Westward of these table-lands we could see beneath us an endless yellowish plain, from which rose countless cupolas, cones, peaks, and obelisks, isolated and in groups. As the highest of these elevations rose only a little higher than the point where we were standing, it was obvious that none was more than 980 meters high. The nearest to us was the mutilated pyramid of al-ʻEjsâwi which towers up to the southeast; southwest of it rises the peak of al-Mzejjen; and west of the latter the five cones of at-Tamlât, southwest of which there extends from east to west a table-land overlooked by the hill of al-ʻAwǧa’. South of al-Mzejjen and Ṣaʻada’-l-Barṣa’ rise the three high obelisks of Ḳalb al-Mǧawwaḫ, and south of them, westward of Ṣaʻada’-l-Ḥamra’, the huge group of Ḳlûb al-Ḫejl and al-Ḫešše.[1]
Southeast of al-Ḫešše the plain of Bwejb al-Ḥâwi merges with the plain of Fîhat Ḥawmal. At a considerable distance to the south, from a yellowish plain, there rose the dark ridge of Šeʻaṯa partly concealing the peak of Ḫiššt aṯ-Ṯowr, which lies north of the railway station of Ḏât al-Ḥâǧǧ and southeast of the station of Ḥâlât ʻAmmâr. North of Šeʻaṯa the peaks of Dbejdeb Selîṭ were reflected from the glistening white salt marsh as-Sabḫa. At the southwestern edge of this marsh stand the old pilgrims’ station of Ḳalʻa Soraṛ[2] and the new railway station of al-Mdawwara.
The šeʻîb of Fzêr al-Ṛâzi, dividing aṯ-Ṯâje from Duṛdâš and Šdejjed Ṛâzi, ends in the marshes of as-Sabḫa; and here also ends the šeʻîb of al-Mkejḥîl, which originates at Mšâš al-Čabd under the name al-Ǧebûʻ, as well as ar-Rwêṭje and ar-Râṭje to the west of al-Mkejḥîl. On the right side of ar-Râṭje, stretching from north to southeast, the plain is shut in by a row of hillocks, Berḳ ar-Rezâje, partly buried in sand.- ↑ Ibn Isḥâḳ (died 768 A.D.) relates (Ibn Hišâm [died 834 A.D.], Sîra [Wüstenfeld], p. 975; Jâḳût, Muʻǧam [Wüstenfeld], Vol. 2, p. 448) that Zejd ibn Ḥâreṯa attacked the Beni Ǧuḏâm near Ḫušejn, which, according to Ibn Hišâm, is situated in the region of Ḥesma.—If we ventured to read Ḫuššejn, we could locate this spot in al-Ḫešše, situated on the eastern border of Ḥesma not far from a supply of water at al-Mšejṭijje and thus suitable for a camping place. It is possible that Zejd returned through the region of Ḥesma to Tebûk; but from the narratives of al-Wâḳedi and Ibn Hišâm it does not seem as if he penetrated into Ḥesma.
- ↑ Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 77, states that Sarṛ is the border between the Ḥeǧâz and Syria, that it lies between al-Muṛîṯa and the settlement of Tebûk, forming a station on the Syrian Pilgrim Route, and that it was there that the leaders of the armies fighting in Syria waited for the Caliph ʻOmar ibn al-Ḫaṭṭâb. He also asserts that al-Medîna is thirteen days’ march distant from the station of Sarṛ and that, according to Mâlek ibn Ans, Sarṛ is a settlement in Wâdi Tebûk.Al-Muṛîṯa should be located on the Pilgrim Route, north of Soraṛ, but it is utterly unknown. It seems to me that it has been erroneously transcribed from Maʻân or confused with the station of the same name on the road from al-Kûfa. The statement of Mâlek ibn Ans that Sarṛ is situated in the Wâdi Tebûk is obviously incorrect, for the Arabic geographers nowhere refer to the Wâdi Tebûk.The same place, Soraṛ, is also recorded by Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 86, in the form Sarûʻ. He quotes a passage from a lost work by Abu Ḥuḏajfa on the conquest of Syria, in which it was stated that Abu ʻObejda marched with the Moslems by way of Wâdi al-Ḳura’, al-Ǧunejne, al-Aḳraʻ, Tebûk, and Sarûʻ, whereupon he advanced into Syria.—All these places here referred to are situated on the present Pilgrim Route, and from this it is clear that Sarûʻ is a corruption of Sarṛ. The old name Sarṛ has been preserved by the natives in the form Soraṛ; but in the later literature of the pilgrimages it was replaced by the name Ṭubejlijjât or Ṭabîlijjât.Meḥmed Edîb (1779 A.D.) writes (Menâzil [Constantinople, 1232 A.H.], p. 72) that the station of Ṭubejlijjât is fifteen hours distant from Ẓahr al-ʻAḳaba, that no water is to be had there, and that the stronghold and reservoir there were built by ʻAbdallâh Pasha. According to him, on both sides of the stronghold rise stony slopes, and an endless desert stretches away from the mountains, undulating and from afar resembling an ocean of sand. The road to the station of Ḏât al-Ḥâǧǧ is stony except for a track on which one travels for about three hours.
