Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41

[p.412] as patiently to the danger as the Turks do in every other part
of the East, the greater part of them fled into the open country, and
the town became deserted; but the disease followed the fugitives, who
had encamped close together; and thus finding no remedy to the evil,
many of them returned. They excused their flight by saying, "God in his
mercy sends this disease, to call us to his presence; but we are
conscious of our unworthiness, and feel that we do not deserve his
grace; therefore, we think it better to decline it, for the present, and
to fly from it:" an argument which I heard frequently repeated. Had I
been myself in full strength, I should, no doubt, have followed their
example and gone into the Desert; but I felt extremely weak, and
incapable of any exertions. I thought also that I might escape the
disease, shut up in my insulated room, and indulged moreover the hope of
a speedy passage to Egypt; in the latter, however, I was deceived. By
making a few presents, and a little bribery, I might perhaps have found
means to embark forthwith; but the vessels now ready to sail were
crowded to excess, and full of diseased soldiers, so that a stay in the
infected town was to be preferred to a departure by such a conveyance.
Some days after, I learnt that a small open boat, free from troops, was
ready to sail for Cosseir, and I immediately agreed for a passage on
board it; but its sailing was delayed from day to day, until the
fifteenth of May, when I finally left Yembo, after a stay of eighteen
days in the midst of the plague.

It was, perhaps, my own bad state of health, and the almost
uninterrupted low fever under which I laboured, that preserved me; for,
notwithstanding all my care, I was many times exposed to infection. The
great street of Yembo was lined with sick, in the very agonies of death,
asking for charity; in the yard of the okale where I lived, an Arab was
dying; the master of the okale lost a sister and a son in his own
family, and related to me, as he sat on my carpet, how his son died the
preceding night in his arms. The imprudence of my slave likewise
counteracted all my measures of precaution. Having missed him for
several days early in the morning, I inquired the cause of his absence,
when he told me that he had gone to assist in washing the dead bodies.
The poor who died during

[p.413] the night were exposed in the morning upon biers, on the sea-
shore, to be washed before the ceremony of praying over them in the
mosque; and my slave thought it meritorious to join in this office,
which had devolved upon several negro pilgrims, who happened to be at
Yembo. I desired him to remain at home, for the future, at that hour, to
prepare my breakfast; but I was as little able to prevent his walking
out at other times, as I could myself dispense with that duty; and one
could scarcely pass the bazar without touching infected people, or at
least those who had been in close contact with them.

The sense of the danger which then threatened me is much greater, now
that I find myself far removed from it, than I felt it at the time.
After the first four or five days, I became tolerably familiarized with
the idea of the plague, and compared the small numbers who died every
day with the mass of the remaining inhabitants. The great many cases of
persons remaining in full health, notwithstanding the closest connexion
with the deceased, considerably removed the apprehensions of the malady
being communicated by infection; and example works so powerfully on the
mind, that when I saw the number of foreigners then in the town quite
unconcerned, I began to be almost ashamed of myself for possessing less
courage than they displayed. The disease seemed, however, to be of the
most malignant kind; very few of those who were attacked, escaped, and
the same was observed at Djidda. The Arabs used no kind of medicine; I
heard of a few people having been bled, and of others having been cured
by applying a drawing-plaster to the neck; but these were rare
instances, which were not imitated by the great mass. As it is the
custom to bury the dead in a very few hours after decease, two instances
occurred during my stay at Yembo, of persons supposed dead being buried
alive: the stupor into which they fell when the disorder was at a
crisis, had been mistaken for death. One of them gave signs of life at
the moment they were depositing him in the grave, and was saved: the
body of the other, when his tomb was re-opened several days after his
burial, to admit the corpse of a near relation, was found with bloody
hands and face, and the winding-sheet torn, by the unavailing

[p.414] efforts he had made to rise. On seeing this, the people said,
that the devil, being unable to hurt his soul, had thus disfigured his
body.

