THE period for the annual Pilgrimage again approached. Nothing now appeared to hinder Mahomet from the fulfillment of its ceremonies. There was no longer the possibility of offence from idolatrous objects or the rites of heathenism. Every vestige of an image in Mecca and its outskirts had been cleared away. And after the threatening announcement of the previous year, none but professed believers might venture near. Mahomet had not performed the greater pilgrimage since his flight from Mecca. He now ainnounced his intention of going up to the coming festival.¹

Five days before the opening of Dzul Hijj, the month of Pilgrimage, the Prophet assumed the

¹ The Secretary says that Mahomet had not performed the greater Pilgrimage "since be became a Prophet," p. 135. After his assumption of tlie prophetical office, ond before his flight, he certainly attended die processions to Arafat, Mina, &C, though he may not as a worshipper have taken part in them. The tradition probably originated in the axiom that after the assumption of his holy office, Mahomet could not possibly have participated in anything idolatrous. Another tradition makes him to have performed

pilgrim's garb in the manner already described; and, followed by vast multitudes, set out on the journey to Mecca. All his wives accompanied him. One hundred camels, marked by his own hand as victims, were led in solemn procession. Along the road, mosques had already sprung up at the various halting places; at each, the people prayed, Mahomet leading the devotions. On the evening of the tenth day, he reached Sarif, an easy stage from Mecca; there he rested for the night,¹ and on the following morning, having bathed, and mounted Al Caswa, he proceeded towards Mecca. He entered the upper suburbs by the same route which he had taken two years before; and, passing down the main street of the city, approached the Kaaba. As he passed through the Bani Sheyba gate,² with the holy temple full in view, he raised his hands to heaven, and said : - "O Lord! Add unto this 'house in the dignity and glory, the honour and the reverence, which already

the greater pilgrimage twice before he became a Prophet; K. Wackidi, 138. The lesser Pilgrimage was celebrated three times by Mahomet after the flight; viz. 1st, at Hodeibia; 2nd, the year following; and 3rd, when he was at Jierrana. Ibid. 184.

¹ This calculation makes Mahomet reach Mecca on the 11th day from his leaving Medina. Other statements give the date of his arrival at Mecca as the 4th Dzul Hijj. Ibid. 135 ½. But it seems certain that lie started on Saturday, 25 Dzul Cada (23rd February, 632), readied Sarif on Monday evening, the 10th day, and entered Mecca on Tuesday.

² See the Plan, vol. ii. This was the ancient gate leading into the court-yard of the Kaaba. it was situated N.E. by E. of the Kaaba, and beyond the Macam Ibrahim.

thou hast bestowed on it And they that for the greater Pilgrimage and the lesser frequent the same, increase them much in honour and dignity, in piety, goodness, and glory!" Then, mounted as he was on his camel, he performed the prescribed circuits, and other rites, and afterwards retired to a tent pitched for him in the valley.

The greater part of the pilgrims had brought no victims with them. These were directed by Mahomet, after completing the customary forms of the Omra, or lesser Pilgrimage, to divest themselves of the pilgrim garb. They accompanied the Prophet and the ethers who had brought victims, in their farther procession to Mina and Arafat, but only as spectators. Ali, who in the meantime had returned from Yemen, received the same directions as the rest of those who had no victims: "Go," said Mahomet, "and encircle the holy house; then divest thyself of the pilgrim's garb as thy fellows have done." But Ali was anxious to fulfil the full rites of the yearly festival ;- "for," said he, "I have taken upon me vows to perform the same pilgrimage as the Prophet, whatever that might be." Mahomet yielded, and allowed him to fulfil the greater Pilgrimage, and to be a sharer in the victims he had brought for himself.¹

¹ The sacrifice of victims is an essential part of the greater pilgrimage, but not of the lesser.

According to the rules of Islam, the pilgrim must resolve, before he assumes the pilgrim's garb, which pilgrimage he will perform. In connection with this custom, there is a great mass

On the 7th of Dzul Hijj, the day preceding the opening rites of the greater Pilgrimage, Mahomet, after the mid-day prayer, preached to the concourse assembled at the Kaaba. Next day,¹ followed by the whole multitude of pilgrims, and shaded from the sun's glare by Bilal, who walked at his side with a screen,² he proceeded to Mina, where he performed the ordinary prayers, and passed the night in a tent. The following morning at sunrise, he moved onwards, and passing Mozdalifa, reached Arafat, an abrupt eminence, about two hundred feet high, in the middle of the valley, which, though elsewhere

of contradictory tradition as to whether Mahomet set out from Medina with the vows upon him of the lesser Pilgrimage, or the greater, or of both together; and the question is very warmly discussed.

