The Koran (Al-Qur'an). Anonymous
in a stony and barren valley, surrounded on all sides with mountains.6 The length of Mecca from south to north is about two miles, and its breadth from the foot of the mountain Ajyad, to the top of another called Koaikaân, about a mile.7 In the midst of this space stands the city, built of stone cut from the neighbouring mountains.8 There being no springs at Mecca,9 at least none but what are bitter and unfit to drink,10 except only the well Zemzem, the water of which, though far the best, yet cannot be drank of any continuance, being brackish, and causing eruptions in those who drink plentifully of it,11 the inhabitants are obliged to use rain-water which they catch in cisterns.1 But this not being sufficient, several attempts were made to bring water thither from other places by aqueducts; and particularly about Mohammed's time, Zobair, one of the principal men of the tribe of Koreish, endeavoured at a great expense to supply the city with water from Mount Arafat, but without success; yet this was effected not many years ago, being begun at the charge of a wife of Solimân the Turkish emperor.2 But long before this, another aqueduct had been made from a spring at a considerable distance, which was, after several years' labour, finished by the Khalîf al Moktader.3 The soil about Mecca is so very barren as to produce no fruits but what are common in the deserts, though the prince or Sharîf has a garden well planted at his castle of Marbaa, about three miles westward from the city, where he usually resides. Having therefore no corn or grain of their own growth, they are obliged to fetch it from other places;4 and Hashem, Mohammed's great- grandfather, then prince of his tribe, the more effectually to supply them with provisions, appointed two caravans to set out yearly for that purpose, the one in summer, and the other in winter: 5 these caravans of purveyors are mentioned in the Korân. The provisions brought by them were distributed also twice a year, viz., in the month of Rajeb, and at the arrival of the pilgrims. They are supplied with dates in great plenty from the adjacent country, and with grapes from Tayef, about sixty miles distant, very few growing at Mecca. The inhabitants of this city are generally very rich, being considerable gainers by the prodigious concourse of people of almost all nations at the yearly pilgrimage, at which time there is a great fair or mart for all kinds of merchandise. They have also great numbers of cattle, and particularly of camels: however, the poorer sort cannot but live very indifferently in a place where almost every necessary of life must be purchased with money. Notwithstanding this great sterility
3 R. Saadias in version. Arab. Pentat. Sefer Juchasin. 135. b. 4 Gen. x. 30. 5 Gol. ad Alfrag. 82 See Gen. xxv. 15. 6 Gol. ib. 98. See Pitts' Account of the religion and manners of the Mohammedans, p. 96. 7 Sharif al Edrisi apud Poc. Specim. 122. 8 Ibid. 9 Gol. ad Alfragan. 99. 10 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 124. 11 Ibid. and Pitts ubi supra, p. 107. 1 Gol. ad Alfrag. 99. 2 Ibid. 3 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra. 4 Idem ib. 5 Poc. Spec. 51
near Mecca, yet you are no sooner out of its territory than you meet on all sides with plenty of good springs and streams of running water, with a great many gardens and cultivated lands.6 The temple of Mecca, and the reputed holiness of this territory, will be treated of in a more proper place. Medina, which till Mohammed's retreat thither was called Yathreb, is a walled city about half as big as Mecca,7 built in a plain, salt in many places, yet tolerably fruitful, particularly in dates, but more especially near the mountains, two of which, Ohod on the north, and Air on the south, are about two leagues distant. Here lies Mohammed interred1 in a magnificent building, covered with a cupola, and adjoining to the east side of the great temple, which is built in the midst of the city.2 The province of Tehâma was so named from the vehement heat of its sandy soil, and is also called Gaur from its low situation; it is bounded on the west by the Red Sea, and on the other sides by Hejâz and Yaman, extending almost from Mecca to Aden.3 The province of Najd, which word signifies a rising country, lies between those of Yamâma, Yaman, and Hejâz, and is bounded on the east by Irak.4 The province of Yamâma, also called Arûd from its oblique situation, in respect of Yaman, is surrounded by the provinces of Najd, Tehâma, Bahrein, Omân, Shihr, Hadramaut, and Saba. The chief city is Yamâma, which gives name to the province: it was anciently called Jaw, and is particularly famous for being the residence of Mohammed's competitor, the false prophet Moseilama.5 The Arabians, the inhabitants of this spacious country, which they have possessed from the most remote antiquity, are distinguished by their own writers into two classes, viz., the old lost Arabians, and the present. The former were very numerous, and divided into several tribes, which are now all destroyed, or else lost and swallowed up among the other tribes, nor are any certain memoirs or records extant concerning them;6 though the memory of some very remarkable events and the catastrophe of some tribes have been preserved by tradition, and since confirmed by the authority of the Korân. The most famous tribes amongst these ancient Arabians were Ad, Thamûd, Tasm, Jadîs, the former Jorham, and Amalek.
