crowded to excess, and full of diseased sol- diers, so that a stay in the infected town was to be preferred to a departure by such a con- veyance. Some days after, I learnt that a small open boat, free from troops, was ready to sail for Cosseir, and I immediately agreed for a passage on board it ; but its sailing was delayed from day to day, until the fifteenth of May, when I finally left Yembo, after a stay of eighteen days in the midst of the plague. It was, perhaps, my own bad state of health, and the almost uninterrupted low fever under which I laboured, that preserved me ; for, notwithstanding all my care, I was many YEMBO. 815 times exposed to infection. The great street of Yembo was lined with sick, in the very agonies of death, asking for charity ; in the yard of the okale where I lived, an Arab was dying ; the master of the okale lost a sister and a son in his own family, and re- lated to me, as he sat on my carpet, how his son died the preceding night in his arms. The imprudence of my slave likewise coun- teracted all my measures of precaution. Having missed him for several days early in the morning, I inquired the cause of his ab- sence, when he told me that he had gone to assist in washing the dead bodies. The poor who died during the night were exposed in the morning upon biers, on the sea-shore, to be washed before the ceremony of praying over them in the mosque ; and my slave thought it meritorious to join in this office, which had devolved upon several negro pil- grims, who happened to be at Yembo. I de- sired him to remain at home, for the future? at that hour, to prepare my breakfast ; but I was as little able to prevent his walking out at other times, as I could myself dispense with that duty ; and one could scarcely pass the bazar without touching infected people, 316 YEMBO. or at least those who had been in close con- tact with them. The sense of the danger which then threatened me is much greater, now that I find myself far removed from it, than I felt it at the time. After the first four or five days, I became tolerably familiarized with the idea of the plague, and compared the small numbers who died every day with the mass of the remaining inhabitants. The great many cases of persons remaining in full health, notwithstanding the closest connexion with the deceased, considerably removed the apprehensions of the malady being commu- nicated by infection ; and example works so powerfully on the mind, that when I saw the number of foreigners then in the town quite unconcerned, I began to be almost ashamed of myself for possessing less courage than they displayed. The disease seemed, how- ever, to be of the most malignant kind ; very few of those who were attacked, escaped, and the same was observed at Djidda. The Arabs used no kind of medicine ; I heard of a few people having been bled, and of others having been cured by applying a drawing-plaster to the neck ; but these were rare instances, YEMBO. 317 which were not imitated by the great mass. As it is the custom to bury the dead in a very few hours after decease, two instances occurred during my stay at Yembo, of per- sons supposed dead being buried alive : the stupor into which they fell when the dis- order was at a crisis, had been mistaken for death. One of them gave signs of life at the moment they were depositing him in the grave, and was saved: the body of the other, when his tomb was re-opened several days after his burial, to admit the corpse of a near relation, was found with bloody hands and face, and the winding-sheet torn, by the un- availing efforts he had made to rise. On seeing this, the people said, that the devil, being unable to hurt his soul, had thus dis- figured his body. The governor of Yembo took great care that the exact amount of the mortality in the town should not be known ; but the solemn exclamations of “ La illaha ill’ Allah,” which indicate a Moslim funeral, struck the ear from every side and quarter of the town, and I counted myself forty-two in one day. To the poor the plague becomes a real feast ; every family that can afford it, kills a sheep on the death of any of its members, and 318 YEMBO. the day after, the men and women of the whole neighbourhood are entertained at the house. The women enter the apartments, embrace and console all the females of the family, and expose themselves every moment to infection. It is to this custom, more than any other cause, that the rapid dissemination of the plague in Mohammedan towns must be ascribed ; for when the disease once breaks out in a family, it never fails of being trans- mitted to the whole neighbourhood. It is a common belief among Europeans, and even eastern Christians, that the Mo- hammedan religion forbids any precautionary measures against the plague ; but this is erroneous. That religion prohibits its fol- lowers from avoiding the disease if it has once entered a town or country ; but it warns them at the same time, not to enter any place where the plague rages : and it accord- ingly forbids individuals to shut themselves up in a house, and to cut off all communica- tion with the rest of the infected town, be- cause this is the same as flying from the plague ; but it favours measures of quaran- tine, to prevent the importation of the dis- ease, or its communication to strangers upon their arrival. The belief in predestination, YEMBO, 319 however, is so deeply and universally rooted in the minds of the eastern nations, that not the slightest measures of safety are any where adopted. The numberless extraordinary in- stances of the disease sparing those who have come into closest contact with it, confirm them in their opinion that it is not epidemic ; and their prophet Mohammed has declared to them, “ that the plague is caused by the demon’s hostile attack upon mankind,” and that “ those who die of it are martyrs.” The universal opinion prevails among Moslims, that an invisible angel of death, armed with a lance, touches the victims he destines for the plague, whom he finds out in the most hidden recesses. The trunk of a palm-tree lay in one of the streets of Yembo, and it had been observed that many people who had stepped over it, had soon after been seized with the plague ; it was therefore be- lieved that the demon had there taken his favourite stand, to wound the passer-by ; and therefore the Arabs took a circuitous road, to avoid their foe, although they were persuaded that he was light-footed and could overtake them wherever they went. That the Christians and Franks escape the disease by shutting themselves up in their 320 YEMBO. houses, affords but a feeble proof to the con- trary. Imprudence, and the tardy adoption of these measures, always cause a slight mor- tality even among them ; and such cases are afterwards adduced in proof of the folly of attempting to oppose the decrees of Provi- dence. Besides, there are many Christians in the East, who follow Turkish maxims, and, impressed with the same notions of predes- tination, think it superfluous to take any steps for their safety. Turks trifle with so many of the prescribed duties of their religion, that it might not, perhaps, be difficult, in this instance, to make them adopt rational opinions ; and the more so, as the Koran is silent upon this head : but no private mea- sures can be adopted, and rigidly observed, as long as every individual, almost, is con- vinced in his own mind of their folly and inefficacy. If this were not universally the case, the Turks themselves would, long ago, have found means of resorting to prophylac- tics, in spite of their religious doctrines ; as the Arabs now did in the Hedjaz ; and their olemas would have furnished them with fctwas , and quotations from the law, in favour of what their good sense might have led them to adopt. In the Hady th, or \ sacred tradi- YEMBO. 321 tions, a saying of Mohammed is recorded : “ Fly from the leprous, as thou flyest from the lion.” The case is different, respecting the means of preventing the plague from being imported, or to establish regular quarantines. This is a measure depending entirely upon the govern- ment. The most fanatic and orthodox Mu- selmans, those of the Barbary states, have adopted this system ; and the laws of quaran- tine are as strictly enforced in their harbours, as they are in the European ports on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. That a similar system has not been introduced into Turkey is matter of deep concern, and may be attributed rather to motives of interest, than to bigotry. Constantinople, and the ports of the Archipelago, I have not visited myself ; but I know that it would be easy for the governors of Syria, and still more for the governor of Egypt, to use their authority in introducing a system of quarantine on the coast, without any dread of opposition from their subjects. The governments of Syria, however, must be guided in such matters by the Porte, and would hardly attempt to establish quarantine, without the authority of their sovereign : but Mohammed Aly has VOL. II. x 322 YEMBO. often acted directly contrary to the orders of the Porte, even in matters affecting his so- vereign’s pecuniary interest ; and we may believe that it is not solely the fear of dis- pleasing his master, which has prevented him from listening to the frequent friendly advice and representations made to him on this subject by European powers ; and, at the same time, his loose religious principles are too well known, to suppose that bigotry re- strains him from yielding to their solid- tations. While for four succeeding years, from 1812 to 1816, the plague has every spring made ravages in Egypt, Mohammed Aly himself, with his family and principal officers, have been shut up in their palaces with scrupu- lous care ; thus offering infinitely more scan- dal to the people than they would have done by the establishment of quarantine regula- tions. Wishing, however, to be considered by Europeans as a liberally- thinking man, devoid of any prejudices, he had really given orders, in 1813 and 1814, to establish a qua- rantine at Alexandria ; but the shameful manner in which it was conducted, clearly proved that he had no sincere wish to guard his subjects from the horrors of infection ; YEMBO. 323 and the whole scheme was soon after aban- doned. My own inquiries, and the opinion of many Turks themselves, who judge of the measures of their own government much better than is generally supposed, have led me to believe, that the Grand Signior, as well as his Pashas, tolerate the plague in their do- minions, because the numerous deaths fill their purses : with respect to Egypt, I hold this to be indisputably the secret cause. The commercial towns of Cairo, Alexandria, and Damietta, are crowded with foreign mer- chants, and other strangers from all quarters of the East are established there : according to the law, the property of all persons who have no near heirs to claim it, falls to the Beit el Mai ; a treasury, formerly destined for purposes beneficial to the subjects, but now entirely at the private disposal of the governors. The increased mortality thus causes great sums to fall into their hands. The prefect of every quarter of the town must, under the heaviest penalties, inform the government of any stranger or individual without heirs who dies within his district ; and not only is the property of such people seized, but even that of those persons whose heirs, although known, are absent in foreign 324 YEMBO. countries, and to whom no other privilege is granted, in return, than that of addressing their unavailing claims to the same governor, who converts the income of the Beit el Mai to his own use. The most flagrant injustice is committed with respect to the property of deceased persons, as well during the plague as at other times; and the Kadhy, with a whole train of olemas, officers, and people in inferior employments, share in the illegal spoil. In the same manner the property of military officers, and of many soldiers, is se- questrated at their death. Upon a moderate calculation, the plague this year in Egypt, which carried off in the city of Cairo alone from thirty to forty thousand, added twenty thousand purses, or ten millions of piastres, to the coffers of the Pasha, a sum large enough to stifle any feelings of humanity in the breast of a Turk. That the population has dimi- nished, and consequently the regular revenues suffered, is a reflection which a Turkish go- vernor never makes, who calculates merely the immediate consequences of an event, and, provided he be safe himself, and his wealth increasing, cares little for the fate of his sub- jects. As the plague seldom visits the open country, and therefore does not deprive the YEMBO. 8 25 soil of its labourers, its effects are less dreaded by the Pasha. He will never be convinced that policy, as well as humanity, dictates a removal of the causes of plague, until he has seen a whole province depopulated, and the fields which yield him his revenues de- serted.* It should seem as if Constantinople and Cairo were the great receptacles of plague in the East, communicating it mutually to each other, and to the neighbouring coun- tries. How far the joint and energetic re- presentations of European powers might in- duce the Grand Signior to adopt measures of safety for his capital, and to insure by that means the safety of the population of Eu- * The little care taken by the government in Egypt for preserving the lives of the subject is evinced in an equally strange manner, by the neglect with which the small-pox is treated ; a disease that makes as great ravages in Upper Egypt as ever the plague could do, which, itself seldom visits those southern provinces. The numerous repre- sentations made to Mohammed Aly for the introduction of vaccination have been of no avail, though, if he had chosen to inquire, he might have known that in 1813, in the small town of Esne alone, upwards of two hundred and fifty persons, adults and children, fell victims to the small-pox, the violence of which is much greater in these climates than in Europe. 326 YEMBO. ropean Turkey and Anatolia, I am unable to decide ; but I have little doubt, that a firm remonstrance from the English government would induce the Pasha of Egypt to obey the call of humanity, and thus benefit Egypt, as well as Syria and the English possessions in the Mediterranean. The ravages of the plague were still more deplorable at Djidda than at Yembo ; as many as two hundred and fifty persons died there per day. Great numbers of the inha- bitants fled to Mekka, thinking to be safe in that sacred asylum ; but they carried the dis- ease with them, and a number of Mekkans died, although much less in proportion than at Djidda. Even the Kadhy of Djidda, an Arab, made his escape to Mekka, with all his olemas ; but Hassan Pasha, then governor of the holy city, ordered him, under pain of death, to return immediately to his post; and he died on the road. The principal market-street of Djidda was quite deserted, and numbers of families were entirely de- stroyed. As a great many foreign merchants were then in Djidda, their property consider- ably increased Mohammed Aly’s treasure ; and I heard from eye-witnesses, that the only business then done in the towni was the trans- YEMBO. 327 port of corpses to the burial-ground, and that of the deceased’s valuable property to the house of the commandant. Medina re- mained free from the plague, as did the open country between Yembo and Djidda. I shall mention here a particular custom of the Arabs. When the plague had reached its height at Yembo, the Arab inhabitants led in procession through the town a she-camel, thickly covered with all sorts of ornaments, feathers, bells, &c. &c. : when they reached the burial-ground, they killed it, and threw its flesh to the vultures and the dogs. They hoped that the plague, dispersed over the town, would hasten to take refuge in the body of the camel, and that by slaughtering the victim, they would get rid at once of the disease. Many of the more sensible Arabs laughed at this ; but it was so far of some use, that it inspired the lower classes with courage. The town of Yembo is built on the northern side of a deep bay, which affords good anchor- age for ships, and is protected from the vio- lence of the wind by an island at its entrance. The ships lie close in shore, and the harbour is spacious enough to contain the largest 328 YEMBO. fleet. The town is divided by a creek of the bay into two parts; the largest division is called exclusively Yembo ; the other, on the western side, bears the name of El Kad, and is principally inhabited by seafaring people. Both divisions have the sea in front, and are enclosed on the other sides by a common wall, of considerable strength, better built than those of Djidda, Tayf, and Medina. It is flanked by many towers ; and was erected by the joint labour of the inhabitants them- selves, as a defence against the Wahabys, the ancient wall being ruined, and enclosing only a part of the town. The new wall com- prises an area almost double the space occu- pied by habitations, leaving between it and the latter, large open squares, which are either used as burial-grounds, encamping-places for caravans, for the exercising of troops, or are abandoned as waste ground. The extent of the wall would require a large garrison to de- fend it at all points ; the whole armed popu- lation of Yembo is inadequate to it : but East- ern engineers always estimate the strength of a fortification by its size ; and with the same view a thick wall and deep ditch have been lately carried along the outskirts of the YEMBO. 329 old town of Alexandria, which it would re- quire at least twenty-five thousand men to defend. Yembo has two gates towards the east and north; Bab el Medina, and Bab el Masry. The houses of the town are worse built than those of any other town in the Hedjaz. Their structure is so coarse, that few of the stones with which they are built have their surfaces hewn smooth. The stone is calca- reous, full of fossils, and of a glaring white colour, which renders the view of the town particularly distressing to the eyes. Most of the houses have only a ground-floor. Except three or four badly-built mosques, a few half- ruined public khans, and the house of the governor on the sea-side, (also a mean build- ing), there is no large edifice in the place. Yembo is a complete Arab town ; very few foreigners are settled here : of Indians, who have such numerous colonies at Mekka, Djidda, and Medina, two or three indivi- duals only are found as shopkeepers ; all the merchants being Arabs, except a few Turks, who occasionally take up a temporary resi- dence. Most of the inhabitants belong to the Bedouin tribe of Djeheyne, in this neigh- bourhood, (which extends northward along 330 YEMBO. the sea-shore), many of whom have become settlers: several families of Sherifs, origi- nally from Mekka, have mixed with them. The settlers in this town, or, as they are called, the Yembawys, continue to live and dress like Bedouins. They wear the keffie, or green and yellow striped silk handkerchief, on the head, and a white abba on their shoulder, with a gown of blue linen, or co- loured cotton, or silk stuff, under it, which they tie close with a leathern girdle. Their eating, and whole mode of living, their man- ners and customs, are those of Bedouins. The different branches of the Djeheyne tribe established here have each their sheikh : they quarrel with each other as often as they might do if encamping in the open country, and observe the same laws in their hostilities and their blood-revenge as the Bedouins. The principal occupation of the Yembawys is trade and navigation. The town possesses about forty or fifty ships, engaged in all branches of the Red Sea trade, and navigated by natives of the town, or slaves. The inter- course between Yembo and Egypt is very frequent. Many Yembawys are settled at Suez and Cosseir, and some at Cairo and Kenne in Upper Egypt, from Whence they YEMBO. 331 trade with their native place. Others trade with the Bedouins of the Hedjaz, and on the shores of the Red Sea, as far as Moeyleh, and exchange in their encampments the provisions brought to Yembo from Egypt, for cattle, butter, and honey, which they sell again at a great profit upon their return to the town. The people of Yembo are less civil, and of more rude and sometimes wild behaviour, than those of Djidda or Mekka ; but, on the other hand, their manners are much more orderly, and they are less addicted to vice than the latter, and enjoy, generally, over the Hedjaz, all the advantages of a respect- able name. Although there are no indivi- duals of great wealth in the town, every body seems to enjoy more ease and plenty than even at Mekka. Almost all the re- spectable families of Yembo have a country- house in the fruitful valley called Yembo el Nakhel, or Gara Yembo, or Yembo el Berr> about six or seven hours’ distance from hence, at the foot of the mountains, in a N. E. di- rection. It is similar to the valleys of Dje- deyde* and Szafra, where date-trees grow, * There is a road, of difficult passage, from Yembo el Nakhel to Djedeyde, over the mountains to the north of the great road. 332 YEMBO. and fields are cultivated. It extends about seven hours in length, and contains upwards of a dozen hamlets, scattered on the side of the mountain. The principal of these is Soueyga, the market-place, where the great Sheikh of the Djeheyne resides, who is ac- knowledged as such by the Bedouins of that tribe, as well as by the people of Yembo. The valley of Yembo is cultivated ex- clusively by Djeheyne, who have either be- come settlers, and remain there the whole year, or keep a few labourers in their plan- tations, while they themselves remain en- camped in the mountain, and reside in the valley only at the time of the date-harvest, when all the Yembawys who possess gardens there, likewise repair for a month to the same place. All kinds of fruits are cultivated there, with which the market of Yembo is supplied. The houses, I heard, are built of stone, and of a better appearance than those of Djedeyde. The Yembawys consider this valley as their original place of abode, to which the town and harbour belong as a colony. The Egyptian Hadj route passes by Yembo el Nakhel, from whence it makes one night’s journey to Be- der : this caravan, therefore, never touches the harbour of Yembo, although many indi- YEMBO. 333 viduals of it, in returning from Mekka, take from Mastoura the road to Yembo, to trans- act some business in the town, and rejoin the caravan at one day’s journey north of Yembo. The trade of Yembo consists chiefly in pro- visions : no great warehouses of goods are found here ; but in the shops some Indian and Egyptian articles of dress are exposed for sale. The ship-owners are not, as at Djidda, merchants, but merely carriers; yet they always invest their profits in some little mercantile speculation. The transport trade to Medina occupies many people, and all the merchants of that town have their agents among the Arabs of Yembo. In time of peace, the caravan for Medina starts every fortnight ; lately, from the want of camels, it departed only every month. There are often conveyances by land for Djidda and Mekka, and sometimes for Wodjeh and Moeyleh, the fortified stations of the Egyp- tian caravan on the Red Sea. The people of Yembo are very daring smugglers, and no ship of theirs enters the harbour without a considerable part of its cargo being sent on shore by stealth, to elude the heavy duties. Parties of twenty or thirty men, well armed, 334 YEMBO. repair to the harbour at night for this pur- pose, and, if detected, often resist the custom- house officers by open force. The skirts of the town are entirely barren, no trees or verdure are seen, either within or without the walls. Beyond the salt-ground, next to the sea, the plain is covered with sand, and continues so as far as the moun- tains. To the N. E. is seen a high moun- tain, from whence the great chain takes a more western course towards Beder. I be- lieve this to be the mountain of Redoua, which the Arabian geographers often men- tion. Samhoudy places it at one day’s jour- ney from Yembo, and four days from Medina. About one hour to the east of the town is a cluster of wells of sweet water, called Aseylya, which are made to irrigate a few melon-fields. Bedouins sometimes encamp there ; at this time a corps of Turkish ca- valry had pitched their tents near these wells. In the town are several wells of brackish water, but no cisterns. The supply of water for drinking is obtained from some large cis- terns, at about five minutes’ walk from the Medina gate, where the rain-water is col- lected. Small canals have been dbg across the YEMBO. 335 neighbouring plains, to convey the streams of rain-water to these cisterns. They are spacious, well-cased, subterranean reservoirs, and some of them large enough to supply the whole town for several weeks. They are the property of private families, whose ancestors built them, and who sell the water, at cer- tain prices, fixed by the governor, who also exacts a tax from each of them. The water is excellent, much better than that of any other town of the Hedjaz, where the inha- bitants are not industrious enough to form similar cisterns. When the winter-rains fail, the inhabitants of Yembo suffer severely, and are obliged to fill their ^water-skins at the distant wells of Aseylya. Yembo was formerly annexed to the go- vernment of the Sherif of Mekka, who ought to have divided the receipts at the custom- house with the Turkish Pasha of Djidda. Ghaleb appropriated it entirely to his own treasury, and kept here a vizier, or governor, with a guard of about fifty or sixty men. He appears to have had little other authority than that of collecting the customs, while the Arabs of the town were left to the government of their own Sheikhs, and enjoyed much greater liberty than the people of Mekka and Djidda- 386 YEMBO. The powerful tribe of Djeheyne was not to be trifled with by the Sherif ; and whenever a man of Yembo was unjustly persecuted, he flew to his relations in the Desert, who re- torted the oppression upon some of the She- riff people or caravans until the matter was compromised. When Saoud, the Waliaby chief, attacked the northern parts of the Hedjaz, his first en- deavours were to reduce the two great Be- douin tribes Beni Harb and Beni Djeheyne to submission ; which was greatly facilitated by the hatred and animosity that had always existed between those tribes, who were fre- quently at war with each other. After the Djeheyne had surrendered, and Yembo el Nakhel had received a garrison of Wahaby soldiers, Saoud attacked Yembo, for the first time, in 1802 , with a considerable force, which remained encamped before it for seve- ral weeks, and repeatedly attempted to carry it by assault. After his retreat, the Yem- bawys built the new strong wall round the town, by order of the Sherif, who made them bear the whole expense of the work. After Sherif Ghaleb himself had submitted to the superior power of Saoud, who took possession of Mekka, Yembo still held oiit for some YEMBO. 337 months ; and it was not till a strong army was preparing to attack it, and the Vizier himself had fled, that the Yembawys sent a messenger to Saoud, and capitulated, adopt- ing at the same time his creed. The Waha- bys did not place a garrison in the town ; the Sherif continued to keep his governor there : but the Wahaby tax-gatherers came ; and the inhabitants, who, except custom-house duties, had never before been subject to any imposts, found the government of the Wahabys press very heavily upon them. In the autumn of 1811 , when the Turkish army under Tousoun Pasha effected its first landing near the town, the Yembawys were very willing to shake off the government both of the Sherif and the Wahabys ; and the officers of Ghaleb and Saoud then in the town fled, and after a trifling show of resistance the two first days by Ghaleb’s commander, who had but a few soldiers with him, and who soon saw that the spirit of the inhabit- ants was wholly against fighting, the town opened its gates, and experienced some slight injuries from the disorderly Turkish soldiers. Since that time Yembo has been garrisoned by them, and was made the commissariat depot of the Turkish army employed against VOL. II. Y 338 YEMBO. the enemy in the neighbourhood of Medina. The soldiers, being at a distance from the Pasha, or his son, behaved with much more irregularity than they dared to do either at Djidda or Mekka. Every Bimbashy, or com- mander of a company, who landed here with his soldiers, assumed, during his stay, the government of the town ; wdiile the real governor, Selym Aga, who had but a few sol- diers under him, was often reduced to a mere cipher. Several affrays happened during my stay, and the inhabitants were extremely ex- asperated. A Turkish officer shot, with his pistol, in the open street in mid-day, a young Arab, to whom he had for some time been making infamous proposals ; he committed this murder with the greatest composure, in revenge for his refusal, and then took re- fuge in the quarters of a Bimbashy, whose soldiers were called out to defend him against the fury of the populace. The relations of the Arab hastened to Medina to ask the life of the aggressor from Mohammed Aly Pasha ; I left Yembo before the affair was settled. The Yembawys are all armed, although they seldom appear so in public, and they carry usually a heavy bludgeon in their hand. A few of them keep horses ; the Djeheyne YEMBO. 339 established at Yembo el Nakhel have good breeds of Nedjed horses, though in small numbers. Asses are kept by every family, to bring water to the town. The want of ser- vants and day-labourers is felt here still more than in the other towns of the Hedjaz. No Yembawy will engage in any menial labour, if he has the smallest chance of providing for his existence by other means. Egyptian peasants, left on this coast after their pil- grimage, and obliged to earn money for their passage home, engage themselves as porters and labourers, bring wood, water, &c. I have seen a piastre and a half paid to a man for carrying a load the distance of five hundred yards from the shore to a house. Yembo is the cheapest place in the Hedjaz with regard to provisions ; and as it possesses good water, and appears to be in a much more healthy situation than Djidda, a re- sidence in it might be tolerable, were it not for the incredible quantity of flies that haunt this coast. No person walks out without a straw fan in his hand to drive off these ver- min ; and it is utterly impossible to eat, with- out swallowing some of them, which enter the mouth the moment it is opened. Clouds 340 YEMBO. of them are seen passing over the town ; they settle even upon the ships that sail out of the harbour, and remain on board during the whole voyage. FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 341 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO, I embarked at Yembo on the morning of the 15th of May, in an open sambouk , or large boat, bound to Cosseir, there to load with corn ; the Reys or master was the son of the owner, a native of Yembo. I had agreed for my own and my slave’s passage from hence to Cosseir at five dollars, two dollars being the usual charge paid by hadjys, and one dollar by poor people and servants. The government allowed the ship-owners only half a dollar per head for the transport of sol- diers. As the partner of the commander of Yembo had a share in this boat, it was allowed to proceed without soldiers, and the Reys had told me that there were only a dozen Arab passengers on board. In making me pay two dollars more than the usual fare, he had agreed to let me have a small place behind the steerage to myself. When I came on 342 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. board, however, I found that I had been de- ceived ; above thirty passengers, principally Syrians and Egyptians, were crowded together in the boat, with about ten sailors. The Reys, his younger brother, the pilot, and the steward, had established themselves in the place behind the helm for which I had agreed. To revisit Yembo, the abode of death, was not advisable ; and as I saw no appearance of plague on board, I submitted to my lot without any unavailing dispute. We imme- diately set sail, keeping close in shore. In the evening I saw that my situation was much worse than I had suspected it to be when I came on board ; in the hold were lying half a dozen sick people, two of whom were in a violent delirium ; the Reys’s young brother, who had his seat close to me, was paid to attend the sick ; one of them died on the following day, and the body was thrown overboard. Little doubt remained of the plague being actually in the ship, though the sailors insisted that it was a different malady. On the third day, the boy, the Reys’s brother, felt great pains in his head, and, struck with the idea of the plague, he insisted on being set on shore. We were then in a small bay ; the Rejta yielded to FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 343 his entreaties, and agreed with a Bedouin on shore to carry him back on his camel to Yembo. He was landed, and I am ignorant of his fate. The only precaution I could take against infection, was to place my baggage round me, so as to form an insulated spot in which I had just room enough to sit at my ease ; but notwithstanding this, I was com- pelled to come in contact every moment with the ship’s company. Very luckily the disease did not spread ; we had only another death, on the fifth day from our departure, though several of the passengers were seized with the malady, which I cannot possibly affirm to have been the plague, as I did not examine the corpses, but every thing led me to that belief. The continual sea-sickness and vo- miting of the passengers were, perhaps, to them a salutary operation of nature. As to myself, I was in a very low state of health the whole of the voyage, and frequently tor- mented with my ague, which was increased by the utter want of comforts on board. I had taken a disgust to all food, excepting broths : whenever we entered a port, I bought a sheep of the Bedouins, in order to have a dish of soup ; and by distributing the meat among the ship’s people, I obtained their 344 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO, good-will, so that in every instance I was well treated by them ; and could command their assistance whenever I stood in need of it, either to raise a temporary awning every morning, or to fill my water-skins on shore. The navigation is here the same as what I have already described in my voyage from Sowakin to Djidda. We went into a harbour every evening, never sailing during the night, and started again at day-break. If it was known that no small creek or harbour lay before us, near enough to be reached before sun-set with the then-existing wind, we some- times stopped at an anchoring-place soon after mid-day. Unfortunately, the ship’s boat had been carried away by a heavy sea, in a preceding voyage ; we therefore could seldom get on shore, excepting at places where we found other vessels, whose boats we took, as we usually anchored in deep water. The sailors showed as great cowardice here, as those of Sowakin on a former occa- sion. Whenever it blew fresh, the sails were taken in ; the dread of a storm made them take shelter in a harbour, and we never made longer courses than from twenty-five to thirty-five miles per day. A large square cask of water was the only one on board, and con- FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 345 tained a supply for three days for the ship’s crew only. The passengers had each his own water-skin ; and whenever we reached a watering-place, the Bedouins came to the beach, and sold us the contents of their full skins. As it sometimes happens that the ships are becalmed in a bay distant from any wells, or prevented from quitting it by ad- verse winds, the crew is exposed to great sufferings from thirst, for they have never more on board their boats than a supply for three or four days. For the first three days we steered along a sandy shore, here entirely barren and un- inhabited, the mountains continuing at a dis- tance inland. At three days’ journey by land and by sea from Yembo, as it is generally computed, lies the mountain called Djebel Hassany, reaching close to the shore ; and from thence northward the lower range of the mountains are, in the vicinity of the beach, thinly inhabited throughout by Be- douins. The encampments of the tribe of Djeheyne extend as far as these mountains : to the north of it, as far as the station of the Hadj called El Wodjeh, or as it is also pro- nounced, El Wosh, are the dwelling-places of the Heteym Bedouins. In front of Djebel 346 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. Hassany are several islands ; and the sea is here particularly full of shoals and coral rocks, rising nearly to the surface ; from the vari- ous colours of which, the water, when viewed from a distance, assumes all the hues of the rainbow. In spring, after the rains, some of these little islands are inhabited by the Be- douins of the coast, who there pasture their cattle as long as food is found : they have small boats, and are all active fishers. They salt the fish, and either carry it in their own boats to Yembo and Cosseir, or sell it to the ships which pass. One of these islands, called El Harra, belongs to the Beni Abs, once a powerful Bedouin tribe, but now reduced to a few families, who live mixed with the Beni Heteym, and, like them, are held in great disrepute by all their neighbours. Upon another island stands the tomb of a saint, called Sheikh Hassan el Merabet, with a few low buildings and huts round it, where a Bedouin family of the Heteym tribe is sta- tionary, to whom the guardianship of the tomb belongs. The course of the Arab ships being usually close by this island, the crews often despatch a boat with a few measures of corn to those people, or some butter, bis- cuits, and coffee-beans, because they consi- FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 347 tier Sheikh Hassan to be the patron of these seas. When we sailed by, our Reys made a large loaf of bread, which he baked in ashes, and distributed a morsel of it to every person on board, who eat it in honour of the saint, after which we were treated by him with a cup of coffee. In general, the Arab sailors are very super- stitious ; they hold certain passages in great horror ; not because they are more dangerous than others, but because they believe that evil spirits dwell among the coral rocks, and might possibly attract the ship towards the shoal, and cause her to founder. For the same reason they observe the constant prac- tice of throwing, at every meal, a handful of dressed victuals into the sea, before they sit down themselves to the repast ; saying that the inhabitants of the sea must also have their morsel, otherwise they will impede the vessel’s course. Our Reys once forgot this tribute ; but on recollecting it, he ordered a fresh loaf to be baked, and threw it into the sea. We met every day, during this voyage, ships coming from Egypt, and often lay in the same bay with three or four of them, in the evening. On such occasions quarrels fre- quently happen about water ; and ships are 348 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. often obliged to wait one or two days before the Bedouins bring a sufficient supply down to the coast. Butter, milk, honey, sheep, goats, salt-fish, firewood, thin branches of the shrub Arak, of which the Arabians make their tooth-brushes, and which the Bedouins col- lect on this coast, are every where to be had in plenty, and are generally exchanged for corn or tobacco. These Bedouins are daring robbers, and often swim to the ships during the night, to watch for the opportunity of pilfering. The water on the whole coast is bad, except at Wodjeh and at Dhoba. Wod- jeh, which is usually reckoned at three days’ journey northward from Djebel Hassany, is a castle on the Hadj route, about three miles inland. Close by it is excellent spring water ; and there are likewise copious wells of tole- rable water in the vicinity of the small bay which serves as a harbour to the castle, and is therefore called Mersa el Wodjeh. Some Moggrebyn soldiers garrison the castle, which was said to be well stocked with provisions. Several of them were married to Bedouin women, and carried on a trifling trade in provisions with the ships that pass. The neighbouring mountains of Wodjeh are inhabited by the Bedouin tiribe of Bily FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 349 To the north of Wodjeh, and about two days’ journey south of Moeyleh, lies the anchorage of Dhoba, renowned for its excellent wells. The anchoring-place is in a large bay, one of the best harbours on this coast, and the wells are about half an hour’s distance inland, under a grove of palm and Doum date-trees. The route of the Egyptian Hadj passes here ; and for its convenience, a birket, or reservoir, has been constructed. The ships that sail from Cosseir to Yembo generally make this point, and continue from thence their coast- ing voyage southwards. North of Dhoba two days, lie the castle and small village of Moeyleh, in the territory of the Howeytat and Omran Bedouins. We passed it at a distance ; but I could see considerable plan- tations of date-trees near the shore. What is called the castle, appears to be a square building, upon the plain close by the water- side. The position of Moeyleh is distin- guishable from afar by the high mountain just behind it; three pointed summits of which, overtopping the rest, are visible sixty to eighty miles off : I was told that in clear winter days they could be distinguished, from Cosseir, at the moment of sun-rise. Moeyleh is the principal position on this coast from 350 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. Akaba down to Yembo. Its inhabitants, who are for the greater part Bedouins, become settlers, carry on a trade in cattle and fish with Tor and Yembo, and their market is visited by numerous Bedouins of the interior of the country. It is the only place on this coast where a regular market is kept, and where provisions are always to be found, and thus often affords timely relief to ships de- tained on their passage by contrary winds. Provisions being very dear in the Hedjaz, and very cheap in Egypt, ships, on leaving the Hedjaz harbours for Cosseir or Suez, never lay in more than is absolutely necessary ; but the passage, which is usually calculated by them at twenty days, very often lasts a month, and sometimes even two months. From off Moeyleh, the point of the penin- sula of Sinai, called Has Abou Mohammed, is clearly distinguished. Ships bound from Yembo to Cosseir generally make this pro- montory, or one of the islands lying before it, and thence steer south to Cosseir. They do this, in order to take advantage of the northerly winds that blow in these parts of the Red Sea for nine months of the year ; and they prefer the tedious but safer mode of a coasting voyage, during whidh they often FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 351 enjoy a land-breeze, to the danger and fatigue of beating up, in open sea, against the wind, or of standing straight across from Djidda or Yembo to the African coast ; with the har- bours of which, south of Cosseir, very few Red Sea pilots are acquainted, and of the Bedouin inhabitants of which they all entertain great fears. On reaching Ras Mohammed, they anchor near one of the small islands, or go into the harbour called Sherm, where they wait till a fair wind springs up, which usually carries them to Cosseir in one or two days. As for ourselves, we had not during the whole voyage any sort of disagreeable occurrence, though the wind, which was seldom fair, obliged us once to remain three days at the same anchorage ; and I often expected the vessel to be wrecked, on seeing the pilot steer among the shoals in shore : a practice in which these people have acquired great ex- perience, and in which they display as much boldness as they do cowardice in the open sea. After twenty days’ voyage we reached the neighbourhood of Ras Abou Mohammed, on the 4th of June : the boat was secured for the night with grapplings to some coral rocks, 352 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. leeward of a small island ahead of the pro- montory ; the pilot intending to strike across the next morning. As I knew that Bedouins were always to be found in the harbour of Sherm, to trans- port passengers by land to Tor or Suez, I wished to be set on shore here. The road from hence to Cairo was much shorter than by way of Cosseir ; and my low state of health rendered it desirable to leave the vessel where I had not the slightest accom- modation, and where the fears of the plague had not yet subsided, though no person had died on board during the last fortnight. For the sum of four dollars given to the Reys ? and one to the pilot, they were kind enough to go a little out of their course, and on the following morning, the 5th of June, we entered the harbour of Sherm. Sherm is about four or five hours distant from the point called Ras Abou Mohammed, and is a good and spacious harbour, with anchorage for large ships ; it lies at the entrance of the gulf of Akaba, and is the best harbour on the west side of that gulf. Under the name Sherm, or Sheroum, (the plural,) are included two harbours half a mile dis- tant from each other, both equally good ; but FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 353 the southern is the most frequented. As a copious well is near, these harbours are often visited by ships coming from and going to the Hedjaz ; and passengers who wish to save themselves a voyage up the Gulf of Suez, (which during the prevalence of the northerly winds is often of long duration,) land here, and are carried by the Bedouins upon camels to Tor and Suez. These Bedouins, living up in the mountains, see the ships from afar, and on their arrival hasten to the coast to offer their services. In former times, when the Pashas of Egypt exercised but a nominal power over the neighbouring Bedouins, the Arabs of Tor were much dreaded by the crews of ships ; they enforced from them regular tributes whenever they entered their harbours, and conducted themselves in a very oppressive manner. At present, Mohammed Aly, through the means of the commander at Suez, has succeeded in overawing these Bedouins ; their conduct is now very friendly, and travelling with them is perfectly safe : but if a ship happens to be wrecked on their coasts, or on the islands near them (no un- frequent occurrence), they still assert their ancient right of plundering the cargo. In the evening a ship came in, laden with VOE. II. z 854 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. soldiers, which left Yembo six days before us ; the commander of the soldiers, and four or five of his party, were set on shore, to pro- ceed by land to Cairo, and both vessels con- tinued their voyage the next morning for Cosseir. There was no difficulty in obtaining camels ; more than thirty were ready to be hired ; and we started, on the evening of our arrival, in two parties, the one in advance composed of the soldiers, and the other, at about two hours’ distance behind, composed of myself and slave, and two fellow’ passen- gers, men of Damascus, who were glad of this opportunity of shortening their journey home. We rode this evening about one hour and a half in a valley, and then rested for the night. On the 6th of June w r e continued our road in barren valleys, among steep rocks, mostly of granite, till we halted, about noon, under a projecting rock that afforded us some shade. The Bedouins went to fetch water from a place up in the western moun- tains, called El Hamra, which proved to be of excellent quality. A poor woman with two goats lived in the valley quite alone. Among the Bedouins themselves the most perfect security prevails in this district? FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 355 which is interrupted only by the scandalous behaviour of the Turkish soldiers who pass this way. I knew these men well from re- peated experience, and therefore had declined joining their party. When we continued our route towards evening, we met on the road one of the Bedouin boys who served as camel-drivers to the party before us. His camel, upon which one of the soldiers was mounted, had not been able to keep up with the others, and its rider, furious at this delay, had drawn his sabre, and cut the animal to make it move at a quicker pace : when the boy remonstrated and seized the halter, he also received a cut on the shoulder ; and as he persisted in keeping his hold, the ruffian discharged his gun at him ; the boy then ran off, and waited for our coming up. At a few miles’ distance we heard from afar the sol- dier’s loud cursing, and found him walking behind the camel. As I expected an affray, I had loaded my gun and pistols. When he saw me riding in front of our people, he im- mediately ran towards me, and cried out to me in Turkish to descend and to change camels with him. I laughed at him, and told him in Arabic I was no fellah, to be ad- dressed in that manner. In the usual style of 356 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. those soldiers, who think that every person who is not a soldier must yield to their com- mands, he then turned towards my slave and ordered him to alight, swearing that he would shoot one of us, if we did not obey. On hearing this I took up my gun, and assured him that it was loaded with good powder, and would send a bullet to his heart better than his would to mine. During this alter- cation his camel had strayed a little into the valley, and fearing for his baggage, he ran after it, and we rode on. Not being able to follow us in the sands, he discharged his gun at me, from a distance, which I immediately answered, and thus the battle ended. Far- ther on we came up with his companions, who had alighted. I told them, that their friend behind was embarrassed with his camel, upon which they dispatched one of their Be- douins to fetch him, while I myself rode on, and encamped that night in a side valley out of the road, where the Bedouin boy again joined us, not wishing to be seen by the other soldiers. We now conducted our journey in such a manner as not to fall in again with the sol- diers ; but two days after I met the man again at Tor. The governor of Suez was FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 357 then there, to whom I might have addressed my complaints : this he was afraid of, and therefore walked up to me with a smiling countenance, and said he hoped that no ran- cour subsisted between us ; that as to the shot he fired, it was merely for the purpose of calling his companions to assist him with his camel. In reply, I assured him that my shot had quite a different object, and that I was sorry it had missed ; upon which he laughed and went away. There are not on earth more insolent, haughty, and at the same time vile and cowardly beings than Turkish soldiers : wherever they expect to meet with no resistance, they act in the most over- bearing, despotic manner, and think nothing of killing an inoffensive person, in the slight- est fit of passion ; but when they meet w ? ith a firm resistance, or apprehend any bad con- sequences from their conduct, there is no meanness to which they will not imme- diately submit. During my journey through Egypt from Cairo to Assouan, the whole of w 7 hich was performed by land, I had several similar rencontres with soldiers ; and I must lay it down as a rule for travellers, constantly to treat these fellows w r ith great hauteur, as the most trifling condescension is attributed 358 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. by them to fear, and their conduct becomes intolerable. We travelled this day about nine hours. June 7th. We continued our course in valleys for about two hours and a half, when we came to a high mountain, where I was obliged to dismount. It was with great diffi- culty that I could reach the summit, for my strength was exhausted ; and I had been shivering with a fever the whole preceding night. It took us about two hours and a half to pass the mountain, and to descend into the valley on the other side. From the top we had a fine view of the Gulf of Akaba. The upper part of this mountain is granite, and its lower ridges griinstein. In the after- noon we issued from this chain into the western plain, which declines slowly towards the sea of Suez, and encamped in it after a ride of about ten hours. June 8th. We reached Tor, in about three hours and a half from our resting-place. Here we found every thing in a great bustle. The lady of Mohammed Aly Pasha, whom I had met with at almost every station on this journey, had arrived here from Yembo a few days before, and, as it blew strong from the north, had come on shore, that she FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 359 might proceed by land to Suez. The go- vernor of Suez and Mustafa Beg, her own brother, one of the Pasha’s principal officers, had come to meet her, and her tents were pitched close by the little village of Tor. From four to five hundred camels were re- quired to transport her suite and soldiers to Suez, and as that number could not soon be prepared, she had already been waiting here a whole week. I had intended to stop at Tor a few days, merely to recover sufficient strength for my journey to Cairo ; but when I learned that the plague was still at Suez, as well as at Cairo, I changed my plan, and determined to wait here some weeks, till the season for the disease should be passed. I soon found, however, that a residence at Tor was not very agreeable. This little village is built in a sandy plain, close to the beach, without any shelter from the sun ; a few date-plantations are at some distance behind it. The houses are miserable, and swarms of flies and mos- quitoes choke up the avenues of every dwelling. I remained at Tor for the night ; and having heard from the Bedouins that at one hour’s distance was another small village, in an elevated situation, with abundance of 360 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. gardens and excellent water, I resolved to take up my quarters there. It is surrounded by a half-ruined wall: the remains of a small castle are seen, said to have been constructed by Sultan Selym I., who fortified all the outposts of his empire. The French intended to rebuild it, but they left Egypt before the work was begun. Two small villages, about a mile distance, on both sides of Tor, are inhabited by Arabs, while in Tor itself none reside but Greeks, con- sisting of about twenty families, with a priest, who is under the Archbishop of Mount Sinai. They earn their livelihood by selling pro- visions to the ships that anchor here to take in water, which abounds in wells, and is of a good quality. Provisions are here twice as dear as at Cairo ; and the people of Tor have their own small boats, in which they sail to Suez for those provisions. Were it not for the passage of Turkish soldiers, they would be rich, as they live very parsimoniously ; but the rapacity of a few of these men often de- prives them, in a single day, of the profits they have earned during a whole year. No garrison is kept here by the Pasha. June 9th. In the morning I rode over the ascending plain to the above-mentioned vil- FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 361 lage, which is called El Wady, after having laid in a sufficient stock of provisions at Tor. I easily found a lodging, and was glad to see that my expectations of the site of this village were not disappointed : it consists of about thirty houses, built in gardens, and among date-trees, almost every house having its own little garden. I hired a small half- open building, which I had covered with date-leaves, and enjoyed the immediate vici- nity of a shady pleasure-ground, where grew palm, nebek, pomegranate, and apricot trees. A large well, in the midst of them, afforded a supply of excellent water, and I had nothing more to wish for at present. The people of the village, who are for the greater part Be- douins become settlers, could not suspect any motive I might have for residing here, as they saw that I was scarcely able to stand upon my legs : they treated me, in conse- quence, kindly ; and little presents of meat and other provision, which I distributed among them, soon insured their good-will, and I had every reason to be satisfied with their conduct. Thus enjoying complete re- pose, and the good mountain air of this village, which lies so much higher than Tor, my strength soon returned. 362 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. For the last four years, since I had left the society of my friends Mr. Barker and Mr. Masseyk, and the delightful gardens of Aleppo, I had not found myself so comfort- able as I did here ; and even the first day that I passed in this retreat produced a visible improvement in my health. As I thought that slight exercise might be useful, I rode over to the Hammam, a warm bath, round the corner of the mountain, situated to the north of Tor, and about half an hour distant from El Wady. Several warm springs issue from the calcareous mountain, the principal of which has a roof built over it, and is visited by all the surrounding Bedouins. Some half- ruined buildings, probably as old as the de- molished castle of Tor, offered, in former times, accommodation to the visiters. The water is of a moderate heat, and appears to be strongly impregnated with nitre. Close by the springs are extensive date-plantations. I have never seen a richer and more luxurious growth of palm-trees than in this place ; they form so thick a wood, that it is difficult to find one’s way through it. These plantations belong to the Bedouins of the peninsula, who come here with their families at the date- harvest. The largest grove, however, is the FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 363 property of the Greek priests of Mount Sinai, one of whom lives in an insulated tower in the midst of it, like a hermit, for he is the only constant resident in the place. The fear of the Bedouins keeps him shut up for months in this tower, the entrance to which is by a ladder ; and a waterman, who provides him every week with a supply of water, is the only individual who approaches him. The priest is placed here as gardener of the con- vent ; but experience shows the inefficacy of all attempts to protect the trees from the pilfering Bedouins, and they have therefore given up the fruit to the first comer : so that this grove, the produce of which often amounts to the value of four or five thousand piastres, becomes public property. I had some difficulty in providing myself with flesh-meat at Wady : sheep are very scarce in the whole peninsula, and no Arab is inclined to sell what he has. A flock had been sent from Suez to Tor, for the supply of Mohammed Aly’s lady and her suite. I was obliged to pay twelve piastres here for a small kid. The second week’s residence at El Wady considerably improved my health. I was not thoroughly recovered, but only wished, at 364 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. present, to acquire sufficient strength for the journey to Cairo, where the means of a com- plete cure might be found. I was the more inclined to hasten my departure, as it was said that all the Bedouins who had camels to spare, and had not given them up for the transport of the Pasha’s women, were soon to leave this neighbourhood, with loads of coals for Cairo, when I should find it dif- ficult to procure beasts of transport. I had been for eighteen months without any letters from Europe, and felt impatient to reach Cairo, where I knew that many awaited me. I knew too, that the plague would have nearly subsided by the time of my arrival, as about the end of June it always yields to the influence of the hot season. I therefore en- gaged two camels from hence to Cairo, for which I paid twelve dollars. The Arabs of these parts have established particular transport customs : of those who inhabit this peninsula, the tribe of Sowaleha is entitled to one half of the transport, and the other half is shared by the two tribes of Mezeyne and Aleygat. As I wanted two camels, one was to be furnished to me by a Sowaleha, and the other either by a Mezeyne or Aleygat. If no individuals of those three FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 365 tribes happen to be present, the business is easily settled with one of them, and the others have no after claim ; but if several of them are on the spot, quarrels always arise among them, and he who conducts the traveller is obliged to give to the others a small sum of money, to silence their claims. The same custom or law marks out certain limits, which when the traveller and his guide have once passed, the countrymen of the latter have no more claims for the transport. The limit from Tor, northward, is half way between Tor and Wady. The Bedouin who had carried me from Tor to Wady passed this limit by stealth, none of his friends knowing of it : they pursued when they saw us on the road ; but we had passed the limits before they came up with us, and I had thus fallen to the lot of this guide ; when, on inquiring at Wady for a new guide to Cairo, I was told that no person could take the transport upon him- self, without the knowledge or permission of the Bedouin who had brought me to Wady from Tor, and upon whose camel I had once crossed the limits. The man was therefore sent for, and as his own camels were not present, he ceded his right to another for two dollars ; and with the latter I departed. 366 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. These quarrels about transport are very cu- rious, and sometimes very intricate to decide : in the mean while the traveller remains com- pletely passive, but there is not much danger of imposition, for the amount of the hire is always publicly known, and one dollar is the largest sum he can lose. I left Wady on the 17th of June. Our road lay upon an elevated plain, bounded on the east by the high summits of the Sinai mountains, and on the west by a low ridge of calcareous hills, which separate the plain from the sea, and run parallel with it for about five or six hours. This plain, which is completely barren, and of a gravelly soil, is called El Kaa, and is in bad repute with the Bedouins, from having no springs, and being extremely hot, from the nature of its position. Thus I found it myself. During this day we suffered much from one of the hottest winds I ever remember to have ex- perienced. We alighted during the mid-day hours in the open plain, without finding any tree to afford shade. A Bedouin cloak, fas- tened to four poles, was erected as a tent, barely sheltering me from the sun, while my two guides and my slave wrapped themselves in their mantles, and lay down aiid slept in FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. 867 the sun. Instead of causing perspiration, the hot air of the Semoum chokes up every pore ; and in the evening I again had the ague, which continued from hence, in irregular fits, till I arrived at Cairo. We encamped this night in El Kaa. June 18th. We entered, in the morning, Wady Feiran, followed it down towards the sea, and then continued along shore for the rest of the day, till we reached the neigh- bourhood of the well called El Merkha, in front of the bay which bears the name of Birket Faraoun. June 19th. From Merkha we again pro- ceeded along shore, then entered the Wady Taybe, leaving to our left the mountains, which reach close to the shore, and in the midst of which lies the bath, called Hamam Seydna Mousa. Taybe is a valley full of trees, which were now withered for want of rain. Having reached its top, we continued over a high plain, passed Wady Osayt, and slept that night in Wady Gharendel. June 20tli. Passing by the brackish spring of Howara, we crossed a barren plain, reached Wady Wardan at mid-day, and encamped in the evening at Wady Seder. Our days’ jour- neys were very long, and we travelled some 368 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. hours during the night, that we might reach Suez in time to join the caravan, which was preparing there to conduct the Pasha’s women to Cairo. As I shall speak in detail of this road in the journal of my visit to Mount Sinai, I forbear entering here into any parti- culars : the remarks I now made were, besides, very superficial. June 26th. In the morning we passed Ayoun Mousa, and reached Suez in the after- noon. The caravan was just preparing to depart, and we started with it in the evening. There was a strong guard, and altogether we had about six hundred camels. We tra- velled the whole night without interruption, and on the morning of June 22nd alighted at the place called El Hamra, the Hadj station between Cairo and Adjeroud. The ladies of the Pasha had brought two carriages with them from the Hedjaz, in which they had travelled all the way from Tor to Suez, the road being every where of easy passage. Two more car- riages were sent for them from Cairo to Suez, one of which, an elegant English barouche, was drawn by four horses : they got into these at Suez, and quitted them occasionally for splendid litters or palanquinfe, carried by FROM YEMliO TO CAIRO. 369 mules. ' We started again in the evening, and, travelling the whole night, reached Bir- ket el Hadj on the morning of the 23rd, having thus made the whole journey from Tor in six days ; a forced march which, from the heat of the season, had fatigued me ex- tremely. At the Birket El Hadj the caravan was met by many grandees from Cairo : the ladies of the Pasha intended to encamp there for a few days among the date-groves. Being unable myself, from weakness, to proceed on the same day, (although Cairo is but four hours distant,) 1 slept here, and entered the city on the morning of the 24th of June, after an absence from thence of nearly two years and a half. I found that two letters, which I sent here from Medina, had not been received, and my acquaintances had supposed me lost. The plague had nearly subsided ; some of the Christians had already re-opened their houses ; but great gloom seemed to have overspread the town, from the mortality that had taken place. The joy I felt at my safe return to Cairo was considerably increased by flattering and encouraging letters from England ; but my state of health was too low to admit of fully indulging in the pleasures of success. The 2 a VOL. II. 370 FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO. physicians of Cairo are of the same set of European quacks so frequently found in other parts of the Levant : they made me swallow pounds of bark, and thus rendered my disease worse ; and it was not till two months after that I regained my perfect health at Alexandria, whither I had gone to pay a visit to Colonel Missett, the British resident in Egypt, who had already laid me under so many obligations, and to whose kind attentions, added to regular exercise on horse- back, more than to any thing else, I was in- debted for my recovery. A delightful jour- ney, in the winter months, through Lower Egypt, and by the Lake Menzaleh, restored me to my wonted strength, which I am happy to say has never since experienced any abate- ment. APPENDIX. ' ' ' i* APPENDIX. No. I. Stations of the Pilgrim Caravan, called the 41 Hadj el Kebsy,” through the mountainous country between Mekka and Sanaa in Yemen. Mekka. 1st day. Shed&d ; some coffee -huts. 2. Kura* a small village on the summit of the mountain so called. 3. Tayf. 4. Abbasa, in the district of the Thekyf Arabs. 5. Melawy Djedara, district of the Beni Sad Arabs. 6. Mekhra* district of the Naszera Arabs. The prin- cipal village of the Beni Sad tribe is Lagham, and of the Naszera tribe, Sour; distant one day N. of the farthest limits of Zohran. In this district is also the fortified village of Bedjeyle, 7. Esserrar, of the Thekyf Arabs. 8. Berahrah, on the N. extremity of Zohran, a district inhabited by Arabs of the same name. This Zohran is 374 APPENDIX. one of the most fertile countries in the mountainous chain, although its villages are separated from each other by in- tervals of barren rock. It is inhabited by the Zohran tribes of Beni Malek and Beni Ghamed. The Zohran chief, Bakhroudj, having bravely resisted Mohammed Aly Pasha, was taken by surprise, in March 1815, and cruelly cut to pieces by that Turkish general’s order. 9. Wady Aly, in the same district. 10. Meshnye, on the S. borders of Zohran. 11. Raghdan, a market-place of the Ghamed Arabs. 12. Korn el Maghsal, of the Ghamed Arabs. 13. A1 Z&hera, of the same Arabs. These two tribes of Zohran and Ghamed possess the Hedjaz (viz. the moun- tains) and adjoining districts in Tehama, or the Western plain towards the sea, as well as the Eastern upper plain. The chief place of the Ghamed tribe is Mokhowa, a town not to be confounded with Mokha. 14. El Roheyta, of the powerful tribe of Shomr&n. 15. Adama, of the Shomr&n Arabs. 16. Tabala, of the Shomr&n Arabs, who extend over both sides of the mountains in the W. and E. plain. 17. El Hasba, market of the Shomr&n Arabs. 18. El As&bely, a village of the Asabely tribe. 19. Beni Shefra, a market-place of the tribe so called, formerly united with the As&belys, but formed by the W a- haby chief into a distinct tribe. 20. Shat Ibn Aryf. 21. Sedouan : this place and Shat Ibn Aryf are inha- bited by Arabs of the tribe called Ahl Aryef. 22. El Matsa. 23. Ibn Maan, which with El Matsa belong to the Ibn Katlan Arabs. 24. Ibl, in the territory of the powerful tribe of Asyr. 25. Ibn el Shayr, of the Asyr tribe. APPENDIX. 375 26. Dahban, of the Kahtan Arabs, one of the most powerful tribes of the Eastern Desert. 27. Derb Ibn el Okeyda, a wady inhabited by the Refeydha tribe, who belong to the Asyr. They are strong in horses. 28. Derb Selman, of the Refeydha tribe. 29. Wakasha, of the Abyda Arabs. In the district of Abyda is the town of Aryn, in a very fertile territory. From Aryn southward the Arabs keep on the mountains a few camels, but many sheep and goats, and are what the Bedouins call Shouawy, or Ahl Shah, or Ahl Bui. 30. Wady Yaowd, of the Abyda Arabs. 31. Howd Ibn Zyad, of the Abyda Arabs. 32. Thohran, a district and market-place of the tribe of Wadaa. 33. Keradh, of the Wadaa tribe. 34. Roghafa, of the Sahhar Arabs. 35. Dohyan, of the Sahhar Arabs. 36. Sada, of the Sahhar tribe. From Sadathe caravan, or Hadj el Kebsy, takes its departure ; it is so called from the Emir, or chief of the Hadj, who is styled Kebsy. The pilgrims from all the interior parts of Yemen assemble at Sada: it is a large town, but much decayed, famous in Arabia Felix as the birth-place of Yahya Ibn Hosseyn, chief promoter of the sect of Zeyd, which has numerous adherents in that country. Of late a new saint has ap- peared at Sada ; he is called Seyd Ahmed, and is much revered by the Zyoud, or sect of Zeyd, who entitle him Woly, or Saint, even during his life. Sada is governed by Arabs: theWahaby influence extended thus far. From Sada towards Sanaa the country is inhabited by Arabs, under the dominion of the Imam of Sanaa. 37. Aashemye, of the Sofyan tribe. 38. A market-place, or Souk, of the Bekyl Arabs. 876 APPENDIX. 39. Another market-place of the same tribe. The Bekyl aud Hashed Arabs of this district serve in the army of the Imam of Sana ; many of them go to India, and are preferred by the native princes there to any other class of soldiers : Tipoo Saheb had several hundred of them in his service. They generally embark at Shaker, in Hadramaut; and their chief destination at present is Guzerat and Cutcb. 40. Gkoulet Adjyb, of the Hashed Arabs. 41. Reyda, of the Omran Arabs. 42. Aval Sorak, of the Hamdan tribe. 43. Sanaa. From Mekka to Sanaa, forty-three days’ very slow travelling: for most of the pilgrims perform the whole journey on foot. No. II. Of the country through which the Kebsy pilgrims travel , and the extraordinary customs of some Arabian tribes. The route of this pilgrimage lies wholly along the mountains of the Hedjaz aud Yemen, having the Eastern plain on one side, and Tehama, or the sea-coast, on the other. The road often leads through difficult passes on the very summit of the mountains. Water abounds, in wells, springs, and rivulets : the entire tract of country is well peopled, although not every where cultivated, enclosed fields and trees being only found in the vicinity of water. There is a village at every station of the Hadj : most of these villages are built of stone, and inhabited by Arab APPENDIX. 