Travels in Arabia; comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred by John Lewis Burckhardt
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whether the sacred city Medina does not belong rather to Nedjed than to
Hedjaz. From statements so vague as those above quoted, an attempt to trace exactly the limits of any country must be vain and fallacious: that region, therefore, which borders on the Red Sea, and which the natives, we know, entitle unequivocally Hedjaz, is marked in our map, as in almost every other published hitherto, merely with that name, its first letter being placed where the editor supposes Arabia Petraea to terminate, and its last letter where he would separate Hedjaz from Tehama. [Burckhardt (Syrian Travels p. 511.) quotes Makrizi, the Egyptian historian, who says, in his chapter on Aila, (Akaba): "It is from hence that the Hedjaz begins: in former times it was the frontier place of the Greeks, &c."] To those who seek the most accurate information respecting places but little known, this work is sufficiently recommended by the name of its author, and of the country which it describes. "The manners of the Hejazi Arabs have continued," says Sir William Jones, "from the time of Solomon to the present age." [Discourse on the Arabs, Asiat. Researches, vol. ii.] "Our notions of Mecca must be drawn," says Gibbon, "from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado." [Roman Empire, chap. 50. note 18.] But the reader of this preface must not be withholden from [p.xii] perusing Burckhardt's authentic and interesting account of the places which he visited, of the extraordinary ceremonies which he |
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