Many People Of The Interior Town Have Their Summer
Houses In These Quarters, 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 Suburbs 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.
Mohammed is said to have often prayed here; and, for the convenience of
the inhabitants 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 Mesdjed el Fath: 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 Arabians applying the name of Djebel (or mountain) 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
[p.328] ancient buildings are found. The winter rains, the nitrous, damp
atmosphere during the rainy season, and the intense heat which follows
it, are destructive to buildings; and the cement employed 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 reservoir, 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 disagreeable 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 accustomed to it from their earliest youth, complain 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
gardens 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 receives 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. [All the
neighbouring torrents lose themselves in a low ground in the western
mountains, called El Ghaba, and also El Zaghaba. See Samhoudy.] A heavy
rain for one night will fill its bed, though it usually decreases as
fast
[p.329] as it swells. In that part of the suburb, called El Ambarye, we
find a good arched stone bridge thrown across its banks, where it is
about forty feet in breadth. The neighbouring country abounds with
similar torrents, which fill many ponds and low grounds, where the water
often remains till the summer 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 Moslims, 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
drinking, 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 inundations as a sure promise of
plenty, because 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, [This is particularly the case with the sect of the
Malekites, who pretend that Medina is more to be honoured than Mekka.]
is the great mosque, containing the tomb of Mohammed.
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