Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-12-09
"TIIE IIADJ."
ZIG HEST RELIGIOUS DUTY OF
THE aIoHAoisIED ANS.
once In Their Lifetime They Must
Go Co the, Holy Places OF Arabia
-Caravans on Their Journey
--piiarimaacs To Mcccl.

1T is tie highest religious duty and
it is the intention of every Mosem
l indeed, it is enjoined as Necessary
to his salvation.once in his life.
line to make the pilgrimage, either in
,eison or by proxy, to the holy places of
Arabia. II is not to the purpose to
risit Mecca and Medina at any time of
he year. Only by making the pilgrim.
'Se In the right mouth, and by taking
,ar. in the ceremonies at each holy place
IN the days set apart for them, is the
worshiper entitled to the name of
aadj. Repeated pilgrimages are works
IL supererogation, but add TO the honor
md sanctity of the pilgrim. In the
cities Of Damascus and Cairo the traveller
ices many, houses decorated on the ex.
'eTior with rude, fantastic, and highly
',olored pictures. These mural adorn-
! nents are the certain signal of distinction,
Tor they are permit ted to no one who has
lot made the Hadj. The pilgrimage usu-
lily occupies about ninety or one hundred
lays. These are the days following tic
great fast of Ramadan. AS the Moslem,
'eckon by lunar months, their seasons
10 not coincide with ours, and so the
pilgrimage makes gradually the circuit
)f Cur.year and the high festival DAYS
If Mecca may fall in the heat OF summer
Or in winter time. A great caravan sets
out yearly from Damascus and another
rom Cairo. The Struggling bands of
worshipers from the wide world either
Iall IN with these caravans en- route, or
make their way TO Mecca as they can,
md await there the arrival of the mass
Of pilgrims. That from Cairo sets out
On the 25th of the month Shovel, fol-
owing the fast of Rlmadan. The three
days of high ceremony in and about
Mecca are the 10th, 18th and 12th of
lnl Haaj, and the caravan returns to
Cairo about the 25th of Safer.
Formerly the pilgrims assembled on
the edge OF the desert outside of Cairo,
where the caravan was formed. 1t took
up Its line of march across the desert,
passing north OF Suez, round the Gulf
! ot Akaba, and turning south TO Yembo-
sl-Nakhel. Here it found itself near the
great Syrian caravan, which had come
from Damascus by way of Medina, and
marched on parallel liue with that to
Mecca. 1t travelled only by night, and
rested in the daytime. The Journey
took thirty-one nights, aud as there was
halt of seven entire days on the road,
the distance from Cairo to Mecca was
reckoncd NJ thirty days. These
two caravans were the important and Of
hcial contributions to tue Mecca festival.
but there was II smaller Bagdad caravan,
and great numbers, singly and in groups,
went by boats to Jedda (Djedda), the
port on the Red Sea, distant about
fortysix miles from the holy city; aud
immense crowds flocl1cd in from all parts
of Arabia, by which the conventional
number of $1,000 was made up. 1t was
said that if this number were not
present for the day ut Arafat, the
angels would miracu!ously increase it.
There have been great exageerations in
the estimates of the annual concourse ut
Mecca. Ludovico Bartima, of Rome.
estimated the Damascus caravan in 1903
at 10000 men and 30, 200 camels.
Giovanni Binanti, renegade Italian con-
script, in 1914 put the Syrian and Afri-
can caravans at 10000. ali Bey "a
Spaniardl, whose real name was Domingo
Badary Leblich, in 1907 computed So
QUO men, 1000 women and 1000 chill.
dren, assembled on the day of Arafat {;
and Burckhardt 1S14) estimated the
crowd at Arafat at 10000. Burton. in
1888, was sure there were not over 1000
in the Damascus caravan, nor more than
! 90, OOo on Mount Arafat. Both Burck-
hardt and Burton thought the number of
annual pilgrims diminishing.
The official caravan from Damascus
carries the covering for the Prophet
tomb at Medina, which is annually re-
newed. Cairo supplies annually, at the
expense OF the Government, the mahmel,
or canopy of dark cloth or velvet,
wrought with texts in DARK threa |,
which is the cover of the Kaaba, and
the kisweh, Or lining for the interior of
the Kaaba, which is OF rich silk, heiyily
embroidered with Arabic sentences in
gold. The klsweh that was hung in the
temple year ago is brought buck to
Cairo, and divided into bits aud shreds
among the faithful. Formerly the nah.
mel used to remain. and the Kaaba was
shrouded in layer above layer, until the
cloth decayed, but now the old canopy
is removed before the new one is put on.
bC vi pilgrimage nave
greatly changed IN the last few years.
Tne'Syrian aud African caravans con-
tinue, b..t they seem to be less i'll size.
The Governments still pay tribute to the
desert she;ks for passage through their
territories, but the dangers which re-
Iquired so many to travel together seem
to have diminished. Pilgrims make
their way from all parts of the world by
rail and by steamboat. AS hosts under
take the pilgrimage who are exceedingly
poor, and many postpone it till they are
diseased and old, the mortality must
still be great, and large numbers die on
the way, or have the felicity of
passing to paradise from the vicinity
of the kaaba, their wasted, fanati-
cal bodies bathed for the last
time in the sacred waters of the well
zemzem. The annual pilgrimage from
Cairo goes by rail to Suez, and there
takes steamboats, to Jedda. In the sea-
son tramp steamers voyage about the
Mediterranean, picking up pilgrims at
auaru Mnhamnodop r,0rf o,1