Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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[p.399] in its neighbourhood, render the air of Medina little favourable
to health.

Fevers are the most common disease, to which many of the inhabitants
themselves are subject, and from which strangers who remain here any
time seldom escape, especially in spring. Yahya Effendi, the physician
of Tousoun Pasha, assured me, when I was sick, that he had eighty
persons ill of fever under his care; and it appeared that he was more
fortunate in their cure than in mine. The fevers are almost all
intermittent, and attended after their cure by great languor: relapses
are much dreaded. When I went out after my recovery, I found the streets
filled with convalescents, whose appearance but too clearly showed how
numerous were my fellow-sufferers in the town. If not cured within a
certain time, these fevers often occasion hard swellings in the stomach
and legs, which are not removed without great difficulty. The Medinans
care little about this intermittent fever, to which they are accustomed,
and with them it seldom proves fatal; but the case is otherwise with
strangers. In some seasons it assumes an epidemic character, when as
many as eighty persons are known to have died in one week; instances of
this kind, however, seldom happen.

Dysenteries are said to be rare here. Bilious complaints, and jaundice,
are very common. There appears to be in general a much greater mortality
here than in any other part of the East that I have visited. My lodgings
were very near to one of the principal gates of the mosque, through
which the corpses were carried when prayers were to be said over them;
and I could hear, from my sick bed, the exclamations of "La illah il
Allah," with which that ceremony was accompanied. During my three
months' confinement one funeral at least, and often two, passed every
day under my window. If we reckon on the average three bodies per day
carried into the mosque through this gate, as well as the others,
besides the poor Arabs who die in the suburbs, and over whose bodies
prayers are said in the mosque situated in the Monakh, we shall have
about twelve hundred deaths annually, in this small town, the whole
population of which, I believe

[p.400] to be at most from sixteen to twenty thousand; a mortality which
cannot be repaired by births, and would long ago have depopulated the
place, did not the arrival of foreigners continually supply the loss. Of
this population I reckon about ten or twelve thousand for the town
itself, and the rest for the suburbs.

[p.401] JOURNEY FROM MEDINA TO YEMBO.

April 21st. 1815. OUR small caravan assembled in the afternoon near the
outer gate of the town, and at five o'clock P.M. we passed through the
same gate by which I entered, on my arrival, three months ago. Then I
was in full health and spirits, and indulging the fond hopes of
exploring unknown and interesting parts of the Desert on my return to
Egypt; but now, worn down by lingering disease, dejected, and
desponding, with no more anxious wish than to reach a friendly and
salubrious spot, where I might regain my health. The ground leading to
the town on this side is rocky. About three quarters of an hour distant,
the road has a steep short descent, hemmed in by rocks, and is paved, to
facilitate the passage of caravans. Our direction was S.W. by S. In one
hour we came to the bed of a torrent called Wady el Akyk, which during
the late rains had received so copious a supply from the neighbouring
mountains, that it had become like a deep and broad river, which our
camels could not attempt to pass. As the day was fine, we expected to
see it considerably diminished the next morning, and therefore encamped
on its banks, at a place called El Madderidje. Here is a small ruined
village, the houses of which were well built of stone, with a small
birket or reservoir, and a ruined well close by. Its inhabitants
cultivate some fields on the bank of Wady Akyk, but the incursions of
the Bedouins had obliged them to retire.

[p.402] Wady Akyk is celebrated by the Arabian poets. [Samhoudy says,
that this torrent empties itself into the same low ground called El
Ghaba, or Zaghaba, to the west of Medina, in the mountains where all the
torrents in this neighbourhood discharge themselves. He says also, that
on the banks of this torrent, eastward, stood the small Arab
fortification called Kasr el Meradjel; and from thence towards Ghaba the
torrent crosses a district called El Nakya. About five miles distant
from Medina was a station of the Hadj, called Zy'l Haleyfe, situated on
the banks of Wady Akyk, with a small castle and a birket, which was
rebuilt in A.H. 861. Perhaps this Madderidje is meant by it.] On its
banks stand a number of ashour trees, which were now in full flower. We
were accompanied thus far by a number of people from Medina, in
compliment to one of the Muftis of Mekka, who had been on a visit to the
town, and was now returning to his home, intending to leave our caravan
at Szafra. He had several tents and women with him. My other fellow-
travellers were petty merchants of Medina going to await at Djidda the
arrival of the Indian ships, and a rich merchant from Maskat, whom I had
seen at Mekka, where he was on the pilgrimage: he had ten camels to
carry his women, his infant children, his servants, and his baggage; and
he spent, at every station, considerable sums in charity. He appeared,
in every respect, a liberal and worthy Arab.

