[p.189] with the Bedouins, and especially with the inhabitants of the
towns of Nedjed, who are in want of India goods, drugs, and articles of
dress, which they procure either from Medina, or at a cheaper rate from
Mekka. Coffee, so much used in the Desert, is imported by the people of
Nedjed themselves, who send their own caravans to the coffee country of
Yemen.
The Mekkawys, especially those who are not sufficiently opulent to trade
in India goods, (which require a good deal of ready cash, and lie
sometimes long on hand,) employ their capital during the interval of the
Hadj, in the traffic of corn and provisions. This was much more
profitable formerly than it is at present; for Mohammed Aly having made
these articles a monopoly, the people are now obliged to purchase the
grain in Djidda, at the Pashas own price, and to be contented with a
moderate gain on re-selling it at Mekka. After paying freight, however,
it still leaves a profit of fifteen or twenty per cent.; and it is a
species of traffic peculiarly attractive to the smaller capitals, as,
the prices being very variable, it is a lottery by which money may
sometimes be doubled in a short time.
At the approach of the pilgrimage, every kind of provision rises in
value; and, in a smaller proportion, every other article of trade. Those
who have warehouses filled with corn, rice, and biscuits, are sure to
obtain considerable profits. To provide food, during their stay, for an
influx of population amounting to sixty thousand human beings, and for
twenty thousand camels, together with provisions for their return
homewards, is a matter of no small moment, and Mohammed Aly has not yet
ventured to take the whole of it into his hands. Every Mekkawy
possessing a few dollars, lays them out in the purchase of some kind of
provision, which, when the Hadj approaches, he transports upon his ass
from Djidda to Mekka.
Whenever the interior of Arabia is open to caravans, Bedouins from all
the surrounding parts purchase their yearly provision of corn at Mekka;
which itself also, in time of peace, receives a considerable quantity of
corn from Yemen, especially Mokhowa, a town which is ten days journey
distant, at the western foot of the great chain, and the mart of the
Arabs who cultivate those mountains. I heard that
[p.190] the imports from Mokhowa amounted to half the demand of Mekka;
but this seems doubtful, though I have no means of forming a correct
estimate, as the route is at present unfrequented, and Mekka receives
its provisions wholly from Djidda. The consumption of grain, it may be
observed, is much greater in Arabia than in any of the surrounding
countries; the great mass of the population living almost entirely upon
wheat, barley, lentils, or rice; using no vegetables, but a great deal
of butter.
Unless a person is himself engaged in commercial concerns, or has an
intelligent friend among the wholesale merchants, it is difficult, if
not impossible, for him to obtain any accurate details of so extensive a
trade as that carried on by Mekka. I shall, therefore, abstain from
making any partial, and, on that account, probably erroneous remarks, on
its different branches, with which I am not well acquainted, and which I
could find no one at Mekka to explain to me.
It will naturally be supposed that Mekka is a rich town: it would be
still more so, if the lower classes did not so rapidly spend their gains
in personal indulgences. The wholesale merchants are rich; and as the
whole of their business is carried on with ready money, they are less
exposed to losses than other Eastern merchants. Most of them have an
establishment at Djidda, and the trade of both towns is closely
connected. During the time of the Wahabys, the interior of Arabia was
opened to Mekka; but the foreign imports, by sea and land, were reduced
to what was wanted for the use of the inhabitants. The great fair of the
pilgrimage no longer took place; and although some foreign hadjys still
visited the holy city, they did not trust their goods to the chance of
being seized by the Wahabys. Under these circumstances, the principal
inducement with the Mekkawys to remain in the town, namely, their
unceasing gains, no longer existed. The rich waited for a renewal of the
Hadj caravans; but many of the poor, unable longer to find subsistence,
retired from Mekka, and settled at Djidda, or other harbours on the Red
Sea; whither they have been followed by many of the more respectable
traders.
Trade is carried on by means of brokers, many of whom are Indians: in
general, the community of Indians is the wealthiest in
[p.191] Mekka. They are in direct intercourse with all the harbours of
Hindostan, and can often afford to undersell their competitors.
Many of them, as has been already observed, are stationary here, while
others are constantly travelling backward and forward between India and
the Hedjaz. They all retain their native language, which they teach
their children, and also many merchants of Mekka superficially, so that
most of the latter understand, at least, the Hindostanee numerals, and
the most ordinary phrases employed in buying and selling. The Indians
labour under great difficulties in learning Arabic; I never heard any of
them, however long resident in the Hedjaz, speak it with a tolerable
accent: in this respect they are inferior to the Turks, whose
pronunciation of Arabic so often affords subject of ridicule to the
Arabian mob. The children of Indians, born at Mekka, of course speak
Arabic as their native language. The Indians have the custom of writing
Arabic with Hindostanee characters.
