The Best And The Highest-Priced
Come From The Maghrib, And Second To Them Ranks The Egyptian Race.
At
Meccah careful feeding and kind usage transform the dull slave into an
active and symmetrical friend of man:
He knows his owner’s kind voice,
and if one of the two fast, it is generally the biped. The asses of the
Holy City are tall and plump, with sleek coats, generally ash or
grey-coloured, the eyes of deer, heads gracefully carried, an ambling
gait, and extremely sure-footed. They are equal to great fatigue, and
the stallions have been known, in their ferocity, to kill the groom.
The price varies from 25 to 150 dollars.
[FN#21] Such is the popular version of the tale, which differs in some
points from that recorded in books. Others declare that here, in days
gone by, stood the house of another notorious malignant, Abu Jahl.
Some, again, suppose that in this place a tyrannical governor of Meccah
was summarily “lynched” by the indignant populace. The first two
traditions, however, are the favourites, the vulgar—citizens, as well as
pilgrims—loving to connect such places with the events of their early
sacred history. Even in the twelfth century we read that pilgrims used
to cast stones at two cairns, covering the remains of Abu Lahab, and
the beautiful termagant, his wife.
[FN#22] Certain credulous authors have contrasted these heaps with the
clear ground at Muna, for the purpose of a minor miracle. According to
them this cairn steadily grows, as we may believe it would; and that,
were it not for the guardian angels, the millions of little stones
annually thrown at the devils would soon form a mass of equal
magnitude. This custom of lapidation, in token of hate, is an ancient
practice, still common in the East. Yet, in some parts of Arabia,
stones are thrown at tombs as a compliment to the tenant. And in the
Somali country, the places where it is said holy men sat, receive the
same doubtful homage.
[FN#23] It is called in books Al-Tanim (bestowing plenty); a word which
readers must not confound with the district of the same name in the
province Khaulan (made by Niebuhr the “Thumna,” “Thomna,” or “Tamna,” capital of
the Catabanites). Other authors apply Al-Tanim to the spot where Abu
Lahab is supposed to lie. There are two places called Al-Umrah near
Meccah. The Kabir, or greater, is, I am told, in the Wady Fatimah, and
the Prophet ordered Ayishah and her sister to begin the ceremonies at
that place. It is now visited by picnic parties and those who would
pray at the tomb of Maimunah, one of the Prophet’s wives. Modern pilgrims
commence always, I am told, at the Umrah Saghir (the Lesser), which is
about half-way nearer the city.
[FN#24] Some assume the Ihram garb at this place.
[FN#25] We had still the pretext of my injured foot. When the Sai rite
is performed, as it should be, by a pedestrian, he mounts the steps to
about the height of a man, and then turns towards the temple.
[FN#26] I will not trouble the reader with this Niyat, which is the
same as that used in the Tawaf rite.
[FN#27] Almost every Mutawwif, it must be remembered, has his own set
of prayers.
[FN#28] “Safa” means a large, hard rock; “Marwah,” hard, white flints, full of
fire.
[FN#29] In former times a devastating torrent used to sweep this place
after rains. The Fiumara bed has now disappeared, and the pillars are
used as landmarks. Galland observes that these columns are planted upon
the place which supported Eve’s knees, when, after 300 years’ separation,
she was found by Adam.
[FN#30] This house is called in books Rubat al-Abbas.
[FN#31] Here once stood “As’af” and “Naylah,” two idols, some say a man and a
woman metamorphosed for stupration in the Temple.
[FN#32] Koran, chap. ii.
[FN#33] Ibn Jubayr gives 893 steps: other authorities make the distance
780 short cubits, the size of an average man’s forearm.
[FN#34] The ceremony of running between Safa and Marwah is supposed to
represent Hagar seeking water for her son. Usually pilgrims perform
this rite on the morning of visiting the Ka’aba.
[p.247] CHAPTER XXXIII.
PLACES OF PIOUS VISITATION AT MECCAH.
THE traveller has little work at the Holy City. With exceptions of
Jabal Nur and Jabal Saur,[FN#1] all the places of pious visitation lie
inside or close outside the city. It is well worth the while to ascend
Abu Kubays; not so much to inspect the Makan al-Hajar and the Shakk
al-Kamar,[FN#2] as to obtain an excellent bird’s-eye view of the Harim
and the parts adjacent.[FN#3]
The boy Mohammed had applied himself sedulously to commerce after his
return home; and had actually been seen by Shaykh Nur sitting in a shop
and selling small curiosities. With my plenary consent I was made
[p.248] over to Abdullah, his brother. On the morning of the 15th Zu’l
Hijjah (19th Sept.) he hired two asses, and accompanied me as guide to
the holy places.
Mounting our animals, we followed the road before described to the
Jannat al-Ma’ala, the sacred cemetery of Meccah. A rough wall, with a
poor gateway, encloses a patch of barren and grim-looking ground, at
the foot of the chain which bounds the city’s western suburb, and below
Al-Akabah, the gap through which Khalid bin Walid entered Meccah with
the triumphant Prophet.[FN#4] Inside are a few ignoble, whitewashed
domes: all are of modern construction, for here, as at Al-Bakia,
further north, the Wahhabis indulged their levelling
propensities.[FN#5] The rest of the ground shows some small enclosures
belonging to particular houses,—equivalent to our family vaults,—and the
ruins of humble tombs, lying in confusion, whilst a few parched aloes
spring from between the bricks and stones.[FN#6]
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 84 of 170
Words from 85258 to 86277
of 175520
