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[ Not to be confounded with a cosmography of the same name by Ahmed ibn Yahyá el-Shá'ir. Cf. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xx. of 1850, p. 343.]
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[ This route, from Suez to El-'Akabah, probably one of the oldest in this world, has been traversed perfunctorily by Burckhardt and by Beke. It still wants a detailed survey, and even hieroglyphic inscriptions may be expected. Beke's map marks Hawáwit ("ruins") near one of his nighting-places, but apparently the remains were not visited.]
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[ The Syrian Hajj no longer pass through El-'Akabah to Makná, but inland or eastward of it. The reason is made evident in Chap. VII.]
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[ Thus the Khálú or Khárú of the old Egyptians, meaning a "mixed multitude," were originally Phoenicians and domiciled from earliest ages about Lake Menzálah. So the "mixed multitude," or mingled people, which followed Israel from Egypt would be a riff-raff of strangers. D'Herbelot says (sub voce Midian): "Quoyque les Madianites soient reputez pour Arabes, neanmoins ils ne sont pas du nombre des Tribus qui partageoient l'Arabie, et dont les Auteurs nous ont rendu un compte exact dans leur Histoire et dans leurs Genealogies; de sorte qu'il passe pour un peuple étranger qui s'est établi parmi eux." Yet, as we have seen by the foregoing extracts, Madyan was reckoned within the territory of El-Medi'nah, i.e. the Hejaz.
Caussin de Perceval ("Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabs avant l'Islamisme") regards the old Midianites as one of the "Races éteintes;" and he makes them (vol. i. p. 23) descendants of Céthura, Abraham's second wife. In vol. ii. p. 232, he brings the Banu-Djodha'm (Juzám) from El-Yemen, and settles them in the country of the ancient Midianites. He adds: "La region sur laquelle ils étaient répandus avec leurs frères les Benou-Lakhm, et, je crois aussi, avec les families Codhaites, de Bali (Baliyy) et de Cayn, touchait par l'ouest à la Mer Rouge, par le nord au pays que les Romains appelaient troisième Palestine, par le sud aux déserts . . . par l'est, enfin, au territoire de Daumat-Djandal sur laquelle campaient les Benou-Kelb, tribu Codhaïte, alors Chrétienne, et alliée ou sujette des Romains." In vol. iii. p. 159, he recounts from the Táríkh el-Khamísí, and the Sírat el-Rasúl, how Zayd made an expedition against the "Djodhám (Juzám) established at Madyan on the coast of the Red Sea." The warrior captured a number of women and children who were exposed for sale, but the "Prophet," hearing the wails of the mothers, ordered that the young ones should not be sold apart from the parents.]
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[ The "Burd," or "Burdah," was worn by Mohammed, as we know from a celebrated poem, for which see D'Herbelot, sub voce "Bordah.">[