Part 11

AT the entrance from the side of Djidda, in turning round the angle of a sandy and gravelly valley, the traveller sees two round watch-towers. They were constructed by the Sherif Ghaleb for the defence of his capital. Similar towers are seen at the other entrances of the town, and they are sufficiently spacious to contain about twenty men. As the hills approach very closely at the en­trance of the city, these towers command the passage. Here, it appears, was formerly a gate, the threshold of which only is now remaining, close to a small building, where the officers of the Sherif collected the duties on merchandize, &c. carried into the town. Here, also, is a row of shops, and low, ruined dwelling- houses, known by the appellation of Hareh, or the quarter El Djerouel. It comprises an encampment to the right, in which the Bedouins live who carry on the transport trade between Mekka and Djidda; they belong to the tribes of Harb, Metrefy, and Lahawy.

Beyond the Djerouel, the name of the street changes to that of Haret el Bab. This is a broad street, with several good houses, and leads into the quarter of El Shebeyka, which extends principally to the right, and is so called because the followers of Mohammed, in their wars with the Koreysh, were here attacked and closely pressed by their enemies. There are many good houses in Shebeyka, which is one of the cleanest and airiest quarters in the town. Many of the people of Djidda reside in it; and here also the Sherif Ghaleb has a good house, where his family, consisting of several young children

[p.110] and a grown-up daughter, continued to dwell after his deposition. The main street is lined with coffee-shops, from which the post sets out every evening, on asses, with the letters for Djidda. This is the only post for letters that I have seen in the East, besides that esta­blished among the Europeans at Cairo, between that city and Alex­andria; but the delivery of letters is there much less regular than it is at Mekka, where it is duly performed, and at the trifling expense of two paras upon each letter, and as much more for the person who distributes the letters received from Djidda.

In the coffee-shops just mentioned, live also the caravan-brokers, through whose agency the Bedouins let out their camels for the journey to Djidda and Medina.

On the western side of the Shebeyka, towards the mountain, is a large burying-ground, in which are dispersed huts and tents of Bedouins, and some miserable dwellings of the lowest class of public women: this is called El Khandaryse. Although tradition says that great numbers of the friends and adherents of Mohammed lie buried here, yet it has become unfashionable to deposit the dead in it; and all of the first and second classes of Mekkawys use the extensive cemeteries lying on the north of the town. There are few shops in the Shebeyka; and it does not contain many foreign inmates during the Hadj, being inhabited by persons in easy circumstances, who consider it disgraceful to let out apartments.

In proceeding from the Shebeyka along the broad street, nor­therly, we come to a bath, which, though by far the best of the three in Mekka, is inferior to those of other Asiatic cities, from the scarcity of water; it was built in A.H. 980, by Mohammed Pasha, the vizier of Sultan Soleyman II., and is one of the best structures in the town. [Vide Kotobeddyn.] It is frequented principally by foreigners, the native Arabs being little accustomed to the use of the bath, and choosing to perform the ablutions prescribed by their religion at their own dwellings.

The bath, together with several by-streets leading to the mosque, forms the quarter called Haret Bab el Omra, which is inhabited by

[p.111] a number of the guides called Metowef, and is full of pilgrims, espe­cially of those from Turkey. The streets are narrow, and excessively dirty; but the hadjys prefer the quarter, because it is the cheapest in the vicinity of the mosque, near which they are anxious to reside, that they may be sure of not missing the prayers; or, (as they add) that, if disturbed in their sleep, they may have the temple close at hand to dispel their bad dreams. Men are seen, in the middle of the night, running to the mosque in their sleeping-clothes; here they perform the walk round the Kaba, kiss the black stone, utter a short prayer, drink of the water of Zemzem, and then return to their beds. Near to the gate of the mosque called Bab Omra, from which this quarter takes its name, is a spacious building, originally a public school, but now occupied by Hassan Pasha, governor of Mekka. It is probably the Medrese mentioned by El Fasy, as having been built near Bab el Omra, in A.H. 814, by the orders of Mansour Ghyath Eddyn Atham Shah, the Lord of Bengal. In A.H. 519, the governor of Aden also ordered a Medrese to be built in this neighbourhood, which was called Dar-es’-Selsale. In this quarter is one of the fountains of sweet water derived from the canal, and there are several wells of brackish water.

