Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/194

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

173

XXXVIII.—ʾID-UL-AZHA′, OR THE
FEAST OF SACRIFICE.

Id-ul-Azha,[1] or the Feast of Sacrifice, is called also Yaum-un-Nahr, Qurbán-i-ʾId, Qur-bán Bayrám, Baqr-i-ʾId (the Cow Festival), and the Great Feast, and is held on the tenth day of the month Zul-Hijja. This festival has become part of the Meccan pilgrimage, of which it is the concluding scene, although it appears that Muhammad at first tended to conform to the custom of the Jews in observing the great day of atonement, but, when he failed to maintain a friendly footing with the Jews, he merged the rite into the Meccan pilgrimage. This feast, however, is the great Muhammadan festival, which is observed wherever Islám exists; and it is a notable fact that whilst Muhammad professed to abrogate the Jewish


  1. Vulg. ʾId-uz-Zohá.