Читать книгу The Koran (Al-Qur'an) - Anonymous - Страница 21

thread and the black thread are to be understood the light and dark streaks of the daybreak; and they say the passage was at first revealed without the words "of the daybreak;" but Mohammed's followers, taking the expression in the first sense, regulated their practice accordingly, and continued eating and drinking till they could distinguish a white thread from a black thread, as they lay before them-to prevent which for the future, the words "of the daybreak" were added as explanatory of the former. Al Beidâwi. Vide Pocock. not. in Carmen Tograi, p. 89, &c. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom. 2, p. 423. 5 Vide Chardin, ib. p. 421, &c. Reland. de Relig. Moh. p. 109, &c. 6 See hereafter, Sect. VI. 1 Kor. c. 2, p. 19. See also c. 97. 2 Al Beidâwi, ex Trad. Mohammedis. 3 See Kor. c. 2, p. 20.

4 Siphra, f. 252, 2. 5 Tosephoth ad Gemar. Yoma, f. 34. 6 Vide Gemar. Yoma, f. 40, and maimon. in Halachoth Tánioth, c. 5, § 5. 7 Vide Gemar. Tánith, f. 12, and Yoma, f. 83, and Es Hayim, Tánith, c. I. 8 Al Ghazâli. 9 Al Bârezi in Comment. ad Orat. Ebn Nobâtæ.

the seventh month, or Tisri, and the great day of expiation commanded to be kept by the law of Moses.1 Al Kazwîni relates that when Mohammed came to Medina, and found the Jews there fasted on the day of Ashûra, he asked them the reason of it; and they told him it was because on that day Pharaoh and his people were drowned, Moses and those who were with him escaping: whereupon he said that he bore a nearer relation to Moses than they, and ordered his followers to fast on that day. However, it seems afterwards he was not so well pleased in having imitated the Jews herein; and therefore declared that, if he lived another year, he would alter the day, and fast on the ninth, abhorring so near an agreement with them.2 The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of practice that, according to a tradition of Mohammed, he who dies without performing it, may as well die a Jew or a Christian;3 and the same is expressly commanded in the Korân.4 Before I speak of the time and manner of performing this pilgrimage, it may be proper to give a short account of the temple of Mecca, the chief scene of the Mohammedan worship; in doing which I need be the less prolix, because that edifice has been already described by several writers,5 though they, following different relations, have been led into some mistakes, and agree not with one another in several particulars: nor, indeed, do the Arab authors agree in all things, one great reason whereof is their speaking of different times. The temple of Mecca stands in the midst of the city, and is honoured with the title of Masjad al alharâm, i.e., the sacred or inviolable temple. What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives sanctity to the whole, is a square stone building, called the Caaba, as some fancy, from its height, which surpasses that of the other buildings in Mecca,6 but more probably from its quadrangular form, and Beit Allah, i.e., the house of GOD, being peculiarly hallowed and set apart for his worship. The length of this edifice, from north to south, is twenty-four cubits, its breadth from east to west twenty- three cubits, and its height twenty-seven cubits: the door, which is on the east side, stands about four cubits from the ground; the floor being level with the bottom of the door.7 In the corner next this door is the black stone, of which I shall take notice by-and-bye. On the north side of the Caaba, within a semicircular enclosure fifty cubits long, lies the white stone, said to be the sepulchre of Ismael, which receives the rain-water that falls off the Caaba by a spout, formerly of wood,1 but now of gold. The Caaba has a double roof, supported within by three octangular pillars of aloes wood; between which, on a bar of iron, hang some silver lamps. The outside is covered with rich black damask, adorned with an embroidered band of gold, which is changed every year, and was formerly sent by the Khalîfs, afterwards by the Soltâns of Egypt, and is now provided by the Turkish emperors. At a small distance from the Caaba, on the east side, is the Station or Place of Abraham, where is another stone

