Mecca Sentence Examples

According to Niebuhr, in the 18th century a fleet of nearly twenty vessels sailed yearly from Suez to Jidda, the port of Mecca and the place of correspondence with India.

Railway construction has begun in Arabia, and in 1908 the Hejaz line, intended to connect Damascus with Mecca, had reached Medina, Soo m.

In 691 Abdalmalik (`Abdul-Malik) determined to crush his rival and sent his general Hajjaj against Mecca.

The earliest mosque erected was that at Mecca, which consisted of a great court, in the centre of which was the Ka`ba or Holy Stone.

Suez is a quarantine station for pilgrims from Mecca; otherwise its importance is due almost entirely to the ships using the canal.

In the west and south the principal routes, other than those already mentioned, are from Yambu to Medina, from Jidda to Mecca, Hodeda to Sana, Aden to Sana, and from Mukalla to the Hadramut valley.

Ibn Batuta went by land from Tangier to Cairo, then visited Syria, and performed the pilgrimages to Medina and Mecca.

From this point of vantage he began depredations on the Red Sea (1182), building a fleet, and seeking to attack Medina and Mecca - a policy which may be interpreted either as mere buccaneering, or as a calculated attempt to deal a blow at Mahommedanism in its very centre.

Beyond the Mecca wall is the tomb of the founder, covered with an immense dome.

As a rule, the mosques of India followed the normal plan, with a great central court and aisles round and a prayer chamber in front of the Mecca wall, which in India is always at the west end.

Turkey's Arabian possessions comprise, besides El-Hasa on the Persian Gulf, the low-lying, hot and insalubrious Tehama and the south-western highlands (vilayets of Hejaz and Yemen) stretching continuously along the east side of the Red Sea, and including the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

About this time, inspired by a heavenly voice (which he pretends to have heard in a dream), he abjured all the luxuries of life, and resolved upon a pilgrimage to the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina, hoping to find there the solution of all his religious doubts.

The first explorer to enter the sacred Hejaz with a definite scientific object was the Spaniard, Badia y aeblich, who, under the name of Ali Bey and claiming to be the last representative of the Abbasid Caliphs, arrived at Jidda in 1807, and performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

After a stay in Hail, where he had every opportunity of observing the character of the country and its inhabitants, and the hospitality and patriarchal, if sometimes stern, justice of its chief, he travelled on to Medina and Mecca, and returned thence to Cairo to report to his patron.

The famous expedition of Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy, against Mecca, took place in 570.

From Hail Huber followed nearly in Doughty's track to Aneza and thence across central Nejd to Mecca and Jidda, where he despatched his notes and copies of inscriptions.

The harra east of Khaibar is also of considerable extent, and the same formation is found all along the Hejaz border from Medina to the Jebel el Kura, east of Mecca.

The only ports of importance are Yambu and Jidda, which serve respectively Medina and Mecca; they depend entirely on the pilgrim traffic to the holy cities, without which they could not exist.

In the northern part of Arabia the crystalline rocks form a broad area extending from the peninsula of Sinai eastwards to Hail and southwards at least as far as Mecca.

Doughty adds that the Nejd highlands between Kasim and Mecca are watered yearly by seasonable rains, which at Taif are expected about the end of August and last commonly from four to six weeks.

Safra to Badr Hunen, whence it keeps near the coast passing Rabigh and Khulesa to Mecca.

In the south of Arabia 'Ali succeeded in establishing his own governor in Yemen, though the government treasure was carried off to Mecca.

With the success of Moawiya Damascus became the capital of the caliphate (658) and Arabia became a mere province, though always of importance because of its possession, of the two sacred cities Mecca and Medina.

Medina was besieged and sacked by the troops of Yazid (682) and Mecca was besieged the following year.

In g06 the court at Bagdad learned that these sectaries had gained almost all Yemen and were threatening Mecca and Medina.

In Arabia he subjugated Oman, and swooping down on the west in 92 9 he horrified the Moslem world by capturing Mecca and carrying off the sacred black stone to Bahrein.

Thus in 966 the name of the caliph Moti was banished from the prayers at Mecca, and an `Alyite took possession of the government of the city and recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master.

After the visit of the Sultan Bibars (1269) Mecca was governed by an amir dependent on Egypt.

In 1517 the Osmanli Turkish sultan Selim conquered Egypt, and having received the right of succession to the caliphate was solemnly presented by the sherif of Mecca with the keys of the city, and recognized as the spiritual head of Islam and ruler of the Hejaz.

Its originator, Mahommed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, was born (1691) at Ayana in Nejd, and after studying in Basra and Damascus, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca returned to his native country and settled down at Huremala near Deraiya.

Mecca itself was taken; plundering was forbidden, but the tombs of the saints and all objects of veneration were ruthlessly destroyed, and all ceremonies which seemed in the eye of the stern puritan conqueror to suggest the taint of idolatry were forbidden.

Medina and subsequently Mecca were eventually taken by the Egyptians, but in spite of continual reinforcements they could do little more than hold their own in Hejaz.

Azraqi again was followed by Fakihi, who wrote a History of Mecca in 885, 2 and `Omar b.

Nejef is also the point of departure from which Persian pilgrims start on the journey to Mecca.

He made overtures to his younger brother Murad, governor of Gujarat, representing that neither of their elder brothers was worthy of the kingdom, that he himself had no temporal ambition, and desired only to place a fit monarch on the throne, and then to devote himself to religious exercises and make the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Hafsites (so called from Abu IIafs, the ancestor of Abu Zakariya, a Berber chieftain who had been one of the intimate disciples of the Almohade mandi) assumed the title of Prince of the Faithful, a dignity which was acknowledged even at Mecca, when in the days of Mostansir, the second Hafsite, the fall of Bagdad left Islam without a titular head.

