Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

_Treatment._--The treatment embraces the preventive measures to be adopted by the isolation of the sick at as early a period as possible. Epidemics have often, especially in limited localities, been curtailed by such a precaution. In families with little house accommodation this measure is frequently, for the reason given regarding the communicable period of the disease, ineffectual; nevertheless where practicable it ought to be tried. The unaffected children should be kept from school for a time (probably about three weeks from the outbreak in the family would suffice if no other case occur in the interval), and all clothing in contact with the patient or nurses should be disinfected. In extensive epidemics it is often desirable to close the schools for a time. As regards special treatment, in an ordinary case of measles little is required beyond what is necessary in febrile conditions generally. Confinement to bed in a somewhat darkened room, into which, however, air is freely admitted; light, nourishing, liquid diet (soups, milk, &c.), water almost _ad lib._ to drink, and mild diaphoretic remedies such as the acetate of ammonia or ipecacuanha, are all that is necessary in the febrile stage. When the fever is very severe, sponging the body generally or the chest and arms affords relief. The serious chest complications of measles are to be dealt with by those measures applicable for the relief of the particular symptoms (see BRONCHITIS; PNEUMONIA). The preparations of ammonia are of special efficacy. During convalescence the patient must be guarded from exposure to cold, and for a time after recovery the state of the health ought to be watched with a view of averting the evils, both local and constitutional, which too often follow this disease.

"German measles" (_Rötheln_, or _Epidemic Roseola_) is a term applied
to a contagious eruptive disorder having certain points of resemblance
to measles, and also to scarlet fever, but exhibiting its distinct
individuality in the fact that it protects from neither of these
diseases. It occurs most commonly in children, but frequently in
adults also, and is occasionally seen in extensive epidemics. Beyond
confinement to the house in the eruptive stage, which, from the slight
symptoms experienced, is often difficult of accomplishment, no special
treatment is called for. There is little doubt that the disease is
often mistaken for true measles, and many of the alleged second
attacks of the latter malady are probably cases of rötheln. The chief
points of difference are the following: (1) The absence of distinct
premonitory symptoms, the stage of invasion, which in measles is
usually of four days' duration, and accompanied with well-marked fever
and catarrh, being in rötheln either wholly absent or exceedingly
slight, enduring only for one day. (2) The eruption of rötheln, which,
although as regards its locality and manner of progress similar to
measles, differs somewhat in its appearance, the spots being of
smaller size, paler colour, and with less tendency to grouping in
crescentic patches. The rash attains its maximum in about one day, and
quickly disappears. There is not the same increase of temperature in
this stage as in measles. (3) The presence of white spots on the
buccal mucous membrane, in the case of measles. (4) The milder
character of the symptoms of rötheln throughout its whole course, and
the absence of complications and of liability to subsequent impairment
of health such as have been seen to appertain to measles.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Transactions of the Epidemiological Society_ (London, 1877).

MEAT, a word originally applied to food in general, and so still used in such phrases as "meat and drink"; but now, except as an archaism, generally used of the flesh of certain domestic animals, slaughtered for human food by butchers, "butcher's meat," as opposed to "game," that of wild animals, "fish" or "poultry." Cognate forms of the O. Eng. _mete_ are found in certain Teutonic languages, e.g. Swed. _mat_, Dan. _mad_ and O. H. Ger. _Maz_. The ultimate origin has been disputed; the _New English Dictionary_ considers probable a connexion with the root _med-_, "to be fat," seen in Sansk. _meda_, Lat. _madere_, "to be wet," and Eng. "mast," the fruit of the beech as food for pigs.

See DIETETICS; FOOD PRESERVATION; PUBLIC HEALTH; AGRICULTURE; and the
sections dealing with agricultural statistics under the names of the
various countries.

MEATH (pronounced with _th_ soft, as in _the_), a county of Ireland in the province of Leinster, bounded E. by the Irish Sea, S.E. by Dublin, S. by Kildare and King's County, W. by Westmeath, N.W. by Cavan and Monaghan, and N.E. by Louth. Area 579,320 acres, or about 905 sq. m. In some districts the surface is varied by hills and swells, which to the west reach a considerable elevation, although the general features of a fine champain country are never lost. The coast, low and shelving, extends about 10 m., but there is no harbour of importance. Laytown is a small seaside resort, 5 m. S.E. of Drogheda. The Boyne enters the county at its south-western extremity, and flowing north-east to Drogheda divides it into two almost equal parts. At Navan it receives the Blackwater, which flows south-west from Cavan. Both these rivers are noted for their trout, and salmon are taken in the Boyne. The Boyne is navigable for barges as far as Navan whence a canal is carried to Trim. The Royal Canal passes along the southern boundary of the county from Dublin.

