Burqa

“ The Pasha’s ihram consisted of two of the finest Cashmere shawls; the horses and camels belonging to himself and his large retinue, with those of the Pasha of Damascus and other Moslem princes, were decorated with the most brilliant trappings. On arriving, the pilgrims did not halt in Mecca, but continued their march to the Sacred Mountain of Arafat, to the eastward of the city. A camp, several miles in extent, was formed upon the plain, at the foot of the mountain, and here Burckhardt joined the immense crowd, in order to take his share in the ceremonies of the following day. ”

“ The Shaykh enters the Kaabah alone, perfumes it and prays; the pilgrims are then admitted en masse; and the style in which the eunuchs handle their quarter-staves forms a scene more animated than decorous. [FN#21] Some pray four instead of two bows. [FN#22] Burckhardt erroneously says, in every corner. [FN#23] These Indians are ever in extremes, paupers or millionaires, and, like all Moslems, the more they pay at Meccah the higher becomes their character and religious titles. A Turkish Pasha seldom squanders as much money as does a Moslem merchant from the far East. ”

“ Ideas breed vocables; but seldom, except among rhymesters, does a vocable give birth to a popular idea: and in Arabic �Sibr,� as well as �Sabr,� is the name of the Aloe. [FN#7] Burckhardt mentions the �Tomb of Umna, the mother of Mohammed,� in the Ma�ala at Meccah; and all the ciceroni agree about the locality. Yet historians place it at Abwa, where she gave up the ghost, after visiting Al-Madinah to introduce her son to his relations. And the learned believe that the Prophet refused to pray over or to intercede for his mother, she having died before Al-Islam was revealed. ”

“ The Ahl el Djebel and the Arabs el Ledja are kept in more strict dependence upon the Pasha than the other tribes; both are subject to an annual tribute, which is levied on each tent according to the wealth of its owner; this is collected from the Arabs el Ledja by the Sheikh of the Fellahs, and ascends from ten to sixty piastres for each tent. It seldom happens that the Arabs el Djebel prove rebels, but those of the Ledja often with-hold the tribute, in the confidence that the recesses of their abode cannot he forced ”

“ Upon such occasions as these, every man gives his opinion, and mine was, that we should kill our thirty-five asses, which required a daily supply of, at least, fifteen water skins, that we should load the camels to the utmost of their strength with water, and strike out a straight way through the desert towards Berber, without touching at Shigre; in this manner we might perform the journey in five forced marches. But the Arabs can seldom be brought to take manly resolutions, upon such occasions, generally consoling themselves with the hope of Allah Kerim, or God’s bounty ”

“ I was careful to make a ground-plan of the Prophet's Mosque, as Burckhardt was prevented by severe illness from so doing. It will give the reader a fair idea of the main point, though, in certain minor details, it is not to be trusted. Some of my papers and sketches, which by precaution I had placed among my medicines, after cutting them into squares, numbering them, and rolling them carefully up, were damaged by the breaking of a bottle. The plan of Al-Madinah is slightly altered from Burckhardt's. Nothing can be more ludicrous than the views of the Holy City, as printed in our popular works. ”

“ With bodies which appear scarcely capable of withstanding a gust of wind, and voices equally feeble, they would be worthy objects of commiseration, did not daily experience prove that they delight to appear in this plight, because it secures to them the alms of the charitable, and exempts them from labour. The streets of Mekka are crowded with them; the most decrepid make their doleful appeals to the passenger, lying at full length on their backs in the middle of the street; the gates of the mosque are always beset with them; every coffee-house and water-stand is a station for some of them ”

“ He found in almost every town of China, Moslims who received him with hospitality. From China he returned back to Java, Kolam, and Calicut; from thence to Yemen, to Maskat, Hormus, Khoristan, Shiraz, Ispahan, Bassora, and Bagdad, where he arrived in 748. He joined here a caravan going to Damascus, which passed by Anak and Tedmor, and from Damascus he returned to Cairo. In order to perform one more pilgrimage, he set out to Mekka by way of Upper Egypt and the desert to Aizab, and in 749 he was present at the Hadj of Arafat ”

