 16 Having performed the great ablution and used the toothpick as directed and dressed ourselves in white clothes, which the apostle loved, we were ready to start upon our holy errand. As my foot still gave me great pain, sheikh Hamid sent for a donkey. A wretched animal appeared, raw-backed, lame of one leg and wanting an ear, with accoutrements to match. A pack saddled without stirrups and a halter instead of a bridle, such as the brute was, however, a hat to mount it and to ride through the Masri gate, to the wonder of certain Bedouin who, like the Indians, despised the ass. Honourable is the riding of a horse to the rider, but the mule is a dishonour, and the donkey a disgrace, says the song. The Turkish pilgrims, however, who appeared to take pride in ignoring all our points of prejudice, generally mount donkeys when they cannot walk. The Bedouin, therefore, settled among themselves audibly enough that I was a Northmani, who, of course, could not understand Arabic, and they put the question generally, by what curse of Allah had they been subjected to ass riders? But sheikh Hamid is lecturing me upon the subject of the mosque. The Majid al-Nabawi, or the prophet's mosque, is one of the haramain, or the two sanctuaries of al-Islam, and the second of the three most venerable places of worship in the world, the other two being the Majid al-Haram at Mecca, connected to Abraham, and the Majid al-Aqsa of Jerusalem, the peculiar place of Solomon. Footnote. Others add forth mainly the Majid al-Taqwa at Quba, and a footnote. A hadith, or a traditional saying of Muhammad, asserts that, one prayer in this, my mosque, is more efficacious than a thousand in other places save only the Majid al-Haram. Footnote. The Muslim devines, however, naively remind their readers that they are not to pray once in the al-Madinah mosque and neglect the other 999 as if absolved from the necessity of them. The passage in the text merely promises a thousand blessings upon that man's devotion who prays at the prophet's mosque, and a footnote. It is therefore the visitor's duty, as long as he stays at al-Madinah, to pray there the five times per diem, to pass the day in it reading the Quran and the night, if possible, in watching and devotion. A visit to the Masjid al-Nabawi, and the holy spots within it, is technically called Ziyarat, or visitation. Footnote. The visitor who approaches the supple-car as a matter of religious ceremony is called Zair, his conductor, Umzawir, whereas the pilgrim at Makkah becomes a hajji. The Imam Malik disapproved of the Muslim saying, I have visited the prophet's tomb, and preferring to express himself thus, I have visited the prophet. Others again dislike the latter a formula, declaring the prophet too venerable to be visited by some Amr or Zaid, and a footnote. An essential difference is made between this right, and hajj, or pilgrimage. The latter is obligatory by Quranic order upon every Muslim once in his lifetime. The former is only a meritorious action. Tawaf, or the circumambulation of the house of Allah at Makkah, must never be performed at the Apostle's tomb. This should not be visited in the Ahram or pilgrim dress. Men should not kiss it, touch it with a hand, or press the bosom against it, as at the Kaaba, or rub the face with dust collected near the supple-car, and those who prostrate themselves before it, like certain ignorant Indians, are held to be guilty of a deadly sin. On the other hand, to spit on any part of the mosque, or to treat it with contempt, is held to be the act of an infidel. That's the learned and religious have settled. One would have thought accurately enough the spiritual rank and dignity of the Majd-e-Nabawi. But mankind, especially in the East, must always be in extremes. The Orthodox School of Al-Malik holds Al-Madinah on account of the sanctity of and the religious benefits to be derived from Muhammad's tomb more honourable than Makkah. Some declare that the Apostle preferred in his place of refuge, blessing it as Abraham did Makkah. Moreover, as the tradition declares that every man's body is drawn from the ground in which he is buried, Al-Madinah evidently has the honour of supplying materials for the Apostle's person. Others, like Omar, were uncertain which to prefer. The Wahhabis, on the other hand, rejecting the intercession of the Apostle on the day of judgment, considering the grave of a mere mortal, unworthy of notice and highly disgusted by the idolatrous respect paid to it by certain Polish Muslims, plundered the sacred building with sacrilegious violence, and forbade the visitors from distant countries to enter Al-Madinah. In AD 1807 they prevented Ali Bey, the Spaniard Badia, from entering Al-Madinah, and it appears he had the reason to congratulate himself upon escaping without severe punishment, under footnote. The general consensus while Islam admits the superiority of the Baidullah or the House of God at Makkah to the whole world, and declares Al-Madinah to be more venerable than every part of Makkah and consequently all of earth, except only the Baidullah. This last is a just milieu view, by no means in favour with the inhabitants of either place. In the meanwhile the Makkahs claim unlimited superiority over the Medeni, and the Medeni over the Makkahs. Passing through muddy streets that had been freshly watered before evening time, I came suddenly upon the mosque. Like that at Makkah, the approach is choked up by ignoble buildings, some actually touching the holy anciente, others separated by a lane compared with which the road around St. Paul is the Vatican Square. Footnote. Nothing in the Spanish cathedral suggests their oriental origin and the taste of the people more than the way in which they are hedged in by secular buildings, and the footnote. There is no outer front, no general prospect of the Prophet's mosque, consequently as a building it has neither beauty nor dignity. And entering the Bab-r-Rahma, or the gate of Paiti by a diminutive flight of steps, footnote. The ceremony of Ziyarat however begins at the Bab-e-Salaam. We rode up to this gate only in order to avoid the sun, and the footnote. I was astonished that the mean and tawdry appearance of a place so universally venerated in the Muslim world. It is not like the Makkah Temple, grand and simple, the expression of a single sublime idea. The longer I looked at it the more it suggested the resemblance of a museum of second-rate art or an old curiosity shop full of ornaments that are not accessories and decorated with pop or splendor. The Masjid-e-Nabawi is a Paralolo gram about 420 feet in length by 340 broad, the direction of the long walls being nearly north and south. As usual in al-Islam, it is a hyper-thrill building with a spacious central area called a sahan al-Hursh al-Haswa or al-Rimla, footnote. Haswa is a place covered with gravel. Ramla, one which is sanded over, both are equally applicable and applied to the areas of the mosque. A sahan is the general word. Al-Hursh is occasionally used but is more properly applied to the courtyard of a dwelling house, and a footnote. Surrounded by a peristyle with numerous rows of pillars like the colonnades of an Italian cloister, the arcades or particles are flat-sealing domed above with a small midyan arancha or half-orange copula of Spain, and divided into four parts by narrow passages, three or four steps below the level of the pavement. Along the hole in the length of the northern wall runs the Majid-e-Rewaq, so called from the van-raining Sultan, footnote. This Rewaq was begun about five or six years ago by Abdul-Majid to judge from the size of the columns and the other preparations which encumber the ground. This part of the building will surpass all the rest, but the people of Al-Medina assured me that it will not be finished for some time, a prophecy likely to be fulfilled by the present state of the Turkish finance, and a footnote. The western wall is occupied by the Rewaq of the Rahma Gate, the eastern by that of Babin Nisa, or the women's entrance, footnote. The women's entrance derives its peculiar name from its vicinity to the Lady of Altima's Tomb. Women, when they do visit the mosque, enter it through all the doors indifferently, and a footnote. Embracing the inner length of the southern short wall, and deeper by nearly treble the amount of columns than the other porticoes, is the main colonnade called the Rouda, or the garden, the additum containing all that is venerable in the building. Footnote. It is so called by the figure-synecdo, it contains the Rouda of the Prophet's Garden, and therefore the whole portico enjoys that honored name, and a footnote. These four Rewaqs, arch externally, are supported internally by pillars of different shape and material, varying from fine porphyry to dirty plaster. The southern, well, the sabbukur or the cenotaph stands in spade with handsome slabs of white marble and marquetry work, here and there covered with coarse matting, and above this by unclean carpets, well worn by faithful feet. Footnote. These carpets are swept by the eonics who let out the office for a certain feat to pilgrims every morning immediately after sunrise. Their diligence, however, does by no means prevent the presence of certain little parasites concerning which politeness is dumb. End of footnote. But this is not the time for taferruj or lionizing. Sheikh Hamid warns me with an arch that other things are expected of a zair or visitor. He leads me to the Baba Salam fighting his way through a troop of beggars and inquires markedly if I am religiously pure. Footnote. Because if not pure, blution is performed at the well in the center of the hapethria. Zair's are ordered to visit the mosque perfumed and in their best clothes, and the Hanafi school deems it lawful on this occasion only to wear dresses of pure silk. End of footnote. Then