Whenever The Mosque
Requires Workmen, They Are Sent From Cairo, Or Even From Constantinople,
As Was The Case During My Stay, When A Master-Mason From The Latter
Place Was Occupied In Repairing The Roof Of The Building.
All the wants
of the town, down to the most trifling articles, are supplied by Egypt.
When I was here, not even earthen water jars were made.
Some years ago a
native of Damascus established a manufacture of this most indispensable
article; but he had left the town, and the inhabitants were reduced to
the necessity of drinking out of the half-broken jars yet left, or of
importing others, at a great expense, from Mekka No dying, no woollen
manufactures, no looms, no tanneries nor works in leather, no iron-works
of any kind are seen; even nails and horse-shoes are brought from Egypt
and Yembo. In my account of Mekka, I attributed the general aversion of
the people of the Hedjaz from handicrafts, to their indolence and
dislike of all manual labour. But the same remark is not applicable to
Medina, where the cultivators and gardeners, though not very industrious
in improving their land, are nevertheless a hard-working people, and
[p.381] might apply themselves to occupations in town, without
undergoing greater bodily labour than they endure in their fields. I am
inclined to think that the want of artisans here is to be attributed to
the very low estimation in which they are held by the Arabians, whose
pride often proves stronger than their cupidity, and prevents a father
from educating his sons in any craft.
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