Medina Is Divided Into The Interior Town, And The Suburbs; The Interior
Forms An Oval, Of About Two Thousand Eight Hundred Paces In Total
Circuit, Ending In A Point.
The castle is built at the point, upon a
small rocky elevation; and the whole is enclosed by a
Thick stone wall,
between thirty-five and forty feet high, flanked by about thirty towers,
and surrounded by a ditch, (the work of the Wahabys,) which is in many
places nearly filled up. The wall is in complete repair, forming, in
Arabia, a very respectable defence; so that Medina has always been
considered as the principal fortress of the Hedjaz. The wall was built
A.H. 860; and till that time the town was quite open, and daily exposed
to the incursions of the neighbouring Bedouins. It was subsequently
rebuilt at different times, but principally in A.H. 900, a ditch having
been previously carried round it in 751 (v. S.) According to Asamy, it
was built as it now stands, with its gates, by order of Solyman ibn
Selym, at the close of the sixteenth century of our era. Three fine
gates lead into the town: Bab el Masry, on the south side, (which, next
to Bab el Fatouh, at Cairo, is the finest town-gate I have seen in the
East); Bab es' Shamy, on the north side; and Bab el Ujoma, on the east
side: a smaller by-gate, called Bab es' Soghyr, in the south wall, had
been closed up by the Wahabys. Near the Bab es' Shamy, close to the
castle, is a niche in the town-wall, where, it is related, a small
chapel once stood, called Mesdjed es' Sabak, from whence the warlike
adherents of Mohammed used to start in their exercise of running.
Medina is well built, entirely of stone; its houses are generally two
stories high, with flat roofs. As they are not white-washed, and the
stone is of a dark colour, the streets have rather a gloomy aspect; and
are, for the most part, very narrow, often only two or three paces
across: a few of the principal streets are paved with large blocks of
stone; a comfort which a traveller little expects to find in Arabia. It
is, on the whole, one of the best-built towns I have seen in the East,
ranking, in this respect, next to Aleppo. At present, it has a desolate
[p.324] appearance: the houses are suffered to decay; their owners, who
formerly derived great profits from the crowd of visiters which arrived
here at all times of the year, now find their income diminished, and
decline the heavy expense of building, as they know they cannot be
reimbursed by the letting out of apartments. Ruined houses, and walls
wanting repair, are seen in every part of the town; and Medina presents
the same disheartening view as most of the Eastern towns, which now
afford but faint images of their ancient splendour.
The principal street of Medina is also the broadest, and leads from the
Cairo gate to the great mosque:
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