JIDDA, or D Jidda, a considerable commercial town, the port of Mecca, situated on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. It is built on a slightly rising ground, the lowest side of which is washed by the sea, and extends along the shore, in its greatest length, about 1500 paces, and is about half that space in breadth. It was encompassed with a wall in 154-0; but as this ancient defence has long since fallen into a state of ruin, a new wall has been constructed on the land side, by the joint labours of the inhabitants, to guard against the incursions of the Wahabees. It is in a tolerable state of repair, but is of no strength; though it is a sufficient barrier against the Arabs, who have no artillery. Watch-towers, with a few rusty guns, are erected at the distance of forty or fifty paces; a narrow ditch is carried round it to increase the means of defence; and it enjoys throughout Arabia the reputation of an impregnable fortress. At the northern extremity stands the governor’s residence; and on the southern is a small castle, mounting eight or ten guns. The whole harbour is commanded by a battery, in which is mounted an immense old piece of ordnance, which carries a ball of 500 pounds, and, says Burckhardt, “is so celebrated all over the Red Sea, that the very fame of it is a protection to the port.” The approach to the town by the sea is by two quays, where small boats discharge the cargoes of large ships; these last being obliged to anchor in the roadstead, about two miles from the shore. The quays being shut every evening after sun-set, all communication is prevented at night between the town and the shipping. On the land-side Jidda has two gates, the Bab-Mekka on the east side, and the Bab-el-Medina on the north. Along the area enclosed by the modern wall, and by the sea on the west, a broad piece of open ground extends the whole length of the interior wall; there is also a good deal of waste ground near the Medina gate, and on the southern extremity. The suburbs consist of miserable huts of reeds, rushes, and brushwood, inhabited by Bedouins or poor peasants and labourers, who live after the Arab fashion. The most respectable inhabitants reside near the sea, where there is a long street parallel with the shore, lined with shops, and containing many khans, exclusively frequented by merchants. Jidda is well built; the streets, though unpaved, are spacious and airy; and the houses are high, consisting mostly of two stories, with many small windows and wooden shutters, and wholly constructed of stone, mostly brought from the sea-shore, but consisting of madrepores and other marine fossils. They have generally a spacious hall at the entrance, where, at noon, the master, with all his male attendants and slaves, may be seen enjoying a siesta. No attention is paid to uniformity of architecture. Some houses are built with small, others with large square stones; sometimes the walls are entirely of stone, whilst at other times layers of plank are placed at intervals in the wall. When the walls are plastered, the dazzling white, during the glare of the sun, is extremely distressing to the eye. There are no buildings of ancient date, owing to the rapid decay of the madrepore, of which they are constructed, when it is exposed to the rain and the moist atmosphere prevalent on the shores of the Red Sea. The town contains, besides many small mosques, two of considerable size. The governor’s habitation is a paltry building, as also that of the collector of the customs. The khans are, many of them, well built, and have good accommodation for the foreign merchants, whose residence they are during their short stay in the town. Water is scarce in Jidda, as in most of the Arabian towns. Several of the wells are private property, and yield their owners a considerable income. Every town of moderate size has its cisterns; but the rains not falling in sufficient abundance to afford an adequate supply to the town, the inhabitants are forced to have recourse to pools formed outside of the town in the rainy season. This water is not so good as the rain-water, which is esteemed a delicacy; and though water is everywhere found at the depth of fifteen feet, it is of a bad quality, and scarcely fit for use. There are only two wells that afford sweet water, which is wholly consumed by the rich. The poorer classes use the water supplied by the other wells, to which, being of indifferent quality, their ill health is ascribed. The town of Jidda is surrounded by a barren desert, without gardens or vegetation of any kind, except a few date-trees adjoining one of the mosques, or a few shrubs and low acacia trees. Beyond the Mecca wall; and on the road to this place, are huts inhabited by poor Bedouins, camel-drivers, and negro hadjis or pilgrims, who gain a livelihood by cutting wood in the mountains. About a mile beyond these huts, eastward of the town, is the principal burial-ground, containing the tombs of several sheiks. There are also several cemeteries within the walls.

