On leaving the graveyard I offered the guardian a dollar, which he received with a remonstrance that a man of my dignity should give so paltry a fee. Nor was he at all contented with the assurance that nothing more could be expected from an Afghan Darwaysh, however pious. Next day the boy Mohammed explained the
[p.276] Mans empressement and disappointment,I had been mistaken for the Pasha of Al-Madinah.
For a time my peregrinations ended. Worn out with fatigue, and the fatal fiery heat, I embarked (Sept. 26) on board the Dwarka; experienced the greatest kindness from the commander and chief officer (Messrs. Wolley and Taylor); and, wondering the while how the Turkish pilgrims who crowded the vessel did not take the trouble to throw me overboard, in due time I arrived at Suez.
And here, reader, we part. Bear with me while I conclude, in the words of a brother traveller, long gone, but not forgottenFa-hianthis Personal Narrative of my Journey to Al-Hijaz: I have been exposed to perils, and I have escaped from them; I have traversed the sea, and have not succumbed under the severest fatigues; and my heart is moved with emotions of gratitude, that I have been permitted to effect the objects I had in view.[FN#12]
[FN#1] This second plan was defeated by bad health, which detained me in Egypt till a return to India became imperative. [FN#2] The usual hire is thirty piastres, but in the pilgrimage season a dollar is often paid. The hire of an ass varies from one to three riyals. [FN#3] Besides the remains of those in ruins, there are on this road eight coffee-houses and stations for travellers, private buildings, belonging to men who supply water and other necessaries. [FN#4] In Ibn Jubayrs time the Ihram was assumed at Al-Furayn, now a decayed station, about two hours journey from Al-Haddah, towards Jeddah. [FN#5] The favourite Egyptian kitchen; held to be contemptible food by the Arabs. [FN#6] In 1817 Abdullah bin Saud attacked Jeddah with 50,000 men, determining to overthrow its Kafir-works; namely, its walls and towers. The assault is described as ludicrous. All the inhabitants aided to garrison: they waited till the wild men flocked about the place, crying, Come, and let us look at the labours of the infidel, they then let fly, and raked them with matchlock balls and old nails acting grape. The Wahhabi host at last departed, unable to take a place which a single battery of our smallest siege-guns would breach in an hour. And since that day the Meccans have never ceased to boast of their Gibraltar, and to taunt the Madinites with their wall-less port, Yambu. [FN#7] Al-Idrisi places Meccah forty (Arab) miles from Jeddah. Burckhardt gives fifty-five miles, and Ali Bey has not computed the total distance. [FN#8] Abulfeda writes the word Juddah, and Mr. Lane, as well as MM. Mari and Chedufau, adopt this form, which signifies a plain wanting water. The water of Jeddah is still very scarce and bad; all who can afford it drink the produce of hill springs brought in skins by the Badawin. Ibn Jubayr mentions that outside the town were 360 old wells(?), dug, it is supposed by the Persians. Jeddah, or Jiddah, is the vulgar pronounciation; and not a few of the learned call it Jaddah (the grandmother), in allusion to the legend of Eves tomb. [FN#9] In Chapters iii. and vi. of this work I have ventured some remarks upon the advisability of our being represented in Al-Hijaz by a Consul, and at Meccah by a native agent, till the day shall come when the tide of events forces us to occupy the mother-city of Al-Islam. My apology for reverting to these points must be the nature of an Englishman, who would everywhere see his nation second to none, even at Jeddah. Yet, when we consider that from twenty-five to thirty vessels here arrive annually from India, and that the value of the trade is about twenty-five lacs of rupees, the matter may be thought worth attending to. The following extracts from a letter written to me by Mr. Cole shall conclude this part of my task: You must know, that in 1838 a commercial treaty was concluded between Great Britain and the Porte, specifying (amongst many other clauses here omitted), 1. That all merchandise imported from English ports to Al-Hijaz should pay 4 per cent. duty. 2. That all merchandise imported by British subjects from countries not under the dominion of the Porte should likewise pay but 5 per cent. 3. That all goods exported from countries under the dominion of the Porte should pay 12 per cent., after a deduction of 16 per cent. from the market-value of the articles. 4. That all monopolies be abolished. Now, when I arrived at Jeddah, the state of affairs was this. A monopoly had been established upon salt, and this weighed only upon our Anglo-Indian subjects, they being the sole purchasers. Five per cent. was levied upon full value of goods, no deduction of the 20 per cent. being allowed; the same was the case with exports; and most vexatious of all, various charges had been established by the local authorities, under the names of boat-hire, weighing, brokerage, &c., &c. The duties had thus been raised from 4 to at least 8 per cent. * * * This being represented at Constantinople, brought a peremptory Firman, ordering the governor to act up to the treaty letter by letter. * * * I have had the satisfaction to rectify the abuses of sixteen years standing during my first few months of office, but I expect all manner of difficulties in claiming reimbursement for the over-exactions. [FN#10] M. Rochet (soi-disant dHericourt) amusingly describes this manuvre of the governor of Al-Hodaydah. [FN#11] Many of them were afterwards victims to the Jeddah massacre on June 30, 1858. I must refer the reader to my Lake Regions of Central Africa (Appendix, vol. ii.) for an account of this event, for the proposals which I made to ward it off, and for the miserable folly of the Bombay Government, who rewarded me by an official reprimand. [FN#12] The curious reader will find details concerning Patriarchal and Prophetical Tombs in Unexplored Syria, i. 3335.
[p.277] APPENDICES.
[p.279] APPENDIX I.
OF HAJJ, OR PILGRIMAGE.
The word Hajj is explained by Moslem divines to mean Kasd, or aspiration, and to express mans sentiment that he is but a wayfarer on earth wending towards another and a nobler world. This explains the origin and the belief that the greater the hardships the higher will be the reward of the pious wanderer. He is urged by the voice of his soul: O thou who toilest so hard for worldly pleasures and perishable profit, wilt thou endure nothing to win a more lasting reward? Hence it is that pilgrimage is common to all old faiths. The Hindus still wander to Egypt, to Tibet, and to the inhospitable Caucasus; the classic philosophers visited Egypt; the Jews annually flocked to Jerusalem; and the Tartars and MongolsBuddhistsjourney to distant Lamaserais. The spirit of pilgrimage was predominant in mediæval Europe, and the processions of the Roman Catholic Church are, according to her votaries,[FN#1] modern memorials of the effete rite. Every Moslem is bound, under certain conditions,[FN#2]
[p.280] to pay at least one visit to the Holy City. This constitutes the Hajjat al-Farz (the one obligatory pilgrimage), or Hajjat al-Islam, of the Mohammedan faith. Repetitions become mere Sunnats, or practices of the Prophet, and are therefore supererogatory. Some European writers have of late years laboured to represent the Meccan pilgrimage as a fair, a pretext to collect merchants and to afford Arabia the benefits of purchase and barter. It would be vain to speculate whether the secular or the spiritual element originally prevailed; but most probably each had its portion. But those who peruse this volume will see that, despite the comparatively lukewarm piety of the age, the Meccan pilgrimage is religious essentially, accidentally an affair of commerce.