many houses were destroyed and lives lost. Assamy gives the details of
an inundation which devastated Mekka in A.H. 1039, or in the year 1626
of our era, when five hundred lives were lost, and the Kaaba in the
Temple was destroyed. Another dreadful inundation happened in 1672.

I arrived at Mekka about mid-day, when my companions went in search of
their acquaintance among the soldiers, and left me to shift for myself,
without knowing a single individual in the town, and without being
recommended to any body but the Kadhy, whom, as I have already said, I
wished to avoid.

MEKKA

[p.94] Whoever enters Mekka, whether pilgrim or not, is enjoined by the
law to visit the Temple immediately, and not to attend to any worldly
concern whatever, before he has done so. We crossed the line of shops
and houses, up to the gates of the mosque, where my ass-driver took his
fare and set me down: here I was accosted by half a dozen metowef, or
guides to the holy places, who knew, from my being dressed in the ihram,
that I intended to visit the Kaaba. I chose one of them as my guide,
and, after having deposited my baggage in a neighbouring shop, entered
the mosque at the gate called Bab-es'-Salam, by which the new-comer is
recommended to enter. The ceremonies to be performed in visiting the
mosque are the following:--1. Certain religious rites to be practised in
the interior of the temple; 2. The walk between Szafa and Meroua; 3. The
visit to the Omra. These ceremonies ought to be repeated by every Moslem
whenever he enters Mekka from a journey farther than two days' distance,
and they must again be more particularly performed at the time of the
pilgrimage to Arafat. I shall here describe them as briefly as possible;
a full detail and explanation of the Mohammedan law on this subject