Chapter 56

12. A long day’s journey to the castle of Akaba Esshamie [Arabic], or the Syrian Akaba, so called in opposition to the Akaba el Masri or the Egyptian Akaba which is on the eastern branch of the Red-sea, at one day’s journey from the Akaba Esshamie; here is a Birket of rain-water. The Hadj road, as far as Akaba, is a complete desert on both sides, yet not incapable [p.659] of culture. The mountain chain continues at about ten hours to the west of the Hadj route. Akaba is in the hands of the Arabs el Howeytat [Arabic], who are in communication with Cairo. From the foot of the castle walls the Hadj descends a deep chasm, and it takes half an hour to reach the plain below. The pilgrims fear that passage, and repeat this prayer before they descend; “May the Almighty God be merciful to them who descend into the belly of the dragon” [Arabic]. The mountain consists of a red gray sand stone, which is used at Damascus for whetstones. There are many places where the stones are full of small holes. When the pilgrims reach the bottom of the descent they fire off their pistols for the sake of the echo. The mountain sinks gradually, and is lost at a great distance in the plain, which is very sandy.[FN#1]

13. Medawara [Arabic], one day’s journey, a castle with a Birket of rainwater.

14. Dzat Hadj [Arabic], a castle surrounded by a great number of wells, which are easily found on digging two or three feet. It has likewise a Birket of rainwater. At four hours from it is a descent, rendered difficult by the deep sand. It is called El Araie [Arabic], or Halat Ammar [Arabic]; it was here that in the time of Daher el Omar, Pasha of Acre, and of Osman, Pasha of Damascus, the Arabs Beni Szakher plundered the Hadj in the year 1170 of the Hedjra (1757), the only example of such an event in the last century. From Halat Ammar the plain is no longer sandy, but covered with a white earth as far as Tebouk. The vicinity of Dzat Hadj is covered with palm trees: but the trees being male, they bear no fruit, and remain very low. The inhabitants sell the wood to the Hadj.

15. One day from Dzat Hadj is Tebouk [Arabic], a castle, with a village of Felahein, of the tribe of Arabs Hammeide. There is a copious source of water, and gardens of fig and pomegranate trees, where Badintshaus (egg plant), onions, and ether vegetables are also cultivated. The Fellahs collect in the neighbouring desert the herb Beiteran (a species of milfoil), which the Hadjis buy up, and bring to Damascus. The castle is also surrounded by shrubs with long spines called Mehdab, which the Fellahs sell to the Hadj as food for the camels, and likewise two other herbs called Nassi and Muassal. They thus earn their livelihood. If the Hadj arrives in the neighbourhood of Tebouk at night, the bones of dead camels indicate the way to the castle. The Hadj rests here one day: and on its return is met by the Djerde, or provision caravan, headed by the Pasha of Tripoli, by which all the Syrian pilgrims, receive refreshments, sent by their families.

16. Akhdhar [Arabic], a castle with a Birket of rainwater, upon a small ascent. Two or three hundred years ago, the Hadj went to the E. of the present route, and it is even now called the eastern road.

17. El Moadham [Arabic], a very long day’s march.

[p.660]18. Dar el Hamra [Arabic].

19. Medayn Szaleh [Arabic], with a number of habitations hewn in the rock; and many sculptured figures of men and animals.

20. El Olla [Arabic], a village of about two hundred and fifty houses, with a rivulet and agreeable gardens of fruit trees. Its inhabitants are all of barbaresque origin.

21. Biar el Ghanam [Arabic], with many wells of fresh water.

22. Byr Zemerrod [Arabic], a large well.

23. Byr Djedeyde [Arabic].

24. Hedye, where the Hadj remains two days. It is a Ghadeir, or low Wady coming from Khaibar, which is four hours distant. The people of the caravan often go thither to buy fresh provisions.

25. El Fahletein [Arabic]; apes, and what the Arabs call tigers, are met with here. An ancient building of black stones is near it; it is called Stabel Antar.

