"By what curse of Allah had they been subjected to ass-riders?"
But Shaykh Hamid is lecturing me upon the subject of the Mosque.
The Masjid Al-Nabawi, or the Prophet's Mosque, is one of the Haramayn,
or the "two sanctuaries" of Al-Islam,
[p.305] and is the second of the three[FN#1] most venerable places of
worship in the world; the other two being the Masjid al-Harim at Meccah
(connected with Abraham) and the Masjid al-Aksa of Jerusalem (the
peculiar place of Solomon). A Hadis or traditional saying of Mohammed
asserts, "One prayer in this my Mosque is more efficacious than a
thousand in other places, save only the Masjid al-Harim.[FN#2]" It is
therefore the visitor's duty, as long as he stays at Al-Madinah, to
pray there the five times per diem, to pass the day in it reading the
Koran, and the night, if possible, in watching and devotion.
A visit to the Masjid al-Nabawi, and the holy spots within it, is
technically called "Ziyarat" or Visitation.[FN#3] An essential
difference is made between this rite and Hajj or pilgrimage. The latter
is obligatory by Koranic order upon every Moslem once in his life: the
former is only a meritorious action. "Tawaf," or circumambulation of
the House of Allah at Meccah, must never be performed at the Apostle's
tomb. This should not be visited in the Ihram or pilgrim dress; men
should not kiss it, touch it with the hand, or press the bosom against
it, as at the Ka'abah; or rub the face with dust collected near the
sepulchre; and those who prostrate themselves before it, like certain
ignorant Indians, are held to be
[p.306] guilty of deadly sin. On the other hand, to spit upon any part
of the Mosque, or to treat it with contempt, is held to be the act of
an Infidel.
Thus the learned and religious have settled, one would have thought,
accurately enough the spiritual rank and dignity of the Masjid
al-Nabawi. But mankind, especially in the East, must always be in
extremes. The orthodox school of Al-Malik holds Al-Madinah, on account
of the sanctity of, and the religious benefits to be derived from,
Mohammed's tomb, more honourable than Meccah. Some declare that the
Apostle preferred his place of refuge, blessing it as Abraham did
Meccah. Moreover, as a tradition declares that every man's body is
drawn from the ground in which he is buried, Al-Madinah evidently had
the honour of supplying materials for the Apostle's person. Others,
like Omar, were uncertain which to prefer. The Wahhabis, on the other
hand, rejecting the Intercession of the Apostle on the Day of Judgment,
considering the grave of a mere mortal unworthy of notice, and highly
disgusted by the idolatrous respect paid to it by certain foolish
Moslems, plundered the sacred building with sacrilegious violence, and
forbade visitors from distant countries to enter Al-Madinah.[FN#4]
The general consensus of Al-Islam admits the superiority of the Bayt
Allah ("House of God") at Meccah to the whole world; and declares
Al-Madinah to be more venerable than every part of Meccah, and
consequently all the earth, except only the Bayt Allah. This last is a
juste milieu view by no means in favour with the inhabitants of either
place. In the meanwhile the Meccans claim unlimited superiority over
the Madani: the Madani over the Meccans.
[p.307]Passing through muddy streets,-they had been freshly watered
before evening time,-I came suddenly upon the Mosque. Like that at
Meccah, the approach is choked up by ignoble buildings, some actually
touching the holy "enceinte," others separated by a lane compared with
which the road round St. Paul's is a Vatican Square.[FN#5] There is no
outer front, no general prospect of the Prophet's Mosque; consequently,
as a building, it has neither beauty nor dignity.
And entering the Bab al-Rahmah[FN#6]-the Gate of Pity,-by a diminutive
flight of steps, I was astonished at the mean and tawdry appearance of
a place so universally venerated in the Moslem world. It is not, like
the Meccan Temple, grand and simple, the expression of a single sublime
idea: the longer I looked at it, the more it suggested the resemblance
of a museum of second-rate art, an old Curiosity-shop, full of
ornaments that are not accessories, and decorated with pauper splendour.
The Masjid al-Nabi is a parallelogram about four hundred and twenty
feet in length by three hundred and forty broad, the direction of the
long walls being nearly north and south. As usual in Al-Islam, it is a
hypaethral building with a spacious central area, called Al-Sahn,
Al-Hosh, Al-Haswah, or Al-Ramlah,[FN#7] surrounded by a peristyle with
numerous rows of pillars like the colonnades of an Italian cloister.
The arcades or porticoes are flat-ceilinged, domed above with the small
Media
[p.308] Naranja, or half-orange cupola of Spain, and divided into four
parts by narrow passages, three or four steps below the level of the
pavement. Along the whole inner length of the Northern short wall runs
the Majidi Riwak, so called from the then reigning Sultan.[FN#8] The
Western long wall is occupied by the Riwak of the Rahmah Gate; the
Eastern by that of the Bab al-Nisa, the "Women's Entrance.[FN#9]"
Embracing the inner length of the Southern short wall, and deeper by
nearly treble the amount of columns than the other porticoes, is the
main colonnade, called Al-Rauzah[FN#10] (the Garden), the adytum
containing all that is venerable in the building.
