 Chapter 17 Part 1 of Pilgrimage to Almedina and Mecca. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 17 Part 1 of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Almedina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. An essay towards the history of the Prophet's Mosque. Ibn Abbas has informed the world that when the 80 individuals composing Noah's family issued from the ark, they settled at a place distant 10 marches in 12 parasangs, footnote 1. In Oriental Geography the parasang still, as in the days of Pliny, greatly varies from 1500 to 6000 yards. Captain Franklin, whose opinion is generally taken, makes it, in his tour to Persia, a measure of about 4 miles. Preface to Ibn Haqqal by Sir Gore Owsley. End of footnote. 36 to 48 miles from Babel or Babylon. There they increased and multiplied and spread into a mighty empire, at length under the rule of Namrud, Nimrod, son of Kanan, Kanan, son of Ham. They lapsed from the worship of the true God, a miracle dispersed them into distant parts of the earth, and they were further broken up by the one primeval language being divided into 72 dialects. A tribe called Aulud-Sambinu, the children of Shem, or Amalika and Amalik, footnote 2. M. S. D. Percival, S. A. S. Lisquah, Des Ahab, avant l'Islamism, makes Amlak son of Laod, Lud, son of Shem, or according to the others, son of Ham. That learned writer identifies the Amalik with the Phoenicians, the Amalikites, the Kananites, and the Hexos. He alludes also to an ancient tradition which makes them to have colonised Barbary in Africa. End of footnote. From the ancestor Amlak bin Akfaqshad bin Sambinu was inspired with the knowledge of the Arabic tongue, footnote 3. The Dabistan al-Mazahid relates a tradition that the Almighty, when addressing the angels in command, uses the Arabic tongue, but when speaking in mercy or beneficence, a dairy dialect of Persian. End of footnote. It settled at Al-Madinah and was the first to cultivate the ground into plant palm trees. In course of time these people extended over the whole tract between the seas of Al-Hijaz, the Red Sea, and Al-Aman, northwestern part of the Indian Ocean. And they became the progenitors of the Javabira. Footnote 4. These were the giants who fought against Israel and Palestine. End of footnote. End of footnote. In this wild tradition we find a confirmation of the sound geographical opinion which makes Arabia undepepineer du genre humane, M. Jomar. It must be remembered that the theatre of all earliest civilisation has been a fertile valley with a navigable stream like Sindh, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The existence of such a spot in Arabia would have altered every page of her history. She would then have become a centre, not a source of civilisation. Strabo's Molothus River in Al-Yuman is therefore a myth. As it is, the immense population of the peninsula, still thick even in the deserts, has from the earliest ages been impaled by drought, famine or desire of conquest to emigrate into happier regions. All history mentions two main streams which took their rise in the wilds. The first set to the north-east through Persia, Macron, Biloukistan, Sindh and the Afghan mountains, as far as Samarkand, Bokhara and Tibet. The other, flowing towards the north-west, passed through Egypt and Barbary into Etruria, Spain, the Isles of the Mediterranean and southern France. There are two minor emigrations chronicled in history and written in the indelible characters of physiognomy and philology. One of these set in an exiguous but perennial stream towards India, especially Malabar, where, mixing with the people of the country, the Arab merchants became the progenitors of the Mopla race. The other was the partial emigration, also for commercial purposes, to the coast of Berbera in eastern Africa, where, mixing with the Gala tribes, the people of Hasramat became the size of the extents of Somali and Swahil nations. Thus we have from Arabia four different lines of emigration, tending north-east and south-east, north-west and south-west. At some future time I hope to develop this curious but somewhat obscure portion of Arabian history. It bears upon a most interesting subject, and serves to explain, by the consanguinity of races, the marvellous celerity with which the faith of al-Islam spread from the pillars of Hercules to the confines of China, embracing part of southern Europe, the whole of northern and a portion of central Africa, and at least three-fourths of the continent of Asia. End of footnote. Under these amulets such was the age of man that during the space of four hundred years, a bear would not be seen, nor caning be heard in their cities. The last king of the amulet, Arkham bin Al Arkham, footnote 6. Of this name, Monsieur de Perceval remarks, Le Mille-Arkham et aean designation commune à toussoi. He identifies it with Rechem, Numbers 31, 8, one of the kings of the Midianites, and recognises in the preservation of the royal youth the history of Agag and Samuel. End of footnote. Was, according to most authors, slain by an army of the children of Israel, sent by Moses after the exodus, footnote 7, and some most ignorantly add after the entrance of Moses into the promised land. End of footnote. With orders thoroughly to purge Mecca and El Medina of the infidel inhabitants. All the tribes destroyed, with the exception of the women, the children, and the youth of the royal family, whose extraordinary beauty persuaded the invaders to spare him pending a reference to the prophet. When the army returned, they found that Moses had died during the expedition, and they were received with reproaches by the people for having violated his express command. The soldiers, unwilling to live with their own nation under this reproach, returned to Al-Hajjaz and settled there. Muslim authors are agreed that after the Amalek, the Benu Israel ruled in the Holy Land of Arabia, but the learned in history are not agreed upon the cause of the emigration. According to some, when Moses was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, a multitude of his followers, seeing in El Medina the signs of the city which, according to the Torah, or Pentateuch, should hear the preaching of the last prophet, settled there, and were joined by many Badawan of the neighbourhood informed to the law of Moses. Ibn Shaber also informs us that when Moses and Aaron were wending northwards from Mecca, they, being in fear of certain Jews settled at El Medina, did not enter the city. In those days we are told the Jews, abandoning their original settlement in Al-Ghaba, or the lowlands to the north of the town, emigrated to the highest portions of the Medina plain on the south and east, in the lands of the neighbourhood of the Kubimosk. End of footnote. But pitch their tents on Mount Ahod. Aaron, being about to die, Moses dug his tomb and said, Brother, thine hour has come, turn thy face to the next world. Aaron entered the grave, lay at full length, and immediately expired, upon which the Jewish lawgiver covered him with earth, and went his way towards the promised land. Footnote nine. When describing Ahod, I shall have occasion to allude to Aaron's dome, which occupies the highest part. Few authorities, however, believe that Aaron was buried there. His grave, under a small stone capola, is shown over the summit of Mount Hawa in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and is much visited by devotees. End of footnote. Abu Herrera asserted that the Benu Israel, after long searching, settled in Al-Medina, because, when driven from Palestine by the invasion of Bukt al-Nasa, Nebuchadnezzar, they found in their books that the last prophet would manifest himself in a town of the towns of Arabia. Footnote ten. Some have remembered that many of the Muslim geographers derived the word Arabia from a tract of land in the neighbourhood of Al-Medina. End of footnote. Qudzat Nakhl, or the place of palm trees. Some of the sons of Aaron occupied the city. Other tribes settled at Kaiba, footnote eleven. Kaiba in Israel is supposed to signify a castle. Derbalo makes it to mean a pact or association of the Jews against the Muslims. This fort appears to be one of the latest, as well as the earliest, of the Hebrew settlements in Al-Hijaz. Benjamin of Tudela asserts that there were 50,000 Jews resident at their old colony. Bataima in AD 1703 found remnants of the people there, but his