Infested by obscure tribes of Arab and Kurdine robbers, who through the
negligence of the Janissaries, acquire every day more insolence and more
confidence in the [p.655] success of their enterprises. Caravans of
forty or fifty camels have in the course of last winter been several
times attacked and plundered at five hundred yards from the city gate,
not a week passes without somebody being ill-treated and stripped in the
gardens near the town; and the robbers have even sometimes taken their
night’s rest in one of the suburbs of the city, and there sold their
cheaply acquired booty. In the time of Ibrahim Pasha, the neighbourhood
of Aleppo to the distance of four or five hours, was kept in perfect
security from all hostile inroads of the Arabs, by the Pasha’s cavalry
guard of Deli Bashi. But the Janissaries are very averse from exposing
themselves to danger; there is moreover no head among them to command,
no common purse to pay the necessary expences, nor any individual to
whose hands the public money might be trusted.
[p.656] APPENDIX. No. III. The Hadj Route from Damascus to Mekka.
IN later times the Hadj has been accustomed to leave Damascus on the
15th Shauwal. On the 26th or 27th it leaves Mezerib, and meets the new
moon at Remtha or Fedhein.
The Hadj route from Damascus to Mekka has changed three different times;
at first it passed on the eastern side of Djebel Haouran; the fear of
the Arabs made the Pashas prefer afterwards the route through the Ledja
and Boszra; about eighty years ago the present caravan route was
established.
1st. day. The Emir el Hadj leaves the town about mid-day, and remains
the night at Kubbet el Hadj el Azeli [Arabic], an ancient mosque at a
quarter of an hour from Bab Ullah or the southern gate of Damascus. Near
the Kubbe lies the village of Kadem [Arabic].
2. At four hours is the village of Kessoue [Arabic], with a well
provided Bazar. One hour Khan Denoun [Arabic], situated on the river
Aawadj [Arabic], which comes from Hasbeia and empties itself into the
Ghouta of Damascus. The Khan is in ruins. At a quarter of an hour to the
S.E. from it lies the village of Khiara [Arabic].
3. Four hours from Denoun is the village Ghebaib [Arabic]; it has a
small Khan to the left of the Hadj route, to the right of it is a Birket
or reservoir of water, which is supplied by the river Shak-heb [Arabic],
whose source, Ain Shak-heb, with a village called Shak-heb, lies to the
N.W. of Ghebaib. In that source the barbers of Damascus collect leeches
[Arabic], The Shak-heb loses itself in the plain of the Haouran, after
having watered the gardens and Dhourra fields of Ghebaib. Three hours
farther the village Didy [Arabic]; one hour farther the ruins of a town
and castle called Es-szanamein [Arabic], where there are two towers
built of black stone, still remaining. The Fellahs have a few houses
there. An hour and a half farther a hill with a small Birket at its
foot, called El Fekia [Arabic], containing a source which loses itself
in the eastern plain. The Hadj passes the night sometimes here, and
sometimes at Szannamein.
4. At four hours from Szannamein is a hill called the hill of Dilly
[Arabic], with a ruined village at the top. At its foot flows a river
whose source is at Tel Serraia [Arabic], a hill two hours W. of Dilly,
likewise with a ruined village. The river works a mill near Dilly. In
winter and spring time the district of Dilly is a deep bog; at four
hours farther is a village [p.657] called Shemskein [Arabic], of
considerable size, and in a prosperous state. Three hours farther is
Tafs [Arabic], a village, ruined by the Wahabis in June 1810. One hour
farther is El Mezareib [Arabic], with a castle of middling size, and the
principal place in the Haouran next to Boszra.
5. At one hour from Mezareib is the Wady el Medan [Arabic], which comes
from the Djebel Haouran. In winter time the Hadjis were often
embarrassed by it. Djezzar Pasha ordered a bridge to be built over it.
The ground is a fine gravel; even in summer time, when the Wady is dry,
water is found every where underground by digging to the depth of two or
three ells. At three hours is the village El Remtha [Arabic], inhabited
by Fellahs, who have about ten cisterns of rain-water, and a small
Birket in the neighbourhood of the village. Most of them live in caverns
underground, which they arrange into habitations; the caverns are in a
white rock. The Sheikh of Remtha is generally a Santon, that dignity
being in the family of Ezzabi [Arabic], who possesses there a mosque of
the same name. On account of the sanctity of his family, the Pasha does
not take any Miri from the Sheikh Ezzabi. The Hadjis sometimes sleep at
Remtha, at other times they go as far as Fedhein [Arabic], also called
Mefrak [Arabic], a castle four hours from Remtha, where the Pasha keeps
a small garrison, under the orders of an Aga, or Odabashi. The Arabs of
the Belka are in the habit of depositing in the castle of Fedhein their
superfluous provisions of wheat and barley, which they retake the next
year, or sell to the Hadj, after having paid to the Aga a certain
retribution. From Fedhein runs a Wady E. which turns, after one day’s
journey towards the S. and is then called Wady Botun.
