The Site Is
A Winding Valley, On A Small Plateau, Half-Way “Below The Ghauts.” Its
Utmost Length Is Two
Miles and a half from the Mab’dah (North) to the
Southern mount Jiyad; and three-quarters of a mile
Would be the extreme
breadth between Abu Kubays Eastward,—upon whose Western slope the most
solid mass of the town clusters,—and Jabal Hindi Westward of the city. In
the centre of this line stands the Ka’abah. I regret being unable to
offer the reader a sketch of Meccah, or of the Great Temple. The
stranger who would do this should visit the city out of the pilgrimage
season, and hire a room looking into the quadrangle of the Harim. This
addition to our knowledge is the more required, as our popular sketches
(generally taken from D’Ohsson) are utterly incorrect. The Ka’abah is
always a recognisable building; but the “View of Meccah” known to Europe is
not more like Meccah than like Cairo or Bombay.
[FN#4] It is curious that the Afghans should claim this Kuraysh noble
as their compatriot. “On one occasion, when Khalid bin Walid was saying
something in his native tongue (the Pushtu or Afghani), Mohammed
remarked that assuredly that language was the peculiar dialect of the
damned. As Khalid appeared to suffer from the observation, and to
betray certain symptoms of insubordination, the Prophet condescended to
comfort him by graciously pronouncing the words “Ghashe linda raora,” i.e.,
bring me my bow and arrows. (Remarks on Dr. Dorn’s Chrestomathy of the
Pushtu or Afghan Language. Trans. Bombay As. Society, 1848.)
[FN#5] See the ninth building of the Ka’abah, described in chap. iv.
[FN#6] It requires not the ken of a prophet to foresee the day when
political necessity—sternest of [Greek]!—will compel us to occupy in force
the fountain-head of Al-Islam.
[FN#7] Good acts done at Meccah are rewarded a hundred-thousand-fold in
heaven; yet it is not auspicious to dwell there. Omar informs us that
an evil deed receives the punishment of seventy.
[FN#8] It must be remembered that my predecessor visited Meccah when
the Egyptian army, commanded by Mohammed Ali, held the town.
[FN#9] In another place I have ventured a few observations concerning
the easy suppression of this traffic.
[FN#10] The act is called “Tashrit,” or gashing. The body is also marked,
but with smaller cuts, so that the child is covered with blood. Ali Bey
was told by some Meccans that the face-gashes served for the purpose of
phlebotomy, by others that they were signs that the scarred was the
servant of Allah’s house. He attributes this male-gashing, like
female-tat[t]ooing, to coquetry. The citizens told me that the custom
arose from the necessity of preserving children from the kidnapping
Persians, and that it is preserved as a mark of the Holy City. But its
wide diffusion denotes an earlier origin.
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