Thy mercy grant that he may experience Thine acceptance; and spare him the trial of the grave and its torment; and make his grave wide to him; and keep back the earth from his sides; and of Thy mercy grant that he may experience security from Thy torment, until Thou send him safely to Thy Paradise, O Thou most merciful of those who show mercy" (Lane's translation). After the other prayers have been said, the leader in prayer, addressing those present, says, "Give your testimony respecting him," and they reply, "He was of the virtuous." The bier is then taken up, and the procession re-forms in the same order as before, and the body is taken to the grave. In the case of well-to-do people the grave is an oblong brick vault, which is sufficiently high to allow the deceased to sit upright when being examined by the two angels Munkar and Nakîr; over the vault a low, oblong monument is built, having an upright stone at the head and foot. On the stone at the head are inscribed the name of the deceased, the date of death, and a verse from the Kur'ân. The body is taken from the bier, its bandages are untied, and it is then laid in the vault on its right side with the face towards Mecca; a little earth is gently laid upon the body, and the vault is closed. But the pious Muḥammadans have imagined it to be possible for the deceased to forget what he ought to say when the angels Munkar and Nakîr come to examine him, therefore, in many cases, an instructor of the dead takes his seat near the tomb after the body has been laid therein, and tells the deceased what questions he will be asked and what answers he is to make. After the burial, food and drink are distributed among the poor, who come in large numbers to the burial of a man of means and position. The soul is thought to remain with the body on the night of burial, and after wards to depart to its appointed place to await the day of doom. Men do not wear mourning in any case, but women dye their garments blue with indigo as a sign of grief, for everyone except an old man; they also leave their hair unplaited, and omit to put on certain of their ornaments. The Fâtihah.-As mention has been made above of the Fâtihah, the opening chapter of the Kur'ân, a version of it is here given :-" In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Gracious. Praise be unto God, the Lord of the worlds, the Merciful, the Gracious, the Ruler of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, upon whom there is no wrath, and who have not erred." It is to the Muḥammadans what the Lord's Prayer is to Christians. The Call to Prayer, which is usually sung from the gallery of the minaret (Arab. manârah) by the mueddin of the mosque, is as follows :-" God is great. God is great. God is great. God is great. I bear witness that there is no god but God. I bear witness that there is no god but God. I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God. I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God. Come to prayer. Come to prayer. Come to service. Come to service. God is great. God is great. There is no god but God." At certain large mosques two other calls to prayer are cried during the night, the first a little after midnight, and the second about an hour before daybreak. Muḥammadan Calendar.-The Muḥammadans reckon their era from the 16th of July, 622, i.e., the day following the Flight (al-Hijra) of the Prophet from Mecca to Medîna. Their year is lunar, and always, consists of twelve lunar months, beginning with the approximate new moon, without any intercalation to keep them in the same season with respect to the sun, so that they retrograde through all the seasons in about 32 years. Their years are divided into cycles of 30 years, 19 of which contain 354 days, and the other 11 are intercalary years, having an extra day added to the last month. The mean length of the year is 354 days 8 hours 48 minutes; a mean lunation = 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes; the difference between a mean lunation and an astronomical lunation will amount to a day in about 2,400 years. The names of the months are:Muharram (30 days), Safar (29 days), Rabi'a al-awwal (30 days), Rabî'a al-âkhir (29 days), Gumâda al-awwal (30 days), Gumâda al-âkhir (29 days), Ragab (30 days), Sha'bân (29 days), Ramaḍân (30 days), Shawwâl (29 days), Dhu'il-ķadah (30 days), and Dhu'l-ḥiggah (29 days). Muḥammadan Weights and Measures: Pik or Dirâ (of the country) 24 kirrât (plur. karârît) = 23'01 inch ='585 metre. Pik (Turkish and Indian) = = 26 inches 66 metre. = Pik (used in building), 29153 inches=75 metre. = 3'55 metre. Square Pik (used in building) = 6'43 square feet = 562 square metres. Cubic Pik (used in building) = 14'90 cubic feet = '42 cubic metre. Square kaṣabah = 13*04 square yards = 12·60 square metres. Sa'a (literally, hour), like malaka, a march, any distance between 2 and 4 miles. Very old measures of length are:-Fitr, the space between the thumb and first finger when extended; Shibr, the space between the thumb and little finger when extended, i.e., a span; the Kabdah, the measure of a man's fist with the thumb erect. Kamḥah, grain of wheat grain. = Ḥabbah, grain of barley = 1 grain. Dirham = 16 kirrâts = 48'15 grains (Troy)='11 ounce = 3'12 grammes. Mithkâl 1 dirhams 24 kirrâts = = (Troy) 4'68 grammes. = 72 22 grains Ukîya = 12 dirhams = 132 ounces = 066 pint = = 37°44 grammes. Rotl 12 ukîya = 144 dirhams = '99 pound = 450 grammes = 79 pint. Ukka =400 dirhams 2'77 rotls = 219 pints = 2*75 pounds 125 kilogrammes. = = Kanțâr 100 rotls 36 okka 99'05 pounds = = 44 93 kilogrammes. Ardeb = 3 kanțârs = 43'95 gallons 5:49 bushels = 198 litres 300 pounds = 108 okka. The ardeb = = 6 wêba = 12 kîla = 24 rub'a = 48 mahva = 96 kada. LOWER EGYPT. ALEXANDRIA, Alexandria was founded B.C. 332 by Alexander the Great, who began to build his city on the little town of Rakoti, just opposite to the island of Pharos. King Ptolemy I. Soter made this city his capital: and having founded the famous library and museum, he tried to induce the most learned men of his day to live there. His son and successor Ptolemy II. Philadelphus continued the wise policy of his father, and Alexandria became famous as a seat of learning. The keeper of the museum during the reign of Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. was Aristophanes of Byzantium. During the siege of the city by the Romans in the time of Cæsar, B.C. 48, the library of the museum was burnt; but Antony afterwards gave Cleopatra a large collection of manuscripts which formed the nucleus of a second library.* In the early centuries of our era the people of Alexandria quarrelled perpetually among themselves,† the subjects of dispute * This collection numbered 200,000 MSS., and formed the famous Pergamenian library founded by Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, B.C. 197. 66 ". . . . . the Alexandrian rabble took on the slightest pretext to stones and to cudgels. In street uproar, says an authority, himself Alexandrian, the Egyptians are before all others; the smallest spark suffices here to kindle a tumult. On account of neglected visits, on account of the confiscation of spoiled provisions, on account of exclusion from a bathing establishment, on account of a dispute between the slave of an Alexandrian of rank and a Roman foot-soldier as to the value or non-value of their respective slippers, the legions were under the necessity of charging among the citizens of Alexandria . . . In these riots the Greeks acted as instigators . . . . . but in the further course of the matter the spite and savageness of the Egyptian proper came into the conflict. The Syrians were cowardly, and as soldiers the Egyptians were so too; but in a street tumult they were able to develope a courage worthy of a better cause." (Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. II., p. 265.) .... |