Chapter 8: et passim), give specimens (11)

[p.337] The only remarkable object in it[FN#75] is a square of wooden railing enclosing a place full of well-watered earth, called the Garden of our Lady Fatimah.[FN#76] It now contains a dozen date-trees-in Ibn Jubayr's time there were fifteen. Their fruit is sent by the eunuchs as presents to the Sultan and the great men of Al-Islam; it is highly valued by the vulgar, but the Olema do not think much of its claims to importance. Among the palms are the venerable remains of a Sidr, or Lote tree,[FN#77] whose produce is sold for inordinate sums. The enclosure is entered by a dwarf gate in the South-Eastern portion of the railing, near the well, and one of the eunuchs is generally to be seen in it: it is under the charge of the Mudir, or chief treasurer. These gardens are not uncommon in Mosques, as the traveller who passes through Cairo can convince himself. They form a pretty and an appropriate feature in a building erected for the worship of Him "Who spread the Earth with Carpets of Flowers and drew shady Trees from the dead Ground." A tradition of the Apostle also declares that "Acceptable is Devotion in the Garden and in the Orchard."

[p.338] At the South-East angle of this enclosure, under a wooden roof supported by pillars of the same material, stands the Zemzem, generally called the Bir al-Nabi, or "the Apostle's well." My predecessor declares that the brackishness of its produce has stood in the way of its reputation for holiness. Yet a well-educated man told me that it was as "light" (wholesome) water[FN#78] as any in Al-Madinah,-a fact which he accounted for by supposing a subterraneous passage[FN#79] which connects it with the great Zemzem at Meccah. Others, again, believe that it is filled by a vein of water springing directly under the Apostle's grave: generally, however, among the learned it is not more revered than our Lady's Garden, nor is it ranked in books among the holy wells of Al-Madinah.

Between this Zemzem well and the Eastern Riwak is the Stoa, or Academia, of the Prophet's city. In the cool mornings and evenings the ground is strewed with professors, who teach the young idea, as an eminent orientalist hath it, to shout rather than to shoot.[FN#80] A few feet to the South of the palm garden is a moveable wooden planking painted green, and about three feet high; it serves to separate the congregation from the Imam when he prays here; and at the North-Eastern angle of the enclosure is a

[p.339] Shajar Kanadil, a large brass chandelier, which completes the furniture of the court.

After this inspection, the shadows of evening began to gather round us. We left the Mosque, reverently taking care to issue forth with the left foot, and not to back out of it as is the Sunnat or practice derived from the Apostle, when taking leave of the Meccan Temple.

To conclude this long chapter. Although every Moslem, learned and simple, firmly believes that Mohammed's remains are interred in the Hujrah at Al-Madinah, I cannot help suspecting that the place is doubtful as that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. It must be remembered that a tumult followed the announcement of the Apostle's death, when the people, as often happens, believing him to be immortal,[FN#81] refused to credit the report, and even Omar threatened destruction to any one that asserted it.

Moreover the body was scarcely cold when the contest about the succession arose between the fugitives of Meccah and the auxiliaries of Al-Madinah: in the ardour of which, according to the Shi'ahs, the house of Ali and Fatimah-within a few feet of the spot where the tomb of the Apostle is now placed-was threatened with fire, and Abu Bakr was elected Caliph that same evening. If anyone find cause to wonder that the last resting-place of a personage so important was not fixed for ever, he may find many a parallel case in Al-Madinah. To quote no other, three several localities claim the honour of containing the Lady Fatimah's mortal spoils, although one might suppose that the daughter of the Apostle and the mother of the Imams would not be laid in an unknown grave. My reasons for incredulity are the following: [p.340] From the earliest days the shape of the Apostle's tomb has never been generally known in Al-Islam. For this reason it is that graves are made convex in some countries, and flat in others. Had there been a Sunnat,[FN#82] such would not have been the case.

The accounts of the learned are discrepant. Al-Samanhudi, perhaps the highest authority, contradicts himself. In one place he describes the coffin; in another he expressly declares that he entered the Hujrah when it was being repaired by Kaid-Bey, and saw in the inside three deep graves, but no traces of tombs.[FN#83] Either, then, the mortal remains of the Apostle had, despite Moslem superstition,[FN#84] mingled with the dust, (a probable circumstance

[p.341] after nearly nine hundred years' interment), or, what is more likely, they had been removed by the Shi'ah schismatics who for centuries had charge of the sepulchre.[FN#85]

And lastly, I cannot but look upon the tale of the blinding light which surrounds the Apostle's tomb, current for ages past and still universally believed upon the authority of the attendant eunuchs, who must know its falsehood, as a priestly gloss intended to conceal a defect.

I here conclude the subject, committing it to some future and more favoured investigator. In offering the above remarks, I am far from wishing to throw a doubt upon an established point of history. But where a suspicion of fable arises from popular "facts," a knowledge of man and of his manners teaches us to regard it with favouring eye.[FN#86]

