It Is A Fine,
Firmly-Built Structure, With Lofty Arches In The Interior, And Has A Row
Of High Windows Looking Into The Mosque.
It is inhabited by the Kadhy.
Adjoining to it stands a large Medrese, inclosing a square, known by the
name of Medrese Soleymanye, built by Sultan Soleyman, and his son Selym
II., in A.H. 973.
It is always well filled with Turkish hadjys, the
friends of the Kadhy, who disposes of the lodgings.
The exterior of the mosque is adorned with seven minarets, irregularly
distributed: - 1. Minaret of Bab el Omra; 2. of Bab el Salam; 3. of Bab
Aly; 4. of Bab el Wodaa; 5. of Medrese Kail Beg; 6. of Bab el Zyade; 7.
of Medreset Sultan Soleyman. They are quadrangular or round steeples, in
no way differing from other minarets. The entrance to them is from the
different buildings round the mosque, which they adjoin. A beautiful
view of the busy crowd below is obtained by ascending the most northern
one.
It will have been seen by the foregoing description, that the mosque of
Mekka differs little in its construction from many other buildings of
the same nature in Asia. The mosque of Zakaria at Aleppo, the great
mosque called El Amouy at Damascus, and the greater number of the larger
mosques at Cairo, are constructed exactly
[p.156] upon the same plan, with an arched colonnade round an open
square. None is more like it than the mosque of Touloun, at Cairo, built
in A.H. 263; and that of Ammer, situated between Cairo and Old Cairo,
upon the spot where Fostat once stood: it was built by Ammer Ibn el Aas,
in the first years of the conquest of Egypt; it has an arched fountain
in the midst, where at Mekka stands the Kaaba; but is only one-third as
large as the mosque of Mekka. The history of Beitullah (or God's house)
has exercised the industry of many learned Arabians: it is only in
latter times that the mosque has been enlarged; many trees once stood in
the square, and it is to be regretted that others have not succeeded
them.
The service of the mosque occupies a vast number of people. The Khatybs,
Imams, Muftis, those attached to Zemzem, the Mueddins who call to
prayers, numbers of olemas, who deliver lectures, lamp-lighters, and a
crowd of menial servants, are all employed about the Beitullah. They
receive regular pay from the mosque, besides what they share of the
presents made to it by hadjys, for the purpose of distribution; those
not made for such purpose, are reserved for the repairs of the building.
The revenue of the mosque is considerable, although it has been deprived
of the best branches of its income.
There are few towns or districts of the Turkish empire in which it does
not possess property in land or houses; but the annual amount of this
property is often withheld by provincial governors, or at least it is
reduced, by the hands through which it passes, to a small proportion of
its real value. El Is-haaky, in his History of Egypt, states, that in
the time of Sultan Achmed, the son of Sultan Mohammed, (who died in A.H.
1027,) Egypt sent yearly to Mekka two hundred and ninety-five purses,
destined principally for the mosque, and forty-eight thousand and eighty
erdebs of corn. Bayazyd Ibn Sultan Mohammed Khan (in 912) fixed the
income of Mekka and Medina, to be sent from Constantinople, at fourteen
thousand ducats per annum, in addition to what his predecessors had
already ordered; and Sultan Solyman Ibn Selym I. increased the annual
income of Mekka, sent from Constantinople, which his father Selym had
fixed at seven thousand erdebs of corn, to ten thousand erdebs, and five
thousand for the inhabitants of
[p.157] Medina. [See Kotobeddyn.] He likewise fixed the surra from
Constantinople, or, as it is called, the Greek surra, at thirty-one
thousand ducats per annum. [See Assamy. These surras (or purses) were
first instituted by Mohammed Ibn Sultan Yalderem, in A.H. 816.] Almost
all the revenues derived from Egypt were sequestrated by the Mamelouk
Beys; and Mohammed Aly has now seized what remained. Some revenue is yet
drawn from Yemen, called Wakf el Hamam, and a little is brought in
annually by the Hadj caravans. At present, therefore, the mosque of
Mekka may be called poor in comparison with its former state. [The
princes of India have frequently given proofs of great munificence
towards the mosque at Mekka. In A.H. 798, large presents in money and
valuable articles were sent by the sovereigns of Bengal and Cambay;
those of Bengal, especially, are often mentioned as benefactors by
Asamy.] Excepting a few golden lamps in the Kaaba, it possesses no
treasures whatever, notwithstanding the stories prevalent to the
contrary; and I learnt from the Kadhy himself, that the Sultan, in order
to keep up the establishment, sends at present four hundred purses
annually, as a present to the Kaaba; which sum is partly expended in the
service of the mosque, and partly divided among the servants belonging
to it.
The income of the mosque must not be confounded with that of a number of
Mekkawys, including many of the servants, which they derive from other
pious foundations in the Turkish empire, known by the name of Surra, and
of which a great part still remains untouched. The donations of the
hadjys, however, are so ample as to afford abundant subsistence to the
great numbers of idle persons employed about the mosque; and as long as
the pilgrimage exists, there is no reason to apprehend their wanting
either the necessaries or the luxuries of life.
The first officer of the mosque is the Nayb el Haram, or Hares el Haram,
the guardian who keeps the keys of the Kaaba. In his hands are deposited
the sums bestowed as presents to the building, and which he distributes
in conjunction with the Kadhy:
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