Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/340

 place of aš-Šerm and close by the sea rises Mount aš-Šâra. The halting place of al-Mwêleḥ is situated on the shore itself and has an abundance of water, which, however, is brackish. Dâr Ḳâjiṭbâj is so called after the sultan of the same name (al-Malik al-Ašraf Sejfaddîn Ḳâjiṭbâj, 1468—1496) who stayed there while on his pilgrimage. Previously the pilgrims used to encamp at a spot called Baṭn al-Kibrît. By a farther halting place is buried Sheikh Marzûḳ al-Kefâfi, to whose grave pilgrimages are made. At the halting place of Azlam terminates the second quarter of the Pilgrim Route. The surrounding neighborhood consists of waste land bordered by rocky mountains and containing salt water and inadequate pastures; but much senne grows there.—

The walled-in spring mentioned by Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa at the halting place of Ajla is situated in the gardens to the south of the present stronghold of al-ʻAḳaba. It is still called Ajla, as is the fountain near the stronghold. Ẓahr al-Ḥmâr is the name of a rocky elevation between the oases of Ḥaḳl and al-Ḥmejẓa. Ǧurfejn is identical with the šeʻîb of Umm Ǧurfejn, which begins at the hill of aš-Šaraf. The Beni ʻAṭijje or ʻAṭâwne still encamp east of aš-Šaraf. The pilgrims’ station was constructed at the spot where the šeʻîb of aš-Šerâf merges into Wâdi al-Abjaẓ. Thence the route led southward through the latter valley, here enclosed between high, gray and black mountains. Wâdi al-Abjaẓ is therefore identical with al-Muṭallât. Of the Beni Lâm only the Mesâʻîd clan have remained near this valley. The name of Ḳabr aṭ-Ṭawâši I did not hear in the region referred to, but, as is shown by the name and the distance, the pilgrims’ station was situated at al-Mrâḥ (quarters for the night). ʻUjûn al-Ḳaṣab are identical with the springs flowing among the thick reeds in Wâdi aš-Šarma on the al-Mellâḥ road, about eight kilometers east from the coast. I do not know the tomb set up by Abraham. Mount aš-Šâra is the name aš-Šâr badly transcribed. The word aš-Šerm denotes “the harbor,” and the place so called must therefore be located on the coast in the bay of aṣ-Ṣafra’. Al-Mwêleḥ is the modern settlement of the same name. Baṭn al-Kibrît, a sulphurous valley, is identical with the valley extending along the southern slope of Ṭwejjel al-Kibrît, the sulphur being deposited not only on these hillocks but also farther to the south on the hill of Ḥmêra’-l-Ḳrajḳer, where the remains of the home of Ḳâjiṭbâj must be located. The grave of Marzûḳ al-Kefâfi is identical with the modern Ḳabr aṭ-Ṭawâši at the end of the šeʻîb of al-Kfâfi and is hence identical also with the settlement of Ẓbe’. The halting place of Azlam is the ancient al-ʻWejned already mentioned.

Ḥaǧǧi Ḫalfa, Ǧihân numa’ (Constantinople, 1145 A. H.), p. 483, states that the stronghold of Ajla is situated on the shore of the Sea of Suez near Mount Ṭûr and that it belongs to Egypt. From Ajla it is two days’ journey to Madjan, which is also called Moṛâjer Šuʻejb, whence it is another three days’ journey to the stronghold of Azlam.—No reference is made to the road leading from Madjan to al-Medîna.

Šamsaddîn al-Bekri, Tuḥfa (Codex Vindobonensis, 925 [A. F. 283 or 457]), fol. 18 v., relates that the Egyptian Sultan Ḳânsûḥ al-Ṛawri (1501—1516 A. D.) ordered the restoration of the ascent at al-ʻAḳaba, as well as of the halting place of Ḥaḳl. At Ḥaḳl a ḫân (khan) was built with towers by the gateway, a complete ruin as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. At al-Azlam there was also constructed