One point struck me at oncethe difference in point of cleanliness between an encampment of citizens and of Badawin. Poor Masud sat holding his nose in ineffable disgust, for which he was derided by the Meccans. I consoled him with quoting the celebrated song of Maysunah, the beautiful Badawi wife of the Caliph Muawiyah. Nothing can be more charming in its own Arabic than this little song; the Badawin never hear it without screams of joy.
O take these purple robes away,
Give back my cloak of camels hair,
And bear me from this towring pile
To where the Black Tents flap i the air.
The camels colt with faltring tread,
The dog that bays at all but me,
Delight me more than ambling mules
Than every art of minstrelsy;
And any cousin, poor but free,
Might take me, fatted ass! from thee.[FN#26]
[p.191] The old man, delighted, clapped my shoulder, and exclaimed, Verily, O Father of Mustachios, I will show thee the black tents of my tribe this year!
At length night came, and we threw ourselves upon our rugs, but not to sleep. Close by, to our bane, was a prayerful old gentleman, who began his devotions at a late hour and concluded them not before dawn. He reminded me of the undergraduate my neighbour at Trinity College, Oxford, who would spout Aeschylus at two A.M. Sometimes the chant would grow drowsy, and my ears would hear a dull retreating sound; presently, as if in self-reproach, it would rise to a sharp treble, and proceed at a rate perfectly appalling. The coffee-houses, too, were by no means silent; deep into the night I heard the clapping of hands accompanying merry Arab songs, and the loud shouts of laughter of the Egyptian hemp-drinkers. And the guards and protectors of the camp were not Charleys or night-nurses.
[FN#1] Pilgrims who would win the heavenly reward promised to those who walk, start at an early hour. [FN#2] The true Badawi, when in the tainted atmosphere of towns, is always known by bits of cotton in his nostrils, or by his kerchief tightly drawn over his nose, a heavy frown marking extreme disgust. [FN#3] Anciently called Hira. It is still visited as the place of the Prophets early lucubrations, and because here the first verse of the Koran descended. As I did not ascend the hill, I must refer readers for a description of it to Burckhardt, vol. i. p. 320. [FN#4] Al-Abtah, low ground; Al Khayf, the declivity; Fina Makkah, the court of Meccah; Al-Muhassib (from Hasba, a shining white pebble), corrupted by our authors to Mihsab and Mohsab. [FN#5] The spot where Kusay fought and where Mohammed made his covenant. [FN#6] If Ptolemys Mini be rightly located in this valley, the present name and derivation Muna (desire), because Adam here desired Paradise of Allah, must be modern. Sale, following Pococke, makes Mina (from Mana) allude to the flowing of victims blood. Possibly it may be the plural of Minyat, which in many Arabic dialects means a village. This basin was doubtless thickly populated in ancient times, and Moslem historians mention its seven idols, representing the seven planets. [FN#7] According to Mohammed the pebbles of the accepted are removed by angels; as, however, each man and woman must throw 49 or 70 stones, it is fair to suspect the intervention of something more material. Animals are frightened away by the bustling crowd, and flies are found in myriads. [FN#8] This demoniacal practice is still as firmly believed in Arabia as it formerly was in Europe. [FN#9] Probably because here Satan appeared to tempt Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael. The Qanoon e Islam erroneously calls it the Valley of Muhasurah, and corrupts Mashar al-Haram into Muzar al-Haram (the holy shrine). [FN#10] Many, even since Sale corrected the error, have confounded this Mashar al-Haram with Masjid al-H?r?m of Meccah. According to Al-Fasi, quoted by Burckhardt, it is the name of a little eminence at the end of the Muzdalifah valley, and anciently called Jabal Kuzah; it is also, he says, applied to an elevated platform inclosing the mosque of Muzdalifah. Ibn Jubayr makes Mashar al-Haram synonymous with Muzdalifah, to which he gives a third name, Jami. [FN#11] Buckhardt calls it Mazoumeyn, or Al-Mazik, the pass. Akeshab may mean wooded or rugged; in which latter sense it is frequently applied to hills. Kaykaan and Abu Kubays at Meccah are called Al-Akshshabayn in some books. The left hill, in Ibn Jubayrs time, was celebrated as a meeting-place for brigands. [FN#12] Kutb al-Din makes another Bazan the Southern limit of Meccah. [FN#13] Burckhardt calls this building, which he confounds with the Jami Ibrahim, the Jami Nimre; others Namirah, Nimrah, Namrah, and Namurah. It was erected, he says, by Kait Bey of Egypt, and had fallen into decay. It has now been repaired, and is generally considered neutral, and not Sanctuary ground, between the Harim of Meccah and the Holy Hill. [FN#14] Mr. W. Muir, in his valuable Life of Mahomet, vol. i, p. ccv., remarks upon this passage that at p. 180 ante, I made Muna three miles from Meccah, and Muzdalifah about three miles from Muna, and Arafat three miles from Muzdalifah,a total of nine. But the lesser estimate does not include the outskirts of Meccah on