It Is, However, Difficult
To Be Accurate, As The Four Colonnades And The Porticos About The Two
Great Gates Are Irregular; Topographical Observations, Moreover, Must
Here Be Made Under Difficulties.
Ali Bey numbers them roughly at “plus de
500 colonnes et pilastres.”
[FN#6] The author afterwards informs us,
That “the temple has been so
often ruined and repaired, that no traces of remote antiquity are to be
found about it.” He mentions some modern and unimportant inscriptions
upon the walls and over the gates. Knowing that many of the pillars
were sent in ships from Syria and Egypt by the Caliph Al-Mahdi, a
traveller would have expected better things.
[FN#7] The reason being, that “those shafts formed of the Meccan stone
are mostly in three pieces; but the marble shafts are in one piece.”
[FN#8] To this may be added, that the façades of the cloisters are
twenty-four along the short walls, and thirty-six along the others;
they have stone ornaments, not inaptly compared to the French “fleur de
lis.” The capital and bases of the outer pillars are grander and more
regular than the inner; they support pointed arches, and the Arab
secures his beloved variety by placing at every fourth arch a square
pilaster. Of these there are on the long sides ten, on the short seven.
[FN#9] I counted eight, not including the broad pavement which leads
from the Bab al-Ziyadah to the Ka’abah, or the four cross branches which
connect the main lines. These “Firash al-Hajar,” as they are called, also
serve to partition off the area. One space for instance is called “Haswat
al-Harim,” or the “Women’s sanded place,” because appropriated to female
devotees.
[FN#10] The jars are little amphoræ, each inscribed with the name of the
donor and a peculiar cypher.
[FN#11] My measurements give 22 paces or 55 feet in length by 18 (45)
of breadth, and the height appeared greater than the length. Ali Bey
makes the Eastern side 37 French feet, 2 inches and 6 lines, the
Western 38° 4' 6", the Northern 29 feet, the Southern 31° 6', and the
height 34° 4'. He therefore calls it a “veritable trapezium.” In Al-Idrisi’s
time it was 25 cubits by 24, and 27 cubits high.
[FN#12] I would alter this sentence thus:—“It is built of fine grey granite
in horizontal courses of masonry of irregular depth; the stones are
tolerably fitted together, and are held by excellent mortar like Roman
cement.” The lines are also straight.
[FN#13] This base is called Al-Shazarwan, from the Persian Shadarwan, a
cornice, eaves, or canopy. It is in pent-house shape, projecting about
a foot beyond the wall, and composed of fine white marble slabs,
polished like glass; there are two breaks in it, one opposite and under
the doorway, and another in front of Ishmael’s tomb. Pilgrims are
directed, during circumambulation, to keep their bodies outside of the
Shazarwan ; this would imply it to be part of the building, but its
only use appears in the large brass rings welded into it, for the
purpose of holding down the Ka’abah covering.
[FN#14] Ali Bey also errs in describing the roof as “plat endessus.” Were
such the case, rain would not pour off with violence through the spout.
Most Oriental authors allow a cubit of depression from South-West to
North-West. In Al-Idrisi’s day the Ka’abah had a double roof. Some say this
is the case in the present building, which has not been materially
altered in shape since its restoration by Al-Hajjaj, A.H. 83. The roof
was then eighteen cubits long by fifteen broad.
[FN#15] In Ibn Jubayr’s time the Ka’abah was opened every day in Rajah, and
in other months on every Monday and Friday. The house may now be
entered ten or twelve times a year gratis; and by pilgrims as often as
they can collect, amongst parties, a sum sufficient to tempt the
guardians’ cupidity.
[FN#16] This mistake, in which Burckhardt is followed by all our
popular authors, is the more extraordinary, as all Arabic authors call
the door-wall Janib al-Mashrik—the Eastern side—or Wajh al-Bayt, the front
of the house, opposed to Zahr al-Bayt, the back. Niebuhr is equally in
error when he asserts that the door fronts to the South. Arabs always
hold the “Rukn al-Iraki,” or Irak angle, to face the polar star, and so it
appears in Ali Bey’s plan. The Ka’abah, therefore, has no Northern side.
And it must be observed that Moslem writers dispose the length of the
Ka’abah from East to West, whereas our travellers make it from North to
South. Ali Bey places the door only six feet from the pavement, but he
calculates distances by the old French measure. It is about seven feet
from the ground, and six from the corner of the Black Stone. Between
the two the space of wall is called Al-Multazem (in Burckhardt, by a
clerical error, “Al-Metzem,” vol. i. p. 173). It derives its name, the
“attached-to,” because here the circumambulator should apply his bosom, and
beg pardon for his sins. Al-Multazem, according to M. de Perceval,
following d’Ohsson, was formerly “le lieu des engagements,” whence, according
to him, its name[.] “Le Moltezem,” says M. Galland (Rits et Ceremonies du
Pelerinage de la Mecque), “qui est entre la pierre noire et la porte, est
l’endroit ou Mahomet se reconcilia avec ses dix compagnons, qui disaient
qu’il n’etait pas veritablement Prophete.”
[FN#17] From the Bab al-Ziyadah, or gate in the northern colonnade, you
descend by two flights of steps, in all about twenty-five. This
depression manifestly arises from the level of the town having been
raised, like Rome, by successive layers of ruins; the most populous and
substantial quarters (as the Shamiyah to the north) would, we might
expect, be the highest, and this is actually the case.
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