The Pilgrims
Make A Roundabout, And Take This Road, If They Suffer From Want Of
Water.
The pass of Sufayna, by which they have to descend, is very
difficult.” The ridges over which the road leads are called al-Sitar, and
are described by Yacut, vol.
Iii. p. 38, as a range of red hills,
flanking Sufayna, with defiles which serve as passes. Burton, vol. ii.
p. 128, describes them as low hills of red sandstone and bright
porphyry. Zobayda, whose name the partly improved, partly newly opened
Hajj-Road from Baghdad to Meccah bore, was the wife of Caliph Harun,
and it appears from Burton, pp. 134 and 136, that the improvements made
by this spirited woman—as the wells near Ghadir, and the Birkat (Tank)—are
now ascribed to her weak, fantastical, and contemptible husband.
Burton’s description of the plain covered with huge boulders and
detached rocks (p. 131) puts us in mind of
[p.404] the Felsenmeer in the Odenwald. Yacut, vol. iii. p. 370,
describes the two most gigantic of these rock-pillars, which are too
far to the left of Burton’s road than that he could have seen them: “Below
Sufayna in a desert plain there rise two pillars so high that nobody,
unless he be a bird, can mount them; the one is called cAmud (column)
of al-Ban, after the place al-Ban, and the other cAmud of al-Safh. They
are both on the right-hand side of the (regular) road from Baghdad to
Meccah, one mile from Ofayciya (a station on the regular road which
answers to Sufayna).” Such desolate, fantastic scenery is not rare in
Arabia nor close to the western coast of the Red Sea. The Fiumara, from
which Burton (p. 138) emerged at six A.M., Sept. 9, was crossed by
Burckhardt at Kholayc, and is a more important feature of the country
than the two travellers were aware of. There are only five or six
Wadies which break through the chain of mountains that runs parallel
with the Red Sea, and of these, proceeding from south to north, Wady
Nakhla (Wady Laymun) is the first, and this Fiumara the second. Early
geographers call it Wady Amaj, or after a place of some importance
situated in its lower course, Wady Saya. Hamdany, p. 294, says: “Amaj and
Ghoran are two Wadies which commence in the Harra (volcanic region) of
the Beni Solaym, and reach the sea.” The descriptions of this Wady
compiled by Yacut, vol. iii. pp. 26 and 839, are more ample. According
to one, it contains seventy springs: according to another, it is a Wady
which you overlook if you stand on the Sharat (the mountain now called
Jebel Cobh). In its upper course it runs between the two Hamiya, which
is the name of two black volcanic regions. It contains several villages
of note, and there lead roads to it from various parts of the country.
In its uppermost part lies the village of Faric with date-groves,
cultivated fields and gardens, producing plantains, pomegranates, and
grapes, and in its lower
[p.405] course, close to Saya, the rich and populous village Mahaya.
The whole Wady is one of the Acradh (oasis-like districts) of Madina,
and is administered by a Lieutenant of the Governor of that city. Yacut
makes the remark to this description: “I do not know whether this valley
is still in the same condition, or whether it has altered.” Though we
know much less of it than Yacut, we may safely assert that the
cultivation has vanished and the condition has altered.
At Zariba ([Arabic], Dhariba) Burton and his party put on the Ihram
(pilgrim-garb). If the Baghdadlies follow the regular road they perform
this ceremony at Dzat-Irq, which lies somewhat lower down than Dhariba,
to the South-east of it, and therefore the rain-water which falls in
Dhariba flows in the shape of a torrent to Dzat-Irq, and is thence
carried off by the Northern Nakhla. Above the station of Dzat-Irq there
rise ridges called Irq; up these ridges the regular Baghdad Road
ascends to the high-plateau, and they are therefore considered by early
geographers as the western limit of Nejd. Omara apud Yacut, vol. iv. p.
746, says: “All the country in which the water flows in an Easterly
(North-easterly) direction, beginning from Dzat-Irq as far as
Babylonia, is called Nejd; and the country which slopes Westwards, from
Dzat-Irq to Tihama (the coast), is called Hijaz.” The remarks of Arabic
geographers on the Western watershed, and those of Burton, vol. ii. pp.
142 and 154, illustrate and complete each other most satisfactorily. It
appears from Yacut that the Fiumara in which Burton’s party was attacked
by robbers takes its rise at Ghomayr close to Dzat-Irq, that there were
numerous date-groves in it, and that it falls at Bostan Ibn camir into
the Nakhla, wherefore it is called the Northern Nakhla. The Southern
Nakhla, also called simply Nakhla, a term which is sometimes reserved
for the trunk formed by the junction of the Southern and Northern
[p.406] Nakhla from Bostan Ibn camir downwards, is on account of its
history one of the most interesting spots in all Arabia; I therefore
make no apology for entering on its geography. In our days it is called
Wady Laymun, and Burckhardt, vol. i. p. 158, says of it: “Zeyme is a
half-ruined castle, at the eastern extremity of Wady Lymoun, with
copious springs of running water. Wady Lymoun is a fertile valley,
which extends for several hours (towards West) in the direction of Wady
Fatme (anciently called Batn Marr, or Marr-Tzahran, which is, in fact,
a continuation of Wady Nakhla). It has many date-plantations, and
formerly the ground was cultivated; but this, I believe, has ceased
since the Wahabi invasion: its fruit-gardens, too, have been ruined.
This (he means the village Laymun, compare Burton, vol.
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