When Mahomet desired those who had no victims to conclude their Pilgrimage with the Omra, or lesser festival, they objected, saying, "How then can we go on with thee to Mina, after quitting the holy state of a pilgrim, and returning to the impurities of the world?" Mahomet told them that there was no harm in doing so, for that, if similarly circumstanced, he would have done it himself; and that if he had foreseen these objections, he would not have brought any victims. K. Wackidi, p.188. Perhaps it was Mahomet's wish to show that visiting Mecca at the time of the greater Pilgrimage did not necessarily involve the performance of that pilgrimage, which was reserved for special occasions.

¹ The eighth, termed tarwiyah, , because on that day the Pilgrims drank of the water made ready for them. Vide Introduction, vol. i. p. ccxlviii. Other derivations are given,- Burton, iii. 238 ; Weil, 203. For the direction and distances of Mina, Mordalifa, and Arafat, from Mecca, see Introduction, vol. i. p. ccv.

² It is described as a staff with a cloth attached to it. K. Wackidi, 186.

narrow, and on the farther side pent in by lofty granite peaks, here spreads out bare and stony to the breadth of nearly a mile.¹ On the summit of the sacred mount, the Prophet, standing erect upon his camel, said : - "The entire valley of Arafat is the holy station for Pilgrimage, excepting only the vale of Urana?² After he had bowed himself in prayer, he recited certain passages of the Coran,

¹ See the pictures of this hill in Ali Bey (vol ii. p.67) and Burton (vol. iii. p.257). The following is the description of it by the latter:- "A mass of coarse granite split into large blocks, with a thin coat of withered thorns, about one mile in circumference, and rising abruptly from the low gravelly plain. - a dwarf wall at the southern base forming the line of demarcation, -to the height of one hundred and eighty or two hundred feet. It is separated by Batn Ama , a sandy vale, from the spurs of the Taif hills. Nothing can be more picturesque than the view it affords of the blue peaks behind, and the vast encampment scattered over the barren yellow plain below." So also Ali Bey: - "Arafat is a small mountain of granite rock, the same as those that surround it; it is about one hundred and fifty feet high, and is situated at the foot of a higher mountain to the E.S.E. in a plain about three quarters of a italic in diameter, surrounded by barren mountains." vol. ii. p. 67.

² For the valley of Urana (or Ama) Sec preceeding note. The popular tradition regarding the reason for its exclusion is given thus by Burton:- "This vale is not considered 'standing ground,' because Satan once appeared to the Prophet as he was traversing it:" p. 258. The last pilgrimage is regarded us the type of all succeeding ones : there is accordingly a tendency to make Mahomet foresee this, and provide anticipatory unstructions on all possible points. These must be received with caution: take, e.g. the following tradition: Mahomet, as he went through the various rites, said: "Observe, and learn of me the ceremonies which ye should practise, for I know not whether after this I shall ever perform another pilgrimage." K. Wackidi, 136 ½.

regarding the ceremonies of Pilgrimnge, and concluded with the verse, "This day have I perfected your Religion unto you, and fulfilled my mercy upon you, and appointed Islam for you to be your Religion."¹

As the sun was going down, Mahomet quitted Arafat. Retracing his steps with Osama, son of Zeid, seated behind him on the camel, he travelled hastily back by the bright moonlight along the narrow valley to Mozdalifa, where he said the sunset and evening prayers both together: in this, and every other point, his example has been closely imitated by the pilgrims yearly, to the present day. He passed the night at Mozdalifa, and very early in the morning sent forward the women and the children, lest the crowds of pilgrims that followed should impede their journey: but, touching them on the shoulder as they went, he said: "My children, have a care that ye throw not the stones at Acaba, until the sun arise.

When the morning of the tenth day of the month broke, Mahomet arose to perform the early prayer; after which, he mounted his camel, and took his stand on a certain spot, saying,- "This place, and the whole of Mozdalifa, is the station of pilgrimage, excepting only the vale of Muhassir."²

¹ K. Wackidi, 138. This is the only passage of the Coran which, according to the Secretary, Mahomet repeated at Arafat. The traditions which bring together many other verses deemed appropriate to the occasion, and represent them as repented at this and the other stages of the Pilgrimage, appear to me very doubtful.

