“If a person come in the night to a stranger, and carry off his goods by theft, and the owner of the goods follow and slay him, nothing whatever is incurred, the Prophet having said, ‘Ye may kill in preservation of your property.’ It is to be observed, however, that this is only where the owner cannot recover his property but by killing the thief; for if he know that upon his calling out the thief would relinquish the goods, and he notwithstanding neglect calling out, and slay him, retaliation is incurred upon him, since he in this case slays the person unrighteously.” (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 291.)
JUWAIRĪYAH (جويرية). One of Muḥammad’s wives. She was the daughter of the chief of the Banī ʾl-Muṣt̤aliq. She survived the Prophet some years.
Sir William Muir writes (Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 309): “The captives of the Bani Mustalick having been carried to Medîna with the rest of the booty, men from their tribe soon arrived to make terms for their release. One of them was Juweiria, a damsel about twenty years of age, full of grace and beauty, the daughter of a chief, and married to one of her own tribe. She fell to the lot of a citizen, who, taking advantage of her rank and comeliness, fixed her ransom at nine ounces of gold. Despairing to raise so large a sum, she ventured into the presence of the Prophet, while seated in the apartment of Ayesha, and pleaded for some remission of the heavy price demanded for her freedom. Ayesha no sooner saw that she was fair to look upon, and of a sprightly winning carriage, than her jealousy prognosticated what was about to come to pass. Mahomet listened to her supplications. ‘Wilt thou hearken,’ he said, ‘to something better than that thou askest of me?’ Surprised by his gentle accents, she inquired what that might be: ‘Even that I should pay thy ransom, and marry thee myself!’ The damsel forthwith expressed her consent, the ransom was paid, and Mahomet, taking her at once to wife, built a seventh house for her reception. As soon as the marriage was noised abroad, the people said that the Bani Mustalick having now become their relatives, they would let the rest of the prisoners go free as Juweiria’s dower; ‘and thus no woman,’ said Ayesha, telling the story in after days, ‘was ever a greater blessing to her people than this Juweiria.’ ”
JUZʾ (جزء). One of the thirty portions into which the Qurʾān is divided. [SIPARAH.]
K.
KAʿBAH (كعبة). Lit. “A cube.” The cube-like building in the centre of the mosque at Makkah, which contains the Ḥajaru ʾl-Aswad, or black stone.
THE KAʿBAH. (From a Photograph.)
I. A Description of the Kaʿbah.—It is, according to Burckhardt and Burton, an oblong massive structure, 18 paces in length, 14 in breadth, and about 35 feet in height. It is constructed of grey Makkan stone, in large blocks of different sizes, joined together in a very rough manner, with cement. (Burton says it is excellent mortar, like Roman cement.) The Kaʿbah stands upon a base two feet in height, which presents a sharp inclined plane; its roof being flat, it has, at a distance, the appearance of a perfect cube. The only door which affords entrance, and which is opened but two or three times in the year (Burton says it can be entered by pilgrims, by paying the guardian a liberal fee), is on the east side, and about seven feet above the ground. At the south-east corner of the Kaʿbah, near the door, is the famous black stone [[HAJARU ʾL-ASWAD]], which forms a part of the sharp angle of the building, at four or five feet above the ground. The black stone is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different shapes and sizes. It is surrounded on all sides by a border of reddish brown cement, both the stone and the border being encircled by a band of a massive arch of gold or silver gilt, the aperture of the stone being one span and three fingers broad. In the corner facing the south, there is another stone about five feet from the ground. It is one foot and a half in length, and two inches in breadth, placed upright, and of common Makkan stone. According to the rites of the pilgrimage, this stone, which is called ar-Ruknu ʾl-Yamānī, or Yaman pillar, should only be touched with the right hand as the pilgrim passes it, but Captain Burton says he frequently saw it kissed by the pilgrims. Just by the door of the Kaʿbah, and close to the wall, is a slight hollow in the ground, lined with marble and sufficiently large to admit of three persons sitting, which is called al-Miʿjan, and supposed to be the place where Abraham and his son Ishmael kneaded the chalk and mud which they used to build the Kaʿbah. Here it is thought meritorious to pray. On the basis of the Kaʿbah, just above the Miʿjan, is an ancient Kufic inscription, which neither Burckhardt nor Burton were able to decipher or to copy. On the north-west side of the Kaʿbah, about two feet below its summit, is the water-spout, which is called the Miʾzābu ʾr-Raḥmah, or the water-spout of mercy. This spout is of gold, and was sent hither from Constantinople in A.H. 981. It carries rain from the roof, and discharges it upon Ishmael’s grave. There are two large green marble slabs, which are said to have been presents from Cairo, A.H. 241, which are supposed to mark the graves of Hagar and Ishmael. The pavement round the Kaʿbah consists of a very handsome mosaic of various coloured stones, and is said to have been laid down A.H. 826. On one side of the Kaʿbah is a semicircular wall, the extremities of which are in a line with the sides of the Kaʿbah, and distant about six feet, leaving an opening which leads to the grave of Ishmael. The wall is called al-Ḥat̤īm, “the broken,” and the enclosed area al-Ḥijr, “the enclosure.” The Kaʿbah is covered with a coarse tissue of mixed silk and cotton, being of a brilliant black colour, and with a gold band round it, upon which is inscribed the ninetieth verse of the third chapter of the Qurʾān: “Verily the first home founded for mankind was surely that at Bakkah, for a blessing and a guidance to mankind.” The inscription being in large Kufic characters. For a further account of this cover, see [KISWAH].
