Djidda Is Well
Built; Indeed, Better Than Any Turkish Town Of Equal Size That I Had
Hitherto Seen.
The streets are unpaved, but spacious and airy; the
houses high, constructed wholly of stone, brought for the greater part
from the sea-shore, and consisting of madrepores and other marine
[P.10] fossils. Almost every house has two stories, with many small
windows and wooden shutters. Some have bow-windows, which exhibit a
great display of joiners' or carpenters' work. There is, generally, a
spacious hall at the entrance, where strangers are received, and which,
during the heat of the day, is cooler than any other part of the house,
as its floor is kept almost constantly wet. The distribution of rooms is
nearly the same as in the houses of Egypt and Syria; with this
difference, however, that in Djidda there are not so many large and
lofty apartments as in those countries, where but few houses, at least
of the natives, have two stories, whilst the rooms on the ground-floor
are sometimes of a considerable height. It thus happens that, in many
houses of the Hedjaz, the only cool spot is the entrance-hall; and here,
at noon, the master, with all his male attendants, hired servants or
slaves, may be seen enjoying, the siesta. [Although the cool breeze comes
only from the north, yet the Arabians do not seem to take so much
advantage of it in their houses as the Egyptians, whose principal rooms
are generally so contrived as to open towards the north. The large
ventilators constructed on the terraces of houses in Egypt, and which
diffuse a current of air through all the lower apartments, are unknown
in the Hedjaz.] As building is very expensive in this country, little is
adapted for outward show beyond the lattice-work of the bow-windows;
this frequently is painted with most gaudy colours, both on the outside
and inside. In many houses the lawful wife of a man occupies one part,
and his female Abyssinian slaves are lodged in their own distinct
apartments; convenience, therefore, in the building, is more studied
than size or beauty; yet, in Egypt, many ordinary houses have spacious
and handsome rooms.
Uniformity in architecture is not observed at Djidda. Some houses are
built with small, others with large square stones, the smooth side
outwards, and the interior filled up with mud. Sometimes the walls are
entirely of stone; many have, at intervals of about three feet, thin
layers of planks placed in the wall, and these, the
[p.11] Arabs imagine, tend to increase its strength. When the walls are
plastered, the wood is left of its natural colour, which gives to the
whole a gay and pleasing appearance, as if the building had been
ornamented with so many bands; but the dazzling white of the walls
during sun-shine is extremely distressing to the eyes. Most of the
gateways have pointed arches; some few round; and the latter are seen,
though less frequently, over the gates of private houses in every part
of Egypt. No buildings of ancient date are observed in Djidda, the
madrepore being of such a nature that it rapidly decays when exposed to
the rain and moist atmosphere prevalent here. [In general, it may be said
that Djidda is a modern town; for its importance as a market of Indian
goods can only be traced to the beginning of the fifteenth century,
although it had been known in the most ancient times of Arabian history
as the harbour of Mekka.] Besides many small mosques, there are two of
considerable size: one of these was built by Sherif Serour, predecessor
of the last reigning Sherif Ghaleb. The Governor's habitation, in which
the Sherif himself frequently resided, is a paltry building; such,
likewise, is that in which dwells the collector of the customs. There
are some well-built public khans in the town, with good accommodation,
where the foreign merchants reside during their short stay here. In
these khans are large open squares with arched passages, which afford a
cool shade to the merchants for the greater part of the day. Except
during the monsoon, when Djidda is extremely crowded with people,
private lodgings may easily be procured in the most distant quarters of
the town. The best private dwellings of Djidda belong to the great
mercantile establishment of Djeylani, who, with his family, occupies a
small square behind the principal street. This square is composed of
three large buildings, the most commodious and costly private houses in
all the Hedjaz. Every house of moderate size has its cistern; but as the
rains are not sufficiently regular or abundant to fill the cisterns from
the tops of the houses, (as
[p.12] throughout Syria,) they are often supplied with water from pools
formed outside of the town in rainy seasons.
Of these cisterns, the water is very inadequate to the consumption of
Djidda, and is reckoned a delicacy. Much of the drinking water is drawn
from some wells a mile and a half distant on the southern side; water,
indeed, may be found every where at a depth of fifteen feet, but it is
generally of a bad taste, and in some places scarcely drinkable. Two
only of the wells afford water that can be called sweet; but even this
is considered heavy, [Heavy and light, applied to water, are expressions
common in most languages of the East, where both natives and foreigners,
from the vast quantity which they consume, become more refined in their
taste regarding it than the people of our northern climates.] and, if
suffered to stand twenty-four hours in a vessel, it becomes full of
insects. The good water of these two wells being scarce and dear, cannot
always be procured without the assistance of powerful friends; in fact,
not more than from two to three hundred persons are ever able to obtain
it, while the rest of the inhabitants must content themselves with the
water supplied by other wells; and to this the constant ill-health of
the people may chiefly be ascribed.
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