Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 18, 2025
In the hurry and bustle of departure no other camels could possibly be found; and I was therefore obliged to return to the town, together with several Mekkans, who had been disappointed in the same manner. At the moment of starting, the leader of the Damascus caravan always distributes a certain quantity of provision to the poor.
The vices which disgrace the Mekkans are also prevalent here; and their religious austerity has not been able to exclude the use of intoxicating liquors. These are prepared by the negroes, as well as date-wine, which is made by pouring water over dates, and leaving it to ferment. On the whole, I believe the Medinans to be as worthless as the Mekkans, and greater hypocrites.
Generally speaking, we may say that the Medinans dress better than the Mekkans, though with much less cleanliness: but no national costume is observed here; and, particularly in the cold of winter, the lower classes cover themselves with whatever articles of dress they can obtain at low prices in the public auctions; so that it is not uncommon to see a man fitted out in the dress of three or four different countries-like an Arab as high as his waist, and like a Turkish soldier over his breast and shoulders.
There are few large cities in Syria, Anatolia, and European Turkey, where some of these people are not to be found. For their travelling purposes, and for the duties incumbent upon them as ciceroni in their own town, many individuals learn a little Turkish; and it is their pride to The Medinans generally are of a less cheerful and lively disposition than the Mekkans.
The greatest number of hadjys had encamped without any order, on the rocky and uneven plain behind the village to the north. The tents of the Mekkans were very neatly fitted up; and this being now the feast, men, women, and children were dressed in their best apparel. At night, few people ventured to sleep, on account of thieves, who abound at Muna.
The individuals of different nations settled here have in their second and third generations all become Arabs as to features and character; but are, nevertheless, distinguishable from the Mekkans; they are not nearly so brown as the latter, thus forming an intermediate link between the Hedjaz people and the northern Syrians.
The people of Yemen whom I saw at Mekka pronounced and spoke Arabic almost equally well as the Mekkans: those from Szanaa spoke with purity, but a harsh accent; but the Hedjazi, like the Bedouin accent, is as soft as the language will admit.
As to pronunciation, the best is that of the Bedouins of Arabia, of the Mekkans, and people of the Hedjaz; that of Baghdad and of Yemen is next in purity. At Cairo the pronunciation is worse than in any other part of Egypt; after which I should rank the language of the Libyan Arabs, who have a tinge of the Moggrebyn pronunciation mixed with the Egyptian.
LIKE the Mekkans, the people of Medina are for the greater part strangers, whom the Prophet's tomb, and the gains which it insures to its neighbours, have drawn to this place.
In Syria, in Egypt, and in the Hedjaz, settlements are seen, the members of which have become cultivators for several centuries back; yet they have adopted only few of the habits of peasants, and still pride themselves on their Bedouin origin and manners. The Medinans have not the same means of gaining a living, as the Mekkans.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking