Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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Four tailors. Many others live in various parts of the town; they are
mostly foreigners. Tousoun Pasha's court-tailor was a Christian of
Bosnia, and exercised authority over all the other tailors in the town;
who complained bitterly of being subjected, not only to the commands and
insults, but often to the stick of this Christian.

Five makers of nal, or sandals. There is not one shoe-maker in the
Hedjaz. Those who wear shoes or slippers buy them of the merchants by
whom they are imported from Egypt.

The shape of the sandals used throughout Arabia differs in every
province; and to those delineated by Niebuhr, a dozen other forms might
be added. Some are peculiar to certain classes: a merchant, for
instance, would not wear the sandals of a mariner. This is the case in
Turkey with regard to shoes, of which each province and class has its
particular shape. Egypt and Abyssinia furnish the thick leather used in
making sandals.

Three shops where water-skins brought from Sowakin and Egypt are sold
and repaired. The greater part of the Hedjaz is furnished with water-
skins from Sowakin; they are in great request, being very light, and
sewed with much neatness. A Sowakin water-skin will last, in daily use,
about three or four months.

Two turners, who bore pipe-tubes, and make beads, &c.

Three sellers of sweet-oils or essences, civet, aloe-wood, balsam of
Mekka, and rose-water from Fayoum in Egypt. The civet

[p.42] and Mekka balsam can seldom be bought pure, except at first hand.
The Habesh or Abyssinian merchants bring the civet in large cow-horns;
they sold it at four piastres per drachm in the year 1814. Musk also is
sold in these shops, the best at two dollars per metkal. It is brought
hither by the Indian and Persian Hadjys.

One watchmaker, a Turk. All the Mekka and Djidda merchants wear watches,
many of which are of good English manufacture; they are brought either
from India, or by the Hadjys from Constantinople. As it often happens
that the Turkish pilgrims want money in the Hedjaz, they are sometimes
compelled to dispose of their most valuable articles; the watch is
always the first, then the pistols and sabre, and lastly the fine pipe,
and best copy of the Koran: all these articles are consequently very
common in the auction-markets of Djidda and Mekka.

One seller of Turkish and Persian tobacco-pipes. The latter come
principally from Baghdad. The wealthy often display in their sitting-
rooms a whole range of the finest nargils: these cost as much as one
hundred dollars a piece.

Seven money-dealers, or serafs. They sit upon benches in the open
street, with a large box before them containing the money. Formerly,
these serafs were all Jews, as is still the case, with few exceptions,
at Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo; but since the Sherif-Serour drove the
Jews out of the Hedjaz, the Djiddawys themselves have taken up the
profession, to which their natural disposition and habits incline them.
There is usually at each stand a partnership of them, comprising half a
dozen individuals. A large amount of cash is required to carry on the
business; but it is very profitable. The value of money changes here
more rapidly than in any part of the East with which I am acquainted.
The price of dollars and sequins fluctuates almost daily, and the serafs
are always sure to be gainers. During the stay of the Indian fleet, the
value of a dollar becomes very high. While I was at Djidda, it rose

[p.43] to eleven and twelve piastres. After the departure of the fleet,
when there is no immediate demand for dollars, the price falls; in
January, 1815, it was at nine piastres. The gold coins vary in
proportion.

Formerly the old current coins of the Hedjaz were Venetian and Hungarian
sequins, Spanish dollars, and money coined at Constantinople. Egyptian
coins were wholly excluded; [According to the historians of Mekka, it
appears that the sherifs there assumed the privilege of coining their
own money, in the name of the Sultan of Constantinople, as late as the
seventeenth century; but this is now abandoned.] but since the arrival
of the troops of Mohammed Ali Pasha, all the Cairo coins have been
forcibly put into circulation, and the Cairo silver money is now next in
estimation to the Spanish dollar. The Pasha of Egypt, who enjoys the
right of coining money in the name of the Sultan, has lately much abused
this privilege. In 1815, he farmed out the mint for a yearly sum of
seven millions of piastres, which is, at the present rate of exchange,
about two hundred thousand pounds sterling, obliging the people to take
the dollar at eight of his piastres, although it is well known to be now
worth twenty-two or twenty-three. In the Hedjaz he has not the same
means of enforcing his despotic measures to their full extent; and thus
it happens that in the interior of the country, where the Turkish troops
are placed, the value of the dollar is eighteen or nineteen piastres.
The Bedouins, however, refuse to take the Egyptian piastres, even at a
depreciation, and will receive nothing but dollars; a determination to
which the Pasha himself has been frequently obliged to yield.