They are said to be extremely parsimonious; and, from what I saw of them
in the houses of some of their first merchants, they seem to deserve the
character. They are shrewd traders, and an overmatch, sometimes, even
for the Arabians. They are despicable, from their want of charity; but
they display among themselves a spirited manner, which makes them
respected, and even sometimes dreaded, at Mekka. Many of them have
partners in India; consequently they receive their goods cheaper than
they can be bought from the Indian ships at Djidda: hence the inferior
dealers and shopkeepers at Mekka often find it more convenient to
purchase from them at short credit, than to go to Djidda, where every
thing must be paid for in ready money. With the exception of one or two
houses, no Arabian merchants of Mekka receive their goods direct from
India, but purchase them from the India fleet. Of all the people at
Mekka none are more strict in the performance of their religious rites
than the Indians.
Dealers, when bargaining in the presence of others from whom they wish
to conceal their business, join their right hands under the corner of
the gown or sleeve of one of the parties; by touching the different
joints of the fingers they note the numerals, and thus silently conclude
their bargain.
[p.192] The Mekkawys who do not ostensibly follow commerce, are attached
to the government, or to the establishment of the mosque; but as I have
already said, they all engage, more or less, in some branch of traffic,
and the whole population looks forward to the period of the Hadj as the
source of their income.
The persons attached to the mosque have regular salaries, partake in the
general presents made to it, expect many private donations from
charitable devotees, and share in the stipends which are brought by the
Syrian and Egyptian caravans. These stipends, called Surra, (of which I
have already given an account,) derive their origin principally from the
Sultans of Constantinople, who, upon their accession to the throne,
generally fix a certain yearly sum for the maintenance of the poor, and
the worthiest individuals of Mekka and Medina. They are distributed in
both towns by the Kadhy, as he thinks proper; but if a person has been
once presented with a stipend, he enjoys it for life, and it descends to
his children. He receives a ticket signed by the Kadhy, the Sherif, and
the Surra-writer, and his name is entered in a register at Mekka, of
which a duplicate is sent annually by the returning Hadj to
Constantinople, where the name is enrolled in the general Surra-book.
The Surra is made up at Constantinople in a great number of small
packets, each containing the stipulated sum, and indorsed with the name
of the individual to whom it is destined. If any fresh sum is sent to be
distributed, the Kadhy divides it, informs the inspector of the Surra at
Constantinople to whom the money has been given, and in the following
year the additional packages, addressed to the new pensioners, are added
to the former number. Some of the Surras are brought from Egypt, but the
far greater part from Constantinople, by way of Syria: this part is very
regularly received. Each caravan has its own Surra-writer, whose duty
also it is to distribute all the other money or tribute which the
caravan pays to Bedouins and Arabs, on its road to Mekka.
The Surra for Mekka is distributed in the mosque, under the windows of
the Kadhys house, after the departure of the Hadj. There are persons
who receive so small a sum as one piastre; the greater number from ten
to twenty piastres; but there are a few
[p.193] families who receive as much as two thousand piastres annually.
Although not always given to the most worthy, many poor families derive
support from this allowance. The tickets are transferable; the Kadhy and
the Sherif must sign the transfer; and the new name, a small compliment
being given to the Kadhys scribe, is registered and sent to
Constantinople. In former times a Mekkawy could scarcely be induced to
sell his Surra, which he considered an honour as well as the most
certain provision for his family. The value, however, of the Surra has
much changed. During the time of the Wahabys the tickets had almost
entirely lost their value, as for eight years their holders had received
no pay. They have now recovered a little; but some were lately sold at
two years and a half purchase, which may afford an idea of the opinion
current at Mekka as to the stability of the Turkish government, or the
probability of the return of the Wahabys.
The idlest, most impudent, and vilest individuals of Mekka adopt the
profession of guides (metowaf or delyl); and as there is no want of
those qualities, and a sufficient demand for guides during the Hadj,
they are very numerous. Besides the places which I have described in the
town, the metowafs accompany the hadjys to all the other places of
resort in the sacred district, and are ready to perform every kind of
service in the city. But their utility is more than counterbalanced by
their importunity and knavery. They besiege the room of the hadjy from
sun-rise to sun-set; and will not allow him to do any thing without
obtruding their advice: they sit down with him to breakfast, dinner, and
supper; lead him into all possible expenses, that they may pocket a
share of them; suffer no opportunity to pass of asking him for money;
and woe to the poor ignorant Turk who employs them as his interpreter in
any mercantile concern. My first delyl was the man of Medina at whose
house I lodged during the last days of Ramadhan. On returning to Mekka a
second time, I unfortunately met him in the street; and though I was far
from giving him a hearty welcome, having sufficient reason to suspect
his honesty, he eagerly embraced me, and forthwith made my new lodgings
his home. At first he accompanied me every day in my walks round the
Kaaba, to recite the prayers used on that occasion: these, however, I
soon learned
[p.194] by heart, and therefore dispensed with his services on the
occasion. He sat down regularly at dinner with me, and often brought a
small basket, which he ordered my slave to fill with biscuits, meat
vegetables or fruit, and carried away with him. Every third or fourth
day he asked for money: It is not you who give it, he said; it is God
who sends it to me. Finding there was no polite mode of getting rid of
him, I told him plainly, that I no longer wanted his services; language
to which a Mekka delyl is not accustomed. After three days, however, he
returned, as if nothing had happened, and asked me for a dollar. God
does not move me to give you any thing, I replied; if he judged it
right, he would soften my heart, and cause me to give you my whole
purse. Pull my beard, he exclaimed, if God does not send you ten
times more hereafter than what I beg at present. Pull out every hair
of mine, I replied, if I give you one para, until I am convinced that
God will consider it a meritorious act. On hearing this he jumped up,
and walked away, saying, We fly for refuge to God, from the hearts of
the proud and the hands of the avaricious. These people never speak ten
words without pronouncing the name of God or Mohammed; they are
constantly seen with the rosary in their hands, and mumble prayers even
during conversation. This character of the metowafs is so applicable to
the people of Mekka in general, that at Cairo they use the following
proverb, to repress the importunity of an insolent beggar: Thou art
like the Mekkawy, thou sayest Give me, and I am thy master.
