They Belong To Mekkans Or Bedouins Of The Koreysh, By
Whom They Are Either Let Out, Or Occupied During The
Three days of the
Hadj, and left empty the rest of the year, when Muna is never inhabited.
Some of
These are tolerable stone buildings, two stories high; but not
more than a dozen of them are kept in complete repair. On the farthest
eastern extremity of the valley, stands a good house, belonging to the
reigning Sherif of Mekka, in which he usually lives during those days.
It was now occupied by the ladies of Mohammed Aly; Sherif Yahya, after
throwing off the ihram, having returned to Mekka, where many hadjys also
repair immediately after that ceremony; but it is their duty to revisit
Muna at noon on the 11th or 12th of this month, in order to throw the
stones, as the neglect of this ceremony would render their pilgrimage
imperfect. The remainder of those two days they may spend where they
please. In the evening of the day of sacrifice, the merchant hadjys
usually go to Mekka, that they may unpack whatever merchandize they have
brought there.
[p.278]In the open space between the Sherif's house and the habitations
of the Mekkans, is situated the mosque called Mesdjed el Kheyf; it is a
good solid building, the open square of which is surrounded by a high
and strong wall. In the midst of it is a public fountain, with a small
dome; and the west side, where the pulpit is placed, is occupied by a
colonnade with a triple row of pillars. The mosque is very ancient; it
was newly constructed in A.H. 559, by the celebrated Salaheddyn; but it
was rebuilt in its present form by Kayd Beg, Sultan of Egypt, in A.H.
874. It is reported, according to Fasy, that at the foot of the mountain
behind it, Mohammed received many revelations from heaven, and that Adam
was buried in the mosque. Close by it is a reservoir of water, also
founded, according to Kotobeddyn, by Kayd Beg; it was now completely
dry, as was a similar one where the Syrian Hadj encamped. The want of
water at Muna subjected the poorer hadjys to great hardships. Some was
brought either from Mezdelife, or from the tank situated beyond Muna, on
the road to Mekka, and the skin-full was sold for four piastres. In
Fasy's time, there were fifteen wells of brackish water at Muna: it
seems that water may be found at a certain depth in all the country
round Mekka.
The annexed ground-plan [not included] shows whatever is worthy of
notice in the town or village of Muna. [not included] The house of
Djeylany, the best that it contained, was constantly crowded by
visitors, whom he treated
[p.279] sumptuously. The houses of the Kadhy and the rich families of
Sakkat, were next to it; and, on the same side of the way, a long,
narrow hall had been lately repaired and fitted up, where about fifty
Mekkan and Turkish shopkeepers exhibited their wares. The houses of the
northern row are almost totally in ruins: the row of shops (No. 16.) on
that side were open without any doors. There were, besides, many sheds
constructed in the midst of the street, where victuals might be
purchased in great abundance, but at exorbitant prices.
On the declivity of the mountain to the north, called Djebel Thebeyr, a
place is visited by the hadjys, where Abraham, as some accounts inform
us, requested permission to offer up his son as a sacrifice. A granite
block, cleft in two, is shown here, upon which the knife of Abraham
fell, at the moment when the angel Gabriel showed him the ram close by.
At the touch of the knife the stone separated in two. It is in
commemoration of this sacrifice that the faithful, after the Hadj is
completed, slaughter their victims. The commentators on the law,
however, do not agree about the person whom Abraham intended to
sacrifice. Some state him to have been Yakoub (Jacob), but the far
greater number Ismayl. In the immediate neighbourhood of the block is a
small cavern, capable of holding four or five persons, where Hadjer (or
Hagar) is said to have given birth to Ismayl; this, however, directly
contradicts even Mohammedan tradition, which says that Ismayl was born
in Syria, and that his mother Hadjer carried him into the Hedjaz, when
an infant at her breast; but the small cavern offering itself so
conveniently, justified the substitution of Muna for Syria, as a fit
birth-place for the father of the Bedouins, more especially as it
attracts so many pious donations to the Mekkans, who sit around with
outspread handkerchiefs. Where the valley terminates towards Mekka, is a
small house of the Sherif, in which he makes his sacrifice, and throws
off the ihram. It was mentioned, that in a side-valley leading from this
place towards Djebel Nour, stands a mosque called Mesdjed el Ashra,
where the followers of Mohammed used to pray; but I did not visit it.
According to Azraky, another mosque, called Mesdjed el Kabsh, stood near
the cavern; and Fasy says there was one between
[p.280] the first and second of the devil's pillars, which is probably
that marked 20 in the plan.
To every division of the hadjys, its place of encampment is appointed in
Wady Muna, or at Arafat; but the space is here much narrower. The
Egyptian Hadj alights near the house of the Sherif, where Mohammed Aly
had pitched his tent, in the vicinity of his cavalry. Two large leathern
vessels, constantly kept filled with water, were placed in front of his
tent, for the use of the hadjys. At a short distance from it, towards
the Mesdjed el Kheyf, stood the tent of Soleyman Pasha of Damascus,
whose caravan was encamped on the opposite side of the way; before his
tent was placed a row of ten field-pieces, which he had brought with him
from Damascus.
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