Some
Speak Of The Nafr From Arafat To Muzdalifah And The Dafa From
Muzdalifah To Muna.
I have used the words as my Mutawwif used them.
[FN#9] They keep the keys of the House.
In my day the head of the
family was “Shaykh Ahmad.”
[FN#10] In Ibn Jubayr’s time this large padlock was of gold. It is said
popularly that none but the Benu Shaybah can open it; a minor miracle,
doubtless proceeding from the art of some Eastern Hobbs or Bramah.
[FN#11] However safe a Christian might be at Meccah, nothing could
preserve him from the ready knives of enraged fanatics if detected in
the House. The very idea is pollution to a Moslem.
[FN#12] I do not known the origin of this superstition; but it would be
unsafe for a pilgrim to look fixedly at the Ka’abah ceiling. Under the
arras I was told is a strong planking of Saj, or Indian teak, and above
it a stuccoed Sath, or flat roof.
[FN#13] Exactly realising the description of our English bard:—
“Goodly arras of great majesty,
Woven with gold and silk so close and nere,
That the rich metal lurked privily,
As feigning to be hid from envious eye.”
[FN#14] Ibn Jubayr mentions three columns of teak. Burckhardt and Ali
Bey, two. In Al-Fasi’s day there were four. The Kuraysh erected six
columns in double row. Generally the pillars have been three in number.
[FN#15] This wood, which has been used of old to ornament sacred
buildings in the East, is brought to Meccah in great quantities by
Malay and Java pilgrims. The best kind is known by its oily appearance
and a “fizzing” sound in fire; the cunning vendors easily supply it with
these desiderata.
[FN#16] Ibn Jubayr calls it Bab al-Rahmah.
[FN#17] The Hajar al-Aswad is also called Al-As’ad, or the Propitious.
[FN#18] Here, in Ibn Jubayr’s time, stood two boxes full of Korans.
[FN#19] The key is sometimes placed in the hands of a child of the
house of Shaybah, who sits in state, with black slaves on both sides.
[FN#20] In Ibn Jubayr’s day the Ka’abah was opened with more ceremony. The
ladder was rolled up to the door, and the chief of the Benu Shaybah,
ascending it, was covered by attendants with a black veil from head to
foot, whilst he opened the padlock. Then, having kissed the threshold,
he entered, shut the door behind him, and prayed two Rukats; after
which, all the Benu Shaybah, and, lastly, the vulgar were admitted. In
these day the veil is obsolete. The Shaykh enters the Ka’abah alone,
perfumes it and prays; the pilgrims are then admitted en masse; and the
style in which the eunuchs handle their quarter-staves forms a scene
more animated than decorous.
[FN#21] Some pray four instead of two bows.
[FN#22] Burckhardt erroneously says, “in every corner.”
[FN#23] These Indians are ever in extremes, paupers or millionaires,
and, like all Moslems, the more they pay at Meccah the higher becomes
their character and religious titles.
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