As I was obliged to have a delyl, I next engaged an old man of Tatar
origin, with whom having made a sort of treaty at the outset, I had
reason to be tolerably satisfied. What I paid at Mekka to the delyls,
and at the places of holy visit, amounted, perhaps, altogether to three
hundred and fifty piastres, or thirty dollars; but I gave no presents,
either to the mosque, or to any of its officers, which is done only by
great hadjys, or by those who wish to be publicly noticed. Some of the
delyls are constantly stationed near the Kaaba, waiting to be hired for
the walks round it; and if they see a pilgrim walking alone, they often,
unasked, take hold of his hand, and begin to recite the prayers. The
charge for this service is about half a piastre; and I
[p.195] have observed them bargaining with the hadjy at the very gate of
the Kaaba, in the hearing of every body. The poorer delyls are contented
with the fourth of a piastre. Many shopkeepers, and people of the third
class, send their sons who know the prayers by heart, to this station,
to learn the profession of delyl. Those who understand the Turkish
language earn great wages. As the Turkish hadjys usually arrive by way
of Djidda, in parties of from eight to twelve, who have quitted their
homes in company, and live together at Mekka, one delyl generally takes
charge of the whole party, and expects a fee in proportion to their
number. It often happens that the hadjys, on returning home, recommend
him to some other party of their countrymen, who, on reaching Djidda,
send him orders to provide lodgings for them in Mekka, to meet them at
Djidda, to superintend their short journey to the holy city, and to
guide them in the prayers that must be recited on first entering it.
Some of these delyls are constantly found at Djidda during the three
months immediately preceding the Hadj: I have seen them on the road to
Mekka, riding at the head of their party, and treated by them with great
respect and politeness. A Turk from Europe, or Asia Minor, who knows not
a word of Arabic, is overjoyed to find a smooth-tongued Arab who speaks
his language, and who promises all kinds of comforts in Mekka, which he
had been taught to consider as a place where nothing awaited him but
danger and fatigue. A delyl who has twelve Turkish hadjys under his care
for a month, generally gains as much as suffices for the expenses of his
house during the whole year, besides new clothing for himself and all
his children.
Some of these delyls have a very singular office. The Mohammedan law
prescribes that no unmarried woman shall perform the pilgrimage; and
that even every married woman must be accompanied by her husband, or at
least a very near relation (the Shafay sect does not even allow the
latter). Female hadjys sometimes arrive from Turkey for the Hadj; rich
old widows, who wish to see Mekka before they die; or women who set out
with their husbands, and lose them on the road by disease. In such
cases, the female finds at Djidda, delyls (or, as this class is called,
Muhallil) ready to facilitate their progress through the sacred
territory in the character of husbands.
[p.196] The marriage contract is written out before the Kadhy; and the
ladt, accompanied by her delyl, performs the pilgrimage to Mekka,
Arafat, and all the sacred places. This, however, is understood to be
merely a nominal marriage; and the delyl must divorce the woman on his
return to Djidda: if he were to refuse a divorce, the law cannot compel
him to it, and the marriage would be considered binding; but he could no
longer exercise the lucrative profession of delyl; and my informant
could only recollect two examples of the delyl continuing to be the
womans husband. I believe there is not any exaggeration of the number,
in stating that there are eight hundred full-grown delyls, besides boys
who are learning the profession. Whenever a shopkeeper loses his
customers, or a poor man of letters wishes to gain as much money as will
purchase an Abyssinian slave, he turns delyl. The profession is one of
little repute; but many a prosperous Mekkawy has, at some period of his
life, been a member of it.