[FN#1] Others add a fourth, namely, the Masjid al-Takwa, at Kuba. [FN#2] The Moslem divines, however, naïvely remind their readers, that they are not to pray once in the Al-Madinah Mosque, and neglect the other 999, as if absolved from the necessity of them. The passage in the text merely promises 1000 blessings upon that man's devotion who prays at the Prophet's Mosque. [FN#3] The visitor, who approaches the Sepulchre as a matter of religious ceremony, is called "Zair," his conductor "Muzawwir," whereas the pilgrim at Meccah becomes a "Haji." The Imam Malik disapproved of a Moslem's saying, "I have visited the Prophet's tomb," preferring him to express himself thus-"I have visited the Prophet." Others again dislike the latter formula, declaring the Prophet too venerable to be so visited by Amr and Zayd. [FN#4] In A.D. 1807, they prevented Ali Bey (the Spaniard Badia) from entering Al-Madinah, and it appears that he had reason to congratulate himself upon escaping without severe punishment. [FN#5] Nothing in the Spanish cathedrals suggests their oriental origin and the taste of the people, more than the way in which they are hedged in by secular buildings. [FN#6] The ceremony of Ziyarat, however, begins at the Bab al-Salam. We rode up to this gate only in order to avoid the sun. [FN#7] Haswah is a place covered with gravel: Ramlah, one which is sanded over. Both are equally applicable, and applied to the areas of Mosques. Al-Sahn is the general word; Al-Hosh is occasionally used, but is more properly applied to the court-yard of a dwelling-house. [FN#8] This Riwak was begun about five or six years ago by Abd al-Majid. To judge from the size of the columns, and the other preparations which encumber the ground, this part of the building will surpass all the rest. But the people of Al-Madinah assured me that it will not be finished for some time,-a prophecy likely to be fulfilled by the present state of Turkish finance. [FN#9] This gate derives its peculiar name from its vicinity to the Lady Fatimah's tomb; women, when they do visit the Mosque, enter it through all the doors indifferently. [FN#10] It is so called by the figure synecdoche: it contains the Rauzah or the Prophet's Garden, and therefore the whole portico enjoys that honoured name. [FN#11] These carpets are swept by the eunuchs, who let out the office for a certain fee to pilgrims, every morning, immediately after sunrise. Their diligence, however, does by no means prevent the presence of certain little parasites, concerning which politeness is dumb [FN#12] Because if not pure, ablution is performed at the well in the centre of the hypaethra. Zairs are ordered to visit the Mosque perfumed, and in their best clothes, and the Hanafi school deems it lawful on this occasion only to wear dresses of pure silk. [FN#13] In this Mosque, as in all others, it is proper to enter with the right foot, and to retire with the left. [FN#14] I must warn the reader that almost every Muzawwir has his own litany, which descends from father to son: moreover, all the books differ at least as much as do the oral authorities. [FN#15] That is to say, "over the world, the flesh, and the devil." [FN#16] This by strangers is called the Masalla Shafe'i, or the Place of Prayer of the Shafe'i school. It was sent from Constantinople about 100 years ago, by Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent. He built the Sulaymaniyah minaret, and has immortalised his name at Al-Madinah, as well as at Meccah, by the number of his donations to the shrine. [FN#17] Here is supposed to have been one of the Prophet's favourite stations of prayer. It is commonly called the Musalla Hanafi, because now appropriated by that school. [FN#18] This tradition, like most others referring to events posterior to the Prophet's death, is differently given, and so important are the variations, that I only admire how all Al-Islam does not follow Wahhabi example, and summarily consign them to oblivion. Some read "Between my dwelling-house (in the Mosque) and my place of Prayer (in the Barr al-Manakhah) is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise." Others again, "Between my house and my pulpit is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise." A third tradition-"Between my tomb and my pulpit is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise, and verily my pulpit is in my Full Cistern," or "upon a Full Cistern of the Cisterns of Paradise," has given rise to a new superstition. "Tara," according to some commentators, alludes especially to the cistern Al-Kausar; consequently this Rauzah is, like the black stone at Meccah, bona fide, a bit of Paradise, and on the day of resurrection, it shall return bodily to the place whence it came. Be this as it may, all Moslems are warned that the Rauzah is a most holy spot. None but the Prophet and his son-in-law Ali ever entered it, when ceremonially impure, without being guilty of deadly sin. The Mohammedan of the present day is especially informed that on no account must he here tell lies, or even perjure himself. Thus the Rauzah must be respected as much as the interior of the Bayt Allah at Meccah. [FN#19] This is a stone desk on four pillars, where the Muballighs (or clerks) recite the Ikamah, the call to divine service. It was presented to the Mosque by Kaid-Bey, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. [FN#20] I shall have something to say about this pulpit when entering into the history of the Harim. [FN#21] The afternoon prayers being Farz, or obligatory, were recited, because we feared that evening might come on before the ceremony of Ziyarat (visitation) concluded, and thus the time for Al-Asr (afternoon prayers) might pass away. The reader may think this rather a curious forethought in a man who, like Hamid, never prayed except when he found the case urgent. Such, however, is the strict order, and my Muzawwir was right to see it executed. [FN#22]. This two-bow prayer, which generally is recited in honour of the Mosque, is here, say divines, addressed especially to the Deity by the visitor who intends to beg the intercession of his Prophet. It is only just to confess that the Moslems have done their best by all means in human power, here as well as elsewhere, to inculcate the doctrine of eternal distinction between the creature and the Creator. Many of the Maliki school, however, make the ceremony of Ziyarat to precede the prayer to the Deity. [FN#23] The Sujdah is a single "prostration" with the forehead touching the ground. It is performed from a sitting position, after the Dua or supplication that concludes the two-bow prayer. Some of the Olema, especially those of the Shafe'i school, permit this "Sujdah of thanks" to be performed before the two-bow prayer if the visitor have any notable reason to be grateful. [FN#24] The candles are still sent from Cairo. [FN#25] These windows are a present from Kaid-Bey, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. [FN#26] These oil lamps are a present from the Sultan. [FN#27] The five daily liturgies are here recited by Imams, and every one presses to the spot on account of its peculiar sanctity. [FN#28] In Moslem theology "Salat" from Allah means mercy, from the angels intercession for pardon, and from mankind blessing. The act of blessing the Prophet is one of peculiar efficacy in a religious point of view. Cases are quoted of sinners being actually snatched from hell by a glorious figure, the personification of the blessings which had been called down by them upon Mohammed's head. This most poetical idea is borrowed, I believe, from the ancient Guebres, who fabled that a man's good works assumed a beautiful female shape, which stood to meet his soul when winding its way to judgment. Also when a Moslem blesses Mohammed at Al-Madinah, his sins are not written down for three days,-thus allowing ample margin for repentance,-by the recording angel. Al-Malakayn (the two Angels), or Kiram al-Katibin (the Generous Writers), are mere personifications of the good principle and the evil principle of man's nature; they are fabled to occupy each a shoulder, and to keep a list of words and deeds. This is certainly borrowed from a more ancient faith. In Hermas II. (command. 