Returning from hence to the Shebeyka, and then turning southerly along different streets, composed of good buildings, but which are rapidly falling to decay, we descend by a slight slope into the street called Souk-es’-Sogheyr, or the little market, which terminates at the gate of the great mosque, called Bab Ibrahim. The houses on both sides of this street are low, and inhabited by the lower classes. There is a continued range of shops, in which are sold all sorts of provisions, but principally grain, butter, and dates. In some of the shops locusts are sold by measure. The Souk is fre­quented chiefly by Bedouins of the southern part of Arabia, who bring hither charcoal. Some poor Negro pilgrims of Africa take up their abode also in the miserable huts and ruined houses of this part of the town, and have here established a market for firewood, which they collect in the surrounding mountains.

[p.112] The extremity of Souk-es’-Sogheyr, towards the mountain, is called Haret el Hadjela, or Hadjela b’il Tekyet Sadek; where stand a few tolerably good houses, inhabited by the eunuchs who guard the mosque, and who live there with their wives, for they are all married to black slaves. This is the lowest part of the town; and whenever great floods, during the rainy season, inundate the valley, the water rushes through this street, in its way to the open country. Some remains of the aqueduct are visible here; for when it was kept in good repair, its water, after supplying the town, was conducted this way into the southern valley, where it served to irrigate some fields.

The Souk-es’-Sogheyr is sometimes comprehended in the Mesfale, or “low place,” the name of the quarter on the east and south sides of the Souk; but that name is more commonly applied exclusively to the latter district. The Mesfale is tolerably well built, and, like the Shebeyka, contains a few new houses; but that part of it which lies towards the great castle-hill is now almost entirely in ruins. It is inhabited by Arab and Bedouin merchants, who travel in time of peace to Yemen, principally to Mokhowa, from whence they import grain, coffee-beans, and dried grapes. It is also the residence of many poor Indians, established at Mekka; these let out their houses to their countrymen, who visit this city in the time of the Hadj. In the ruined dwellings, Negro pilgrims take up their temporary abode; some of these are settled in Mekka, and their wives prepare the intoxicating liquor made from durra, and called bouza, of which the meaner inhabitants are very fond. It was in the Mesfale, as I have already mentioned, that I took up my lodging on returning from Djidda, at first in the house of a Maggrebyn settler, from which I soon afterwards removed into that of a Yemen merchant close by. The person, whose apartment I hired, was from Szana in Yemen, a Metowef or guide by profession, and who occupied the first floor of the house, from which he removed, during my stay, into a corner on the ground-floor; the other parts of the dwelling were inhabited by the Maggrebyn landlord and his family, by a village sheikh from

[p.113] Egypt, who had come to the Hadj, accompanied by several fellahs, by a poor man from the Afghan country, or territory El Soleymanye, as it is now usually called; and by a hadjy or pilgrim from one of the Greek islands. In the house of the Yemen merchant, I found myself among a party of Maggrebyn pilgrims belonging to the Berber nation, or the Shilhy, who had come by sea to Egypt. There are few houses in this part of the town, where the same strange mixture of nations is not to be met with.

On the southern extremity of the Mesfale is a large ruined khan, which, even when new, must have been a mean building. It was destined for the accommodation of the pilgrim-caravan, which formerly arrived by land from Yemen, along the coast. Another Yemen pilgrim-caravan came along the mountains.

