These And The Casing Are The Work Of El Ghoury, The Egyptian
Sultan, In A.H. 917, As We Learn From Kotobeddyn.
The walk round the
Kaaba is performed on the outside of the wall - the nearer to it the
better.
The four sides of the Kaaba are covered with a black silk stuff, hanging
down, and leaving the roof bare. [The Wahabys, during the first year of
their residence at Mekka, covered the Kaaba with a red kesoua, worked at
El Hassa, of the same stuff as the fine Arabian Abbas.] This curtain, or
veil, is called kesoua, and renewed annually at the time of the Hadj,
being brought from Cairo, where it is manufactured at the Grand
Seignior's expense. [During the first century of Islam, the kesoua was
never taken away, the new one being annually put over the old. But the
Mekkawys at length began to fear that the Kaaba might yield under such
an accumulation, and the Khalif El Mohdy Abou Abdallah removed the
coverings in A.H. 160. (See Makrizy.)] On it are various prayers
interwoven in the same colour as the stuff, and it is, therefore,
extremely difficult to read them. A little above the middle, and running
round the whole building, is a line of similar inscriptions, worked in
gold thread. That part of the kesoua which covers the door is richly
embroidered with silver. Openings are left for the Black Stone, and the
other in the south-east corner, which thus remain uncovered. The kesoua
is always of the same form and pattern; that which I saw on my first
visit to the mosque, was in a decayed state, and full of holes. On the
25th of the month Zul' Kade the old one is taken away, and the Kaaba
continues without a cover for fifteen days. It is then said that El
Kaaba Yehrem, "The Kaaba has assumed the ihram," which lasts until the
tenth of Zul Hadje, the day of the return of the pilgrims from Arafat to
Wady Muna, when the new kesoua is put on. During the first days, the new
covering is tucked up by cords fastened to the roof, so as to leave the
lower part of the building exposed: having remained thus for some days,
it is let down, and covers the whole structure, being then tied to
strong brass
[p.141] rings in the basis of the Kaaba. The removal of the old kesoua
was performed in a very indecorous manner; and a contest ensued among
the hadjys and people of Mekka, both young and old, about a few rags of
it. The hadjys even collect the dust which sticks to the walls of the
Kaaba, under the kesoua, and sell it, on their return, as a sacred
relic. At the moment the building is covered, and completely bare,
(uryan, as it is styled,) a crowd of women assemble round it, rejoicing
with cries called "Walwalou."
The black colour of the kesoua, covering a large cube in the midst of a
vast square, gives to the Kaaba, at first sight, a very singular and
imposing appearance; as it is not fastened down tightly, the slightest
breeze causes it to move in slow undulations, which are hailed with
prayers by the congregation assembled around the building, as a sign of
the presence of its guardian angels, whose wings, by their motion, are
supposed to be the cause of the waving of the covering. Seventy thousand
angels have the Kaaba in their holy care, and are ordered to transport
it to Paradise, when the trumpet of the last judgment shall be sounded.
The clothing of the Kaaba was an ancient custom of the Pagan Arabs. The
first kesoua, says El Azraky, was put on by Asad Toba, one of the
Hamyarite kings of Yemen: before Islam it had two coverings, one for
winter and the other for summer. In the early ages of Islam it was
sometimes white and sometimes red, and consisted of the richest brocade.
In subsequent times it was furnished by the different Sultans of
Baghdad, Egypt, or Yemen, according as their respective influence over
Mekka prevailed; for the clothing of the Kaaba appears to have always
been considered as a proof of sovereignty over the Hedjaz. Kalaoun,
Sultan of Egypt, assumed to himself and successors the exclusive right,
and from them the Sultans at Constantinople have inherited it. Kalaoun
appropriated the revenue of the two large villages Bysous and Sandabeir,
in Lower Egypt, to the expense of the kesoua; and Sultan Solyman Ibn
Selym subsequently added several others; but the Kaaba has long been
deprived of this resource. [Vide Kotobeddyn and Asamy]
[p.142] Round the Kaaba is a good pavement of marble, about eight inches
below the level of the great square; it was laid in A.H. 981, by order
of the Sultan, and describes an irregular oval; it is surrounded by
thirty-two slender gilt pillars, or rather poles, between every two of
which are suspended seven glass lamps, always lighted after sun-set.
Beyond the poles is a second pavement, about eight paces broad, somewhat
elevated above the first, but of coarser work; then another, six inches
higher, and eighteen paces broad, upon which stand several small
buildings; beyond this is the gravelled ground, so that two broad steps
may be said to lead from the square down to the Kaaba. The small
buildings just mentioned, which surround the Kaaba, are the five Makams,
with the well of Zemzem, the arch called Bab-es'-Salam, and the Mambar.
Opposite the four sides of the Kaaba stand four other small buildings,
where the Imaums of the orthodox Mohammedan sects, the Hanefy, Shafey,
Hanbaly, and Maleky, take their station, and guide the congregation in
their prayers. The Makam el Maleky, on the south, and that of Hanbaly,
opposite the Black Stone, are small pavilions, open on all sides, and
supported by four slender pillars, with a light sloping roof,
terminating in a point, exactly in the style of Indian pagodas.
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