26. Biar Naszeif [Arabic], a number of wells in the sandy ground, which are every year newly digged up, because the wind covers them immediately after the caravan’s departure. El Fahletein is the last castle. At all these stations small castles have been built, close to the basons in which the rain water is collected. If there are any wells, they are within the walls of the castle, and the water is drawn up by camels in order to fill the basons, on the arrival of the Hadj. The pilgrims, in order to lighten their loads, generally leave in every castle a small parcel of provisions, which they take on their return. These castles are garrisoned by four or five men of Damascus, who remain shut up there the whole year until they are relieved by the passage of the caravan. It often happens that only one man is left alive of the number; the others having been either killed by the Arabs, or having died from the effects of the confinement, for the fear of the Arabs seldom permits them to issue out of the castle. Each of these castles has a Meghaffer [Arabic], or protector, among the neighbouring Arab tribes, to whom the Pasha pays a certain tribute. The office of these guardians, who are usually inhabitants of the Meidhan or suburb of Damascus, is very lucrative, on account of the presents and small contributions paid to them by the pilgrims. One of them has been known to remain for twenty-three years at Fahletein. Ibn Balousa, a man of the Meidhan of Damascus, is looked upon as the chief of all these castles, and resides generally at El Hassa.

27. El Medine, where the Hadj remains three days. There are two different roads leading from Medine to Mekke, the eastern and western. The principal men of the Arab tribes of both routes meet the Pasha at Medine, to learn which road the Hadj intends to take, and to treat with him about the passage duty. On the eastern route [Arabic], the first station from Medine is:

28. (1) El Khona [Arabic], a deep Wady with rain water.

29. (2) El Dereybe [Arabic], a village with walls.

30. (3) Sefyne [Arabic], a village.

31. (4) El Kobab [Arabic], an assemblage of wells.

[p.661]

32. (5) Biar el Hedjar [Arabic], wells.

33. (6) Set Zebeyde [Arabic], a ruined village with a large Birket.

34. (7) El Makhrouka [Arabic], wells.

35. (8) Wady Leimoun [Arabic], a village with a rivulet.

36 (9) Byr el Baghle [Arabic], wells.

37.(10) Mekke [Arabic].

The western road, or as it is likewise called, the great road [Arabic] is the more usual, but Djezzar always used to take the other. The first station from Medine on this route is:

28. (1) Biar Aly [Arabic], a village with wells and gardens.

29. (2) El Shohada [Arabic], a spot in the plain, without any water.

30. (3) Djedeyde [Arabic], and at a short distance before it the well called Byr Dzat el Aalem [Arabic]. Djedeyde is a considerable village on the sides of a rivulet. The Sheikh of the western route lives here [Arabic]. The year before the last Hadj caravan effected its passage, Abdullah Pasha of Damascus was attacked in a Wady near Djedeyde by the armed population of that village, who were Wahabi. They routed his army, and obliged him to pay forty thousand dollars for his passage. From Djedeyde the route leads through the villages of Esszafra [Arabic], and El Hamra [Arabic], to the second station, which is:

31. (4) The famous Beder [Arabic], where Mohammed laid the foundation of his power by his victory over his combined enemies. It contains upwards of five hundred houses, with a rivulet. The Egyptian pilgrim caravan generally meets here the Syrian.

32. (5) El Kaa [Arabic], a spot in the desert without any water. From thence a long march to

33. (6) El Akdyd [Arabic], which is twenty-eight hours distant from Beder.

34. (7) Rabagh [Arabic], a village. Between Rabagh and Khalysz, the Red sea is seen from the Hadj route. There are Wadys coming from the Red sea, which in times of high flood are filled with the sea water; it remains sometimes during the whole summer, at a distance of six and seven hours from the sea. The water brings with it a large quantity of fish. The camels and horses drink the water of these Wadys.

35. (8) Khalysz [Arabic], a village with a rivulet.

36. (9) El Szafan [Arabic], two wells.

37.(10) Wady Fatme [Arabic], a rivulet, with a village and gardens.

38. Mekke.

[FN#1] To the southward of Kerek all the women on the Hadj route wear the Egyptian face veil or Berkoa [Arabic], which is not a Syrian fashion.

[p.662] APPENDIX. No. IV.

Description of the Route from Boszra in the Haouran, to the Djebel Shammor.

