In England We
Want The Feature, And Therefore There Is No Single Word To Express It.
Our "River" Is An
Imperfect way of conveying the idea.
[FN#16] Generalisation is not the forte of the Arabic language.
"Al-Kulzum" (the
Red Sea), for instance, will be unintelligible to the
native of Jeddah; call it the Sea of Jeddah, and you at once explain
yourself; so the Badawin will have names for each separate part, but no
single one to express the whole. This might be explained by their
ignorance of anything but details. The same thing is observable,
however, in the writings of the Arabian geographers when they come to
treat of the objects near home.
[FN#17] About the classic "Harrah," I shall have more to say at a
future time. The word "Ria" in literary and in vulgar Arabic is almost
synonymous with Akabah, a steep descent, a path between hills or a
mountain road.
[FN#18] Valleys may be divided into three kinds. 1. Longitudinal, i.e.
parallel to the axis of their ridges; 2. Transversal or perpendicular
to the same; and, 3. Diagonal, which form an acute or an obtuse angle
with the main chain of mountains.
[FN#19] This act, by the bye, I afterwards learned to be a greater act
of imprudence than the sleeping alone. Nothing renders the Arab thief
so active as the chance of stealing a good weapon.
[FN#20] Probably, because water is usually found in such places. In the
wild parts of the country, wells are generally protected by some
fortified building, for men consider themselves safe from an enemy
until their supply of water is cut off.
[FN#22] Near Al-Hamra, at the base of the Southern hills, within fire
of the forts, there is a fine spring of sweet water. All such fountains
are much prized by the people, who call them "Rock-water," and
attribute to them tonic and digestive virtues.
[FN#23] As far as I could discover, the reason of the ruinous state of
the country at present is the effect of the old Wahhabi and Egyptian
wars in the early part of the present century, and the misrule of the
Turks. In Arabia the depopulation of a village or a district is not to
be remedied, as in other countries, by an influx of strangers; the land
still belongs to the survivors of the tribe, and trespass would be
visited with a bloody revenge.
[FN#24] Without these forts the Turks, at least so said my companions,
could never hold the country against the Badawin. There is a little
amour propre in the assertion, but upon the whole it is true. There are
no Mohammed Alis, Jazzars, and Ibrahim Pachas in these days.
[FN#25] To "halal" is to kill an animal according to Moslem rites: a
word is wanted to express the act, and we cannot do better than to
borrow it from the people to whom the practice belongs.
[FN#26] He is now dead, and has been succeeded by a son worse than
himself.
[FN#27] The greatest of all its errors was that of appointing to the
provinces, instead of the single Pasha of the olden time, three
different governors, civil, military, and fiscal, all depending upon
the supreme council at Constantinople. Thus each province has three
plunderers instead of one, and its affairs are referred to a body that
can take no interest in it.
[FN#28] Ziyad bin Abihi was sent by Al-Mu'awiyah, the Caliph, to reform
Al-Basrah, a den of thieves; he made a speech, noticed that he meant to
rule with the sword, and advised all offenders to leave the city. The
inhabitants were forbidden under pain of death to appear in the streets
after evening prayers, and dispositions were made to secure the
execution of the penalty. Two hundred persons were put to death by the
patrol during the first night, only five during the second, and not a
drop of blood was shed afterwards. By similar severity, the French put
an end to assassination at Naples, and the Austrians at Leghorn. We may
deplore the necessity of having recourse to such means, but it is a
silly practice to salve the wound which requires the knife.
[FN#29] These remarks were written in 1853: I see no reason to change
them in 1878.
[FN#30] A weak monarch, a degenerate government, a state whose
corruption is evidenced by moral decay, a revenue bolstered up by a
system of treasury paper, which even the public offices discount at
from three to six per cent., an army accustomed to be beaten, and
disorganised provinces; these, together with the proceedings of a
ruthless and advancing enemy, form the points of comparison between the
Constantinople of the present day and the Byzantine metropolis eight
hundred years ago. Fate has marked upon the Ottoman Empire in Europe
"delenda est": we are now witnessing the efforts of human energy and
ingenuity to avert or to evade the fiat.
[FN#31] When water cannot be obtained for ablution before prayers,
Moslems clap the palms of their hands upon the sand, and draw them down
the face and both fore-arms. This operation, which is performed once or
twice-it varies in different schools-is called Tayammum.
[FN#32] I write this word as my companions pronounced it. Burckhardt
similarly gives it "Djedeyde," and Ali Bey "Djideïda." Giovanni Finati
wrongly calls the place "Jedeed Bughaz," which Mr. Bankes, his editor,
rightly translates the "new opening or pass."
[FN#33] Al-Khayf is a common name for places in this part of Arabia.
The word literally means a declivity or a place built upon a declivity.
[FN#34] Bughaz means in Turkish the fauces, the throat, and signifies
also here a gorge, or a mountain pass. It is the word now commonly used
in Al-Hijaz for the classical "Nakb," or "Mazik." Vincent (Periplus)
errs in deriving the word from the Italian "Bocca."
[FN#35] Giovanni Finati, who was present at this hard-fought field as a
soldier in Tussun's army, gives a lively description of the disastrous
"day of Jadaydah" in vol.
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