Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/88

 Al-Bekri also states, op. cit. p. 190, that the places mentioned by Ḥassân ibn Ṯâbet refer to the encampments of the Ǧuḏâm and that they are situated in Syria (Ḥassân ibn Ṯâbet, Dîwân [Tûnis, 1281 A. H.], p. 28).Al-Bekri, op. cit., p. 524, refers to Marrût as a region in the Ǧuḏâm territory, which was presented to Ḥuṣejn ibn Mušammet by the Prophet Mohammed, together with the fountains of Uṣejheb, al-Mâʻeze, al-Hawi, aṯ-Ṯmâd, and as-Sdêra in that area.—Madjan is the present oasis of al-Bedʻ about half-way up the wâdi of al-Abjaẓ. Aḏruḥ is situated sixteen kilometers northwest of the town of Maʻân. An-Nabk is a pilgrimage station on the shore of the Red Sea, which must be located in the šeʻîb of Šaʻaf, although the frontier between the Ǧuḏâm and Beli was and is still formed by the wâdi of Dâma, nearly sixty kilometers northwest of Šaʻaf. ʻAjnûna’ is located about fifty kilometers south-southeast of Madjan (al-Bedʻ). Al-Maṛâr—or, as it is called today, al-Moṛâr is a plateau to the south and southeast of the Ramm range, or the ancient Iram, rising to the cast of the former city of Ajla and enclosing the northern corner of the Ḥesma’ district. According to al-Hamdâni the Ǧuḏâm tribe occupied Ḥesma’ as far as the harbor of Ajla and al-Moṛâr, as well as the neighboring aš-Šera’ range as far as Maʻân and the eastern table-land. The Laḫm tribe had the territory to the north of al-Moṛâr and to the west of the neighboring aš-Šera’ range as far as the Dead Sea, always supposing, of course, that the details given by al-Hamdâni are accurate. It is certain that the Laḫm territory did not extend as far as the settlement of Tebûk. No other writer mentions the Laḫm in the vicinity of Tebûk, and no tribe would have permitted a foreign zone to be thrust as a wedge into their territory, thereby intercepting the road from water to water. Al-Maʻîn is a mountain overlooking the coastal plain about sixty kilometers north of the Dâma wâdi. Some accounts mention ʻArd in place of ʻAwd, although it seems to me that the former name is correct, for ʻArâjed is the name of an important encampment north of Tebûk, well known to the Arabic writers. The place named Ṛazza is unknown to me in the territory of the Ǧuḏâm tribe. It is, however, Ǧerîs and Sardân, they are visible from a long way off. At three o’clock we had the white limestone hills of al-Ḫazʻali to the east and the high dark gray cone of al-Ḳiḏer to the southeast. At 3.20 we reached the plain Ḫawr Ǧerîs, where Ḥammâd pointed out to me on the right the famous caves Moṛâr ʻAntar. On the eastern side of the limestone mountain Ṭôr ʻAntar were the mouths of three large, natural caves which served as a shelter for flocks of goats and sheep. Nowhere in these caves is there the slightest trace of any decoration or any other sign that human hands have touched them. Their resemblance to the burial caves at Wâdi Mûsa was a product of Ḥammâd’s lavish imagination. He was distressed to find that the caves did not please me, but he comforted me by saying that he would conduct me to the rock of ʻAlaḳân, where he would show me boulders containing gold dust. He declared that in the spring of that year an official, ḫaddâm, of the Viceroy of Egypt had searched for such boulders near ʻAlaḳân without being able to find them, but that he would certainly show them to me. I thanked him for his willingness, but declared that I would not go to ʻAlaḳân, as I could not go there alone, and, if I were to take my companions with me, Ismaʻîn and Mḥammad would likewise see the boulders and later on would certainly make a raid upon the ʻImrân for the purpose of taking the boulders from them.

Having turned to the southwest through the gap of Abu Ḥsejje, we halted at 4.08 beneath the rocky wall of al-Waraḳa (temperature: 28° C). To the northwest, near the