And All Authors Who, Like Ibn Jubayr, Described The
Meccan Ceremonies, Mention The Sword Or Staff.
The curious reader will
consult this most accurate of Moslem travellers; and a perusal of the
pages will show that anciently the sermon differed considerably from,
and was far more ceremonious than, the present Khutbah.
[FN#10] The words were “Peace be upon ye!
And the Mercy of Allah and His
Blessings!”
[p.227] CHAPTER XXXII.
LIFE AT MECCAH, AND UMRAH, OR THE LITTLE PILGRIMAGE.
MY few remaining days at Meccah sped pleasantly enough. Omar Effendi
visited me regularly, and arranged to accompany me furtively to Cairo.
I had already consulted Mohammed Shiklibha—who suddenly appeared at Muna,
having dropped down from Suez to Jeddah, and having reached Meccah in
time for pilgrimage—about the possibility of proceeding Eastward. The
honest fellow’s eyebrows rose till they almost touched his turband, and
he exclaimed in a roaring voice, “Wallah! Effendi! thou art surely mad.”
Every day he brought me news of the different Caravans. The Badawin of
Al-Hijaz were, he said, in a ferment caused by the reports of the Holy
War, want of money, and rumours of quarrels between the Sharif and the
Pasha: already they spoke of an attack upon Jeddah. Shaykh Mas’ud, the
camel man, from whom I parted on the best of terms, seriously advised
my remaining at Meccah for some months even before proceeding to Sana’a.
Others gave the same counsel. Briefly I saw that my star was not then
in the ascendant, and resolved to reserve myself for a more propitious
conjuncture by returning to Egypt.
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