The Masjid al-Fazikhof Date-liquoris so called because when Abu Ayyub and others of the Ansar were sitting with cups in their hands, they heard that intoxicating
[p.46] draughts were for the future forbidden, upon which they poured the liquor upon the ground. Here the Prophet prayed six days whilst he was engaged in warring down the Benu Nazir Jews. The Mosque derives its other name, Al-Shamsof the Sunbecause, being erected on rising ground East of and near Kuba, it receives the first rays of morning light.
To the Eastward of the Masjid al-Fazikh lies the Masjid al-Kurayzah, erected on a spot where the Prophet descended to attack the Jewish tribe of that name. Returning from the battle of the Moat, wayworn and tired with fighting, he here sat down to wash and comb his hair, when suddenly appeared to him the Archangel Gabriel in the figure of a horseman dressed in a corslet and covered with dust. The Angels of Allah, said the preternatural visitor, are still in Arms, O Prophet, and it is Allahs Will that Thy foot return to the Stirrup. I go before Thee to prepare a Victory over the Infidels, the Sons of Kurayzah. The legend adds that the dust raised by the angelic host was seen in the streets of Al-Madinah, but that mortal eye fell not upon horsemans form. The Prophet ordered his followers to sound the battle-call, gave his flag to Ali,the Arab token of appointing a commander-in-chief,and for twenty-five days invested the habitations of the enemy. This hapless tribe was exterminated, sentence of death being passed upon them by Saad ibn Maaz, an Ausi whom they constituted their judge because he belonged to an allied tribe. Six hundred men were beheaded in the Market-place of Al-Madinah, their property was plundered, and their wives and children were reduced to slavery.
Tantane relligio potuit suadere malorum!
The Masjid Mashrabat Umm Ibrahim, or Mosque of the garden of Ibrahims mother, is a place where Mariyah the Copt had a garden, and became the mother of
[p.47] Ibrahim, the Prophets second son.[FN#35] It is a small building in what is called the Awali, or highest part of the Al-Madinah plain, to the North of the Masjid Benu Kurayzah, and near the Eastern Harrah or ridge.[FN#36]
Northwards of Al-Bakia is, or was, a small building called the Masjid al-Ijabahof Granting,from the following circumstance. One day the Prophet stopped to perform his devotions at this place, which then belonged to the Benu Muawiyah of the tribe of Aus. He made a long Dua or supplication, and then turning to his Companions, exclaimed, I have asked of Allah three favours, two hath he vouchsafed to me, but the third was refused! Those granted were that the Moslems might never be destroyed by famine or by deluge. The third was that they might not perish by internecine strife.
The Masjid al-Fath (of Victory), vulgarly called the Four Mosques, is situated in the Wady Al-Sayh,[FN#37] which comes from the direction of Kuba, and about half a mile to the East of Al-Kiblatayn. The largest is called the Masjid al-Fath, or Al-Ahzabof the Troops,and is alluded to in the Koran. Here it is said the Prophet prayed for three days during the Battle of the Moat, also called the affair Al-Ahzab, the last fought with the Infidel Kuraysh under Abu Sufiyan. After three days of devotion, a cold and violent blast arose, with rain
[p.48] and sleet, and discomfited the foe. The Prophets prayer having here been granted, it is supposed by ardent Moslems that no petition put up at the Mosque Al-Ahzab is ever neglected by Allah. The form of supplication is differently quoted by different authors. When Al-Shafei was in trouble and fear of Harun al-Rashid, by the virtue of this formula he escaped all danger: I would willingly offer so valuable a prophylactory to my readers, only it is of an unmanageable length. The doctors of Al-Islam also greatly differ about the spot where the Prophet stood on this occasion; most of them support the claims of the Masjid al-Fath, the most elevated of the four, to that distinction. Below, and to the South of the highest ground, is the Masjid Salman al-Farsi, the Persian, from whose brain emanated the bright idea of the Moat. At the mature age of two hundred and fifty, some say three hundred and fifty, after spending his life in search of a religion, from a Magus (fire-worshipper)[FN#38] becoming successively a Jew and a Nazarene, he ended with being a Moslem, and a Companion of Mohammed. During his eventful career he had been ten times sold into slavery. Below Salmans Mosque is the Masjid Ali, and the smallest building on the South of the hill is called Masjid Abu Bakr. All these places owe their existence to Al-Walid the Caliph: they were repaired at times by his successors.
The Masjid al-Rayahof the Bannerwas originally built by Al-Walid upon a place where the Prophet pitched his tent during the War of the Moat. Others call it Al-Zubab, after a hill upon which it stands. Al-Rayah is separated from the Masjid al-Fath by a rising ground called Jabal Sula or Jabal Sawab[FN#39]: the former