In General, Women Are Seldom Seen In The Mosques In
The East, Although Free Access Is Not Forbidden.
A few are sometimes met
in the most holy temples, as that
[P.348] of the Azhar at Cairo, where they offer up their thanks to
Providence, for any favour which they may have taken a vow thus to
acknowledge. Even in their houses the women seldom pray, except devout
old ladies; and it is remarked as an extraordinary accomplishment in a
woman, if she knows her prayers well, and has got by heart some chapters
of the Koran. Women being considered in the East as inferior creatures,
to whom some learned commentators on the Koran deny even the entrance
into Paradise, their husbands care little about their strict observance
of religious rites, and many of them even dislike it, because it raises
them to a nearer level with themselves; and it is remarked, that the
woman makes a bad wife, who can once claim the respect to which she is
entitled by the regular reading of prayers.
There are no sacred pigeons in this mosque, as in that at Mekka; but the
quantity of woollen carpets spread in it, where the most dirty Arabs sit
down by the side of the best dressed hadjys, have rendered it the
favourite abode of millions of other animals less harmless than pigeons,
and a great plague to all visiters, who transfer them to their private
lodgings, which thus swarm with vermin.
This mosque being much smaller than that of Mekka, and a strict police
kept up in it by the eunuchs, it is less infested with beggars and idle
characters than the former. It should seem also, that the tomb of
Mohammed inspires the people of Medina with much greater awe, and
religious respect, than the Kaaba does those of Mekka; which sentiment
deters them from approaching it with idle thoughts, or as a mere
pastime: much more decorum is therefore observed within its precincts
than within those of the Beitullah.
As at Mekka, a number of Khatybs, Imams, Mueddins, and other persons
belonging to the body of Olemas, are attached to the mosque. The olemas
here are said to be more learned than their brethren of Mekka; and those
of former days have produced many valuable writings. At present,
however, there is less appearance of learning here than at Mekka. During
my visits to the mosque I never saw a native Arab teaching knowledge of
any kind, and only a few Turkish hadjys explaining some religious books
in their own language, to a very few auditors, from whom they collected
trifling sums, to defray
[p.349] the expenses of their journey home. Tousoun Pasha, the only one
of his family who is not an avowed atheist, frequently attended those
lectures, and sat in the same circle with the other persons present. I
was told, that in the medrese called El Hamdye some public lectures are
delivered; but I had no opportunity of ascertaining the fact.
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