It Deserves Notice Here, That The Persians Were Not Always Permitted To
Come To The Holy City; Being Notorious Heretics, Who Conceal Their
Doctrines Only During The Hadj, That They May Not Give Offence To The
Sunnys.
In 1634, a few years after the temple of Mekka had been rebuilt,
Sultan Murad IV.
Commanded that no Persian of the sect of Aly should be
allowed to perform the pilgrimage, or enter the Beittullah. This
prohibition was complied with for several years; but the money expended
by the Persians soon re-opened the way to Arafat
[p.252] and the Kaaba. We learn from Asamy, that, in 1625, a sectary of
Aly was impaled alive at Mekka, because he would not abjure his creed.
The Moggrebyn Hadj caravan has for many years ceased to be regular. It
is usually accompanied by a relative of the King of Morocco, and
proceeds from his residence by slow marches towards Tunis and Tripoly,
collecting additional pilgrims in every district through which it
passes. Its route from Tripoly is along the shores of the Syrtis to
Derne, and from thence along the coast of Egypt, passing either by
Alexandria, or taking the direction of the Natron lakes straight for
Cairo, from whence it follows the common pilgrim-route. This caravan
returning from Mekka always visits Medina, which the Egyptian Hadj never
does, and sometimes extends its route by land as far as Jerusalem. Few
troops accompany it; but its pilgrims are well armed, and ready to
defend themselves: of the two other great caravans, no body fights but
the escort.
The last Moggrebyn caravan passed through Egypt in 1811; the Wahabys
permitted them to visit Mekka, as they saw that they were free from
those scandalous practices with which they upbraided the Egyptians and
Syrians; but the caravan experienced many misfortunes on its return,
from enemies, and from a want of guides, and provisions, in consequence
of which many of its people died. The pilgrims from Barbary arrive now
usually by sea at Alexandria, and re-embark at Suez, in parties of fifty
or a hundred at a time. Although poorly dressed, they have generally
sufficient money to defray their expenses, and few of them are beggars;
of this class, however, I saw a small party, Arabs from Draa, on the
S.E. side of Mount Atlas, who had set out with the Egyptian caravan by
land in September, 1816. They told me that they had obtained a. free
passage by sea from Tunis to Alexandria. One of them was a Bedouin of
the Shilouh nation, whose encampment, when he left it, was at twenty
days' journey from Tombuctou.
In the Moggrebyn caravan also are generally found some natives of the
island of Djerba, or Girba, who are strongly suspected of being
sectaries of Aly; and some of whom are often stationary at Cairo,
[p.253] inhabiting the quarter called Teyloun, and keeping themselves
wholly separate from all other Moggrebyns established in the town. But
the far greater part of the caravan is from the kingdom of Marocco.
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