The Koran (Al-Qur'an). Anonymous
the superficies only being black, and the inside still remaining white.6 When the Karmatians,7 among other profanations by them offered to the temple of Mecca, took away this stone, they could not be prevailed on, for love or money, to restore it, though those of Mecca offered no less than five thousand pieces of gold for it.8 How-
Jûzi, ex. trad. Ebn Abbas. It has been observed that the primitive Christian church held a parallel opinion as to the situation of the celestial Jerusalem with respect to the terrestrial: for in the apocryphal book of the revelations of St. Peter (cap. 27), after Jesus has mentioned unto Peter the creation of the seven heavens-whence, by the way, it appears that this number of heavens was not devised by Mohammed-and of the angels, begins the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in these words: "We have created the upper Jerusalem above the waters, which are above the third heaven, hanging directly over the lower Jerusalem," &c. Vide Gagnier, not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 28. 6 Al Shahrestani. 7 Vide Kor. c. 2, p. 15. 8 Al Jannâbi, in Vita Abraham. 1 Vide Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 13. 2 Idem, in Hist. Gen. al Jannâbi, &c. 3 Al Jannâbi. 4 Idem, Ahmed Ebn Yusef. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 115, &c. 5 Al Zamakh. &c. in Kor. Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 6 Poc. Spec. p. 117, &c. 7 These Carmatians were a sect which arose in the year of the Hejra 278, and whose opinions overturned the fundamental points of Mohammedism. See D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient Art. Carmath. and hereafter § viii. 8 D'Herbel. p. 40.
ever, after they had kept it twenty-two years, seeing they could not thereby draw the pilgrims from Mecca, they sent it back of their own accord; at the same time bantering its devotees by telling them it was not the true stone: but, as it is said, it was proved to be no counterfeit by its peculiar quality of swimming on water.1 Another thing observable in this temple is the stone in Abraham's place, wherein they pretend to show his footsteps, telling us he stood on it when he built the Caaba,2 and that it served him for a scaffold, rising and falling of itself as he had occasion,3 though another tradition says he stood upon it while the wife of his son Ismael, whom he paid a visit to, washed his head.4 It is now enclosed in an iron chest, out of which the pilgrims drink the water of Zemzem,5 and are ordered to pray at it by the Korân.6 The officers of the temple took care to hide this stone when the Karmatians took the other.7 The last thing I shall take notice of in the temple is the well Zemzem, on the east side of the Caaba, and which is covered with a small building and cupola. The Mohammedans are persuaded it is the very spring which gushed out for the relief of Ismael, when Hagar his mother wandered with him in the desert;8 and some pretend it was so named from her calling to him, when she spied it, in the Egyptian tongue, Zem, zem, that is, "Stay, stay,"9 though it seems rather to have had the name from the murmuring of its waters. The water of this will is reckoned holy, and is highly reverenced, being not only drunk with particular devotion by the pilgrims, but also sent in bottles, as a great rarity, to most parts of the Mohammedan dominions. Abd'allah, surnamed al Hâfedh, from his great memory, particularly as to the traditions of Mohammed, gave out that he acquired that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zemzem water,10 to which I really believe it as efficacious as that of Helicon to the inspiring of a poet. To this temple every Mohammedan, who has health and means sufficient11 ought once, at least, in his life to go on pilgrimage; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at different places near Mecca, according to the different parts from whence they come,12 during the months of Shawâl and Dhu'lkaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja, which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity. At the places above mentioned the pilgrims properly commence such; when the men put on the Ihrâm, or sacred habit, which consists only of two woolen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle to cover their privities, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and so enter the sacred territory in their way to Mecca. While they have this habit on they must neither hunt nor fowl1 (though they are allowed to fish2), which precept is so punctually observed, that they will not kill even a louse or a flea, if they find them on their bodies: there are some noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during the pilgrimage, as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs
1 Ahmed Ebn Yusef, Abulfeda. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 119. 2 Abulfed. 3 Vide Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 35. 4 Ahmed Ebn Yusef, Safio'ddin. 5 Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 6 Cap. 2, p. 14. 7 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 120, &c. 8 Gen. xxi. 19. 9 G. Sionit. et J. Hesr. de nonnull. urb. Orient. p. 19. 10 D'Herbel. p. 5. 11 See Kor. c. 3, p. 43, and the notes thereon. 12 Vide Bobov. de Peregr. Mecc. p. 12, &c. 1 Kor. c. 5, p. 85. 2 Ibid.
given to bite.3 During the pilgrimage it behoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and actions, and to avoid all quarrelling or ill language, and all converse with women and obscene discourse, and to apply his whole intention to the good work he is engaged in. The pilgrims, being arrived at Mecca, immediately visit the temple, and then enter on the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Caaba, in running between the Mounts Safâ and Merwâ, in making the station on Mount Arafat, and slaying the victims, and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. These ceremonies have been so particularly described by others,4 that I may be excused if I but just mention the most material circumstances thereof. In compassing the Caaba, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is fixed, they use a short, quick pace the three first times they go round it, and a grave, ordinary pace, the four last; which, it is said, was ordered by Mohammed, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heats of Medina had rendered them weak.5 But the aforesaid quick pace they are not obliged to use every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular times.6 So often as they pass by the black stone, they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and kiss that. The running between Safâ and Merwâ1 is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace, and partly running:2 for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there they run, and afterwards walk again; sometimes looking back, and sometimes stopping, like one who has lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son:3 for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time.4 On the ninth of Dhu'lhajja, after morning prayer, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and proceed in a tumultuous and rushing manner to Mount Arafat,5 where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset: then they go to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer and reading the Korân. The next morning, by daybreak, they visit al Mashér al harâm, or the sacred monument,6 and departing thence before sunrise, haste by Batn Mohasser to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones7 at three marks, or pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who, meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devotions, or tempted to disobedience, when he was going to sacrifice his son, was commanded by GOD to drive him away by throwing stones at him;8 though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place and by the same means.9
3 Al Beid. 4 Bobov. de Peregr. Mecc. p. II, &c. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2, p. 440, &c. See also Pitts' Account of the Rel. &c. of the Mohammedans, p. 92, &c.; Gagnier, Vie de Moh. t. 2, p. 258, &c.; Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 130, &c.; and Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 113, &c. 5 Ebn al Athîr. 6 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 314. 1 See before, p. 16. 2 Al Ghazâli. 3 Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 121. 4 Ebn al Athîr. 5 See Kor. c. 2, p. 21. 6 See Ibid. M. Gagnier has been twice guilty of a mistake in confounding this monument with the sacred enclosure of the Caaba. Vide Gagn. not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 131, and Vie de Moh. tom. 2, p. 262. 7 Dr. Pocock, from al Ghazâli, says seventy, at different times and places. Spec. p. 315. 8 Al Ghazâli, Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 9 Ebn al Athîr.
This ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhu'lhajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina; of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males, if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter, and of a fit age.10 The sacrifices being over, they shave their heads and cut their nails, burying them in the same place; after which the pilgrimage is looked on as completed:11 though they again visit the Caaba, to take their leave of that sacred building. The above-mentioned ceremonies, by the confession of the Mohammedans themselves, were almost all of them observed by the pagan Arabs many ages before their prophet's appearance; and particularly the compassing of the Caaba, the running between