The first
station from Medine on this route is:
28. (1) Biar Aly [Arabic], a village with wells and gardens.
29. (2) El Shohada [Arabic], a spot in the plain, without any water.
30. (3) Djedeyde [Arabic], and at a short distance before it the well
called Byr Dzat el Aalem [Arabic]. Djedeyde is a considerable village on
the sides of a rivulet. The Sheikh of the western route lives here
[Arabic]. The year before the last Hadj caravan effected its passage,
Abdullah Pasha of Damascus was attacked in a Wady near Djedeyde by the
armed population of that village, who were Wahabi. They routed his army,
and obliged him to pay forty thousand dollars for his passage. From
Djedeyde the route leads through the villages of Esszafra [Arabic], and
El Hamra [Arabic], to the second station, which is:
31. (4) The famous Beder [Arabic], where Mohammed laid the foundation of
his power by his victory over his combined enemies. It contains upwards
of five hundred houses, with a rivulet. The Egyptian pilgrim caravan
generally meets here the Syrian.
32. (5) El Kaa [Arabic], a spot in the desert without any water. From
thence a long march to
33. (6) El Akdyd [Arabic], which is twenty-eight hours distant from
Beder.
34. (7) Rabagh [Arabic], a village. Between Rabagh and Khalysz, the Red
sea is seen from the Hadj route. There are Wadys coming from the Red
sea, which in times of high flood are filled with the sea water; it
remains sometimes during the whole summer, at a distance of six and
seven hours from the sea. The water brings with it a large quantity of
fish. The camels and horses drink the water of these Wadys.
35. (8) Khalysz [Arabic], a village with a rivulet.
36. (9) El Szafan [Arabic], two wells.
37.(10) Wady Fatme [Arabic], a rivulet, with a village and gardens.
38. Mekke.
[FN#1] To the southward of Kerek all the women on the Hadj route wear
the Egyptian face veil or Berkoa [Arabic], which is not a Syrian
fashion.
[p.662] APPENDIX. No. IV.
Description of the Route from Boszra in the Haouran, to the Djebel
Shammor.
ON the western side of the Djebel Haouran, at a small distance from its
southern extremity, lies Boszra. On the eastern foot and declivity of
Djebel Haouran, are upwards of two hundred villages built of black stone
in ruins, at a quarter or half an hour’s distance from each other. The
country beyond them is completely level and is called El Hammad
[Arabic]. About five hours to the S. of the Djebel, lies the half ruined
town of Szalkhat [Arabic]; it has a large castle, with strong walls,
several cisterns and Birkets of rainwater. From that place begins the
Wady Serhhan [Arabic], which runs to the E.S.E. It is a low ground, with
sloping sides; at every three or four hours a well is met with in the
Wady, with a little grass round it, but even in winter there is no
running stream; though water is found in many places at a small depth
below the surface of the earth. The traveller frequently passes in that
Wady small hills (Tels), which consist of thin layers of salt (about six
inches thick), alternating with layers of earth of the same thickness.
The Arabs sell the salt in the villages of the Haouran. Following the
course of that Wady, which at length takes a more southerly direction,
you arrive, after ten or eleven days journey (with camels about eight
days), in the country called Djof [Arabic]. The Tels about Djof are
called Kara [Arabic]. The Djof is a collection of seven or eight
villages, built at a distance of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour
from each other, in an easterly line. The ground is pure sand. These
villages are called Souk (or markets), the principal of them are: Souk
Ain Um Salim [Arabic], Souk Eddourra [Arabic], Souk Esseideiin [Arabic],
Souk Douma [Arabic], Souk Mared [Arabic]. These villages are all built
alike: the houses are built round the inside of a large square mud wall,
which has but one entrance. This wall therefore serves as a common back
wall to all the houses, which amount in some of the Souks to one hundred
and twenty, in others from eighty to one hundred. The middle part of the
enclosed square is empty. The roofs of the houses are made of palm wood,
and their walls of bricks, called Leben, dried in the sun, which are
about two feet square, and one foot thick. When strangers arrive, their
camels remain in the middle of the Souk, and they themselves lodge at
the different houses. Round the Souk are gardens of palm trees, which
the inhabitants call Houta [Arabic]: in several of these are deep
[p.663] wells, the water from some of which is conducted by small canals
[Arabic] into the gardens of those, who not having any wells are obliged
to purchase water from their neighbours. She camels are employed to draw
the water out of the wells; this is done by tying a rope round the
camel, which walks away from the well till the bucket, which is fastened
to the other end of the rope, is drawn up, and empties its contents into
the canals. These she camels are called Sanie [Arabic]. Most of the
inhabitants of the Djof are either petty merchants or artificers; they
work in leather, wood, iron, and make boots, sword hilts, horse shoes,
lance heads, &c. which they sell to the Arabs, together with the produce
of their palm trees; in return they, take camels. They sow very little
wheat; the small extent of ground which they cultivate is worked with
the hand; for they have no ploughs.
![Travels In Syria And The Holy Land By John Lewis Burckhardt
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37.(10) Mekke [Arabic].
The western road, or as it is likewise called, the great road [Arabic]
is the more - Page 229](../images/travel.jpg)