“ In throwing the stones, they are to exclaim, In the name of God; God is great (we do this) to secure ourselves from the devil and his troops. The stones used for this purpose are to be of the size of a horse-bean, or thereabouts; and the pilgrims are advised to collect them in the plain of Mezdelfe, but they may likewise take them from Muna; and many people, contrary to the law, collect those that have already been thrown.
Having performed the ceremony of casting stones, the pilgrims kill the animals which they bring with them for sacrifice ”

“ Burckhardt confounds the Ayn al-Zarka with the Bir al-Khatim, or Kuba well, of whose produce the surplus only mixes with it, and he complains loudly of the "detestable water of Madinah." But he was ill at the time, otherwise he would not have condemned it so strongly after eulogising the salt-bitter produce of the Meccan Zemzem. [FN#10] The people of Nijd, as Wallin informs us, believe that the more the palms are watered, the more syrup will the fruit produce; they therefore inundate the ground, as often as possible. ”

“ Neither the Koran nor the Sultan enjoins the killing of Hebrew or Christian intruders; nevertheless, in 1860, a Jew, who refused to repeat the Creed, was crucified by the Meccan populace, and in the event of a pilgrim declaring himself to be an infidel the authorities would be powerless to protect him.
The question of Cui bono?—​of what good I did to others or to myself by the adventure—​is not so easily answered. My account of El Medinah is somewhat fuller than that of Burckhardt, whose health was breaking when he visited it. ”

“ Here are a few date trees, and water melons; the people dress in clothes brought to them from Egypt; most of them are traders. Their women are beautiful, and are more honoured than the men, who are not jealous of them. They count the lineage from the uncle, and not from the father; the son of the sister inherits to the exclusion of the true son; a custom, says Batouta, which he saw no where else except among the pagan Hindoos of Malebar. These Negroes are Moslims. From Abou Laten he travelled to Maly. The road is full of large trees, a single one of which affords shade for a whole caravan. ”

“ It is generally said in the East, that Mekka is the paradise of beggars: some perhaps may save a little money, but the wretched aspect of others plainly shows how much their expectations must have been disappointed. The Indians are the most modest among them; they accost the passenger with the words Ya allahya kerim! O God, O bounteous God! and if alms are refused, they walk away, without a word except the repetition of Ya allah, ya kerim. ”

“ Had I continued in my disguise, and continued to live exclusively amongst the Turks, opportunities would have frequently happened to put the veracity of my story to the test. East Indians come from time to time to Aleppo with the Bagdad caravan, and many of the Bagdad and Bassorah merchants established at Aleppo have been in India. My person would have been infinitely more noticed than it now is, if taking a shop in the bazar, as I first intended, I should have exposed myself to the curiosity of the whole town ”

“ It must be observed, however, that the crowds assembled on the mountain were, for the greater part, of the lower classes; the pilgrims of respectability being mounted upon their camels or horses in the plain.
At length the sun began to descend behind the western mountains; upon which the Kadhy, having shut his book, received a last greeting of Lebeyk; and the crowds rushed down the mountain, in order to quit Arafat. It is thought meritorious to accelerate the pace on this occasion; and many persons make it a complete race, called by the Arabs, Addafa min Arafat. ”

“ Our Sheikh had no pressing business, but like all Arabs, fond of idleness, and of living well at other peoples expense, he by no means hastened his journey, but easily found a pretext for stopping; wherever we alighted a couple of sheep or goats were immediately killed, and the best fruits, together with plenty of tobacco, were presented to us. Our company increased at every village, as all those Arabs who had horses followed us, in order to partake of our good fare, so that our party amounted at last to eighty men. At two hours and a quarter is a fine spring ”