377 tribes, originally of these mountains, and now spread over the adjoining plains. Some are very considerable tribes, such as Zohran, Ghamed, Shomran, Asyr, and Abyda, of whom each can muster from six to eight thousand fire- locks : their principal strength consists in matchlocks. Horses are but few in these mountains ; yet the Kahtan, Refeydha, and Abyda tribes, who likewise spread over the plain, possess the good Koheyl breed. This country pro- duces not only enough for the inhabitants, but enables them to export great quantities of coffee-beans, corn, beans, raisins, almonds, dried apricots, &c. It is said that the coffee- tree does not grow northward beyond Meshnye, in the Zohran country; the tree im- proves in quality southward : the best coffee is produced in the neighbourhood of Sanaa. Grapes abound in these mountains. Raisins constitute a common article of food with the Arabs, and are exported to the towns on the sea* coast, and to Djidda and Mekka, where a kind of wine is made from them, as follows: — The raisins are put into earthen jars, which are then filled with water, buried in the ground, and left there for a whole month, during which the fermentation takes place. Most other fruits are culti- vated in these mountains, where water is at all times abun- dant, and the climate temperate. Snow has sometimes fallen, and water been frozen as far as Sada. The Arabs purchase their cotton dresses in the market-places of Te- hama, or on the coast : the passing pilgrims sell to them a few drugs, spices, and needles, and proceed on their way in perfect security, at least since the Wahabys have subju- gated the whole country, by overpowering, after many sanguinary battles, the hostile Sheikhs, who were forced to pay an annual tribute. Most of the Arab tribes south of Zohran belong to the sect of Zeyd : they live in villages, and are chiefly what the Arabs call Hadhar, or settlers, not Bedouins ; but as 378 APPENDIX. they keep large herds of cattle, they descend, in time of rain, into the Eastern plain, which affords rich pasturage for cows, camels, and sheep. They procure clothes, drugs, utensils, &c. from the sea-ports of Yemen, where they sell dried fruits, dates, honey, butter, coffee-beans, &c. With the Bedouins of the Eastern plain they exchange durra for cattle. The Spanish dollar is current among them ; but in their markets all things are valued by measures of corn. The dress of these Bedouins generally consists in cotton stuffs and leather. Before the Wahabys taught them the true Mohammedan doctrines, they knew nothing more of their religion than the creed, La Illaha ill ’ Allah , wa Mohammed rasoul Allah , (There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God) ; nor did they ever perform the prescribed rites. The El Merekede, a branch of the great Asyr tribe, indulged in an ancient custom of their forefathers by assigning to the stranger, who alighted at their tents or houses, some female of the family to be his companion during the night, most commonly the host’s own wife ; but to this barbarous system of hospitality young virgins were never sacrificed. If the stranger rendered himself agree- able to his fair partner, he w r as treated next morning with the utmost attention by his host, and furnished, on parting, with provisions sufficient for the remainder of his journey : but if, unfortunately, he did not please the lady, his cloak was found next day to want a piece, cut off by her as a signal of contempt. This circumstance being know n, the unlucky traveller was driven away with disgrace by all the women and children of the village or encampment. It was not without much difficulty that the Wahabys forced them to renounce this custom ; and as there was a scarcity of rain for two years after, the Merekedes regarded this misfortune as a punishment for having abandoned the APPENDIX. 879 laudable rites of hospitality, practised during so many centuries by their ancestors. That this extraordinary custom prevailed in the Mere- kede tribe, I had often heard during my travels among the Syrian Bedouins, but could not readily believe a report so inconsistent with our established notions of the respect in which female honour is held by the Arabs ; but I can no longer entertain a doubt on the subject, having received, both at Mekka and Tayf, from various persons who had actually witnessed the fact, most unequivocal evidence in confirmation of the statement. Before the Wahaby conquest it was a custom among the Asvr Arabs, to take their marriageable daughters, attired in their best clothes, to the public market, and there, walk- ing before them, to cry out, Man yshtery el Aadera? “ Who will buy the virgin ?” The match, sometimes pre- viously settled, was always concluded in the market-place ; and no girl was permitted to marry in any other manner. I heard that tigers and wolves abound in these moun- tains, but that there are not any lions. The Arabs have here a fine breed of mules and asses. 380 APPENDIX. No. III. Route from Tayf to Sanaa. This itinerary was communicated to me by a poor man who had travelled with his wife, in 1814, from Sada to Mekka. He was a native of some place near Sanaa ; and as the pilgrimage or Hadj el Kebsy had been for some years interrupted, and he could not afford a passage by sea to Djidda, he undertook this route, which is practicable even in these critical times to those who can pass unsus- pected in the character of pilgrims. He was every where treated with hospitality. On his arrival at a village he proceeded to the Mesdjed or mosque, and recited some chapter of the Koran : the Arab inhabitants then inquired who he was, and supplied him with plenty of flour, milk, raisins, meat, &c. He was never stopped by robbers until he reached the advanced posts of Mohammed Aly’s Turkish army ; there he was plundered by some soldiers of all his provisions. He could not mark exactly each day’s journey, because he loitered about from one settlement to another, waiting often several days that he might have companions on the road. The journey occupied him altogether three months. He supported himself at Mekka by singing, during the night, before the houses of wealthy pilgrims, some verses in honour of the prophet and of the pilgrimage. His route was as follows : — El Tayf — Beni Sad, Arabs — Naszera, Arabs — Begyle (or Bedjele), a market-place — Rehah, a market-place — El Mandak, in the Zohran country — El Bekaa, in the Zohran country — Raghdan, in the district of the Ghamed Arabs— Ghamed, Arabs — Sollebat, inhabited by Ghamed APPENDIX. 381 Arabs and those called Khotham, a very ancient tribe that flourished in the beginning' of Islam — Shomran, Arabs — Bel Korn — Ibn Dohman, an Arab tribe so called — Ibn el Ahmar, another Arab tribe — Ibn el Asmar, an Arab tribe — The country here is called after the inhabitants, which my informer had not forgotten, although he did not always recollect the names of the villages through which he passed in the districts of each tribe — Asyr; this tribe is now united with the three former under one head — The Asyr chief, El Tamy, proved the steadiest antagonist of Mo- hammed Aly : his principal residence was the strong castle of El Tor, situated upon a high level surrounded by moun- tains; he had also a smaller castle, called El Tobab, with a town, from four to five days’ journey distant from Gon- fode on the sea-coast. In the Asyr district, the pilgrim passed the villages called Shekrateyn, Ed-dahye, Shohata, and Ed-djof. So far the road had always been on the very summit of the mountain : the traveller henceforward continuing along the valleys composing the lower chain of hills that intersect the Eastern plain. Refeydha, Arabs — Abyda, Arabs — Harradja, a town in the district of the Senhan Arabs ; which also contains the fertile wady called Raha — Homra, a place inhabited by the Senhdn Arabs: at one day’s journey eastward is Wady Nedjran, belonging to the tribe of Yam — Thohran, inhabited by the Wadaa tribe: this place is high in the mountain, but the Wadaa occupy also the low valleys — Bagem, a tribe of Arabs : eastward of them resides the powerful tribe of Kholan Arabs — Dohhy&n, of the Sahhar tribe — Sada : from Sada the most usual stages to Sanaa are Beit Medjahed — Djorf — Kheywan and Houth, two places in the district of the Hashed tribe— Zybein, — Omrau — Sanaa — Seven days from Sada to Sanaa. 382 APPENDIX. No. IV. Notices respecting the Country south of Mekka. I have already described the road from Mekka to Tayf. Four hours distant from Tayf, in a S.E. direction, is Lye, a wady with a rivulet, fine gardens, and many houses on the borders of the stream. About two hours S. of Lye, in the mountain, stands the celebrated castle of Byssel, built by the late chief of all the Hedjaz Arabs, Othman el Medhayfe, who was taken prisoner near it in autumn 1812. Here Mohammed Aly Pasha, in January 1815, fought his decisive battle with the united Wahaby forces. From Lye the road leads over mountains for about two hours, and then descends into the great Eastern plain, where, at a distance of seven or eight hours from Lye, and twelve from Tayf, lies the small town of Kol&kh : here were the head- quarters of the Turkish army for several months in 1834. It is an open place, without trees or enclosures, with many water-pits. It lies from Tayf in the direction of E. S.E. About Lye and Kolakh, live the Arabs of the Ossama tribe, who form part of the great Ateybe tribe. Between Kolakh and Taraba, off the straight road, lies Abyla, once the residence of the great chief Medhayfe. By Kolakh passes the most frequented road from Nedjed to Zohran, and from thence to the sea-ports of Yemen. Continuing over the plain from Kolakh in a more southern direction for about eighteen hours, we come to’ the town of Taraba, as the people of Tayf and Mekka call it, or Toroba according to the Bedouin pronunciation. A soldier who possessed a watch told me that he had counted three hours on the march between Tayf and Taraba. This is a considerable APPENDIX. 383 town, as large as Tayf, and remarkable for its plantations, that furnish all the surrounding country with dates ; and famous for its resistance against the Turkish forces of Mohammed Aly, until January 1815, when its inhabitants were compelled to submit. Taraba is environed with palm-groves and gardens, watered by numerous rivulets ; near it are some inconsiderable hills, at the foot of which the Arabs cultivate durra and barley : the inhabitants are of the Begoum tribe, and their Sheikh is Ibn Korshan. One Ghalye, the widow of a deceased Sheikh, had immor- talised her name by devoting her property to the defence of the town, and taking an active part in the council of the chiefs. The country about Taraba, and thence to Kolakh, is inhabited by the Atevbe Arabs, the most numer- ous of the Hedjaz tribes. The Begoums had enclosed Taraba with a wall, and constructed some towers : at present a Turkish garrison is stationed here, this being a principal position and the grand thoroughfare between Nedjed and Yemen. Pursuing the road from Taraba southwards to the east of the great chain of mountains, over an uneven ground in- tersected by many wadys, we come, at two days from Taraba, to the town of Ranye, inhabited by the Arab tribe of Sabya, whose Sheikh is Ibn Katnan, a personage dis- tinguished for his bravery in the campaign against the Pasha’s Turkish troops. Three or four days from Ranye is the town of Beishe, the intermediate space being peopled by the Beni Oklob tribe. Beishe, the most important posi- tion between Tayf and Sanaa, is a very fertile district, extremely rich in date- trees. The Turkish army of Moham- med Aly, with its followers and allied Bedouins, amount- ing in all to ten or twelve thousand men, found here sufficient provisions for a fortnight’s halt, and for a supply on their march of several days towards the south. The 884 APPENDIX. Arabs entitle Beishe the key of Yemen: it lies on one of the great roads from Nedjed to Yemen ; and it was said that heavy-laden camels from Mekka to Yemen could not come by any other way, and that on the sea-shore beyond Beishe is an easy passage westward through the great chain of mountains. At Beishe many battles were fought between Sherif Ghaleb and Saoud the Wahaby general, who being victorious erected two castles in the neighbour- hood, and gave them in charge to Ibn Shokban, whom he also made chief of the Beni Salem tribe, the inhabitants of Beishe, who could furnish from eight to ten thousand matchlocks. Ibn Shokban afterwards gallantly opposed the Turkish army. I believe that in former times the Sherifs of Mekka possessed at least a nominal authority over all the country from Tayf to Beishe. In Asamy’s history we find many instances of the Sherifs residing occasionally at Beishe, and having in their army auxiliaries of the Beni Salem tribe. Beishe is a broad valley, from six to eight hours in length, abounding with rivulets, wells, and gardens. The houses here are better than those of Tayf, and irregularly scattered over the whole tract. The principal castle is very strong, with substantial and lofty walls, and sur- rounded by a ditch. About three or four days’ journey to the E. and S.E. of Beishe, the plain is covered with numerous encampments of the Kahtan Arabs, one of the most ancient tribes, that flourished long before Mohammed, in the idolatrous ages. Some of these Beni Kahtan emi- grated to Egypt, where the historian Mesoudi knew them as inhabitants of Assouan. The Wahaby s found great difficulty in subduing this tribe, which, however, subse- quently became attached to the conquerors, and still con- tinues so. The Beni Kahtan possess excellent pasturage, and breed many fin$ horses : the vast number of their APPENDIX. 385 camels have become proverbial in Arabia. The tribe is divided into two main branches, Es-Sahama, and El Aasv. In December 1814 the Kahtans made an incursion towards Djidda, and carried off the whole baggage of some Turkish cavalry, stationed to protect the road between Djidda and Mekka: large parties of them sometimes pasture their cattle in the province of Nedjed. From Beishe to Aryn, in the country of the Abyda Arabs, is a journey of five days, according to the Bedouin mode of travelling, but six or seven days as the Kebsy pilgrims march. Beishe itself is about two days distant from the western mountain. It is a journey of at least four days from Beishe to the district of Zohran : all the Arabs from Taraba to Beishe, and from thence westward, are cultivators or agriculturists; those due south and east, are Bedouins, or wandering Nomades. South-east of Beishe, four or five days, live the Dowaser Arabs during the winter ; but in summer they remove to the more fertile pasture-lands of Nedjed, the nearest fron- tiers of which are only eight days distant. They have no horses, but furnish to the Wahabys in- their wars about three thousand camel-riders. The Dowaser are said to be very tall men, and almost black. In former times they used to sell at Mekka ostrich feathers to the northern pil- grims, and many pedlars of Mekka came here in winter to exchange cotton stuffs for those feathers. Adjoining the Dowaser, but I cannot exactly ascertain in what direction, are the Beni Kelb, Bedouins of whom many absurd fables are related in the Hedjaz : thus it is said, the men never speak Arabic, but bark like dogs ; a notion, perhaps, arising from the name Kelb , which sig- nifies a dog. Their women, however, it is allowed, can speak Arabic ; but the truth is, that the stranger who 2 B VOL. II. 386 APPENDIX. alights at their tents is entertained by the women, and not by the men. Half way between Wady Dowaser, or the winter pas- ture-land of the Dowaser tribe, and Sanaa the capital of Yemen, a short day’s journey east of Thohran, (the terri- tory of the Wadaa Arabs,) and four or five days from the town of Sada, lies the Wady Nedjran, on the first of the great chain of mountains.; It is a fertile valley between inaccessible mountains, in which the passes are so narrow that two camels cannot go abreast. The valley is watered by rivulets, and abounds with date-trees. Here reside the Beni Yam, an ancient tribe, distinguished lately by their opposition to the Wahabys : they consist of settlers and Bedouins ; the former being Shyas, or heretics of the Per- sian sect, followers of Aly, while the Bedouins are mostly Sunne or orthodox Muselmans. The latter are subdivided into the tribes of Okmdn and El Marra, weaker than the disciples of Aly, and often at variance with them, although both parties unite whenever Nedjran is attacked by a foreign enemy. The settlers can muster about fifteen hundred firelocks. They twice repulsed the Wahaby chief Saoud, who had subdued all the other Arab tribes except the Beni Sobh, of the Harb race, in the northern parts of the Hedjaz. The Beni Yam made a kind of treaty with the Wahabys, and were allowed to perform the pilgrimage annually. Some of them visit the tomb of Aly, at Meshe- hed Aly, but under circumstances of great difficulty ; for their lives would pay the forfeit of their religious zeal, should they be detected on the road ; and this frequently happens, as they are betrayed by their peculiar accent or dialect : one who has performed his devotions at Aly’s tomb is regarded as a saint at Nedjran. When a man of this Beni Yam tribe undertakes a jour- APPENDIX. 