The Plain Of Fereysh, According To The Historian Asamy, Was The Scene Of
A Sanguinary Battle, Between The Sherif Of Mekka And The Bedouin Tribes
Of Dhofyr And Aeneze, In A.H. 1063.
The Dhofyr, who are now settled 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 Hamede, 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 duration, and we had no tents, it was thought advisable to
proceed. We started in the afternoon; and it continued to rain during
the rest of the day and the whole night, which, joined to the cold
climate in these elevated regions, was severely felt by all of us. Our
road 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 mountains, when the immense eastern plain lay stretched before us: we
passed several insulated hills. The ground is covered with black and
brown flints. In nine hours we passed at
[p.316] 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
morning became distressing to us, and was probably 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 28th of January, the thirteenth day
after our leaving Mekka, having halted two days on the road. The Hadj
caravan usually performs 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.
[p.317]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 delyls 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 undertakes 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 return home to arrange my domestic affairs. My
Mezowar assisted me in the purchase of all necessary provisions, which
were not obtained without difficulty; Tousoun Pasha, the governor of the
town, having, by his inconsiderate measures, frightened away the
Bedouins and camel-drivers, who used to bring in provisions. Flour and
butter, however, those prime articles in an Eastern kitchen, were to be
had before sunset, 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
Efendi, the physician of Tousoun Pasha, the same person who
[p.318] in July last had taken my bill upon Djidda, was here. I paid him
a visit next day, and showed him a letter received at Mekka, before I
had left that town, from my Cairo banker, mentioning the payment of the
bill, no news of which had yet reached Yahya himself. Much as this
gentleman'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 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 Pasha'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
already 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 physician
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.
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