In issuing from the town on this side, we discover a watch-tower standing in the plain, similar in construction to those at the Djerouel entrance. A broad valley leads from hence, in a southern direction, to the small village of Hosseynye, two or three hours distant, where are some date-trees. Here the Sherif Ghaleb had a small pleasure-garden and a country-house; and he kept here a herd of buffaloes, brought from Egypt; but they did not prosper. From Hosseynye a road leads to Arafat, passing to the S. and S.E. of Mekka, two or three hours distant from which, on that road, is the small fertile valley and Arab settlement of Aabedye. The valley just mentioned is called El Tarafeyn; one mile beyond the present skirts of the city may be traced the ruins of former habitations; among them are several large, deep, and well-built cisterns, which, with little labour, might again be rendered fit for their original purpose of collecting rain-water. At a mile and a half from the city is a large stone tank, called Birket Madjen, built for the supplying of water to the Yemen caravan; I found some water in it, but it is falling rapidly to decay. Beyond this tank, the people of the Mesfale cultivate a few fields of cucumbers and different vegetables, immediately after the fall of the rains, when the ground has been copiously irrigated. Many Bedouin huts and tents of the tribes of Faham

[p.114] and Djehadele are scattered over this valley: their inhabitants earn a livelihood by collecting in the mountains grass and wild herbs, which they sell, when dry, in the Mekka market, twisted into bundles: they serve to feed horses, camels, and asses; but are so scarce and dear, that the daily feed for a horse costs from two to three piastres. These Bedouins also rear a few sheep; but although poor, they keep themselves quite distinct from the lower classes of the Mekkawys, whom they scorn to imitate in their habits of mendicity. Some few of them are water-carriers in the city.

On one summit of the western chain of the valley of Tarafeyn, just in front of the Mesfale, stood, prior to the invasion of the Wahabys, a small building with a dome, erected in honour of Omar, one of Mohammed’s immediate successors, and therefore called Mekam Seydna Omar. It was completely ruined by the Wahabys.

Nearly on the summit of the opposite mountain stands the Great Castle, a very large and massy structure, surrounded by thick walls and solid towers. It commands the greatest part of the town, but is commanded by several higher summits. I heard that this castle owes its origin to the Sherif Serour, the predecessor of Ghaleb; but I believe it to be of a more ancient date. It is often mentioned by Asamy, in his history, as early as the fourteenth century; but he does not say who built it. No person might enter without per­mission from the governor of Mekka, and I did not think it either prudent, or worth the trouble, to apply for that favour. Ghaleb considerably strengthened and thoroughly repaired the building, and mounted it with heavy guns. It was said that he had made its principal magazines bomb-proof. It contains a large cistern and a small mosque; and might accommodate a garrison of about one thousand men. To Arabs it is an impregnable fortress; and so it is considered by the Mekkawys; even against Europeans, it might offer some resistance. The approach is by a steep narrow path.

Below the castle-hill, upon a small plain between the mountain and the Djebel Kobeys, stands the great palace of the reigning

[p.115] sherif, called Beit es’ Sade. This, too, is said to have been built by Serour; but I find it mentioned by Asamy in the account of trans­actions that occurred two hundred years ago. Its walls are very high and solid, and seem to have been intended for an outwork to the castle above it, with which, according to the reports of the Mekkawys, there is a subterranean communication. It is an irregular pile of building, and comprises many spacious courts and gloomy chambers, which have not been inhabited since Sherif Ghaleb fled before the enemy to Djidda: he then attempted to destroy it by fire; but it was too strongly built. The Turks, under Mohammed Aly, have converted it into a magazine of corn. In the adjacent plain, which was formerly the place of exercise for the Sherif’s troops, I found a herd of camels, with the encampment of their drivers, who make a journey weekly to Djidda or Tayf. Here also many poor hadjys, who could not pay for lodgings, had erected their miserable tents, formed of a few rags spread upon sticks. The soldiers were busily occupied in destroying all the remaining ceilings of the palace, in quest of fire-wood.

In a narrow inlet in the mountain, to the north of the palace, and adjoining the above-mentioned plain, are numerous low huts built of brush-wood, the former abodes of Sherif Ghaleb’s slaves, who served as soldiers in his guard. The greater part of them fled after the Sherif’s capture; and the huts now form barracks for about two hundred Arab soldiers, in the service of his successor, Sherif Yahya.