After spending six years in Constantinople, where he published a Turkish-German Dictionary and various linguistic works, and where he acquired some twenty Oriental languages and dialects, he visited Teheran; and then, disguised as a dervish, joined a band of pilgrims from Mecca, and spent several months with them in rough and squalid travel through the deserts of Asia.

The era in use among the Turks, Arabs and other Mahommedan nations is that of the Hegira or Hejra, the flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina, 622 A.D.

The prophet, after leaving Mecca, to escape the pursuit of his enemies, the Koreishites, hid himself with his friend Abubekr in a cave near Mecca, and there lay for three days.

He was born at Mecca in the year A.D.

When Mahomet fled from Mecca, Abu-Bekr was his sole companion, and shared both his hardships and his triumphs, remaining constantly with him until the day of his death.

The word originally signified a military commander, but very early came to be extended to anyone bearing rule, Mahomet himself being styled by the pagan Arabs amir of Mecca.

Kerbela is a place of pilgrimage of the Shiite Moslems, and is only less sacred to them than Meshed `Ali and Mecca.

In Arabia were the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, governed by the Sherif of Mecca, a dignitary and ruler of great influence in the Mahommedan world.

He was a Prince of Mecca, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, the holder of the Croix de Guerre (with palms), the Italian silver medal arid various British war medals.

The great salt caravans pass through it, as well as pilgrims on their way to Mecca.

While still a youth he was taken by his father on the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and to the tomb of Sidi Abd-el-Kader El Jalili at Bagdad - events which stimulated his natural tendency to religious enthusiasm.

The Mahommedan Era, Or Era Of The Hegira, Used In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, &C., Is Dated From The First Day Of The Month Preceding The Flight Of Mahomet From Mecca To Medina, I.E.

Thus in 1330 Ibn Batuta found a son of the amir of Mecca reigning in Suakin over the Beja, who were his mother's kin.

Till the suppression of the slave trade Suakin was an important slave port and it has always been the place of embarcation for Sudan pilgrims to Mecca.

In Java the government has favoured Mahommedans (there is active intercourse between the island and Mecca), but there are some 25,000 Christians and a training school and seminary at Depok near Batavia.

To the Mahommedan mind the crowning distinction of the building is that through divine inspiration the founder was enabled to set it absolutely true to Mecca.

After Mecca and Medina Kairawan is the most sacred city in the eyes of the Mahommedans of Africa, and constant pilgrimages are made to its shrines.

About the year 1040 or a little earlier, one of their chiefs, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Hence it is probable that in Mecca, where the art of writing was commoner than in Medina, he had already begun to have his oracles committed to writing.

That even long portions of the Koran existed in written form from an early date may be pretty safely inferred from various indications; especially from the fact that in Mecca the Prophet had caused insertions to be made, and pieces to be erased in his previous revelations.

They preach exactly like could read and write has been much debated him, they have to bring the very same charges against their opponents, who on their part behave exactly as the unbelieving inhabitants of Mecca.

It has to be considered, however, that many of those sermonizing pieces which are so tedious to us, especially when we read two or three in succession (perhaps in a very inadequate translation), must have had a quite different effect when recited under the burning sky and on the barren soil of Mecca.

The fact that scraps of poetical phraseology are specially numerous in the earlier suras, enables us to understand why the prosaic mercantile community of Mecca regarded their eccentric townsman as a " poet," or even a possessed poet."

The Medina pieces, whether entire suras or isolated passages interpolated in Meccan suras, are accordingly pretty broadly distinct, as to their contents, from those issued in Mecca.

In the great majority of cases there can be no doubt whatever whether a piece first saw the light in Mecca or in Medina; and for the most part the internal evidence is borne out by Moslem tradition.

But at all events it is far easier to arrange in some sort of chronological order the Medina suras than those composed in Mecca.

Among the revelations put forth in Mecca there is a considerable number of (for the most part) short suras, which strike every attentive reader as being the oldest.

At the opposite extreme from them stands another cluster, showing quite obvious affinities with the style of the Medina suras, which must therefore be assigned to the later part of the Prophet's work in Mecca.

Every one who takes up the book in the proper religious frame of mind, like most of the Moslems, reads pieces directed against long-obsolete absurd customs of Mecca just as devoutly as the weightiest moral precepts - perhaps even more devoutly, because he does not understand them so well.

The extremely primitive writing of those clays was quite incapable of rendering such minute differences as can have existed between the pronunciation of Mecca and that of Medina.

The usual plan of a congregational mosque is a large, square, open court, surrounded by arcades of which the chief, often several bays deep, and known as the Manksura, or prayer-chamber, faces Mecca (eastward), and has inside its outer wall a decorated niche to mark the direction of prayer.

About 250,000 passengers (including some 40,000 pilgrims to Mecca) pass through the canal in a year (see further SUEZ).

Immediately on death the corpse is turned towards Mecca, and the women of the household, assisted by hired mourners, commence their peculiar wailing, while fikis recite portions of the Koran.

A few days after, the Kiswa, or new covering for the Kaba at Mecca, is taken in procession from the citadel, where it is always manufactured, to the mosque of the Hasanhn to be completed; and, later, the caravan of pilgrims departs, when the grand procession of the Mahmal takes place.

In 941, after the death of Ibn Raiq, the Ikshid took the opportunity of invading Syria, which the caliph permitted him to hold with the addition of the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, which the TUlunids had aspired to possess.

Before his death he was acknowledged as caliph in Mecca and Medina, as, well as Syria, Egypt and North Africa as far as Tangier.

Before Kamils death he was mentioned in public prayer at Mecca as lord of Mecca (Hejaz), Yemen, ZabId, Upper and Lower Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia.

The amirs Salr and Bibars having usurped the whole of the sultans authority, he, after some futile attempts to free himself of them, under the pretext of pilgrimage to Mecca, retired in March 1309 to Kerak, whence he sent his abdication to Cairo; in consequence of which, on the 5th of April 1309, Bibars Jashengir was proclaimed sultan, with the title Malik al-Mozajar.

His reign was remarkable for a naval conflict between the Egyptians and the Portuguese, whose fleet interfered with the pilgrim route from India to Mecca, and also with the trade between India and Egypt; KgnsUh caused a fleet to be built which fought naval battles with the Portuguese with varying results.

He next took Jidda and Mecca, defeating the Wahhabis beyond the latter place and capturing their general.

He deposed and exiled the sharif of Mecca, and after the death of the Wahhabi leader Saud II.

The pan-Islamic press, allowed full licence by the Cairo authorities, spread abroad rumours that the Egyptian government intended to construct fortifications in the Sinai peninsula with the design of menacing the railway, under construction by Turkey, from Damascus to Mecca.

Not improbably they spoke a dialect (or dialects) akin to Arabic or Aramaic. 5 According to the Mahommedans, Ishmael, who is recognized as their ancestor, lies buried with his mother in the Kaaba in Mecca.

For Mahomet proclaimed it the duty of every Mussulman, once at least in his life, to visit Mecca; the result being that the birthplace of the Prophet is now the religious centre of the whole Mahommedan world (see Mahommedan Religion; Caravan; Mecca) .

It has thus come to pass that there is no anti-Semitism in Budapest, although the Hebrew element is proportionately much larger (21% as compared with 9%) than it is in Vienna, the Mecca of the Jew-baiter.

Perhaps the line of the pilgrim road from Damascus to Mecca is the most convenient possible boundary.

This was undertaken in 2901 to connect Damascus with Mecca; in 1906 it was finished as far as Ma'an, and in 1908 the section to Medina was completed.

In 831 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored; but about a hundred years later it was again destroyed as a result of the revolt of the Carmathians, who in 9 29 pillaged Mecca.

One of these converts, Baba Budan by name, is said to have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca and to have brought back with him the coffee berry, which he planted on the hill range in Mysore still called after him.

As the result of the war with the Mogul empire, which lasted from 1686 to 1690, the company perceived that a land war was beyond their strength, but their sea-power could obtain them terms by blockading the customs ports and threatening the pilgrim route to Mecca.

In 1187, after making the pilgrimage to Mecca, he visited Damascus.

Islam suddenly found itself once more limited to the community of Medina; only Mecca and Taff (Tayef) remained true.

He belonged to the foremost family of Mecca, the Omayyads, and that he should favour his relations and the Koreish as a whole, in every possible way, seemed to him a matter of course.

Such were beyond all doubt the patricians of Mecca, and after them those of Taif, people like Khalid b.

It was led by what may be called the spiritual noblesse of Islam, which, as distinguished from the hereditary nobility of Mecca, might also be designated as the nobility of merit, consisting of the "Defenders" (Ansar), and especially of the Emigrants who had lent themselves to the elevation of the Koreish, but by no means with the intention of allowing themselves thereby to be effaced.

The most important positions, such as the governorships of Mecca and Yemen, were entrusted to men of the Omayyad house, or that of the Makhzum and other Koreishite families.

The elements of this opposition were of very various kinds (r) The old-fashioned Moslems, sons of the Ansar and Mohajir, who had been Mahomet's first companions and supporters, and could not bear the thought that the sons of the old enemies of the Prophet in Mecca, whom they nicknamed tolaga (freedmen), should be in control of the imamate, which carried with it the management of affairs both civil and religious.

When, ten weeks before the murder, some hundreds of men came to Medina from Egypt and Irak, pretending that they were on their pilgrimage to Mecca, but wanted to bring before the caliph their complaints against his vicegerents, nobody could have the slightest suspicion that the life of the caliph was in danger; indeed it was only during 1 Ma'ad is in the genealogical system the father of the Moelar and the Rab`ia tribes.

Abi Arta made his expedition against Medina and Mecca, whose inhabitants were compelled to acknowledge the caliphate of Moawiya.

Notwithstanding the protest of the Basrians, he transported this booty safely to Mecca.

This army was defeated, and from that time Ibn Zobair was supreme at Mecca.

On the 8th of Dhu'l-Hijja Hosain set out from Mecca with all his family, expecting to be received with enthusiasm by the citizens of Kuf a, but on his arrival at Kerbela west of the Euphrates, he was confronted by an army sent by Obaidallah under the command of Omar, son of the famous Sa`d b.

Omar had likewise abstained, but they had left Medina for Mecca.

Moslim then proceeded towards Mecca.

Nomair arrived before Mecca in September 683 and found Ibn Zobair ready to defend it.

Meanwhile Mokhtar (son of that Abu `Obaid the Thaqifite who had commanded the Arabs against the Persians in the unfortunate battle of the Bridge), a man of great talents and still greater ambition, after having supported Ibn Zobair in the siege of Mecca, had gone to Kufa, where he joined the Shiites, mostly Persians, and acquired great power.

The troops of Basra had been, since the death of Yazid, at war with the Kharijites, who had supported Ibn Zobair during the siege of Mecca, but had deserted him later.

Ibn Zobair, however, was occupied at Mecca with the rebuilding of the Ka`ba, and Mus`ab was harassed not only by the Kharijites, but also by a noble freebooter, Obaidallah b.

Yusuf at the head of 2000 Syrians against Ibn Zobair in Mecca, and despatched a messenger toTariq b.'Amr, who 1 Formerly the capital of the homonymous province of Syria; it lies a day's march west from Haleb (Aleppo).

Then, in Dhu `1 Qa`da 72 (March 25th, 692) Mecca was invested.

Mecca being thus left without defenders, Ibn Zobair saw that ruin was inevitable.

Medina and Mecca, though they continued to be the holy cities, had no longer their old political importance, which had already been shaken to its foundations by the murder of Othman and the subsequent troubles.

