The Souk Al Zal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

 

The north end of the souk

I was with a group of tourists walking from Al Masmak Palace (قصر المصمك) through Safa Square (ساحة الصفاة) to Souk Al Zal (سوق الزل). Safa Square is also called Deera Square (ساحة الديرة) [1]. As we walked by, we saw some women performing their midday prayer. On the north side of the square is the General Presidency of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (فرع الرئاسة العامة لهيئة الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر) [2]. Punishments were carried out there in the past. But one thing at a time.

The Al Masmak Palace, also called Masmak Fortress or Masmak Fort, was built with mud bricks and clay, planned in 1865 [3]. It was the site of the Battle of Riyadh in 1902. But enough history for now, because we were going to walk across Safa or Deera Square. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (هيئة الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر) has had its powers significantly curtailed in the last 20 years, and the square is now occupied by cafes and restaurants. Previously, it was the site of Hadd punishments (حد). [4] These punishments, prescribed under Islamic law, are for offenses that infringe upon God's rights. Examples include beheading (decapitation), lashing, stoning to death, and amputation of hands or feet. Today, these punishments are carried out in a military prison. Now it's an open space, with nothing to indicate its history.

But now we've arrived at Souk Al Zal. We simply arrived too early in the day, as the main trading hours are traditionally in the evening. We were able to visit various shops, and in retrospect, it was even better this way with fewer distractions. For example, we saw shops selling men's clothing, shoes and sandals, fabrics and children's clothing, toys, antiques, coffee pots and dishes, incense, frankincense and perfume (some alcohol-free [5]), agal, and more were open – I'll reveal the mystery behind the agal shortly.

In Saudi Arabia, men wear the white thawb (ثَوْب) [6], but we didn't see these shops; perhaps they are more likely to be custom-made or these shops are elsewhere. Women wear the black abaya (عباية) [7], but these shops weren't nearby. We saw them later on the trip, as the women in our group needed to buy abayas for visiting Medina. If Saudi Arabians visit government offices and agencies, they should wear the national dress. But let's stick with the men. Clothing varies depending on the region and the weather. For example, we were in Tabuk in warm weather, and 10 days later it snowed there. There are vests (صدارية) and the bisht (بِشْت), a flowing outer cloak [8].

In addition, the ghutrah (غُتْرَة), which is perhaps known here as keffiyeh (كُوفِيَّة) [9], was offered in the shops. It is a square woolen cloth, woven in red and white in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, for example, but black and white among Palestinians. One of my brothers brought such cloths back from Syria or Lebanon in the 1970s and sold them in Germany. Traditionally, the ghutrah was meant to protect against the sun. These shops also sold misbaha (مِسْبَحَة) [10] and walking sticks as accessories. The misbaha is a set of prayer beads; similar items are found as japamala in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, or the rosary used in Catholicism, which probably originated from the Greek Orthodox komboskini (κομποσκοίνι) or prayer rope [11].

Another shop manufactured agal (عِقَال) [12] and also sold pre-made ones. The agal is a doubled black cord made of wool and cotton, required for the ghutrah (keffiyah). The different fabrics are twisted together by machine to form a firm agal that should fit quite snugly so that the ghutrah does not slip.

Besides Western shoes, traditional leather sandals are also sold, which are described as very durable. They have a leather flap for the big toe. But in the cities, people probably already tend to wear Western shoes, sneakers, etc.

I also found the fragrance shops interesting and worth mentioning, selling aromatic wood and incense, but also perfume, which, to be honest, smelled too heavy and sweet to me. The wood is burned on a censer, mabkhara (مبخرة) [13], in such a way that a spicy smoke is produced, which is used to scent rooms and is also held towards guests, who then fan the smoke towards themselves.

If you visit the area around the souk, don't miss making a detour there. If you are more interested in the shops than the shoppers, then afternoon is a good time to go, as it is less crowded, while in the evening you will see more shops and more activity.

At about the south end of the souk

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deera_Square
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_for_the_Promotion_of_Virtue_and_the_Prevention_of_Vice_(Saudi_Arabia)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Masmak_Palace
[4] Hadd has two dd, even if one cannot see it in the Arabic without diacritic markers. The plural of hadd is hudud (حدود).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudud
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadd-Strafe
[5] Traditional perfumes won't contain alcohol. In principle perfumes may contain alcohol according to the sharia, but traditional society banned perfumes for women in public as it could attract men.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thawb
[7] Look at the Arabic and you it should be written 'abaya. 
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaya
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisht_(clothing)
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misbaha
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_rope
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agal_(accessory)
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabkhara 

PS. A picture of a shop selling abayas.

