I Was Not Less Pleased Myself, Being
Much In Want Of A Fire After Such A Drenching, With Only The Scanty
Covering Of The Ihram.
ARRIVAL AT MEKKA
[P.93] The coffee-houses, unfortunately, had also been inundated; we
could not find a dry place on which to sit, and with some difficulty a
fire was lighted in one of the small and more weather-proof huts of the
Arabs, into which the Kadhy, with a few of his people and myself, crept,
and boiled our coffee; in another hut were his women, crying from the
severity of the cold. He not wishing that they should be exposed to the
consequences of such a night's lodging, mounted again, after a stay of
half an hour, and proceeded towards Mekka, leaving me and my party in
possession of the fire, by the side of which, after some time, we
contrived to make ourselves com-fortable.
September 9th. We set out early, and found that the storm of yesterday
had not extended farther than the plain of Arafat. Such storms and
inundations are frequent in this country, where the seasons seem to be
much less regular than in other places under the same latitude. I heard
that in the Upper Mountains, and at Tayf, the rainy season, although not
so regular as under the tropics in Africa, is yet more steady than in
the low country of Mekka and Djidda, where, even in the midst of summer,
the sky is often clouded by storms and rain. The historians of Mekka
have recorded several dreadful inundations in that city; the most
disastrous occurred in the years of the Hedjira 80, 184, 202, 280, 297,
549, 620, 802, 829. In some of these, the whole town of Mekka, and the
Temple, as high as the black stone, were under water, and in all of them
many houses were destroyed and lives lost. Assamy gives the details of
an inundation which devastated Mekka in A.H. 1039, or in the year 1626
of our era, when five hundred lives were lost, and the Kaaba in the
Temple was destroyed. Another dreadful inundation happened in 1672.
I arrived at Mekka about mid-day, when my companions went in search of
their acquaintance among the soldiers, and left me to shift for myself,
without knowing a single individual in the town, and without being
recommended to any body but the Kadhy, whom, as I have already said, I
wished to avoid.
MEKKA
[p.94] Whoever enters Mekka, whether pilgrim or not, is enjoined by the
law to visit the Temple immediately, and not to attend to any worldly
concern whatever, before he has done so. We crossed the line of shops
and houses, up to the gates of the mosque, where my ass-driver took his
fare and set me down: here I was accosted by half a dozen metowef, or
guides to the holy places, who knew, from my being dressed in the ihram,
that I intended to visit the Kaaba. I chose one of them as my guide,
and, after having deposited my baggage in a neighbouring shop, entered
the mosque at the gate called Bab-es'-Salam, by which the new-comer is
recommended to enter. The ceremonies to be performed in visiting the
mosque are the following: - 1. Certain religious rites to be practised in
the interior of the temple; 2. The walk between Szafa and Meroua; 3. The
visit to the Omra. These ceremonies ought to be repeated by every Moslem
whenever he enters Mekka from a journey farther than two days' distance,
and they must again be more particularly performed at the time of the
pilgrimage to Arafat. I shall here describe them as briefly as possible;
a full detail and explanation of the Mohammedan law on this subject
would be extremely tedious; indeed there exist many voluminous works in
Arabic which treat of nothing else.
1. Rites to be performed in the Interior of the Temple.
At the entrance, under the colonnade, some prayers are recited on first
sight of the Kaaba, and then two rikats, or four prostrations addressed
to the divinity, in thanks for having reached the holy spot, and in
salutation of the mosque itself; after which the pilgrim approaches the
Kaaba by one of the paved ways to it, through the open area in which it
stands. In passing under the insulated arch in front of the Kaaba,
called Bab-es'-Salam, certain prayers are said. Other prayers are
recited in a low voice, and the visitor then places himself opposite to
the black stone of the Kaaba, and prays two
[p.95] rikats; at the conclusion of which, the stone is touched with the
right hand, or kissed, if there is no great pressure of people. The
devotee then begins the Towaf, or walk round the Kaaba, keeping that
building on his left hand. This ceremony is to be repeated seven times;
the three first are in a quick pace, in imitation of the Prophet, whose
enemies having reported that he was dangerously ill, he contradicted
them by running thrice round the Kaaba at full speed. Every circuit must
be accompanied with prescribed prayers, which are recited in a low
voice, and appropriated to the different parts of the building that are
passed: the black stone is kissed or touched at the conclusion of each
circuit, as well as another stone, walled in at one corner of the black
stone. When the seven circuits are finished, the visiter approaches the
wall of the Kaaba, between the black stone and the door of the building,
which space is called El Metzem. There, with widely outstretched arms,
and with his breast closely pressed against the wall, he beseeches the
Lord to pardon his sins. He then retires towards the neighbouring Mekam
Ibrahim, and there prays two rikats, called Sunnet-et-towaf, after which
he repairs to the adjoining well of Zemzem; and, after a short pious
address in honour of the well, drinks as much of the water as he wishes,
or as he can on occasions when the crowd is very great; and this
completes the ceremonies to be observed within the temple.
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