If The Muzawwir Visit The Home Of His Zair, He
Expects To Be Treated With The Utmost Hospitality, And To Depart With A
Handsome Present.
A religious visitor will often transmit to his
cicerone at Meccah and at Al-Madinah yearly sums to purchase for
himself a prayer at the Ka'abah and the Prophet's Tomb.
The remittance
is usually wrapped up in paper, and placed in a sealed leathern bag,
somewhat like a portfolio, upon which is worked the name of the person
entitled to receive it. It is then given in charge either to a
trustworthy pilgrim, or to the public treasurer, who accompanies the
principal caravans.
I could procure no exact information about the amount of money
forwarded every year from Constantinople and Cairo to Al-Madinah; the
only point upon which men seemed to agree was that they were defrauded
of half their dues. When the Sadaka and Aukaf (the alms and bequests)
arrive at the town, they are committed by the Surrah, or
[p.375]financier of the caravan, to the Muftis, the chief of the
Khatibs, and the Kazi's clerk. These officers form a committee, and
after reckoning the total of the families entitled to pensions, divide
the money amongst them, according to the number in each household, and
the rank of the pensioners. They are divided into five orders:-
The Olema, or learned, and the Mudarrisin, who profess, lecture, or
teach adults in the Harim.
The Imams and Khatibs.
The descendants of the Prophet.
The Fukaha, poor divines, pedadogues, gerund-grinders, who teach boys
to read the Koran.
The Awam, or nobile vulgus of the Holy City, including the Ahali, or
burghers of the town, and the Mujawirin, or those settled in the place.
Omar Effendi belonged to the second order, and he informed me that his
share varied from three to fifteen Riyals per annum.
[FN#1] In Oriental geography the parasang still, as in the days of
Pliny, greatly varies, from 1500 to 6000 yards. Captain Francklin,
whose opinion is generally taken, makes it (in his Tour to Persia) a
measure of about four miles (Preface to Ibn Haukal, by Sir Gore
Ouseley).
[FN#2] M.C. de Perceval (Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant
l'Islamisme), makes Amlak son of Laoud (Lud), son of Shem, or,
according to others, son of Ham. That learned writer identifies the
Amalik with the Phoenicians, the Amalekites, the Canaanites, and the
Hyksos. He alludes, also, to an ancient tradition which makes them to
have colonised Barbary in Africa.
[FN#3] The Dabistan al-Mazahib relates a tradition that the Almighty,
when addressing the angels in command, uses the Arabic tongue, but when
speaking in mercy or beneficence, the Deri dialect of Persian.
[FN#4] These were the giants who fought against Israel in Palestine.
[FN#5] In this wild tradition we find a confirmation of the sound
geographical opinion which makes Arabia "Une des pepinieres du genre
humain" (M. Jomard). It must be remembered that the theatre of all
earliest civilisation has been a fertile valley with a navigable
stream, like Sind, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The existence of such a spot
in Arabia would have altered every page of her history; she would then
have become a centre, not a source, of civilisation. Strabo's Malothes
river in Al-Yaman is therefore a myth. As it is, the immense population
of the peninsula-still thick, even in the deserts-has, from the
earliest ages, been impelled by drought, famine, or desire of conquest,
to emigrate into happier regions. All history mentions two main streams
which took their rise in the wilds. The first set to the North-East,
through Persia, Mekran, Baluchistan, Sind, and the Afghan Mountains, as
far as Samarkand, Bokhara, and Tibet; the other, flowing towards the
North-West, passed through Egypt and Barbary into Etruria, Spain, the
Isles of the Mediterranean, and Southern France. There are two minor
emigrations chronicled in history, and written in the indelible
characters of physiognomy and philology. One of these set in an
exiguous but perennial stream towards India, especially Malabar, where,
mixing with the people of the country, the Arab merchants became the
progenitors of the Moplah race. The other was a partial emigration,
also for commercial purposes, to the coast of Berberah, in Eastern
Africa, where, mixing with the Galla tribes, the people of Hazramaut
became the sires of the extensive Somali and Sawahil nations. Thus we
have from Arabia four different lines of emigration, tending N.E. and
S.E., N.W. and S.W. At some future time I hope to develop this curious
but somewhat obscure portion of Arabian history. It bears upon a most
interesting subject, and serves to explain, by the consanguinity of
races, the marvellous celerity with which the faith of Al-Islam spread
from the Pillars of Hercules to the confines of China-embracing part of
Southern Europe, the whole of Northern and a portion of Central Africa,
and at least three-fourths of the continent of Asia.
[FN#6] Of this name M.C. de Perceval remarks, "Le mot Arcam etait une
designation commune a tous ces rois." He identifies it with Rekem
(Numbers xxxi. 8), one of the kings of the Midianites; and recognises
in the preservation of the royal youth the history of Agag and Samuel.
[FN#7] And some most ignorantly add, "after the entrance of Moses into
the Promised Land."
[FN#8] In those days, we are told, the Jews, abandoning their original
settlement in Al-Ghabbah or the low lands to the N. of the town,
migrated to the highest portions of the Madinah plain on the S. and E.,
and the lands of the neighbourhood of the Kuba Mosque.
[FN#9] When describing Ohod, I shall have occasion to allude to Aaron's
dome, which occupies the highest part. Few authorities, however,
believe that Aaron was buried there; his grave, under a small stone
cupola, is shown over the summit of Mount Hor, in the Sinaitic
Peninsula, and is much visited by devotees.
[FN#10] It must be remembered that many of the Moslem geographers
derive the word "Arabia" from a tract of land in the neighbourhood of
Al-Madinah.
[FN#11] Khaybar in Hebrew is supposed to signify a castle.
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