OR OBJECTS OF PIOUS VISITATION IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MEDINA.
ON the day after the pilgrim has performed his first duties at the
mosque and the tomb, he usually visits the burial-ground of the town, in
memory of the many saints who lie buried there.
It is just beyond the
town-walls, near the gate of Bab Djoma, and bears the name of El Bekya.
A square of several hundred paces is enclosed by a wall which, on the
southern side, joins the suburb, and on the others is surrounded with
date-groves. Considering the sanctity of the persons whose bodies it
contains, it is a very mean place; and perhaps the most dirty and
miserable burial-ground in any eastern town of the size of Medina. It
does not contain a single good tomb, nor even any large inscribed blocks
of stone covering tombs; but instead, mere rude heaps of earth, with low
borders of loose stones placed about them. The Wahabys are accused of
having defaced the tombs; and in proof of this, the ruins of small domes
and buildings are pointed out, which formerly covered the tombs of
Othman, Abbas, Setna Fatme, and the aunts of Mohammed, which owed their
destruction to those sectaries: but they would certainly not have
annihilated every other simple tomb built of stone here, which they did
neither at Mekka nor any other place. The miserable state of this
cemetery must have existed prior to the Wahaby conquest, and is to be
ascribed to the niggardly minds of the towns-people, who are little
disposed to
[p.363] incur any expense in honouring the remains of their celebrated
countrymen.
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