Instead Of The Mahrab,
Or Niche, Which Is Placed In Mosques To Show The Direction In Which The
Faithful Ought
To turn in their prayers, Mohammed placed a large stone,
which was at first turned to the north, towards Jerusalem,
And placed in
the direction of the Kaaba of Mekka, in the second year of the Hedjra,
when the ancient Kebly was changed.
"Omar ibn el Khatab widened the mosque with mud walls and palm-branches,
and, instead of the stems of palms, he made pillars of mud. He first
carried a wall round the Hedjra, or the place where the body of Mohammed
had been deposited at his death, and which was at first enclosed only by
palm-branches. The square enclosed by the walls of the mosque was
increased to one hundred and forty pikes in length, and one hundred and
twenty in breadth, A.H. 17.
"Othman built the walls of hewn stone: in A.H. 29, he renewed the
earthen pillars, strengthening the new ones with hoops of iron, and made
the roof of the precious Indian wood called Sadj. The square was
enlarged to one hundred and sixty pikes by one hundred and fifty; and
six gates were opened into it.
"Wolyd, he to whom Damascus owes its beautiful mosque, called Djama el
Ammouy, further enlarged the Mesdjed-e'-Neby in A.H. 91.
[p.351] Till then, the houses where the wives and daughter and female
relations of Mohammed had resided, stood close to the Hedjra, beyond the
precincts of the mosque, into which they had private gates.
Notwithstanding the great opposition he encountered, Wolyd compelled the
women to leave their houses, and to accept a fair price for them; he
then razed them, and extended the wall of the mosque on that side. The
Greek Emperor, with whom he happened to be at peace, sent him workmen
from Constantinople, who assisted in the new building; [Makrisi, in his
account of various sovereigns who performed the pilgrimage, says that
the Greek Emperor (whom he does not name) sent one hundred workmen to
Wolyd, and a present of a hundred thousand methkal of gold, together
with forty loads of small cut stones, for a mosaic pavement.] several of
whom, being Christians, behaved, as it is related, with great indecency;
one of them, in particular, when in the act of defiling the very tomb
of the Prophet, was killed by a stone which fell from the roof. New
stone pillars were now placed in the mosque, with gilt capitals. The
walls were cased with marble variously adorned, and parts of them
likewise gilt, and the whole building thus completely renewed.
"About A.H. 160, the Khalife El Mohdy still further enlarged the
enclosure, and made it two hundred and forty pikes in length; and in
this state the mosque remained for several centuries.
"Hakem b'amr Illah, the mad King of Egypt, who sent one of his
emissaries to destroy the black stone of the Kaaba, also made an
unsuccessful attempt to take from the mosque of Medina Mohammed's tomb,
and transport it to Cairo.
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