Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, vol 2 | Page 3

reader will have remarked with astonishment that at
one of the fountain-heads of the faith, there are several races of
schismatics, the Benu Hosayn, the Benu Ali, and the Nakhawilah. At
the town of Safra there are said to be a number of the Zuyud
schismatics,[FN#9] who visit Al-Madinah, and have settled in force at
Meccah, and some declare that the Bayazi sect[FN#10] also exists.
The citizens of Al-Madinah are a favoured race, although the city is not,

like Meccah, the grand mart of the Moslem world or the meeting-place
of nations. They pay no taxes, and reject the idea of a “Miri,” or
land-cess, with extreme disdain. “Are we, the children of the Prophet,”
they exclaim, “to support or to be supported?” The Wahhabis, not
understanding the argument, taxed them,
[p.7]as was their wont, in specie and in materials, for which reason the
very name of those Puritans is an abomination. As has before been
shown, all the numerous attendants at the Mosque are paid partly by the
Sultan, partly by Aukaf, the rents of houses and lands bequeathed to the
shrine, and scattered over every part of the Moslem world. When a
Madani is inclined to travel, he applies to the Mudir al-Harim, and
receives from him a paper which entitles him to the receipt of a
considerable sum at Constantinople. “The “Ikram” (honorarium), as it
is called, varies with the rank of the recipient, the citizens being divided
into these four orders, viz.
First and highest, the Sadat (Sayyids),[FN#11] and Ima[m]s, who are
entitled to twelve purses, or about £60. Of these there are said to be
three hundred families.
The Khanahdan, who keep open house and receive poor strangers gratis.
Their Ikram amounts to eight purses, and they number from a hundred
to a hundred and fifty families.
The Ahali[FN#12] (burghers) or Madani properly speaking, who have
homes and families, and were born in Al-Madinah. They claim six
purses.
The Mujawirin, strangers, as Egyptians or Indians, settled at, though
not born in, Al-Madinah. Their honorarium is four purses.
The Madani traveller, on arrival at Constantinople, reports his arrival to
his Consul, the Wakil al-Haramayn. This “Agent of the two Holy
Places” applies to the Nazir al-Aukaf, or “Intendant of Bequests”; the
latter,
[p.8]after transmitting the demand to the different officers of the

treasury, sends the money to the Wakil, who delivers it to the applicant.
This gift is sometimes squandered in pleasure, more often profitably
invested either in merchandise or in articles of home-use, presents of
dress and jewellery for the women, handsome arms, especially pistols
and Balas[FN#13] (yataghans), silk tassels, amber pipe-pieces, slippers,
and embroidered purses. They are packed up in one or two large
Sahharahs, and then commences the labour of returning home gratis.
Besides the Ikram, most of the Madani, when upon these begging trips,
are received as guests by great men at Constantinople. The citizens
whose turn it is not to travel, await the Aukaf and Sadakat (bequests
and alms),[FN#14] forwarded every year by the Damascus Caravan;
besides which, as has been before explained, the Harim supplies even
those not officially employed in it with many perquisites.
Without these advantages Al-Madinah would soon be abandoned to
cultivators and Badawin. Though commerce is here honourable, as
everywhere in the East, business is “slack,[FN#15]” because the higher
classes prefer the idleness of administering their landed estates, and
being servants to the Mosque. I heard of only four respectable houses,
Al-Isawi, Al-Sha’ab, Abd al-Jawwad, and a family from Al-Shark (the
Eastern Region).[FN#16] They all deal in grain, cloth, and provisions,
and perhaps the richest have a capital of twenty thousand dollars.
Caravans in
[p.9]the cold weather are constantly passing between Al-Madinah and
Egypt, but they are rather bodies of visitors to Constantinople than
traders travelling for gain. Corn is brought from Jeddah by land, and
imported into Yambu’ or via Al-Rais, a port on the Red Sea, one day
and a half’s journey from Safra. There is an active provision trade with
the neighbouring Badawin, and the Syrian Hajj supplies the citizens
with apparel and articles of luxury—tobacco, dried fruits, sweetmeats,
knives, and all that is included under the word “notions.” There are few
store-keepers, and their dealings are petty, because articles of every
kind are brought from Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople. As a general
rule, labour is exceedingly expensive,[FN#17] and at the Visitation
time a man will demand fifteen or twenty piastres from a stranger for
such a trifling job as mending an umbrella. Handicraftsmen and

artisans—carpenters, masons, locksmiths, potters, and others—are
either slaves or foreigners, mostly Egyptians.[FN#18] This proceeds
partly from the pride of the people. They are taught from their
childhood that the Madani is a favoured being, to be respected however
vile or schismatic; and that the vengeance of Allah will fall upon any