[FN#1] M. Hucs Travels in Tartary. [FN#2] The two extremes, between which lie many gradations, are these. Abu Hanifah directs every Moslem and Moslemah to perform the pilgrimage if they have health and money for the road and for the support of their families; moreover, he allows a deputy-pilgrim, whose expenses must be paid by the principal. Ibn Malik, on the contrary, enjoins every follower to visit Meccah, if able to walk, and to earn his bread on the way. As a general rule, in Al-Islam there are four Shurut al-Wujub, or necessary conditions, viz.: 1. Islam, the being a Moslem. 2. Bulugh, adolescence. 3. Hurriyat, the being a free man. 4. Akl, or mental sanity. Other authorities increase the conditions to eight, viz.: 5. Wujud al-Zad, sufficiency of provision. 6. Al-Rahlah, having a beast of burthen, if living two days journey from Meccah. 7. Takhliyat al-Tarik, the road being open; and 8. Imkan al-Masir, the being able to walk two stages, if the pilgrim hath no beast. Others, again, include all conditions under two heads: 1. Sihhat, health. 2. Istitaat, ability. These subjects have exercised not a little the casuistic talents of the Arab doctors: a folio volume might be filled with differences of opinion on the subject, Is a blind man sound? [FN#3] The technical meaning of these words will be explained below. [FN#4] At any other time of the year Ihram is considered Makruh, or objectionable, without being absolutely sinful. [FN#5] In other books the following directions are given to the intended pilgrim:Before leaving home he must pray two prostrations, concluding the orisons with a long supplication and blessings upon relatives, friends, and neighbours, and he must distribute not fewer than seven silver pieces to the poor. The day should be either a Thursday or a Saturday; some, however, say
Allah hath honoured the Monday and the Thursday.
If possible, the first of the month should be chosen, and the hour early dawn. Moreover, the pilgrim should not start without a Rafik, or companion, who should be a pious as well as a travelled man. The other Mukaddamat al-Safar, or preambles to journeying, are the following. Istikharah, consulting the rosary and friends. Khulus al-Niyat, vowing pilgrimage to the Lord (not for lucre or revenge). Settling worldly affairs, paying debts, drawing up a will, and making arrangements for the support of ones family. Hiring animals from a pious person. The best monture is a camel, because preferred by the Prophet; an ass is not commendable; a man should not walk if he can afford to ride; and the palanquin or litter is, according to some doctors, limited to invalids. Reciting long prayers when mounting, halting, dismounting, and at nightfall. On hills the Takbir should be used: the Tasbih is properest for vales and plains; and Meccah should be blessed when first sighted. Avoiding abuse, curses, or quarrels. Sleeping like the Prophet, namely, in early night (when prayer-hour is distant), with Iftirash, or lying at length with the right cheek on the palm of the dexter hand; and near dawn with Ittaka, i.e. propping the head upon the hand, with the arm resting upon the elbow. And, lastly, travelling with collyrium-pot, looking-glass and comb, needle and thread for sewing, scissors and tooth-stick, staff and razor. [FN#6] In the Shafei school there is little difference between Al-Farz and Al-Wajib. In the Hanafi the former is a superior obligation to the latter. [FN#7] The Hanafi, Maliki, and even some Shafei doctors, reduce the number from six to four, viz.: 1. Ihram, with Niyat. 2. Tawaf. 3. Wukuf. 4. Sai. [FN#8] The Ifazah is the impetuous descent from Mount Arafat. Its Tawaf, generally called Tawaf al-Ziyarat, less commonly Tawaf al-Sadr or Tawaf al-Nuzul, is that performed immediately after throwing the stones and resuming the laical dress on the victim-day at Mount Muna. [FN#9] Shaving is better for men, cutting for women. A razor must be passed over the bald head; but it is sufficient to burn, pluck, shave, or clip three hairs when the chevelure is long. [FN#10] The known Mikat are: North, Zul Halifah; North-East, Karn al-Manazil; North-West, Al-Juhfah ([Arabic]) South, Yalamlam; East, Zat Irk. [FN#11] This Tawaf is described in chapter v. [FN#12] Generally speaking, as will afterwards be shown, the pilgrims pass straight through Muzdalifah, and spend the night at Muna. [FN#13] The Tawaf al-Widaa is considered a solemn occasion. The pilgrim first performs circumambulation. He drinks the waters of Zemzem, kisses the Kaabah threshold, and stands for some time with his face and body pressed against the Multazem. There, on clinging to the curtain of the Kaabah, he performs Takbir, Tahlil, Tahmid, and blesses the Prophet, weeping, if possible, but certainly groaning. He then leaves the Mosque, backing out of it with tears and lamentations, till he reaches the Bab al-Widaa, whence, with