J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

,ECT. I. PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 3
name not unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be tiiken from one of
Ismael'ssons,' It is seated in a stony and baiTen valley, surrounded on all sidsa
with mountains.* 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 Koaikaan, about a mile.** In the midst of this space .stands
the city, built of stone cut from the neighbouring mountains.' There being
no springs at Mecca,^ at least none but what are bitter and unfit to drink,*
except only the well Zemzem, the water of which, though far the best, yet
caiuiot be drank for any continuance, being brackish, and causing eruptions
in those who drink plentifully of it,* the inhabitants are obliged to use rain-
water which they catch in cisterns.^ 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 tlie charge of a wife of Soliman the
Turkish emperor.*^ But, long before this, another aqueduct had been mado
from a spring at a considerable distance, which was, after several years'
labour, finished by the Khalif al Moktader.''
The soil about Mecca is so very barren as to produce no fruits but what
are common in the deserts, though the prince or Sharif 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;* and Hashem,
Mohammed's great-grandfather, then prince of his tribe, the more effectually
to supply them with provisions, appointed two cai'avans to set out yearly
for that purpose, the one in suiumei", and the other in winter:" these
caravans of purveyors are mentioned in the Koran. 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 g owing at Mecca. The inhabitants of this city are gene-
rally 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
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.'
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,^ built in a plain, salt in many places,
yet tolerably fruitful, particularly in dates, but more e.si>ecially near the
moiintains, two of which, Ohod on the north, and Air on the south, are
about two leagues distant. Here lies Mohammed interred * in a mag-
7 Gol. ad Alfrag. 82. See Gen. xxv. 15. « Gol. ib. 98. Soe Pitts' accounl
of the religion and manners of the Mohammedans, p. 96. » Sharif al Edrisi
apud Poc. Specim. 122. i Ibid. » Gol. ad Alfrafian. 99. ' Sharif al
Edrisi ubi supra, 124. * Ibid, and Pitts ubi supra, p. 107. " Gol ad Alfrag
99. « Ibid. 7 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra. 8 jdem ib. » Poc. Specim. 51.
• Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 125. » Id. Vulgd Geogr. Nubiensis, B.
• Thoufjli the notion of Mohammed's being buried at Mecca has been so long ezplo-