Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2

by Sir Richard Francis Burton

9. Abdullah bin Zubayr, nephew of Ayishah, rebuilt the Kaabah in A.H. 64. It had been weakened by fire, which burnt the covering, besides splitting the Black Stone into three pieces, and by the Manjanik (catapults) of Hosayn ([Arabic]) bin Numayr, general of Yazid, who obstinately besieged Meccah till he heard of his sovereigns death. Abdullah, hoping to fulfil a prophecy,[FN#64] and seeing that the people of Meccah fled in alarm, pulled down the building by means of thin-calved Abyssinian slaves. When they came to Abrahams foundation he saw that it included Al-Hijr, which part the Kuraysh had been unable to build. The building was made of cut stone and fine lime brought from Al-Yaman. Abdullah, taking in the Hatim, lengthened the building by seven cubits, and added to its former height nine cubits,

[p.324] thus making a total of twenty-seven. He roofed over the whole, or a part; re-opened the western door, to serve as an exit; and, following the advice of his aunt, who quoted the Prophets words, he supported the interior with a single row of three columns, instead of the double row of six placed there by the Kuraysh. Finally, he paved the Mataf, or circuit, ten cubits round with the remaining slabs, and increased the Harim by taking in the nearer houses. During the building, a curtain was stretched round the walls, and pilgrims compassed them externally. When finished, it was perfumed inside and outside, and invested with brocade. Then Abdullah and all the citizens went forth in a procession to the Tanim, a reverend place near Meccah, returned to perform Umrah, the Lesser Pilgrimage, slew 100 victims, and rejoiced with great festivities.

The Caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan besieged Abdullah bin Zubayr, who, after a brave defence, was slain. In A.H. 74, Hajjaj bin Yusuf, general of Abd al-Maliks troops, wrote to the prince, informing him that Abdullah had made unauthorised additions to and changes in the Harim: the reply brought an order to rebuild the house. Hajjaj again excluded the Hatim and retired the northern wall six cubits and a span, making it twenty-five cubits long by twenty-four broad; the other three sides were allowed to remain as built by the son of Zubayr. He gave the house a double roof, closed the western door, and raised the eastern four cubits and a span above the Mataf, or circuit, which he paved over. The Harim was enlarged and beautified by the Abbasides, especially by Al-Mahdi, Al-Mutamid, and Al-Mutazid. Some authors reckon, as an eleventh house, the repairs made by Sultan Murad Khan. On the night of Tuesday, 20th Shaaban, A.H. 1030, a violent torrent swept the Harim; it rose one cubit above the threshold of the Kaabah, carried away the lamp-posts and the

[p.325] Makam Ibrahim, all the northern wall of the house, half of the eastern, and one-third of the western side. It subsided on Wednesday night. The repairs were not finished till A.H. 1040. The greater part, however, of the building dates from the time of Al Hajjaj; and Moslems, who never mention his name without a curse, knowingly circumambulate his work. The Olema indeed have insisted upon its remaining untouched, lest kings in wantonness should change its form: Harun al-Rashid desired to rebuild it, but was forbidden by the Imam Malik.

