The running between Safa and Merwd ■ * is alfo performed feven
times, partly with a flow pace, and partly running | : for they walk
gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there
they run, and afterwards walk again; fometimes looking back, and
fometimes flopping, like one who has loft fomething, to reprefent Ha-
gar feeking water for her fon 3; for the ceremony is faid to be as
ancient as her time ♦ .
On the ninth of Dhu’lhajja, after morning prayer, the pilgrims
leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and
proceed in a tumultuous and rufhing manner to mount Arafat \
where they flay to perform their devotions till fun-fet: then they go
to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there fpend
the night in prayer, and reading the Koran. The next morning by
day-break they vifit al Majhér al har dm, or the facred monument \
and departing thence before fun-rife, hafte by Batn Mohajfer to the
valley of Mina, where they throw feven ftones ? at three marks or
pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who meeting the devil in that
place, and being by him difturhed in his devotions, or tempted to
difobedience, when he was going to facrifice his fon, was commanded
by G o d to drive him away by throwing ftones at him 8; though
others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who alfo put the devit
to flight in the fame place, and by the fame means V
This ceremony being over, on the fame day, the tenth of Dhu’lhajja,
the pilgrims flay their victims in the faid valley of Mina; of
which they and their friends eat part, and the reft is given to the
poor. Thefe victims mull be either {heep, goats, kine, or camels;
males, i f of either of the two former kinds, and females i f of either
o f the latter,- and of a fit age IO, The facrifices being over, they
fhave their heads and cut their nails, burying them in the fame
place; after which the pilgrimage is looked on as compleated 11:
though they again vifit the Caaba,. to take their leave o f that facred
building.
The above-mentioned ceremonies, by the confeffion of the Mohammedans
themfelves, were almoft all of them obferved by the pagan
Arabs many ages before their prophet’s appearance; and parti-
1 See before, p. 20. 2 Al Ghazali. 3 Reland, de Rel. Moh. p. 121. 4 Ebn al Atbir.
* See Kor. chap. 2. p. 23. 6 See ibid. Mr. Gagnier lias been twjce guilty of a miflake in confounding
this monument with the facred inclofure of the Caaba. V. Gagn. Not. ad Abulfed.
vit. Moh. p. 131. & Vie de Mah. t. 2. p. 262. 7 Dr. Pocock, from al Ghazali, fays feventy*
at different times and places. Spec. p. 315. 8 Al Ghazali, Ahmed Ebn Yufef. 9 Ebn
al Athir. 10 V, Reland, ubi fup. p. 117'. 11 See Kor. chap. 2. p. 23.
cularly
cularly the compaffing o f the Caaba, the running between Safa and
Merpa, and the throwing o f the ftones in Mina; and were confirmed
by Mohammed, with fome alterations in fuch points as feemed moft
exceptionable: thus, for example; he ordered that when they com-
palled the Caaba, they fhould be c lo a th e d whereas before his time
they performed that piece, of devotion naked, throwing off their
cloaths as a mark that they had caft off their fins % or as figns of
their difobedience towards G o d >.
It is alfo acknowledged that the greater part o f thefe rites are of
no intrinfic worth,, neither affefting the foul, nor agreeing with natural
reafon, but altogether arbitrary, and commanded meerly to try
the obedience of mankind, without any farther view ; and are therefore
to be complied with, not that they are good in themfelves, but
becaufe G o d has fo appointed Some, however, have endeavoured
to find out fome reafons for tfte arbitrary injunctions of this
kind; and one writer 5, fuppofing men ought to imitate the heavenly
bodies, not only in their purity, but in their circular motion,
feems to argue the proceffion round the Caaba to be therefore a rational
practice. Reland 6 has obferved that the Romans had fomething
like this in their worfhip, being ordered by Numa to ufe a circular
motion in the adoration of the gods, either to reprefent the orbicular
motion of the world, or the perfecting the whole office of prayer to
that G od who is maker of the univerfe, or elfe in allufion to the
Egyptian wheels, which were hieroglyphics of the inftability of human
fortune t.
The pilgrimage to Mecca, and the ceremonies prefcribed to thofe
who perform it, are, perhaps, liable to greater exception than any
other of Mohammed’s inftitutions; not only as filly and ridiculous
in themfelves, but as relics of idolatrous fuperftition s. Yet whoever
ferioufly confiders how difficult it is to make people fubmit
to the abolifhing of ancient cuftoms, how unreafonable foever,
which they are fond of, efpecially where the intereft of a confidera-
hle party is alfo concerned, and that a man may with lefs danger
changej many things than one great one 9, muft excufe Mohammed's
1 Kor. chap. 7. p. 118, 119. 2 Al Faik, de tempore ignor. Arabum, apud Milliunv de
Moha mmedifmo ante Moh. p . '322. Compare Ifaiab lxiv. 6. 3 Jallal. al Beid:' This notion
comes very near, if it be not the fame with that of the Adamites. 4 Al Ghazali. V. Abulfar..
Hilt. Dyn. p. 171. 1 Abu Jaafar Ebn Tofail, in vita Hai Ebn Yokdhan, p. 151. See Mr-
Qckleys Engltjb tranflationjthereof, p. 117., , \6 De Rel. Mah. p. 123. ~ 7 Plutarch, in Numa.
3 Maimonides- (in Epift. ad Profel. rel ) pretends that the worfhip of-Mertury was performed by
throwing of ftones, and that of Chemjh by making bare the head, and putting on uhfewn garments..
9 According to the maxim, Tutius eft mult a mutare quam unum magnum.