The Persians,
Says Burckhardt, Were Suspected Of This Sacrilege, And Now Their
Ill-Fame Has Spread Far; At Alexandria They Were Described To Me As A
People Who Defile The Ka’Abah.
It is scarcely necessary to say that a
Shi’ah, as well as a Sunni, would look upon such an action with lively
horror.
The people of Meccah, however, like the Madani, have turned the
circumstance to their own advantage, and make an occasional “avanie.” Thus,
nine or ten years ago, on the testimony of a boy who swore that he saw
the inside of the Ka’abah defiled by a Persian, they rose up, cruelly
beat the schismatics, and carried them off to their peculiar quarter
the Shamiyah, forbidding their ingress to the Ka’abah. Indeed, till
Mohammed Ali’s time, the Persians rarely ventured upon a pilgrimage, and
even now that man is happy who gets over it without a beating. The
defilement of the Black Stone was probably the work of some Jew or
Greek, who risked his life to gratify a furious bigotry.
[FN#9] Prayer is granted at fourteen places besides Al-Multazem, viz.:—
1. At the place of circumambulation.
2. Under the Mizab, or spout of the Ka’abah.
3. Inside the Ka’abah.
4. At the well Zemzem.
5. Behind Abraham’s place of prayer.
6 and 7. On Mounts Safa and Marwah.
8. During the ceremony called “Al-Sai.”
9. Upon Mount Arafat.
10. At Muzdalifah.
11. In Muna.
12.
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