Eutychius and others pretend that he desired to substitute Jerusalem for Mecca, because Ibn Zobair had occupied the latter place, and thus the pilgrimage to the Ka`ba had become difficult for the Syrians.

The idea of interfering with the pilgrimage to the House of God at Mecca, which would have alienated from him all religious men, and thus from a political point of view would have been suicidal, cannot have entered his mind for a moment.

Mohallab, the then mighty favourite of the caliph Suleiman, but died in the same year 716 on his way to Mecca.

The governors of Medina and Mecca were dismissed; Mahommed b.

This very able man, who under Hajjaj had been prefect of Mecca, belonged properly neither to the Qaisites nor to the Yemenites, but as he took the place of Ibn Hobaira and dismissed his partisans from their posts, the former considered him as their adversary, the, latter as their benefactor.

In 754 Abu Moslim came to Irak to visit Abu`l-Abbas and to ask his permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.

He was buried at Mecca.

Mandi had been scarcely a year on the throne when he resolved to accomplish the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The chroniclers relate that on this occasion for the first time camels loaded with ice for the use of the caliph came to Mecca.

From Mecca Mandi went to Medina, where he caused the mosque to be enlarged, and where a similar distribution of gifts took place.

Struck by the difficulties of every kind which had to be encountered by poor pilgrims to Mecca from Bagdad and its neighbourhood, he ordered Yaqtin, his freedman, to renew the milestones, to repair the old reservoirs, and to dig wells and construct cisterns at every station of the road where they were missing.

Thence he went to Mecca, where on the promise of freedom many slaves flocked to him, and many pilgrims also acknowledged him.

Mecca, Medina and Yemen also were mastered by the Alids, who committed all kinds of atrocities and sacrilege.

But, to avenge their defeat, they lay in wait for the great pilgrim caravan on its return from Mecca in the first days of 294 (906), and massacred 20,000 pilgrims, making an immense booty.

Next year Mecca was taken and plundered; even the sacred Black Stone was transported to Lahsa, where it remained till 339 (950), when by the express order of the Imam, the Fatimite caliph, it was restored to the Ka`ba.

The Amir al-Omara was obliged to purchase from the latter the freedom of the pilgrimage to Mecca, at the price of a disgraceful treaty.

Yemen had been subjected, and at Mecca and Medina his name was substituted in the public prayers for that of the Fatimite caliph.

Cheribon has been for many centuries the centre of Islamism in western Java, and is also the seat of a fanatical Mahommedan sect controlled from Mecca.

In 1811 the massacre of the Mamelukes left Mehemet Ali without a rival in Egypt, while the foundations of his empire beyond were laid by the war against the Wahhabis and the conquest of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

He was master of the holy cities, and the official Moniteur Ottoman denounced his supposed plan of aiming at the caliphate in collusion with the sherif of Mecca.

In 1874 the disease extended within four days' march of Mecca.

After some stay at Cairo, then probably the greatest city in the world (excluding China), and an unsuccessful attempt to reach Mecca from Aidhab on the west coast of the Red Sea, he visited Palestine, Aleppo and Damascus.

He then made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and visited the shrine of Ali at Mashhad-Ali, travelling thence to Basra, and across the mountains of Khuzistan to Isfahan, thence to Shiraz and back to Kufa and Bagdad.

After an excursion to Mosul and Diarbekr, he made the haj a second time, staying at Mecca three years.

After visiting other parts of the gulf he crossed the breadth of Arabia to Mecca, making the haj for the third time.

The emperor not only freely pardoned him, but magnanimously offered him the choice of a high place in the army or a suitable escort for a pilgrimage to Mecca, and Bairam preferred the latter alternative.

Seyyid el-Bedawi, who lived in the 13th century A.D., was a native of Fez who, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, settled in Tanta.

Further, there are elements of Islam, like the usages of the hajj (or pilgrimage to the sacred places at Mecca), the dryness of its official doctrine and the limitations of its real character as indicated in the Wahhabi revival, which so impair its apparent universalism that Kuenen found himself obliged to withdraw it from the highest rank of religions.

His son Sadrud-Din and grandson Kwaja Ali (who visited Mecca and died at Jerusalem) retained the high reputation of their pious predecessor.

He was permitted to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return in 1708 he so gained upon the confidence of the Persian court that he was allowed to go back to his country.

It provided especially against a recurrence of the proved causes of war, such as extorting taxes from Persian travellers or pilgrims, disrespect to the ladies of the royal harem and other ladies of rank proceeding to Mecca or Karbala (Kerbela), irregular levies of custom-duties, non-punishment of Kurdish depredators transgressing the boundary, and the like.

Similarly the Jewish synagogues have each their eternal lamp; while in the religion of Islam lighted lamps mark things and places specially holy; thus the Ka`ba at Mecca is illuminated by thousands of lamps hanging from the gold and silver rods that connect the columns of the surrounding colonnade.

He was the founder of the present capital of Tibet, now known as Lhasa; and in the year 622 (the same year as that in which Mahomet fled from Mecca) he began the formal introduction of Buddhism into Tibet.

Having secured his chair for his brother he went to Damascus, Jerusalem, Hebron, Mecca, Medina and Alexandria, studying, meditating and writing in these cities.

Kmba, Kaaba, or Kaabeh, the sacred shrine of Mahommedanism, containing the "black stone," in the middle of the great mosque at Mecca.

In 1892, on the accession of the khedive Abbas II., Turkey resumed possession of Akaba, the Egyptian pilgrims having deserted the land route to Mecca in favour of a sea passage.

In 1906 the construction was begun of a branch line joining Akaba to the Mecca railway and thus giving through communication with Beirut.

He then (according to his highly fabulous narrative) visited the territory of Issachar, in the mountains of Media and Persia; he also describes the abodes of Zabulon, on the "other side" of the Paran Mountains, extending to Armenia and the Euphrates; of Reuben, on another side of the same mountains; of Ephraim and Half Manasseh, in Arabia, not far from Mecca; and of Simeon and the other Half of Manasseh, in Chorazin, six months' journey from Jerusalem.

