[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.
Mohammed's she-camel advanced to the centre of the then flourishing
town of Kuba. There she suddenly knelt upon a place which is now
consecrated ground; at that time it was an open space, belonging, they
say, to Abu Ayyub the Ansari, who had a house there near the abodes of
the Benu Amr bin Auf. This event happened on the first day of the week,
the twelfth of the month Rabia al-Awwal[FN#26] (June 28, A.D. 622), in
the first year of the Flight: for which reason Monday, which also
witnessed the birth, the mission, and the death of the Prophet, is an
auspicious day to Al-Islam.
After halting two days in the house of Kulsum bin Hadmah at Kuba, and
there laying the foundation of the
[p.356]first Mosque upon the lines where his she-camel trod, the
Apostle was joined by Ali, who had remained at Meccah, for the purpose
of returning certain trusts and deposits committed to Mohammed's
charge. He waited three days longer; on Friday morning (the 16th Rabia
al-Awwal, A.H. 1,=2nd July, A.D. 622), about sunrise he mounted
Al-Kaswa, and, accompanied by a throng of armed Ansar on foot and on
horseback, he took the way to the city. At the hour of public
prayer,[FN#27] he halted in the Wady or valley near Kuba, upon the spot
where the Masjid al-Jum'ah now stands, performed his devotions, and
preached an eloquent sermon. He then remounted. Numbers pressed forward
to offer him hospitality; he blessed them, and bade them stand out of
the way, declaring that Al-Kaswa would halt of her own accord at the
predestined spot. He then advanced to where the Apostle's pulpit now
stands. There the she-camel knelt, and the rider exclaimed, as one
inspired, "This is our place, if Almighty Allah please!"
Descending from Al-Kaswa, he recited, "O Lord, cause me to alight a
good Alighting, and Thou art the Best of those who cause to alight!"
Presently the camel rose unaided, advanced a few steps, and then,
according to some, returning, sat down upon her former seat; according
to others, she knelt at the door of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, whose abode in
those days was the nearest to the halting-place. The descendant of the
Jewish High Priest in the time of the Tobbas, with the Apostle's
permission, took the baggage off the camel, and carried it into his
house. Then ensued great rejoicings. The Abyssinians came and played
with their spears. The
[p.357]maidens of the Benu Najjar tribe sang and beat their
kettle-drums. And all the wives of the Ansar celebrated with shrill
cries of joy the auspicious event; whilst the males, young and old,
freemen and slaves, shouted with effusion, "Allah's Messenger is come!
Allah's Messenger is here!"
Mohammed caused Abu Ayyub and his wife to remove into the upper story,
contenting himself with the humbler lower rooms. This was done for the
greater convenience of receiving visitors without troubling the family;
but the master of the house was thereby rendered uncomfortable in mind.
His various remarks about the Apostle's diet and domestic habits,
especially his avoiding leeks, onions, and garlic,[FN#28] are gravely
chronicled by Moslem authors.
After spending seven months, more or less, at the house of Abu Ayyub,
Mohammed, now surrounded by his wives and family, built, close to the
Mosque, huts for their reception. The ground was sold to him by Sahal
and Suhayl, two orphans of the Benu Najjar,[FN#29] a noble family of
the Khazraj. Some time afterwards one Harisat bin al-Nu'uman presented
to the Prophet all his houses in the vicinity of the temple. In those
days the habitations of the Arabs were made of a framework of Jarid or
palm sticks, covered over with a cloth of camel's hair, a curtain of
similar stuff forming the door. The more splendid had walls of unbaked
brick, and roofs of palm fronds plastered
[p.358]over with mud or clay. Of this description were the abodes of
Mohammed's family. Most of them were built on the North and East of the
Mosque, which had open ground on the Western side; and the doors looked
towards the place of prayer. In course of time, all, except Abu
Bakr[FN#30] and Ali, were ordered to close their doors, and even Omar
was refused the favour of having a window opening into the temple.
Presently the Jews of Al-Madinah, offended by the conduct of Abdullah
bin Salam, their most learned priest and a descendant from the
Patriarch Joseph, who had become a convert to the Moslem dispensation,
began to plot against Mohammed.[FN#31] They were headed by Hajj bin
Akhtah, and his brother Yasir bin Akhtah, and were joined by many of
the Aus and the Khazraj. The events that followed this combination of
the Munafikun, or Hypocrites, under their chief, Abdullah, belong to
the domain of Arabian history.[FN#32]
Mohammed spent the last ten years of his life at Al-Madinah. He died on
Monday, some say at nine A.M., others at noon, others a little after,
on the twelfth of Rabia al-Awwal in the eleventh year of the Hijrah.
When his family and companions debated where he should be buried, Ali
advised Al-Madinah, and Abu Bakr, Ayishah's chamber,
[p.359]quoting a saying of the deceased that prophets and martyrs are
always interred where they happen to die. The Apostle was placed, it is
said, under the bed where he had given up the ghost, by Ali and the two
sons of Abbas, who dug the grave. With the life of Mohammed the
interest of Al-Madinah ceases, or rather is concentrated in the history
of its temple. Since then the city has passed through the hands of the
Caliphs, the Sharifs of Meccah, the Sultans of Constantinople, the
Wahhabis, and the Egyptians. It has now reverted to the Sultan, whose
government is beginning to believe that, in these days when religious
prestige is of little value, the great Khan's title, "Servant of the
Holy Shrines," is purchased at too high a price. As has before been
observed, the Turks now struggle for existence in Al-Hijaz with a
soldier ever in arrears, and officers unequal to the task of managing
an unruly people. The pensions are but partly paid,[FN#33] and they are
not likely to increase with years. It is probably a mere consideration
of interest that prevents the people rising en masse,
[p.360]and re-asserting the liberties of their country. And I have
heard from authentic sources that the Wahhabis look forward to the day
when a fresh crusade will enable them to purge the land of its
abominations in the shape of silver and gold.
The Masjid al-Nabi, or Prophet's Mosque, is the second in Al-Islam in
point of seniority, and the second, or, according to others, the first
in dignity, ranking with the Ka'abah itself. It is erected around the
spot where the she-camel, Al-Kaswa, knelt down by the order of Heaven.
