These Stipends, It Is True, Are Not Always Regularly
Distributed, And Many Of The Poorest Class, For Whom They Were
Originally Destined, Are Now Deprived Of Them; The Sums, However, Reach
The Town, And Are Brought Into Circulation.
[Kayd Beg, Sultan of Egypt,
after having, in A.H. 881, rebuilt the mosque, appropriated a yearly
income of seven thousand five hundred erdebs for the inhabitants of the
town, to be sent from Egypt; and Sultan Soleyman ibn Selim allowed five
thousand erdebs for the same purpose.
(See Kotobeddyn and Samhoudy.)]
Many
[p.380] families are, in this manner, wholly supported by the surra, and
receive as much as 100l. and 200l sterling per annum, without performing
any duty whatever. The Medinans say, that without these surras the town
would soon be abandoned to the land-owners and cultivators; and this
consideration was certainly the original motive for establishing them,
and the numerous wakfs, or pious foundations, which in all parts of the
Turkish empire are annexed to the towns or mosques. At present the surra
is misapplied, and serves only to feed a swarm of persons in a state of
complete idleness, while the poor are left destitute, and not the
smallest encouragement is given to industry. As to want of industry,
Medina is still more remarkable than Mekka. It wants even the most
indispensable mechanics; and the few that live here are foreigners, and
only settle for a time. There is a single upholsterer, and only one
locksmith in the town; carpenters and masons are so scarce, that to
repair a house, they must be brought from Yembo.
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