'Personal Narrative of a pilgrimmage to Al-Madinah and Meccah. Vol. II' [‎8] (29/568)

8
Pilgrimage to Al-Mcidinah and Meccah,
after transmitting the demand to the different officers of c
the treasury, sends the money to the Wakil Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator. , who delivers
it to the applicant. This gift is sometimes squandered in to q
pleasure, more often profitably invested either in mer- ^
chandise or in articles of home-use, presents of dress and Y am
jewellery for the women, handsome arms, especially pis- an( j .
tols and Balas 1 (yataghans), silk tassels, amber pipe- visioi
pieces, slippers, and embroidered purses. They are Syria
packed up in one or two large Sahharahs, and then com- 0 f | u:
mences the labour of returning home gratis. Besides the a ii th
Ikram, most of the Madani, when upon these begging f ew s
trips, are received as guests by great men at Constantin- articl
ople, The citizens whose turn it is not to travel, await Cons
the Aukaf and Sadakat (bequests and alms), 3 forwarded expei
every year by the Damascus Caravan; besides which, fifteei
as has been before explained, the Harim supplies even triflin
those not officially employed in it with many perquisites, and ;
Without these advantages Al-Madinah would soon ando
be abandoned to cultivators and Badawin. Though com- ians.'
merce is here honourable, as everywhere in the East, They
business is "slack, 8 " because the higher classes prefer the a favc
idleness of administering their landed estates, and being matic
servants to the Mosque. I heard of only four respect- one \
able houses, Al-Isawi, Al-Sha'ab, Abd al-Jawwad, and a They
family from Al-Shark (the Eastern Region).* They all deal haugl
in grain, cloth, and provisions, and perhaps the richest words
have a capital of twenty thousand dollars. Caravans in ~—
i The Turkish "yataghan." It is a long dagger, intended for garden
thrusting rather than cutting, and has a curve, which, methinks, has commc
been wisely copied by the Duke of Orleans, in the bayonet of the menser
3 Omar Effendi's brothers, grandsons of the principal Mufti of mo nop
Al-Madinah, were both shopkeepers, and were always exhorting him 3 F
to do some useful work, rather than muddle his brains and waste hisnot alw
Chasseurs de Vincennes.
2 See chapter xvii.
value c
2 \
time on books.
4 See chapter xiv.
their m
the rao