Sana'a

“ These people have no particular religion—certainly they are not Mussulmans; they live by singing, dancing, and prostitution. The woman, who had considerable attractions, followed us for nearly a mile, and begged hard for a present. Sana is always infested by bands of these “Susmanis,” who prey on the pilgrims.
We are now on the direct pilgrims’ road to Kerbela, where are buried the imams, or saints, of the Sheahs, Hussein and Hassan, one of the greatest shrines of Persian pilgrims. ”

“ Sana, the capital of Yemen, lies in a broad valley 7300 ft. above sea-level, sloping northwards to the W. Kharid which, with the Ghail Hirran, the sources of which are on the eastern slopes of J. Hadur, run north-eastward to the Jauf depression. The Arhab district, through which these two great wadis run, was formerly the centre of the Himyar kingdom; cultivation is now only to be found in the lower parts on the borders of the watercourses, all above being naked rock from which every particle of soil has been denuded. ”

“ For there is no monkery in Al-Islam and marriage is one of the institutions of the Apostles (on whom be the Peace!) [177] nor were women created but for men.” Then Hasan commanded to put all the captives to the sword and the old woman cried out, saying, “Slay them all and spare none [178] !” But, when Princess Manar al-Sana saw her sister in this plight, a bondswoman and in fetters, she wept over her and said, “O my sister, who is this hath conquered us and made us captives in our own country?” Quoth Nur al-Huda, “Verily, this is a mighty matter. ”

“ She nights parading what ill-will she works: * I night parading
Patience to her eyes."
Then his wife said to him, "By Allah, there is no relief for us but to kill ourselves and be at rest from this great and weary travail; else we shall suffer grievous torment on the morrow." At this moment, behold, they heard a voice from without the door say, "By Allah, O my lady Manar al-Sana, I will not open to thee and thy husband Hasan, except ye obey me in whatso I shall say to you!" When they heard these words they were silent for excess of fright and would have returned whence they came ”

“ At four o'clock, noon, we passed Jibbel Sabeia, a sandy island, larger than the others, but no higher. To this island the Arabs of Ras Heli send their wives and children in time of war; none of the rest are inhabited. At five we passed Ras Heli, which is the boundary between Yemen, or Arabia Felix, and the * [3] Hejaz, or province of Mecca, the first belonging to the Imam, or king of Sana, the other to the Sherriffe lately spoken of. ”

“ Regarding Yemen there is234 more probability of a great political change in the near future. Aden is a cinder-heap, but Sana has a fine, cold climate and is the capital of a rich mountain region capable of extraordinary development. ”

“ In southern Arabia the Jews form a large element in the town population. According to one authority their presence in Yemen dates from the time of Solomon, others say from the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. Manzoni estimated their number in Sana in 1878 at 1700 out The Jews
in Arabia.of a total population of 20,000; at Aden they are a numerous and wealthy community, with agents in most of the towns of Yemen. Even in remote Nejran, Halévy, himself a Jew, found a considerable colony of his co-religionists. ”

“ The second journey was from Aden northward, leaving on July 2d, but what with delays and accidents and imprisonment by the Turks at Taiz, I did not reach Yemen’s capital until the 2d of August. The most surprising thing about Sanaa is not its old ruins, nor the wonderful [41] fertility of the country round about, but the interesting character of its population. Here was a large city full of Jews who came to this part of the world, as they themselves testified, long before the destruction of Jerusalem ”

“ But Saneha considered himself unsafe so near the frontier, and proceeded to the Upper Tenu, perhaps the south of Palestine. Here he encountered a tribe, with which he dwelt for some time, marrying the eldest daughter of its chief, and he became wealthy in land and cattle and was regarded with much respect. But as he grew older a great longing came upon him to behold the land of Egypt once more. King Senusert was communicated with, and permission was granted to Saneha to return. The king received him kindly and his bedouin garments were exchanged for costly Egyptian robes. ”

