women; the whole enclosed by a wall of linen cloth, eight hundred
paces in circuit, the single entrance to which was guarded by eunuchs
in splendid dresses. Around this enclosure were pitched the tents of
the men who formed her numerous suite. The beautiful embroidery on
the exterior of this linen palace, with the various colours displayed
in every part of it, constituted an object which reminded me of some
descriptions in the Arabian Tales of the Thousand and One Nights.”
Among the prodigious crowd were persons from every corner of the
Mohammedan world. Burckhardt counted forty different languages, and
did not doubt that there were many more. About three o’clock in the
afternoon, the pilgrims, quitting their tents, which were immediately
struck, and mounting their camels, pressed forward towards Mount
Arafat, and covered its sides from top to bottom. The preacher now
took his stand upon the platform on the mountain, and began to address
the multitude. The hearing of the sermon, which lasts till sunset,
constitutes the holy ceremony of the Hadj, and without being present
at it, and at least appearing to hear, no pilgrim is entitled to the
name of hajjî. “The two pashas, with their whole cavalry drawn up in
two squadrons behind them, took their post in the rear of the deep
line of camels of the hajjîs, to which those of the people of the
Hejaz were also joined: and here they waited in solemn and respectful
silence the conclusion of the sermon. Farther removed from the preacher
was the Sherif Yahya, with his small body of soldiers, distinguished
by several green standards carried before him. The two Mahmals, or
holy camels, which carry on their backs the high structure that serves
as the banner of their respective caravans, made way with difficulty
through the ranks of camels that 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. The preacher, or khatyb, who is usually the Kadhy of Mecca, was
mounted upon a finely-caparisoned camel, which had been led up the
steps; it being traditionally said that Mohammed was always seated when
he addressed his followers, a practice in which he was imitated by all
the califs who came to the Hadj, and who from hence addressed their
subjects in person. The Turkish gentleman of Constantinople, however,
unused to camel-riding, could not keep his seat so well as the hardy
Bedouin prophet; and the camel becoming unruly, he was soon obliged to
alight from it. He read his sermon from a book in Arabic, which he held
in his hands. At intervals of every four or five minutes he paused,
and stretched forth his arms to implore blessings from above; while
the assembled multitudes around and before him waved the skirts of
their ihrams over their heads, and rent the air with shouts of _Lebeyk,
Allah, huma Lebeyk!_--“Here we are at thy bidding, O God!” During the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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