In the north is a broken country of Silurian rocks with much igneous
material, partly contemporaneous, partly intrusive, near Slane.
Carboniferous Limestone stretches from the Boyne valley to the Dublin
border, giving rise to a flat plain especially suitable for grazing.
Outliers of higher Carboniferous strata occur on the surface; but the
Coal Measures have all been removed by denudation.

The climate is genial and favourable for all kinds of crops, there
being less rain than even in the neighbouring counties. Except a small
portion occupied by the Bog of Allen, the county is verdant and
fertile. The soil is principally a rich deep loam resting on limestone
gravel, but varies from a strong clayey loam to a light sandy gravel.
The proportion of tillage to pasturage is roughly as 1 to 3½. Oats,
potatoes and turnips are the principal crops, but all decrease. The
numbers of cattle, sheep and poultry, however, are increasing or well
maintained. Agriculture is almost the sole industry, but coarse linen
is woven by hand-looms, and there are a few woollen manufactories. The
main line of the Midland Great Western railway skirts the southern
boundary, with a branch line north from Clonsilla to Navan and
Kingscourt (county Cavan). From Kilmessan on this line a branch serves
Trim and Athboy. From Drogheda (county Louth) a branch of the Great
Northern railway crosses the county from east to West by Navan and
Kells to Oldcastle.

The population (76,111 in 1891; 67,497 in 1901) suffers a large
decrease, considerably above the average of Irish counties, and
emigration is heavy. Nearly 93% are Roman Catholics. The chief towns
are Navan (pop. 3839), Kells (2428) and Trim (1513), the county town.
Lesser market towns are Oldcastle and Athboy, an ancient town which
received a charter from Henry IV. The county includes eighteen
baronies. Assizes are held at Trim, and quarter sessions at Kells,
Navan and Trim. The county is in the Protestant dioceses of Armagh,
Kilmore and Meath, and in the Roman Catholic dioceses of Armagh and
Meath. Before the Union in 1800 it sent fourteen members to
parliament, but now only two members are returned, for the north and
south divisions of the county respectively.

_History and Antiquities._--A district known as Meath (Midhe), and including the present county of Meath as well as Westmeath and Longford, with parts of Cavan, Kildare and King's County, was formed by Tuathal (c. 130) into a kingdom to serve as mensal land or personal estate of the Ard Ri or over-king of Ireland. Kings of Meath reigned until 1173, and the title was claimed as late as the 15th century by their descendants, but at the date mentioned Hugh de Lacy obtained the lordship of the country and was confirmed in it by Henry II. Meath thus came into the English "Pale." But though it was declared a county in the reign of Edward I. (1296), and though it came by descent into the possession of the Crown in the person of Edward IV., it was long before it was fully subdued and its boundaries clearly defined. In 1543 Westmeath was created a county apart from that of Meath, but as late as 1598 Meath was still regarded as a province by some, who included in it the counties Westmeath, East Meath, Longford and Cavan. In the early part of the 17th century it was at last established as a county, and no longer considered as a fifth province of Ireland.

There are two ancient round towers, the one at Kells and the other in the churchyard of Donaghmore, near Navan. By the river Boyne near Slane there is an extensive ancient burial-place called Brugh. Here are some twenty burial mounds, the largest of which is that of New Grange, a domed tumulus erected above a circular chamber, which is entered by a narrow passage enclosed by great upright blocks of stone, covered with carvings. The mound is surrounded by remains of a stone circle, and the whole forms one of the most remarkable extant erections of its kind. Tara (q.v.) is famous in history, especially as the seat of a royal palace referred to in the well-known lines of Thomas Moore. Monastic buildings were very numerous in Meath, among the more important ruins being those of Duleek, which is said to have been the first ecclesiastical building in Ireland of stone and mortar; the extensive remains of Bective Abbey; and those of Clonard, where also were a cathedral and a famous college. Of the old fortresses, the castle of Trim still presents an imposing appearance. There are many fine old mansions.

MEAUX, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Marne, and chief town of the agricultural region of Brie, 28 m. E.N.E. of Paris by rail. Pop. (1906), 11,089. The town proper stands on an eminence on the right bank of the Marne; on the left bank lies the old suburb of Le Marché, with which it is united by a bridge of the 16th century. Two rows of picturesque mills of the same period are built across the river. The cathedral of St Stephen dates from the 12th to the 16th centuries, and was restored in the 19th century. Of the two western towers, the completed one is that to the north of the façade, the other being disfigured by an unsightly slate roof. The building, which is 275 ft. long and 105 ft. high, consists of a short nave, with aisles, a fine transept, a choir and a sanctuary. The choir contains the statue and the tomb of Bossuet, bishop from 1681 to 1704, and the pulpit of the cathedral has been reconstructed with the panels of that from which the "eagle of Meaux" used to preach. The transept terminates at each end in a fine portal surmounted by a rose-window. The episcopal palace (17th century) has several curious old rooms; the buildings of the choir school are likewise of some archaeological interest. A statue of General Raoult (1870) stands in one of the squares.

