Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah Volume Ii Part 26

[p.318] temple. Upon a level with the ground floor of the colonnades and opening into them are small apartments formed in the walls, having the appearance of dungeons; these have remained the property of the Mosque while the houses above them belong to private individuals. They are let out to water-men, who deposit in them the Zem Zem jars, or to less opulent Hadjys who wish to live in the Mosque.[FN#57] Some of the surrounding houses still belong to the Mosque, and were originally intended for public schools, as their names of Medresa implies; they are now all let out to Hadjys."

"The exterior of the Mosque is adorned with seven minarets irregularly distributed:-1. Minaret of Bab el Omra (Umrah); 2. Of Bab el Salam; 3. Of Bab Aly; 4. Of Bab el Wodaa (Wida'a); 5. Of Medesa Kail (Kait) Bey; 6. Of Bab el Zyadi; 7. Of Medreset Sultan Soleyman.[FN#58] They are quadrangular or round steeples, in no way differing from other minarets. The entrance to them is from the different buildings round the Mosque, which they adjoin.[FN#59] A beautiful view of the busy crowd below is attained by ascending the most northern one.[FN#60]"

Having described at length the establishment

[p.319] attached to the Mosque of Al-Madinah, I spare my readers a detailed account of the crowd of idlers that hang about the Meccan temple. The Naib al-Harim, or vice-intendant, is one Sayyid Ali, said to be of Indian extraction; he is superior to all the attendants. There are about eighty eunuchs, whose chief, Sarur Agha, was a slave of Mohammed Ali Pasha. Their pay varies from 100 to 1,000 piastres per mensem; it is, however, inferior to the Madinah salaries. The Imams, Mu'ezzins, Khatibs, Zemzemis, &c., &c., are under their respective Shaykhs who are of the Olema.[FN#61]

Briefly to relate the history of the Ka'abah.

The "House of Allah" is supposed to have been built and rebuilt ten times.

1. The first origin of the idea is manifestly a symbolical allusion to the angels standing before the Almighty and praising his name. When Allah, it is said, informed the celestial throng that he was about to send a vice-regent on earth, they deprecated the design. Being reproved with these words, "G.o.d knoweth what ye know not," and dreading the eternal anger, they compa.s.sed the Arsh, or throne, in adoration. Upon this Allah created the Bayt al-Ma'amur, four jasper pillars with a ruby roof,

[p.320] and the angels circ.u.mambulated it, crying, "Praise to Allah, and exalted be Allah, and there is no ilah but Allah, and Allah is omnipotent!" The Creator then ordered them to build a similar house for man on earth. This, according to Ali, took place 40, according to Abu Hurayrah, 2,000 years before the creation; both authorities, however, are agreed that the firmaments were spread above and the seven earths beneath this Bayt al-Ma'amur.

2. There is considerable contradiction concerning the second house. Ka'ab related that Allah sent down with Adam[FN#62] a Khaymah, or tabernacle of hollow ruby, which the angels raised on stone pillars. This was also called Bayt al-Ma'amur. Adam received an order to compa.s.s it about; after which, he begged a reward for obedience, and was promised a pardon to himself and to all his progeny who repent.

Others declare that Adam, expelled from Paradise, and lamenting that he no longer heard the prayers of the angels, was ordered by Allah to take the stones of five hills, Lebanon, Sinai, Tur Zayt (Olivet), Ararat, and Hira, which afforded the first stone. Gabriel, smiting his wing upon earth, opened a foundation to the seventh layer, and the position of the building is exactly below the heavenly Bayt al-Ma'amur,-a Moslem corruption of the legends concerning the heavenly and the earthly Jerusalem. Our First Father circ.u.mambulated it as he had seen the angels do, and was by them taught the formula of prayer and the number of circuits.

According to others, again, this second house was not erected till after the "Angelic Foundation" was destroyed by time.