“ The mosque at Mekka is visited daily by female hadjys, who have their own station assigned to them. At Medina, on the contrary, it is thought very indecorous in women to enter the mosque. Those who come here from foreign parts, visit the tomb during the night, after the last prayers, while the women resident in the town hardly ever venture to pass the threshold: my old landlady, who had lived close to it for fifty years, assured me that she had been only once in her life within its precincts, and that females of a loose character only are daring enough to perform their prayers there. ”

“ These ropes are sold to the Egyptian and Souakin merchants, as are likewise large leathern sacks made of very thick ox-leather in Kordofan and Darfour. [318] These sacks are used for the transport of Dhourra meal through the desert for the food of the slaves. Large water-skins (Rey رَيّ) made of ox-hides, in which traders who have many slaves transport water through the desert: two of these Reys make a camel’s load; they keep the water much better than the smaller goats skins, and the thickness of the leather prevents it from evaporating so readily. ”

“ Each family has a large earthen jar, of the manufacture of Rasheiat el Fukhar, which is filled every morning by the females, from the Birket or spring, with water for the day's consumption. In every house there is a room for the reception of strangers, called from this circumstance Medhafe; it is usually that in which the male part of the family sleeps; in the midst of it is a fire place to boil coffee.
The most common dishes of these people are Burgoul and Keshk; in summer they supply the place of the latter by milk, Leben, and fresh butter. ”

“ The Emir possesses the monopoly of the bitumen; he alone works the pits, and sells the produce to the merchants of Damascus, Beirout, and Aleppo. It was now at thirty-three paras the Rotola, or about two-pence-halfpenny the pound.
I left Hasbeya on the same day, and continued to descend the valley on the side of the river. Half an hour from the bridge, I arrived at Souk el Khan. In the hills to the right is the village Kankabe. Souk el Khan is a large ruined Khan, where the inhabitants, to the distance of one day's journey round, assemble every Tuesday to hold a market. ”

“ I have seen among them Arabs of the tribes of Koreysh, Thekyf, Hodheyl, and Ateybe; and it was said that, in time of peace, individuals of all the great tribes of the Desert, and of Nedjed, are occasionally found here. They live, as I have already observed in speaking of those who occupy another part of Mekka, much in the same manner as they would do in the Desert. Their houses contain no furniture but such as is to be found under the tent of a wealthy Bedouin. ”

“ Burckhardt was under the necessity of passing at Esne, he continued to wear his usual disguise of a poor Mohammedan trader; taking care to be as little known or noticed as possible. Among the jealous, treacherous, and cruel Mussulman nations which he traversed, after leaving Daraou, it was with difficulty that he seized opportunities of continuing the journal of his remarks and proceedings. ”

“ There are no hills or Wadys. Small pipe heads, in the eastern fashion, and made of stone, are frequently found in the plain. The Arabs say that an ancient tribe called Beni Tamour [Arabic] fabricated them. At the end of the number of days above-mentioned, a high insulated hill is met with, which is visible all round to the distance of two days journey. The Arabs call it [p.668] Djebel Laha [Arabic] . It consists of sandy earth: there are no springs near it. From the Djebel Laha run two Wadys towards the Euphrates, the one called Wady Haouran [Arabic] , begins on the hills western side ”

“ In Burckhardt's day the race seems to have been entirely rooted out. I made many inquiries, and all assured me that there is not a single Jewish family now in Khaybar. It is indeed the popular boast in Al-Hijaz, that, with the exception of Jeddah (and perhaps Yambu', where the Prophet never set his foot) , there is not a town in the country harbouring an Infidel. ”

“ We alighted at Hadda, under the shed of a spacious coffee-hut, where I found a motley crew of Turks and Arabs, in their way to or from Mekka, each extended upon his small carpet. Some merchants from Tayf had just brought in a load of grapes; and, although I felt myself still weak from the fever, I could not withstand this temptation, and seized a few of them; for the baskets were no sooner opened than the whole company fell upon them, and soon devoured the entire load ”