barley flour. The guide mentioned with delight that in that year the great areas between Ṭubejž and Ḥesma were covered with semḥ, so that every family would have a few bags of semḥ seed. From 7.30 to 7.50 our camels grazed. On the southwest appeared the cones of Abu Šnân.[1]
At eight o’clock we came upon fourteen small piles of stones, which had been set up as a memorial to the fact that upon this place the chief Ṭwêleʻ al-Ḫoẓri saved fourteen starving warriors. The latter had gone on a raid but had been surrounded and overpowered and were obliged to give up their arms, camels, and all their supplies, including even their clothing, and then had to return home on foot. For eight days they lived on various herbs, but on the ninth they became so weak that they could go no farther. For two nights and one day they remained in the same place, listening to the wild animals howling around them at night and in the daytime watching the birds of prey wheeling over them. Thus they awaited death. At last Allâh had pity on them and sent the chief Ṭwêleʻ, who saved them.
At 8.20, to the east, we perceived the extinct volcanic cone of Ḥebrân and nearer to us the broad ravine of Ǧemûm, which joins with the šeʻîb of ar-Râšde, which in turn merges into the valley of al-Aḫẓar. On the broad elevation of Umm Birḳa, where we found good pasturage, we remained from 9.05 to 10.50 (temperature: 39° C). Having unloaded the baggage I proceeded with the guide and Tûmân to a cone not far away, whence we drew a sketch of the surrounding district. The ascent was difficult because we had to cross fragments of lava, continually avoiding large basalt boulders.
- ↑ Ibn Hišâm, Sîra (Wüstenfeld), Vol. 1, p. 975, relates that Diḥja ibn Ḫalîfa of the Kalb tribe was sent by the Prophet Mohammed to the Byzantine Emperor. On his return he was attacked in the valley of Šinâr by al-Hunajd ibn ʻÛṣ of the Ẓulajʻ clan of the Ǧuḏâm tribe and robbed of the gifts and various wares which he was bringing from the Emperor.Jâḳût, op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 325, calls the valley in which Diḥja ibn Ḫalîfa was attacked Šinân and locates it in Syria. At the command of the Prophet, Zejd ibn Ḥâreṯa undertook a punitive expedition against the Ǧuḏâm, who had attacked Diḥja.—The valley of Šinâr or Šinân may be identical with one of the šeʻibân surrounding Mount Abu Šnân. From Syria a road led by way of Ajla to al-Medîna around this mountain through the valley of al-Ǧizel. Jâḳût’s statement that Šinân is situated in Syria is not accurate and is due either to the fact that Diḥja of the Kalb tribe hailed from Syria or that under the Moslems a part of the northern Ḥeǧâz was for several centuries politically administered from the town of Ṣoṛar at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Mount Abu Šnân is situated in the former territory of the Ǧuḏâm, which extended as far as latitude 27° 20’ N., thus tallying with the statement of Ibn Hišâm that the valley of Šinâr belonged to the Ǧuḏâm tribe.