3. The history of the third house is also somewhat

[p.321] confused. When the Bayt al-Ma'amur, or, as others say, the tabernacle, was removed to heaven after Adam's death, a stone-and-mud building was placed in its stead by his son Shays (Seth). For this reason it is respected by the Sabaeans, or Christians of St. John, as well as by the Moslems. This Ka'abah, according to some, was destroyed by the deluge, which materially altered its site. Others believe that it was raised to heaven. Others, again, declare that only the pillars supporting the heavenly tabernacle were allowed to remain. Most authorities agree in a.s.serting that the Black Stone was stored up in Abu Kubays, whence that "first created of mountains" is called Al-Amin, "the Honest."

4. Abraham and his son were ordered to build the fourth house upon the old foundations: its materials, according to some, were taken from the five hills which supplied the second; others give the names Ohod, Kuds, Warka, Sinai, Hira, and a sixth, Abu Kubays. It was of irregular shape; 32 cubits from the Eastern to the Northern corner; 32 from North to West; 31 from West to South; 20 from South to East; and only 9 cubits high. There was no roof; two doors, level with the ground, were pierced in the Eastern and Western walls; and inside, on the right hand, near the present entrance, a hole for treasure was dug. Gabriel restored the Black Stone, which Abraham, by his direction, placed in its present corner, as a sign where circ.u.mambulation is to begin; and the patriarch then learned all the complicated rites of pilgrimage. When this house was completed, Abraham, by Allah's order, ascended Jabal Sabir, and called the world to visit the sanctified spot; and all earth's sons heard him, even those "in their father's loins or in their mother's womb, from that day unto the day of resurrection."

5. The Amalikah (descended from Imlik, great grandson of Sam, son of Noah), who first settled near Meccah, founded the fifth house.

Al-Tabari and the Moslem

[p.322] historians generally made the erection of the Amalikah to precede that of the Jurham; these, according to others, repaired the house which Abraham built.

6. The sixth Ka'abah was built about the beginning of the Christian era by the Benu Jurham, the children of Kahtan, fifth descendant from Noah.

Ismail married, according to the Moslems, a daughter of this tribe, Da'alah bint Muzaz ([Arabic]) bin Omar, and abandoning Hebrew, he began to speak Arabic (Ta arraba). Hence his descendants are called Arabicized Arabs. After Ismail's death, which happened when he was 130 years old, Sabit, the eldest of his twelve sons, became "lord of the house." He was succeeded by his maternal grandfather Muzaz, and afterwards by his children. The Jurham inhabited the higher parts of Meccah, especially Jabal Ka'aka'an, so called from their clashing arms; whereas the Amalikah dwelt in the lower grounds, which obtained the name of Jiyad, from their generous horses.

7. Kusay bin Kilab, governor of Meccah and fifth forefather of the Prophet, built the seventh house, according to Abraham's plan. He roofed it over with palm leaves, stocked it with idols, and persuaded his tribe to settle near the Harim.

8. Kusay's house was burnt down by a woman's censer, which accidentally set fire to the Kiswah, or covering, and the walls were destroyed by a torrent. A merchant-ship belonging to a Greek trader, called "Bak.u.m"

([Arabic]), being wrecked at Jeddah, afforded material for the roof, and the crew were employed as masons. The Kuraysh tribe, who rebuilt the house, failing in funds of pure money, curtailed its proportions by nearly seven cubits and called the omitted portion Al-Hatim. In digging the foundation they came to a green stone, like a camel's hunch, which, struck with a pickaxe, sent forth blinding lightning, and prevented further excavation. The Kuraysh, amongst other alterations, raised the walls

[p.323] from nine to eighteen cubits, built a staircase in the northern breadth, closed the western door and placed the eastern entrance above the ground, to prevent men entering without their leave.

When the eighth house was being built Mohammed was in his twenty-fifth year. His surname of Al-Amin, the Honest, probably induced the tribes to make him their umpire for the decision of a dispute about the position of the Black Stone, and who should have the honour of raising it to its place.[FN#63] He decided for the corner chosen by Abraham, and distributed the privilege amongst the clans. The Benu Zahrah and Benu Abd Manaf took the front wall and the door; to the Benu Jama and the Benu Sahm was allotted the back wall; the Benu Makhzum and their Kuraysh relations stood at the southern wall; and at the "Stone" corner were posted the Benu Abd al-Dar, the Benu As'ad, and the Benu Ada.