In turning from hence towards the mosque, on the right hand, we come to a small quarter, built on the declivity of the mountain, in which are many half-ruined houses: it is called Haret el Djyad, and is inhabited by poor people, and several of the lower servants of the Sherif’s household. Asamy says that it derives its name from having been the post occupied by the horsemen who accompanied Toba, King of Yemen, in his expedition against Mekka; an event celebrated among the Moslim writers, for the miraculous destruction of the army. This is certainly one of the most ancient quarters of the town.

[p.116] Close by the mosque, on either side of the entrance to the above­mentioned plain, stands a palace of the Sherif; the northern consists of two stately houses, connected together, which are occupied by Sherif Yahya: his women reside in the opposite southern building, which was erected by Sherif Ghaleb, who in this favourite residence spent the greater part of his time, induced by its vicinity to the mosque, its central situation, and the large open space which it commands.

Continuing from this place, in a northern direction, parallel with the mosque, we enter the long street called Mesaa. The small by­streets to the right, in approaching the Mesaa, form the quarter of El Szafa, which takes its name from the holy place Szafa, already de­scribed. The houses surrounding this place are handsome buildings, and here the richest foreigners, in the time of the pilgrimage, take up their abode. In a large house here resides the Aga of the eunuchs belonging to the temple, together with all the eunuch boys, who are educated here, till they attain a sufficient age to allow of their living in private lodgings.

We now turn into the Mesaa, the straightest and longest street in Mekka, and one of the best built. It receives its name from the ceremony of the Say, which is performed in it, and which I have already described: from this circumstance, and its being full of shops, it is the most noisy and most frequented part of the town. The shops are of the same description as those enumerated in the account of Djidda, with the addition of a dozen of tin-men, who make tin bottles of all sizes, in which the pilgrims, upon their return, carry the water of Zemzem to their homes. The shops are generally magazines on the ground-floor of the houses, before which a stone bench is reared. Here the merchant sits, under the shade of a slight awning of mats fastened to long poles; this custom prevails throughout the Hedjaz. All the houses of the Mesaa are rented by Turkish pilgrims. On the arrival of a party of hadjys from Djidda, which happens almost every morning, for four or five months of the year, their baggage is usually deposited in this street, after which they pay their visit to the mosque,

[p.117] and then go in quest of lodgings; and in this manner I found the street crowded almost every day with new comers, newsmongers, and guides.

About the time of my stay at Mekka, the Mesaa resembled a Constantinopolitan bazar. Many shops were kept by Turks from Europe or Asia Minor, who sold various articles of Turkish dress, which had belonged to deceased hadjys, or to those who, being deficient in cash, had sold their wardrobe. Fine swords, good English watches, and beautiful copies of the Koran, the three most valuable articles in a Turkish pilgrim’s baggage, were continually offered for sale. Constantinopolitan pastry-cooks sold here pies and sweetmeats in the morning; roasted mutton, or kebabs, in the afternoon; and in the evening, a kind of jelly called mehalabye. Here, too, are nume­rous coffee-houses, crowded from three o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock at night. The reader will be surprised to learn, that in two shops intoxicating liquors are publicly sold during the night, though not in the day-time: one liquor is prepared from fermented raisins, and although usually mixed with a good deal of water, is still so strong, that a few glasses of it produce intoxication. The other is a sort of bouza, mixed with spices, and called soubye. This beverage is known (although not made so strong) at Cairo.

The Mesaa is the place of punishment: there capital offenders are put to death. During my stay, a man was beheaded, by sentence of the Kadhy, for having robbed a Turkish pilgrim of about two hun­dred pounds sterling; this was the only instance of the kind which came to my knowledge, though thieves are said to abound in Mekka, while the Hadj continues. The history of Mekka, however, affords many instances of the most cruel punishments: in A.D. 1624, two thieves were flayed alive in this street; in 1629, a military chief of Yemen, who had been made prisoner by the reigning Sherif, had both his arms and shoulders perforated in many places, and lighted tapers put into the wounds; one of his feet was turned up, and fastened to his shoulder by an iron hook, and in this posture he was suspended two days on a tree in the Mala, till he died. The destruction

[p.118] of a man’s sight, no uncommon punishment in other parts of the east, seems never to have been inflicted by the Hedjaz governors.