6 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 125. 7 Id. Vulgò Geogr. Nubiensis, 5. 1 Though the notion of Mohammed's being buried at Mecca has been so long exploded, yet several modern writers, whether through ignorance or negligence I will not determine, have fallen into it. It shall here take notice only of two; one is Dr. Smith, who having lived some time in Turkey, seems to be inexcusable: that gentleman in his Epistles de Moribus ac Institutis Turcarum, no less than thrice mentions the Mohammedans visiting the tomb of their prophet at Mecca, and once his being born at Medina-the reverse of which is true (see Ep. I, p. 22, Ep. 2, p. 63 and 64). The other is the publisher of the last edition of Sir J. Mandevile's Travels, who on his author's saying very truly (p. 50) that the said tomb was at Methone, i.e., Medina, undertakes to correct the name of the town, which is something corrupted, by putting at the bottom of the page, Mecca. The Abbot de Vertot, in his History of the Order of Malta (vol. i. p. 410, ed. 8vo.), seems also to have confounded these two cities together, though he had before mentioned Mohammed's sepulchre at Medina. However, he is certainly mistaken, when he says that one point of the religion, both of the Christians and Mohammedans, was to visit, at least once in their lives, the tomb of the author of their respective faith. Whatever may be the opinion of some Christians, I am well assured the Mohammedans think themselves under no manner of obligation in that respect. 2 Gol. ad Alfragan. 97, Abulfeda Descr. Arab. p. 40. 3 Gol. ubi sup. 95. 4 Ibid. 94. 5 Ibid. 95. 6 Abulfarag, p. 159.
The tribe of Ad were descended from Ad, the son of Aws,1 the son of Aram,2 the son of Sem, the son of Noah, who, after the confusion of tongues, settled in al Ahkâf, or the winding sands in the province of Hadramaut, where his posterity greatly multiplied. Their first king was Shedâd the son of Ad, of whom the eastern writers deliver many fabulous things, particularly that he finished the magnificent city his father had begun, wherein he built a fine palace, adorned with delicious gardens, to embellish which he spared neither cost nor labour, proposing thereby to create in his subjects a superstitious veneration of himself as a god.3 This garden or paradise was called the garden of Irem, and is mentioned in the Korân,4 and often alluded to by the oriental writers. The city, they tell us, is still standing in the deserts of Aden, being preserved by providence as a monument of divine justice, though it be invisible, unless very rarely, when GOD permits it to be seen, a favour one Colabah pretended to have received in the reign of the Khalîf Moâwiyah, who sending for him to know the truth of the matter, Colabah related his whole adventure; that as he was seeking a camel he had lost, he found himself on a sudden at the gates of this city, and entering it saw not one inhabitant, at which, being terrified, he stayed no longer than to take with him some fine stones which he showed the Khalîf.5 The descendants of Ad in process of time falling from the worship of the true God into idolatry, GOD sent the prophet Hûd (who is generally agreed to be Heber6) to preach to and reclaim them. But they refusing to acknowledge his mission, or to obey him, GOD sent a hot and suffocating wind, which blew seven nights and eight days together, and entering at their nostrils passed through their bodies.7 and destroyed them all, a very few only excepted, who had believed in Hûd and retired with him to another place.8 That prophet afterwards returned into Hadramaut, and was buried near Hasec, where there is a small town now standing called Kabr Hûd, or the sepulchre of Hûd. Before the Adites were thus severely punished, GOD, to humble them, and incline them to hearken to the preaching of his prophet, afflicted them with a drought for four years, so that all their cattle perished, and themselves were very near it; upon which they sent Lokmân (different from one of the same name who lived in David's time) with sixty others to Mecca to beg rain, which they not obtaining, Lokmân with some of his company stayed at Mecca, and thereby escaped destruction, giving rise to a tribe called the latter Ad, who were afterward changed into monkeys.1 Some commentators on the Korân2 tell us these old Adites were