Peace be upon Thee, who spakest with Truth, and who madest
Thy Word agree with the Strong Book! (the Koran): O Thou Faruk! (the
Separator).[FN#41] O Thou Faithful One! who girdedst thy Loins with the
Apostle, and the First Believers, and with them didst make up the full
Number forty,[FN#42] and thus causedst to be accomplished the Apostle's
Prayer,[FN#43] and
[p.321] then didst return to Thy God a Martyr leaving the World with
Praise! Allah grant Thee, through his Apostle and his Caliph and his
Followers, the best of Good, and may Allah feel in Thee plenary
Satisfaction!"
Shaykh Hamid, after wrenching a beggar or two from my shoulders, then
permitted me to draw near to the little window, called the Apostle's,
and to look in. Here my proceedings were watched with suspicious eyes.
The Persians have sometimes managed to pollute the part near Abu Bakr's
and Omar's graves by tossing through the aperture what is externally a
handsome shawl intended as a present for the tomb.[FN#44] After
straining my eyes for a time, I saw a curtain,[FN#45] or rather
hangings, with
[p.322] three inscriptions in long gold letters, informing readers that
behind them lie Allah's Apostle and the first two Caliphs.
The exact place of Mohammed's tomb is moreover distinguished by a large
pearl rosary, and a peculiar ornament, the celebrated Kaukab-al-Durri,
or constellation of pearls, suspended to the curtain
breast-high.[FN#46] This is described to be a "brilliant star set in
diamonds and pearls," placed in the dark that man's eye may be able to
bear its splendours: the vulgar believe it to be a "jewel of the jewels
of Paradise." To me it greatly resembled the round glass stoppers used
for the humbler sort of decanters; but I thought the same of the
Koh-i-Nur. Moreover I never saw it quite near enough to judge fairly,
and I did not think fit to pay an exorbitant sum for the privilege of
entering the inner passage of the baldaquin.[FN#47]
[p.323] Altogether the coup-d'oeil had nothing to recommend it by day.
At night, when the lamps, hung in this passage, shed a dim light upon
the mosaic-work of the marble floors, upon the glittering inscriptions,
and the massive hangings, the scene is more impressive.
Never having seen the Tomb,[FN#48] I must depict it from books,-by no
means an easy task. Most of the historians are silent after describing
the inner walls of the Hujrah. Al-Kalkashandi declares in eo lapidem
nobilem continere sepulchra Apostoli, Abubecr et Omar, circumcinctum
peribole in modum conclavis fere usque ad tectum assurgente, quae velo
serico nigro obligatur. This author, then, agrees with my Persian
friends, who declare the sepulchre to be a marble slab. Ibn Jubayr, who
travelled in A.H. 580, relates that the Apostle's coffin is a box of
ebony (abnus) covered with sandal-wood, and plated with silver; it is
placed, he says, behind a curtain, and surrounded by an iron grating.
Al-Samanhudi,[FN#49] quoted by Burckhardt, declares that the curtain
covers a square building of black stones, in the interior of which are
the tombs of Mohammed and of his two immediate successors.
