Travels In Arabia | Page 3

Hhegiaz.��--Fusius Ibn Haukal: ��Quod protenditur a limite Serrain urbis sitae ad mare Kolzum adusque viciniam Madian, et inde reflectendo per limitem tendentem in ortum urbis Hhegr, ad montem Tai trunseundo juxta tergum Yamamah ad mare Persicum, hoc totum ad Hhegiaz pertinet.�� Et alio loco: ��Hhegiaz ea est provincia, quae Maccah et Madinah et Yamamah cum earundem territoriis comprehendit.��--Ibn al Vardi Hhegiaz appellat provinciam secus Sinum Arabicum et a regione Habyssiniae sitam--Bakui eam inter Yaman et Syriam posuisse satis habet, simul longitudinem ejus mensis itinere emetiens.��--(pp. 57-68.)]
[p.x] It may perhaps be asked, why our inquisitive traveller did not learn from some intelligent native the precise extent and limits of Hedjaz? To this question the following passage (written by Burckhardt, near the end of his journal, and probably intended for the Appendix,) may serve as a reply, and show that even the present inhabitants do not agree in their application of the name Hedjaz. ��This,�� says he, ��is not used by the Arabian Bedouins in the usual acceptation of the word. They call Hedjaz exclusively the mountainous country, comprehending many fertile valleys south of Tayf, and as far as the dwelling-places of the Asyr Arabs, where the coffee-tree begins to be cultivated abundantly. This is the general application of the term among all the Bedouins of those countries; and the town��s-people of Mekka and Djidda also use it in that sense among themselves. But when they converse with foreigners, whose notions they politely adopt, the name Hedjaz is bestowed on the country between Tayf, Mekka, Medina, Yembo, and Djidda. The Bedouins give the name of El Ghor, or the low-land, to the whole province westward of the mountains from Mekka up to Beder and Yembo; while those mountains themselves northward of Tayf are called by them Hedjaz-es��- Sh��m, or the Northern Hedjaz.�� [This would confirm the derivation of Hedjaz (mentioned by Golius) from ahhtedjezet, ��quod (provincia Hhegiaz) colligata et constricta montibus sit:�� but others derive it from the Arabic word yehedjez, because Hedjaz divides Nedjed from Tehama, or because it connects Yemen with Syria, between which it is situate. As even the shortest note written by Burckhardt must be considered valuable, a few lines, that immediately follow the passage above quoted from his Journal, are here given: ��I compute the population of the province usually called Hedjaz, comprising the whole territory of the Sherif of Mekka, together with that of Medina and the towns situated therein, and all the Bedouin tribes, at about two hundred and fifty thousand souls; a number which, I am certain, is rather over than under rated; the greater part being the Bedouin inhabitants of the mountains, and principally the strong tribes of Beni Harb.��]
[p.xi] On reference to pages 396 and 397, a remark will be found concerning the different application of this name (Hedjaz) among those who inhabit the sea-coast and those Bedouins who occupy the interior country; and it will even appear that doubts have been entertained whether the sacred city Medina does not belong rather to Nedjed than to Hedjaz.
From statements so vague as those above quoted, an attempt to trace exactly the limits of any country must be vain and fallacious: that region, therefore, which borders on the Red Sea, and which the natives, we know, entitle unequivocally Hedjaz, is marked in our map, as in almost every other published hitherto, merely with that name, its first letter being placed where the editor supposes Arabia Petraea to terminate, and its last letter where he would separate Hedjaz from Tehama. [Burckhardt (Syrian Travels p. 511.) quotes Makrizi, the Egyptian historian, who says, in his chapter on Aila, (Akaba): ��It is from hence that the Hedjaz begins: in former times it was the frontier place of the Greeks, &c.��]
To those who seek the most accurate information respecting places but little known, this work is sufficiently recommended by the name of its author, and of the country which it describes. ��The manners of the Hejazi Arabs have continued,�� says Sir William Jones, ��from the time of Solomon to the present age.�� [Discourse on the Arabs, Asiat. Researches, vol. ii.] ��Our notions of Mecca must be drawn,�� says Gibbon, ��from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado.�� [Roman Empire, chap. 50. note 18.]
But the reader of this preface must not be withholden from
[p.xii] perusing Burckhardt��s authentic and interesting account of the places which he visited, of the extraordinary ceremonies which he witnessed, and of the people among whom he lived in the character of a Muselman.
Some short notices, written on a detached leaf, but evidently intended by the author as an introduction to his Journal, are given accordingly in the next page: for, that