CHAPTER I

3. 1. Djeddah or Yeddah or Jiddah, a city in the Arabie vilayet (province) of Hedjaz, Asiatic Turkey, situated on the Red Sea, about one thousand miles southeast of Cairo. It is one of the chief commercial centers of Arabia and the landing-place for Mecca pilgrims. The population is about 22,000 inhabitants.

4. Ali-Bey, born in Abkhasia about 1728, died 1773. He was a Mameluke bey (bey = chief, governor), ruler of Egypt, who declared himself independent of Turkey in 1768. He made several conqucsts in Arabia, Syria, etc., and was taken prisoner in a battle,

5. les guerres d'Egypte. Egypt, owing to its commanding position for commercial and war purposes, has always been a bone of contention among nations. The end of the i8th century and the bcginning of the iç>th were a period of unceasing agitation. The country was at the time under the rule of the Turks. In 1793 ît was invaded by Bonaparte, but the Erench — called " Erancs " in Egypt ever since the war of the Crusades — were cxpelled again in 1801. It was not until 1806 when Mehemet-Ali (sec note below) became pasha, or viceroy, that peace was rcstored and that the country developed again frecly.

6-7. les Mameloucks, the Mamelukes, a corps of cavalry formerly existing in Egypt, and whose chiefs were long the sovereign rulers of the country. They originated with a body of Mingrelians, Turks, and other slaves who were sold by the Mongol conqueror Jenghiz Khan to the Egyptian sultan in the i3th century. About 1251 they established their government in Egypt by making one of their own number sultan. Their dynasty was overthrown by Selim I of Turkey in 151 7, but they formcd part of the Egyptian army until 181 1 when Mehemet-Ali (see note below) destroyed most of them by a gênerai massacre.

7. Mehemet-Ali or Mohammez-Ali, born at Kavala, Macedonia, about 1769, died at Cairo 1849. Viceroy of Egypt. He went as a military commander to Egypt in 1799, was appointed governor of Egypt in 1805, massacred the Mamelukes in 181 1, suppressed a rival in Arabia, 1818, etc. He also inlroduced various internai improvements in Egypt, and his strong government was rallier a period of prosperity for the country.

4. 15. bazar, in the Orient, is an exchange, or market-place, or assemblage of shops where goods are exposed for sale.

28. égrener son chapelet, tu tell one's beads; chapelet = rosary. The Mohammedan rosary — called "sobha" — has the same purpose as that of the Roman Catholics, namely, to assist the memory in religious practiecs. The " sobha " has ninety-nine beads and is

used for the pious répétition of the ninety-nine names which express the attributes of God. See note to page 21, line 29.

6. 1. à l'heure la plus favorable du mois le mieux choisi, allusion to the superstitious belief of Egyptians in astrological influences. See chapter II and notes to that chapter.

2. Quand, au huitième jour, . . . According to the Arabie Books of Traditions (Mishkat XVIII, IV, 1) the day set for the naming of the child should be the seventh after birth, the child being named either after some member of, or after some saint venerated by, the family; or again some name is chosen which is suggested by the auspicious hour, the position of some planet, or some sign of the Zodiac with référence to the sun.

22-23. Si Dieu m'eût affligé d'une fille. ... In Oriental countries the birth of a girl was reckoned a misfortune. Infanticide in this case has long been a common practice. It was so common among the ancients in gênerai that the fact that Egyptians brought up ail their children was considered a very extraordinary thing. Among some Arabie tribes, especially those of Koreish and Kenda, the horrid practice long prevailed to bury daughters alive for fear of their being dishonored or taken captive, or even from the appréhension of being reduced to poverty by supporting them. The Koran (XLIII, 16, LXXXI, 8) did away with this terrible custom. However, the préjudice against girls is far from extinct among Mohammedans. For instance, Mohammed, making provision for the succession of children in the Koran, directs the father to give to the boy the part of two girls.