April 22nd. The torrent had decreased, and we crossed it in the
afternoon. We rode for an hour in a narrow valley, following the torrent
upwards. At the end of an hour and half we left the torrent: the plain
opened to the east, and is here called Esselsele; our road over it was
in the direction W.S.W. The rocks spread over the plain were calcareous.
At the end of three hours and a half we again entered the mountain, and
continued in its vallies, slowly descending, for the whole night. At the
break of day we passed the plain called El Fereysh, where I had encamped
the day before I reached Medina; and alighted, after a march of twelve
hours and a half, in the upper part of Wady es Shohada. [The distances of
this journey do not exactly agree with those given in coming to Medina;
but I prefer stating them as I found them noted down in my journal.]

April 23rd. We had no sooner deposited our baggage than a

[p.403] heavy rain set in, accompanied with tremendous peals of thunder
and flashes of lightning. The whole Wady was flooded in a moment, and we
expected that it would be necessary to pass the whole day here. I found
shelter in the tent of the merchant of Maskat. In the afternoon the
storm ceased. At two P.M. we started, and at the end of an hour passed
the tombs of the Martyrs or Shohada, the followers of Mohammed, forty of
whom, it was said, lie buried there. We continued slowly descending in
the Wady, mostly in the direction S.S.W. At the top of Wady Shohada, the
granite rocks begin, the upper ranges of that chain being calcareous. At
the end of five hours we issued from the Wady. In the night we passed
the plains of Shab el Hal and Nazye; and, after a march of thirteen
hours and a half, encamped in the mountains, in the wide valley called
Wady Medyk, which lies in the road from Nazye to Djedeyde, two hours
distant from the former, and which we had passed at night in my former
journey. I heard that in these mountains between Medina and the sea, all
the way northward, mountain-goats are met with, and that leopards are
not uncommon.

April 24th. A few Arabs of Beni Salem here sow some fields with durra,
which they irrigate by means of a fine spring of running water issuing
from a cleft in the mountains, where it forms several small basins and
pretty cascades--the best water I had drank since leaving the mountains
of Tayf. We started from hence in the afternoon, and encountered more
heavy rain from mid-day to sun-set. In the caravan were several sick and
convalescents, especially women, who were all complaining. I had had a
strong attack of fever during the night, which returned to-day, and
lasted till I reached Yembo. It was particularly distressing to me,
being accompanied by profuse perspiration during the night, followed by
shivering fits towards day-break; and as the caravan could not halt on
my account, I had no opportunity to change my linen. We were, moreover,
obliged to encamp upon wet ground; and as the number of camel-drivers
was very small, considering the quantity of baggage, I could not avoid
assisting to load, my own Bedouin being one of the most ill-natured and
lazy fellows I ever met with among people of his nation.

[p.404] We rode in the winding valley for two hours and a half, to El
Kheyf, the beginning of Wady Djedeyde, where the chief of the Turkish
post stationed there inquired for news from head-quarters: he had been a
whole fortnight without hearing what was done at Medina. During the
whole Turkish campaign in the Hedjaz, no regular couriers had been any
where established. Tousoun Pasha was often left for months at Medina,
ignorant of the state of the army under his father; and even the latter
usually received his intelligence from Mekka and Djidda by ordinary
conveyances of caravans; expresses were seldom despatched, and still
less any regular communication established over land between Cairo and
Mekka. Not merely in this respect, but in many other details of warfare,
the best Turkish commanders show an incredible want of activity or
foresight, which causes the surprise even of Bedouins, and must expose
their operations to certain failure whenever they encounter a more
vigilant enemy with no disparity of force.