placing our hands a little below and on the left of the waist, the palm of the right covering the back of the left, in the position of prayer and beginning with dexter feet footnote. In this mosque, as in all others, it is proper to enter with the right foot and to retire with the left end of footnote. We pace slowly forwards down the line called the Mu'ajahat sharifa or the illustrious fronting which divided off like an aisle runs parallel with the southern wall of a mosque. On my right hand walks the sheikh who recites aloud the following prayer making me repeat after him. It is literally rendered as indeed our all formula and the reader is requested to excuse the barbarous fidelity of the translation. Footnote. I must warn the reader that almost every mzawar has his own litany which descends from fathers to son. Moreover, all the books differ at least as much as do the oral authorities. End of footnote. In the name of Allah and in the faith of Allah's Apostle, O Lord, cause me to enter the entering of truth and cause me to issue forth the issuing of truth and permit me to draw near to thee and make me assault and victorious. Footnote. That is to say over the world the flesh and the devil. End of footnote. Then following blessings upon the Apostle and afterwards, O Allah, open to me the doors of the amorous in grant me entrance into it and protect me from the stone devil. During this preliminary prayer we had passed down two-thirds of the Moa Jihad al-Sharifa. On the left hand is a dwarf wall about the height of a man painted with arabesque and pierced with four small doors which open into the Moa Jihad. In this barrier are sundry small erections. The niche called the Mehrab Sulaimani, the mumbar or pulpit. Footnote. Mehrab Sulaimani is called the Masala Shafi or the place of prayer by the Shafi school. It was sent from Constantinople about a hundred years ago by Sultan Sulaimani the Magnificent. He built the Sulaimani on the earth and has immortalized his name at al-Madinah as well as at Makkah by the number of his donations to the shrine. End of footnote. And the Mehrab al-Nabawi. Footnote. The Mehrab al-Nabawi is supposed to have been one of the Prophet's favorite stations of prayer. It is commonly called the Masala al-Hanafi because now appropriated by that school. End of footnote. The two niches are of beautiful mosaic, richly worked with various colored marbles, and the pulpit is of graceful collection of slender columns, elegant tracery, and inscriptions admirably carved. Arrived at the western small door in the dwarf wall, we enter the celebrated spot called the roda, after saying the Apostles, between my tomb and my pulpit is a garden of gardens of paradise. Footnote. This tradition, like most others, referring to events posterior to the Prophet's death, is differently given and so important are the variations that I only admire how al-Islam does not follow a happy example and summarily consign them to oblivion. Some red, between my dwelling house, in the mosque and my place of prayer, in the Bar al-Manakhah, is a garden of the gardens of paradise. Others again, between my house and my pulpit, is a garden of the gardens of paradise. A third tradition, between my tomb and my pulpit, is a garden of the gardens of paradise, and verily my pulpit is in my full cistern, or upon a full cistern of the cisterns of paradise, has given rise to a new superstition. Still, according to some commentators, alludes especially to cistern al-Kulfiq. Consequently, this roda is like the black stone at Makkah, bonafide, bit of paradise, and on the day of resurrection it shall return bodily to the place whence it came. Be this as it may, all Muslims are warned that the roda is a most holy spot. None but the Prophet and his son, Allah Ali, had ever entered it when ceremonially impure without being guilty of a deadly sin. The Muhammadan of the present day is especially informed that on no account must he there tell lies, or even perjure himself. Thus the roda must be respected as much as the interior of the bath of Allah at Makkah, and of it no. On the north and the west sides it is not divided from the rest of the particle. On the south runs the dwarf wall, and the east is limited by the west end of the lattice work, containing the tomb. Accompanied by Ma'a-Mazawit, I entered the roda, and was placed by him with the Mukhabbariyah behind me, fronting Makkah. Footnote, Mukhabbariyah is a stone desk on four pillars where the Muballis, or the clerks, recite the Ikhama, the call to the Divine service. It was presented to the mosque by Qaid Bey, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, and a footnote, with my right shoulder opposite to and about twenty feet distant from the dextre pillar of the Apostles' pulpit. Footnote, I shall have something to say about this pulpit when entering into the history of the Haram. End of footnote. There, after saying the afternoon prayers, footnote, the afternoon prayers being felt, or obligatory, were recited because we feared that evening might come on before the ceremony of Ziyarat or visitations concluded, and thus the time for al-Asr, or the afternoon prayers, might pass away. The reader may think this is rather curious for thought in a man who, like Hamid, never prayed, except when he found the case urgent. Such, however, is the strict order, and my Muzawer was right to see it executed. End of footnote. And I perform the usual two bows in honour of the temple. Footnote. This two-bow prayer, which generally is recited in honour of the mosque, says the Divine, is here addressed especially to the deity by the visitor who intends to beg the intercession of his prophet. It is only just to confess that the Muslims have done their best, by all means in human power, here, as well as elsewhere, to inculate the doctrine of eternal distinction between the creature and the Creator. Many of the Maliku school, however, make the ceremony of Ziyarat to proceed the prayer to the deity. End of footnote. And at the end of them recited the 109th and the 112th chapter of the Qur'an, with the Quliya yuhal kaafirun and the Surat al-Ikhlas, or also called the Qulhu Allah, or the declaration of unity and maybe thus translated. Say, he is the one God, the eternal God, he begets not, nor he is begot, and unto him the like is not. After which was performed a single sejda or prostration of thanks in gratitude to Allah for making it my fate to visit so holy a spot. Footnote. The sejda is a single prostration with the forehead touching the ground. It is performed from a stink position after the dua or the supplications that concludes the Tuba prayer. Some Tuaulama, especially those of the Shafi'u school, permits this sejda of thanks to be performed before the Tuba prayer if the visitor have any notable reason to be grateful. End of footnote. This being recognized the time to give alms, I was besieged by beggars who spread their napkins before us on the ground, sprinkled with a few coppers to excite generosity, but not wishing to be distracted by them before leaving Hamid's house, I had changed two dollars, and had given the coin to the boy Muhammad, who accompanied me, strictly charging him to make that sum last through the mosque. My answer to the beggars was a reference to my attendant, backed by the simple action of turning my pockets inside out, and whilst he was battling with the beggars, I proceeded to cast my first coup d'oeil upon the rouda. The garden is the most elaborate part of the mosque. Little can be said in its praise by a day when it bears the same relation to a second-rate church in Rome as an English chapel of ease to Westminster Abbey. It is a space of about eighty feet in length, totally decorated as so to resemble a garden. The carpets are flowered, and the pediments of the columns are cased with bright green tiles and adorned to the height of a man with guardian and natural vegetation in an arabesque. It is disfigured by a handsome-branched candle brass of cut crystal. The work, I believe, of a London house, and presented to the shrine by the late Abbas Pasha of Egypt. Footnote, the candles are still sent from Cairo, and a footnote. The only admirable feature of the view is the light cast by the shadows of stained glass in the southern wall. Footnote, these windows are present from Caipe, the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, and a footnote. Its peculiar background, the railing of the tomb, a splendid filigree work of green and polished brass, gilt or made to resemble gold, look more picturesque near than at a distance when it suggests the idea of a gigantic birdcage. But at night the eye dazzled by oil lamps suspended from the roof. Footnote, these oil lamps are present from the Sultan, and a footnote. By huge wax candles and by smaller illuminations falling upon crowds of visitors in handsome attire with the riches and the noblest of the city, sitting in congregation when services performed becomes less critical. Footnote, the five daily liturgies are here recited by imams and everyone presses to the spot on account of its peculiar sanctity. End of footnote. Still, the scene must be viewed with Muslim bias, and until a man is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the east, the last place that although a reminder of, is that which the architect primarily intended it to resemble, a garden. Then with Hamid, professionally solemn, I resumed the position of prayer and retraced my steps. After passing through another door in the dwarf wall that bounced the Mu'ajjah, we did not return to the right, which would have led us to the Babasalam. Our course was in an opposite direction towards the eastern wall of the temple. Meanwhile, we repeated, verily Allah and His angels bless the Apostle, O ye who believe, bless him and salute him with honour. Footnote. In Muslim theology, salat from