[p.397]of walled villages, with plantations and gardens between. They
are laid out in the form, called here, as in Egypt, Hosh-court-yards,
with single-storied tenements opening into them. These enclosures
contain the cattle of the inhabitants; they have strong wooden doors,
shut at night to prevent "lifting," and they are capable of being
stoutly defended. The inhabitants of the suburb are for the most part
Badawi settlers, and a race of schismatics who will be noticed in
another chapter. Beyond these suburbs, to the South, as well as to the
North and Northeast, lie gardens and extensive plantations of
palm-trees.
[FN#1] To the East he limits Al-Hijaz by Yamamah (which some include in
it), Nijd, and the Syrian desert, and to the West by the Red Sea. The
Greeks, not without reason, included it in their Arabia Petraea.
Niebuhr places the Southern boundary at Hali, a little town south of
Kunfudah (Gonfoda). Captain Head (Journey from India to Europe) makes
the village Al-Kasr, opposite the Island of Kotambul, the limit of
Al-Hijaz to the South.
[FN#2] Or, according to others, between Al-Yaman and Syria.
[FN#3] If you ask a Badawi near Meccah, whence his fruit comes, he will
reply "min Al-Hijaz," "from the Hijaz," meaning from the mountainous
part of the country about Taif. This would be an argument in favour of
those who make the word to signify a "place tied together," (by
mountains). It is notorious that the Badawin are the people who best
preserve the use of old and disputed words; for which reason they were
constantly referred to by the learned in the palmy days of Moslem
philology. "Al-Hijaz," also, in this signification, well describes the
country, a succession of ridges and mountain chains; whereas such a
name as "the barrier" would appear to be rather the work of some
geographer in his study. Thus Al-Nijd was so called from its high and
open lands, and, briefly, in this part of the world, names are most
frequently derived from some physical and material peculiarity of soil
or climate.
[FN#4] Amongst a people, who, like the Arabs or the Spaniards, hold a
plurality of names to be a sign of dignity, so illustrious a spot as
Al-Madinah could not fail to be rich in nomenclature. A Hadis declares,
"to Al-Madinah belong ten names": books, however, enumerate nearly a
hundred, of which a few will suffice as a specimen. Tabah, Tibah,
Taibah, Tayyibah, and Mutayyibah, (from the root "Tib," "good,"
"sweet," or "lawful,") allude to the physical excellencies of
Al-Madinah as regards climate-the perfume of the Prophet's tomb, and of
the red rose, which was a thorn before it blossomed by the sweat of his
brow-and to its being free from all moral impurity, such as the
presence of Infidels, or worshippers of idols. Mohammed declared that
he was ordered by Allah to change the name of the place to Tabah, from
Yasrib or Asrib. The latter, according to some, was a proper name of a
son of Noah; others apply it originally to a place west of Mount Ohod,
not to Al-Madinah itself; and quote the plural form of the word,
"Asarib," ("spots abounding in palms and fountains,") as a proof that
it does not belong exclusively to a person. However this may be, the
inauspicious signification of Yasrib, whose root is "Sarab,"
(destruction,) and the notorious use of the name by the Pagan Arabs,
have combined to make it, like the other heathen designation,
Al-Ghalabah, obsolete, and the pious Moslem who pronounces the word is
careful to purify his mouth by repeating ten times the name
"Al-Madinah." Barah and Barrah allude to its obedience and purity;
Hasunah to its beauty; Khayrah and Khayyarah to its goodness; Mahabbah,
Habibah and Mahbubah, to the favour it found in the eyes of the
Prophet; whilst Jabirah, Jabbarah, and Jabarah, (from the root Jabr,
joining or breaking), at once denote its good influence upon the
fortunes of the Faithful and its evil effects upon the Infidel.
