Travels in Arabia: Comprehending an Account of Those Territories in Hadjaz which the Mohammedans Regard as Sacred, Volume 2

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Page 203 - Othman, the profession everlasting, from this day to the day of judgment, that there is no God but God, and that Mohammed is his servant and his prophet.
Page 86 - Among the date-groves are some Arab huts belonging to the cultivators of the soil, chiefly of the Lahyan tribe ; the more wealthy of them belong to the tribe of the Sherifs of Mekka, called Dwy Barakat, who live here like Bedouins, in tents and huts. They have a few cattle ; their cows, like all those of the Hedjaz, are small, and have a hump on their shoulders. Wady Fatme is also distinguished for its numerous hennatrees, with the odoriferous flowers of which, reduced to powder, the people of the...
Page 201 - ... new. Th'e ancient monuments were levelled to the ground by Saad the Wahhabi and his puritan followers, who waged pitiless warfare against what must have appeared to them magnificent mausolea, deeming as they did a loose heap of stones sufficient for a grave. In Burckhardt's time the whole place was a "confused accumulation of heaps of earth, wide pits, and rubbish, without a single regular tomb-stone.
Page 40 - Long streets of tents, fitted up as bazars, furnished all kinds of provisions. The Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by their chiefs early in the morning, while thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs of the plain all round the camp.
Page 157 - ... a graceful collection of slender columns, elegant tracery, and inscriptions admirably carved. Arrived at the western small door in the dwarf wall...
Page 37 - We were several hours,' says Burckhardt, ' before we could reach the outskirts of the town, so great was the crowd of camels. Of the half-naked Hadjis, all dressed in the white ihram — some sat on their camels, mules, or asses, reading the Koran, — some ejaculated loud prayers, while others cursed their drivers, and quarrelled with those near them, who were choking up the passages.
Page 50 - Mekka, was mounted upon a a small book of prayers and charms placed in the midst of it, wrapped up in a piece of silk. (My description is taken from the Egyptian Mahmal.) When on the road, it serves as. a holy banner to the caravan ; and on the return of the Egyptian caravan, the book of prayers is exposed in the mosque El Hassaneyn, at Cairo, where men and women of the lower classes go to kiss it, and obtain a blessing by rubbing their foreheads upon it. No copy of the Koran, nor any thing but the...
Page 153 - Constantinople, and serve to cover the tombs of the sultans and princes.* According to the historian of Medina, the curtain covers a square building of black stones, supported by two pillars, in the interior of which are the tombs of Mohammed, and his two earliest friends and immediate * See D'Ohhson.
Page 154 - ... coloured marble in mosaic : here glass lamps are suspended all round the curtains, which are lighted every evening, and remain burning all night. The whole of this enclosure, or Hedjra, is covered with a fine lofty dome, rising far above the domes which form the roof of the colonnades, and visible at a great distance from the town ; and the visiters coming to Medina, as soon as they catch the sight of it, repeat certain prayers.
Page 51 - ... encircled the southern and eastern sides of the hill, opposite to the preacher, and took their station, surrounded by their guards, directly under the platform in front of him.

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