At that time the land was a palm grove and a Mirbad, or place where
dates are dried. Mohammed, ordered to erect a place of worship there,
sent for the youths to whom it belonged, and certain Ansar, or
Auxiliaries, their guardians; the ground was offered to him in free
gift, but he insisted upon purchasing it, paying more than its value.
Having caused the soil to be levelled and the trees to be felled, he
laid the foundation of the first Mosque.
In those times of primitive simplicity its walls were made of rough
stone and unbaked bricks: trunks of date-trees supported a palm-stick
roof, concerning which the Archangel Gabriel delivered an order that it
should not be higher than seven cubits, the elevation of Moses's
temple. All ornament was strictly forbidden. The Ansar, or men of
Al-Madinah, and the Muhajirin, or Fugitives from Meccah, carried the
building materials in their arms from the cemetery Al-Bakia, near the
well of Ayyub, north of the spot where Ibrahim's Mosque now stands, and
the Apostle was to be seen aiding them in their labours, and reciting
for their encouragement,
"O Allah! there is no good but the good of futurity,
Then have mercy upon my Ansar and Muhajirin!"
The length of this Mosque was fifty-four cubits from North to South,
and sixty-three in breadth, and it was hemmed in by houses on all sides
save the Western. Till the seventeenth
[p.361]month of the new aera the congregation faced towards the
Northern wall. After that time a fresh revelation turned them in the
direction of Meccah, Southwards: on which occasion the Archangel
Gabriel descended and miraculously opened through the hills and wilds a
view of the Ka'abah, that there might be no difficulty in ascertaining
its true position.
After the capture of Khaybar in A.H. 7, the Prophet and his first three
successors restored the Mosque, but Moslem historians do not consider
this a second foundation. Mohammed laid the first brick, and Abu
Hurayrah declares that he saw him carry heaps of building materials
piled up to his breast. The Caliphs, each in the turn of his
succession, placed a brick close to that laid by the Prophet, and aided
him in raising the walls. Al-Tabrani relates that one of the Ansar had
a house adjacent which Mohammed wished to make part of the place of
prayer; the proprietor was promised in exchange for it a home in
Paradise, which he gently rejected, pleading poverty. His excuse was
admitted, and Osman, after purchasing the place for ten thousand
dirhams, gave it to the Apostle on the long credit originally offered.
This Mosque was a square of a hundred cubits. Like the former building,
it had three doors: one on the South side, where the Mihrab al-Nabawi,
or the "Prophet's Niche," now is; another in the place of the present
Bab al-Rahmah; and the third at the Bab Osman, now called the Gate of
Gabriel. Instead of a Mihrab or prayer-niche,[FN#34] a large block of
stone directed the congregation; at first it was placed against the
Northern wall
[p.362]of the Mosque, and it was removed to the Southern when Meccah
became the Kiblah.
In the beginning the Prophet, whilst preaching the Khutbah or Friday
sermon, leaned when fatigued against a post.[FN#35] The Mambar,[FN#36]
or pulpit, was the invention of a Madinah man, of the Benu Najjar. It
was a wooden frame, two cubits long by one broad, with three steps,
each one span high; on the topmost of these the Prophet sat when he
required rest. The pulpit assumed its present form about A.H. 90,
during the artistic reign of Al-Walid.
In this Mosque Mohammed spent the greater part of the day[FN#37] with
his companions, conversing, instructing, and
[p.363]comforting the poor. Hard by were the abodes of his wives, his
family, and his principal friends. Here he prayed, at the call of the
Azan, or devotion-cry, from the roof. Here he received worldly envoys
and embassies, and the heavenly messages conveyed by the Archangel
Gabriel. And within a few yards of the hallowed spot, he died, and
found a grave.
The theatre of events so important to Al-Islam could not be
allowed-specially as no divine decree forbade the change-to remain in
its pristine lowliness. The first Caliph contented himself with merely
restoring some of the palm pillars, which had fallen to the ground:
Omar, the second successor, surrounded the Hujrah, or Ayishah's
chamber, in which the Prophet was buried, with a mud wall; and in A.H.
17, he enlarged the Mosque to 140 cubits by 120, taking in ground on
all sides except the Eastern, where stood the abodes of the "Mothers of
the Moslems.[FN#38]" Outside the Northern wall he erected a Suffah,
called Al-Batha-a raised bench of wood, earth, or stone, upon which the
people might recreate themselves with conversation and quoting poetry,
for the Mosque was now becoming [a] place of peculiar reverence to
men.[FN#39]
The second Masjid was erected A.H. 29, by the third Caliph, Osman, who,
regardless of the clamours of the people, overthrew the old walls and
extended the building
[p.364]greatly towards the North, and a little towards the West; but he
did not remove the Eastern limit on account of the private houses. He
made the roof of Indian teak,[FN#40] and the walls of hewn and carved
stone. These innovations caused some excitement, which he allayed by
quoting a tradition of the Prophet, with one of which he appears
perpetually to have been prepared. The saying in question was,
according to some, "Were this my Mosque extended to Safa"-a hill in
Meccah-"it verily would still be my Mosque"; according to others, "Were
the Prophet's Mosque extended to Zu'l Halifah[FN#41] it would still be
his." But Osman's skill in the quotation of tradition did not prevent
the new building being in part a cause of his death. It was finished on
the first Muharram, A.H. 30.
At length, Al-Islam, grown splendid and powerful, determined to surpass
other nations in the magnificence of its public buildings.[FN#42] In
A.H. 88, Al-Walid[FN#43] the First, twelfth Caliph of the Benu Ummayah
race, after building, or rather restoring, the noble "Jami' al-Ammawi"
(cathedral of the Ommiades) at Damascus, determined to
[p.365]display his liberality at Al-Madinah. The governor of the place,
Umar bin Abd Al-Aziz, was directed to buy for seven thousand Dinars
(ducats) all the hovels of raw brick that hedged in the Eastern side of
the old Mosque. They were inhabited by descendants of the Prophet and
of the early Caliphs, and in more than one case, the ejection of the
holy tenantry was effected with considerable difficulty. Some of the
women-ever the most obstinate on such occasions-refused to take money,
and Omar was forced to the objectionable measure of turning them out of
doors with exposed faces[FN#45] in full day. The Greek Emperor, applied
to by the magnificent Caliph, sent immense presents, silver lamp
chains, valuable curiosities,[FN#46] forty loads of small cut stones
for pietra-dura, and a sum of eighty thousand Dinars, or, as others
say, forty thousand Miskals of gold. He also despatched forty Coptic
and forty Greek artists to carve the marble pillars and the casings of
the walls, and to superintend the gilding and the mosaic work. One of
these Christians was beheaded for sculpturing a hog on the Kiblah wall;
and another, in an attempt to defile the roof, fell to the ground, and
his brains were dashed out. The remainder Islamized, but this did not
prevent the older Arabs murmuring that their Mosque had been turned
into a Kanisah, a Christian idol-house.