The Muezzin, who is a paid servant of the mosque, must stand with his face towards Mecca and with the points of his forefingers in his ears while reciting Azan.

Mecca in fact lies in the heart of a mass of rough hills, intersected by a labyrinth of narrow valleys and passes, and projecting into the Tehama or low country on the Red Sea, in front of the great mountain wall that divides the coast-lands from the central plateau, though in turn they are themselves separated from the sea by a second curtain of hills forming the western wall of the great Wadi Marr.

The inner mountain wall is pierced by only two great passes, and the valleys descending from these embrace on both sides the Mecca hills.

At all events, long before Mahomet we find Mecca established in the twofold quality of a commercial centre and a privileged holy place, surrounded by an inviolable territory (the Haram), which was not the sanctuary of a single tribe but a place of pilgrimage, where religious observances were associated with a series of annual fairs at different points in the vicinity.

The first of the series of fairs in which the Meccans had an interest was at Okaz on the easier road between Mecca and Taif, where there was also a sanctuary, and from it the visitors moved on to points still nearer Mecca (Majanna, and finally Dhul-Majaz, on the flank of Jebel Kabkab behind Arafa) where further fairs were held, 3 culminating in the special religious ceremonies of the great feast at `Arafa, Quzah (Mozdalifa), and Mecca itself.

The victory of Mahommedanism made a vast change in the position of Mecca.

The sanctuary and feast of Mecca received, however, a new prestige from the victory of Islam.

The hills east and west of Mecca, which are partly built over and rise several hundred feet above the valley, so enclose the city that the ancient walls only barred the valley at three points, where three gates led into the town.

The lower or southern gate, at the Masfala quarter, opened on the Yemen road, where the rain-water from Mecca flows off into an open valley.

The history of Mecca is full of the record of these inundations, unsuccessfully combated by the great dam drawn across the valley by the caliph Omar (Kutbeddin, p. 76), and later works of Mandi.5 The fixed population of Mecca in 1878 was estimated by Assistant-Surgeon `Abd el-Razzaq at 50,000 to 60,000; there is a large floating population - and that not merely at the proper season of pilgrimage, the pilgrims of one season often beginning to arrive before those of the former season have all dispersed.

The unspeakable vices of Mecca are a scandal to all Islam, and a constant source of wonder to pious pilgrims.8 The slave trade has connexions with the pilgrimage which are not thoroughly clear; but under cover of the pilgrimage a great deal of importation and exportation of slaves goes on.

Since the fall of Ibn Zubair the political position of Mecca 4 For details as to the ancient quarters of Mecca, where the several families or septs lived apart, see Azraqi, 455 pp. seq., and compare Ya`qubi, ed.

In the splendid times of the caliphs 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.

The Turkish conquest of Egypt transferred the supremacy to the Ottoman sultans (1517), who treated Mecca with much favour, and during the 16th century executed great works in the sanctuary and temple.

Mecca is, however, officially the capital of a Turkish province, and has a governor-general and a Turkish garrison, while Mahommedan law is administered by a judge sent from Constantinople.

But the real sovereign of Mecca and the Hejaz is the sherif, who, as head of a princely family claiming descent from the Prophet, holds a sort of feudal position.

From a political point of view the sherif is the modern counterpart of the ancient amirs of Mecca, who were named in the public prayers immediately after the reigning caliph.

The influence of the princes of Mecca has varied from time to time, according to the strength of the foreign protectorate in the Hejaz or in consequence of feuds among the branches of the house; until about 1882 it was for most purposes much greater than that of the Turks.

After the sherifs, the principal family of Mecca is the house of Shaibah, which holds the hereditary custodianship of the Ka`ba.

Long before Mahomet the chief sanctuary of Mecca was the Ka`ba, a rude stone building without windows, and having a door 7 ft.

The ceremony of the tawaf and the worship of stone fetishes was common to Mecca with other ancient Arabian sanctuaries.'

Here, in the time of Ibn Jubair, the Maqam or standing stone of Abraham was usually placed for better security, but brought out on great occasions.2 The houses of ancient Mecca pressed close upon the Ka`ba, the noblest families, who traced their descent from Iosai, the reputed founder of the city, having their dwellings immediately round the sanctuary.

It was covered with inscriptions in an unknown character, one of which was copied by Fakihi in his history of Mecca.

But, besides this, Mecca was already a place of pilgrimage.

A vow of pilgrimage might be directed to other sanctuaries than Mecca - the technical word for it (ihlal) is applied, for example, to the pilgrimage to Manat (Bakri, p. 519).

Pilgrimages to Mecca were not tied to a single time, but they were naturally associated with festive occasions, and especially with the great annual feast and market.

The pilgrimage was so intimately connected with the wellbeing of Mecca, and had already such a hold on the Arabs round about, that Mahomet could not afford to sacrifice it to an abstract purity of religion, and thus the old usages were transplanted into Islam in the double form of the omra or vow of pilgrimage to Mecca, which can be discharged at any time, and the hajj or pilgrimage at the great annual feast.

The latter closes with a visit to the Ka`ba, but its essential ceremonies lie outside Mecca, at the neighbouring shrines where the old Arabs gathered before the Meccan fair.

This ceremony is now generally combined with the hajj, or is performed by every stranger or traveller when he enters Mecca, and the ihram (which involves the acts of abstinence already referred to) is assumed at a considerable distance from the city.

Rajab was one of the ancient sacred months, and the feast, which extended through the whole month and was a joyful season of hospitality and thanksgiving, no doubt represents the ancient feasts of Mecca more exactly than the ceremonies of the bajj, in which old usage has been overlaid by traditions and glosses of Islam.

