Duty.
“2. That all merchandise imported by British subjects from countries not
under the dominion of the Porte should likewise pay but 5 per cent.
“3. That all goods exported from countries under the dominion of the
Porte should pay 12 per cent., after a deduction of 16 per cent. from
the market-value of the articles.
“4. That all monopolies be abolished.”
“Now, when I arrived at Jeddah, the state of affairs was this. A monopoly
had been established upon salt, and this weighed only upon our
Anglo-Indian subjects, they being the sole purchasers. Five per cent.
was levied upon full value of goods, no deduction of the 20 per cent.
being allowed; the same was the case with exports; and most vexatious
of all, various charges had been established by the local authorities,
under the names of boat-hire, weighing, brokerage, &c., &c. The duties
had thus been raised from 4 to at least 8 per cent. * * * This
being represented at Constantinople, brought a peremptory Firman,
ordering the governor to act up to the treaty letter by letter. * *
* I have had the satisfaction to rectify the abuses of sixteen years’
standing during my first few months of office, but I expect all manner
of difficulties in claiming reimbursement for the over-exactions.”
[FN#10] M. Rochet (soi-disant d’Hericourt) amusingly describes this
manśuvre of the governor of Al-Hodaydah.
[FN#11] Many of them were afterwards victims to the “Jeddah massacre” on
June 30, 1858. I must refer the reader to my “Lake Regions of Central
Africa” (Appendix, vol. ii.) for an account of this event, for the
proposals which I made to ward it off, and for the miserable folly of
the “Bombay Government,” who rewarded me by an official reprimand.
[FN#12] The curious reader will find details concerning Patriarchal and
Prophetical Tombs in “Unexplored Syria,” i. 33—35.
[p.277] APPENDICES.
[p.279] APPENDIX I.
OF HAJJ, OR PILGRIMAGE.
The word Hajj is explained by Moslem divines to mean “Kasd,” or aspiration,
and to express man’s sentiment that he is but a wayfarer on earth wending
towards another and a nobler world. This explains the origin and the
belief that the greater the hardships the higher will be the reward of
the pious wanderer. He is urged by the voice of his soul: “O thou who
toilest so hard for worldly pleasures and perishable profit, wilt thou
endure nothing to win a more lasting reward?” Hence it is that pilgrimage
is common to all old faiths. The Hindus still wander to Egypt, to
Tibet, and to the inhospitable Caucasus; the classic philosophers
visited Egypt; the Jews annually flocked to Jerusalem; and the Tartars
and Mongols—Buddhists—journey to distant Lamaserais. The spirit of
pilgrimage was predominant in medićval Europe, and the processions of the
Roman Catholic Church are, according to her votaries,[FN#1] modern
memorials of the effete rite.
Every Moslem is bound, under certain conditions,[FN#2]
[p.280] to pay at least one visit to the Holy City. This constitutes
the Hajjat al-Farz (the one obligatory pilgrimage), or Hajjat al-Islam,
of the Mohammedan faith. Repetitions become mere Sunnats, or practices
of the Prophet, and are therefore supererogatory. Some European writers
have of late years laboured to represent the Meccan pilgrimage as a
fair, a pretext to collect merchants and to afford Arabia the benefits
of purchase and barter. It would be vain to speculate whether the
secular or the spiritual element originally prevailed; but most
probably each had its portion. But those who peruse this volume will
see that, despite the comparatively lukewarm piety of the age, the
Meccan pilgrimage is religious essentially, accidentally an affair of
commerce.
Moslem pilgrimage is of three kinds.
1. Al-Mukarinah (the uniting) is when the votary performs the Hajj and
the Umrah[FN#3] together, as was done by the Prophet in his last visit
to Meccah.
2. Al-Ifrad (singulation) is when either the Hajj or the Umrah is
performed singularly, the former preceding the latter. The pilgrim may
be either Al-Mufrid b’il Hajj
[p.281] (one who is performing only the Hajj), or vice versa, Al-Mufrid
b’il Umrah. According to Abu Hanifah, this form is more efficacious than
the following.
3. Al-Tamattu (“possession”) is when the pilgrim assumes the Ihram, and
preserves it throughout the months of Shawwal, Zu’l Ka’adah, and nine days
(ten nights) in Zu’l Hijjah,[FN#4] performing Hajj and Umrah the while.
There is another threefold division of pilgrimage:—
1. Umrah (the little pilgrimage), performed at any time except the
pilgrimage season. It differs in some of its forms from Hajj, as will
afterwards appear.
2. Hajj (or simple pilgrimage), performed at the proper season.
3. Hajj al-Akbar (the great pilgrimage) is when the “day of Arafat” happens
to fall upon a Friday. This is a most auspicious occasion. M. Caussin
de Perceval and other writers, departing from the practice of (modern?)
Islam, make “Hajj al-Akbar” to mean the simple pilgrimage, in opposition to
the Umrah, which they call “Hajj al-Asghar.”
The following compendium of the Shafe’i pilgrim-rites is translated from
a little treatise by Mohammed of Shirbin, surnamed Al-Khatib, a learned
doctor, whose work is generally read in Egypt and in the countries
adjoining.
CHAPTER I.—OF PILGRIMAGE.[FN#5]
“Know,” says the theologist, with scant preamble, “that the acts of Al-Hajj,
or pilgrimage, are of three kinds:—
[p.282]
“1. Al-Arkan or Farayz; those made obligatory by Koranic precepts, and
therefore essentially necessary, and not admitting expiatory or
vicarious atonement, either in Hajj or Umrah.
“2.