1 Levit. xvi. 29, and xxiii. 27. 2 Ebn al Athîr. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 309. 3 Al Ghazâli. 4 Cap. 3, p. 42. See also c. 22, p. 252 and c. 2, p. 14, &c. 5 Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2, p. 428, &c.; Bremond, Descrittioni dell' Eitto, &c., l. r, c. 29; Pitts' Account of the Rel. &c. of the Mohammedans, p. 98, &c.;and Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mahomed, p. 54, &c., which last author is the most particular. 6 Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 7 Sharif al Edrisi, and Kitab Masalec, apud Poc. Spec. p. 125, &c. 1 Sharif al Edrisi, ibid.

much respected by the Mohammedans, of which something will be said hereafter. The Caaba, at some distance, is surrounded but not entirely, by a circular enclosure of pillars, joined towards the bottom by a low balustrade, and towards the top by bars of silver. Just without this inner enclosure, on the south, north, and west sides of the Caaba, are three buildings, which are the oratories, or places where three of the orthodox sects assemble to perform their devotions (the fourth sect, viz., that of al Shâfeï, making use of the station of Abraham for that purpose), and towards the south-east stands the edifice which covers the well Zemzem, the treasury, and cupola of al Abbas.2 All these buildings are enclosed, a considerable distance, by a magnificent piazza, or square colonnade, like that of the Royal Exchange in London, but much larger, covered with small domes or cupolas, from the four corners whereof rise as many minârets or steeples, with double galleries, and adorned with gilded spires and crescents, as are the cupolas which cover the piazza and the other buildings. Between the pillars of both enclosures hang a great number of lamps, which are constantly lighted at night. The first foundations of this outward enclosure were laid by Omar, the second Khalîf, who built no more than a low wall to prevent the court of the Caaba, which before lay open, from being encroached on by private buildings; but the structure has been since raised, by the liberality of many succeeding princes and great men, to its present lustre.3 This is properly all that is called the temple, but the whole territory of Mecca being also Harâm, or sacred, there is a third enclosure, distinguished at certain distances by small turrets, some five, some seven, and others ten miles distant from the city.1 Within this compass 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 reason why the pigeons at Mecca are reckoned sacred, and not that they are supposed to be of the race of that imaginary pigeon which some authors, who should have known better, would persuade us Mohammed made pass for the Holy Ghost.2 The temple of Mecca was a place of worship, and in singular veneration with the Arabs from great antiquity, and many centuries before Mohammed. Though it was most probably dedicated at first to an idolatrous use,3 yet the Mohammedans are generally persuaded that the Caaba is almost coeval with the world: for they say that Adam, after his expulsion from paradise, begged of GOD that he might erect a building like that he had seen there, called Beit al Mámûr, or the frequented house, and al Dorâh, towards which he might direct his prayers, and which he might compass, as the angels do the celestial one. Whereupon GOD let down a representation of that house in curtains of light,4 and set it in Mecca, perpendicularly under its original,5 order-

2 Idem, ibid 3 Poc. Spec. p. 116. 1 Gol. not. in Alfrag. p. 99. 2 Gab. Sionita, et Joh. Hesronita, de nonnullis Orient. urbib. ad calc. Geogr. Nub. p. 21. Al Mogholtaï, in his Life of Mohammed, says the pigeons of the temple of Mecca are of the breed of those which laid their eggs at the mouth of the cave where the prophet and Abu Becr hid themselves, when they fled from that city. See before, p. 39. 3 See before, p. 13. 4 Some say that the Beit al Mámûr itself was the Caaba of Adam, which, having been let down to him from heaven, was, at the Flood, taken up again into heaven, and is there kept. Al Zamakh. in Kor. c. 2. 5 Al

