674 feet. The whole legend of this stone, which is full of miraculous incidents, seems to have arisen from a miscon ception, the Makam Ibrahim in the Koran meaning the sanctuary itself ; but the stone, which is a block about 3 spans in height and 2 in breadth, and in shape " like a potter s furnace " (Ibn Jubair), is certainly very ancient. It is now covered up, and no one is allowed to see it, though the box in which it lies can be seen or touched through a grating in the little chapel that surrounds it. In the Middle Ages it was sometimes shown, and Ibn Jubair describes the pious enthusiasm with which he drank Zamzam water poured on the footprints. It was covered with inscriptions in an unknown character, one of which was copied by Fakihi in his history of Mecca. To judge by the facsimile in Dozy s Israeliten te Mekka, the character is probably essentially one with that of the Syrian Safa inscriptions, which we now know to have extended through the Nejd and into the Hijaz. 1 The general aspect of the great mosque will be best understood by reference to the woodcut, which is taken from a photograph. The photographer has taken his stand on a lofty building facing the black stone corner of the Ka ba, so that house tops, with high para pets serving to protect the privacy of the women, who spend much of their time on these terraces, form too prominent a feature in the foreground, and obstruct the view of part of the cloistered area. The background is the Eed Mountain ; the fort which is seen above the town is not the great castle but a building of the sherif Ghalib, dating from about the beginning of this century. It will be observed that at two places there are smaller cloistered courts annexed to the main colonnade. That to the right, with a polygonal minaret, corresponds to the ancient Dar el-Nadwa, which was included in the mosque by the caliph Mo tadid. The other minor court is at the Bab Ibrahim. Of the two walls of the Ka ba concealed from view, that to the right is the one adjoining the Hijr. The two-storied pagoda-like building facing this wall is the Makam or station for prayer of orthodox Moslems of the Hanafi rite, to which the Turks belong. The similar stations of the other orthodox sects have but one story ; that of the Maliki rite is seen to the left of the Ka ba ; the roof of the Hanbali station is just visible in the foreground a little to the left of the " black " corner; the Shafi i station, which stands on the roof of the Zamzam building, is more prominent a little to the right. Between this and the Makam Hanafi rises the slender gilt spire of the white marble pulpit from which sermons are preached on Fridays and high days. Between the pulpit and the Zamzam is the small chapel of Abraham s stone. It does not rise high enough to be seen in the cut. The two small and ugly domes to the right of the Zamzam are the dome of Abbas and the dome of the Jewess. They are used as storerooms, but the former, which has its name from the uncle of the Prophet, was formerly the drinking-place of the pilgrims. In the time of Ibn Jubair it was still used for cooling the Zamzani water. The oval part of the court next to the Ka ba within the railing is paved with marble ; parts of the area beyond are also paved, part being strewn with gravel. Around the railing a number of glass lamps are lighted at night. Safa and Merwa. In religious importance these two points or "hills," connected, as we have seen, by the Mas a, stand second only to the Ka ba. Safa is an elevated platform surmounted by a triple arch, and approached by a flight of steps. 2 It lies south-east of the Ka ba, facing the black corner, and 76 paces from the " Gate of Safa," which is architecturally the chief gate of the mosque. Merwa is a similar platform, formerly covered with a single arch, on the opposite side of the valley. It stands on a spur of the Eed Mountain called J. Ku ayki an. The course between these two Mecca the Great Mosque. sacred points is 493 paces long, and the religious ceremony called the "say" consists in traversing it seven times, beginning and ending at Safa, The lowest part of the course, between the so-called green milestones, is done at a run. This ceremony, which, as we shall presently see, is part of the omra, is generally said to be performed in memory of Hagar, who ran to and fro between the two eminences vainly seeking water for her son. The observance, however, is cer tainly of pagan origin ; and at one time there were idols on both the so-called hills (see especially Azraki, pp. 74, 78). The Ceremonies and the Pilgrimage. Before Islam the Ka ba was the local sanctuary of the Meccans, where they prayed and did sacrifice, where oaths were administered and hard cases submitted to divine sentence according to the immemorial custom of Semitic shrines. But besides this, as we have seen, Mecca was already a place of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage with the ancient Arabs was the fulfilment of a vow, which appears to have generally terminated at least on the part of the well-to-do in a sacrificial feast. A vow of pilgrimage might be directed to other sanctuaries than Mecca the technical word for it (ihlal) is applied for example to the pilgrimage to Ma nat (Bekri, p. 519). He who was under such a vow was bound by ceremonial observances of abstinence from certain acts (e.g., hunting) and sensual pleasures, and in particular was forbidden to shear or comb his hair till the fulfilment of the vow. This old Semitic usage has its close parallel in the vow of the Nazarite. It 1 See De Vogue, Syrie Centrale : Inscr. Son. ; Lady Anne Blunt, Pilgrimage to Nejd t vol. ii. ; and W. R. Smith, in the Athenmim, March 20, 1880. was not peculiarly connected with Mecca ; at Taif, for example, it was customary on return to the city after an absence to present oneself at the sanctuary, and there shear the hair(Muh. in Mcd., p. 381). Pilgrimages to Mecca were not tied to a single time, but they were naturally associated with festive occasions, and especially with the great annual feast and market already spoken of, when by exten sive hospitality the citizens did all in their power to attract the worshippers who were at the same time their customers. The pilgrimage was so intimately connected with the wellbeing of Mecca, and had already such a hold on the Arabs round about, that the politic Mohammed could not afford to sacrifice it to an abstract purity of religion, and thus the old usages were transplanted into Islam in the double form of the omra or vow of pilgrimage to Mecca, which can be discharged at any time, and the hajj or pil grimage at the great annual feast. The latter closes with a visit to the Ka ba, but its essential ceremonies lie outside Mecca, at the neighbouring shrines where the old Arabs gathered before the Meccan fair. The omra begins at some point outside the Haram or holy terri tory, generally at Tan im described above, both for convenience sake and because A"isha began the omra there in the year 10 of the Flight. The pilgrim enters the Haram in the antique and scanty pilgrimage dress (ihram), consisting of two cloths wound round his person in a way prescribed by ritual. His devotion is expressed in 2 Ibn Jubair speaks of fourteen steps, Aly Bey of four, Burckhardt of three. The surrounding ground no doubt has risen so that the old
name " hill of Safa " is now inapplicable.