The governor of Yembo took great care that the exact amount of the
mortality in the town should not be known; but the solemn exclamations
of "La illaha ill' Allah," which indicate a Moslim funeral, struck the
ear from every side and quarter of the town, and I counted myself forty-
two in one day. To the poor the plague becomes a real feast; every
family that can afford it, kills a sheep on the death of any of its
members, and the day after, the men and women of the whole neighbourhood
are entertained at the house. The women enter the apartments, embrace
and console all the females of the family, and expose themselves every
moment to infection. It is to this custom, more than any other cause,
that the rapid dissemination of the plague in Mohammedan towns must be
ascribed; for when the disease once breaks out in a family, it never
fails of being transmitted to the whole neighbourhood.

It is a common belief among Europeans, and even eastern Christians, that
the Mohammedan religion forbids any precautionary measures against the
plague; but this is erroneous. That religion forbids its followers from
avoiding the disease if it has once entered a town or country; but it
warns them at the same time, not to enter any place where the plague
rages: and it accordingly forbids individuals to shut themselves up in a
house, and to cut off all communication with the rest of the infected
town, because this is the same as flying from the plague; but it favours
measures of quarantine, to prevent the importation of the disease, or
its communication to strangers upon their arrival. The belief in
predestination, however, is so deeply and universally rooted in the
minds of the eastern nations, that not the slightest measures of safety
are any where adopted. The numberless extraordinary instances of the
disease sparing those who have come into closest contact with it,
confirm them in their opinion that it is not epidemic; and their prophet
Mohammed has declared to them, "that the plague is caused by the demon's
hostile attack upon mankind," and that "those who die of it are
martyrs." The universal opinion

[p.415] prevails among Moslims, that an invisible angel of death, armed
with a lance, touches the victims he destines for the plague, whom he
finds out in the most hidden recesses. The trunk of a palm-tree lay in
one of the streets of Yembo, and it had been observed that many people
who had stepped over it, had soon after been seized with the plague; it
was therefore believed that the demon had there taken his favourite
stand, to wound the passer-by; and therefore the Arabs took a circuitous
road, to avoid their foe, although they were persuaded that he was
light-footed and could overtake them wherever they went.

That the Christians and Franks escape the disease by shutting themselves
up in their houses, affords but a feeble proof to the contrary.
Imprudence, and the tardy adoption of these measures, always cause a
slight mortality even among them; and such cases are afterwards adduced
in proof of the folly of attempting to oppose the decrees of Providence.
Besides, there are many Christians in the East, who follow Turkish
maxims, and, impressed with the same notions of predestination, think it
superfluous to take any steps for their safety. Turks trifle with so
many of the prescribed duties of their religion, that it might not,
perhaps, be difficult, in this instance, to make them adopt rational
opinions; and the more so, as the Koran is silent upon this head: but no
private measures can be adopted, and rigidly observed, as long as every
individual, almost, is convinced in his own mind of their folly and
inefficacy. If this were not universally the case, the Turks themselves
would, long ago, have found means of resorting to prophylactics, in
spite of their religious doctrines; as the Arabs now did in the Hedjaz;
and their olemas would have furnished them with fetwas, and quotations
from the law, in favour of what their good sense might have led them to
adopt. In the Hadyth, or sacred traditions, a saying of Mohammed is
recorded: "Fly from the leprous, as thou flyest from the lion."

The case is different, respecting the means of preventing the plague
from being imported, or to establish regular quarantines. This is a
measure depending entirely upon the government. The most fanatic and
orthodox Muselmans, those of the Barbary states, have adopted this
system; and the laws of quarantine are as strictly enforced in their

[p.416] harbours, as they are in the European ports on the northern
shores of the Mediterranean. That a similar system has not been
introduced into Turkey is matter of deep concern, and may be attributed
rather to motives of interest, than to bigotry. Constantinople, and the
ports of the Archipelago, I have not visited myself; but I know that it
would be easy for the governors of Syria, and still more for the
governor of Egypt, to use their authority in introducing a system of
quarantine on the coast, without any dread of opposition from their
subjects. The governments of Syria, however, must be guided in such
matters by the Porte, and would hardly attempt to establish quarantine,
without the authority of their sovereign: but Mohammed Aly has often
acted directly contrary to the orders of the Porte, even in matters
affecting his sovereign's pecuniary interest; and we may believe that it
is not solely the fear of displeasing his master, which has prevented
him from listening to the frequent friendly advice and representations
made to him on this subject by European powers; and, at the same time,
his loose religious principles are too well known, to suppose that
bigotry restrains him from yielding to their solicitations.

