The Lower Classes Of The
Arabs Have Discovered A Fanciful Confirmation Of Their Charge Against
The Turks In One Of
The Grand Signor's titles, Khan, an ancient Tatar
word, which in Arabic signifies "he betrayed," being the preterite of
the
Verb ykhoun, "to betray." They pretend that an ancestor of the
Sultan having betrayed a fugitive, received the opprobrious appellation
of "el Sultan Khan," ("the Sultan has been treacherous;") and that the
title is merely retained by his successors from their ignorance of the
Arabic language.
Whenever the power of the Turks in the Hedjaz declines, which it will
when the resources of Egypt are no longer directed to that point by so
able and so undisturbed a possessor of Egypt as Mohammed Ali, the Arabs
will avenge themselves for the submission, light as it is, which they
now reluctantly yield to their conquerors; and the reign of the Osmanlis
in the Hedjaz will probably terminate in many a scene of bloodshed.
[p.53] ROUTE FROM DJIDDA TO TAYF. [I was unable to take any bearings
during this excursion, as the only compass which I possessed, and which
had served me throughout my Nubian journey, had become useless, and no
opportunity offered of replacing it till December in this year, when I
obtained one from a Bombay ship which arrived at Djidda.]
ON the 24th of August, 1814, (11th of Ramadhan, A.H. 1230.) I set out
from Djidda, late in the evening, with my guide and twenty camel-drivers
of the tribe of Harb, who were carrying money to Mekka for the Pasha's
treasury. After having left the skirts of the town, where the road
passes by mounds of sand, among which is the cemetery of the
inhabitants, we travelled across a very barren, sandy plain, ascending
slightly towards the east; there are no trees in it, and it is strongly
impregnated with salt to about two miles from the town. After three
hours' march, we entered a hilly country, where a coffee-hut stands near
a well named Raghame. We continued in a broad and winding valley amongst
these hills, some sandy and some rocky, and, at the end of five hours
and a half, stopped for a short time at the coffee-hut and well called
El Beyadhye. Of these wells the water is not good. From thence, in one
hour and a half, (seven hours in all,) we reached a similar station
called El Ferayne, where we overtook a caravan of pilgrims, who were
accompanying goods and provisions destilled for the army: they had
quitted Djidda before us in the evening. The coffee-huts are miserable
structures, with half-ruined
[p.54] walls, and coverings of brushwood; they afford nothing more than
water and coffee. Formerly, it is said, there were twelve coffee-houses
on this road, which afforded refreshments of every kind to the
passengers between Djidda and the holy city; but as the journey is now
made chiefly during the night, and as the Turkish soldiers will pay for
nothing unless by compulsion, most of these houses have been abandoned.
The few that still remain are kept by some of the Arabs of the Lahyan
tribe, (a branch of the Hodheyl Arabs,) and Metarefe, whose families are
Bedouins, and live among the hills with their flocks. From Ferayne the
valley opens, and the hills, diverging on both sides, increase
considerably in height. At the end of eight hours, about sun-rise we
reached Bahhra, a cluster of about twenty huts, situated upon a plain
nearly four hours in length and two in breadth, extending eastward. At
Bahhra there is plenty of water in wells, some sweet and some brackish.
In a row of eight or ten shops are sold rice, onions, butter, dates, and
coffee-beans, at thirty per cent. in advance of the Djidda market-price.
This is what the Arabs call a souk, or market, and similar places occur
at every station in this chain of mountains as far as Yemen. Some
Turkish cavalry was stationed at Bahhra to guard the road. After
travelling for two hours farther over the plain, we halted, at ten hours
from Djidda, at Hadda, a souk, similar to the above. Between Bahhra and
Hadda, upon an insulated hillock in the plain, are the ruins of an
ancient fortification.
August 25th. - The caravan from Djidda to Mekka rests during the day at
Bahhra or at Hadda, thus following the common practice of the Hedjaz
Arabs, who travel only by night. This is done in winter as well as in
summer, not so much for the purpose of avoiding the heat as to afford
the camels time for feeding, these animals never eating by night. Such
nocturnal marches are most unfavourable to the researches of a
traveller, who thus crosses the country at a time when no objects can be
observed;
[p.55] and during the day, fatigue and the desire of sleep render every
exertion irksome.
We alighted at Hadda, under the shed of a spacious coffee-hut, where I
found a motley crew of Turks and Arabs, in their way to or from Mekka,
each extended upon his small carpet. Some merchants from Tayf had just
brought in a load of grapes; and, although I felt myself still weak from
the fever, I could not withstand this temptation, and seized a few of
them; for the baskets were no sooner opened than the whole company fell
upon them, and soon devoured the entire load; the owner, however, was
afterwards paid. It is at Hadda that the inhabitants of Djidda, when
making a pilgrimage to Mekka, put on the ihram, or pilgrim's cloak. By
the Muselman law, every one is obliged to assume it, whatever may be his
rank, who enters the sacred territory of Mekka, whether on pilgrimage or
for other purposes; and he is enjoined not to lay it aside till after he
has visited the temple. Many persons, however, transgress this law; but
an o[r]thodox Mekkan never goes to Djidda without carrying his ihram with
him, and on his return home, he puts it on at this place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 22 of 179
Words from 21485 to 22510
of 182297
