[313]. i.e. saying, “And peace be on us and on the worshippers of Allah which be pious.”
[314]. i.e. saying “I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the Stoned.”
[315]. Certain parts should be recited aloud (jahr) and others sotto voce (with mussitation = Khafi). No mistake must be made in this matter where a Moslem cannot err.
[316]. Hence an interest of two-and-a-half per cent. is not held to be “Ribá” or unlawful gain of money by money, usury.
[317]. The meal must be finished before the faster can plainly distinguish the white thread from the black thread (Koran ii. 183); some understand this literally, others apply it to the dark and silvery streak of zodiacal light which appears over the Eastern horizon an hour or so before sunrise. The fast then begins and ends with the disappearance of the sun. I have noticed its pains and penalties in my Pilgrimage, i. 110, etc.
[318]. For the “Azán” or call to prayer see Lane, M. E., chapt. xviii. The chant, however, differs in every country, and a practical ear will know the land by its call.
[319]. Arab. “Hadís” or saying of the Apostle.
[320]. “Al-I’itikaf” resembles the Christian “retreat;” but the worshipper generally retires to a mosque especially in Meccah. The Apostle practised it on Jabal Hira and other places.
[321]. The word is the Heb. חג Hagg whose primary meaning is circularity of form or movement. Hence it applied to religious festivals in which dancing round the idol played a prime part; and Lucian of “saltation” says, dancing was from the beginning and coeval with the ancient god, Love. But man danced with joy before he worshipped, and, when he invented a systematic saltation, he made it represent two things, and only two things, love and war, in most primitive form, courtship and fighting.
[322]. Two adjoining ground-waves in Meccah. For these and for the places subsequently mentioned the curious will consult my Pilgrimage, iii. 226, etc.