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Kaiabey, Sultan of Egypt, expended a large sum upon it in 879; and in 916, Kansoue el Ghoury, one of the last of the Zirkassian kings of Egypt, contributed to its repair: but the aqueduct was still often obstructed; and whenever that happened, the Mekkawys and Hadjys were ex-posed to great privations. In 931, Sultan Soleyman attempted to construct it anew; but the design was not completed.
The Kadhy, the rich merchants of Mekka, and the grandees among the hadjys, likewise paid their respects to the Pashas, and each of their visits lasted about five minutes. An immense crowd was, at the same time, assembled in a wide semicircle round their open tents, to witness this brilliant sight.
The Bedouins, who bring it here, usually demand two or three dollars per pound for it, when quite pure; and the Szafra Arabs re-sell it to the hadjys of the great caravan, at between eight and twelve dollars per pound in an adulterated state. It is bought up principally by Persians.
I could never count more than ten thousand individuals in the mosque at one time, even after the return from Arafat, when the whole body of hadjys were collected, for a few days, in and about the city. At every hour of the day persons may be seen under the colonnade, Here they both eat and sleep; but cooking is not allowed.
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.
As numbers of the public women reside at Shab Aamer, this quarter is not ranked among the most respectable in Mekka. Sherif Ghaleb imposed a regular tax upon those females, and required an additional payment from such of them as, in the time of the pilgrim-age, followed the hadjys to Arafat. A similar tax is levied at Cairo, and in all the great provincial towns of Egypt.
They receive regular pay from the mosque, besides what they share of the presents made to it by hadjys, for the purpose of distribution; those not made for such purpose, are reserved for the repairs of the building. The revenue of the mosque is considerable, although it has been deprived of the best branches of its income.
Mekka, therefore, has necessarily a considerable degree of foreign commerce, which is chiefly carried on, during the pilgrimage, and some months preceding it, by the wealthy hadjys, who bring from every Muselman country its native productions to Djidda, either by sea or across the Desert from Damascus, exchanging them amongst each other; or receiving from the merchants of Mekka the goods of India and Arabia, which the latter have accumulated the whole year in
There were, besides, many sheds constructed in the midst of the street, where victuals might be purchased in great abundance, but at exorbitant prices. On the declivity of the mountain to the north, called Djebel Thebeyr, a place is visited by the hadjys, where Abraham, as some accounts inform us, requested permission to offer up his son as a sacrifice.
What I paid at Mekka to the delyls, and at the places of holy visit, amounted, perhaps, altogether to three hundred and fifty piastres, or thirty dollars; but I gave no presents, either to the mosque, or to any of its officers, which is done only by great hadjys, or by those who wish to be publicly noticed.
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