Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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In the month of Radjeb, which is the seventh after the month of the
Hadj, a caravan used always to set out from Mekka for Medina, composed
of several hundred merchants, mounted upon dromedaries. At that time a
large fair was held at Medina, and frequented by many of the surrounding
Bedouins, and people of the Hedjaz and Nedjed.

The merchandize for its supply was sent from Mekka by a heavy caravan of
camels, which set out immediately after the merchants, and

[p.200] was called Rukub el Medina. [In general, the Arabs of the Hedjaz
call the caravans Rukub; speaking of the Baghdad caravan, they say Rukub
es' Sham, or Rukub el Erak.] They remained about twenty days at Medina,
and then returned to Mekka. This frequent, yet regular change of abode,
must have been very agreeable to the merchants, particularly in those
times, when they could calculate with certainty that the next pilgrimage
would be a source of new riches to them. Tayf and Medina being now half-
ruined, the merchants of Mekka resort to Djidda, as their only place of
recreation: but even those who have wives and houses there, talk of
their establishments at Mekka as their only real homes, and in it they
spend the greater part of the year.

The inhabitants of Mekka, Djidda, and (in a less degree) of Medina, are
generally of a more lively disposition than either the Syrians or
Egyptians. None of those silent, grave automatons are seen here, so
common in other parts of the Levant, whose insensibility, or stupidity
is commonly regarded among themselves as a proof of feeling, shrewdness,
and wisdom.

The character of the Mekkawy resembles, in this respect, that of the
Bedouin; and did not greediness of gain often distort their features,
the smile of mirth would always be on their lips. In the streets and
bazars, in the house, and even in the mosque, the Mekkawy loves to laugh
and joke. In dealing with each other, or in talking on grave subjects, a
proverb, a pun, or some witty allusion, is often introduced, and
produces laughter. As the Mekkawys possess, with this vivacity of
temper, much intellect, sagacity, and great suavity of manners, which
they well know how to reconcile with their innate pride, their
conversation is very agreeable; and whoever cultivates a mere
superficial acquaintance with them, seldom fails to be delighted with
their character. They are more polite towards each other, as well as
towards strangers, than the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt, and retain
something of the good-natured disposition of the Bedouins, from whom
they derive their origin. When they accost each other in

[p.201] the streets for the first time in the course of the day, the
young man kisses the elder's hand, or the inferior that of his superior
in rank, while the latter returns the salute by a kiss upon the
forehead. Individuals of equal rank and age, not of the first class,
mutually kiss each other's hands. [In shaking hands, the people of the
Hedjaz lay hold of each other's thumbs with the whole hand, pressing it,
and again opening the hand three or four times. This is called Mesafeha,
and is said to have been a habit of Mohammed.] They say to a stranger,
"O faithful," or "brother;" and the saying of the prophet, "that all
faithful are brethren," is constantly upon their lips. "Welcome, a
thousand times welcome," says a shopkeeper to his foreign customer; "you
are the stranger of God, the guest of the holy city; my whole property
is at your disposal." When the service of any one is wanted, the
applicant says, "Our whole subsistence, after God, is owing to you
pilgrims; can we do less than be grateful?" If in the mosque a foreigner
is exposed to the sun, the Mekkawy will make room for him in a shady
place; if he passes a coffee-shop, he will hear voices calling him to
enter and take a cup of coffee; if a Mekkawy takes a jar to drink from
any public water-seller, he will offer it, before he sets it to his
mouth, to any passenger; and upon the slightest acquaintance, he will
say to his new friend, "When will you honour me at home, and take your
supper with me?" When they quarrel among themselves, none of those
scurrilous names or vile language is heard, so frequently used in Egypt
and Syria; blows are only given on very extraordinary occasions, and the
arrival of a respectable person puts an immediate stop to any dispute,
on his recommending peace: "God has made us great sinners," they will
then say, "but he has bestowed upon us, likewise, the virtue of easy
repentance."