The present proofs of the Kaabahs sanctity, as adduced by the learned, are puerile enough, but curious. The Olema have made much of the verselet: Verily the first house built for mankind (to worship in) is that in Bakkah[FN#65] (Meccah), blessed and a salvation to the three worlds. Therein (fihi) are manifest signs, the standing-place of Abraham, which whoso entereth shall be safe (Kor. ch. 3). The word therein is interpreted to mean Meccah; and the manifest signs the Kaabah, which contains such marvels as the foot-prints on Abrahams platform and the spiritual safeguard of all who enter the Sanctuary.[FN#66] The other signs, historical, psychical, and physical, are briefly these: The preservation of the Hajar al-Aswad and the Makam Ibrahim from many foes, and the miracles put forth (as in the War of the Elephant), to defend the house; the violent and terrible deaths of the sacrilegious; and the fact that, in the Deluge, the large fish did not eat the little fish in the Harim. A wonderful desire and love impel men from distant regions to visit the holy spot, and the first sight of the Kaabah causes awe and fear, horripilation and tears. Furthermore, ravenous beasts will not destroy their prey in the Sanctuary land, and the pigeons and other birds never perch upon the house, except to be [p.326] cured of sickness, for fear of defiling the roof. The Kaabah, though small, can contain any number of devotees; no one is ever hurt in it,[FN#67] and invalids recover their health by rubbing themselves against the Kiswah and the Black Stone. Finally, it is observed that every day 100,000 mercies descend upon the house, and especially that if rain come up from the northern corner there is plenty in Irak; if from the south, there is plenty in Yaman; if from the east, plenty in India; if from the western, there is plenty in Syria; and if from all four angles, general plenty is presignified.

[FN#1] Bayt Ullah (House of Allah) and Kaabah, i.e. cube (house), la maison carree, are synonymous. [FN#2] Ali Bey gives 536 feet 9 inches by 356 feet: my measurement is 257 paces by 210. Most Moslem authors, reckoning by cubits, make the parallelogram 404 by 310. [FN#3] On each short side I counted 24 domes; on the long, 35. This would give a total of 118 along the cloisters. The Arabs reckon in all 152; viz., 24 on the East side, on the North 36, on the South 36, one on the Mosque corner, near the Zarurah minaret; 16 at the porch of the Bab al-Ziyadah; and 15 at the Bab Ibrahim. The shape of these domes is the usual Media-Naranja, and the superstition of the Meccans informs the pilgrim that they cannot be counted. Books reckon 1352 pinnacles or battlements on the temple wall. [FN#4] The common stone of the Meccah mountains is a fine grey granite, quarried principally from a hill near the Bab al-Shabayki, which furnished material for the Kaabah. Eastern authors describe the pillars as consisting of three different substances, viz.: Rukham, white marble, not alabaster, its general sense; Suwan, or granite (syenite?); and Hajar Shumaysi, a kind of yellow sandstone, so called from Bir Shumays, a place on the Jeddah road near Haddah, the half-way station. [FN#5] I counted in the temple 554 pillars. It is, however, difficult to be accurate, as the four colonnades and the porticos about the two great gates are irregular; topographical observations, moreover, must here be made under difficulties. Ali Bey numbers them roughly at plus de 500 colonnes et pilastres. [FN#6] The author afterwards informs us, that the temple has been so often ruined and repaired, that no traces of remote antiquity are to be found about it. He mentions some modern and unimportant inscriptions upon the walls and over the gates. Knowing that many of the pillars were sent in ships from Syria and Egypt by the Caliph Al-Mahdi, a traveller would have expected better things. [FN#7] The reason being, that those shafts formed of the Meccan stone are mostly in three pieces; but the marble shafts are in one piece. [FN#8] To this may be added, that the façades of the cloisters are twenty-four along the short walls, and thirty-six along the others; they have stone ornaments, not inaptly compared to the French fleur de lis. The capital and bases of the outer pillars are grander and more regular than the inner; they support pointed arches, and the Arab secures his beloved variety by placing at every fourth arch a square pilaster. Of