From trade, stipends, and the profits afforded by hadjys, the riches
which annually flow into Mekka are very considerable, and might have
rendered it one of the richest cities in the East, were it not for the
dissolute habits of its inhabitants. With the exception of the first
class of merchants, who, though they keep splendid establishments,
generally live below their income, and a great part of the second class,
who hoard up money with the view of attaining the first rank, the
generality of Mekkawys, of all descriptions and professions, are loose
and disorderly spendthrifts. The great gains which they make during
three or four months, are squandered in good living, dress, and the
grossest gratifications; and in proportion as they feel assured of the
profits of the following year, they care little about saving any part of
those of the present. In the month of Moharram, as soon as the Hadj is
over, and the greater part of the pilgrims have departed, it is
customary to celebrate marriage and circumcision feasts. These are
celebrated at Mekka in a very splendid style; and a man that has not
more than three hundred dollars to spend in the year, will then throw
away half that sum in the marriage or the circumcision of his child.
Neither the sanctity of the holy city, nor the solemn injunctions of the
Koran, are able to deter the inhabitants of Mekka from the using of
[p.197] spirituous liquors, and indulging in all the excesses which are
the usual consequences of drunkenness. The Indian fleet imports large
quantities of raky in barrels. This spirit, mixed with sugar, and an
extract of cinnamon, is sold under the name of cinnamon-water. The
Sherifs in Mekka and Djidda, great merchants, olemas, and all the chief
people are in the habit of drinking this liquor, which they persuade
themselves is neither wine nor brandy, and therefore not prohibited by
the law. The less wealthy inhabitants cannot purchase so dear a
commodity; but they use a fermented liquor made from raisins, and
imported from Tayf, while the lower classes drink bouza. During my stay
at Tayf, a Turk belonging to the suite of Mohammed Aly Pasha distilled
brandy from grapes, and publicly sold it at forty piastres the bottle.
The Mekkawys are very expensive in their houses: the rooms are
embellished with fine carpets, and an abundance of cushions and sofas
covered with brocade: amidst the furniture is seen much beautiful china-
ware, and several nargiles adorned with silver. A petty shopkeeper would
be ashamed to receive his acquaintances in a house less splendidly
fitted up. Their tables also are better supplied than in any other
country of the East, where even respectable families live economically
in this respect. A Mekkawy, even of the lower class, must have daily on
his table meat which costs from one and a half to two piastres the
pound; his coffee-pot is never removed from the fire; and himself, his
women and children are almost constantly using the nargile, and the
tobacco which supplies it cannot be a very trifling expense.
The women have introduced the fashion, not uncommon in Turkey, of
visiting each other at least once a week with all their children; the
visit lasts the whole day, and an abundant entertainment is provided on
the occasion: the vanity of each mistress of a house makes her endeavour
to surpass her acquaintances in show and magnificence; thus a continual
expense is entailed on every family. Among the sources of expenditure
must be enumerated the purchasing of Abyssinian female slaves who are
kept by the men, or money bestowed on the public women whom several of
them frequent. Considerable sums are also lavished in sensual
gratification still more vicious and degrading, but
[p.198] unfortunately as prevalent in the towns of the Hedjaz as in some
other parts of Asia, or in Egypt under the Mamelouks. It has been
already observed that the temple of Mekka itself, the very sanctuary of
the Mohammedan religion, is almost publicly and daily contaminated by
practices of the grossest depravity: to these no disgrace is here
attached; the young of all classes are encouraged in them by the old,
and even parents have been so base as to connive at them for the sake of
money. From such pollution, however, the encampments of the Arabian
Bedouins are exempt; although their ancestors were not, in this respect,
immaculate, if we may credit some scandalous anecdotes recorded by
Eastern historians.
But my account of the public women (who are very numerous) must here be
resumed. I have already observed that the quarter called Shab Aamer was
the residence of the poorer class; those of the higher order are
dispersed over the town. Their outward behaviour is more decent than
that of any public women in the East, and it requires the experienced
eye of a Mekkawy to ascertain by a particular movement in her gait, that
the veiled female passing before him belongs to the venal tribe. I shall
not venture to speak of the married women of the Hedjaz: I have heard
anecdotes related, little to their credit; but in the East, as in other
countries, the young men sometimes boast of favours which they never
have enjoyed. The exterior demeanour of the women of Djidda and Mekka is
very decorous: few of them are ever seen walking or riding in the
street; a practice so common at Cairo, though contrary to Oriental ideas
of propriety: and I lived in three different houses at Mekka without
having seen the unveiled faces of the female inmates.