account of them is disfigured by fable. In Neba's time the Benu Kaiba had independent sheikhs, and were divided into three tribes, viz the Benu Masad, the Benu Shahan, and the Benu Aniza. This latter, however, is a Muslim name, who were isolated and hated by the other Jews, and therefore the traveller supposes them to have been curates. In Burkhard's day the race seems to have been entirely rooted out. I made many inquiries, and all assured me that there is not a single Jewish family now in Kaiba. It is indeed the popular boast in Al-Hijaz that, with the exception of Jeddah, and perhaps Yambu, where the prophet never set his foot, there is not a town in the country harboring an infidel. This has now become a point of fanatic honour, but if history may be trusted it has become so only lately. End of footnote. And in the neighbourhood, building Utum, or square flat-roofed stone castles for habitation and defence, they left in order to their descendants that Muhammad should be favourably received, but Allah hardened their hearts into their own destruction. Like asses they turned their backs upon Allah's mercy. Footnote 12. When the Arabs see the ass turned tail to the wind and rain, they exclaim, Lo, he turned his back upon the mercy of Allah. End of footnote. And the consequences that they have been routed out of the land. The Tariq Tabari declares that when booked al-Naza, footnote 13, M. S. de Perceval quotes Judith 2, 13, 26, and Jeremiah 49, 28, to prove that Holofenes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar I, laid waste the land of Midian and other parts of northern Arabia. End of footnote. After destroying Jerusalem, attacked and slew the king of Egypt, who had given an asylum to a remnant of the house of Israel, the persecuted fugitives made their way to Al-Hijaz, settled near Yarsreb, Al-Medina, where they founded several towns, Kaiba, Fadak, Wadi al-Subu, Wadi al-Kura, Quraiza, and many others. It appears then by the concurrence of historians that the Jews at an early time either colonised or supplanted the Amalik at Al-Medina. At length the Israelites fell away from the worship of the one God, who raised up against them the Arab tribes of Al-Sankhazraj, the progenitors of modern Ansar. Both these tribes claimed a kindred origin and al-Yaman as the land of their nativity. The circumstances of their emigration are thus described. The descendants of Yara bin Qatun, bin Shalik, bin Akfaqshad, bin Sam bin Nuh, kinsmen to the Amalik, inhabited in prosperity the land of Saba. Footnote 14. Saba in southern Arabia. End of footnote. This way extended two months' journey from the dike of Mare. Footnote 15. The erection of this dike is variously attributed to Lukman the elder of the tribe of Ad, and to Saba bin Yashchab. It burst according to some beneath the weight of a flood. According to others it was miraculously undermined by rats. A learned Indian sheikh has mistaken the Arabic word jurad, a large kind of mouse or rat, for jurad, a locust, and he makes the wall to his sunk under a bari malak, or weight of locusts. No event is more celebrated in the history of pagan Arabia than this, or more trustworthy, despite the exaggeration of the details. The dike is said to have been four miles long by four broad, and the fantastic marvels which are said to have accompanied at its bursting. The ruins have lately been visited by Monsieur Arnaud, a French traveller who communicated his discovery to the French Asiatic Society in 1845. End of footnote. Near the modern capital of Al-Yaman, as far as Syria, an incredible tales are told of their hospitality and of the fertility of their land. As usual, their hearts were perverted by prosperity. They begged Allah to relieve them from the troubles of extended empire and the duties of hospitality by diminishing their possessions. The consequence of their impious supplications was the well-known flood of Iran. The chief of the descendants of Khartan bin Saba, one of the rolling families in Al-Yaman, was one Amrubin Amin Ma'al-Sama. Footnote 16. Ma'al-Sama, the water, or the splendour of heaven, is generally speaking a feminine name among the pagan Arabs, possibly it is here intended as a matronymic. End of footnote. Called Al-Muzakaya, from his rending and pieces every garment once worn, his wife Taraka Himyariya, being skilled in divination, foresaw the fatal event and warned her husband who, unwilling to break from his tribe without an excuse, contrived the following stratagem. He privately ordered his adopted son, an orphan, to dispute with him and to strike him in the face at a feast composed of the principal persons in the kingdom. The disgrace of such a scene afforded him a pretext for selling off his property and, followed by his 13 sons, all born to him by his wife Taraka, and others of the tribe, Amrubi emigrated northwards. The little party, thus preserved from the Romanian deluge, was destined by Allah to become the forefathers of the acceleraries of his chosen apostle. All the children of Amrubi thus dispersed into different parts of Arabia. His eldest son, Salabah bin Amrubi, chose Al-Hajaz, settled at Al-Medina, then in the hands of the empires Benu Israel, and became the father of the Al-Sankhazraj. In the course of time, the newcomers were made by Allah an instrument of vengeance against the disobedient Jews. Of the latter people, the tribes Kuraiza and Nazir claimed certain feudal rights, well known to Europe, upon all occasions of Arab marriages. The Al-Sankhazraj, after enduring this indignity for a time, at length had recourse to one of their kinsmen who, when the family dispersed, had settled in Syria. Abu Jubayla, thus summoned, marched in Amrubi to Al-Medina, avenged the honour of his blood, and destroyed the power of the Jews, who from that moment became Mawali, or a client to the Arabs. For a time, the tribes of Al-Sankhazraj, freed from the common enemy, lived in peace and harmony. At last they fell into feuds, and fought with fratricidal strife, until the coming of the Prophet effected a reconciliation between them. This did not take place, however, before the Khazraj received at the battle of Boas about AD 615. It decided defeat from the Al-Sankhazraj. It is also related to prove how Al-Medina was predestined to a high fate, that nearly three centuries before the siege of the town by Abu Jubayla, the Taba Al-Asqat, Footnote 17. This expedition to Al-Medina is mentioned by all the pre-Islamic historians, but persons and dates are involved in the greatest confusion. Some authors mention centuries before the siege of the town by Abu Jubayla, the Taba Al-Asqat, Footnote 17. This expedition to Al-Medina is mentioned by all the pre-Islamic historians, but persons and dates are involved in the greatest confusion. Some authors mention two different expeditions by different Taba's. Others only one, attributing it differently, however, to two Taba's, Abu Qab in the third century of the Christian era, and Taba Al-Asqat, the last of that dynasty, who reigned according to some in AD 300, according to others in AD 448. Mesuse de Perceval places the event about AD 206, and asserts that the Al-Sankhazraj did not emigrate to Al-Medina before AD 300. The word Taba or Taba, I have been informed by some of the modern Arabs, is still used in the hemeritic dialect of Arab to signify the great or the chief. End of footnote. March northward at the requisition of the Al-Sankhazraj tribes in order to punish the Jews, or, according to others, at the request of the Jews to revenge them upon the Al-Sankhazraj. After capturing the town, he left one of his sons to govern it, and marched onwards to conquer Syria and Al-Iraq. Suddenly informed that the people of Al-Medina had treacherously murdered their new prince, the exasperated Taba returned and attacked the place, and when his horse was killed under him, he swore that he would never decamp before raising it to the ground, where upon two Jewish priests, Qab and Asaid, went over to him and informed him that it was not in the power of man to destroy the town, it being preserved by Allah, as the books proved for the refuge of his prophet, the descendant of Ishmael. Footnote 18. Nothing is more remarkable in the annals of the Arabs than their efforts to prove the Ishmaelite descent of Muhammad, at the same time no historic question is more open to doubt. End of footnote. The Taba Judeiized. Taking 400 of the priests with