In the Mesaa, and annexed to the mosque, stands a handsome building, erected in A.H. 882, by Kaid Bey, Sultan of Egypt, in which he established a large public school, with seventy-two different apartments; he also furnished it with a valuable library. The historian Kotobeddyn, who, one hundred years afterwards, was librarian here, complains that only three hundred volumes remained in his time, the rest having been stolen by his unprincipled predecessors.

On the northern extremity of the Mesaa is the place called Merowa, the termination of the Say, as already described; this, as it now stands, was built in A.H. 801. Behind it is shown a house which was the original habitation of El Abbas, one of the many uncles of Mohammed. Near the Merowa are the barbers’ shops, in which pilgrims have their heads shaved after performing the Say. Here, too, public auctions are held every morning, where wearing-apparel, and goods of every description, are offered to the highest bidder: for the sake of the Turkish pilgrims, their language is used on these occasions; and there is scarcely a boy at Mekka who is not thus acquainted with, at least, the Turkish numerals. Near this place, too, is a public fountain, the work of the Othman Emperor Soleyman Ibn Selym: it is supplied from the Mekka aqueduct, and is crowded the whole day by hadjys, who come to fill their water-skins.

Eastward of the Mesaa, near its extremity at the Merowa, branches off a street called Soueyga, or the Little Market, which runs almost parallel with the east side of the mosque. Though narrow, it is the neatest street in the town, being regularly cleaned and sprinkled with water, which is not the case with any of the others. Here the rich India merchants expose their piece-goods for sale, and fine Cashmere shawls and muslins. There are upwards of twenty shops, in which are sold perfumes, sweet oils, Mekka balsam, (in an adulterated state,) aloe- wood, civet, &c. Few pilgrims return to their homes without

[p.119] carrying some presents for their families and friends; these are usually beads, perfumes, balm of Mekka, aloe-wood, which last is used throughout the east, in small pieces, placed upon the lighted tobacco in the pipe, producing an agreeable odour.

In other shops are sold strings of coral, and false pearls, rosaries made of aloe, sandal or kalembac wood, brilliant necklaces of cut cornelians, cornelians for seal-rings, and various kinds of China ware. These shops are all kept by Indians, and their merchandize is entirely of Indian production and manufacture. Against these Indians much prejudice is entertained in Arabia, from a general opinion that they are idolaters, who comply in outward appearance only with the rites of Mohammedism: they are supposed to be of the Ismayley sect; those mysterious devotees, of whom I have given some account in my journey to Lebanon, [See Travels in Syria, &c.] and whose name is, at Mekka, applied to those Indians. About a dozen of them reside here; the others arrive annually at the pilgrimage; they buy up old gold and silver, which they remit to Surat, from whence most of them come. Some have lived at Mekka for ten years, scrupulously performing every religious ceremony; they rent a large house, in which they live together, never allowing other strangers to occupy any part of it, even should several of the apartments be untenanted. Contrary to the practice of all other Mohammedans, these Indians never bring their women to the pilgrimage, although they could well afford the expense; and those residing, for however long a period, at Mekka have never been known to marry there; which is the more remarkable, as other natives of India, who live here for any length of time, usually take wives, although they may have been already married at home.

The same stories are prevalent respecting them, which are told of the Syrian Ismayleys, to my account of whom I must refer the reader. [See Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.] My endeavours to collect authentic information on the subject of their secret doctrines were as fruitless here as they had

[p.120] been in Syria, where it was vaguely reported that the chief seat of the Ismayleys was in India, and that they kept up regular correspondence between that country and Syria. A sect of “Light- ­extinguishers” is said to exist in India, as well as in Mesopotamia, and to them the Ismayleys of Syria and those of Mekka may, perhaps, belong. Those whom I saw at Mekka have rather the features of Persians than of Indians, and are taller and stouter men than Indians in general. [The people here mentioned by our author were probably some Parsees from Surat or Bombay.]