Note 6 — Chapter II · CAIRO AND THE MECCA PILGRIMAGE.

“It is related that the Sultan Ez-Zahir Beybars, King of Egypt, was the first who sent a mahmal with the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, in the year of the flight 670 (A.D. 1272) or 675; but this custom, it is generally said, had its origin a few years before his accession to the throne. Shegered-Durr, a beautiul Turkish female slave who became the favorite wife of the Sultan Es-Sáleh Negm-ed-Deen, and on the death of his son (with whom terminated the dynasty of the house of the Eiyoob) caused herself to be acknowledged as Queen of Egypt, performed the pilgrimage in a magnificent ‘hódag,’ or covered litter, borne by a camel; and for several successive years her empty ‘hódag’ was sent with the caravan, merely for the sake of state. Hence, succeeding princes of Egypt sent with each year’s caravan of pilgrims a kind of ‘hódag’ (which received the name of mahmal) as an emblem of royalty.”—“The Modern Egyptians,” by E. W. Lane, chap. xxiv, London, 1860.