[p.336] second from the Hujrah, and the fourth from the Pulpit, is the
Pillar of Repentance, or of Abu Lubabah. It derives its name from the
following circumstance. Abu Lubabah was a native of Al-Madinah, one of
the Auxiliaries and a companion of Mohammed, originally it is said a
Jew, according to others of the Beni Amr bin Auf of the Aus tribe.
Being sent for by his kinsmen or his allies, the Benu Kurayzah, at that
time capitulating to Mohammed, he was consulted by the distracted men,
women, and children, who threw themselves at his feet, and begged of
him to intercede for them with the offended Apostle. Abu Lubabah swore
he would do so: at the same time, he drew his hand across his throat,
as much as to say, "Defend yourselves to the last, for if you yield,
such is your doom." Afterwards repenting, he bound himself with a huge
chain to the date-tree in whose place the column now stands, vowing to
continue there until Allah and the Apostle accepted his penitence-a
circumstance which did not take place till the tenth day, when his
hearing was gone and he had almost lost his sight.
The less celebrated pillars are the Ustuwanat al-Sarir, or Column of
the Cot, where the Apostle was wont to sit meditating on his humble
couch-frame of date-sticks. The Ustuwanat Ali notes the spot where the
fourth Caliph used to pray and watch near his father-in-law at night.
At the Ustuwanat al-Wufud, as its name denotes, the Apostle received
envoys, couriers, and emissaries from foreign places. The Ustuwanat
al-Tahajjud now stands where Mohammed, sitting upon his mat, passed the
night in prayer. And lastly is the Makam Jibrail (Gabriel's place), for
whose other name, Mirbaat al-Bair, "the Pole of the Beast of Burden," I
have been unable to find an explanation.
The four Riwaks, or porches, of the Madinah Mosque open upon a
hypaethral court of parallelogramic shape.
[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.