While for four succeeding years, from 1812 to 1816, the plague has every
spring made ravages in Egypt, Mohammed Aly himself, with his family and
principal officers, have been shut up in their palaces with scrupulous
care; thus offering infinitely more scandal to the people than they
would have done by the establishment of quarantine regulations. Wishing,
however, to be considered by Europeans as a liberally-thinking man,
devoid of any prejudices, he had really given orders, in 1813 and 1814,
to establish a quarantine at Alexandria; but the shameful manner in
which it was conducted, clearly proved that he had no sincere wish to
guard his subjects from the horrors of infection; and the whole scheme
was soon after abandoned. My own inquiries, and the opinion of many
Turks themselves, who judge of the measures of their own government much
better than is generally supposed, have led me to believe, that the
Grand Signior, as well as his Pashas, tolerate the plague in their
dominions, because the numerous deaths fill their purses: with respect
to Egypt, I hold this to be indisputably the secret cause. The
commercial towns of Cairo, Alexandria,

[p.417] and Damietta, are crowded with foreign merchants, and other
strangers from all quarters of the East are established there: according
to the law, the property of all persons who have no near heirs to claim
it, falls to the Beit el Mal; a treasury, formerly destined for purposes
beneficial to the subjects, but now entirely at the private disposal of
the governors. The increased mortality thus causes great sums to fall
into their hands. The prefect of every quarter of the town must, under
the heaviest penalties, inform the government of any stranger or
individual without heirs who dies within his district; and not only is
the property of such people seized, but even that of those persons whose
heirs, although known, are absent in foreign countries, and to whom no
other privilege is granted, in return, than that of addressing their
unavailing claims to the same governor, who converts the income of the
Beit el Mal to his own use. The most flagrant injustice is committed
with respect to the property of deceased persons, as well during the
plague as at other times; and the Kadhy, with a whole train of olemas,
officers, and people in inferior employments, share in the illegal
spoil. In the same manner the property of military officers, and of many
soldiers, is sequestrated at their death. Upon a moderate calculation,
the plague this year in Egypt, which carried off in the city of Cairo
alone from thirty to forty thousand, added twenty thousand purses, or
ten millions of piastres, to the coffers of the Pasha, a sum large
enough to stifle any feelings of humanity in the breast of a Turk. That
the population has diminished, and consequently the regular revenues
suffered, is a reflection which a Turkish governor never makes, who
calculates merely the immediate consequences of an event; and, provided
he be safe himself, and his wealth increasing, cares little for the fate
of his subjects. As the plague seldom visits the open country, and
therefore does not deprive the soil of its labourers, its effects are
less dreaded by the Pasha. He will never be convinced that policy, as
well as humanity, dictates a removal of the causes of plague, until he
has seen a whole province depopulated, and the fields which yield him
his revenues deserted. [The little care taken by the government in Egypt
for preserving the lives of the subject is evinced in an equally strange
manner, by the neglect with which the small-pox is treated; a disease
that makes as great ravages in Upper Egypt as ever the plague could do,
which, itself seldom visits those southern provinces. The numerous
representations made to Mohammed Aly for the introduction of vaccination
have been of no avail, though, if he had chosen to inquire, he might
have known that in 1813, in the small town of Esne alone, upwards of two
hundred and fifty persons, adults and children, fell victims to the
small-pox, the violence of which is much greater in these climates than
in Europe.]

[p.418] It should seem as if Constantinople and Cairo were the great
receptacles of plague in the East, communicating it mutually to each
other, and to the neighbouring countries. How far the joint and
energetic representations of European powers might induce the Grand
Signior to adopt measures of safety for his capital, and to insure by
that means the safety of the population of European Turkey and Anatolia,
I am unable to decide; but I have little doubt, that a firm remonstrance
from the English government would induce the Pasha of Egypt to obey the
call of humanity, and thus benefit Egypt, as well as Syria and the
English possessions in the Mediterranean.