The camp of the soldiers at Kheyf was completely inundated, and the
whole breadth of the wady covered with a rapid stream of water. Without
stopping any where we passed Djedeyde at the end of three hours and a
half, and further on Dar el Hamra, where the inhabitants had cultivated
several new plantations, since I passed this way in January. The copious
rains were a sure prognostic of a plentiful year, and the ever-recurring
questions put to our guides by the people they passed on the road were,
whether such and such a spot in the upper country was well drenched with
rain. In seven hours we came to Szafra. The party from Mekka that was
with us, separated here, having hired their camels only thus far, from
whence they intended to take others for the journey to Mekka; and those
which had carried them thus far, followed our party to Yembo. All those
camels which are engaged in the transport and carriage between the coast
and Medina, belong to the Beni Harb tribe.

We remained a few minutes only, about midnight, at Szafra, to drink some
coffee in one of the shops, and then continued our road to the westward
of the route by which I reached Szafra in coming from Mekka. Thick date-
plantations form an uninterrupted line on both

[p.405] sides of the narrow valley in which we slowly descended. After
nine hours and a half we passed a village called El Waset, built among
the date-groves, and having extensive gardens of fruit-trees in its
vicinity. At every step water is found in wells or fountains. A little
beyond this village we left the valley to the right, and took our way up
a steep mountain, this being a nearer road than that through the valley.
The route over the mountain was rocky and steep; our guides obliged us
to walk, and it was with difficulty that I mustered strength sufficient
to reach the summit; from thence we descended by a less rough declivity,
and, after twelve hours' march, again fell into the road in the valley,
near a small village called Djedyd. The mountain we had crossed has the
name of Thenyet Waset. The valley we had left to our right takes a
western circuitous tour, and includes several other villages, of which I
heard the following mentioned: Hosseynye, (nearest to Waset); then,
lower down, Fara and Barake, in the vicinity of Djedyd. Below Waset the
the valley is considered as belonging to Wady Beder, and above it to
Szafra. Djedyd has very few date-trees and fields; it stands upon a
plain, through which the torrent passes, after having irrigated the
upper plantations of the wady. We continued on this plain for one hour,
direction S. 50 W. After a thirteen hours' march we entered a chain of
mountains, extending westward, the same which I have mentioned in my
journey to Medina, as branching out westward from the great chain near
Bir-es'-Sheikh. Our road lay in a broad sandy valley, with little
windings, which brought us, after a very fatiguing march of fourteen
hours and a half, to Beder.

April 25th. Beder, or as it is also called, Beder Honeyn, is a small
town, the houses of which are built either of stone or mud, and of
better appearance, although less numerous, than those of Szafra. It is
surrounded by a miserable mud wall, ruined in many places. A copious
rivulet flows through the town, which rises in the ridge of mountains we
had just passed, and is conducted in a stone channel: it waters
extensive date-groves, with gardens and fields on the south-west side of
the place; and, although at a distance from its source,

[p.406] is still somewhat tepid. El Assamy, the historian of Mekka, says
that El Ghoury, Sultan of Egypt, built a fine reservoir at Beder, for
the Hadj; but I did not see it, and am ignorant whether it be yet in
existence.

Beder is situated in a plain bounded towards the N. and E. by steep
mountains; to the S. by rocky hills, and to the W. by hills of moving
sand. The Hadj caravans usually make this a station; and we found the
place where they had encamped just by the gate of the town, four months
ago, still covered with carcases of camels, rags of clothes, and remains
of broken utensils, &c. Beder is famous in Arabian history for the
battle fought here by Mohammed, in the second year of the Hedjra, with a
superior force of the Koreysh Arabs, who had come in aid of a rich
caravan expected from Syria, which Mohammed intended to waylay on this
spot. Although very ill, I walked out with the Maskat hadjys, to inspect
the field of battle, to which we were guided by a man from Beder. To the
south of the town, about one mile distant, at the foot of the hills, are
the tombs of the thirteen followers and friends of the Prophet, who fell
by his side. They are mere heaps of earth, enclosed by a row of loose
stones, and are all close together. The Koreysh, as our guide explained
to us, were posted upon the hill behind the tombs, while Mohammed had
divided his small force into two parts, with one of which he himself
advanced in the plain against the enemy, and the reserve was entrusted
to Aly ibn Aby Taleb, with orders to take his post upon the sand-hill on
the western side. The battle could not be won without the interposition
of heaven; and three thousand angels, with Gabriel at their head, were
sent to Mohammed's assistance. The above-mentioned thirteen persons were
slain in the first onset. The Prophet, hard pressed, hid himself behind
a large rock, which opened miraculously to admit him, and enabled him to
reach his reserve; he then made a second attack, and with the heavenly
auxiliaries was victorious, not losing another man, although seventy of
his adversaries were killed on the spot. A handful of stones, or dust,
which he (or according to the Koran, which God) threw towards his
enemies, caused them to fly. After he had forced their position, he
rested a little upon