To these amiable qualities the Mekkawys add another, for which they must
also be commended: they are a proud race, and though their pride is not
founded upon innate worth, it is infinitely preferable to the cringing
servility of the other Levantines, who redeem their slavish deference to
superiors by the most overbearing haughtiness towards those below them.
The Mekkawys are proud of being

[p.202] natives of the holy city, of being the countrymen of their
prophet; of having preserved, in some degree, his manners; of speaking
his pure language; of enjoying, in expectation, all the honours in the
next world, which are promised to the neighbours of the Kaaba; and of
being much freer men than any of the foreigners whom they see crowding
to their city. They exhibit this pride to their own superiors, whom they
have taught to treat them with great forbearance and circumspection; and
they look upon all other Mohammedan nations as people of an inferior
order, to whom their kindness and politeness are the effect of their
condescension. Many good consequences might result from this pride,
without which a people cannot expect to sustain its rank among nations.
It has prevented the people of Mekka from sinking so deep into slavery
as some of their neighbours; but it excites them to nothing laudable,
while its more immediate effects are seen in the contempt which they
entertain for foreigners. This contempt, as I have already remarked, in
speaking of Djidda, is chiefly displayed towards the Turks, whose
ignorance of the Arabic language, whose dress and manners, the meanness
of their conduct whenever they cannot talk as masters; their cowardice
exhibited whenever the Hadj has been assailed in its route across the
Desert, and the little respect that was shown to them by the Governors
of Mekka, as long as the Sherif's power was unbroken, have lowered them
so much in the estimation of the Arabians, that they are held in the
Hedjaz as little better than infidels; and although many of the Mekkawys
are of Turkish origin, they heartily join the rest of their townsmen in
vilifying the stock from which they sprang. The word Turky has become a
term of insult towards each other among the children. Noszrany
(Christians), or Yahoudy (Jews), are often applied to the Turks by the
people of Mekka; and their manners and language afford a perpetual
source of ridicule or reproach. The Syrians and Egyptians experience
similar effects from the pride of the people of the Hedjaz, but
especially the former, as the Egyptians, of all foreigners, approach
nearest to the people of Arabia in customs and language, and keep up the
most intimate intercourse with them. But the haughty Syrian Moslim, who
calls Aleppo or Damascus "Om el Donia," (the mother of the

[p.203] world,) and believes no race of men equal to his own, nor any
language so pure as the Syrian, though it is undoubtedly the worst
dialect of the Arabic next to the Moggrebyn, is obliged to behave here
with great modesty and circumspection, and at least to affect
politeness. Although an Arab, he is reproached with dressing and living
like a Turk; and to the epithet Shamy (Syrian) the idea is attached of a
heavy, untutored clown. If the Arabians were to see the Turks in the
countries where they are masters, their dislike towards them would be
still greater; for it must be said, that their behaviour in the holy
city is, in general, much more decent and conformable to the precepts of
their religion, than in the countries from which they come.

The Mekkawys believe that their city, with all the inhabitants, is under
the especial care of Providence, and that they are so far favoured above
all other nations. "This is Mekka! this is the city of God!" they
exclaim, when any surprise is expressed at the greater part of them
having remained in the town during the stagnation of trade and the
absence of pilgrims: "None ever wants his daily bread [h]ere; none fears
here the incursion of enemies." That Saoud saved the town from pillage;
that no plundering took place when the Turkish cavalry, under Mostafa
Bey, recaptured it from the Wahabys; that the capture of Sherif Ghaleb
led to no massacres within the precincts of Mekka, are to them so many
visible miracles of the Almighty, to prove the truth of that passage of
the Koran, (chap. 106.) in which it is said, "Let them adore the God of
the house (the Kaaba), who feeds them in hunger, and secures them from
all fear." But they forget to look back to their own history, which
mentions many terrible famines and sanguinary battles, that have
happened in this sacred asylum. Indeed, the Hedjaz has suffered more
from famine than, perhaps, any other Eastern country. The historians
abound with descriptions of such lamentable events: I shall only mention
one that happened in 1664, when, as Asamy relates, many people sold
their own children at Mekka for a single measure of corn; and when, at
Djidda, the populace fed publicly on human flesh.

A Mekkawy related to me, that having once resolved to abandon the city,
in consequence of the non-arrival of Turkish hadjys, who supplied

[p.204] his means of subsistence, an angel appeared to him in his sleep
on the night previous to his intended departure. The angel had a flaming
sword in his hand, and stood upon the gate of Mekka, through which the
dreamer was about to leave the town, and exclaimed, "Unbeliever, remain!
the Mekkawys shall eat honey, while all the other people of the earth
shall be content with barley bread!" In consequence of this vision he
abandoned his project, and continued to live in the town.

