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Updated: June 10, 2025
This veil or curtain is called 'the Kesoua, and is renewed yearly during the pilgrimage. It is brought from Cairo, where it is manufactured at the expense of the Viceroy." Up to the time of Burckhardt no such detailed account of Mecca and her sanctuary had been given to the world.
From Scanderoon to Aleppo; over the desert to Bagdat: a voyage from Bussora to Bombay, and along the west coast of India; from Bombay to Mocha; and a journey from Suez to Cairo, are the principal contents. Travels. By John Lewis Burckhardt. Vol.1. Nubia; vol. 2. Syria and the Holy Land; vol.3, in the Hedjaz. 1823. 4to.
According to Burckhardt, the number of slaves sold yearly at Shendy amounts to 5000; 2500 of these are for Arabia, 400 for Egypt, 1000 for Dongola and the districts of the Red Sea. The traveller employed his time during his stay at Sennaar in collecting information about that kingdom.
He at once proceeded in that direction, hoping to examine it, but his companions stopped him, saying, "It is surrounded by bands of robbers; you cannot go a hundred steps without danger of attack." Burckhardt was unable to decide whether it was an Egyptian temple, or a monument of the empire of Axum.
But Burckhardt had so thoroughly entered into the spirit of his rôle, that he responded by a vigorous blow, which sending the unfortunate dragoman spinning to a distance, turned the laugh against him, and thoroughly convinced the bystanders of the sincerity of the traveller.
The range of quotation is indeed remarkable, from Dean Milman to Ouida, including many writers too little known in this country, such as Burckhardt, Ampère and Street. But it is not to the actual traveler only that these volumes will be of use and give pleasure.
Burckhardt introduces many anecdotes of interest into his account of the manners, mode of living, price of commodities, and number of traders in the place. Speaking of the singular customs of the natives of Jeddah, he says: "It is the almost universal custom for everybody to swallow a cup full of ghee or melted butter in the morning.
But Mr. Burckhardt, considering all these excursions, and their consequent numerous and important accessions to geographical knowledge, as only preludes to the grand expedition for which he had expressly come to the East, still looked forward to the interior of Africa.
Burckhardt has called him the most complete among the princely figures of the Italian Renaissance, and there can be no doubt that alike in his virtues and in his faults, he was curiously typical of the age in which he lived.
By the editor's advice, also, several places situate beyond the Eastern limits of Hedjaz are included in this map; since Burckhardt, although he did not visit them himself, has given some original itineraries, in which they are mentioned.
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