Chapter XII: Front Matter (12)

The statistics of the pilgrimage cannot be given with certainty and
vary much from year to year. The quarantine office keeps a record of
arrivals by sea at Jidda (66,000 for 1904); but to these must be added
those travelling by land from Cairo, Damascus and Irak, the pilgrims
who reach Medina from Yanbu and go on to Mecca, and those from all
parts of the peninsula. Burckhardt in 1814 estimated the crowd at
Arafa at 70,000, Burton in 1853 at 50,000, 'Abd el-Razzak in 1858 at
60,000. This great assemblage is always a dangerous centre of
infection, and the days of Mina especially, spent under circumstances
originally adapted only for a Bedouin fair, with no provisions for
proper cleanliness, and with the air full of the smell of putrefying
offal and flesh drying in the sun, produce much sickness.

LITERATURE.--Besides the Arabic geographers and cosmographers, we have
Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's description of the mosque, early in the 10th century
(_'Ikd Farid_, Cairo ed., iii. 362 sqq.), but above all the admirable
record of Ibn Jubair (A.D. 1184), by far the best account extant of
Mecca and the pilgrimage. It has been much pillaged by Ibn Batuta. 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_. How little confidence can be placed in the
pre-Islamic history appears very clearly from the distorted accounts
of Abraha's excursion against the Hejaz, which fell but a few years
before the birth of the Prophet, and is the first event in Meccan
history which has confirmation from other sources. See Nöldeke's
version of Tabari, p. 204 sqq. For the period of the Prophet, Ibn
Hisham and Wakidi are valuable sources in topography as well as
history. Of the special histories and descriptions of Mecca published
by Wüstenfeld (_Chroniken der Stadt Mekka_, 3 vols., 1857-1859, with
an abstract in German, 1861), the most valuable is that of Azraqi. It
has passed through the hands of several editors, but the oldest part
goes back to the beginning of the 9th Christian century. Kutbeddin's
history (vol. iii. of the _Chroniken_) goes down with the additions of
his nephew to A.D. 1592.

Of European descriptions of Mecca from personal observation the best
is Burckhardt's _Travels in Arabia_ (cited above from the 8vo ed.,
1829). _The Travels of Aly Bey_ (Badia, London, 1816) describe a visit
in 1807; Burton's _Pilgrimage_ (3rd ed., 1879) often supplements
Burckhardt; Von Maltzan's _Wallfahrt nach Mekka_ (1865) is lively but
very slight. 'Abd el-Razzaq's report to the government of India on the
pilgrimage of 1858 is specially directed to sanitary questions; C.
Snouck-Hurgronje, _Mekka_ (2 vols., and a collection of photographs,
The Hague, 1888-1889), gives a description of the Meccan sanctuary and
of the public and private life of the Meccans as observed by the
author during a sojourn in the holy city in 1884-1885 and a political
history of Mecca from native sources from the Hegira till 1884. For
the pilgrimage see particularly Snouck-Hurgronje, _Het Mekkaansche
Feest_ (Leiden, 1880). (W. R. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A variant of the name Makkah is Bakkah (_Sur._ iii. 90; Bakri,
155 seq.). For other names and honorific epithets of the city see
Bakri, _ut supra_, Azraqi, p. 197, Yaqut iv. 617 seq. The lists are
in part corrupt, and some of the names (Kutha and 'Arsh or 'Ursh,
"the huts") are not properly names of the town as a whole.

[2] Mecca, says one of its citizens, in Waqidi (Kremer's ed., p. 196,
or _Muh. in Med._ p. 100), is a settlement formed for trade with
Syria in summer and Abyssinia in winter, and cannot continue to exist
if the trade is interrupted.

[3] The details are variously related. See Biruni, p. 328 (E. T., p.
324); Asma'i in Yaqut, iii. 705, iv. 416, 421; Azraqi, p. 129 seq.;
Bakri, p. 661. Jebel Kabkab is a great mountain occupying the angle
between W. Naman and the plain of Arafa. The peak is due north of
Sheddad, the hamlet which Burckhardt (i. 115) calls Shedad. According
to Azraqi, p. 80, the last shrine visited was that of the three trees
of Uzza in W. Nakhla.

[4] So we are told by Biruni, p. 62 (E. T., 73).

[5] Waqidi, ed. Kremer, pp. 20, 21; _Muh. in Med._ p. 39.

[6] The older fairs were not entirely deserted till the troubles of
the last days of the Omayyads (Azraqi, p. 131).

[7] This is the cross-road traversed by Burckhardt (i. 109), and
described by him as cut through the rocks with much labour.

[8] Istakhri gives the length of the city proper from north to south
as 2 m., and the greatest breadth from the Jiyad quarter east of the
great mosque across the valley and up the western slopes as
two-thirds of the length.

[9] 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. Juynboll, p. 100. The minor sacred places are
described at length by Azraqi and Ibn Jubair. They are either
connected with genuine memories of the Prophet and his times, or have
spurious legends to conceal the fact that they were originally holy
stones, wells, or the like, of heathen sanctity.

