The Inhabitants Hail These Inundations As A Sure Promise Of
Plenty, Because They Not Only Copiously Irrigate Their Date-Trees, But
Likewise Cause Verdure To Spread Over The More Distant Plains Inhabited
By Bedouins, On Whose Imports Of Cattle And Butter Medina Depends For
Its Consumption.
The precious jewel of Medina, which sets the town almost upon a level
with Mekka, and has even caused
It to be preferred to the latter, by
many Arabic writers, [This is particularly the case with the sect of the
Malekites, who pretend that Medina is more to be honoured than Mekka.]
is the great mosque, containing the tomb of Mohammed. Like the mosque of
Mekka, it bears the name of El Haram, on account of its inviolability; a
name which is constantly given to it by the people of Medina, while, in
foreign parts, it is more generally known under the appellation of
Mesdjed en' Neby, the mosque or temple of the Prophet, who was its
original founder. The ground-plan will show that this mosque is situated
towards the eastern extremity of the town, and not in the midst of it,
as the Arabian historians
[p.330] and geographers often state. Its dimensions are much smaller
than those of the mosque at Mekka, being a hundred and sixty-five paces
in length, and a hundred and thirty in breadth; but it is built much
upon the same plan, forming an open square, surrounded on all sides by
covered colonnades, with a small building in the centre of the
square. [The representations of this mosque, given both by Niebuhr and
D'Ohhson, are very incorrect, being copied, probably, from old Arab
drawings. I had intended to make a correct plan of it, but was prevented
by my illness; and I should not wish to add one from mere recollection.
Samhoudy states its dimensions as quite different, and says that it is
two hundred and forty pikes in length, one hundred and sixty-five pikes
in breadth on the S. side, and one hundred and thirty on the N. side. He
adds that there are two hundred and ninety-six columns. I am not quite
sure whether the building has been materially changed since his time,
and after the fire in A.H. 886; but I believe not, and regard his
account as much exaggerated.] These colonnades are much less regular
than those at Mekka, where the rows of pillars stand at much the same
depth on all sides. On the south side of this mosque, the colonnade is
composed of ten rows of pillars behind each other; and on the west side
are four rows; on the north, and part of the east side, only three rows.
The columns themselves are of different sizes. On the south side, which
contains the Prophet's tomb, and which forms the most holy part of the
building, they are of larger dimensions than in the other parts, and
about two feet and a half in diameter. They have no pediments, the
shafts touching the ground; and the same diversity and bad taste are as
conspicuous in the capitals here as in the mosque at Mekka, no two being
alike.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 243 of 350
Words from 126334 to 126864
of 182297
