Mudir

“ If intending to perform pilgrimage, the devotee, standing, before prayer says, �I vow this intention of Hajj to Allah the most High.� [FN#16] In spite of this interdiction, pilgrims generally, for convenience, knot their shoulder-clothes under the right arm. [FN#17] Hunting, killing, or maiming beasts in Sanctuary land and cutting down trees, are acts equally forbidden to the Muhrim and the Muhill (the Moslem in his normal state) . For a large tree a camel, for a small one a sheep, must be sacrificed. ”

“ At 10 we arrived at the town, which rises like a little amphitheatre: it is mud walled, and has a high square white-washed minaret to its principal Mosque. All the male population came out to salute the Sultan; and I observed that at this place the change of colour began, the people here being Mulattoes. I remarked too, that the greater part of their muskets had match-locks, and that not above one in five went off. The houses appear in neat order, but very low; and the walls are built in an irregular, but strong manner, of mud. Mr. Ritchie made the latitude of Sebha 27° 3′ 8′′ north. ”

“ Perhaps the ruins were the remains of a tower tomb. At Tell eẓ Ẓâher, an hour further south, we saw heaps of unsquared building-stones. Above this site stood Sheikh Sîn, a steep hill which we ascended, but found no trace of construction on it. I sent my zaptieh down to stop the baggage and bid Fattûḥ camp at the mound of Munbayah near the river, and with Muḥammad turned inland to a hill called by him Jernîyeh, some five miles to the east. Muḥammad rode across the downs at a hand gallop in the teeth of the wind, and I behind him, too much buffeted by the storm to call a halt. ”

“ From a confusion of ruinous or ragged walls of mud, of ruined and modern houses standing complacently among heaps of rubbish, and from amidst a greenery which redeems the scene, the blue tiled dome of the Masjid-i-Shah, a few minarets, and the great dome of the Medresseh, denuded of half its tiles, rise conspicuously. Long lines of mud streets and caravanserais, gaunt in their ruin, stretch into the desert, and the 258 city once boasting of 650,000 inhabitants and a splendid court survives with a population of less than 80,000 at the highest estimate. ”

“ Mosques built by royalty may have two minarets, others only one. These minarets are slender, very tall, with a gracefully pointed top that draws the eye right up to the sky. There is a Turkish proverb that says, "Never steal a minaret unless you have a place to hide it in." Two thirds of the way up, there is a carved gallery, very light and beautiful, where the priest stands and chants down through the air the call to prayer, which in English prose is this: "There is no God but Allah; Mohammed is His Prophet; let us go and pray; let us go save our souls; God is great; there is no god but God." ”

“ It was the Mueddin, the well-known Mohammedan call to prayer. How solemnly it sounded from the minarets of the mosques all over the city, summoning the faithful to their devotions, and proclaiming in the ears of all men the unity of God, and that Mohammed is his prophet! In all Mohammedan countries, this sacred call, which no one can listen to without some degree of emotion, supersedes the use of the bells by which the Christian world is invited to the house of prayer, and which are an abomination to the true believer. ”

“ The sun, which was hot, shone through the jewelled windows and cast a glory like that of rubies and sapphires on the alabaster pillars and glistening marble walls. Three muezzins chanted the call to prayers, two from the minarets facing towards the city, the other from the minaret overlooking the inner square of the Citadel where a British sentinel in khaki paced to and fro.
While the congregation assembled, one of the Readers of the mosque, seated in a reading-desk in the middle, read prayers from the Koran in a slow, sonorous voice, and was answered by rather drowsy cries of "Allah! Allah!" ”

“ To turn from business to religion, as it is now perhaps midday or sunset, we hear from the minaret of a neighboring mosque the muezzin calling the hour of prayer; and putting off our shoes, with sandaled or slippered feet, we enter the holy place. At the vestibule are fountains, at which the Moslems are washing their hands and feet before they go in to pray. We lift the heavy curtain which covers the door, and enter. One glance shows that we are not in a Christian church, either Catholic or Protestant. There is no cross and no altar; no Lord's Prayer, no Creed, and no Ten Commandments. ”