[10] Baladhuri, in his chapter on the floods of Mecca (pp. 53 seq.),
says that 'Omar built two dams.

[11] The aqueduct is the successor of an older one associated with
the names of Zobaida, wife of Harun al-Rashid, and other benefactors.
But the old aqueduct was frequently out of repair, and seems to have
played but a secondary part in the medieval water supply. Even the
new aqueduct gave no adequate supply in Burckhardt's time.

[12] In Ibn Jubair's time large supplies were brought from the Yemen
mountains.

[13] The corruption of manners in Mecca is no new thing. See the
letter of the caliph Mahdi on the subject; Wüstenfeld, _Chron. Mek._,
iv. 168.

[14] The exact measurements (which, however, vary according to
different authorities) are stated to be: sides 37 ft. 2 in. and 38
ft. 4 in.; ends 31 ft. 7 in. and 29 ft.; height 35 ft.

[15] The Ka'ba of Mahomet's time was the successor of an older
building, said to have been destroyed by fire. It was constructed in
the still usual rude style of Arabic masonry, with string courses of
timber between the stones (like Solomon's Temple). The roof rested on
six pillars; the door was raised above the ground and approached by a
stair (probably on account of the floods which often swept the
valley); and worshippers left their shoes under the stair before
entering. During the first siege of Mecca (A.D. 683), the building
was burned down, the Ibn Zubair reconstructed it on an enlarged scale
and in better style of solid ashlar-work. After his death his most
glaring innovations (the introduction of two doors on a level with
the ground, and the extension of the building lengthwise to include
the Hijr) were corrected by Hajjaj, under orders from the caliph, but
the building retained its more solid structure. The roof now rested
on three pillars, and the height was raised one-half. The Ka'ba was
again entirely rebuilt after the flood of A.D. 1626, but since Hajjaj
there seem to have been no structural changes.

[16] Hobal was set up within the Temple over the pit that contained
the sacred treasures. His chief function was connected with the
sacred lot to which the Meccans were accustomed to betake themselves
in all matters of difficulty.

[17] See Ibn Hisham i. 54, Azraki p. 80 ('Uzza in Batn Marr); Yakut
iii. 705 (Otheyda); Bar Hebraeus on Psalm xii. 9. Stones worshipped
by circling round them bore the name _dawar_ or _duwar_ (Krehl, _Rel.
d. Araber_, p. 69). The later Arabs not unnaturally viewed such
cultus as imitated from that of Mecca (Yaqut iv. 622, cf. Dozy,
_Israeliten te Mekka_, p. 125, who draws very perverse inferences).

[18] The old _kiswa_ is removed on the 25th day of the month before
the pilgrimage, and fragments of it are bought by the pilgrims as
charms. Till the 10th day of the pilgrimage month the Ka'ba is bare.

[19] Before Islam the Ka'ba was opened every Monday and Thursday; in
the time of Ibn Jubair it was opened with considerable ceremony every
Monday and Friday, and daily in the month Rajab. But, though prayer
within the building is favoured by the example of the Prophet, it is
not compulsory on the Moslem, and even in the time of Ibn Batuta the
opportunities of entrance were reduced to Friday and the birthday of
the Prophet.

[20] See De Vogué, _Syrie centrale: inscr. sem._; Lady Anne Blunt
_Pilgrimage of Nejd_, ii., and W. R. Smith, in the _Athenaeum_, March
20, 1880.

[21] Ibn Jubair speaks of fourteen steps, Ali Bey of four, Burckhardt
of three. The surrounding ground no doubt has risen so that the old
name "hill of Safa" is now inapplicable.

[22] The latter perhaps was no part of the ancient omra; see
Snouck-Hurgronje, _Het Mekkaansche Feest_ (1880) p. 115 sqq.

[23] The 27th was also a great day, but this day was in commemoration
of the rebuilding of the Ka'ba by Ibn Jubair.

[24] The sacrifice is not indispensable except for those who can
afford it and are combining the hajj with the omra.

[25] On the similar pelting of the supposed graves of Abu Lahab and
his wife (Ibn Jubair, p. 110) and of Abu Righal at Mughammas, see
Nöldeke's translation of Tabari, 208.

MECHANICS. The subject of mechanics may be divided into two parts: (1) theoretical or abstract mechanics, and (2) applied mechanics.