him, he departed from Al-Medina, performed pilgrimage to the Kaaba of Mecca, which he invested with a splendid covering. Footnote 19. This proves that the Jews of Al-Hijaz had in those days superstitious reverence for the Kaaba, otherwise the Taba, after conforming to the law of Moses, would not have shown at this mark of respect. Moreover, there is a legend that the same rabbis dissuaded the Taba from plundering the sacred place when he was treacherously advised so to do, by the Benu-Hudaal Arabs. I have lately perused the worship of Baalim in Israel based upon the work of Dr. Aradouzi, the Israelites in Mecca by Dr. H. Ord. Translated from the Dutch and enlarged with notes and appendices by the right reverend John William Colenso, Dr. of Divinity, Longmans. I see no reason why Mecca or Becca should be made to mean a slaughter, why the Kaaba should be founded by the Simeonites, why the Hards should be the Feast of Trumpets, and other assertions in which everything seems to be taken for granted except etymology, which is tortured into confession. If Mecca had been founded by the Simeonites, why did the Persians and the Hindus respect it? End of footnote. And after erecting a house for the expected prophet, he returned to his capital in Al-Yaman where he abolished idolatry by the ideal of fire. He treated his priestly guests with particular attention, and on his deathbed he wrote the following tetrastitch. I testify of Ahmad that he of a truth is a prophet from Allah, the maker of souls. Be my age extended into his age, I would be to him a wazir and a cousin. Then, sealing the paper, he committed it to the charge of the High Priest with a solemn injunction to deliver the letter should an opportunity offer into the hands of the great prophet, and that, if the day be distant, the messif should be handed down from generation to generation till it reached the person to whom it was addressed. The house founded by him at El-Medina was committed to a priest of whose descendants was Abu Ayyab the Ansari, the first person over whose threshold the apostle passed when he ended the flight. Abu Ayyab also had charge of the Tobba's letter, so that after three or four centuries it arrived at its destination. El-Medina was ever well inclined to Muhammad, footnote 20. It is curious that Abdullah, Muhammad's father, died and was buried at El-Medina, and that his mother Arminah's tomb is at Abwah on the Medina Road. Here, too, his great-grandfather Hashim married Salma El-Matadalya before he mispassed to Ahayha of the As-Tribe, Shaba, generally called Abu El-Mutalib. The prophet's grandfather was the son of Salma and was bred at El-Medina. End of footnote. The early part of his career, the emissaries of a tribe called the Benu Abid El-Ashal came from that town to Mecca in order to make a treaty with the Quraish and the apostle seized the opportunity of preaching al-Islam to them. His words were seconded by Ayah bin Maz, a youth of the tribe and opposed by the chiefs of the embassy who, however, returned home without pledging themselves to either party. In 1921, Ayah bin Maz died at As-Sid, a Muslim. End of footnote. Shortly afterwards, a body of the house in the Qasraj came to the pilgrimage of Mecca. When Muhammad began preaching to them, they recognized the person so long expected by the Jews and swore to him an oath which is called in Muslim history the first filthy of the steep. Footnote 22. Bayat al-Aqaba al-Ula. It is so called because this oath was sworn at a place called al-Aqaba, the mountain road near Muna. A mosque was afterwards built there to commemorate the event. End of footnote. After the six individuals who had thus pledged themselves return to their native city, the event being duly brooded about caused such an effect that when the next pilgrimage season came 12 or according to others 40 persons led by As-Sid bin Saraira accompanied the original converts and in the same place swore the second filthy of the steep. The prophet dismissed them in company with one Musab bin Amayyar, a beckon charged to teach them the Quran and their religious duties which in those times consisted only of prayer and the profession of unity. They arrived at Al-Madinah on a Friday and this was the first day on which the city witnessed the public devotions of the Muslims. After some persecutions Musab had the fortune to convert a cousin of As-Sid bin Saraira a chief of the house Said bin Maz whose opposition had been of the fiercest. He persuaded his tribe to break their idols into openly profess Al-Islam. The next season, Musab having made many converts some say 70 others 300 marched from Al-Madinah to Mecca for their pilgrimage and there induced his followers to meet the prophet at midnight upon the steep near Munah. Muhammad preached to them their duties towards Allah and himself especially insisting upon the necessity of warring down infidelity. His devotees were the Jews of Al-Madinah and showed apprehension lest the apostle after bringing them into disgrace with their fellows should desert them in return to the faith of his kinsmen the Quraish. Muhammad smiling comforted them with the assurance that he was with them body and soul forever. Upon this they asked him what would be their reward of slain. He replied, gardens neath which the streams flow. That is to say paradise. Then in spite of the advice of Al-Abbas Muhammad's uncle who was loud in his denunciations they bade the preachers stretch out his hand and upon it swore the oath known as the great fealty of the steep. After comforting them with an ayat or Quranic verse which promised heaven the apostle divided his followers into 12 bodies and placing a chief at the head of each. Footnote 23 Some Muslim writers suppose that Muhammad singled out 12 men as apostles and called them Nakil in imitation of the example of our saviour. Other Muslims ignore both the fact and the intention. Mesuse de Perceval gifts the names of these Nakils in volume 3, page 8. End of footnote Dismissed them to their homes. He rejected the offer made by one of the party, namely to slay all the idolaters present at the pilgrimage saying that Allah had favoured him with no such order. For the same reason he refused their invitation to visit Al-Medina which was the principal object of their mission and he then took an affectionate leave of them. Two months and a half after the events above detailed, Muhammad received the inspired tidings that Al-Medina of the Hejaz was his predestined asylum. In anticipation of the order, for as yet the time had not been revealed, he sent forward his friends, among whom were Omar, Talha and Hamza, retaining with him Avubakir. Footnote 24 Orthodox Muslims do not fail to quote the circumstance in honour of the first caliph upon whom moreover they bestowed the call of friend of the cave. The Shias, on the other hand, hating Avubakir, see in it a symptom of treachery and declare that the prophet feared to let the old hyena, as they appropriately term the venerable successor, out of his sight for fear less he should act as spy to the Quraysh. The voice of history and of common senses against the Shias, M. S. de Perceval justly remarks that Avubakir and Omar were men truly worthy of their great predecessor. End of footnote. And Ali. The particulars of the flight, that eventful accident to al-Islam, are too well known to require mention here, besides which they belong rather to the category of general, than of Madinah history. Muhammad was escorted into Al-Madinah by one Buraidat al-Aslami, an eighty men of the same tribe, who had been offered by the Quraysh a hundred camels for the capture of the fugitives. But Buraidat, after listening to their terms, accidentally entered into conversation with Muhammad, and no sooner did he hear the name of his interlocutor than he professed the faith of al-Islam. He then prepared for the Apostle a standard by attaching his turban to a spear, and anxiously inquired what house was to be honoured by the presence of Allah's chosen servant. Whichever replied Muhammad, this she-camel, footnote 25, this animal's name, according to some, was al-Kaswa, the tips of whose ears are cropped, according to others al-Jadah, one mutilated in the ear, hand, nose, or lip. The Prophet bought her for eight hundred dirhams on the day before his flight from Abu Bakr, who had fattened two fine animals of his own breeding. The camel was offered as a gift, but Muhammad insisted