A Mosque, And Sometimes, According To The
Excellent Practice Of Al-Islam, A School, Are Attached To It.
[FN#19]
Some historians relate that forty-six years after the battle of
Ohod, the tombs were laid bare by a torrent,
When the corpses appeared
in their winding-sheets as if buried the day before. Some had their
hands upon their death wounds, from which fresh blood trickled when the
pressure was forcibly removed. In opposition to this Moslem theory, we
have that of the modern Greeks, namely, that if the body be not
decomposed within a year, it shows that the soul is not where it should
be.
[FN#20] In fairness I must confess to believing in the reality of these
phenomena, but not in their "spiritual" origin.
[FN#21] In Ibn Jubayr's time the tomb was red.
[FN#22] In the common tombs of martyrs, saints, and holy men, this
covering is usually of green cloth, with long white letters sewn upon
it. I forgot to ask whether it was temporarily absent from Hamzah's
grave.
[FN#23] All these erections are new. In Burckhardt's time they were
mere heaps of earth, with a few loose stones placed around them. I do
not know what has become of the third martyr, said to have been
interred near Hamzah. Possibly some day he may reappear: meanwhile the
people of Al-Madinah are so wealthy in saints, that they can well
afford to lose sight of one.
[FN#24] Formerly in this place was shown a slab with the mark of a
man's head-like St. Peter's at Rome-where the Prophet had rested.
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