On The South Side Of The Railing, Where Are The Two Principal Of These Windows, Before Which The Visiters Stand

When praying, the railing is thinly plated over with silver, and the often- repeated inscription of "La Illaha il Allah

Al hak al Mobyn," ("There is no God but God, the evident Truth,") is carried in silver letters across the railing all round these windows. This enclosure is entered by four gates, three of which are constantly kept shut, and one only is opened, every morning and .evening, to admit the eunuchs, whose office it is to clean the floor and light the lamps. Each of these gates has its particular name: Bab en' Neby, Bab Errahme, Bab et Touba, Bab Setna Fatme. The permission to enter into this enclosure, which is called El Hedjra, is granted gratis to people of rank, as Pashas, or chiefs of the Hadj caravans, and may be purchased by other people from the principal eunuchs, at the price of about twelve or fifteen dollars, distributed in presents among them: but few visiters avail themselves of this privilege, because they well know that, on entering the enclosure, nothing more is to be seen than what falls under their observation when peeping in at the windows of the railing, which are constantly kept open; and I was myself not inclined to attract general notice, by thus satisfying my curiosity. What appears of the interior is a curtain carried round, which takes up almost the whole space, having between it and the railing an open walk, of a few paces only in breadth. The curtain is equal in height to the railing; but I could not distinguish from below, whether, like the latter, it is open at the top. There is a covering, (as the eunuchs affirm,) of the same stuff of which the curtain is made; this is a rich silk brocade, of various colours, interwoven with silver flowers and arabesques, with a band of inscriptions in golden characters, running across the midst of it, like that of the covering of the Kaaba. This curtain is at least thirty feet high: it has a small gate to the north, which is always shut; no person whatever being permitted to enter within its holy precincts, except the chief eunuchs, who take care of it, and who put on, during the night, the new curtain sent from

[p.333] Constantinople, whenever the old one is decayed, or when a new Sultan ascends the throne. The old curtains are sent to Constantinople, and serve to cover the tombs of the sultans and princes. [See D'Ohhson. The historian of Medina says, that in his time it was changed every six years, and that the income from several villages in Egypt was set apart at Cairo for the manufacturing of those curtains.]

According to the historian of Medina, the curtain covers a square building of black stones, supported by two pillars, in the interior of which are the tombs of Mohammed, and his two earliest friends and immediate successors, Abou Beker and Omar.

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