The pass of Ayla
The pass near the head of the Red Sea on the pilgrim road from Cairo to Mecca, where the plague left the Rajab caravan in 1348.
Today: near Aqaba, Jordan
Muslims, Jews, and Christians Pray Together
Ibn Battuta, the Rihla (Travels), dictated in Fez about 1355 · 1348–1349 (dictated about 1355)
ولما وصلت القاهرة وجدت قاضي القضاة عز الدين بن قاضي القضاة بدر الدين ابن جماعة قد توجه إلى مكة في ركب عظيم يسمونه الرجبي لسفرهم في شهر رجب ... وأخبرت أن الوباء لم يزل معهم حتى وصلوا عقبة أيلة فارتفع عنهم.
When I arrived in Cairo, I found that the chief judge Izz al-Din, son of the chief judge Badr al-Din ibn Jamaa, had left for Mecca with a great caravan. They call it the Rajab caravan, because it travels in the month of Rajab. I was told that the pestilence stayed with them until they reached the pass of Ayla, and then it lifted.