² I do not know the origin of the allusion here to the valley of

Then, with Fadhl, son of Abbas, seated behind him, he proceeded onwards amid a heavy fall of rain to Mina, shouting as he went the pilgrim's cry: -

He ceased not to utter these ejaculations till he had reached Mina, and cast stones (an ancient rite before described) at the Acaba, a projecting corner of the valley.¹ Afterwards, he slew the victims brought for sacrifice, and then ended the pilgrimage by shaving the hair of his head and partly also of his face,² and paring his nails; the hair and parings he ordered to be burned.³ The scanty dress of pilgrimage was now put away, perfumes were

Muhassir; it is a part of the road to Mina. Burton, iii. 280. A picture of Mozdalifa will be found in Ali Bey, U. 66.

¹ Labbeik signifies, "Here am I, O Lord!" See above, page 25.

² See above, vol. i. p. ccvi. There are minute traditions as to the kind of stone to be used on this occasion. Abdallah, son of Abbas, picked up some gravel for Mahomet to throw, and the Prophet said,- "Yes: just such as this is the kind to throw. Take care that ye increase not the size. Verily they that have gone before you have come to nought, because of thus adding to the rites of their religion." K. Wackidi, 136 ½. But see above, on the tendency to put into Mahomet's mouth rules framed for the guidance of pilgrims in time coming.

³ So the Secretary p. 135;

⁴ Ibid. Another tradition says that the hair was till caught up by his followers: p.136 ½. In after days, when a single hair of the Prophet was treasured up as a relic and talisman. this tradition may have grown up.

burned, the flesh of the victims and other cattle¹ was distributed for food, and proclamations made that the restrictions of the pilgrim state being ended, it was now a day for eating and enjoyment, and for the remembrance of God.² Mahomet remained at Mina from the 10th to the 12th of Dzul Hijj. Every evening as the sun declined he repaired to Al Acaba and repeated the rite of casting stories.

On the second of these three days, the Prophet mounted his camel, and taking up a central and prominent position in the Mina valley,³ addressed the vast crowd of pilgrims in a memorable speech, which was looked upon by the people, and probably was felt by Mahomet himself, as his parting exhortation. Fragments of the discourse have been preserved; of these the following passages are the most important.⁴

¹ K. Wackidi, 135 ½.

² It is said that Ali, mounted on the Prophet's white mule, made this proclamation amongst the pilgrims. Ibid. p.188.

³ The Secretary says that "he stood between she two places for casting stones." Burton mentions two such places, iii. 282. Ali Bey's plan gives the chief one, or "the Devil's house," on the Meccan side of Mina, and "two small column. raised by the Devil," in the middle of the narrow street of the village of Mina: vol. ii. p.64. The position of Mahomet while delivering this famous discourse was thus within Mina itself, but somewhat on the side of Mecca. Hishami and others represent the discourse as delivered at Arafat, but the Secretary is very distinct in the statement which I have followed: pp.185, 187.

⁴ Hishami professes to transcribe the actual discourse in regular order as it was delivered. p.436. But had any such document been preserved in a genuine form, the Secretary would

"YE PEOPLE! Hearken to my words; for I know not whether, after this year, I shall ever be amongst you here again.¹
"Your Lives and Property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another until the end of time.
"The Lord hath ordained to every man the share of his inheritance : a Testament is not lawful to the prejudice of heirs.
The child belongeth to the Parent: and the violator of Wedlock shall be stoned.²
"Whoever claimeth falsely another for his father, or another for his master, the curse of God and tile Angels, and of all mankind, shall rest upon him.³
"Ye People! Ye have rights demandable or your Wives, and they have rights demandable of you. Upon them it is incumbent not to violate their conjugal faith nor commit any act of open impropriety ; - which things if they do, ye have authority to shut them up in separate apartments and to beat them with stripes, yet not severely.⁴ But if they refrain therefrom, clothe them and feed

certainly have presented us with it; yet he gives only detached fragments.
¹ So Hishami. The words, however, may be an afterthought of tradition. There is no other intimation that Mahomet felt his strength to be decaying at this time, or that either he or his followers anticipated his end to be near.
² So read, K. Wackidi, 137. There is room for different interpretation. I take the passage to mean, that in all cases of birth after divorce, or of posthumous birth, &C, the lineage is to be traced to the actual parent, and in event of bastardy to the mother:- to the latter especially in case of the oath of imprecation. See above, vol. iii. p.302.