387 ney, he sends his wife to the house of a friend, who, it is understood, must in all respects supply the husband’s place during his absence, and restore the lady to him at his return. It may be here remarked, that the name of Nedjran el Yemen is mentioned in the Catechism of the Druses; one of the questions being, “ Is Nedjran of Ye- men in ruins or not?” The tanneries of Nedjran are famous throughout Arabia. The less mountainous districts mentioned here, south of Mekka, are even in time of peace accessible only to Bedouins, or Bedouin merchants, and have not any re- gular communication with Mekka by caravans — Taraba excepted, the inhabitants of which carry their dates in monthly caravans to Mekka and Djidda. The people of Nedjed pass continually through this district in search of coffee-beans, and during the Wahaby dominion there was no other intercourse between Yemen and the northern pro- vinces of Arabia. This country seldom enjoys peace, the mountaineers being hostile to the pastoral inhabitants of the low districts, and often at variance among themselves. They are all very warlike, but the Wahabys have suc- ceeded in checking their private feuds. The country from Mekka southwards near the sea- shore, to the west of the chain of mountains, is flat, inter- sected with hills that gradually disappear as we approach the sea, of which the shore presents a level plain in almost every direction at the distance of several hours. In time of peace the land road is most frequented by caravans, which either proceed along the coast close to the harbour, or by the foot of the mountains. The former way affords but little water. The first inhabited place south of Djidda is Leyth, four days distant, a small harbour, which the people were now deserting through dread of the moun- taineers. The inhabitants of Leyth are mostly of the 388 APPENDIX. Beni Harb tribe, numerous and powerful in the country between Mekka and Medina. On this coast are mauy encampments of the Heteym Arabs. From Leyth up the mountains to the district of Zohran, is a journey of three days and a half : from Leyth to Shagga, a small town, is one day’s journey : from thence to Doga, the same dis- tance. Doga lies near the mountainous region, and is a considerable market-place ; but its houses, or rather huts, are constructed only of brush- wood and reeds, not of stone. The inhabitants are mostly Sherifs, connected in kindred with the Sherif families of Mekka, to whom they often granted an asylum in the late civil wars. It is a journey of one day from Doga to Gonfode, the well-known har- bour. One day and a half south of Gonfode, is the small harbour of Haly : this was the southern limit of the ter- ritory belonging to the Sherif of Mekka, who kept custom- house officers at Gonfode and Haly. The Wahaby chief- tain, Othman el Medhayfe, in 1805 (or 1806), took Gonfode from the Sherif, and the whole coast from thence to Djidda fell under the Wahaby dominion. In 1814 the Turkish troops of Mohammed Aly Pasha endeavoured to establish themselves there, but were soon dislodged with consider- able loss by Tamy. Gonfode, however, was retaken in 1815 by Mohammed Aly himself, after his return from the expedition against Tamy, the Sheikh of Asyr. The caravan distance from Djidda to Gonfode along the coast is seven days, easy travelling. From Djidda to Leyth, another more eastern road, somewhat mountain- ous, five days’ journey, yielding plenty of water: while on the coast road, but one well is found between the two towns. The other road from Mekka to Yemen, close along the western foot of the great mountains, is much frequented in time of peace : there are weekly arrivals of caravans, chiefly from Mokhowa, which is distant fifteen hours from APPENDIX. 389 Doga, and one day from the district of Zohrhn in the mountains. Mokhowa is a large town, nine days’ journey from Mekka, for caravans travelling slowly : it has stone buildings, and is the market where the husbandmen of Zohran and the neighbouring districts sell the produce of their labour to the merchants of Mokhowa, who send it to Mekka and Djidda. The country about Mokhowa is very fertile, and inhabited by the three tribes of Beni Selym, Beni Seydan, and Beni Aly : the two latter had submitted to the Wahabys, and were commanded by Tamy, the Sheikh of Asyr. There are likewise at Mokhowa many of the Beni Ghamed tribe. In time of peace the inter- course between this town and Mekka is very consider- able ; perhaps one third of the supplies of Mekka in grain of different kinds come from this place. Between these towns the road lies chiefly through valleys, and crosses but few hills : on it are some villages, of which the huts are inhabited by Bedouins as well as agriculturists. I must here repeat that Mokhowa is not to be confounded with Mokha. The two first days’ journeys lie in the territory of the Djehadele tribe, whose boundary on the S. is Wady Lem- lem, a fertile valley with springs. Beyond that live the Beni Fahem, an ancient tribe, now much reduced in num- bers : they are celebrated throughout the Hedjaz for having retained the purity of their language in a higher degree than other tribes ; and those who hear one of their bovs speak, will be convinced that they deserve this praise. The country west of the great mountainous chain down to the sea is called Tehama; an appellation not given, at least in this part of Arabia, to any particular province, but assigned generally to the comparatively low grounds towards the coast ; and the Bedouins extend this appellation north- wards as far as Yembo. The people of Tehama are poor, those excepted who engage in trade ; for the country has 390 APPENDIX. few fertile spots, and less pasturage than the mountains, where rain falls more abundantly. In the lower Tehama there are sometimes, during a whole year, but three or four days of rain. The Tehama Bedouins south of Mekka had mostly retired up into the mountains, when Moham- med Aly invaded the Hedjaz, not from dread of the Turks, but because, in such an unsettled state of affairs, weak tribes were not secure, in the open country, from being surprised by straggling Bedouins from the more powerful hostile tribes, who during the power of the Wahabys did not venture to show their enmity, and now impatiently broke loose. Among the Bedouins of Tehama are many tribes of the Beni Heteym, a tribe more widely spread than any other in Arabia. The Great Desert, east of Beislie and Wady Dow T aser, and south of the province of Nedjed, extending eastwards to the frontiers of Oman, is called by the Bedouins Roba el Khali/, “ the empty or deserted abode.” In summer it is wholly deserted, being without any wells. In winter, after rains, when the sands produce herbage, all the great tribes of the Nedjed, Hedjaz, and Yemen, pasture their flocks in the parts of this desert bordering respectively on their own countries. The sandy soil is much frequented by ostriches, which are killed by the Dow&ser Arabs. Se- veral Bedouins assured me, that in the Bobd el Khaly there are many parts which have never yet been explored ; because towards the east it does not, even in winter time, afford the slightest vegetation. The only habitable spot on this dreary expanse of sand is the Wady Djebrvn. There the road passes, by which, in winter, the Arabs of Nedjed travel to Hadramaut: it is a low ground with date-trees and wells ; but the pestilential climate deters people from residing there. The dates are gathered by the passing travellers. APPENDIX. 391 No. V. Stations of the Hadj or Pilgrim Caravan from Cairo to Mekka. The following account refers to the route of the caravan in 1816; but formerly, as I learn from Arabian authors, the stations differed in many instances. The caravan assembles for several days at a place east- ward of the Gardens near Cairo, about one hour distant, called El Hassoua, and then proceeds to Birket el Hadj, four hours distant, where they remain two days. From this place the caravan starts on the 27th of the month Showal : it travels only by night, generally setting out at four o’clock in the afternoon, and alighting soon after sun- rise at the station where they encamp, until evening. From the Birket el Hadj — 1st night — To Dar el Hamra. 2. To Adjeroud : here they halt the whole day and following night. The caravan is supplied with water from Suez, that which Adjeroud furnishes being extremely bad. 4. To Roos el Nowatyr, a plain in the mountain, with- out water : here they halt only a few hours, and proceed 5. To WadyTyh, the entrance to the Desert of Tyh: here they halt a few hours, but, not finding any water, go on 6. To the castle of Nakhel: here they repose, after their forced march, during the whole day and following night, supply themselves with water, and set out next evening. 8. To El Alaya, where they remain one hour, but find no water. 9. To Sath el Akaba, the summit of the western chain of 392 APPENDIX. Akaba : here is a small village. The road up and down the mountain is very difficult. From this station they march a whole night, to descend in the narrow passes to the plain and castle of Akaba. 10. Here they remain the day and night. 12. Thaher el Homar, a rocky ground, with bad water and numerous date-trees. 13. (Night,) To Shorafa, a barren long extended valley, without water. 14. To Moghayr Shayb: many wells of sweet water, date-plantations, and trees among the rocks, render this one of the most agreeable stations on the route ; but it is infested by robbers. 15. To Ayoun el Kassab, a plain ground with date-trees, and water. It belongs to the territory of Moeyleh. 16. To El Moeyleh, where are fine pasture-grounds and good water : here the caravan halts for the night, and re- mains till the next evening. 18. To Selma, a place yielding water. 19. To Kalat Ezlam. 20. To El Astabel, or Astabel Antar : the only water here is in a few holes dug in the sands of the valley. 21. To Kalat el Wodjeh, where there is good water: they halt this night, and next evening proceed 23. To Akra ; a very long march ; they arrive at Akra in the evening : here the water is of a most offensive smell. The caravan halts one hour. 24. To El Houra, likewise called Dar el Ashreyn, because it is the twentieth station from Cairo. Between Akra and Houra lies El Hank, a valley without water. At Houra are many trees ; also the shrub Arak, of which the pilgrims cut branches, to use as tooth-brushes. The water here is bad, and of a strong aperient quality. 25. To Nabt. 26. To El Khedheyra, where the caravan stops one APPENDIX. 393 hour in the morning, and marches the rest of the day, the whole night, and next day till evening. 27. To Yembo el Nakhel, where they remain the night, and proceed 29. To Beder : here they remain that day and night ; and set out early next morning, and arrive at El Kaa in the afternoon, where they halt till evening, and then pro- ceed 31. To Rabegh. 32. To Djereynat. 33. To Akabet e’ Sukar. 34. To Kholeys. 35. To Asfan. 36. To Wady Fatme. 37. To Mekka. Thirty-seven days on the road — thirty-one nights march- ing — seven days halt. No. VI. Geographical Notices of the Country nortlixcard and eastward of Medina . The stations of the caravan between Damascus and Medina are well known. The most interesting spot on this road, within the limits of Arabia, appears to be Hed- jer, or, as it is sometimes called, Medayen Saleh, seven days north of Medina. This place, according to many passages of the Koran, (which has a chapter entitled 394 APPENDIX. Hedjer,) was inhabited by a gigantic race of men, called Beni Thamoud, whose dwellings were destroyed because they refused to obey the admonitions of the prophet Saleh. In circumference Hedjer extends several miles ; the soil is fertile, watered by many wells and a running stream : here are generally large encampments of Bedouins. The Wahahy chief, Saoud, intended to build a town on this spot; his olemas deterred him, by declaring that it would be impious to restore a place that the Almighty had visited with his wrath. An inconsiderable mountain bounds this fertile plain on the west, at about four miles’ distance from the ground where the pilgrim caravan usually en- camps. In that mountain are large caves or habitations cut out of the rock, with sculptured figures of men and various animals, small pillars on both sides of the entrances, and, if I may believe the testimony of Bedouins, numerous inscriptions over the doors ; but I am inclined to think that the Arabs may have mistaken sculptured ornaments for letters. The rock is of a blackish colour, probably vol- canic, for there is a lukewarm well in the vicinity. My illness at Medina, and subsequent weakness, prevented me from visiting this spot, from whence I might, in a straight direction, have proceeded to Akaba, on the extremity of the eastern gulf of the Bed Sea. The Bedouins call the whole country between Hedye and Oela (a more northern station of the pilgrims) the dis- trict of Sheffa. From thence to Akaba el Sham, or the Syrian Akaba, (likewise a Hadj station), the country is called Essafha. It is this Akaba that may be properly described as the boundary of Arabia towards Syria. Here a steep mountain extends for several days’ journey west- ward towards the Bed Sea, and eastward towards the interior of the Desert. On the north of that mountain we enter the higher or upper plain, which continues to Da- APPENDIX. 395 mascus. Between the Syrian Akaba and the Egyptian Akaba is another pass through the same mountain, called Bab el Nedjed, or the “ Gate of Nedjed,” because here the Bedouins of southern Syria (or, as they are called by the Arabian Bedouins, Ahl el Shemal , “ People of the North,”) pass on their way to Nedjed. In those passes the Wahabys, when they make excursions against the Be- douins, leave strong guards, to secure their own retreat. The Hadj route from Medina direct to Syria is not much frequented even in time of peace. Sometimes a few Bedouin merchants take camel-loads of coffee-beans by this road to Damascus ; but it is infested by strolling parties of the Beni Omran and Howeytat tribes, who live in the western mountain, and frequently descend to rob travellers in the plain. The most frequented route to the north of Medina is towards the country of Kasym, which, as I have already mentioned, supplies Medina in time of peace with all sorts of provisions. The route to Kasym lies between the Hadj route on one side, and the straight road to Derayeh (the Wahaby capital) on the other. The direc- tion of the province of Kasym, as well as of Nedjed, was often pointed out to me at Medina, and I always found it to be E. \ N. for Kasym } . _ . „ _ , > bearing from Medina. E. by S. for Derayeh j Between the Hadj road and that to Kasym lies a third route, leading straight from Medina to the province of Djebel Shammar, which in peaceable times is much fre- quented ; but the most common way from Medina to Djebel Shammar is by Kasym, two days longer than the last route, but less fatiguing for camels, because there is abundance of water on this road, and very little on the other. Caravans going from Medina to Kasym visit the follow- ing stations : — 396 APPENDIX. Medina. — At one hours walk beyond the gardens (the road passing E. of Djebel Ohod) is an open space called El Areydh, with the tomb of a sheikh, having a cupola over it. Near this is a well, named Byr Rasheyd. 3 hours from thence is El Hafna, with the bed of a tor- rent. 19 hours. Sowevder. The road from Hafna to this place is rocky, with two ascents, difficult for camels, and wholly without water. Soweyder lies between two moun- tains, and has some wells of brackish water dug in the ground ; also Doum date- trees. The road from Medina to this place is inhabited by Mezeyne (or Omzeyne) Arabs, of the Beni Harb tribe, and by the Heteym and Beni Safar Arabs, also of the same tribe. 4 hours. A valley, with wells and Doum date-trees. 7 hours. Hanakye, in the plain, with many ponds and wells of sweet water dug in the ground. At a certain depth water is always found here. The ruins of an ancient castle, in the Saracen style, are visible ; and here date- trees grow. This important position is frequently visited by the Bedouin tribes. 6 hours. Abou Khesheyb. The road from Hanakye to this place is on a sandy plain. Abou Khesheyb lies between two mountains, and affords good well-water. 12 hours. El Heymedj, a station having sweet and saltish water. 8 hours. El Mawat. The road from Heymedj to this place is sandy, with low mountains, no trees; the herb called adjref grows here. The pasture-ground of the Beni Harb tribe extends as far as Heymedj : then begin the pastures of the Meteyr Arabs. El M&wat has the best water on the whole route : it is a sandy spot in an inlet of the mountains. 16 hours. El Badje. The road from Maw&t to this place is without water, on a sandy plain, having mountains APPENDIX. 397 on both sides : the chain on the left is called Taaye. Badje is an extensive tract, with trees and herbage, and wells both of sweet and brackish water. 3 hours. Neffoud, or, as it is called from the soil, Gherek-ed-Dessem, a plain of deep sand, four hours long, after which the road becomes less sandy and difficult, being covered with small stones. 14 hours. Djerdawye, a plain with wells of good water ; from thence, in 7 hours, to Dat, the first town of Kasym. — In all, one hundred hours. From Dat to Hass, one of the chief towns of Kasym, is four or five hours. From Rass to a place called Khabara, five hours ; and from Khabara to Shebeybe, four hours. According to the night-journies of the Bedouins, one hundred hours are equal to ten or eleven marches by day. The journey here detailed was performed by Tousoun Pasha’s army at night. Three days from Medina to Hanakye, and eight days from thence to Dat. A person belonging to the court of Tousoun Pasha measured the distance by his watch. The caravans, loaded with corn, are generally ten or eleven days on the road between Medina and Rass. Kasym, which is the most fertile district in the province of Nedjed, begins at Dat. The name of Nedjed, signi- fying high or elevated ground, is given to this country in opposition to Tehama or “ low lands,” applied to the sea-coast. It seems to be an oblong tract, extending be- tween three and four days’ journies from west to east, and two journies in breadth south to north. Within this space are above twenty-six small towns or villages, well peopled, in a cultivated territory, irrigated by water from numerous wells. The chief town is Bereyda, where resides the Sheikh of Kasym, an old man named El Hedjeylan, once an enemy to the Wahabys, now a convert to their 398 APPENDIX. doctrine. The neighbourhood of Rass produces the most corn ; and that part of Kasym about Dat and Rass lies nearest to Medina. In time of peace, regular caravans arrive every month at Medina from Rass. Tousoun Pasha’s army found plenty of provisions in the few villages of Kasym which they occupied. The most considerable place in Kasym is Aneyzy, said to be equal in size to Siout in Upper Egypt, which con- tained, according to the French computation, three thou- sand houses. Aneyzy has bazars, and is inhabited by respectable Arab merchants. Of the other towns and villages, the following are most noted : — Es’ Shenane, Balgha, Heshashye, El Helalye, El Bekeyrye, Batah el Nebhanye, Ashebeybe, Ayoun, Kowar, and Mozneb. Small tribes of the Aenezes, of Ateybe (whose chief seat is on the Hedjaz mountains inhabited by the Beni Harb), of Meteyr, and others, encamp during the whole year among the plains of Kasym, which afford excellent pasturage. Between Kasym and Derayeh, the capital of Nedjed, the intermediate district, mostly a desert, is called El Woshem: from the eastern extremity of the district of Kasym to Derayeh is a distance of five days. The last place in Kasym, on this side, is Mozneb : then begins Wady Sarr, a broad sandy valley with pasturage, which continues for several days towards Derayeh through the district of Woshem. Nedjed, near Derayeh, assumes the name of El Aredh, a district once separate from Nedjed, but now considered as belonging to it. El Aredh is less fertile than El Kasym, from which, in fact, it is partly supplied with provisions. Its principal town, Derayeh, has always been a place of note, but much increased since it has become the capital of the Wahaby power and sect. Its direction was often indicated to me; and I found it to bear from Medina E. APPENDIX. 