14. Bab el Omra, through which pilgrims issue to visit the Omra. Also called Beni Saham; 1; Bab Amer Ibn el Aas, or Bab el Sedra.
15. Bab Atech (Al-Atik?); 1; Bab el Adjale.
16. Bab el Bastye; 1; Bab Zyade Dar el Nedoua.
17. Bab el Kotoby, so called from an historian of Mekka who lived in an adjoining lane and opened this small gate into the Mosque; 1;
18. Bab Zyade; 3; (It is called Bab ZiyadahGate of Excessbecause it is a new structure thrown out into the Shamiyah, or Syrian quarter.)
19. Bab Dereybe; 1; Bab Medrese.
Total [number of arches] 39[FN#53] An old pair of slippers is here what the shocking bad hat is at a crowded house in Europe, a self-preserver. Burckhardt lost three pairs. I, more fortunately, only one. [FN#54] Many authorities place this building upon the site of the modern Makam Hanafi. [FN#55] The Meccans love to boast that at no hour of the day or night is the Kaabah ever seen without a devotee to perform Tawaf. [FN#56] This would be about 50 dollars, whereas 25 is a fair sum for a single apartment. Like English lodging-house-keepers, the Meccans make the season pay for the year. In Burckhardts time the colonnato was worth from 9 to 12 piastres; the value of the latter coin is now greatly decreased, for 28 go to the Spanish dollar all over Al-Hijaz. [FN#57] I entered one of these caves, and never experienced such a sense of suffocation even in that favourite spot for Britons to asphixiate themselvesthe Baths of Nero. [FN#58] The Magnificent (son of Salim I.), who built at Al-Madinah the minaret bearing his name. The minarets at Meccah are far inferior to those of her rival, and their bands of gaudy colours give them an appearance of tawdry vulgarity. [FN#59] Two minarets, namely, those of the Bab al-Salam and the Bab al-Safa, are separated from the Mosque by private dwelling-houses, a plan neither common nor regular. [FN#60] A stranger must be careful how he appears at a minaret window, unless he would have a bullet whizzing past his head. Arabs are especially jealous of being overlooked, and have no fellow-feeling for votaries of beautiful views. For this reason here, as in Egypt, a blind Muezzin is preferred, and many ridiculous stories are told about men who for years have counterfeited cecity to live in idleness[.] [FN#61] I have illustrated this chapter, which otherwise might be unintelligible to many, by a plan of the Kaabah (taken from Ali Bey al-Abbasi), which Burckhardt pronounced to be perfectly correct. This author has not been duly appreciated. In the first place, his disguise was against him; and, secondly, he was a spy of the French Government. According to Mr. Bankes, who had access to the original papers at Constantinople, Ali Bey was a Catalonian named Badia, and was suspected to have been of Jewish extraction. He claimed from Napoleon a reward for his services, returned to the East, and died, it is supposed, of poison in the Hauran, near Damascus. In the edition which I have consulted (Paris, 1814) the author labours to persuade the world by marking the days with their planetary signs, &c., &c., that he is a real Oriental, but he perpetually betrays himself. Some years ago, accurate plans of the two Harims were made by order of the present Sultan. They are doubtless to be found amongst the archives at Constantinople. [FN#62] It must be remembered that the Moslems, like many of the Jews, hold that Paradise was not on earth, but in the lowest firmament, which is, as it were, a reflection of earth. [FN#63] Others derive the surname from this decision. [FN#64] As will afterwards be mentioned, almost every Meccan knows the prophecy of Mohammed, that the birthplace of his faith will be destroyed by an army from Abyssinia. Such things bring their own fulfilment. [FN#65] Abu Hanifah made it a temporal sanctuary, and would not allow even a murderer to be dragged from the walls. [FN#66] Makkah (our Meccah) is the common word; Bakkah is a synonym never used but in books. The former means a concourse of people. But why derive it from the Hebrew, and translate it a slaughter? Is this a likely name for a holy place? Dr. Colenso actually turns the Makaraba of Ptolemy into Makkah-rabbah, plentiful slaughter. But if Makaraba be Meccah, it is evidently a corruption of Makkah and Arabah, the Arab race. Again, supposing the Meccan temple to be originally dedicated to the sun, why should the pure Arab word Baal become the Hebræized Hobal, and the deity be only one in the three hundred and sixty that formed the Pantheon? [FN#67] This is an audacious falsehood; the Kaabah is scarcely ever opened without some accident happening.
[p.327] APPENDIX III.[FN#1]
SPECIMEN OF A MURSHID'S DIPLOMA, IN THE KADIRI ORDER OF THE MYSTIC CRAFT AL-TASAWWUF.
[ TRANSCRIBERS NOTE: Footnote 1 gives a description of the original manuscript. In Burtons book, the text is presented as follows: - Firstly, the section of text beginning This is the tree and ending with the lines Amen., A., presented as a triangle, with each line centred on the page. - Below this, the section of text There is no god but Allah a thing to Allah., centred, and enclosed in a circle. - Below that, the section of text Sayyid A of C., centred, and enclosed in a horizontal oval. - The line And of him we beg aid., in smaller type. - All the following lines are enclosed in a box filling most of each page, with a horizontal rule separating the lines of text. Each line fills the width of the box neatly, except for the last four lines (beginning It is finished.), which are centred. - Footnotes are presented, in smaller type than usual, at the outside edge of the page in which the reference occurs, and (as much as possible) level with the reference. - The placement of line breaks in the main body of this Appendix has been preserved from the original (book) text. ]