Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Permissions
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 The Mamluk Rulers of Egypt
- 2 Egypt Imagined and the Realities of the Voyage
- 3 The Maritime Port of Alexandria
- 4 Sailing Upstream to Cairo
- 5 Cairo: ‘Meeting Place of Comer and Goer’
- 6 Venetian Diplomacy and the Arrival of the Ottomans
- 7 Exploring the Pyramids and Mummy Fields
- 8 Pilgrims to the Monastery of St Catherine
- 9 Adventures with the Mecca Caravan
- 10 To the South
- Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Mamluk Sultans up to 1517
- Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Ottoman Sultans after 1517
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - Adventures with the Mecca Caravan
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Permissions
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 The Mamluk Rulers of Egypt
- 2 Egypt Imagined and the Realities of the Voyage
- 3 The Maritime Port of Alexandria
- 4 Sailing Upstream to Cairo
- 5 Cairo: ‘Meeting Place of Comer and Goer’
- 6 Venetian Diplomacy and the Arrival of the Ottomans
- 7 Exploring the Pyramids and Mummy Fields
- 8 Pilgrims to the Monastery of St Catherine
- 9 Adventures with the Mecca Caravan
- 10 To the South
- Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Mamluk Sultans up to 1517
- Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Ottoman Sultans after 1517
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Despite the recognised dangers, a few intrepid Europeans risked the desert journey to accompany the great company of Muslims on the yearly hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1586 or thereabouts, 20 days after Ramadan, an anonymous Englishman joined the caravan from Cairo for the 40-day journey on the well-trodden route to ‘Aqaba across the northern Sinai desert. It was a brave venture, since if any Christian had been discovered in the Muslim holy places, he would undoubtedly have been summarily executed:
The Captain of the caravan and all his retinue and officers resort unto the castle (that is the citadel) of Cairo before the Pasha who gives every man a garment, and that of the Captain is wrought with gold, and the others are served according to their degree. Moreover he delivers unto him ye Chisva Talnabi [Kiswat al-Nabi] which signifies in the Arabian tongue ‘the garment of the Prophet’… This garment is made of purpose to cover from top to bottom a little house in Mecca standing in the midst of the Xesqita, the which house they say, was builded by Abraham or by his son Ishmael. After this he delivers to him a gate made of purpose for the aforesaid house, wrought all with fine gold and being of excellent workmanship and it is a thing of great value. Besides he delivers unto him a covering of green velvet made in the manner of a pyramid, about nine palms high, and artificially wrought with most fine gold, and this is to cover the tomb of their prophet within Medina. These precious objects are carried from the Pasha's residence on the Citadel to a mosque near the Bab al-Nasr. They are stored in this mosque until the pilgrim caravan begins to form at Birca.
‘Birca’ (Birkat al-Hajj) lay near Matariyya about four miles from Cairo. The so-called ‘Chisva Talnabi’, also known as the kiswa, the curtain veiling the exterior of the Ka‘ba, was by tradition manufactured in Egypt.
For the journey to Arabia, such caravans set out with wellharnessed horses, mules, camels with footmen and were sometimes accompanied by women and children in hooded litters.
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- Information
- How Many Miles to Babylon?Travels and Adventures to Egypt and Beyond, From 1300 to 1640, pp. 233 - 249Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2003