Chapter 44

The fine pastures of Nedjed have produced an excellent breed of camels, more numerous here than in any other Arabian province of equal extent. The Arabs call this country Om el Bel, or “the mother of camels,” and resort to it from all quarters for the supply of their own herds; and it constantly furnishes not only Hedjaz, but Syria and Yemen, with camels, of which useful creatures an ordinary one is sold for about ten dollars in Nedjed. In this country there is also a most excellent breed of horses, so remarkable that the finest blood Arabs are properly denominated Kheyl Nedjade, or Nedjed horses. But the Wahaby power has caused a diminution of this breed; for many Arabs have sold their best horses in foreign parts, lest they should be forced to attend the Wahaby chief, who, in his wars, frequently required cavalry.

Nedjed, however, is often subject to scarcity, caused by the failure of rain, and consequently of herbage: this soon affects the cattle of the Bedouins, who seldom expect, in this country, more than three or four successive years of plenty, although absolute famine does not occur above once in ten, or perhaps fifteen years. It is generally accompanied by epidemical diseases, much like the plague, consisting of violent fevers (but without biles or buboes,) that prove fatal to great numbers. Nedjed is peopled by small tribes of Bedouins, who never leave it, and by settlers intermarried with them, and often travelling as merchants to Damascus, Baghdad, Medina, Mekka, and Yemen: they export camels and woollen cloaks (abbas), of which the best are manufactured at El Hassa; and from Baghdad they receive rice, (the produce of the banks of the Tigris), and articles of dress, especially the keffies, or handkerchiefs, striped green and yellow, of cotton, wool, or silk: these the Bedouins wear over their bonnets. From Mekka they get coffee, drugs, and perfumes, much used among them, particularly the perfume called Arez, which comes from Mokha. In general there is a spirit of commerce very prevalent in Nedjed, where the merchants are wealthy and of better repute for honesty than most of the Eastern traders. The settlers here are armed with matchlocks, and constitute the best portion of the Wababy infantry: they are generally successful against the Bedouins who invade their crops or pastures; and, as saltpetre is found in Nedjed, every family makes its own yearly provision of gunpowder.

In Nedjed are many ancient wells, lined with stone, and ascribed by the inhabitants to a primeval race of giants. They are generally from twenty-five to thirty fathoms deep, and

[p.462] mostly the property of individuals, who exact a certain contribution from the tribes whose cattle they supply with water. Here likewise are numerous remains of ancient buildings, of very massive structure and large dimensions, but in a state of complete ruin. These are attributed to a primitive (or perhaps a fabulous) tribe of Arabs, the Beni Tamour, of whose supposed works some vestiges are likewise seen in the Syrian deserts eastward of the plains of Hauran.

Of all the Bedouin tribes that exist in Arabia, some few families at least may be found in Nedjed, to which refugees fly for security against their enemies. This country, in fact, is not only the seat of the Wahaby government, but seems the most important of the interior districts of Arabia, from its fertility and population, its central position, and facility of intercourse with other provinces. To acquire a perfect knowledge of the Bedouins, it would be necessary to examine them in Nedjed, where their manners continue unaltered by conquest, and retaining all their original purity: nor have they been contaminated by an influx of strangers; for, except the Hadj caravan coming from Baghdad, no foreigners ever pass through Nedjed. For this reason I consider Nedjed and the mountains between Tayf and Sanaa as the most interesting portion of Arabia, affording more objects of inquiry to a traveller than any other part of the peninsula.

From Derayeh eastward towards the Persian Gulf, the country is called Zedeyr, as far as the limits of the province of El Hassa, six days distant from Derayeh, of which three days are without water. The district of Hassa (or, as it is sometimes written, El Ahsa) is celebrated for its numerous wells, and extends for about two days’ journey parallel with the sea-coast, from which it is distant, inland, fifty or sixty miles. In breadth it is about thirty-five miles. The abundance of water enables the Arabs to cultivate clover, which serves to feed their finest horses. The Wahaby chief sends all his horses to this place every season.