these there are on the long sides ten, on the short seven. [FN#9] I counted eight, not including the broad pavement which leads from the Bab al-Ziyadah to the Kaabah, or the four cross branches which connect the main lines. These Firash al-Hajar, as they are called, also serve to partition off the area. One space for instance is called Haswat al-Harim, or the Womens sanded place, because appropriated to female devotees. [FN#10] The jars are little amphoræ, each inscribed with the name of the donor and a peculiar cypher. [FN#11] My measurements give 22 paces or 55 feet in length by 18 (45) of breadth, and the height appeared greater than the length. Ali Bey makes the Eastern side 37 French feet, 2 inches and 6 lines, the Western 38° 4' 6", the Northern 29 feet, the Southern 31° 6', and the height 34° 4'. He therefore calls it a veritable trapezium. In Al-Idrisis time it was 25 cubits by 24, and 27 cubits high. [FN#12] I would alter this sentence thus:It is built of fine grey granite in horizontal courses of masonry of irregular depth; the stones are tolerably fitted together, and are held by excellent mortar like Roman cement. The lines are also straight. [FN#13] This base is called Al-Shazarwan, from the Persian Shadarwan, a cornice, eaves, or canopy. It is in pent-house shape, projecting about a foot beyond the wall, and composed of fine white marble slabs, polished like glass; there are two breaks in it, one opposite and under the doorway, and another in front of Ishmaels tomb. Pilgrims are directed, during circumambulation, to keep their bodies outside of the Shazarwan ; this would imply it to be part of the building, but its only use appears in the large brass rings welded into it, for the purpose of holding down the Kaabah covering. [FN#14] Ali Bey also errs in describing the roof as plat endessus. Were such the case, rain would not pour off with violence through the spout. Most Oriental authors allow a cubit of depression from South-West to North-West. In Al-Idrisis day the Kaabah had a double roof. Some say this is the case in the present building, which has not been materially altered in shape since its restoration by Al-Hajjaj, A.H. 83. The roof was then eighteen cubits long by fifteen broad. [FN#15] In Ibn Jubayrs time the Kaabah was opened every day in Rajah, and in other months on every Monday and Friday. The house may now be entered ten or twelve times a year gratis; and by pilgrims as often as they can collect, amongst parties, a sum sufficient to tempt the guardians cupidity. [FN#16] This mistake, in which Burckhardt is followed by all our popular authors, is the more extraordinary, as all Arabic authors call the door-wall Janib al-Mashrikthe Eastern sideor Wajh al-Bayt, the front of the house, opposed to Zahr al-Bayt, the back. Niebuhr is equally in error when he asserts that the door fronts to the South. Arabs always hold the Rukn al-Iraki, or Irak angle, to face the polar star, and so it appears in Ali Beys plan. The Kaabah, therefore, has no Northern side. And it must be observed that Moslem writers dispose the length of the Kaabah from East to West, whereas our travellers make it from North to South. Ali Bey places the door only six feet from the pavement, but he calculates distances by the old French measure. It is about seven feet from the ground, and six from the corner of the Black Stone. Between the two the space of wall is called Al-Multazem (in Burckhardt, by a clerical error, Al-Metzem, vol. i. p. 173). It derives its name, the attached-to, because here the circumambulator should apply his bosom, and beg pardon for his sins. Al-Multazem, according to M. de Perceval, following dOhsson, was formerly le lieu des engagements, whence, according to him, its name[.] Le Moltezem, says M. Galland (Rits et Ceremonies du Pelerinage de la Mecque), qui est entre la pierre noire et la porte, est lendroit ou Mahomet se reconcilia avec ses dix compagnons, qui disaient quil netait pas veritablement Prophete. [FN#17] From the Bab al-Ziyadah, or gate in the northern colonnade, you descend by two flights of steps, in all about twenty-five. This depression manifestly arises from the level of the town having been raised, like Rome, by successive layers of ruins; the most populous and substantial quarters (as the Shamiyah to the north) would, we might expect, be the highest, and this is actually the case. But I am unable to account satisfactorily for the