Before the Wahhābī invasion, the well Zamzam belonged to the Sharīf, and the water becoming thus a monopoly, was only to be purchased at a high price; but one of Saʿūd’s first orders, on his arrival at Makkah, was to abolish this traffic, and the holy water is now dispensed gratis. The Turks consider it a miracle that the water of this well never diminishes, notwithstanding the continual draught from it. There is certainly no diminution in its depth, for, by an accurate inspection of the rope by which the buckets are drawn up, I found that the same length was required both at morning and evening, to reach the surface of the water. Upon inquiry, I learned from one of the persons who had descended in the time of the Wahhābīs to repair the masonry, that the water was flowing at the bottom, and that the well is therefore supplied by a subterraneous rivulet. The water is heavy to the taste, and sometimes in its colour resembles milk; but it is perfectly sweet, and differs very much from that of the brackish wells dispersed over the town. When first drawn up, it is slightly tepid, resembling, in this respect, many other fountains of the Ḥijāz.
Zamzam supplies the whole town, and there is scarcely one family that does not daily fill a jar with the water. This only serves, however, for drinking or for ablution, as it is thought impious to employ water so sacred for culinary purposes or on common occasions. Almost every pilgrim when he repairs to the mosque for evening prayer, has a jar of the water placed before him by those who earn their livelihood by performing this service.
The water is distributed in the mosque to all who are thirsty for a trifling fee, by water-carriers, with large jars upon their backs; these men are also paid by charitable pilgrims for supplying the poorer ones with this holy beverage immediately before or after prayers.
The water is regarded as an infallible cure for all diseases; and the devotees believe that the more they drink of it, the better their health will be, and their prayers the more acceptable to the Deity. I have seen some of them at the well swallowing such a quantity of it, as I should hardly have thought possible. A man who lived in the same house with me, and was ill of an intermittent fever, repaired every evening to Zamzam, and drank of the water till he was almost fainting; after which he lay for several hours extended upon his back, on the pavement near the Kaʿbah, and then returned to renew his draught. When by this practice he was brought to the verge of death, he declared himself fully convinced that the increase of his illness proceeded wholly from his being unable to swallow a sufficient quantity of the water. Many pilgrims, not content with drinking it merely, strip themselves in the room, and have buckets of it thrown over them, by which they believe that the heart is purified as well as the outer body.
Few pilgrims quit Makkah without carrying away some of this water in copper or tin bottles, either for the purpose of making presents, or for their own use in case of illness, when they drink it, or for ablution after death. I carried away four small bottles, with the intention of offering them as presents to the Muḥammadan kings in the black countries. I have seen it sold at Suez by pilgrims returning from Makkah, at the rate of one piastre for the quantity that filled a coffee-cup.
The chief of Zamzam is one of the principal ʿUlamāʾ of Makkah. I need not remind the reader that Zamzam is supposed to be the spring found in the wilderness by Hagar, at the moment when her infant son Ishmael was dying of thirst. It seems probable that the town of Makkah owes its origin to this well. For many miles round, no sweet water is found, nor is there found in any part of the adjacent country so copious a supply.
On the north-east side of Zamzam stand two small buildings, one behind the other, called al-Qubbatain; they are covered by domes painted in the same manner as the mosque, and in them are kept water-jars, lamps, carpets, mats, brooms, and other articles used in the very mosque. These two ugly buildings are injurious to the interior appearance of the building, their heavy forms and structure being very disadvantageously contrasted with the light and airy shape of the Maqāms. I heard some pilgrims from Greece, men of better taste than the Arabs, express their regret that the Qubbatain should be allowed to disfigure the mosque. Their contents might be deposited in some of the buildings adjoining the mosque, of which they form no essential part, no religious importance being attached to them. They were built by K͟hushgildī, Governor of Jiddah, A.H. 947; one is called Qubbatu ʾl-ʿAbbās, from having been placed on the site of a small tank, said to have been formed by al-ʿAbbās, the uncle of Muḥammad.
A few paces west of Zamzam, and directly opposite to the door of the Kaʿbah, stands a ladder or staircase, which is moved up to the wall of the Kaʿbah, on the days when that building is opened, and by which the visitors ascend to the door; it is of wood, with some carved ornaments, moves on low wheels, and is sufficiently broad to admit of four persons ascending abreast. The first ladder was sent hither from Cairo in A.H. 818, by Muʾyad Abū ʾn-Nāṣir, King of Egypt; for in the Ḥijāz, it seems, there has always been so great a want of artizans, that whenever the mosque required any work, it was necessary to have mechanics brought from Cairo, and even sometimes from Constantinople.
In the same line with the ladder, and close by it stands a lightly-built, insulated, and circular arch, about fifteen feet wide and eighteen feet high, called Bābu ʾs-Salām, which must not be confounded with the great gate of the mosque bearing the same name. Those who enter the Baitu ʾllāh for the first time, are enjoined to do so by the outer and inner Bābu ʾs-Salām; in passing under the latter, they are to exclaim, “O God, may it be a happy entrance!” I do not know by whom this arch was built, but it appears to be modern.
Nearly in front of the Bābu ʾs-Salām, and nearer to the Kaʿbah than any of the other surrounding buildings, stands the Maqāmu Ibrāhīm. This is a small building, supported by six pillars about eight feet high, four of which are surrounded from top to bottom by a fine iron railing, which thus leaves the space beyond the two hind pillars open; within the railing is a frame about five feet square, terminating in a pyramidal top, and said to contain the sacred stone upon which Abraham stood when he built the Kaʿbah, and which, with the help of his son Ishmael, he had removed from hence to the place called Miʿjan, already mentioned. The stone is said to have yielded under the weight of the Patriarch, and to preserve the impression of his foot still visible upon it; but no pilgrim has ever seen it, as the frame is always entirely covered with a brocade of red silk richly embroidered. Persons are constantly seen before the railing, invoking the good offices of Abraham, and a short prayer must be uttered by the side of the Maqām, after the walk round the Kaʿbah is completed. It is said that many of the Companions, or first adherents of Muḥammad, were interred in the open space between this Maqām and Zamzam, from which circumstance it is one of the most favourite places of prayer in the mosque. In this part of the area, the K͟halīfah Sulaimān ibn ʿAbdi ʾl-Malik, brother of al-Walīd, built a fine reservoir in A.H. 97, which was filled from a spring east of ʿArafāt; but the Makkans destroyed it after his death, on the pretence that the water of Zamzam was preferable.