In Former Times, This Title Of Khadem
Appears To Have Been Of More Importance Than It Is Now; For I Find, In
The Historians Of Mekka, Many Great People Mentioned, Who Annexed It To
Their Names.
After the return of the Hadj from Muna, the principal street of Mekka
becomes almost impassable from the crowds assembled there.
The Syrian
hadjy merchants hire shops, and make the best use of the short time
which is granted to them for their commercial transactions. Every body
purchases provisions for his journey home; and the pursuit of gain now
engrosses all minds, from the highest to the lowest. The two caravans
usually leave Mekka about the 23d of Zul Hadj, after ten days' stay in
the town. Sometimes the leaders of them are prevailed upon by the
merchants, who pay highly for the favour, to grant a respite of a few
days; but this year they did not require it, as the caravan was detained
by Mohammed Aly, who, preparing to open his campaign against the
Wahabys, thought proper to employ about twelve thousand camels of the
Syrian Hadj in two journies to Djidda, and one to Tayf, for the
transport of provisions. As to the Egyptian caravan, which, as I have
already mentioned, contained no private hadjys, it was wholly detained
by Mohammed Aly, who ordered all
[p.286] the horsemen and camels that had accompanied it, to assist him
in his campaign. The Mahmal, or sacred camel, was sent back by sea to
Suez, a circumstance which had never before occurred. The Syrian caravan
did not leave Mekka till the 29th of Zul Hadj; and the incessant labour
to which its camels had been subjected, weakened them so much, that
numbers of them died on their return through the Desert. The caravans of
unloaded camels which were hourly leaving Mekka for Djidda, to take up
provisions there, facilitated the short journey to that place of those
hadjys who wished to return home by sea.
Having heard that the supply of money for which I had written to Cairo
on my first reaching Djidda, had been received there, I rode over in the
night of the 1st of December, and remained in that town six or seven
days. The hadjys who had, in the mean while, daily flocked into it on
their return from Mekka, were seen encamped in every quarter, and thus
it soon became as crowded as Mekka had just been. Among the ships in the
harbour, ready to take hadjy passengers on board, was a merchant-vessel
lately arrived from Bombay, belonging to a Persian house at that
presidency, and commanded by an English captain, who had beat up to
Djidda against the trade-winds, at this late season. I passed many
agreeable hours in the company of Captain Boag, on board his ship, and
regretted that my pursuits should call me away so soon. Two other
Europeans had arrived at Djidda about the same time, by way of Cairo;
the one an Englishman, who was going to India; the other a German
physician.
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of 182297
