Many Hadjys, Not Content With Drinking It Merely, Strip
Themselves In The Room, And Have Buckets Of It Thrown Over
Them, by
which they believe that the heart is purified as well as the outer body.
Few pilgrims quit Mekka
Without carrying away some of this water in
copper or tin bottles, either for the purpose of making presents, or for
their own use in case of illness, when they drink it, or for ablution
after death. I carried away four small bottles, with the intention of
offering them as presents to the Mohammedan kings in the Black
countries. I have seen it sold at Suez by hadjys returning from Mekka at
the rate of one piastre for the quantity that filled a coffee-cup.
The chief of Zemzem is one of the principal olemas of Mekka. I need not
remind the reader that Zemzem is supposed to be the spring found in the
wilderness by Hagar, at the moment when her infant son Ismayl was dying
of thirst. It seems probable that the town of Mekka owes its origin to
this well; for many miles round, no sweet water is found, nor is there
in any part of the adjacent country so copious a supply.
On the north-east side of Zemzem stand two small buildings, one behind
the other, called El Kobbateyn; they are covered by domes painted in the
same manner as the mosque, and in them are kept water jars, lamps,
carpets, mats, brooms, and other articles used in the very mosque. These
two ugly buildings are injurious to the interior appearance of the
building, their heavy forms and structure being disadvantageously
contrasted with the light and airy shape of the Makams. I heard some
hadjys from Greece, men of better taste than the Arabs, express their
regret that the Kobbateyn should be allowed to disfigure the mosque.
Their contents might be deposited in some of the buildings adjoining the
mosque, of which they form no essential part, no religious importance
being attached to them. They were built by Khoshgeldy, governor of
Djidda, A.H. 947: one is called
[p.146] Kobbet el Abbas, from having been placed on the site of a small
tank said to have been formed by Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed.
A few paces west of Zemzem, and directly opposite to the door of the
Kaaba, stands a ladder or staircase, which is moved up to the wall of
the Kaaba, on the days when that building is opened, and by which the
visitors ascend to the door: it is of wood, with some carved ornaments,
moves on low wheels, and is sufficiently broad to admit of four persons
ascending abreast. The first ladder was sent hither from Cairo in A.H.
818, by Moay-ed Abou el Naser, King of Egypt; for in the Hedjaz it seems
there has always been so great a want of artizans, that whenever the
mosque required any work, it was necessary to have mechanics brought
from Cairo, and even sometimes from Constantinople.
In the same line with the ladder, and close by it, stands a lightly-
built, insulated, and circular arch, about fifteen feet wide and
eighteen feet high, called Bab-es'-Salam, which must not be confounded
with the great gate of the mosque bearing the same name. Those who enter
the Beitullah for the first time, are enjoined to do so by the outer and
inner Bab-es'-Salam: in passing under the latter, they are to exclaim,
"O God, may it be a happy entrance!" I do not know by whom this arch was
built, but it appears to be modern.
Nearly in front of the Bab-es'-Salam; and nearer to the Kaaba than any
of the other surrounding buildings, stands the Makam Ibrahim. This is a
small building, supported by six pillars about eight feet high, four of
which are surrounded from top to bottom by a fine iron railing, which
thus leaves the space beyond the two hind pillars open: within the
railing is a frame about five feet square, terminating in a pyramidal
top, and said to contain the sacred stone upon which Ibrahim (Abraham)
stood when he built the Kaaba, and which, with the help of his son
Ismayl, he had removed from hence to the place called Madjen, already
mentioned. The stone is said to have yielded under the weight of the
patriarch, and to preserve the impression of his foot still visible upon
it; but no hadjy has ever seen it, as the frame is always entirely
covered with a brocade of red silk richly embroidered. Persons are
constantly seen before the railing, invoking the good offices of
[p.147] Ibrahim; and a short prayer must be uttered by the side of the
Makam, after the walk round the Kaaba is completed. It is said that many
of the Sahabe, or first adherents of Mohammed, were interred in the open
space between this Makam. and Zemzem, from which circumstance it is one
of the most favourite places of prayer in the mosque. In this part of
the area, the Khalif Soleyman Ibn Abd el Melek, brother of Wolyd, built
a fine reservoir, in A.H. 97, which was filled from a spring east of
Arafat; but the Mekkawys destroyed it after his death, on the pretence
that the water of Zemzem was preferable. [Vide Makrizi's Treatise -
"Manhadj myn el Kholafa."]
On the side of Makam Ibrahim, facing the middle part of the front of the
Kaaba, stands the Mambar or pulpit of the mosque; it is elegantly formed
of fine white marble, with many sculptured ornaments, and was sent as a
present to the mosque in A.H. 969, by Sultan Soleyman Ibn Selym: [The
first Mambar was sent from Cairo in A.H. 818, together with the steps
above mentioned, by Moay-ed, King of Egypt. See Asamy.] a straight
narrow staircase leads up to the post of the Khatyb, or preacher, which
is surmounted by a gilt polygonal pointed steeple, resembling an
obelisk.
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