And When
We Were In Three Days’ Journey Of It, We Had Many Camel-Loads Of The
Water Of The Nile Brought Us To Drink.
But the day and night before we
came to Cairo, thousands came out to meet us with extraordinary
rejoicing.
It is thirty-seven days’ journey from Mecca to Cairo, and
three days we tarry by [p.389] the way, which together make us (as I
said) forty days’ journey; and in all this way there is scarce any green
thing to be met with, nor beast nor fowl to be seen or heard; nothing
but sand and stones, excepting one place which we passed through by
night; I suppose it was a village, where were some trees, and, we
thought, gardens.”
[FN#1] It is curious, as Crichton (Arabia, vol. ii. p. 208) observes,
that Gibbon seems not to have seen or known anything of the little work
published by Pitts on his return home. It is entitled “A faithful Account
of the Religion and the Manners of the Mahometans, in which is a
particular Relation of their Pilgrimage to Mecca, the Place of Mahomet’s
Birth, and Description of Medina, and of his Tomb there,” &c., &c. My
copy is the 4th edition, printed for T. Longman and R. Hett, London,
A.D. 1708. The only remarkable feature in the “getting up” of the little
octavo is, that the engraving headed “the most sacred and antient Temple
of the Mahometans at Mecca,” is the reverse of the impression[.]
[FN#2] Some years afterwards, Mr. Consul Baker, when waited upon by
Pitts, in London, gave him a copy of the letter, with the following
memorandum upon the back of it—“Copy of my letter to Consul Raye at Smyrna,
to favour the escape of Joseph Pitts, an English renegade, from a
squadron of Algier men-of-war. Had my kindness to him been discovered
by the government of Algiers, my legs and arms had first been broken,
and my carcass burnt—a danger hitherto not courted by any.”
[FN#3] The italics in the text are the author’s. This is admirably
characteristic of the man. Asiatic Christendom would not satisfy him.
He seems to hate the “damnable doctrines” of the “Papists,” almost as much as
those of the Moslems.
[FN#4] He must have been accustomed to long days’ journeys. Al-Idrisi
makes Jeddah forty miles from Meccah; I calculated about forty-four.
[FN#5] Dalil, a guide, generally called at Meccah “Muttawwif.”
[FN#6] Pitts’ Note,—that before they’ll provide for themselves, they serve
God in their way.
[FN#7] Abdast is the Turkish word, borrowed from the Persian, for “Wuzu,”
the minor ablution.
[FN#8] Ruka’at, a bending. This two-bow prayer is in honour of the Mosque.
[FN#9] This is the ceremony technically called Al-Sai, or running
between Safa and Marwah. Burckhardt describes it accurately, vol. i.
pp. 174, 175.
[FN#10] Ihram, the pilgrim-garb.
[FN#11] Now gold or gilt.
[FN#12] This is an error. The stone is called Hajar Aswad, the Black
Stone, or Hajar As’ad, the Blessed Stone. Moreover, it did not change its
colour on account of the sins of the people who kissed it.
[FN#13] The Meccans, in effect, still make this a boast.
[FN#14] Nothing more blindly prejudiced than this statement. Moslems
turn towards Meccah, as Christians towards Jerusalem.
[FN#15] As will afterwards be explained, all the four orthodox schools
do not think it necessary to kiss the stone after each circumambulation.
[FN#16] These are mere local traditions. The original Ka’abah was
composed of materials gathered from the six mountains of Paradise
(chap. xx.) The present building is of grey granite quarried in a hill
near Meccah.
[FN#17] Now Jabal Nur.
[FN#18] They come from the well-known Taif, which the country people
call Hijaz, but never Habbash. The word Taif literally means the
“circumambulator.” It is said that when Adam settled at Meccah, finding the
country barren, he prayed to Allah to supply him with a bit of fertile
land. Immediately appeared a mountain, which having performed Tawaf
round the Ka’abah, settled itself down eastward of Meccah. Hence, to the
present day, Taif is called Kita min al-Sham, a piece of Syria, its
fatherland.
[FN#19] This is an error of printing for “paces.”
[FN#20] (Pitts’ Note.) Not of massy gold, as a late French author (who, I
am sure, was never there) says. The door is of wood, only plated over
with silver; much less is the inside of the Beat ceiled with massy
gold, as the same Frenchman asserts. I can assure the world it is no
such thing.
The door is of wood, thickly plated over with silver, in many parts
gilt. And whatever hereabouts is gilt, the Meccans always call gold.
(R.F.B.)
[FN#21] This is no longer the case. Few women ever enter the Ka’abah, on
account of the personal danger they run there.
[FN#22] More correctly, at three of the corners, and the fourth
opposite the southern third of the western wall.
[FN#23] It is deemed disrespectful to look at the ceiling, but pilgrims
may turn their eyes in any other direction they please.
[FN#24] There are now three.
[FN#25] It is tucked up about six feet high.
[FN#26] It is a close kind of grey granite, which takes a high polish
from the pilgrims’ feet.
[FN#27] Now iron posts.
[FN#28] The Shafe’i school have not, and never had, a peculiar oratory
like the other three schools. They pray near the well Zemzem.
[FN#29] This place contains the stone which served Abraham for a
scaffold when he was erecting the Ka’abah. Some of our popular writers
confound this stone with the Hajar al-Aswad.
[FN#30] (Pitts’ Note.) The worthy Mons. Thevenot saith, that the waters
of Meccah are bitter; but I never found them so, but as sweet and as
good as any others, for aught as I could perceive.
Pitts has just remarked that he found the waters of Zemzem brackish.
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