second hollow within the temple, and immediately around the house of Allah, where the door, according to all historians, formerly on a level with the pavement, and now about seven feet above it, shows the exact amount of depression, which cannot be accounted for simply by calcation. Some chroniclers assert, that when the Kuraysh rebuilt the house they raised the door to prevent devotees entering without their permission. But seven feet would scarcely oppose an entrance, and how will this account for the floor of the building being also raised to that height above the pavement? It is curious to observe the similarity between this inner hollow of the Meccan fane and the artificial depression of the Hindu pagoda where it is intended to be flooded. The Hindus would also revere the form of the Meccan fane, exactly resembling their square temples, at whose corners are placed Brahma, Vishnu, Shiwa and Ganesha, who adore the great Universal Generator in the centre. The second door anciently stood on the side of the temple opposite the present entrance; inside, its place can still be traced. Ali Bey suspects its having existed in the modern building, and declares that the exterior surface of the wall shows the tracery of a blocked-up door, similar to that still open. Some historians declare that it was closed by the Kuraysh when they rebuilt the house in Mohammeds day, and that subsequent erections have had only one. The general opinion is, that Al-Hajjaj finally closed up the western entrance. Doctors also differ as to its size; the popular measurement is three cubits broad and a little more than five in length. [FN#18] Pilgrims and ignorant devotees collect the drippings of wax, the ashes of the aloe-wood, and the dust from the Atabah, or threshold of the Kaabah, either to rub upon their foreheads or to preserve as relics. These superstitious practices are sternly rebuked by the Olema. [FN#19] For North-East read South-East. [FN#20] I will not enter into the fabulous origin of the Hajar al-Aswad. Some of the traditions connected with it are truly absurd. When Allah, says Ali, made covenant with the Sons of Adam on the Day of Fealty, he placed the paper inside the stone; it will, therefore, appear at the judgment, and bear witness to all who have touched it. Moslems agree that it was originally white, and became black by reason of mens sins. It appeared to me a common aerolite covered with a thick slaggy coating, glossy and pitch-like, worn and polished. Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, showed me a specimen in his possession, which externally appeared to be a black slag, with the inside of a bright and sparkling greyish-white, the result of admixture of nickel [p.301] with the iron. This might possibly, as the learned Orientalist then suggested, account for the mythic change of colour, its appearance on earth after a thunderstorm, and its being originally a material part of the heavens. Kutb al-Din expressly declares that, when the Karamitah restored it after twenty-two years to the Meccans, men kissed it and rubbed it upon their brows; and remarked that the blackness was only superficial, the inside being white. Some Greek philosophers, it will be remembered, believed the heavens to be composed of stones (Cosmos, Shooting Stars): and Sanconiathon, ascribing the aerolite-worship to the god Clus, declares them to be living or animated stones. The Arabians, says Maximus of Tyre (Dissert. 38, p. 455), pay homage to I know not what god, which they represent by a quadrangular stone. The gross fetichism of the Hindus, it is well known, introduced them to litholatry. At Jagannath they worship a pyramidal black stone, fabled to have fallen from heaven, or miraculously to have presented itself on the place where the temple now stands. Moreover, they revere the Salagram, as the emblem of Vishnu, the second person in their triad. The rudest emblem of the Bonus Deus was a round stone. It was succeeded in India by the cone and triangle; in Egypt by the pyramid; in Greece it was represented by cones of terra-cotta about three inches and a half long. Without going deep into theory, it may be said that the Kaabah and the Hajar are the only two idols which have survived the 360 composing the heavenly host of the Arab pantheon. Thus the Hindu poet exclaims:

Behold the marvels of my idol-temple, O Moslem!
That when its idols are destroyd, it becomes Allahs House.

