In Fact, Most Of Them Wear A Red Kashmir
Shawl Round The Head, When Able To Afford The Luxury.
The green turband
is an innovation in Al-Islam.
In some countries it is confined to the
Sayyids; in others it is worn as a mark of distinction by pilgrims.
Khudabakhsh, the Indian, at Cairo generally dressed in a tender green
suit like a Mantis.
[FN#8] Plural of Suftah—a half-caste Turk.
[FN#9] Plural of Zaydi. These are well-known schismatics of the Shi’ah
persuasion, who abound in Southern Arabia.
[FN#10] The Bayazi sect flourishes near Maskat, whose Imam or Prince,
it is said, belongs to the heretical persuasion. It rejects Osman, and
advocates the superiority of Omar over the other two Caliphs.
[FN#11] Sadat is the plural of Sayyid. This word in the Northern Hijaz
is applied indifferently to the posterity of Hasan and Hosayn.
[FN#12] The plural of Ahl, an inhabitant (of a particular place). The
reader will excuse my troubling him with these terms. As they are
almost all local in their application, and therefore are not explained
in such restricted sense by lexicographers, the specification may not
be useless to the Oriental student.
[FN#13] The Turkish “yataghan.” It is a long dagger, intended for thrusting
rather than cutting, and has a curve, which, methinks, has been wisely
copied by the Duke of Orleans, in the bayonet of the Chasseurs de
Vincennes.
[FN#14] See chapter xvii.
[FN#15] Omar Effendi’s brothers, grandsons of the principal Mufti of
Al-Madinah, were both shopkeepers, and were always exhorting him to do
some useful work, rather than muddle his brains and waste his time on
books.
[FN#16] See chapter xiv.
[FN#17] To a townsman, even during the dead season, the pay of a
gardener would be 2 piastres, a carpenter 8 piastres per diem, and a
common servant (a Bawwab or porter, for instance), 25 piastres per
mensem, or £3 per annum, besides board and dress. Considering the value
of money in the country, these are very high rates.
[FN#18] Who alone sell milk, curds, or butter. The reason of their
monopoly has been given in Chapter xiii.
[FN#19] History informs us that the sanctity of their birth-place has
not always preserved the people of Al-Madinah. But the memory of their
misfortunes is soon washed away by the overwhelming pride of the race.
[FN#20] The market is under the charge of an Arab Muhtasib or
Bazar-master, who again is subject to the Muhafiz or Pasha governing
the place. The following was the current price of provisions at
Al-Madinah early in August, 1853: during the Visitation season
everything is doubled:—
1 lb. mutton, 2 piastres, (beef is half-price, but seldom eaten; there
is no buffalo meat, and only Badawin will touch the camel).
A fowl, 5 piastres.
Eggs, in summer 8, in winter 4, for the piastre.
1 lb. clarified butter, 4 piastres, (when cheap it falls to 2 1/2
Butter is made at home by those who eat it, and sometimes by the
Egyptians for sale).
1 lb.
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