On The West Side, Directly Opposite The Cairo Gate And
The Monakh, The Suburb Consists Of Regular And Well-Built Streets, With
Houses Resembling Those Of The
[P.327] interior of the town.
The broad street, called El Ambarye,
crosses this part of the suburb, and has good buildings on both sides.
In this neighbourhood lived Tousoun Pasha, in a private dwelling; and
near it, in the best house of the town, belonging to the rich merchant
Abd el Shekour, lived the Pasha's mother, the wife of Mohammed Aly, and
his own women, who had lately come on a visit.
The principal quarters of the suburbs are Haret el Ambarye, Haret el
Wadjeha, Haret es' Sahh, Haret Abou Aysa, Haret Masr, Haret el Teyar,
Haret Nefyse, Haret el Hamdye, Haret el Shahrye, Haret el Kheybarye,
Haret el Djafar. Many people of the interior town have their summer
houses in these quarters, where they pass a month in the date-harvest.
Every garden is enclosed by mud walls, and several narrow by-lanes, just
broad enough for a loaded camel to cross the suburbs in every direction.
There are two mosques in the Monakh: the one, called Mesdjed Aly, or the
mosque of the Prophet's cousin, is said to be as old as the time of
Mohammed; but the building, as it stands, was rebuilt in A.H. 876.
Mohammed is said to have often prayed here; and, for the convenience of
the inhabitants of the suburbs who are at a distance from the great
mosque, the Khotbe, or Friday's prayer, is likewise performed in it. The
other mosque, called Mesdjed Omar, to which a public medrese, or school,
was attached, serves at present as a magazine, and quarters for many
soldiers. To both these mosques the historian of Mekka applies the name
of Mesdjed el Fath: he calls the one Mesdjed el Aala, from standing on
the highest part of the town. Two other mosques, the one called Mesdjed
Aly Beker, and the other Mesdjed Zobab, stood in this neighbourhood in
the sixteenth century; and the Monakh at that time bore the name of
Djebel Sola, the Arabians applying the name of Djebel (or mountain) to
any slightly elevated spot of ground. In the same author's time there
were fifteen mosques in this town and its neighbourhood, all now ruined;
and he gives the names and history of thirty-seven that were erected in
the former ages of Islam.
I was told, that in the quarter El Ambarye the house where Mohammed
lived is still shown; but many doubt this tradition, and the spot is not
visited as one of the holy places. Here, as in Mekka, no
[p.328] ancient buildings are found. The winter rains, the nitrous, damp
atmosphere during the rainy season, and the intense heat which follows
it, are destructive to buildings; and the cement employed in their
construction being of a very indifferent quality, the stones soon become
loosened and the walls decay.
The town is supplied with sweet water by a fine subterraneous canal,
carried hither from the village of Koba, about three quarters of an hour
distant, in a southern direction, at the expense of Sultan Solyman, the
son of Selym I. The water is abundant, and, in several parts of the
town, steps are made down to the canal, where the inhabitants supply
themselves with water, but are not, like the people of Mekka, obliged to
pay for it.
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