The Curious Reader May Compare The Above With Burckhardt’S
Correct Description Of The Ceremonies.
As regards the shaving, Finati
possibly was right in his day; in Ali Bey’s, as in my time,
The head was
only shaved once, and a few strokes of the razor sufficed for the
purpose of religious tonsure.
[FN#15] Jabal Nur, anciently Hira, is a dull grey as of granite; it
derives its modern name from the spiritual light of religion.
Circumstances prevented my ascending it, so I cannot comment upon
Finati’s “custom of leaping.”
[FN#16] Open three days in the year, according to Ali Bey, the same in
Burckhardt’s, and in my time. Besides these public occasions, private
largesses can always turn the key.
[FN#17] I heard from good authority, that the Ka’abah is never opened
without several pilgrims being crushed to death. Ali Bey (remarks Mr.
Bankes) says nothing of the supposed conditions annexed. In my next
volume [Part iii. (“Meccah”) of this work] I shall give them, as I received
them from the lips of learned and respectable Moslems. They differ
considerably from Finati’s, and no wonder; his account is completely
opposed to the strong good sense which pervades the customs of
Al-Islam. As regards his sneer at the monastic orders in Italy—that the
conditions of entering are stricter and more binding than those of the
Ka’abah, yet that numbers are ready to profess in them—it must not be
imagined that Arab human nature differs very materially from Italian.
Many unworthy feet pass the threshold of the Ka’abah; but there are many
Moslems, my friend, Omar Effendi, for instance, who have performed the
pilgrimage a dozen times, and would never, from conscientious motives,
enter the holy edifice.
[FN#18] In 1807, according to Ali Bey, the Wahhabis took the same
precaution, says Mr. Bankes.
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