The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema: In Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 To 1508. Ludovico di Varthema
the year following [A.D. 1501] Hazä'a and Barakât again encountered each other in a place called Taraf el- Burka, when the latter was overcome, and his brother Abu- Da'anaj, with seven of the Sherîfs of the Benu-Nima, toge- ther with fourteen of the Turks on his side, were killed. On this occasion Hazä'a had with him three thousand two hundred horsemen, and Barakât only five hundred. The latter fled till he reached Salkhat el-Ghorab, and Hazä'a went to Juddah, where he proclaimed an amnesty to the inhabitants, and appointed Muhammed ibn Rajah ibn Sam- balali his deputy, and one of his slaves governor in Juddah, and sent his brother, El-Jâsâni, to Meccah, to settle matters in that quarter, whither he subsequently followed him with a military force. Some time after, a robe of investiture and a firman were sent to him from Egypt, and he took up his residence in Meccah.
d
xxxiv INTRODUCTION.
"On the fifteenth of the month of Rajab, [25th December 1501,] Hazä'a ibn Muhammed ibn Barak at was removed to the mercy of God, and his brother El-Jâsâni succeeded him, through the influence of the Kâdhi Abu es-Sa'ûd ibn Ibra- hîm ibn Dhuheirah.
"A.H. 908. In the month of Sha'aban of this year [cor- responding with January A.D. 1502] there was a fierce battle between the Sherîf el-Jâsâni and his brother Barakât at Munhenna, to the eastward of Meccah, in which the Sherîf Barakât was thoroughly routed, and all the principal men of his armies killed, he himself escaping with only a few adhe- rents.
" In the month of Rajab of the same year [December A.D. 1502] the Sherîf El-Jâsâni ibn Muhammed ibn Barakât was killed near the gate of the Kaabah by a band of Turks, on account of some outrages which he had committed, and they set up in his place his brother Humeidhah. Towards the end of that same year [between March and May 1503] the Sherîf Barakât fled from Egypt [by which it would appear that he had been taken there as a prisoner] with the connivance of the Amir ed-Duweidâr,1 and brought with him a large army, which he collected from among the Beni Lam, the Ahl esh-Shark, and the Findiyîn, and he pre- vented the people from performing the Wakûf,2 until the Amir of the Hajj gave him four thousand ashrafi to clear the road between them and the [place of the] Wakûf; where- upon he was able to accompany the people to Arafât and Muzdelifah and Mina f but in the meantime the followers
1 This was the first dignitary of the state, after the sovereign, during the regency of the Mamlûks. The office corresponded with that of the Grand Wazir among the Turks, and the court of the Amir ed-Duweidâr was almost equal to that of the Sultan.
2 One of the ceremonies connected with the Pilgrimage, which is performed at Arafât. Sec p. 43.
3 See note 1 on p. 45.
INTRODUCTION. xxxv
of Barakât plundered a caravan from Juddah,near the gates of Meccah."
The facts thus recorded are corroborated by the author of the Ruah er-Ruah, another Arabic chronicle of a later date; but these extracts amply suffice to attest the truth of Varthema's incidental remarks respecting the feud which existed between the rival brothers Barakât, and the general insecurity of the country resulting therefrom. Moreover, a careful comparison of dates, as they may be gathered from our traveller's journal, with those given in the above quotations, renders it highly probable that the Arabs whom the caravan encountered between El-Medinah and Meccah, (see p. 35,) and those also who caused the precipitate rush from Arafât, (see p. 44,) consisted of adherents of one or other of the contending factions.
To return to our review of the narrative. Entering Meccah with the Hajj, Varthema proceeds to give an account of the city and its inhabitants, noticing par- ticularly the great number of foreigners who had arrived there from the east and west, "some for pur- poses of trade, and some on pilgrimage for the pardon of their sins"; and the various commodities which were imported by them from Africa, the western coast of India, and the Bay of Bengal. Next, he takes us into the Great Mosque, describing the Kä'abah and the well Zemzem, with the various ceremonies performed there; and thence he accompanies the pilgrims to Arafât, and returns with them in haste through the Valley of Mina, where he witnessed the customary lapidation of the "Great Devil."
d 2
xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
Considering that our author is the first European traveller on record who visited the holy places of the Muhammcdans, and taking into account how scanty must have been his previous knowledge of the history and distinctive doctrines of Islâm, his description of Meccah and of the Hajj may fairly claim to be regarded as a literary wonder. With but few excep- tions, his minutest details are confirmed by later and far more learned writers, whose investigations on the whole have added comparatively little to the know- ledge which we possess of the Mussulman pilgrimage through the pages of Varthema; and the occasional correspondence between some of his statements and those of Burckhardt is so striking, as to give rise to the conjecture that that enterprising traveller had perused his book either before or after his own journey into the Hijâz. Burton, whose eastern learning and personal experience of the Hajj constitute him a most competent judge, bestows this well merited encomium on our author's narrative:— "But all things consi- dered, Ludovico Barthema, for correctness of observ- ation and readiness of wit, stands in the foremost rank of the old oriental travellers."1
The Hajj over, Varthema being anxious to visit other countries, or disinclined to return by the same route he had come, meditated escape from his com- panions. Fortune favoured the design by throwing in his way a Mussulman trader who had been to Europe, and who agreed to aid him in the attempt,
1 Personal Narrative of a "Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah,
vol. ii. p. 352.
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
on learning that he intended to manufacture "large mortars," to be used by the Moslems against the in- fidel Portuguese, and in consideration of having his goods passed free of duty out of Meccah, through our author's influence with the commander of the Mam- luks. He also furnished him with directions how to reach the court of the King of the Deccan, from which latter circumstance it is clear that Varthema had already contemplated a journey to India. Depart- ing himself with the caravan, the Mussulman con- fided his charge to the care of his wife, with instruc- tions to despatch him, on the following Friday, by the Indian Kâfila proceeding to Juddah. According to his own statement, Varthema succeeded in gaining the affections of his kind hostess and her young niece, both of whom held out strong inducements for him to remain; but he prudently "declined all their offers, on account of the present danger," and started towards the coast with the caravan, "to the no small regret of the said ladies, who made great lamenta- tions."
At Juddah, our traveller took refuge in a mosque, which was crowded with indigent pilgrims, and, fearing detection, pretended sickness, and even ab- stained from going abroad except by night in search of food. Nevertheless, his brief account of the place is quite correct, and judging from the number of vessels then in the harbour, which he estimates at one hundred, "great and small," the commerce of the port must have been much larger at that time than it is now,—a result mainly attributable to the
xxxviii INTRODUCTION.
Cape route having subsequently diverted much of the trade between India and Europe from its older channel viâ Egypt.
In his description of the voyage down the Red Sea, (which he naively remarks is not red,) during which the vessel only sailed by day owing to the numerous coral-reefs and shoals which lie off the coast, Varthema mentions their landing at Jâzân, now an unfrequented place, but at that time one of the principal ports of southern Arabia; then their skirmish with some wild Bedawin, who are as wild still; next, their touching at the island of Camrân, which he tells us was subject to the "Sultan of the Amanni," meaning the Imam of Sanaa, but whose territories were invaded a few years later by a combined Egyptian and Turkish army whose fleet anchored in that very place; and finally the passage through the Straits of Bâb el-Mandeb, and their safe