The Building Was Made Of Cut Stone And Fine Lime Brought From
Al-Yaman.
Abdullah, taking in the Hatim, lengthened the building by
seven cubits, and added to its former height nine cubits,
[P.324] thus making a total of twenty-seven. He roofed over the whole,
or a part; re-opened the western door, to serve as an exit; and,
following the advice of his aunt, who quoted the Prophet’s words, he
supported the interior with a single row of three columns, instead of
the double row of six placed there by the Kuraysh. Finally, he paved
the Mataf, or circuit, ten cubits round with the remaining slabs, and
increased the Harim by taking in the nearer houses. During the
building, a curtain was stretched round the walls, and pilgrims
compassed them externally. When finished, it was perfumed inside and
outside, and invested with brocade. Then Abdullah and all the citizens
went forth in a procession to the Tanim, a reverend place near Meccah,
returned to perform Umrah, the Lesser Pilgrimage, slew 100 victims, and
rejoiced with great festivities.
The Caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan besieged Abdullah bin Zubayr, who,
after a brave defence, was slain. In A.H. 74, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, general
of Abd al-Malik’s troops, wrote to the prince, informing him that
Abdullah had made unauthorised additions to and changes in the Harim:
the reply brought an order to rebuild the house. Hajjaj again excluded
the Hatim and retired the northern wall six cubits and a span, making
it twenty-five cubits long by twenty-four broad; the other three sides
were allowed to remain as built by the son of Zubayr. He gave the house
a double roof, closed the western door, and raised the eastern four
cubits and a span above the Mataf, or circuit, which he paved over. The
Harim was enlarged and beautified by the Abbasides, especially by
Al-Mahdi, Al-Mutamid, and Al-Mutazid. Some authors reckon, as an
eleventh house, the repairs made by Sultan Murad Khan. On the night of
Tuesday, 20th Sha’aban, A.H. 1030, a violent torrent swept the Harim; it
rose one cubit above the threshold of the Ka’abah, carried away the
lamp-posts and the
[p.325] Makam Ibrahim, all the northern wall of the house, half of the
eastern, and one-third of the western side. It subsided on Wednesday
night. The repairs were not finished till A.H. 1040. The greater part,
however, of the building dates from the time of Al Hajjaj; and Moslems,
who never mention his name without a curse, knowingly circumambulate
his work. The Olema indeed have insisted upon its remaining untouched,
lest kings in wantonness should change its form: Harun al-Rashid
desired to rebuild it, but was forbidden by the Imam Malik.
The present proofs of the Ka’abah’s sanctity, as adduced by the learned,
are puerile enough, but curious. The Olema have made much of the
verselet: “Verily the first house built for mankind (to worship in) is
that in Bakkah[FN#65] (Meccah), blessed and a salvation to the three
worlds. Therein (fihi) are manifest signs, the standing-place of
Abraham, which whoso entereth shall be safe” (Kor. ch. 3). The word “therein”
is interpreted to mean Meccah; and the “manifest signs” the Ka’abah, which
contains such marvels as the foot-prints on Abraham’s platform and the
spiritual safeguard of all who enter the Sanctuary.[FN#66] The other
“signs,” historical, psychical, and physical, are briefly these: The
preservation of the Hajar al-Aswad and the Makam Ibrahim from many
foes, and the miracles put forth (as in the War of the Elephant), to
defend the house; the violent and terrible deaths of the sacrilegious;
and the fact that, in the Deluge, the large fish did not eat the little
fish in the Harim. A wonderful desire and love impel men from distant
regions to visit the holy spot, and the first sight of the Ka’abah causes
awe and fear, horripilation and tears. Furthermore, ravenous beasts
will not destroy their prey in the Sanctuary land, and the pigeons and
other birds never perch upon the house, except to be
[p.326] cured of sickness, for fear of defiling the roof. The Ka’abah,
though small, can contain any number of devotees; no one is ever hurt
in it,[FN#67] and invalids recover their health by rubbing themselves
against the Kiswah and the Black Stone. Finally, it is observed that
every day 100,000 mercies descend upon the house, and especially that
if rain come up from the northern corner there is plenty in Irak; if
from the south, there is plenty in Yaman; if from the east, plenty in
India; if from the western, there is plenty in Syria; and if from all
four angles, general plenty is presignified.
[FN#1] “Bayt Ullah” (House of Allah) and “Ka’abah,” i.e. cube (house), “la maison
carree,” are synonymous.
[FN#2] Ali Bey gives 536 feet 9 inches by 356 feet: my measurement is
257 paces by 210. Most Moslem authors, reckoning by cubits, make the
parallelogram 404 by 310.
[FN#3] On each short side I counted 24 domes; on the long, 35. This
would give a total of 118 along the cloisters. The Arabs reckon in all
152; viz., 24 on the East side, on the North 36, on the South 36, one
on the Mosque corner, near the Zarurah minaret; 16 at the porch of the
Bab al-Ziyadah; and 15 at the Bab Ibrahim. The shape of these domes is
the usual “Media-Naranja,” and the superstition of the Meccans informs the
pilgrim that they cannot be counted. Books reckon 1352 pinnacles or
battlements on the temple wall.
[FN#4] The “common stone of the Meccah mountains” is a fine grey granite,
quarried principally from a hill near the Bab al-Shabayki, which
furnished material for the Ka’abah. Eastern authors describe the pillars
as consisting of three different substances, viz.: Rukham, white
marble, not “alabaster,” its general sense; Suwan, or granite (syenite?);
and Hajar Shumaysi,” a kind of yellow sandstone, so called from “Bir
Shumays,” a place on the Jeddah road near Haddah, the half-way station.
[FN#5] I counted in the temple 554 pillars.
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