ments of Ẓaḥakân and Ẓbe’, approaches the sea itself, crosses Wâdi al-Aznam by the ruins of the halting place of al-ʻWejned, and again turns away from the marshy seashore.[1]
The eastern road, Darb ar-Raṣîfijje, seems to be the older. It crosses Wâdi al-Ṛarr west of the spring of the same name; reaches Wâdi Terîm by way of the šeʻîb of Ammu-d-Dûd; leads along the western foot of the al-Ǧimm mountain range; passes round the ridge of aš-Šâr through a plain extending to the east of the upper part of the aṣ-Ṣurr wâdi; then, under the name of Darb ar-Rakak, it crosses the elevations of Ab-al-Bâred and al-Maʻîn; follows the šeʻîb of Salûwa’ past the point where the latter joins ad-Dâma; runs through the šeʻîb of al-Ḫandaḳi to the water and ruins of Šaṛab; and continues along the western slope of Šhaba’ Ǧâmra to the oasis and ruins of Bada’.
From the coast it is possible to ascend the eastern uplands through numerous defiles. The road most often taken is the Darb al-Wabri, which runs from al-Mwêleḥ through the aṣ-Ṣurr valley and the pass Naḳb al-Ḫrejṭa to the uplands, whence it leads by way of the well of al-Ǧdejjed to Ṛadîr abu ʻAẓejne, Ṯemîlt ar-Radhe, and farther on to Tebûk. The settlement of al-Mwêleḥ serves as a harbor for Tebûk.
TO ŠARMA
I did not cease making my notes until it had grown completely dark and Tûmân called me to determine our latitude (temperature: 31.1° C). ʻAfnân was sitting beside me, smoking and groaning. Like myself, he had been tormented with recurrent ague and had no appetite. After supper, he got up, kissed my head, and thanked me for the kindness which I had shown him in accepting his hospitality. He went through the same ceremony with the rest of my friends, excepting only the black Mḥammad; him he did not kiss.
On Tuesday, June 14, 1910, we set out at 4.29 A. M. for the oasis of Šarma (temperature: 25° C) across a flat plain which was covered with sejâl thickets. At 5.44 we reached the edge of the oasis where we were to wait for ʻAfnân. Our camels grazed around the water, while we, with the
- ↑ Al-Muḳaddasi, Aḥsan (De Goeje), pp. 26, 84, was acquainted with two towns called an-Nabk and al-ʻAwnîd in the Ḥeǧâz, which he compares with the two halting places of the same name on the road through the desert to Tejma. He describes al-ʻAwnîd as the populated harbor of the town of Ḳurḥ, famous for its honey, and includes it among the main settlements (ummahât) of the Ḥeǧâz.—The reading al-ʻAwnîd is not accurate. The halting place of the same name, situated in the desert to the north of Tejma, is not called al-ʻAwnîd, but al-ʻWejned. Ḳurḥ is an older name for the modern oasis of al-ʻEla’.Al-Maḳrîzi, Mawaʻiẓ (Codex Vindobonensis, Vol. 1, fols. 10 v., 36 v., 134 v., 316 v.; Wiet, Vol. 1, p. 311), asserts that the vocalization should be al-ʻUwajnid and not al-ʻAwnîd.Al-Idrîsi (1154 A. D.), Nuzha (Rome, 1592), III, 5, likewise records al-ʻUwajnid as an anchorage where mariners take in a supply of water, situated opposite the island of an-Naʻmân at a distance of ten miles. The nearest anchorage to the south is called aṭ-Ṭanâfijje.Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 748, allots al-ʻUwajnid to Egypt and says that it lies near Madjan and al-Ḥawra’. This location is not very exact, for Madjan is nearly 200 kilometers away and al-Ḥawra’ more than 250 kilometers.