The town of El Hassa (built by the Karmates in the tenth century) is populous; in it reside some wealthy merchants. It has walls and towers, and was successfully defended against the Pasha of Baghdad in 1797. It is one of the principal strongholds of the Wahabys; and their chief derives from this fertile district the greater part of his income. The sea-port for El Hassa is Akyr, a small town on the Persian Gulf, much frequented by the Arabs of Maskat and the pirates of the Kowasem (qy. Jowasem) tribe, who inhabit the port of Ras el Kheyme. The woollen cloaks, of abbas, made at El Hassa are in great demand all over Arabia and Mesopotamia: they cost from ten to fifty dollars each.

The territory of Hassa contains about twenty villages: the principal Bedouins that inhabit it are the Beni Khaled (a tribe extended over many parts of Arabia), the Bisher Arabs, a tribe of the Benezes, and the El Zab tribe. Here also, as well as in Nedjed, are some of the Beni Hosseyn, a tribe belonging to the Persian sect of Moslims.

Between El Hassa and. Basra, water abounds. The road from Derayeh to Baghdad leads through the provinces of Kasym and Djebel Shammar, taking a western direction, because in a direct line no water is found in the Desert. Having reached Kowar, a small town on the frontiers of Kasym, towards Djebel Shammar (eight days from Derayeh), the traveller proceeds one day’s journey to Kahfe, a village within the territory of Djebel Shammar. The road continues two days in the cultivated parts of this province as far as the well of

[p.463] Shebeyke, which bounds Shammar on this side. From thence is one day’s journey to Lyne, famous for its numerous and abundant wells, that supplied the whole Wababy army with water: this place is much frequented by the Aeneze Arabs. Between Nedjed and the Euphrates a well in the Desert furnishes sulphur to the powder manufactories of Nedjed.

From Lyne three days’ journey, in a desert without water, brings the traveller to the well of Shebekka, and from that one day to the town of Meshehd Aly. This is the summer route in winter, when the rain-water is collected in ponds on the way, the Arabs travel from the well of Shebekka by the road called Derb Bereydha, the ancient Hadj route of the Khalifes when they went on pilgrimage. Here are many tanks, cased with stone, constructed by the Khalifes to supply the pilgrims with water; and the road passes straight on from Meshehd Aly towards Djebel Shammar, without touching at Lyne. From Meshehd Aly to Djebel Shammar the distance is reckoned eight days, and the traveller from Baghdad to Nedjed always passes by the tomb of Aly. This route is much frequented, especially by the Ageyl Arabs of Baghdad, of whom many are from Nedjed, which they often visit as pedlars. All the Arabian Bedouins settled in the suburbs of Baghdad are comprised under the name of Ageyl. This was once a powerful tribe, but it has much degenerated.

Through the province of Djebel Shammar, or, as it is commonly called, El Djebel, lies also the road from Nedjed to Damascus. It is a mountainous tract to the N.E. of the province of Kasym, bearing from Medina E.N.E. Its inhabitants are the powerful Beni Shammar, a tribe of which some have passed over to Mesopotamia. Their Sheikh, Ibn Aly, is a main supporter of the Wahaby government. They are said to muster seven thousand matchlocks; and, like their neighbours in Nedjed, they cultivate palm-trees by means of water drawn up from wells in leathern buckets by camels. One of the principal towns in Djebel Shammar, is El Mestadjedde: the chief town is said to be El Hayl; and the neat in size, Kofár.

From Djebel Shammar to Damascus the road passes by the district El Djof, which is five days distant from it. The road is of deep sand, without any water but what is afforded by the well of Shageyg, four days from Djebel Shammar, and one from Djof. I believe that there is no other station of equal length entirely destitute of water, in any part of Arabia frequented by caravans, like the four days between Djebel and Shageyg. The well of Shageyg belongs to the Aenezy tribe of Rowalla; and whoever wishes to go from Southern Syria to Nedjed, must necessarily pass here. There is not any water from Djof southwards, in a direct line towards Khaibar and Medina; the road is therefore not frequented. Arabs going from Djof to Medina must pass by Shageyg and Shammar and Kasym, taking a circuitous route.

