Travels in Arabia Part 1

Travels In Arabia.

by John Lewis Burckhardt.

PREFACE.

SOME years have now elapsed since two distinct portions of Burckhardt's works (his Travels in Nubia and Syria) were offered to the public, and most favourably received; their success being insured not only by instrinsic merit, but by the celebrity of their editor as a scholar and antiquary, a traveller and a geographer. It must not however be inferred, from any delay in publishing the present volume, that its contents are less worthy of notice than those parts which have already proved so interesting and instructive to a mult.i.tude of readers. It was always intended that this Journal, and other writings of the same lamented author, should issue successively from the press: "There still remain," says Colonel Leake, in his Preface to the Syrian Journal (p.

ii.) "ma.n.u.scripts sufficient to fill two volumes: one of these will consist of his Travels in Arabia, which were confined to the Hedjaz or Holy Land of the Muselmans, the part least accessible to Christians; the fourth volume will contain very copious remarks on the Arabs of the Desert, and particularly the Wahabys."

[p.vi] Respecting the portion now before the reader, Colonel Leake, in another place, expresses a highly flattering opinion. "Burckhardt," says he, "transmitted to the a.s.sociation the most accurate and complete account of the Hedjaz, including the cities of Mekka and Medina, which has ever been received in Europe. His knowledge of the Arabic language, and of Mohammedan manners, had enabled him to a.s.sume the Muselman character with such success, that he resided at Mekka during the whole time of the pilgrimage, and pa.s.sed through the various ceremonies of the occasion, without the smallest suspicion having arisen as to his real character." (See the Life of Burckhardt prefixed to his Travels in Nubia, p. lvii. 4to. edition, 1819).

Recommended so strongly, the work of a less eminent traveller would be ent.i.tled to our notice: this presents itself with another claim; for the ma.n.u.script Journal was partly corrected and prepared for publication by the learned editor of Burckhardt's former writings. But some important literary occupations prevented Colonel Leake from superintending the progress of this volume through the press. His plan, however, has been almost invariably adopted by the actual editor; particularly in expressing with scrupulous fidelity the author's sentiments on all occasions, and in retaining, without any regard to mere elegance of style or selection of terms, his original language, wherever an alteration was not absolutely necessary to reconcile with our system of phraseology and grammatical construction certain foreign idioms which had crept into his English writings. [It was thought expedient, from circ.u.mstances of typographical convenience tending to facilitate and expedite the publication of this volume, that the Arabic characters which in the original ma.n.u.script follow immediately certain words, or appear between the lines or in the margin, should here be placed together at the end, as an Index, with references to the pages wherein they occur.]

[p.vii] The map prefixed to this volume might almost appear superfluous, since the positions of Djidda, Mekka, Medina, Tayf, and Yembo, the chief places of Hedjaz visited by Burckhardt, are indicated with accuracy in the excellent maps that ill.u.s.trate his Nubian and Syrian Travels. But as the reader of this volume cannot reasonably be supposed to have constantly at hand, for immediate reference, the two former portions of our author's works, a map is here given, in the construction and delineation of which Mr. Sydney Hall has attended to every suggestion offered by the editor: at whose recommendation the names of places are spelt after Burckhardt's manner, however different from that more usual among us. [Thus in the map as in the letter-press of this volume, Mekka might have been spelt Mecca; and Hejaz, Jidda, Nejed, would as well express the proper sounds of those words as Hedjaz, Djidda, Nedjed; and at the same time approximate more closely to the original Arabic orthography, by which our English j (as in Jar, James, &c.) is represented without the a.s.sistance of a d; although the prefixing of this letter to the j might prevent a Frenchman from p.r.o.nouncing it as in jour, jamais, &c.]

By the editor's advice, also, several places situate beyond the Eastern limits of Hedjaz are included in this map; since Burckhardt, although he did not visit them himself, has given some original itineraries, in which they are mentioned.