28. la jalousie du mauvais œil. Mohammed was a strong believer in the baneful influence of an evil eye and allowed the use of spells against it (Mishkat XXI, I, II).

7. 1. Un derviche persan. A dervish is a Turkish or Persian — persan — monk, especially one who professes poverty and leads an austère life.

3. hérétique. He is an heretic for them because, being a Persian, he is not a follower of Mohammed.

11. un pareil nom déroutera le mauvais œil. Ile means that, vvhenever some person possessed with evil powers tries to curse "Omar," the malédiction, instead of reaching the child Omar, will rcach, and be lost on, an " homar " or ass. Such childish attempts to

avoid cvil influences are common among the superstitious peoplc of the Orient.

14. une Bédouine. There is a strongly marked différence between the two classes of Arabs, marked as well in their character and habits as in their genealogical descent. The natives of the désert, who lead a pastoral and often predatory life, consider themselves as a race separate from, and superior to, the inhabitants of citics and towns, who live by tillage and commerce. The former hâve a variety of names by which they designate themselves, ail expressive of their peculiar mode of life: Ahl el Ilagr, or the Peoplc of the Rock, Aid el Wabar, the Dwellers in Tcnts, Bedawiyum (bédouins), the Inhabitants of the Désert, etc. Ail the other classes who are in fixed habitations or engaged in the pursuits of industry they stigmatize as Ahl el Madar, the Dwellers in Houses made of Clay. Through ail antiquity this character lias remained inviolate and it continues in force at the présent day as strongly marked as it was three or four hundred years ago. Thèse Bédouins hold in contempt the peaccful and mechanic arts, and if any of their number abandon their nomadic habits for agriculture and become peasants or I'ellahin, or for business, they consider them as degraded and fallen from the primitive aobility of their birth. Their great employment is the tending of their flocks which constitute their principal wealth and supply ail their domestic necessilics. Their love for liberty has proved stronget thao the passion for foreign luxuries. The tint he regards as the nursery of every noble quality and the désert the only résidence worthy of a man who aspires to be unfettered master of his actions. The Bédouins décline the shelter of houses even when business calls them to visil crowded citics. They are seen passing the night in the gardens of public squares of Cairo, Mecca, and Al(-j>|><>, in préférence to the apartmenls that are ofîered for their accommodation. (See on the Bédouins, K. F. Burton, A l'ilgrimage to El-Medinah and M ecca, chapter XXII, and in the text of Abdallah, the last pages of chapter III.)

25. chérif, shérif, a member <>f an Aral) princely family descended from Mohammed through bis son in lawAliand bisdaughter Fatima. The governor of Mecca lias tin- t i 1 le- of Grand Shérif.

20. turban vert. The turbans are accordin^ to the wealth of the man who wears them, of plain laeework, of cashmere, or of silk.

The ordinary people wear them red or white. Alone the shérifs or émirs who claim to descend from the Prophet, hâve a right to wear a green turban. In many places the green turban is allowed to any one who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

8. 1. Beni-Ameurs, the name of the nomadic tribe of Bédouins to which Halima belongs. They dwell north of Abyssinia and to the northeast of Barka near the Red Sea coast. It numbers about 200,000 people.

16. un esprit fort, a »ian withoui préjudices. This term is applied in French to people who claim that their opinions are governed by reason only. It is, however, frequently used ironically to designate people who prétend to hâve no préjudices, but who nevertheless allow superstition to influence their actions.

23-24. grand diable de Jamrat. The ceremony hère described opens the second, third, fourth, and fifth days of a regular pilgrimage to Mecca, a pilgrimage which is obligatory to ail Mohammedans who can at ail afford it, at least once in a lifetime. The pilgrim is expected to throw stones at a cairn — the Jamrat el akaba — which is found at the eastern end of Mina, a village which is on the way to a small isolated hill, the " Hill of Mercy" (Arafat) around which there is a space artificially limited for other cérémonies. The stones are thrown in the name of Allah and are generally thought to be directed at the devil.