Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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[p.386] money; and the fondness for tea in England and Holland is not
equal to that of the Arabians for coffee.

The people of Medina keep no horses. Except those of the Sheikh el
Haram, and a few of his suite, I believe there is not one horse kept in
this town. In general, these parts of Arabia are poor in horses, because
there is no fine pasture for them: the Bedouins to the N. and E. of the
town, in the Desert, have, on the contrary, large breeds. The gardens of
Medina might afford pasturage; and formerly, when there were warlike
individuals in the town, horses were kept by them, and expeditions
planned against Bedouins with whom they happened to be at war. At
present the spirit of the Medinans is more pacific; and the few horses
yet kept when the Wahabys captured the town, were immediately sold by
their owners, to escape the military conscription to which principally
the horsemen in the Wahaby dominions were subjected. Some of the richer
families kept mules, and also dromedaries. Asses are very common,
especially among the cultivators, who bring to town upon them the
produce of their fields. They are of a smaller breed than those of Mekka
and the Hedjaz. The wants of the Turkish army had caused a great
diminution in the number of camels formerly kept by the cultivators, who
sold them, under the apprehension of their being placed in requisition.
The Bedouins of the eastern Desert, at three or four days' journey from
the town, are rich in camels; a strolling party of the horsemen of
Tousoun Pasha sent in, during my stay, seven hundred of them, which they
had taken from a single encampment of the Beni Hetym tribe.

It is not unworthy of remark, that Medina, as far as I know, is the only
town in the East from which dogs are excluded: they are never permitted
to pass the gate into the interior, but must remain in the suburbs. I
was told that the watchmen of the different quarters assemble once a
year to drive out any of those animals that might have crept unperceived
into the town. The apprehension of a dog entering the mosque, and
polluting its sanctity, probably gave rise to their exclusion; they are,
however, tolerated at Mekka.

Among the sheep of this neighbourhood, a small species is noticed with a
white and brown spotted skin; the same species is likewise

[p.387] known about Mekka. It is of a diminutive size: they are bought
up by foreigners, and carried home with them as rarities from the Holy
Land. At Cairo they are kept in the houses of the grandees, who cause
them to be painted red, with henna, and hang a collar with little bells
round their necks, to amuse the children.

I believe the people of Medina have no other times of public rejoicing
than the regular feast-days, except the Mouled el Naby or Prophet's
birth-day, on the twelfth of the month of Rabya el Thany. This is
considered a national festival: all the shops are shut during the day,
and every one appears in his best dress. Early in the morning the olemas
and a number of well-dressed people assemble in the mosque, where one of
the Khatybs, after a short sermon, reads an account of Mohammed's
actions, from his birth to his death; after which the company, at least
the chief people present, are treated with lemonade, or liquorice-water.
The zealous Muselmans pass the night preceding this day in prayer. The
lady of Mohammed Aly Pasha, who, having performed the pilgrimage to
Mekka, came here to visit the tomb, and see her son Tousoun Pasha,
passed the greater part of the night in devotion at the mosque: when she
returned to a house she had taken for that purpose, close by the gate of
the mosque, her son paid her a short visit, and then left her to repose,
while he himself ordered a carpet to be spread in the middle of the
street, and there slept, at the threshold of his mother's dwelling;
offering a testimony of respect and humility which does as much honour
to the son, as to the character of the mother who could inspire him with
such sentiments. The wife of Mohammed Aly is a highly respectable woman,
and very charitable without ostentation. Her son Tousoun I believe to be
the only one of the family, whose breast harbours any noble feeling; the
rest are corrupted by the numerous vices inseparable from a Turkish
grandee: but he has given, in many instances, proofs of elevated
sentiment; and even his enemies cannot deny his valour, generosity,
filial love, and good-nature. We must regret, that he is as much
inferior in intellect to his father and his brother Ibrahim, as he is
superior to them in moral character. His mother had appeared here with
all the pomp of an eastern queen: from her donations to the temple, and
to

