Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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[p.315] who passed me, and who probably dispersed when they saw a large
caravan approaching.

The valley in which we were travelling is called Wady es' Shohada, or
the "Valley of Martyrs," where many followers of Mohammed are said to
have been killed in battle: their remains are covered by rude heaps of
stones in different parts of the valley. Here also are seen several
tombs of hadjys; and I observed some walls, much ruined, where a small
chapel or mosque appeared to have stood: no water is found here. This is
a station of the Hadj caravan. At the end of nine hours, we issued from
this wady, which is on a very slight ascent; and then taking a direction
E.N.E. we crossed a rocky ground, and entered a wide plain called El
Fereysh, where two small caravans from Medina bound to Yembo passed us.
At the end of eleven hours and a half we alighted.

The plain of Fereysh, according to the historian Asamy, was the scene of
a sanguinary battle, between the Sherif of Mekka and the Bedouin tribes
of Dhofyr and Aeneze, in A.H. 1063. The Dhofyr, who are now settled in
Mesopotamia, towards Baghdad, were at that time pasturing their herds in
the neighbourhood of Medina.

January 27th. The rocks here are all of red granite. A party of
Bedouins, with their women, children, and tents passed us; they belonged
to the tribe of Harb, called El Hamede, and had left the upper country,
where no rain had yet fallen, to seek better pasturage in the lower
mountains. While we were encamped, a heavy storm, with thunder and
lightning, overtook us, and the rain poured down: as it threatened to be
of long duration, and we had no tents, it was thought advisable to
proceed. We started in the afternoon; and it continued to rain during
the rest of the day and the whole night, which, joined to the cold
climate in these elevated regions, was severely felt by all of us. Our
road ascended through rocky valleys full of thorny trees; it was crossed
by several torrents that had rapidly swollen, and which we passed with
difficulty. After seven hours' march we reached the summit of this chain
of mountains, when the immense eastern plain lay stretched before us: we
passed several insulated hills. The ground is covered with black and
brown flints. In nine hours we passed at

[p.316] some distance to the west of the date-plantations, and the few
houses built round the well called Bir Aly. At the end of ten hours, in
the middle of the night, just as the weather had cleared up, and a
severe frost succeeded the rain, we arrived before the gate of Medina.
It was shut, and we had to wait till day-light before it could be
opened. Being unable to light a fire on the wet ground with wet fuel,
and being all completely soaked with the rain, the sharp frost of the
morning became distressing to us, and was probably the cause of the
fever which confined me so long in this town; for I had enjoyed perfect
health during the whole journey.

We entered Medina at sun-rise on the 28th of January, the thirteenth day
after our leaving Mekka, having halted two days on the road. The Hadj
caravan usually performs the journey in eleven days, and, if pressed for
time, in ten.

The Bedouins apply to the whole country between Mekka and Medina, west
of the mountains, the name of El Djohfe, which, however, is sometimes
understood to mean the country from Mekka to Beder only.

[p.317]MEDINA.

THE caravan alighted in a large court-yard in the suburb, where the
loads were deposited; and all the travellers who had come with it
immediately dispersed in quest of lodgings. With the help of a Mezowar,
a professional class of men, similar to the delyls at Mekka, I procured,
after some trouble, a good apartment in the principal market-street of
the town, about fifty yards from the great mosque. I transported my
baggage to those lodgings, where I was called upon by the Mezowar to
visit the mosque and the holy tomb of Mohammed; it being a law here, as
at Mekka, that a traveller arriving in the town must fulfil this duty,
before he undertakes the most trifling business.

The ceremonies are here much easier and shorter than at Mekka, as will
be presently seen. In a quarter of an hour I had gone through them, when
I was at liberty to return home to arrange my domestic affairs. My
Mezowar assisted me in the purchase of all necessary provisions, which
were not obtained without difficulty; Tousoun Pasha, the governor of the
town, having, by his inconsiderate measures, frightened away the
Bedouins and camel-drivers, who used to bring in provisions. Flour and
butter, however, those prime articles in an Eastern kitchen, were to be
had before sunset, though not found in the public market; but it was
three days before I could procure any coal, the want of which was
sensibly felt at this cold season of the year. Hearing that Yahya
Efendi, the physician of Tousoun Pasha, the same person who