a parting glance at the Bayt Ullah, he wends his way home. [FN#14] See chapter v. [FN#15] Many pronounce this Niyat. If intending to perform pilgrimage, the devotee, standing, before prayer says, I vow this intention of Hajj to Allah the most High. [FN#16] In spite of this interdiction, pilgrims generally, for convenience, knot their shoulder-clothes under the right arm. [FN#17] Hunting, killing, or maiming beasts in Sanctuary land and cutting down trees, are acts equally forbidden to the Muhrim and the Muhill (the Moslem in his normal state). For a large tree a camel, for a small one a sheep, must be sacrificed. [FN#18] See chapter v. After the Talbiyat the pilgrim should bless the Prophet, and beg from Allah paradise and protection from hell, saying, O Allah, by thy mercy spare us from the pains of hell-fire! [FN#19] Most of these injunctions are meritorious, and may therefore [be] omitted without prejudice to the ceremony. [FN#20] Namely, the victim sacrificed on the great festival day at Muna. [FN#21] So the commentators explain Badanah. [FN#22] A mans Aurat is from the navel to the knee; in the case of a free woman the whole of her face and person are shame. [FN#23] If the pilgrim place but his hand upon the Shazarwan, or on the Hijr, the Tawaf is nullified. [FN#24] This is a purely Shafei practice; the Hanafi school rejects it on the grounds that the Word of God should not be repeated when walking or running. [FN#25] The reader will observe (chapter v.), that the Mutawwif made me reverse this order of things. [FN#26] It is better to recite these prayers mentally; but as few pilgrims know them by heart, they are obliged to repeat the words of the cicerone. [FN#27] This portion is to be recited twice. [FN#28] A woman, or a hermaphrodite, is enjoined to stand below the steps and in the street. [FN#29] Women and hermaphrodites should not run here, but walk the whole way. I have frequently, however, seen the former imitating the men. [FN#30] The Arab legend is, that the angels asking the Almighty why Ibrahim was called Al-Khalil (or Gods friend); they were told that all his thoughts were fixed on heaven; and when they called to mind that he had a wife and child, Allah convinced them of the Patriarchs sanctity by a trial. One night Ibrahim saw, in a vision, a speaker, who said to him, Allah orders thee to draw near him with a victim! He awoke, and not comprehending the scope of the dream, took especial notice of it ([Arabic]); hence the first day of pilgrimage is called Yaum al-Tarwiyah. The same speaker visited him on the next night, saying, Sacrifice what is dearest to thee! From the Patriarchs knowing ([Arabic]) what the first vision meant, the second day is called Yaum Arafat. On the third night he was ordered to sacrifice Ismail; hence that day is called Yaum Nahr (of throat-cutting). The English reader will bear in mind that the Moslem day begins at sunset. I believe that the origin of Tarwiyat (which may mean carrying water) dates from the time of pagan Arabs, who spent that day in providing themselves with the necessary. Yaum Arafat derives its name from the hill, and Yaum al-Nahr from the victims offered to the idols in the Muna valley. [FN#31] The present generation of pilgrims, finding the delay inconvenient, always pass on to Arafat without halting, and generally arrive at the mountain late in the afternoon of the 8th, that is to say, the first day of pilgrimage. Consequently, they pray the morning prayer of the 9th at Arafat. [FN#32] This place will be described afterwards. [FN#33] The Shafei when engaged on a journey which takes up a night and day, is allowed to shorten his prayers, and to join the noon with the afternoon, and the evening with the night devotions; thus reducing the number of times from five to three per diem. The Hanafi school allows this on one day and on one occasion only, namely, on the ninth of Zul Hijjah (arriving at Muzdalifah), when at the Isha hour it prays the Magh[r]ib and the Isha prayers together. [FN#34] If the pilgrim be too late for the sermon, his labour is irretrievably lost.M. Caussin de Perceval (vol. iii. pp. 301-305) makes the Prophet to have preached from his camel Al-Kaswa on a platform at Mount Arafat before noon, and to have again addressed the people after the post-meridian prayers at the station Al-Sakharat. Mohammeds last pilgrimage, called by Moslems Hajjat al-Bilagh (of perfection, as completing the faith), Hajjat al-Islam, or Hajjat al-Widaa (of farewell), is minutely described by historians as the type and pattern of pilgrimage to all generations. [FN#35] Ibn Abbas relates a tradition, that whoever recites this short chapter 11,000 times on the Arafat day, shall obtain from Allah all he desires. [FN#36] Most schools prefer to sleep, as the Prophet did, at Muzdalifah, pray the night devotions there, and when the yellowness of the next dawn appears, collect