The Historians Of Mekka Remark, And Not Without Astonishment, That The
Munificent Khalife Haroun Er Rasheid, Although He Repeatedly Visited The
Kaaba, Added Nothing To The Mosque, Except A New Pulpit, Or Mambar.
A.H. 226.
During the Khalifat of Motasem b'illah, the well of Zemzem was
covered above: it had before been enclosed all round, but not roofed.
A.H. 241. The space between the Hedjer and the Kaaba was laid out with
fine marbles. At that time there was a gate leading into the space
enclosed within the Hedjer.
The Khalife El Motaded, in A.H. 281, put the whole mosque into a
complete state of repair: he rebuilt its walls; made new gates,
assigning to them new names; and enlarged the building on the west
[p.167] side, by adding to it the space formerly occupied by the
celebrated Dar el Nedowa; an ancient building of Mekka, well known in
the history of the Pagan Arabs, which had always been the common
council-house of the chiefs of Mekka. It is said to have stood near the
spot where the Makam el Hanefy is now placed.
In A.H. 314, or, according to others, 301, Mekka and its temple
experienced great disasters. The army of the heretic sect of the
Carmates, headed by their chief, Abou Dhaher, invaded the Hedjaz, and
seized upon Mekka: fifty thousand of its inhabitants were slain during
the sack of the city, and the temple and the Kaaba were stripped of all
their valuable ornaments. After remaining twenty-one days, the enemy
departed, carrying with them the great jewel of Mekka, the black stone
of the Kaaba. During the fire which injured the Kaaba, in the time of
Ibn Zebeyr, the violent heat had split the stone into three pieces,
which were afterwards joined together again, and replaced in the former
situation, surrounded with a rim of silver; this rim was renewed and
strengthened by Haroun er Rasheid.
The Carmates carried the stone to Hedjer, [Asamy says that the stone was
carried to El Hassa, near the Persian Gulf, a town which had been
recently built by Abou Dhaher. I find, in the Travels of Ibn Batouta, a
town in the province of El Hassa, called Hedjer.] a fertile spot in the
Desert, on the route of the Syrian caravan, north of Medina, which they
had chosen as one of their abodes. They hoped that all the moslems would
come to visit the stone, and that they should thus succeed to the riches
which the pilgrims from every part of the world had brought to Mekka.
Under this impression, Abou Dhaher refused an offer of fifty thousand
dinars as a ransom for the stone; but after his death, the Carmates, in
A.H. 339, voluntarily sent it back, having been convinced by experience
that their expectations of wealth, from the possession of it, were ill
founded, and that very few moslems came to Hedjer for the purpose of
kissing it. At this time it was in two pieces, having been split by a
blow from a Carmate during the plunder of Mekka.
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