After which we closed one more step to the right, and standing opposite
Omar's window, the most easterly of the three, after making a sign with
our hands, we addressed the just Caliph in these words:-
"Peace be upon Thee, O Omar! O Thou Just One! Thou Prince of True
Believers! 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.
