Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/350

 328 THE DECLINE AND FALL ^mpit^o'?"' *^ ^^^ religion, as well as to the language, of Mecca. The Mecca genuine antiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the Christian aera : in describing the coast of the Red Sea, the Greek historian Diodorus-^s f,as remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians ; the linen or silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the Horaerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mahomet.*^ A tent or a cavern might suffice for the worship of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its place ; and the art and power of the monarchs of the East have been confined to the simplicity of the original model. ^'^ A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of the Caaba, a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-seven high ; a door and a window admit the light ; the double roof is supported by three pillars of wood ; a spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and the well Zemzem is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired the custody of the Caaba : the sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet ; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most respectable and sacred in the eyes of their country. ^^ The precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of sanctuary ; and, in the last month '**''Ifpbr ayiioTaToi' t^pvrai Ttuwjiei'Oi' 11770 -dvTior ' ApaBoiv TrfpiTTOTcpoi' (Diodor. Sicul. torn, i. 1. iii. p. 211 [c. 44]). The character and position are so correctly ap- posite, that I am surprised how this curious passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet this famous temple had been overlooked by Agathar- chides (de Mari Rubro, p. 58, in Hudson, tom. i.), whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian ? Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome 650 [Agatharchides wrote his Hist07-ica in the 2nd cent. B.C. under Ptolemy VI.] and 746, the dates of their re- spective histories? (Dodwell, in Dissert, ad tom. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Greec. tom. ii. p. 770.) [It is improbable that Diodorus refers to the Kaaba.] ^sPocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we ascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years before the Christian aera. The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than a piece of Egyptian linen (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed, c. 6, p. 14). [The covering (Kiswa) of the Kaaba is made in Cairo of a coarse brocade of silk and cotton. See Lane, Modern Egyptians, ch. xxv.] •''"The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied in Sale, the Universal History, &c.) was a Turkish draught, which Reland fde Religione Mohammedica, p. 113-123) has corrected and explained from the best authorities. For the de- scription and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock (Specimen, p. 115-122), the Bibliotheque Orientale of d'Herbelot (Caaba, Hngiar, Zemzem, &c.) and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114-122). •'1 Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the Caaba, A.D. 440 ; but the story is differently told by Jannabi (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65-69) and by Abulfeda (in Vit. Aloham. c. 6, p. 13). 3asblm]