The Walk Is Called Al-Mataf, Or The Place Of Circumambulation. [FN#36] These Are Now Iron Posts, Very Numerous, Supporting Cross Rods, And Of Tolerably Elegant Shape.

In Ali Bey’s time there were “trente-une colonnes minces en piliers en bronze.” Some native works say thirty-three, including two marble columns.

Between each two hang several white or green glass globe-lamps, with wicks and oil floating on water; their light is faint and dismal. The whole of the lamps in the Harim is said to be more than 1000, yet they serve but to “make darkness visible.” [FN#37] There are only four “Makams,” the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, and the Makam Ibrahim; and there is some error of diction below, for in these it is that the Imams stand before their congregations, and nearest the Ka’abah. In Ibn Jubayr’s time the Zaydi sect was allowed an Imam, though known to be schismatics and abusers of the caliphs. Now, not being permitted to have a separate station for prayer, they suppose theirs to be suspended from heaven above the Ka’abah roof. [FN#38] The Makam al-Maliki is on the west of, and thirty-seven cubits from, the Ka’abah; that of the Hanbali forty-seven paces distant. [FN#39] Only the Mu’ezzin takes his stand here, and the Shafe’is pray behind their Imam on the pavement round the Ka’abah, between the corner of the well Zemzem, and the Makam Ibrahim. This place is forty cubits from the Ka’abah, that is say, eight cubits nearer than the Northern and Southern “Makams.” Thus the pavement forms an irregular oval ring round the house[.] [FN#40] In Burckhardt’s time the schools prayed according to the seniority of their founders, and they uttered the Azan of Al-Maghrib together, because that is a peculiarly delicate hour, which easily passes by unnoticed. In the twelfth century, at all times but the evening, the Shafe’i began, then came the Maliki and Hanbali simultaneously, and, lastly, the Hanafi. Now the Shaykh al-Mu’ezzin begins the call, which is taken up by the others. He is a Hanafi; as indeed are all the principal people at Meccah, only a few wild Sharifs of the hills being Shafe’i. [FN#41] The door of the Zemzem building fronts to the south-east. [FN#42] This is not exactly correct. As the plan will show, the angle of one building touches the angle of its neighbour. [FN#43] Their names and offices are now changed. One is called the Kubbat al-Sa’at, and contains the clocks and chronometers (two of them English) sent as presents to the Mosque by the Sultan. The other, known as the Kubbat al-Kutub, is used as a store-room for manuscripts bequeathed to the Mosque. They still are open to Burckhardt’s just criticism, being nothing but the common dome springing from four walls, and vulgarly painted with bands of red, yellow, and green. In Ibn Jubayr’s time the two domes contained bequests of books and candles. The Kubbat Abbas, or that further from the Ka’abah than its neighbour, was also called Kubbat al-Sharab (the Dome of Drink), because Zemzem water was here kept cooling for the use of pilgrims in Daurak, or earthen jars. The nearer was termed Kubbat al-Yahudi; and the tradition they told me was, that a Jew having refused to sell his house upon the spot, it was allowed to remain in loco by the Prophet, as a lasting testimony to his regard for justice. A similar tale is told of an old woman’s hut, which was allowed to stand in the corner of the Great Nushirawan’s royal halls. [FN#44] Called “Al-Daraj.” A correct drawing of it may be found in Ali Bey’s work. [FN#45] The Bab al-Salam, or Bab al-Nabi, or Bab benu Shaybah, resembles in its isolation a triumphal arch, and is built of cut stone. [FN#46] “The (praying) place of Abraham.” Readers will remember that the Meccan Mosque is peculiarly connected with Ibrahim, whom Moslems prefer to all prophets except Mohammed. [FN#47] This I believe to be incorrect. I was asked five dollars for permission to enter; but the sum was too high for my finances. Learned men told me that the stone shows the impress of two feet, especially the big toes, and devout pilgrims fill the cavities with water, which they rub over their eyes and faces. When the Caliph al-Mahdi visited Meccah, one Abdullah bin Osman presented himself at the unusual hour of noon, and informing the prince that he had brought him a relic which no man but himself had yet seen, produced this celebrated stone. Al-Mahdi, rejoicing greatly, kissed it, rubbed his face against it, and pouring water upon it, drank the draught. Kutb al-Din, one of the Meccan historians, says that it was visited in his day. In Ali Bey’s time it was covered with “un magnifique drap noir brode en or et en argent avec de gros glands en or;” he does not say, however, that he saw the stone. Its veils, called Sitr Ibrahim al-Khalil, are a green “Ibrisham,” or silk mixed with cotton and embroidered with gold. They are made at Cairo of three different colours, black, red, and green; and one is devoted to each year. The gold embroidery is in the Sulsi character, and expresses the Throne-verse, the Chapter of the Cave, and the name of the reigning Sultan; on the top is “Allah,” below it “Mohammed”; beneath this is “Ibrahim al-Khalil”; and at each corner is the name of one of the four caliphs. In a note to the “Dabistan” (vol. ii. p. 410), we find two learned Orientalists confounding the Black Stone with Abraham’s Station or Platform. “The Prophet honoured the Black Stone, upon which Abraham conversed with Hagar, to which he tied his camels, and upon which the traces of his feet are still seen.” [FN#48] Not only here, I was told by learned Meccans, but under all the oval pavements surrounding the Ka’abah. [FN#49] The spring gushes from the southern base of Mount Arafat, as will afterwards be noticed.

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