Water Availability and Accessibility: The Egyptian Red Sea Pilgrim Route in the Early Modern and Modern times
We study the present to understand the past
A five-year project 2024-2028 sponsored by the Saudi Heritage Commission, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Lead researcher: Dionisius A. Agius, Fellow of the British Academy, Professor Emeritus of Arabic Studies & Islamic Material Culture and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Co-researcher: Dr Muhammad Alhazmi at the Islamic University in Madinah.
Statement of objectives
The availability of water at any anchorage was of great concern to sea travellers, in particular the dhow captain who was responsible for the day-to-day management and safety of the passengers. We are exploring issues concerning sustainable access to quality water on the Red Sea shores, as witnessed by Early Modern and Modern travellers and modern-day mariners and members of the coastal communities. Both written and oral accounts confirm critical issues as to the accessibility of water, due to its scarcity, storage, and salinity. Wells, pools and cisterns were guarded by forts to ensure safety for both the town settlers and seafaring pilgrims on their journeys to and from the holy places. Sources shed light on the impact on the communities when water provision was lacking and give us a sense of how severe the situation must have been when waters ran dry, and seafaring pilgrims had to suffer extreme privation.
Our Line of Inquiry
Our focal point is the Egyptian Pilgrim Route or Coastal Route concerned with issues of sustainable access to quality water in the Hijaz on the Arabian Red Sea coast (Muweilah, Dhuba, Al Wajh, Ummlejj and Yanbu al-Bahr) in the past three hundred years using written evidence of Early Modern and Modern European and Ottoman travelogues and oral testimonies of the coastal communities. The study hopes to reconstruct the past by looking at the remains of water systems and the forts that protected them.
Core of our study
Forts were positioned to guard the towns, markets, wells and cisterns against Bedouin raids and piratical attacks. We are concerned with the management of water among the inhabitants and on board ship, sustainable access to quality water, negotiating water provision and transport with agents and sellers, dhow schedules, disputes over water rationing, and availability of baths.
Availability of water at any Red Sea anchorage was of great concern to sea travellers, in particular the dhow captain who was responsible for the day-to-day management and safety of the passengers and negotiating with owners of wells and cisterns and transporters.
As the demand for water by the crew and passengers became critical, sources confirm that the dhow captain would instruct more frequent stops at landings. According to oral and written accounts, pure water was only found in a few wells along the coast. Water scarcity could lead to many problems of ill-health or even death.
Another facet of this project is to inquire into the use of the terminology on water and in what way it survives in the daily parlance of the region.
Research Questions
- What decisions were made regarding water resources and how was water provision organized and managed in the sea town and for seafaring pilgrims on board the dhow and at their arrival?
- Despite forts built to guard water supplies to protect settlers and pilgrims from Bedouin raids, what risks did the sea captain face to reach a landing and refresh the passengers with freshwater?
- What other usages had water to the sea town industry?
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![More than a century old picture of a man and a camel carrying water standing at the gate of Yanbu al-Bahr (photo Faisal Salam year [?])](/v8media/facultysites/hass/arabandislamicstudies/images/Untitled_design_(7).jpg)
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