Wilford (As. Soc. vols. iii. and iv.) makes the Hindus declare that the Black Stone at Mokshesha, or Moksha-sthana (Meccah) was an incarnation of Moksheshwara, an incarnation of Shiwa, who with his consort visited Al-Hijaz. When the Kaabah was rebuilt, this emblem was placed in the outer wall for contempt, but the people still respected it. In the Dabistan the Black Stone is said to be an image of Kaywan or Saturn; and Al-Shahristani also declares the temple to have been dedicated to the same planet Zuhal, whose genius is represented in the Puranas as fierce, hideous, four-armed, and habited in a black cloak, with a dark turband. Moslem historians are unanimous in asserting that Sasan, son of Babegan, and other Persian monarchs, gave rich presents to the Kaabah; they especially mention two golden crescent moons, a significant offering. The Guebers assert that, among the images and relics left by Mahabad and his successors in the Kaabah, was the Black Stone, an emblem of Saturn. They also call the city Mahgah moons placefrom an exceedingly beautiful image of the moon; whence they say the Arabs derived Meccah. And the Sabaeans equally respect the Kaabah and the pyramids, which they assert to be the tombs of Seth, Enoch (or Hermes), and Sabi the son of Enoch. Meccah, then, is claimed as a sacred place, and the Hajar al-Aswad, as well as the Kaabah, are revered as holy emblems by four different faithsthe Hindu, Sabæan, Gueber, and Moslem. I have little doubt, and hope to prove at another time, that the Jews connected it with traditions about Abraham. This would be the fifth religion that looked towards the Kaabaha rare meeting-place of devotion. [FN#21] Presenting this appearance in profile. The Hajar has suffered from the iconoclastic principle of Islam, having once narrowly escaped destruction by order of Al-Hakim of Egypt. In these days the metal rim serves as a protection as well as an ornament. [FN#22] The height of the Hajar from the ground, according to my measurement, is four feet nine inches; Ali Bey places it forty-two inches above the pavement. [FN#23] The colour was black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metal circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. Ibn Jubayr declares the depth of the stone unknown, but that most people believe it to extend two cubits into the wall. In his day it was three Shibr (the large span from the thumb to the little finger-tip) broad, and one span long, with knobs, and a joining of four pieces, which the Karamitah had broken. The stone was set in a silver band. Its softness and moisture were such, says Ibn Jubayr, that the sinner would never remove his mouth from it, which phenomenon made the Prophet declare it to be the covenant of Allah on earth. [FN#24] The band is now a massive circle of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad. [FN#25] The Rukn al-Yamani is the corner facing the South. The part alluded to in the text is the wall of the Kaabah, between the Shami and Yamani angles, distant about three feet from the latter, and near the site of the old western door, long since closed. The stone is darker and redder than the rest of the wall. It is called Al-Mustajab (or Mustajab min al-Zunub or Mustajab al-Dua, where prayer is granted). Pilgrims here extend their arms, press their bodies against the building, and beg pardon for their sins. [FN#26] I have frequently seen it kissed by men and women. [FN#27] Al-Maajan, the place of mixing or kneading, because the patriarchs here kneaded the mud used as cement in the holy building. Some call it Al-Hufrah (the digging), and it is generally known as Makam Jibrail (the place of Gabriel), because here descended the inspired order for the five daily prayers, and at this spot the Archangel and the Prophet performed their devotions, making it a most auspicious spot. It is on the north of the door, from which it is distant about two feet; its length is seven spans and seven fingers; breadth five spans three fingers; and depth one span four fingers. The following sentence from Herklets Qanoon e Islam (ch. xii. sec. 5) may serve to show the extent of error still popular. The author, after separating the Bayt Ullah from the Kaabah, erroneously making the former the name of the whole temple, proceeds to say, the rain-water which falls on its (the Kaabahs) terrace runs off through a golden