Soltâns of Egypt, and is now provided by the Turkish emperors. At a small distance from the Caaba, on the east side, is the Station or Place of Abraham, where is another stone
1 Levit. xvi. 29, and xxiii. 27. 2 Ebn al Athîr. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 309. 3 Al Ghazâli. 4 Cap. 3, p. 42. See also c. 22, p. 252 and c. 2, p. 14, &c. 5 Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2, p. 428, &c.; Bremond, Descrittioni dell' Eitto, &c., l. r, c. 29; Pitts' Account of the Rel. &c. of the Mohammedans, p. 98, &c.;and Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mahomed, p. 54, &c., which last author is the most particular. 6 Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 7 Sharif al Edrisi, and Kitab Masalec, apud Poc. Spec. p. 125, &c. 1 Sharif al Edrisi, ibid.
much respected by the Mohammedans, of which something will be said hereafter. The Caaba, at some distance, is surrounded but not entirely, by a circular enclosure of pillars, joined towards the bottom by a low balustrade, and towards the top by bars of silver. Just without this inner enclosure, on the south, north, and west sides of the Caaba, are three buildings, which are the oratories, or places where three of the orthodox sects assemble to perform their devotions (the fourth sect, viz., that of al Shâfeï, making use of the station of Abraham for that purpose), and towards the south-east stands the edifice which covers the well Zemzem, the treasury, and cupola of al Abbas.2 All these buildings are enclosed, a considerable distance, by a magnificent piazza, or square colonnade, like that of the Royal Exchange in London, but much larger, covered with small domes or cupolas, from the four corners whereof rise as many minârets or steeples, with double galleries, and adorned with gilded spires and crescents, as are the cupolas which cover the piazza and the other buildings. Between the pillars of both enclosures hang a great number of lamps, which are constantly lighted at night. The first foundations of this outward enclosure were laid by Omar, the second Khalîf, who built no more than a low wall to prevent the court of the Caaba, which before lay open, from being encroached on by private buildings; but the structure has been since raised, by the liberality of many succeeding princes and great men, to its present lustre.3 This is properly all that is called the temple, but the whole territory of Mecca being also Harâm, or sacred, there is a third enclosure, distinguished at certain distances by small turrets, some five, some seven, and others ten miles distant from the city.1 Within this compass of ground it is not lawful to attack an enemy, or even to hunt or fowl, or cut a branch from a tree: which is the true reason why the pigeons at Mecca are reckoned sacred, and not that they are supposed to be of the race of that imaginary pigeon which some authors, who should have known better, would persuade us Mohammed made pass for the Holy Ghost.2 The temple of Mecca was a place of worship, and in singular veneration with the Arabs from great antiquity, and many centuries before Mohammed. Though it was most probably dedicated at first to an idolatrous use,3 yet the Mohammedans are generally persuaded that the Caaba is almost coeval with the world: for they say that Adam, after his expulsion from paradise, begged of GOD that he might erect a building like that he had seen there, called Beit al Mámûr, or the frequented house, and al Dorâh, towards which he might direct his prayers, and which he might compass, as the angels do the celestial one. Whereupon GOD let down a representation of that house in curtains of light,4 and set it in Mecca, perpendicularly under its original,5 order-
2 Idem, ibid 3 Poc. Spec. p. 116. 1 Gol. not. in Alfrag. p. 99. 2 Gab. Sionita, et Joh. Hesronita, de nonnullis Orient. urbib. ad calc. Geogr. Nub. p. 21. Al Mogholtaï, in his Life of Mohammed, says the pigeons of the temple of Mecca are of the breed of those which laid their eggs at the mouth of the cave where the prophet and Abu Becr hid themselves, when they fled from that city. See before, p. 39. 3 See before, p. 13. 4 Some say that the Beit al Mámûr itself was the Caaba of Adam, which, having been let down to him from heaven, was, at the Flood, taken up again into heaven, and is there kept. Al Zamakh. in Kor. c. 2. 5 Al
ing the patriarch to turn towards it when he prayed, and to compass it by way of devotion.6 After Adam's death, his son Seth built a house in the same form of stones and clay, which being destroyed by the Deluge, was rebuilt by Abraham and Ismael,7 at GOD'S command, in the place where the former had stood, and after the same model, they being directed therein by revelation.8 After this edifice had undergone several reparations, it was, a few years after the birth of Mohammed, rebuilt by the Koreish on the old foundation,1 and afterwards repaired by Abd'allah Ebn Zobeir, the Khalîf of Mecca, and at length again rebuilt by al Hejâj Ebn Yûsof, in the seventy-fourth year of the Hejra, with some alterations, in the form wherein it now remains.2 Some years after, however, the Khalîf Harûn al Rashîd (or, as others write, his father al Mohdi, or his grandfather al Mansûr) intended again to change what had been altered by al Hejâj, and to reduce the Caaba to the old form in which it was left by Abd'allah, but was dissuaded from meddling with it, lest so holy a place should become the sport of princes, and being new modelled after every one's fancy, should lose that reverence which was justly paid it.3 But notwithstanding the antiquity and holiness of this building, they have a prophecy, by tradition from Mohammed, that in the last times the Ethiopians shall come and utterly demolish it, after which it will not be rebuilt again for ever.4 Before we leave the temple of Mecca, two or three particulars deserve further notice. One is the celebrated black stone, which is set in silver, and fixed in the south-east corner of the Caaba, being that which looks towards Basra, about two cubits and one-third, or, which is the same thing, seven spans from the ground. This stone is exceedingly respected by the Mohammedans, and is kissed by the pilgrims with great devotion, being called by some the right hand of GOD on earth. They fable that it is one of the precious stones of paradise, and fell down to the earth with Adam, and being taken up again, or otherwise preserved at the Deluge, the angel Gabriel afterwards brought it back to Abraham when he was building the Caaba. It was at first whiter than milk, but grew black long since by the touch of a menstruous woman, or, as others tell us, by the sins of mankind,5 or rather by the touches and kisses of so many people, 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
