ABSTRACT

W hen the new moon of Shawwāl appeared in the above-mentioned year [1 September 1326], the Ḥijāz caravan went out to the outskirts of Damascus and encamped at the village called al-Kiswa, 1 and I set out on the move with them. 2 The commander of the caravan was Saif al-Dīn al-Jūbān, one of the principal amīrs, 3 and its qāḍī was Sharaf al-Dīn al-Adhru‘ī 4 [from Adhru‘] in Ḥawran. In the same year the professor of the Mālikites, Sadr al-Din al-Ghomārī, 5 also went on pilgrimage. My journey was made with a tribe of bedouin Arabs called al-‘Ajārima, 6 whose amīr was Muḥammad b. Rāfi‘, a man occupying a high position amongst the amīrs. We marched from al-Kiswa to a village called al-Ṣanamain, 7 a big place, and marched on from there to the township of Zur‘a, 8 a small place in the district of Ḥawran. After a halt in its vicinity we travelled on to the town of Bosrā; it [too] is a small place. 9 It is the usual practice 159of the caravan to stop there for four nights, so that any who have remained behind at Damascus to finish off their business may make up on them. 10 It was at Boṣrā that | the Apostle of God (God bless and give him peace) came before his mission, while engaged in trading on Khadīja’s account, and in the town [there is shown] the place where his she-camel couched, over which a great mosque has been erected. The inhabitants of Ḥawran flock to this town [with their produce] and the pilgrims supply themselves here with provisions for the journey. They travel next to the Pool of Zīza, 11 where they stop for a day, then go on to al-Lajjūn, 12 where there is running water, and thence to the castle of al-Karak.