6), we are told that "every man has two angels, one of godliness, the other of iniquity," who endeavour to secure his allegiance,-a superstition seemingly founded upon the dualism of the old Persians. Mediaeval Europe, which borrowed so much from the East at the time of the Crusades, degraded these angels into good and bad fairies for children's stories. [FN#29] Burckhardt writes this word Hedjra (which means "flight"). Nor is M. Caussin de Perceval's "El Hadjarat" less erroneous. At Madinah it is invariably called Al-Hujrah-the chamber. The chief difficulty in distinguishing the two words, meaning "chamber" and "flight," arises from our only having one h to represent the hard and soft h of Arabic, ???? [Arabic text] and ???? [Arabic text]. In the case of common saints, the screen or railing round the cenotaph is called a "Maksurah." [FN#30] Yet Mohammed enjoined his followers to frequent graveyards. "Visit graves; of a verity they shall make you think of futurity!" And again, "Whoso visiteth his two parents' grave, or one of the two, every Friday, he shall be written a pious child, even though he might have been in the world, before that, a disobedient." [FN#31] The truth is no one knows what is there. I have even heard a learned Persian declare that there is no wall behind the curtain, which hangs so loosely that, when the wind blows against it, it defines the form of a block of marble, or a built-up tomb. I believe this to be wholly apocryphal, for reasons which will presently be offered. [FN#32] The peculiar place where the guardians of the tomb sit and confabulate is the Dakkat al-Aghawat (eunuch's bench) or Al-Mayda-the table-a raised bench of stone and wood, on the North side of the Hujrah. The remaining part of this side is partitioned off from the body of the Mosque by a dwarf wall, inclosing the "Khasafat al-Sultan," the place where Fakihs are perpetually engaged in Khitmahs, or perusals of the Koran, on behalf of the reigning Sultan. [FN#33] The ancient practice of Al-Islam during the recitation of the following benedictions was to face Meccah, the back being turned towards the tomb, and to form a mental image of the Prophet, supposing him to be in front. Al-Kirmani and other doctors prefer this as the more venerable custom, but in these days it is completely exploded, and the purist would probably be soundly bastinadoed by the eunuchs for attempting it. [FN#34] This is the usual introduction to a quotation from the Koran. [FN#35] It may easily be conceived how offensive this must be to the Wahhabis, who consider it blasphemy to assert that a mere man can stand between the Creator and the creature on the last day. [FN#36] This is called the Testification. Like the Fatihah, it is repeated at every holy place and tomb visited at Al-Madinah. [FN#37] Burckhardt mentions that in his day, among other favours supplicated in prayer to the Deity, the following request was made,-"Destroy our enemies, and may the torments of hell-fire be their lot!" I never heard it at the Prophet's tomb. As the above benediction is rather a long one, the Zair is allowed to shorten it a discretion, but on no account to say less than "Peace be upon Thee, O Apostle of Allah"-this being the gist of the ceremony. [FN#38] Though performing Ziyarat for myself, I had promised my old Shaykh at Cairo to recite a Fatihah in his name at the Prophet's tomb; so a double recitation fell to my lot. If acting Zair for another person (a common custom, we read, even in the days of Al-Walid, the Caliph of Damascus), you are bound to mention your principal's name at the beginning of the benediction, thus: "Peace be upon Thee, O Apostle of Allah from such an one, the son of such an one, who wants Thine Intercession, and begs for Pardon and Mercy." Most Zairs recite Fatihahs for all their friends and relations at the tomb. [FN#39] I have endeavoured in this translation to imitate the imperfect rhyme of the original Arabic. Such an attempt, however, is full of difficulties: the Arabic is a language in which, like Italian, it is almost impossible not to rhyme. [FN#40] It will not be necessary to inform the reader more than once that all these several divisions of prayer ended with the Testification and the Fatihah. [FN#41] Faruk,-the separator,-a title of Omar. [FN#42] When the number of the Ashab or "Companions" was thirty-nine, they were suddenly joined by Omar, who thus became the fortieth. [FN#43] It is said that Mohammed prayed long for the conversion of Omar to Al-Islam, knowing his sterling qualities, and the aid he would lend to the establishment of the faith. [FN#44] This foolish fanaticism has lost many an innocent life, for the Arabs on these occasions seize their sabres, and cut down every Persian they meet. Still, bigoted Shi'ahs persist in practising and applauding it, and the man who can boast at Shiraz of having defiled Abu Bakr's, Omar's, or Osman's tomb becomes at once a lion and a hero. I suspect that on some occasions when the people of Al-Madinah are anxious for an "avanie," they get up some charge of the kind against the Persians. So the Meccans have sometimes found these people guilty of defiling the house of Allah-at which Infidel act a Shi'ah would shudder as much as a Sunni. This style of sacrilege is, we read, of ancient date in Arabia. Nafil, the Hijazi, polluted the Kilis (Christian church) erected by Abrahah of Sanaa to outshine the Ka'abah, and draw off worshippers from Meccah. The outrage caused the celebrated "affair of the Elephant." (See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or., v. "Abrahah.") [FN#45] Burckhardt, with his usual accuracy, asserts that a new curtain is sent when the old one is decayed, or when a new Sultan ascends the throne, and those authors err who, like Maundrell, declare the curtain to be removed every year. The Damascus Caravan conveys, together with its Mahmil or emblem of royalty, the new Kiswah (or "garment") when required for the tomb. It is put on by the eunuchs, who enter the baldaquin by its Northern gate at night time, and there is a superstitious story amongst the people that they guard their eyes with veils against the supernatural splendours which pour from the tomb. The Kiswah is a black, purple, or green brocade, embroidered with white or with silver letters. A piece in my possession, the gift of Omar Effendi, is a handsome silk and cotton Damascus brocade, with white letters worked in it-manifestly the produce of manual labour, not the poor dull work of machinery. It contains the formula of the Moslem faith in the cursive style of the Suls character, seventy-two varieties of which are enumerated by calligraphists. Nothing can be more elegant or appropriate than its appearance. The old curtain is usually distributed amongst the officers of the Mosque, and sold in bits to pilgrims; in some distant Moslem countries, the possessor of such a relic would be considered a saint. When treating of the history of the Mosque, some remarks will be offered about the origin of the curtain. [FN#46] The place of the Prophet's head is, I was told, marked by a fine Koran hung up to the curtain This volume is probably a successor to the relic formerly kept there, the Cufic Koran belonging to Osman, the fourth Caliph, which Burckhardt supposes to have perished in the conflagration which destroyed the Mosque. [FN#47] The eunuchs of the tomb have the privilege of admitting strangers. In this passage are preserved the treasures of the place; they are a "Bayt Mal al-Muslimin," or public treasury of the Moslems; therefore to be employed by the Caliph (i.e. the reigning