on paying its price, because, say the Muslim Khazawists, he being engaged in the work of God, would receive no aid from man. According to M. C. de Pousseval, the Prophet preached from the back of al-Kaswa, the celebrated pilgrimage at Arifat on the 8th March, A.D. 632. End of footnote. Is ordered to show me, at the last halt in place, he accidentally met some of his disciples returning from a trading voyage to Syria. They dressed him in his companion, Abu Bakr in white clothing, which it is said, caused the people of Cuba to pay a mistaken reverence to the latter. The Muslims of Al-Madinah were in the habit of repairing every morning to the heights near the city, looking out for the apostle, and, when the sun waxed hot, they returned home. One day, about noon, a Jew who discovered they written you from afar suddenly warned the nearest party of al-Sah, or auxiliaries of Al-Madinah, that the fugitive was come. They snatched up their arms and hurried from their houses to meet him. Muhammad's she-camel advanced to the centre of the then flourishing town of Cuba. There she suddenly knelt upon a place which is now consecrated ground. At that time it was an open space, belonging, they say, to Abu Ayyad al-Sari, who had a house there near the abode of the Benu Amir bin Alf. This event happened on the first day of the week, the twelfth of the month, Rabia al-Awl. Footnote 26. The prophet is generally supposed to have started from Mecca on the first of the same month, on a Friday or a Monday. Footnote 26. The prophet is generally supposed to have started from Mecca on the first of the same month, on a Friday or a Monday. This discrepancy is supposed to arise from the fact that Muhammad fled his house in Mecca on a Friday, past three days in the cave on Jabal Sour, and finally left it for Al-Madinah on Monday, which therefore, according to Muslim divines, was the first day of the hijra. But the era now commences on the first of the previous Muharram. An arrangement made seventeen years after the date of the flight by Omar the Caliph with the concurrence of Ali. End of footnote. June 28, AD 622, on the first year of the flight, for which reason Monday, which also witnessed the birth, the mission, and the death of the prophet, is an auspicious day to al-Islam. After holding two days in the house of Qusum bin Hadmah at Cuba, and there laying the foundation of the first mosque upon the lines where his she-camel trod, the apostle was joined by Ali, who had remained at Mecca for the purpose of returning certain trusts and deposits committed to Muhammad's charge. He waited three days longer. On Friday morning, the sixteenth Rabia of the war, A.H.1, equals 2nd July, AD 622. About sunrise, he mounted Al-Qaswa, and accompanied by a throng of armed Ansar on foot and on horseback, he took the way to the city. At the hour of public prayer, footnote 27, the distance from Cuba to Al-Madinah is a little more than three miles, for which six hours Friday prayers being about noon may be considered in an ordinarily long time. But I also might urge as a reason that the multitude of people upon a narrow road rendered the Prophet's advance a slow one, and some historians relate that he spent several hours in conversation with the Benusalim. End of footnote. He halted in the Wadi or valley near Cuba, upon the spot where the Masjid al-Juman now stands, performed his devotions, and preached an eloquent sermon. He then remounted. Numbers pressed forward to offer him hospitality. He blessed them and bade them stand out of the way, declaring that Al-Qaswa was his own accord at the predestined spot. He then advanced to where the apostle's pulpit now stands. There the she-camel knelt, and the rider exclaimed, as one inspired, this is our place, if Almighty Allah please. Descending from Al-Qaswa, he recited, O Lord, cause me to alight a good alighting, and thou art the best of those who cause to alight. Presently the camel rose unaided, advanced a few steps, and then, according to some returning, sat down upon her former seat. According to others, she knelt at the door of Abu Aya Balansari, who's abode in those days was the nearest to the halting place. The descendant of the Jewish high priest in the time of the Tobbers, with the apostle's permission, took the baggage off the camel and carried it into his house. Then ensued great rejoicings, the Abyssinians came and played with their spears, the maidens of the Benu-Najah tribes sang and beat their kettle drums, and all the wives of the Ansar celebrated with shrill cries of joy for their specious event, whilst the males, young and old, freemen and slaves, shouted with a fusion, Arla's messenger is come, Arla's messenger is here. Muhammad caused Abu Ayaab and his wife to remove into the upper story, contenting himself with the humbler lower rooms. This was done for the greater convenience of receiving visitors without troubling the family, but the master of the house was thereby rendered uncomfortable in mind. His various remarks about the apostle's diet and domestic habits, especially his avoiding leeks, onions and garlic. Footnote 28 Muhammad would never eat these strong smelling vegetables on account of his converse with the angels, even as modern spiritualists refused to smoke tobacco. At the same time, he allowed his followers to do so, except when appearing in his presence, entering a mosque or joining in public prayers. The pious Muslim still eats his onions with these limitations. Some sects, however, as they were hubbies, considering them abominable, avoid them on multiple occasions. End of Footnote A gravely chronicled by Muslim authors. After spending seven months, more or less, at the house of Abu Ayaab, Muhammad, now surrounded by his wives and family, built close to the mosque, huts for their reception, the ground was sold to him by Sahal in Suhail, two orphans of the Benu Naja. Footnote 29 The name of the tribe literally means Sons of a Carpenter, hence the era of the learned and violent Humphrey directed by Sahal. End of Footnote A noble family of the Khazraj, some time afterwards, one Harisat bin Al-Numan, presented to the Prophet all his houses in the vicinity of the temple. In those days, the habitations of the Arabs were made of a framework of jurid or palm sticks, covered over with a cloth of camel's hair, a curtain of similar stuff forming the door. The more splendid had walls of unbaked brick, and roofs of palm fronds plastered over with mud or clay. Of this description were the abodes of Muhammad's family. Most of them were built on the north and east of the mosque, which had open ground on the western side, and the doors looked towards the place of prayer. In course of time, all except Abibakir, Footnote 30, some say that Abibakir had no abode near the mosque, but it is generally agreed upon that he had many houses, one in Al-Bakir, another in the higher parts of Al-Medina, and some a hut on the spot between the present gates called Salam and Ramah. End of Footnote. And Ali were ordered to close their doors, and even Omar was refused the favour of having a window opening into the temple. Presently the Jews of Al-Medina, offended by the conduct of Abdullah bin Salim, their most learned priest and descendant from the Patriarch Joseph, who had become a convert to the Muslim dispensation, began to plot against Muhammad. Footnote 31, it is clear from the fact above stated that in those days the Jews of Arabia were in a state of excitement hourly expecting the advent of their Messiah, and that Muhammad believed himself to be the person appointed to complete the law of Moses. End of Footnote. They were headed by Hajj bin Akhtar and his brother Yaseb bin Akhtar, and were joined by many of the House and the Khazraj. The events that followed this combination of the Munafikin or hypocrites under their chief Abdullah, belonged to the generation of Arabian history. Footnote 32, in many minor details the above differs from the received accounts of pre-Islamic and early Muhammadan history. Let the blame be borne by the learned Sheikh Abid al-Haq al-Mahadis of Delhi, and his compilation the Jazab al-Kulab al-Adiyah al-Mahab, the drawing of hearts towards the holy parts. From the multitude of versions at last comes correctness. End of Footnote. When his family and companions debated where he should be buried, Ali advised al-Mahadina and Abu Bakr, Ayesha's chamber, quoting a saying of the deceased