This May Be A
Clerical Error, For To The Present Day All Know It As Al-Ma’Abidah
(Pronounced Al-Mab’Da).
The Nubian describes it as a “stone castle, three
miles from the town, in a palm garden.” The word “Ma’
Abidah,” says Kutb al-Din,
means a “body of servants,” and is applied generally to this suburb because
here was a body of Badawin in charge of the Masjid al-Ijabah, a Mosque
not now existing.
[FN#33] I cannot conceive what made the accurate Niebuhr fall into the
strange error that “apparitions are unknown in Arabia.” Arabs fear to sleep
alone, to enter the bath at night, to pass by cemeteries during dark,
and to sit amongst ruins, simply for fear of apparitions. And Arabia,
together with Persia, has supplied half the Western world with its
ghost stories and tales of angels, demons, and fairies. To quote
Milton, the land is struck “with superstition as with a planet.”
[FN#34] This is a synopsis of our marches, which, protracted on
Burckhardt’s map, gives an error of ten miles.
1. From Al-Madinah to Ja al-Sharifah, S.E. 50° - 22 Miles
2. From Ja al-Sharifah to Ghurab, S.W. 10° - 24 Miles
3. From Ghurab to Al-Hijriyah, S.E. 22° - 25 Miles
4. From Al-Hijriyah to Al-Suwayrkiyah, S.W. 11° - 28 Miles
5. From Al-Suwayrkiyah to Al-Sufayna, S.E. 5° - 17 Miles
6. From Al-Sufayna to the “Benu Mutayr,” S.W. 20° - 18 Miles
7.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 204 of 630
Words from 54918 to 55173
of 175520