Meaux is the centre of a considerable trade in cereals, wool, Brie cheeses, and other farm-produce, while its mills provide much of the flour with which Paris is supplied. Other industries are saw-milling, metal-founding, distilling, the preparation of vermicelli and preserved vegetables, and the manufacture of mustard, hosiery, plaster and machinery. There are nursery-gardens in the vicinity. The Canal de l'Ourcq, which surrounds the town, and the Marne furnish the means of transport. Meaux is the seat of a bishopric dating from the 4th century, and has among its public institutions a sub-prefecture, and tribunals of first instance and of commerce.

In the Roman period Meaux was the capital of the Meldi, a small Gallic tribe, and in the middle ages of the Brie. It formed part of the kingdom of Austrasia, and afterwards belonged to the counts of Vermandois and Champagne, the latter of whom established important markets on the left bank of the Marne. Its communal charter, received from them, is dated 1179. A treaty signed at Meaux in 1229 after the Albigensian War sealed the submission of Raymond VII., count of Toulouse. The town suffered much during the Jacquerie, the peasants receiving a severe check there in 1358; during the Hundred Years' War; and also during the Religious Wars, in which it was an important Protestant centre. It was the first town which opened its gates to Henry IV. in 1594. On the high-road for invaders marching on Paris from the east of France, Meaux saw its environs ravaged by the army of Lorraine in 1652, and was laid under heavy requisitions in 1814, 1815 and 1870. In September 1567 Meaux was the scene of an attempt made by the Protestants to seize the French king Charles IX., and his mother Catherine de' Medici. The plot, which is sometimes called the "enterprise of Meaux," failed, the king and queen with their courtiers escaping to Paris. This conduct, however, on the part of the Huguenots had doubtless some share in influencing Charles to assent to the massacre of St Bartholomew.

MECCA (Arab. _Makkah_),[1] the chief town of the Hejaz in Arabia, and the great holy city of Islam. It is situated two camel marches (the resting-place being Bahra or Hadda), or about 45 m. almost due E., from Jidda on the Red Sea. Thus on a rough estimate Mecca lies in 21° 25´ N., 39° 50´ E. It is said in the Koran (_Sur._ xiv. 40) that Mecca lies in a sterile valley, and the old geographers observe that the whole Haram or sacred territory round the city is almost without cultivation or date palms, while fruit trees, springs, wells, gardens and green valleys are found immediately beyond. 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.

Holding this position commanding two great routes between the lowlands and inner Arabia, and situated in a narrow and barren valley incapable of supporting an urban population, Mecca must have been from the first a commercial centre.[2] In the palmy days of South Arabia it was probably a station on the great incense route, and thus Ptolemy may have learned the name, which he writes Makoraba. 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. Indeed in the unsettled state of the country commerce was possible only under the sanctions of religion, and through the provisions of the sacred truce which prohibited war for four months of the year, three of these being the month of pilgrimage, with those immediately preceding and following. 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 system of intercalation in the lunar calendar of the heathen Arabs was designed to secure that the feast should always fall at the time when the hides, fruits and other merchandise were ready for market,[4] and the Meccans, who knew how to attract the Bedouins by hospitality, bought up these wares in exchange for imported goods, and so became the leaders of the international trade of Arabia. Their caravans traversed the length and breadth of the peninsula. Syria, and especially Gaza, was their chief goal. The Syrian caravan intercepted, on its return, at Badr (see MAHOMET) represented capital to the value of £20,000, an enormous sum for those days.[5]

The victory of Mahommedanism made a vast change in the position of Mecca. The merchant aristocracy became satraps or pensioners of a great empire; but the seat of dominion was removed beyond the desert, and though Mecca and the Hejaz strove for a time to maintain political as well as religious predominance, the struggle was vain, and terminated on the death of Ibn Zubair, the Meccan pretendant to the caliphate, when the city was taken by Hajjaj (A.D. 692). The sanctuary and feast of Mecca received, however, a new prestige from the victory of Islam. Purged of elements obviously heathen, the Ka'ba became the holiest site, and the pilgrimage the most sacred ritual observance of Mahommedanism, drawing worshippers from so wide a circle that the confluence of the petty traders of the desert was no longer the main feature of the holy season. 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. But the ancient "fairs of heathenism" were given up, and the traffic of the pilgrim season, sanctioned by the Prophet in _Sur._ ii. 194, was concentrated at Mina and Mecca, where most of the pilgrims still have something to buy or sell, so that Mina, after the sacrifice of the feast day, presents the aspect of a huge international fancy fair.[6] In the middle ages this trade was much more important than it is now. Ibn Jubair (ed. Wright, p. 118 seq.) in the 12th century describes the mart of Mecca in the eight days following the feast as full of gems, unguents, precious drugs, and all rare merchandise from India, Irak, Khorasan, and every part of the Moslem world.

