Travels In Arabia | Page 3

inde ab Yaman expansus usque ad Sham (Syriam)
protenditur. In eo tractu sitae sunt Madinah et Amman’-- Cum hoc
dissidere Abulfedam non dubium est.--Ibn al Arabi: “Quod est inter
Tehamah et Nagd illud est Hhegiaz.’--Fusius Ibn Haukal: ‘Quod
protenditur a limite Serrain urbis sitae ad mare Kolzum adusque
viciniam Madian, et inde reflectendo per limitem tendentem in ortum
urbis Hhegr, ad montem Tai trunseundo juxta tergum Yamamah ad
mare Persicum, hoc totum ad Hhegiaz pertinet.’ Et alio loco: ‘Hhegiaz
ea est provincia, quae Maccah et Madinah et Yamamah cum earundem
territoriis comprehendit.’--Ibn al Vardi Hhegiaz appellat provinciam
secus Sinum Arabicum et a regione Habyssiniae sitam--Bakui eam
inter Yaman et Syriam posuisse satis habet, simul longitudinem ejus
mensis itinere emetiens.”--(pp. 57-68.)]
[p.x] It may perhaps be asked, why our inquisitive traveller did not
learn from some intelligent native the precise extent and limits of
Hedjaz? To this question the following passage (written by Burckhardt,
near the end of his journal, and probably intended for the Appendix,)
may serve as a reply, and show that even the present inhabitants do not
agree in their application of the name Hedjaz. “This,” says he, “is not
used by the Arabian Bedouins in the usual acceptation of the word.
They call Hedjaz exclusively the mountainous country, comprehending
many fertile valleys south of Tayf, and as far as the dwelling-places of
the Asyr Arabs, where the coffee-tree begins to be cultivated
abundantly. This is the general application of the term among all the
Bedouins of those countries; and the town’s-people of Mekka and
Djidda also use it in that sense among themselves. But when they
converse with foreigners, whose notions they politely adopt, the name
Hedjaz is bestowed on the country between Tayf, Mekka, Medina,
Yembo, and Djidda. The Bedouins give the name of El Ghor, or the
low-land, to the whole province westward of the mountains from
Mekka up to Beder and Yembo; while those mountains themselves
northward of Tayf are called by them Hedjaz-es’- Shám, or the
Northern Hedjaz.” [This would confirm the derivation of Hedjaz

(mentioned by Golius) from ahhtedjezet, “quod (provincia Hhegiaz)
colligata et constricta montibus sit:” but others derive it from the
Arabic word yehedjez, because Hedjaz divides Nedjed from Tehama,
or because it connects Yemen with Syria, between which it is situate.
As even the shortest note written by Burckhardt must be considered
valuable, a few lines, that immediately follow the passage above quoted
from his Journal, are here given: “I compute the population of the
province usually called Hedjaz, comprising the whole territory of the
Sherif of Mekka, together with that of Medina and the towns situated
therein, and all the Bedouin tribes, at about two hundred and fifty
thousand souls; a number which, I am certain, is rather over than under
rated; the greater part being the Bedouin inhabitants of the mountains,
and principally the strong tribes of Beni Harb.”]
[p.xi] On reference to pages 396 and 397, a remark will be found
concerning the different application of this name (Hedjaz) among those
who inhabit the sea-coast and those Bedouins who occupy the interior
country; and it will even appear that doubts have been entertained
whether the sacred city Medina does not belong rather to Nedjed than
to Hedjaz.
From statements so vague as those above quoted, an attempt to trace
exactly the limits of any country must be vain and fallacious: that
region, therefore, which borders on the Red Sea, and which the natives,
we know, entitle unequivocally Hedjaz, is marked in our map, as in
almost every other published hitherto, merely with that name, its first
letter being placed where the editor supposes Arabia Petraea to
terminate, and its last letter where he would separate Hedjaz from
Tehama. [Burckhardt (Syrian Travels p. 511.) quotes Makrizi, the
Egyptian historian, who says, in his chapter on Aila, (Akaba): “It is
from hence that the Hedjaz begins: in former times it was the frontier
place of the Greeks, &c.”]
To those who seek the most accurate information respecting places but
little known, this work is sufficiently recommended by the name of its
author, and of the country which it describes. “The manners of the
Hejazi Arabs have continued,” says Sir William Jones, “from the time
of Solomon to the present age.” [Discourse on the Arabs, Asiat.
Researches, vol. ii.] “Our notions of Mecca must be drawn,” says
Gibbon, “from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the

city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot are taken
from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado.” [Roman Empire,
chap. 50. note 18.]
But the reader of this preface must not be withholden from
[p.xii] perusing Burckhardt’s authentic and interesting account of the
places which he visited, of the extraordinary ceremonies which he
witnessed, and of the people