Fruits Were Then Placed Upon The Table; Plates Full Of
Pomegranate Grains And Dates Of The Finest Flavour.[FN#16] The Dinner
Concluded With A Pillaw Of Rice And Butter, For The Easier Discussion
Of Which We Were Provided With Carved Wooden Spoons.
Arabs ignore the delightful French art of prolonging a dinner.
After
washing your hands, you sit down, throw an embroidered napkin over your
knees, and with a “Bismillah,” by way of grace, plunge your hand into the
attractive dish, changing ad libitum, occasionally sucking your
finger-tips as boys do lollipops, and varying that diversion by
cramming a chosen morsel into a friend’s mouth. When your hunger is
satisfied, you do not sit for your companions; you exclaim “Al Hamd!” edge
away from the tray, wash your hands and mouth with soap, display signs
of repletion, otherwise you will be pressed to eat more, seize your
pipe, sip your coffee, and take your “Kayf.” Nor is it customary, in these
lands, to sit together after dinner—the evening prayer cuts short the
seance. Before we rose to take leave of Ali bin Ya Sin, a boy ran into
the room, and displayed those infantine civilities which in the East
are equivalent to begging a present. I slipped a dollar into his hand;
at the sight of which he, veritable little Meccan, could not contain
his joy. “The Riyal!” he exclaimed; “the Riyal! look, grandpa’, the good
Effendi has given me a Riyal!” The old gentleman’s eyes twinkled with
emotion: he saw how easily the coin had slipped from my fingers, and he
fondly hoped that he had not seen the last piece. “Verily thou art a good
[p.258] young man!” he ejaculated, adding fervently, as prayers cost
nothing, “May Allah further all thy desires.” A gentle patting of the back
evidenced his high approval.
I never saw old Ali after that evening, but entrusted to the boy
Mohammed what was considered a just equivalent for his services.
[FN#1] Jabal Nur, or Hira, has been mentioned before. Jabal Saur rises
at some distance to the South of Meccah, and contains the celebrated
cave in which Mohammed and Abu Bakr took refuge during the flight.
[FN#2] The tradition of these places is related by every historian. The
former is the repository of the Black Stone during the Deluge. The
latter, “splitting of the moon,” is the spot where the Prophet stood when,
to convert the idolatrous Kuraysh, he caused half the orb of night to
rise from behind Abu Kubays, and the other from Jabal Kayka’an, on the
Western horizon. This silly legend appears unknown to Mohammed’s day.
[FN#3] The pilgrimage season, strictly speaking, concluded this year on
the 17th September (13th Zu’l Hijjah); at which time travellers began to
move towards Jeddah. Those who purposed visiting Al-Madinah would start
about three weeks afterwards, and many who had leisure intended
witnessing the Muharram ceremonies at Meccah.
[FN#4] This is the local tradition; it does not agree with authentic
history. Muir (Life of Mahomet, vol. iv. p. 126) reminds me that Khalid
and his Badawin attacked the citizens of Meccah without the Prophet’s
leave. But after the attack he may have followed in his leader’s train.
[FN#5] The reason of their Vandalism has been noticed in a previous
volume.
[FN#6] The Aloe here, as in Egypt, is hung, like the dried crocodile,
over houses as a talisman against evil spirits. Burckhardt assigns, as
a motive for it being planted in graveyards, that its name Saber
denotes the patience with which the believer awaits the Last Day. And
Lane remarks, “The Aloe thus hung (over the door), without earth and
water, will live for several years, and even blossom: hence it is
called Saber, which signifies patience.” In India it is hung up to
prevent Mosquitoes entering a room. I believe the superstition to be a
fragment of African fetichism. The Gallas, to the present day, plant
Aloes on graves, and suppose that when the plant sprouts the deceased
has been admitted into the gardens of “Wak”—the Creator. Ideas breed
vocables; but seldom, except among rhymesters, does a vocable give
birth to a popular idea: and in Arabic “Sibr,” as well as “Sabr,” is the name
of the Aloe.
[FN#7] Burckhardt mentions the “Tomb of Umna, the mother of Mohammed,” in
the Ma’ala at Meccah; and all the ciceroni agree about the locality. Yet
historians place it at Abwa, where she gave up the ghost, after
visiting Al-Madinah to introduce her son to his relations. And the
learned believe that the Prophet refused to pray over or to intercede
for his mother, she having died before Al-Islam was revealed.
[FN#8] Burckhardt calls it “Maulid Sittna Fatimah”: but the name “Kubbat el
Wahy,” applied by my predecessor to this locality, is generally made
synonymous with Al-Mukhtaba, the “hiding-place” where the Prophet and his
followers used in dangerous times to meet for prayer.
[FN#9] So loose is local tradition, that some have confounded this
quern with the Natak al-Nabi, the stone which gave God-speed to the
Prophet.
[FN#10] He would of course pray the Farz, or obligatory devotions, at
the shrine.
[FN#11] About a year since writing the above a firman was issued by the
Porte suppressing the traffic from Central Africa. Hitherto we have
respected slavery in the Red Sea, because the Turk thence drew his
supplies; we are now destitute of an excuse. A single steamer would
destroy the trade, and if we delay to take active measures, the people
of England, who have spent millions in keeping up a West African
squadron, will not hold us guiltless of negligence.
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.—The slave trade has, since these remarks were
penned, been suppressed with a high hand; the Arabs of Al-Hijaz
resented the measure by disowning the supremacy of the Porte, but they
were soon reduced to submission.
[FN#12] The Prince was first invested with the Sharifat by Mohammed Ali
of Egypt in A.D. 1827, when Yahya fled, after stabbing his nephew in
the Ka’abah, to the Benu Harb Badawin.
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