that prophets and martyrs are always interred where they happen to die. The apostle was placed as said under the bed where he had given up the ghost by Ali and the two sons of Abbas, who ducked the grave. When the family and companions debated where he should be buried, Ali advised al-Mahadina and Abu Bakr, the two sons of Abbas, who ducked the grave. With the life of Muhammad the interest of al-Mahadina ceases or rather is concentrated in the history of its temple. Since then the city has passed through the hands of the Caliphs, the Sharifs of Mecca, the Sultans of Constantinople, the Wahabbis and the Egyptians. It has now reverted to the Sultan, whose government is beginning to believe that in these days when religious prestige is of little value, the great Khan's is purchased at too high a price. As has before been observed, the Turks now struggle for existence in Al-Hijaz with a soldier era in arrears and offices unequal to the task of managing an unruly people. The pensions are but partly paid for Note 33. A firm in from the port dated 13 February 1841 provides for the paying of these pensions regularly. It been customary to send every year from Egypt provisions in kind to the two cities. The provisions and other articles, whatever they may be, which have up to this time been sent to this place, shall continue to be sent thither. Formerly the Holy Land had immense property in Egypt and indeed in all parts of Al-Islam. About 30 years ago Muhammad Ali Pasha brought up all the Waqf, church property, agreeing to pay for its projects which he rated at five pastures that are there when it was worth three times as much. Even that was not regularly paid. The decision was taken advantage of the present crisis to put down Waqf in Turkey. The Holy Land therefore will gradually lose all its land in house property and will soon be compelled to depend entirely upon the presence of the pilgrims and the Sadaka or alms which are sent to it by the pious Muslims of distant regions. As might be supposed both the Meccans and the Madani loudly bewail their hard fates and by no means approve of the Ikram, the modern paid revenue. At a future time I shall refer to this subject end of foot note. And they are not likely to increase with years. It is probably a mere consideration of interest that prevents the people rising en masse and reasserting the liberties of their country. And I have heard from authentic sources that the Wahhabis look forward to the day when a fresh crusade will enable them to purge the land of its abominations in the shape of silver and gold. The Shadal Nab or Prophet's Mosque is the second in al-Islam and point of seniority and the second or according to others the first in dignity ranking with the Kaaba itself. It is erected around the spot where the Sheikamel al-Kaswa knelt down by the order of heaven. At that time the land was a palm grove in a mirabad or place where dates are dried. Muhammad ordered to erect a place of worship there, sent for the youth to whom it belonged and certain answer or auxiliaries, their land was offered to him in free gift but he insisted upon purchasing it paying more than its value. Having caused the soil to be levelled in the trees to be felled he laid the foundation of the first mosque. In those times of primitive simplicity its walls were made of rough stone and unbaked bricks. Trunks of date trees supported a palm stick roof concerning which the archangel Gabriel delivered an order that it should not be higher than seven cubits, the elevation of Moses' temple. All ornament was strictly forbidden. The answer or mean of al-Madinah and the muhajirin, or fugitives from Mecca, carried the building materials in their arms from the cemetery al-Bakir near the well of Ayyub, north of the spot where Ibrahim's mosque now stands, and the apostle was to be seen aiding them in their labours and reciting for their encouragement. O Allah, there is no good but the good of futurity then have mercy upon my answer and muhajirin. There were 54 cubits from north to south and 63 in breadth, and it was hemmed in by houses on all sides save the western. Till the 17th month of the new era, the congregation faced towards the northern wall. After that time, a fresh revelation turned them in the direction of Mecca, southwards, on which occasion the archangel Gabriel descended and miraculously opened through the hills in Wales a view of the Kaaba that there might be no difficulty in asserting its power. After the capture of Kaaba in AH7, the prophet and his first three successors restored the mosque, but Muslim historians do not consider this a second foundation. Muhammad laid the first brick and Abu Huraira declares that he saw him carry heaps of building materials piled up to his breast. The caliphs, each in the turn of his succession placed a brick close to that laid by the prophet and aided him in raising the walls. Al-Tabrani relates that one of the answer had a house which Muhammad wished to make part of the place of prayer. The proprietor was promised in exchange for it a home in paradise which he gently rejected pleading poverty. His excuse was omitted and Osman after purchasing the place for 10,000 dirhams gave it to the apostle on the long credit originally offered. This mosque was the square of a hundred cubits, like the former building it had three doors one on the south side with a Mirab El-Nabawi or Prophet's followers, another in the place of the present Baba Al-Rama and the third at the Baba Osman now called the Gate of Gabriel. Instead of a Mirab or prayer niche, footnote 34 the prayer niche and the minaret both date their existence from the days of Al-Waleed, the builder of the third mosque. At this age of their empire the Muslims had travelled far and had seen art in various lands, it is therefore not without a shadow of reason that the Hindus charged them with having borrowed their two favourite symbols and handed them into an arch and a tower. End of footnote. A large block of stone directed the congregation, at first it was placed against the northern wall of the mosque and it was removed to the southern when Mecca became the Kebla. In the beginning the Prophet, while preaching the Kutbah or Friday sermon, leaned when fatigued against the post. Footnote 35 the Istwanat Al-Hannanah or Weeping Post. End of footnote. The Mamba Footnote 36 As usual there are doubts about the invention of this article. It was covered with cloth by the Caliph Osman or as others say by Al-Muawiyah who, deterred by a soldier eclipse from carrying out his project of removing it to Damascus placed it upon a new framework elevated six steps above the ground. Almadi wished to raise the Mamba six steps higher but was forbidden so to do by the Imam Malik. They besides changed the pulpit and converted the Prophet's original seat into combs which were preserved as relics. Some historians declare that the original Mamba was burnt with the mosque in AH 654. In Ibn Jubayah's time, AH 580 it was customary for visitors to place their right hands upon a bit of old wood inserted into one of the pillars of the pulpit. This was supposed to be a remnant of the Weeping Post. Every Sultan added some Mamba and at one time it was made of white marble covered over with a dome of the eight metals. It is now a handsome structure, apparently of wood, painted and gilt of the usual elegant form, which has been compared by some travellers with the suggestive of Roman Catholic churches. I have been explicit about this pulpit, hoping that next time the naughty question of apostolic seats comes upon the tapas, our popular authors will not confound a curile chair with the Muslim Mamba. Of the latter article in Egyptions chapter 3 gave a sketch in the interior of a mosque. End of footnote. Well pulpit was the invention of a Medina man of the Benu Naja. It was a wooden frame two cubits long by one board with three steps each one span high. On the top most of these the Prophet sat when he required rest. The pulpit assumed its present form about AH 90 during the artistic reign of Al Waleed. In this mosque Muhammad spent the greater part of footnote 37. The Prophet is said to have had a dwelling house in the Ambaria or western quarter of the Manaka suburb and here according to some he lodged Mariah the Coptic girl. His pilgrims do not usually visit the place and nothing of the original building can be now remaining. I did not trouble myself about