There Are Few Houses In This Part
Of The Town, Where The Same Strange Mixture Of Nations Is Not To Be Met
With.
On the southern extremity of the Mesfale is a large ruined khan, which,
even when new, must have been a mean building.
It was destined for the
accommodation of the pilgrim-caravan, which formerly arrived by land
from Yemen, along the coast. Another Yemen pilgrim-caravan came along
the mountains.
In issuing from the town on this side, we discover a watch-tower
standing in the plain, similar in construction to those at the Djerouel
entrance. A broad valley leads from hence, in a southern direction, to
the small village of Hosseynye, two or three hours distant, where are
some date-trees. Here the Sherif Ghaleb had a small pleasure-garden and
a country-house; and he kept here a herd of buffaloes, brought from
Egypt; but they did not prosper. From Hosseynye a road leads to Arafat,
passing to the S. and S.E. of Mekka, two or three hours distant from
which, on that road, is the small fertile valley and Arab settlement of
Aabedye. The valley just mentioned is called El Tarafeyn; one mile
beyond the present skirts of the city may be traced the ruins of former
habitations; among them are several large, deep, and well-built
cisterns, which, with little labour, might again be rendered fit for
their original purpose of collecting rain-water. At a mile and a half
from the city is a large stone tank, called Birket Madjen, built for the
supplying of water to the Yemen caravan; I found some water in it, but
it is falling rapidly to decay. Beyond this tank, the people of the
Mesfale cultivate a few fields of cucumbers and different vegetables,
immediately after the fall of the rains, when the ground has been
copiously irrigated. Many Bedouin huts and tents of the tribes of Faham
[p.114] and Djehadele are scattered over this valley: their inhabitants
earn a livelihood by collecting in the mountains grass and wild herbs,
which they sell, when dry, in the Mekka market, twisted into bundles:
they serve to feed horses, camels, and asses; but are so scarce and
dear, that the daily feed for a horse costs from two to three piastres.
These Bedouins also rear a few sheep; but although poor, they keep
themselves quite distinct from the lower classes of the Mekkawys, whom
they scorn to imitate in their habits of mendicity. Some few of them are
water-carriers in the city.
On one summit of the western chain of the valley of Tarafeyn, just in
front of the Mesfale, stood, prior to the invasion of the Wahabys, a
small building with a dome, erected in honour of Omar, one of Mohammed's
immediate successors, and therefore called Mekam Seydna Omar. It was
completely ruined by the Wahabys.
Nearly on the summit of the opposite mountain stands the Great Castle, a
very large and massy structure, surrounded by thick walls and solid
towers. It commands the greatest part of the town, but is commanded by
several higher summits. I heard that this castle owes its origin to the
Sherif Serour, the predecessor of Ghaleb; but I believe it to be of a
more ancient date. It is often mentioned by Asamy, in his history, as
early as the fourteenth century; but he does not say who built it. No
person might enter without per-mission from the governor of Mekka, and I
did not think it either prudent, or worth the trouble, to apply for that
favour. Ghaleb considerably strengthened and thoroughly repaired the
building, and mounted it with heavy guns. It was said that he had made
its principal magazines bomb-proof. It contains a large cistern and a
small mosque; and might accommodate a garrison of about one thousand
men. To Arabs it is an impregnable fortress; and so it is considered by
the Mekkawys; even against Europeans, it might offer some resistance.
The approach is by a steep narrow path.
Below the castle-hill, upon a small plain between the mountain and the
Djebel Kobeys, stands the great palace of the reigning
[p.115] sherif, called Beit es' Sade. This, too, is said to have been
built by Serour; but I find it mentioned by Asamy in the account of
trans-actions that occurred two hundred years ago. Its walls are very
high and solid, and seem to have been intended for an outwork to the
castle above it, with which, according to the reports of the Mekkawys,
there is a subterranean communication. It is an irregular pile of
building, and comprises many spacious courts and gloomy chambers, which
have not been inhabited since Sherif Ghaleb fled before the enemy to
Djidda: he then attempted to destroy it by fire; but it was too strongly
built. The Turks, under Mohammed Aly, have converted it into a magazine
of corn. In the adjacent plain, which was formerly the place of exercise
for the Sherif's troops, I found a herd of camels, with the encampment
of their drivers, who make a journey weekly to Djidda or Tayf. Here also
many poor hadjys, who could not pay for lodgings, had erected their
miserable tents, formed of a few rags spread upon sticks. The soldiers
were busily occupied in destroying all the remaining ceilings of the
palace, in quest of fire-wood.
In a narrow inlet in the mountain, to the north of the palace, and
adjoining the above-mentioned plain, are numerous low huts built of
brush-wood, the former abodes of Sherif Ghaleb's slaves, who served as
soldiers in his guard. The greater part of them fled after the Sherif's
capture; and the huts now form barracks for about two hundred Arab
soldiers, in the service of his successor, Sherif Yahya.
In turning from hence towards the mosque, on the right hand, we come to
a small quarter, built on the declivity of the mountain, in which are
many half-ruined houses:
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