[p.318] in July last had taken my bill upon Djidda, was here. I paid him
a visit next day, and showed him a letter received at Mekka, before I
had left that town, from my Cairo banker, mentioning the payment of the
bill, no news of which had yet reached Yahya himself. Much as this
gentleman's acquaintance had been of service to me on that occasion, a
good deal took place now to detract from it. At a visit which he paid me
soon after, he happened to see my small stock of medicines, the same
that I had in my Nubian journey, during which it never was touched, some
emetics and purges only having been used whilst I staid at Djidda and
Mekka; I had therefore half a pound of good bark in my medicine sack,
untouched. Several persons of the Pasha's court were at this time ill of
fevers; Tousoun Pasha himself was in an indifferent state of health, and
his physician had few medicines fit for such cases. He begged of me the
bark, which I gave him, as I was then in good health, and thought myself
already in the vicinity of Egypt, where I hoped to arrive in about two
months. I owed him, moreover, some obligations, and was glad to testify
my gratitude. Two days after I had cause to repent of my liberality; for
I was attacked by a fever, which soon took a very serious turn. As it
was intermittent, I wished to take bark; but when I asked the physician
for some of it, he assured me that he had already distributed the last
dram, and he brought me, instead of it, some of the powder of the
Gentiana, which had lost all its virtue from age. My fever thus
increased, accompanied by daily and repeated vomiting, and profuse
sweats, being for the whole first month quotidian. The emetics I took
proved of no service; and after having from want of bark gone through
the course of medicines I thought applicable to the case, and being very
seldom favoured with a visit from my friend Yahya Effendi, I left my
disease to nature. After the first month, there was an interval of a
week's repose, of which had I been able to profit by taking bark, my
disorder would, no doubt, have been overcome; but it had abated only to
return with greater violence, and now became a tertian fever, while the
vomiting still continued, accompanied by occasional faintings, and ended
in a total prostration of strength. I was now unable to rise from my
carpet, without the assistance of my slave, a poor fellow, who by habit

[p.319] and nature was more fitted to take care of a camel, than to
nurse his drooping master.

I had by this time lost all hope of returning to Egypt, and had prepared
myself for dying here. Despondency had seized me, from an apprehension
that, if the news of my death should arrive in England, my whole Hedjaz
journey would, perhaps, be condemned as the unauthorised act of an
imprudent, or at least over-zealous missionary; and I had neither books,
nor any society, to divert my mind from such reflections: one book only
was in my possession, a pocket edition of Milton, which Captain Boag, at
Djidda, had kindly permitted me to take from his cabin-library, and this
I must admit was now worth a whole shelf full of others. The mistress of
my lodgings, an old infirm woman, by birth an Egyptian, who during my
stay took up her quarters in an upper story, from which she could speak
to me without being seen, as it opened into my own room below, used to
converse with me for half an hour every evening; and my cicerone, or
Mezowar, paid me occasional visits, in order, as I strongly suspected,
to seize upon part of my baggage in case of my death. Yahya Effendi left
the town in the month of March, with the army of Tousoun Pasha, which
marched against the Wababys.

About the beginning of April, the returning warmth of the spring put a
stop to my illness; but it was nearly a fortnight before I could venture
to walk out, and every breeze made me dread a return of the fever. The
bad climate of the town, its detestable water, and the great number of
diseases now prevalent, made me extremely desirous to leave Medina. My
original intention was, to remain here, at most, one month, then to take
some Bedouin guides, and with them to cross the Desert to Akaba, at the
extremity of the Red Sea, in a straight direction, from whence I might
easily have found my way to Cairo. In this route I wished to visit
Hedjer, on the Syrian Hadj road, where I expected to find some remains
of the remotest antiquity, that had not been described by any other
traveller, while the interior of the country might have offered many
other objects of research and curiosity. It was, however, utterly
impossible for me to perform this journey in my convalescent state; nor
had I any hopes of recovering, in

[p.320] two months, strength sufficient for a journey of such fatigue.
To wait so long, continually exposed to suffer again from the climate,
was highly unadvisable; and I panted for a change of air, being
convinced that, without it, my fever would soon return. With these
feelings I abandoned the long-projected design of my journey, and now
determined on going to Yembo, on the sea-coast, and from thence to
embark for Egypt; a decision in some degree rendered necessary by the
state of my purse, which a long stay at Medina had greatly reduced. When
I found myself strong enough to mount a camel, I looked out for some
conveyance to Yembo, and contracted with a Bedouin, who, together with
his companions, forming a small caravan, started for that place on the
1st of April, within six days of three months after my arrival at
Medina, eight weeks of which time I had been confined to my couch. My
remarks on Medina are but scanty; with good health, I should have added
to them: but as this town is totally unknown to Europeans, they may
contain some acceptable information. The plan of the town was made by me
during the first days of my stay; and I can vouch for the correctness of
its outlines; but I had not the same leisure to trace it in all its
details, as I had that of Mekka.