“ Opposite, on the hill, is the mosque, and the plastered dome of the sheykh’s tomb, with its prayer-niche, a quiet and commanding place of repose. The mosque looks down upon the ever-flowing Nile, upon the granite desolation, upon the decaying temple of Isis,—converted once into a temple of the true God, and now merely the marvel of the traveler. The mosque itself, representative of the latest religion, is falling to ruin. ”

“ It was the mueddhin on the tower of the Karueein Mosque. For five hours before the dawn the praises of Allah are sung from the summit of the mosque's minaret. There are ten mueddhins to whom the service is entrusted, and each sends out his chant above the sleeping city for half an hour. But in the voice of this, one of the ten whom Warrisden heard on the first night when he slept in Fez, there was a particular quality. ”

“ In the face of the ruins crumbling slowly beneath the action of centuries, one feels an unutterable melancholy. Mosque of El Achraf-ynal El Ghours is near the tombs of the Caliphs, their courts are full of rubbish and plants and brambles, with its fountains for ablutions in ruins. These mosques contain tombs and stone mausoleums. We pass out into a dilapidated village of low mud houses, few shops, with fruits to sell, camels lying down, asses and tattered children and old men. ”

“ Some flew far to the tall white-and-gray minaret of their mosque, others settled on the cupola above the fountain. A few, venturous truants, disappeared in the direction of the seraskierat wall, not far off. The greater number returned to their plane-tree on the right of the lover and the scribe. And as the lover suggested, and the scribe wrote from right to left, the pigeons puffed out their breasts and cooed, calling other pilgrims to remember that even the sacred have their carnal appetites, and to honor the poor widow’s memory before going up to the mosque to pray. ”

“ These were the words chanted, from a minaret near by, in the shrill sweet voice of a young muezzin, as I emerged from my compartment of the Oriental Express, in Constantinople, two days later.
My soul answered to this call of the East. I felt as if I should like to throw myself on a prayer-rug, face Mecca, and cry with the young muezzin, “Allah-hu-akbar!” ”

“ But it is a joy to stand on the bridge above the stream that flows between them, and listen to the muazzen in the minaret and the bulbuls in the Temple. Mohammad calling to Venus, Venus calling to Mohammad––what a romance! We leave the subject to the poet that wants it. Another Laus Veneris to another Swinburne might suggest itself.
An Arab Prophet with the goddess, this time––but the River flows between the Temple and the Mosque. In the city, life is one such picturesque languid stream. ”

“ And when they saw the Prophet they said, "Muḥammad, by God! Muḥammad and the army!" And they took refuge in the fortress. And when the Apostle of God saw them he said, "God is great! God is great! Khaibár is ruined! Verily when we come down on the land of any tribe, then bad is the morning of those who have been warned."'—Muslim, Al Bukhárí. ”

“ Still further north are some ruin-heaps which are said to represent the tomb of a holy man. This group of ruins is known as Eskî Baghdâd, but the name is applied loosely to the whole area round Abu Dulâf. We crossed a dry watercourse and rode on over mounds for another hour and a half, when we came to the mosque of Abu Dulâf (Fig. 123) . Now Abu Dulâf is brother and complement to the mosque at Sâmarrâ, for whereas at Sâmarrâ the arcades have fallen and the outer wall stands, at Abu Dulâf the arcades stand and the outer wall is ruined. ”

“ Let them therefore put a light on their topmost height—on the minaret of the mosque of Mohammed Ali—after the call to prayers at midnight—and we shall take that as a sign that the Light of the World is with you, that the Expected One has appeared, and that we may enter in peace, injuring no man, being injured by none, without malice towards any, and with charity to all. ”

“ Ere long the shadow of the minaret denoted noon, and, placing his hands on both sides of his mouth, he cried out, first on the South side, towards Mecca, and then to the West, and North, and East: "God is great: there is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Prophet! ”

“ At night and at noon they slept fitfully at the chance-met shrine of some holy man. The "Hills" are full of them, marked by fluttering rags that can be seen for miles away; and though the Quran's meaning must be stretched to find excuse, the Hillmen are adept at stretching things and hold those shrines as sacred as the Book itself. Men who would almost rather cut throats than gamble regard them as sanctuaries. ”