ON the western side of the Djebel Haouran, at a small distance from its southern extremity, lies Boszra. On the eastern foot and declivity of Djebel Haouran, are upwards of two hundred villages built of black stone in ruins, at a quarter or half an hour’s distance from each other. The country beyond them is completely level and is called El Hammad [Arabic]. About five hours to the S. of the Djebel, lies the half ruined town of Szalkhat [Arabic]; it has a large castle, with strong walls, several cisterns and Birkets of rainwater. From that place begins the Wady Serhhan [Arabic], which runs to the E.S.E. It is a low ground, with sloping sides; at every three or four hours a well is met with in the Wady, with a little grass round it, but even in winter there is no running stream; though water is found in many places at a small depth below the surface of the earth. The traveller frequently passes in that Wady small hills (Tels), which consist of thin layers of salt (about six inches thick), alternating with layers of earth of the same thickness. The Arabs sell the salt in the villages of the Haouran. Following the course of that Wady, which at length takes a more southerly direction, you arrive, after ten or eleven days journey (with camels about eight days), in the country called Djof [Arabic]. The Tels about Djof are called Kara [Arabic]. The Djof is a collection of seven or eight villages, built at a distance of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour from each other, in an easterly line. The ground is pure sand. These villages are called Souk (or markets), the principal of them are: Souk Ain Um Salim [Arabic], Souk Eddourra [Arabic], Souk Esseideiin [Arabic], Souk Douma [Arabic], Souk Mared [Arabic]. These villages are all built alike: the houses are built round the inside of a large square mud wall, which has but one entrance. This wall therefore serves as a common back wall to all the houses, which amount in some of the Souks to one hundred and twenty, in others from eighty to one hundred. The middle part of the enclosed square is empty. The roofs of the houses are made of palm wood, and their walls of bricks, called Leben, dried in the sun, which are about two feet square, and one foot thick. When strangers arrive, their camels remain in the middle of the Souk, and they themselves lodge at the different houses. Round the Souk are gardens of palm trees, which the inhabitants call Houta [Arabic]: in several of these are deep [p.663] wells, the water from some of which is conducted by small canals [Arabic] into the gardens of those, who not having any wells are obliged to purchase water from their neighbours. She camels are employed to draw the water out of the wells; this is done by tying a rope round the camel, which walks away from the well till the bucket, which is fastened to the other end of the rope, is drawn up, and empties its contents into the canals. These she camels are called Sanie [Arabic]. Most of the inhabitants of the Djof are either petty merchants or artificers; they work in leather, wood, iron, and make boots, sword hilts, horse shoes, lance heads, &c. which they sell to the Arabs, together with the produce of their palm trees; in return they, take camels. They sow very little wheat; the small extent of ground which they cultivate is worked with the hand; for they have no ploughs. They eat very little bread, living upon dates, butter, and flesh meat. Besides the game which they hunt in the neighbourhood, they eat camels flesh almost daily, and they even devour the ostriches and wild dogs, the former of which are sold to them by the Arabs Sherarat. They preserve their dates in large earthen jars for the use of the great Arab tribes which often pass here; of these the Rowalla come almost every year: before the time of the Wahabi, the El Hessene and Beni Szakher likewise visited the Djof.

The Felahein of the Djof are called Karaune [Arabic], a name which in the neighbourhood of Damascus is given to all Syrians or those who are presumed to be of Syrian origin. Although Fellahs, the people of the Djof intermarry with Arab girls, whence it happens that many Arabs of Shammor and Serhan have settled here and become Fellahs; and they continue notwithstanding, to be looked upon in their respective tribes by the heads of families, as proper husbands for their daughters. The workmen or artificers [Arabic], on the contrary, never can marry Arab girls, nor even the daughters of the Fellahs, their immediate neighbours; they intermarry exclusively amongst themselves, or amongst the workmen who have settled in the Bedouin encampments.

Every Souk has a Sheikh or chief; the name of the present grand Sheikh is Ibn Deraa [Arabic]. It is about twenty years since they were converted to the Wahabi creed. Their grand Sheikh collects the tribute or Zika [Arabic], for Ibn Saoud, and lodges it in a particular house; after taking from it the necessary expense for entertaining strangers, or for provisions for Wahabi corps which pass by, he sends the remainder to Saoud. The people of the Djof are all armed with firelocks; they have no horses.