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. In the time of Ibn Jubair the gates still stood though the walls were ruined, but now the gates have only left their names to quarters of the town. At the northern or upper end was the Bab el Ma'la, or gate of the upper quarter, whence the road continues up the valley towards Mina and Arafa as well as towards Zeima and the Nejd. Beyond the gate, in a place called the Hajun, is the chief cemetery, commonly called el Ma'la, and said to be the resting-place of many of the companions of Mahomet. Here a cross-road, running over the hill to join the main Medina road from the western gate, turns off to the west by the pass of Kada, the point from which the troops of the Prophet stormed the city (A.H. 8).[7] Here too the body of Ibn Zubair was hung on a cross by Hajjaj. 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. Beyond, there are mountains on both sides; on that to the east, commanding the town, is the great castle, a fortress of considerable strength. The third or western gate, Bab el-Omra (formerly also Bab el-Zahir, from a village of that name), lay almost opposite the great mosque, and opened on a road leading westwards round the southern spurs of the Red Mountain. This is the way to Wadi Fatima and Medina, the Jidda road branching off from it to the left. Considerable suburbs now lie outside the quarter named after this gate; in the middle ages a pleasant country road led for some miles through partly cultivated land with good wells, as far as the boundary of the sacred territory and gathering place of the pilgrims at Tanim, near the mosque of Ayesha. This is the spot on the Medina road now called the Omra, from a ceremonial connected with it which will be mentioned below.

The length of the sinuous main axis of the city from the farthest suburbs on the Medina road to the suburbs in the extreme north, now frequented by Bedouins, is, according to Burckhardt, 3500 paces.[8] About the middle of this line the longitudinal thoroughfares are pushed aside by the vast courtyard and colonnades composing the great mosque, which, with its spacious arcades surrounding the Ka'ba and other holy places, and its seven minarets, forms the only prominent architectural feature of the city. The mosque is enclosed by houses with windows opening on the arcades and commanding a view of the Ka'ba. Immediately beyond these, on the side facing Jebel Abu Kobais, a broad street runs south-east and north-west across the valley. This is the Mas'a (sacred course) between the eminences of Safa and Merwa, and has been from very early times one of the most lively bazaars and the centre of Meccan life. The other chief bazaars are also near the mosque in smaller streets. The general aspect of the town is picturesque; the streets are fairly spacious, though ill-kept and filthy; the houses are all of stone, many of them well-built and four or five storeys high, with terraced roofs and large projecting windows as in Jidda--a style of building which has not varied materially since the 10th century (Mukaddasi, p. 71), and gains in effect from the way in which the dwellings run up the sides and spurs of the mountains. Of public institutions there are baths, ribats, or hospices, for poor pilgrims from India, Java, &c., a hospital and a public kitchen for the poor.

The mosque is at the same time the university hall, where between two pilgrim seasons lectures are delivered on Mahommedan law, doctrine and connected branches of science. A poorly provided public library is open to the use of students. The madrassehs or buildings around the mosque, originally intended as lodgings for students and professors, have long been let out to rich pilgrims. The minor places of visitation for pilgrims, such as the birthplaces of the prophet and his chief followers, are not notable.[9] Both these and the court of the great mosque lie beneath the general level of the city, the site having been gradually raised by accumulated rubbish. The town in fact has little air of antiquity; genuine Arab buildings do not last long, especially in a valley periodically ravaged by tremendous floods when the tropical rains burst on the surrounding hills. 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 Mahdi.[10]

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. At the height of the season the town is much overcrowded, and the entire want of a drainage system is severely felt. Fortunately good water is tolerably plentiful; for, though the wells are mostly undrinkable, and even the famous Zamzam water only available for medicinal or religious purposes, the underground conduit from beyond Arafa, completed by Sultan Selim II. in 1571, supplies to the public fountains a sweet and light water, containing, according to 'Abd el-Razzaq, a large amount of chlorides. The water is said to be free to townsmen, but is sold to the pilgrims at a rather high rate.[11]

