[p.553] but he and his companion did not succeed in visiting all the
chains of mountains or all the tribes of Arabs. They never reached
Akaba, nor traversed the northern ranges of the peninsula, nor visited
the tribes of Tyaha, Heywat and Terabein. The following is the memorial
left by M. Seetzen:
Le 9 dAvril, 1807. U.J. Seetzen, nommé Mousa, voyageur Allemand, M.D.
et Assesseur de Collège de S. Majestè lEmpereur de toutes les Russies
dans la Seigneurie de Jever en Allemagne, est venu visiter le Couvent de
la Sainte Cathérine, les Monts dHoreb, de Moise, et de la Sainte
Catherine, &c. après avoir parcouru toutes les provinces orientales
anciennes de la Palestine; savoir, Hauranitis, Trachonitis, Gaulonitis,
Paneas, Batanea, Decapolis, Gileaditis, Ammonitis, Amorrhitis et
Moabitis, jusquaux frontières de la Gebelene (Idumaea), et après avoir
fait deux fois lentour de la mer morte, et traversé le désert de
lArabie Petrée, entre la ville dHebron et entre le Mont Sinai, par un
chemin jusquà ce tems-là inconnu. Après un séjour de dix jours, il
continuait son voyage pour la ville de Suez.
M. Seetzen has fallen into a mistake in calling the convent by the name
of saint Catherine. It is dedicated to the transfiguration, or as the
Greeks call it, the metamorphosis, and not to saint Catherine, whose
relics only are preserved here. M. Seetzen visited the convent a second
time, previous to his going to Arabia. He came then from Tor, and
stopped only one day.
The visit of two English travellers, Messrs. Galley Knight and
Fazakerly, is also recorded in a few lines dated February 13, 1811. The
same room contained likewise several modern Arabic inscriptions, one of
which says: To this holy place came one who does not deserve that his
name should be mentioned, so
[p.554] manifold are his sins. He came here with his family. May whoever
reads this, beseech the Almighty to forgive him. June 28, 1796.
The only habitual visitors of the convent are the Bedouins. They have
established the custom that whoever amongst them, whether man, woman, or
child, comes here, is to receive bread for breakfast and supper, which
is lowered down to them from the window, as no Bedouins, except the
servants of the house, are ever admitted within the walls. Fortunately
for the monks, there are no good pasturing places in their immediate
neighbourhood; the Arab encampments are therefore always at some
distance, and visitors are thus not so frequent as might be supposed;
yet scarcely a day passes without their having to furnish bread to
thirty or forty persons. In the last century the Bedouins enjoyed still
greater privileges, and had a right to call for a dish of cooked meat at
breakfast, and for another at supper; the monks could not have given a
stronger proof of their address than by obtaining the abandonment of
this right from men, in whose power they are so completely placed. The
convent of Sinai at Cairo is subject to similar claims; all the Bedouins
of the peninsula who repair to that city on their private business
receive their daily meal, from the monks, who, not having the same
excuses as their brethren of Mount Sinai, are obliged to supply a dish
of cooked meat. The convent has its Ghafeirs, or protectors, twenty-four
in number, among the tribes inhabiting the desert between Syria and the
Red sea; but the more remote of them are entitled only to some annual
presents in clothes and money, while the Towara Ghafeirs are continually
hovering round the walls, to extort as much as they can. Of the Towara
Arabs the tribes of Szowaleha and Aleygat only are considered as
protectors; the Mezeine, who came in later times to the peninsula, have
no claims; and of the Szowaleha tribe, the
[p.555] branches Oulad Said and Owareme are exclusively the protectors,
while the Koreysh and Rahamy are not only excluded from the right of
protection but also from the transport of passengers and loads. Of the
Oulad Said each individual receives an annual gift of a dollar, and the
Ghafeir of this branch of the Szowaleha is the convents chief man of
business in the desert. If a Sheikh or head man calls at the convent, he
receives, in addition to his bread, some coffee beans, sugar, soap,
sometimes a handkerchief, a little medicine, &c. &c.