That those places do not belong to the region properly denominated Hedjaz, is evident; but how far this region extends eastward cannot easily be determined; and the same difficulty respecting it occurs in various directions. The editor, that he might ascertain by what boundaries we are justified in supposing Hedjaz to be separated from other provinces of Arabia, consulted a multiplicity of authors, both European and Oriental. The result, however, of his inquiry has not proved satisfactory; for to each of the neighbouring countries.

[p.viii] certain writers have a.s.signed towns, stations, and districts, which by others of equal authority are placed in Hedjaz.

Such confusion may partly have arisen from the different statements of the number, extent, and names of divisions comprised within the same s.p.a.ce; this being occupied, according to European writers, by three great regions, the Stony, the Desert, and the Happy Arabia; while Oriental geographers part.i.tion it into two, five, six, seven, or more provinces, under denominations by no means corresponding in signification to the epithets above mentioned, which we have borrowed from the Greeks and Romans.

That it would be a most difficult, or scarcely possible task, to fix precisely the limits of each Arabian province, is acknowledged by that excellent geographer, D'Anville; but he seems disposed to confound the region comprising Mekka, Djidda, and Yembo, (places which, as we know, are unequivocally in Hedjaz,) with Arabia Felix. [D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne.] D'Herbelot, in one place, declares Hedjaz to be Arabia Petraea, [See the Bibliotheque Orientale in "Hegiaz ou Higiaz"--"Nom d'une province de l'Arabie, que nous appelons Pierreuse," &c.-- Richardson also, in his Arabic and Persian Dictionary, explains Hijaz by "Mecca and the adjacent country, Arabia Petraea;" and Demetrias Alexandrides, who translated some portions of Abulfeda's Geography into Greek, (printed at Vienna, 1807, 8vo.) always renders Hedjaz by [Greek text] and in another he identifies it with Arabia Deserta. ["Les Provinces de Tahama et d'Iemamah sont comme au coeur du pays; celle de Hegiaz est devenue la plus celebre a cause des villes de la Mecque et de Medine, et fait avec les deux dernieres que nous avons nommees ce que nous appelons l'Arabie Deserte."--Biblioth. Orient. in "Arab."]]

Among the Eastern writers, some divide Arabia into two parts, Yemen and Hedjaz; others into five great provinces, Yemen, Hedjaz, Nedjed, Tehama, and Yemama. Bahrein has also been included;

[p.ix] and Aroudh is named as an Arabian province, but appears to be the same as Yemama. Hadramaut, Mahrah, Shejr, Oman, and other subdivisions have likewise been reckoned independent provinces by some, while many confound them with the greater regions, Yemen and Hedjaz. To the latter, indeed, are often a.s.signed even the extensive countries of Nedjed, Tehama, and Yemama.

Respecting the boundaries of all these provinces, much embarra.s.sment has arisen from contradictory statements made by several of the most eminent Oriental geographers; Edrisi, Abulfeda, Al Madaieni, Ibn Haukal, Ibn el Vardi, Bakoui, and others. Mr. Rommel, a very ingenious commentator on Abulfeda's "Arabia," is frequently obliged to acknowledge the difficulty of ascertaining where one division begins and another terminates. With regard, more particularly, to the boundaries of Hedjaz, Abulfeda is silent; but it appears that his opinion, so far as Mr. Rommel could collect from incidental accounts of places a.s.signed to this province and adjoining territories, did not in all respects coincide with the statements of other celebrated geographers. [See "Christophori Rommel Abulfedea Arabiae Descriptio, commentario perpetuo ill.u.s.trata,"

