A little beyond the Sherif’s house just mentioned, and at the termi­nation of the Mala, stands the tomb of Abou Taleb, an uncle of Mo­hammed, and father of Aly. The Wahabys reduced the building which covered the tomb to a mere heap of rubbish; and Mohammed Aly Pasha has not thought fit to rebuild it. Abou Taleb is the great patron of the city; and there are many persons at Mekka who, though they would have little scruple in breaking an oath taken before God, yet would be afraid of invoking the name of Abou Taleb in confirmation of a falsehood. “I swear by the Mosque”--“I swear by the Kaaba,” are ejaculations constantly used by the Mekkawys to impose upon strangers; but to swear by Abou Taleb is a more serious imprecation, and is seldom heard upon such occasions. Opposite to the ruined tomb stands a public fountain, consisting of a trough built of stone, fifty or sixty feet in length, which is daily filled with water from the aqueduct. Near it grow a few trees. No buildings are seen beyond the fountain, till we come to a large palace of the Sherif, which is surrounded by high walls flanked with towers, and contains within the inclosure a spacious court-yard. In the time of the Sherif it was well garrisoned, and during his wars with the Wahabys he often resided here, as he could set out from hence upon a [p.130] secret attack or expedition, without its becoming immediately known in the city. The building now serves as a barrack for the Turkish soldiers. To the north of this palace lies the quarter or suburb called Moabede, which consists partly of low and ill-built stone houses, and partly of huts constructed of brushwood; it is wholly inhabited by Bedouins, who have become settlers here, for the purpose of carrying on a traffic, principally in corn, dates, and cattle, between the town and their native tribes. I have seen among them Arabs of the tribes of Koreysh, Thekyf, Hodheyl, and Ateybe; and it was said that, in time of peace, individuals of all the great tribes of the Desert, and of Nedjed, are occasionally found here. They live, as I have already observed in speaking of those who occupy another part of Mekka, much in the same manner as they would do in the Desert. Their houses contain no furniture but such as is to be found under the tent of a wealthy Bedouin. Being at a distance from the great mosque, they have en­closed a square space with low walls, where such of them as pretend to any regularity in their devotions (which seldom happens among Bedouins), recite their prayers upon the sand, according to the custom of the Desert. The Turkish governor of Mekka has not thought proper to place here any of his soldiers, for which the suburb is much indebted to him. The Moabede is, by its situation, and the pursuits of its inhabitants, so much separated from the city, that a woman here had not entered the town for the last three years, as she herself assured me; although the Bedouin females walk about the valley with freedom.