[p.321] DESCRIPTION OF MEDINA.[EXPLANATION OF THE PLAN OF MEDINA. [Not
included]]

MEDINA is situated on the edge of the great Arabian Desert, close to the
chain of mountains which traverses that country from north to south, and
is a continuation of Libanon. I have already stated in my Journal
through Arabia Petraea, that the chain on the east of the Dead Sea runs
down towards Akaba. From thence, it extends along the shore of the Red
Sea as far as Yemen, sometimes close to the sea,

[p.322] at others having an intervening plain called by the Arabs
Tahama, a name which, in Yemen, is also bestowed upon a particular part
of it. I have likewise mentioned in that Journal, that the eastern
descent of these mountains, all along the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the
valley called Araba, down to Akaba, is much less than the western, and
that therefore the great plain of Arabia, which begins eastward of these
mountains, is considerably elevated above the level of the sea. I made
the same remark in going to Tayf, after having crossed the mountain
called Djebel Kura, which forms part of that chain; and the same is to
be observed at Medina. The mountain which we had ascended in coming from
Mekka, when seen from the coast, presents peaks of considerable height;
when we reached the upper plain, in the neighbourhood of Medina, these
summits appeared on our left like mere hills, their elevation above the
eastern plain being not more than one-third of that from the western
sea-shore.

The last undulations of these mountains touch the town on the north
side; on its other side, the country is flat, though not always a
completely even plain. A branch of the chain, called Djebel Ohod,
projects a little into the plain, at one hour's distance from the town,
bearing from the latter N.N.E. to N.E. [In these bearings the variation
of the needle is not computed.] At eight or ten hours' distance, (E. 6
N.-E. 6 S.) a chain of low hills rises in an eastern direction, across
which lies the road to Nedjed. Similar hills, at the same distance, are
to the S.E. The country to the south extends on a perfect level as far
as can be seen. On the S.W., about an hour, or an hour and a half
distant, a branch called Djebel Ayra projects, like Djebel Ohod, from
the main chain, into the plain.

The town itself is built on the lowest part of the plain; for it
receives the torrents from the western mountains, as well as the
currents from the S. and S.E. quarters; and they produce in the rainy
season numerous pools of stagnant water, which is left to evaporate
gradually; the gardens, trees, and walls, with which the plain abounds,
interrupting the free current of air. These gardens, and date-
plantations, interspersed with fields, enclose the town on three sides,
leaving

[p.323] only that part of the plain open to the view, which is on the
side of the road towards Mekka, where the rocky nature of the ground
renders cultivation impossible.

Medina is divided into the interior town, and the suburbs; the interior
forms an oval, of about two thousand eight hundred paces in total
circuit, ending in a point. The castle is built at the point, upon a
small rocky elevation; and the whole is enclosed by a thick stone wall,
between thirty-five and forty feet high, flanked by about thirty towers,
and surrounded by a ditch, (the work of the Wahabys,) which is in many
places nearly filled up. The wall is in complete repair, forming, in
Arabia, a very respectable defence; so that Medina has always been
considered as the principal fortress of the Hedjaz. The wall was built
A.H. 860; and till that time the town was quite open, and daily exposed
to the incursions of the neighbouring Bedouins. It was subsequently
rebuilt at different times, but principally in A.H. 900, a ditch having
been previously carried round it in 751 (v. S.) According to Asamy, it
was built as it now stands, with its gates, by order of Solyman ibn
Selym, at the close of the sixteenth century of our era. Three fine
gates lead into the town: Bab el Masry, on the south side, (which, next
to Bab el Fatouh, at Cairo, is the finest town-gate I have seen in the
East); Bab es' Shamy, on the north side; and Bab el Ujoma, on the east
side: a smaller by-gate, called Bab es' Soghyr, in the south wall, had
been closed up by the Wahabys. Near the Bab es' Shamy, close to the
castle, is a niche in the town-wall, where, it is related, a small
chapel once stood, called Mesdjed es' Sabak, from whence the warlike
adherents of Mohammed used to start in their exercise of running.