Allah means mercy, from the angels' intercession for pardon and from mankind blessing. The act of blessing the Prophet is one of peculiar efficacy in a religious point of view. Cases are quoted for sinners being actually snatched from hell by a glorious figure, their personification of the blessings which had been called down by them upon Muhammad's head. This most poetical idea is borrowed, I believe, from the ancient Gwebers, who fabled that a man's good works assumed a beautiful female shape, which stood to meet his soul when winding its way to judgment. Also, when a Muslim blesses Muhammad at Al-Madinah, his sins are not written down for three days, thus allowing ample margin for repentance by the recording angel. Al-Malakayn, or the two angels, or Kiram al-Katibeen, or the generous writers, are mere personifications of good principle and the evil principle of man's nature. They are fabled to occupy each shoulder and to keep list of words and deeds. This is certainly borrowed from a more ancient faith. In Hermas II, Command Six, we are told that every man has two angels, one of godliness and the other of iniquity, who endeavor to secure his allegiance. A superstition seemingly founded upon the dualism of the old versions. Medieval Europe, which borrowed so much from the East at the time of the Crusades, degraded these angels into good and bad fairies for children's stories. At the end of this prayer, we arrived at the mausoleum, which requires some description before the reader can understand the nature of our proceedings here. The hijra, or the chamber, as it is called, work out writes this word hijra, which means flight, nor is Om Kalsen, the Percival, Al-Hajarat less earnest. At Medina it is invariably called Al-Hajra, or the chamber. The chief difficulty in distinguishing the two words, meaning chamber, and flight arises from our only having one H to represent the hard and soft H of Arabic, Ha, and Ha. In the case of common sense, the screen railing around the cenotaph is called Al-Maqsoura, and Afdna. From the circumstance of its Vin Aisha's room is an irregular square from fifty to fifty-five feet in the southeast corner of the building, and separated on all sides from the walls of the mosque by passage, about twenty feet broad on the south side, and twenty on the east. The reason of this oscillation has been before explained, and there is a saying of Muhammad's, O Allah, cause not my tomb to become an object of idolatrous adoration, may Allah's wrath fall heavy upon the people who make the tombs of their prophets places of prayer. Yet Muhammad enjoined his followers to frequent graveyards, visit graves of a verity they shall make you think of futurity, and again whoso visited his two parents' grave, or one of the two, every Friday he shall be written a pious child, even though he might have been in the world before that, a disobedient, and Afdna. Inside there are, or supposed to be, three tombs facing south, surrounded by stone walls without any aperture, or, as others say, by strong planking. Fitna, the truth is, no one knows what is there. I have never heard a learned Persian declare that there is no wall behind the curtain which hangs so loosely that when the wind blows against it, it defines the form of a block of marble or a built-up tomb. I believe this to be wholly apocrypal, for reasons which will presently be offered. End of Fitna. Whatever this material might be, it is hung outside with a curtain, somewhat like a large four-post bed. The external railing is separated by a dark narrow passage from the inner rigid surrounds, and is of iron filigree, painted of vivid grass green, with a view to the garden. Here, carefully inserted in the verdure and doubly bright by the contrast, is the gilt or burnished brasswork, forming the long and graceful letters of the toothed character and disposed into the Muslim creed, the profession of unity and similar religious sentences. On the south side, for a greater honor, the railing is plated over with silver, and silver letters are interlaced with it. The fence, which connects the columns and forbids passage to all men, may be compared to the Baldatino of Roman churches. It has four gates, that of the south is the Babel Muajah, the eastward is the gate of our Lady Fatima, the westward the Babotoba, or gate of repentance, and opening into the Rola, or the garden, and to the north the Babashami, or the Syrian gate. They are constantly kept closed, except the fourth, which admits into the dark narrow passage above alluded to the officers who have charge of the treasure they are deposited, and the eonics who sweep the floor light the lamps and carry away the presents, sometimes thrown in there by devotees. Footnote. The peculiar place where the guardians of the tomb sit and confabulate is the Daqqat al-Aqawat, a eonics bench, or al-Maida, or the table, a raised bench of stone and wood, on the north side of the Hijra. The remaining part of the side is partitioned off from the body of the mosque by a dwarf wall, enclosing the Khasafat of Sultan, the place where the faqees are perpetually engaged in khitmas, or perusals of the Quran, on behalf of the reigning sultan, and a footnote. In the southern side of the fence are three windows, holes about half a foot square, and placed from four to five feet above the ground. They are said to be between three and four cubits distant from the apostles head. The most western layer of these is supposed to front Muhammad's tomb, wherefor they call the Shabbak and Nabi, or the Prophet's window. The next on the right, as you front it, is Abu Bakr, and the most eastern layer of the three is Omar. Above the Hijra is the green dome, surmounted outside by a large guild crescent, springing from a series of globes. The glowing imagination of the Muslim's crown, this gem of the building, with a pillar of heavenly light, which directs from three days distance the pilgrim steps towards El Medina. But alas, non-safe holy men, and perhaps auditic sensitives, whose material organs are piercing as their spiritual vision, may be allowed the privilege of beholding this poetic splendor. Arrived at Shabbak and Nabi, Hamid took his stand about six feet or so out of reach of the railing, and at that respectful distance from and facing the Hadr or the presence. With hands raised as in prayer, he recited the following supplication in a low voice, telling me in a staged whisper to repeat it after him with awe and fear and love. Peace be upon the old bastal of Allah and the mercy of Allah and his blessings. Peace be upon the old bastal of Allah. Peace be upon the old friend of Allah. Peace be upon the old best of Allah's creation. Peace be upon the old pure creature of Allah. Peace be upon the old chief of the prophets. Peace be upon the old seal of the prophets. Peace be upon the old prince of the pious. Peace be upon the old parcel of the lord of the three worlds. Peace be upon the and upon thy family and upon thy pure wives. Peace be upon the and upon all thy companions. Peace be upon the and upon all the prophets and upon those sent to preach Allah's Word, Peace Be Upon Thee, And Upon All Of Allah's Righteous Worshipers, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Thou Bringer Of Glad Tidings, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Bearer Of Threads, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Thou Bright Lamb, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Thou Apostle Of Mercy, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Ruler Of Thy Faith, Peace Be Upon Thee, O Opener Of Grief, Peace Be Upon Thee, And Allah Bless Thee, And Allah Repay Thee For Us, O Thou Apostle of Allah the choices of blessings with which he ever blessed prophet. Allah blessed thee as often as mentioners have blessed thee, and forgetters have forgotten thee, and Allah blessed thee among the first and the last with the best and the highest and the fullest of blessings ever bestowed on man, even as we escaped error by means of thee, and were made to see after blindness and after ignorance were directed into the right way. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I testify that thou art his servant and his apostle and his faithful follower and the best creature, and I bear witness, O Apostle of Allah, that thou hast delivered thy message and discharged thy trust and advice thy faith and open grief and published proofs, and fought valiantly for thy Lord and worship thy God till certainty came to thee, i.e. to the hour of death, and we thy friends, O Apostle of Allah, appear before thee travelers from distant lands and far countries, through dangers and difficulties in the times of darkness, and in the hours of day longing to give thee thy rights, i.e. to honor thee by benediction and visitation, and to obtain the blessings of thine intercession for our sins have broken our backs, and thou intercedest with the healer, and Allah said, Futhnuf, this is the usual introduction to a quotation from the Qur'an, and the Futhnuf. And though they have injured themselves, they came to thee and begged thee to secure their pardon, and they found God an acceptor of penitence and full of compassion, O Apostle of Allah, intercession, intercession, intercession. Futhnuf, it may easily be conceived how offensive this must be to the Wahhabis who consider it blasphemy to assert that a mere man can stand between the Creator and the creature on the last day, and the Futhnuf. O Allah, bless Muhammad and Muhammad's family, and give him superiority and high rank, even as thou didst promise him, and graciously allow us to conclude this visitation, I have deposited on this spot, and near thee, O Apostle of Allah, my everlasting profession of faith, from this our day to the day of judgment, that there is no God but Allah and that our Lord Muhammad is his servant and his