The second clause reads literally, "and for the adulterer a stone:" as the word adultery includes also fornication, which is not punishable by stoning, some construe "stone" metaphorically as meaning "exclusion," i.e. that the father hss no claim to the paternity of a child born out of wedlock.
³ K. Wackidi, 187; Hishami, 438.
⁴ M.C. de Perceval has it, "but not to a point such as would endanger life." This paragraph regarding women is in Hishami.

them suitably. And treat your Women well : for they are with you as captives and prisoners; they have not power over anything as regards themselves. And ye have verily taken them on the security of God: and have made their persons lawful unto you by the words of God.¹
And your slaves! See that ye feed them with such food as ye eat yourselves; and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit a fault which ye are not inclined to forgive, then sell them, for they are thr servants of the Lord, and are not to be tormented.
"Ye People! hearken to my speech and comprehend the same. Know that every Moslem is the brother of every other Moslem. All of you are on the same equality" (and as he pronounced these words, he raised his arms aloft and placed the forefinger of one hand ont he forefinger of the other)." ² Ye are one Brotherhood.
"Know ye what month this is?- What territory is this? - What day?" To each question, the People gave the appropriate answer, viz., "The Sacred Month, the Sacred Territory,-the great day of Pilgrimage." After every one of these replies, Mahomet added: - "Even thus sacred and inviolable hath God made the Life and the Property of each of you unto the other, until ye meet your Lord.
"Let him that is present, tell it unto him that is absent. Haply, he that shall be told, may remember better than he who hath heard it."

Mahomet then proceeded to recite the 37th and 38th verses of the Ninth Sura, which abolish the triennial intercalation of the year, and fix the month of Pilgrimage according to the changing seasons of the lunar year.

"Verily, the number of the months withs God is twelve months, according to the Book of God, on the day in which he created the Heavens and the Earth. Of these, four are sacred -this is the true Religion:-

but not in the Secretary. It will be observed that part of it is a verse from the Coran formerly noticed.

¹ Hishami, 436.

² Intending thereby to signify that all were absolutely on the same level.

Verily, the changing of the months is an excess in infidelty, which causeth the Unbelievers to err. They make a moth common in one year, and they make it sacred in another year, that they may equalize the number which God hath made sacred. Thus do they make common that to which God hath hallowed.¹

¹ For an explanation of the practices here altered, see vol. i. Introduction, p. ccvi. In the Zeitschrift der Morgenländischen Gesellechaft, 1859, p. 184, there is a long and elaborate paper by Dr. Sprenger to prove that intercalation, in the ordinary sense of the word, was not practised at Mecca: that the Arab year was a purely lunar one, performing its cycle regularly, and losing one year in every thirty-three; and that the observance of the Pilgrimage was kept constantly to the season of spring, by altering it from one month to another whenever such alteration as found to be necessary for that purpose. Practically, therefore, instead of confining the Pilgrimage (according to the received theory) invariably to the same month, Dzul Hijj, which they accomplished by intercalating one month after every three years, - the Arabs, according to Dr. Sprenger's theory, held the Pilgrimage indifferently in any month of the year, shifting its observance from month to month, every three years, or whenever necessity required, in order to keep it uniformly close to the vernal equinox. It was by observing the constellations this adjustment was effected.
The hypothesis, ingeniously framed, rests, so far as tradition is concerned, on a single authority, quoted by the Secretary of Wackidi, at p.137 ½, to the effect that Abu Bakr performed the pilgrimage which preceded the farewell pilgrimage in the month of Dzul Cada (the month before Dzul Hijj); the tradition proceeds :- "In the days of heathenism they used, for two years at a time, to perform the pilgrimage (successively) in every month of the year. Now the pilgrimage of the Prophet fell out in the month of Dzul Hijj; wherefore he saith, This day hath the time involved as it was on the day God created the heavens and the earth." The tradition is from Mujahid, good authority; but, alone and unsupported, it appears to me quite inadequate as a basis for the theory. Dr. Sprenger, indeed, would strengthen it, by chewing that tine biographers compute from the Hegira downwards, for several years, by reckoning only twelve months to each year; thus the first mouth of the fifth year after Mahomet's arrival in Medina is spoken of as the forty- ninth month of the Hegira, from which it appears that no

"And now," continued Mahomet, "on this very day hath time performed its cycle, and returned to the disposition thereof existing at the moment when God created the Heavens and the Earth.
Ye People! Truly Satan despaireth of being worshipped in your land for ever. But if in some indifferent matter, which ye taught be disposed to slight, he could secure obedience, verily he would be well pleased. Wherefore beware ye of him!

