Mekka generally, but the mosque in particular, abounds with flocks of wild pigeons, which are considered to be the inviolable property of the temple, and are called the Pigeons of the Beitullah. Nobody dares to kill any of them, even when they enter the private houses. In the square of the mosque, several small stone basins are regularly filled with water for their use; here also Arab women expose to sale, upon small straw mats, corn and durra, which the pilgrims
[p.152] purchase, and throw to the pigeons. I have seen some of the public women take this mode of exhibiting themselves, and of bargaining with the pilgrims, under pretence of selling them corn for the sacred pigeons.
The gates of the mosque are nineteen in number, and are distributed about it, without any order or symmetry. I subjoin their names, as they are usually written upon small cards by the Metowefs: in another column are the names by which they were known in more ancient times, principally taken from Azraky and Kotoby.
Modern Names. Ancient Names.
Bab-es-Salam, composed of 3 Bab beni Sheybe. smaller gates, or arches. Bab el Neby 2 Bab el Djenaiz, The dead being carried through it to the mosque, that prayers may be said over their bodies. Bab el Abbas. 3 Bab Sertakat. Opposite to this the house of Abbas once stood. Bab Aly 3 Bab Beni Hashem. Bab el Zeyt 2 Bab Bazan. Bab el Ashra Bab el Baghle 2 Bab el Szafa 5 Bab Beni Makhzoum. Bab Sherif 2 Bab el Djyad. Bab Medjahed 2 Bab el Dokhmase Bab Zoleykha 2 Bab Sherif Adjelan (who built it.) Bab Om Hany. 2 So called from the daughter of Aby Taleb. Bab el Wodaa. 2 Bab el Hazoura Through which the pilgrim passes in taking his final leave of the temple. Bab Ibrahim 1 Bab el Kheyatyn, or Bab Djomah. [So called, not from Abraham, but from a tailor who had his shop near it.]
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Bab el Omra 1 Through which the pilgrims issue to visit the Omra. Also called Beni Saham. Bab Ateek 1 Bab Amer Ibn el Aas, or Bab el Sedra. Bab el Bastye 1 Bab el Adjale. Bab el Kotoby 1 Bab Zyade Dar el Nedoua. [Taking its name from the famous author of a History of Mekka, who lived in an adjoining lane, and opened this small gate into the mosque. Bab Zyade 3 Bab Dereybe 1 Bab Medrese. — Total number of arches 39
The principal of these gates are:—on the north side, Bab-es-Salam, by which every pilgrim enters the mosque; Bab Abbas; Bab el Neby, by which Mohammed is said to have always entered the mosque; Bab Aly. On the east side, Bab el Zeyt, or Bab el Ashra, through which the ten first Sahabe, or adherents of Mohammed, used to enter; Bab el Szafa; two gates called Biban el Sherif, opposite the palaces of the Sherif. On the south side, Bab Ibrahim, where the colonnade projects beyond the straight line of the columns, and forms a small square; Bab el Omra, through which it is necessary to pass, on visiting the Omra. On the west side, Bab el Zyade, forming a projecting square similar to that at Bab Ibrahim, but larger. Most of these gates have high pointed arches; but a few round arches are seen among them, which, like all the arches of this kind in the Hedjaz, are nearly semi-circular. They are without any ornament, except the inscription on the exterior, which commemorates the name of the builder; and they are all posterior in date to the fourteenth century. As each gate consists of two or three arches, or divisions, separated by narrow walls, these divisions are counted in the enumeration of the gates leading into the Kaaba, and thus make up the number thirty-nine. There being no doors to the gates, the mosque is consequently open at all
[p.154] times. I have crossed at every hour of the night, and always found people there, either at prayers, or walking about.
The outside walls of the mosque are those of the houses which surround it on all sides. These houses belonged originally to the mosque; the greater part are now the property of individuals, who have purchased them; they are let out to the richest hadjys, at very high prices, as much as five hundred piastres being given, during the pilgrimage, for a good apartment, with windows opening into the mosque. Windows have, in consequence, been opened in many parts of the walls, on a level with the street, and above that of the floor of the colonnades: Hadjys living in these apartments are allowed to perform the Fridays prayers at home; because, having the Kaaba in view from the windows, they are supposed to be in the mosque itself, and to join in prayer those assembled within the temple. Upon a level with the ground-floor of the colonnades, and opening into them, are small apartments formed in the walls, having the appearance of dungeons: these have remained the property of the mosque, while the houses above them belong to private individuals. They are let out to watermen, who deposit in them the Zemzem jars; or to less opulent hadjys, who wish to live in the mosque. Some of the surrounding houses still belong to the mosque, and were originally intended for public schools, as their name of Medrese implies: they are now all let out to hadjys. In one of the largest of them, Mohammed Aly Pasha lived; in another Hassan Pasha. [One of the finest Medreses in Mekka, built by order of Kail Beg, Sultan of Egypt, in A.H. 888, in the side of the mosque fronting the street Masaa, has also become a private building, after having been deprived of its revenue by the peculation of its guardians. Besides the Medreses, there were other buildings of less extent erected by different Sultans of Egypt and Constantinople for similar purposes, called Rebat, where poor pilgrims might reside, who chose to study there; but these have shared the fate of the Medreses, and are now either the private property of Mekkawys, or let to individuals on long leases by the mosque, and used as common lodging- houses.]