The Persian Hadjys And The Malays Are Those Who Chiefly Search For
Books:
The Wahabys, it is said, were particularly inquisitive after
historical works; a remark I heard repeated at Medina.
During my stay at
Damascus, which is the richest book-market in the East, and the
cheapest, from being very little frequented by Europeans, I heard that
several Arabs of Baghdad, secretly commissioned for that purpose by
Saoud, the Wahaby chief, had purchased there many historical works. When
Abou Nokta plundered the harbours of Yemen, he carried off a great
number of books, and sent them to Derayeh.
The scarcity of valuable books at Mekka may, perhaps, be ascribed to the
continual purchases made by pilgrims; for there are no copyists at Mekka
to replace the books which have been exported. [At Cairo, I saw many
books in the Hedjaz character, some of which I purchased.] The want of
copyists is, indeed, a general complaint also in Syria and Egypt, and
must, in the end, lead to a total deficiency of books in those
countries, if the exportation to Europe continues. There are at Cairo,
at this time, not more than three professed copyists, who write a good
hand, or who possess sufficient knowledge to enable them to avoid the
grossest
[p.214] errors. At Mekka, there was a man of Lahor, who wrote Arabic
most beautifully, though he spoke it very indifferently. He sat in a
shop near Bab-es'-Salam, and copied for the hadjys such prayers as it
was necessary to recite during the pilgrimage.
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