Having resolved to perform the Mecca pilgrimage, I spent a few months at Cairo, and on
the 22d of May embarked in a small steamer at Suez with the mahmil, or litter, and
its military escort, conveying the kiswah, or covering for the kabah. On the
25th the man at the wheel informed us that we were about to pass the village of Rabikh, on
the Arabian coast, and that the time had consequently arrived for changing our usual
habiliments for the ihram, or pilgrim-costume of two towels, and for taking the
various interdictory vows involved in its assumption: such as not to tie knots in any
portion of our dress, not to oil the body, and not to cut our nails or hair, nor to
improve the tints of the latter with the coppery hue of henna. Transgression of these and
other ceremonial exactments is expiated either by animal sacrifice, or gifts of fruit or
cereals to the poor.
After a complete ablution and assuming the ihram, we performed two
prayer-flections, and recited the meritorious sentences beginning with the words,
"Labbaik Allah, huma labbaik!" "Here I am, O God, here I am! Here I am, O
Unassociated One, here I am, for unto You belong praise, grace, and empire, O Unassociated
One!" This prayer was repeated so often, people not unfrequently rushing up to their
friends and shrieking the sacred sentence into their ears, that at last it became a signal
for merriment rather than an indication of piety.
On the 26th we reached Jeddah, where the utter sterility of Arabia, with its dunes and
rocky hills, becomes apparent. The town, however, viewed from the sea, is not
unpicturesque. Many European vessels were at anchor off the coast: and as we entered the
port, innumerable small fishing boats darting in all directions, their sails no longer
white, but emerald green from the intense luster of the water, crowded around us on all
sides, and reminded one by their dazzling colors and rapidity of motion of the shoals of
porpoises so often seen on a voyage round the Cape.
On disembarking we were accosted by several mutawwafs, or circuit-men, so termed
in Arabic, because, besides serving as religious guides in general, their special duty is
to lead the pilgrim in his seven obligatory circuits around the Kabah. We encamped outside
the town, and having visited the tomb of "our Mother Eve," mounted our camels
for Mecca.
After a journey of twenty hours across the Desert, we passed the barriers which mark
the outermost limit of the sacred city, and ascending some giant steps, pitched our tents
on a plain, or rather plateau, surrounded by barren rock, some of which, distant, but a
few yards, mask from view the birthplace of the Prophet. It was midnight; a few drops of
rain were falling, and lightning played around us. Day after day we had watched its
brightness from the sea, and many a faithful haji had pointed out to his companions
those fires which were Heaven's witness to the sanctity of the spot. "Alhamdu
Lillah!" Thanks be to God! we were now at length to gaze upon the Kiblah, to
which every Mussulman has turned in prayer since before the days of Muhammed, and which,
for long ages before the birth of Christianity was reverenced by the Patriarchs of the
East. Soon after dawn arose from our midst the shout of "Labbaik! Labbaik!" and
passing between the rocks, we found ourselves in the main street of Mecca, and approached
the "Gateway of Salvation," one of the thirty-nine portals of the "Temple
of Salvation."
On crossing the threshold we entered a vast unroofed quadrangle, a mighty amplification
of the Palais Royal, having on each side of its four sides a broad colonnade, divided into
three aisles by a multitude of slender columns, and rising to the height of about thirty
feet. Surmounting each arch of the colonnade is a small dome: in all there are a hundred
and twenty, and at different points arise seven minarets, dating from various epochs, and
of somewhat varying altitudes and architecture. The numerous pigeons which have their home
within the temple have been believed never to alight upon any portion of its roof, thus
miraculously testifying to the holiness of the building. This marvel, however, of late
years having been suspended, many discern another omen of the approach of the
long-predicted period when unbelievers shall desecrate the hallowed soil.
In the center of the square area rises the far-famed Kabah, the funereal shade of which
contrasts vividly with the sunlit walls and precipices of the town. It is a cubical
structure of massive stone, the upper two-thirds of which are mantled by a black cloth
embroidered with silver, and the lower portion hung with white linen. At a distance of
several yards it is surrounded by a balustrade provided with
lamps, which are lighted in the evening, and the space thus enclosed is the circuit ground
along which, day and night, crowds of pilgrims, performing the circular ceremony of Tawaf,
realize the idea of perpetual motion. We at once advanced to the black stone embedded in
the angle of the Kabah, kissed it, and exclaimed "Bismillah wa Allahu Akbar,"
--- "In God's name, and God is Greatest." Then we commenced the usual seven
rounds, three at a walking pace, and four at a brisk trot. Next followed two
prayer-flections at the tomb of Abraham, after which we drank of the water of Zamzam, said
to be the same which quenched the thirst of Hagar's exhausted son.
Besides the Kabah, eight minor structures adorn the quadrangle, the well of Zamzam, the
library, the clockroom, the triangular staircase, and four ornamental resting-places for
the orthodox sects of Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.
We terminated our morning duties by walking and running seven times along the streets
of Safa and Marwa, so named from the flight of seven steps at each of its extremities.
After a few days spent in visiting various places of interest, such as the slave-market
and forts, and the houses of the Prophet and the Caliphs Ali and Abu bakr, we started on
our six hours' journey to the mountain of Arifat, an hour's sojourn at which, even in a
state of insensibility, confers the rank of haji. It is a mountain spur of about a
hundred and fifty feet in height, presenting an artificial appearance from the wall
encircling it and the terrace on its slope, from which the iman delivers a sermon
before the departure of his congregation for Mecca. His auditors were, indeed, numerous,
their tents being scattered over two or three miles of the country. A great number of
their inmates were fellow-subjects of ours from India [Burton posed as a native Afghan]. I
surprised some of my Mecca friends by informing them that Queen Victoria numbers among
twenty millions of Mohammedans among her subjects.
On the 5th of June, at sunset, commencing our return, we slept at the village of
Muzdalifah, and there gathered and washed seven pebbles of the size of peas, to be flung
at three piles of whitewashed masonry known as the Satans of Muna. We acquitted ourselves
satisfactorily of this duty on the festival of the 6th of June, the 10th day of the
Arabian month Zu'lhijah. Each of us then sacrificed a sheep, had his hair and nails cut,
exchanged the ikram for his best apparel, and embracing his friends, paid them the
compliments of the season. The two following days the Great, the Middle, and the Little
Satan were again pelted, and, bequeathing to the unfortunate inhabitants of Muna the
unburied and odorous remains of nearly a hundred thousand animals, we returned, eighty
thousand strong, to Mecca. A week later, having helped to insult the tumulus of stones
which marks, according to popular belief, the burial place of Abulahab, the unbeliever,
who we learn from the Koran, has descended into hell with his wife, gatherer of sticks, I
was not sorry to relinquish a shade temperature of 120 degrees and wend my way to Jeddah
en route for England, after delegating to my brethren the recital of a prayer in my behalf
at the Tomb of the Prophet in Medina.
Source:
From: Eva March Tappan, ed., Egypt, Africa, and Arabia, Vol. III in The
World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song, and Art, (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1914), pp. 537-542.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton.
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© Paul Halsall, July 1998
