Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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We now conducted our journey in such a manner as not to fall in again
with the soldiers; but two days after I met the man again at Tor. The
governor of Suez was then there, to whom I might have addressed my
complaints: this he was afraid of, and therefore walked up to me with a
smiling countenance, and said he hoped that no rancour subsisted between
us; that as to the shot he fired, it was merely for the purpose of
calling his companions to assist him with his camel. In reply, I assured
him that my shot had quite a different object, and that I was sorry it
had missed; upon which he laughed and went away. There are not on earth
more insolent, haughty, and at the same time vile and cowardly beings
than Turkish soldiers: wherever they expect to meet with no resistance,
they act in the most overbearing, despotic manner, and think nothing of
killing an inoffensive person, in the slightest fit of passion; but when
they meet with a firm resistance, or apprehend any bad consequences from
their conduct, there is no meanness to which they will not immediately
submit. During my journey through Egypt from Cairo to Assouan, the whole
of which was performed by land, I had several similar rencontres with
soldiers; and I must lay it down as a rule for travellers, constantly to
treat these fellows with great hauteur, as the most trifling
condescension is attributed by them to fear, and their conduct becomes
intolerable. We travelled this day about nine hours.

[p.435] June 7th. We continued our course in valleys for about two hours
and a half, when we came to a high mountain, where I was obliged to
dismount. It was with great difficulty that I could reach the summit,
for my strength was exhausted; and I had been shivering with a fever
the whole preceding night. It took us about two hours and a half to pass
the mountain, and to descend into the valley on the other side. From the
top we had a fine view of the Gulf of Akaba. The upper part of this
mountain is granite, and its lower ridges gruenstein. In the afternoon we
issued from this chain into the western plain, which declines slowly
towards the sea of Suez, and encamped in it after a ride of about ten
hours.

June 8th. We reached Tor, in about three hours and a half from our
resting-place. Here we found every thing in a great bustle. The lady of
Mohammed Aly Pasha, whom I had met with at almost every station on this
journey, had arrived here from Yembo a few days before, and, as it blew
strong from the north, had come on shore, that she might proceed by land
to Suez. The governor of Suez and Mustafa Beg, her own brother, one of
the Pasha's principal officers, had come to meet her, and her tents were
pitched close by the little village of Tor. From four to five hundred
camels were required to transport her suite and soldiers to Suez, and as
that number could not soon be prepared, she had already been waiting
here a whole week.

I had intended to stop at Tor a few days, merely to recover sufficient
strength for my journey to Cairo; but when I learned that the plague was
still at Suez, as well as at Cairo, I changed my plan, and determined to
wait here some weeks, till the season for the disease should be passed.
I soon found, however, that a residence at Tor was not very agreeable.
This little village is built in a sandy plain, close to the beach,
without any shelter from the sun; a few date-plantations are at some
distance behind it. The houses are miserable, and swarms of flies and
mosquitoes choke up the avenues of every dwelling. I remained at Tor for
the night; and having heard from the Bedouins that at one hour's
distance was another small village, in an elevated situation, with
abundance of gardens and excellent water, I resolved to take up my
quarters there.

[p.436] It is surrounded by a half-ruined wall: the remains of a small
castle are seen, said to have been constructed by Sultan Selym I., who
fortified all the outposts of his empire. The French intended to rebuild
it, but they left Egypt before the work was begun. Two small villages,
about a mile distance, on both sides of Tor, are inhabited by Arabs,
while in Tor itself none reside but Greeks, consisting of about twenty
families, with a priest, who is under the Archbishop of Mount Sinai.
They earn their livelihood by selling provisions to the ships that
anchor here to take in water, which abounds in wells, and is of a good
quality. Provisions are here twice as dear as at Cairo; and the people
of Tor have their own small boats, in which they sail to Suez for those
provisions. Were it not for the passage of Turkish soldiers, they would
be rich, as they live very parsimoniously; but the rapacity of a few of
these men often deprives them, in a single day, of the profits they have
earned during a whole year. No garrison is kept here by the Pasha.

June 9th. In the morning I rode over the ascending plain to the above-
mentioned village, which is called El Wady, after having laid in a
sufficient stock of provisions at Tor. I easily found a lodging, and was
glad to see that my expectations of the site of this village were not
disappointed: it consists of about thirty houses, built in gardens, and
among date-trees, almost every house having its own little garden. I
hired a small half-open building, which I had covered with dateleaves,
and enjoyed the immediate vicinity of a shady pleasure-ground, where
grew palm, nebek, pomegranate, and apricot trees. A large well, in the
midst of them, afforded a supply of excellent water, and I had nothing
more to wish for at present. The people of the village, who are for the
greater part Bedouins become settlers, could not suspect any motive I
might have for residing here, as they saw that I was scarcely able to
stand upon my legs: they treated me, in consequence, kindly; and little
presents of meat and other provision, which I distributed among them,
soon insured their good-will, and I had every reason to be satisfied
with their conduct. Thus enjoying complete repose, and the good mountain
air of this village, which lies so much higher than Tor, my strength
soon returned.