it. End of footnote. With his companions conversing, instructing and comforting the poor hard by were the abodes of his wives his family and his principal friends were the call of the Azan or devotion cry from the roof. Here he received worldly envoys and embassies and the heavenly messages conveyed by the Archangel Gabriel and within a few yards of the hallowed spot he died and found a grave. The theatre of events so important to al-Islam could not be allowed, especially as no divine decree forbade the change to remain in its pristine lowliness. The first Caliph contended himself with merely restoring some of the palm pillars which had fallen to him. Omar, the second successor, surrounded the Hootera or Ayish's chamber in which the prophet was buried with a mud wall and in AH-17 he enlarged the mosque to 140 cubits by 120. Taking in ground on all sides except the eastern, we stood the abodes of the mothers of the Muslims. Footnote 38, meaning the prophet's 15 to 25 wives, their number is not settled. He left nine wives and two concubines. It was this title after the Quranic order. Chapter 33 verse 53, which rendered their widowhood eternal, no Arab would willingly marry a woman whom he has called mother or sister. End of footnote. Outside the northern wall he erected a surfia called al-Batha, a raised bench of wood, earth or stone upon which the people might recreate themselves with conversation and quoting poetry for the mosque was now becoming a place of peculiar reverence to men. Footnote 39, authors mention a place outside the northern wall called al-Sufah, which was assigned by Muhammad as a habitation to house-less believers, from which circumstance these paupers derived the title of Ashab al-Sufah, companions of the sofa. End of footnote. End of Chapter 17, Part 1 Chapter 17, Part 2 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al-Medina in Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. This is a LibriVox recording. If all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 17, Part 2 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al-Medina in Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. An essay towards the history of the Prophet's Mosque. The Second Mosque was erected AH 29 by the Third Caliph Atman who, regardless of the clamours of the people, overthrew the old walls and extended the building greatly towards the north and a little towards the west. But he did not remove the eastern limit on account of the private houses. He made the roof of Indian teak footnote, so I translate the Arabic-sized word sarj, end of footnote. And the walls of hoon and carved stone. These innovations cost some excitement which he allied by quoting a tradition of the Prophet with one of which he appears perpetually to have been prepared. The saying in question was according to some, were this my Mosque extended to Safa, a hill in Mecca, it verily would still be my Mosque. According to others, were the Prophet's Mosque extended to the Al-Halifah, he would still be his footnote. The Al-Halifah is a place about five miles from Al-Medina on the Meccan way, after fourteen. End of footnote. Bar-Rahman's skill in the quotation of tradition did not prevent the new building being in part a cause of his death. It was finished on the first of Muharram, A.H. 30. At length, groan splendid and powerful, Al-Islam determined to surpass other nations in the magnificence of its public buildings. Footnote, and curious to say, were all in the world, Saint Sophia's at Constantinople. Next to this ranks, Saint Peter's at Rome. Thirdly, I believe, the Juman Masjid, or Cathedral of the Old Muslim City in Bijapur in India. The fourth is, Saint Paul's London. End of footnote. In A.H. 88, Al-Waleed I, Tawf-Kale for the Banu-Umeya race, after building or rather restoring the noble Jamal Amavi, Peter of the Umeyads at Damascus determined to display his liberality at Al-Madinah. Footnote, it is to this monarch that the Saracenic mosque architecture mainly owes its present form. As will be seen, he had every advantage of borrowing from Christian, Persian, and even Indian art. From the first he took the dome. From the second, the cloister. It might have been naturalized in Arabia before his time. And possibly from the third, the minaret and the prayer niche. The latter appears to be a peculiarly Hindu feature in sacred buildings, intended to contain the idol and to support the lamps, flowers, and other offerings placed before it. End of footnote. The governor of the place, Amir Bin Abdul Aziz, was directed to buy for 7000 dinars or the cuts, all the hovels of raw brick that hatch in the eastern side of the old mosque. They were inhabited by descendants of the Prophet and of the early Caliphs. And in more than one case the ejection of the holy tenantry was affected with considerable difficulty. Some of the women, ever the most obstinate on such occasions refused to take money. And Amir was forced to the objectionable measure of turning the mouth doors with exposed faces in full day. Footnote. The reader remembered that in the 6th year of the Al-Hijra, after Muhammad's marriage with Zainab, wives were secluded behind the hijab, perda, or curtain. A verse of the Qur'an directed the Muslims to converse with them behind this veil, hence the general practice of Al-Islam. Now it is considered highly disgraceful in any Muslim to make a Muslim expose her face, and she will frequently found a threat upon the prejudice. A battle has been prevented by this means and occasionally an insurrection has been caused by it. And a footnote. The Greek Emperor, applied to by the magnificent Caliph, sent immense presence, silver lampchains, valuable curiosities. Footnote, amongst which some authors enumerate the goblet and mirror of Kisra. And a footnote. Forty loads of small cut stones for Pietra Durra and a sum of 80,000 dinars, or as others say 40,000 miscals of gold. He also dispatched 40 Coptic and 40 Greek artists to carve the Maba pillars and the casings of the walls and to super intend the gilding and the mosaic work. One of these Christians was beheaded for sculpturing a hog on the Qibla wall. And another, in an attempt to defile the roof fell to the ground and his brains were dashed out. The remainder islamized, but this did not prevent older Arabs from knowing that their mosque had been turned into a khanisa, a Christian idol house. The hujra or chamber where by Muhammad's permission, Israel the angel of death separated his soul from his body whilst his head was lying on the lap of Aisha, his favorite wife, was now for the first time taken into the mosque. The raw brick and siente which surrounded the three graves. Footnote. In the age of 550 when Jamalateen of Asfahan Wazir Tunaur ad-Din, Shahid Mahmood bin Zangi supplied its place by a grating of open sandal woodwork or, as others say, of iron. About the same time, Sayyed Abul-Hajjah sent from Egypt a sheet of white brocade embroidered in red silk with a chapter Yasin or YS in order to cover the inner wall. This was mounted on the ascension of Billa the Caliph after which it became the custom for every Sultan to renew the offering. And in AH 688, Qalauna of Egypt built the outer network of brass as it is now and surmounted it to the green dome. End of footnote. Was exchanged for one of carpet stone enclosed by an outer pressing to the narrow passage between. Footnote. The inner wall erected by Al-Waleed wasted the fire which in AH 654 burnt the mosque to the ground. Also in AH 886, when the building was consumed by lightning, the hurjjah was spared by the devouring element. End of footnote. These double walls were either without a door or had only a small blocked-up wicket on the northern side. And from that day, AH 90, there has been able to approach the sepulchre. Footnote. After the Prophet's death and burial, I shall continue to occupy the same room without even a curtain between her and the tomb. At last, vexed by the crowds of visitors, she partitioned off the hallowed spot with a wall. She visited the grave unveiled as long as her father Abu Bakr was only placed behind the Prophet. But when Umar's corpse was added, she always covered her face. Footnote. A minaret was erected at each corner of the mosque. Footnote. One of these, the minaret at the Bab-e-salam, was soon afterwards overthrown by Al-Waleed's brother Salaman because it shaded the house of Marwan where he lodged during his