Medina is well built, entirely of stone; its houses are generally two
stories high, with flat roofs. As they are not white-washed, and the
stone is of a dark colour, the streets have rather a gloomy aspect; and
are, for the most part, very narrow, often only two or three paces
across: a few of the principal streets are paved with large blocks of
stone; a comfort which a traveller little expects to find in Arabia. It
is, on the whole, one of the best-built towns I have seen in the East,
ranking, in this respect, next to Aleppo. At present, it has a desolate

[p.324] appearance: the houses are suffered to decay; their owners, who
formerly derived great profits from the crowd of visiters which arrived
here at all times of the year, now find their income diminished, and
decline the heavy expense of building, as they know they cannot be
reimbursed by the letting out of apartments. Ruined houses, and walls
wanting repair, are seen in every part of the town; and Medina presents
the same disheartening view as most of the Eastern towns, which now
afford but faint images of their ancient splendour.

The principal street of Medina is also the broadest, and leads from the
Cairo gate to the great mosque: in this street are most of the shops.
Another considerable street, called El Belat, runs from the mosque to
the Syrian gate; but many of its houses are in ruins: this contains also
a few shops, but none are found in other parts of the town; thus
differing from Mekka, which is one continued market. In general, the
latter is much more like an Arab town than Medina, which resembles more
a Syrian city. I had no time to trace all the different quarters of the
town; but I shall here give the names by which they are at present
known.

The quarter comprised between the two main streets leading from the
Egyptian and Syrian gates to the mosque, are, Es-Saha, Komet Hasheyfe,
El Belat, Zogag el Towal, (here is situated the Mekkam, or house of the
Kadhy, and several pleasant gardens are attached to the larger
buildings;) Zogag el Dhorra, Sakyfet Shakhy, Zogag el Bakar.

The quarters lying to the north of the street El Belat, extending to the
north of the mosque, as far as the gate El Djoma, are:--El Hamata, Zogag
el Habs, Zogag Ankyny, Zogag es' Semahedy, Haret el Meyda, Haret es'
Shershoura, Zogag el Bedour, Haret el Agowat, where the eunuchs of the
mosque live.

The quarters from the gate El Djoma, along the southern parts of the
town, as far as the Egyptian gate, and the great market-street, are:
Derwan, Es-Salehye, Zogag Yahou, Haret Ahmed Heydar, Haret Beni Hosseyn,
the tribe of Beni Hosseyn living here; Haret el Besough, Haret Sakyfet,
Er-Resas, Zogag el Zerendy, Zogag el Kibreit,

[p.325] Zogag el Hadjamyn, Haret Sydy Malek, where Malek ibn Anes, the
founder of the Malekite sect, had his house, and Haret el Kamashyn.

Very few large buildings, or public edifices, are found in the precincts
of the town. The great mosque, containing the tomb of Mohammed, is the
only temple. A fine public school, called Medrese el Hamdye, in the
street El Belat; a similar one, near the mosque, where the Sheikh el
Haram, or its guardian, lives; a large corn-magazine, enclosing a wide
yard, in the southern quarter of the town; a bath, (the only one,) not
far distant from it, built in A.H. 973, by Mohammed Pasha, vizier of
Sultan Soleyman, are all the public buildings which fell under my
observation. [The historian of Medina mentions several Okals, or public
khans, in this town; but I saw none, nor do I believe that they now
exist] This want of splendid monuments was likewise remarked by me at
Mekka. The Arabians, in general, have little taste for architecture; and
even their chiefs content themselves in their mansions with what is
merely necessary. Whatever public edifices are still found in Mekka and
Medina, are the work of the Sultans of Egypt or of Constantinople; and
the necessary expenses incurred annually by these distant sovereigns,
for the sake of the two holy cities, were too great to allow of any
augmentation for mere show. For the want of public buildings, however,
in the town, a compensation is made by the number of pretty private
habitations, having small gardens, with wells, the water of which is
used in irrigation, and fills marble basins, round which, in summer-
time, the owners pass the hours of noon under lofty sheds.

The castle, which I have mentioned above, is surrounded by very strong
walls, and several high and solid towers. I was not permitted to enter
it, on applying at the gate. It contains sufficient space for six or
eight hundred men; has many arched rooms, bomb-proof; and, if well
garrisoned, and furnished with provisions, may be deemed impregnable by
an Arabian force, as it is built upon a rock, and therefore cannot be
undermined. To European artillery, however, it would appear an
insignificant fort. It contains a deep well of good water.

