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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. II' [‎1214] (263/688)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (341 folios). It was created in 1917. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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1214
MECCA
broad band embroidered with golden inscriptions from the Ku'an, as well as a richer
curtain, for the door. The old kiswa is removed on the 25th day of the month before the
pilgrimage, and fragments of it are brought by the pilgrims as charms. Till the 10th
day of the pilgrimage month the Ka'abah is bare. The door of two leaves, with its posts
and lintel, is of silvergilt, it was opened with considerable ceremony every Monday,
and Friday, and daily in the month Rajab. But, though prayer within the building
is favoured by the example of the prophet, it is not compulsory on the Moslem, and
even in the time of Ibn Batuta the opportunities of entrance were reduced to Friday,
and the birthday of the Prophet. It is now opened but a few times every year for the
general public, which ascends by the portable staircase brought forward for the pur
pose. Foreigners can obtain admission at any time for a special fee. The modern
descriptions, from observations made under difficulties, are not very complete.
Little change, however, seems to have been made since the time of Ibu Juba who
describes the floor and walls as overlaid with richly varegated marbles, and the upper
half of the walls as plated with silver thickly gilt, while the roof was veiled with colour
ed silk. Modern writers describe the place as windowless, but Ibn Zubair mentions
five windows of rich stained glass from 'Iraq. Between the three pillars of teak hung
thirteen silver lamps. A chest in the corner to the left of one entering contained
Qur'ans, and at the 'Iraq comer a space was cut off enclosing the stair that leads to the
roof The door to this stair (called the door of mercy-Bab-al-Rahmah or Babal Taubah-
of repentance) was plated with silver by the Khaliph Mutawakkil. Here in the time
of Ibn Zubair, the Maqam or standing stone of Abraham was usually placed for better
security but brought out on great occasions.
The houses of ancient Mecca pressed close upon the Ka'abah the noblest families
who traced their descent from Kosai, the reputed founder of the city, having their
dwellings immediately around the sanctuary. To the north of the Ka'abah was the
Dar-al-Nadura, or place of assembly of the Quraish. The multiplication of pilgrims
after Islam soon made it necessary to clear away the nearest buildings and enlarge
the place of dwellings for prayer around the ancient House. 'Umr, 'Uthman, and Ibn
Zubair had all a share in this work, but the great founder of the mosque in its present
form with its spacious area and deep colonnades, was the Khali f Mahdi, who spent
enormous sums in bringing costly pillars from Egypt and Syria. The work was still
incomplete at his death in A. D. 785, and was finished in less sumptuous style by his
successor. Subsequently repairs and additions extending down to Turkish times
have left little of Mahdi's work untouched, though a few of the pillars probably date
from his days. There are more than five hundred pillars in all, of very various style
and workmanship, and the enclosure 250 paces in length and 200 paces in breadth
according to Burckhar.'t is entered by nineteen archways irregularly disposed.
After the Ka'abah the principal points of interest in the mosque are the well Zaimam
and the Maqam Ibrahim. The former is a deep shaft enclosed in a massive vaulted
building paved with marble. Sacred wells are familiar features of Semitic sanctuaries,
and Islam retaining the well made a quasi-biblical story for it, and endowed its tepid
waters with miraculous curative virtues. They are eagerly drunk by the pilgrims,
or when poured over the body are held to give a miraculous refreshment after the
fatigues of religious exercse ; the manufacture of bottles or jars for carrying the
waters to distant countries is quite a trade. The Maqam of Abraham is also connected
with a relic of heathenism, the ancient holy stone which once stood on the Majan,
and is said to bear the prints of the patriarchs feet. The whole legend of this stone
which is full of miraculous incidents seems to have arisen from a misconception, the
Maqam Ibraham in the Qur'an meaning the sanctuary itself ; but the stone which is
a block of about 3 spans in height and 2 in breadth and in shape like a potter's furnaca
{Ibn Zubair) is certainly very ancient. No one is now allowed to see it, though the
box in which it lies can be seen and touched through a grating in the little chapel that
surrounds it.
Since the fall of Ibn Zubair the political position of Mecca has always been dependent on
the movements of the greater Muhammadan world. In the splendid times of the Khalifs
immense sums were lavished upon the pilgrimage and the holy city ; and conversely the
decay of the central authority of Islam brought with it a long period of faction, wars, and
misery, in which the most notable episode was the sack of Mecca by the Carmathians
at the pilgrimage season of A. D. 930. The victors carried off the Black Stone which was

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Content

Volume II of III of the Gazetteer of Arabia. The Gazetteer is alphabetically-arranged and this volume contains entries K through to R.

The Gazetteer is an alphabetically-arranged compendium of the tribes, clans and geographical features (including towns, villages, lakes, mountains and wells) of Arabia that is contained within three seperate bound volumes. The entries range from short descriptions of one or two sentences to longer entries of several pages for places such as Iraq and Yemen.

A brief introduction states that the gazetteer was originally intended to deal with the whole of Arabia, "south of a line drawn from the head of the Gulf of 'Aqabah, through Ma'an, to Abu Kamal on the Euphrates, and to include Baghdad and Basrah Wilayats" and notes that before the gazetteer could be completed its publication was postponed and that therefore the three volumes that now form this file simply contain "as much of the MSS. [manuscript] as was ready at the time". It further notes that the contents have not been checked.

Extent and format
1 volume (341 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: This volume's foliation system is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. II' [‎1214] (263/688), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/16/2/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023727633.0x000040> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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