399 by S. (variation not computed) ; the bearing of Kasym from Medina, E. \ N. Derayeh is situated in a valley, the inlets and outlets of which on the N. and S. sides are very narrow, admitting only one camel at a time. The houses (many built of stone) are placed on the declivities of both mountains, the valley itself being throughout very narrow. The town is not walled. The number of in- habitants may be estimated, according to the report of the Bedouins, who state that the town furnished three thousand men armed with firelocks to the Wahaby chief: they are composed of different tribes, principally the Mekren, a branch of the Messalykh, part of the great Aeneze race. All the inhabitants of Nedjed trace their pedigrees to some ancient Bedouin tribe; thus the people of Rass claim de- scent from the Beni Yam, who now reside at Nedjran, in Yemen. The smaller tribe of Beni Lam (related to those of the same name on the river Tigris, but not, like them, of the sect of Aly), and the small tribe of Essehoun, dwell in the Aredh, and seldom encamp beyond its limits. Derayeh is supplied with water from w r ells. Ibn Saoud, the late Wahaby chief, discovered a spring behind this house, which he built, and wished to persuade the people that God had inspired him on the occasion. The mansion of the Wahaby chief stands on the mountain, at about ten minutes’ walk from the town : it is spacious, but without any splendid apartments : all the married members of the reigning family have their own chambers ; and there are many rooms for guests, with whom the house is constantly filled ; for all the chiefs of tribes who come to Derayeh on business are invited to the mansion or palace of the great Sheikh. There are not any khans or public inns, so that every stranger quarters himself upon some inhabitant; and the people of Derayeh are proverbially hospitable. The immediate neighbourhood is barren, yielding only some date-trees. Derayeh is supplied with provisions chiefly 400 APPKNDIX. from Dhoroma, a large and populous village, one day’s journey towards the E. or N. E., which has gardens and orchards well watered from copious wells. From Derayeh to Mekka is a distance of eleven or twelve long caravan days’ journies. For three days beyond Derayeh are found cultivated spots and small settlements of Arabs ; the rest of the road is through a desert country, as far as Wady Zeyme, two days from Mekka. The dis- tance from Hass (in Kasym) to Mekka is also computed at twelve days’ journey. This latter road abounds more with water than the former, and likewise passes by Wady Zeyme. A straight road from Nedjed to the mountains of Hed- jaz (I use this word here in the Bedouin sense, meaning the mountains south of Tayf), and to the country of Beishe and Yemen, passes by the village of Derye, on the southern extremity of Nedjed, on the great road from Kasym to Mekka. The road from Derye to Beishe lies four or five days east of Mekka. Between Derye and Taraba (above mentioned) is a pasture-land, with many wells, called El Bakarra, a well-known halting-place of all the Bedouins of these countries. It belongs to the Kereysh&t tribe, a branch of the Sabya Arabs inhabiting Ranye. Nedjed is celebrated throughout Arabia for its excellent pastures, which abound even in its deserts after rain: its plains are frequented by innumerable Bedouins, who con- tinue there for most of the year, and purchase corn and barley from the inhabitants. During the rainy season these Bedouins retire towards the interior of the Desert, where they remain until the rain-water collected in the hollow grounds is consumed by their cattle. Previous to the Wahaby establishment, the pasturage of Nedjed belonged exclusively to the Aenezes, which I have already mentioned as the largest of all the Bedouin tribes of Arabia. Great numbers of them frequented this territory in spring, and APPENDIX. 401 kept off all the other tribes, except the powerful Meteyr, who reside in the Desert between Kasym and Medina. These strengthened their party by an alliance with the Kahtan Arabs, while the Aenezes were assisted by the Beni Shaman. Between these tribes an inveterate hatred subsisted, which every spring was the cause of much blood- shed, and checked the commercial intercourse with the Hedjaz; and both parties levied contributions on the set- tled inhabitants of Nedjed : but this custom has been abo- lished by the Wahabys, whose chief, instead, receives a regular tribute, and has reconciled the hostile parties, and opened the pastures of Nedjed to any tribes of Wahabys who may choose to frequent them. A Bedouin assured me that twenty encampments of different tribes may now be seen here in the course of one day’s march — such is the security maintained by the Wahaby chief, who is inexor- able in the punishment of robbers. The fine pastures of Nedjed have produced an excellent breed of camels, more numerous here than in any other Arabian province of equal extent. The Arabs call this country Om el Bel, or “ the mother of camels,” and resort to it from all quarters for the supply of their own herds; and it constantly furnishes not only Hedjaz, but Syria and Yemen, with camels, of which useful creatures an ordinary one is sold for about ten dollars in Nedjed. In this coun- try there is also a most excellent breed of horses, so re- markable that the finest blood Arabs are properly deno- minated Kheyl Nedjade, or Nedjed horses. But the Wahaby power has caused a diminution of this breed; for many Arabs have sold their best horses in foreign parts, lest they should be forced to attend the Wahaby chief, who, in his wars, frequently required cavalry. Nedjed, however, is often subject to scarcity, caused by the failure of rain, and consequently of herbage : this soon affects the cattle of the Bedouins, who seldom ex- 2 c VOL. II. 402 APPENDIX. pect, in this country, more than three or four successive years of plenty, although absolute famine does not occur above once in ten, or perhaps fifteen years. It is generally accompanied by epidemical diseases, much like the plague, consisting of violent fevers (but without biles or buboes,) that prove fatal to great numbers. Nedjed is peopled by small tribes of Bedouins, who never leave it, and by settlers intermarried with them, and often travelling as merchants to Damascus, Baghdad, Medina, Mekka, and Yemen : they export camels and woollen cloaks (abbas), of which the best are manufactured at El Hassa; and from Baghdad they receive rice, (the produce of the banks of the Tigris,) and articles of dress, especially the keffies, or handker- chiefs, striped green and yellow, of cotton, wool, or silk : these the Bedouins wear over their bonnets. From Mekka they get coffee, drugs, and perfumes, much used among them, particularly the perfume called Arez , which comes from Mokha. In general there is a spirit of commerce very prevalent in Nedjed, where the merchants are wealthy and of better repute for honesty than most of the Eastern traders. The settlers here are armed with matchlocks, and constitute the best portion of the Wahaby infantry: they are generally successful against the Bedouins who invade their crops or pastures ; and, as saltpetre is found in Nedjed, every family makes its own yearly provision of gunpowder. In Nedjed are many ancient wells, lined with stone, and ascribed by the inhabitants to a primeval race of giants. They are generally from twenty-five to thirty fathoms deep, and mostly the property of individuals, who exact a certain contribution from the tribes whose cattle they supply with water. Here likewise are numerous remains of ancient buildings, of very massive structure and large dimensions, but in a state of complete ruin. These are attributed to a primitive (or perhaps a fabulous) tribe of Arabs, the Beni Tamour, of whose supposed works some vestiges are like- APPENDIX. 403 wise seen in the Syrian deserts of the eastward plains of Hauran. Of all the Bedouin tribes that exist in Arabia, some few families at least may be found in Nedjed, to which re- fugees fly for security against their enemies. This country, in fact, is not only the seat of the Wahaby government, but seems the most important of the interior districts of Arabia, from its fertility and population, its central position, and facility of intercourse with other provinces. To acquire a perfect knowledge of the Bedouins, it would be ne- cessary to examine them in Nedjed, where their manners continue unaltered by conquest, and retaining all their original purity : nor have they been contaminated by an influx of strangers ; for, except the Hadj caravan coming from Baghdad, no foreigners ever pass through Nedjed. For this reason I consider Nedjed and the mountains be- tween Tayf and Sanaa as the most interesting portion of Arabia, affording more objects of inquiry to a traveller than any other part of the peninsula. From Deray eh eastward towards the Persian Gulf, the country is called Zedeyr, as far as the limits of the pro- vince of El Hassa, six days distant from Derayeh, of which three days are without water. The district of Hassa (or, as it is sometimes written, El Ahsa) is celebrated for its numerous wells, and extends for about two days’ journey parallel with the sea-coast, from which it is distant, inland, fifty or sixty miles. In breadth it is about thirty-five miles. The abundance of water enables the Arabs to cultivate clover, which serves to feed their finest horses. The Wahaby chief sends all his horses to this place every season. The town of El Hassa (built by the Karmates in the tenth century) is populous ; in it reside some wealthy mer- chants. It has walls and towers, and was successfully de- fended against the Pasha of Baghdad in 1797. It is one of 404 APPENDIX. the principal strongholds of the Wahabys ; and their chief derives from this fertile district the greater part of his in- come. The sea-port for El Hassa is Akyr, a small town on the Persian Gulf, much frequented by the Arabs of Maskat and the pirates of the Kowasem (qy. Jowasem) tribe, who inhabit the port of Has el Kheyme. The woollen cloaks, or abbas, made at El Hassa are in great demand all over Arabia and Mesopotamia : they cost from ten to fifty dollars each. The territory of Hassa contains about twenty villages : the principal Bedouins that inhabit it are the Beni Khaled (a tribe extended over many parts of Arabia), the Bisher Arabs, a tribe of the Aenezes, and the El Zab tribe. Here also, as well as in Nedjed, are some of the Beni Hosseyn, a tribe belonging to the Persian sect of Moslims. Between El Hassa and Basra, water abounds. The road from Derayeh to Baghdad leads through the provinces of Kasym and Djebel Shammar, taking a western direction, because in a direct line no water is found in the Desert. Having reached Kowar, a small town on the frontiers of Kasym, towards Djebel Shammar (eight days from De- rayeh), the traveller proceeds one day’s journey to Kahfe, a village within the territory of Djebel Shammar. The road continues two days in the cultivated parts of this province as far as the well of Shebeyke, which bounds Shammar on this side. From thence is one day’s journey to Lyne, famous for its numerous and abundant wells, that supplied the whole Wahaby army with water : this place is much frequented by the Aeneze Arabs. Between Ned- jed and the Euphrates a well in the Desert furnishes sul- phur to the powder manufactories of Nedjed. From Lyne three days’ journey, in a desert without water, brings the traveller to the well of Shebekka, and from that one day to the town of Meshehd Aly. This is tjbe summer route : in winter, when the rain-water is col- APPENDIX. 405 lected in ponds on the way, the Arabs travel from the well of Shebekka by the road called Derb Bereydha, the ancient Hadj route of the Khalifes when they went on pilgrimage. Here are many tanks, cased with stone, constructed by the Khalifes to supply the pilgrims with water ; and the road passes straight on from Meshehd Aly towards Djebel Shammar, without touching at Lyne. From Meshehd Aly to Djebel Shammar the distance is reckoned eight days, and the traveller from Baghdad to Nedjed always passes by the tomb of Aly. This route is much frequented, especially by the Ageyl Arabs of Baghdad, of whom many are from Nedjed, which they often visit as pedlars. All the Arabian Bedouins settled in the suburbs of Baghdad are comprised under the name of Ageyl. This was once a powerful tribe, but it has much degenerated. Through the province of Djebel Shammar, or, as it is commonly called, El Djebel, lies also the road from Nedjed to Damascus. It is a mountainous tract to the N.E. of the province of Kasym, bearing from Medina E.N.E. Its inhabitants are the powerful Beni Shammar, a tribe of which some have passed over to Mesopotamia. Their Sheikh, I bn Aly, is a main supporter of the Wahaby government. They are said to muster seven thousand matchlocks ; and, like their neighbours in Nedjed, they cultivate palm-trees by means of water drawn up from wells in leathern buckets by camels. One of the principal towns in Djebel Shammar, is El Mestadjedde : the chief town is said to be El Hayl ; and the next in size, Kofar. From Djebel Shammar to Damascus the road passes by the district El Djof, which is five days distant from it. The road is of deep sand, without any water but what is afforded by the well of Shageyg, four days from Djebel Shammar, and one from Djof. I believe that there is no other station of equal length entirely destitute of water, in any part of Arabia frequented by caravans, like the four 406 APPENDIX, days between Djebel and Shageyg. The well of Sha- geyg belongs to the Aenezy tribe of Rowalla ; and who- ever wishes to go from Southern Syria to Nedjed, must necessarily pass here. There is not any water from Djof southwards, in a direct line towards Khaibar and Medina ; the road is therefore not frequented. Arabs going from Djof to Medina must pass by Shageyg and Shammar and Kasym, taking a circuitous route. My residence at Medina in time of war, when the eastern and northern Bedouins were hostile and did not come into the town, prevented me from acquiring as much information as if a peaceable intercourse had subsisted. Whenever this is the case, small caravans from Khaibar and Teyme frequently repair to Medina. Khaibar is well known in Arabian history, as the scene of early Muselman wars under Mohammed, Aly, and their successors. It is said to be four or five days (some say only three) from Medina, the road passing between the Hadj route to Damascus and the route to Kasym. The Arabs of Khaibar, in time of peace, bring their dates for sale to Medina. They are said to be of a darker complexion than the surrounding Be- douins : this may be caused by the great heat in the low situation of that place. Khaibar is about six hours distant from the Hadj route to Syria, and lies, I believe, in a direction N.E. from Medina. It appears in former times to have formed part of the territory of the Sherif of Mekka. When the Sherif Hassan Abou Nemawas installed in 966, (A. H.) his territory, as we learn from Asamy, comprised Mekka, Tayf, Gonfode, Haly, Yembo, Medina, and Khai- bar. The present inhabitants of Khaibar are the Wold Aly, a tribe of Aenezes mustering about three hundred horsemen, whose sheikh Aleyda distinguished himself in the Wahaby war. Another branch of the Wold Aly in- habit the deserts near Hauran, south of Damascus. At Khaibar also are encampments of the Oulad Soleyman, a APPENDIX. 407 tribe of the Bisher Arabs (likewise of the Aeneze nation) ; but the Wold Aly possess the ground and the date-planta- tions. A colony of Jews formerly settled atKhaibar has wholly disappeared. It is commonly believed at Mekka and Djidda, that their descendants still exist there, strictly performing the duties of their religion ; but, upon minute inquiry at Medina, I found this notion to be unfounded, nor are there any Jews in the northern parts of the Arabian Desert. The Jews who were formerly settled in Arabia, belonged to the tribe of Beni Koreyta (Caraites). They came to Medina after Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jeru- salem ; when Kerb Ibn Hassan el Hemyary (one of the Toba kings of Yemen who had possessed themselves of Mekka) made an inroad towards Medina, which he be- sieged, and on his return from thence carried some of the Beni Koreyta with him to Yemen. These are the first Jews who settled in that country, and their descendants still remain at Szanaa. (See Samhoudy’s History of Me- dina.) The small town of Teyme is three days from Khaibar ? and as many from Hedjer, in an eastern direction. It is inhabited by the Aeneze Arabs, and abounds with dates. It belongs neither to Nedjed nor Kasym, and, like Khaibar, was an independent Bedouin settlement before the time of the Wahabys. Those small towns in the interior of the Arabian Desert, Jare like the Oases in the Libyan ; and serve as points of intercourse between the Bedouins and the neighbouring cultivated countries. Their Bedouin inhabitants are agriculturists, and mostly petty merchants who sell to their wandering brethren of the Desert the goods which they purchase at the first cost in the Syrian or Arabian towns. Beginning northward with the small town of Deir on the Euphrates, we can trace a line of these oases that form advanced points towards the Desert 408 APPENDIX. all the way south as far as Medina. Deir, Sokhne, Ted- mor, Djof, Maan, Ola, Khaibar, and Teyme^ are all in- habited by Bedouins, who cultivate the soil, and form an intermediate class between Bedouins and peasants. These positions would be highly important to those who might wish to subdue, or at least to check the Bedouins ; and they might become of still greater importance, in being ren- dered the means of inspiring the whole Bedouin nation with more amicable sentiments towards the Syrian and Hedjaz inhabitants. No. VII. Postscript to the Description of the Beitullah or Mosque at Mekka — (See p. 295. Vol. I.) The law forbids that blood should be shed either in the mosque or town of Mekka, or within a small space around it: neither is it lawful there to cut down trees, or to kill game. This privilege of the mosque is generally respected in common cases of delinquency, and many criminals take refuge in the Beitullah accordingly ; but it is also fre- quently violated. I have myself seen Mohammed Aly’s soldiers pursue a deserter, seize and carry him off from the covering of the Kaaba to which he had clung ; and the history of Mekka cites numerous examples of men killed in the mosque, — among others the Sherif of Mekka, APPENDIX. 