At Souk Mared is an ancient tower of remarkable structure. Its height, I was told, is greater than the Minaret near my lodgings at Damascus, which I should compute at about forty-five feet. Its basis is square, it rises in steps and ends in a point; I had already heard at Aleppo from some travelling Turks, that there were in the desert, towards Deraye, pyramids like those of Cairo; by which they probably meant the Souk Mared. The door of the tower is about ten feet high and eight broad; but it is half filled up. The Kasr gate of Salamia,[FN#2] which is of wood with iron bars, has been transported here by the Arabs to serve as a gate for the tower. [p.664] The inside is not paved. There are three floors, and staircases leading from one to the other. There are very small windows in the sides of the tower, which seem rather to have been destined for loop holes for musquetty. The walls of the tower are built of large square white stones, and are in good preservation. The two floors one over the other are not vaulted. On the top of the tower a watchman constantly resides, to give notice of the arrival of strangers. To the E. and somewhat to the S. from Djof, three hours, begins the plain called Eddhahi or Taous [Arabic], a sandy desert full of small hills or Tels, from which it derives the name of [Arabic]. Although there is no water in the plain, a tree is very abundant which the Arabs call Ghada [Arabic], about eight feet high; the people of Djof burn it as fire wood. Near the trees grows in spring a kind of grass, which in summer soon dries up, it is called Nassy [Arabic], and resembles wheat. Wild cows [Arabic] are found here. My man told me that they resemble in every particular the domestic cow. The Arabs Sherarat kill them, eat them, and make of the leather targets, which are much esteemed [Arabic]. Of their horns the people of Djof make knife handles. Wild dogs, Derboun [Arabic], of a black colour, are likewise met with here; the Arabs kill and eat them. It is principally in the Dhahy that ostriches breed, and great quantities of them are killed there. This desert is moreover inhabited by a large lizard called Dhab [Arabic], of one foot and a half in length with a tail of half a foot, exactly resembling in shape the common lizard, but larger. The Arabs eat them in defiance of the laws of their prophet; the scaly skin serves them instead of a goat skin to preserve their butter in. These Arabs likewise eat all the eagles [Arabic] and crows which they can kill. The plain of Eddhahi continues for three days camel’s march (with a caravan it would take six days), without any water, extending as far as the chain of mountains called Djebel Shammor [Arabic] which runs in an easterly direction five or six days journey. From where it ends to Deraye, the seat of Ibn Saoud, are ten days more. The Djebel Shammor is inhabited by the Arabs Shammor, many of whom have become Fellahs, and live in villages in these mountains. They are true and faithful Wahabis.

[FN#2] Salamia is a ruin eight or ten hours S.E. of Hamah.

[p.665] APPENDIX. No. V.

A Route to the eastward of the Castle El Hassa.