[p.407] a stone, which, sensible of the honour, forthwith assumed the
form of a seat. The rock and the stone are shown; and, at all events
answer one good purpose, which is to excite the visiter's charity
towards the poor of Beder, who assemble at it whenever a caravan
arrives. The position of Aly's troop upon the distant hill, that of the
party of Mohammed close to the enemy, and the plain beyond that hill,
where the caravan from Syria pursued its route during the battle, are
made to explain the passage of the Koran, which alludes to it thus; "You
were on the nearer side of the valley, and they on the further side, and
the caravan was below," (Sur. 8.): but I could not well understand that
passage, according to the usual interpretation; and rather believe that
by the word rukb, which is taken here as synonymous with caravan, the
party of horsemen under Aly must be understood, whose position, although
upon a hill, was, with relation to Beder, a low one, the ground
descending slightly. Several small domes, which had been erected here,
were ruined by the Wahabys. In returning to the village, we walked, on
its south side, into the mosque called Mesdjed el Ghemame, built on the
spot where Mohammed once sat exposed to the sun's rays, and prayed to
God for a cloud which might overshadow him; this was immediately
granted; and the mosque derives its name from the cloud. It is better
built and more spacious than might be expected in such a poor place.

The market of Beder is furnished with the same articles as that of
Szafra. Some water-melons, the produce of the gardens, were offered for
sale. The Maskat merchant purchased, without my knowledge, five pounds
of Mekka balsam, all that remained in the market, which he intended for
a present to the Imam of Maskat. It was in the same adulterated state as
that I had formerly seen at Szafra. The inhabitants of Beder are chiefly
Bedouins of the tribe of Sobh, belonging to Harb, some of whom have
become settlers here. Others only have their shops here, and return
every evening to the tents of their family in the neighbouring
mountains. Beder being a place much frequented by Bedouins and
travellers, the houses are in great request, and a small shop in the
market pays as much as twenty

[p.408] dollars a year rent. Some Sherif families are also established
here, to whom the Hadj pays at passing considerable stipends.

In the evening several hundred camels belonging to Bedouins came to be
watered at the rivulet, escorted principally by women, who freely
entered into conversation with us. The Beni Harb established at
Djedeyde, Szafra, and Beder, give their daughters in marriage to
strangers, and even to settlers; and a few Turkish soldiers, attracted
by the beauty of some Bedouin girls, had fixed themselves here, and
married them: one of them, an Arnaut, who spoke good Arabic, and had
been accustomed from his youth to the wild life of warlike mountaineers,
intended to follow his young wife to the mountain. In the neighbouring
mountains are immense numbers of the eagle (rakham); hundreds of them
were constantly hovering about us; and some actually pounced down, and
carried off the meat from our dishes.

April 26th. We had remained here the whole of yesterday. Some people of
Beder kept watch at night over our caravan, for which they received a
small compliment. This place abounds with robbers, and we were encamped
outside the gate of the town. We left Beder in the evening, and took a
direction N. 45 W. After proceeding for three quarters of an hour, we
came to the ridge of sand-hills above mentioned, the highest summit of
which is called Goz Aly, in memory of the position occupied there by
Aly, during the battle of Beder. We crossed these hills for half an hour
with difficulty, the sands being very deep, and then descended into the
great western plain, extending as far as the sea, which is reached from
Beder in one night's march, at a small harbour, south of Yembo, called
Bereyke, much frequented by shipping. The plain, which we entered in the
direction W. 1 N. is overgrown with shrubs. During our night-march we
saw the fires of different Bedouin encampments. We met two negro
pilgrims, who had started from Yembo by themselves, and were in great
distress for water: we gave them both meat and drink, and directed them
towards the Bedouin encampments. Without a compass, these enterprising
travellers find their route across deserts: the direction of the road is
shown to them at starting, and they pursue it in a straight line by

[p.409] night and by day, until they arrive at the destined spot. After
a ride of ten hours from Beder, we encamped at the break of day in a
part of the plain, where low acacia-trees grow, called adheyba.

