The Whole Place Is A Confused Accumulation Of Heaps Of
Earth, Wide Pits, Rubbish, Without A Single Regular Tomb-Stone.
The
pilgrim is made to visit a number of graves, and, while standing before
them, to repeat prayers for the dead.
Many persons make it their
exclusive profession to watch the whole day near each of the principal
tombs, with a handkerchief spread out, in expectation of the pilgrims
who come to visit them; and this is the exclusive privilege of certain
Ferrashyns and their families, who have divided the tombs among
themselves, where each takes his post, or sends his servant in his
stead.
The most conspicuous personages that lie buried here are Ibrahim, the
son of Mohammed, who died in his youth; Fatme, his daughter, according
to the opinion of many, who say that she was buried here and not in the
mosque; several of the wives of Mohammed; some of his daughters; his
foster-mother; Fatme, the daughter of Asad, and mother of Aly; Abbas ibn
Abd el Motalleb; Othman ibn Affan, one of the immediate successors of
Mohammed, who collected the scattered leaves of the Koran into one
volume; the Martyrs, or Shohada, as they are called, who were slain here
by the army of the heretics under Yezyd ibn Mawya, whose commander,
Moslim, in A.H. 60, (others say 62,) came from Syria and sacked the
town, the inhabitants of which had acknowledged the rebel Abdallah ibn
Hantala as their chief; Hassan ibn Aly, whose trunk only lies buried
here, his head having been sent to Cairo, where it is preserved in the
fine mosque called El Hassamya; the Imam Malek ibn Anes, the founder of
the sect of the Malekites. Indeed so rich is Medina in the remains of
great saints that they have almost lost their individual importance,
while the relics of one of the persons just mentioned would be
sufficient to render celebrated any other Moslim town. As a formula of
the invocation addressed here to the manes of the saint, I shall
transcribe that which is said with uplifted hands, after having
performed a short prayer of two rikats, over the tomb of Othman ibn
Affan: "Peace be with thee, O Othman! Peace be with thee, O friend of
the chosen! Peace be with
[p.364] thee, O collector of the Koran! Mayest thou deserve the
contentment of God! May God ordain Paradise as thy dwelling, thy
resting-place, thy habitation, and thy abode! I deposit on this spot,
and near thee, O Othman, the profession everlasting, from this day to
the day of judgment, that there is no God but God, and that Mohammed is
his servant and his prophet."
The inhabitants of Medina bury all their dead on this ground, in the
same homely tombs as those of the saints. Branches of palm-trees are
stuck upon the graves, and changed once a year, at the feast of
Ramadhan, when the family visits the grave of its relations, where it
sometimes remains for several days.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 268 of 350
Words from 139448 to 139953
of 182297
