Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah Volume I Part 23

Though the house was not grand, it was made lively by the varied views out of the Majlis' windows. From the East, you looked upon the square Al-Barr, the town walls and houses beyond it, the Egyptian gate, the lofty minarets of the Harim, and the distant outlines of Jabal Ohod.[FN#17] The north commanded a prospect of Mohammed's Mosque, one of the Khamsah Masajid,[FN#18] or the five suburban Mosques[FN#19]; of part of the fort-wall; and, when the Damascus Caravan came in, of the gay scene of the "Prado" beneath. The Majlis was tolerably cool during the early part of the day: in the afternoon the sun shone fiercely upon it. I have described the establishment at some length as a specimen of how the middle cla.s.ses are lodged at Al-Madinah. The upper ranks affect Turkish and Egyptian luxuries in their homes, as I had an opportunity of seeing at Omar Effendi's house in the "Barr;" and in these countries the abodes of the poor are everywhere very similar.

Our life in Shaykh Hamid's house was quiet, but not disagreeable. I never once set eyes upon the face of woman, unless the African slave girls be allowed the t.i.tle. Even these at first attempted to draw their ragged veils over their sable charms, and would not answer the simplest question; by degrees they allowed me to see them, and they ventured their voices to reply to me; still they never threw off a certain appearance of shame.[FN#20]

[p.298] I never saw, nor even heard, the youthful mistress of the household, who stayed all day in the upper rooms. The old lady, Hamid's mother, would stand upon the stairs, and converse aloud with her son, and, when few people were about the house, with me. She never, however, as afterwards happened to an ancient dame at Meccah, came and sat by my side.

When lying during mid-day in the gallery, I often saw parties of women mount the stairs to the Gynaeconitis, and sometimes an individual would stand to shake a m.u.f.fled hand[FN#21] with Hamid, to gossip awhile, and to put some questions concerning absent friends; but they were most decorously wrapped up, nor did they ever deign to deroger, even by exposing an inch of cheek.

At dawn we arose, washed, prayed, and broke our fast[FN#22] upon a crust of stale bread, before smoking a pipe, and drinking a cup of coffee.[FN#23] Then it was time to dress, to mount, and to visit the Harim or one of the Holy Places outside the city. Returning before the sun became intolerable, we sat together, and with conversation, Shishas and Chibuks,[FN#24] coffee, and cold water perfumed with mastich-smoke,[FN#25] we whiled away the time till our

[p.299] "Ariston," a dinner which appeared at the primitive hour of 11 A.M. The meal, here called Al-Ghada, was served in the Majlis on a large copper tray, sent from the upper apartments. e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. "Bismillah"-the Moslem "grace"-we all sat round it, and dipped equal hands in the dishes set before us. We had usually unleavened bread, different kinds of meat and vegetable stews; and, at the end of the first course, plain boiled rice eaten with spoons; then came the fruits, fresh dates, grapes, and pomegranates.

After dinner I used invariably to find some excuse-such as the habit of a "Kaylulah[FN#26]" (mid-day siesta) or the being a "Saudawi[FN#27]"-a person of melancholy temperament-to have a rug spread in the dark pa.s.sage behind

[p.300] the Majlis; and there to lie reading, dozing, smoking, or writing, en cachette, in complete deshabille, all through the worst part of the day, from noon to sunset.

Then came the hour for receiving or paying visits. We still kept up an intimacy with Omar Effendi and Sa'ad the Demon, although Salih Skakkar and Amm Jamal, either disliking our society, or perhaps thinking our sphere of life too humble for their dignity, did not appear once in Hamid's house. The evening prayers ensued, either at home, or in the Harim, followed by our Asha or "deipnon," another substantial meal like the dinner, but more plentiful, of bread, meat, vegetables, plain rice and fruits, concluding with the invariable pipes and coffee.

To pa.s.s our soiree, we occasionally dressed in common clothes, shouldered a Nabbut,[FN#28] and went to the cafe; sometimes on festive occasions we indulged in a Taatumah (or Itmiyah), a late supper of sweetmeats, pomegranates, and dried fruits. Usually we sat upon mattresses spread upon the ground in the open air at the Shaykh's door; receiving evening visits, chatting, telling stories, and making merry, till each, as he felt the approach of the drowsy G.o.d, sank down into his proper place, and fell asleep.

Whatever may be the heat of the day, the night at Al-Madinah, owing, I suppose, to its elevated position, is cool and pleasant. In order to allay the dust, the ground before the Shaykh's door was watered every evening, and the evaporation was almost too great to be safe,-the boy Mohammed suffered from a smart attack of lumbago,

[p.301] which, however, yielded readily to frictions of olive oil in which ginger had been boiled.

Our greatest inconvenience at night-time was the pugnacity of the animal creation. The horses of the troopers tethered in the Barr were sure to break loose once in twelve hours. Some hobbled old nag, having slipped the headstall, would advance with kangaroo-leaps towards a neighbour against whom it had a private grudge. Their heads would touch for a moment; then came a snort and a whinny, a furious kick, and, lastly, a second horse loose and dashing about with head and tail viciously c.o.c.ked. This was the signal for a general breaking of halters and heel-ropes; after which, a "stampede" scoured the plain, galloping, rearing, kicking, biting, snorting, pawing, and screaming, with the dogs barking sympathetically, and the horse-keepers shouting in hot pursuit.

It was a strange sight to see by moonlight the forms of these "demon steeds" exaggerated by the shades; and, on more than one occasion, we had all to start up precipitately from our beds, and yield them to a couple of combatants who were determined to fight out their quarrel a l'outrance, wherever the battle-field might be.

The dogs at Al-Madinah are not less pugnacious than the horses.[FN#29]

They are stronger and braver than those that haunt the streets at Cairo; like the Egyptians, they have amongst themselves a system of police regulations, which brings down all the posse comitatus upon the unhappy straggler who ventures into a strange quarter of the town. They certainly met in Al-Barr upon common

[p.302] ground, to decide the differences which must arise in so artificial a state of canine society.

Having had many opportunities of watching them, I can positively a.s.sert that they were divided into two parties, which fought with a skill and an acharnement that astounded me. Sometimes when one side gave way, and as the retreat was degenerating into a sauve qui peut, some proud warrior, a dog-hero, would sacrifice himself for the public weal, and with gnashing teeth and howls of rage encounter the a.s.saults of the insolent victors until his flying friends had time to recover heart.

Such an one my companions called "Mubariz.[FN#30]" At other times, some huge animal, an Ajax of his kind, would plunge into the ring with frantic yells, roll over one dog, snap at a second, worry a third for a minute or two, and then dash off to a distant part, where a thicker field required his presence. This uncommon sagacity has been remarked by the Arabs, who look on amused at their battles. Current in Al-Hijaz are also certain superst.i.tions about the dog resembling ours; only, as usual, more poetical and less grotesque. Most people believe that when the animal howls without apparent cause in the neighbourhood of a house, it forbodes death to one of the inmates; for the dog they say can distinguish the awful form of Azrail, the Angel of Death, hovering over the doomed abode, whereas man's spiritual sight is dull and dim by reason of his sins.

When the Damascus Caravan entered Al-Madinah, our day became a little more amusing. From the windows of Shaykh Hamid's house there was a perpetual succession of strange scenes. A Persian n.o.bleman, also, had pitched his tents so near the door, that the whole course of his private life became public and patent to the boy Mohammed,

[p.303] who amused his companions by reporting all manner of ludicrous scenes. The Persian's wife was rather a pretty woman, and she excited the youth's fierce indignation, by not veiling her face when he gazed at her,-thereby showing that, as his beard was not grown, she considered him a mere boy.

"I will ask her to marry me," said Mohammed, "and thereby rouse her shame!"

He did so, but, unhappy youth! the fair Persian never even ceased fanning herself.

The boy Mohammed was for once confounded.

[FN#1] In the East, wherever there is a compound of fort and city, that place has certainly been in the habit of being divided against itself.

Surat in Western India is a well-known instance. I must refer the reader to Burckhardt (Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., page 281, and onwards) for a detailed account of the feuds and affrays between the "Agha of the Castle" and the "Agha of the Town." Their day has now gone by,-for the moment.

[FN#2] Sir John Mandeville, writing in the 14th century, informed Europe that "Machomet lyeth in the Cytee of Methone." In the 19th century, Mr. Halliwell, his editor, teaches us in a foot-note that "Methone" is Meccah! It is strange how often this gross mistake is still made by respectable authors in France as well as in England.

[FN#3] This torrent is called Al-Sayh,-"the Running Water,"-which, properly speaking, is the name of a well-wooded Wady outside the town, in the direction of Kuba.

[FN#4] "Manakhah" is a place where camels kneel down; it is a derivation from the better known root to "Nakh," or cause the animal to kneel.

[FN#5] Arabs, and, indeed, most Orientals, are generally received after returning from a journey, with shrill cries of joy by all the fair part of the household, and they do not like strangers to hear this demonstration.

[FN#6] An Eastern Barber is not content to pa.s.s the razor over hairy spots: he must sc.r.a.pe the forehead, trim the eyebrows, clean the cheeks, run the blade rapidly over the nose, correct the upper and under lines of the mustaches, parting them in the centre, and so on.

[FN#7] Halaili is a cotton stuff, with long stripes of white silk, a favourite material amongst the city Arabs. At Constantinople, where the best is sold, the piece, which will cut into two shirts, costs about thirty shillings.

[FN#8] The "Mizz" (in colloquial Arabic Misd) are the tight-fitting inner slippers of soft Cordovan leather, worn as stockings inside the slipper; they are always clean, so they may be retained in the Mosque or on the Diwan (divan or sofa).

[FN#9] The Majlis ("the Place of Sitting") is the drawing or reception room; it is usually in the first story of the house, below the apartments of the women.

[FN#10] The coffee drank at Al-Madinah is generally of a good quality.

In Egypt that beverage in the common coffee-shops is,-as required to be by the people who frequent those places,-"bitter as death, black as Satan, and hot as Jahannam." To effect this desideratum, therefore, they toast the grain to blackness, boil it to bitterness, and then drink scalding stuff of the consistency of water-gruel. At Al-Madinah, on the contrary,-as indeed in the houses of the better cla.s.ses even in Egypt,-the grain is carefully picked, and that the flavour may be preserved, it is never put upon the fire until required. It is toasted too till it becomes yellow, not black; and afterwards is bruised, not pounded to powder. The water into which it is thrown is allowed to boil up three times, after which a cold sprinkling is administered to clear it, and then the fine light-dun infusion is poured off into another pot. Those who admire the "Kaimak," or froth, do not use a second vessel. The Arabs seldom drink more than one cup of coffee at a time, but with many the time is every half-hour of the day. The coffee-husk or "Kishr" of Al-Yaman is here unknown.

[FN#11] The common name for the Russians in Egypt and Al-Hijaz.

[FN#12] The Greeks are well known at Al-Madinah, and several of the historians complain that some of the minor holy places had fallen into the hands of this race, (Moslems, or pretended Moslems, I presume), who prevented people visiting them. It is curious that the impostor Cagliostro should have hit upon the truth when he located Greeks at Al-Madinah [FN#13] Parents and full-grown men amuse themselves with grossly abusing children, almost as soon as they can speak, in order to excite their rage, and to judge of their dispositions. This supplies the infant population with a large stock-in-trade of ribaldry. They literally lisp in bad language.

[FN#14] The Hanafiyah is a large vessel of copper, sometimes tinned, with a c.o.c.k in the lower part, and, generally, an ewer, or a basin, to receive the water.

[FN#15] It is wonderful that this most comfortable, inexpensive, and ornamental style of furnishing a room, has not been oftener imitated in India and the hot countries of Europe. The Diwan-it must not be confounded with the leathern perversion which obtains that name in our club smoking-rooms-is a line of flat cushions ranged round the room, either placed upon the ground, or on wooden benches, or on a step of masonry; varying in height according to the fashion of the day. When such foundation is used, it should be about a yard in breadth, and slope very gently from the outer edge towards the wall, for the greater convenience of reclining. Cotton-stuffed pillows, covered with chintz for summer, and silk for winter, are placed against the wall, and can be moved to make a luxurious heap; their covers are generally all of the same colour, except those at the end. The seat of honour is denoted by a small square cotton-stuffed silk coverlet, placed in one of the corners, which the position of the windows determines, the place of distinction being on the left of the host. Thus in Egypt you have a neatly-furnished room for L5 or L6.

[FN#16] The Madinah Shisha is a large cocoa-nut, with a tall wooden stem, both garnished with bra.s.s ornaments; some trifling differences in the latter distinguish it from the Meccah pipe. Both are inconveniently mounted upon small bra.s.s tripods, and are easily overturned, scattering fire and water over the carpets. The "lay," or snakes, are the substantial manufacture of Al-Yaman. Some grandees at Al-Madinah have gla.s.s Turkish Shishas and Constantinople snakes, which are of admirable elegance, compared with the clumsy and unsightly Arab inventions. (See page 80, ante.) [FN#17] From this window I sketched the walls and the Egyptian gate of Al-Madinah.

[FN#18] "Five mosques."

[FN#19] This Mosque must not be confounded with the Harim. It is described in Chapter XV.

[FN#20] Their voices are strangely soft and delicate, considering the appearance of the organs from which they proceed. Possibly this may be a characteristic of the African races; it is remarkable amongst the Somali women.

[FN#21] After touching the skin of a strange woman, it is not lawful in Al-Islam to pray without ablution. For this reason, when a fair dame shakes hands with you, she wraps up her fingers in a kerchief, or in the end of her veil.

[FN#22] Naf.u.kku'r rik, literally, "Let us open the saliva," is most idiomatic Hijazi for the first morsel eaten in the morning. Hence it is called Fakkur' rik, also Gura and Tasbih: the Egyptians call it "Al-Fatur."

[FN#23] Orientals invariably begin by eating an "akratisma" in the morning before they will smoke a pipe, or drink a cup of coffee; they have also an insuperable prejudice against the internal use of cold water at this hour.

[FN#24] The tobacco generally smoked here is Syrian, which is brought down in large quant.i.ties by the Damascus caravan. Latakia is more expensive, and generally too dry to retain its flavour.

[FN#25] The interior of the water jar is here perfumed with the smoke of mastich, exactly as described by Lane, (Mod. Egyptians, vol i. ch.

5). I found at Al-Madinah the prejudice alluded to by Sonnini, namely, that the fumes of the gum are prejudicial, and sometimes fatal to invalids.

[FN#26] Kaylulah is the half hour's siesta about noon. It is a Sunnat, and the Prophet said of it, "Kilu, fa inna 'sh' Shayatina la Takil,"-"Take the mid-day siesta, for, verily, the demons sleep not at this hour." "Aylulah" is slumbering after morning prayers (our "beauty sleep"), which causes heaviness and inability to work. Ghaylulah is the sleeping about 9 A.M., the effect of which is poverty and wretchedness.

Kaylulah (with the guttural kaf) is sleeping before evening prayers, a practice reprobated in every part of the East. And, finally, Faylulah is sleeping immediately after sunset,-also considered highly detrimental.

[FN#27] The Arabs, who suffer greatly from melancholia, are kind to people afflicted with this complaint; it is supposed to cause a distaste for society, and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs. Probably it is the effect of overworking the brain, in a hot dry atmosphere. I have remarked, that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst their philosophers and literary men, there is scarcely an individual who was not spoken of as a "Saudawi." My friend Omar Effendi used to complain, that at times his temperament drove him out of the house,-so much did he dislike the sound of the human voice,-to pa.s.s the day seated upon some eminence in the vicinity of the city.

[FN#28] This habit of going out at night in common clothes, with a Nabbut upon one's shoulders, is, as far as I could discover, popular at Al-Madinah, but confined to the lowest cla.s.ses at Meccah. The boy Mohammed always spoke of it with undisguised disapprobation. During my stay at Meccah, I saw no such costume amongst respectable people there; though oftentimes there was a suspicion of a disguise.

[FN#29] Burckhardt (Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., p. 268) remarks that Al-Madinah is the only town in the East from which dogs are excluded.

This was probably as much a relic of Wahhabi-ism, (that sect hating even to look at a dog), as arising from apprehension of the Mosque being polluted by canine intrusion. I have seen one or two of these animals in the town, but I was told, that when they enter it in any numbers, the police-magistrate issues orders to have them ejected.

[FN#30] The "Mubariz" is the single combatant, the champion of the Arabian cla.s.sical and chivalrous times.

[p.304]CHAPTER XVI.

A VISIT TO THE PROPHET'S TOMB.

Having performed the greater ablution, and used the toothstick as directed, and dressed ourselves in white clothes, which the Apostle loved, we were ready to start upon our holy errand. As my foot still gave me great pain, Shaykh Hamid sent for a donkey. A wretched animal appeared, raw-backed, lame of one leg, and wanting an ear, with accoutrements to match, a pack-saddle without stirrups, and a halter instead of a bridle. Such as the brute was, however, I had to mount it, and to ride through the Misri gate, to the wonder of certain Badawin, who, like the Indians, despise the a.s.s.

"Honourable is the riding of a horse to the rider, But the mule is a dishonour, and the donkey a disgrace,"

says their song. The Turkish pilgrims, however, who appear to take a pride in ignoring all Arab points of prejudice, generally mount donkeys when they cannot walk. The Badawin therefore settled among themselves, audibly enough, that I was an Osmanli, who of course could not understand Arabic, and they put the question generally,

"By what curse of Allah had they been subjected to a.s.s-riders?"

But Shaykh Hamid is lecturing me upon the subject of the Mosque.

The Masjid Al-Nabawi, or the Prophet's Mosque, is one of the Haramayn, or the "two sanctuaries" of Al-Islam,

[p.305] and is the second of the three[FN#1] most venerable places of worship in the world; the other two being the Masjid al-Harim at Meccah (connected with Abraham) and the Masjid al-Aksa of Jerusalem (the peculiar place of Solomon). A Hadis or traditional saying of Mohammed a.s.serts, "One prayer in this my Mosque is more efficacious than a thousand in other places, save only the Masjid al-Harim.[FN#2]" It is therefore the visitor's duty, as long as he stays at Al-Madinah, to pray there the five times per diem, to pa.s.s the day in it reading the Koran, and the night, if possible, in watching and devotion.

A visit to the Masjid al-Nabawi, and the holy spots within it, is technically called "Ziyarat" or Visitation.[FN#3] An essential difference is made between this rite and Hajj or pilgrimage. The latter is obligatory by Koranic order upon every Moslem once in his life: the former is only a meritorious action. "Tawaf," or circ.u.mambulation of the House of Allah at Meccah, must never be performed at the Apostle's tomb. This should not be visited in the Ihram or pilgrim dress; men should not kiss it, touch it with the hand, or press the bosom against it, as at the Ka'abah; or rub the face with dust collected near the sepulchre; and those who prostrate themselves before it, like certain ignorant Indians, are held to be

[p.306] guilty of deadly sin. On the other hand, to spit upon any part of the Mosque, or to treat it with contempt, is held to be the act of an Infidel.