Gottingae, 1802, 4to. "Ambitum et fines hujus provinciae Abulfeda designare supersedet.--Al Madaieni haec profert: 'Hhegiaz est provincia complectens illum tractum montium qui inde ab Yaman expansus usque ad Sham (Syriam) protenditur. In eo tractu sitae sunt Madinah et Amman'-- c.u.m hoc dissidere Abulfedam non dubium est.--Ibn al Arabi: "Quod est inter Tehamah et Nagd illud est Hhegiaz.'--Fusius Ibn Haukal: 'Quod protenditur a limite Serrain urbis sitae ad mare Kolzum adusque viciniam Madian, et inde reflectendo per limitem tendentem in ortum urbis Hhegr, ad montem Tai trunseundo juxta tergum Yamamah ad mare Persic.u.m, hoc totum ad Hhegiaz pertinet.' Et alio loco: 'Hhegiaz ea est provincia, quae Maccah et Madinah et Yamamah c.u.m earundem territoriis comprehendit.'--Ibn al Vardi Hhegiaz appellat provinciam secus Sinum Arabic.u.m et a regione Habyssiniae sitam--Bakui eam inter Yaman et Syriam posuisse satis habet, simul longitudinem ejus mensis itinere emetiens."--(pp. 57-68.)]

[p.x] It may perhaps be asked, why our inquisitive traveller did not learn from some intelligent native the precise extent and limits of Hedjaz? To this question the following pa.s.sage (written by Burckhardt, near the end of his journal, and probably intended for the Appendix,) may serve as a reply, and show that even the present inhabitants do not agree in their application of the name Hedjaz. "This," says he, "is not used by the Arabian Bedouins in the usual acceptation of the word. They call Hedjaz exclusively the mountainous country, comprehending many fertile valleys south of Tayf, and as far as the dwelling-places of the Asyr Arabs, where the coffee-tree begins to be cultivated abundantly.

This is the general application of the term among all the Bedouins of those countries; and the town's-people of Mekka and Djidda also use it in that sense among themselves. But when they converse with foreigners, whose notions they politely adopt, the name Hedjaz is bestowed on the country between Tayf, Mekka, Medina, Yembo, and Djidda. The Bedouins give the name of El Ghor, or the low-land, to the whole province westward of the mountains from Mekka up to Beder and Yembo; while those mountains themselves northward of Tayf are called by them Hedjaz-es'- Sham, or the Northern Hedjaz." [This would confirm the derivation of Hedjaz (mentioned by Golius) from ahhtedjezet, "quod (provincia Hhegiaz) colligata et constricta montibus sit:" but others derive it from the Arabic word yehedjez, because Hedjaz divides Nedjed from Tehama, or because it connects Yemen with Syria, between which it is situate. As even the shortest note written by Burckhardt must be considered valuable, a few lines, that immediately follow the pa.s.sage above quoted from his Journal, are here given: "I compute the population of the province usually called Hedjaz, comprising the whole territory of the Sherif of Mekka, together with that of Medina and the towns situated therein, and all the Bedouin tribes, at about two hundred and fifty thousand souls; a number which, I am certain, is rather over than under rated; the greater part being the Bedouin inhabitants of the mountains, and princ.i.p.ally the strong tribes of Beni Harb."]

[p.xi] On reference to pages 396 and 397, a remark will be found concerning the different application of this name (Hedjaz) among those who inhabit the sea-coast and those Bedouins who occupy the interior country; and it will even appear that doubts have been entertained whether the sacred city Medina does not belong rather to Nedjed than to Hedjaz.

From statements so vague as those above quoted, an attempt to trace exactly the limits of any country must be vain and fallacious: that region, therefore, which borders on the Red Sea, and which the natives, we know, ent.i.tle unequivocally Hedjaz, is marked in our map, as in almost every other published hitherto, merely with that name, its first letter being placed where the editor supposes Arabia Petraea to terminate, and its last letter where he would separate Hedjaz from Tehama. [Burckhardt (Syrian Travels p. 511.) quotes Makrizi, the Egyptian historian, who says, in his chapter on Aila, (Akaba): "It is from hence that the Hedjaz begins: in former times it was the frontier place of the Greeks, &c."]

To those who seek the most accurate information respecting places but little known, this work is sufficiently recommended by the name of its author, and of the country which it describes. "The manners of the Hejazi Arabs have continued," says Sir William Jones, "from the time of Solomon to the present age." [Discourse on the Arabs, Asiat. Researches, vol. ii.] "Our notions of Mecca must be drawn," says Gibbon, "from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado." [Roman Empire, chap. 50.

note 18.]

