Many Good Consequences Might Result From This Pride,
Without Which A People Cannot Expect To Sustain Its Rank Among Nations.
It has prevented the people of Mekka from sinking so deep into slavery
as some of their neighbours; but it
Excites them to nothing laudable,
while its more immediate effects are seen in the contempt which they
entertain for foreigners. This contempt, as I have already remarked, in
speaking of Djidda, is chiefly displayed towards the Turks, whose
ignorance of the Arabic language, whose dress and manners, the meanness
of their conduct whenever they cannot talk as masters; their cowardice
exhibited whenever the Hadj has been assailed in its route across the
Desert, and the little respect that was shown to them by the Governors
of Mekka, as long as the Sherif's power was unbroken, have lowered them
so much in the estimation of the Arabians, that they are held in the
Hedjaz as little better than infidels; and although many of the Mekkawys
are of Turkish origin, they heartily join the rest of their townsmen in
vilifying the stock from which they sprang. The word Turky has become a
term of insult towards each other among the children. Noszrany
(Christians), or Yahoudy (Jews), are often applied to the Turks by the
people of Mekka; and their manners and language afford a perpetual
source of ridicule or reproach. The Syrians and Egyptians experience
similar effects from the pride of the people of the Hedjaz, but
especially the former, as the Egyptians, of all foreigners, approach
nearest to the people of Arabia in customs and language, and keep up the
most intimate intercourse with them. But the haughty Syrian Moslim, who
calls Aleppo or Damascus "Om el Donia," (the mother of the
[p.203] world,) and believes no race of men equal to his own, nor any
language so pure as the Syrian, though it is undoubtedly the worst
dialect of the Arabic next to the Moggrebyn, is obliged to behave here
with great modesty and circumspection, and at least to affect
politeness. Although an Arab, he is reproached with dressing and living
like a Turk; and to the epithet Shamy (Syrian) the idea is attached of a
heavy, untutored clown. If the Arabians were to see the Turks in the
countries where they are masters, their dislike towards them would be
still greater; for it must be said, that their behaviour in the holy
city is, in general, much more decent and conformable to the precepts of
their religion, than in the countries from which they come.
The Mekkawys believe that their city, with all the inhabitants, is under
the especial care of Providence, and that they are so far favoured above
all other nations. "This is Mekka! this is the city of God!" they
exclaim, when any surprise is expressed at the greater part of them
having remained in the town during the stagnation of trade and the
absence of pilgrims: "None ever wants his daily bread [h]ere; none fears
here the incursion of enemies." That Saoud saved the town from pillage;
that no plundering took place when the Turkish cavalry, under Mostafa
Bey, recaptured it from the Wahabys; that the capture of Sherif Ghaleb
led to no massacres within the precincts of Mekka, are to them so many
visible miracles of the Almighty, to prove the truth of that passage of
the Koran, (chap.
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