My residence at Medina in time of war, when the eastern and northern Bedouins were hostile, and did not come into the town, prevented me from acquiring as much information as if a peaceable intercourse had subsisted. Whenever this is the case, small caravans from Khaibar and Teyme frequently repair to Medina. Khaibar is well known in Arabian history, as the scene of early Muselman wars under Mohammed, Aly, and their successors. It is said to be four or five days (some say only three) from Medina, the road passing between the Hadj route to Damascus and the route to Kasym. The Arabs of Khaibar, in time of

[p.464] peace, bring their dates for sale to Medina. They are said to be of a darker complexion than the surrounding Bedouins: this may be caused by the great heat in the low situation of that place. Khaibar is about six hours distant from the Hadj route to Syria, and lies, I believe, in a direction N.E. from Medina. It appears in former times to have formed part of the territory of the Sherif of Mekka. When the Sherif Hassan Abou Nema was installed in 966, (A.H.) his territory, as we learn from Asamy, comprised Mekka, Tayf, Gonfode, Haly, Yembo, Medina, and Khaibar. The present inhabitants of Khaibar are the Wold Aly, a tribe of Aenezes mustering about three hundred horsemen, whose sheikh Aleyda distinguished himself in the Wahaby war. Another branch of the Wold Aly inhabit the deserts near Hauran, south of Damascus. At Khaibar also are encampments of the Oulad Soleyman, a tribe of the Bisher Arabs (likewise of the Aeneze nation); but the Wold Aly possess the ground and the date- plantations.

A colony of Jews formerly settled at Khaibar has wholly disappeared. It is commonly believed at Mekka and Djidda, that their descendants still exist there, strictly performing the duties of their religion; but, upon minute inquiry at Medina, I found this notion to be unfounded, nor are there any Jews in the northern parts of the Arabian Desert. The Jews who were formerly settled in Arabia, belonged to the tribe of Beni Koreyta (Caraites). They came to Medina after Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem; when Kerb Ibn Hassan el Hemyary (one of the Toba kings of Yemen who had possessed themselves of Mekka) made an inroad towards Medina, which he besieged, and on his return from thence carried some of the Beni Koreyta with him to Yemen. These are the first Jews who settled in that country, and their descendants still remain at Szanaa. (See Samhoudy’s History of Medina.)

The small town of Teyme is three days from Khaibar, and as many from Hedjer, in an eastern direction. It is inhabited by the Aeneze Arabs, and abounds with dates. It belongs neither to Nedjed nor Kasym, and, like Kbaibar, was an independent Bedouin settlement before the time of the Wahabys. Those small towns in the interior of the Arabian Desert, are like the Oases in the Libyan; and serve as points of intercourse between the Bedouins and the neighbouring cultivated countries. Their Bedouin inhabitants are agriculturists, and mostly petty merchants who sell to their wandering brethren of the Desert the goods which they purchase at the first cost in the Syrian or Arabian towns. Beginning northward with the small town of Deir on the Euphrates, we can trace a line of these oases that form advanced points towards the Desert all the way south as far as Medina. Deir, Sokhne, Tedmor, Djof, Maan, Ola, Khaibar, and Teyme, are all inhabited by Bedouins, who cultivate the soil, and form an intermediate class between Bedouins and peasants. These positions would be highly important to those who might wish to subdue, or at least to check the Bedouins; and they might become of still greater importance, in being rendered the means of inspiring the whole Bedouin nation with more amicable sentiments towards the Syrian and Hedjaz inhabitants.

[p.465] No. VII.

Postscript to the Description of the Beitullah or Mosque at Mekka--(See p. 161.)

