VISITED BY PILGRIMS AT MEKKA, AND IN ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
DURING the time of the Wahabys, no person dared to visit these places
without exposing himself to their hostility; and all the buildings which
had been erected on these spots were ruined by them, or their domes
were, at least, destroyed.
In the town are shown: -
Mouled el Neby, the birth-place of Mohammed, in the quarter named from
it. In the time of Fasy a mosque stood near it, called Mesdjed el
Mokhtaba. During my stay, workmen were busily employed in re-
constructing the building over the Mouled upon its former plan. It
consists of a rotunda, the floor of which is about twenty-five feet
below the level of the street, with a staircase leading down to it. A
small hole is shown in the floor, in which Mohammed's mother sat when
she was delivered of him. This is said to have been the house of
Abdillah, Mohammed's father.
Mouled Setna Fatme, or the birth-place of Fatme, the daughter of
Mohammed, is shown in a good stone building, said to have been the house
of her mother Khadidje, in the street called Zogag el Hadjar.