Apostle. Futhnuf, this is called the Testification, like the Fatihah it is repeated at every holy place and tomb visited at Al-Madinah, and the Futhnuf. Amen, O Lord of the three worlds. Futhnuf, Burkhardt mentions that, in his day a mother favours, obligated in prayer to the deity, the following request was made, destroy our enemies, and may the torments of Hellfire be their lot. I never heard it at the Prophet's tomb, as the above benediction is a rather long one, desired is allowed to shorten it at discretion, but on no account to say less than, peace be upon the O Apostle of Allah, this being the gist of the ceremony. After which, performing Ziyarat for ourselves, we repeated the Fatihah, our opening chapter of the Quran. Though performing Ziyarat for myself, I had promised my old sheikh at Cairo to recite Fatihah in his name at the Prophet's tomb, so a double recitation fell to my law. If acting desired for another person, a common custom, we read, even in the days of Al-Waleed, the Caliph of Damascus, you are bound to mention your principal's name in the beginning of the benediction, thus peace be upon the O Apostle of Allah from such and one, the son of such and one, who wants time, intercession, and begs for pardon and mercy. Those diaries recite Fatihah for all their friends and relations at the tomb, end of it now. In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate, praise be to Allah who the three worlds made, the merciful, the compassionate, the king of the day of faith, the alone do we worship and the alone do we ask aid, guide us to the path that is straight, the path of those for whom thy love is great, not those on whom is hate, nor they that deviate. I am in, O Lord of angels, jinnis, and men, fitna, I have endeavored in this translation to imitate the perfect rhyme of the original Arabic. Such an attempt, however, is full of difficulties, the Arabic language in which, like Italian, it is almost impossible not to rhyme, end of it now. After reciting this mentally with upraised hands, the foreigner of the right hand being extended to its full length, we drew our palms, downward our faces, and did almsdeeds, a vital part of the ceremony. This concludes the first part of the ceremony of the visitation at the prophet's tomb. Hamid then stepped about a foot and half to the right, and I followed his example, so as to place myself exactly opposite the second aperture in the great thing called Abu Bakr's window. There, making a sign, towards the mausoleum, we addressed its inmate as follows. Peace be upon thee, O Abu Bakr, O thou truthful one. Peace be upon thee, O Caliph of Allah's Apostle, over his people. Peace be upon thee, O companion of the cave and friend in travel. Peace be upon thee, O thou banner of the fugitives and the auxiliaries. I testify thou this ever-stand firm in the right way, and whilst a smiter of the infidel and a benefactor to thine own people, Allah grant thee through his apostle wheel. We pray Almighty God to cause us to die in thy friendship, and to rise us up in company with his apostle and thyself, even as he hath mercifully vouched safe to us this visitation. Footnote. It will not be necessary to inform the reader more than once that all these several divisions of prayer ended with a testification, and a vow to hell, and a footnote. After which we closed one more step to the right and standing opposite Omer's window, the most easternly of the three. After making a sign with our hands, we addressed the just Caliph in these words. Peace be upon thee, O Omer, O thou just one, O thou prince of true believers. Peace be upon thee, who spake us with truth, and who made us thy word agree with the strong book the Quran. O thou faruq, the separator. Footnote. Al faruq, or the separator, is a title of Omer, and a footnote. O thou faithful one, who girded thy loins with the apostle and the first believers, and with them didst make up the full number forty. Footnote. When the number of us have, or the companions, was thirty-nine, they were suddenly joined by Omer, who thus became the fortieth. End of footnote. And thus caused it to be accomplished by the apostle-prayers. Footnote. It is said that Muhammad prayed long for the conversion of Omer to Islam, knowing his sterling qualities and the aid he would lend to the establishment of the faith. End of footnote. And it's returned to thy god, Amartar, leaving the world with praise. Allah grant thee, through his apostle and his caliph and his followers, the best of good. May Allah feel in thee plenary satisfaction. Sheikh Hamid, after wrenching a beggar or two from my shoulders, then permitted me to draw near the little window, called the apostles and to look in. Here my proceedings were watched with suspicious eyes. The persons have sometimes managed to pollute the part near Abu Bakr and Omer's graves by tossing through the aperture what is externally a handsome shawl intended for a present of the tomb. Footnote. This foolish fanaticism has lost many an innocent life, for the herds of these occasions seize their sabers and cut down every Persian they meet. Still, bigger than she has, persist in practicing and applauding it, and the men who can boast that Shiraz of having defied Abu Bakr and Omer's and Uthman's tombs, becomes at once a lion and a hero. I suspect that on some occasion when the people of Al-Madinah are anxious for an aveni, they get up some charge of the kind against the Persians. So the Makkahs have sometimes found these people guilty of defiling the house of Allah, at which infidel Akshiyah would shudder as much as the Sunni. The style of sacrileges we read of ancient date in Arabia, Nafil the Hijazi polluted the Qilis or the Christian church erected by Abraham of Sana'a, to outshine the Kaaba and draw off worshippers from Makkah. The outrage caused the celebrator affair of the elephant. See there below, Bibl, Bibliograph or Five-Abraha. And a footnote. After straining my eyes for a time, I saw a curtain, or rather hangings, with three inscriptions in long gold letters informing readers that behind them lie Allah's Apostle and the first two Caliphs. Footnote. Burqard, with his usual accuracy, asserts that the new curtain is sent when the old one is decayed, or when the new salt on a sands the throne, and those authors err who, like Mondrell, declare the curtain to be removed every year. The Damascus caravan conveys together with its mahmel or emblem of royalty the new kiswah or garment, when required for the tomb. It is put on by the Yonix who entered the Baladokin by its northen gate at night-time. And there is a superstitious story among the people that they guard their eyes with veils against the supernatural splendors which pour from the tomb. The kiswah is a black, purple, or green brocade embroidered with white or with silver letters. A piece in my possession, the gift of Amr Afendi, is a handsome silk and cotton Damascus brocade, with white letters wrapped in it, manifestly the produce of manual labor, not the poor, dull work of machinery. It contains the formula of the Muslim faith in the cursive style of the character, seventy-two varieties of which are enumerated by calligraphists. Nothing can be more elegant or appropriate than its appearance. The old curtain is usually distributed amongst the officers of the mosque and sold in bits to pilgrims, in some distant Muslim countries the possessor of such a relic will be considered a saint. When treating of the history of the mosque some remarks will be offered about the origin of the curtain. End of it now. The exact place of Muhammad's tomb is moreover distinguished by a large pearl rosary and a peculiar ornament, the celebrated coca bid-dur, or the constellation of pearls, suspended to the curtain, breast-high. Fitnu, the place of the Prophet's head is, as I was told, more by a fine Quran hung up to the curtain. This volume is probably a successor to the relic formerly kept there. The coffee Quran belonging to Ithman, the third caliph which Burkhardt supposes to have perished in the conflagration which destroyed the mosque. End of it now. This is described to be a brilliant star set in diamonds and pearls, placed in a dark that man's eye may be able to bear its splendor. The vulgar believe it to be the jewel of jewels of paradise. To me it greatly resembled around glass-toppers, used for the humblest sort of decanters, but I thought the same of the Khoi Nur. Moreover, I never saw it quite near enough to judge fairly, and I did not think fit to pay an exorbitant sum for the privilege of entering the inner passage of the Baldukhan. Fitnu, the eunuchs of the tomb have the privilege of admitting strangers. In this passage are preserved the treasures of the place. They are the Bait al-Malul Muslimin, or the public treasury of the Muslims, therefore to be employed by the caliph, i.e. the reigning sultan, for the exigencies of the faith. The amount is said to be enormous, which I doubt. And of Fitnu. Altogether the Khoop-doi had nothing to recommend it by day, at night, when the lamps hung in this passage shed a dim light upon the mosaic work of the marble floors, upon the glittering inscriptions and the massive hangings. The scene is more impressive. Never having seen the tomb, I must depict it from books, by no means an easy task. Fitnu. And I might add, never having seen one who has seen it, Nipur is utterly incorrect in his hearsay description of it. It is not enclosed within iron railings, for fear lest the people might surreptitiously offer worship to the ashes of the prophet. The tomb is not a plain mason work in the form of a chest, nor does anyone believe that it is placed within or between two other tombs, in which rest the ashes of the first two caliphs. The traveler appears to have lent a credulous ear to the eminent Arab merchant, who told him that a guard was placed over the