visit to Al-Medina in the cold season. End of footnote. The building was enlarged to 200 qubits by 167 and was finished in AH 91. When Al-Waleed the caliph visited it in state, he inquired of his lieutenant why greater magnificence had not been displayed in the erection, upon which Umar the governor informed him to his astonishment that the walls alone had cost 45,000 qubits. Footnote. The dinar, or dinarius, was a gold piece, a ducat, a sequin. End of footnote. The fourth mosque was erected in AH 191 by Al-Mahdi, third prince of the Banu Abbas or Baghdad Caliphs, celebrated in history only for spending enormous sums upon a pilgrimage. He enlarged the building by adding ten handsome pillars of carved marble with gilt capitals on the north and side. In AH 202 Al-Ma'moun made further additions to this mosque. It was from Al-Mahdi's masjid that Al-Haqim and the third Fatimid Caliph of Egypt and the deity of the Druze sect determined to steal the bodies of the prophet and his two companions. About AH 412 he sent emissaries to Al-Medina. The attempt, however, failed, and the would-be violators of the tomb lost their lives. It is generally supposed that Al-Haqim's object was to transfer their visitations to his own capital, and so manifestly insane it is difficult to discover the spring of action. Two Christians habited like Maghrabi pilgrims in AH 550 dug a mine from a neighboring house into the temple. They were discovered, beheaded, and burned to ashes. In relating these events the Muslim historians mix up many foolish preternaturalisms with credible matter. At last, to prevent the recurrence of such sacrilegious attempts al-Malik al-A'adi Noor al-Deen of the Bahra'it Mamluk Sultan or, according to others, Sultan Noor al-Deen Shahid Mahmood bin Zangi who, warned by a vision of the apostle, had started from Al-Medina only in time to discover the two Christians surrounded the holy place with a deep trench filled with molten lead. By this means Abu Bakr al-Umar who had run considerable risks of their own have ever since been able to occupy their last homes undisturbed. In AH 654 the fifth mosque was erected in consequence of a fire which some authors attribute to a volcano that broke out close to the town in terrible eruption. Footnote, a purpose to touch upon this event in a future chapter when describing Maroud from Al-Medina to Mecca. End of footnote. Others with more fanaticism and less probability of being destroyed. On this occasion, the Hajra was saved together with the old and venerable copies of the Quran third-deposited, especially the Kufic MSS written by Ertman, the Third Caliph. The piety of three sovereigns Al-Mu'tasim, last caliph of Baghdad, Al-Mutafar Shamsuddin Yusuf, chief of Yemen, and Al-Zahir Baybars, Baharat Sultan of Egypt completed the work in AH 688. This building was enlarged and beautified by the princes of Egypt and lasted upwards of 200 years. The sixth mosque was built almost as it now stands by Qaid Bay, 19th Sultan of the Circassian Mamluk Kings of Egypt, in AH 888. It is now therefore more than four centuries old. Al-Mu'tasim's mosque had been struck by lightning during a storm. Thirteen men were killed at prayers and the destroying element spared nothing by the interior of the Hajra. On this occasion, says Sammanhudi, quoted by Burqat the interior of the Hajra was cleared and three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish but the author of this history who himself entered it, saw no traces of tombs. In another place, he, an eyewitness had declared that the coffin containing the dust of Muhammad was cased to silver. I repeat these details. End of footnote. The railing and dome were restored, niches and a pulpit were sent from Cairo and the gates and minarets were distributed as they are now. Not content to this Qaid Bay established waqf bequests and pensions and introduced order of attendance on the tomb. In the 10th century Sultan Tuleiman the Magnificent paved with fine white marble the rhoda or garden which Qaid Bay, not daring to alter had left of earth and erected the fine minaret that bears his name. During the dominion of the later sultans and of Muhammad Ali a few traveling presence of lamps, carpets wax candles and chandeliers and a few immaterial alterations have been made. The present head of al-Islam as I have before said is rebuilding one of the minarets and the northern colonnade of the temple. Such is the history of the mosque's prosperity. During the siege of Al-Madinah by the Wahhabis, footnote Burke Hart has given a full account of this event in his history of the Wahhabis and a footnote. The principal people seized and divided amongst themselves the treasures of the tomb which must have been considerable. When the town surrendered Sa'ud accompanied by his principal officers entered the hijra but terrified by dreams he did not penetrate behind the curtain or attempt to see the tomb. He plundered however the treasures in the passage the Kokobid Duri or pearl star footnote c. 16 Ante and the ornaments sent as presents from every part of al-Islam. Part of these he sold it is said for 150,000 riyals or dollars and the rest he carried with him to Dera'iyah his capital. Footnote my predecessor estimates the whole treasury in those days to have been worth 300,000 riyals a small sum if you consider the length of time during which it was accumulating the chiefs of the town he traded 100 weight of golden vessels worth at most 50,000 dollars and as Sa'ud sold part of the plunder to Ghalib for 100,000 I was told one third more reserving for himself about the same amount of pearls and corals Burkhardt supposes that the governors of Al-Madinah who were often independent chiefs and sometimes guardians of the tombs made occasional droughts upon the generosity of the faithful. An accident prevented any further desecration of the building the greedy Wahhabis allured by the appearance of the golden or gilt globes and crescents surmounting the green dome attempted to throw down the latter. Two of their number it is said were killed by falling from the slippery roof. Footnote I inquired in vain about the substance that covered the dome some told me it was tinfoil others supposed it to be riveted with green tiles and a footnote. And the rest struck by superstitious fears abandoned the work of destruction. They injured however the prosperity of the place by taxing the inhabitants by interrupting the annual remittances and by forbidding visitors to approach the tomb. They are spoken of with abhorrence by the people who quoted a peculiarly bad trait in their characters namely that in return for any small religious assistance of prayer or recitation they were in the habit of giving few grains of gunpowder or something equally valuable instead of stone dollars. Footnote the Badawi calls a sound dollar Kirsh Hajar or Riyal Hajar a stone dollar. And a footnote When Abdullah son of Sa'ud had concluded in A.D. 1815 a treaty of peace with Tussan Pasha the Egyptian general bought back for 10,000 Riyals all the golden vessels that had not been melted down and restored the treasure to its original place. This I have heard denied, at the same time it rests upon credible evidence. Amongst orientals the events of the last generations are usually speaking imperfectly remembered and the ulama are well acquainted with the history of vicissitudes which took place 1200 years ago when profoundly ignorant scholars witnessed. Many incredible tales also I heard concerning the present 12 of the El Medina Mosque. This must be expected when the exaggeration is considered likely to confer honor upon the exaggerator. The establishment attached to the El Medina Mosque is greatly altered since Prokhart's time. Footnote at the same time his account is still carefully copied by our popular and general authors who it is presumed to easily become better informed. End of footnote The result of the increasing influence of the Turkish half-breeds it is still extensive because it in the first place the principle of divided labor is favored throughout the east and secondly because the sons of the holy cities naturally desire to extract as much as they can from the sons of other cities with the least amount of work. The substance of the following account was given to me by Omar Effendi and I compared it with the information of others upon whom I could rely. The principle of the Mosque or Sheikh al-Haram is no longer