Sultan) for the exigencies of the faith. The amount is said to be enormous, which I doubt. [FN#48] And I might add, never having seen one who has seen it. Niebuhr is utterly incorrect in his hearsay description of it. It is not "enclosed within iron railings for fear lest the people might surreptitiously offer worship to the ashes of the Prophet." The tomb is not "of plain mason-work in the form of a chest," nor does any one believe that it is "placed within or between two other tombs, in which rest the ashes of the first two Caliphs." The traveller appears to have lent a credulous ear to the eminent Arab merchant, who told him that a guard was placed over the tomb to prevent the populace scraping dirt from about it, and preserving it as a relic. [FN#49] Burckhardt writes this author's name El Samhoudy, and in this he is followed by all our popular book-makers. Moslems have three ways of spelling it: 1. Al-Samhudi, 2. Al-Samahnudi, and 3. Al-Samanhudi. I prefer the latter, believing that the learned Shaykh, Nur al-Din Ali bin Abdullah al-Hasini (or Al-Husayni) was originally from Samanhud in Egypt, the ancient Sebennitis. He died in A.H. 911, and was buried in the Bakia cemetery. [FN#50] Burckhardt, however, must be in error when he says "The tombs are also covered with precious stuffs, and in the shape of catafalques, like that of Ibrahim in the great Mosque of Meccah." The eunuchs positively declare that no one ever approaches the tomb, and that he who ventured to do so would at once be blinded by the supernatural light. Moreover the historians of Al-Madinah all quote tales of certain visions of the Apostle, directing his tomb to be cleared of dust that had fallen upon it from above, in which case some man celebrated for piety and purity was let through a hole in the roof, by cords, down to the tomb, with directions to wipe it with his beard. This style of ingress is explained by another assertion of Al-Samanhudi, quoted by Burckhardt. "In A.H. 892, when Kaid-Bey rebuilt the Mosque, which had been destroyed by lightning, three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish, but the author of this history, who himself entered it, saw no traces of tombs. The original place of Mohammed's tomb was ascertained with great difficulty; the walls of the Hujrah were then rebuilt, and the iron railing placed round it, which is now there." [FN#51] Upon this point authors greatly disagree. Ibn Jubayr, for instance, says that Abu Bakr's head is opposite the Apostle's feet, and that Omar's face is on a level with Abu Bakr's shoulder. [FN#52] The vulgar story of the suspended coffin has been explained in two ways. Niebuhr supposes it to have arisen from the rude drawings sold to strangers. Mr. William Bankes (Giovanni Finati, vol. ii., p. 289) believes that the mass of rock popularly described as hanging unsupported in the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem was confounded by Christians, who could not have seen either of these Moslem shrines, with the Apostle's Tomb at Al-Madinah. [FN#53] Some Moslems end their Ziyarat at the Apostle's Tomb; others, instead of advancing, as I did, return to the Apostle's window, pray, and beg pardon for their parents and themselves, and ask all they desire, concluding with prayers to the Almighty. Thence they repair to the Rauzah or Garden, and standing at the column called after Abu Lubabah, pray a two-bow prayer there; concluding with the "Dua," or benediction upon the Apostle, and there repeat these words: "O Allah, Thou hast said, and Thy word is true, ‘Say, O Lord, pardon and show Mercy; for Thou art the best of the Merciful,' (chap. 23). O God, verily we have heard Thy Word, and we come for Intercession to Thy Apostle from our own Sins, repenting our Errors, and confessing our Shortcomings and Transgressions! O Allah, pity us, and by the Dignity of Thy Apostle raise our Place, (in the Heavenly Kingdom)! O Allah, pardon our Brothers who have preceded us in the Faith!" Then the Zair prays for himself, and his parents, and for those he loves. He should repeat, "Allah have mercy upon Thee, O Apostle of Allah!" seventy times, when an angel will reply, "Allah bless thee, O thou blesser." Then he should sit before the Pulpit, and mentally conceive in it the Apostle surrounded by the Fugitives and the Auxiliaries. Some place the right hand upon the pulpit, even as Mohammed used to do. The Zair then returns to the column of Abu Lubabah, and repents his sins there. Secondly, he stands in prayer at Ali's Pillar in front of the form. And, lastly, he repairs to the Ustuwanat al-Ashab (the Companions' Column) the fourth distant from the Pulpit on the right, and the third from the Hujrah on the left; here he prays and meditates, and blesses Allah and the Apostle. After which, he proceeds to visit the rest of the holy places. [FN#54] It is almost unnecessary to inform the reader that all Moslems deny the personal suffering of Christ, cleaving to the heresy of the Christian Docetes,-certain "beasts in the shape of men," as they are called in the Epistles of Ignatius to the Smyrneans,-who believed that a phantom was crucified in our Saviour's place. They also hold to the second coming of the Lord in the flesh, as a forerunner to Mohammed, who shall reappear shortly before the day of judgment. Bartema (Appendix 2) relates a story concerning the Saviour's future tomb. [FN#55] This epithet will be explained below. The reader must bear in mind, that this part of the Harim was formerly the house of Ali and Fatimah; it was separated from the Hujrah-the abode of Mohammed and Ayishah-only by a narrow brick wall, with a window in it, which was never shut. Omar Bin Abd al-Aziz enclosed it in the mosque, by order of Al-Walid, A.H. 90. [FN#56] Plural of Sharif, a descendant of Mohammed. [FN#57] The "people of the garment," so called, because on one occasion the Apostle wrapped his cloak around himself, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his two grandsons, thereby separating them in dignity from other Moslems. [FN#58] Burckhardt translates "Zahra" "bright blooming Fatimah." This I believe to be the literal meaning of the epithet. When thus applied, however, it denotes "virginem [Greek text] nescientem," in which state of purity the daughter of the Apostle is supposed to have lived. For the same reason she is called Al-Batul, the Virgin,-a title given by Eastern Christians to the Mother of our Lord. The perpetual virginity of Fatimah, even after the motherhood, is a point of orthodoxy in Al-Islam. [FN#59] Meaning "joy and gladness in the sight of true believers." [FN#60] The prayer is now omitted, in order to avoid the repetition of it when describing a visit to Mount Ohod. [FN#61] The prayers usually recited here are especially in honour of Abbas, Hasan, (Ali, called) Zayn al-Abidin, Osman, the Lady Halimah, the Martyrs, and the Mothers of the Moslems, (i.e. the Apostle's wives), buried in the holy cemetery. When describing a visit to Al-Bakia, they will be translated at full length. [FN#62] Hujjaj is the plural of Hajj-pilgrims; Ghuzzat, of Ghazi-crusaders; and Zawwar of Zair-visitors to Mohammed's tomb. [FN#63] "Taslim" is "to say Salam" to a person. [FN#64] The Ya Sin (Y, S), the 36th chapter of the Koran, frequently recited by those whose profession it is to say such masses for the benefit of living, as well as of dead, sinners. Most educated Moslems commit it to memory. [FN#65] Or more correctly, "There is no Ilah but Allah," that is, "There is no god but the God." [FN#66] Some Zairs, after praying at the Caliph Osman's niche, leave the Mosque, especially when the "Jama'at," or public worship, is not being performed in the Rauzah. Others, as we did, pray alone in the Garden, and many authors prefer this conclusion to Visitation, for the reason above given. [FN#67] This has become a generic name for a Well situated within the walls of a Mosque. [FN#68] As