1. THEORETICAL MECHANICS

Historically theoretical mechanics began with the study of practical contrivances such as the lever, and the name _mechanics_ (Gr. [Greek: ta mêchanika]), which might more properly be restricted to the theory of mechanisms, and which was indeed used in this narrower sense by Newton, has clung to it, although the subject has long attained a far wider scope. In recent times it has been proposed to adopt the term _dynamics_ (from Gr. [Greek: dynamis] force,) as including the whole science of the action of force on bodies, whether at rest or in motion. The subject is usually expounded under the two divisions of _statics_ and _kinetics_, the former dealing with the conditions of rest or equilibrium and the latter with the phenomena of motion as affected by force. To this latter division the old name of _dynamics_ (in a restricted sense) is still often applied. The mere geometrical description and analysis of various types of motion, apart from the consideration of the forces concerned, belongs to _kinematics_. This is sometimes discussed as a separate theory, but for our present purposes it is more convenient to introduce kinematical motions as they are required. We follow also the traditional practice of dealing first with statics and then with kinetics. This is, in the main, the historical order of development, and for purposes of exposition it has many advantages. The laws of equilibrium are, it is true, necessarily included as a particular case under those of motion; but there is no real inconvenience in formulating as the basis of statics a few provisional postulates which are afterwards seen to be comprehended in a more general scheme.

The whole subject rests ultimately on the Newtonian laws of motion and on some natural extensions of them. As these laws are discussed under a separate heading (MOTION, LAWS OF), it is here only necessary to indicate the standpoint from which the present article is written. It is a purely empirical one. Guided by experience, we are able to frame rules which enable us to say with more or less accuracy what will be the consequences, or what were the antecedents, of a given state of things. These rules are sometimes dignified by the name of "laws of nature," but they have relation to our present state of knowledge and to the degree of skill with which we have succeeded in giving more or less compact expression to it. They are therefore liable to be modified from time to time, or to be superseded by more convenient or more comprehensive modes of statement. Again, we do not aim at anything so hopeless, or indeed so useless, as a _complete_ description of any phenomenon. Some features are naturally more important or more interesting to us than others; by their relative simplicity and evident constancy they have the first hold on our attention, whilst those which are apparently accidental and vary from one occasion to another arc ignored, or postponed for later examination. It follows that for the purposes of such description as is possible some process of abstraction is inevitable if our statements are to be simple and definite. Thus in studying the flight of a stone through the air we replace the body in imagination by a mathematical point endowed with a mass-coefficient. The size and shape, the complicated spinning motion which it is seen to execute, the internal strains and vibrations which doubtless take place, are all sacrificed in the mental picture in order that attention may be concentrated on those features of the phenomenon which are in the first place most interesting to us. At a later stage in our subject the conception of the ideal rigid body is introduced; this enables us to fill in some details which were previously wanting, but others are still omitted. Again, the conception of a force as concentrated in a mathematical line is as unreal as that of a mass concentrated in a point, but it is a convenient fiction for our purpose, owing to the simplicity which it lends to our statements.

The laws which are to be imposed on these ideal representations are in the first instance largely at our choice. Any scheme of abstract dynamics constructed in this way, provided it be self-consistent, is mathematically legitimate; but from the physical point of view we require that it should help us to picture the sequence of phenomena as they actually occur. Its success or failure in this respect can only be judged a posteriori by comparison of the results to which it leads with the facts. It is to be noticed, moreover, that all available tests apply only to the scheme as a whole; owing to the complexity of phenomena we cannot submit any one of its postulates to verification apart from the rest.

It is from this point of view that the question of relativity of motion, which is often felt to be a stumbling-block on the very threshold of the subject, is to be judged. By "motion" we mean of necessity motion relative to some frame of reference which is conventionally spoken of as "fixed." In the earlier stages of our subject this may be any rigid, or apparently rigid, structure fixed relatively to the earth. If we meet with phenomena which do not fit easily into this view, we have the alternatives either to modify our assumed laws of motion, or to call to our aid adventitious forces, or to examine whether the discrepancy can be reconciled by the simpler expedient of a new basis of reference. It is hardly necessary to say that the latter procedure has hitherto been found to be adequate. As a first step we adopt a system of rectangular axes whose origin is fixed in the earth, but whose directions are fixed by relation to the stars; in the planetary theory the origin is transferred to the sun, and afterwards to the mass-centre of the solar system; and so on. At each step there is a gain in accuracy and comprehensiveness; and the conviction is cherished that _some_ system of rectangular axes exists with respect to which the Newtonian scheme holds with all imaginable accuracy.

A similar account might be given of the conception of time as a measurable quantity, but the remarks which it is necessary to make under this head will find a place later.

The following synopsis shows the scheme on which the treatment is
based:--

_Part 1.--Statics._

1. Statics of a particle.
2. Statics of a system of particles.
3. Plane kinematics of a rigid body.
4. Plane statics.
5. Graphical statics.
6. Theory of frames.
7. Three-dimensional kinematics of a rigid body.
8. Three-dimensional statics.
9. Work.
10. Statics of inextensible chains.
11. Theory of mass-systems.

_Part 2.--Kinetics._

12. Rectilinear motion.
13. General motion of a particle.
14. Central forces. Hodograph.
15. Kinetics of a system of discrete particles.
16. Kinetics of a rigid body. Fundamental principles.
17. Two-dimensional problems.
18. Equations of motion in three dimensions.
19. Free motion of a solid.
20. Motion of a solid of revolution.
21. Moving axes of reference.
22. Equations of motion in generalized co-ordinates.
23. Stability of equilibrium. Theory of vibrations.