Arafa or Arafat is a space, artificially limited, round a small isolated hill called the Hill of Mercy, a little way outside the holy territory, on the road from Mecca to Taif.

One leaving Mecca after midday can easily reach the place on foot the same evening.

The road is first northwards along the Mecca valley and then turns eastward.

It leads through the straggling village of Mina, occupying a long narrow valley (Wadi Mina), two to three hours from Mecca, and thence by the mosque of Mozdalifa over a narrow pass opening out into the plain of Arafa,which is an expansion of the great Wadi Naman,through which the Taif road descends from Mount Kara.

He therefore leaves Mecca in pilgrim garb on the 8th of Dhu'l Hijja, called the day of tarwiya (an obscure and pre-Islamic name), and, strictly speaking, should spend the night at Mina.

The sacrifice and visit to Mecca may, however, be delayed till the 11th, 12th or 13th.

The Arabic historians are largely occupied with fabulous matter as to Mecca before Islam; for these legends the reader may refer to C. de Perceval's Essai.

Of the special histories and descriptions of Mecca published by Wi stenfeld (Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, 3 vols., 1857-1859, with an abstract in German, 1861), the most valuable is that of Azragi.

Of European descriptions of Mecca from personal observation the best is Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia (cited above from the 8vo ed., 1829).

The combined body of the Faithful will take Mecca, and finally Jerusalem, and all the world will accept the Faith.

The body is laid on its side, with its face to the south (Mecca).

The caliphate was thought only to belong to the prince who ruled over the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina.

In the country under his dominion the khalifa's government was carried on after the manner of other Mahommedan states, but pilgrimages to the Mandi's tomb at Omdurman were substituted for pilgrimages to Mecca.

For many years he stayed at Mecca, from which circumstance he was known as Jar-ullah (" God's client").

His love of travel led him in his old age to visit different parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and he was setting out on a pilgrimage to Mecca when he died at Bagdad in 1231.

He died at Mecca during a pilgrimage in 1871.

After the murder of Ali, the fourth caliph, his successor Moawiya transferred the seat of the Caliphate from Mecca to Damascus and thus commenced the great dynasty of the Omayyads, whose rule extended from the Atlantic to India.

Damascus occupies an important commercial position, being the market for the whole of the desert; it also is of great importance religiously, as being the startingpoint for the Hajj pilgrimage from Syria to Mecca, which leaves on the 15th of the lunar month of Shawwal each year.

It is connected with Beirut and Mezerib by railway, and at the end of the past century the great undertaking of running a line to Mecca was commenced.

Though still the market of the nomads, the surer and cheaper sea route has almost destroyed the transit trade to which it once owed its wealth, and has even diminished the importance of the annual pilgrim caravan to Mecca.

Thus was created a major climbing facility and, in the process, an additional invitation for winter tourists, earning the small town a reputation as a growing Mecca for this exciting and perilous sport.

Uthman, from the Umayya clan, represented the tribal aristocracy of Mecca, and his victory annoyed a loyalist old guard.

The relatives of the murdered caliph fled to Mecca with vows of vengeance.

Would he have prayed toward Mecca, fasted at Ramadan, recited the Creed or indeed denied his own divinity?

Previously the black rock in Mecca had always been a site of pagan idolatry.

Mecca simply wanted what they eventually got - pure raw, kinetic energy dispersed under a geometric ceiling that resembled an inverted space station.

Generous health insurance losing market share business where scale becoming a Mecca.

In just a few short years, the state has been transformed from a golfing desert to a virtual golfing Mecca.

The Rai Leh peninsular projects out into a bay filled with such tall islands and has long been known as a climbing Mecca.

Mecca for outdoors enthusiasts, Chamonix is the ideal place to explore for history lovers too.

Alright, so Doncaster is nobody's idea of a cultural Mecca, but there's a lot of cool stuff out there.

Glasgow is also the new retail Mecca for the committed shopper.

How many people are aware tho, that on the outskirts of Rochdale is a veritable Mecca for pylon enthusiasts?

Drive or take the train to the festival city of Edinburgh, walled town of Berwick or shopping Mecca in Newcastle.

As a tourist Mecca, the city is busy and often crowded.

Give it a go in the British surfing Mecca.

Sidmouth really began to boom in the 19th century as a seaside holiday Mecca.

Santa Fe's reputation as an art Mecca has early roots.

If you claim that it is Mecca, can you produce a single verse stating that the sacred mosque is located there?

This was seen as an analogous occupation to that of the Soviets in Afghanistan, and particularly odious in the land of Mecca.

It is taken on a yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.

Just as the Temple had a large courtyard which was surrounded by porticoes, so the Haram in Mecca has the same features.

This entire sura is generally regarded as one of the earliest after Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina in AD 622.

As a youth he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he was expelled on account of his severe strictures on the laxity of others, and thence wandered to Bagdad, where he attached himself to the school of the orthodox doctor al Ashari.

The principal feature in the mosque is the niche (mihrab), which is sunk in a wall built at right angles to a line drawn from Mecca, and indicates the direction towards which the Moslem should turn when engaged in prayer.

The arcades in front of the Mecca niche were sometimes of considerable depth, and constituted the prayer chamber (maksura), portions of which were occasionally enclosed with lattice work.

The Mecca niche is sunk in the doorway of a Roman temple which formerly occupied the same site, and the substructure of the minaret at the south-west angle is of still more ancient date.

The plan is of the normal type, with a great court in the centre, a prayer chamber four aisles deep on the Mecca side (south-east), and a double aisle on the other three sides.

The kohl or black powder with which the modern, like the ancient, Egyptian ladies paint their languishing eyelids, is nothing but the smeeth of charred frankincense, or other odoriferous resin brought with frankincense, and phials of water, from the well of Zem-zem, by the pilgrims returning from Mecca.