might be expected, the more a man pays, the higher he estimates his own dignity. Some Indians have spent as much as 500 dollars during a first visit. Others have "made Maulids," i.e., feasted all the poor connected with the temple with rice, meat, &c., whilst others brought rare and expensive presents for the officials. Such generosity, however, is becoming rare in these unworthy days. [FN#69] This gate was anciently called the Bab al-Atakah, "of Deliverance." [FN#70] Most of these entrances have been named and renamed. The Bab Jibrail, for instance, which derives its present appellation from the general belief that the archangel once passed through it, is generally called in books Bab al-Jabr, the Gate of Repairing (the broken fortunes of a friend or follower). It must not be confounded with the Mahbat Jibrail, or the window near it in the Eastern wall, where the archangel usually descended from heaven with the Wahy or Inspiration. [FN#71] By some wonderful process the "Printer's Devil" converted, in the first edition, this "ball or cone" into "bull or cow." [FN#72] Belal, the loud-lunged crier, stood, we are informed, by Moslem historians, upon a part of the roof on one of the walls of the Mosque. The minaret, as the next chapter will show, was the invention of a more tasteful age. [FN#73] This abomination may be seen in Egypt on many of the tombs,-those outside the Bal al-Nasr at Cairo, for instance. [FN#74] The tale of this Weeping Pillar is well known. Some suppose it to have been buried beneath the pulpit: others-they are few in number-declare that it was inserted in the body of the pulpit. [FN#75] The little domed building which figures in the native sketches, and in all our prints of the Al-Madinah Mosque, was taken down three or four years ago. It occupied part of the centre of the square, and was called Kubbat al-Zayt-Dome of Oil; or Kubbat al-Shama-Dome of Candles,-from its use as a store-room for lamps and wax candles. [FN#76] This is its name among the illiterate, who firmly believe the palms to be descendants of trees planted there by the hands of the Prophet's daughter. As far as I could discover, the tradition has no foundation, and in old times there was no garden in the hypaethral court. The vulgar are in the habit of eating a certain kind of date, "Al-Sayhani," in the Mosque, and of throwing the stones about; this practice is violently denounced by the Olema. [FN#77] Rhamnus Nabeca, Forsk. The fruit, called Nabak, is eaten, and the leaves are used for the purpose of washing dead bodies. The visitor is not forbidden to take fruit or water as presents from Al-Madinah, but it is unlawful for him to carry away earth, or stones, or cakes of dust, made for sale to the ignorant. [FN#78] The Arabs, who, like all Orientals, are exceedingly curious about water, take the trouble to weigh the produce of their wells; the lighter the water, the more digestible and wholesome it is considered. [FN#79] The common phenomenon of rivers flowing underground in Arabia has, doubtless, suggested to the people these subterraneous passages, with which they connect the most distant places. At Al-Madinah, amongst other tales of short cuts known only to certain Badawi families, a man told me of a shaft leading from his native city to Hazramaut: according to him, it existed in the times of the Prophet, and was a journey of only three days! [FN#80] The Mosque Library is kept in large chests near the Bab al-Salam; the only MS. of any value here is a Koran written in the Sulsi hand. It is nearly four feet long, bound in a wooden cover, and padlocked, so as to require from the curious a "silver key." [FN#81] So the peasants in Brittany believe that Napoleon the First is not yet dead; the Prussians expect Frederick the Second; the Swiss, William Tell; the older English, King Arthur; and certain modern fanatics look forward to the re-appearance of Joanna Southcote. Why multiply instances in so well known a branch of the history of popular superstitions? [FN#82] The Sunnat is the custom or practice of the Apostle, rigidly conformed to by every good and orthodox Moslem. [FN#83] The reader will bear in mind that I am quoting from Burckhardt. When in Al-Hijaz and at Cairo, I vainly endeavoured to buy a copy of Al-Samanhudi. One was shown to me at Al-Madinah; unhappily, it bore the word Wakf (bequeathed), and belonged to the Mosque. I was scarcely allowed time to read it. (See p. 102, ante.) [FN#84] In Moslem law, prophets, martyrs, and saints, are not supposed to be dead; their property, therefore, remains their own. The Olema have confounded themselves in the consideration of the prophetic state after death. Many declare that prophets live and pray for forty days in the tomb; at the expiration of which time, they are taken to the presence of their Maker, where they remain till the blast of Israfil's trumpet. The common belief, however, leaves the bodies in the graves, but no one would dare to assert that the holy ones are suffered to undergo corruption. On the contrary, their faces are blooming, their eyes bright, and blood would issue from their bodies if wounded. Al-Islam, as will afterwards appear, abounds in traditions of the ancient tombs of saints and martyrs, when accidentally opened, exposing to view corpses apparently freshly buried. And it has come to pass that this fact, the result of sanctity, has now become an unerring indication of it. A remarkable case in point is that of the late Sharif Ghalib, the father of the present Prince of Meccah. In his lifetime he was reviled as a wicked tyrant. But some years after his death, his body was found undecomposed; he then became a saint, and men now pray at his tomb. Perhaps his tyranny was no drawback to his holy reputation. La Brinvilliers was declared after execution, by her confessor and the people generally, a saint;-simply, I presume, because of the enormity of her crimes. [FN#85] NOTE TO THIRD EDITION.-I have lately been assured by Mohammed al-Halabi, Shaykh al-Olema of Damascus, that he was permitted by the Aghawat to pass through the gold-plated door leading into the Hujrah, and that he saw no trace of a sepulchre. [FN#86] I was careful to make a ground-plan of the Prophet's Mosque, as Burckhardt was prevented by severe illness from so doing. It will give the reader a fair idea of the main point, though, in certain minor details, it is not to be trusted. Some of my papers and sketches, which by precaution I had placed among my medicines, after cutting them into squares, numbering them, and rolling them carefully up, were damaged by the breaking of a bottle. The plan of Al-Madinah is slightly altered from Burckhardt's. Nothing can be more ludicrous than the views of the Holy City, as printed in our popular works. They are of the style "bird's-eye," and present a curious perspective. They despise distance like the Chinese,-pictorially audacious; the Harrah, or ridge in the foreground appears to be 200 yards, instead of three or four miles, distant from the town. They strip the place of its suburb Al-Manakhah, in order to show the enceinte, omit the fort, and the gardens north and south of the city, enlarge the Mosque twenty-fold for dignity, and make it occupy the whole centre of the city, instead of a small corner in the south-east quarter. They place, for symmetry, towers only at the angles of the walls, instead of all along the curtain, and gather up and press into the same field all the venerable and interesting features of the country, those behind the artist's back, and at his sides, as well as what appears in front. Such are the Turkish lithographs. At Meccah, some Indians support themselves by depicting the holy shrines; their works are a truly Oriental mixture of ground plan and elevation, drawn with pen and ink, and brightened with the most vivid colours-grotesque enough, but less unintelligible than the more ambitious imitations of European art.