9. Abdullah bin Zubayr, nephew of Ayishah, rebuilt the Ka'abah in A.H.

64. It had been weakened by fire, which burnt the covering, besides splitting the Black Stone into three pieces, and by the Manjanik (catapults) of Hosayn ([Arabic]) bin Numayr, general of Yazid, who obstinately besieged Meccah till he heard of his sovereign's death.

Abdullah, hoping to fulfil a prophecy,[FN#64] and seeing that the people of Meccah fled in alarm, pulled down the building by means of "thin-calved Abyssinian slaves." When they came to Abraham's foundation he saw that it included Al-Hijr, which part the Kuraysh had been unable to build. The building was made of cut stone and fine lime brought from Al-Yaman. Abdullah, taking in the Hatim, lengthened the building by seven cubits, and added to its former height nine cubits,

[p.324] thus making a total of twenty-seven. He roofed over the whole, or a part; re-opened the western door, to serve as an exit; and, following the advice of his aunt, who quoted the Prophet's words, he supported the interior with a single row of three columns, instead of the double row of six placed there by the Kuraysh. Finally, he paved the Mataf, or circuit, ten cubits round with the remaining slabs, and increased the Harim by taking in the nearer houses. During the building, a curtain was stretched round the walls, and pilgrims compa.s.sed them externally. When finished, it was perfumed inside and outside, and invested with brocade. Then Abdullah and all the citizens went forth in a procession to the Tanim, a reverend place near Meccah, returned to perform Umrah, the Lesser Pilgrimage, slew 100 victims, and rejoiced with great festivities.

The Caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan besieged Abdullah bin Zubayr, who, after a brave defence, was slain. In A.H. 74, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, general of Abd al-Malik's troops, wrote to the prince, informing him that Abdullah had made unauthorised additions to and changes in the Harim: the reply brought an order to rebuild the house. Hajjaj again excluded the Hatim and retired the northern wall six cubits and a span, making it twenty-five cubits long by twenty-four broad; the other three sides were allowed to remain as built by the son of Zubayr. He gave the house a double roof, closed the western door, and raised the eastern four cubits and a span above the Mataf, or circuit, which he paved over. The Harim was enlarged and beautified by the Abbasides, especially by Al-Mahdi, Al-Mutamid, and Al-Mutazid. Some authors reckon, as an eleventh house, the repairs made by Sultan Murad Khan. On the night of Tuesday, 20th Sha'aban, A.H. 1030, a violent torrent swept the Harim; it rose one cubit above the threshold of the Ka'abah, carried away the lamp-posts and the

[p.325] Makam Ibrahim, all the northern wall of the house, half of the eastern, and one-third of the western side. It subsided on Wednesday night. The repairs were not finished till A.H. 1040. The greater part, however, of the building dates from the time of Al Hajjaj; and Moslems, who never mention his name without a curse, knowingly circ.u.mambulate his work. The Olema indeed have insisted upon its remaining untouched, lest kings in wantonness should change its form: Harun al-Rashid desired to rebuild it, but was forbidden by the Imam Malik.

The present proofs of the Ka'abah's sanct.i.ty, as adduced by the learned, are puerile enough, but curious. The Olema have made much of the verselet: "Verily the first house built for mankind (to worship in) is that in Bakkah[FN#65] (Meccah), blessed and a salvation to the three worlds. Therein (fihi) are manifest signs, the standing-place of Abraham, which whoso entereth shall be safe" (Kor. ch. 3). The word "therein"