The Hujrah, or chamber, where, by Mohammed's permission, Azrail, the
Angel of Death, separated his
[p.366]soul from his body, whilst his head was lying in the lap of
Ayishah, his favourite wife, was now for the first time taken into the
Mosque. The raw-brick enceinte[FN#46] which surrounded the three graves
was exchanged for one of carved stone, enclosed by an outer precinct
with a narrow passage between.[FN#47] These double walls were either
without a door, or had only a small blocked-up wicket on the Northern
side, and from that day (A.H. 90), no one, says Al-Samanhudi, has been
able to approach the sepulchre.[FN#48] A minaret was erected at each
corner of the Mosque.[FN#49] The building was enlarged to 200 cubits by
167, and was finished in A.H. 91. When Al-Walid, the Caliph, visited it
in state, he inquired of his lieutenant why greater magnificence had
not been displayed in the erection; upon which Omar, the governor,
informed him,
[p.367]to his astonishment, that the walls alone had cost forty-five
thousand ducats.[FN#50]
The fourth Mosque was erected in A.H. 191, by Al-Mahdi, third prince of
the Benu Abbas or Baghdad Caliphs-celebrated in history only for
spending enormous sums upon a pilgrimage. He enlarged the building by
adding ten handsome pillars of carved marble, with gilt capitals, on
the Northern side. In A.H. 202, Al-Ma'amun made further additions to
this Mosque. It was from Al-Mahdi's Masjid that Al-Hakim bi'Amri 'llah,
the third Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, and the deity of the Druze sect,
determined to steal the bodies of the Prophet and his two companions.
About A.H. 412, he sent emissaries to Al-Madinah: the attempt, however,
failed, and the would-be violators of the tomb lost their lives. It is
generally supposed that Al-Hakim's object was to transfer the
Visitation to his own capital; but in one so manifestly insane it is
difficult to discover the spring of action. Two Christians, habited
like Maghrabi pilgrims, in A.H. 550, dug a mine from a neighbouring
house into the temple. They were discovered, beheaded, and burned to
ashes. In relating these events the Moslem historians mix up many
foolish preternaturalisms with credible matter. At last, to prevent a
recurrence of such sacrilegious attempts, Al-Malik al-Adil Nur al-Din
of the Baharite Mamluk Sultans, or, according to others, Sultan Nur
al-Din Shahid Mahmud bin Zangi, who, warned by a vision of the Apostle,
had started for Al-Madinah only in time to discover the two Christians,
surrounded the holy place with a deep trench filled with molten lead.
By this means Abu Bakr and Omar, who had run considerable risks of
their own, have ever since been enabled to occupy their last homes
undisturbed.
In A.H. 654, the fifth Mosque was erected in consequence of a fire,
which some authors attribute to a
[p.368]volcano that broke out close to the town in terrible
eruption[FN#51]; others, with more fanaticism and less probability, to
the schismatic Benu Husayn, then the guardians of the tomb. On this
occasion the Hujrah was saved, together with the old and venerable
copies of the Koran there deposited, especially the Cufic MSS., written
by Osman, the third Caliph. The piety of three sovereigns, Al-Mustasim
(last Caliph of Baghdad), Al-Muzaffar Shems al-Din Yusuf, chief of
Al-Yaman, and Al-Zahir Beybars, Baharite Sultan of Egypt, completed the
work in A.H. 688. This building was enlarged and beautified by the
princes of Egypt, and lasted upwards of two hundred years.
The sixth Mosque was built, almost as it now stands, by Kaid-Bey,
nineteenth Sultan of the Circassian Mamluk kings of Egypt, in A.H. 888:
it is now therefore more than four centuries old. Al-Mustasim's Mosque
had been struck by lightning during a storm; thirteen men were killed
at prayers, and the destroying element spared nothing but the interior
of the Hujrah.[FN#52] The railing and dome were restored; niches and a
pulpit were sent from Cairo, and the gates and minarets were
distributed as they are now. Not content with this, Kaid-Bey
established "Wakf" (bequests) and pensions, and introduced order among
the attendants on the tomb. In the tenth century, Sultan Sulayman the
Magnificent paved with fine white marble the Rauzah or garden, which
Kaid-Bey, not daring to alter, had left of earth, and erected the fine
minaret that bears his name.
[p.369]During the dominion of the later Sultans, and of Mohammed Ali, a
few trifling presents, of lamps, carpets, wax candles and chandeliers,
and a few immaterial alterations, have been made. The present head of
Al-Islam is, as I have before said, rebuilding one of the minarets and
the Northern colonnade of the temple.
Such is the history of the Mosque's prosperity.
During the siege of Al-Madinah by the Wahhabis,[FN#53] the principal
people seized and divided amongst themselves the treasures of the tomb,
which must have been considerable. When the town surrendered, Sa'ud,
accompanied by his principal officers, entered the Hujrah, but,
terrified by dreams, he did not penetrate behind the curtain, or
attempt to see the tomb. He plundered, however, the treasures in the
passage, the "Kaukab al-Durri[FN#54]" (or pearl star), and the
ornaments sent as presents from every part of Al-Islam. Part of these
he sold, it is said, for 150,000 Riyals (dollars), to Ghalib, Sharif of
Meccah, and the rest he carried with him to Daraiyah, his
capital.[FN#55] An accident prevented any further desecration of the
building. The greedy Wahhabis, allured by the appearance of the golden
or gilt globes and crescents surmounting the green dome, attempted to
throw down the latter. Two of their number, it is said, were killed by
falling
[p.370]from the slippery roof,[FN#56] and the rest, struck by
superstitious fears, abandoned the work of destruction. They injured,
however, the prosperity of the place by taxing the inhabitants, by
interrupting the annual remittances, and by forbidding visitors to
approach the tomb. They are spoken of with abhorrence by the people,
who quote a peculiarly bad trait in their characters, namely, that in
return for any small religious assistance of prayer or recitation, they
were in the habit of giving a few grains of gunpowder, or something
equally valuable, instead of "stone-dollars.[FN#57]"
When Abdullah, son of Sa'ud, had concluded in A.D. 1815 a treaty of
peace with Tussun Pasha, the Egyptian General bought back from the
townspeople, for 10,000 Riyals, all the golden vessels that had not
been melted down, and restored the treasure to its original place. This
I have heard denied; at the same time it rests upon credible evidence.