PS
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The Mosque of Umar ibn al-Khattab in Dumat al-Jandal (Saudi Arabia)

 

The Mosque of Umar ibn al-Khattab (مسجد عمر بن الخطاب) [1] is located in the historic town of Dumat al-Jandal (دُومَة ٱلْجَنْدَل,) [2]. The mosque, with its minaret, and the surrounding historical site rdiate age and history. I immediately fell in love with this complex, and then there's Qasr Marid, which I'll describe separately. It is one of the oldest mosques in the world; it was built between 634 and 644. “The importance of the mosque lies in its design because it represents the continuity of the design pattern of the first mosques. It is reminiscent of the design of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina in its early stages.” [3]

It was assumed that Umar ibn al-Khattab had the mosque built while on his way to Jerusalem, hence its name, but the architecture does not support this. King [4] describes the minaret as completely different from any minarets he had encountered in Saudi Arabia. He suggests that this type of minaret dates back to a much earlier period than the third century CE. Charloux [5] points out that Dumat al-Jandal was already mentioned in Assyrian annals. There are pre-Islamic necropolises as well as proto-Islamic ones. He emphasizes that urgent cataloging work is needed, as thefts have already occurred.

Let's go down into the mosque. The north wall—and since that sounds like mountaineering—the qibla wall overlooks Qasr Marid Castle. Like all the buildings in the city, the mosque is made of drystone. There is a main prayer hall with the qibla and niches for the Qur'an; there is also a separate prayer room for women. Access to the mosque is through a door near the minaret. The prayer hall is formed by three rows of stone pillars [6].

A very important destination on a trip through Saudi Arabia!

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_ibn_al-Khattab_Mosque
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumat_al-Jandal
[3] https://madainproject.com/omar_ibn_alkhattab_mosque
[4] King, Geoffrey. “A Mosque Attributed to ‘Umar B. al-Khaṭṭāb in Dūmat al-Jandal in al-Jawf, Saudi Arabia.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 2, 1978, pp. 109–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25210953. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025. Contains lots of old pictures.
[5] Charloux, Guillaume. “Known and Unknown Archaeological Monuments in the Dūmat Al-Jandal Oasis in Saudi Arabia: A Review.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, vol. 42, 2012, pp. 41–55. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41623627. Accessed 1 Dec. 2025.
[6] https://www.archnet.org/sites/3796

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The Synagogue of Batumi in Georgia

 

On my journey through the Caucasus I visited many churches in Armenia and Georgia and also a synagogue, to be precise the Synagogue of Batumi (ბათუმის სინაგოგა) [1]. It was built in 1904, but was closed during the Soviet era from the end of the 1920s and later used as a sports facility. I remembered a visit to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, where I had visited a Lutheran church  that had been altered to be a public swimming pool during the Soviet era [2]. The Synagogue of Batumi was handed back to the Jewish community of Batumi in 1993. It was then extensively renovated and painted white. The synagogue was reopened in 1998. The Batumi synagogue was added to the list of national monuments of Georgia in 2011.

There is not much to say about the interior. It's just a room where people (I guess men) meet to pray; there is an upper floor, traditionally for women. I was allowed to enter, but the young man who was controlling the entrance did not appear to be of Jewish faith, because he was not wearing a kippah (yarmulke). I was already wondering what the Jewish community in Batumi might be like. Later that day, just before I got to my hotel at the the circus, I saw an Orthodox Jew with his two daughters, aged around 9-11. The two girls were wearing identical clothes and I had seen something like this before in pictures of Orthodox Jewish families. But I had to be patient to answer my question about the Jewish community or the Jews in Georgia. However, I did find a very interesting article on Wikipedia in English about the history of the Jews in Georgia [3].

I would like to quote the first sentence of the Wikipedia article: “The Georgian Jews (Georgian: ქართველი ებრაელები, romanized: kartveli ebraelebi, Hebrew: יהדות גאורגיה, romanized: Yahadut Georgia) are a community of Jews who migrated to Georgia during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE.” The Jewish community in Batumi can therefore look back on a tradition that is 2,600 years old. This led to a distinction being made between traditions, as Ashkenazi Jews lived in Tblisi, for example, until the Soviet era. Of the approximately 60,000 Jews who lived in Georgia in the 1970s, most emigrated. In 2014, a census counted 1,405 Jews. In principle, the Jews in Georgia are one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. For more on the history of the Jews in Georgia, please refer to the article on Wikipedia.