is interpreted to mean Meccah; and the "manifest signs" the Ka'abah, which contains such marvels as the foot-prints on Abraham's platform and the spiritual safeguard of all who enter the Sanctuary.[FN#66] The other "signs," historical, psychical, and physical, are briefly these: The preservation of the Hajar al-Aswad and the Makam Ibrahim from many foes, and the miracles put forth (as in the War of the Elephant), to defend the house; the violent and terrible deaths of the sacrilegious; and the fact that, in the Deluge, the large fish did not eat the little fish in the Harim. A wonderful desire and love impel men from distant regions to visit the holy spot, and the first sight of the Ka'abah causes awe and fear, horripilation and tears. Furthermore, ravenous beasts will not destroy their prey in the Sanctuary land, and the pigeons and other birds never perch upon the house, except to be [p.326] cured of sickness, for fear of defiling the roof. The Ka'abah, though small, can contain any number of devotees; no one is ever hurt in it,[FN#67] and invalids recover their health by rubbing themselves against the Kiswah and the Black Stone. Finally, it is observed that every day 100,000 mercies descend upon the house, and especially that if rain come up from the northern corner there is plenty in Irak; if from the south, there is plenty in Yaman; if from the east, plenty in India; if from the western, there is plenty in Syria; and if from all four angles, general plenty is presignified.

[FN#1] "Bayt Ullah" (House of Allah) and "Ka'abah," i.e. cube (house), "la maison carree," are synonymous.

[FN#2] Ali Bey gives 536 feet 9 inches by 356 feet: my measurement is 257 paces by 210. Most Moslem authors, reckoning by cubits, make the parallelogram 404 by 310.

[FN#3] On each short side I counted 24 domes; on the long, 35. This would give a total of 118 along the cloisters. The Arabs reckon in all 152; viz., 24 on the East side, on the North 36, on the South 36, one on the Mosque corner, near the Zarurah minaret; 16 at the porch of the Bab al-Ziyadah; and 15 at the Bab Ibrahim. The shape of these domes is the usual "Media-Naranja," and the superst.i.tion of the Meccans informs the pilgrim that they cannot be counted. Books reckon 1352 pinnacles or battlements on the temple wall.

[FN#4] The "common stone of the Meccah mountains" is a fine grey granite, quarried princ.i.p.ally from a hill near the Bab al-Shabayki, which furnished material for the Ka'abah. Eastern authors describe the pillars as consisting of three different substances, viz.: Rukham, white marble, not "alabaster," its general sense; Suwan, or granite (syenite?); and Hajar Shumaysi," a kind of yellow sandstone, so called from "Bir Shumays," a place on the Jeddah road near Haddah, the half-way station.

[FN#5] I counted in the temple 554 pillars. It is, however, difficult to be accurate, as the four colonnades and the porticos about the two great gates are irregular; topographical observations, moreover, must here be made under difficulties. Ali Bey numbers them roughly at "plus de 500 colonnes et pilastres."

[FN#6] The author afterwards informs us, that "the temple has been so often ruined and repaired, that no traces of remote antiquity are to be found about it." He mentions some modern and unimportant inscriptions upon the walls and over the gates. Knowing that many of the pillars were sent in ships from Syria and Egypt by the Caliph Al-Mahdi, a traveller would have expected better things.

[FN#7] The reason being, that "those shafts formed of the Meccan stone are mostly in three pieces; but the marble shafts are in one piece."

[FN#8] To this may be added, that the facades of the cloisters are twenty-four along the short walls, and thirty-six along the others; they have stone ornaments, not inaptly compared to the French "fleur de lis." The capital and bases of the outer pillars are grander and more regular than the inner; they support pointed arches, and the Arab secures his beloved variety by placing at every fourth arch a square pilaster. Of these there are on the long sides ten, on the short seven.

[FN#9] I counted eight, not including the broad pavement which leads from the Bab al-Ziyadah to the Ka'abah, or the four cross branches which connect the main lines. These "Firash al-Hajar," as they are called, also serve to part.i.tion off the area. One s.p.a.ce for instance is called "Haswat al-Harim," or the "Women's sanded place," because appropriated to female devotees.

[FN#10] The jars are little amphorae, each inscribed with the name of the donor and a peculiar cypher.