[p.343]CHAPTER XVII.

AN ESSAY TOWARDS THE HISTORY OF THE PROPHET'S MOSQUE.

IBN ABBAS has informed the world that when the eighty individuals composing Noah's family issued from the ark, they settled at a place distant ten marches and twelve parasangs[FN#1] (thirty-six to forty-eight miles) from Babel or Babylon. There they increased and multiplied, and spread into a mighty empire. At length under the rule of Namrud (Nimrod), son of Kanaan (Canaan), son of Ham, they lapsed from the worship of the true God: a miracle dispersed them into distant parts of the earth, and they were further broken up by the one primaeval language being divided into seventy-two dialects.

A tribe called Aulad Sam bin Nuh (the children of Shem), or Amalikah and Amalik,[FN#2] from their ancestor Amlak bin Arfakhshad bin Sam bin Nuh, was inspired

[p.344]with a knowledge of the Arabic tongue[FN#3]: it settled at Al-Madinah, and was the first to cultivate the ground and to plant palm-trees. In course of time these people extended over the whole tract between the seas of Al-Hijaz (the Red Sea) and Al-Oman, (north-western part of the Indian Ocean), and they became the progenitors of the Jababirah[FN#4] (tyrants or "giants") of Syria, as well as the Farainah (Pharaohs) of Egypt.[FN#5] Under these Amalik such

[p.345]was the age of man that during the space of four hundred years a bier would not be seen, nor "keening" be heard, in their cities.

The last king of the Amalik, "Arkam bin al-Arkam,[FN#6]" was, according to most authors, slain by an army of the children of Israel sent by Moses after the Exodus,[FN#7] with orders thoroughly to purge Meccah and Al-Madinah of their Infidel inhabitants. All the tribe was destroyed, with the exception of the women, the children, and a youth of the royal family, whose extraordinary beauty persuaded the invaders to spare him pending a reference to the Prophet. When the army returned, they found that Moses had died during the expedition, and they were received with reproaches by the people for having violated his express command. The soldiers, unwilling to live with their own nation under this reproach, returned to Al-Hijaz, and settled there.

