[p.392] was not walled.  Even in Al-Idrisi’s time (twelfth century), and as late as Bartema’s (eighteenth century), the fortifications were mounds of earth, made by order of Kasim al-Daulat al-Ghori, who re-populated the town and provided for its inhabitants.  Now, the enceinte is in excellent condition.  The walls are well built of granite and lava blocks, in regular layers, cemented with lime; they are provided with “Mazghal” (or “Matras”) long loopholes, and “Shararif” or trefoil-shaped crenelles:  in order to secure a flanking fire, semicircular towers, also loopholed and crenellated, are disposed in the curtain at short and irregular intervals.  Inside, the streets are what they always should be in these torrid lands, deep, dark, and narrow, in few places paved-a thing to be deprecated-and generally covered with black earth well watered and trodden to hardness.  The most considerable lines radiate towards the Mosque.  There are few public buildings.  The principal Wakalahs are four in number; one is the Wakalat Bab Salam near the Harim, another the Wakalat Jabarti, and two are inside the Misri gate; they all belong to Arab citizens.  These Caravanserais are used principally as stores, rarely for dwelling-places like those of Cairo; travellers, therefore, must hire houses at a considerable expense, or pitch tents to the detriment of health and to their extreme discomfort.  The other public buildings are a few mean coffee-houses and an excellent bath in the Harat Zarawan, inside the town:  far superior to the unclean establishments of Cairo, it borrows something from the luxury of Stambul.  The houses are, for the East, well built, flat-roofed and double-storied; the materials generally used are a basaltic scoria, burnt brick, and palm wood.  The best enclose spacious courtyards and small gardens with wells, where water basins and date trees gladden the owners’ eyes.  The latticed balconies, first seen by the overland European traveller at Malta, are here common, and the windows are

[p.393]mere apertures in the wall, garnished, as usual in Arab cities, with a shutter of planking.  Al-Madinah fell rapidly under the Wahhabis, but after their retreat, it soon rose again, and now it is probably as comfortable and flourishing a little city as any to be found in the East.  It contains between fifty and sixty streets, including the alleys and culs-de-sac.  There is about the same number of Harat or quarters; but I have nothing to relate of them save their names.  Within the town few houses are in a dilapidated condition.  The best authorities estimate the number of habitations at about 1500 within the enceinte, and those in the suburb at 1000.  I consider both accounts exaggerated; the former might contain 800, and the Manakhah perhaps 500; at the same time I must confess not to have counted them, and Captain Sadlier (in A.D. 1819) declares that the Turks, who had just made a kind of census, reckoned 6000 houses and a population of 18,000 souls.  Assuming the population to be 16,000 (Burckhardt raises it as high as 20,000), of which 9000 occupy the city, and 7000 the suburbs and the fort, this would give a little more than twelve inhabitants to each house, a fair estimate for an Arab town, where the abodes are large and slaves abound.[FN#20]