"Al-Iman," (the Faith,) is the name under which it is hinted at in the
Koran. It is called Shafiyah (the Healer), on account of the curative
effects of earth found in its neighbourhood; Nasirah, the Saving, and
Asimah, the Preserving, because Mohammed and his companions were there
secure from the fury of their foes; Fazihah, the Detector, from its
exposing the Infidel and the hypocrite; Muslimah and Muminah, the
Faithful City; Mubarakah, the Blessed; Mahburah, the Happy; and
Mahturah, the Gifted. Mahrusah, the Guarded; and Mahfuzah, the
Preserved, allude to the belief that an angel sits in each of its ten
main streets, to watch over the town, and to prevent "Antichrist"
entering therein. "Al-Dajjal," as this personage is called, will arise
in the East and will peregrinate the earth; but he will be unable to
penetrate into Meccah; and on approaching Jabal Ohod, in sight of
Al-Madinah, he will turn off towards his death-place, Al-Sham
(Damascus). In the Taurat or Pentateuch, the town is called Mukaddasah,
the Holy, or Marhumah the Pitied, in allusion to the mission of
Mohammed; Marzukah, the Fed, is a favourable augury of plenty to it,
and Miskinah, the Poor, hints that it is independent of treasure of
gold or store of silver to keep up its dignity. Al-Makarr, means the
Residence or the Place of Quiet; Makinat, the Firmly-fixed, (in the
right faith); Al-Harim, the Sacred or Inviolable; and, finally,
Al-Balad, the Town, and Al-Madinah, the City by excellence. So an
inhabitant calls himself Al-Madani, whilst the natives of other and
less-favoured "Madinahs" affix Madini to their names. Its titles are
Arz-Allah, Allah's Land; Arz al-Hijrah, the Land of Exile; Akkalat
al-Buldan, the Eater of Towns; and Akkalat al-Kura, the Eater of
Villages, on account of its superiority, even as Meccah is entitled Umm
al-Kura, the Mother of Villages; Bayt Rasul Allah, House of Allah's
Prophet; Jazirat alArab, Isle of the Arab; and Harim Rasul Allah, the
Sanctuary of Allah's Prophet. In books and letters it has sometimes the
title of Madinah Musharrafah, the Exalted; more often that of Madinah
Munawwarah, the Enlightened-scil. by the lamp of faith and the column
of light supposed to be based upon the Prophet's tomb. The Moslems are
not the only people who lay claim to Al-Madinah. According to some
authors-and the legend is more credible than at first sight it would
appear-the old Guebres had in Arabia and Persia seven large fire
temples, each dedicated to a planet. At "Mahdinah," as they pervert the
word, was an image of the Moon, wherefore the place was originally
called the "Religion of the Moon." These Guebres, amongst other sacred
spots, claim Meccah, where they say Saturn and the Moon were conjointly
venerated; Jerusalem, the Tomb of Ali at Najaf, that of Hosayn at
Kerbela, and others. These pretensions of course the Moslems deny with
insistance, which does not prevent certain symptoms of old and decayed
faith peeping out in localities where their presence, if duly
understood, would be considered an abomination. This curious fact is
abundantly evident in Sind, and I have already alluded to it (History
of Sind).
[FN#5] Such is its formation in Al-Hijaz.
[FN#6] Within the sanctuary all Muharramat, or sins, are forbidden; but
the several schools advocate different degrees of strictness. The Imam
Malik, for instance, allows no latrinae} nearer to Al-Madinah than
Jabal Ayr, a distance of about three miles. He also forbids slaying
wild animals, but at the same time he specifies no punishment for the
offence. Some do not allow the felling of trees, alleging that the
Prophet enjoined their preservation as an ornament to the city, and a
pleasure to visitors. Al-Khattabi, on the contrary, permits people to
cut wood, and this is certainly the general practice. All authors
strenuously forbid within the boundaries slaying man (except invaders,
infidels, and the sacrilegious), drinking spirits, and leading an
immoral life. As regards the dignity of the sanctuary, there is but one
opinion; a number of Hadis testify to its honour, praise its people,
and threaten dreadful things to those who injure it or them. It is
certain that on the last day, the Prophet will intercede for, and aid,
all those who die, and are buried, at Al-Madinah. Therefore, the Imam
Malik made but one pilgrimage to Meccah, fearing to leave his bones in
any other cemetery but Al-Bakia. There is, however, much debate
concerning the comparative sanctity of Al-Madinah and Meccah. Some say
Mohammed preferred the former, blessing it as Abraham did Meccah.