Moslem authors are agreed that after the Amalik the Benu Israel ruled in the Holy Land of Arabia, but the learned in history are not agreed upon the cause of their emigration. According to some, when Moses was returning from a pilgrimage to Meccah, a multitude of his followers, seeing in Al-Madinah the signs of the city which, according to the Taurat, or Pentateuch, should hear the preaching of the last Prophet, settled there, and were joined by many Badawin of the neighbourhood who

[p.346]conformed to the law of Moses. Ibn Shaybah also informs us that when Moses and Aaron were wending northwards from Meccah, they, being in fear of certain Jews settled at Al-Madinah, did not enter the city,[FN#8] but pitched their tents on Mount Ohod. Aaron being about to die, Moses dug his tomb, and said, "Brother, thine hour is come! turn thy face to the next world!" Aaron entered the grave, lay at full length, and immediately expired; upon which the Jewish lawgiver covered him with earth, and went his way towards the Promised Land.[FN#9]

Abu Hurayrah asserted that the Benu Israel, after long searching, settled in Al-Madinah, because, when driven from Palestine by the invasion of Bukht al-Nasr (Nebuchadnezzar), they found in their books that the last Prophet would manifest himself in a town of the towns of Arabiyah,[FN#10] called Zat Nakhl, or the "Place of Palm trees." Some of the sons of Aaron occupied the city; other tribes settled at Khaybar,[FN#11] and in the neighbourhood,

[p.347]building "Utum," or square, flat-roofed, stone castles for habitation and defence. They left an order to their descendants that Mohammed should be favourably received, but Allah hardened their hearts unto their own destruction. Like asses they turned their backs upon Allah's mercy,[FN#12] and the consequence is, that they have been rooted out of the land.

The Tarikh Tabari declares that when Bukht al-Nasr,[FN#13] after destroying Jerusalem, attacked and slew the king of Egypt, who had given an asylum to a remnant of the house of Israel, the persecuted fugitives made their way into Al-Hijaz, settled near Yasrib (Al-Madinah), where they founded several towns, Khaybar, Fadak, Wady al-Subu, Wady al-Kura, Kurayzah, and many others. It appears, then, by the concurrence of historians, that the Jews at an early time either colonised, or supplanted the Amalik at, Al-Madinah.

At length the Israelites fell away from the worship of the one God, who raised up against them the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, the progenitors of modern Ansar. Both these tribes claimed a kindred origin, and

[p.348]Al-Yaman as the land of their nativity. The circumstances of their emigration are thus described. The descendants of Yarab bin Kahtan bin Shalik bin Arkfakhshad bin Sam bin Nuh, kinsmen to the Amalik, inhabited in prosperity the land of Saba.[FN#14] Their sway extended two months' journey from the dyke of Mareb,[FN#15] near the modern capital of Al-Yaman, as far as Syria, and incredible tales are told of their hospitality and of the fertility of their land. As usual, their hearts were perverted by prosperity. They begged Allah to relieve them from the troubles of extended empire and the duties of hospitality by diminishing their possessions. The consequence of their impious supplications was the well-known Flood of Iram.

The chief of the descendants of Kahtan bin Saba, one of the ruling families in Al-Yaman, was one Amru bin Amin Ma al-Sama,[FN#16] called "Al-Muzaykayh" from his rending in pieces every garment once worn. His wife Tarikah Himyariah, being skilled in divination, foresaw the fatal event, and warned her husband, who, unwilling to break from his tribe without an excuse, contrived the following stratagem. He privily ordered his adopted son, an orphan

[p.349]to dispute with him, and to strike him in the face at a feast composed of the principal persons in the kingdom. The disgrace of such a scene afforded him a pretext for selling off his property, and, followed by his thirteen sons,-all borne to him by his wife Tarikah,-and others of the tribe, Amru emigrated Northwards. The little party, thus preserved from the Yamanian Deluge, was destined by Allah to become the forefathers of the Auxiliaries of his chosen Apostle.

All the children of Amru thus dispersed into different parts of Arabia. His eldest son, Salabah bin Amru, chose Al-Hijaz, settled at Al-Madinah, then in the hands of the impious Benu Israel, and became the father of the Aus and Khazraj. In course of time, the new comers were made by Allah an instrument of vengeance against the disobedient Jews. Of the latter people, the two tribes Kurayzah and Nazir claimed certain feudal rights (well known to Europe) upon all occasions of Arab marriages. The Aus and the Khazraj, after enduring this indignity for a time, at length had recourse to one of their kinsmen who, when the family dispersed, had settled in Syria. Abu Jubaylah, thus summoned, marched an army to Al-Madinah, avenged the honour of his blood, and destroyed the power of the Jews, who from that moment became Mawali, or clients to the Arabs.

For a time the tribes of Aus and Khazraj, freed from the common enemy, lived in peace and harmony. At last they fell into feuds and fought with fratricidal strife, until the coming of the Prophet effected a reconciliation between them. This did not take place, however, before the Khazraj received, at the battle of Buas (about A.D. 615), a decided defeat from the Aus.

It is also related, to prove how Al-Madinah was predestined to a high fate, that nearly three centuries before the siege of the town by Abu Jubaylah, the Tobba

[p.350]al-Asghar[FN#17] marched Northward, at the requisition of the Aus and Khazraj tribes, in order to punish the Jews; or, according to others, at the request of the Jews to revenge them upon the Aus and Khazraj. After capturing the town, he left one of his sons to govern it, and marched onwards to conquer Syria and Al-Irak.