ing the patriarch to turn towards it when he prayed, and to compass it by way of devotion.6 After Adam's death, his son Seth built a house in the same form of stones and clay, which being destroyed by the Deluge, was rebuilt by Abraham and Ismael,7 at GOD'S command, in the place where the former had stood, and after the same model, they being directed therein by revelation.8 After this edifice had undergone several reparations, it was, a few years after the birth of Mohammed, rebuilt by the Koreish on the old foundation,1 and afterwards repaired by Abd'allah Ebn Zobeir, the Khalîf of Mecca, and at length again rebuilt by al Hejâj Ebn Yûsof, in the seventy-fourth year of the Hejra, with some alterations, in the form wherein it now remains.2 Some years after, however, the Khalîf Harûn al Rashîd (or, as others write, his father al Mohdi, or his grandfather al Mansûr) intended again to change what had been altered by al Hejâj, and to reduce the Caaba to the old form in which it was left by Abd'allah, but was dissuaded from meddling with it, lest so holy a place should become the sport of princes, and being new modelled after every one's fancy, should lose that reverence which was justly paid it.3 But notwithstanding the antiquity and holiness of this building, they have a prophecy, by tradition from Mohammed, that in the last times the Ethiopians shall come and utterly demolish it, after which it will not be rebuilt again for ever.4 Before we leave the temple of Mecca, two or three particulars deserve further notice. One is the celebrated black stone, which is set in silver, and fixed in the south-east corner of the Caaba, being that which looks towards Basra, about two cubits and one-third, or, which is the same thing, seven spans from the ground. This stone is exceedingly respected by the Mohammedans, and is kissed by the pilgrims with great devotion, being called by some the right hand of GOD on earth. They fable that it is one of the precious stones of paradise, and fell down to the earth with Adam, and being taken up again, or otherwise preserved at the Deluge, the angel Gabriel afterwards brought it back to Abraham when he was building the Caaba. It was at first whiter than milk, but grew black long since by the touch of a menstruous woman, or, as others tell us, by the sins of mankind,5 or rather by the touches and kisses of so many people, the superficies only being black, and the inside still remaining white.6 When the Karmatians,7 among other profanations by them offered to the temple of Mecca, took away this stone, they could not be prevailed on, for love or money, to restore it, though those of Mecca offered no less than five thousand pieces of gold for it.8 How-

Jûzi, ex. trad. Ebn Abbas. It has been observed that the primitive Christian church held a parallel opinion as to the situation of the celestial Jerusalem with respect to the terrestrial: for in the apocryphal book of the revelations of St. Peter (cap. 27), after Jesus has mentioned unto Peter the creation of the seven heavens-whence, by the way, it appears that this number of heavens was not devised by Mohammed-and of the angels, begins the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in these words: "We have created the upper Jerusalem above the waters, which are above the third heaven, hanging directly over the lower Jerusalem," &c. Vide Gagnier, not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 28. 6 Al Shahrestani. 7 Vide Kor. c. 2, p. 15. 8 Al Jannâbi, in Vita Abraham. 1 Vide Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 13. 2 Idem, in Hist. Gen. al Jannâbi, &c. 3 Al Jannâbi. 4 Idem, Ahmed Ebn Yusef. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 115, &c. 5 Al Zamakh. &c. in Kor. Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 6 Poc. Spec. p. 117, &c. 7 These Carmatians were a sect which arose in the year of the Hejra 278, and whose opinions overturned the fundamental points of Mohammedism. See D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient Art. Carmath. and hereafter § viii. 8 D'Herbel. p. 40.

ever, after they had kept it twenty-two years, seeing they could not thereby draw the pilgrims from Mecca, they sent it back of their own accord; at the same time bantering its devotees by telling them it was not the true stone: but, as it is said, it was proved to be no counterfeit by its peculiar quality of swimming on water.1 Another thing observable in this temple is the stone in Abraham's place, wherein they pretend to show his footsteps, telling us he stood on it when he built the Caaba,2 and that it served him for a scaffold, rising and falling of itself as he had occasion,3 though another tradition says he stood upon it while the wife of his son Ismael, whom he paid a visit to, washed his head.4 It is now enclosed in an iron chest, out of which the pilgrims drink the water of Zemzem,5 and are ordered to pray at it by the Korân.6 The officers of the temple took care to hide this stone when the Karmatians took the other.7 The last thing I shall take notice of in the temple is the well Zemzem, on the east side of the Caaba, and which is covered with a small building and cupola. The Mohammedans are persuaded it is the very spring which gushed out for the relief of Ismael, when Hagar his mother wandered with him in the desert;8 and some pretend it was so named from her calling to him, when she spied it, in the Egyptian tongue, Zem, zem, that is, "Stay, stay,"9 though it seems rather to have had the name from the murmuring of its waters. The water of this will is reckoned holy, and is highly reverenced, being not only drunk with particular devotion by the pilgrims, but also sent in bottles, as a great rarity, to most parts of the Mohammedan dominions. Abd'allah, surnamed al Hâfedh, from his great memory, particularly as to the traditions of Mohammed, gave out that he acquired that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zemzem water,10 to which I really believe it as efficacious as that of Helicon to the inspiring of a poet. To this temple every Mohammedan, who has health and means sufficient11 ought once, at least, in his life to go on pilgrimage; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at different places near Mecca, according to the different parts from whence they come,12 during the months of Shawâl and Dhu'lkaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja, which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity. At the places above mentioned the pilgrims properly commence such; when the men put on the Ihrâm, or sacred habit, which consists only of two woolen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle to cover their privities, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and so enter the sacred territory in their way to Mecca. While they have this habit on they must neither hunt nor fowl1 (though they are allowed to fish2), which precept is so punctually observed, that they will not kill even a louse or a flea, if they find them on their bodies: there are some noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during the pilgrimage, as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs

1 Ahmed Ebn Yusef, Abulfeda. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 119. 2 Abulfed. 3 Vide Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 35. 4 Ahmed Ebn Yusef, Safio'ddin. 5 Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 6 Cap. 2, p. 14. 7 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 120, &c. 8 Gen. xxi. 19. 9 G. Sionit. et J. Hesr. de nonnull. urb. Orient. p. 19. 10 D'Herbel. p. 5. 11 See Kor. c. 3, p. 43, and the notes thereon. 12 Vide Bobov. de Peregr. Mecc. p. 12, &c. 1 Kor. c. 5, p. 85. 2 Ibid.

given to bite.3 During the pilgrimage it behoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and actions, and to avoid all quarrelling or ill language, and all converse with women and obscene discourse, and to apply his whole intention to the good work he is engaged in. The pilgrims, being arrived at Mecca, immediately visit the temple, and then enter on the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Caaba, in running between the Mounts Safâ and Merwâ, in making the station on Mount Arafat, and slaying the victims, and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. These ceremonies have been so particularly described by others,4 that I may be excused if I but just mention the most material circumstances thereof. In compassing the Caaba, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is fixed, they use a short, quick pace the three first times they go round it, and a grave, ordinary pace, the four last; which, it is said, was ordered by Mohammed, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heats of Medina had rendered them weak.5 But the aforesaid quick pace they are not obliged to use every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular times.6 So often as they pass by the black stone, they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and kiss that. The running between Safâ and Merwâ1 is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace, and partly running:2 for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there they run, and afterwards walk again; sometimes looking back, and sometimes stopping, like one who has lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son:3 for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time.4 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 rushing manner to Mount Arafat,5 where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset: then they go to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer and reading the Korân. The next morning, by daybreak, they visit al Mashér al harâm, or the sacred monument,6 and departing thence before sunrise, haste by Batn Mohasser to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones7 at three marks, or pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who, meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devotions, or tempted to disobedience, when he was going to sacrifice his son, was commanded by GOD to drive him away by throwing stones at him;8 though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place and by the same means.9

3 Al Beid. 4 Bobov. de Peregr. Mecc. p. II, &c. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2, p. 440, &c. See also Pitts' Account of the Rel. &c. of the Mohammedans, p. 92, &c.; Gagnier, Vie de Moh. t. 2, p. 258, &c.; Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 130, &c.; and Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 113, &c. 5 Ebn al Athîr. 6 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 314. 1 See before, p. 16. 2 Al Ghazâli. 3 Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 121. 4 Ebn al Athîr. 5 See Kor. c. 2, p. 21. 6 See Ibid. M. Gagnier has been twice guilty of a mistake in confounding this monument with the sacred enclosure of the Caaba. Vide Gagn. not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 131, and Vie de Moh. tom. 2, p. 262. 7 Dr. Pocock, from al Ghazâli, says seventy, at different times and places. Spec. p. 315. 8 Al Ghazâli, Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 9 Ebn al Athîr.

This ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhu'lhajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina; of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males, if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter, and of a fit age.10 The sacrifices being over, they shave their heads and cut their nails, burying them in the same place; after which the pilgrimage is looked on as completed:11 though they again visit the Caaba, to take their leave of that sacred building. The above-mentioned ceremonies, by the confession of the Mohammedans themselves, were almost all of them observed by the pagan Arabs many ages before their prophet's appearance; and particularly the compassing of the Caaba, the running between Safâ and Merwâ, and the throwing of the stones in Mina; and were confirmed by Mohammed, with some alterations in such points as seemed most exceptionable: thus, for example, he ordered that when they compassed the Caaba they should be clothed;1 whereas, before his time, they performed that piece of devotion naked, throwing off their clothes as a mark that they had cast off their sins,2 or as signs of their disobedience towards GOD.3 It is also acknowledged that the greater part of these rites are of no intrinsic worth, neither affecting the soul, nor agreeing with natural reason, but altogether arbitrary, and commanded merely to try the obedience of mankind, without any further view; and are therefore to be complied with; not that they are good in themselves, but because GOD has so appointed.4 Some, however, have endeavoured to find out some reason for the arbitrary injunctions of this kind; and one writer,5 supposing men ought to imitate the heavenly bodies, not only in their purity, but in their circular motion, seems to argue the procession round the Caaba to be therefore a rational practice. Reland6 has observed that the Romans had something like this in their worship, being ordered by Numa to use a circular motion in the adoration of the Gods, either to represent the orbicular motion of the world, or the perfecting the whole office of prayer to that GOD who is maker of the universe, or else in allusion to the Egyptian wheels, which were hieroglyphics of the instability of human fortune.7 The pilgrimage to Mecca, and the ceremonies prescribed to those who perform it, are, perhaps, liable to greater exception than other of Mohammed's institutions; not only as silly and ridiculous in themselves, but as relics of idolatrous superstition.8 Yet whoever seriously considers how difficult it is to make people submit to the abolishing of ancient customs, how unreasonable soever, which they are fond of, especially where the interest of a considerable party is also concerned,

10 Vide Reland. ubi sup. p. 117. 11 See Kor. c. 2, p. 21 1 Kor. c. 7, p. 106, 107. 2 Al Faïk, de Tempore Ignor. Arabum, apud Millium de Mohammedismo ante Moh. p. 322. Compare Isa. lxiv. 6. 3 Jallal. al Beid. This notion comes very near, if it be not the same with that of the Adamites. 4 Al Ghazâli. Vide Abulfar. Hist. Dyn p. 171. 5 Abu Jáafar Ebn Tafail, in Vita Hai Ebn Yokdhân, p. 151. See Mr. Ockley's English translation thereof, p. 117. 6 De Rel. Mah. p. 123. 7 Plutarch. in Numa. 8 Maimonides (in Epist. ad Prosel. Rel.) pretends that the worship of Mercury was performed by throwing of stones, and that of Chemosh by making bare the head, and putting on unsewn garments.

and that a man may with less danger change many things than one great one,9 must excuse Mohammed's yielding some points of less moment, to gain the principal. The temple of Mecca was held in excessive veneration by all the Arabs in general (if we except only the tribes of Tay, and Khatháam, and some of the posterity of al Hareth Ebn Caab,1 who used not to go in pilgrimage thereto), and especially by those of Mecca, who had a particular interest to support that veneration; and as the most silly and insignificant things are generally the objects of the greatest superstition, Mohammed found it much easier to abolish idolatry itself, than to eradicate, the superstitious bigotry with which they were addicted to that temple, and the rites performed there; wherefore, after several fruitless trials to wean them therefrom,2 he thought it best to compromise the matter, and rather than to frustrate his whole design, to allow them to go on pilgrimage thither, and to direct their prayers thereto; contenting himself with transferring the devotions there paid from their idols to the true GOD, and changing such circumstances therein as he judged might give scandal. And herein he followed the example of the most famous legislators, who instituted not such laws as were absolutely the best in themselves, but the best their people were capable of receiving: and we find GOD himself had the same condescendence for the Jews, whose hardness of heart he humoured in many things, giving them therefore statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.3

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