I Have
Been Explicit About This Pulpit, Hoping That, Next Time The Knotty
Question Of Apostolic Seats Comes Upon The Tapis, Our Popular Authors
Will Not Confound A Curule Chair With A Moslem Mambar.
Of the latter
article, Lane (Mod.
Egyptians, chap. iii.) gave a sketch in the
"Interior of a Mosque."
[FN#37] The Prophet is said to have had a dwelling-house in the
Ambariyah, or the Western quarter of the Manakhah suburb, and here,
according to some, he lodged Mariyah, the Coptic girl. As pilgrims do
not usually visit the place, and nothing of the original building can
be now remaining, I did not trouble myself about it.
[FN#38] Meaning the Prophet's fifteen to twenty-five wives. Their
number is not settled. He left nine wives and two concubines. It was
this title after the Koranic order (chap, xxxiii. v. 53) which rendered
their widowhood eternal; no Arab would willingly marry a woman whom he
has called mother or sister.
[FN#39] Authors mention a place outside the Northern wall called
Al-Suffah, which was assigned by Mohammed as a habitation to houseless
believers; from which circumstance these paupers derived the title of
Ashab al-Suffah, "Companions of the Sofa."
[FN#40] So I translate the Arabicised word "Saj."
[FN#41] A place about five miles from Al-Madinah, on the Meccan way.
See Chap. XIV.
[FN#42] And curious to say Al-Islam still has the largest cathedral in
the world-St. Sophia's at Constantinople. Next to this ranks St.
Peter's at Rome; thirdly, I believe, the "Jumma Masjid," or cathedral
of the old Moslem city Bijapur in India; the fourth is St. Paul's,
London,
[FN#43] It is to this monarch that the Saracenic Mosque-architecture
mainly owes its present form. As will be seen, he had every advantage
of borrowing from Christian, Persian, and even Indian art. From the
first he took the dome, from the second the cloister-it might have been
naturalised in Arabia before his time-and possibly from the third the
minaret and the prayer-niche. The latter appears to be a peculiarly
Hindu feature in sacred buildings, intended to contain the idol, and to
support the lamps, flowers, and other offerings placed before it.
[FN#44] The reader will remember that in the sixth year of the Hijrah,
after Mohammed's marriage with Zaynab, his wives were secluded behind
the Hijab, Pardah, or curtain. A verse of the Koran directed the
Moslems to converse with them behind this veil. Hence the general
practice of Al-Islam: now it is considered highly disgraceful in any
Moslem to make a Moslemah expose her face, and she will frequently
found a threat upon the prejudice. A battle has been prevented by this
means, and occasionally an insurrection has been caused by it.
[FN#45] Amongst which some authors enumerate the goblet and the mirror
of Kisra.
[FN#46] The outer wall, built by Al-Walid, remained till A.H. 550, when
Jamal al-Din of Isafahan, Wazir to Nur al-Din Shahid Mahmud bin Zangi,
supplied its place by a grating of open sandal woodwork, or, as others
say, of iron. About the same time, Sayyid Abu 'l Hayja sent from Egypt
a sheet of white brocade, embroidered in red silk with the chapter
Y.S., in order to cover the inner wall. This was mounted on the
accession of Al-Mustazi bi'llah, the Caliph, after which it became the
custom for every Sultan to renew the offering. And in A.H. 688, Kalaun
of Egypt built the outer network of brass as it now is, and surmounted
it with the Green Dome.
[FN#47] The inner wall, erected by Al-Walid, seems to have resisted the
fire which in A.H. 654 burnt the Mosque to the ground. Also, in A.H.
886, when the building was consumed by lightning, the Hujrah was spared
by the devouring element.
[FN#48] After the Prophet's death and burial, Ayishah continued to
occupy the same room, without even a curtain between her and the tomb.
At last, vexed by the crowds of visitors, she partitioned off the
hallowed spot with a wall. She visited the grave unveiled as long as
her father Abu Bakr only was placed behind the Prophet; but when Omar's
corpse was added, she always covered her face.
[FN#49] One of these, the minaret at the Bab-al-Salam, was soon
afterwards overthrown by Al-Walid's brother Sulayman, because it shaded
the house of Marwan, where he lodged during his visit to Al-Madinah in
the cold season.
[FN#50] The dinar (denarius) was a gold piece, a ducat, a sequin.
[FN#51] I purpose to touch upon this event in a future chapter, when
describing my route from Al-Madinah to Meccah.
[FN#52] "On this occasion," says Al-Samanhudi, quoted by Burckhardt,
"the interior of the Hujrah was cleared, and three deep graves were
found in the inside, full of rubbish, but the author of this history,
who himself entered it, saw no traces of tombs." Yet in another place
he, an eye-witness, had declared that the coffin containing the dust of
Mohammed was cased with silver. I repeat these details.
[FN#53] Burckhardt has given a full account of this event in his
history of the Wahhabis.
[FN#54] See Chapter XVI., ante.
[FN#55] My predecessor estimates the whole treasury in those days to
have been worth 300,000 Riyals,-a small sum, if we consider the length
of time during which it was accumulating. The chiefs of the town
appropriated 1 cwt. of golden vessels, worth at most 50,000 dollars,
and Sa'ud sold part of the plunder to Ghalib for 100,000 (I was told
one-third more), reserving for himself about the same amount of pearls
and corals. Burckhardt supposes that the governors of Al-Madinah, who
were often independent chiefs, and sometimes guardians of the tombs,
made occasional draughts upon the generosity of the Faithful.
[FN#56] I inquired in vain about the substance that covered the dome.
Some told me it was tinfoil; others supposed it to be rivetted with
green tiles.
[FN#57] The Badawi calls a sound dollar "Kirsh Hajar," or "Riyal
Hajar," a "stone dollar."
[FN#58] At the same time his account is still carefully copied by our
popular and general authors, who, it is presumed, could easily become
better informed.
[FN#59] The Persians in remote times, as we learn from Herodotus (lib.
6), were waited upon by eunuchs, and some attribute to them the
invention.
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