“ From ’Ânah the river landscape is exceedingly monotonous: a few naouras and a patch or two of cultivation, each with its farmhouse, a small domestic mud fortress with a tower; an occasional village set in a grove of palm-trees on an island in midstream. The houses were of sun-dried brick, the walls sloping slightly inwards, and crowned with a low mud battlement—line for line a copy of their prototypes on the Assyrian reliefs. This world, which was already sufficiently dreary, was rendered unspeakably hideous by the east wind. ”

“ Suddenly, like a shower of firework stars, a full, clear melody would be softly sprinkled out from the sky, and on the minaret of the neighbouring mosque a handsome muezzin would appear, his blanched form outlined on the deep blue of the night, as he chanted the glory of Allah with a marvellous voice, which filled the horizon. ”

“ It is related from Abú Hurairah that, 'The Apostle of God said, "One prayer in this mosque of mine (i.e., the mosque of Madína) is better than a thousand prayers in any other, except the holy mosque (of Mecca) ."'—Muslim, Al Bukhárí.
It is related from Abú saʿiduʾl-Khudri that, 'The Apostle of God said, "Let not men bind themselves to visit mosques other than these three: the holy mosque (of Mecca) , the distant mosque (at Jerusalem) and this mosque of mine (at Madína) ."'—Muslim, Al Bukhárí. ”

“ Like so many of the Moslem sacred places it was once a church, built by the crusaders on the site of earlier splendor that the Romans wrecked—a lordly building, the lower courses of whose walls are all of ten-ton stones—a place laid out with true eye for proportion by men who had no doubt of what they did. ”

“ The 40th year of the Hijra opened with a new grief for 'Ali. When the time of pilgrimage came round, Mu'awiya sent Busr, a brave but cruel captain of his host, with 3000 men into Arabia, to secure for him the allegiance of the Holy Places. As he drew nigh to Medina, the governor fled and Busr entered unopposed. Proceeding to the Mosque, he mounted the sacred steps of the Prophet's pulpit, and recalling 'Othman to mind, addressed the people thus: "O citizens of Medina! The aged man! Where is the grey-haired aged man whom, but as yesterday, and on this very spot, I swore allegiance to? ”

“ Now the Muezzin from a minaret called to prayer, and the fellah in his cotton shirt and yelek heard, laid his load aside, and yielded himself to his one dear illusion, which would enable him to meet with apathy his end—it might be to-morrow!—and go forth to that plenteous heaven where wives without number awaited him, where fields would yield harvests without labour, where rich food in gold dishes would be ever at his hand. ”

“ AT the head of an alley-way hard by the Place of the Temple, the Haram-esh-Sherif, in Jerusalem, a long wall built in rough-hewn courses lifts itself above the squalor of the Moghrebin quarter to an eastern sky from which a sun that seldom sleeps bakes the grey stones, bares every detail of a crumbling ruin, and intensifies the wistful odor of decay. ”

“ The crusaders, too, have left some of their handiwork here—the pointed arches and the ruins of a Christian church still speak of them. Within the walls of the church, and under the shadow of the fortress, modern houses are rudely built,and inhabited by a poor Moslem population. A group of women were resting by a well of sculptured stone, just outside the walls. Opposite to this interesting place we found a narrow defile cut through the rocks, leading eastward direct from the shore to the plain. ”

“ In this, the sublimest scene of Arabian glory, Israel and Ishmael alike raised their altars to the great God of Abraham.
Why are they in ruins? Is it that human structures are not to be endured amid the awful temples of nature and revelation; and that the column and the cupola crumble into nothingness in sight of the hallowed Horeb and on the soil of the eternal Sinai?
Ascending the mountain, about half way between the convent and the utmost height of the towering peak, is a small plain surrounded by rocks. In its centre are a cypress tree and a fountain. ”

“ We may mention here that Christ is venerated by the Mahometans, who believe as we do that He will judge the world at the last day. This judgment according to them is to take place outside Jerusalem. A thin rope will be stretched from the minaret of the Temple Mosque on Mount Moriah to the Mount of Olives opposite. All will have to cross on this tight rope. The righteous will accomplish the journey in safety; but the wicked will fall off into the Valley of Hinnom below. ”