The Prophet, Ho Doubtless Had Heard Of
Those Pagan Mournings, Where An Effeminate And Unlimited Display Of Woe
Was Often Terminated By Licentious Excesses, Like The Christian’S
Half-Heathen “Wakes,” Forbad [A]Ught Beyond A Decent Demonstration Of
Grief.
And his strong good sense enabled him to see through the vanity
of professional mourners.
At Al-Madinah the corpse is interred shortly
after decease. The bier is carried though the streets at a moderate
pace, by friends and relatives,[FN#39] these bringing up the rear.
Every man who passes lends his shoulder for a minute, a mark of respect
to the dead, and also considered a pious and a prayerful act. Arrived
at the Harim, they carry the corpse in visitation to the Prophet’s
window, and pray over it at Osman’s niche. Finally, it is interred after
the usual Moslem fashion in the cemetery Al-Bakia.
Al-Madinah, though pillaged by the Wahhabis, still abounds in books.
Near the Harim are two Madrasah or colleges, the Mahmudiyah, so called
from Sultan Mahmud, and that of Bashir Agha: both have large stores of
theological and other works. I also heard of extensive private
collections, particularly of one belonging to the Najib al-Ashraf, or
chief of the Sharifs, a certain Mohammed Jamal al-Layl, whose father is
well-known in India. Besides which, there is a large Wakf or bequest of
books, presented to the Mosque or entailed upon particular
families.[FN#40] The celebrated Mohammed Ibn Abdillah al-Sannusi[FN#41]
has removed
[p.25] his collection, amounting, it is said, to eight thousand
volumes, from Al-Madinah to his house in Jabal Kubays at Meccah.
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