The para, or smallest Turkish coin, (here called diwany,) is current all
over the Hedjaz, and in great request, from its being of more intrinsic
value than the piastre, though coined like them at Cairo. Forty paras
make a piastre; but in the time of the Hadj, when small change is
necessary for the immense daily traffic of the pilgrims, the serafs gave
twenty-five paras only in

[p.44] change for the piastre. A few Indian rupees are seen in the
Djidda market, but they have no currency. I never met with any money
coined by the Imam of Yemen.

In the same great street of shops are ten large okales, always full of
strangers and goods. Most of them were formerly the property of the
sherif; they now belong to the Pasha, who levies an annual rent on the
merchants. In Syria these buildings are called khans; in the Hedjaz
hosh, which, in the dialect of Egypt, means a court-yard.

In a street adjoining the great market-place live a few artisans,
blacksmiths, silversmiths, carpenters, some butchers, &c. most of them
natives of Egypt.

The reader will perceive, by the foregoing pages, that Djidda depends
for its commodities entirely on importations either from Egypt or the
East Indies; and this is the case even to the most trifling article. The
want of hands, and the high price of manual labour, but still more the
indolence and want of industry inherent in the natives of the Hedjaz,
have hitherto prevented them from establishing any kind of manufactory,
except of the most indispensable articles. In this respect they offer a
contrast to the Syrian and Egyptian Arabs, who in general are
industrious, and who, in spite of the obstacles often thrown in their
way by the government, have nevertheless established several
manufactures, which render them, in some parts of the country, entirely
independent of foreign supplies. The inhabitants of the Hedjaz appear to
have only two occupations; commerce, and the pasture of cattle. The
first engrosses the mind of almost every town-inhabitant, not excepting
even the olemas, or learned men. Every one endeavours to employ whatever
capital he possesses in some advantageous traffic, that he may live
without much bodily exertion; for these people seem to be as averse to
the latter as they are eager to endure all the anxieties and risks
inseparable from the former. It is even difficult to find persons who
will perform the common

[p.45] labour of porters, &c.: those who follow similar occupations are
for the most part foreigners from Egypt or Syria, and negro pilgrims,
who thus earn a very comfortable livelihood, and generally make but a
temporary stay at Djidda. The only race of Arabians whom I have found
more industrious than the others, are the people of Hadramaut, or, as
they are called, El Hadareme. Many of them act as servants in the
merchants' houses, as door-keepers, messengers, and porters, in which
latter character they are preferred to all others for their honesty and
industry. Almost every considerable town in the East has its particular
race of porters: at Aleppo, the Armenians of the mountains of Asia Minor
are in request for this office; at Damascus, the people of Mount
Libanus; at Cairo, the Berabera Nubians; at Mekka and Djidda, the
Hadareme, who, like those of Syria, are mountaineers. It is well known
that similar qualifications recommend my countrymen, the Alpine
mountaineers, to the same offices at Paris. There is another striking
similarity among the natives of all these countries; they generally
return home with their gains, and pass the remainder of their days with
their families. Notwithstanding this source, there is a great and almost
absolute want of free servants in the Hedjaz. No man who has been born
in one of the holy cities, will act as a menial servant, unless he be
driven to it by the fear of dying from want of food; and no sooner is he
in good condition, than he ceases to labour, and either turns pedlar or
beggar. The number of beggars at Mekka and Djidda is very great, and it
is a common remark among the merchants of the latter place, that a
Djiddawy will never work while he can possibly maintain himself by
begging. Mendicity is much encouraged by the pilgrims, who are fond of
displaying their charity on first touching holy ground at this place.

Respecting the people of Djidda and their character, I shall have
occasion to make further observations in describing the inhabitants of
Mekka, whom generally they resemble. In fact, all the

[p.46] respectable families have houses at both places, and frequently
pass from one to the other.

Djidda is governed by a pasha of three tails, who takes precedence of
most others, from the connexion of this place with the holy cities; but
the government of it is an honour little esteemed by the Turkish
grandees, who have always regarded Djidda as a place rather of exile
than of preferment, and it has often been conferred on disgraced
statesmen. The Pasha styles himself not only Waly or governor of Djidda,
but of Sowakin and Habesh; and in support of this title, keeps custom-
house officers at Sowakin and Massoua, which, prior to the government of
Mohammed Aly, were entirely dependent on the sherif.