tomb, to prevent the populace scraping dirt from about it, and preserving it as relic. And of Fitnu. Most of the historians are silent after describing the inner walls of the hijra. Al-Kashqandir declares, in Eolapidam Nobilam Conteres, Pulcara Apostoli, Abu-Bakr et Omar, Circom Sintum Prublu, in Modum con clavis Fereusche, Atectum Asurgente, Que velo serico negro obligator. This author then agrees with my Persian friends, who declare this apple-car to be a marble slab. Ibn Jaberu travel in AH 580, relates that the apostle's coffin is a box of ebony, or abnus, covered with sandalwood and plated with silver. It is placed, he says, behind a curtain and surrounded by an iron grating. As-Samanhudi, Fitnu. Burqa writes this author's names as-Samanhudi. And they say it's followed by all our popular bookmakers. Muslims have three ways of spelling it. One, al-Samanhudi, two, al-Samanhudi, and three, al-Samanhudi. I prefer the latter, believing that the learned sheikh, Nuruddin Ali bin Abdullah al-Hassini, or the al-Hussaini, was originally from Salmanhudi in Egypt, the ancient Ibn Itis. He died in AH 911 and was buried in the Baqiyah cemetery and the Fitnu. As-Samanhudi, quoted by Burqa, declares that this curtain covers a square building of black stones, in the interior of which are the tombs of Muhammad and his two immediate successors. He adds that the tomb are deep holes, and that the coffin which contains the apostle is cased with silver and has on top a marble slab inscribed, Bismillah, Allahumma salli alayh, in the name of Allah, Allah have mercy upon him. Fitnu. Burqa, however, must be in error when he says, the tombs are also covered with precious stuffs and the shape of cataphox like that of Ibrahim in the great mosque of Mecca. The eunuchs positively declare that no one ever approaches the tomb and that he who ventured to do so would at once be blinded by the supernatural light. Moreover, the historians of Al-Medina all quote tales of certain visions of the apostle directing his tomb to be cleared of dust that had fallen upon it from above, in which case a man celebrated for piety and purity was led through a hole in the roof by courts down to the tomb, with directions to wipe it with his beard. This style of ingress is explained by another assertion of As-Samanhudi, quoted by Burqa, in AH 892 in Qaeda Bay rebuilt the mosque, which had been destroyed by lightning. Three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish, but the author of the history, who himself entered it, saw no trace of the tombs. The original place of Hamas' tomb was asserted and with great difficulty the walls of the hijrah were then rebuilt and the iron railing placed around it, which is now there. Fitnu. The apostle body, it should be remembered, lies or is supposed to lie stretched at full length on the right side with the right palm supporting the right cheek. As Muslims are always buried, and consequently the body lies with the head almost due west and the feet due east. Closed behind him is placed Abu Bakr, whose face fronts the apostle's shoulders, and last they are mud holes, the same position with respect to his predecessor. The place they are usually supposed to occupy then would be thus disposed, but Muslim historians are not agreed even upon so simple a point as this. Many prefer his position in line, some thus in unicorn and others the right triangle. Fitnu. The vulgar story of the suspended coffin has been explained in two ways. Nipur supposes it to have arisen from the rude drawings sold to strangers. Mr. William Blake, so Giovanni Finatti, Volume 2, page 289, believes that the mass of rock popularly described as hanging and supported in the mosque of Amar at Jerusalem was confounded by the Christians, who could not have seen either of these Muslim shrines with the apostle's tombs at Al Medina. End of Part 1 of Chapter 16. Chapter 16 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al Medina and Mecca. Part 2. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 16 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al Medina and Mecca. By Richard Francis Burton. The Prophet's Tomb. Part 2. It is popularly asserted that in the Hujira there is now spare place for only a single grave reserved for Raisa bin Mariam after his second coming. The historians of Islam are full of tales proving that though many of their earlier saints, such as Othman, the Caliph, and Hassan the Imam, were desirous of being buried there, and although Raisa, to whom the room belonged, willingly acceded to their wishes, son of man has yet been unable to occupy it. After the Fatihah, pronounced at Omar's tomb, and the short inspection of the Hujira, Sheikh Hamid let me round the southeast corner of the Baldukin. Footnote. Some Muslims and their Ziarat at the apostle's tomb, others instead of advancing, as I did, returned to the apostle's window, pray and beg pardon for their parents and themselves, and ask all they desire, concluding with prayers to the Almighty, then stay prepared to the Rouda or the garden, and standing at the column, called after Abu Lubaba, pray a two-bow prayer there, concluding with a dua, or a benediction upon the apostle, and there repeat these words, O Allah, Thou hast said, and Thy word is true. Say, O Lord, pardon and show mercy, for Thou art the best of the merciful. Chapter 23 O God, verily we have heard Thy word, and we come for intercession to Thy apostle, from our own sins, repenting our errors and confessing our shortcomings and transgressions. O Allah, piteous, and by the dignity of Thy apostle, raise our place in the heavenly kingdom. O Allah, pardon our brothers who have preceded us in faith. And then, desire, praise for himself and his parents and for those he loves, he should repeat, Allah have mercy upon the O apostle of Allah, seventy times, when an angel will reply, Allah bless thee, O thou blesser. Then he should sit before the pulpit and mentally conceive in it the apostles surrounded by the fugitives and the auxiliaries. Some place the right hand upon the pulpit, even as Muhammad used to do. The zail then returns to the column of Abu Lubaba and repents his sins there. Secondly, he stands in prayer at Ali's pillar in front of the forum, and lastly he repairs to the Ustwanatullah sahab, or the companion's column, the fourth distance from the pulpit to the right, and the third from the hujrah on the left. Here he prays and meditates and blesses Allah and the apostle, after which he proceeds to visit the rest of the holy places. And a footnote. Turning towards the north, we stop at what is commonly called the Mahbaz-Jibreel, or the place of the archangel Gabriel's descent with the heavenly revelations, or simply the Malaika, or the angels. It is a small window in the eastern wall of the mosque. We turned our backs upon it and fronting the hujrah recited the following prayer. Peace be upon you, O angels of Allah, the Mqarrabin, or the cherubs, and the Masha'rafin, or the seraphs, the pure, the holy, honored, by the dwellers in heaven, and by those who abide upon the earth, who will benefit your Lord, O long-suffering, O Almighty, O piteer, or Thou, compassionate one, perfect our light, and pardon our sins, and accept penitence for all our offenses, and cause us to die among the holy, peace be upon you, the angels of the merciful one and all, and the mercy of God and his blessings be upon you. After which I was shown the spot in the hujrah where Sayyidina Eisa shall be buried by Muhammad's side. Footnote. It is almost unnecessary to inform the reader that all Muslims deny the personal suffering of Christ, leaving to the heresy of the Christian dosettis. Certain beasts in the shape of men, as they are called in the epistles of Ignatius to the Smyrnians, who believe that a phantom was crucified in our Saviour's place. They also hold to the second coming of the Lord in the flesh, as a forerunner to Muhammad, who shall reappear shortly before the day of judgment. Bartima in appendix 2 relates a story concerning the Saviour's future tomb. End of footnote. Then, turning towards the west, at a point where there is a break in the symmetry of the hujrah, we arrived at the sixth station, the sepulchre or the cenotaph of the Lady Fatima. Her grave is outside the Ancenti, and the curtain which surrounds her father's remains. So strict is Muslim decorum, and so exalted its opinion of the virgin's delicacy. Footnote. Betheth will be explained below. The reader must bear in mind that this part of the haram was formerly the house of Ali and Fatima. It was separated from the hujrah, or the abode of Muhammad and Aisha, only by a narrow brick wall, with a window in it which was never shut. Amr ibn Abdul Aziz enclosed it in the mosque by order of Al-Walid in AH 90. End of footnote. The eastern side of the hujrah, here turning a little westward, interrupts the shape of the square in order to give this part the appearance of disconnection with the rest of the building. The tomb seen through a square aperture like those above described is a long catafal covered with a black paw. Though there is a great doubt whether the Lady be not buried with her son Hassan in the Baqiyah Cemetery, this place is always visited by the pious Muslim. The following is the prayer opposite the grave of the amiable Fatima. Peace be upon thee, daughter of the Apostle of Allah. Peace be upon thee, daughter of the Prophet of Allah. Peace be upon thee, thou daughter of Mustafa. Peace be upon thee, thou mother of the Shurafa, seed of Muhammad. Footnote. Shurafa is plural of Sharif, or descendant of Muhammad. End of footnote. Peace be upon thee, O lady amongst women. Peace be upon thee, O fifth of Ahl al-Kisa. Footnote. Ahl al-Kisa, or the people of the garment, so called because on one occasion the Apostle wrapped his cloak around himself, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his