The inhabitants of Jidda, like those of Mecca and Medina, are almost exclusively foreigners, and consist, in many cases, of rich merchants, who come on their pilgrimage to Mecca with large adventures of goods, and, not being able to settle their accounts immediately, they wait another year. In the mean time, cohabiting with Abyssinian slaves, whom they marry, and finding themselves with a family, they at last settle in the country. Every pilgrimage thus adds to the population of Jidda, as of the other Arabian towns, and recruits the waste occasioned by the surplus of the deaths over the births. The natives of Jidda are only a few families of Sherifs, who are all of the learned order, and are attached to the mosques or the courts of justice. All the others are foreigners, or their descendants. Colonies from every town and province of Hadramaut and Yemen are settled in Jidda, and maintain an intercourse with their native places. There are upwards of a hundred Indian families from Surat, and a few from Bombay; also Malays, and people from Muskat. The settlers from Egypt, Syria, Barbary, European Turkey, and Anatolia, may be still recognised in the features of their descendants. No Christians are settled in Jidda; but a few Greeks from the islands of the archipelago occasionally bring merchandise to this market from Egypt. Jews were formerly the chief brokers of the town, but they were all expelled about fifty or sixty years ago by some of the governors.

Jidda is a great emporium of maritime commerce, and well merits the Arabian appellation of Djidda, or rich, being probably richer than any town of the same size in the Turkish dominions. The inhabitants are mostly all engaged in commerce, and pursue no manufactures or trades but those of immediate necessity. They are all either sea-faring people, traders by sea, or engaged in trading with Arabia. Jidda not only derives its riches from being the port of Mecca, through which numerous bands of pilgrims pass in their journey to the holy place, but it is an entrepôt of eastern commerce, through which all the exports of India and Arabia destined for Egypt first pass. All bargains are chiefly for ready money, the bad faith of the [7:12:586]eastern merchants not being favourable to credit. Sales and purchases are made of entire ships’ cargoes in the course of half an hour, and the next day the money is paid down. Its commerce may be divided into two principal branches, namely, the coffee trade and the Indian trade. Ships laden with coffee arrive from Yemen all the year round, and dispose of their cargoes for cloths, linen stuffs, and beads, but chiefly for dollars, which they take back to their own country. The demand for Arabian coffee in European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria, has been in a great degree superseded, since the termination of the war in Europe, by West India coffee.

The fleets from India, from Calcutta, Surat, and Bombay, reach Jidda in the beginning of May; their cargoes of Indian goods are immediately bought up by the merchants of Jidda, or on account of Cairo merchants, who send money to Jidda for the purpose. The greater part of the merchandise is shipped for Suez, and sold at Cairo, whence it finds its way into the Mediterranean. The returns are made either in goods or in dollars and sequins, large quantities of which are carried off annually by the Indian fleet. There are several rich merchants in Jidda. Burckhardt, on whose accurate information this account is chiefly founded, mentions two merchants whose grandfathers were the original settlers, and who had each a capital of from L.150,000 to L.250,000. Several Indians, he adds, had acquired capitals nearly equal; and there were about a dozen of houses possessing from L.40,000 to L.50,000 sterling. The vessels belonging to Jidda amount to about 250. It trades by land only with Mecca and Medina. A caravan, of from sixty to a hundred camels, departs for Medina every forty or fifty days, principally with India goods and drugs, and is always augmented by a crowd of pilgrims, who wish to visit Mahommed’s tomb. There is another caravan for Mecca every evening, or at least twice a week, with goods and provisions. During the pilgrimage these caravans set out regularly every evening after sun-set from the Mecca gate; also a caravan of asses, which perform the journey in fifteen or sixteen hours. It is by this caravan that letters are conveyed between the two towns. There are twenty-seven coffee-shops in Jidda, where coffee, as in most parts of Arabia, is drunk to excess, and various other shops for the sale of butter, which is a chief article of Arabian cookery; honey, oil, vinegar, fruits, dates, beans, &c.; sweet-meats, sugar-plums, bread, milk; corn, consisting of Egyptian wheat, beans, lentils, dhourra, Indian and Egyptian rice; biscuits, salt, tobacco, soap, drugs, spices, sugar, perfumery, incense, &c. There are also shops for articles of Indian manufacture, for the sale of clothes chiefly after the Turkish fashion, carpets, Indian piece goods. There are, besides, bankers, bakers, tailors, and one watch-maker. The number of inhabitants may be estimated in general at from 12,000 to 15,000; but during the months preceding the pilgrimage, and the summer months, when the Indian fleets arrive with the monsoons, the influx of strangers swells the population one half above its usual number. Long. 39. 15. E. Lat. 21. 29. N.