Medieval writers celebrate the copious supplies, especially of fine fruits, brought to the city from Taif and other fertile parts of Arabia. These fruits are still famous; rice and other foreign products are brought by sea to Jidda; mutton, milk and butter are plentifully supplied from the desert.[12] The industries all centre in the pilgrimage; the chief object of every Meccan--from the notables and sheikhs, who use their influence to gain custom for the Jidda speculators in the pilgrim traffic, down to the cicerones, pilgrim brokers, lodging-house keepers, and mendicants at the holy places--being to pillage the visitor in every possible way. The fanaticism of the Meccan is an affair of the purse; the mongrel population (for the town is by no means purely Arab) has exchanged the virtues of the Bedouin for the worst corruptions of Eastern town life, without casting off the ferocity of the desert, and it is hardly possible to find a worse certificate of character than the three parallel gashes on each cheek, called Tashrit, which are the customary mark of birth in the holy city. The unspeakable vices of Mecca are a scandal to all Islam, and a constant source of wonder to pious pilgrims.[13] 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 has always been dependent on the movements of the greater Mahommedan world. 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. 930. The victors carried off the "black stone," which was not restored for twenty-two years, and then only for a great ransom, when it was plain that even the loss of its palladium could not destroy the sacred character of the city. Under the Fatimites Egyptian influence began to be strong in Mecca; it was opposed by the sultans of Yemen, while native princes claiming descent from the Prophet--the Hashimite amirs of Mecca, and after them the amirs of the house of Qatada (since 1202)--attained to great authority and aimed at independence; but soon after the final fall of the Abbasids the Egyptian overlordship was definitely established by sultan Bibars (A.D. 1269). 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. The Ottoman power, however, became gradually almost nominal, and that of the amirs or sherifs increased in proportion, culminating under Ghalib, whose accession dates from 1786. Then followed the wars of the Wahhabis (see ARABIA and WAHHABIS) and the restoration of Turkish rule by the troops of Mehemet 'Ali. By him the dignity of sherif was deprived of much of its weight, and in 1827 a change of dynasty was effected by the appointment of Ibn 'Aun. Afterwards Turkish authority again decayed. 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. The dignity of sherif (or grand sherif, as Europeans usually say for the sake of distinction, since all the kin of the princely houses reckoning descent from the Prophet are also named sherifs), although by no means a religious pontificate, is highly respected owing to its traditional descent in the line of Hasan, son of the fourth caliph 'Ali. 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. When the great Mahommedan sultanates had become too much occupied in internecine wars to maintain order in the distant Hejaz, those branches of the Hassanids which from the beginning of Islam had retained rural property in Arabia usurped power in the holy cities and the adjacent Bedouin territories. About A.D. 960 they established a sort of kingdom with Mecca as capital. 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. The latter were strong enough to hold the garrisoned towns, and thus the sultan was able within certain limits--playing off one against the other the two rival branches of the aristocracy, viz. the kin of Ghalib and the house of Ibn'Aun--to assert the right of designating or removing the sherif, to whom in turn he owed the possibility of maintaining, with the aid of considerable pensions, the semblance of his much-prized lordship over the holy cities. The grand sherif can muster a considerable force of freedmen and clients, and his kin, holding wells and lands in various places through the Hejaz, act as his deputies and administer the old Arabic customary law to the Bedouin. To this influence the Hejaz owes what little of law and order it enjoys. During the last quarter of the 19th century Turkish influence became preponderant in western Arabia, and the railway from Syria to the Hejaz tended to consolidate the sultan's supremacy. After the sherifs, the principal family of Mecca is the house of Shaibah, which holds the hereditary custodianship of the Ka'ba.

_The Great Mosque and 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. from the ground; and so named from its resemblance to a monstrous _astragalus_ (die) of about 40 ft. cube, though the shapeless structure is not really an exact cube nor even exactly rectangular.[14] The Ka'ba has been rebuilt more than once since Mahomet purged it of idols and adopted it as the chief sanctuary of Islam, but the old form has been preserved, except in secondary details;[15] so that the "Ancient House," as it is titled, is still essentially a heathen temple, adapted to the worship of Islam by the clumsy fiction that it was built by Abraham and Ishmael by divine revelation as a temple of pure monotheism, and that it was only temporarily perverted to idol worship from the time when 'Amr ibn Lohai introduced the statue of Hobal from Syria[16] till the victory of Islam. This fiction has involved the superinduction of a new mythology over the old heathen ritual, which remains practically unchanged. Thus the chief object of veneration is the black stone, which is fixed in the external angle facing Safa. The building is not exactly oriented, but it may be called the south-east corner. Its technical name is the black corner, the others being named the Yemen (south-west), Syrian (north-west), and Irak (north-east) corners, from the lands to which they approximately point. The black stone is a small dark mass a span long, with an aspect suggesting volcanic or meteoric origin, fixed at such a height that it can be conveniently kissed by a person of middle size. It was broken by fire in the siege of A.D. 683 (not, as many authors relate, by the Carmathians), and the pieces are kept together by a silver setting. The history of this heavenly stone, given by Gabriel to Abraham, does not conceal the fact that it was originally a fetish, the most venerated of a multitude of idols and sacred stones which stood all round the sanctuary in the time of Mahomet. The Prophet destroyed the idols, but he left the characteristic form of worship--the _tawaf_, or sevenfold circuit of the sanctuary, the worshipper kissing or touching the objects of his veneration--and besides the black stone he recognized the so-called "southern" stone, the same presumably as that which is still touched in the tawaf at the Yemen corner (_Muh. in Med._ pp. 336, 425). The ceremony of the tawaf and the worship of stone fetishes was common to Mecca with other ancient Arabian sanctuaries.[17] It was, as it still is, a frequent religious exercise of the Meccans, and the first duty of one who returned to the city or arrived there under a vow of pilgrimage; and thus the outside of the Ka'ba was and is more important than the inside. Islam did away with the worship of idols; what was lost in interest by their suppression has been supplied by the invention of spots consecrated by recollections of Abraham, Ishmael and Hagar, or held to be acceptable places of prayer. Thus the space of ten spans between the black stone and the door, which is on the east side, between the black and Irak corners, and a man's height from the ground, is called the _Multazam_, and here prayer should be offered after the tawaf with outstretched arms and breast pressed against the house. On the other side of the door, against the same wall, is a shallow trough, which is said to mark the original site of the stone on which Abraham stood to build the Ka'ba. Here the growth of the legend can be traced, for the place is now called the "kneading-place" (Ma'jan), where the cement for the Ka'ba was prepared. This name and story do not appear in the older accounts. Once more, on the north side of the Ka'ba, there projects a low semicircular wall of marble, with an opening at each end between it and the walls of the house. The space within is paved with mosaic, and is called the Hijr. It is included in the tawaf, and two slabs of _verde antico_ within it are called the graves of Ishmael and Hagar, and are places of acceptable prayer. Even the golden or gilded _mizab_ (water-spout) that projects into the Hijr marks a place where prayer is heard, and another such place is the part of the west wall close to the Yemen corner.