FROM Kalaat el Hassa, towards E.S.E. continues the already mentioned Wady el Hassa. Passing the Tel Esshehak, two days journey from it, you meet with a great number of Tels, in the midst of which there is a well of good spring water called Byr Bair [Arabic]; near it is a tombstone, said to be the burial place of the son of Sultan Hassan. From Bair eastwards the Wady and its vicinity are called the district of Hudrush [Arabic]; it is without water, with the exception of the rain water which collects in the low grounds. The Hudrush extends for two days, as far as the country called Ettebig [Arabic]. From the beginning of Hudrush the Wady makes a bend to the N. and describing a half circle, again returns in the Tebig to its original direction. To the N. from Hudrush and Tebig the plain takes the name of Szauan [Arabic], (i.e. flint) and extends for two days till it borders upon the Wady Serhhan. The plain Szauan is covered so thickly with small black flints, that the Arabs, whenever they are about to light a fire there, cover the ground with earth, which they carry with them, in order to prevent the splinters of the flint heated by the fire, from flying about and hurting them. There is but one spring in the Szauan: it is about two hours from Wady Serhhan, and at the same distance from Hudrush and Tebig, and is called Byr Naam el aatta Allah [Arabic], in honour of a Christian travelling merchant, who about sixty years ago lying upon the flint, heard the noise of the water under his head, and thus discovered the spring. On the western side of the Szauan, nearer to the Wady Serhhan than to the Hudrush, is a castle called Kaszr Amera [Arabic], and at a quarter of an hour from it, on the foot of a hill, the ruins of a village. Between the Kaszr and the village is a low ground where the rain water collects, and forms a small lake in winter half an hour in length. Before the castle is a well more than thirty feet deep, walled in by large stones, but without water. Over the well are four white marble columns, which support a vaulted roof or Kubbe, such as are often seen at wells in these countries. The castle is built of white square stones, which seem not to have been cemented together. Its dimensions are thirty-six or forty feet from W. to E. and twenty-five from S. to N. The entrance door, which is only about three feet high, is on the S. side, and leads into an apartment half the size of the whole building. In the middle of the western wall of this apartment is another door, as low as the former, leading to a second apartment of the [p.666] same size as the former, except that one corner is partitioned off to form a third chamber. Each of the two latter have a window in the western wall. The roof of the apartments are vaulted below, and flat above. The walls which divide the apartments are two yards in thickness; in the two first rooms there is a stone pavement, in the small room the Arabs have taken up the pavement to dig for treasures; but they found nothing underneath, except small pieces of planks and some rusty iron. The ceiling of all the three apartments is chalked over, and looks quite new. In the small room it is painted all over with serpents, hares, gazelles, mares, and birds; there are neither human figures nor trees amongst the paintings. The colour of the paintings is red, green, and yellow, and they look as bright and well preserved, as if they had been done a short time ago. There are no kinds of niches, bas-reliefs, or inscriptions in the walls.

From Hudrush branches out a Wady towards Wady Serhhan, called Chadef [Arabic]. Four days beyond Tebig you arrive at a Byr called El Sheben or Szefan [Arabic], situated upon a small ascent. According to my informant the Byr is two hundred yards in depth. To the north of that well the desert is called Beseita [Arabic]. For two days farther the earth is covered to the depth of six inches with small black gray stones, looking like flints. The plant Samah [Arabic] grows there, which is collected by the people of Djof. From the end of the Beseita to the Djof is one day’s journey farther, and the Beseita ends in the Dhahi.

All the Arabs along this road from El Hassa, are Sherarat, the Aeneze do not come this way.

Between Tebig, Szauan, Hudrush, and to the S. of these places, are a quantity of wild asses, which the Arabs Sherarat hunt, and eat (secretly). Their skins and hoofs are sold to the wandering Christian pedlars, and in the towns of Syria. Of the hoofs rings are made, which the Fellahs of eastern Syria wear on the thumb, or tied with a thread round the arm-pit, to prevent, or to heal rheumatic complaints. I may here make a general remark that there is an infinity of names of places in the desert. Every Tel, every declivity, or, elevation in a Wady, every extent of plain ground, where a particular herb grows, has its name, well known to the Arabs. The Khabera [Arabic], or places where the rain-water collects, winter-time, are generally distinguished by the name of some well known Sheikh who once pitched his tent near them; as Khabera Ibn Ghebein [Arabic], the watering places of Ibn Ghebein.

The side of a Wady where the Arab descends is called by him Hadhera [Arabic], the opposite side, where he re-ascends Sende [Arabic].

A Ghadir [Arabic] is distinguished from a Wady, the two sides of the latter are hills which rise above the surface of the adjacent plain; the Ghadir on the contrary is only a hollow in the plain. The Wady is seen from afar, the Ghadir only on arriving near the descent.

[p.667]APPENDIX. No. VI.

Description of the Desert from the Neighbourhood of Damascus towards the Euphrates.

From the Wady Serhhan northward and north-eastward, the whole desert is called El Hammad [Arabic], till it reaches the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, where the broad valley of the river is by the Arabs called Oerak (Irak). That name therefore is not exclusively applied to the Djezire or island between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but (in the Bedouin acceptation of the word at least), to the fertile country also between the desert and the river’s right bank.