two grandsons, thereby separating them in dignity from other Muslims. End of footnote. Peace be upon thee, O Zahra and Batool, or pure and virgin. Footnote. Burqard translates Zahra as bright blooming Fatima. This, I believe, to be the literal meaning of the epithet. When thus applied, however, it denotes virginem nesientem, in which state of purity the daughter of the Apostle is supposed to have lived, for the same reason she is called el-Batool, or the virgin, a title given by the Eastern Christians to the mother of our Lord. In perpetual virginity of Fatima, even after the motherhood, is a point of orthodoxy in el-Islam. End of footnote. Peace be upon thee, O daughter of the Apostle. Peace be upon thee, O spouse of our Lord, Ali el-Murtala. Peace be upon thee, O mother of el-Hasan el-Hussein, the two moons, the two lights, and the two pearls, the two princes of the youth of heaven and coolness of the eyes, i.e. joy and gladness of true believers. Footnote. Meaning joy and gladness in the sight of true believers. End of footnote. Peace be upon thee and upon thy sire, el-Mustafa and thy husband, our Lord Ali. Allah honor his face, and thy father's face in paradise, and thy two sons, the Hasanain, and the mercy of Allah and his blessings. We then broke away as best we could from the crowd of female askers who have established their lairs and penits under the shadow of the lady's wing, and advancing a few paces, we fronted to the north, and recited a prayer in honor of Hamza and of the martyrs who lie buried at the foot of Mount Ahud. Footnote. The prayer is now omitted in order to avoid the repetition of it when describing a visit to Mount Ahud. End of footnote. We then turned to the right, and fronting the easterly wall, prayed for the souls of the blessed, whose mortal spirits repose within al-Bakir's hallowed circuit. Footnote. The prayers usually recited here are especially in honor of Abbas, Hasan, Ali, called Zain al-Abideen, Hufman, the lady Halima, the martyrs and the mothers of the Muslims, i.e. the apostles' wives, buried in the holy cemetery. When describing a visit to al-Bakir, they will be translated at full length. End of footnote. After this, we returned to the southern wall of the mosque, and facing towards Mecca, we recited the following supplication. O Allah, O Allah, O Allah, O compassionate, O beneficent, O requiter of good and evil, O prince, O ruler, O ancient of benefits, O omniscient, O thou who giveest when asked, and who aidest when aid is required, accept this, our visitation, and preserve us from dangers, and make easier affairs, and broaden our breasts, gladden our hearts, and receive our prostration, and requite us according to our good deeds, and turn not against us our evil deeds, and place not over us one who fears not they, and one who pitieth not us, and write safely and health upon us and upon thy slaves, the hajjahs and pilgrims and the ghazats, or the fighters of the faith, and the zuwah, or the visitors of the tomb. Footnote. The hajjahs is the plural of hajjah, or pilgrim, ozat, or ghazi, is crusader, and zawar, or za'ir, is the visitors of Muhammad's tomb, and a footnote. And the home dwellers and the wayfarers of the Muslims, by land and by sea, and pardon those of the faith of our Lord Muhammad, one and all. From the southern wall we return to the Apostle's window, there we recite the following tetrastigh and prayer. O Mustafa, verily I stand at thy door, a man weak and fearful by reason of my sins. If thou aid me not, O Apostle of Allah, I die, for in the world there is none generous as thou art. Of a truth, Allah and his angels bless the Apostle, O ye who believe bless him and salute him with salutation. Footnote. Time is to say salam to a person. And a footnote. O Allah, verily I implore thy pardon and supplicate thine aid in this world as in the next. O Allah, abandon us not in this holy place to the consequences of our sins without pardoning them, or to our griefs without consoling them, or to our fears, O Allah, without removing them. And blessings and salutations to the old Prince of Apostles commissioned to preach the word and Lord be to Allah the Lord of the three worlds. We turned away from the hijra, and after gratifying a meek looking but exceedingly important at Hindi beggar who insisted on stunning me with chapters Yaseen, the Yaseen, or YS, is the 36th chapter of the Quran, frequently recited by those whose profession it is to say such masses for the benefit of the living as well as for the dead sinners. Most educated Muslims committed to memory. And a footnote. We fronted southwards, and taking care that our backs should not be in a line with the Apostle face, stood opposite the niche called Mihrab Uthman. There Hamid proceeded with another supplication. O Allah, O Allah, O Allah, O safeguard of the fearful and defender of those who trust in thee and piteer of the weak, the poor, and the destitute, accept us, O beneficent, and pardon us, O merciful, and receive our penitence, O compassionate, and have mercy upon us, O forgiver, for verily none but thou canst remit sin. Of a truth thou alone knowest, the hidden, and the vilest man's transgression, fail then our offenses, and pardon our sins, and broaden our breasts, and cause our last words at the supreme hour of life to be the words. There is no God but Allah, and our Lord, Muhammad, is the Apostle of Allah. Footnote. Or more correctly, there is no ilah but Allah. That is, there is no God but God. End of footnote. O Allah, cause us to live according to this saying, O thou giver of life, and make us to die in this faith, O thou ruler of death, and the best of blessings, and the completest of salutations upon the sole Lord of intercession. Our Lord Muhammad and his family and his companions, one and all. Lastly return to the garden, footnote. Some za'irs, after praying at the Caliph Omar's niche, leave a mosque, especially when the Jama'at or the public worship is not being performed in the roda. Others, as we did, pray alone in the garden, and many authors prefer this conclusion to visitation for the reason above given, end of footnote. And pray to about prayer ending as we began with the worship of the Creator. Unfortunately for me the boy Muhammad had donned that grand embroidered coat. At the end of the ceremony, the aghaz, or the eunuchs of the mosque, a race of men considered respectable by their office and prone to make themselves respected by the freest administration of club law, assembled in a roda to offer me the congratulation. Ziyaratak Mubarak, or blessed be thy visitation, and to demand fees. Then came the zaqa, or the water carrier of the mosque, well Zemzem, offering a tin saucer filled from the holy source, footnote. Zemzem has become a generic name for a well situated within the walls of the mosque, and a footnote. And lastly I was beset by beggars. Some were mild beggars and picturesque who sat upon the ground immersed in the contemplation of their napkins. Others, angry beggars, who cursed if they were not gratified, and others noisy and petulant beggars, especially the feminine party near the lady's tomb, who captured me by the skirt of my garment, compelling me to ransom myself. There were, beside pretty beggars, boys who held out the right hand on the score of good looks. Ugly beggars emaciated rascals, whose long hair, dirt, and leanness entitle them to charity, and lastly the blind, the halt, and the diseased, who as sons of the holy city demanded from the faithful that support with which they could not provide themselves. Having been compelled by my companions highly against my inclination to become a man of rank, I was obliged to pay in proportion, and my almanor in my handsome coat, as usual, took a kind of pride in being profuse. This first visit cost me double what I had intended—four dollars, nearly one pound sterling, and never afterwards could I pay less than half that sum. As might be expected, the more a man pays, the higher he estimates his own dignity. Some Indians have spent as much as five hundred dollars during a first visit. Others have made mowlets, i.e. feasted all the poor connected with the temple with rice, meat, etc. Also others brought rare and expensive presents for the officials. Such generosity, however, is becoming rare in these unworthy days, and a footnote. Having now performed all the duties of a good Zair, I was permitted by Sheikh Hamid to wander about and see the sights. We began our circumambulation at the Bab-i-Salam, or the Gate of Salvation, the southwestern entrance pierced in the long wall of the mosque, footnote. This gate was anciently called Bab al-Ataqa, or of deliverance. And a footnote. Handsomely encrusted with marble and glazed tiles, the many gilt inscriptions on its sides give it, especially at night-time, an appearance of considerable splendor. The portcullis-like doors are of wood, strengthened with brass plates and nails of the same metal. Outside this gate is a little sebil, or public fountain, where those who will not pay for the water kept ready in large earthen jars by the Saqqa of the mosque perform their ablutions gratis. Here, all the medicans congregate in force, sitting on the outer steps and at the entrance of the mosque, up and through which the visitors must pass. About the center of the western wall is the Bab-i-Rahma, or the Gate of Pity, which admits the dead bodies of the faithful when carried to be prayed over in the mosque. There is nothing remarkable in its appearance. In common with the other gates, it has huge folding doors, iron bound, an external flight of steps, and a few modern inscriptions. The Bab-Majidi, or the Gate of the Sultan, Abdul-Majid, stands in the center of the northern wall. Like its portico, it is unfinished, but its present appearance promises that it will eclipse all except the Bab-i-Salam. The