The Voice Of History And Of Common Sense Is Against The
Shi'ahs.
M.C. de Perceval justly remarks, that Abu Bakr and Omar were
men truly worthy of their great predecessor.
[FN#25] This animal's name, according to some, was Al-Kaswa ("the tips
of whose ears are cropped"); according to others Al-Jada'a ("one
mutilated in the ear, hand, nose, or lip"). The Prophet bought her for
800 dirhams, on the day before his flight, from Abu Bakr, who had
fattened two fine animals of his own breeding. The camel was offered as
a gift, but Mohammed insisted upon paying its price, because, say the
Moslem casuists, he being engaged in the work of God would receive no
aid from man. According to M.C. de Perceval, the Prophet preached from
the back of Al-Kaswa the celebrated pilgrimage sermon at Arafat on the
8th March, A.D. 632.
[FN#26] The Prophet is generally supposed to have started from Meccah
on the first of the same month, on a Friday or a Monday. This
discrepancy is supposed to arise from the fact that Mohammed fled his
house in Meccah on a Friday, passed three days in the cave on Jabal
Saur, and finally left it for Al-Madinah on Monday, which therefore,
according to Moslem divines, was the first day of the "Hijrah." But the
aera now commences on the 1st of the previous Muharram, an arrangement
made seventeen years after the date of the flight by Omar the Caliph,
with the concurrence of Ali.
[FN#27] The distance from Kuba to Al-Madinah is little more than three
miles, for which six hours-Friday prayers being about noon-may be
considered an inordinately long time. But our author might urge as a
reason that the multitude of people upon a narrow road rendered the
Prophet's advance a slow one, and some historians relate that he spent
several hours in conversation with the Benu Salim.
[FN#28] Mohammed never would eat these strong smelling vegetables on
account of his converse with the angels, even as modern "Spiritualists"
refuse to smoke tobacco; at the same time he allowed his followers to
do so, except when appearing in his presence, entering a Mosque, or
joining in public prayers. The pious Moslem still eats his onions with
these limitations. Some sects, however, as the Wahhabis, considering
them abominable, avoid them on all occasions.
[FN#29] The name of the tribe literally means "sons of a carpenter";
hence the error of the learned and violent Humphrey Prideaux, corrected
by Sale.
[FN#30] Some say that Abu Bakr had no abode near the Mosque. But it is
generally agreed upon, that he had many houses, one in Al-Bakia,
another in the higher parts of Al-Madinah, and among them a hut on the
spot between the present gates called Salam and Rahmah.
[FN#31] It is clear from the fact above stated, that in those days the
Jews of Arabia were in a state of excitement, hourly expecting the
advent of their Messiah, and that Mohammed believed himself to be the
person appointed to complete the law of Moses.
[FN#32] In many minor details the above differs from the received
accounts of Pre-Islamitic and early Mohammedan history. Let the blame
be borne by the learned Shaykh Abd al-Hakk al-Muhaddis of Delhi, and
his compilation, the "Jazb al-Kulub ila Diyar al-Mahhub (the "Drawing
of Hearts towards the Holy Parts"). From the multitude of versions at
last comes correctness.
[FN#33] A Firman from the Porte, dated 13th February, 1841, provides
for the paying of these pensions regularly. "It being customary to send
every year from Egypt provisions in kind to the two Holy Cities, the
provisions and other articles, whatever they may be, which have up to
this time been sent to this place, shall continue to be sent thither."
Formerly the Holy Land had immense property in Egypt, and indeed in all
parts of Al-Islam. About thirty years ago, Mohammed Ali Pasha bought up
all the Wakf (church property), agreeing to pay for its produce, which
he rated at five piastres the ardeb, when it was worth three times as
much. Even that was not regularly paid. The Sultan has taken advantage
of the present crisis to put down Wakf in Turkey. The Holy Land,
therefore, will gradually lose all its land and house property, and
will soon be compelled to depend entirely upon the presents of the
pilgrims, and the Sadakah, or alms, which are still sent to it by the
pious Moslems of distant regions. As might be supposed, both the
Meccans and the Madani loudly bewail their hard fates, and by no means
approve of the Ikram, the modern succedaneum for an extensive and
regularly paid revenue. At a future time, I shall recur to this subject.
[FN#34] The prayer-niche and the minaret both date their existence from
the days of Al-Walid, the builder of the third Mosque. At this age of
their empire, the Moslems had travelled far and had seen art in various
lands; it is therefore not without a shadow of reason that the Hindus
charge them with having borrowed their two favourite symbols, and
transformed them into an arch and a tower.
[FN#35] The Ustawanat al-Hannanah, or "Weeping-Post." See page 335,
chapter XVI., ante.
[FN#36] As usual, there are doubts about the invention of this article.
It was covered with cloth by the Caliph Osman, or, as others say, by
Al-Mu'awiyah, who, deterred by a solar eclipse from carrying out his
project of removing it to Damascus, placed it upon a new framework,
elevated six steps above the ground. Al-Mahdi wished to raise the
Mambar six steps higher, but was forbidden so to do by the Imam Malik.
The Abbasides changed the pulpit, and converted the Prophet's original
seat into combs, which were preserved as relics. Some historians
declare that the original Mambar was burnt with the Mosque in A.H. 654.
In Ibn Jubayr's time (A.H. 580), it was customary for visitors to place
their right hands upon a bit of old wood, inserted into one of the
pillars of the pulpit; this was supposed to be a remnant of the
"weeping-post." Every Sultan added some ornament to the Mambar, and at
one time it was made of white marble, covered over with a dome of the
"eight metals." It is now a handsome structure, apparently of wood,
painted and gilt of the usual elegant form, which has been compared by
some travellers with the suggesta of Roman Catholic churches.
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