His Pride And Reserve Have Made Him Few Friends, Although
The Meccans, With Their Enthusiastic Nationality, Extol His Bravery To
The Skies, And Praise Him For Conduct As Well As For Courage.
His
position at present is anomalous.
Ahmad Pasha of Al-Hijaz rules
politically as representative of the Sultan. The Sharif, who, like the
Pope, claims temporal as well as spiritual dominion, attempts to
command the authorities by force of bigotry. The Pasha heads the
Turkish, now the ruling party. The Sharif has in his interest the Arabs
and the Badawin. Both thwart each other on all possible occasions;
quarrels are bitter and endless; there is no government, and the vessel
of the State is in danger of being water-logged, in consequence of the
squabbling between her two captains. When I was at Meccah all were in a
ferment, the Sharif having, it is said, insisted upon the Pasha leaving
Taif. The position of the Turks in Al-Hijaz becomes every day more
dangerous. Want of money presses upon them, and reduces them to
degrading measures. In February, 1853, the Pasha hired a forced loan
from the merchants, and but for Mr. Cole’s spirit and firmness, the
English proteges would have been compelled to contribute their share.
After a long and animated discussion, the Pasha yielded the point by
imprisoning his recusant subjects, who insisted upon Indians paying,
like themselves. He waited in person with an apology upon Mr. Cole.
Though established at Jeddah since 1838, the French and English
Consuls, contented with a proxy, never required a return of visit from
the Governor. If the Turks be frequently reduced to such expedients for
the payment of their troops, they will soon be swept from the land. On
the other hand, the Sharif approaches a crisis. His salary, paid by the
Sultan, may be roughly estimated at £15,000 per annum. If the Turks
maintain their footing in Arabia, it will probably be found that an
honourable retreat at Stambul is better for the thirty-first descendant
of the Prophet than the turbulent life of Meccah; or that a reduced
allowance of £500 per annum would place him in a higher spiritual, though
in a lower temporal position. Since the above was written the Sharif
Abd al-Muttalib has been deposed. The Arabs of Al-Hijaz united in
revolt against the Sultan, but after a few skirmishes they were reduced
to subjection by their old ruler the Sharif bin Aun.
[FN#31] Saniyat means a “winding path,” and Kuda’a, “the cut.” Formerly Meccah
had three gates: 1. Bab al-Ma’ala, North-East; 2. Bab al-Umrah, or Bab
al-Zahir, on the Jeddah road, West; and 3[.] Bab al-Masfal on the Yaman
road. These were still standing in the twelfth century, but the walls
were destroyed. It is better to enter Meccah by day and on foot; but
this is not a matter of vital consequence in pilgrimage.
[FN#32] It is a large whitewashed building, with extensive wooden
balconied windows, but no pretensions to architectural splendour.
Around it trees grow, and amongst them I remarked a young cocoa.
Al-Idrisi (A.D. 1154) calls the palace Al-Marba’ah. 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. From the “Benu Mutayr” to Al-Ghadir, S.W. 21° - 20 Miles
8. From Al-Ghadir to Al-Birkat, S.E. 10° - 24 Miles
9. From Al-Birkat to Al-Zaribah, S.E. 56° - 23 Miles
10.From Al-Zaribah to Wady Laymun, S.W. 50° - 24 Miles
11.From Wady Laymun to Meccah, S.E. 45° - 23 Miles
Total English miles 248
[p.157]PART III.
MECCAH.
[p.159]CHAPTER XXVII.
THE FIRST VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF ALLAH.
THE boy Mohammed left me in the street, and having at last persuaded
the sleepy and tired Indian porter, by violent kicks and testy answers
to twenty cautious queries, to swing open the huge gate of his
fortress, he rushed up stairs to embrace his mother. After a minute I
heard the Zaghritah,[FN#1] Lululu, or shrill cry which in these lands
welcomes the wanderer home; the sound so gladdening to the returner
sent a chill to the stranger’s heart.
Presently the youth returned. His manner had changed from a boisterous
and jaunty demeanour to one of grave and attentive courtesy—I had become
his guest. He led me into the gloomy hall, seated me upon a large
carpeted Mastabah, or platform, and told his bara Miyan[FN#2] (great
Sir), the Hindustani porter, to bring a light.
[p.160] Meanwhile a certain shuffling of slippered feet above informed
my ears that the Kabirah,[FN#3] the mistress of the house, was intent
on hospitable thoughts.
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