[FN#11] My measurements give 22 paces or 55 feet in length by 18 (45) of breadth, and the height appeared greater than the length. Ali Bey makes the Eastern side 37 French feet, 2 inches and 6 lines, the Western 38 4' 6", the Northern 29 feet, the Southern 31 6', and the height 34 4'. He therefore calls it a "veritable trapezium." In Al-Idrisi's time it was 25 cubits by 24, and 27 cubits high.

[FN#12] I would alter this sentence thus:-"It is built of fine grey granite in horizontal courses of masonry of irregular depth; the stones are tolerably fitted together, and are held by excellent mortar like Roman cement." The lines are also straight.

[FN#13] This base is called Al-Shazarwan, from the Persian Shadarwan, a cornice, eaves, or canopy. It is in pent-house shape, projecting about a foot beyond the wall, and composed of fine white marble slabs, polished like gla.s.s; there are two breaks in it, one opposite and under the doorway, and another in front of Ishmael's tomb. Pilgrims are directed, during circ.u.mambulation, to keep their bodies outside of the Shazarwan ; this would imply it to be part of the building, but its only use appears in the large bra.s.s rings welded into it, for the purpose of holding down the Ka'abah covering.

[FN#14] Ali Bey also errs in describing the roof as "plat endessus." Were such the case, rain would not pour off with violence through the spout.

Most Oriental authors allow a cubit of depression from South-West to North-West. In Al-Idrisi's day the Ka'abah had a double roof. Some say this is the case in the present building, which has not been materially altered in shape since its restoration by Al-Hajjaj, A.H. 83. The roof was then eighteen cubits long by fifteen broad.

[FN#15] In Ibn Jubayr's time the Ka'abah was opened every day in Rajah, and in other months on every Monday and Friday. The house may now be entered ten or twelve times a year gratis; and by pilgrims as often as they can collect, amongst parties, a sum sufficient to tempt the guardians' cupidity.

[FN#16] This mistake, in which Burckhardt is followed by all our popular authors, is the more extraordinary, as all Arabic authors call the door-wall Janib al-Mashrik-the Eastern side-or Wajh al-Bayt, the front of the house, opposed to Zahr al-Bayt, the back. Niebuhr is equally in error when he a.s.serts that the door fronts to the South. Arabs always hold the "Rukn al-Iraki," or Irak angle, to face the polar star, and so it appears in Ali Bey's plan. The Ka'abah, therefore, has no Northern side.

And it must be observed that Moslem writers dispose the length of the Ka'abah from East to West, whereas our travellers make it from North to South. Ali Bey places the door only six feet from the pavement, but he calculates distances by the old French measure. It is about seven feet from the ground, and six from the corner of the Black Stone. Between the two the s.p.a.ce of wall is called Al-Multazem (in Burckhardt, by a clerical error, "Al-Metzem," vol. i. p. 173). It derives its name, the "attached-to," because here the circ.u.mambulator should apply his bosom, and beg pardon for his sins. Al-Multazem, according to M. de Perceval, following d'Ohsson, was formerly "le lieu des engagements," whence, according to him, its name[.] "Le Moltezem," says M. Galland (Rits et Ceremonies du Pelerinage de la Mecque), "qui est entre la pierre noire et la porte, est l'endroit ou Mahomet se reconcilia avec ses dix compagnons, qui disaient qu'il n'etait pas veritablement Prophete."

