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.
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