[p.437] For the last four years, since I had left the society of my
friends Mr. Barker and Mr. Masseyk, and the delightful gardens of
Aleppo, I had not found myself so comfortable as I did here; and even
the first day that I passed in this retreat produced a visible
improvement in my health. As I thought that slight exercise might be
useful, I rode over to the Hammam, a warm bath, round the corner of the
mountain, situated to the north of Tor, and about half an hour distant
from El Wady. Several warm springs issue from the calcareous mountain,
the principal of which has a roof built over it, and is visited by all
the surrounding Bedouins. Some half-ruined buildings, probably as old as
the demolished castle of Tor, offered, in former times, accommodation to
the visiters. The water is of a moderate heat, and appears to be
strongly impregnated with nitre. Close by the springs are extensive
date-plantations. I have never seen a richer and more luxurious growth
of palm-trees than in this place; they form so thick a wood, that it is
difficult to find one's way through it. These plantations belong to the
Bedouins of the peninsula, who come here with their families at the
date-harvest. The largest grove, however, is the property of the Greek
priests of Mount Sinai, one of whom lives in an insulated tower in the
midst of it, like a hermit, for he is the only constant resident in the
place. The fear of the Bedouins keeps him shut up for months in this
tower the entrance to which is by a ladder; and a waterman, who provides
him every week with a supply of water, is the only individual who
approaches him. The priest is placed here as gardener of the convent;
but experience shows the inefficacy of all attempts to protect the trees
from the pilfering Bedouins, and they have therefore given up the fruit
to the first comer: so that this grove, the produce of which often
amounts to the value of four or five thousand piastres, becomes public
property.

I had some difficulty in providing myself with flesh-meat at Wady: sheep
are very scarce in the whole peninsula, and no Arab is inclined to sell
what he has. A flock had been sent from Suez to Tor, for the supply of
Mohammed Aly's lady and her suite. I was obliged to pay twelve piastres
here for a small kid.

[p.438] The second week's residence at El Wady considerably improved my
health. I was not thoroughly recovered, but only wished., at present, to
acquire sufficient strength for the journey to Cairo, where the means of
a complete cure might be found. I was the more inclined to hasten my
departure, as it was said that all the Bedouins who had camels to spare,
and had not given them up for the transport of the Pasha's women, were
soon to leave this neighbourhood, with loads of coals for Cairo, when I
should find it difficult to procure beasts of transport. I had been for
eighteen months without any letters from Europe, and felt impatient to
reach Cairo, where I knew that many awaited me. I knew too, that the
plague would have nearly subsided by the time of my arrival, as about
the end of June it always yields to the influence of the hot season. I
therefore engaged two camels from hence to Cairo, for which I paid
twelve dollars.

The Arabs of these parts have established particular transport customs:
of those who inhabit this peninsula, the tribe of Sowaleha is entitled
to one half of the transport, and the other half is shared by the two
tribes of Mezeyne and Aleygat. As I wanted two camels, one was to be
furnished to me by a Sowaleha, and the other either by a Mezeyne or
Aleygat. If no individuals of those three tribes happen to be present,
the business is easily settled with one of them, and the others have no
after claim; but if several of them are on the spot, quarrels always
arise among them, and he who conducts the traveller is obliged to give
to the others a small sum of money, to silence their claims. The same
custom or law marks out certain limits, which when the traveller and his
guide have once passed, the countrymen of the latter have no more claims
for the transport. The limit from Tor, northward, is half way between
Tor and Wady. The Bedouin who had carried me from Tor to Wady passed
this limit by stealth, none of his friends knowing of it: they pursued
when they saw us on the road; but we had passed the limits before they
came up with us, and I had thus fallen to the lot of this guide; when,
on inquiring at Wady for a new guide to Cairo, I was told that no person
could take the transport upon himself, without the knowledge or
permission of the Bedouin

[p.439] who had brought me to Wady from Tor, and upon whose camel I had
once crossed the limits. The man was therefore sent for, and as his own
camels were not present, he ceded his right to another for two dollars;
and with the latter I departed. These quarrels about transport are very
curious, and sometimes very intricate to decide: in the mean while the
traveller remains completely passive, but there is not much danger of
imposition, for the amount of the hire is always publicly known, and one
dollar is the largest sum he can lose.