The pashalik of Djidda was reduced to perfect insignificance by the
power of the sherif of Mekka; and the title had become merely an
honorary distinction, enjoyed by the individual on whom it had been
bestowed, while he resided in some provincial town of Turkey or at
Constantinople, without ever attempting to take possession of his
government. There was, however, an exception in 1803, when, after the
total evacuation of Egypt by the French, Sherif Pasha went to Djidda
with a body of four or five hundred soldiers; but like all his
predecessors, he became the mere instrument of Sherif Ghaleb, and in
1804 his career was terminated by sudden death-the fate of many former
Pashas both of Djidda and of Mekka.

According to the orders of the Sultan, whose nominal supremacy over the
Hedjaz was recognised until the last Wahaby conquest, the revenue
arising from the customs collected at Djidda should have been divided
equally between the Pasha and the sherif of Mekka, while the former was
to have exclusively the command of the town. When the Turks began to
subdue Asia, the sherif received only one third of this revenue, and it
was not until the year of the Hedjira 1042 that he obtained the
half. [Vide Asami, History of the Hedjaz.] Subsequently,

[p.47] however, the sherif not only usurped the government of Djidda,
but also applied the customs wholly to his own use, the Pasha being
rendered altogether dependent upon his bounty.

Soon after the death of Sherif Pasha, the Sherif Ghaleb was obliged to
surrender Mekka to the Wahabys, having been besieged, the preceding
year, in Djidda, by Saoud. He then openly declared himself a proselyte
to the Wahaby faith, and a subject of the Wahaby chief, though he still
retained full possession of Djidda and the produce of its customs, which
formed the principal part of his income. The Wahabys did not enter the
town, which ostensibly declared in favour of their doctrines. The
Turkish soldiers were now obliged to retire towards Egypt, or elsewhere;
and from that period till 1811 all Turkish authority was entirely
excluded from the Hedjaz.

In 1811, Mohammed Aly Pasha commenced his operations against the
Wahabys, by sending a body of troops under the command of his son
Tousoun Bey, who was defeated in the passes between Yembo and Medina. A
second, in 1812, was more successful: while Tousoun, in September of
that year, took Medina, Mustafa Bey, the Pasha's brother-in-law,
proceeded directly with the cavalry under his command to Djidda, Mekka,
and Tayf; all which surrendered, almost without bloodshed. The Sherif
Ghaleb, who, from the moment he began to apprehend the probable success
of Aly's expedition, had entered into a secret correspondence with
Egypt, now openly declared himself a friend to the Turks, who entered
Djidda as friends. The title of Pasha of Djidda was soon after conferred
by the Porte upon Tousoun, as a reward for his services. The details of
this war will be given in another place; I shall, therefore, only
mention here, that after the Osmanlys, or Turks, entered Djidda, a
quarrel arose between the Pasha and the sherif respecting the customs,
which were to be divided between them, but which the Pasha, being now
superior in power, kept wholly to himself. He sent the sherif as
prisoner to Turkey, and

[p.48] since that event, the town has continued wholly at his disposal,
the new sherif, Yahya, being a servant in the pay of Tousoun.

Djidda, in the time of Sherif Ghaleb, was governed either by himself,
when he resided there, or, during his absence, by an officer called
Vizir, under whose orders the police of the town was placed; while the
collection of the customs (gumruk) was entrusted to another officer,
called the gumrukdjy; and the police of the harbour to the Emir el
Bahhr, or the "Chief of the Sea," a title equivalent to "harbour-
master." In later times the vizir was a black slave of Ghaleb, and much
detested for his pride and despotic conduct. Ghaleb seldom resided in
Djidda, his continual intrigues with the Bedouins, and his schemes
against the Wahaby tribes, requiring his presence in the more central
position of Mekka.