But the reader of this preface must not be withholden from

[p.xii] perusing Burckhardt's authentic and interesting account of the places which he visited, of the extraordinary ceremonies which he witnessed, and of the people among whom he lived in the character of a Muselman.

Some short notices, written on a detached leaf, but evidently intended by the author as an introduction to his Journal, are given accordingly in the next page: for, that the Arabian Travels should appear under such a form as Burckhardt himself probably wished them to a.s.sume, has been throughout a favourite object of the editor,

WILLIAM OUSELY.

London, January, 1829.

[p.xiii] THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.

IN the pages of this Journal I have frequently quoted some Arabian historians, whose works are in my possession. It is now to me a subject of regret that those ma.n.u.scripts were not with me in the Hedjaz. The two first I purchased at Cairo, after my return from Arabia.

These works are--l. The History of Mekka, ent.i.tled Akhbar Mekka, a thick quarto volume, by Aby el Wolyd el Azraky, who flourished in the year of the Hedjra 223, and has traced the annals of his native city down to that period. This work is particularly interesting on account of its topographical notices, and the author's intimate acquaintance with the state of Arabia before Islam or Mohammedanism. The ma.n.u.script appears, from the hand-writing, to be six, or perhaps seven hundred years old.

2. The History of Mekka, ent.i.tled Akd e' themyn, in three folio volumes, by Taky ed' dyn el Fasy, who was himself Kadhy of Mekka. This history comes down to the year of the Hedjra 829, and is comprised [p.xiv] in the first volume; the other two volumes containing biographical anecdotes of distinguished natives of Mekka.

3. The History of the Mosque of Mekka, with which the history of the town is interwoven, called El Aalam hy aalam beled Allah el haram, in one volume quarto. The author was Kottob ed' dyn el Mekky, who held high offices at Mekka, and brings the history down to the year 990 of the Hedjra.

4. The History of the Hedjaz, and more particularly of Mekka, by Asamy.

Of this chronicle I possess only the second volume, a large folio ma.n.u.script, comprising historical records from the time of the Beni Omeya, to the year (of the Hedjra) 1097. I have not been able to ascertain the t.i.tle of this work, which abounds with curious and valuable information. The author, Asamy, was a native of Mekka.

5. The History of the Temple and Town of Medina. This work is ent.i.tled Khelaset el Wafa, its author was Nour ed' dyn Aly Ibn Ahmed e'

Samhoudy, [To this writer Burckhardt refers in p. 323, by the letters (V.S.) "Vide Sumhoudy."] and it is comprised in one folio volume, bringing the history down to the year 911 of the Hedjra.

TRAVELS

IN

THE HEDJAZ OF ARABIA

DJIDDA

MY arrival in the Hedjaz was attended with some unfavourable circ.u.mstances. On entering the town of Djidda, in the morning of the 15th of July, 1814, I went to the house of a person on whom I had a letter of credit, delivered to me, at my departure from Cairo, in January, 1813, when I had not yet fully resolved to extend my travels into Arabia. From this person I met with a very cold reception; the letter was thought to be of too old a date to deserve notice: indeed, my ragged appearance might have rendered any one cautious how he committed himself with his correspondents, in paying me a large sum of money on their account; bills and letters of credit are, besides, often trifled with in the mutual dealings of Eastern merchants; and I thus experienced a flat refusal, accompanied, however, with an offer of lodgings in the man's house. This I accepted for the first two days, thinking that, by a more intimate acquaintance I might convince him that I was neither an adventurer nor impostor; but finding him inflexible, I removed to one of the numerous public

[p.2] Khans in the town, my whole stock of money being two dollars and a few sequins, sewed up in an amulet which I wore on my arm. I had little time to make melancholy reflections upon my situation; for on the fourth day after my arrival, I was attacked by a violent fever, occasioned, probably, by indulging too freely in the fine fruits which were then in the Djidda market; an imprudence, which my abstemious diet, for the last twelve months, rendered, perhaps, less inexcusable, but certainly of worse consequence. I was for several days delirious; and nature would probably have been exhausted, had it not been for the aid of a Greek captain, my fellow pa.s.senger from Souakin. He attended me in one of my lucid intervals, and, at my request, procured a barber, or country physician, who bled me copiously, though with much reluctance, as he insisted that a potion, made up of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, was the only remedy adapted to my case. In a fortnight after, I had sufficiently recovered to be able to walk about; but the weakness and languor which the fever had occasioned, would not yield to the damp heat of the atmosphere of the town; and I owed my complete recovery to the temperate climate of Tayf, situated in the mountains behind Mekka, where I afterwards proceeded.

