At Another Time
Salt Failed; The Same Happened With Charcoal; And In General The
Provision-Market Was Very Badly Regulated.
In other eastern towns, as at
Mekka and Djidda, a public officer, called Mohteseb, is appointed to
watch over
The sale of provisions; 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 Mohteseb 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 merchandize and provisions; but the latter were 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'
consumption; 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
inconvenience 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.
[p.378] In time of peace, corn caravans arrive also from Nedjed,
principally from that district 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 subjects of Nedjed; and that Medina in the mean time drew all
its supplies from Nedjed, and its own fields. Provisions were now
excessively 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 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 September, 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 importance as that of wheat in
Europe, and its failure causes general distress. "What is the price of
dates at Mekka or Medina?" is always the first question asked by a
Bedouin who meets a passenger on the road. Of these dates a considerable
part is brought to Medina 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 already mentioned.
[p.379]Although commercial dealings are pretty universal, yet few of the
inhabitants ostensibly 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 gardens 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
instances reported to me, the fields are sold at such a rate, as to
leave to the owner, in ordinary years, an income of from twelve to
sixteen 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 gardens, 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.
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