I Ask Twenty Dollars From God, To Pay For
My Passage Home; Twenty Dollars Only.
You know that God is all-
bountiful, and may send me a hundred dollars; but it is twenty dollars
only that I ask.
Remember that charity is the sure road to paradise."
There can be no doubt that this practice is sometimes attended with
success.
But learning and science cannot be expected to flourish in a place where
every mind is occupied in the search of gain, or of paradise; and I
think I have sufficient reason for affirming that Mekka is at present
much inferior even in Mohammedan learning to any town of equal
population in Syria or Egypt. It probably was not so when the many
public schools or Medreses were built, which are now converted into
private lodgings for pilgrims. El Fasy says, that in his time there were
eleven medreses in Mekka, besides a number of rebats, or less richly
endowed schools, which contained also lodgings for poor hadjys; many of
the Rebats in the vicinity of the mosque still remain, but are used only
as lodging-houses. There is not a single public school in the town where
lectures are given, as in other parts of Turkey; and the great mosque is
the only place where teachers of Eastern learning are found. The schools
in which boys are taught to read and write, are, as I have already
mentioned, held in the mosque, where, after prayers, chiefly in the
afternoon, some learned olemas explain a few religious books to a very
thin audience, consisting principally of Indians, Malays, Negroes, and a
few natives of Hadramaut and Yemen, who, attracted by the great name of
Mekka, remain here a few years, until they think themselves sufficiently
instructed to pass at home for learned men. The Mekkawys themselves, who
wish to improve in science, go to Damascus or to Cairo. At the latter
many of them are constantly found, studying in the mosque El Azhar.
The lectures delivered in the mosque at Mekka resemble those of other
Eastern towns. They are delivered gratis; each lecture occupies one hour
or two; and any person may lecture who thinks himself competent
[p.212] to the task, whether he belongs to the mosque or not. This
happens also in the Azhar at Cairo, where I have seen more than forty
different persons occupied at the same time in delivering their
lectures. The subjects of the lectures in the Beitullah of Mokka, are,
as usual, dissertations on the law, commentaries on the Koran, and
traditions of the Prophet. There were none, during my residence, on
grammar, logic, rhetoric, or the sciences, nor even on the Towhyd, or
explanation of the essence or unity of God, which forms a principal
branch of the learning of Moslim divines. I understood, however, that
sometimes the Arabic syntax is explained, and the Elfye Ibn Malek on
grammar. But the Mekkawys who have acquired an intimate knowledge of the
whole structure of their language, owe it to their residence at Cairo.
There is no public library attached to the mosque; the ancient
libraries, of which I have already spoken, have all disappeared. The
Nayb el Haram has a small collection of books which belonged originally
to the mosque; but it is now considered as his private property, and the
books cannot be hired without difficulty. The Azhar at Cairo is on a
very different footing. To each of the Rowak, or private establishments
for the different Mohammedan nations, which it contains, (and which are
now twenty-six in number,) a large library is annexed, and all the
members of the Rowak are at liberty to take books from it to assist them
in their studies. Mekka is equally destitute of private libraries, with
the exception of those of the rich merchants, who exhibit a few books to
distinguish them from the vulgar; or of the olemas, of whom some possess
such as are necessary for their daily reference in matters of law.
The Wahabys, according to report, carried off many loads of books; but
they were also said to have paid for every thing they took: it is not
likely that they carried away all the libraries of Mekka, and I
endeavoured in vain to discover even a single collection of books. Not a
book-shop or a book-binder is found in Mekka. After the return of the
Hadj from Arafat, a few of the poorer olemas expose some books for sale
in the mosque, near Bab-es'-Salam: all those which I saw were on the
law, korans with commentaries, and similar works, together with a few on
grammar. No work on history, or on any other branch
[p.213] of knowledge, could be found; and, notwithstanding all my pains,
I could never obtain a sight of any history of Mekka, although the names
of the authors were not unknown to the Mekkawys. They told me that book-
dealers used formerly to come here with the Hadj from Yemen, and sell
valuable books, brought principally from Szanaa and Loheya. The only
good work I saw at Mekka was a fine copy of the Arabic Dictionary called
Kamous; it was purchased by a Malay for six hundred and twenty piastres;
at Cairo it might be worth half that sum. Many pilgrims inquired for
books, and were inclined to pay good prices for them; and it was matter
of surprise to me that the speculating Mekkawys did not avail themselves
of this branch of trade, not so lucrative certainly as that of coffee
and India goods. I much regretted my total want of books, and especially
the copies of the historians of Mekka, which I had left at Cairo; they
would have led me to many inquiries on topography, which by Azraky in
particular is treated with great industry.
The Persian hadjys and the Malays are those who chiefly search for
books: the Wahabys, it is said, were particularly inquisitive after
historical works; a remark I heard repeated at Medina.
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