The Other Public Buildings Are
A Few Mean Coffee-Houses And An Excellent Bath In The Harat Zarawan,
Inside The Town:
Far superior to the unclean establishments of Cairo,
it borrows something from the luxury of Stambul.
The houses are, for
the East, well built, flat-roofed and double-storied; the materials
generally used are a basaltic scoria, burnt brick, and palm wood. The
best enclose spacious courtyards and small gardens with wells, where
water basins and date trees gladden the owners' eyes. The latticed
balconies, first seen by the overland European traveller at Malta, are
here common, and the windows are
[p.393]mere apertures in the wall, garnished, as usual in Arab cities,
with a shutter of planking. Al-Madinah fell rapidly under the Wahhabis,
but after their retreat, it soon rose again, and now it is probably as
comfortable and flourishing a little city as any to be found in the
East. It contains between fifty and sixty streets, including the alleys
and culs-de-sac. There is about the same number of Harat or quarters;
but I have nothing to relate of them save their names. Within the town
few houses are in a dilapidated condition. The best authorities
estimate the number of habitations at about 1500 within the enceinte,
and those in the suburb at 1000. I consider both accounts exaggerated;
the former might contain 800, and the Manakhah perhaps 500; at the same
time I must confess not to have counted them, and Captain Sadlier (in
A.D. 1819) declares that the Turks, who had just made a kind of census,
reckoned 6000 houses and a population of 18,000 souls.
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