The Djidda market little resembled those Negro markets, where a single dollar would purchase two or three weeks' provision of dhourra and b.u.t.ter. The price of every thing had risen here to an unusual height, the imports from the interior of Arabia having entirely ceased, while the whole population of the Hedjaz, now increased by a Turkish army and its numerous followers, and a host of pilgrims who were daily coming in, wholly depended for its supply upon the imports from Egypt. My little stock of money was therefore spent during my illness, and before I was sufficiently recovered to walk out. The Greek captain, though he had shown himself ready to afford me the common services of humanity, was not disposed to trust to the

[p.3] honour or respectability of a man whom he knew to be entirely dest.i.tute of money. I was in immediate want of a sum sufficient to defray my daily expenses, and, no other means being left to procure it, I was compelled to sell my slave: I regretted much the necessity for parting with him, as I knew he had some affection for me, and he was very desirous to remain with me. During my preceding journey he had proved himself a faithful and useful companion; and although I have since had several other slaves in my possession, I never found one equal to him. The Greek captain sold him for me, in the slave-market of Djidda, for forty-eight dollars. [This slave cost me sixteen dollars at Shendy; thus, the profits of sale on one slave defrayed almost the whole expense of the four months' journey through Nubia, which I had performed in the spring.]

The present state of the Hedjaz rendered travelling through it, in the disguise of a beggar, or at least for a person of my outward appearance, impracticable; and the slow progress of my recovery made me desirous of obtaining comforts: I therefore equipped myself anew, in the dress of a reduced Egyptian gentleman, and immediately wrote to Cairo for a supply of money; but this I could hardly receive in less than three or four months. Being determined, however, to remain in the Hedjaz until the time of the pilgrimage in the following November, it became necessary for me to find the means of procuring subsistence until my funds should arrive. Had I been disappointed in all my hopes, I should then have followed the example of numbers of the poor Hadjis, even those of respectable families, who earn a daily subsistence, during their stay in the Hedjaz, by manual labour; but before I resorted to this last expedient, I thought I might try another. I had indeed brought with me a letter of introduction from Seyd Mohammed el Mahrouky, [The original characters of these and other names, both of persons and places, are given in the Index of Arabic words at the end of this volume.] the first merchant

[p.4] in Cairo, to Araby Djeylany, the richest merchant of Djidda; but this I knew could be of no use, as it was not a letter of credit; and I did not present it. [I afterwards became acquainted with Djeylany, at Mekka; and what I saw of him, convinced me that I was not mistaken in the estimation I had formed of his readiness to a.s.sist a stranger.] I determined therefore, at last, to address the Pasha, Mohammed Aly, in person. He had arrived in the Hedjaz at the close of the spring of 1813, and was now resident at Tayf, where he had established the head-quarters of the army, with which he intended to attack the strongholds of the Wahabis. I had seen the Pasha several times at Cairo, before my departure for Upper Egypt; and had informed him in general terms of my travelling madness (as he afterwards jocularly termed it himself at Tayf). I should here observe that, as the merchants of Upper Egypt are in general poor, and none of them strictly honour a bill or obligation by immediate payment, I had found it necessary, during my stay there, in order to obtain a supply of money, to request my correspondent at Cairo to pay the sum which I wanted into the Pasha's treasury, and to take an order from him upon his son, Ibrahim Pasha, then governor of Upper Egypt, to repay me the amount. Having therefore already had some money dealings with the Pasha, I thought that, without being guilty of too much effrontery, I might now endeavour to renew them in the Hedjaz, and the more so, as I knew that he had formerly expressed rather a favourable opinion of my person and pursuits. As soon, therefore, as the violence of my fever had subsided, I wrote to his physician, an Armenian of the name of Bosari, whom I had also known at Cairo, where I had heard much in his favour, and who was then with his master at Tayf. I begged him to represent my unfortunate situation to the Pasha, to inform him that my letter of credit upon Djidda had not been honoured, and to ask him whether he would accept a bill upon