[FN#17] From the Bab al-Ziyadah, or gate in the northern colonnade, you descend by two flights of steps, in all about twenty-five. This depression manifestly arises from the level of the town having been raised, like Rome, by successive layers of ruins; the most populous and substantial quarters (as the Shamiyah to the north) would, we might expect, be the highest, and this is actually the case. But I am unable to account satisfactorily for the second hollow within the temple, and immediately around the house of Allah, where the door, according to all historians, formerly on a level with the pavement, and now about seven feet above it, shows the exact amount of depression, which cannot be accounted for simply by calcation. Some chroniclers a.s.sert, that when the Kuraysh rebuilt the house they raised the door to prevent devotees entering without their permission. But seven feet would scarcely oppose an entrance, and how will this account for the floor of the building being also raised to that height above the pavement? It is curious to observe the similarity between this inner hollow of the Meccan fane and the artificial depression of the Hindu paG.o.da where it is intended to be flooded. The Hindus would also revere the form of the Meccan fane, exactly resembling their square temples, at whose corners are placed Brahma, Vishnu, Shiwa and Ganesha, who adore the great Universal Generator in the centre. The second door anciently stood on the side of the temple opposite the present entrance; inside, its place can still be traced. Ali Bey suspects its having existed in the modern building, and declares that the exterior surface of the wall shows the tracery of a blocked-up door, similar to that still open. Some historians declare that it was closed by the Kuraysh when they rebuilt the house in Mohammed's day, and that subsequent erections have had only one. The general opinion is, that Al-Hajjaj finally closed up the western entrance. Doctors also differ as to its size; the popular measurement is three cubits broad and a little more than five in length.

[FN#18] Pilgrims and ignorant devotees collect the drippings of wax, the ashes of the aloe-wood, and the dust from the "Atabah," or threshold of the Ka'abah, either to rub upon their foreheads or to preserve as relics.

These superst.i.tious practices are sternly rebuked by the Olema.

[FN#19] For North-East read South-East.

[FN#20] I will not enter into the fabulous origin of the Hajar al-Aswad. Some of the traditions connected with it are truly absurd.

"When Allah," says Ali, "made covenant with the Sons of Adam on the Day of Fealty, he placed the paper inside the stone"; it will, therefore, appear at the judgment, and bear witness to all who have touched it. Moslems agree that it was originally white, and became black by reason of men's sins. It appeared to me a common aerolite covered with a thick slaggy coating, glossy and pitch-like, worn and polished. Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, showed me a specimen in his possession, which externally appeared to be a black slag, with the inside of a bright and sparkling greyish-white, the result of admixture of nickel [p.301] with the iron.

This might possibly, as the learned Orientalist then suggested, account for the mythic change of colour, its appearance on earth after a thunderstorm, and its being originally a material part of the heavens.

Kutb al-Din expressly declares that, when the Karamitah restored it after twenty-two years to the Meccans, men kissed it and rubbed it upon their brows; and remarked that the blackness was only superficial, the inside being white. Some Greek philosophers, it will be remembered, believed the heavens to be composed of stones (Cosmos, "Shooting Stars"): and Sanconiathon, ascribing the aerolite-worship to the G.o.d Clus, declares them to be living or animated stones. "The Arabians," says Maximus of Tyre (Dissert. 38, p. 455), "pay homage to I know not what G.o.d, which they represent by a quadrangular stone." The gross fetichism of the Hindus, it is well known, introduced them to litholatry. At Jagannath they worship a pyramidal black stone, fabled to have fallen from heaven, or miraculously to have presented itself on the place where the temple now stands. Moreover, they revere the Salagram, as the emblem of Vishnu, the second person in their triad. The rudest emblem of the "Bonus Deus" was a round stone. It was succeeded in India by the cone and triangle; in Egypt by the pyramid; in Greece it was represented by cones of terra-cotta about three inches and a half long. Without going deep into theory, it may be said that the Ka'abah and the Hajar are the only two idols which have survived the 360 composing the heavenly host of the Arab pantheon. Thus the Hindu poet exclaims:-

"Behold the marvels of my idol-temple, O Moslem!

That when its idols are destroy'd, it becomes Allah's House."