Suddenly informed that the people of Al-Madinah had treacherously murdered their new prince, the exasperated Tobba returned and attacked the place; and, when his horse was killed under him, he swore that he would never decamp before razing it to the ground. Whereupon two Jewish priests, Ka'ab and Assayd, went over to him and informed him that it was not in the power of man to destroy the town, it being preserved by Allah, as their books proved, for the refuge of His Prophet, the descendant of Ishmael.[FN#18]

The Tobba Judaized. Taking four hundred of the priests with him, he departed from Al-Madinah, performed pilgrimage to the Ka'abah of Meccah, which he invested with a splendid covering[FN#19]; and, after erecting a house

[p.351]for the expected Prophet, he returned to his capital in Al-Yaman, where he abolished idolatry by the ordeal of fire. He treated his priestly guests with particular attention, and on his death-bed he wrote the following tetrastich:-

"I testify of Ahmad that he of a truth "Is a prophet from Allah, the Maker of souls. Be my age extended into his age, I would be to him a Wazir and a cousin."

Then sealing the paper he committed it to the charge of the High Priest, with a solemn injunction to deliver the letter, should an opportunity offer, into the hands of the great Prophet; and that, if the day be distant, the missive should be handed down from generation to generation till it reached the person to whom it was addressed. The house founded by him at Al-Madinah was committed to a priest of whose descendants was Abu Ayyub the Ansari, the first person over whose threshold the Apostle passed when he ended the Flight. Abu Ayyub had also charge of the Tobba's letter, so that after three or four centuries, it arrived at its destination.

Al-Madinah was ever well inclined to Mohammed. In[FN#20]

[p.352]the early part of his career, the emissaries of a tribe called the Benu Abd al-Ashhal came from that town to Meccah, in order to make a treaty with the Kuraysh, and the Apostle seized the opportunity of preaching Al-Islam to them. His words were seconded by Ayyas bin Ma'az, a youth of the tribe, and opposed by the chiefs of the embassy; who, however, returned home without pledging themselves to either party.[FN#21] Shortly afterwards a body of the Aus and the Khazraj came to the pilgrimage of Meccah: when Mohammed began preaching to them, they recognised the person so long expected by the Jews, and swore to him an oath which is called in Moslem history the "First Fealty of the Steep.[FN#22]"

After the six individuals who had thus pledged themselves returned to their native city, the event being duly bruited abroad caused such an effect that, when the next pilgrimage season came, twelve, or according to others forty persons, led by As'ad bin Zara[r]ah, accompanied the original converts, and in the same place swore the "Second Fealty of the Steep." The Prophet dismissed them in company with one Musab bin Umayr, a Meccan, charged to teach them the Koran and their religious duties, which in those times consisted only of prayer and the Profession of Unity. They arrived at Al-Madinah on a Friday, and this was the first day on which the city witnessed the public devotions of the Moslems.

After some persecutions, Musab had the fortune to convert a cousin of As'ad bin Zararah, a chief of the Aus, Sa'ad bin Ma'az, whose opposition had been of the fiercest. He persuaded his tribe, the Benu Abd al-Ashhal, to break

[p.353]their idols and openly to profess Al-Islam. The next season, Musab having made many converts, some say seventy, others three hundred, marched from Al-Madinah to Meccah for their pilgrimage; and there induced his followers to meet the Prophet at midnight upon the Steep near Muna. Mohammed preached to them their duties towards Allah and himself, especially insisting upon the necessity of warring down infidelity. They pleaded ancient treaties with the Jews of Al-Madinah, and showed apprehension lest the Apostle, after bringing them into disgrace with their fellows, should desert them and return to the faith of his kinsmen, the Kuraysh. Mohammed, smiling, comforted them with the assurance that he was with them, body and soul, for ever. Upon this they asked him what would be their reward if slain. He replied, "Gardens 'neath which the streams flow,"-that is to say, Paradise.

Then, in spite of the advice of Al-Abbas, Mohammed's uncle, who was loud in his denunciations, they bade the Preacher stretch out his hand, and upon it swore the oath known as the "Great Fealty of the Steep." After comforting them with an Ayat, or Koranic verse, which promised heaven, the Apostle divided his followers into twelve bodies; and placing a chief at the head of each,[FN#23] dismissed them to their homes. He rejected the offer made by one of the party-namely, to slay all the idolaters present at the pilgrimage-saying that Allah had favoured him with no such order. For the same reason he refused their invitation to visit Al-Madinah, which was the principal object of their mission; and he then took an affectionate leave of them.

[p.354]Two months and a half after the events above detailed, Mohammed received the inspired tidings that Al-Madinah of the Hijaz was his predestined asylum. In anticipation of the order, for as yet the time had not been revealed, he sent forward his friends, among whom were Omar, Talhah, and Hamzah, retaining with him Abu Bakr[FN#24] and Ali. The particulars of the Flight, that eventful accident to Al-Islam, are too well known to require mention here; besides which they belong rather to the category of general than of Madinite history.

Mohammed was escorted into Al-Madinah by one Buraydat al-Aslami and eighty men of the same tribe, who had been offered by the Kuraysh a hundred camels for the capture of the fugitives. But Buraydat, after listening to their terms, accidentally entered into conversation with Mohammed; and no sooner did he hear the name of his interlocutor, than he professed the faith of Al-Islam. He then prepared for the Apostle a standard by attaching his turband to a spear, and anxiously inquired what house was to be honoured by the presence of Allah's chosen servant. "Whichever," replied Mohammed, "this she-camel[FN#25] is ordered to show me." At the last

[p.355]halting-place, he accidentally met some of his disciples returning from a trading voyage to Syria; they dressed him and his companion Abu Bakr in white clothing which, it is said, caused the people of Kuba to pay a mistaken reverence to the latter. The Moslems of Al-Madinah were in the habit of repairing every morning to the heights near the city, looking out for the Apostle; and, when the sun waxed hot, they returned home. One day, about noon, a Jew, who discovered the retinue from afar, suddenly warned the nearest party of Ansar, or Auxiliaries of Al-Madinah, that the fugitive was come. They snatched up their arms and hurried from their houses to meet him.