Afterwards appear, the number of stones and the way of
throwing them vary greatly in the various schools.
[FN#43] The difference in the pillars of Umrah and Hajj, is that in the
former the standing on Arafat and the Tawaf al-Ifazah are necessarily
omitted.
[FN#44] The 20th and 36th chapters of the Koran.
[FN#45] These second words are the feminines of the first; they prove
that the Moslem is not above praying for what Europe supposed he did
not believe in, namely, the souls of women.
[p.294] APPENDIX II.
THE BAYT ULLAH.
THE House of Allah[FN#1] has been so fully described by my
predecessors, that there is little inducement to attempt a new
portrait. Readers, however, may desire a view of the great sanctuary,
and, indeed, without a plan and its explanation, the ceremonies of the
Harim would be scarcely intelligible. I will do homage to the memory of
the accurate Burckhardt, and extract from his pages a description which
shall be illustrated by a few notes.
“The Kaabah stands in an oblong square (enclosed by a great wall) 250
paces long, and 200 broad,[FN#2] none of the sides of which runs quite
in a straight line, though at first sight the whole appears to be of a
regular shape. This open square is enclosed on the eastern side by a
colonnade. The pillars stand in a quadruple row; they are three deep on
the other sides, and are united by pointed arches, every four of which
support a small dome plastered and whitened on the outside. These
domes, according to Kotobeddyn, are 152 in number.[FN#3] The
[p.295] pillars are above twenty feet in height, and generally from one
foot and a half to one foot and three quarters in diameter; but little
regularity has been observed in regard to them. Some are of white
marble, granite or porphyry; but the greater number are of common stone
of the Meccah mountains.[FN#4] El Fasy states the whole at 589, and
says they are all of marble excepting 126, which are of common stone,
and three of composition. Kotobeddyn reckons 555, of which, according
to him, 311 are of marble, and the rest of the stone taken from the
neighbouring mountains; but neither of these authors lived to see the
latest repairs of the Mosque, after the destruction occasioned by a
torrent in A.D. 1626.[FN#5] Between every three or four column stands
an octagonal one, about four feet in thickness. On the east side are
two shafts of reddish grey granite in one piece, and one fine grey
porphyry with slabs of white feldspath. On the north side is one red
granite column, and one of fine-grained red porphyry; these are
probably the columns which Kotobeddyn states to have been brought from
Egypt, and
[p.296] principally from Akhmim (Panopolis), when the chief (Caliph) El
Mohdy enlarged the Mosque in A.H. 163. Among the 450 or 500 columns
which form the enclosure I found not any two capitals or bases exactly
alike. The capitals are of coarse Saracen workmanship; some of them,
which had served for former buildings, by the ignorance of the workmen,
have been placed upside down upon the shafts. I observed about half a
dozen marble bases of good Grecian workmanship. A few of the marble
columns bear Arabic or Cufic inscriptions, in which I read the dates
863 and 762 (A.H.).[FN#6] A column on the east side exhibits a very
ancient Cufic inscription, somewhat defaced, which I could neither read
nor copy. Some of the columns are strengthened with broad iron rings or
bands,[FN#7] as in many other Saracen buildings of the East. They were
first employed by Ibn Dhaher Berkouk, king of Egypt, in rebuilding the
Mosque, which had been destroyed by fire in A.H. 802.[FN#8]”
“Some parts of the walls and arches are gaudily painted in stripes of
yellow, red, and blue, as are also the minarets. Paintings of flowers,
in the usual Muselman
[p.297] style, are nowhere seen; the floors of the colonnades are paved
with large stones badly cemented together.”
“Some paved causeways lead from the colonnades towards the Kaabah, or
Holy House, in the centre.[FN#9] They are of sufficient breadth to
admit four or five persons to walk abreast, and they are elevated about
nine inches above the ground. Between these causeways, which are
covered with fine gravel or sand, grass appears growing in several
places, produced by the Zem Zem water oozing out of the jars which are
placed in the ground in long rows during the day.[FN#10] There is a
descent of eight or ten steps from the gates on the north side into the
platform of the colonnade, and of three or four steps from the gates on
the south side.”
“Towards the middle of this area stands the Kaabah; it is 115 paces from
the north colonnade, and 88 from the south. For this want of symmetry
we may readily account, the Kaabah having existed prior to the Mosque,
which was built around it, and enlarged at different periods. The
Kaabah is an oblong massive structure, 18 paces in length, 14 in
breadth, and from 35 to 40 feet in height.[FN#11] It is constructed of
the grey Mekka stone, in large blocks of different sizes joined
together, in a very
[p.298] rough manner, with bad cement.[FN#12] It was entirely rebuilt,
as it now stands, in A.D. 1627. The torrent in the preceding year had
thrown down three of its sides, and, preparatory to its re-erection,
the fourth side was, according to Asamy, pulled down, after the Olemas,
or learned divines, had been consulted on the question whether mortals
might be permitted to destroy any part of the holy edifice without
incurring the charge of sacrilege and infidelity.”
“The Kaabah stands upon a base two feet in height, which presents a sharp
inclined plane.[FN#13] Its roof being flat, it has at a distance the
appearance of a perfect cube.[FN#14] The only door which affords
entrance, and which is opened but two or three times in the
year,[FN#15] is on the
[p.299] north side and about seven feet above the ground.[FN#16] In the
first periods of Islam, however, when it was rebuilt in A.H. 64 by Ibn
Zebeyr (Zubayr), chief of Mecca, it had two doors even with the ground
floor of the Mosque.[FN#17]