[p.388] the poor, she was regarded by the people as an angel sent from
heaven. She brought to her son presents to the value of about twenty-
five thousand pounds sterling, among which were remarked twelve complete
suits, including every article of dress, from the finest Cashmere shawl
down to the slippers; a diamond ring worth five thousand pounds; and two
beautiful Georgian slaves. In her retinue there was also a Georgian
slave of great beauty and rare accomplishments, whom Mohammed Aly had
lately married at Mekka; but as she had not yet borne any children, she
was considered much inferior in rank to Tousoun's mother, who counted
three Pashas as her own sons. [Ismayl Pasha is the younger brother of the
two mentioned above. It is reported that Ibrahim Pasha is not the son of
Mohammed Aly, but was adopted by him when he married his mother, then
the widow of an Aga of Karala, on the Hellespont, the native town of the
present Pasha of Egypt.] This slave had belonged to the Kadhy of Mekka,
who brought her from Constantinople. Mohammed Aly, who had heard his own
women praise her beauty and accomplishments, obliged the Kadhy, much
against his will, to part with her for the sum of fifty thousand
piastres, and soon after presented her with the marriage contract.

I can say little of any customs peculiar to the Medinans, having had so
few opportunities of mixing with them. I may, however, mention, that in
the honours they pay to the dead, they do not comply with the general
rules observed in the Fast. I believe this to be the only town where
women do not howl and cry on the death of a member of the family. The
contrary practice is too generally known to need repetition here; or
that, in other parts of the Levant, a particular class of women is
called in, on that occasion, whose sole profession is that of howling,
in the most heart-rending accents, for a small sum paid to them by the
hour. There is no such practice here, (though it is known in other parts
of the Hedjaz) and it is even considered disgraceful. The father of a
family died in a house next to that where I lived, and which
communicated with it. His death happened at midnight, and his only boy,
moved by natural feelings, burst into loud lamentations. I then heard
his mother exclaiming, "For God's sake,

[p.389] do not cry: what a shame to cry! You will expose us before the
whole neighbourhood;" and after some time she contrived to quiet her
child. There is also a national custom observed at funerals: the bier,
on issuing from the house of the deceased, is carried upon the shoulders
of some of his relations or friends, the rest of whom follow behind; but
when the procession advances into the street, every by-stander, or
passenger, hastens to relieve the bearers for a moment; some giving way
to others, who press forward to take in their turn the charge, which is
done without stopping. The bier, thus unceasingly passes from shoulders
to shoulders, till it is finally deposited near the tomb. If we could
suppose for a moment, that this simple and affecting custom was the
offspring of true feeling, it would prove much more sensibility than
what is displayed in the funeral pomp with which Europeans accompany
their dead to the grave. But in the East every thing is done according
to ancient custom: it originated, no doubt, in the impulse of feeling,
or a sense of duty and piety in those who introduced it; but has become,
in these days, a mere matter of form.

The women of Medina never wear mourning; in which respect they differ
from those of Egypt. It has been often stated by travellers, that the
people of the East have no mourning dresses; but this is erroneous, as
to Egypt at least, and part of Syria. The men, it is true, never indulge
in this practice, which is prohibited by the spirit of the law; but the
women, in the interior of the house, wear mourning in every part of
Egypt: for this purpose, they first dye their hands blue, with indigo;
they put on a black borko, or face-veil, and thus follow the funeral
through the streets; and if they can afford it, they put on a black
gown, and. even a black shift. They continue to wear their mourning for
seven, or fifteen, or sometimes for forty days.

As to the state of learning, I shall add that the Medinans are regarded
as more accomplished olemas than the Mekkans; though, as I have
mentioned above, there are few, if any, public schools. Several
individuals study the Muselman sciences at Damascus, and Cairo, in both
of which cities there are pious foundations for the purpose. As at Mekka
there is no public book-market, the only books I saw exposed

[p.390] for sale were in some retail clothes-shops near the Bab es'
Salam. There are said to be some fine private libraries; I saw one in
the house of a Sheikh, where at least three thousand volumes were heaped
up; but I could not examine them. As it often happens in the East, these
libraries are all wakf, that is, have been presented to some mosque by
its founder, or entailed upon some private family, so that the books
cannot be alienated. The Wahabys are said to have carried off many loads
of books.

Notwithstanding my repeated inquiries here, as well as at Mekka, I could
never hear of a single person who had composed, or even made short notes
of, the history of his own times, or of the Wahabys. It appeared to me,
on the whole, that literature flourished as little at Medina as in other
parts of the Hedjaz; and that the sole occupation of all was getting
money, and spending it in sensual gratifications.

