i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 555 



with the history of the Prophet. It is called W. Majiro el 

 Shash because the Prophet is said to have passed though 

 it dragging his sash along the ground. In this valley, a 

 mile above the town, are also shown the prints of his 

 lance small natural holes in the rock, and on an eminence 

 the Sidr, or Spina Christ i tree, under which he rested. 

 These relics are visited by pilgrims, who have set up many 

 small stones in the valley as their memorials. A little 

 to the east of the Wady, in the road to the Leeya, are 

 the &quot; martyrs &quot; the place where some of the followers 

 of Mohammed fell in battle against Taif. 



At present the town of Taif presents no appearance of 

 antiquity. The mud-built walls date only from the time 

 of the Wahhabites, who are said to have completed them 

 in twelve days. It is a tradition that the town originally 

 stood close to the foot of Mount Sakkara, a granitic mass 

 covered with loose blocks, the nearest point of which now 

 stands about ten minutes walk from the south-east 

 corner of the town. The people of Taif, says the tradition, 

 suffered much at the hands of the Aseer, and thought 

 it a precaution against surprise to move back a little 

 way from the mountain. I observed no ruins to bear 

 out this view, but at the base of Mount Sakkara on the 

 south side, near the road leading to the upper fountains 

 and orchards, I found two considerable inscriptions in 

 the ancient character already mentioned. The whole 

 sides of Sakkara, and, indeed, of most hills in the vicinity, 

 are covered with Curie inscriptions in several styles of 

 writing, and some very neatly executed. There are no 

 dates, and the inscriptions are mainly sepulchral, or 

 verses of the Koran. 



Taif is divided into three quarters the upper being 

 the citadel (Fog), the lower (Asfal), on the north, and on 

 the east the Indian quarter (Ijlaret el Suleimaneeye) . 

 Many of the houses are small and mean ; but there is a 

 fair proportion of good dwellings in the same style as the 

 houses of Jeddah. They are partly built of stone, but 



