At Al-Madinah, Amongst
Other Tales Of Short Cuts Known Only To Certain Badawi Families, A Man
Told Me Of A Shaft Leading From His Native City To Hazramaut:
According
to him, it existed in the times of the Prophet, and was a journey of
only three days!
[FN#80] The Mosque Library is kept in large chests near the Bab
al-Salam; the only MS.
Of any value here is a Koran written in the
Sulsi hand. It is nearly four feet long, bound in a wooden cover, and
padlocked, so as to require from the curious a "silver key."
[FN#81] So the peasants in Brittany believe that Napoleon the First is
not yet dead; the Prussians expect Frederick the Second; the Swiss,
William Tell; the older English, King Arthur; and certain modern
fanatics look forward to the re-appearance of Joanna Southcote. Why
multiply instances in so well known a branch of the history of popular
superstitions?
[FN#82] The Sunnat is the custom or practice of the Apostle, rigidly
conformed to by every good and orthodox Moslem.
[FN#83] The reader will bear in mind that I am quoting from Burckhardt.
When in Al-Hijaz and at Cairo, I vainly endeavoured to buy a copy of
Al-Samanhudi. One was shown to me at Al-Madinah; unhappily, it bore the
word Wakf (bequeathed), and belonged to the Mosque. I was scarcely
allowed time to read it. (See p. 102, ante.)
[FN#84] In Moslem law, prophets, martyrs, and saints, are not supposed
to be dead; their property, therefore, remains their own. The Olema
have confounded themselves in the consideration of the prophetic state
after death. Many declare that prophets live and pray for forty days in
the tomb; at the expiration of which time, they are taken to the
presence of their Maker, where they remain till the blast of Israfil's
trumpet. The common belief, however, leaves the bodies in the graves,
but no one would dare to assert that the holy ones are suffered to
undergo corruption. On the contrary, their faces are blooming, their
eyes bright, and blood would issue from their bodies if wounded.
Al-Islam, as will afterwards appear, abounds in traditions of the
ancient tombs of saints and martyrs, when accidentally opened, exposing
to view corpses apparently freshly buried. And it has come to pass that
this fact, the result of sanctity, has now become an unerring
indication of it. A remarkable case in point is that of the late Sharif
Ghalib, the father of the present Prince of Meccah. In his lifetime he
was reviled as a wicked tyrant. But some years after his death, his
body was found undecomposed; he then became a saint, and men now pray
at his tomb. Perhaps his tyranny was no drawback to his holy
reputation. La Brinvilliers was declared after execution, by her
confessor and the people generally, a saint;-simply, I presume, because
of the enormity of her crimes.
[FN#85] NOTE TO THIRD EDITION.-I have lately been assured by Mohammed
al-Halabi, Shaykh al-Olema of Damascus, that he was permitted by the
Aghawat to pass through the gold-plated door leading into the Hujrah,
and that he saw no trace of a sepulchre.
[FN#86] I was careful to make a ground-plan of the Prophet's Mosque, as
Burckhardt was prevented by severe illness from so doing.
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