The great merchants of Mekka live very splendidly: in the houses of
Djeylany, Sakkat, Ageyl, and El Nour, are establishments of fifty or
sixty persons. These merchants obtained their riches principally during
the reign of Ghaleb, to whom Djeylany and Sakkat served as spies upon
the other merchants. Their tables are furnished daily in abundance with
every native delicacy, as well as with those which India and Egypt
afford. About twenty persons sit down to dinner with them; the favourite
Abyssinian slaves, who serve often as writers or
[p.199] cashiers, are admitted to the table of their master; but the
inferior slaves and the servants are fed only upon flour and butter. The
china and glass ware, in which the dishes are served up, is of the best
quality; rose-water is sprinkled on the beards of the guests after
dinner, and the room is filled with the odours of aloe-wood, burnt upon
the nargiles. There is great politeness without formality; and no men
appear in a more amiable light, than the great Mekkawys dispensing
hospitality to their guests. Whoever happens to be sitting in the outer
hall, when dinner is served up, is requested to join at table, which he
does without conceiving himself at all obliged by the invitation, while
the host, on his part, appears to think compliance a favour conferred
upon him.
The rich Mekkawys make two meals daily, one before mid-day, the other
after sun-set; the lower classes breakfast at sun-rise, and eat nothing
more till near sun-set. As in the negro countries, it is very indecorous
for a man to be seen eating in the streets: the Turkish soldiers, who
retain their native manners, are daily reprehended by the people of
Mekka for their ill-breeding in this respect.
Before the Turkish conquest, and the wars of the Sherif with the Wahabys
which preceded it, the merchants of Mekka led a very happy life. During
the months of May and June they went to attend the sale of India goods
at Djidda. In July and August (unless the Hadj happened in these months)
they retired to their houses at Tayf, where they passed the hottest
season, leaving their acting partners or writers at Djidda and Mekka.
During the months of the pilgrimage, they were of course always at
Mekka; and every wealthy Mekkawy family followed the Hadj to Arafat as a
tour of pleasure, and encamped for three days at Wady Muna.
In the month of Radjeb, which is the seventh after the month of the
Hadj, a caravan used always to set out from Mekka for Medina, composed
of several hundred merchants, mounted upon dromedaries. At that time a
large fair was held at Medina, and frequented by many of the surrounding
Bedouins, and people of the Hedjaz and Nedjed.
The merchandize for its supply was sent from Mekka by a heavy caravan of
camels, which set out immediately after the merchants, and
[p.200] was called Rukub el Medina. [In general, the Arabs of the Hedjaz
call the caravans Rukub; speaking of the Baghdad caravan, they say Rukub
es Shám, or Rukub el Erak.] They remained about twenty days at Medina,
and then returned to Mekka. This frequent, yet regular change of abode,
must have been very agreeable to the merchants, particularly in those
times, when they could calculate with certainty that the next pilgrimage
would be a source of new riches to them. Tayf and Medina being now half-
ruined, the merchants of Mekka resort to Djidda, as their only place of
recreation: but even those who have wives and houses there, talk of
their establishments at Mekka as their only real homes, and in it they
spend the greater part of the year.
The inhabitants of Mekka, Djidda, and (in a less degree) of Medina, are
generally of a more lively disposition than either the Syrians or
Egyptians. None of those silent, grave automatons are seen here, so
common in other parts of the Levant, whose insensibility, or stupidity
is commonly regarded among themselves as a proof of feeling, shrewdness,
and wisdom.
The character of the Mekkawy resembles, in this respect, that of the
Bedouin; and did not greediness of gain often distort their features,
the smile of mirth would always be on their lips. In the streets and
bazars, in the house, and even in the mosque, the Mekkawy loves to laugh
and joke. In dealing with each other, or in talking on grave subjects, a
proverb, a pun, or some witty allusion, is often introduced, and
produces laughter. As the Mekkawys possess, with this vivacity of
temper, much intellect, sagacity, and great suavity of manners, which
they well know how to reconcile with their innate pride, their
conversation is very agreeable; and whoever cultivates a mere
superficial acquaintance with them, seldom fails to be delighted with
their character. They are more polite towards each other, as well as
towards strangers, than the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt, and retain
something of the good-natured disposition of the Bedouins, from whom
they derive their origin. When they accost each other in
[p.201] the streets for the first time in the course of the day, the
young man kisses the elders hand, or the inferior that of his superior
in rank, while the latter returns the salute by a kiss upon the
forehead. Individuals of equal rank and age, not of the first class,
mutually kiss each others hands. [In shaking hands, the people of the
Hedjaz lay hold of each others thumbs with the whole hand, pressing it,
and again opening the hand three or four times. This is called Mesáfeha,
and is said to have been a habit of Mohammed.] They say to a stranger,
O faithful, or brother; and the saying of the prophet, that all
faithful are brethren, is constantly upon their lips. Welcome, a
thousand times welcome, says a shopkeeper to his foreign customer; you
are the stranger of God, the guest of the holy city; my whole property
is at your disposal. When the service of any one is wanted, the
applicant says, Our whole subsistence, after God, is owing to you
pilgrims; can we do less than be grateful? If in the mosque a foreigner
is exposed to the sun, the Mekkawy will make room for him in a shady
place; if he passes a coffee-shop, he will hear voices calling him to
enter and take a cup of coffee; if a Mekkawy takes a jar to drink from
any public water-seller, he will offer it, before he sets it to his
mouth, to any passenger; and upon the slightest acquaintance, he will
say to his new friend, When will you honour me at home, and take your
supper with me? When they quarrel among themselves, none of those
scurrilous names or vile language is heard, so frequently used in Egypt
and Syria; blows are only given on very extraordinary occasions, and the
arrival of a respectable person puts an immediate stop to any dispute,
on his recommending peace: God has made us great sinners, they will
then say, but he has bestowed upon us, likewise, the virtue of easy
repentance.