Moreover, as a tradition declares that every man's body is drawn from
the dust of the ground in which he is buried, Al-Madinah, it is
evident, had the honour of supplying materials for the Prophet's
person. Others, like Omar, were uncertain in favour of which city to
decide. Others openly assert the pre-eminence of Meccah; the general
consensus of Al-Islam preferring Al-Madinah to Meccah, save only the
Bayt Allah in the latter city. This last is a juste-milieu view, by no
means in favour with the inhabitants of either place. In the meanwhile
the Meccans claim unlimited superiority over the Madani; the Madani
over the Meccans.
[FN#7] These seven wells will be noticed in Chapter XIX., post.
[FN#8] I translate Al-Zarka "azure," although Sir G. Wilkinson remarks,
apropos of the Bahr al-Azrak, generally translated by us the "Blue
Nile," that, "when the Arabs wish to say dark or jet black, they use
the word ‘Azrak.'" It is true that Azrak is often applied to
indeterminate dark hues, but "Aswad," not Azrak, is the opposite to
Abyaz, "white." Moreover, Al-Zarka in the feminine is applied to women
with light blue eyes; this would be no distinctive appellation if it
signified black eyes, the almost universal colour. Zarka of Yamamah is
the name of a celebrated heroine in Arab story, and the curious reader,
who wishes to see how much the West is indebted to the East, even for
the materials of legend, will do well to peruse her short history in
Major Price's "Essay," or M.C. de Perceval's "Essai," &c., vol. i., p.
101. Both of these writers, however, assert that Zarka's eyes, when cut
out, were found to contain fibres blackened by the use of Kohl, and
they attribute to her the invention of this pigment. I have often heard
the legend from the Arabs, who declare that she painted her eyes with
"Ismid," a yellow metal, of what kind I have never been able to
determine, although its name is everywhere known.
[FN#9] 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. At Al-Jauf, where
the date is peculiarly good, the trees are watered regularly every
third or fourth day.
[FN#11] Properly meaning the Yellow Wind or Air. The antiquity of the
word and its origin are still disputed.
[FN#12] Burckhardt (Travels in Arabia, vol. ii.) informs us, that in
A.D. 1815, when Meccah, Yambu', and Jeddah suffered severely from the
plague, Al-Madinah and the open country between the two seaports
escaped.
[FN#13] Conjecture, however, goes a little too far when it discovers
small-pox in the Tayr Ababil, the "swallow birds," which, according to
the Koran, destroyed the host of Abrahat al-Ashram. Major Price (Essay)
may be right in making Ababil the plural of Abilah, a vesicle; but it
appears to me that the former is an Arabic and the latter a Persian
word, which have no connection whatever. M.C. de Perceval, quoting the
Sirat al-Rasul, which says that at that time small-pox first appeared
in Arabia, ascribes the destruction of the host of Al-Yaman to an
epidemic and a violent tempest. The strangest part of the story is,
that although it occurred at Meccah, about two months before Mohammed's
birth, and, therefore, within the memory of many living at the time,
the Prophet alludes to it in the Koran as a miracle.
[FN#14] In Al-Yaman, we are told by Niebuhr, a rude form of
inoculation-the mother pricking the child's arm with a thorn-has been
known from time immemorial. My Madinah friend assured me that only
during the last generation, this practice has been introduced amongst
the Badawin of Al-Hijaz.
[FN#15] Orientals divide their diseases, as they do remedies and
articles of diet, into hot, cold, and temperate.
[FN#16] This grain is cheaper than rice on the banks of the Nile-a fact
which enlightened England, now paying a hundred times its value for
"Revalenta Arabica," apparently ignores.
[FN#17] Herodotus (Euterpe) has two allusions to eye disease, which
seems to have afflicted the Egyptians from the most ancient times.