a neuter. Footnote the persons in remote times as we learn from Herodotus, Lib. 6 were weighted upon by eunuchs and some attribute to them the invention. Amianus Marcellinus Lib. 14 ascribes the origin to Semiramis. In el-Islam the employment of such persons about the mosque is a bidal or custom unknown in the time of the prophet. It is said to have arisen from the following three considerations. One, these people are concentrated in their professions. Two, they must see and touch strange women at the shrines and three the shrines al-Haram or sacred having a detail which are kept secret from the prying eyes of men and therefore should be served by eunuchs. It is strange that the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Muslim Mosque should have admitted such an abomination and a footnote. The present is a Turkish pasha, athman, appointed from Constantinople with a salary of about 30,000 piasters a month. His naib or deputy is a black eunuch, the chief of Agawat, upon a pay of 5,000 piasters. Footnote, one of these gentry if called Tawasi, his generic name would certainly insult a stranger. The polite form of address to one of them is Agha, master, in the plural Agawat. In Partibus they exact the greatest respect from men and the title of the eunuch of the tomb is worth a considerable sum to them. The eunuchs of El Medina are more numerous and better paid of Mecca. They are generally slaves of rich men at Constantinople and prefer this city on account of its climate and a footnote. The present principle of this college is one Tayfur Agha, a slave of Asma Sultanah, sister of the late Sultan Mahmoud. The chief treasurer is called the Mudira Al-Haram. He keeps an eye upon the Khazindar or treasurer whose salary is 2,000 piasters. The Mustaslim is the chief of the Qatibs, all writers who settle the accounts of the mosque. His pay is 1,500 and under him is an Aqib or assistant upon 1,000 piasters. There are three sheikhs of the eunuchs who receive from 700 to 1,000 piasters a month each. The eunuchs, about a 120 in number, are divided into three orders. The Bawabin or porters open the doors of the mosque. The Khubziya sweep the pure paths of the temple. And the lowest order, popularly called Batalin, clean away all impurities, beat those found sleeping and act as beadles, a duty here which involves considerable use of the cane. These men receive as perquisites presents from each visitor when they offer him the usual congratulation and for other small favors, permitting strangers to light the lamp or to sweep the floor. Footnote. The sense of the city, however, are always allowed to do such service gratis if indeed they are not paid for it. End of footnote. Their pay varies from 250 to 500 piasters a month. They are looked upon as honorable men and are generally speaking married, some of them indulging in their wives, which would have aroused juvenile's bile. The Ahra's character is curious and exceptional as his outward conformation. Disconnected with humanity, he is cruel, fierce, brave and capable of any villainy. His frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs, with high shoulders, protruding joints, and a face by contrast large. He is an usually expert in the use of weapons and sitting well home, he rise to admiration, his horse-stick voice investing him with all the circumstances of command. Besides the eunuchs, there are a number of free servants called Fathrashin attached to the Mosque. Almost all the middle and lower class of citizens belong to this order. They are divided into parties of 30 each and are arranged every week, those on duty receiving aghazi or 22 piasters for their services. Their business is to dust and to spread the carpets to put oil and wicks into the lamps, which the eunuchs let down from the ceiling, and generally speaking diligently to do nothing. Finally, the menial establishment of the Mosque consists of a sheikh saqqa, chief of the water carriers, under whom are from 45 men who sprinkle the floors, water the garden, and for consideration supply a cup full of brackish liquid to visitors. The literary establishment is even more extensive than the executive and the menial. There is a qaldi or chief judge sent every year from Constantinople. After 12 months at Al-Madinah, he passes on to Mecca, and returns home after a similar term of service in the second holy city. Under these three muftis, of the Hanafi, the Shafi'i, and the Maliki schools. Footnote Others told me that there were only two muftis at Al-Madinah, namely those of the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools. If this is true, it proves the insignificance of the followers of Malik, which personage like others is less known in his own town than elsewhere. And a footnote. The fourth or hanbali is not represented here or at Cairo. Footnote Anbali school is nowhere common except in Najd, and the lands eastward as far as Al-Hasa. At present it labors under a sort of imputation being supposed to have thrown out a bad offshoot, the Wahhabis. And a footnote. Each of these officers receives as pay about 250 piasters a month. The ru'asa footnote Ru'asa is the plural of Ra'is, a chief or president. It is the term generally applied in Arabia to the captain of a vessel. And in al-Yaman it often means ababa. In virtue I presume of its root, ra'as, the head, and a footnote. As the M'azineen or prayer callers here call themselves are extensively represented. There are 48 to 49 of the lowest order, presided over by six Kubar or masters. And these again are under the Sheikh al-Ru'asa, who alone has the privilege of calling to prayers from the Ra'isi Yeminaret. The Sheikh receives 150 piasters, the chiefs about 100, and the common crier 60. There are 45 hotlips who preach and pray before the congregation on Fridays for 120 piasters a month. They are under the Sheikh al-Khutaba. About the same sum is given to 75 imams who recite the five ordinary prayers of every day in the mosque. The Sheikh al-Immah is their superior. Footnote Some say that the Egyptian distinction between the Imam Khatib and the Imam Ra'atib does not obtain at al-Madinah. End of footnote. Almost all the citizens of al-Madinah who have not some official charge about the temple, qualify themselves to act as Muzawir. They begin as boys to learn love prayer, and the conducting of visitors and partly by begging partly by boldness, they often pick up a tolerable livelihood at an early age. The Muzawir will often receive strangers into his house, as was done to me, and direct their devotions during the whole time of their stay. For such service he requires a sum of money proportioned to his guest's circumstances, but this fee does not end the connection. If the Muzawir visit the home of his Zahir, he expects to be treated with the utmost hospitality and to depart with a handsome present. A religious visitor will often transmit to his his agon at Makkah and al-Madinah yearly sums to purchase for himself a prayer at the Kaaba and the Prophet's tomb. Their remittance is usually wrapped up in paper and placed in a sealed leather bag, somewhat like a portfolio, upon which is worked the name of the person entitled to receive it. It is then given in charge either to a trustworthy pilgrim or to the public treasurer who accompanies the principal caravans. I could procure no exact information about the amount of money forwarded every year from Constantinople and Cairo to al-Madinah. The only point upon which men seem to agree was that they were defrauded of half their dues. When the Sadaqa and Oqaf or the Elms and Bequests arrive at the town, they are committed by the Surah or financier of the caravan to the Muftis, the chief of the Khatibs and the Khaldi's club. These officers form a committee and after reckoning the total of the families entitled to pensions divide the money amongst them according to the number in each household and the rank of the pensioners. They are divided into five orders. The Alama are learned and the Udarrisin teach adults in the Haram. The Imams and Khatibs the Descendants of the Prophet the Fuqaha pur-divine pedodox charon-grinders who teach boys to read the Quran. The Awam are nobile verges of the holy city, including the Ahali or burgers of the town and the Mujawarin or those settled in the place. Umar Effendi belonged to the second order and he informed me that his share varied from 3 to 15 Riyals per annum. End of chapter 17