The exterior politeness of the people of Mekka is in the same proportion
to their sincerity, as are their professions of zealous faith and
adherence to their religion, with the observance of its precepts. Many
of them, especially those who have no particular interest in imposing
upon the hadjys by an appearance of extreme strictness, are very relaxed
in observing the forms of their religion, thinking it quite sufficient
to be Mekkawys and to utter pious ejaculations in public, or supposing
that the rigid practice of its precepts is more particularly incumbent
upon foreign visitors, who see Mekka only once in their life. Like the
Bedouins, many of them are either very irregular in their prayers, or do
not pray at all. During the Friday's prayers, which every Moslim
resident in a town is bound to attend, the mosque is filled chiefly with
strangers, while many of the people of Mekka are seen smoking in their
shops. After the pilgrims have left the town, the service in the mosque
is very thinly attended. They never distribute alms, excusing themselves
by saying that they were placed by Providence in this town to receive
charity, and not to bestow it. They ape the manners recorded of
Mohammed, but in his most trifling habits only: their mustachios are cut
short, and their beard kept regularly under the scissors, because it was
the prophet's custom to do so. In like manner they allow the end of the
turban to fall loosely over the cap; every other day they put kohhel or
antimony on their eye-lids, and have always in their hands a messouak or
tooth-brush made of a thin branch of the shrub Arak, or one imported by
the Persian hadjys. They know by heart many passages of the Koran and
Hadyth, (or sacred traditions,) and allude to, or quote them every
moment; but they forget that these precepts were given for rules of
conduct, and not for mere repetition. Intoxicating liquors are sold at

[p.205] the very gates of the mosque: the delyls themselves act in
direct contradiction of the law by loudly reciting prayers in the mosque
to their pupils the hadjys, in order to allure by their sonorous voices
other pilgrims to their guidance, carrying at the same time the common
large stick of the Mekkawys. It is also a transgression against the law,
when the intoxicating hashysh is openly smoked: cards are played in
almost every Arab coffee-house, (they use small Chinese cards,) though
the Koran directly forbids games of hazard. The open protection afforded
by the government to persons both male and female of the most profligate
character, is a further encouragement to daily transgressions against
the rigid principles of the Mohammedan law. Cheating and false swearing
have ceased to be crimes among them. They are fully conscious of the
scandal of these vices: every delyl exclaims against the corruption of
manners, but none set an example of reformation; and while acting
constantly on principles quite opposite to those which they profess,
they unanimously declare that times are such, as to justify the saying,
"In el Haram fi belad el Harameyn," "that the cities forbidden to
infidels abound with forbidden things."

In a place where there is no variety of creeds, persecution cannot show
itself; but it is probable that the Mekkawys might easily be incited to
excesses against those whom they call infidels: for I have always
remarked in the East, that the Muselmans most negligent in performing
the duties of their religion are the most violent in urging its precepts
against unbelievers; and that the grossest superstition is generally
found among those who trifle with their duties, or who, like many
Osmanlys, even deride them, and lay claim to free-thinking. There is no
class of Turks more inveterate in their hatred against Christians than
those who, coming frequently into intercourse with them, find it
convenient to throw off for a while the appearance of their prejudices.
In all the European harbours of the Mediterranean, the Moggrebyns live
like unbelievers; but when at home, nothing but fear can induce them to
set bounds to their fanaticism. It is the same with the Turks in the
Archipelago, and I might adduce many examples from Syria and Egypt in
corroboration of this assertion. If fanaticism has somewhat decreased
within the last twenty years throughout the

[p.206] Turkish empire, the circumstance, I think, may be ascribed
solely to the decreasing energy of the inhabitants, and the growing
indifference for their own religion, and certainly not to a diffusion of
more philanthropic or charitable principles. The text of the Mohammedan
law is precise in inciting its followers to unceasing hatred and
contempt of all those who profess a different creed. This contempt has
not decreased; but animosity gives way to an exterior politeness,
whenever the interest of the Mohammedan is concerned. The degree of
toleration enjoyed by the Christians, depends upon the interest of the
provincial government under which they live: and if they happen to be
favoured by it, the Turkish subject bows to the Christian. In all the
eastern countries which I have visited, more privileges are allowed to
Christians in general than the Moslim code prescribes; but their
condition depends upon the fiat of the governor of the town or district;
as they experienced about seven years since at Damascus, under Yousef
Pasha, when they were suddenly reduced to their former abject state.
Twenty years ago, a Copt of Egypt was in much the same situation as a
Jew is now in Barbary; but at present, when the free-thinking, though
certainly not liberal, Mohammed Aly finds it his interest to conciliate
the Christians, a Greek beats a Turk without much fear of consequences
from the mob; and I know an instance of an Armenian having murdered his
own Muselman servant, and escaped punishment, on paying a fine to
government, although the fact was publicly known. Convinced as the Turks
must now be, in many parts of the East, of the superiority of these
Europeans, whom they cannot but consider as the brethren of their
Christian subjects, their behaviour towards the latter will,
nevertheless, be strictly regulated by the avowed sentiments of their
governors; and it would be as easy for Mohammed Aly by a single word to
degrade the Christians in Egypt, as he found it to raise them to their
present consideration, superior, I believe, to what they enjoy in any
other part of Turkey.