spout on a stone near it, called Rookn-e-Yemeni, or alabaster-stone), and stands over the grave of Ismaeel.! [FN#28] Generally called Mizab al-Rahmah (of Mercy). It carries rain from the roof, and discharges it upon Ishmaels grave, where pilgrims stand fighting to catch it. In Al-Idrisis time it was of wood; now it is said to be gold, but it looks very dingy. [FN#29] Usually called the Hajar al-Akhzar, or green stone. Al-Idrisi speaks of a white stone covering Ishmaels remains; Ibn Jubayr of green marble, longish, in form of a Mihrab arch, and near it a white round slab, in both of which are spots that make them appear yellow. Near them, we are told, and towards the Iraki corner, is the tomb of Hagar, under a green slab one span and a half broad, and pilgrims used to pray at both places. Ali Bey erroneously applies the words Al-Hajar Ismail to the parapet about the slab. [FN#30] My measurements give five feet six inches. In Al-Idrisis day the wall was fifty cubits long. [FN#31] Al-Hatim ([Arabic] lit. the broken). Burckhardt asserts that the Mekkawi no longer apply the word, as some historians do, to the space bounded by the Kaabah, the Partition, the Zemzem, and the Makam of Ibrahim. I heard it, however, so used by learned Meccans, and they gave as the meaning of the name the break in this part of the oval pavement which surrounds the Kaabah. Historians relate that all who rebuilt the House of Allah followed Abrahams plan till the Kuraysh, and after them Al-Hajjaj curtailed it in the direction of Al-Hatim, which part was then first broken off, and ever since remained so. [FN#32] Al-Hijr ([Arabic]) is the space separated, as the name denotes, from the Kaabah. Some suppose that Abraham here penned his sheep. Possibly Ali Bey means this part of the Temple when he speaks of Al-Hajar ([Arabic]) Ismailles pierres dIsmail. [FN#33] Al-Hajjaj; this, as will afterwards be seen, is a mistake. He excluded the Hatim. [FN#34] As well as memory serves me, for I have preserved no note, the inscriptions are in the marble casing, and indeed no other stone meets the eye. [FN#35] It is a fine, close, grey polished granite: the walk is called Al-Mataf, or the place of circumambulation. [FN#36] These are now iron posts, very numerous, supporting cross rods, and of tolerably elegant shape. In Ali Beys time there were trente-une colonnes minces en piliers en bronze. Some native works say thirty-three, including two marble columns. Between each two hang several white or green glass globe-lamps, with wicks and oil floating on water; their light is faint and dismal. The whole of the lamps in the Harim is said to be more than 1000, yet they serve but to make darkness visible. [FN#37] There are only four Makams, the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, and the Makam Ibrahim; and there is some error of diction below, for in these it is that the Imams stand before their congregations, and nearest the Kaabah. In Ibn Jubayrs time the Zaydi sect was allowed an Imam, though known to be schismatics and abusers of the caliphs. Now, not being permitted to have a separate station for prayer, they suppose theirs to be suspended from heaven above the Kaabah roof. [FN#38] The Makam al-Maliki is on the west of, and thirty-seven cubits from, the Kaabah; that of the Hanbali forty-seven paces distant. [FN#39] Only the Muezzin takes his stand here, and the Shafeis pray behind their Imam on the pavement round the Kaabah, between the corner of the well Zemzem, and the Makam Ibrahim. This place is forty cubits from the Kaabah, that is say, eight cubits nearer than the Northern and Southern Makams. Thus the pavement forms an irregular oval ring round the house[.] [FN#40] In Burckhardts time the schools prayed according to the seniority of their founders, and they uttered the Azan of Al-Maghrib together, because that is a peculiarly delicate hour, which easily passes by unnoticed. In the twelfth century, at all times but the evening, the Shafei began, then came the Maliki and Hanbali simultaneously, and, lastly, the Hanafi. Now the Shaykh al-Muezzin begins the call, which is taken up by the others. He is a Hanafi; as indeed are all the principal people at Meccah, only a few wild Sharifs of the hills being Shafei. [FN#41] The door of the Zemzem building fronts to the south-east. [FN#42] This is not exactly correct. As the plan will show, the angle