“ Owing to its great altitude it is very cold there even during the daytime. It takes some time to get accustomed to the climate. A few days after our arrival, eighty per cent of my men were sick with the fever, and unfit to continue on the march. We suffered especially with sudden and severe attacks of cramps in the stomach, and with colds.
The city of Sanaa is a most interesting one. It is divided into three sections,—the Jewish, the Arab, and the Turkish quarters. The city is entirely surrounded by brick walls, and is so built as to form a fortress. ”

“ All Tennu assembled to behold it, and ‘every heart was sorry for Saneha,’ who was to encounter so redoubtable a foe. But of course Saneha triumphs, and obtains possession of his enemy’s person and goods. ‘I got great treasure and wealth, I got much cattle.’
In spite of riches and renown and royal favour, the heart of the exile grows sad; old age is at hand, and an irrepressible longing after home and native land seizes upon him. He ventures to approach the [Pg 59] all-powerful King of Egypt with a humble petition for pardon and recall. ”

“ At this period Mirazenam Pacha, a native of Otranto, and born of Christian parents, was governor of all that part of Arabia which is called Yemen by the natives, and resided in Sanaa or Zenan, a city in the inland part of Yeman or Arabia Felix, 60 leagues north of Mokha [402] . Sanaa stands upon a hill encompassed with a good wall, and is thought to have been founded by Ham the son of Noah, and to have been the residence of the famous queen of Sheba. The fruitful province in which it stands was called by the ancients Siria Muinifera, because it produces frankincense, myrrh, and storax. ”

“ CHAPTER X THE HERMITS IN SINAI
A NEW era in the history of Sinai began with the advent of the Christian hermit. The desert has ever been the home of liberty. The desire to follow the New Way, coupled with the need of escaping the Roman governor, drove many Christians into the wilderness, where, remote from the claims and the unrest of citizen life, they embraced life in a form which meant reducing physical needs to a minimum. ”

“ Sanuda took me by the hand, saying in a whisper, "Don't fear him, I am here; but go home; next time you come here you will have horses enough along with you." He, too, seemed in liquor; and, making me a sign to withdraw, I left the king and his minister together with great willingness, and returned to Koscam to the Iteghé, to whom I told what had passed, and who ordered me to stay near Ozoro Esther, as in her service, and go no more to the palace. ”

“ Thus the oft-quoted legends of the Sinaitic Arabs are mere monkish traditions, adopted by Ishmaelitic ignorance. The great Lawgiver probably led his horde of fugitive slaves over the plains of El–Negeb and El–Tih, north of the so-called Sinaitic mountain-blocks, marching in small divisions like those of a modern Bedawi tribe; and we know from the latest surveys that the land, now alternately a fiery or frozen wilderness, was once well supplied with wood and water. The “true Mount Sinai” is probably some unimportant elevation in the Desert named by moderns after the Wanderings. ”

“ Listen very seriously in your turn, Sanang, Sheik-el-Djebel, Prince of the Hassanis who, God knows when and how, have come out into the sunshine of this clean and decent country, out of a filthy darkness where devils and sorcerers make earth a hell. ”

“ Sinai is famous for the part which it has played in the religious history of mankind. It was at one time a centre of moon-cult, before it became the seat of the promulgation of the Law to the Jews at the time of Moses. In Christian times it was one of the chief homes of the hermits, and the possession of the relics of St. Katherine in the great convent of the south, caused Sinai to be included in the Long Pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages. ”

“ THE ancient peoples and place names of Sinai claim separate attention.
The earliest Egyptian rock inscription at Maghara represents the Pharaoh as a smiter, and describes him as such with the signs of a hand, an eagle, and the determinative of hills. The term is held to apply to no people in particular, and is therefore rendered as “barbarians.”
King Khufu (IV 2) , in addition, is described as a smiter of the Anu; the word is written with the pillar sign. The word Anu was applied in Egypt to cave-dwellers generally, more especially to those of Nubia. ”