April 27. I found myself in a very low state this morning. Violent
vomiting and profuse sweats had rendered the last night one of the most
disagreeable nights I passed in my travels. A quarrel with my guide,
about victuals, further increased my fever to-day, to which perhaps the
late relaxation of my nerves through illness contributed. To our right,
northwards, about six hours distant, a chain of high mountains extends
towards the sea. Nearer to us a lower ridge takes the same direction.
The plain upon which we encamped is sandy, covered with small pebbles
and petrosilex. We set out after mid-day. Four hours and a half,
direction N.W. by N., trees and shrubs are no longer seen; a few saline
shrubs only indicate the proximity of the sea; and a little further on,
the ground becomes covered with a salt crust, while the air is strongly
impregnated with sea-vapours. At the end of seven hours and a half, we
again found some trees in the plain, interspersed with salt-increased
spots. At fourteen hours, having travelled the whole night over bad
ground, we saw Yembo at sun-rise; and after a ride of fifteen hours and
a half, at a very slow pace, we reached the gate of the town: just
before it we crossed an inlet of the harbour, it being then low water,
but which extends to a considerable distance inland at high tide.

[p.410] YEMBO.

IT was with some difficulty that I could find a room in one of the
okales or khans of the town, which were filled with soldiers, who had
received permission to return to Cairo, after their last expedition
against the southern Wahabys, and had come here from Djidda and Mekka;
and, besides them, there were many hadjys, who, after their return from
Medina, intended to embark for Suez or Cosseir. Among the latter was the
lady of Mohammed Aly Pasha, who had arrived from Medina; for the
transport of whose escort, suite, and baggage, four ships were in a
state of preparation. After having deposited my baggage in an airy room,
on the terrace of an okale, I walked towards the harbour, to inquire
about a passage to Egypt. This, I soon understood, it was impossible to
obtain at present. Positive orders had been given, that none should
embark but soldiers, who had already engaged three or four ships, then
ready to sail; and of whom upwards of fifteen hundred, including many
Turkish hadjys, who passed for soldiers, being armed and dressed like
them, were still waiting for conveyances.

While I was sitting in a coffee-house near the harbour, three funerals
passed at short intervals; and upon expressing my surprise at this, I
learned that many people had died within these few days of feverish
complaints. I had heard, when at Beder, that a bad fever prevailed at
Yembo, but then paid little attention to the report. During the rest of
the day I saw several other funerals, but had not the slightest

[p.411] idea to what so many deaths were to be attributed, till night,
when I had retired to my room up-stairs, which overlooked a considerable
part of the town; I then heard, in every direction, innumerable voices
breaking out in those heart-rending cries which all over the Levant,
accompany the parting breath of a friend or relative. At that moment the
thought flashed upon my mind, that it might be the plague: I attempted,
in vain, to dispel my apprehensions, or at least to drown them in sleep;
but the dreadful cries kept me awake the whole night. When I descended
early in the morning into the okale, where many Arabs were drinking
their coffee, I communicated to them my apprehensions; but had no sooner
mentioned the word plague, than they called me to order, asking me if I
was ignorant that the Almighty had for ever excluded that disorder from
the holy territory of the Hedjaz? Such an argument admits of no reply
among Moslims; I therefore walked out, in search of some Greek
Christians, several of whom I had seen the day before, in the street,
and from them I received a full confirmation of my fears. The plague had
broken out ten days ago: it had been raging at Cairo with the greatest
fury for several months; and at Suez a large part of the population had
died: from that port two ships laden with cotton stuffs had carried it
to Djidda, and from thence it was communicated to Yembo. No instance of
the plague had ever before been witnessed in the Hedjaz, at least none
within the memory of man; and the inhabitants could with difficulty
persuade themselves that such an event had occurred, especially at a
time when the holy cities had been reconquered from the Wahabys. The
intercourse with Egypt had not at any time been greater than now, and it
was, therefore, no wonder that this scourge should be carried to the
Hedjaz. While ten or fifteen people only died per day, the Arabs of the
town could not believe that the disease was the plague, although the
usual appearance of the biles upon the bodies of the infected, and the
rapid progress of the disorder, which seldom lasted more than three or
four days, might have been convincing proofs. In five or six days after
my arrival the mortality increased; forty or fifty persons died in a
day, which, in a population of five or six thousand, was a terrible
mortality. The inhabitants now felt a panic: little disposed to submit