This work, scarcely begun in Mecca, was really started after the migration to Medina by the formation of a party of men - the Muhajirun (Refugees or Emigrants) and the Ansdr (Helpers or Defenders) - who accepted Mahomet as their religious leader.

Ayesha, Talba and Zobair, who were strong in Mecca, succeeded in obtaining possession of Basra, but were defeated in 656 at the battle of the Camel (see AaI).

It came within a narrow margin of setting the Mahommedan world ablaze against Great Britain and France - on which Germany had counted - a catastrophe averted by the accident that the Sherif of Mecca opposed the Jihad and divided Islam.

At sea, as on land, the Greeks opened the campaign with hideous atrocities, almost their first exploit being the capture of a vessel carrying to Mecca the sheik-ul-Islam and his family, whom they murdered with every aggravation of outrage.

The acts of religion partake of the general simplicity of desert life; apart from the private worship of household gods and the oblations and salutations offered at the graves of departed kinsmen, the ritual observances of the ancient Arabs were visits to the tribal sanctuary to salute the god with a gift of milk, first-fruits or the like, the sacrifice of firstlings and vows (see Nazarite and Passover), and an occasional pilgrimage to discharge a vow at the annual feast and fair of one of the more distant holy places (see MEccA).

It is probable (see above) that Mahomet had already caused revelations to be written down at Mecca, and that this began from the moment when he felt certain that he was the transmitter of the actual text of a heavenly book to mankind.

Walid sent a messenger inviting them to a conference, thus giving them time to assemble their followers and to escape to Mecca, where the prefect Omar b.

The pilgrimage retained its importance for the commercial well-being of Mecca; to this day the Meccans live by the Hajj - letting rooms, acting as guides and directors in the sacred ceremonies, as contractors and touts for land and sea transport, as well as exploiting the many benefactions that flow to the holy city; while the surrounding Bedouins derive support from the camel-transport it demands and from the subsidies by which they are engaged to protect or abstain from molesting the pilgrim caravans.

After Badr he mourned the leaders of the Quraysh and visited Mecca to stir up a reprisal raid against the Muslims.

It should be noted that these discussions come in suras revealed in Mecca which mainly dealt with the basic fundamentals of faith.

Also on Cyprus is another highly venerated islamic site - the third most important after Mecca and Medina - the Hala Sultan Tekke.

After all, outlet malls have a well-desired reputation for being a Mecca for bargain hunters.

Hickory, NC is a Mecca for furniture lovers and Hickory furniture outlets offer customers a huge selection of big name brands for very reasonable prices.

Hot Topic has long been celebrated as the Mecca of emo.

Paepcke and his wife wanted to build a cultural mecca in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

The actual store itself is a Mecca of clothing with a warehouse-like decor.

Another advantage of Internet modeling is that the teen can live anywhere in the country instead of having to relocate to one of the coasts or to a catalog Mecca, like Chicago.

Las Vegas is the Mecca of informal wedding chapels.

You can almost never go wrong with Target, that mecca of, well, just about everything.

This online Mecca of handmade wares is one of the best places to find niche items that are difficult to track down through traditional retail outlets.

It's a restaurant, a Mecca for celebrity memorabilia and for some, the closest they'll ever get to a Hollywood red-carpet experience.

Since Florida is such a retirement mecca, its senior centers are much more dynamic and impressively abundant.

Heading south from Los Angeles, you'll find San Diego to be a mecca for popular amusement parks, adventures and attractions.

The full-service resort features 665 guest rooms and is a Mecca for chocoholics.

The city's Chinatown neighborhood-one of the biggest Chinatowns in America-has long been considered a mecca for those who know their way around a fortune cookie.

Everything from elegant evening wear, to swimsuits, to jewelry can be found at this Mecca of shopping store giants.

Advertised as an "interracial Mecca," Salt and Pepper Singles has a host of services for their users.

Etsy, the virtual mecca for handmade items, offers an enormous selection of straw totes that are appropriate for beach use.

A true Mecca for family entertainment, Washington Park holds not only the city's children's museum, but also the Oregon Zoo, Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, a rose and Japanese garden along with an acclaimed playground.

Today, the Salvatore Ferragamo museum in Florence is a Mecca to shoe lovers around the world.

Online Shoes is a veritable mecca of chic footwear for men and women.

The shoe warehouse is a virtual mecca of fashionable finds at affordable prices.

The video site is a mecca for fan clips, videos and even official releases of materials regarding the 30 minute drama.

It is a Mecca of natural beauty that all families enjoy visiting together.

Therefore, families should be sure to pick hotels that are centrally located to Times Square, a Mecca for children's activities.

The small city has become a small tourist mecca for UFO enthusiasts and science fiction fans.

Boat trips to Cancun depart several times a day, for a half hour journey to that resort mecca.

The awe-inspiring colors surrounding the courses of the Mackinaw City area, Boyne Country, St. Ives, and Gaylord Golf Mecca are second to none.

It even includes a hint to potential cheerleaders that the official hair care Mecca of a Colts cheerleader is the Tyler Mason salon.

Not only is France a mecca of cultural appeal for modern times, but her history is longstanding.

His Memphis Graceland home remains a mecca for music fans from all over the world.

Louisiana is a musical mecca for more than one genre, so it is no surprise that musicians from Louisiana are well-known to many music fans.

The city's famed Music Row, where the infrastructure of the mainstream country music industry lives, is a mecca to wannabe musicians and songwriters from around the globe.

Even on a small budget, you can transform the venue into an 80s mecca.

A variation on the Real Housewives theme, the SOAPnet series also gives viewers a taste of life in Louisville, considered to be one of the most progressive cities in the south and a mecca for creative people from all over the region.

After her success with House of Style, Cindy continued her mecca of stardom by writing a children's book, a beauty book, and launching several workout videos aimed at toning and firming the body.

He swiped a badge to enter what she imagined was the Mecca of all science labs, with rows of stainless steel, machines, computers, and glass.

