'Personal Narrative of a pilgrimmage to Al-Madinah and Meccah. Vol. I' [‎377] (442/564)

XVIII,-—Al-Madinak.
Ill
by different names ; the former are called Tahamat al-
H Hijaz—the sea coast of Al-Hijaz, as we should say in
India, "below the Ghauts;" the latter is known peculiarly
Ij as Al-Hijaz. 1
j Madinat al-Nabi, 2 the Prophet's City, or, as it is
i If you ask a Badawi near Meccah, whence his fruit comes, he
will reply "min Al-Hijaz," "from the Hijaz," meaning from the
I mountainous part of the country about Taif. This would be an
argument in favour of those who make the word to signify a place
j tied together," (by mountains). It is notorious that the Badawin are
the people who best preserve the use of old and disputed words ; for
which reason they were constantly referred to by the learned in the
palmy days of Moslem philology. " Al-Hijaz," also, in this signifi
cation, well describes the country, a succession of ridges and mountain
j chains; whereas such a name as "the barrier" would appear to be
rather the work of some geographer in his study. Thus Al-Nijd was
| so called from its high and open lands, and, briefly, in this part of
the world, names are most frequently derived from some physical and
material peculiarity of soil or climate.
2 Amongst a people, who, like the Arabs or the Spaniards, hold
a plurality of names to be a sign of dignity, so illustrious a spot as
li Al-Madinah could not fail to be rich in nomenclature. A Hadis
declares, "to Al-Madinah belong ten names": books, however,
enumerate nearly a hundred, of which a few will suffice as a speci-
j men. Tabah, Tibah, Taibah, Tayyibah, and Mutayyibah, (from the
i| r00 ^ Tib, "good, ' "sweet," or "lawful,") allude to the physical excel
lencies of Al-Madinah as regards climate—the perfume of the
. Prophet s tomb, and of the red rose, which was a thorn before it blos
somed by the sweat of his brow—and to its being free from all moral
impurity, such as the presence of Infidels, or worshippers of idols.
| Mohammed declared that he was ordered by Allah to change the name
of the place to Tabah, from Yasrib or Asrib. The latter, according to
| some, wasca proper name of a son of Noah ; others apply it originally
; to a place west of Mount Ohod, not to Al-Madinah itself; and quote
the plural form of the word, "Asarib," (" spots abounding in palms and
! fountains,") as a proof that it does not belong exclusively to a person.
However this may be, the inauspicious signification of Yasrib, whose
i root is " Sarab," (destruction,) and the notorious use of the name by
;• the Pagan Arabs, have combined to make it, like the other heathen
designation, Al-Ghalabah, obsolete, and the pious Moslem who pro
nounces the word is careful to purify his mouth by repeating ten
times the name "Al-Madinah." Barah and Barrah allude to its