DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0035
CAIRO AND TIIK MECCA PILGRIMAGE. 17
quadrangle, open to the sky and inclosed within lofty walls,
with, at each side, a vast recess framed in by a single arch.
The quadrangle is more than one hundred feet square, and
the walls are more than one hundred feet high. Each
recess forms a spacious hall for rest and prayer, and all are
matted; but that at the eastern end is wider and consider-
ably deeper than the other three, and the noble arch that
incloses it like the proscenium of a splendid stage, meas-
ures, according to Fergusson, sixty-nine feet five inches in
the span. It looks much larger. This principal hall, the
floor of which is raised one step at the upper end, measures
ninety feet in depth and ninety in height. The dais is
covered with prayer-rugs, and contains the holy niche and
the pulpit of the preacher. We observed that those who
came up here came only to pray. Having prayed, they
either went away or turned aside into one of the other
recesses to rest. There was a charming fountain in the
court with a dome roof as light and fragile looking as a
big bubble, at which each worshiper performed his ablu-
tions on coming in. This done, he left his slippers on the
matting and trod the carpeted dais barefoot.
lhis was the first time we had seen moslems at prayer,
and we could not but be impressed by their profound and
unaffected devotion. Some lay prostrate, their foreheads
touching the ground ; others were kneeling ; others bowing
in the proscribed attitudes of prayer. So absorbed were
they, that not even our unhallowed presence seemed to
disturb them. AVe did not then know that the pious mos-
lem is as devout out of the mosque as in it; or that it is
his habit to pray when the appointed hours come round,
no matter where he may be, or how occupied. We soon
became so familiar, however, with this obvious trait of
Mohammedan life, that it seemed quite a matter of course
that the camel-driver should dismount and lay his fore-
head in the dust by the roadside ; or the merchant spread
his prayer-carpet on the narrow mastabah of his little shop
in the public bazaar ; or the boatman prostrate himself
with his face to the east, as the sun went down behind the
hills of the Libyan desert.
While we were admiring the spring of the roof and the
intricate arabesque decorations of the pulpit, a custode
came up with a big key and invited us to visit the tomb of
the founder. So we followed him into an enormous
quadrangle, open to the sky and inclosed within lofty walls,
with, at each side, a vast recess framed in by a single arch.
The quadrangle is more than one hundred feet square, and
the walls are more than one hundred feet high. Each
recess forms a spacious hall for rest and prayer, and all are
matted; but that at the eastern end is wider and consider-
ably deeper than the other three, and the noble arch that
incloses it like the proscenium of a splendid stage, meas-
ures, according to Fergusson, sixty-nine feet five inches in
the span. It looks much larger. This principal hall, the
floor of which is raised one step at the upper end, measures
ninety feet in depth and ninety in height. The dais is
covered with prayer-rugs, and contains the holy niche and
the pulpit of the preacher. We observed that those who
came up here came only to pray. Having prayed, they
either went away or turned aside into one of the other
recesses to rest. There was a charming fountain in the
court with a dome roof as light and fragile looking as a
big bubble, at which each worshiper performed his ablu-
tions on coming in. This done, he left his slippers on the
matting and trod the carpeted dais barefoot.
lhis was the first time we had seen moslems at prayer,
and we could not but be impressed by their profound and
unaffected devotion. Some lay prostrate, their foreheads
touching the ground ; others were kneeling ; others bowing
in the proscribed attitudes of prayer. So absorbed were
they, that not even our unhallowed presence seemed to
disturb them. AVe did not then know that the pious mos-
lem is as devout out of the mosque as in it; or that it is
his habit to pray when the appointed hours come round,
no matter where he may be, or how occupied. We soon
became so familiar, however, with this obvious trait of
Mohammedan life, that it seemed quite a matter of course
that the camel-driver should dismount and lay his fore-
head in the dust by the roadside ; or the merchant spread
his prayer-carpet on the narrow mastabah of his little shop
in the public bazaar ; or the boatman prostrate himself
with his face to the east, as the sun went down behind the
hills of the Libyan desert.
While we were admiring the spring of the roof and the
intricate arabesque decorations of the pulpit, a custode
came up with a big key and invited us to visit the tomb of
the founder. So we followed him into an enormous