[245] C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism, p. 129, et seq. (New York, 1916).
[246] The duty of the imam “is to stand in front of the congregation, facing the Kibleh or Mecca-pointing niche, at the appointed hours of devotion, that is ordinarily, as every one knows, five times a day, when he recites aloud the public prayers, marks time for the various devotional postures, and, in a word, acts as fugleman to the worshipers ranged behind him, from whom, however, he is distinguished by no special dress, caste or character! Primus inter pares; but nothing more. The Khatib, or preacher, usually reads out of an old, well-thumbed manuscript sermon book, or, though much more rarely, delivers extempore the Friday discourse, a short performance, seldom exceeding ten minutes in duration.... Once outside the mosque, the imam, the khatib, or whoever else may have officiated during the prayers, is a house-mason, a green-grocer, or pipe-maker, or anything else, as before.” Essays on Eastern Questions, p. 91, et seq. (by W. G. Palgrave, London, 1872).
[247] Op. cit., p. 82.
[248] The word “mosque” is derived from the Arabic masjid which signifies a place of worship.
[249] For a full description of Beith Allah—house of God—and the holy Kaaba, “Navel of the World,” as the Arabian geographer, Ibn Haukal, calls it, see Sir Richard Burton’s A Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca, Chaps. XXIV, XXV.
[250] Cf. Aspects of Islam, p. 199 et seq. (by D. B. MacDonald, New York, 1911).
[251] Bibliothèque Orientale, Tom. II, p. 81 (by Barthèlemy d’Herbelot, The Hague, 1777).
[252] D’Herbelot, op. cit., Tom. II, p. 106.
[253] D’Herbelot, op. cit., Tom. II, p. 351.
[254] Op. cit., p. 122, et seq.