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Updated: June 3, 2025
On arriving at Mekka, the pilgrims must visit the Kaaba, which in the mean time has been covered with the new black clothing brought from Cairo, walk seven times round it, and perform the ceremony of the Say: this is called the Towaf el Ifadhe.
The other branches of the Sherif's revenues were the profits derived from the sale of provisions at Mekka, of which, although he did not monopolize them like Mohammed Aly, yet he had always such a considerable stock on hand, as enabled him to
In later times the vizir was a black slave of Ghaleb, and much detested for his pride and despotic conduct. Ghaleb seldom resided in Djidda, his continual intrigues with the Bedouins, and his schemes against the Wahaby tribes, requiring his presence in the more central position of Mekka. The form of government which existed under Ghaleb has not been changed by the Osmanlys.
I left him at Djidda when I returned to Mekka, and learnt afterwards that he died there in the month of March, of the plague, and that he was buried by the Greeks of Djidda upon an island in the harbour. When I returned to Mekka, about the 8th or 9th of December, I found no longer the same multitudes of people; but the beggars had
Not a sound but the voice of the Imam is heard during prayers in the great mosque at Mekka, which at other times is the place of meeting for men of business to converse on their affairs, and is sometimes so full of poor hadjys, or of diseased persons lying about under the colonnade, in the midst of their miserable baggage, as to have the appearance of an hospital rather than a temple.
The roof of the colonnade was then built of sadj, a precious Indian wood. The columns brought from Egypt by El Mohdy, were landed at one day's journey north of Djidda; but some obstacles arising, they were not all transported to Mekka, some of them having been abandoned on the sands near the shore.
Multitudes of beggars come to Mekka from the above-mentioned countries; they get a free passage from charitable individuals in their own country, or the cost of it is defrayed by those who employ them as their proxies in performing the Hadj; but when they land, they are thrown entirely upon the charity of other hadjys; and the alms they collect, must serve to carry them back to their homes.
On both sides of the causeway, in the valley of Mekka, extend the burying-grounds, where most of the inhabitants of the city have their family tombs. A little beyond the Sherif's house just mentioned, and at the termi-nation of the Mala, stands the tomb of Abou Taleb, an uncle of Mo-hammed, and father of Aly.
The hadjys who had, in the mean while, daily flocked into it on their return from Mekka, were seen encamped in every quarter, and thus it soon became as crowded as Mekka had just been.
The Syrian hadjy merchants hire shops, and make the best use of the short time which is granted to them for their commercial transactions. Every body purchases provisions for his journey home; and the pursuit of gain now engrosses all minds, from the highest to the lowest. The two caravans usually leave Mekka about the 23d of Zul Hadj, after ten days' stay in the town.
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