The language of the Medinans is not so pure as that of the Mekkans; it
approaches much nearer to that of Egypt; and the Syrians established
here continue for several generations to retain a tinge of their native
dialect. It is common to hear natives talk, or at least utter a few
words of Turkish. The gardeners and husbandmen in the neighbourhood have
a dialect and certain phrases of their own, which often afford subject
for ridicule to the inhabitants of the town.

[p.391]ON THE GOVERNMENT OF MEDINA.

MEDINA, since the commencement of Islam, has always been considered as a
separate principality. When the Hedjaz came under subjection to the
Khalifes, Medina was governed by persons appointed by them, and
independent of the governors of Mekka. When the power of the Khalifes
declined, the chiefs of Medina made themselves independent, and
exercised the same influence in the northern Hedjaz that those of Mekka
did in the southern. Sometimes the chiefs of Mekka succeeded in
extending a temporary authority over Medina; and in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries this power seems to have been well established; but
it often became dependent on the mighty Sultans of Egypt, whenever they
assumed the sovereignty over Mekka. When the family of Othman mounted
the Turkish throne, the Emperor Selym I., and his son Soleyman, (who
paid, in general, more attention to the welfare of the Hedjaz than any
of their predecessors,) thought it necessary to acquire a firmer footing
in this town, which is the key of the Hedjaz, and became of so much
importance to the great pilgrim caravans. They sent hither a garrison of
Turkish soldiers, composed of Janissaries and Spahies, under the command
of an Aga, who was to be the military commander of the town; while the
civil government was placed in the hands of the Sheikh el Haram, or Aga
el Haram, the prefect of the temple, who was to correspond regularly

[p.392] with the capital, and to have the same rank as Pashas in other
towns. With the exception of a short period towards the end of the
seventeenth century, when the Sheikh el Haram and the whole town fell
under the jurisdiction of the Sherif of Mekka, this mode of government
continued until the period of the Wahaby invasion. An Aga was at the
head of a few soldiers, some of whom were in possession of the castle;
and the Aga el Haram, who also had a small train of soldiers, was the
nominal chief of the town. But great abuses had prevailed for the last
century: the military commander was no longer chosen by the Sultans, but
by his own people, and there were no longer any Turkish soldiers, but
only the descendants of those originally sent hither, who had
intermarried with the natives. This Aga had become the real master of
the town, and his party was spread over all the first families. He had
no other soldiers than the rabble of the town itself, and was chosen by
the first officers of the garrison, whose employments were still kept up
by their descendants, as they had been settled in former times, although
the greater part of them had renounced the military profession. This
tribe of soldiers, called Merabetein, had been enlarged to strengthen
the Aga's party, and its privileges extended to many other inhabitants
of the town, and foreigners who settled here. They were entitled to
share in the yearly salaries originally fixed by the Sultan, for the pay
of the garrison, and regularly transmitted from Constantinople; and had,
besides, usurped a share of the surra or stipends sent to the mosque and
to the whole town.

The Aga el Haram, together with the Kadhy, who was sent hither annually
from Constantinople, to preside over the tribunal of justice, became,
under the above circumstances, mere ciphers. The former was usually a
eunuch, who knew nothing of Arabic, and who received the appointment
rather in the way of exile, than as a preferment. His income, which he
received from Constantinople, although handsome, did not enable him to
keep up any military guard sufficient to cope with his rival, the Aga of
the town; and he soon found himself only left in the charge of the
temple, and the command of the eunuchs and

[p.393] Ferrashyn. But the Aga of the town himself was not complete
master; several of the chiefs of the different quarters had great
authority; the Sherifs settled here had their own chief, called Sheikh-
es'-Sadat, a man of great power; and thus, much disorder prevailed. The
people of the town, and the gardeners and inhabitants of the suburbs,
were often contending for months together: in the interior of the town
itself bloody affrays often occurred between the inhabitants of the
different quarters, on which occasions they sometimes barricadoed the
streets, and kept up a firing upon each other from the tops of their
houses. Instances are related of people firing even into the mosque upon
their enemies, while engaged in prayer.

