Page 58 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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28 SOCIAL SURVEY

Medina, owing to its more exclusive population and its smaller
number of visitors, offers greater risks than Mecca, and its ynulai&iuijln
are more difficult to evade.
The Hajj must be performed in the first ten days or the last
month (Dhu’l-Hijja) of the Moslem lunar year. Like all other Moslem
months, this moves round the solar year, and in 1915 coincided
very nearly with our November. Phc pilgrim, who before entering
the haram', or sacred vicinity of Mecca, must have discarded the razor
and his head- and foot-gear and assumed the ihrdm (a primitive dress
consisting of two towel-like cotton cloths fastened round the body
without the aid of knots or pins), spends the» firs? seven days in
circumambulating the Ka'bah seven times (taxed/), walking and
running seven tim&s between two hills, Safa and Merwjih, each side
of Mecca (sa‘i), praying, attending sermons, visiting various tradi­

tional and holy sites near the city, &c. On the eighth, qlad
again in the ihrtim, he begins the mosl obligatory of all the cere­
monies, the true ‘ Pilgrimage’. . v
It consists in the visit to ‘Arafat, a hillock in a plain, on the Ta’if
road, undor Jebel Qora. This trip, which is by no means without
danger both on the road and in camp, despite the /strong escorts"
provided, is obligatory not only on all visitors, but also, year by
year, on all able-bodied citizens of Mecca, from the Grand Sherif
downwards, and in the opinion of most authorities it is the duty
which, rather than any performed in Mecca itself, confers the
coveted title of hajji. The total number of those who march to
‘Arafat and back amounts normally to little under half a million. The
enormous crowd bivouacs in and around the village of Mina (Muna)
the first night, and with daybreak on the ninth day proceeds other
nine miles to ‘Arafat to perform the ‘ Stand ’ on the hill, praying,
ejaculating labbeika and hearing addresses uutil sundown. Returning
to Mina for the night, the pilgrim performs there another * Stand ’ on
the morning of the tenth day, throws a fixed number of selected stones
at certain devil-pillars, and offer's a blood-sacrifice, usually a sheep or
a goat, which he is at liberty to eat or give away. Then he must
make post-haste for Mecca in the midst of indescribable confusion.
In the city on that afternoon he should perform taicaf and sa‘i
and kiss again the HolyStone of the Ka'bah ; and then, shaved and
in secular dress, get back before dark to Mina for the day of the
great feast. This he may celebrate partly at Mina where many,
especially those performing the Pilgrimage for the first time, stay on
Mecca* ° Dl'Vlng ’ esh Hcf-7Winy). partly at

After this the Pilgrimage is over and the Hajji either staj's till

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