Most Of The Inhabitants Are Of Foreign Origin, 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 numerous; but the greater part trace their origin to settlers of
the southern countries of Arabia, Yemen and Hadramaut, and from Syria,
and Egypt, and many also from Barbary. My cicerone was called Sheikh
Sad-eddyn el 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 dealers 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 generations all become Arabs as to features and character; but
are, nevertheless, distinguishable from the Mekkans; they are not nearly
so brown as the latter, thus forming an intermediate 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
Mekkans; 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: very few of them wear the beden, or the national
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
[p.373] 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 expect 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 obtain 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
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, excepting 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 mellayes 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 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
[p.374] 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 reluctance. 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 manners.
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 merchants who pass
with the great caravan seldom 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 provisions. These are received by way of
Yembo, and come almost exclusively from Egypt. No great merchants are
settled in Medina:
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