The feeling of religious conservatism which has preserved the structural rudeness of the Ka'ba did not prohibit costly surface decoration. In Mahomet's time the outer walls were covered by a veil (or _kiswa_) of striped Yemen cloth. The caliphs substituted a covering of figured brocade, and the Egyptian government still sends with each pilgrim caravan from Cairo a new kiswa of black brocade, adorned with a broad band embroidered with golden inscriptions from the Koran, as well as a richer curtain for the door.[18] The door of two leaves, with its posts and lintel, is of silver gilt.

The interior of the Ka'ba is now opened but a few times every year for the general public, which ascends by the portable staircase brought forward for the purpose. 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 Ibn Jubair, who describes the floor and walls as overlaid with richly variegated marbles, and the upper half of the walls as plated with silver thickly gilt, while the roof was veiled with coloured silk. Modern writers describe the place as windowless, but Ibn Jubair mentions five windows of rich stained glass from Irak. Between the three pillars of teak hung thirteen silver lamps. A chest in the corner to the left of one entering contained Korans, and at the Irak corner a space was cut off enclosing the stair that leads to the roof. The door to this stair (called the door of mercy--Bab el-Rahma) was plated with silver by the caliph Motawakkil. 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.[19]

The houses of ancient Mecca pressed close upon the Ka'ba, the noblest families, who traced their descent from Kosai, the reputed founder of the city, having their dwellings immediately round the sanctuary. To the north of the Ka'ba was the Dar el-Nadwa, or place of assembly of the Koreish. The multiplication of pilgrims after Islam soon made it necessary to clear away the nearest dwellings and enlarge the place of prayer around the Ancient House. Omar, Othman and Ibn Jubair 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 caliph 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. Subsequent 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 in breadth, according to Burckhardt's measurement--is entered by nineteen archways irregularly disposed.

After the Ka'ba the principal points of interest in the mosque are the well Zamzam and the Maqam Ibrahim. The former is a deep shaft enclosed in a massive vaulted building paved with marble, and, according to Mahommedan tradition, is the source (corresponding to the Beer-lahai-roi of Gen. xvi. 14) from which Hagar drew water for her son Ishmael. The legend tells that the well was long covered up and rediscovered by 'Abd al-Mot[t.]alib, the grandfather of the Prophet. 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 exercise; and the manufacture of bottles or jars for carrying the water to distant countries is quite a trade. Ibn Jubair mentions a curious superstition of the Meccans, who believed that the water rose in the shaft at the full moon of the month Shaban. On this occasion a great crowd, especially of young people, thronged round the well with shouts of religious enthusiasm, while the servants of the well dashed buckets of water over their heads. The Maqam of Abraham is also connected with a relic of heathenism, the ancient holy stone which once stood on the Ma'jan, and is said to bear the prints of the patriarch's feet. The whole legend of this stone, which is full of miraculous incidents, seems to have arisen from a misconception, the Maqam Ibrahim in the Koran meaning the sanctuary itself; but the stone, which is a block about 3 spans in height and 2 in breadth, and in shape "like a potter's furnace" (Ibn Jubair), is certainly very ancient. No one is now allowed to see it, though the box in which it lies can be seen or touched through a grating in the little chapel that surrounds it. In the middle ages it was sometimes shown, and Ibn Jubair describes the pious enthusiasm with which he drank Zamzam water poured on the footprints. It was covered with inscriptions in an unknown character, one of which was copied by Fakihi in his history of Mecca. To judge by the facsimile in Dozy's _Israeliten te Mekka_, the character is probably essentially one with that of the Syrian Safa inscriptions, which extended through the Nejd and into the Hejaz.[20]