Within the last twenty years a man named Hassan had been appointed Aga
of the castle, which gave him the surname of Hassan el Kalay. Born among
the dregs of the people, his great skill and cunning, and determined
hardihood, had raised him to this office. He was a man of a very short
stature and a limping gait, but notwithstanding of great bodily
strength; and his voice, when he was in anger, is said to have terrified
even the boldest. After several years' hard struggle, this man succeeded
in becoming complete master and tyrant of the town: he kept a guard of
town's-people, of Bedouins, and Moggrebyns in his service, and had all
the rabble on his side. He was guilty of the most flagrant acts of
injustice; he oppressed the pilgrims, extorted money from them,
confiscated the property of all the hadjys and foreigners who died here,
withheld the surra brought from Constantinople by the Hadj, from the
people for whom it was destined, and amassed great wealth. Instances are
recorded of tyranny and brutality which cover his name with infamy. A
rich old widow, with her daughter, having arrived at Medina, from
Constantinople, to visit the tomb, he seized on her, and compelled her
to marry him; two days after, she was found dead, her property was
seized by him; and a short time after he forced the daughter to yield to
his embraces. Many complaints were made at Constantinople against this
man, but the Sultan had not power enough to dispossess him; and whenever
the caravan arrived from Syria, Hassan el Kalay showed

[p.394] so imposing an attitude, that its chiefs could attempt nothing
against him. He threw great obstacles in their way; and it is generally
ascribed to him, that the last caravan from Damascus, which attempted to
perform the journey after the Wahaby conquest, was obliged to return to
Syria.

When the Wahabys began to make inroads into the Hedjaz, and to direct
their forces against Medina, the conduct of Hassan became still more
violent. During the two or three years which preceded the capture of the
town, he set no bounds to his oppressions, and was often seen to inflict
the severest punishments upon persons who happened to be laughing among
themselves when he passed by, pretending that his limping gait was the
cause of their mirth. During the night shops were robbed by the Arabs in
his service, who patrolled the streets in large parties, and no justice
could be obtained against them. When he saw the impossibility of holding
the town longer against the Wahabys, after all the surrounding Bedouins,
and Mekka itself, had surrendered, he gave up the place to Saoud, on
condition that he should be continued in his command; this was promised,
and the promise was kept: a Wahaby garrison was then placed in the
castle; the Aga el Haram, with all the Turks residing in Medina, were
obliged to leave the town, where he had been for several years a mere
shadow; and Hassan el Kalay remained governor under the Wahabys. Being
now unable to act with the same injustice as he had before done, he
affected the greatest zeal for the new religion, and oppressed the
inhabitants, by enforcing upon them, with the most scrupulous severity,
the precepts of the Wababy creed. Saoud showed much less respect for
Medina than he had done for Mekka: the income of the latter town was
left, as it was, in the hands of the Sherif, and the inhabitants were
exempted from the zekat, or tribute, which the other Wahaby subjects
paid to the chief, who here abandoned his right in favour of Ghaleb. The
same conciliatory system was not observed at Medina: the inhabitants,
who had never before known what imposts were, except the payment of some
trifling land-tax, found themselves grievously oppressed; and Hassan el
Kalay, with the tax-gatherers of Saoud, enforced the taxes with the
utmost rigour.

[p.395] The Hadj caravans now ceased; few pilgrims arrived by way of
Yembo; Saoud, soon after, prohibited the passage to the town to all
Turkish pilgrims; and the surra or stipends were of course withheld.
Under these circumstances the Medinans felt most heavily the pressure of
the times, and became exasperated against the Wahabys. Some further
details on the subject will be found in my account of Mohammed Aly's
campaign.

When Mohammed Aly first prepared an expedition against the Hedjaz, a
strong garrison was placed in Medina, consisting principally of warlike
Bedouins from Nedjed and the southern provinces, under the command of
Medheyan, whom Saoud had named Sheikh of the tribe of Harb. Hassan el
Kalay showed great zeal for the common cause; and, after the first
defeat of Tousoun Pasha at Djedeyde, was confirmed in his situation at
Medina; but when Tousoun returned a second time with a larger force,
Hassan, foreseeing his success, entered into secret negotiations with
him, and received the promise of being continued in his office, provided
he would facilitate the capture of the town by the Osmanlys. On their
arrival before its gates, he joined them, and was received by Ahmed
Bonaparte, the Turkish commander, with distinguished honours; the town
was soon after attacked, and the castle taken by capitulation: but after
the Wahaby party was totally suppressed in these parts, both Medheyan,
to whom safe-conduct had been promised, and Hassan el Kalay, were
seized, put in chains, and sent by way of Cairo to Constantinople, where
they experienced the fate which, the latter at least, well merited,
though his crimes can never excuse the treachery of those who seized
him.