THE law forbids that blood should be shed either in the mosque or town of Mekka, or within a small space around it: neither is it lawful there to cut down trees, or to kill game. This privilege of the mosque is generally respected in common cases of delinquency, and many criminals take refuge in the Beitullah accordingly; but it is also frequently violated. I have myself seen Mohammed Aly’s soldiers pursue a deserter, seize and carry him off from the covering of the Kaaba to which he had clung; and the history of Mekka cites numerous examples of men killed in the mosque, among others the Sherif of Mekka, Djazan Ibn Barakat, assassinated while he performed the towaf round the Kaaba. Sanguinary battles (as in A.H. 817.) have even been fought within its sacred precincts, which afford the most open spot in the town for skirmishing. Horsemen have often entered and passed a whole night in it. Therefore we may say that the privilege is generally useless in those cases where it would be most valuable; such as the protection of fugitives from the powerful oppressor. As to the sanctity of the territory, it is but a name, and seems to have been little respected even in the first ages of Islám. The extent of the sacred territory is variously stated by the three historians whose works I possess, and who were themselves Mekkans. The four Imáms or founders of the orthodox sects also disagree upon the subject. At present the privilege of the sacred territory seems almost forgotten; and it has been crossed in every direction by infidel Christians employed in the army of Mohammed Aly or Tousoun Pasha, who, though they have not entered Mekka, have visited Mount Arafat. Contrary to the precepts of Mohammed, wood is now cut in the mountains close behind Mekka, and no one is prevented from shooting in the neighbouring valleys. The plain of Arafat alone is respected, and there the trees are never cut down. The sacred district, or, as it is called, Hedoud el Haram (the limits of the Haram), is at present commonly supposed to be enclosed by those positions where the ihram is assumed on the approach to Mekka: those are, Hadda to the west, Asfan to the north, Wady Mohrem to the east, and Zat Ork to the south. Aly Bey el Abbassi has represented this district, in his map, as a particular province or sacred territory called Belad el Harameyn: but in fact, no such province has ever existed; and the title of Belad el Harameyn is given, not to this sacred space, but to both the territories of Mekka and Medina.

[p.466] No. VII

Philological Observations.

MANY Arabic terms which have become obsolete in other places, and are found only in the good authors, many expressions even of the Koran, no longer used elsewhere, are heard at Mekka in the common conversation of the people, who retain, at least in part, the original language of the Koreysh. Some neighbouring Bedouin tribes, especially those of Fahm and Hodheyl, use a dialect still more pure and free from provincialisms and grammatical errors. I sometimes attended the lectures of a Sheikh in the mosque, who to his own excellent native Arabic had added the result of his studies at Cairo: and I never heard finer Arabic spoken. He prided himself in sounding all the vowels, not only in reading, but even in conversation; and every word he uttered might be noted as of standard purity.

It is to their extensive commerce with foreigners that we must ascribe the corruption of the Mekkan dialect when compared with that of the neighbouring Bedouins, though it still serves as a model of softness to the natives of Syria and Egypt. In pronunciation, the Mekkans imitate the Bedouin purity--every letter has its precise and distinct sound: they pronounce [Arabic consonant] like k, and the [Arabic consonant] like a soft g, (as in the word going); although in the public service of the mosque, and in reading the Koran, they express that letter with the guttural aspiration given to it in Syria, and which is therefore regarded as the true pronunciation. The [Arabic consonant] is pronounced djem; but in the mountains to the south, and the interior of Yemen, it is sounded gym, as at Cairo. The guttural pronunciation of the elif [Arabic consonant], often neglected in other places, is here strictly observed. The only fault in the Mekkan pronunciation is, that in common with the Bedouins they sometimes give, in words of two syllables, too great an emphasis to the last: thus they say Zahab, [Arabic] Safar, [Arabic]Lahem, [Arabic] Matar, [Arabic] Saby, [Arabic] and others.

The people of Yemen whom I saw at Mekka pronounced and spoke Arabic almost equally well as the Mekkans: those from Szanaa spoke with purity, but a harsh accent; but the Hedjazi, like the Bedouin accent, is as soft as the language will admit.

It has been said that the dialects of Arabic differ widely from each other; and Michaelis, one of the most learned orientalists, affirms that the Hedjazi is as different from the Moggrebyn dialect as Latin from Italian; and a noble Sherif traveller makes a strong distinction between Moorish and Arabic, pretending to understand the latter and not the former; and even the accurate and industrious Niebuhr seems to have entertained some erroneous notions on this subject. But my own inquiries have led me to a very different opinion. There certainly exists a great variety of dialects in Arabic; more perhaps than in other languages: but notwithstanding the vast extent of country in which Arabic prevails, from Mogador to Maskat, whoever has learned one dialect will easily understand all the others. In respect to pronunciation, whoever can spell correctly will feel little embarrasment

