The Rest Of The Population Of Al-Madinah Is A Motley Race Composed Of
Offshoots From Every Nation In Al-Islam.
The sanctity of the city
attracts strangers, who, purposing to stay but a short time, become
residents; after finding some employment, they marry, have families,
die, and are buried there with an eye to the spiritual advantages of
the place.
I was much importuned to stay at Al-Madinah. The only known
physician was one Shaykh Abdullah Sahib, an Indian, a learned man, but
of so melancholic a temperament, and so ascetic in his habits, that his
knowledge was entirely lost to the public. “Why dost thou not,” said my
friends, “hire a shop somewhere near the Prophet’s Mosque? There thou wilt
eat bread by thy skill, and thy soul will have the blessing of being on
holy ground.” Shaykh Nur also opined after a short residence at
Al-Madinah that it was bara jannati Shahr, a “very heavenly City,” and
little would have induced him to make it his home. The present ruling
race at Al-Madinah, in consequence of political vicissitudes, is the
“Sufat,[FN#8]” sons of Turkish fathers by Arab mothers. These half-castes
are now numerous, and have managed to secure the highest and most
lucrative offices. Besides Turks, there are families originally from
the Maghrib, Takruris, Egyptians in considerable numbers, settlers from
Al-Yaman and other parts of Arabia, Syrians, Kurds, Afghans,
Daghistanis from the Caucasus, and a few Jawis—Java Moslems. The Sindis,
I was told, reckon about one hundred families, who are exceedingly
despised for their
[p.6]cowardice and want of manliness, whilst the Baluch and the Afghan
are respected. The Indians are not so numerous in proportion here as at
Meccah; still Hindustani is by no means uncommonly heard in the
streets. They preserve their peculiar costume, the women persisting in
showing their faces, and in wearing tight, exceedingly tight,
pantaloons. This, together with other reasons, secures for them the
contempt of the Arabs. At Al-Madinah they are generally small
shopkeepers, especially druggists and sellers of Kumash (cloth), and
they form a society of their own. The terrible cases of misery and
starvation which so commonly occur among the improvident Indians at
Jeddah and Meccah are here rare.
The Hanafi school holds the first rank at Al-Madinah, as in most parts
of Al-Islam, although many of the citizens, and almost all the Badawin,
are Shafe’is. The reader will have remarked with astonishment that at one
of the fountain-heads of the faith, there are several races of
schismatics, the Benu Hosayn, the Benu Ali, and the Nakhawilah. At the
town of Safra there are said to be a number of the Zuyud
schismatics,[FN#9] who visit Al-Madinah, and have settled in force at
Meccah, and some declare that the Bayazi sect[FN#10] also exists.
The citizens of Al-Madinah are a favoured race, although the city is
not, like Meccah, the grand mart of the Moslem world or the
meeting-place of nations. They pay no taxes, and reject the idea of a
“Miri,” or land-cess, with extreme disdain. “Are we, the children of the
Prophet,” they exclaim, “to support or to be supported?” The Wahhabis, not
understanding the argument, taxed them,
[p.7]as was their wont, in specie and in materials, for which reason
the very name of those Puritans is an abomination. As has before been
shown, all the numerous attendants at the Mosque are paid partly by the
Sultan, partly by Aukaf, the rents of houses and lands bequeathed to
the shrine, and scattered over every part of the Moslem world. When a
Madani is inclined to travel, he applies to the Mudir al-Harim, and
receives from him a paper which entitles him to the receipt of a
considerable sum at Constantinople. “The “Ikram” (honorarium), as it is
called, varies with the rank of the recipient, the citizens being
divided into these four orders, viz.
First and highest, the Sadat (Sayyids),[FN#11] and Ima[m]s, who are
entitled to twelve purses, or about £60. Of these there are said to be
three hundred families.
The Khanahdan, who keep open house and receive poor strangers gratis.
Their Ikram amounts to eight purses, and they number from a hundred to
a hundred and fifty families.
The Ahali[FN#12] (burghers) or Madani properly speaking, who have homes
and families, and were born in Al-Madinah. They claim six purses.
The Mujawirin, strangers, as Egyptians or Indians, settled at, though
not born in, Al-Madinah. Their honorarium is four purses.
The Madani traveller, on arrival at Constantinople, reports his arrival
to his Consul, the Wakil al-Haramayn. This “Agent of the two Holy Places”
applies to the Nazir al-Aukaf, or “Intendant of Bequests”; the latter,
[p.8]after transmitting the demand to the different officers of the
treasury, sends the money to the Wakil, who delivers it to the
applicant. This gift is sometimes squandered in pleasure, more often
profitably invested either in merchandise or in articles of home-use,
presents of dress and jewellery for the women, handsome arms,
especially pistols and Balas[FN#13] (yataghans), silk tassels, amber
pipe-pieces, slippers, and embroidered purses. They are packed up in
one or two large Sahharahs, and then commences the labour of returning
home gratis. Besides the Ikram, most of the Madani, when upon these
begging trips, are received as guests by great men at Constantinople.
The citizens whose turn it is not to travel, await the Aukaf and
Sadakat (bequests and alms),[FN#14] forwarded every year by the
Damascus Caravan; besides which, as has been before explained, the
Harim supplies even those not officially employed in it with many
perquisites.
Without these advantages Al-Madinah would soon be abandoned to
cultivators and Badawin. Though commerce is here honourable, as
everywhere in the East, business is “slack,[FN#15]” because the higher
classes prefer the idleness of administering their landed estates, and
being servants to the Mosque.
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