of one building touches the angle of its neighbour. [FN#43] Their names and offices are now changed. One is called the Kubbat al-Saat, and contains the clocks and chronometers (two of them English) sent as presents to the Mosque by the Sultan. The other, known as the Kubbat al-Kutub, is used as a store-room for manuscripts bequeathed to the Mosque. They still are open to Burckhardts just criticism, being nothing but the common dome springing from four walls, and vulgarly painted with bands of red, yellow, and green. In Ibn Jubayrs time the two domes contained bequests of books and candles. The Kubbat Abbas, or that further from the Kaabah than its neighbour, was also called Kubbat al-Sharab (the Dome of Drink), because Zemzem water was here kept cooling for the use of pilgrims in Daurak, or earthen jars. The nearer was termed Kubbat al-Yahudi; and the tradition they told me was, that a Jew having refused to sell his house upon the spot, it was allowed to remain in loco by the Prophet, as a lasting testimony to his regard for justice. A similar tale is told of an old womans hut, which was allowed to stand in the corner of the Great Nushirawans royal halls. [FN#44] Called Al-Daraj. A correct drawing of it may be found in Ali Beys work. [FN#45] The Bab al-Salam, or Bab al-Nabi, or Bab benu Shaybah, resembles in its isolation a triumphal arch, and is built of cut stone. [FN#46] The (praying) place of Abraham. Readers will remember that the Meccan Mosque is peculiarly connected with Ibrahim, whom Moslems prefer to all prophets except Mohammed. [FN#47] This I believe to be incorrect. I was asked five dollars for permission to enter; but the sum was too high for my finances. Learned men told me that the stone shows the impress of two feet, especially the big toes, and devout pilgrims fill the cavities with water, which they rub over their eyes and faces. When the Caliph al-Mahdi visited Meccah, one Abdullah bin Osman presented himself at the unusual hour of noon, and informing the prince that he had brought him a relic which no man but himself had yet seen, produced this celebrated stone. Al-Mahdi, rejoicing greatly, kissed it, rubbed his face against it, and pouring water upon it, drank the draught. Kutb al-Din, one of the Meccan historians, says that it was visited in his day. In Ali Beys time it was covered with un magnifique drap noir brode en or et en argent avec de gros glands en or; he does not say, however, that he saw the stone. Its veils, called Sitr Ibrahim al-Khalil, are a green Ibrisham, or silk mixed with cotton and embroidered with gold. They are made at Cairo of three different colours, black, red, and green; and one is devoted to each year. The gold embroidery is in the Sulsi character, and expresses the Throne-verse, the Chapter of the Cave, and the name of the reigning Sultan; on the top is Allah, below it Mohammed; beneath this is Ibrahim al-Khalil; and at each corner is the name of one of the four caliphs. In a note to the Dabistan (vol. ii. p. 410), we find two learned Orientalists confounding the Black Stone with Abrahams Station or Platform. The Prophet honoured the Black Stone, upon which Abraham conversed with Hagar, to which he tied his camels, and upon which the traces of his feet are still seen. [FN#48] Not only here, I was told by learned Meccans, but under all the oval pavements surrounding the Kaabah. [FN#49] The spring gushes from the southern base of Mount Arafat, as will afterwards be noticed. It is exceedingly pure. [FN#50] The author informs us that the first pulpit was sent from Cairo in A.H. 818, together with the staircase, both being the gifts of Moayed, caliph of Egypt. Ali Bey accurately describes the present Mambar. [FN#51] The curious will find a specimen of a Moslem sermon in Lanes Mod. Egypt. Vol. i. ch. iii. [FN#52] Burckhardt subjoins 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. I have added a few remarks in brackets[.]

[Mention is made of Modern names; Arches; and Ancient names.]

1. Bab el Salam, composed of gates or arches; 3; Bab Beni Shaybah (this is properly applied to the inner, not the outer Salam Gate.) 2. Bab el Neby; 2; Bab el Jenaiz, Gate of Biers, the dead being carried through it to the Mosque. 3. Bab el Abbas, opposite to this the house of Abbas once stood; 3; Bab Sertakat (some Moslem authors confound this Bab al-Abbas with the Gate of Biers.)