The form of government which existed under Ghaleb has not been changed
by the Osmanlys. It happened that Tousoun Pasha could seldom reside in
his capital, being placed under the command of his father, who received
from the Porte the entire direction of the Hedjaz war, and the disposal
of all the resources of that country. Tousoun was more usefully employed
in moving about with the troops under his command, till he returned to
Cairo in the autumn of 1815. Since the year 1812, a military commander
has always resided in the town, with a garrison of two or three hundred
men, which the Pasha takes care to change every three or four months.
The collection of the customs, the entire regulation of civil affairs,
the correspondence with Cairo and Mekka, the conveyance of troops,
stores, and government merchandize between Egypt and Djidda, and the
Pasha's treasury, are in the hands of this commander, whose name is Seyd
Ali Odjakly. His father was from Asia Minor, and belonged to the corps
of Janissaries (Odjak), whence his son takes the epithet of Odjakly. He
is disliked by the merchants of Djidda, because they remember his
selling nuts in the streets about twenty years ago. In the time of
Sherif Ghaleb,

[p.49] he was employed by him in his private commercial affairs; and as
he possesses great talents and activity, joined to a good knowledge of
the Turkish language, Mohammed Ali could with difficulty have pitched
upon a person more competent to fill the post which he now holds.

The public revenue of Djidda arises almost exclusively from the customs,
called here ashour, or tithes. This ought legally to be, as I was
informed, ten per cent. upon all imported goods; but, in consequence of
abuses which have been long practised, some articles of merchandize are
charged much higher, while others pay less. During the latter period of
the sherif's power, coffee was charged at five dollars the quintal,
which may be computed as fifteen to twenty per cent. Spices pay somewhat
less than ten per cent.; India piece-goods something more. Great
irregularity, therefore, exists in levying the customs; and it is in the
power of the officer of customs to favour his friends without incurring
any responsibility.

After the sherif had embraced the Wahabi doctrine, his income was
greatly diminished; because Saoud, the chief of the Wahabis, insisted
that the goods of all his followers should pass duty-free, and thus the
greater part of the coffee trade became exempt. I heard from a person
who had means of knowing the truth, and who had no motive for concealing
it from me, that the amount of customs collected at Djidda in 1814 was
four hundred thousand dollars, equal to eight thousand purses, or four
millions of piastres, which would give an annual importation of about
four millions of dollars, a sum certainly below rather than above the
truth. Customs are levied after the same rate at the two gates of the
town, called Bab Mekka and Bab el Medina, upon all provisions coming
from the interior of the country, principally cattle, butter, and dates,
which, in time of peace, when the communication with the interior is
uninterrupted, becomes a matter of importance. Except these, the people
of the town pay no imposts whatever.

[p.50] During my residence, the Turks had made Djidda the principal
depot for their army. A large magazine of corn belonging to the Pasha,
received almost daily supplies from Egypt, and caravans were every day
despatched to Mekka and Tayf; the commerce of the town also was much
increased by the wants of the army and its followers. The police of the
place was well regulated; and the Pasha had given the strictest
injunctions to his troops that they should not commit excesses, as he
well knew that the high-minded Arabians do not so quietly submit to ill-
treatment as the enslaved Egyptians: whenever quarrels happened between
Arabs and Turks, the former generally had the advantage. No avanies (or
wanton act of oppression and injustice) had, under any pretence, been
exercised upon individuals, except in the occupation of a few of the
best houses by the Pasha as lodgings for his wives. The merchants
suffered, however, as in the sherif's time, from the arbitrary rates of
customs, and from the necessity of frequently purchasing all kinds of
merchandize from the Pasha, who, while he was in the Hedjaz, seemed to
be as eager in his mercantile as he was in his military pursuits. But
after an impartial view of the merits and demerits of both governments,
it may be said that the people of Djidda have certainly gained by the
Osmanlys; yet, strange to mention, not an Arab could be found, whether
rich or poor, sincerely attached to his new masters; and the termination
of the sherif's government was universally regretted. This must not be
attributed wholly to the usual levity of a mob, which is found among the
subjects of the Porte, even in a greater degree than among those of any
European nation. The Ottoman governors or Pashas are continually
changing, and every new one becoming a supreme ruler, gives ample cause
for complaints and private hatred and disgust; while their rapid
succession inspires the people with the hope of being soon rid of their
present despot, an event to which they look forward with pleasure, as
the first months of a new governor are generally marked by clemency and
justice.