Amongst Orientals the events of the last generation are, usually
speaking, imperfectly remembered, and the Olema are well acquainted
with the history of vicissitudes which took place 1200 years ago, when
profoundly ignorant of what their grandfathers witnessed. Many
incredible tales also I heard concerning the present wealth of the
Al-Madinah Mosque: this must be expected when the exaggeration is
considered likely to confer honour upon the exaggerator.
The establishment attached to the Al-Madinah Mosque is greatly altered
since Burckhardt's time,[FN#58] the result of the increasing influence
of the Turkish half-breeds
[p.371]It is still extensive, because in the first place the principle
of divided labour is a favourite throughout the East, and secondly
because the Sons of the Holy Cities naturally desire to extract as much
as they can from the Sons of other cities with the least amount of
work. The substance of the following account was given to me by Omar
Effendi, and I compared it with the information of others upon whom I
could rely.
The principal of the Mosque, or Shaykh al-Harim, is no longer a
neuter.[FN#59] The present is a Turkish Pasha, Osman, appointed from
Constantinople with a salary of about 30,000 piastres a month. His Naib
or deputy is a black eunuch, the chief of the Aghawat,[FN#60] upon a
pay of 5000 piastres. The present principal of this college is one
Tayfur Agha, a slave of Esma Sultanah, sister to the late Sultan
Mahmud. The chief treasurer is called the Mudir al-Harim; he keeps an
eye upon the Khaznadar, or treasurer, whose salary is 2000 piastres.
The Mustaslim is the chief of the Katibs, or writers who settle the
[p.372]accounts of the Mosque; his pay is 1500, and under him is a
Nakib or assistant upon 1000 piastres. There are three Shaykhs of the
eunuchs who receive from 700 to 1000 piastres a month each. The
eunuchs, about a hundred and twenty in number, are divided into three
orders. The Bawwabin, or porters, open the doors of the Mosque. The
Khubziyah sweep the purer parts of the temple, and the lowest order,
popularly called "Battalin," clean away all impurities, beat those
found sleeping, and act as beadles, a duty here which involves
considerable use of the cane. These men receive as perquisites presents
from each visitor when they offer him the usual congratulation, and for
other small favours, such as permitting strangers to light the
lamps,[FN#61] or to sweep the floor. Their pay varies from 250 to 500
piastres a month: they are looked upon as honourable men, and are,
generally speaking, married, some of them indulging in three or four
wives,-which would have aroused Juvenal's bile. The Agha's character is
curious and exceptional as his outward conformation. Disconnected with
humanity, he is cruel, fierce, brave, and capable of any villany. His
frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs, with
high shoulders, protruding joints, and a face by contrast
extraordinarily large; he is unusually expert in the use of weapons,
and sitting well "home," he rides to admiration, his hoarse, thick
voice investing him with all the circumstances of command.
Besides the eunuchs, there are a number of free servants, called
Farrashin, attached to the Mosque; almost all the middle and lower
class of citizens belong to this order. They are divided into parties
of thirty each, and are changed every week, those on duty receiving a
Ghazi or twenty-two piastres for their services. Their business
[p.373]is to dust, and to spread the carpets, to put oil and wicks into
the lamps which the eunuchs let down from the ceiling, and, generally
speaking, diligently to do nothing.
Finally, the menial establishment of the Mosque consists of a Shaykh
al-Sakka (chief of the water-carriers), under whom are from forty-five
to fifty men who sprinkle the floors, water the garden, and, for a
consideration, supply a cupful of brackish liquid to visitors.
The literary establishment is even more extensive than the executive
and the menial. There is a Kazi, or chief judge, sent every year from
Constantinople. After twelve months at Al-Madinah, he passes on to
Meccah, and returns home after a similar term of service in the second
Holy City. Under him are three Muftis,[FN#62] of the Hanafi, the
Shafe'i, and the Maliki schools; the fourth, or Hanbali, is not
represented here or at Cairo.[FN#63] Each of these officers receives as
pay about two hundred and fifty piastres a month. The Ruasa,[FN#64] as
the Mu'ezzins (prayer-callers) here call themselves, are extensively
represented; there are forty-eight or forty-nine of the lowest order,
presided over by six Kubar or Masters, and these again are under the
Shaykh al-Ruasa, who alone has the privilege of calling to prayers from
the Raisiyah minaret. The Shaykh receives a hundred and fifty piastres,
the chiefs about a hundred, and the common criers sixty; there are
[p.374]forty-five Khatibs, who preach and pray before the congregation
on Fridays for a hundred and twenty piastres a month; they are under
the Shaykh al-Khutaba. About the same sum is given to seventy-five
Imams, who recite the five ordinary prayers of every day in the Mosque;
the Shaykh al-Aimmat is their superior.[FN#65]
Almost all the citizens of Al-Madinah who have not some official charge
about the temple qualify themselves to act as Muzawwirs. They begin as
boys to learn the formula of prayer, and the conducting of visitors;
and partly by begging, partly by boldness, they often pick up a
tolerable livelihood at an early age. The Muzawwir will often receive
strangers into his house, as was done to me, and direct their devotions
during the whole time of their stay. For such service he requires a sum
of money proportioned to his guests' circumstances, but this fee does
not end the connexion. If the Muzawwir visit the home of his Zair, he
expects to be treated with the utmost hospitality, and to depart with a
handsome present. A religious visitor will often transmit to his
cicerone at Meccah and at Al-Madinah yearly sums to purchase for
himself a prayer at the Ka'abah and the Prophet's Tomb. The remittance
is usually wrapped up in paper, and placed in a sealed leathern bag,
somewhat like a portfolio, upon which is worked the name of the person
entitled to receive it. It is then given in charge either to a
trustworthy pilgrim, or to the public treasurer, who accompanies the
principal caravans.