The hatred against Christians is nearly equal in every part of the
Ottoman empire; and if the Moslims sacrifice that feeling, it is not to
the principles of charity or humanity, but to the frown of those who
happen to be in power; and their baseness is such, that they will kiss

[p.207] to-day the hands of him whom they have trodden under foot
yesterday. In examining into the fanatical riots, many of which are
recorded in the chanceries of the European consuls in the Levant, it
will generally be found that government had a share in the affrays, and
easily succeeded in quelling them. The late Sultan Selim, in his
regenerating system, which led him to favour the Christians, found no
opposition from the mass of his people, but from the jealous
Janissaries; and when the latter had prevailed, the demi-Gallicized
grandees of Constantinople easily sunk again into Sunnys. Sometimes,
indeed, a rash devotee, or mad Sheikh or Dervish at the head of a few
partisans, affords an exception to these general statements; and will
insult a Christian placed in the highest favour with the public
authorities, as happened at Damascus in 1811, to the Greek Patriarch,
after Yousef Pasha had been repulsed: but his countrymen, although
cherishing the same principles, and full of the same uncharitableness,
seldom have the courage to give vent to their feelings, and to follow
the example of the Saint. None of those genuine popular commotions,
which were once so frequent in Europe, when the members of the reigning
church saw individuals of a rival persuasion extending their influence,
are now witnessed in the East. Whatever may be thought of it in a moral
point of view, we must respect the energy of a man who enters headlong
into a contention, of at least uncertain issue, and generally
detrimental to his own worldly interests, merely because he fancies or
believes that his religious duty commands his exertions. The Moslim of
the Turkish empire, as far as I have had an opportunity of remarking,
easily suppresses his feelings, his passions, the dictates of his
conscience, and what he supposes agreeable to the will of the Almighty,
at the dictates of his interest, or according to the wish or example of
the ruling power.

In the time of the Sherif, Christians were often ill treated at Djidda;
they could not wear the European dress, or approach the quarter of the
town situated towards the gate of Mekka. But since the arrival of
Mohammed Aly's army, they walk about, and dress as they like. In
December 1814, when two Englishmen passed the gate of Mekka on a walk
round the town, (the first persons, probably, in a

[p.208] European dress, who had ever passed the holy boundary,) a woman
was heard to exclaim, "Truly the world must be near its end, if Kafirs
(or infidels) dare to tread upon this ground!" Even now, if a Christian
dies there, it is not permitted that he should be interred on shore; the
body is carried to a small desert island in the harbour. When, in 1815,
the plague raged in the Hedjaz, an event which had never before been
known, the Kadhy of Djidda, with the whole body of olemas, waited upon
the Turkish governor of the city, to desire him to demolish a windmill
which some Greek Christians from Cairo had built withoutside one of the
gates, by order of Mohammed Aly. They were certain, they said, that the
hand of God had visited them on account of this violation of the sacred
territory by Christians. Some years ago an English ship was wrecked near
Djidda, and among various spoils obtained from the wreck by Sherif
Ghaleb was a large hog, an animal probably never before seen at Djidda:
this hog, turned loose in the town with two ostriches, became the terror
of all the sellers of bread and vegetables; for the mere touching of so
unclean an animal as the hog, even with the edge of the gown, renders
the Moslim impure, and unable to perform his prayers without previous
ablution. The animal was kept for six months, when it was offered by the
Sherif to an American captain for fifty dollars; but such a price being
of course refused, it soon after died of a surfeit, to the great
satisfaction of the inhabitants.

The Mekkawys, however, tolerate within their walls notorious heretics. I
have already mentioned the Ismaylys, an idolatrous sect from India, who
appear here in the garb of Moslims. The Persian hadjys, well known as
sectaries of Aly, and revilers of Mohammed and his immediate followers,
are not subjected to any particular inconveniences. The Sherif tolerated
them, but levied a capitation-tax on each. The Sherifs, however,
themselves, as I shall presently explain, are mostly of the sect of
Zyoud, Muselmans who dispute with the orthodox Sunnyes (the great
opponents of the Persian sectaries,) several of their principal dogmas.

