Whoever Washes In Its Waters Three
Times Shall Be Healed.
The Bir Busat is near the Bakia cemetery, on the
left of the road leading to Kuba.
The Prophet used to bathe in the
water, and he declared it healthy to the skin. The Bir Bayruha, under
whose trees the Prophet was fond of sitting, lies outside the Bab Dar
al-Ziyafah, leading to Mount Ohod. The Kamus gives the word "Bayruha
upon the measure of Fayluha." Some authorities upon the subject of
Ziyarat, write Bayruha, "Bir Ha,"-the well of Ha, and variously suppose
"Ha" to be the name of a man, a woman, or a place. Yahut mentions other
pronunciations: "Bariha," "Bariha," "Bayriha," &c. The Bir Ihn is in a
large garden E. of Kuba. Little is said in books about this well, and
the people of Al-Madinah do not know the name.
[p.416]CHAPTER XX.
THE VISITATION OF HAMZAH'S TOMB.
ON the morning of Sunday, the twenty-third Zu'l Ka'adah (28th August,
1853), arrived from Al-Sham, or Damascus,[FN#1] the great Caravan
popularly called Hajj al-Shami, the "Damascus pilgrimage," as the
Egyptian Cafila is Al-Misri,[FN#2] or the Cairo pilgrimage. It is the
main stream which carries off all the small currents that, at this
season of general movement, flow from Central Asia towards the great
centre of the Islamitic world, and in 1853 it amounted to about seven
thousand souls. The arrival was anxiously expected by the people for
several reasons. In the first place, it brought with it a new curtain
for the Prophet's Hujrah, the old one being in a tattered condition;
secondly, it had charge of the annual stipends and pensions of the
citizens; and thirdly, many families expected members returning under
its escort to their homes. The popular anxiety was greatly increased by
the disordered state of the country round about; and, moreover, the
great caravan had been one day late, generally arriving on the morning
of the twenty-second Zu'l Ka'adah.[FN#3]
[p.417]During the night three of Shaykh Hamid's brothers, who had
entered as Muzawwirs with the Hajj, came suddenly to the house: they
leaped off their camels, and lost not a moment in going through the
usual scene of kissing, embracing, and weeping bitterly for joy. I
arose in the morning, and looked out from the windows of the Majlis.
The Barr al-Manakhah, from a dusty waste dotted with a few Badawi
hair-tents, had assumed all the various shapes and the colours of a
kaleidoscope. The eye was bewildered by the shifting of innumerable
details, in all parts totally different from one another, thrown
confusedly together in one small field; and, however jaded with
sight-seeing, it dwelt with delight upon the variety, the vivacity, and
the intense picturesqueness of the scene. In one night had sprung up a
town of tents of every size, colour, and shape; round, square, and
oblong; open and closed,-from the shawl-lined and gilt-topped pavilion
of the Pasha, with all the luxurious appurtenances of the Harim, to its
neighbour the little dirty green "rowtie" of the tobacco-seller.
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