[p.467] from the diversity of sound, and soon become familiar with it. The same sense is often expressed by different terms; but this is applicable rather to substantive nouns than to verbs. Many words are used in one country and not in another: thus bread is called khobs in Syria, and aysh in Egypt; both terms being genuine Arabic, a language rich in synonyms: but the Syrian dialect still retains what has become obsolete in the Egyptian. From the specimen given by Niebuhr of the Egyptian and Hedjazi dialect, I could show, word by word, that there is not one provincialism in the whole. If the Egyptian says okod, and the Arabian edjles, they both use genuine Arabic words to express the same thing, one of which is more common in Arabia, the other in Egypt, when both terms are well understood by all who have mixed in the busy crowd, or have had even an ordinary education. An Englishman is justified in using “steed” for “horse;” thus the Moggrebyn calls a horse owd, the eastern Arab hoszan; but many poets use the word owd, which is at present unknown to the vulgar in Egypt. This variation of terms arose probably from the settlement of different tribes, each having their peculiar vocabulary; for it is known that Feyrouzabády compiled the materials of his celebrated Dictionary (the Kámous) by going from one tribe to another. The Arabs spreading over conquered countries took their idioms with them, but the joint-stock of the language continued known to all who could read or write.

Pronunciation may have been affected by the nature of different countries, retaining its softness in the low valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and becoming harsh among the frozen mountains of Barbary and Syria. As far as I know, the greatest difference exists between the Moggrebyns of Marocco, and the Hedjaz Bedouins near Mekka; but their dialects do not differ more from each other than the German of a Suabian peasant does from that of a Saxon. I have heard learned men of Syria express their ignorance of many Bedouin terms used by tribes in the interior of the Desert, especially the Aenezey, who, on the other hand, do not comprehend certain words of the Syrian town-language; but the wants and habits of a Bedouin are so different from those of a town- person, that the one frequently cannot find terms to express the ideas of the other.

As to pronunciation, the best is that of the Bedouins of Arabia, of the Mekkans, and people of the Hedjaz; that of Baghdad and of Yemen is next in purity. At Cairo the pronunciation is worse than in any other part of Egypt; after which I should rank the language of the Libyan Arabs, who have a tinge of the Moggrebyn pronunciation mixed with the Egyptian. Then comes the Arabic spoken in the eastern and western plains of Syria, (at Damascus, Aleppo, and on the sea-coast); then the dialect of the Syrian mountaineers, the Druzes, and Christians; next, that of the Barbary coast, of Tripoly, and of Tunis; and lastly, the rough articulation of the Marocco and Fez people, which has a few sounds different from any other, and is subdivided into several dialects. The Arabs, however, of the eastern side of Mount Atlas, at Tafilelt, and Draa, pronounce their Moggrebyn tongue with much less harshness than their western neighbours. But I must acknowledge, that of all Arabic dialects, none appeared to me so disagreeable and so adulterated as that of the young Christian fops of Cairo and Aleppo.

[p.468] No. IX.

Topographical Notices of the Valley of Mekka and its Mountains; extracted from the History of Azraky, showing the names assigned to every part. [It may be here remarked, that the Bedouins of the present day continue to bestow on the smallest hill, projecting rock, or little plain, a distinct and particular name; which circumstance renders the history of Arabia often obscure, as the names have, in the course of ages, sometimes changed.]

THE different mountains forming the southern chain of the valley of Mekka are:--Djebel Fádeh, on the lower part of Djebel Kobeys, nearest to the town--El Khandame, likewise part of Djebel Kobeys--Djebel el Abyadh, called among the Pagan Arabs Mestebzera, belonging also to Djebel Kobeys--Mozazem--Korn Meskale, lower ridge of Shab Aamer--Djebel Benhán, ibid.--Djebel Yakyán, on the side of Shab Aamer--Djebel el Aaredj, near the latter--Djebel el Motabekh, or Shab Aamer; so called because the Toba kings of Yemen, when they invaded Mekka, established here their kitchen-- Shab Abou Dobb--Shab e’ Szafa, or Djebel Ráha, Shab Beni Kenáne--Shab el Khor--Shab Athmen.