At length, Al-Islam, grown splendid and powerful, determined to surpass
other nations in the magnificence of its public
Buildings.[FN#42] In
A.H. 88, Al-Walid[FN#43] the First, twelfth Caliph of the Benu Ummayah
race, after building, or rather restoring, the noble "Jami' al-Ammawi"
(cathedral of the Ommiades) at Damascus, determined to
[p.365]display his liberality at Al-Madinah. The governor of the place,
Umar bin Abd Al-Aziz, was directed to buy for seven thousand Dinars
(ducats) all the hovels of raw brick that hedged in the Eastern side of
the old Mosque. They were inhabited by descendants of the Prophet and
of the early Caliphs, and in more than one case, the ejection of the
holy tenantry was effected with considerable difficulty. Some of the
women-ever the most obstinate on such occasions-refused to take money,
and Omar was forced to the objectionable measure of turning them out of
doors with exposed faces[FN#45] in full day. The Greek Emperor, applied
to by the magnificent Caliph, sent immense presents, silver lamp
chains, valuable curiosities,[FN#46] forty loads of small cut stones
for pietra-dura, and a sum of eighty thousand Dinars, or, as others
say, forty thousand Miskals of gold. He also despatched forty Coptic
and forty Greek artists to carve the marble pillars and the casings of
the walls, and to superintend the gilding and the mosaic work. One of
these Christians was beheaded for sculpturing a hog on the Kiblah wall;
and another, in an attempt to defile the roof, fell to the ground, and
his brains were dashed out. The remainder Islamized, but this did not
prevent the older Arabs murmuring that their Mosque had been turned
into a Kanisah, a Christian idol-house.
The Hujrah, or chamber, where, by Mohammed's permission, Azrail, the
Angel of Death, separated his
[p.366]soul from his body, whilst his head was lying in the lap of
Ayishah, his favourite wife, was now for the first time taken into the
Mosque. The raw-brick enceinte[FN#46] which surrounded the three graves
was exchanged for one of carved stone, enclosed by an outer precinct
with a narrow passage between.[FN#47] These double walls were either
without a door, or had only a small blocked-up wicket on the Northern
side, and from that day (A.H. 90), no one, says Al-Samanhudi, has been
able to approach the sepulchre.[FN#48] A minaret was erected at each
corner of the Mosque.[FN#49] The building was enlarged to 200 cubits by
167, and was finished in A.H. 91. When Al-Walid, the Caliph, visited it
in state, he inquired of his lieutenant why greater magnificence had
not been displayed in the erection; upon which Omar, the governor,
informed him,
[p.367]to his astonishment, that the walls alone had cost forty-five
thousand ducats.[FN#50]
The fourth Mosque was erected in A.H. 191, by Al-Mahdi, third prince of
the Benu Abbas or Baghdad Caliphs-celebrated in history only for
spending enormous sums upon a pilgrimage.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 246 of 302
Words from 128614 to 129144
of 157964