I could procure no exact information about the amount of money
forwarded every year from Constantinople and Cairo to Al-Madinah; the
only point upon which men seemed to agree was that they were defrauded
of half their dues. When the Sadaka and Aukaf (the alms and bequests)
arrive at the town, they are committed by the Surrah, or
[p.375]financier of the caravan, to the Muftis, the chief of the
Khatibs, and the Kazi's clerk. These officers form a committee, and
after reckoning the total of the families entitled to pensions, divide
the money amongst them, according to the number in each household, and
the rank of the pensioners. They are divided into five orders:-
The Olema, or learned, and the Mudarrisin, who profess, lecture, or
teach adults in the Harim.
The Imams and Khatibs.
The descendants of the Prophet.
The Fukaha, poor divines, pedadogues, gerund-grinders, who teach boys
to read the Koran.
The Awam, or nobile vulgus of the Holy City, including the Ahali, or
burghers of the town, and the Mujawirin, or those settled in the place.
Omar Effendi belonged to the second order, and he informed me that his
share varied from three to fifteen Riyals per annum.
[FN#1] In Oriental geography the parasang still, as in the days of
Pliny, greatly varies, from 1500 to 6000 yards. Captain Francklin,
whose opinion is generally taken, makes it (in his Tour to Persia) a
measure of about four miles (Preface to Ibn Haukal, by Sir Gore
Ouseley).
[FN#2] M.C. de Perceval (Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant
l'Islamisme), makes Amlak son of Laoud (Lud), son of Shem, or,
according to others, son of Ham. That learned writer identifies the
Amalik with the Phoenicians, the Amalekites, the Canaanites, and the
Hyksos. He alludes, also, to an ancient tradition which makes them to
have colonised Barbary in Africa.
[FN#3] The Dabistan al-Mazahib relates a tradition that the Almighty,
when addressing the angels in command, uses the Arabic tongue, but when
speaking in mercy or beneficence, the Deri dialect of Persian.
[FN#4] These were the giants who fought against Israel in Palestine.
[FN#5] In this wild tradition we find a confirmation of the sound
geographical opinion which makes Arabia "Une des pepinieres du genre
humain" (M. Jomard). It must be remembered that the theatre of all
earliest civilisation has been a fertile valley with a navigable
stream, like Sind, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The existence of such a spot
in Arabia would have altered every page of her history; she would then
have become a centre, not a source, of civilisation. Strabo's Malothes
river in Al-Yaman is therefore a myth. As it is, the immense population
of the peninsula-still thick, even in the deserts-has, from the
earliest ages, been impelled by drought, famine, or desire of conquest,
to emigrate into happier regions. All history mentions two main streams
which took their rise in the wilds. The first set to the North-East,
through Persia, Mekran, Baluchistan, Sind, and the Afghan Mountains, as
far as Samarkand, Bokhara, and Tibet; the other, flowing towards the
North-West, passed through Egypt and Barbary into Etruria, Spain, the
Isles of the Mediterranean, and Southern France. There are two minor
emigrations chronicled in history, and written in the indelible
characters of physiognomy and philology. One of these set in an
exiguous but perennial stream towards India, especially Malabar, where,
mixing with the people of the country, the Arab merchants became the
progenitors of the Moplah race. The other was a partial emigration,
also for commercial purposes, to the coast of Berberah, in Eastern
Africa, where, mixing with the Galla tribes, the people of Hazramaut
became the sires of the extensive Somali and Sawahil nations. Thus we
have from Arabia four different lines of emigration, tending N.E. and
S.E., N.W. and S.W. At some future time I hope to develop this curious
but somewhat obscure portion of Arabian history. It bears upon a most
interesting subject, and serves to explain, by the consanguinity of
races, the marvellous celerity with which the faith of Al-Islam spread
from the Pillars of Hercules to the confines of China-embracing part of
Southern Europe, the whole of Northern and a portion of Central Africa,
and at least three-fourths of the continent of Asia.
[FN#6] Of this name M.C. de Perceval remarks, "Le mot Arcam etait une
designation commune a tous ces rois." He identifies it with Rekem
(Numbers xxxi. 8), one of the kings of the Midianites; and recognises
in the preservation of the royal youth the history of Agag and Samuel.
[FN#7] And some most ignorantly add, "after the entrance of Moses into
the Promised Land."
[FN#8] In those days, we are told, the Jews, abandoning their original
settlement in Al-Ghabbah or the low lands to the N. of the town,
migrated to the highest portions of the Madinah plain on the S. and E.,
and the lands of the neighbourhood of the Kuba Mosque.
[FN#9] When describing Ohod, I shall have occasion to allude to Aaron's
dome, which occupies the highest part. Few authorities, however,
believe that Aaron was buried there; his grave, under a small stone
cupola, is shown over the summit of Mount Hor, in the Sinaitic
Peninsula, and is much visited by devotees.
[FN#10] It must be remembered that many of the Moslem geographers
derive the word "Arabia" from a tract of land in the neighbourhood of
Al-Madinah.
[FN#11] Khaybar in Hebrew is supposed to signify a castle. D'Herbelot
makes it to mean a pact or association of the Jews against the Moslems.
This fort appears to be one of the latest as well as the earliest of
the Hebrew settlements in Al-Hijaz. Benjamin of Tudela asserts that
there were 50,000 Jews resident at their old colony, Bartema in A.D.
1703 found remnants of the people there, but his account of them is
disfigured by fable. In Niebuhr's time the Beni Khaybar had independent
Shaykhs, and were divided into three tribes, viz., the Benu Masad, the
Benu Shahan, and the Benu Anizah (this latter, however, is a Moslem
name), who were isolated and hated by the other Jews, and therefore the
traveller supposes them to have been Karaites. In Burckhardt's day the
race seems to have been entirely rooted out. I made many inquiries, and
all assured me that there is not a single Jewish family now in Khaybar.