Bab-i-Nisa, or the Gate of the Women, is in the eastern wall opposite to the Bab-i-Rahma, with which it is connected by the Farsh-al-Hajr, a broad band of stone, two or three steps below the level of the particle, and slightly raised above the sahan, or the hypothetical portion of the mosque. And lastly, the southern portion of the same eastern wall is the Bab-Jibreel, the Gate of the Archangel Gabriel. Footnote. Most of these entrances have been named and renamed. The Bab-Jibreel, for instance, which derives its present appellation from the general belief that the Archangel once passed through it, is generally called in the books Bab-il-Jibre, or the Gate of Repairing of the Broken Fortunes of a friend or follower. It must not be confounded to the Mah-Bat-Jibreel, or the window near the eastern wall, where the Archangel usually descended from heaven with a wahi, or inspiration, and a footnote. All these entrances are arrived at by short external flights of steps, leading from the streets as the base of the temple, unlike that of Mecca, is a little higher than the foundation of the buildings around it. The doors are closed by the attendant eonics immediately after the night prayers, except during the blessed month of Ramadan, and in the pilgrimage season when pious visitors pay considerable fees there to pass the night in meditation and prayer. The minarids are five in number, but one. The Shik-e-Liyah at the northwest angle of the building has been levelled and is still in process of being rebuilt. The Manar-Baba-Salam stands by the gate of that name. It is a tall, handsome tower surmounted by a large ball or cone of brass guilt or burnished. Footnote. In a wonderful process the printer's devil converted in the first edition this ball or cone into bull or cow. And a footnote. The Manar-Baba-Brahma about the center of the western wall is of more simple form than the others. It has two galleries with a superior portion circular and surmounted by conical extinguisher, roof so common in Turkey and Egypt. On the northeast angle of the mosque stands the Suleymaniya Manar, so named after its founder Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. It is a well-built and substantial stone tower divided into three stages. The two lower portions are polygonal, the upper cylindrical, and each terminates in a platform with a railed gallery carried all round for the protection of those who ascend. And lastly from the southeast angle of the mosque supposed to be upon the spot where Bilal, the apostle's loud-lunk crier, called the first Muslims to prayer, springs the Manar-Rayisiya, so called because of its appropriated to the Roasa or the cheese of them as-zins. Footnote. Bilal, the loud-lunk crier, stood as we are informed by Muslim historians upon a part of the roof on one of the walls of the mosque. The minute, as the next chapter will show, was the invention of a more tasteful age and a footnote. Like the Suleymaniya, it consists of three parts. The first and the second stages are polygonal, and the third, a cylinder, is furnished like the lower two with a railed gallery, both the latter minarets and in solid ovals of masonry, from which project a number of wooden triangles. To these and to the galleries on all festive occasions, such as the arrival of the Damascus caravan, are hung oil lamps, a poor attempt at illumination, which may rationally explain the origin of the Medinid superstition concerning the column of light which grounds the prophet's tomb. There is no uniformity in the shape or the size of these four minarets, and at first sight, despite their beauty and grandeur, they appear somewhat bizarre and misplaced. But after a few days I found that my eyes grew accustomed to them, and I had no difficulty in appreciating their massive proportions and lofty forms, equally irregular as the ruwaks or the porches surrounding the hypothetical court. Along the northern wall there will be when finished a fine colonnade of granite paved with marble. The eastern ruwak has three rows of pillars. The western four and the southern, under which stands the tomb, of course, has its columns ranged deeper than all the others. These supports of the building are of different material. Some are fine marble, others of rough stone plastered over and painted with the most vulgar of arabasques, vermilion and black in irregular patches and broad streaks like the stage face of a London clown. Footnote. This abomination may be seen in Egypt on many of the tombs, those outside the Balan Nasr at Cairo, for instance. And a footnote. Their size, moreover, is different. The southern colonnade being composed of pillars, palpably larger than those in the other parts of the mosque. Scarcely any two shafts own similar capitals, may have no pedestal and some of them are cut with painful ignorance of art. I cannot extend my admiration of the minarets to the columns. In their architectural lawlessness there is not a redeeming point. Of these unpraiseable pillars, three are celebrated in the annals of Al-Islam, for rich reasons their names are painted upon them, and five others enjoy the honor of distinctive appellations. The first is called Al-Mukhallaq, because on some occasion of impurity it was anointed with a perfume called Khaluq. It is near the Mehrab and Nibawi on the right of the place where the Imam prays. And it notes the spot where, before the invention of the pulpit, the apostle leaning upon the Ustwanat Al-Hannana, the weeping pillar used to recite the Khutbah or Friday sermon. Footnote. The tale of this weeping pillar is well known. Some suppose it to have been buried beneath the pulpit. Others, there are a few in number, declare that it was inserted in the body of the pulpit. And a footnote. The second stands third from the pulpit, and third from the hujrah. It is called the pillar of Aisha, also the Ustwanat Al-Qur'ah, or the column of lots, because the apostle, according to the testimony of his favorite wife, declared that if men knew the value of the place, they would cast lots to pray there. In some books it is known the pillar of the Muhajireen, or the fugitives, and others mention it as the Mughallaq, the perfumed. Twenty cubits distant from Aisha's pillar. And the second from the hujrah, and the fourth from the pulpit is the pillar of repentance, or of Abu Lubaba. It derives its name from the following circumstance. Abu Lubaba was a native of Al-Madinah, one of the auxiliaries and a companion of Muhammad. Originally it is said a Jew, according to others, of the Bani Amr bin Awfah, of the Aus tribe. Being sent by his kinsmen, or his allies, the Banu Quraiza, at that time capitulating to Muhammad, he was consulted by the distracted men, women, and children who threw themselves at his feet, and begged of him to intercede for them with the offended apostle. Abu Lubaba swore he would do so, at the same time he drew his hand across his throat, as much to say, defend yourselves to the last, for if you yield, such is your doom. Afterwards, repenting, he bowed himself with a huge chain to the date tree, in whose place the column now stands, vowing to continue there until Allah and the apostle accepted his penitence, a circumstance which did not take place until the tenth day when his hearing was gone, and he had almost lost his sight. The last celebrated pillars are the Ostwanat al-Sarir, or the column of the cot, where the apostle was wont to sit meditating on his humble couch, frame of date sticks. The Ostwanat Ali notes the spot where the fourth Caliph used to pray and watch near his father-in-law at night. The Ostwanat al-Wufud, as its name denotes, the apostle received envoys, couriers, and emissaries from foreign places. The Ostwanat al-Tahajjud now stands, where Muhammad, sitting upon his mat, passed the night in prayer. And lastly is the Maqam Jibra'il, or Gabriel's place, for whose other name Marbaat al-Bahir, or the pool of the beast of burden, have been unable to find an explanation. The four rocks, or porches of the Medina Mosque, open upon a pethral court of parallelogramic shape. The only remarkable object in it is a square of wooden railing, enclosing a place full of well-watered earth, called the garden of our Lady Fatima. The little dome building, which figures in the native sketches, and in all our prints of El Medina Mosque, was taken down three or four years ago. It occupied part of the center of the square, and was called Qubat-zit, dome of the oil, or Qubat-shama, dome of the candle, from its use as a store room for lamps and wax candles, and a footnote, footnote. This is its name among the illiterate, who firmly believed the palms to be descendants of trees planted there by the hands of the prophet's daughter. As far as I could discover, the tradition has no foundation, and in all times there were no garden in the pethral court. The vulgar are in the habit of eating a certain kind of date, or the sahani in the mosque, and throwing the stones about. This practice is valiantly denounced by the ulama and the footnote. It now contains a dozen date trees. In Ibn Jubayr's time there were fifteen. Their fruit is sent by the eunuchs as presents to the sultan and the great men of al-Islam. It is highly valued by the vulgar, but the ulama do not think much of its claims to importance. Among the palms are the venerable, remains of sidr, or the loatry, whose produce is sold for inordinate sums. Footnote. Ramra's nabeka, fursk. The fruit, called nabak, is eaten, and the leaves are used for the purpose of washing dead bodies. The visitor is not forbidden to take fruit or water as presents from El Medina, but it is unlawful for him to carry away earth, or stones, or cakes, or dust, made for sale to the ignorant. And the footnote. The enclosure is entered by a dwarf gate in the southeastern portion of the railing near the well, and one of the