At Night, Torches Are Lighted, And The Daily Distance Is Usually
Performed Between Three O'clock In The Afternoon, And An Hour Or Two
After Sun-Rise On The Following Day.
The Bedouins who carry provisions
for the troops, travel by day only, and in advance of the caravan, the
encampment of which they pass in the morning, and are overtaken in turn,
and passed by the caravan on the following night, at their own resting-
place.
The journey with these Bedouins is less fatiguing than with the
great body of the caravan, as a regular night's rest is obtained; but
their bad character deters most pilgrims from joining them.
[p.250] At every watering-place on the route are a small castle and a
large tank, at which the camels water. The castles are garrisoned by a
few persons, who remain during the whole year to guard the provisions
deposited there. It is at these watering-places, which belong to the
Bedouins, that the Sheikhs of the tribes meet the caravan, and receive
the accustomed tribute. Water is plentiful on the route: the stations
are no where more distant than eleven or twelve hours' march; and in
winter, pools of rain-water are frequently found. Those pilgrims who can
travel with a litter, or on commodious camel-saddles, may sleep at
night, and perform the journey with little inconvenience; but of those
whom poverty, or the desire of soon acquiring a large sum of money,
induces to follow the caravan on foot, or to hire themselves as
servants, many die on the road from fatigue.
The Egyptian caravan, which starts from Cairo, is under the same
regulations as the Syrian, but seldom equals the latter in numbers,
being composed of Egyptians only, besides the military escort. Its route
is more dangerous and fatiguing than that of the Syrian caravan; the
road along the shore of the Red Sea leading through the territories of
wild and warlike tribes of Bedouins, who frequently endeavour to cut off
a part of the caravan by open force. The watering-places too are much
fewer on this route than on the other; three days frequently intervening
between the wells, which are, besides, seldom copious, and, with the
exception of two or three, are of bad brackish water. In 1814, this
caravan was composed of soldiers only with the retinue of the sacred
camel, and some public officers; all the Egyptian pilgrims having
preferred taking the route by Suez. In 1816, several grandees of Cairo
joined the Hadj, one of whom had one hundred and ten camels for the
transport of his baggage and retinue, and eight tents: his travelling
expenses in going and coming must have amounted to ten thousand pounds.
There were also about five hundred peasants, with their women, from
upper and lower Egypt, who were less afraid of the fatigues and dangers
of the Desert than of the Sea. I saw with them a party of public women
and dancing-girls, whose tents and equipage were among the most splendid
in the
[p.251] caravan. Female hadjys of a similar class accompany the Syrian
caravan also.
The Persian Hadj, which used to set out from Baghdad, and come through
Nedjed to Mekka, was discontinued about the time when the Wahabys
stopped the Syrian Hadj. After Abdullah ibn Saoud had made peace with
Tousoun Pasha in 1815, it ventured to cross the Desert, and passed by
Derayeh unmolested; but within four days' journey of Mekka, it was
attacked by the Beni Shammar, a tribe which had remained neuter during
the war between Tousoun and the Wahabys. The caravan then returned to
Derayeh; through the intercession of Saoud, the goods of which it had
been plundered were restored; and he sent a party of his own people to
escort it to the holy city.
The Persian caravan is usually escorted by the Ageyl Arabs, of Baghdad.
As its pilgrims are known to be sectaries, they are exposed to great
extortions on the road: Saoud exacted a heavy capitation-tax from them,
as did Sherif Ghaleb at Mekka, amounting in latter times to thirty
sequins per head. Persian hadjys are all persons of property, and no
pilgrims suffer so much imposition as they during the whole route. Great
numbers of them come by sea: they embark at Bassora for Mokha, and if
they fall in with the trade-wind, run straight to Djidda; if not, they
form themselves into a caravan, and come by land along the coast of
Yemen. In 1814, when I was present at the Hadj, the few Persians who
came by land, had passed through Baghdad to Syria, and had followed the
Syrian caravan, accompanied by Baghdad camel-drivers.
It deserves notice here, that the Persians were not always permitted to
come to the holy city; being notorious heretics, who conceal their
doctrines only during the Hadj, that they may not give offence to the
Sunnys. In 1634, a few years after the temple of Mekka had been rebuilt,
Sultan Murad IV. commanded that no Persian of the sect of Aly should be
allowed to perform the pilgrimage, or enter the Beittullah. This
prohibition was complied with for several years; but the money expended
by the Persians soon re-opened the way to Arafat
[p.252] and the Kaaba. We learn from Asamy, that, in 1625, a sectary of
Aly was impaled alive at Mekka, because he would not abjure his creed.
The Moggrebyn Hadj caravan has for many years ceased to be regular. It
is usually accompanied by a relative of the King of Morocco, and
proceeds from his residence by slow marches towards Tunis and Tripoly,
collecting additional pilgrims in every district through which it
passes. Its route from Tripoly is along the shores of the Syrtis to
Derne, and from thence along the coast of Egypt, passing either by
Alexandria, or taking the direction of the Natron lakes straight for
Cairo, from whence it follows the common pilgrim-route.
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