It is indeed the popular boast in Al-Hijaz, that, with the exception of
Jeddah (and perhaps Yambu', where the Prophet never set his foot),
there is not a town in the country harbouring an Infidel. This has now
become a point of fanatic honour; but if history may be trusted, it has
become so only lately.
[FN#12] When the Arabs see the ass turn tail to the wind and rain, they
exclaim, "Lo! he turneth his back upon the mercy of Allah!"
[FN#13] M.C. de Perceval quotes Judith, ii. 13, 26, and Jeremiah, xlix.
28, to prove that Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar the First,
laid waste the land of Midian and other parts of Northern Arabia.
[FN#14] Saba in Southern Arabia.
[FN#15] The erection of this dyke is variously attributed to Lukman the
Elder (of the tribe of Ad) and to Saba bin Yashjab. It burst according
to some, beneath the weight of a flood; according to others, it was
miraculously undermined by rats. A learned Indian Shaykh has mistaken
the Arabic word "Jurad," a large kind of mouse or rat, for "Jarad," a
locust, and he makes the wall to have sunk under a "bar i Malakh," or
weight of locusts! No event is more celebrated in the history of pagan
Arabia than this, or more trustworthy, despite the exaggeration of the
details-the dyke is said to have been four miles long by four broad-and
the fantastic marvels which are said to have accompanied its bursting.
The ruins have lately been visited by M. Arnaud, a French traveller,
who communicated his discovery to the French Asiatic Society in 1845.
[FN#16] Ma al-Sama, "the water (or "the splendour") of heaven," is,
generally speaking, a feminine name amongst the pagan Arabs; possibly
it is here intended as a matronymic.
[FN#17] This expedition to Al-Madinah is mentioned by all the
pre-Islamatic historians, but persons and dates are involved in the
greatest confusion. Some authors mention two different expeditions by
different Tobbas; others only one, attributing it differently, however,
to two Tobbas,-Abu Karb in the 3rd century of the Christian era, and
Tobba al-Asghar, the last of that dynasty, who reigned, according to
some, in A.D. 300, according to others in A.D. 448. M.C. de Perceval
places the event about A.D. 206, and asserts that the Aus and Khazraj
did not emigrate to Al-Madinah before A.D. 300. The word Tobba or
Tubba, I have been informed by some of the modern Arabs, is still used
in the Himyaritic dialect of Arabic to signify "the Great" or "the
Chief."
[FN#18] Nothing is more remarkable in the annals of the Arabs than
their efforts to prove the Ishmaelitic descent of Mohammed; at the same
time no historic question is more open to doubt.
[FN#19] If this be true it proves that the Jews of Al-Hijaz had in
those days superstitious reverence for the Ka'abah; otherwise the
Tobba, after conforming to the law of Moses, would not have shown it
this mark of respect. Moreover there is a legend that the same Rabbis
dissuaded the Tobba from plundering the sacred place when he was
treacherously advised so to do by the Benu Hudayl Arabs. I have lately
perused "The Worship of Ba'alim in Israel," based upon the work of Dr.
R. Dozy, "The Israelites in Mecca." By Dr. H. Oort. Translated from the
Dutch, and enlarged, with Notes and Appendices, by the Right Rev. John
William Colenso, D.D. (Longmans.) I see no reason why Meccah or Beccah
should be made to mean "A Slaughter"; why the Ka'abah should be founded
by the Simeonites; why the Hajj should be the Feast of Trumpets; and
other assertions in which everything seems to be taken for granted
except etymology, which is tortured into confession. If Meccah had been
founded by the Simeonites, why did the Persians and the Hindus respect
it?
[FN#20] It is curious that Abdullah, Mohammed's father, died and was
buried at Al-Madinah, and that his mother Aminah's tomb is at Abwa, on
the Madinah road. Here, too, his great-grandfather Hashim married Salma
Al-Mutadalliyah, before him espoused to Uhayhah, of the Aus tribe.
Shaybah, generally called Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet's grandfather,
was the son of Salma, and was bred at Al-Madinah.
[FN#21] Ayyas bin Ma'az died, it is said, a Moslem.
[FN#22] "Bayat al-Akabat al-ula." It is so called because this oath was
sworn at a place called Al-Akabah (the Mountain-road), near Muna. A
Mosque was afterwards built there to commemorate the event.
[FN#23] Some Moslem writers suppose that Mohammed singled out twelve
men as apostles, and called them Nakil, in imitation of the example of
our Saviour. Other Moslems ignore both the fact and the intention. M.C.
de Perceval gives the names of these Nakils in vol. iii. p. 8.
[FN#24] Orthodox Moslems do not fail to quote this circumstance in
honour of the first Caliph, upon whom moreover they bestow the title of
"Friend of the Cave." The Shi'ahs, on the other hand, hating Abu Bakr,
see in it a symptom of treachery, and declare that the Prophet feared
to let the "Old Hyena," as they opprobriously term the venerable
successor, out of his sight for fear lest he should act as spy to the
Kuraysh. The voice of history and of common sense is against the
Shi'ahs. M.C. de Perceval justly remarks, that Abu Bakr and Omar were
men truly worthy of their great predecessor.
[FN#25] This animal's name, according to some, was Al-Kaswa ("the tips
of whose ears are cropped"); according to others Al-Jada'a ("one
mutilated in the ear, hand, nose, or lip"). The Prophet bought her for
800 dirhams, on the day before his flight, from Abu Bakr, who had
fattened two fine animals of his own breeding. The camel was offered as
a gift, but Mohammed insisted upon paying its price, because, say the
Moslem casuists, he being engaged in the work of God would receive no
aid from man. According to M.C. de Perceval, the Prophet preached from
the back of Al-Kaswa the celebrated pilgrimage sermon at Arafat on the
8th March, A.D. 632.
[FN#26] The Prophet is generally supposed to have started from Meccah
on the first of the same month, on a Friday or a Monday. This
discrepancy is supposed to arise from the fact that Mohammed fled his
house in Meccah on a Friday, passed three days in the cave on Jabal
Saur, and finally left it for Al-Madinah on Monday, which therefore,
according to Moslem divines, was the first day of the "Hijrah." But the
aera now commences on the 1st of the previous Muharram, an arrangement
made seventeen years after the date of the flight by Omar the Caliph,
with the concurrence of Ali.