eunuchs is generally to be seen in it. It is under the charge of the mudir, or the chief treasurer. These gardens are not uncommon in mosques, as the trouser who passes through Cairo can convince himself. They form a pretty and inappropriate feature in a building erected for the worship of him who spread the earth with carpets of flowers and drew shady trees from the dead ground. A tradition of the apostle who declares that acceptable is devotion in the garden and in the orchard. At the southeast angle of this enclosure and a wooden roof supported by pillars of the same material stands the Zemzem, generally called Bironnebi, or the apostle's well. My predecessors declares that the brackishness of its produce has stood in the way of its reputation for holiness, yet a well-educated man told me that it was light or wholesome water as any in Melmedina. Footnote. The Arabs, who, like all Orientals, are exceedingly curious about water, take the trouble to weigh the produce of their wells. The lighter the water, the more digestible and wholesome it is considered. And a footnote. This is the exact which he accounted for by supposing its subterrainous passage, which connects it with the great Zemzem at Mecca. Footnote. The common phenomenon of rivers flowing underground in Arabia has doubtless suggested that the people of these subterrainous passages, with which they connect the most distant places. At Melmedina, amongst other tales of shortcuts, known only to certain Bedouin families, a man told me of a shaft leading from his native city to Hadramot. According to him it existed in the times of the Prophet and it was journey of only three days. And a footnote. Others, again, believe that it is filled by a vein of water springing directly from the Apostles' grave. Generally, however, among the learned, it is not more revered than our Lady's garden, nor is it ranked in the books among the holy wells of Melmedina. Between this Zemzem well and the eastern rock is the store or the academy of the Prophet's city. In the cool mornings and evenings the ground is chewed with professors who teach the young idea as an eminent orientalist had it to shout rather than to shoot. Footnote. The mosque library is kept in large chests near the Bab-e-salam. The only amass of any value here is the Quran written in the filthy hand. It is nearly four feet long, bound in wooden cover and padlocked, so as to require from the curious a silver key. End of footnote. A few feet to the south of the palm garden is a movable wooden planking, painted green, and about three feet high. It serves to separate the congregation from the Imam when he prays here and at the northeastern angle of the enclosure is the Shajarqanadil, a large brass chandelier which completes the furniture of the court. After this inspection the shadows of evening began to gather around us. We left the mosque reverently taking care to issue forth with the left foot and not to back out of it as is the Sunnah or practice derived from the apostle when taking leave of the Meccan temple. To conclude this long chapter although every Muslim learned and simple firmly believes that Umar's remains are entered in the Hajra at Al-Madinah. I cannot help suspecting that the place is doubtful as that of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem. It must be remembered that Atamul followed the announcement of the apostle's death and the people as often happens believing him to be immortal refused to credit the report and even Umar threatened destruction to anyone that asserted it. Footnote. Christians in Brittany believe that Napoleon I is not yet dead. The Prussians expect Frederick II the Swiss William Tell the older English King Arthur and certain modern fanatics look forward to the appearance of Joanna Southcourt. Why multiply instances in so well known a branch of the history of populars a prestige and a footnote. Moreover it was scarcely cold when the contest about the succession arose between the fugitives of Mecca and the auxiliaries of Al-Madinah. In the ardour of which according to the Shias the house of Ali and Fatima within few feet of the spot where the tomb of the apostle is now placed was threatened with fire and Abu Bakr was elected Caliph that same evening. If anyone find cause to wonder if the marriage so important was not fixed for ever he may find many a parallel case in Al-Madinah. To quote no other three several localities claim the honour of containing the lady Fatima's mortal spoils although one might suppose that the daughter of the apostle and the mother of the imams would not be laid in an unknown grave. My reasons for incredulity are the following The apostle's tomb has never been generally known in Al-Islam for this reason it is that graves are made convex in some countries and flat in others had there been a sunnah such would not have been the case. Fitna the sunnah is a custom or practice of the apostle rigidly conformed to by every good an orthodox muslim and a fitna. The accounts of the learned are discrepant. Asaman Houdi perhaps the highest himself. In one place he describes the coffin. In another he expressly declares that he entered the hujrah when it was being repaired by Qaid Bey and saw the inside three deep graves but no traces of tombs. Fitna the reader will bear in mind that I am quoting from Burkhard When in Al-Hijaz and at Cairo I vainly endeavoured to buy a copy of Asaman Houdi. One was shown to me at Al-Madinah unhappily he bore the word and belonged to the mosque. I was scarcely allowed time to read it end of Fitna. Either then the mortal remains of the apostle had despite muslim superstition Fitna had despite muslim superstition mingled with dust a probable circumstance after nearly 900 years interment Fitna. In muslim law prophets, martyrs and saints are not supposed to be dead. Their property therefore remains their own. The ulama have confounded themselves in the consideration of the prophetic state after death. Many declare that prophets live and pray for forty days in the tomb at expiration of which time they are taken to the presence of their maker where they remain to the blast of Israfil's trumpet. The common belief however leaves the bodies in the graves but no one would dare to assert that the holy ones are suffered to undergo corruption. On the contrary their faces are blooming, their eyes are burning from their bodies if wounded. Al-Islam as well afterwards appear abounds in traditions of the ancient tombs of saints and martyrs when accidentally opened exposing to view corpses apparently freshly buried and it has come to pass that this fact the result of sanctity has now become an honouring indication of it. A remarkable case in this point was the late Sharif Ghalib the father of the present parents of Makkah in his lifetime he was reviled as a tyrant but some years after his death his body was found undecomposed he then became a saint and men now pray at his tomb perhaps his tyranny was no drawback to his holy reputation Le Brin-Villiers was declared after execution by her confessor and people generally a saint simply I presume because of the enormity of her crimes and a footnote or that what is more likely they had been removed by the Shi'a shismatics who for centuries had charge of the sepulcher footnote, note to the third edition I have lately been assured by Muhammad Al-Halabi Sheikh Al-Ulamaa of Damascus that he was permitted by the Aghawa to pass through the gold-plated door leading into the Hijra and that he saw no trace of sepulcher and a footnote and lastly I cannot but look upon the tail of the blinding light which surrounds the Apostle's tomb current for ages past and still universally believed upon the authority of the attended eunuchs who must know its falsehood as a priestly gloss intended to conceal a defect here conclude the subject committing it to some future and more favoured investigator in offering the above remarks I am far from wishing to throw a doubt upon an unestablished point of history but where suspicion of fable arises from popular facts a knowledge of man and of his manners teaches us to regard it with favouring eye footnote I was careful to make a ground plan of the Prophet's Mosque as Burkhart was prevented by severe illness from doing it will give the reader a fair idea of the main point though in certain minor details it is not to be trusted some of my papers and sketches which by precaution I had placed among my medicines after cutting them into squares numbering them and rolling them carefully up were damaged by the breaking of a bottle the plan of Al Medina is lightly altered from Burkhart's nothing can be more ludicrous than the views of the holy city as printed in our popular books they are of the style bird's eye and present a curious perspective they despise distance like the Chinese pictorially audacious the harrow or the ridge in the foreground appears to be 200 yards inside of 3 or 4 miles distant from the town they strip a place of its suburb Al Menacha in order to show the anciente omit the fort and the gardens north and south of the city enlarge the mosque 20 fold for dignity and make it occupy the whole centre of the city instead of a small corner in the southeast quarter they place for symmetry towers only at the angles of the walls instead of along the curtain and gather up and press into the same field all the venerable and interesting features of the country those behind the artist back and at his sides as well as what appears in front such are the Turkish lithographs at Menacha some Indians support themselves by depicting the holy shrines their works are truly oriental mixture of ground plan and elevation drawn with pen and ink and brightened with the most vivid colours grotesque enough but less unintelligible than the more ambitious imitations of European art end of footnote end of chapter 16