I left Wady on the 17th of June. Our road lay upon an elevated plain,
bounded on the east by the high summits of the Sinai mountains, and on
the west by a low ridge of calcareous hills, which separate the plain
from the sea, and run parallel with it for about five or six hours. This
plain, which is completely barren, and of a gravelly soil, is called El
Kaa, and is in bad repute with the Bedouins, from having no springs, and
being extremely hot, from the nature of its position. Thus I found it
myself. During this day we suffered much from one of the hottest winds I
ever remember to have experienced. We alighted during the mid-day hours
in the open plain, without finding any tree to afford shade. A Bedouin
cloak, fastened to four poles, was erected as a tent, barely sheltering
me from the sun, while my two guides and my slave wrapped themselves in
their mantles, and lay down and slept in the sun. Instead of causing
perspiration, the hot air of the Semoum chokes up every pore; and in the
evening I again had the ague, which continued from hence, in irregular
fits, till I arrived at Cairo. We encamped this night in El Kaa.

June 18th. We entered, in the morning, Wady Feiran, followed it down
towards the sea, and then continued along shore for the rest of the day,
till we reached the neighbourhood of the well called El Merkha, in front
of the bay which bears the name of Birket Faraoun.

June 19th. From Merkha we again proceeded along shore, then entered the
Wady Taybe, leaving to our left the mountains, which reach close to the
shore, and in the midst of which lies the bath, called Hamam Seydna
Mousa. Taybe is a valley full of trees, which were now withered for want
of rain. Having reached its top, we

[p.440] continued over a high plain, passed Wady Osayt, and slept that
night in Wady Gharendel.

June 20th. Passing by the brackish spring of Howara, we crossed a barren
plain, reached Wady Wardan at mid-day, and encamped in the evening at
Wady Seder. Our days' journeys were very long, and we travelled some
hours during the night, that we might reach Suez in time to join the
caravan, which was preparing there to conduct the Pasha's women to
Cairo. As I shall speak in detail of this road in the journal of my
visit to Mount Sinai, I forbear entering here into any particulars: the
remarks I now made were, besides, very superficial.

June 26th. [sic] In the morning we passed Ayoun Mousa, and reached Suez
in the afternoon. The caravan was just preparing to depart, and we
started with it in the evening. There was a strong guard, and altogether
we had about six hundred camels. We travelled the whole night without
interruption, and on the morning of

June 22nd alighted at the place called El Hamra, the Hadj station
between Cairo and Adjeroud. The ladies of the Pasha had brought two
carriages with them from the Hedjaz, in which they had travelled all the
way from Tor to Suez, the road being every where of easy passage. Two
more carriages were sent for them from Cairo to Suez, one of which, an
elegant English barouche, was drawn by four horses: they got into these
at Suez, and quitted them occasionally for splendid litters or
palanquins, carried by mules. We started again in the evening, and,
travelling the whole night, reached Birket el Hadj on the morning of the
23rd, having thus made the whole journey from Tor in six days; a forced
march which, from the heat of the season, had fatigued me extremely. At
the Birket El Hadj the caravan was met by many grandees from Cairo: the
ladies of the Pasha intended to encamp there for a few days among the
date-groves. Being unable myself, from weakness, to proceed on the same
day, (although Cairo is but four hours distant,) I slept here, and
entered the city on the morning of the 24th of June, after an absence
from thence of nearly two years and a half. I found that two letters,
which I sent

[p.441]here from Medina, had not been received, and my acquaintances had
supposed me lost. The plague had nearly subsided; some of the
Christians had already re-opened their houses; but great gloom seemed to
have overspread the town from the mortality that had taken place.

The joy I felt at my safe return to Cairo was considerably increased by
flattering and encouraging letters from England; but my state of health
was too low to admit of fully indulging in the pleasures of success. The
physicians of Cairo are of the same set of European quacks so frequently
found in other parts of the Levant: they made me swallow pounds of bark,
and thus rendered my disease worse; and it was not till two months after
that I regained my perfect health at Alexandria, whither I had gone to
pay a visit to Colonel Missett, the British resident in Egypt, who had
already laid me under so many obligations, and to whose kind attentions,
added to regular exercise on horseback, more than to any thing else, I
was indebted for my recovery. A delightful journey, in the winter
months, through Lower Egypt, and by the Lake Menzaleh, restored me to my
wonted strength, which I am happy to say has never since experienced any
abatement.

[p.443] APPENDIX.