Soon after the above events, the Aga el Haram, a Kislar Agassi of Sultan
Selym, returned, and partly recovered his authority; but the real
command was now in the hands of the Turkish governor. Towards the end of
the year 1814, Tousoun Pasha came here as governor, preparatory to his
intended attack upon Nedjed; and here I found him on my arrival. His
government was not bad, because his intentions were good, and he was
liked by the inhabitants for his

[p.396] generosity and devotion; but his proceedings were foolish
enough: he frightened away the Bedouins, by seizing their camels; he
thus cut off the supplies from the town, created a general want of every
kind of provision, and other necessaries; and his soldiers then soon
began to commit excesses, which he neglected to suppress by punishment.
After Tousoun's departure, his father, Mohammed Aly, arrived here in
April, 1815, and with his more experienced judgment immediately took the
proper measures for repairing the errors of his son.

Medina now continues under the government of a Turkish commander; a post
filled for a few months by the Scotchman, Thomas Keith, or Ibrahim Aga,
whom I have mentioned as being the treasurer of Tousoun Pasha. The Aga
el Haram keeps about sixty or eighty soldiers, a motley crew of Turks,
Arabs, Moggrebyns, and people of Medina; and all ecclesiastical affairs,
and the pecuniary business of the mosque, are left in his hands. Next to
him in importance stands the Kadhy, who, in the time of the Wahabys, had
been obliged to retire. The Sheikh of the Sherifs, or Sadat, continues
to enjoy great respect, as well as several other Sheikhs of the town;
and I believe, after all, that the Medinans dislike their present
masters, the Turks, less than any other class of the people of the
Hedjaz, although they certainly have not yet been cordially reconciled
to them.

Prior to the Wahaby invasion, the Sherif of Mekka kept an officer here
of inferior rank, to receive some trifling duties upon vegetables,
flesh, and other provisions brought to market; the only tax of the kind
paid by the Medinans, and the last remnant of the jurisdiction once
enjoyed by the Sherif of Mekka over Medina, and which, in later times,
has been entirely lost. Sherif Ghaleb had no authority here whatever;
but I believe, though I am not quite sure, that he still assumed the
nominal superiority, or the title of Chief of Medina; and that Medina
was supposed by the Porte to form part of the Hedjaz, under the command
of the Sherif of Mekka.

Several respectable Arabian writers affirm, that Medina forms a part of
Nedjed, and not of the Hedjaz, situated as it is on the eastern side of
the great chain; and this opinion seems to be well founded,

[p.397] if the natural boundary be considered; but, in the common
acceptation of the word on the coast, and at Mekka and Medina, the
latter town is supposed to form part of the Hedjaz, although the
Bedouins of the interior give quite a different meaning to this
appellation.

[p.398] CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF MEDINA.

I FOUND the climate at Medina, during the winter months, much colder
than that of Mekka. Snow is unknown here, though I heard that some old
people remembered to have seen it in the neighbouring mountains. The
rains have no fixed period in winter, but fall at intervals, and usually
in violent storms, which last for one day, or perhaps two days, only:
sometimes a whole winter passes without more than one fall of rain,
excepting a few light showers; the consequence of which is a general
dearth. The Medinans say, that three or four gushes of rain are
necessary to irrigate their soil; the water of the torrents then
inundating many parts of the country, especially the pasturing grounds
of the Bedouins. Uninterrupted rains for a week, or longer, such as
often occur in Syria, are quite unknown here; and after every gush of
rain, which lasts for twenty-four hours, the sky clears up, and the
finest spring weather prevails for several weeks. The last storms are
usually in April, but occasional showers are not unfrequent even in the
middle of summer.

The Medinans, and many foreigners, assert, that the summer-heat is
greater here than in any other part of the Hedjaz: I was not able to
judge myself. I have already stated that the saline nature of the soil
and water, the stagnant pools of rain-water round the town, and perhaps
the exhalation and vapours produced by the thick date-groves