[FN#27] The distance from Kuba to Al-Madinah is little more than three
miles, for which six hours-Friday prayers being about noon-may be
considered an inordinately long time. But our author might urge as a
reason that the multitude of people upon a narrow road rendered the
Prophet's advance a slow one, and some historians relate that he spent
several hours in conversation with the Benu Salim.
[FN#28] Mohammed never would eat these strong smelling vegetables on
account of his converse with the angels, even as modern "Spiritualists"
refuse to smoke tobacco; at the same time he allowed his followers to
do so, except when appearing in his presence, entering a Mosque, or
joining in public prayers. The pious Moslem still eats his onions with
these limitations. Some sects, however, as the Wahhabis, considering
them abominable, avoid them on all occasions.
[FN#29] The name of the tribe literally means "sons of a carpenter";
hence the error of the learned and violent Humphrey Prideaux, corrected
by Sale.
[FN#30] Some say that Abu Bakr had no abode near the Mosque. But it is
generally agreed upon, that he had many houses, one in Al-Bakia,
another in the higher parts of Al-Madinah, and among them a hut on the
spot between the present gates called Salam and Rahmah.
[FN#31] It is clear from the fact above stated, that in those days the
Jews of Arabia were in a state of excitement, hourly expecting the
advent of their Messiah, and that Mohammed believed himself to be the
person appointed to complete the law of Moses.
[FN#32] In many minor details the above differs from the received
accounts of Pre-Islamitic and early Mohammedan history. Let the blame
be borne by the learned Shaykh Abd al-Hakk al-Muhaddis of Delhi, and
his compilation, the "Jazb al-Kulub ila Diyar al-Mahhub (the "Drawing
of Hearts towards the Holy Parts"). From the multitude of versions at
last comes correctness.
[FN#33] A Firman from the Porte, dated 13th February, 1841, provides
for the paying of these pensions regularly. "It being customary to send
every year from Egypt provisions in kind to the two Holy Cities, the
provisions and other articles, whatever they may be, which have up to
this time been sent to this place, shall continue to be sent thither."
Formerly the Holy Land had immense property in Egypt, and indeed in all
parts of Al-Islam. About thirty years ago, Mohammed Ali Pasha bought up
all the Wakf (church property), agreeing to pay for its produce, which
he rated at five piastres the ardeb, when it was worth three times as
much. Even that was not regularly paid. The Sultan has taken advantage
of the present crisis to put down Wakf in Turkey. The Holy Land,
therefore, will gradually lose all its land and house property, and
will soon be compelled to depend entirely upon the presents of the
pilgrims, and the Sadakah, or alms, which are still sent to it by the
pious Moslems of distant regions. As might be supposed, both the
Meccans and the Madani loudly bewail their hard fates, and by no means
approve of the Ikram, the modern succedaneum for an extensive and
regularly paid revenue. At a future time, I shall recur to this subject.
[FN#34] The prayer-niche and the minaret both date their existence from
the days of Al-Walid, the builder of the third Mosque. At this age of
their empire, the Moslems had travelled far and had seen art in various
lands; it is therefore not without a shadow of reason that the Hindus
charge them with having borrowed their two favourite symbols, and
transformed them into an arch and a tower.
[FN#35] The Ustawanat al-Hannanah, or "Weeping-Post." See page 335,
chapter XVI., ante.
[FN#36] As usual, there are doubts about the invention of this article.
It was covered with cloth by the Caliph Osman, or, as others say, by
Al-Mu'awiyah, who, deterred by a solar eclipse from carrying out his
project of removing it to Damascus, placed it upon a new framework,
elevated six steps above the ground. Al-Mahdi wished to raise the
Mambar six steps higher, but was forbidden so to do by the Imam Malik.
The Abbasides changed the pulpit, and converted the Prophet's original
seat into combs, which were preserved as relics. Some historians
declare that the original Mambar was burnt with the Mosque in A.H. 654.
In Ibn Jubayr's time (A.H. 580), it was customary for visitors to place
their right hands upon a bit of old wood, inserted into one of the
pillars of the pulpit; this was supposed to be a remnant of the
"weeping-post." Every Sultan added some ornament to the Mambar, and at
one time it was made of white marble, covered over with a dome of the
"eight metals." It is now a handsome structure, apparently of wood,
painted and gilt of the usual elegant form, which has been compared by
some travellers with the suggesta of Roman Catholic churches. I have
been explicit about this pulpit, hoping that, next time the knotty
question of Apostolic seats comes upon the tapis, our popular authors
will not confound a Curule chair with a Moslem Mambar. Of the latter
article, Lane (Mod. Egyptians, chap. iii.) gave a sketch in the
"Interior of a Mosque."
[FN#37] The Prophet is said to have had a dwelling-house in the
Ambariyah, or the Western quarter of the Manakhah suburb, and here,
according to some, he lodged Mariyah, the Coptic girl. As pilgrims do
not usually visit the place, and nothing of the original building can
be now remaining, I did not trouble myself about it.
[FN#38] Meaning the Prophet's fifteen to twenty-five wives. Their
number is not settled. He left nine wives and two concubines. It was
this title after the Koranic order (chap, xxxiii. v. 53) which rendered
their widowhood eternal; no Arab would willingly marry a woman whom he
has called mother or sister.
[FN#39] Authors mention a place outside the Northern wall called
Al-Suffah, which was assigned by Mohammed as a habitation to houseless
believers; from which circumstance these paupers derived the title of
Ashab al-Suffah, "Companions of the Sofa."
[FN#40] So I translate the Arabicised word "Saj."
[FN#41] A place about five miles from Al-Madinah, on the Meccan way.
See Chap. XIV.
[FN#42] And curious to say Al-Islam still has the largest cathedral in
the world-St. Sophia's at Constantinople. Next to this ranks St.
