Hassan El
Kalay Showed Great Zeal For The Common Cause; And, After The First
Defeat Of Tousoun Pasha At Djedeyde,
Was confirmed in his situation at
Medina; but when Tousoun returned a second time with a larger force,
Hassan, foreseeing
His success, entered into secret negotiations with
him, and received the promise of being continued in his office, provided
he would facilitate the capture of the town by the Osmanlys. On their
arrival before its gates, he joined them, and was received by Ahmed
Bonaparte, the Turkish commander, with distinguished honours; the town
was soon after attacked, and the castle taken by capitulation: but after
the Wahaby party was totally suppressed in these parts, both Medheyan,
to whom safe-conduct had been promised, and Hassan el Kalay, were
seized, put in chains, and sent by way of Cairo to Constantinople, where
they experienced the fate which, the latter at least, well merited,
though his crimes can never excuse the treachery of those who seized
him.
Soon after the above events, the Aga el Haram, a Kislar Agassi of Sultan
Selym, returned, and partly recovered his authority; but the real
command was now in the hands of the Turkish governor. Towards the end of
the year 1814, Tousoun Pasha came here as governor, preparatory to his
intended attack upon Nedjed; and here I found him on my arrival. His
government was not bad, because his intentions were good, and he was
liked by the inhabitants for his
[p.396] generosity and devotion; but his proceedings were foolish
enough: he frightened away the Bedouins, by seizing their camels; he
thus cut off the supplies from the town, created a general want of every
kind of provision, and other necessaries; and his soldiers then soon
began to commit excesses, which he neglected to suppress by punishment.
After Tousoun's departure, his father, Mohammed Aly, arrived here in
April, 1815, and with his more experienced judgment immediately took the
proper measures for repairing the errors of his son.
Medina now continues under the government of a Turkish commander; a post
filled for a few months by the Scotchman, Thomas Keith, or Ibrahim Aga,
whom I have mentioned as being the treasurer of Tousoun Pasha. The Aga
el Haram keeps about sixty or eighty soldiers, a motley crew of Turks,
Arabs, Moggrebyns, and people of Medina; and all ecclesiastical affairs,
and the pecuniary business of the mosque, are left in his hands. Next to
him in importance stands the Kadhy, who, in the time of the Wahabys, had
been obliged to retire. The Sheikh of the Sherifs, or Sadat, continues
to enjoy great respect, as well as several other Sheikhs of the town;
and I believe, after all, that the Medinans dislike their present
masters, the Turks, less than any other class of the people of the
Hedjaz, although they certainly have not yet been cordially reconciled
to them.
Prior to the Wahaby invasion, the Sherif of Mekka kept an officer here
of inferior rank, to receive some trifling duties upon vegetables,
flesh, and other provisions brought to market; the only tax of the kind
paid by the Medinans, and the last remnant of the jurisdiction once
enjoyed by the Sherif of Mekka over Medina, and which, in later times,
has been entirely lost. Sherif Ghaleb had no authority here whatever;
but I believe, though I am not quite sure, that he still assumed the
nominal superiority, or the title of Chief of Medina; and that Medina
was supposed by the Porte to form part of the Hedjaz, under the command
of the Sherif of Mekka.
Several respectable Arabian writers affirm, that Medina forms a part of
Nedjed, and not of the Hedjaz, situated as it is on the eastern side of
the great chain; and this opinion seems to be well founded,
[p.397] if the natural boundary be considered; but, in the common
acceptation of the word on the coast, and at Mekka and Medina, the
latter town is supposed to form part of the Hedjaz, although the
Bedouins of the interior give quite a different meaning to this
appellation.
[p.398] CLIMATE AND DISEASES OF MEDINA.
I FOUND the climate at Medina, during the winter months, much colder
than that of Mekka. Snow is unknown here, though I heard that some old
people remembered to have seen it in the neighbouring mountains. The
rains have no fixed period in winter, but fall at intervals, and usually
in violent storms, which last for one day, or perhaps two days, only:
sometimes a whole winter passes without more than one fall of rain,
excepting a few light showers; the consequence of which is a general
dearth. The Medinans say, that three or four gushes of rain are
necessary to irrigate their soil; the water of the torrents then
inundating many parts of the country, especially the pasturing grounds
of the Bedouins. Uninterrupted rains for a week, or longer, such as
often occur in Syria, are quite unknown here; and after every gush of
rain, which lasts for twenty-four hours, the sky clears up, and the
finest spring weather prevails for several weeks. The last storms are
usually in April, but occasional showers are not unfrequent even in the
middle of summer.
The Medinans, and many foreigners, assert, that the summer-heat is
greater here than in any other part of the Hedjaz: I was not able to
judge myself. I have already stated that the saline nature of the soil
and water, the stagnant pools of rain-water round the town, and perhaps
the exhalation and vapours produced by the thick date-groves
[p.399] in its neighbourhood, render the air of Medina little favourable
to health.
Fevers are the most common disease, to which many of the inhabitants
themselves are subject, and from which strangers who remain here any
time seldom escape, especially in spring. Yahya Effendi, the physician
of Tousoun Pasha, assured me, when I was sick, that he had eighty
persons ill of fever under his care; and it appeared that he was more
fortunate in their cure than in mine.
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