It
Is Three Quarters Of An Hour's Walk From The Town.
In the fourth year of
the Hedjra, when Mohammed had fixed his residence at Medina, the
idolatrous Koreysh, headed by Abou Sofyan, invaded these parts, and took
post at this mountain.
Mohammed issued from the town, and there fought,
with great disparity of force, the most arduous battle in which he was
ever engaged. His uncle Hamze was killed, together with seventy-five of
his followers: he himself was wounded, but he killed with his own lance
one of the bravest men of the opposite party, and gained at last a
complete victory. The tomb of Hamze and of the seventy-five martyrs, as
they are called, form the object of the visit to Djebel Ohod.
I started on foot, with my cicerone, by the Syrian gate, in the company
of several other visiters; for it was thought unsafe to go there alone,
from fear of Bedouin robbers. The visit is generally performed on
Thursdays. We passed the place where the Syrian Hadj encamp, and where
several wells and half-ruined tanks, cased with stone, supply the
pilgrims with water during their three days' stay at this place, in
their way to and from Mekka. A little further on is a pretty kiosk, with
a dome, now likewise half-ruined, called El Goreyn, where
[p.365] the chief of that caravan usually takes up his temporary abode.
The road further on is completely level; date-trees stand here and
there, and several spots are seen which the people only cultivate when
the rains are copious.
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