Peter's at Rome; thirdly, I believe, the "Jumma Masjid," or cathedral
of the old Moslem city Bijapur in India; the fourth is St. Paul's,
London,
[FN#43] It is to this monarch that the Saracenic Mosque-architecture
mainly owes its present form. As will be seen, he had every advantage
of borrowing from Christian, Persian, and even Indian art. From the
first he took the dome, from the second the cloister-it might have been
naturalised in Arabia before his time-and possibly from the third the
minaret and the prayer-niche. The latter appears to be a peculiarly
Hindu feature in sacred buildings, intended to contain the idol, and to
support the lamps, flowers, and other offerings placed before it.
[FN#44] The reader will remember that in the sixth year of the Hijrah,
after Mohammed's marriage with Zaynab, his wives were secluded behind
the Hijab, Pardah, or curtain. A verse of the Koran directed the
Moslems to converse with them behind this veil. Hence the general
practice of Al-Islam: now it is considered highly disgraceful in any
Moslem to make a Moslemah expose her face, and she will frequently
found a threat upon the prejudice. A battle has been prevented by this
means, and occasionally an insurrection has been caused by it.
[FN#45] Amongst which some authors enumerate the goblet and the mirror
of Kisra.
[FN#46] The outer wall, built by Al-Walid, remained till A.H. 550, when
Jamal al-Din of Isafahan, Wazir to Nur al-Din Shahid Mahmud bin Zangi,
supplied its place by a grating of open sandal woodwork, or, as others
say, of iron. About the same time, Sayyid Abu 'l Hayja sent from Egypt
a sheet of white brocade, embroidered in red silk with the chapter
Y.S., in order to cover the inner wall. This was mounted on the
accession of Al-Mustazi bi'llah, the Caliph, after which it became the
custom for every Sultan to renew the offering. And in A.H. 688, Kalaun
of Egypt built the outer network of brass as it now is, and surmounted
it with the Green Dome.
[FN#47] The inner wall, erected by Al-Walid, seems to have resisted the
fire which in A.H. 654 burnt the Mosque to the ground. Also, in A.H.
886, when the building was consumed by lightning, the Hujrah was spared
by the devouring element.
[FN#48] After the Prophet's death and burial, Ayishah continued to
occupy the same room, without even a curtain between her and the tomb.
At last, vexed by the crowds of visitors, she partitioned off the
hallowed spot with a wall. She visited the grave unveiled as long as
her father Abu Bakr only was placed behind the Prophet; but when Omar's
corpse was added, she always covered her face.
[FN#49] One of these, the minaret at the Bab-al-Salam, was soon
afterwards overthrown by Al-Walid's brother Sulayman, because it shaded
the house of Marwan, where he lodged during his visit to Al-Madinah in
the cold season.
[FN#50] The dinar (denarius) was a gold piece, a ducat, a sequin.
[FN#51] I purpose to touch upon this event in a future chapter, when
describing my route from Al-Madinah to Meccah.
[FN#52] "On this occasion," says Al-Samanhudi, quoted by Burckhardt,
"the interior of the Hujrah was cleared, and 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." Yet in another place
he, an eye-witness, had declared that the coffin containing the dust of
Mohammed was cased with silver. I repeat these details.
[FN#53] Burckhardt has given a full account of this event in his
history of the Wahhabis.
[FN#54] See Chapter XVI., ante.
[FN#55] My predecessor estimates the whole treasury in those days to
have been worth 300,000 Riyals,-a small sum, if we consider the length
of time during which it was accumulating. The chiefs of the town
appropriated 1 cwt. of golden vessels, worth at most 50,000 dollars,
and Sa'ud sold part of the plunder to Ghalib for 100,000 (I was told
one-third more), reserving for himself about the same amount of pearls
and corals. Burckhardt supposes that the governors of Al-Madinah, who
were often independent chiefs, and sometimes guardians of the tombs,
made occasional draughts upon the generosity of the Faithful.
[FN#56] I inquired in vain about the substance that covered the dome.
Some told me it was tinfoil; others supposed it to be rivetted with
green tiles.
[FN#57] The Badawi calls a sound dollar "Kirsh Hajar," or "Riyal
Hajar," a "stone dollar."
[FN#58] At the same time his account is still carefully copied by our
popular and general authors, who, it is presumed, could easily become
better informed.
[FN#59] The Persians in remote times, as we learn from Herodotus (lib.
6), were waited upon by eunuchs, and some attribute to them the
invention. Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. 14) ascribes the origin to
Semiramis. In Al-Islam, the employment of such persons about the Mosque
is a "Bida'ah" or custom unknown in the time of the Prophet. It is said
to have arisen from the following three considerations: 1. These people
are concentrated in their professions; 2. They must see and touch
strange women at the shrines; and 3. The shrines are "Harim," or
sacred, having adyta which are kept secret from the prying eyes of men,
and, therefore, should be served by eunuchs. It is strange that the
Roman Catholic church, as well as the Moslem Mosque, should have
admitted such an abomination.
[FN#60] One of these gentry, if called "Tawashi,"-his generic
name,-would certainly insult a stranger. The polite form of address to
one of them is "Agha"-Master,-in the plural "Aghawat." In partibus,
they exact the greatest respect from men, and the title of the Eunuch
of the Tomb is worth a considerable sum to them. The eunuchs of
Al-Madinah are more numerous and better paid than those of Meccah: they
are generally the slaves of rich men at Constantinople, and prefer this
city on account of its climate.
[FN#61] The "Sons of the City," however, are always allowed to do such
service gratis; if, indeed, they are not paid for it.
[FN#62] Others told me that there were only two muftis at Al-Madinah,
namely, those of the Hanafi and Shafe'i schools. If this be true, it
proves the insignificance of the followers of Malik, which personage,
like others, is less known in his own town than elsewhere.
[FN#63] The Hanbali school is nowhere common except in Nijd, and the
lands Eastward as far as Al-Hasa. At present it labours under a sort of
imputation, being supposed to have thrown out a bad offshoot, the
Wahhabis.
[FN#64] "Ruasa" is the plural of Rais, a chief or president. It is the
term generally applied in Arabia to the captain of a vessel, and in
Al-Yaman it often means a barber, in virtue, I presume, of its
root-Ras, the head.
[FN#65] Some say that the Egyptian distinction between the Imam Khatib
and the Imam Ratib does not obtain at Al-Madinah.
[p.376]CHAPTER XVIII.