[p.51] The Arabians are a very proud, high-spirited nation; and this may
be said even of those who inhabit the towns, however corrupted the true
Bedouin character may be among this degenerate race. They despise every
nation that does not speak the Arabic language, or that differs in
manners; they have, besides, been accustomed, for many years, to look
upon Turks as a very inferior people, who, whenever they entered the
Hedjaz, were overawed by the power of the sherif. The rigid ceremonial
of a Turkish court was not adapted to the character and established
notions of Mohammed Aly's new subjects. The sherif, in the height of his
power, resembled a great Bedouin Sheikh, who submits to be boldly and
often harshly addressed. A Turkish Pasha is approached with the most
abject forms of servitude. "Whenever the Sherif Ghaleb wanted a loan of
money," observed one of the first merchants of the Hedjaz to me, "he
sent for three or four of us; we sat in close discourse with him for a
couple of hours, often quarrelling loudly, and we always reduced the sum
to something much less than was at first demanded. When we went to him
on ordinary business, we spoke to him as I now speak to you; but the
Pasha keeps us standing before him in an humble attitude, like so many
Habesh (Abyssinian) slaves, and looks down upon us as if we were beings
of an inferior creation. I would rather," he concluded, "pay a fine to
the sherif than receive a favour from the Pasha."

The little knowledge which the Turks possess of the Arabic language,
their bad pronunciation of it even in reciting prayers from the Koran,
the ignorance of Arabia and its peculiarities which they betray in every
act, are so many additional causes to render them hateful or despicable
in the eyes of the Arabs. The Turks return an equal share of contempt
and dislike. Whoever does not speak the language of the Turkish soldier,
or does not dress like one, is considered as a fellah, or boor, a term
which they have been in the habit of applying to the Egyptian peasants,
as beings in the lowest

[p.52] state of servitude and oppression. Their hatred of the Arabian
race is greater, because they cannot indulge their tyrannical
disposition with impunity, as they are accustomed to do in Egypt, being
convinced by experience that an Arabian, when struck, will strike again.
The Arabians particularly accuse the Turks of treachery, in seizing the
sherif and sending him to Turkey after he had declared for the Pasha,
and permitted Djidda and Mekka to be occupied by the Turkish troops,
who, they assert, would never, without the assistance of the sherif,
have been able to make any progress in Arabia, much less to acquire a
firm footing therein.

The term khayn, "treacherous," is universally applied to every Turk in
Arabia, with that proud self-confidence of superiority, in this respect,
for which the Arabs are deservedly renowned. The lower classes of the
Arabs have discovered a fanciful confirmation of their charge against
the Turks in one of the Grand Signor's titles, Khan, an ancient Tatar
word, which in Arabic signifies "he betrayed," being the preterite of
the verb ykhoun, "to betray." They pretend that an ancestor of the
Sultan having betrayed a fugitive, received the opprobrious appellation
of "el Sultan Khan," ("the Sultan has been treacherous;") and that the
title is merely retained by his successors from their ignorance of the
Arabic language.

Whenever the power of the Turks in the Hedjaz declines, which it will
when the resources of Egypt are no longer directed to that point by so
able and so undisturbed a possessor of Egypt as Mohammed Ali, the Arabs
will avenge themselves for the submission, light as it is, which they
now reluctantly yield to their conquerors; and the reign of the Osmanlis
in the Hedjaz will probably terminate in many a scene of bloodshed.

[p.53] ROUTE FROM DJIDDA TO TAYF. [I was unable to take any bearings
during this excursion, as the only compass which I possessed, and which
had served me throughout my Nubian journey, had become useless, and no
opportunity offered of replacing it till December in this year, when I
obtained one from a Bombay ship which arrived at Djidda.]

ON the 24th of August, 1814, (11th of Ramadhan, A.H. 1230.) I set out
from Djidda, late in the evening, with my guide and twenty camel-drivers
of the tribe of Harb, who were carrying money to Mekka for the Pasha's
treasury. After having left the skirts of the town, where the road
passes by mounds of sand, among which is the cemetery of the
inhabitants, we travelled across a very barren, sandy plain, ascending
slightly towards the east; there are no trees in it, and it is strongly
impregnated with salt to about two miles from the town. After three
hours' march, we entered a hilly country, where a coffee-hut stands near
a well named Raghame. We continued in a broad and winding valley amongst
these hills, some sandy and some rocky, and, at the end of five hours
and a half, stopped for a short time at the coffee-hut and well called
El Beyadhye. Of these wells the water is not good. From thence, in one
hour and a half, (seven hours in all,) we reached a similar station
called El Ferayne, where we overtook a caravan of pilgrims, who were
accompanying goods and provisions destilled for the army: they had
quitted Djidda before us in the evening. The coffee-huts are miserable
structures, with half-ruined