[p.326] Two or three, guns only are at present mounted on its towers;
nor were there more than a dozen serviceable guns to defend the whole
town.

On the west and south of the town extend the suburbs, which cover more
ground than the town itself. They are separated from it by an open
space, narrow on the south side, but widening on the west, before the
Cairo gate, where it forms a large public place, called Monakh; a name
implying that caravans alight there, which is really the case, as it is
always crowded with camels and Bedouins. Several rows of small huts and
sheds are erected here, in which provisions are sold, principally corn,
dates, vegetables, and butter; and a number of coffee-huts, which are
beset the whole day with visiters. The side of the suburbs fronting the
Monakh has no walls; but on the outside, to the west and south, they are
enclosed by a wall, of inferior size and strength to the interior town
wall. In several parts it is completely ruined; on the south side only
it is defended by small towers. Four gates lead from the suburbs into
the open country; they are small wooden doors, of no strength, except
that leading from the Cairo gate, which is larger and better built than
the rest.

The greater part of the suburbs consists in large court-yards, with low
apartments built round them, on the ground-floor, and separated from
each other by gardens and plantations. These are called Hosh, (plur.
Hyshan,) and are inhabited by all the lower classes of the town, many
Bedouins who have become settlers here, and all those who are engaged in
agriculture. Each hosh contains thirty or forty families; thus forming
so many small separate hamlets, which, in times of unsettled government,
are frequently engaged in desperate feuds with each other. The cattle is
kept in the midst of the court-yard, in each of which is a large well;
and the only gate of entrance is regularly shut at night. On the S. and
N.W. sides of the town, within the precincts of the wall, the suburbs
consist entirely of similar court-yards, with extensive gardens between
and behind them. On the west side, directly opposite the Cairo gate and
the Monakh, the suburb consists of regular and well-built streets, with
houses resembling those of the

[p.327] interior of the town. The broad street, called El Ambarye,
crosses this part of the suburb, and has good buildings on both sides.
In this neighbourhood lived Tousoun Pasha, in a private dwelling; and
near it, in the best house of the town, belonging to the rich merchant
Abd el Shekour, lived the Pasha's mother, the wife of Mohammed Aly, and
his own women, who had lately come on a visit.

The principal quarters of the suburbs are Haret el Ambarye, Haret el
Wadjeha, Haret es' Sahh, Haret Abou Aysa, Haret Masr, Haret el Teyar,
Haret Nefyse, Haret el Hamdye, Haret el Shahrye, Haret el Kheybarye,
Haret el Djafar. Many people of the interior town have their summer
houses in these quarters, where they pass a month in the date-harvest.
Every garden is enclosed by mud walls, and several narrow by-lanes, just
broad enough for a loaded camel to cross the suburbs in every direction.

There are two mosques in the Monakh: the one, called Mesdjed Aly, or the
mosque of the Prophet's cousin, is said to be as old as the time of
Mohammed; but the building, as it stands, was rebuilt in A.H. 876.
Mohammed is said to have often prayed here; and, for the convenience of
the inhabitants of the suburbs who are at a distance from the great
mosque, the Khotbe, or Friday's prayer, is likewise performed in it. The
other mosque, called Mesdjed Omar, to which a public medrese, or school,
was attached, serves at present as a magazine, and quarters for many
soldiers. To both these mosques the historian of Mekka applies the name
of Mesdjed el Fath: he calls the one Mesdjed el Aala, from standing on
the highest part of the town. Two other mosques, the one called Mesdjed
Aly Beker, and the other Mesdjed Zobab, stood in this neighbourhood in
the sixteenth century; and the Monakh at that time bore the name of
Djebel Sola, the Arabians applying the name of Djebel (or mountain) to
any slightly elevated spot of ground. In the same author's time there
were fifteen mosques in this town and its neighbourhood, all now ruined;
and he gives the names and history of thirty-seven that were erected in
the former ages of Islam.

I was told, that in the quarter El Ambarye the house where Mohammed
lived is still shown; but many doubt this tradition, and the spot is not
visited as one of the holy places. Here, as in Mekka, no

[p.328] ancient buildings are found. The winter rains, the nitrous, damp
atmosphere during the rainy season, and the intense heat which follows
it, are destructive to buildings; and the cement employed in their
construction being of a very indifferent quality, the stones soon become
loosened and the walls decay.