[p.445] APPENDIX.

No. I.

Stations of the Pilgrim Caravan, called the "Hadj el Kebsy," through the
mountainous country between Mekka and Sanaa in Yemen.

MEKKA.

1st day. Shedad; some coffee-huts.

2. Kura, a small village on the summit of the mountain so called.

3. Tayf.

4. Abbasa, in the district of the Thekyf Arabs.

5. Melawy Djedara, district of the Beni Sad Arabs.

6. Mekhra, district of the Naszera Arabs. The principal village of the
Beni Sad tribe is Lagham, and of the Naszera tribe, Sour; distant one
day N. of the farthest limits of Zohran. In this district is also the
fortified village of Bedjeyle.

7. Esserrar, of the Thekyf Arabs.

8. Berahrah, on the N. extremity of Zohran, a district inhabited by
Arabs of the same name. This Zohran is one of the most fertile countries
in the mountainous chain, although its villages are separated from each
other by intervals of barren rock. It is inhabited by the Zohran tribes
of Beni Malek and Beni Ghamed. The Zohran chief, Bakhroudj, having
bravely resisted Mohammed Aly Pasha, was taken by surprise, in March
1815, and cruelly cut to pieces by that Turkish general's order.

9. Wady Aly, in the same district.

10. Meshnye, on the S. borders of Zohran.

11. Raghdan, a market-place of the Ghamed Arabs.

12. Korn el Maghsal, of the Ghamed Arabs.

13. Al Zahera, of the same Arabs. These two tribes of Zohran and Ghamed
possess the Hedjaz (viz. the mountains) and adjoining districts in
Tehama, or the Western plain [p.446] towards the sea, as well as the
Eastern upper plain. The chief place of the Ghamed tribe is Mokhowa, a
town not to be confounded with Mokha.

14. El Roheyta, of the powerful tribe of Shomran.

15. Adama, of the Shomran Arabs.

16. Tabala, of the Shomran Arabs, who extend over both sides of the
mountains in the W. and E. plain.

17. El Hasba, market of the Shomran Arabs.

18. El Asabely, a village of the Asabely tribe.

19. Beni Shefra, a market-place of the tribe so called, formerly united
with the Asabelys, but formed by the Wahaby chief into a distinct tribe.

20. Shat Ibn Aryf.

21. Sedouan: this place and Shat Ibn Aryf are inhabited by Arabs of the
tribe called Ahl Aryef.

22. El Matsa.

23. Ibn Maan, which with El Matsa belong to the Ibn Katlan Arabs.

24. Ibl, in the territory of the powerful tribe of Asyr.

25. Ibn el Shayr, of the Asyr tribe.

26. Dahban, of the Kahtan Arabs, one of the most powerful tribes of the
Eastern Desert.

27. Derb Ibn el Okeyda, a wady inhabited by the Refeydha tribe, who
belong to the Asyr. They are strong in horses.

28. Derb Selman, of the Refeydha tribe.

29. Wakasha, of the Abyda Arabs. In the district of Abyda is the town of
Aryn, in a very fertile territory. From Aryn southward the Arabs keep on
the mountains a few camels, but many sheep and goats, and are what the
Bedouins call Shouawy, or Ahl Shah, or Ahl Bul.

30. Wady Yaowd, of the Abyda Arabs.

31. Howd Ibn Zyad, of the Abyda Arabs.

32. Thohran, a district and market-place of the tribe of Wadaa.

33. Keradb, of the Wadaa tribe.

34. Roghafa, of the Sahhar Arabs.

35. Dohyan, of the Sahhar Arabs.

36. Sada, of the Sahhar tribe. From Sada the caravan, or Hadj el Kebsy,
takes its departure; it is so called from the Emir, or chief of the
Hadj, who is styled Kebsy. The pilgrims from all the interior parts of
Yemen assemble at Sada: it is a large town, but much decayed, famous in
Arabia Felix as the birth-place of Yabya Ibn Hosseyn, chief promoter of
the sect of Zeyd, which has numerous adherents in that country. Of late
a new saint has appeared at Sada; he is called Seyd Ahmed, and is much
revered by the Zyoud, or sect of Zeyd, who entitle him Woly, or Saint,
even during his life. Sada is governed by Arabs: the Wahaby influence
extended thus far. From Sada towards Sanaa the country is inhabited by
Arabs, under the dominion of the Imam of Sanaa.