Under such circumstances it may easily be conceived that disputes
continually happen. If a Sheikh from the protecting tribes comes to the
convent to demand coffee, sugar, or clothing, and is not well satisfied
with what he receives, he immediately becomes the enemy of the monks,
lays waste some of their gardens, and must at last be gained over by a
present. The independent state of the Bedouins of Sinai had long
prevented the monks from endeavouring to obtain protection from the
government of Egypt, whose power in the peninsula being trifling, they
would only by complaining have exasperated the Bedouins against them;
their differences therefore had hitherto been accommodated by the
mediation of other Sheikhs. It was not till 1816 that they solicited the
protection of Mohammed Ali; this will secure them for the present
against their neighbours; but it will, probably, as I told the monks, be
detrimental to them in the end. Ten or twenty dollars were sufficient to
pacify the fiercest Bedouin, but a Turkish governor will demand a
thousand for any effectual protection.
The Arabs, when discontented, have sometimes seized a monk in the
mountains and given him a severe beating, or have thrown stones or fired
their musquets into the convent from the neighbouring heights; about
twenty years ago a monk was killed by
[p.556] them. The monks, in their turn, have fired occasionally upon the
Bedouins, for they have a well furnished armory, and two small cannon,
but they take great care never to kill any one. And though they dislike
such turbulent neighbours, and describe them to strangers as very
devils, yet they have sense enough to perceive the advantages which they
derive from the better traits in the Bedouin character, such as their
general good faith, and their placability. If our convent, as they
have observed to me, had been subject to the revolutions and
oppressions of Egypt or Syria, it would long ago have been abandoned;
but Providence has preserved us by giving us Bedouins for neighbours.
Notwithstanding the greediness of the Bedouins, I have reason to believe
that the expenses of the convent are very moderate. Each monk is
supplied annually with two coarse woollen cloaks, and no splendour is
any where displayed except in the furniture of the great church, and
that of the Archbishops room. The supplies are drawn from Egypt; but
the communication by caravans with Cairo is far from being regular, and
the Ikonómos assured me that at the time I was there the house did not
contain more than one months provision.
The yearly consumption of corn is about one hundred and sixty Erdebs, or
two thousand five hundred bushels, which is sufficient to cover all the
demands of the Bedouins, and I believe that £1000. sterling, or 4000
dollars, is the utmost of the annual expenditure. The convent at Cairo
expends perhaps two or three times that sum. The monks complain greatly
of poverty; and the prior assured me that he sometimes has not a
farthing left to pay for the corn that is brought to him, and is obliged
to borrow money from the Bedouins at high interest; but an appearance of
poverty is one of their great protections; and considering
[p.557] the possessions of this convent abroad, and the presents which
it receives from pilgrims, I am much inclined to doubt the priors
assertion.
The Bedouins who occupy the peninsula of Mount Sinai are:
I. The Szowaleha [Arabic]. They are the principal tribe, and they boast
of having been the first Bedouins who settled in these mountains, under
their founder Ayd, two of whose sons, they say, emigrated with their
families to the Hedjaz. The Szowaleha are divided into several branches:
1. The Oulad Said [Arabic], whose Sheikh is at present the second Sheikh
of the Towara Arabs. They are not so poor as the other tribes, and
possess the best valleys of the mountains. 2. Korashy [Arabic], or
Koreysh, whose Sheikh, Szaleh Ibn Zoheyr, is at present the great Sheikh
of the Towara, and transacts the public business with the government of
Egypt. The Korashy are descendants of a few families of Beni Koreysh,
who came here as fugitives from the Hedjaz, and settled with the
Szowaleha, with whom they are now intimately intermixed. 3. Owareme
[Arabic], a subdivision of whom are the Beni Mohsen [Arabic]; in one of
the families of which is the hereditary office of Agyd, or the commander
of the Towara in their hostile expeditions. 4. Rahamy [Arabic]. The
Szowaleha inhabit principally the country to the west of the convent,
and their date valleys are, for the greater part, situated on that side.
These valleys are the exclusive property of individuals, but the other
pasturing places of the tribe are common to all its branches, although
the latter usually remain somewhat separated from each other.
II. Aleygat [Arabic]. They are much weaker in number than the Szowaleha,
and encamp usually with the Mezeine, and with them form a counterbalance
to the power of the Szowaleha. A tribe of Aleygat is found in Nubia on
the banks of the Nile about twenty miles north of Derr, where they
occupy the district called Wady