Sesostris the Great died stone-blind; his successor lost his sight for
ten years, and the Hermaic books had reason to devote a whole volume to
ophthalmic disease. But in the old days of idolatry, the hygienic and
prophylactic practices alluded to by Herodotus, the greater cleanliness
of the people, and the attention paid to the canals and drainage,
probably prevented this malarious disease becoming the scourge which it
is now. The similarity of the soil and the climate of Egypt to those of
Upper Sind, and the prevalence of the complaint in both countries,
assist us in investigating the predisposing causes. These are, the
nitrous and pungent nature of the soil-what the old Greek calls "acrid
matter exuding from the earth,"-and the sudden transition from extreme
dryness to excessive damp checking the invisible perspiration of the
circumorbital parts, and flying to an organ which is already weakened
by the fierce glare of the sun, and the fine dust raised by the Khamsin
or the Chaliho. Glare and dust alone, seldom cause eye disease.
Everyone knows that ophthalmia is unknown in the Desert, and the people
of Al-Hijaz, who live in an atmosphere of blaze and sand, seldom lose
their sight. The Egyptian usually catches ophthalmia in his childhood.
It begins with simple conjunctivitis, caused by constitutional
predisposition, exposure, diet, and allowing the eye to be covered with
swarms of flies. He neglects the early symptoms, and cares the less for
being a Cyclops, as the infirmity will most probably exempt him from
military service. Presently the sane organ becomes affected
sympathetically. As before, simple disease of the conjunctiva passes
into purulent ophthalmia. The man, after waiting a while, will go to
the doctor and show a large cicatrix in each eye, the result of an
ulcerated cornea. Physic can do nothing for him; he remains blind for
life. He is now provided for, either by living with his friends, who
seldom refuse him a loaf of bread, or if industriously inclined, by
begging, by acting Mu'ezzin, or by engaging himself as "Yamaniyah," or
chaunter, at funerals. His children are thus predisposed to the
paternal complaint, and gradually the race becomes tender-eyed. Most
travellers have observed that imported African slaves seldom become
blind either in Egypt or in Sind. Few Englishmen settled in Egypt lose
their sight, except they be medical men, who cannot afford time to
nurse the early symptoms. The use of coffee and of water as beverages
has much to do with this. In the days of hard drinking our Egyptian
army suffered severely, and the Austrian army in Tuscany showed how
often blindness is caused by importing Northern habits into Southern
countries. Many Europeans in Egypt wash their eyes with cold water,
especially after walking, and some use once a day a mildly astringent
or cooling wash, as Goulard's lotion or vinegar and water. They avoid
letting flies settle upon their eyes, and are of opinion that the
evening dews are prejudicial, and that sleeping with open windows lays
the foundation of disease. Generally when leaving a hot room,
especially a Nile-boat cabin, for the cold damp night air, the more
prudent are careful to bathe and to wipe the eyes and forehead as a
preparation for change of atmosphere. During my short practice in Egypt
I found the greatest advantage from the employment of
counter-irritants,-blisters and Pommade Emetise,-applied to the temples
and behind the ears. Native practitioners greatly err by confining
their patients in dark rooms, thereby injuring the general health and
laying the foundation of chronic disease. They are ignorant that,
unless the optic nerve be affected, the stimulus of light is beneficial
to the eye. And the people by their dress favour the effects of glare
and dust. The Tarbush, no longer surrounded as of old by a huge
turband, is the least efficient of protectors, and the comparative
rarity of ophthalmic disease among the women, who wear veils, proves
that the exposure is one of its co-efficient causes.
[FN#18] This invention dates from the most ancient times, and both in
the East and in the West has been used by the weird brotherhood to
produce the appearances of the absent and the dead, to discover
treasure, to detect thieves, to cure disease, and to learn the secrets
of the unknown world. The Hindus called it Anjan, and formed it by
applying lamp-black, made of a certain root, and mixed with oil to the
palm of a footling child, male or female. The Greeks used oil poured
into a boy's hand. Cornelius Agrippa had a crystal mirror, which
material also served the Counts de Saint Germain and Cagliostro. Dr.
Dee's "show-stone" was a bit of cannel coal. The modern Sindians know
the art by the name of Gahno or Vinyano; there, as in Southern Persia,
ink is rubbed upon the seer's thumb-nail. The people of Northern Africa
are considered skilful in this science, and I have a Maghrabi magic
formula for inking the hand of a "boy, a black slave girl, a virgin, or
a pregnant woman," which differs materially from those generally known.
