In This Period Of Fifty-Two Days He
Includes, It Is Supposed, The Length Of Its Extreme Heat.
That same
year (A.H. 654) is infamous in Al-Islam for other portents, such as the
inundation of Baghdad by the Tigris, and the burning of the Prophet’s
Mosque.
In the next year first appeared the Tartars, who slew Al-Mu’tasim
Bi’llah, the Caliph, massacred the Moslems during more than a month,
destroyed their books, monuments, and tombs, and stabled their
war-steeds in the Mustansariyah College.
[FN#4] In this part of Al-Hijaz they have many names for a pass:—Nakb,
Saghrah, and Mazik are those best known.
[FN#5] This is the palm, capped with large fan-shaped leaves, described
by every traveller in Egypt and in the nearer East.
[FN#6] The charge for a cup of coffee is one piastre and a half. A
pipe-bearer will engage himself for about £1 per mensem: he is always a
veteran smoker, and, in these regions, it is an axiom that the flavour
of your pipe mainly depends upon the filler. For convenience the
Persian Kaliun is generally used.
[FN#7] A day’s journey in Arabia is generally reckoned at twenty-four or
twenty-five Arab miles. Abulfeda leaves the distance of a Marhalah (or
Manzil, a station) undetermined. Al-Idrisi reckons it at thirty miles,
but speaks of short as well as long marches. The common literary
measures of length are these:—3 Kadam (man’s foot) = 1 Khatwah (pace): 1000
paces = 1 Mil (mile); 3 miles = 1 Farsakh (parasang); and 4 parasangs =
1 Barid or post. The “Burhan i Katia” gives the table thus:—24 finger
breadths (or 6 breadths of the clenched hand, from 20 to 24 inches!) =
1 Gaz or yard; 1000 yards = 1 mile; 3 miles = 1 parasang. Some call the
four thousand yards measure a Kuroh (the Indian Cos), which, however,
is sometimes less by 1000 Gaz. The only ideas of distance known to the
Badawi of Al-Hijaz are the fanciful Sa’at or hour, and the uncertain
Manzil or halt: the former varies from 2 to 3½ miles, the latter from 15
to 25.
[FN#8] “Khabt” is a low plain; “Midan,” “Fayhah,” or “Sath,” a plain generally; and
“Batha,” a low, sandy flat.
[FN#9] In Burckhardt’s day there were 5,000 souls and 15,000 camels.
Capt. Sadlier, who travelled during the war (1819), found the number
reduced to 500. The extent of this Caravan has been enormously
exaggerated in Europe. I have heard of 15,000, and even of 20,000 men.
I include in the 7,000 about 1,200 Persians. They are no longer placed,
as Abd al-Karim relates, in the rear of the Caravan, or post of danger.
[FN#10] Lane has accurately described this article: in the Hijaz it is
sometimes made to resemble a little tent.
[FN#11] The vehicle mainly regulates the expense, as it evidences a man’s
means.
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