172
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s Spouse
and caution and proceeded to the roof. Afraid to fall, we
walked cautiously towards the fence and…. we froze with
astonishment. Before us, on the rocky plateau that was
surrounded by green grass and a thicket of palm trees,
there appeared a whole town of mud houses comprising
small one-floor buildings. Here and there could be seen
high-rising palaces. One could imagine that a giant had
built these small mud houses in close rows as though they
were empty boxes lined next to one another. It seemed
as though he did not wish to provide them with roofs
because he wanted, later at his leisure, to look from his
high position to see how their inhabitants lived and what
they did.
We came out greatly puzzled by the deserted house to
enter another deserted house, and a third and a fourth, and
we discovered, to our great surprise, that until a fairly recent
period, there had been people living here. The walls were
painted in white and the windows were ridged and glassed
. Here and there, we saw clipped pieces of electric wires.
Eventually, we arrived in the city’s central square. Here
some palaces and public buildings that had been repaired
rose high. I can recall the testimony of an eye witness who
said, “At Dar’iyya, I have seen an abundance of wealth,
many people, weapons embellished with unprecedented
decorations of gold and silver, pedigree horses, Omani
camels, expensive clothes and other signs of prosperity
that defied description and enumeration.”
Once I noticed a market where gold, silver, arms,
camels, sheep and goats were bought and sold. Here one
could see those who give and those who take. All that was
173
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s Spouse
heard were two phrases “I have sold” “I have bought”.
In this public square, we saw a huge, high-rising
building that goes back to the time of Grand Saud or
his son Abdulaziz. This was the guest house. Amidst the
buildings that were strung in the middle of the Arabian
Peninsula desert in early Nineteenth Century, there rose
a hotel! It was on a par with modern hotels. The hotel
was divided into several spacious rooms. There was also
a conference hall whose walls were beautifully decorated.
There was also a bath directly connected with the guest
house.
I remember coming here two years ago on a tour. At
that time, the building was in ruins, round which were
gathered building laborers. In the square facing the
building, there were rows of mud tiles lined up in the sun
to dry up. It was not easy, at the time, to imagine what the
building would look like at the end of the repair work. But
now everything is in place. The bath was operational and
reflected the latest techniques of the period. It consisted of
several parts: a spacious place for undressing, benches, a
room for cooling off with a small pool and another with
hot water whose ceiling is in the form of a dome. There
was a fireplace with three walls (something similar can be
seen today in some villages in Azerbaijan). Water used to
be transported up on the backs of mules from a well that
was thirty meters deep in the valley. After use, water was
drained in special pipes underground that were hidden in
the wall foundations.
Our tour brought us to several palaces, some of which
had their own name and others had no names. The house
174
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s Spouse
and mosque of the daughter of Sheikh Muhammad bin
Abdul Wahhab had been repaired and the palace still
looked fine to the stone cutters (this is not a slip of the
tongue for this is how the catalogue refers to them. At that
time, stone cutters were greatly respected and appreciated
and were entitled to have such luxury houses). The house
was well built, while the four walls were reinforced with
stone slabs and gypsum. Inside, the decorations were of the
usual traditional pattern. This house probably belonged to
the master of stone cutters, not to an ordinary laborer.
Next, there was the western part of the road, which
was wider than others. This would probably not be rebuilt
and repaired. It would rather be kept as it was as a living
historical witness to man’s occasional propensity to wars,
their destruction and evils.
Finally, we walked by the stable and along the side of
the city wall and ascended to one of the guard towers.
From this high place, we could see a breath-taking
panorama of the suburbs of the city that is enfolded with
thin clouds. From this high place can be seen the mosque
of Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab that has been
recently renovated, as well as the site of the mosque that
had been destroyed. It was here that the Sheikh sought
with his students and followers to realize the ideal and
true Muslim brotherhood.
Here we came to the end of our tour. Persons and things
cast long shadows, as the sun drew close to its setting in
the west. By then, we had been tired and exhausted, but
we were quite satisfied as a tired body makes one’s soul
quite at ease after all the unforgettable sights that we were
Dostları ilə paylaş: |