The Bedouins Take Good Care That The Camels Shall Not Be
Overloaded, That The Numbers Wanted May Thus Be Increased.
In 1814,
though the caravan consisted of not more than
[P.248] four or five thousand persons, including soldiers and servants,
it had fifteen thousand camels. [El Fasy relates that, when the mother of
Motasem b'Illah, the last of the Abassides, performed the pilgrimage in
A.H. 631, her caravan was composed of one hundred and twenty thousand
camels. When Solyman Ibn Abd el Melek performed the pilgrimage in A.H.
97, nine hundred camels were employed in the transport of his wardrobe
only. It is observable that none of the Othman Emperors of
Constantinople ever performed the pilgrimage in person. The Khalife El
Mohdy Abou Abdallah Mohammed expended on his pilgrimage in A.H. 160,
thirty millions of dirhems. He carried with him an immense number of
gowns to distribute as presents. He built fine houses at every station
from Baghdad to Mekka, and caused them to be splendidly furnished; he
also erected mile-stones along the whole route, and was the first
Khalife who carried snow with him, to cool sherbet on the road, in which
he was imitated by many of his successors. Haroun el Rasheid, who
performed the pilgrimage nine times, spent, in one of his visits, one
million and fifty thousand dynars in presents to the Mekkawys and the
poor hadjys. El Melek Nasir eddyn Abou el Maaly, Sultan of Egypt,
carried with him, on his pilgrimage in A.H. 719, five hundred camels,
for the transport of sweetmeats and confectionary only; and two hundred
and eighty for pomegranates, almonds, and other fruits:
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