The modern Egyptians call it Zarb al-Mandal, and there is scarcely a
man in Cairo who does not know something about it. In selecting
subjects to hold the ink, they observe the right hand, and reject all
who have not what is called in palmistry the "linea media naturalis"
straight and deeply cut. Even the barbarous Finns look into a glass of
brandy, and the natives of Australia gaze at a kind of shining stone.
Lady Blessington's crystal ball is fresh in the memory of the present
generation, and most men have heard of Electro-Biology and the Cairo
magician. Upon this latter subject, a vexed one, I must venture a few
remarks. In the first account of the magician by Mr. Lane, we have a
fair and dispassionate recital of certain magical, mystical, or
mesmeric phenomena, which "excited considerable curiosity and interest
th[r]oughout the civilised world." As usual in such matters, the
civilised world was wholly ignorant of what was going on at home;
otherwise, in London, Paris, and New York, they might have found dozens
studying the science. But a few years before, Dr. Herklots had
described the same practice in India, filling three goodly pages; but
he called his work "Qanoon-i-Islam," and, consequently, despite its
excellencies, it fell still-born from the press. Lady H. Stanhope
frequently declared "the spell by which the face of an absent person is
thrown upon a mirror to be within the reach of the humblest and most
contemptible of magicians;" but the civilised world did not care to
believe a prophetess. All, however, were aroused by Mr. Lane's
discovery, and determined to decide the question by the ordeal of
reason. Accordingly, in A.D. 1844, Mr. Lane, aided by Lord Nugent and
others, discovered that a "coarse and stupid fraud" had been
perpetrated upon him by Osman Effendi, the Scotchman. In 1845, Sir G.
Wilkinson remarked of this rationalism, "The explanation lately
offered, that Osman Effendi was in collusion with the magician, is
neither fair on him nor satisfactory, as he was not present when those
cases occurred which were made so much of in Europe," and he proposed
"leading questions and accidents" as the word of the riddle. Eothen
attributed the whole affair to "shots," as schoolboys call them, and
ranked success under the head of Paley's "tentative miracles." A writer
in the Quarterly explained them by suggesting the probability of divers
(impossible) optical combinations, and, lest the part of belief should
have been left unrepresented, Miss Martineau was enabled to see clear
signs of mesmeric action, and by the decisive experiment of self,
discovered the magic to be an "affair of mesmerism." Melancholy to
relate, after all this philosophy, the herd of travellers at Cairo is
still divided in opinion about the magician, some holding his
performance to be "all humbug," others darkly hinting that "there may
be something in it."
[FN#19] They distinguish, however, between the Hijaz "Nasur" and the
"Jurh al-Yamani," or the "Yaman Ulcer."
[FN#20] I afterwards received the following information from Mr.
Charles Cole, H.B.M. Vice-Consul at Jeddah, a gentleman well acquainted
with Western Arabia, and having access to official information: "The
population of Al-Madinah is from 16,000 to 18,000, and the Nizam troops
in garrison 400. Meccah contains about 45,000 inhabitants, Yambu' from
6000 to 7000, Jeddah about 2500 (this I think is too low), and Taif
8000. Most of the troops are stationed at Meccah and at Jeddah. In
Al-Hijaz there is a total force of five battalions, each of which ought
to contain 800 men; they may amount to 3500, with 500 artillery, and
4500 irregulars, though the muster rolls bear 6000. The Government pays
in paper for all supplies, (even for water for the troops,) and the
paper sells at the rate of forty piastres per cent."
[FN#21] The Urtah or battalion here varies from 800 to 1000 men. Of
these, four form one Alai or regiment, and thirty-six Alai an Urdu or
camp. This word Urdu, pronounced "Ordoo," is the origin of our "horde."
[FN#22] One of the traditions, "Between my house and my place of
prayers is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise," has led divines to
measure the distance: it is said to be 1000 cubits from the Bab Salam
of the Harim to this Musalla.
[p.398]CHAPTER XIX.