1 14 I ’he Preliminary Difcourfe. Se£t. IV.
faft from the Jews-, it being,, with, them, the tenth of the feventh
month, or T.ifri, and the great day of expiation commanded to be kept by
the law of Mofes- f. A l Kazwini relates, that vvhea Mohammed came
to Medina and found the Jews there faded on the day of AJhura, he
afked them the reafon of it; and they told him, it was becaufe on
that day Pharaoh and his people were drowned, MoJ'es, and thofe
who were with him, efcaping: whereupon lie faid, that he bore a
nearer relation to Mofes than they; and ordered his followers to faft
on that day. However,, it feems, afterwards he was. not fo well
pleafed in having imitated the Jews herein; and therefore declared,
that if he lived another year, he would alter the day, and faft on
the ninth, abhorring fo near an agreement with them a. .
of the ' The pilgrimage to Mecca is fo neceflary a point of practice, that,
10 accord>ng t0 a tradition of Mohammed,he who dies without performing it,
may as well die a. Jew or a Chrifian3; and the fame is exprefsly commanded
in the Koran 4. Before I fpeak o f the time and manner of performing
this pilgrimage, it may be proper to give a fhort account o f the
temple of Mecca, the chief fcene of the Mohammedan worlhip; in doing
which I need be the lefs prolix, becaufe that edifice has been already de-
fcribed by feveral writers s, though they following different relations
have been led into^ fome miftakes, and agree not with one another
in feveral particulars: nor, indeed, do the Arab authors agree in all
things, one great reafon whereof is their fpeaking of different times.
The tem- The temple of Mecca ftands in the midft of the city, and is ho-
difcnbed! noured with the title of Masjad al alhardm, i. e. the Jacred or inviolable
temple. What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives
fanftity to the whole, is a fquare ftone building, called the Caaba,
as fome fancy, from it’s height, which furpafles that of the other
buildings in Mecca 6, but more probably from its quadrangular form,
and Beit Allah, i. e. the houfe o f G od, being'peculiarly hallowed
and fet apart for his worlhip. The length of this edifice, from
north to fouth, is twenty four cubits, its breadth from eaft to weft
twenty three cubits, and its height twenty feven cubits: the door,
which is on the eaft fide, ftands about four cubits from the ground;
the floor being level with the bottom of the door In the corner 1
1 Levit.xvi. 29. &xxiii. 27. 3 Ebn al Athlr. V. Poeock. Spec. p. 309. f Al Ghazali.
4 Chap. 3 -p. 47, 48. See alfo chap. 22. p. 276, & chap. 2. p. 16, &c. i Chardin, Voy.de
Perfe, T . II. p. 428, See. Bremond, Defcrittioni dell’Egitto, &c. 1. i . c . 29. Pitt's Account
of the Rel. of the Mohametans, p. 98, Sec. Sc Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mahomed, p. 54, &c.
which lalt author is the molt particular» 6 Ahflied Ebn Yufef. 7 Sharif al Edrili, & Kitab
Mafalec, apud Poc. Spec. p. 125, Sec.
n e£ t