Whenever the word Christian or European is mentioned by the

[p.209] Mekkawys, it is coupled with the most opprobrious and
contemptuous epithets. They include them all in the appellation of
Kafer, without having any clear ideas of the different nations of which
they are composed. The English, however, being more in contact with
them, from their Indian possessions, are often called exclusively "El
Kafer," or "the Infidels;" and whenever this appellation is so used, the
English are to be understood. Thus, they say "El Kafer fy'l Hind," the
Kafer in India; or "Merkeb el Kafer fy Djidda," the Kafer's ship at
Djidda, always meaning the English.

When the French invaded Egypt, a Moggrebyn saint at Mekka, called Sheikh
el Djeylany, a distant relation of a wealthy merchant at Mekka, and who
had for some time been in the habit of delivering lectures in the great
mosque, mounted the pulpit, and preached a crusade against the infidels,
who had seized upon the gate of the Kaaba, as Egypt is styled. Being a
very eloquent speaker, and held in much veneration, many Arabs flocked
to his standard, others gave him money; and it is said that even many
women brought him their gold and silver trinkets, to assist him in his
holy enterprise. He embarked at Djidda with his zealous followers, on
board a small fleet, and landed at Cosseir. The governments of Mekka and
Djidda seem to have had little share in the enterprise, though they
threw no obstacles in its way. The fate of these Arabs (many of whom
were of the same Wahaby tribes who afterwards offered so much resistance
to Mohammed Aly), and the fury with which they encountered the French in
Upper Egypt, are already known to the reader by Denon's animated
description. Sheikh Djeylany was killed, and very few of his followers
returned. I believe their number is rather over-rated by Denon; for I
never heard it stated at more than fifteen hundred.

The Mekkawys, like the inhabitants of Turkey, are in general free from
the vices of pilfering and thieving; and robberies are seldom heard of,
although, during the Hadj, and in the months which precede and follow
it, Mekka abounds with rogues, who are tempted by the facility of
opening the locks of this country.

Formerly the slaves of the Sherif were noted for their disorderly
behaviour; Ghaleb, however, established good order among them; and

[p.210] during his reign, a burglary was never committed without the
discovery and punishment of the perpetrator.

The streets of Mekka abound with beggars and poor hadjys, who are
supported by the charity of strangers; for the Mekkawys think themselves
privileged to dispense with this duty. Of them, however, many adopt
mendicity as a profession, especially during the Hadj, when the pilgrims
are bound to exercise that virtue which is so particularly enjoined by
the precepts of Mohammed. The greater part of the beggars are Indians,
others Syrians, Moggrebyns, and Egyptians: the Negroes are but few, as
these generally prefer labour to begging; but a large proportion comes
from Yemen. It is generally said in the East, that Mekka is the paradise
of beggars: some perhaps may save a little money, but the wretched
aspect of others plainly shows how much their expectations must have
been disappointed. The Indians are the most modest among them; they
accost the passenger with the words "Ya allah'ya kerim!" "O God, O
bounteous God!" and if alms are refused, they walk away, without a word
except the repetition of "Ya allah, ya kerim." Not so the Yemeny or
Mekkawy; "Think of your duty as a pilgrim," he cries; "God does not like
the cold-hearted; will you reject the blessings of the faithful? Give,
and it shall be given unto thee; and with these and many other pious
sentences they address the passenger, and when they have the alms safe
in their hand, they often say, as my delyl did, "It is God, and not you,
who gives it to me." Some of these beggars are extremely importunate,
and seem to ask for alms as if they were legally entitled to it. While I
was at Djidda, a Yemen beggar mounted the minaret daily, after mid-day
prayer, and exclaimed loud enough to be heard through the whole bazar,
"I ask from God fifty dollars, a suit of clothes, and a copy of the
Koran; O faithful, hear me, I ask of you fifty dollars," &c. &c. This he
repeated for several weeks, when at last a Turkish pilgrim, struck by
the singularity of the beggar's appeal, desired him to take thirty
dollars, and discontinue his cries, which reflected shame upon the
charity of all the hadjys present. "No," said the beggar, "I will not
take them, because I am convinced that God will send me the whole of
what I beg of him so earnestly." After repeating his public