Wilford (As. Soc. vols. iii. and iv.) makes the Hindus declare that the Black Stone at Mokshesha, or Moksha-sthana (Meccah) was an incarnation of Moksheshwara, an incarnation of Shiwa, who with his consort visited Al-Hijaz. When the Ka'abah was rebuilt, this emblem was placed in the outer wall for contempt, but the people still respected it. In the Dabistan the Black Stone is said to be an image of Kaywan or Saturn; and Al-Shahristani also declares the temple to have been dedicated to the same planet Zuhal, whose genius is represented in the Puranas as fierce, hideous, four-armed, and habited in a black cloak, with a dark turband. Moslem historians are unanimous in a.s.serting that Sasan, son of Babegan, and other Persian monarchs, gave rich presents to the Ka'abah; they especially mention two golden crescent moons, a significant offering. The Guebers a.s.sert that, among the images and relics left by Mahabad and his successors in the Ka'abah, was the Black Stone, an emblem of Saturn. They also call the city Mahgah- moon's place-from an exceedingly beautiful image of the moon; whence they say the Arabs derived "Meccah."

And the Sabaeans equally respect the Ka'abah and the pyramids, which they a.s.sert to be the tombs of Seth, Enoch (or Hermes), and Sabi the son of Enoch. Meccah, then, is claimed as a sacred place, and the Hajar al-Aswad, as well as the Ka'abah, are revered as holy emblems by four different faiths-the Hindu, Sabaean, Gueber, and Moslem. I have little doubt, and hope to prove at another time, that the Jews connected it with traditions about Abraham. This would be the fifth religion that looked towards the Ka'abah-a rare meeting-place of devotion.

[FN#21] Presenting this appearance in profile. The Hajar has suffered from the iconoclastic principle of Islam, having once narrowly escaped destruction by order of Al-Hakim of Egypt. In these days the metal rim serves as a protection as well as an ornament.

[FN#22] The height of the Hajar from the ground, according to my measurement, is four feet nine inches; Ali Bey places it forty-two inches above the pavement.

[FN#23] The colour was black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metal circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. Ibn Jubayr declares the depth of the stone unknown, but that most people believe it to extend two cubits into the wall. In his day it was three "Shibr" (the large span from the thumb to the little finger-tip) broad, and one span long, with k.n.o.bs, and a joining of four pieces, which the Karamitah had broken. The stone was set in a silver band. "Its softness and moisture were such," says Ibn Jubayr, "that the sinner would never remove his mouth from it, which phenomenon made the Prophet declare it to be the covenant of Allah on earth."

[FN#24] The band is now a ma.s.sive circle of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.

[FN#25] The "Rukn al-Yamani" is the corner facing the South. The part alluded to in the text is the wall of the Ka'abah, between the Shami and Yamani angles, distant about three feet from the latter, and near the site of the old western door, long since closed. The stone is darker and redder than the rest of the wall. It is called Al-Mustajab (or Mustajab min al-Zunub or Mustajab al-Dua, "where prayer is granted").

Pilgrims here extend their arms, press their bodies against the building, and beg pardon for their sins.

[FN#26] I have frequently seen it kissed by men and women.

[FN#27] Al-Ma'ajan, the place of mixing or kneading, because the patriarchs here kneaded the mud used as cement in the holy building.

Some call it Al-Hufrah (the digging), and it is generally known as Makam Jibrail (the place of Gabriel), because here descended the inspired order for the five daily prayers, and at this spot the Archangel and the Prophet performed their devotions, making it a most auspicious spot. It is on the north of the door, from which it is distant about two feet; its length is seven spans and seven fingers; breadth five spans three fingers; and depth one span four fingers. The following sentence from Herklet's "Qanoon e Islam" (ch. xii. sec. 5) may serve to show the extent of error still popular. The author, after separating the Bayt Ullah from the Ka'abah, erroneously making the former the name of the whole temple, proceeds to say, "the rain-water which falls on its (the Ka'abah's) terrace runs off through a golden spout on a stone near it, called Rookn-e-Yemeni, or alabaster-stone), and stands over the grave of Ismaeel."-!

[FN#28] Generally called Mizab al-Rahmah (of Mercy). It carries rain from the roof, and discharges it upon Ishmael's grave, where pilgrims stand fighting to catch it. In Al-Idrisi's time it was of wood; now it is said to be gold, but it looks very dingy.