the breadth of the Arafat Plain. The Calcutta Review (art. 1, Sept. 1853) notably errs in making Arafat eighteen miles east of Meccah. Ibn Jubayr reckons five miles from Meccah to Muzdalifah, and five from this to Arafat. [FN#15] Those who die on a pilgrimage become martyrs. [FN#16] I cannot help believing that some unknown cause renders death easier to man in hot than in cold climates; certain it is that in Europe rare are the quiet and painless deathbeds so common in the East. [FN#17] We bury our dead, to preserve them as it were; the Moslem tries to secure rapid decomposition, and makes the graveyard a dangerous as well as a disagreeable place. [FN#18] Arabs observe that Indians, unless brought young into the country, never learn its language well. They have a word to express the vicious pronunciation of a slave or an Indian, Barbaret al-Hunud. This root Barbara ([Arabic]), like the Greek Barbaros, appears to be derived from the Sanscrit Varvvaraha, an outcast, a barbarian, a man with curly hair. [FN#19] Alis charger was named Maymun, or, according to others, Zul Janah (the winged). Indians generally confound it with Duldul, Mohammeds mule. [FN#20] These visions are common in history. Ali appeared to the Imam Shafei, saluted him,an omen of eternal felicity,placed a ring upon his finger, as a sign that his fame should extend wide as the donors, and sent him to the Holy Land. Ibrahim bin Adham, the saint-poet hearing, when hunting, a voice exclaim, Man! it is not for this that Allah made thee! answered, It is Allah who speaks, his servant will obey! He changed clothes with an attendant, and wandered forth upon a pilgrimage, celebrated in Al-Islam. He performed it alone, and making 1100 genuflexions each mile, prolonged it to twelve years. The history of Colonel Gardiner, and of many others amongst ourselves, prove that these visions are not confined to the Arabs. [FN#21] There is a Consul for Jeddah now, 1879, but till lately he was an unpaid. [FN#22] This vale is not considered standing-ground, because Satan once appeared to the Prophet as he was traversing it. [FN#23] According to Kutb al-Din, the Arafat plain was once highly cultivated. Stone-lined cisterns abound, and ruins of buildings are frequent. At the Eastern foot of the mountain was a broad canal, beginning at a spur of the Taif hills, and conveying water to Meccah; it is now destroyed beyond Arafat. The plain is cut with torrents, which at times sweep with desolating violence into the Holy City, and a thick desert vegetation shows that water is not deep below the surface. [FN#24] The word is explained in many ways. One derivation has already been mentioned. Others assert that when Gabriel taught Abraham the ceremonies, he ended by saying Aarafata manasikak?hast thou learned thy pilgrim rites? To which the Friend of Allah replied, Araftu!I have learned them. [FN#25] The latter name, Ratan, is servile. Respectable women are never publicly addressed by Moslems except as daughter, female pilgrim, after some male relation, O mother of Mohammed, O sister of Omar, or, tout bonnement, by a mans name. It would be ill-omened and dangerous were the true name known. So most women, when travelling, adopt an alias. Whoever knew an Afghan fair who was not Nur Jan, or Sahib Jan? [FN#26] The British reader will be shocked to hear that by the term fatted ass the intellectual lady alluded to her husband. The story is that Muawiyah, overhearing the song, sent back the singer to her cousin and beloved wilds. Maysunah departed with her son Yazid, and did not return to Damascus till the fatted ass had joined his forefathers. Yazid inherited, with his mothers talents, all her contempt for his father; at least the following quatrain, addressed to Muawiyah, and generally known in Al-Islam, would appear to argue anything but reverence:
I drank the water of the vine: that draught had power to rouse
Thy wrath, grim father! now, indeed, tis joyous to carouse!
Ill drink!Be wroth!I reck not!Ah! dear to this heart of mine
It is to scoff a sires command, to quaff forbidden wine.
[p.192] CHAPTER XXIX.
THE CEREMONIES OF THE YAUM ARAFAT, OR THE SECOND DAY.
THE morning of the ninth Zul Hijjah (Tuesday, 13th Sept.) was ushered in by military sounds: a loud discharge of cannon warned us to arise and to prepare for the ceremonies of this eventful day.
After ablution and prayer, I proceeded with the boy Mohammed to inspect the numerous consecrated sites on the Mountain of Mercy. In the first place, we repaired to a spot on rising ground to the south-east, and within a hundred yards of the hill. It is called Jami al-Sakhrah[FN#1]the Assembling Place of the Rockfrom two granite boulders upon which the Prophet stood to perform Talbiyat. There is nothing but a small enclosure of dwarf and whitewashed stone walls, divided into halves for men and women by a similar partition, and provided with a niche to direct prayer towards Meccah. Entering by steps, we found crowds of devotees and guardians, who for a consideration offered mats and carpets. After a two-bow prayer and a long supplication opposite the niche, we retired to the inner compartment, stood upon a boulder and shouted the Labbayk.