The Only Remarkable Feature In The “Getting Up” Of The Little
Octavo Is, That The Engraving Headed “The Most Sacred
And antient Temple
of the Mahometans at Mecca,” is the reverse of the impression[.]
[FN#2] Some years afterwards, Mr.
Consul Baker, when waited upon by
Pitts, in London, gave him a copy of the letter, with the following
memorandum upon the back of it—“Copy of my letter to Consul Raye at Smyrna,
to favour the escape of Joseph Pitts, an English renegade, from a
squadron of Algier men-of-war. Had my kindness to him been discovered
by the government of Algiers, my legs and arms had first been broken,
and my carcass burnt—a danger hitherto not courted by any.”
[FN#3] The italics in the text are the author’s. This is admirably
characteristic of the man. Asiatic Christendom would not satisfy him.
He seems to hate the “damnable doctrines” of the “Papists,” almost as much as
those of the Moslems.
[FN#4] He must have been accustomed to long days’ journeys. Al-Idrisi
makes Jeddah forty miles from Meccah; I calculated about forty-four.
[FN#5] Dalil, a guide, generally called at Meccah “Muttawwif.”
[FN#6] Pitts’ Note,—that before they’ll provide for themselves, they serve
God in their way.
[FN#7] Abdast is the Turkish word, borrowed from the Persian, for “Wuzu,”
the minor ablution.
[FN#8] Ruka’at, a bending. This two-bow prayer is in honour of the Mosque.
[FN#9] This is the ceremony technically called Al-Sai, or running
between Safa and Marwah. Burckhardt describes it accurately, vol. i.
pp. 174, 175.
[FN#10] Ihram, the pilgrim-garb.
[FN#11] Now gold or gilt.
[FN#12] This is an error. The stone is called Hajar Aswad, the Black
Stone, or Hajar As’ad, the Blessed Stone. Moreover, it did not change its
colour on account of the sins of the people who kissed it.
[FN#13] The Meccans, in effect, still make this a boast.
[FN#14] Nothing more blindly prejudiced than this statement. Moslems
turn towards Meccah, as Christians towards Jerusalem.
[FN#15] As will afterwards be explained, all the four orthodox schools
do not think it necessary to kiss the stone after each circumambulation.
[FN#16] These are mere local traditions. The original Ka’abah was
composed of materials gathered from the six mountains of Paradise
(chap. xx.) The present building is of grey granite quarried in a hill
near Meccah.
[FN#17] Now Jabal Nur.
[FN#18] They come from the well-known Taif, which the country people
call Hijaz, but never Habbash. The word Taif literally means the
“circumambulator.” It is said that when Adam settled at Meccah, finding the
country barren, he prayed to Allah to supply him with a bit of fertile
land. Immediately appeared a mountain, which having performed Tawaf
round the Ka’abah, settled itself down eastward of Meccah. Hence, to the
present day, Taif is called Kita min al-Sham, a piece of Syria, its
fatherland.
[FN#19] This is an error of printing for “paces.”
[FN#20] (Pitts’ Note.) Not of massy gold, as a late French author (who, I
am sure, was never there) says.
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