The ravages of the plague were still more deplorable at Djidda than at
Yembo; as many as two hundred and fifty persons died there per day.
Great numbers of the inhabitants fled to Mekka, thinking to be safe in
that sacred asylum; but they carried the disease with them, and a number
of Mekkans died, although much less in proportion than at Djidda. Even
the Kadhy of Djidda, an Arab, made his escape to Mekka, with all his
olemas; but Hassan Pasha, then governor of the holy city, ordered him,
under pain of death, to return immediately to his post; and he died on
the road. The principal marketstreet of Djidda was quite deserted, and
numbers of families were entirely destroyed. As a great many foreign
merchants were then in Djidda, their property considerably increased
Mohammed Aly's treasure; and I heard from eye-witnesses, that the only
business then done in the town was the transport of corpses to the
burial-ground, and that of the deceased's valuable property to the house
of the commandant. Medina remained free from the plague, as did the open
country between Yembo and Djidda.

I shall mention here a particular custom of the Arabs. When the

[p.419] plague had reached its height at Yembo, the Arab inhabitants led
in procession through the town a she-camel, thickly covered with all
sorts of ornaments, feathers, bells, &c. &c.: when they reached the
burialground, they killed it, and threw its flesh to the vultures and
the dogs. They hoped that the plague, dispersed over the town, would
hasten to take refuge in the body of the camel, and that by slaughtering
the victim, they would get rid at once of the disease. Many of the more
sensible Arabs laughed at this; but it was so far of some use, that it
inspired the lower classes with courage.

The town of Yembo is built on the northern side of a deep bay, which
affords good anchorage for ships, and is protected from the violence of
the wind by an island at its entrance. The ships lie close in shore, and
the harbour is spacious enough to contain the largest fleet. The town is
divided by a creek of the bay into two parts; the largest division is
called exclusively Yembo; the other, on the western side, bears the name
of El Kad, and is principally inhabited by seafaring people. Both
divisions have the sea in front, and are enclosed on the other sides by
a common wall, of considerable strength, better built than those of
Djidda, Tayf, and Medina. It is flanked by many towers and was erected
by the joint labour of the inhabitants themselves, as a defence against
the Wahabys, the ancient wall being ruined, and enclosing only a part of
the town. The new wall comprises an area almost double the space
occupied by habitations, leaving between it and the latter, large open
squares, which are either used as burial-grounds, encamping-places for
caravans, for the exercising of troops, or are abandoned as waste
ground. The extent of the wall would require a large garrison to defend
it at all points; the whole armed population of Yembo is inadequate to
it: but Eastern engineers always estimate the strength of a
fortification by its size; and with the same view a thick wall and deep
ditch have been lately carried along the outskirts of the old town of
Alexandria, which it would require at least twenty-five thousand men to
defend.

Yembo has two gates towards the east and north; Bab el Medina, and Bab
el Masry. The houses of the town are worse built than those

[p.420] of any other town in the Hedjaz. Their structure is so coarse,
that few of the stones with which they are built have their surfaces
hewn smooth. The stone is calcareous, full of fossils, and of a glaring
white colour, which renders the view of the town particularly
distressing to the eyes. Most of the houses have only a ground-floor.
Except three or four badly-built mosques, a few half-ruined public
khans, and the house of the governor on the sea-side, (also a mean
building), there is no large edifice in the place.

Yembo is a complete Arab town; very few foreigners are settled here: of
Indians, who have such numerous colonies at Mekka, Djidda, and Medina,
two or three individuals only are found as shopkeepers; all the
merchants being Arabs, except a few Turks, who occasionally take up a
temporary residence. Most of the inhabitants belong to the Bedouin tribe
of Djeheyne, in this neighbourhood, (which extends northward along the
sea-shore), many of whom have become settlers: several families of
Sherifs, originally from Mekka, have mixed with them. The settlers in
this town, or, as they are called, the Yembawys, continue to live and
dress like Bedouins. They wear the keffie, or green and yellow striped
silk handkerchief, on the head, and a white abba on their shoulder, with
a gown of blue linen, or coloured cotton, or silk stuff, under it, which
they tie close with a leathern girdle. Their eating, and whole mode of
living, their manners and customs, are those of Bedouins. The different
branches of the Djeheyne tribe established here have each their sheikh:
they quarrel with each other as often as they might do if encamping in
the open country, and observe the same laws in their hostilities and
their blood-revenge as the Bedouins.

