Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah Volume I Part 34

[FN#16] Most Arab authors place Ohod about two miles N. of Al-Madinah.

Al-Idrisi calls it the nearest hill, and calculates the distance at 6000 paces. Golius gives two leagues to Ohod and Ayr, which is much too far. In our popular accounts, "Mohammed posted himself upon the hill of Ohod, about six miles from Al-Madinah," two mistakes.

[FN#17] They are said to be seventy, but the heaps appeared to me at least three times more numerous.

[FN#18] A Zawiyah in Northern Africa resembles the Takiyah of India, Persia, and Egypt, being a monastery for Darwayshes who reside there singly or in numbers. A Mosque, and sometimes, according to the excellent practice of Al-Islam, a school, are attached to it.

[FN#19] Some historians relate that forty-six years after the battle of Ohod, the tombs were laid bare by a torrent, when the corpses appeared in their winding-sheets as if buried the day before. Some had their hands upon their death wounds, from which fresh blood trickled when the pressure was forcibly removed. In opposition to this Moslem theory, we have that of the modern Greeks, namely, that if the body be not decomposed within a year, it shows that the soul is not where it should be.

[FN#20] In fairness I must confess to believing in the reality of these phenomena, but not in their "spiritual" origin.

[FN#21] In Ibn Jubayr's time the tomb was red.

[FN#22] In the common tombs of martyrs, saints, and holy men, this covering is usually of green cloth, with long white letters sewn upon it. I forgot to ask whether it was temporarily absent from Hamzah's grave.

[FN#23] All these erections are new. In Burckhardt's time they were mere heaps of earth, with a few loose stones placed around them. I do not know what has become of the third martyr, said to have been interred near Hamzah. Possibly some day he may reappear: meanwhile the people of Al-Madinah are so wealthy in saints, that they can well afford to lose sight of one.

[FN#24] Formerly in this place was shown a slab with the mark of a man's head-like St. Peter's at Rome-where the Prophet had rested. Now it seems to have disappeared, and the tooth has succeeded to its honours.

[FN#25] Some historians say that four teeth were knocked out by this stone. This appears an exaggeration.

[FN#26] In Persian characters the word Umr, life, and Umar, the name of the hated caliph, are written in the same way; which explains the pun.

[FN#27] That is to say, "to the hour of death."

[FN#28] When Jubayr bin Mutim was marching to Ohod, according to the Rauzat al-Safa, in revenge for the death of his uncle Taymah, he offered manumission to his slave Wahshi, who was noted for the use of the Abyssinian spear, if he slew Hamzah. The slave sat in ambush behind a rock, and when the hero had despatched one Siba'a bin Abd al-Ayiz, of Meccah, he threw a javelin which pierced his navel and came out of his back. The wounded man advanced towards his a.s.sa.s.sin, who escaped.

Hamzah then fell, and his friends coming up, found him dead. Wahshi waited till he saw an opportunity, drew the javelin from the body, and mutilated it, in order to present trophies to the ferocious Hinda (mother of Mu'awiyah), whose father Utbah had been slain by Hamzah. The amazon insisted upon seeing the corpse: having presented her necklace and bracelets to Wahshi, she supplied their place with the nose, the ears, and other parts of the dead hero. After mangling the body in a disgusting manner, she ended by tearing open the stomach and biting the liver, whence she was called "Akkalat al-Akbad." When Mohammed saw the state of his father's brother, he was sadly moved. Presently comforted by the inspirations brought by Gabriel, he cried, "It is written among the people of the seven Heavens, Hamzah, son of Muttalib, is the Lion of Allah, and the Lion of his Prophet," and ordered him to be shrouded and prayed over him, beginning, says the Jazb al-Kulub, with seventy repet.i.tions of "Allah Akbar." Ali had brought in his shield some water for Mohammed, from a Mahras or stone trough, which stood near the scene of action (M.C. de Perceval translates it "un creux de rocher formant un ba.s.sin naturel"). But the Prophet refused to drink it, and washed with it the blood from the face of him "martyred by the side of the Mahras." It was of the Moslems slain at Ohod, according to Abu Da'ud, that the Prophet declared that their souls should be carried in the crops of green birds, that they might drink of the waters and taste the fruits of Paradise, and nestle beneath the golden lamps that hang from the celestial ceiling. He also forbade, on this occasion, the still popular practice of mutilating an enemy's corpse.

[FN#29] The Prophet preferred women and young boys to pray privately, and in some parts of Al-Islam they are not allowed to join a congregation. At Al-Madinah, however, it is no longer, as in Burckhardt's time, "thought very indecorous in women to enter the Mosque."

[FN#30] I have heard of a Persian being beaten to death, because instead of saying "Peace be with thee, Ya Omar," he insisted upon saying "Peace be with thee, Ya Humar (O a.s.s!)" A favourite trick is to change "Razi Allahu anhu-may Allah be satisfied with him!"-to "Razi Allahu Aan." This last word is not to be found in Richardson, but any "Luti" from Shiraz or Isfahan can make it intelligible to the curious linguist.

END OF VOLUME I.