37. Aashemye, of the Sofyan tribe.

38. A market-place, or Souk, of the Bekyl Arabs.

[p.447]

39. Another market-place of the same tribe. The Bekyl and Hashed Arabs
of this district serve in the army of the Imam of Sana; many of them go
to India, and are preferred by the native princes there to any other
class of soldiers: Tipoo Saheb had several hundred of them in his
service. They generally embark at Shaher, in Hadramaut; and their chief
destination at present is Guzerat and Cutch.

40. Ghoulet Adjyb, of the Hashed Arabs.

41. Reyda, of the Omran Arabs.

42. Ayal Sorah, of the Hamdan tribe.

43. Sanaa. From Mekka to Sanaa, forty-three days' very slow travelling:
for most of the pilgrims perform the whole journey on foot.

No. II.

Of the country through which the Kebsy pilgrims travel, and the
extraordinary customs of some Arabian tribes.

THE route of this pilgrimage lies wholly along the mountains of the
Hedjaz and Yemen, having the Eastern plain on one side, and Tehama, or
the sea-coast, on the other. The road often leads through difficult
passes on the very summit of the mountains. Water abounds, in wells,
springs, and rivulets: the entire tract of country is well peopled,
although not every where cultivated, enclosed fields and trees being
only found in the vicinity of water. There is a village at every station
of the Hadj: most of these villages are built of stone, and inhabited by
Arab tribes, originally of these mountains, and now spread over the
adjoining plains. Some are very considerable tribes, such as Zohran,
Ghamed, Shomran, Asyr, and Abyda, of whom each can muster from six to
eight thousand firelocks: their principal strength consists in
matchlocks. Horses are but few in these mountains; yet the Kahtan,
Refeydha, and Abyda tribes, who likewise spread over the plain, possess
the good Koheyl breed. This country produces not only enough for the
inhabitants, but enables them to export great quantities of coffee-
beans, corn, beans, raisins, almonds, dried apricots, &c.

It is said that the coffee-tree does not grow northward beyond Meshnye,
in the Zohran country; the tree improves in quality southward: the best
coffee is produced in the neighbourhood of Sanaa. Grapes abound in these
mountains. Raisins constitute a common article of food with the Arabs,
and are exported to the towns on the sea-coast, and to Djidda and Mekka,
where a kind of wine is made from them, as follows:--The raisins are put
into

[p.448] earthen jars, which are then filled with water, buried in the
ground, and left there for a whole month, during which the fermentation
takes place. Most other fruits are cultivated in these mountains, where
water is at all times abundant, and the climate temperate. Snow has
sometimes fallen, and water been frozen as far as Sada. The Arabs
purchase their cotton dresses in the market-places of Tehama, or on the
coast: the passing pilgrims sell to them a few drugs, spices, and
needles, and proceed on their way in perfect security, at least since
the Wahabys have subjugated the whole country, by overpowering, after
many sanguinary battles, the hostile Sheikhs, who were forced to pay an
annual tribute.

Most of the Arab tribes south of Zohran belong to the sect of Zeyd: they
live in villages, and are chiefly what the Arabs call Hadhar, or
settlers, not Bedouins; but as they keep large herds of cattle, they
descend, in time of rain, into the Eastern plain, which affords rich
pasturage for cows, camels, and sheep. They procure clothes, drugs,
utensils, &c. from the sea-ports of Yemen, where they sell dried fruits,
dates, honey, butter, coffee-beans, &c. With the Bedouins of the Eastern
plain they exchange durra for cattle. The Spanish dollar is current
among them; but in their markets all things are valued by measures of
corn. The dress of these Bedouins generally consists in cotton stuffs
and leather.

Before the Wahabys taught them the true Mohammedan doctrines, they knew
nothing more of their religion than the creed, La Illaha ill' Allah, wa
Mohammed rasoul Allah, (There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the
prophet of God); nor did they ever perform the prescribed rites. The El
Merekede, a branch of the great Asyr tribe, indulged in an ancient
custom of their forefathers by assigning to the stranger, who alighted
at their tents or houses, some female of the family to be his companion
during the night, most commonly the host's own wife; but to this
barbarous system of hospitality young virgins were never sacrificed. If
the stranger rendered himself agreeable to his fair partner, he was
treated next morning with the utmost attention by his host, and
furnished, on parting, with provisions sufficient for the remainder of
his journey: but if, unfortunately, he did not please the lady, his
cloak was found next day to want a piece, cut off by her as a signal of
contempt. This circumstance being known, the unlucky traveller was
driven away with disgrace by all the women and children of the village
or encampment. It was not without much difficulty that the Wahabys
forced them to renounce this custom; and as there was a scarcity of rain
for two years after, the Merekedes regarded this misfortune as a
punishment for having abandoned the laudable rites of hospitality,
practised during so many centuries by their ancestors.