It Is A
Custom Throughout The Moslem World, A Relic, Doubtless, Of The Azlam Or
Kidah (Seven Divining-Arrows) Of The Pagan Times.
At Al-Madinah it is
generally called Khirah.
[FN#37] Among respectable citizens 400 dollars would be considered a
fair average sum; the expense of the ceremony would be about half.
This
amount of ready money (£150) not being always procurable, many of the
Madani marry late in life.
[FN#38] Boys are allowed to be present, but they are not permitted to
cry. Of their so misdemeaning themselves there is little danger; the
Arab in these matters is a man from his cradle.
[FN#39] They are called the Asdikah; in the singular, Sadik.
[FN#40] From what I saw at Al-Madinah, the people are not so
unprejudiced on this point as the Cairenes, who think little of selling
a book in Wakf. The subject of Wakf, however, is an extensive one, and
does not wholly exclude the legality of sale.
[FN#41] This Shaykh is a Maliki Moslem from Algiers, celebrated as an
Alim (sage), especially in the mystic study Al-Jafr. He is a Wali or
saint; but opinions differ as regards his Kiramat (saint’s miracles):
some disciples look upon him as the Mahdi (the forerunner of the
Prophet), others consider him a clever impostor. His peculiar dogma is
the superiority of live over dead saints, whose tombs are therefore not
to be visited—a new doctrine in a Maliki! Abbas Pasha loved and respected
him, and, as he refused all presents, built him a new Zawiyah (oratory)
at Bulak; and when the Egyptian ruler’s mother was at Al-Madinah, she
called upon him three times, it is said, before he would receive her.
His followers and disciples are scattered in numbers about Tripoli and,
amongst other oases of the Fezzan, at Siwah, where they saved the Abbe
Hamilton’s life in A.D[.] 1843.
[FN#42] Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia, vol.
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