The principal occupation of the Yembawys is trade and navigation. The
town possesses about forty or fifty ships, engaged in all branches of
the Red Sea trade, and navigated by natives of the town, or slaves. The
intercourse between Yembo and Egypt is very frequent. Many Yembawys are
settled at Suez and Cosseir, and some at Cairo and Kenne in Upper Egypt,
from whence they trade with their native place. Others trade with the
Bedouins of the Hedjaz, and on the shores of the Red Sea, as far
Moeyleh, and exchange in their encampments the

[p.421] provisions brought to Yembo from Egypt, for cattle, butter, and
honey, which they sell again at a great profit upon their return to the
town.

The people of Yembo are less civil, and of more rude and sometimes wild
behaviour, than those of Djidda or Mekka, but, on the other hand, their
manners are much more orderly, and they are less addicted to vice than
the latter, and enjoy, generally, over the Hedjaz, all the advantages of
a respectable name. Although there are no individuals of great wealth in
the town, every body seems to enjoy more ease and plenty than even at
Mekka. Almost all the respectable families of Yembo have a country-house
in the fruitful valley called Yembo el Nakhel, or Gara Yembo, or Yembo
el Berr, about six or seven hours' distance from. hence, at the foot of
the mountains, in a N.E. direction. It is similar to the valleys of
Djedeyde [There is a road, of difficult passage, from Yembo el Nakhel to
Djedeyde, over the mountains to the north of the great road.] and
Szafra, where date-trees grow, and fields are cultivated. It extends
about seven hours in length, and contains upwards of a dozen hamlets,
scattered on the side of the mountain. The principal of these is
Soueyga, the market-place, where the great Sheikh of the Djeheyne
resides, who is acknowledged as such by the Bedouins of that tribe, as
well as by the people of Yembo.

The valley of Yembo is cultivated exclusively by Djeheyne, who have
either become settlers, and remain there the whole year, or keep a few
labourers in their plantations, while they themselves remain encamped in
the mountain, and reside in the valley only at the time of the date-
harvest, when all the Yembawys who possess gardens there, likewise
repair for a month to the same place. All kinds of fruits are cultivated
there, with which the market of Yembo is supplied. The houses, I heard,
are built of stone, and of a better appearance than those of Djedeyde.
The Yembawys consider this valley as their original place of abode, to
which the town and harbour belong as a colony. The Egyptian Hadj route
passes by Yembo el Nakhel, from whence it makes one night's journey to
Beder: this caravan, therefore, never touches the

[p.422] harbour of Yembo, although many individuals of it, in returning
from Mekka, take from Mastoura the road to Yembo, to transact some
business in the town, and rejoin the caravan at one day's journey north
of Yembo.

The trade of Yembo consists chiefly in provisions: no great warehouses
of goods are found here; but, in the shops, some Indian and Egyptian
articles of dress are exposed for sale. The ship-owners are not, as at
Djidda, merchants, but merely carriers; yet they always invest their
profits in some little mercantile speculation. The transport trade to
Medina occupies many people, and all the merchants of that town have
their agents among the Arabs of Yembo. In time of peace, the caravan for
Medina starts every fortnight; lately, from the want of camels, it
departed only every month. There are often conveyances by land for
Djidda and Mekka, and sometimes for Wodjeh and Moeyleh, the fortified
stations of the Egyptian caravan on the Red Sea. The people of Yembo are
very daring smugglers, and no ship of theirs enters the harbour without
a considerable part of its cargo being sent on shore by stealth, to
elude the heavy duties. Parties of twenty or thirty men, well armed,
repair to the harbour at night, for this purpose, and if detected, often
resist the custom-house officers by open force.

The skirts of the town are entirely barren, no trees or verdure are
seen, either within or without the walls. Beyond the salt-ground, next
to the sea, the plain is covered with sand, and continues so as far as
the mountains. To the N.E. is seen a high mountain, from whence the
great chain takes a more western course towards Beder. I believe this to
be the mountain of Redoua, which the Arabian geographers often mention.
Samhoudy places it at one day's journey from Yembo, and four days from
Medina. About one hour to the east of the town is a cluster of wells of
sweet water, called Aseylya, which are made to irrigate a few melon-
fields. Bedouins sometimes encamp there; at this time a corps of Turkish
cavalry had pitched their tents near these wells.