In The Month Of Radjeb, Which Is The Seventh After The Month Of The
Hadj, A Caravan Used Always To Set Out From Mekka For Medina, Composed
Of Several Hundred Merchants, Mounted Upon Dromedaries.
At that time a
large fair was held at Medina, and frequented by many of the surrounding
Bedouins, and people of the Hedjaz and Nedjed.
The merchandize for its supply was sent from Mekka by a heavy caravan of
camels, which set out immediately after the merchants, and
[p.200] was called Rukub el Medina. [In general, the Arabs of the Hedjaz
call the caravans Rukub; speaking of the Baghdad caravan, they say Rukub
es' Sham, or Rukub el Erak.] They remained about twenty days at Medina,
and then returned to Mekka. This frequent, yet regular change of abode,
must have been very agreeable to the merchants, particularly in those
times, when they could calculate with certainty that the next pilgrimage
would be a source of new riches to them. Tayf and Medina being now half-
ruined, the merchants of Mekka resort to Djidda, as their only place of
recreation: but even those who have wives and houses there, talk of
their establishments at Mekka as their only real homes, and in it they
spend the greater part of the year.
The inhabitants of Mekka, Djidda, and (in a less degree) of Medina, are
generally of a more lively disposition than either the Syrians or
Egyptians. None of those silent, grave automatons are seen here, so
common in other parts of the Levant, whose insensibility, or stupidity
is commonly regarded among themselves as a proof of feeling, shrewdness,
and wisdom.
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