The Castle Is Said To Contain
Wells, Bomb-Proofs, Provisions, And Munitions Of War; If So, It Must Be
A Kind Of Gibraltar To The Badawin And The Wahhabis.
The garrison
consisted of a Nisf Urtah,[FN#21] or half battalion (four hundred men)
of Nizam infantry, commanded
By a Pasha; his authority also extends to
a Sanjak, or about five hundred Kurdish and Albanian Bash-Buzuks, whose
duty it is to escort caravans, to convey treasures, and to be shot at
in the Passes. The Madani, who, as usual with Orientals, take a
personal pride in their castle, speak of it with much exaggeration.
Commanded by a high line of rocks on the North-West, and built as it is
in most places without moat, glacis, earthwork, or outworks, a few
shells and a single battery of siege guns would soon render it
untenable. In ancient times it has more than once been held by a party
at feud with the town, for whose mimic battles the Barr al-Manakhah was
a fitting field. Northward from the fort, on the road to Ohod, but
still within fire, is a long many-windowed building, formerly Da'ud
Pasha's palace. In my time it had been bought by Abbas Pasha of Egypt.
[p.395]The suburbs lie to the South and West of the town. Southwards
they are separated from the enceinte by a wide road, called the Darb
al-Janazah, the Road of Biers, so called because the corpses of certain
schismatics, who may not pass through the city, are carried this way to
their own cemetery near the Bab al-Jumah, or Eastern Gate. Westwards,
between Al-Madinah and its faubourg, lies the plain of Al-Manakhah,
about three-quarters of a mile long, by three hundred yards broad. The
straggling suburbs occupy more ground than the city: fronting the
enceinte they are without walls; towards the West, where open country
lies, they are enclosed by mud or raw brick ramparts, with little round
towers, all falling to decay. A number of small gates lead from the
suburb into the country. The only large one, a poor copy of the Bab
al-Nasr at Cairo, is the Ambari or Western entrance, through which we
passed into Al-Madinah. The suburb contains no buildings of any
consequence, except the Khaskiyah, or official residence of the Muhafiz
(governor), a plain building near the Barr al-Manakhah, and the Khamsah
Masajid, or the Five Mosques, which every Zair is expected to visit.
They are
The Prophet's Mosque in the Manakhah.
Abu Bakr's near the Ayn al-Zarka.
Ali's Mosque in the Zukak al-Tayyar of the Manakhah. Some authors call
this the "Musalla al-Id," because the Prophet here prayed the Festival
Prayer.
Omar's Mosque, near the Bab Kuba of the Manakhah, and close to the
little torrent called Al-Sayh.
Belal's Mosque, celebrated in books; I did not see it, and some Madani
assured me that it no longer exists.
A description of one of these buildings will suffice, for they are all
similar. Mohammed's Mosque in the Manakhah stands upon a spot formerly
occupied, some say, by the Jami Ghamamah. Others believe it to be
founded upon the Musalla al-Nabi, a place where the
[p.396]Apostle recited the first Festival prayers after his arrival at
Al-Madinah, and used frequently to pray, and to address those of his
followers who lived far from the Harim,[FN#22] or Sanctuary. It is a
trim modern building of cut stone and lime in regular layers, of
parallelogramic shape, surmounted by one large and four small cupolas.
These are all whitewashed; and the principal is capped with a large
crescent, or rather a trident, rising from a series of gilt globes: the
other domes crown the several corners. The minaret is of the usual
Turkish shape, with a conical roof, and a single gallery for the
Mu'ezzin. An Acacia-tree or two on the Eastern side, and behind it a
wall-like line of mud houses, finish the coup-d'oeil; the interior of
this building is as simple as is the exterior. And here I may remark
that the Arabs have little idea of splendour, either in their public or
in their private architecture. Whatever strikes the traveller's eye in
Al-Hijaz is always either an importation or the work of foreign
artists. This arises from the simple tastes of the people, combined,
doubtless, with their notable thriftiness. If strangers will build for
them, they argue, why should they build for themselves? Moreover, they
have scant inducement to lavish money upon grand edifices. Whenever a
disturbance takes place, domestic or from without, the principal
buildings are sure to suffer. And the climate is inimical to their
enduring. Both ground and air at Al-Madinah, as well as at Meccah, are
damp and nitrous in winter, in summer dry and torrid: the lime is poor;
palm-timber soon decays: even foreign wood-work suffers, and a few
years of neglect suffice to level the proudest pile with the dust.
The suburbs to the South of Al- Madinah are a collection
[p.397]of walled villages, with plantations and gardens between. They
are laid out in the form, called here, as in Egypt, Hosh-court-yards,
with single-storied tenements opening into them. These enclosures
contain the cattle of the inhabitants; they have strong wooden doors,
shut at night to prevent "lifting," and they are capable of being
stoutly defended. The inhabitants of the suburb are for the most part
Badawi settlers, and a race of schismatics who will be noticed in
another chapter. Beyond these suburbs, to the South, as well as to the
North and Northeast, lie gardens and extensive plantations of
palm-trees.
[FN#1] To the East he limits Al-Hijaz by Yamamah (which some include in
it), Nijd, and the Syrian desert, and to the West by the Red Sea. The
Greeks, not without reason, included it in their Arabia Petraea.
Niebuhr places the Southern boundary at Hali, a little town south of
Kunfudah (Gonfoda). Captain Head (Journey from India to Europe) makes
the village Al-Kasr, opposite the Island of Kotambul, the limit of
Al-Hijaz to the South.
[FN#2] Or, according to others, between Al-Yaman and Syria.
[FN#3] If you ask a Badawi near Meccah, whence his fruit comes, he will
reply "min Al-Hijaz," "from the Hijaz," meaning from the mountainous
part of the country about Taif.
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