After exploring Persia, and again residing for some time at Mecca, he made a voyage down the Red sea to Yemen, and travelled through that country to Aden.

It was under the name of al-mandi that Mokhtar proclaimed `Ali's son Mahommed as the opponent of the caliph Abdalmalik, and, according to Shahrastani, the doctrine of the mandi, the hidden deliverer who is one day to appear and fill the oppressed world with righteousness, first arose in connexion with a belief that this Mahommed had not died but lived concealed at Mount Radwa, near Mecca, guarded by a lion and a panther.

The traffic with Arabia has ceased to be important, being limited to the time of the going and returning of the great pilgrimage to Mecca, which continues to have its musteringplace at Damascus, but leaves mainly by rail.

Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834), an eccentric American Methodist revivalist, visited North Staffordshire and spoke of the campmeetings held in America, with the result that on the 31st of May 1807 the first real English gathering of the kind was held on Mow Cop, since regarded as the Mecca of Primitive Methodism.

Having received permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, he reached Cairo, where he was presented to the sultan, al-Malik udh-Dhahir Barkuk, who insisted on his remaining there, and in the year 1384 made him grand cadi of the Malikite rite for Cairo.

Three years later he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return lived in retirement in the Fayum until 1399, when he was again called upon to resume his functions as cadi.

The .modern "balm of Gilead" or "Mecca balsam," an aromatic gum produced by the Balsamodendron opobalsamum, is more likely the Hebrew mor, which the English Bible wrongly renders "myrrh."

This mullah, Mahommed bin Abdullah by name, had made several pilgrimages to Mecca, where he had attached himself to a sect which enjoined strict observance of the tenets of Islam and placed an interdiction on the use of the leaves of the kat plant - much sought after by the coast Arabs and Somali for their stimulating and intoxicating properties.

In order to conciliate even the Moslems, who include the bulk of the great landholders and of the urban population, its representatives visit the mosques in state on festivals; grants are made for the Mecca pilgrimage; and even the howling Dervishes in Serajevo are maintained by the state.

But it was found politic to continue the office of the grand sherif of Mecca in the sherifian family.

Mussulman books; they eat from their hands; the rao, when he appears in public, alternately worships God in a Hindu pagoda and a Mahommedan mosque; and he fits out annually at Mandvi a ship for the conveyance of pilgrims to Mecca, who are maintained during the voyage chiefly by the liberality of the prince.

They lavished money on the embellishment of their capital, Gyulafehervar, which became a sort of Protestant Mecca, whither scholars and divines of every anti-Roman denomination flocked to bask in the favour of princes who were as liberal as they were pious.

At the present day male and female pilgrims at Mecca wear such a cloth (the ihram); it covers the knees and one end of it may be cast over the shoulder.

The town and district form a small ethnographical island, having been peopled in the 18th century by a colony of Takruri from Darfur, who, finding the spot a convenient resting-place for their fellow-pilgrims on their way to Mecca and back, obtained permission from the negus of Abyssinia to make a permanent settlement.

Besides giving to the world the first accurate description of the holy city and the Haj ceremonies, he was the first to fix the position of Mecca by astronomical observations, and to describe the physical character of its surroundings.

He first visited Taif at the invitation of the pasha, thence he proceeded to Mecca, where he spent three months studying every detail of the topography of the holy places, and going through all the ceremonies incumbent on a Moslem pilgrim.

His illness did not, however, prevent his seeing and recording everything of interest in Medina with the same care as at Mecca, though it compelled him to cut short the further journey he had proposed to himself, and to return by Yambu and the sea to Cairo, where he died only two years later.

He, too, travelling as a Moslem pilgrim, noted the whole ritual of the pilgrimage with the same keen observation as Burckhardt, and while amplifying somewhat the latter's description of Medina, confirms the accuracy of his work there and at Mecca in almost every detail.

His original intention had been after visiting Mecca to find his way across the peninsula to Oman, but the time at his disposal (as an Indian officer on leave) was insufficient for so extended a journey; and his further contributions to Arabian geography were not made until twenty-five years later, when he was deputed by the Egyptian government to examine the reported gold deposits of Midian.

Until the Egyptian invasion in 1814 the Sharifs of Mecca were the recognized rulers of Hejaz, and though the Turks have attempted to suppress their importance, the Sharif still executes justice according to the Mahommedan law in the holy cities, though, nominally, as a Turkish official.

They wear a distinctive garb and are not allowed to carry arms or live in the same quarter as Moslems. Another foreign element of considerable strength in the coast towns of Muscat, Aden and Jidda, is the British Indian trading class; many families of Indian origin also have settled at Mecca, having originally come as pilgrims.

In the present day the Syrian pilgrim route, or Darb el Haj, from Damascus to Medina and Mecca is the most used.

Another important route is that taken by the Persian or Shia pilgrims from Bagdad and Kerbela across the desert, by the wells of aina, to Bureda in Kasim; thence across the steppes of western Nejd till it crosses the Hejaz border at the Ria Mecca, 50 m.

The Yemen pilgrim route, known as the Haj el Kabsi, led from Sada through Asir to Tail and Mecca, but it is no longer used.

The famous well Zemzem at Mecca is said to belong to the early times, when the eastern traffic passed from the south to the north-west of Arabia through the Hejaz, and to have been rediscovered shortly before the time of Mahomet.

The capture of Mecca (630) was not only an evidence of his growing power, which induced Arabs throughout the peninsula to join him, but gave him a valuable centre of pilgrimage, in which he was able by a politic adoption of some of the heathen Arabian ceremonies into his own rites to win men over the more easily to his own cause.

A more local `Alyite revolt in Mecca and Medina was crushed in 785.

She was an author, she explained with a puff of her ample bosom, and had just returned from Roswell, New Mexico, Mecca of the strange and alien.