“About The Tenth Easy Day’S Journey, After We Come Out Of Mecca, We Enter
Into Medina, The Place Where Mahomet Lies Entombed.
Although it be (as
I take it) two or three days’ journey out of the direct way from Mecca to
Egypt, yet the Hagges pay their visit there for the space of two days,
and come away the third.
“Those Mahometans which live to the southward of Mecca, at the East
Indies, and thereaway, are not bound to make a visit to Medina, but to
Mecca only, because it would be so much out of their way. But such as
come from Turkey, Tartary, Egypt, and Africa, think themselves obliged
to do so.
“Medina is but a little town, and poor, yet it is walled round,[FN#48]
and hath in it a great Mosque, but nothing near so big as the temple at
Mecca. In one corner of the Mosque is a place, built about fourteen or
fifteen paces square. About this place are great windows,[FN#49] fenced
with brass grates. In the inside it is decked with some lamps, and
ornaments. It is arched all over head. (I find some relate, that there
are no less than 3000 lamps about Mahomet’s tomb; but it is a mistake,
for there are not, as I verily believe, an hundred; and I speak what I
know, and have been an eye-witness of). In the middle of this place is
the tomb of Mahomet, where the corpse of that bloody impostor is laid,
which hath silk curtains all around it like a bed; which curtains are
not costly nor beautiful. There is nothing of his tomb to be seen by
any, by reason
[p.387] of the curtains round it, nor are any of the Hagges permitted
to enter there.[FN#50] None go in but the Eunuchs, who keep watch over
it, and they only light the lamps, which burn there by night, and to
sweep and cleanse the place. All the privilege the Hagges have, is only
to thrust in their hands at the windows,[FN#51] between the brass
grates, and to petition the dead juggler, which they do with a
wonderful deal of reverence, affection, and zeal. My patroon had his
silk handkerchief stole out of his bosom, while he stood at his
devotion here.
“It is storied by some, that the coffin of Mahomet hangs up by the
attractive virtue of a loadstone to the roof of the Mosque; but believe
me it is a false story. When I looked through the brass gate, I saw as
much as any of the Hagges; and the top of the curtains, which covered
the tomb, were not half so high as the roof or arch, so that it is
impossible his coffin should be hanging there. I never heard the
Mahometans say anything like it. On the outside of this place, where
Mahomet’s tomb is, are some sepulchres of their reputed saints; among
which is one prepared for Jesus Christ, when he shall come again
personally into the world; for they hold that Christ will come again in
the flesh, forty years before the end of the world, to confirm the
Mahometan faith, and say likewise, that our Saviour was not crucified
in person, but in effigy, or one like him.
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