Some Topographers Call The Jiyad Upon
Which The Fort Is Built “The Lesser,” And Apply “Greater” To Jiyad Amir, The
Hill north of Meccah.
[FN#17] The Meccans, however, do not fail to boast of its strength; and
has stood
Some sieges.
[FN#18] In the Mandal, or palm-divination, a black slave is considered
the best subject. European travellers have frequently remarked their
nervous sensibility. In Abyssinia the maladies called “bouda” and “tigritiya”
appear to depend upon some obscure connection between a weak
impressionable brain and the strong will of a feared and hated race—the
blacksmiths.
[p.178]CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CEREMONIES OF THE YAUM AL-TARWIYAH, OR THE FIRST DAY.
AT ten A.M., on the 8th Zu’l Hijjah, A.H. 1269 (Monday, 12th Sept.,
1853), habited in our Ihram, or pilgrim garbs, we mounted the litter.
Shaykh Mas’ud had been standing at the door from dawn-time, impatient to
start before the Damascus and the Egyptian caravans made the road
dangerous. Our delay arose from the tyrannical conduct of the boy
Mohammed, who insisted upon leaving his little nephew behind. It was
long before he yielded. I then placed the poor child, who was crying
bitterly, in the litter between us, and at last we started.
We followed the road by which the Caravans entered Meccah. It was
covered with white-robed pilgrims, some few wending their way on
foot[FN#1]; others riding, and all men barefooted and bareheaded. Most
of the wealthier classes mounted asses. The scene was, as usual, one of
strange contrasts: Badawin bestriding swift dromedaries; Turkish
dignitaries on fine horses; the most picturesque beggars, and the most
uninteresting Nizam. Not a little wrangling mingled with the loud
bursts of Talbiyat. Dead animals dotted the ground, and carcasses had
been cast into a dry tank, the Birkat al-Shami which caused every
Badawi to
[p.179] hold his nose.[FN#2] Here, on the right of the road, the poorer
pilgrims, who could not find houses, had erected huts, and pitched
their ragged tents. Traversing the suburb Al-Ma’b’dah (Ma’abadah), in a
valley between the two barren prolongations of Kayka’an and Khandamah, we
turned to the north-east, leaving on the left certain barracks of
Turkish soldiery, and the negro militia here stationed, with the
Saniyat Kuda’a in the background. Then, advancing about 3000 paces over
rising ground, we passed by the conical head of Jabal Nur,[FN#3] and
entered the plain of many names.[FN#4] It contained nothing but a few
whitewashed walls, surrounding places of prayer, and a number of stone
cisterns, some well preserved, others in ruins. All, however, were dry,
and water-vendors crowded the roadside. Gravel and lumps of granite
grew there like grass, and from under every large stone, as Shaykh Mas’ud
took a delight in showing, a small scorpion, with tail curled over its
back, fled, Parthian-like, from the invaders of its home. At eleven
A.M., ascending a Mudarraj, or flight of stone steps, about thirty
yards broad, we passed without difficulty, for we were in advance of
the caravans, over the Akabah, or Steeps,[FN#5] and the narrow,
hill-girt entrance, to the low gravel basin in which Muna lies.
[p.180] Muna, more classically called Mina,[FN#6] is a place of
considerable sanctity. Its three standing miracles are these: The
pebbles thrown at “the Devil” return by angelic agency to whence they came;
during the three Days of Drying Meat rapacious beasts and birds cannot
prey there; and, lastly, flies do not settle upon the articles of food
exposed so abundantly in the bazars.[FN#7] During pilgrimage, houses
are let for an exorbitant sum, and it becomes a “World’s Fair” of Moslem
merchants. At all other seasons it is almost deserted, in consequence,
says popular superstition, of the Rajm or (diabolical)
lapidation.[FN#8] Distant about three miles from Meccah, it is a long,
narrow, straggling village, composed of mud and stone houses of one or
two stories, built in the common Arab style. Traversing a narrow
street, we passed on the left the Great Devil, which shall be described
at a future time. After a quarter of an hour’s halt, spent over pipes and
coffee, we came to an open space, where stands the Mosque “Al-Khayf.” Here,
according to some Arabs, Adam lies, his head being at one end of one
long wall, and his feet at another, whilst the dome covers his omphalic
region. Grand preparations for fireworks were being made in this
square; I especially remarked a fire-ship,
[p.181] which savoured strongly of Stambul. After passing through the
town, we came to Batn al-Muhassir, “The Basin of the Troubler,[FN#9]”
(Satan) at the beginning of a descent leading to Muzdalifah (the
Approacher), where the road falls into the valley of the Arafat torrent.
At noon we reached the Muzdalifah, also called Mashar al-Haram, the
“Place dedicated to religious Ceremonies.[FN#10]” It is known in Al-Islam
as “the Minaret without the Mosque,” opposed to Masjid Nimrah, which is the
“Mosque without the Minaret.” Half-way between Muna and Arafat, it is about
three miles from both. There is something peculiarly striking in the
distant appearance of the tall, solitary tower, rising abruptly from
the desolate valley of gravel, flanked with buttresses of yellow rock.
No wonder that the ancient Arabs loved to give the high-sounding name
of this oratory to distant places in their giant Caliph-empire.
Here as we halted to perform the mid-day prayer, we were overtaken by
the Damascus Caravan. It was a grand spectacle. The Mahmil, no longer
naked as upon the line of march, flashed in the sun all green and gold.
Around the moving host of white-robed pilgrims hovered a crowd of
Badawin, male and female, all mounted on swift dromedaries, and many of
them armed to the teeth.
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