[p.5] my correspondent at Cairo, and order his treasurer at Djidda to pay the amount of it.

Although Tayf is only five days distant from Djidda, yet the state of the country was such, that private travellers seldom ventured to cross the mountains between Mekka and Tayf; and caravans, which carried the letters of the people of the country, departed only at intervals of from eight to ten days; I could not, therefore, expect an answer to my letter in less than twenty days. During this period I pa.s.sed my leisure hours at Djidda, in transcribing the journal of my travels in Nubia; but I felt the heat at this season so oppressive, especially in my weak state, that, except during a few hours early in the morning, I found no ease but in the cool shade of the great gateway of the Khan in which I lodged; where I pa.s.sed the greater part of the day, stretched upon a stone bench. Bosari's correspondent at Djidda, through whom I had sent my letter to Tayf, had meanwhile mentioned my name to Yahya Effendi, the physician of Tousoun Pasha, son of Mohammed Aly, now governor of Djidda, who had been in Upper Egypt while I was there, but I had not seen him.

This physician, when at Cairo, had heard my name mentioned as that of a traveller; and understanding now, that I came from the Black countries, he was curious to see me, and desired Bosari's friend to introduce me to him. He received me politely, invited me repeatedly to his house, and, in the course of further explanation, became acquainted with my wants, and the steps I had taken to relieve them. He happened at this time to be preparing for a journey to Medina with Tousoun Pasha, and was sending back all his unnecessary baggage to Cairo; with this he was also desirous to transmit to his family his last year's savings, amounting to three thousand piastres (about 100l.), and he was so kind as to offer me the money for a bill upon Cairo, payable at sight; an advantage which, he well knew, the merchants of Djidda never insure to those who take their bills. Such an offer would not be considered as conferring

[p.6] any obligation in the commercial towns of Europe; but in the East, and under the circ.u.mstances in which I was placed, it was extraordinary.

Yahya Effendi added, that some of his friends had given me a flattering character while at Cairo, and that he could not, therefore, entertain the slightest doubt of my solvency and respectability, in which opinion he had been confirmed on reading the letter of credit I had brought with me. As the issue of my application to the Pasha at Tayf was uncertain, I readily and gratefully accepted Yahya's proposal; the money was immediately paid to me, the bills drawn, and a few days after, my obliging friend departed with Tousoun Pasha for Medina, where I had the pleasure of seeing him again early in the following year.

I was now in possession of a sum sufficient to banish all apprehension of suffering from poverty before the arrival of fresh supplies from Egypt, whatever might be the consequence of my application to the Pasha; but Yahya Effendi was no sooner gone, than I received a somewhat favourable answer to the letter I had written to Tayf. Bosari, it appeared, had been rather unwilling to urge my request to the Pasha, afraid, perhaps, that he might himself become a sufferer, should I forfeit my word. The Pasha, however, had heard of my being at Djidda, through another person in his suite, whom I had seen there, and who had arrived at Tayf; and hearing that I was walking about in rags, he immediately despatched a messenger, with two dromedaries, to the collector of customs at Djidda, Seyd Aly Odjakly, in whose hands was the management of all the affairs of the town, with an order to furnish me a suit of clothes, and a purse of five hundred piastres as travelling money; accompanied with a request that I should repair immediately to Tayf, with the same messenger who had brought the letter. In a postscript, Seyd Aly Odjakly was enjoined to order the messenger to take me by the upper road to Tayf, which leaves Mekka to the south, the lower and more usual road pa.s.sing through the middle of that town.