“ Tbe Christian king of Hamyar beheld with grief the multitudes of pilgrims who went to pay their superstitious devotions to the deities of the Kaaba, and resolved, by building a magnificent church at Sanaa, which appears to have been sometimes the capital of Yaman, to draw the curiosity and the worship of the Arabs to another object. ”

“ Sinai, with the Ten Commandments, than God urged him to get the Jews to kill one another, and fifty thousand were slain in one passion. The repeated commandment of God to the Jews to exterminate their neighbors,—to put men, women and children to the edge of the sword, would indicate that he did not mean to live up to his profession. ”

“ And having said this our Lord Jesus Christ said unto him, “Blessed art thou, O My chosen one Sinoda, and excellence shall be unto thee for My sake, because thou hast performed My good pleasure all the days of thy life. And now, come with Me so that I may make thee to rest in the joy which is for ever.” And when He had said this unto him, Sinoda delivered up his soul into the hand of God, and he died in peace. Salutation to Abba Sinoda, to whom was given the apparel of Elijah the prophet. ”

“ This is the Day whereon Sinai hath smiled at Him Who conversed upon it, and Carmel at its Revealer, and the Sadrah at Him Who taught it. Fear ye God, and be not of them that have denied Him. Withhold not yourselves from that which hath been revealed through His grace. Seize ye the living waters of immortality in the name of your Lord, the Lord of all names, and drink ye in the remembrance of Him, Who is the Mighty, the Peerless."
We have, under all circumstances, enjoined on men what is right, and forbidden what is wrong. ”

“ GOD GIVES THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ON MOUNT SINAI.
[Ex. 19—24.]
IN the third month [1] after their departure from Egypt, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai [2] , where they rested and pitched their tents. Moses ascended the mountain, and God appeared to him there, and said: “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians and how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles and have taken you to Myself. ”

“ It was not like the scene at Sinai, where the bare and desolate mountains towered up to heaven, their summits lost among the clouds. This was a more homely landscape, amid the fields and dwellings where the people were to spend their daily life. If the proclamation of the law from Sinai had something of an abstract and distant character, Ebal and Gerizim brought it home to the business and bosoms of men. It was now to be the rule for every day, and for every transaction of every day ”

“ The Sinai group as a whole is called by the Arabs Jebel al-Ṭūr; the name Sīnā in Arabic comes only from books. The area of the peninsula is about 11,200 sq. m.; the population is four to five thousand souls, chiefly Bedouins of various tribes, whose common name, derived from Ṭūr, is Ṭowāra. They have sheep and goats, with which they retire in summer to the higher lands, where there is good pasture ground, and where springs are comparatively common. On the chalk and sandstone water is scarcer than among the primitive rocks, and often brackish. ”

“ His long, black shadow fell over the silver sand, and, watching it, he chanted the Koran again:
"God is God. Whatever of good betideth thee cometh from him.
"Whatever of evil is thine own doing."
Suddenly a speck appeared upon the distant horizon. None but the keen eye of a shepherd would have seen it, in the night, but Kanana watched it as it quivered and wavered, disappearing as it sank into a valley in the rolling sand, appearing again, like a dory on the ocean, each time a little nearer than before. ”

“ The dwellers on Sinai and in the oasis took an eager part in them at a later date.
That Mount Sinai to which I desire to transport the reader must not be confounded with the mountain which lies at a long day's journey to the south of it. It is this that has borne the name, at any rate since the time of Justinian; the celebrated convent of the Transfiguration lies at its foot, and it has been commonly accepted as the Sinai of Scripture. ”

“ AFTER the close of the Twelfth Dynasty, the Egyptians ceased for centuries to come to Sinai. The reason was that foreigners, for over a hundred years, ruled in the Nile valley whom the Alexandrian writers called Arabians or Phœnicians. The Egyptians themselves called them Hyksos. To this period probably belong the inscriptions in Semitic script that were set up in some mines in the Wadi Dhabah near Serabit, and the offerings of a squat figure and of a sphinx inscribed in the same Semitic script which were presented before the shrine of the goddess. ”