To these amiable qualities the Mekkawys add another, for which they must
also be commended: they are a proud race, and though their pride is not
founded upon innate worth, it is infinitely preferable to the cringing
servility of the other Levantines, who redeem their slavish deference to
superiors by the most overbearing haughtiness towards those below them.
The Mekkawys are proud of being
[p.202] natives of the holy city, of being the countrymen of their
prophet; of having preserved, in some degree, his manners; of speaking
his pure language; of enjoying, in expectation, all the honours in the
next world, which are promised to the neighbours of the Kaaba; and of
being much freer men than any of the foreigners whom they see crowding
to their city. They exhibit this pride to their own superiors, whom they
have taught to treat them with great forbearance and circumspection; and
they look upon all other Mohammedan nations as people of an inferior
order, to whom their kindness and politeness are the effect of their
condescension. Many good consequences might result from this pride,
without which a people cannot expect to sustain its rank among nations.
It has prevented the people of Mekka from sinking so deep into slavery
as some of their neighbours; but it excites them to nothing laudable,
while its more immediate effects are seen in the contempt which they
entertain for foreigners. This contempt, as I have already remarked, in
speaking of Djidda, is chiefly displayed towards the Turks, whose
ignorance of the Arabic language, whose dress and manners, the meanness
of their conduct whenever they cannot talk as masters; their cowardice
exhibited whenever the Hadj has been assailed in its route across the
Desert, and the little respect that was shown to them by the Governors
of Mekka, as long as the Sherifs power was unbroken, have lowered them
so much in the estimation of the Arabians, that they are held in the
Hedjaz as little better than infidels; and although many of the Mekkawys
are of Turkish origin, they heartily join the rest of their townsmen in
vilifying the stock from which they sprang. The word Turky has become a
term of insult towards each other among the children. Noszrany
(Christians), or Yahoudy (Jews), are often applied to the Turks by the
people of Mekka; and their manners and language afford a perpetual
source of ridicule or reproach. The Syrians and Egyptians experience
similar effects from the pride of the people of the Hedjaz, but
especially the former, as the Egyptians, of all foreigners, approach
nearest to the people of Arabia in customs and language, and keep up the
most intimate intercourse with them. But the haughty Syrian Moslim, who
calls Aleppo or Damascus Om el Donia, (the mother of the
[p.203] world,) and believes no race of men equal to his own, nor any
language so pure as the Syrian, though it is undoubtedly the worst
dialect of the Arabic next to the Moggrebyn, is obliged to behave here
with great modesty and circumspection, and at least to affect
politeness. Although an Arab, he is reproached with dressing and living
like a Turk; and to the epithet Shámy (Syrian) the idea is attached of a
heavy, untutored clown. If the Arabians were to see the Turks in the
countries where they are masters, their dislike towards them would be
still greater; for it must be said, that their behaviour in the holy
city is, in general, much more decent and conformable to the precepts of
their religion, than in the countries from which they come.
The Mekkawys believe that their city, with all the inhabitants, is under
the especial care of Providence, and that they are so far favoured above
all other nations. This is Mekka! this is the city of God! they
exclaim, when any surprise is expressed at the greater part of them
having remained in the town during the stagnation of trade and the
absence of pilgrims: None ever wants his daily bread [h]ere; none fears
here the incursion of enemies. That Saoud saved the town from pillage;
that no plundering took place when the Turkish cavalry, under Mostafa
Bey, recaptured it from the Wahabys; that the capture of Sherif Ghaleb
led to no massacres within the precincts of Mekka, are to them so many
visible miracles of the Almighty, to prove the truth of that passage of
the Koran, (chap. 106.) in which it is said, Let them adore the God of
the house (the Kaaba), who feeds them in hunger, and secures them from
all fear. But they forget to look back to their own history, which
mentions many terrible famines and sanguinary battles, that have
happened in this sacred asylum. Indeed, the Hedjaz has suffered more
from famine than, perhaps, any other Eastern country. The historians
abound with descriptions of such lamentable events: I shall only mention
one that happened in 1664, when, as Asamy relates, many people sold
their own children at Mekka for a single measure of corn; and when, at
Djidda, the populace fed publicly on human flesh.
