It Is A Fertile Valley Between Inaccessible Mountains, In
Which The Passes Are So Narrow That Two Camels Cannot Go Abreast.
The
valley is watered by rivulets, and abounds with date-trees.
Here reside
the Beni Yam, an ancient tribe, distinguished lately by their opposition
to the Wahabys: they consist of settlers and Bedouins; the former being
Shyas, or heretics of the Persian sect, followers of Aly, while the
Bedouins are mostly Sunne or orthodox Muselmans. The latter are
subdivided into the tribes of Okman and El Marra, weaker than the
disciples of Aly, and often at variance with them, although both parties
unite whenever Nedjran is attacked by a foreign enemy. The settlers can
muster about fifteen hundred firelocks. They twice repulsed the Wahaby
chief Saoud, who had subdued all the other Arab tribes except the Beni
Sobh, of the Harb race, in the northern parts of the Hedjaz. The Beni
Yam made a kind of treaty with the Wahabys, and were allowed to perform
the pilgrimage annually. Some of them visit the tomb of Aly, at Meshehed
Aly, but under circumstances of great difficulty; for their lives would
pay the forfeit of their religious zeal, should they be detected on the
road; and this frequently happens,
[p.453] as they are betrayed by their peculiar accent or dialect: one
who has performed his devotions at Aly's tomb is regarded as a saint at
Nedjran.
When a man of this Beni Yam tribe undertakes a journey, he sends his
wife to the house of a friend, who, it is understood, must in all
respects supply the husband's place during his absence, and restore the
lady to him at his return. It may be here remarked, that the name of
Nedjran el Yemen is mentioned in the Catechism of the Druses; one of the
questions being, "Is Nedjran of Yemen in ruins or not?" The tanneries of
Nedjran are famous throughout Arabia.
The less mountainous districts mentioned here, south of Mekka, are even
in time of peace accessible only to Bedouins, or Bedouin merchants, and
have not any regular communication with Mekka by caravans - Taraba
excepted, the inhabitants of which carry their dates in monthly caravans
to Mekka and Djidda. The people of Nedjed pass continually through this
district in search of coffee-beans, and during the Wahaby dominion there
was no other intercourse between Yemen and the northern provinces of
Arabia. This country seldom enjoys peace, the mountaineers being hostile
to the pastoral inhabitants of the low districts, and often at variance
among themselves. They are all very warlike, but the Wahabys have
succeeded in checking their private feuds.
The country from Mekka southwards near the sea-shore, to the west of the
chain of mountains, is flat, intersected with hills that gradually
disappear as we approach the sea, of which the shore presents a level
plain in almost every direction at the distance of several hours. In
time of peace the land road is most frequented by caravans, which either
proceed along the coast close to the barbour, or by the foot of the
mountains.
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