fure, diftinguifhed at certain diftances by fmall turrets, fome five,
fome feven, and others ten miles diftant from the city H Within this
compafs 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 reafon
why the pigeons at Mecca are reckoned facred, and not that they are
fuppofed to be of the race of that imaginary pigeon which fome
authors, who fhould have known better, would perfuade us Mohammed
made pafs for the Holy Ghoft
The temple of Mecca was a place o f worfhip, and in lingular
veneration with the Arabs from great antiquity, and many centuries
before Mohammed. Though it was moll probably dedicated at firft
to an idolatrous ufe 3, yet the Mohammedans are generally perfuaded
that the Caaba is almoft coeval with the world; for they fay that
Adam, after his expulfion from paradife, begged o f G o d that he
might ere£t a building like that he had feen there, called Beit alMa-
mur, or the frequented houfe; and al Dorah, towards which he might
diredt his prayers, and which he might compafs, as the angels do the
celeftial one. Whereupon G o d let down a reprefentation of that
houfe in curtains, o f light 4, and fet it in Mecca, perpendicularly under
its original ordering the patriarch to turn towards it when he
prayed, and to compafs it by way o f devotion 6. After Adam’s
death, his fon Seth built a houfe in the fame form, of Hones and
clay, which being deftroyed by the deluge, was rebuilt by Abraham
and Ifmael ?, at G o d’s command, in the place where the former
had flood, and after the fame model, they being directed therein by
revelation 8. '
After this edifice had undergone feveral reparations, it was a few
years after the birth of Mohammed rebuilt by thfc Koreijh on the old
1 Gol. Not. in Alfrag. p. 99. 2 Gab. Sionita, Sc Job. Hefronita, de nonnullis Orient, urbib.
ad calc. Geogr. Nub. p. 21. AI Mogholtai, in his life of Mohammed, fays the pigeons o f the temple
of Mecca are of the breed of thofe which laid their eggs at the mouth of the cave where the
prophet and Abu Beer hid themfelves, when they fled from that city. See before, p. 51. 3 See
before, p. 17. 4 Some fay that the Beit al Mdmur itfelf was the Caaba of Adantj-whiich,
having been let down to him from heaven, was, at the flood, taken up again into heaven, and.is
there kept. AlZamakh. in Kor. c. 2. 5 Aljftzi, ex trad. Ebn Abbas. It has been obferved,
that the primitive ChriJHan church held a parallel opinion as to the fituation of the celeftial Teru-
falem with refpeft to the terreftrial: for in the apocryphal book of the revelations of S. Peter,
(chap, xxvii.) after Jefus has mentioned unto Peter the creation of the feven heavens, (whence,
by the way, it appeal that this number of heavens was not devifed by Mohammed,) and of the
angels, begins the defeription of the heavenly Jerufalem in thefe words: We have created the upper
Jerufalem above the waters which are above the third heaven, hanging direttly over the lower Jerufalem,
&c. V. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed; vit. Moh. p. 28. 6 Al Shahreftani, 7 V. Kor.
chap. 2. p. 16, 8 Al Jamjabi, in vita Abrah. ;
foundafoundation
T, and afterwards repaired by Abd’allah Ebn Zobeir, the
Khalif of Mecca, and at length again rebuilt by Tufof, furnamed
al Hejdj, in the feventy fourth year of the Hejra, with fome alterations,
in the form wherein it now remains 2. Some years after,
however, the Khalif Harun al Rafhid, (or, as others write, his father
al Mohdi, or his. Grandfather al Man fur,) intended again to
change what had been altered by al Hejdj, and to reduce the
Caaba to the old form in which it was left by Abd’allah; but was
diffuaded from meddling with it, left fo holy a place ftiould become
the fport of princes, and being new modelled after every one’s fancy,
fhould lofe that reverence which was juftly pajd i t 3. But not-
withftanding the antiquity and holinefs of this building, they have a
prophecy, by tradition from Mohammed, that in the laft times the
Ethiopians {hall come and utterly demolifla i t ; after which it will
not be rebuilt again for ever V
Before we leave the temple of Mecca, two or three particulars de-
ferve further notice. One is the celebrated black fone, which is fet in fil-
ver, and fixed in the fouth eaft corner of the Caaba, being that which
looks toward Bafra, about two cubits and one third, or, which is
the fame thing, feven fpans from the ground. This ftone is exceedingly
refpedted by the Mohammedans, and is kiffed by the pilgrims
with great devotion, being called by fome the right band, o f G od on
earth. They fable that it is one of the precious ftones of paradife,
and fell down to the earth with Adam, and being taken up again,
or otherwife preferved at the deluge, the angel Gabriel afterwards
brought it back to Abraham when he was building the Caaba. It
was at firft whiter than milk, but grew black long fince by the touch
of a menftruous woman, or, as others tell us, by the fins of mankind
s, or rather by the touches and kiffes of fo many people; the fu-
perficies only being black, and the infide ftill remaining white6.
When the Karmatians7, among other prophanations by them offered
to the temple of Mecca, took away this ftone, they could not be
prevailed on for love or money to reftore it, though thofe of Mecca
offered no lefs than five thoufand pieces of gold for it 8. However,
after they had kept it twenty two years, feeing they could not thereby
1 V. Abulfed. vit. Moh. p. 13. 2 Idem,, in Hift. Gen. Al Jannabi, &c. 3 Al Jannabi.
4 Idem, Ahmed Ebn Yufef. V. Poc. Spec. p. 115, &c. s Al Zamakh. See. in Kor.
Ahmed Ebn Yufef. 6 Poc. Spec. p. 117, &c. 7 Thefe Carmatians were a fed which arpfe.
in the year of_the Hejra 278, and whofe opinions overturned the fundamental points of Mobamme~
difm. See D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Carmath, and hereafter §. V III. 8 D’Herbel.. p. 40.
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