A Mekkawy related to me, that having once resolved to abandon the city,
in consequence of the non-arrival of Turkish hadjys, who supplied
[p.204] his means of subsistence, an angel appeared to him in his sleep
on the night previous to his intended departure. The angel had a flaming
sword in his hand, and stood upon the gate of Mekka, through which the
dreamer was about to leave the town, and exclaimed, Unbeliever, remain!
the Mekkawys shall eat honey, while all the other people of the earth
shall be content with barley bread! In consequence of this vision he
abandoned his project, and continued to live in the town.
The exterior politeness of the people of Mekka is in the same proportion
to their sincerity, as are their professions of zealous faith and
adherence to their religion, with the observance of its precepts. Many
of them, especially those who have no particular interest in imposing
upon the hadjys by an appearance of extreme strictness, are very relaxed
in observing the forms of their religion, thinking it quite sufficient
to be Mekkawys and to utter pious ejaculations in public, or supposing
that the rigid practice of its precepts is more particularly incumbent
upon foreign visitors, who see Mekka only once in their life. Like the
Bedouins, many of them are either very irregular in their prayers, or do
not pray at all. During the Fridays prayers, which every Moslim
resident in a town is bound to attend, the mosque is filled chiefly with
strangers, while many of the people of Mekka are seen smoking in their
shops. After the pilgrims have left the town, the service in the mosque
is very thinly attended. They never distribute alms, excusing themselves
by saying that they were placed by Providence in this town to receive
charity, and not to bestow it. They ape the manners recorded of
Mohammed, but in his most trifling habits only: their mustachios are cut
short, and their beard kept regularly under the scissors, because it was
the prophets custom to do so. In like manner they allow the end of the
turban to fall loosely over the cap; every other day they put kohhel or
antimony on their eye-lids, and have always in their hands a messouak or
tooth-brush made of a thin branch of the shrub Arak, or one imported by
the Persian hadjys. They know by heart many passages of the Koran and
Hadyth, (or sacred traditions,) and allude to, or quote them every
moment; but they forget that these precepts were given for rules of
conduct, and not for mere repetition. Intoxicating liquors are sold at
[p.205] the very gates of the mosque: the delyls themselves act in
direct contradiction of the law by loudly reciting prayers in the mosque
to their pupils the hadjys, in order to allure by their sonorous voices
other pilgrims to their guidance, carrying at the same time the common
large stick of the Mekkawys. It is also a transgression against the law,
when the intoxicating hashysh is openly smoked: cards are played in
almost every Arab coffee-house, (they use small Chinese cards,) though
the Koran directly forbids games of hazard. The open protection afforded
by the government to persons both male and female of the most profligate
character, is a further encouragement to daily transgressions against
the rigid principles of the Mohammedan law. Cheating and false swearing
have ceased to be crimes among them. They are fully conscious of the
scandal of these vices: every delyl exclaims against the corruption of
manners, but none set an example of reformation; and while acting
constantly on principles quite opposite to those which they profess,
they unanimously declare that times are such, as to justify the saying,
In el Haram fi belád el Harameyn, that the cities forbidden to
infidels abound with forbidden things.
In a place where there is no variety of creeds, persecution cannot show
itself; but it is probable that the Mekkawys might easily be incited to
excesses against those whom they call infidels: for I have always
remarked in the East, that the Muselmans most negligent in performing
the duties of their religion are the most violent in urging its precepts
against unbelievers; and that the grossest superstition is generally
found among those who trifle with their duties, or who, like many
Osmanlys, even deride them, and lay claim to free-thinking. There is no
class of Turks more inveterate in their hatred against Christians than
those who, coming frequently into intercourse with them, find it
convenient to throw off for a while the appearance of their prejudices.
In all the European harbours of the Mediterranean, the Moggrebyns live
like unbelievers; but when at home, nothing but fear can induce them to
set bounds to their fanaticism. It is the same with the Turks in the
Archipelago, and I might adduce many examples from Syria and Egypt in
corroboration of this assertion. If fanaticism has somewhat decreased
within the last twenty years throughout the
[p.206] Turkish empire, the circumstance, I think, may be ascribed
solely to the decreasing energy of the inhabitants, and the growing
indifference for their own religion, and certainly not to a diffusion of
more philanthropic or charitable principles. The text of the Mohammedan
law is precise in inciting its followers to unceasing hatred and
contempt of all those who profess a different creed. This contempt has
not decreased; but animosity gives way to an exterior politeness,
whenever the interest of the Mohammedan is concerned. The degree of
toleration enjoyed by the Christians, depends upon the interest of the
provincial government under which they live: and if they happen to be
favoured by it, the Turkish subject bows to the Christian. In all the
eastern countries which I have visited, more privileges are allowed to
Christians in general than the Moslim code prescribes; but their
condition depends upon the fiat of the governor of the town or district;
as they experienced about seven years since at Damascus, under Yousef
Pasha, when they were suddenly reduced to their former abject state.
