This Portion Of The Building Being Cool And Shady, Is Crowded
By The Poor, The Diseased, And The Dying, During Divine Worship, And At
Other Times By Idlers, Schoolboys, And Merchants.
Passing through three
external arches, pilgrims descend by a flight of steps into the hall,
where they deposit their
Slippers, it not being considered decorous to
hold them when circumambulating the Ka’abah.[FN#53] A broad pavement, in
the shape of an irregular triangle, whose base is the cloister, leads
to the circuit of the house. Next to the Ziyadah Gate is a small,
single-arched entrance, “Bab Kutubi,” and beyond it one similar, the Bab
al-Ajlah ([Arabic]), also named Al-Basitiyah, from its proximity to the
college of Abd al Basitah. Close to the north-west angle of the
cloister is the Bab al-Nadwah, anciently called Bab al-Umrah, and now
Bab
[p.316] al-Atik, the Old Gate. Near this place and opening into the
Ka’abah, stood the “Town Hall” (Dar al-Nadwah), built by Kusay, for
containing the oriflamme “Al-Liwa,” and as a council-chamber for the
ancients of the city.[FN#54]
In the western wall are three entrances. The single-arched gate nearest
to the north angle is called Bab Benu Saham or Bab al-Umrah, because
pilgrims pass through it to the Tanim and to the ceremony Al-Umrah
(Little Pilgrimage). In the centre of the wall is the Bab Ibrahim, or
Bab al-Khayyatin (the Tailors’ Gate); a single arch leading into a large
projecting square, like that of the Ziyadah entrance, but somewhat
smaller.
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