Before entering the Mosque of Al-Kuba[FN#16] it will be necessary to call to mind some passages of its past history.  When the Apostle’s she-camel, Al-Kaswa, as he was approaching Al-Madinah after the flight from Meccah, knelt down here, he desired his companions to mount the animal.  Abu Bakr and Omar[FN#17] did so; still she sat upon the ground; but when Ali obeyed the order, she arose.  The Apostle bade him loose her halter, for she was directed by Allah, and the Mosque walls were built upon the line over which she trod.  It was the first place of public prayer in Al-Islam.  Mohammed laid the first brick, and with an “Anzah,” or iron-shod javelin, marked out the direction of prayer[FN#18]:  each of his successors followed his example.  According to most historians, the

[p.408]land belonged to Abu Ayyub the Ansari, the Apostle’s host; for which reason the “Bayt Ayyub,” his descendants, still perform the service of the Mosque, keep the key, and share with the Bawwabs, or porters, the alms and fees here offered by the Faithful.  Others declared that the ground was the property of one Linah, a woman who was in the habit of tethering her ass there.[FN#19] The Apostle used to visit it every Saturday[FN#20] on foot, and always made a point of praying the dawn-prayer there on the 17th Ramazan.[FN#21] A number of traditions testify to its dignity:  of these, two are especially significant.  The first assures all Moslems that a prayer at Kuba is equal to a Lesser Pilgrimage at Meccah in religious efficacy; and the second declares that such devotion is more acceptable to the Deity than prostrations at the Bayt al-Mukuddas (Jerusalem).  Moreover, sundry miracles took place here, and a verset of the Koran descended from heaven.  For which reasons the Mosque was much respected by Omar, who, once finding it empty, swept it himself with a broom of thorns, and expressed his wonder at the lukewarmness of Moslem piety.  It was originally a square building of very small size; Osman enlarged it in the direction of the minaret, making it sixty-six cubits each way.  It is no longer “mean and decayed” as in Burckhardt’s time:  the Sultan Abd al-Hamid, father of

[p.409]the Sultan Mahmud, erected a minaret of Turkish shape and a neat structure of cut stone, whose crenelles make it look more like a place of defence than of prayer.  It has, however, no preten[s]ions to grandeur.  To the South a small and narrow Riwak (porch), with unpretending columns, looks out Northwards upon a little open area simply sanded over; and this is the whole building.

The large Mastabah or stone bench at the entrance of the Mosque was crowded with sitting people:  we therefore lost no time, after ablution and the Niyat ("the Intention”) peculiar to this Visitation, in ascending the steps, in pulling off our slippers, and in entering the sacred building.  We stood upon the Musalla al-Nabi (the Prophet’s place of Prayer)[FN22]:  after Shaykh Nur and Hamid had forcibly cleared that auspicious spot of a devout Indian, and had spread a rug upon the dirty matting, we performed a two-bow prayer, in font of a pillar into which a diminutive marble Mihrab or niche had been inserted by way of memento.  Then came the Dua, or supplication, which was as follows: