Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah Volume Ii Part 2

1 lb. coffee, 4 piastres, (the Yamani is the only kind drunk here).

1 lb. tea, 15 piastres, (black tea, imported from India).

1 lb. European loaf-sugar, 6 piastres, (white Egyptian, 5 piastres brown Egyptian, 3 piastres; brown Indian, for cooking and conserves, 3 piastres).

1 lb. spermaceti candles, 7 piastres, (called wax, and imported from Egypt).

1 lb. tallow candles, 3 piastres.

1 Ardeb wheat, 295 piastres.

1 Ardeb onions, 33 piastres, (when cheap 20, when dear 40).

1 Ardeb barley, 120 piastres, (minimum 90, maximum 180).

1 Ardeb rice, Indian, 302 piastres, (it varies from 260 to 350 piastres, according to quality).

Durrah or maize is generally given to animals, and is very cheap.

Barsim (clover, a bundle of) 3 Wakkiyahs, (36 Dirhams), costs 1 parah.

Adas or Lentil is the same price as rice.

1 lb. Latakia tobacco, 16 piastres.

1 lb. Syrian tobacco, 8 piastres.

1 lb. Tumbak (Persian), 6 piastres.

1 lb. olive oil, 6 piastres, (when cheap it is 4).

A skin of water, 1/2 piastre.

Bag of charcoal, containing 100 Wukkah, 10 piastres. The best kind is made from an Acacia called "Samur."

The Parah (Turkish), Faddah (Egyptian), or Diwani (Hijazi word), is the 40th part of a piastre, or nearly the quarter of a farthing. The piastre is about 2 and two-fifths pence. Throughout Al-Hijaz there is no want of small change, as in Egypt, where the deficiency calls for the attention of the Government.

[FN#21] Physiologists have remarked that fat and greasy food, containing a quant.i.ty of carbon, is peculiar to cold countries; whereas the inhabitants of the tropics delight in fruits, vegetables, and articles of diet which do not increase caloric. This must be taken c.u.m grano. In Italy, Spain, and Greece, the general use of olive oil begins. In Africa and Asia-especially in the hottest parts-the people habitually eat enough clarified b.u.t.ter to satisfy an Esquimaux.

[FN#22] In Persia, you jocosely say to a man, when he is threatened with a sudden inroad of guests, "Go and swamp the rice with Raughan (clarified b.u.t.ter)."

[FN#23] Among the Indians, ghi, placed in pots carefully stopped up and kept for years till a hard black ma.s.s only remains, is considered a panacea for diseases and wounds.

[FN#24] Some of these slaves come from Abyssinia: the greater part are driven from the Galla country, and exported at the harbours of the Somali coast, Berberah, Tajurrah, and Zayla. As many as 2000 slaves from the former place, and 4000 from the latter, are annually shipped off to Mocha, Jeddah, Suez, and Maskat. It is strange that the Imam of the latter place should voluntarily have made a treaty with us for the suppression of this vile trade, and yet should allow so extensive an importation to his dominions.

[FN#25] More will be said concerning the origin of this strange custom, when speaking of Meccah and the Meccans.

[FN#26] The word Tarbush is a corruption from the Persian Sarpush,-"head-covering," "head-dress." The Anglo-Saxon further debases it to "Tarbush." The other name for the Tarbush, "Fez," denotes the place where the best were made. Some Egyptians distinguish between the two, calling the large high crimson cap "Fez," the small one "Tarbush."

[FN#27] In India, as in Sind, a lady of fashion will sometimes be occupied a quarter of an hour in persuading her "bloomers" to pa.s.s over the region of the ankle.

[FN#28] In the plural called Jadail. It is a most becoming head-dress when the hair is thick, and when-which I regret to say is rare in Arabia-the twists are undone for ablution once a day.

[FN#29] Plural of "Hurrah," the free, the n.o.ble.

[FN#30] See vol. i., p. 436, ante.

[FN#31] This appears to be, and to have been, a favourite weapon with the Arabs. At the battle of Ohod, we read that the combatants amused themselves with throwing stones. On our road to Meccah, the Badawi attacked a party of city Arabs, and the fight was determined with these harmless weapons. At Meccah, the men, as well as the boys, use them with as much skill as the Somalis at Aden. As regards these feuds between different quarters of the Arab towns, the reader will bear in mind that such things can co-exist with considerable amount of civilization. In my time, the different villages in the Sorrentine plain were always at war. The Irish still fight in bodies at Birkenhead. And in the days of our fathers, the gamins of London amused themselves every Sunday by pitched battles on Primrose Hill, and the fields about Marylebone and St. Pancras.

[FN#32] Alluding especially to their revengefulness, and their habit of storing up an injury, and of forgetting old friendships or benefits, when a trivial cause of quarrel arises.

[FN#33] The sentence is pa.s.sed by the Kazi: in cases of murder, he tries the criminal, and, after finding him guilty, sends him to the Pasha, who orders a Kawwas, or policeman, to strike off his head with a sword. Thieves are punished by mutilation of the hand. In fact, justice at Al-Madinah is administered in perfect conformity with the Shariat or Holy Law.

[FN#34] Circ.u.mcisio utriusque s.e.xus apud Arabos mos est vetustissimus.

Aiunt theologi mutilationis hujus religiosae inventricem esse Saram, Abrahami uxorem quae, zelotypia incitata, Hagaris amorem minuendi gratia, somnientis puellae c.l.i.toridem exstirpavit. Deinde, Allaho jubente, Sara et Abrahamus ambo pudendorum partem cultello abscissere.

Causa autem moris in viro mundities salusque, in puella impudicitiae prophylactica esse videntur. Gentes Asiaticae sinistra tantum manu abluentes utuntur; omnes quoque feminarem decies magis quam virorum libidinem aestimant. (c.l.i.toridem amputant, quia, ut monet Aristoteles, pars illa sedes est et scaturigo veneris-rem plane profanam c.u.m Sonninio exclamemus!) Nec excogitare potuit philosophus quanti et quam portentosi sunt talis mutilationis effectus. Mulierum minuuntur affectus, amor, voluptas. Cresc.u.n.t tamen feminini doli, crudelitas, vitia et insatiabilis luxuria. (Ita in Eunuchis nonnunquam, teste Abelardo, suberstat cerebelli potestas, quum cupidinis satiandi facultas plane discessit.) Virilis quoque circ.u.mcisio lentam venerem et difficilem efficit. Glandis enim mollities frictione induratur, dehinc coitus tristis, tardus parumque vehemens. Forsitan in quibusdam populis localis quoque causa exist.i.t; caruncula immoderate crescente, amputationis necessitas exurgit. Deinde apud Somalos, gentem Africanam, excisio nympharum abscissioni c.l.i.toridis adjungitur. "Feminina circ.u.mcisio in Kahira Egyptiana et El Hejazio mos est universalis. Gens Bedouina uxorem salvam ducere nolit."-Shaykh al-Nawawi "de Uxore ducenda," &c., &c.

[FN#35] A phrase corresponding with our "beaute du diable."

[FN#36] This means consulting the will of the Deity, by praying for a dream in sleep, by the rosary, by opening the Koran, and other such devices, which bear blame if a negative be deemed necessary. It is a custom throughout the Moslem world, a relic, doubtless, of the Azlam or Kidah (seven divining-arrows) of the Pagan times. At Al-Madinah it is generally called Khirah.

[FN#37] Among respectable citizens 400 dollars would be considered a fair average sum; the expense of the ceremony would be about half. This amount of ready money (150) not being always procurable, many of the Madani marry late in life.

[FN#38] Boys are allowed to be present, but they are not permitted to cry. Of their so misdemeaning themselves there is little danger; the Arab in these matters is a man from his cradle.

[FN#39] They are called the Asdikah; in the singular, Sadik.

[FN#40] From what I saw at Al-Madinah, the people are not so unprejudiced on this point as the Cairenes, who think little of selling a book in Wakf. The subject of Wakf, however, is an extensive one, and does not wholly exclude the legality of sale.

[FN#41] This Shaykh is a Maliki Moslem from Algiers, celebrated as an Alim (sage), especially in the mystic study Al-Jafr. He is a Wali or saint; but opinions differ as regards his Kiramat (saint's miracles): some disciples look upon him as the Mahdi (the forerunner of the Prophet), others consider him a clever impostor. His peculiar dogma is the superiority of live over dead saints, whose tombs are therefore not to be visited-a new doctrine in a Maliki! Abbas Pasha loved and respected him, and, as he refused all presents, built him a new Zawiyah (oratory) at Bulak; and when the Egyptian ruler's mother was at Al-Madinah, she called upon him three times, it is said, before he would receive her.

His followers and disciples are scattered in numbers about Tripoli and, amongst other oases of the Fezzan, at Siwah, where they saved the Abbe Hamilton's life in A.D[.] 1843.

[FN#42] Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. p. 174.

[FN#43] Of which I have given an account in chapter xvi.

[FN#44] The only abnormal sound amongst the consonants heard here and in Al-Hijaz generally is the p.r.o.nouncing of k (A[rabic]) a hard g-for instance, "Gur'an" for "Kur'an" (a Koran), and Haggi or Hakki (my right). This g, however, is p.r.o.nounced deep in the throat, and does not resemble the corrupt Egyptian p.r.o.nunciation of the jim (j, [Arabic]), a letter which the Copts knew not, and which their modern descendants cannot articulate. In Al-Hijaz, the only abnormal sounds amongst the vowels are o for u, as Khokh, a peach, and [Arabic] for [Arabic], as Ohod for Uhud. The two short vowels fath and kasr are correctly p.r.o.nounced, the former never becoming a short e, as in Egypt (El for Al and Yemen for Yaman), or a short i, as in Syria ("min" for "man" who? &c.) These vowels, however, are differently articulated in every part of the Arab world.

So says St. Jerome of the Hebrew: "Nec refert atrum Salem aut Salim nominetur; c.u.m vocalibus in medio literis perraro utantur Hebraei; et pro voluntate lectorum, ac varietate regionum, eadem verba diversis sonis atque accentibus proferantur."

[FN#45] e.g., Ant Zarabt-thou struckedst-for Zarabta. The final vowel, suffering apocope, would leave "Zarabt" equally applicable to the first person singular and the second person singular masculine.

[p.28]CHAPTER XXII.

A VISIT TO THE SAINTS' CEMETERY.

A splendid comet, blazing in the western sky, had aroused the apprehensions of the Madani. They all fell to predicting the usual disasters-war, famine, and pestilence,-it being still an article of Moslem belief that the Dread Star foreshows all manner of calamities. Men discussed the probability of Abd al-Majid's immediate decease; for here as in Rome,

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen: The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes:"

and in every strange atmospheric appearance about the time of the Hajj, the Hijazis are accustomed to read tidings of the dreaded Rih al-Asfar.[FN#l]

Whether the event is attributable to the Zu Zuwabah-the "Lord of the Forelock,"-or whether it was a case of post hoc, erg, propter hoc, I would not commit myself by deciding; but, influenced by some cause or other, the Hawazim and the Hawamid, sub-families of the Benu-Harb, began to fight about this time with prodigious fury. These tribes are generally at feud, and the least provocation fans their smouldering wrath into a flame. The Hawamid number, it is said, between three and four thousand fighting men, and the Hawazim not more than seven hundred: the latter however, are considered a race of desperadoes who pride themselves upon never retreating,

[p.29]and under their fiery Shaykhs, Abbas and Abu Ali, they are a thorn in the sides of their disproportionate foe. On the present occasion a Hamidah[FN#2] happened to strike the camel of a Hazimi which had trespa.s.sed; upon which the Hazimi smote the Hamidah, and called him a rough name. The Hamidah instantly shot the Hazimi, the tribes were called out, and they fought with asperity for some days. During the whole of the afternoon of Tuesday, the 30th of August, the sound of firing amongst the mountains was distinctly heard in the city. Through the streets parties of Badawin, sword and matchlock in hand, or merely carrying quarterstaves on their shoulders, might be seen hurrying along, frantic at the chance of missing the fray. The townspeople cursed them privily, expressing a hope that the whole race of vermin might consume itself. And the pilgrims were in no small trepidation, fearing the desertion of their camel-men, and knowing what a blaze is kindled in this inflammable land by an ounce of gunpowder. I afterwards heard that the Badawin fought till night, and separated after losing on both sides ten men.

This quarrel put an end to any lingering possibility of my prosecuting my journey to Maskat,[FN#3] as originally intended. I had on the way from Yambu' to Al-Madinah privily made a friendship with one Mujrim of the Benu-Harb. The "Sinful," as his name, ancient and cla.s.sical amongst the Arabs, means, understood that I had some motive of secret interest to undertake the perilous journey. He could not promise at first to guide me, as his beat lay between Yambu', Al-Madinah, Mec[c]ah, and Jeddah. But he offered to make all inquiries about the route, and to

[p.30] bring me the result at noonday, a time when the household was asleep. He had almost consented at last to travel with me about the end of August, in which case I should have slipped out of Hamid's house and started like a Badawi towards the Indian Ocean. But when the war commenced, Mujrim, who doubtless wished to stand by his brethren the Hawazim, began to show signs of recusancy in putting off the day of departure to the end of September. At last, when pressed, he frankly told me that no traveller-nay, not a Badawi-could leave the city in that direction, even as far as historic Khaybar,[FN#4] which information I afterwards ascertained to be correct. It was impossible to start alone, and when in despair I had recourse to Shaykh Hamid, he seemed to think me mad for wishing to wend Northwards when all the world was hurrying towards the South. My disappointment was bitter at first, but consolation soon suggested itself. Under the most favourable circ.u.mstances, a Badawi-trip from Al-Madinah to Maskat, fifteen or sixteen hundred miles, would require at least ten months; whereas, under pain of losing my commission,[FN#5] I was ordered to be at Bombay before the end of March. Moreover, entering Arabia by Al-Hijaz, as has before been said, I was obliged to leave behind all my instruments except a watch and a pocket-compa.s.s, so the benefit rendered to geography by my trip would have been scanty. Still remained

[p.31] to me the comfort of reflecting that possibly at Meccah some opportunity of crossing the Peninsula might present itself. At any rate I had the certainty of seeing the strange wild country of the Hijaz, and of being present at the ceremonies of the Holy City. I must request the reader to bear with a Visitation once more: we shall conclude it with a ride to Al-Bakia.[FN#6] This venerable spot is frequented by the pious every day after the prayer at the Prophet's Tomb, and especially on Fridays.

Our party started one morning,-on donkeys, as usual, for my foot was not yet strong,-along the Darb al-Janazah round the Southern wall of the town. The locomotion was decidedly slow, princ.i.p.ally in consequence of the tent-ropes which the Hajis had pinned down literally all over the plain, and falls were by no means unfrequent. At last we arrived at the end of the Darb, where I committed myself by mistaking the decaying place of those miserable schismatics the Nakhawilah[FN#7] for Al-Bakia, the glorious cemetery of the Saints. Hamid corrected my blunder with tartness, to which I replied as tartly, that in our country-Afghanistan-we burned the body of every heretic upon whom we could lay our hands. This truly Islamitic custom was heard with general applause, and as the little dispute ended, we stood at the open gate of Al-Bakia. Then having dismounted I sat down on a low Dakkah or stone bench within the walls, to obtain a general view and to prepare for the most fatiguing of the Visitations.

There is a tradition that seventy thousand, or according to others a hundred thousand saints, all with faces like full moons, shall cleave on the last day the yawning bosom

[p.32] of Al-Bakia.[FN#8] About ten thousand of the Ashab (Companions of the Prophet) and innumerable Sadat are here buried: their graves are forgotten, because, in the olden time, tombstones were not placed over the last resting-places of mankind. The first of flesh who shall arise is Mohammed, the second Abu Bakr, the third Omar, then the people of Al-Bakia (amongst whom is Osman, the fourth Caliph), and then the incol[ae] of the Jannat al-Ma'ala, the Meccan cemetery. The Hadis, "whoever dies at the two Harims shall rise with the Sure on the Day of judgment,"

has made these spots priceless in value. And even upon earth they might be made a mine of wealth. Like the catacombs at Rome, Al-Bakia is literally full of the odour of sanct.i.ty, and a single item of the great aggregate here would render any other Moslem town famous. It is a pity that this people refuses to exhume its relics.

The first person buried in Al-Bakia was Osman bin Maz'un, the first of the Muhajirs, who died at Al-Madinah. In the month of Sha'aban, A.H. 3, the Prophet kissed the forehead of the corpse and ordered it to be interred within sight of his abode.[FN#9] In those days the field was covered with the tree Gharkad; the vegetation was cut down, the ground was levelled, and Osman was placed in the centre of the new cemetery.

With his own hands Mohammed planted two large upright stones at the head and the feet of his faithful follower[FN#10]; and in process of time a dome covered the spot. Ibrahim, the Prophet's infant second

[p.33] son, was laid by Osman's side, after which Al-Bakia became a celebrated cemetery.

The Burial-place of the Saints is an irregular oblong surrounded by walls which are connected with the suburb at their south-west angle.

The Darb al-Janazah separates it from the enceinte of the town, and the eastern Desert Road beginning from the Bab al-Jumah bounds it on the North. Around it palm plantations seem to flourish. It is small, considering the extensive use made of it: all that die at Al-Madinah, strangers as well as natives, except only heretics and schismatics, expect to be interred in it. It must be choked with corpses, which it could never contain did not the Moslem style of burial greatly favour rapid decomposition; and it has all the inconveniences of "intramural sepulture." The gate is small and ign.o.ble; a mere doorway in the wall.

Inside there are no flower-plots, no tall trees, in fact none of the refinements which lightens the gloom of a Christian burial-place: the buildings are simple, they might even be called mean. Almost all are the common Arab Mosque, cleanly whitewashed, and looking quite new. The ancient monuments were levelled to the ground by Sa'ad the Wahhabi and his puritan followers, who waged pitiless warfare against what must have appeared to them magnificent mausolea, deeming as they did a loose heap of stones sufficient for a grave. In Burckhardt's time the whole place was a "confused acc.u.mulation of heaps of earth, wide pits, and rubbish, without a singular regular tomb-stone." The present erections owe their existence, I was told, to the liberality of the Sultans Abd al-Hamid and Mahmud.

A poor pilgrim has lately started on his last journey, and his corpse, unattended by friends or mourners, is carried upon the shoulders of hired buriers into the cemetery. Suddenly they stay their rapid steps, and throw the body upon the ground. There is a life-like pliability

[p.34] about it as it falls, and the tight cerements so define the outlines that the action makes me shudder. It looks almost as if the dead were conscious of what is about to occur. They have forgotten their tools; one man starts to fetch them, and three sit down to smoke.

After a time a shallow grave is hastily scooped out.[FN#11] The corpse is packed in it with such unseemly haste that earth touches it in all directions,-cruel carelessness among Moslems, who believe this to torture the sentient frame.[FN#12] One comfort suggests itself. The poor man being a pilgrim has died "Shahid"-in martyrdom. Ere long his spirit shall leave Al-Bakia,

"And he on honey-dew shall feed, And drink the milk of Paradise."

I entered the holy cemetery right foot forwards, as if it were a Mosque, and barefooted, to avoid suspicion of being a heretic. For though the citizens wear their shoes in the Bakia, they are much offended at seeing the Persians follow their example. We began by the general benediction[FN#13]: "Peace be upon Ye, O People of Al-Bakia!

Peace be upon Ye, O Admitted to the Presence of the

[p.35] Most High! Receive Ye what Ye have been promised! Peace be upon Ye, Martyrs of Al-Bakia, One and All! We verily, if Allah please, are about to join You! O Allah, pardon us and Them, and the Mercy of G.o.d, and His Blessings!" After which we recited the Chapter Al-Ikhlas and the Testification, then raised our hands, mumbled the Fatihah, pa.s.sed our palms down our faces, and went on.

Walking down a rough narrow path, which leads from the western to the eastern extremity of Al-Bakia, we entered the humble mausoleum of the Caliph Osman-Osman "Al-Mazlum," or the "ill-treated," he is called by some Moslems. When he was slain,[FN#14] his friends wished to bury him by the Prophet in the Hujrah, and Ayishah made no objection to the measure. But the people of Egypt became violent; swore that the corpse should neither be buried nor be prayed over, and only permitted it to be removed upon the threat of Habibah (one of the "Mothers of the Moslems,"

and daughter of Abu Sufiyan) to expose her countenance. During the night that followed his death, Osman was carried out by several of his friends to Al-Bakia, from which, however, they were driven away, and obliged to deposit their burden in a garden, eastward of and outside the saints' cemetery. It was called Hisn Kaukab, and was looked upon as an inauspicious place of sepulture, till Marwan included it in Al-Bakia. We stood before Osman's monument, repeating, "Peace be upon Thee, O our Lord Osman, Son of Affan![FN#15] Peace be upon