He Then
Returns To The Rodha, Where A Prayer Is Said As A Salutation To The
Deity On Leaving The Mosque, Which Completes This Ceremony, The
Performance Of Which Occupies At Most Twenty Minutes.
[P.340]On every spot where prayers are to be said, people sit with hand-
kerchiefs spread out to
Receive the gifts of the visiters, which appear
to be considered less as alms, than as a sort of toll; at least, a well-
dressed visiter would find it difficult to make his way without paying
these taxes. Before the window of Setna Fatme sits a party of women,
(Fatme being herself a female saint,) who likewise receive gifts in
their handkerchiefs. In the Rodha stand the eunuchs, or the guardians of
the temple, waiting till the visiter has finished his last prayer of
salutation, to wish him joy on having successfully completed the zyara
or visit, and to receive their fees; and the great gate of Bab-es'-Salam
is constantly crowded with poor, who closely beset the visiter, on his
leaving the mosque: the porter also expects his compliment, as a matter
of right. The whole visit cost me about fifteen piastres, and I gave ten
piastres to my cicerone; but I might, perhaps, have got through for half
that sum.
The ceremonies may be repeated as often as the visiter wishes: but few
perform them all, except on arriving at Medina, and when on the point of
departing. It is a general practice, however, to go every day, at least
once, to the window opposite Mohammed's tomb, and recite there a short
prayer: many persons do it whenever they enter the mosque. It is also a
rule never to sit down in the mosque, for any of the usual daily
prayers, without having previously addressed an invocation to the
Prophet, with uplifted hands, and the face turned towards his tomb. A
similar practice is prevalent in many other mosques in the East, which
contain the tomb of a saint. The Moslim divines affirm, that prayers
recited in the mosque of Medina are peculiarly acceptable to the Deity;
and invite the faithful to perform this pilgrimage, by telling them that
one prayer said in sight of the Hedjra is as efficacious as a thousand
said in any other mosque except that of Mekka.
I have already stated, that the north and east sides, and part of the
west side, of the mosque are by no means so well built as the south
side, where are the Hedjra and Rodha. The columns in those parts are
more slender, and less carefully painted; the pavement is coarse, and no
kind of ornament is seen on the white plastered walls,
[p.341] except on the east side, where the coarsely painted
representations of the mosque of St. Sophia, of Sultan Ahmed, of Bayazed
Waly, and of Scutari, celebrated temples in the capital, attract some
notice: they are painted in water-colours, upon the white wall, without
the smallest attention to perspective. The whole north side was at
present under repair; and the old pavement had been removed, to be
replaced by a better one.
The open court enclosed between the colonnades is unpaved, and covered
with sand and gravel. In the midst of it stands a small building, with a
vaulted roof, where the lamps of the mosque are kept. Near it is a small
enclosure of low wooden railing, which contains some palm-trees, held
sacred by the Moslims, because they are said to have been planted by
Fatme, and another tree, of which the stem only now remains, and which I
believe to have been a nebek, or lotus-tree. By it is a well, called
Bir-en-Neby, the water of which is brackish, and for this reason,
probably, enjoys no reputation for holiness. Samhoudy says that it is
called Es-Shame.
In the evening lamps are lighted round the colonnades; but principally
on the south side, where they are in greater numbers than on the others;
they are suspended from iron bars, extending from column to column. The
eunuchs and the servants of the mosque are employed in lighting them;
for a small donation to the latter, the visiters to the tomb are
permitted to assist, and many foreign hadjys are anxious to perform that
office, which is thought meritorious, and for which they are
particularly praised by the eunuchs: but they are never allowed to light
the lamps in the interior of the Hedjra. On the sides of the Mambar, or
the pulpit, and of both the Mahrabs, large wax candles are placed, as
thick as a man's body, and twelve feet high, which are lighted in the
evening by means of a ladder placed near them. They are sent from
Constantinople. The lady of Mohammed Aly, who was now at Medina, had
brought several of these candles as a present to the mosque, which had
been transported with great difficulty from Yembo to this place.
The mosque has four gates: 1. Bab-es-Salam, formerly called Bab Merouan,
(according to Samhoudy), on the south-west corner, is the
[p.342] principal one, by which the pilgrim is obliged to enter the
mosque at his first visit. It is a beautiful arched gateway, much
superior to any of those of the great mosque at Mekka, though inferior
in size to several of them, and handsomer than any gate of a mosque I
had before seen in the East. Its sides are inlaid with marble and glazed
tiles of various colours; and a number of inscriptions in relief, in
large gilt characters, above and on the sides of the arch, give it a
very dazzling appearance. Just before this gate is a small fountain,
filled by the water of the canal, where people usually perform their
ablutions, if they do not choose to do it in the mosque itself, where
jars are kept for the purpose.
2. Bab Errhame, formerly called Bab Atake, in the west wall, by which
the dead are carried into the mosque, when prayers are to be read over
them.
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