Outside The Railing On The North, Close By The Tomb Of Fatme, Is A
Square Bench In The Mosque, Elevated Above The Ground About Four Feet,
And Fifteen Paces Square, Called El Meyda, Or The Table.
Here the eunuch
guardians of the mosque sit; and the councils of the primates of the
town, or their principal assemblies, are often held here.
A wooden partition about eight feet high, and richly painted with
arabesques, runs from the western side of the railing across the mosque,
parallel with the south wall, and about twenty-five feet distant from
it, and terminating near the gate called Bab-es-Salam, thus extending
from the Hedjra nearly across the whole breadth of the mosque. It
[p.337] has several small doors, and is made to separate the holy place
called El Rodha from the common passage of the visiters, who, on
entering through Bab-es'-Salam, pass forward towards the Hedjra, along
the columns standing between this partition and the south wall. Next to
the Hedjra, that part of the southern colonnade north of the partition
is considered the most holy place in the mosque, and called Rodha, i. e.
a garden, or the Garden of the Faithful; a name bestowed upon it by
Mohammed, who said: "Between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of the
gardens of Paradise." The pulpit of the mosque stands close to this
partition, about midway between the Hedjra and the west wall of the
mosque, and the name Rodha strictly belongs to that space only which is
between the pulpit and the Hedjra, though the whole southern colonnade
of the temple to the north of the partition is often comprised under
that appellation.
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