To All Appearance The Sides Are Equal, Though It Is Certain
They Are Not; The Height Exceeds The Length And The Breadth.
[FN#6] Ali Bey (A.D. 1807) Computes 80,000 Men, 2,000 Women, And 1,000
Children At Arafat.
Burckhardt (A.D. 1814) calculated it at 70,000.
I
do not think that in all there were more than 50,000 souls assembled
together in 1853.
[FN#7] Rich pilgrims always secure lodgings; the poorer class cannot
afford them; therefore, the great Caravans from Egypt, Damascus,
Baghdad, and other places, pitch on certain spots outside the city.
[FN#8] An incorrect expression; the stone is fixed in a massive gold or
silver gilt circle to the S.E. angle, but it is not part of the
building.
[FN#9] Ali Bey is correct in stating that the running is on the return
from Arafat, directly after sunset.
[FN#10] This sentence abounds in blunders. Sale, Ali Bey, and
Burckhardt, all give correct accounts of the little pillar of masonry—it
has nothing to do with the well—which denotes the place where Satan
appeared to Abraham. The pilgrims do not throw one stone, but many. The
pebbles are partly brought from Muzdalifah, partly from the valley of
Muna, in which stands the pillar.
[FN#11] Mr. Bankes confounds this column with the Devil’s Pillar at Muna.
Finati alludes to the landmarks of the Arafat plain, now called
Al-Alamayn (the two marks). The pilgrims must stand within these
boundaries on a certain day (the 9th of Zu’l Hijjah), otherwise he has
failed to observe a rital ordinance.
[FN#12] He appears to confound the proper place with Arafat. The
sacrifice is performed in the valley of Muna, after leaving the
mountain. But Finati, we are told by his translator, wrote from memory—a
pernicious practice for a traveller.
[FN#13] This custom is now obsolete, as regards the grand body of
pilgrims. Anciently, a certificate from the Sharif was given to all who
could afford money for a proof of having performed the pilgrimage, but
no such practice at present exists. My friends have frequently asked
me, what proof there is of a Moslem’s having become a Haji. None
whatever; consequently impostors abound. Sa’adi, in the Gulistan, notices
a case. But the ceremonies of the Hajj are so complicated and
unintelligible by mere description, that a little cross-questioning
applied to the false Haji would easily detect him.
[FN#14] No wonder Mr. Bankes is somewhat puzzled by this passage.
Certainly none but a pilgrim could guess that the author refers to the
rites called Al-Umrah and Al-Sai, or the running between Mounts Safa
and Marwah. The curious reader may compare the above with Burckhardt’s
correct description of the ceremonies. As regards the shaving, Finati
possibly was right in his day; in Ali Bey’s, as in my time, the head was
only shaved once, and a few strokes of the razor sufficed for the
purpose of religious tonsure.
[FN#15] Jabal Nur, anciently Hira, is a dull grey as of granite; it
derives its modern name from the spiritual light of religion.
Circumstances prevented my ascending it, so I cannot comment upon
Finati’s “custom of leaping.”
[FN#16] Open three days in the year, according to Ali Bey, the same in
Burckhardt’s, and in my time.
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