the seven pebbles and proceed to Muna. The Shafei, however, generally leave Muzdalifah about midnight. [FN#37] These places will be minutely described in a future chapter. [FN#38] id al-Kurban, or the Festival of Victims (known to the Turks as Kurban Bayram, to the Indians as Bakar-id, the Kine Fete), id al-Zuha, of forenoon, or id al-Azha, of serene night. The day is called Yaum al-Nahr, of throat-cutting. [FN#39] If the ceremony of Sai has not been performed by the pilgrim after the circuit of arrival, he generally proceeds to it on this occasion. [FN#40] This day is known in books as Yaum al-Karr, because the pilgrims pass it in repose at Muna. [FN#41] The days of drying flesh, because at this period pilgrims prepare provisions for their return, by cutting up their victims, and exposing to the sun large slices slung upon long lines of cord. The schools have introduced many modifications into the ceremonies of these three days. Some spend the whole time at Muna, and return to Meccah on the morning of the 13th. Others return on the 12th, especially when that day happens to fall upon a Friday. [FN#42] As will afterwards appear, the number of stones and the way of throwing them vary greatly in the various schools. [FN#43] The difference in the pillars of Umrah and Hajj, is that in the former the standing on Arafat and the Tawaf al-Ifazah are necessarily omitted. [FN#44] The 20th and 36th chapters of the Koran. [FN#45] These second words are the feminines of the first; they prove that the Moslem is not above praying for what Europe supposed he did not believe in, namely, the souls of women.
[p.294] APPENDIX II.
THE BAYT ULLAH.
THE House of Allah[FN#1] has been so fully described by my predecessors, that there is little inducement to attempt a new portrait. Readers, however, may desire a view of the great sanctuary, and, indeed, without a plan and its explanation, the ceremonies of the Harim would be scarcely intelligible. I will do homage to the memory of the accurate Burckhardt, and extract from his pages a description which shall be illustrated by a few notes.
The Kaabah stands in an oblong square (enclosed by a great wall) 250 paces long, and 200 broad,[FN#2] none of the sides of which runs quite in a straight line, though at first sight the whole appears to be of a regular shape. This open square is enclosed on the eastern side by a colonnade. The pillars stand in a quadruple row; they are three deep on the other sides, and are united by pointed arches, every four of which support a small dome plastered and whitened on the outside. These domes, according to Kotobeddyn, are 152 in number.[FN#3] The
[p.295] pillars are above twenty feet in height, and generally from one foot and a half to one foot and three quarters in diameter; but little regularity has been observed in regard to them. Some are of white marble, granite or porphyry; but the greater number are of common stone of the Meccah mountains.[FN#4] El Fasy states the whole at 589, and says they are all of marble excepting 126, which are of common stone, and three of composition. Kotobeddyn reckons 555, of which, according to him, 311 are of marble, and the rest of the stone taken from the neighbouring mountains; but neither of these authors lived to see the latest repairs of the Mosque, after the destruction occasioned by a torrent in A.D. 1626.[FN#5] Between every three or four column stands an octagonal one, about four feet in thickness. On the east side are two shafts of reddish grey granite in one piece, and one fine grey porphyry with slabs of white feldspath. On the north side is one red granite column, and one of fine-grained red porphyry; these are probably the columns which Kotobeddyn states to have been brought from Egypt, and
[p.296] principally from Akhmim (Panopolis), when the chief (Caliph) El Mohdy enlarged the Mosque in A.H. 163. Among the 450 or 500 columns which form the enclosure I found not any two capitals or bases exactly alike. The capitals are of coarse Saracen workmanship; some of them, which had served for former buildings, by the ignorance of the workmen, have been placed upside down upon the shafts. I observed about half a dozen marble bases of good Grecian workmanship. A few of the marble columns bear Arabic or Cufic inscriptions, in which I read the dates 863 and 762 (A.H.).[FN#6] A column on the east side exhibits a very ancient Cufic inscription, somewhat defaced, which I could neither read nor copy. Some of the columns are strengthened with broad iron rings or bands,[FN#7] as in many other Saracen buildings of the East. They were first employed by Ibn Dhaher Berkouk, king of Egypt, in rebuilding the Mosque, which had been destroyed by fire in A.H. 802.[FN#8]
Some parts of the walls and arches are gaudily painted in stripes of yellow, red, and blue, as are also the minarets. Paintings of flowers, in the usual Muselman