_Safa and Merwa._--In religious importance these two points or
"hills," connected by the Mas'a, stand second only to the Ka'ba. Safa
is an elevated platform surmounted by a triple arch, and approached by
a flight of steps.[21] It lies south-east of the Ka'ba, facing the
black corner, and 76 paces from the "Gate of Safa," which is
architecturally the chief gate of the mosque. Merwa is a similar
platform, formerly covered with a single arch, on the opposite side of
the valley. It stands on a spur of the Red Mountain called Jebel
Kuaykian. The course between these two sacred points is 493 paces
long, and the religious ceremony called the "sa'y" consists in
traversing it seven times, beginning and ending at Safa. The lowest
part of the course, between the so-called green milestones, is done at
a run. This ceremony, which, as we shall presently see, is part of the
omra, is generally said to be performed in memory of Hagar, who ran to
and fro between the two eminences vainly seeking water for her son.
The observance, however, is certainly of pagan origin; and at one time
there were idols on both the so-called hills (see especially Azraqi,
pp. 74, 78).

_The Ceremonies and the Pilgrimage._--Before Islam the Ka'ba was the
local sanctuary of the Meccans, where they prayed and did sacrifice,
where oaths were administered and hard cases submitted to divine
sentence according to the immemorial custom of Semitic shrines. But,
besides this, Mecca was already a place of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage with
the ancient Arabs was the fulfilment of a vow, which appears to have
generally terminated--at least on the part of the well-to-do--in a
sacrificial feast. 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). He
who was under such a vow was bound by ceremonial observances of
abstinence from certain acts (e.g. hunting) and sensual pleasures, and
in particular was forbidden to shear or comb his hair till the
fulfilment of the vow. This old Semitic usage has its close parallel
in the vow of the Nazarite. It was not peculiarly connected with
Mecca; at Taif, for example, it was customary on return to the city
after an absence to present oneself at the sanctuary, and there shear
the hair (_Muh. in Med._, p. 381). 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 well-being 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.

The omra begins at some point outside the Haram (or holy territory),
generally at Tanim, both for convenience sake and because Ayesha began
the omra there in the year 10 of the Hegira. The pilgrim enters the
Haram in the antique and scanty pilgrimage dress (ihram), consisting
of two cloths wound round his person in a way prescribed by ritual.
His devotion is expressed in shouts of "Labbeyka" (a word of obscure
origin and meaning); he enters the great mosque, performs the tawaf
and the sa'y[22] and then has his head shaved and resumes his common
dress. 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. But it is also
proper during one's residence in the holy city to perform at least one
omra from Tanim in connexion with a visit to the mosque of Ayesha
there. The triviality of these rites is ill concealed by the legends
of the sa'y of Hagar and of the tawaf being first performed by Adam in
imitation of the circuit of the angels about the throne of God; the
meaning of their ceremonies seems to have been almost a blank to the
Arabs before Islam, whose religion had become a mere formal tradition.
We do not even know to what deity the worship expressed in the tawaf
was properly addressed. There is a tradition that the Ka'ba was a
temple of Saturn (Shahrastani, p. 431); perhaps the most distinctive
feature of the shrine may be sought in the sacred doves which still
enjoy the protection of the sanctuary. These recall the sacred doves
of Ascalon (Philo vi. 200 of Richter's ed.), and suggests
Venus-worship as at least one element (cf. Herod i. 131, iii. 8; Ephr.
Syr., _Op. Syr._ ii. 457).

To the ordinary pilgrim the omra has become so much an episode of the
hajj that it is described by some European pilgrims as a mere visit to
the mosque of Ayesha; a better conception of its original significance
is got from the Meccan feast of the seventh month (Rajab), graphically
described by Ibn Jubair from his observations in A.D. 1184. 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 hajj, in which old usage has been
overlaid by traditions and glosses of Islam. The omra was performed by
crowds from day to day, especially at new and full moon.[23] The new
moon celebration was nocturnal; the road to Tanim, the Mas'a, and the
mosque were brilliantly illuminated; and the appearing of the moon was
greeted with noisy music. A genuine old Arab market was held, for the
wild Bedouins of the Yemen mountains came in thousands to barter their
cattle and fruits for clothing, and deemed that to absent themselves
would bring drought and cattle plague in their homes. Though ignorant
of the legal ritual and prayers, they performed the tawaf with
enthusiasm, throwing themselves against the Ka'ba and clinging to its
curtains as a child clings to its mother. They also made a point of
entering the Ka'ba. The 29th of the month was the feast day of the
Meccan women, when they and their little ones had the Ka'ba to
themselves without the presence even of the Sheybas.