allowance was made by them for intercalation, else the month in question would have been styled the fiftieth month. This is true; but it proves only that the biographers had become so habituated to the lunar year, that they had lost sight of the ancient practice of intercalation.
Against the tradition of Mujahid is to be put the otherwise consentaneous testimony that the greater Pilgrimage was always held in the mouth of Dzul Hijj; and that Mahomet, when hindered from going to Mecca, performed the Eed al Zoha, or festival of sacrifice, (corresponding with the day of sacrifice at Mina) in that month: see, e.g. Tabari; 326, for the festival in the second year of the Hegira. This universal belief must have had a foundation in fact. At least it requires stronger evidence than that adduced by Dr. Sprenger to disprove it. Had the facts been as he assumes, we should have land a multitude of traditions from the Prophet, directly reprobating the heathenish practice of holding the high festival in any other month but that of Dzul Hijj.
Moreover, it is possible that Mujahid's words may bear another meaning. holding the pure lunar year to be the only true one, he says that the real or divine calculation was going uniformly in ages past, unaffected by the unhallowed alterations made by the Coreish. The preceding pilgrimage presided over by Abu Bakr, though (according to the heathenish calculations of the Coreish) held ostensibly in Dzul Hijj, was (Mujahid would say) according to the true divine and indefeasible era, held really in Dzul Cada. Thus also the eject of intercalation is described by him as leading to the celebration of the feast, really and by divine calculation, in the successive months of the lunar year, though made by intercalation and the erroneous system of the Coreish, to fall apparently always in Dzul Hijj; - and this would (according to the received theory) be a true representation of the case, if Mujahid had not erroneously said that the alteration took place every two, instead of every three, years.

Verily, I have fulfilled my mission. I have left that amongst you, a plain command,- the Book or God, and manifest ordinance - which, if ye hold fast, ye shall never go astray."¹

Then, looking up to heaven, Mahomet said "O Lord! I have delivered my message and fulfilled my mission." "Yea" cried all the People who crowded round him, "yea, verily thou hast." "O Lord! I beseech thee bear thou witness unto it." With these word; the Prophet concluded his address, and dismissed the great assembly.²

After staying three days at Mina,³ the concourse broke up and proceeded to Mecca. Mahomet desired the mass of the pilgrims to travel thither by day. He himself accompanied his wives on the journey by night. On reaching Mecca, he went straightway to the Kaaba, and performed the seven circuits of it on his camel. He next proceeded to the well Zemzem close by, and calling for a pitcher of its water, drank part of its contents; then he

¹ This paragraph, and that preceding are from Hishami. They are not given by the Secutary.

² This last scene bears an aspect somewhat suspicious: it is the sort of theatrical farewell and conclusion of the mission which would be natural for the traditionists to conceive as winding up the Prophet's last address,--- while there is no sufficient grounds for believing that Mahomet was persuaded that it was his last. But the passage occurs both in the Secretary (p.137) and in Hishami (p.437), and may be admitted with this cautionary note.
The passages in Hishami about bygone claims for interest on money and for bloodshed being given up, appear to be takin from the speech of Mahomet on the capture of Mecca. They are not given by the Secretary.

³ Mahomet said: "The days for staying at Mina are three: but if one stay only two it is no sin, nor if he stay more than three is it any sin." K. Wackidi 136.

rinsed his mouth in the pitcher, and desired that the water remaining in it should be thrown back into the well.¹ After this, taking off his shoes, he ascended the doorway of the holy temple, and prayed within its walls.² Having now ended all the ceremonies, and being fatigued with the journey, he stopped at the house of one who kept Nabidz, or date-water, for the Pilgrims to drink, and desired the beverage to be furnished to him. The son of Abbas, who accompanied him, interposed :- "The hands of the passers-by," he said, "have been in this all day, and fouled it: Come unto my father's house, where we have some that is clean and pure for thee." But the Prophet, refusing to drink of any other, quenched his thirst upon the spot.³

Three days more were spent at Mecca, and then Mahomet with his followers returned to Medina.

¹ K. Wackidi, 136 ½.

² Mahomet is said to have regretted that he entered the Kaaba on this occasion. When asked the reason he said, "I have this day done a thing which I wish I had left undone. I have entered the holy house. And haply some of my people, pilgrims, may not be able to enter therein, and may turn back grieved in heart (i.e. at not having completed the Pilgrimage fully after their Prophet's example.) And, in truth, the command given unto me was only to encircle the Kaaba: it is not incumbent on anyone to enter it."

This appears to be founded upon the notion before explained, that Mahomet intended this pilgrimage to be the final type and exemplar for all future pilgrims.

² K. Wackidi, 137. Nabidz is water in which dates or raisins have been steeped or washed. So accurately do the pilgrims follow their Prophet, that some regard the rites of the Pilgrimage as not properly completed unless Nabidz be drunk as it was by Mahomet.

The Life of Mahomet, Volume IV [Table of Contents]