At No Great
Distance From The Masjid There Rise On The Left-Hand Side Of The Wady
Two High Peaks Called Jebel Yasum And Jebel Kafw.
Both were the refuge
of numerous monkeys, who used to invade the neighbouring vineyards.
As
you go down Wady Nakhla the first place of importance you meet is
al-Zayma. Close to it was a garden which, during the reign of Moqtadir,
belonged to the Hashimite Prince Abd Allah, and was in a most
flourishing condition. It produced an abundance of henna, plantains,
and vegetables of every description, and yielded a revenue of five
thousand Dinar-mithqals (about £2,860) annually. A canal from Wady (the
river) Nakhla feeds a fountain which jets forth in the midst of the
garden, and lower down a tank. In the garden stood a fort (which in a
dilapidated condition is extant to this day, and spoken of by
Burckhardt). It was built of huge stones, guarded for the defence of
the property by the Banu Sa’d, and tenanted by the servants and followers
of the proprietor. Below al-Zayma is Sabuha, a post-station where a
relay of horses was kept for the transport of Government Despatches. To
give an idea of the distances, I may mention that the post-stages were
twelve Arabic miles asunder, which on this road are rather larger than
an English geographical mile. The first station from Meccah was
Moshash, the second Sabuha, and the third was at the foot of the hill
Yasum. The author of the commentary from which I derive this
information leaves Wady Nakhla soon after Sabuha, and
[p.408] turns his steps towards the holy city. He mentions “the steep
rocky Pass” up which Burton toiled with difficulty, and calls it Orayk.
Though he enters into many details, he takes no notice of the hill-girt
plain called Sola. This name occurs however in an Arabic verse, apud
Yacut, vol. ii. p. 968: “In summer our pasture-grounds are in the country
of Nakhla, within the districts of al-Zayma and Sola.”
In W[a]dy Fatima, Burckhardt found a perennial rivulet, coming from the
Eastward, about three feet broad and two feet deep. It is certain that
Wady Fat?ima, formerly called Wady Marr, is a continuation of Wady
Nakhla, and Yacut considers in one passage Nakhla as a subdivision of
Marr, and in another Marr as part of Wady Nakhla; but we do not know
whether the rivulet, which at al-Zayma seems to be of considerable
size, disappears under the sand in order to come forth again in W[a]dy
Marr, or whether it forms an uninterrupted stream. In ancient times the
regular Baghdad-Meccah Road did not run down from Dzat-Irq by the
Northern Nakhla which Burton followed, but it crossed this Wady near
its Northern end and struck over to the Southern Nakhla as far as Qarn
almarazil, which for a long time was the second station from Meccah,
instead of Dzat-cIrq.
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