Twenty years ago, a Copt of Egypt was in much the same situation as a
Jew is now in Barbary; but at present, when the free-thinking, though
certainly not liberal, Mohammed Aly finds it his interest to conciliate
the Christians, a Greek beats a Turk without much fear of consequences
from the mob; and I know an instance of an Armenian having murdered his
own Muselman servant, and escaped punishment, on paying a fine to
government, although the fact was publicly known. Convinced as the Turks
must now be, in many parts of the East, of the superiority of these
Europeans, whom they cannot but consider as the brethren of their
Christian subjects, their behaviour towards the latter will,
nevertheless, be strictly regulated by the avowed sentiments of their
governors; and it would be as easy for Mohammed Aly by a single word to
degrade the Christians in Egypt, as he found it to raise them to their
present consideration, superior, I believe, to what they enjoy in any
other part of Turkey.
The hatred against Christians is nearly equal in every part of the
Ottoman empire; and if the Moslims sacrifice that feeling, it is not to
the principles of charity or humanity, but to the frown of those who
happen to be in power; and their baseness is such, that they will kiss
[p.207] to-day the hands of him whom they have trodden under foot
yesterday. In examining into the fanatical riots, many of which are
recorded in the chanceries of the European consuls in the Levant, it
will generally be found that government had a share in the affrays, and
easily succeeded in quelling them. The late Sultan Selim, in his
regenerating system, which led him to favour the Christians, found no
opposition from the mass of his people, but from the jealous
Janissaries; and when the latter had prevailed, the demi-Gallicized
grandees of Constantinople easily sunk again into Sunnys. Sometimes,
indeed, a rash devotee, or mad Sheikh or Dervish at the head of a few
partisans, affords an exception to these general statements; and will
insult a Christian placed in the highest favour with the public
authorities, as happened at Damascus in 1811, to the Greek Patriarch,
after Yousef Pasha had been repulsed: but his countrymen, although
cherishing the same principles, and full of the same uncharitableness,
seldom have the courage to give vent to their feelings, and to follow
the example of the Saint. None of those genuine popular commotions,
which were once so frequent in Europe, when the members of the reigning
church saw individuals of a rival persuasion extending their influence,
are now witnessed in the East. Whatever may be thought of it in a moral
point of view, we must respect the energy of a man who enters headlong
into a contention, of at least uncertain issue, and generally
detrimental to his own worldly interests, merely because he fancies or
believes that his religious duty commands his exertions. The Moslim of
the Turkish empire, as far as I have had an opportunity of remarking,
easily suppresses his feelings, his passions, the dictates of his
conscience, and what he supposes agreeable to the will of the Almighty,
at the dictates of his interest, or according to the wish or example of
the ruling power.
In the time of the Sherif, Christians were often ill treated at Djidda;
they could not wear the European dress, or approach the quarter of the
town situated towards the gate of Mekka. But since the arrival of
Mohammed Alys army, they walk about, and dress as they like. In
December 1814, when two Englishmen passed the gate of Mekka on a walk
round the town, (the first persons, probably, in a
[p.208] European dress, who had ever passed the holy boundary,) a woman
was heard to exclaim, Truly the world must be near its end, if Kafirs
(or infidels) dare to tread upon this ground! Even now, if a Christian
dies there, it is not permitted that he should be interred on shore; the
body is carried to a small desert island in the harbour. When, in 1815,
the plague raged in the Hedjaz, an event which had never before been
known, the Kadhy of Djidda, with the whole body of olemas, waited upon
the Turkish governor of the city, to desire him to demolish a windmill
which some Greek Christians from Cairo had built withoutside one of the
gates, by order of Mohammed Aly. They were certain, they said, that the
hand of God had visited them on account of this violation of the sacred
territory by Christians. Some years ago an English ship was wrecked near
Djidda, and among various spoils obtained from the wreck by Sherif
Ghaleb was a large hog, an animal probably never before seen at Djidda:
this hog, turned loose in the town with two ostriches, became the terror
of all the sellers of bread and vegetables; for the mere touching of so
unclean an animal as the hog, even with the edge of the gown, renders
the Moslim impure, and unable to perform his prayers without previous
ablution. The animal was kept for six months, when it was offered by the
Sherif to an American captain for fifty dollars; but such a price being
of course refused, it soon after died of a surfeit, to the great
satisfaction of the inhabitants.
The Mekkawys, however, tolerate within their walls notorious heretics. I
have already mentioned the Ismaylys, an idolatrous sect from India, who
appear here in the garb of Moslims. The Persian hadjys, well known as
sectaries of Aly, and revilers of Mohammed and his immediate followers,
are not subjected to any particular inconveniences. The Sherif tolerated
them, but levied a capitation-tax on each. The Sherifs, however,
themselves, as I shall presently explain, are mostly of the sect of
Zyoud, Muselmans who dispute with the orthodox Sunnyes (the great
opponents of the Persian sectaries,) several of their principal dogmas.