Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 by Various
page 88 of 313 (28%)
page 88 of 313 (28%)
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relates one circumstance which shows that even religious intolerance
vanished in times of distress. 'All the inhabitants of the city, men, women, large and small, took part in a procession to the Mosque of El-Akdam, two miles south of Damascus. The Jews came forth with their Pentateuch, and the Christians with their Gospel, followed by their women and children. All wept, supplicated, and sought help from God, through the means of his Word and his prophets. They repaired to the mosque, where they remained, praying and invoking God, until three o'clock in the afternoon. Then they returned to the city, made the prayer of Friday, and the Lord consoled them.' On the 1st of September, 1326, he left Damascus, with the great caravan of pilgrims, for Mecca. He enumerates all the stations on the route, and his itinerary is almost identical with that which the caravan follows at the present day. Much space is devoted to a description of the religious observances which he followed; and, singularly enough, if any confirmation of his fidelity as a narrator were needed, it is furnished by the work of Captain Burton. The account of the sacred cities of Medineh and Mecca corresponds in every important particular with that of the modern traveler. Thus the integrity of Ibn Batuta, like that of Marco Polo, is established, after the lapse of five hundred years. In speaking of the chair of Mohammed, which is preserved in the mosque at Medineh, he relates the following beautiful tradition: 'It is said that the ambassador of God at first preached near the trunk of a palm-tree in the mosque, and that after he had constructed the chair and transported it thither, the trunk of the palm-tree groaned, as the female camel groans after her young. Mohammed thereupon went down to the tree and embraced it; after which it remained silent. The Prophet said, "If I had not embraced it, it would have continued to groan until the |
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