Some State Him To Have Been Yakoub (Jacob), But The Far
Greater Number Ismayl.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the block is a
small cavern, capable of holding four or five persons, where
Hadjer (or
Hagar) is said to have given birth to Ismayl; this, however, directly
contradicts even Mohammedan tradition, which says that Ismayl was born
in Syria, and that his mother Hadjer carried him into the Hedjaz, when
an infant at her breast; but the small cavern offering itself so
conveniently, justified the substitution of Muna for Syria, as a fit
birth-place for the father of the Bedouins, more especially as it
attracts so many pious donations to the Mekkans, who sit around with
outspread handkerchiefs. Where the valley terminates towards Mekka, is a
small house of the Sherif, in which he makes his sacrifice, and throws
off the ihram. It was mentioned, that in a side-valley leading from this
place towards Djebel Nour, stands a mosque called Mesdjed el Ashra,
where the followers of Mohammed used to pray; but I did not visit it.
According to Azraky, another mosque, called Mesdjed el Kabsh, stood near
the cavern; and Fasy says there was one between
[p.280] the first and second of the devil's pillars, which is probably
that marked 20 in the plan.
To every division of the hadjys, its place of encampment is appointed in
Wady Muna, or at Arafat; but the space is here much narrower. The
Egyptian Hadj alights near the house of the Sherif, where Mohammed Aly
had pitched his tent, in the vicinity of his cavalry.
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