409 Djazan Ibn Barakat, assassinated while he performed the towaf round the Kaaba. Sanguinary battles (as in A. H. 817.) have even been fought within its sacred precincts, which afford the most open spot in the town for skirmish- ing. Horsemen have often entered and passed a whole night in it. Therefore we may say that the privilege is generally useless in those cases where it would be most valuable ; such as the protection of fugitives from the powerful oppressor. As to the sanctity of the territory, it is but a name, and seems to have been little respected even in the first ages of Islam. The extent of the sacred territory is variously stated by the three historians whose works I possess, and who were themselves Mekkans. The four Imams or founders of the orthodox sects also disagree upon the subject. At present the privilege of the sacred territory seems almost forgotten ; and it has been crossed in every direction by infidel Christians employed in the army of Mohammed Aly or Tousoun Pasha, who, though they have not entered Mekka, have visited Mount Arafat. Contrary to the precepts of Mohammed, wood is now cut in the mountains close behind Mekka, and no one is pre- vented from shooting in the neighbouring valleys. The plain of Arafat alone is respected, and there the trees are never cut down. The sacred district, or, as it is called, Hecloud el Haram (the limits of the Haram), is at present commonly supposed to be enclosed by those positions where the ihram is assumed on the approach to Mekka : those are, Hadda to the west, Asfan to the north, Wady Mohrein to the east, and Zat Ork to the south. Aly Bey el Abbassi has represented this district, in his map, as a particular province or sacred territory called Belad el Harameyn : but in fact no such province has ever existed ; and the title of Belad el Harameyn is given, not to this Sacred space, but to both the territories of Mekka and Medina. 410 APPENDIX. No. VIII. Philological Observations. Many Arabic terms which have become obsolete in other places, and are found only in the good authors, many expressions even of the Koran, no longer used elsewhere, are heard at Mekka in the common conversation of the people, who retain, at least in part, the original language of the Koreysh. Some neighbouring Bedouin tribes, especially those of Fahm and Hodheyl, use a dialect still more pure and free from provincialisms and grammatical errors. I sometimes attended the lectures of a Sheikh in the mosque, who to his own excellent native Arabic had added the result of his studies at Cairo : and I never heard finer Arabic spoken. He prided himself in sounding all the vowels, not only in reading, but even in conversa- tion; and every word he uttered might be noted as of standard purity. It is to their extensive commerce with foreigners that we must ascribe the corruption of the Mekkan dialect when compared with that of the neighbouring Bedouins, though it still serves as a model of softness to the natives of Syria and Egypt. In pronunciation, the Mekkans imitate the Bedouin purity — every letter has its precise and distinct sound : they pronounce & like k, and the o like a soft g, (as in the word going ) ; although in the public service of the mosque, and in reading the Koran, they express that letter with the guttural aspiration given to it in Syria, and which is therefore regarded as the true pronunciation. The g is pronounced djem ; but in the mountains to the APPENDIX. 411 south, and the interior of Yemen, it is sounded gym, as at Cairo. The guttural pronunciation of the elif\ often neg- lected in other places, is here strictly observed. The only fault in the Mekkan pronunciation is, that in common with the Bedouins they sometimes give, in words of two syl- lables, too great an emphasis to the last : thus they say Zaliab ), Sdfar (;•***), Ldhtm Matar Saby (^xo), and others. The people of Yemen whom I saw at Mekka pro- nounced and spoke Arabic almost equally well as the Mekkans : those from Szanaa spoke with purity, but a harsh accent; but the Hedjazi, like the Bedouin accent, is as soft as the language will admit. It has been said that the dialects of Arabic differ widely from each other ; and Michaelis, one of the most learned orientalists, affirms that the Hedjazi is as different from the Moggrebyn dialect as Latin from Italian ; and a noble Sherif traveller makes a strong distinction between Moorish and Arabic, pretending to understand the latter and not the former ; and even the accurate and industrious Niebuhr seems to have entertained some erroneous notions on this subject: but my own inquiries have led me to a very different opinion. There certainly exists a great variety of dialects in Arabic ; more perhaps than in other languages : but notwithstanding the vast extent of country in which Arabic prevails, from Mogador to Maskat, who- ever has learned one dialect will easily understand all the others. In respect to pronunciation, whoever can spell correctly will feel little embarrassment from the diversity of sound, and soon become familiar with it. The same sense is often expressed by different terms ; but this is applicable rather to substantive nouns than to verbs. Many words are used in one country and not in another : thus bread is called khobs in Syria, and aysh in Egypt ; both 412 APPENDIX. terms being genuine Arabic, a language rich in synonyms : but the Syrian dialect still retains what has become obso- lete in the Egyptian. From the specimen given by Niebuhr of the Egyptian and Hedjazi dialect, I could show, word by word, that there is not one provincialism in the whole. If the Egyptians say okod , and the Arabian edjles, they both use genuine Arabic words to express the same thing, one of which is more common in Arabia, the other in Egypt, when both terms are well understood by all who have mixed in the busy crowd, or have had even an ordinary education. An Englishman is justified in using “steed” for “ horse thus the Moggrebyn calls a horse owd , the eastern Arab hoszan ; but many poets use the word owd, which is at present unknown to the vulgar in Egypt. This variation of terms arose probably from the settlement of different tribes, each having their peculiar vocabulary; for it is known that Feyrouzab&dy compiled the materials of his celebrated Dictionary (the Kamous ) by going from one tribe to another. The Arabs spreading over conquered countries took their idioms with them, but the joint-stock of the language continued known to all who could read or write. Pronunciation may have been affected by the nature of different countries, retaining its softness in the low valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and becoming harsh among the frozen mountains of Barbary and Syria. As far as I know, the greatest difference exists between the Moggrebyns of Marocco, and the Hedjaz Bedouins near Mekka ; but their dialects do not differ more from each other than the German of a Suabian peasant does from that of a Saxon. I have heard learned men of Syria ex- press their ignorance of many Bedouin terms used by tribes in the interior of the Desert, especially the Aenezy, who, on the other hand, do not comprehend certain words of the Syrian town-language ; but the wants and habits of a APPENDIX. 413 Bedouin are so different from those of a town-person, that the one frequently cannot find terms to express the ideas of the other. As to pronunciation, the best is that of the Bedouins of Arabia, of the Mekkans, and people of the Hedjaz ; that of Baghdad and of Yemen is next in purity. At Cairo the pronunciation is worse than in any other part of Egypt ; after which I should rank the language of the Libyan Arabs, who have a tinge of the Moggrebyn pronunciation mixed with the Egyptian. Then comes the Arabic spoken in the eastern and western plains of Syria, (at Damascus, Aleppo, and on the sea-coast) ; then the dialect of the Syrian mountaineers, the Druzes, and Christians ; next, that of the Barbary coast, of Tripoly, and of Tunis ; and lastly, the rough articulation of the Marocco and Fez peo- ple, which has a few sounds different from any other, and is subdivided into several dialects. The Arabs, however, of the eastern side of Mount Atlas, at Tafilelt, and Draa> pronounce their Moggrebyn tongue with much less harsh- ness than their western neighbours. But I must acknow- ledge, that of all Arabic dialects, none appeared to me so disagreeable and so adulterated as that of the young Christian fops of Cairo and Aleppo. 414 APPENDIX. No. IX. Topographical Notices of the Valley of Meklca and its Mountains ; extracted from the History of Azraky , showing the names assigned to every part* The different mountains forming the southern chain of the valley of Mekka are : — Djehel Fadeh , on the lower part of Djebel Kobeys, nearest to the town — FI Khandame , likewise part of Djebel Kobeys — Djehel el Ahyadh, called among the Pagan Arabs Mestehzera , belonging also to Djebel Kobeys — Mozazem — Korn Meskale, lower ridge of Shab Aamer — Djebel Benhan, ibid. — Djehel Ytikyan, on the side of Shab Aamer — Djehel el Aaredj, near the latter — Djehel el Motahekli , or Shab Aamer ; so called because the Toba kings of Yemen, when they invaded Mekka, established here their kitchen — Shah Ahou Dohh — Shah e’ Szafa, or Djehel Raha — Shah Beni Kenane — Shah el Khor — Shah Athmen. On the northern side are : — El Hazoura ; here was for- merly the market of Mekka — El Djethme — Zogag el Nar — Beit el Ezlam — Djehel Zerzera , in the Djehelye called El Kaym — Djehe Olmar , in the Djehelye called Da Aasyr — Djehel el Adkhar in the time of the Djehelye called El Mozhebat, or El Aadhad — Djehel el Hazna — Shah * It may be here remarked, that the Bedouins of the present day continue to bestow on the smallest hill, projecting rock, or little plain, a distinct and particular name ; which circumstance renders the history of Arabia often obscure, as the names have, in the course of ages, sometimes changed. t El Adkhar is a shrub or plant, mixed by the Mekkans with mortar in the construction of their houses. El Aadhad, a thorny tree, common in Arabia. APPENDIX. 415 Amy — Thenyet Keda Batn Zy Towa — Djebel el Mole t a — Fah, a valley beyond the Djidda gate — El Momdera — El Moghesh, from whence was cut the white marble used in the mosque — El Herrowra — Istar — Mokbaret el Noszara, the burial-ground of the Christians — Djebel el Beroud — Thenyet el Beydha — El Hashas — Da el Me- dowar — Djebel Moslim — Wady Zy Towa — Thenyet Om el Hartli — Djebel Aby el Keyt — Fedj — Shab Ashras — Shab el Motalleb — Zat Khalilyn — Djebel Kabsh — Djebel Rahha — El Baglieybagha — Djebel Keyd — El Ark — Zat el Hantal — El Akla — Shab el Irnye — El Alka — Shab el Leben — Melhet el Ghoraba — Melhet el Herouth — Kaber el Abd. On the lower side of Mekka are : — Adjyad, or Djyad — Ras el Insan, between the Djebel Kobeys and Adjyad — Shab el Khatem, near Adjy&d — Djebel Khalife — Djebel Orab — Djebel Omar — Ghadaf — El Mokba — El Lalidje — El Kadfade — Zat el Laha — Zou Merah — Es Selfeyn — El Dokhadekh — Zou el Sliedyd — Zat e 9 Selym — Adhat el Nabt, so called from some Nabateans who resided there, and were sent by Mawya Ibn Aly Sofyan to make mortar at Mekka — Om Kerdan. On the north side of the Mala are — Djebel Deylamy — Djebel Sheyb — Djebel Habeshy — Shab el Mokbera — Abou Dedjane — Djebel el Lyam — El Ghorab — Shab el Akhnes , also called El Khowaredj, or El Gheyshoum — El Kaad. On the road towards Mekka are : — El Mofdjer, or El Khoder — Shab Howa — Er Rebab. Zou el Arake — El Ambara , in the Djehelye called Semyra — E Seder . On the road towards Djebel Thor, southward of Mekka, are : — Zat el Lakhob — Zat Ardja — El Kajlye — Thor — and El Bana. 416 APPENDIX. No. X. ADDITIONAL NOTES. Mokhowa, mentioned in pp. 204, 347; &c. of Yol. I. must not be confounded with MoJcha , on the sea-coast. Molcliowa is a town ten days distant from Mekka at the western foot of the great chain of mountains. The word Hedjer , mentioned in p. 252, Vol. I. is not to be mistaken for Hadjar, a stone: the space of ground is called Hedjer “ because it is separated from the Kaaba or Beitullah ^ ^ <01 ••• - Page 103. Vol. II. — The Beni Amer — The word Amer i n this place must not be confounded with Amer j+s- another tribe of Harb. Thedamma in j+s. is never pro- nounced by the Arabians, who say Amr Ibn el Las, j+s-) and not Amrou Ibn el Las , placing the damma merely to distinguish the word from Omar . INDEX OF ARABIC WORDS. VOL. i. Names of Countries and Cities frequently mentioned H edjaz, *£« — Medina , — TayJ \ ujLAL — Djidda , sjvs. — Yembo , — Nedjed , *x^vj PAGE xviii. (Preface) Asamy, 6. Seyd Mohammed el Mahrouky, Araby Djeylani, ^ 11. Seyd Aly Odjakly, 56. Homar,^^ — Ruteb, 58. Baklawa, s&jy — Gnafe, *iUi* 60. Bastorma, 66. The wants of a man, y^n 70. Yosser, 2 D VOL. II. 418 INDEX OF PAGE 84. Hosll, 99. Khayn, 100. Khan, — Ykhoun 102. Raghame, ju> 1£, — Beyadhye, — Fe- rayne, 103. Bahhra, Hadda, 106. Shemeysa, 108. Djerouel, 110. Moabede, sjolsu, 111. Wady Muna, — El Myleyn el Akhdereyn, 178. Motam, — Nehyk, 195. Ayn Arf, — Shamekh, 199. Haret, — Shebeyka, ±J* 200. El Khandaryse, 203. Hadjela, — Mesfale, *\i~**> 204. Mokhowa, 20 6. Aabedye, ajJuU — B irket Madjen, ^ 210. El Djyad, jU=sOJ 212. Mesaa, ^x^ 215. Soueyga,’ ^^ 221. Keffie, mS (plural, ^jUT) — G arara, 222. Lala, ^XxJ 223. Keykaan, xiuxx — Rekoube, 224. Modaa, — Geshashye, 225. Shab el Moled, oJjJl e*x£— Ghazze, 226. Mala, su* 228. Wady el Naga, jiM — Djebel Hira, ^ 322. Thor, ^ 323. Bir Tenaym, Ahlyledje, 334. Meshale, 335. Beden, 337. Fan used at Mekka, 339. Habra, — Borko, gy m 359. Muhallil, jJlsx* 367. Rukub el Medina, aJuj*)) 378. “ In el Haram fi belad el Harameyn,” 399. Djok, 6^ 407. Dwy Barakat, ^ — Abou Nema, 408. Abadele, — Ahl Serour, JjM — Herazy, — Hamoud, — Sowamele, — Shambar, — Thokaba, Zxti — Djazan, — Baz, 427. Mowaly, 428. Morabby, 422 INDEX OF VOL. II. PAGE 6. Mekowem, 23. Kanoun, 32. Sabbak, 6U*- 58. Djamrat el Owsat, — Sofaly, El Aksa, 61. Muna, ^ 63. Kheyf, 69. Medjna, — Zou el Medjaz, — Hasha, 75. Towaf el Ifadhe, 6^ 89. Meymounye, — Wady Fatme, r° 91. Serouat, Xrjy* — Rekany, 95. Barka, tfy — Kara, 97. Ma Wardy, ^ 127. El Kharma, 128. Dar el Hamra ^ *^01 — Howaseb, Mokad, — El Bakar, — El Hamata, akUsvll — El Habs, — Ankyny, ^^Jur — Semahedy, tsAAU-JI — Haret el Meyda, o,u. — Shershoura, gj^is • — Bedour, J} \, — El Agowat, 152. Derwan, — Es’ Salehye, *^»!Ua!i — 424 INDEX OF PAGE Zogag Yahou, yt>b 61ij— Ahmed Hey- dar, — Besough, — Sakyfet, — Er’ Resas, Zerendy, — Heleya, 213. El Syhany, — Birny, — Dje- lebj, 214. Kalayd es’ Sham, jyJXS 215. Rotab, — Ithel, ysi 216. El Medshounye, 218. El Shathat, uilktJt— Wayra, 220. Thor,^ 222. El Bekya, 227. El Goreyn, 232. Kheroa, ^ 3 yL — Mobrak el Naka, SSUJl 234. Ayn Ezzerka, ^ 237. Ows, ^ 3 \ — Khezredj, 239. Nowakhele, *1^.^ 253. Fera, 279. Merabetein, 294. Wady el Akyk, JwWt — A1 Madde- ridje, — El Ghaba, *,U!t — Za- ghaba, ioliy — Kasr el Meradjel, ya» El Nakya, — Zy'l Haleyfe, AAJlsv!' t/5 295. Esselsele, jJwJuJt 297- Wady Medyk, Jua* — Bereyke, — Adhey- ba, Xaaa as 313. “ God in his mercy,” &c. ^ <— ^j/JLsrOkA*,« IaJ 1^? ^ _ M/ 321. “ Fly from the leprous,” &c. ^ y 328. El Kad, jo&JI 329. Djeheyne, 331. Moeyleh, — Yembo el Nakhel, £aJL» Gara Yembo, \y [\y> in- stead of .A J 334. Redoua, — Aseylya, *aL,*»c 345. Hassany, — Djeheyne, — El Wodjeh, Heteym, 346. El Harra, 348. Arak, S\J— Mersa el Wodjeh, *^31 — Bily, 349. Dhoba, U^— Moeyleh, 352. Sherm, Sheroum, 354. El Hamra, ^*^01 ARABIC WORDS. 427 PAG K 367. El Merkha, Lkvjt— Osayt, — Gharen- del, — Seder, 373. Kebsy, l5 wJ'— S hedad, — Kura, \£— Abbasa, — Mellawy Djedara, |j ^ — El Roheyta, — Shomran, — Adama, — Tabala, XJUj* — Hasba,UAa^ — Asabely, — Beni Shefra, ^ — Se- douan, — Ahl Aryef, lJjjxW — El Matfa, Ibn Maan, — Ibl, yxz — Asyr, ^s . — Ibn el Shayr, 37 5. Dahban, — Kahtan, — Derb Ibn el Okeyda, *xa£xM Refey- dha, — Wakasha, — Abyda, x*kj) — Aryn, Shouawy, — Ahl Shah, y 399. Mekren, — Essehoun, 400. Dhorama, — Derye, — Bakarra, xjxj — Kereyshat, &\J+jy 401. Meteyr, — Om el Bel, ^ \ — Kheyl Nedjadi, 402. Arz, jj — Tamour,^**j' 403. Zedeyr,^jj — Hassa, — Ahsa, 404. Akyr, yS\ — Bisher, — El Zab, Kahfe, — Lyne, Xjjj 405. Mestadjedde, sjs^g^ — Hayl, job* — Kofar JS.T — Shageyg, uUSuk 406. Teyme, a**? 414. Fadeh, ^b\s — Khandame, — Mes- tebzera, — Mozazem, ^\yo — Korn Meskale, dju** — Benhan, FACE ARABIC WORDS. 431 — Yakyan, — Aaredj, — Motabekh, Shab Abou Dobb, y j\ i-*xJS> — Khor, — Athmen, — Kaym, El Adkhar, 41 5 Arny, — Keda, Uf — Batn ZyTowa, — Momdera, — Mo- ghesh, yiJLo — Hashas, — Keyt, ko—Fedj, gvi — Ashras, — Kabsh, jixT — Bagheybagha, — Keyd, — Ark, — Hantel, — Akla, Wis. — Irnye, — Alka, UXa — Orab, — Ghadaf, dL\£ — Mokba, axjJU — Lahdje, — Kadfade, **xij 3 — Dokhadekh, — Adhat el Nabt, CjIc \ — Om Kerdan, ^ — Dedjane, — Lyam, — Aklines, — El Kaad, acUG! — M ofdjer,^ju> — Khoder, — Shab Howa, ^ — Rebab, — Zou al Arake, iS\j$\ ^ — Ambara, — Semyra, s,*** — Sedr, — Zat el Lakhob, l\ ote — Ardja, U v \ — Kaflye, X/JLii— Thor,^ — El Bana, THE END. LONDON : PRINTED BY A. J. VALrY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. . - • < . Of T - ' - . ■ . ■ o ». •• . . L.i ■ A. .... . : , . ■ ■