Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1.

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1.
act of propriety.  There are many in Egypt who will habitually transgress one of the fundamental orders of their faith, namely, never to pray when in a state of religious impurity.  In popular Argot, prayer without ablution is called Salat Mamlukiyah, or “slaves’ prayers,” because such men perform their devotions only in order to avoid the master’s staff.  Others will touch the Koran when impure, a circumstance which highly disgusts Indian Moslems. [FN#17] An “adviser,” or “lecturer,"-any learned man who, generally in the months of Ramazan and Muharram, after the Friday service and sermon, delivers a discourse upon the principles of Al-Islam. [FN#18] Amongst them is a foundation for Jawi scholars.  Some of our authors, by a curious mistake, have confounded Moslem Jawa (by the Egyptians pronounced Gawa), with “Goa,” the Christian colony of the Portuguese. [FN#19] Cairo was once celebrated for its magnificent collections of books.  Besides private libraries, each large Mosque had its bibliotheca, every Ms. of which was marked with the word “Wakf” (entailed bequest), or “Wukifa l’Illahi Ta’ala” (bequeathed to God Almighty).  But Cairo has now for years supplied other countries with books, and the decay of religious zeal has encouraged the unprincipled to steal and sell MSS. marked with the warning words.  The Hijaz, in particular, has been inundated with books from Egypt.  Cairo has still some large libraries, but most of them are private property, and the proprietors will not readily lend or give access to their treasures.  The principal opportunity of buying books is during the month Ramazan, when they are publicly sold in the Azhar Mosque.  The Orientalist will, however, meet with many disappointments; besides the difficulty of discovering good works, he will find in the booksellers, scribes, et hoc genus omne, a finished race of scoundrels. [FN#20] Lane (Mod.  Egyptians) has rectified Baron von Hammer-Purgstall’s mistake concerning the word “Azhar”; our English Orientalist translates it the “splendid Mosque.”  I would venture to add, that the epithet must be understood in a spiritual and not in a material sense.  Wilkinson attributes the erection of the building to Jauhar al-Kaid, general under Al-Moaz, about A.D. 970.  Wilson ascribes it partly to Al-Moaz the Fatimite (A.D. 973), partly to his general and successor, Al-Hakim (?). [FN#21] Wakf, property become mortmain.  My friend Yacoub Artin declares that the whole Nile Valley has parcel by parcel been made Wakf at some time or other, and then retaken. [FN#22] If I may venture to judge, after the experience of a few months, there is now a re-action in favour of the old system.  Mohammed Ali managed to make his preparatory, polytechnic, and other schools, thoroughly distasteful to the people, and mothers blinded their children, to prevent their being devoted for life to infidel studies.  The printing-press, contrasting in hideousness with the beauty of the written character, and the contemptible Arabic style of the various works
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Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.