Traditionally, the Jews in Georgia spoke Judaeo-Georgian, known endonymically as Qivruli (Georgian: ყივრული ენა) and also known as Gruzinic, which contains many loanwords from Hebrew. Yiddish is a West Germanic language that developed in a similar way, but in addition to loanwords from Hebrew, it also contains loanwords from other languages. Judaeo-Georgian is sometimes denied classification as a separate language because when spoken it is very similar to Georgian. But it is also a written language and, like Yiddish, is written using the Hebrew alphabet.
The Wikipedia article has the text “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity ...”.
The Latin transliteration of Judaeo-Georgian is:
Qvela adamiani ibadeba tavisupali da tanasc̣ori tavisi ɣirsebita da uplebebit. Mat minič̣ebuli akvt goneba da sindisi da ertmanetis mimart unda ikceodnenʒmobis sulisḳvetebit
The Latin transliteration of Georgian is:
q’vela adamiani ibadeba tavisupali da tanasts’ori tavisi ghirsebita da uplebebit. mat minich’ebuli akvt goneba da sindisi da ertmanetis mimart anda iktseodnen dzmobis sulisk’vetebit.
It looks very similar, but as far as I understand it is not the whole truth. Everyday language will differ more than it is the case with a text concerning human rights. I have tried to illustrate this for Mandarin and Cantonese by translating it using Google Translate [4]. While the political text written in Cantonese is quite understandable for someone who speaks Mandarin, this is no longer the case for the part of the text from the kitchen.
What I've done in the previous paragraphs, one could almost call this a digression.
There are still around 85,000 speakers of Judaeo-Gregorian, most of whom now live in Israel.

The Jewish community in Batumi has a very long history. It is nice that there is still a community in Batumi. And who knows whether it will not make history one day, because the consulate of the Iranian state Islamic Republic of Iran is only about 130 m away around the corner. Yes, I would like to suggest that Iran and Israel hold peace negotiations in Batumi; it is such a beautiful city on the Black Sea that such an endeavor should be promising [5].

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_Batumi The German article on Wikipedia is more extensive than the English article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batumi_Synagogue
[2] From Church to Swimming Hall and back again https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-church-to-swimming-hall-and-back.html
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaeo-Georgian
[4] The US President has introduced the law to protect voles in Congress.
美國總統在國會提出了保護田鼠的法律。
Měiguó zǒngtǒng zài guóhuì tíchūle bǎohù tiánshǔ de fǎlǜ.
美國總統喺國會提出咗保護田鼠嘅法律。
mei5gwok3 zung2tung2 hai2 gwok3wui2 tai4ceot1 zo2 bou2wu6 tin4syu2 ge3 faat3leot6。
In the kitchen, the daughter accidentally had the soup spoon and that Dulcimer thrown into the trash bin.
在廚房裡，女兒不小心把湯匙和菜板丟進了垃圾桶。
Zài chúfáng lǐ, nǚ'ér bù xiǎoxīn bǎ tāngchí huo cài bǎn di ū jìnle lèsè tǒng.
喺廚房入面，個女唔小心將個湯匙同砧板丟咗落垃圾桶度。
hai2 cyu4fong4 jap6min6，go3 neoi2 m4 siu2sam1 zoeng1 go3 tong1ci4 tung4 baan2 diu1 zo2 lok6 laap6saap3 tung2 dou6。
[5] I know that I am a dreamer. [Scio me somniare.]
 
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Earl of Sandwich – a bit of History after all

 

The Big Island of the Haiwaiian Islands -
The Islands formerly as the Sandwich Islands

lord sandwich said
himself a middle child
in between is the best

I wrote the haiku above in response to the prompt „Middle Child“ on Facebook's National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo) [1]. It was immediately clear to me that it would have nothing to do with the historical Earl of Sandwich. But it also says Lord of Sandwich. And it was clear to me that he could hardly have been a middle child, otherwise he would not have received  the title. I rejected the idea of looking it up on Wikipedia, but now I was seized by enthusiasm to do so.

Earl of Sandwich is a hereditary British noble title in England, named after Sandwich, a town in Kent [2]. This blogpost is about John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who lived from 1718 to 1792 and was a British diplomat and statesman [3]. He is known today for the sandwich, to which we will come later. John Montagu was the elder of two brothers who were abandoned by their mother after the death of their father, so that was the end for the concept of a middle child. He was accepted into Eton at the age of seven. It is not surprising that among his many letters, not one is from or to his mother. James Cook had named the Hawaiian Islands the Sandwich Islands, but this name did not stick. There are, however, the South Sandwich Islands, which lie about 700 km southeast of South Georgia [4].

Now let's get to the sandwich. Legend has it that the Eral of Sandwich did not want to interrupt his game of cribbage (a card game) and so he had this new type of bread slice handed to him, so he could eat while playing. At first it was beef between two toasted slices of white bread. That would be very similar to a hamburger of nowadays. But Pierre-Jean Grosley - the only source for the origin of the sandwich myth is a travel book by him - probably named his own creation after the Earl of Sandwich. He was a busy writer and also didn't want his writing by eating.

Should I have researched it when I was writing the haiku? No, absolutely not, maybe I would have got scruples and withdrawn it.

Links and notes:
[1] NaHaiWriMo / Write a haiku a day, inspired by daily prompts, especially in February, National Haiku Writing Month. https://www.facebook.com/NaHaiWriMo
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Sandwich
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4._Earl_of_Sandwich and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Sandwich
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sandwich_Islands

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