Abou Djafar El Mansour, One Of The Abassides, In A.H. 139, Enlarged The
North And South Sides Of The Mosque, And Made It Twice As Large As It
Had Been Before, So That It Now Occupied A Space Of Forty-Seven Pikes
And A Half In Length.
He also paved the ground adjoining the well of
Zemzem with marble.
The Khalife El Mohdy added to the size of the mosque at two different
periods; the last time, in A.H. 163, he bought the ground required for
these additions from the Mekkawys, paying to them twenty-five dinars for
every square pike. It was this Khalife who brought the columns from
Egypt, as I have already observed. The improvements which he had begun,
were completed by his son El Hady. The roof of the colonnade was then
built of sadj, a precious Indian wood. The columns brought from Egypt by
El Mohdy, were landed at one day's journey north of Djidda; but some
obstacles arising, they were not all transported to Mekka, some of them
having been abandoned on the sands near the shore. I mention this for
the sake of future travellers, who, on discovering them, might perhaps
consider them as the vestiges of some powerful Greek or Egyptian colony.
The historians of Mekka remark, and not without astonishment, that the
munificent Khalife Haroun er Rasheid, although he repeatedly visited the
Kaaba, added nothing to the mosque, except a new pulpit, or mambar.
A.H. 226. During the Khalifat of Motasem b'illah, the well of Zemzem was
covered above: it had before been enclosed all round, but not roofed.
A.H. 241. The space between the Hedjer and the Kaaba was laid out with
fine marbles. At that time there was a gate leading into the space
enclosed within the Hedjer.
The Khalife El Motaded, in A.H. 281, put the whole mosque into a
complete state of repair: he rebuilt its walls; made new gates,
assigning to them new names; and enlarged the building on the west
[p.167] side, by adding to it the space formerly occupied by the
celebrated Dar el Nedowa; an ancient building of Mekka, well known in
the history of the Pagan Arabs, which had always been the common
council-house of the chiefs of Mekka. It is said to have stood near the
spot where the Makam el Hanefy is now placed.
In A.H. 314, or, according to others, 301, Mekka and its temple
experienced great disasters. The army of the heretic sect of the
Carmates, headed by their chief, Abou Dhaher, invaded the Hedjaz, and
seized upon Mekka: fifty thousand of its inhabitants were slain during
the sack of the city, and the temple and the Kaaba were stripped of all
their valuable ornaments. After remaining twenty-one days, the enemy
departed, carrying with them the great jewel of Mekka, the black stone
of the Kaaba. During the fire which injured the Kaaba, in the time of
Ibn Zebeyr, the violent heat had split the stone into three pieces,
which were afterwards joined together again, and replaced in the former
situation, surrounded with a rim of silver; this rim was renewed and
strengthened by Haroun er Rasheid.
The Carmates carried the stone to Hedjer, [Asamy says that the stone was
carried to El Hassa, near the Persian Gulf, a town which had been
recently built by Abou Dhaher. I find, in the Travels of Ibn Batouta, a
town in the province of El Hassa, called Hedjer.] a fertile spot in the
Desert, on the route of the Syrian caravan, north of Medina, which they
had chosen as one of their abodes. They hoped that all the moslems would
come to visit the stone, and that they should thus succeed to the riches
which the pilgrims from every part of the world had brought to Mekka.
Under this impression, Abou Dhaher refused an offer of fifty thousand
dinars as a ransom for the stone; but after his death, the Carmates, in
A.H. 339, voluntarily sent it back, having been convinced by experience
that their expectations of wealth, from the possession of it, were ill
founded, and that very few moslems came to Hedjer for the purpose of
kissing it. At this time it was in two pieces, having been split by a
blow from a Carmate during the plunder of Mekka.
Seventy years after its restoration to its ancient seat, the stone
[p.168] suffered another indignity: Hakem b'amr Illah, the mad king of
Egypt, who had some intentions of claiming divine honours for himself,
sent in A.H. 413, an Egyptian with the pilgrim caravan to Mekka, to
destroy the stone. With an iron club concealed beneath his clothes, the
man approached it, and exclaimed, "How long shall this stone be adored
and kissed? There is neither Mohammed nor Aly to prevent me from doing
this, and to-day I shall destroy this building!" He then struck it three
times with his club. A party of horsemen, belonging to the caravan in
which he had travelled from Egypt, were ready at the gates of the mosque
to assist the lithoclast, as soon as he should have executed his task;
but they were not able to protect him from the fury of the populace. He
was slain by the dagger of a native of Yemen; the horsemen were pursued;
and the whole Egyptian caravan was plundered on the occasion.
Upon inspection, it was found that three small pieces, of the size of a
man's nail, had been knocked off by the blows; these were pulverised,
and their dust kneaded into a cement, with which the fractures were
filled up. Since that time, the stone has sustained no further
misfortune, except in the year 1674, when it was found, one morning,
besmeared with dirt, together with the door of the Kaaba; so that every
one who kissed it, retired with a sullied face. The author of this
sacrilegious joke was sought in vain; suspicion fell upon some Persians,
but the fact could not be proved against them.
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