The central and essential ceremonies of the hajj or greater pilgrimage
are those of the day of Arafa, the 9th of the "pilgrimage month"
(Dhu'l Hijja), the last of the Arab year; and every Moslem who is his
own master, and can command the necessary means, is bound to join in
these once in his life, or to have them fulfilled by a substitute on
his behalf and at his expense. By them the pilgrim becomes as pure
from sin as when he was born, and gains for the rest of his life the
honourable title of hajj. Neglect of many other parts of the pilgrim
ceremonial may be compensated by offerings, but to miss the "stand"
(_woquf_) at Arafa is to miss the pilgrimage. 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. The lofty and rugged mountains of the
Hodheyl tower over the plain on the north side and overshadow the
little Hill of Mercy, which is one of those bosses of weathered
granite so common in the Hejaz. Arafa lay quite near Dhul-Majaz,
where, according to Arabian tradition, a great fair was held from the
1st to the 8th of the pilgrimage month; and the ceremonies from which
the hajj was derived were originally an appendix to this fair. Now, on
the contrary, the pilgrim is expected to follow as closely as may be
the movements of the prophet at his "farewell pilgrimage" in the year
10 of the Hegira (A.D. 632). 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. It is now, however, customary to go right on and encamp at once
at Arafa. The night should be spent in devotion, but the coffee booths
do a lively trade, and songs are as common as prayers. Next forenoon
the pilgrim is free to move about, and towards midday he may if he
please hear a sermon. In the afternoon the essential ceremony begins;
it consists simply in "standing" on Arafa shouting "Labbeyka" and
reciting prayers and texts till sunset. After the sun is down the vast
assemblage breaks up, and a rush (technically _ifada_, _daf'_, _nafr_)
is made in the utmost confusion to Mozdalifa, where the night prayer
is said and the night spent. Before sunrise next morning (the 10th) a
second "stand" like that on Arafa is made for a short time by
torchlight round the mosque of Mozdalifa, but before the sun is fairly
up all must be in motion in the second _ifada_ towards Mina. The day
thus begun is the "day of sacrifice," and has four ceremonies--(1) to
pelt with seven stones a cairn (_jamrat al 'aqaba_) at the eastern end
of W. Mina, (2) to slay a victim at Mina and hold a sacrificial meal,
part of the flesh being also dried and so preserved, or given to the
poor,[24] (3) to be shaved and so terminate the _ihram_, (4) to make
the third _ifada_, i.e. go to Mecca and perform the tawaf and sa'y
(_'omrat al-ifada_), returning thereafter to Mina. The sacrifice and
visit to Mecca may, however, be delayed till the 11th, 12th or 13th.
These are the days of Mina, a fair and joyous feast, with no special
ceremony except that each day the pilgrim is expected to throw seven
stones at the _jamrat al 'aqaba_, and also at each of two similar
cairns in the valley. The stones are thrown in the name of Allah, and
are generally thought to be directed at the devil. This is, however, a
custom older than Islam, and a tradition in Azraqi, p. 412, represents
it as an act of worship to idols at Mina. As the stones are thrown on
the days of the fair, it is not unlikely that they have something to
do with the old Arab mode of closing a sale by the purchaser throwing
a stone (Biruni, p. 328).[25] The pilgrims leave Mina on the 12th or
13th, and the hajj is then over. (See further MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION.)

The colourless character of these ceremonies is plainly due to the
fact that they are nothing more than expurgated heathen rites. In
Islam proper they have no _raison d'être_; the legends about Adam and
Eve on Arafa, about Abraham's sacrifice of the ram at Thabii by Mina,
imitated in the sacrifices of the pilgrimage, are clumsy
afterthoughts, as appears from their variations and only partial
acceptance. It is not so easy to get at the nature of the original
rites, which Islam was careful to suppress. But we find mention of
practices condemned by the orthodox, or forming no part of the Moslem
ritual, which may be regarded as traces of an older ceremonial. Such
are nocturnal illuminations at Mina (Ibn Batuta i. 396), Arafa and
Mozdalifa (Ibn Jubair, 179), and tawafs performed by the ignorant at
holy spots at Arafa not recognized by law (Snouck-Hurgronje p. 149
sqq.). We know that the rites at Mozdalifa were originally connected
with a holy hill bearing the name of the god Quzah (the Edomite Koze)
whose bow is the rainbow, and there is reason to think that the
_ifadas_ from Arafa and Quzah, which were not made as now after sunset
and before sunrise, but when the sun rested on the tops of the
mountains, were ceremonies of farewell and salutation to the sun-god.