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IV.—The Ka'ba inA.D. 608

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2011

K. A. C. Creswell
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Extract

The sanctuary at Mekka, in the time of Muhammad, merely consisted of a small roofless enclosure formed by four walls a little higher than a man, accordining to Ibn Hishām, or about 9 cubits (say 4·50 m.) according to Azraqī, built of rough stone laid dry. It was oblong in shape, the following being the measurements of its sides: NE. 32 cubits, NW. 22, SW. 31, SE. 20, proportions approximately 3:2. Within this enclosure was the sacred well of Zemzem.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 94 , 1951 , pp. 97 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1951

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References

page 97 note 1 Ibn Hishām, Wüstenfeld's ed., i, p. 122, l. 9; and Wüstenfeld's, Azraqī ed., in Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, i, p. 106, 11. 10-11Google Scholar.

page 97 note 2 Azraqī, i, p. 31, 11. 5-10.

page 97 note 3 Caetani, , Annali dell' Islam, i, 91–3 and 174Google Scholar; andLammens, , Le culte des bétyles, B.I.F.A.O., xvii, 72–8Google Scholar. The 'Black Stone' had not yet become the most venerated, as Lammens points out, if one may judge by the silence of the contemporary poets.

page 97 note 4 Balādhurī, , Futūh al-Buldān, p. 46Google Scholar; Hitti's transl., pp. 73-4; Motahhar ibn Tāhir al-Maqdisī, Huart's ed. iv, 84; transl., p. 79; andCaetani, , op. cit. i, 178Google Scholar.

page 97 note 5 Lane-Poole, , Art of the Saracens in Egypt, p. 52Google Scholar. See also Diez, , Die Kunst der islamischen Völker, p. 8Google Scholar.

page 97 note 6 Tabarī, Prima Series, p. 1130, 11. 14–15; other versions put it in his twenty-fifth or fortieth year.

page 98 note 1 Ibn Sa'd,Tabaqāt, Sachau's, ed., i, p. 93, 1. 16Google Scholar; Azraqī, i, p. 104, l. 19-p. 105, l. 1; p. 107, 11. 6-12; and p. 114, 11. 9-13. Azraqī's account is so remarkable that I think it advisable to mention the fact that he is the oldest existing historian of Mekka (d. A.D. 858). His history is mainly based on information collected by his grandfather at the end of the eighth century.

page 98 note 2 Loc. cit., i, p. 122, 11. 12-15; repeated verbatim by Tabarī, Prima Series, p. 1135, 11. 10-12.

page 98 note 3 Loc. cit., i, p. 109, 11. 16-17, and p. 110, 11. 12-13 and 18-20.

page 98 note 4 Loc. cit., i, p. 110, 11. 19-20. Azraqī mentions this remarkable feature once more, when speaking of the burning of the Ka'ba on 3 Rabī' 1, 63 H. (20th Oct. 683), saying that it was built with a course of teak (sāj) and a course of stone alternately up to the top; i, p. 140, 11. 1-8.

page 98 note 5 Loc. cit., i, p. 110, 11. 11-12.

page 98 note 6 Futūh al-Buldān, p. 46, 11. 14-16; Hitti's transl., p. 74.

page 98 note 7 Loc. cit., i, p. 110, 11. 13-14.

page 98 note 8 Ibn Sa'd, i, p. 94, 11. 24-5; and Azraqī, i, p. no, 11. 15-16, and p. 112, 11. 1-2.

page 98 note 9 Ibn Hishām, i, p. 126,11. 9-10; and Azraqī, i, p. 110, 11. 16-18; also p. 115, 11. 17-19.

page 98 note 10 Azraqī, i, p. no, 11. 20-21. It did not take its present cubic form until it was rebuilt by Ibn az-Zubayr in 64-5 H. (684) when its height was increased to 27 cubits.

page 98 note 11 It will be noted that my reconstruction of the Ka'ba does not show the courses of wood exposed, as in Abyssi-nian churches, but on the contrary plastered over. This is because it would appear from Azraql's account of the burning of the Ka'ba in 63 H. (683) that it was only then that people discovered, apparently with surprise, that its walls were partly constructed of wood.

page 99 note 1 Practising divination by means of arrows is strictly forbidden in the Qur'an.

page 99 note 2 Loc. cit., i, p. 110, last line-p. 112,1. 15. Bukhārī also mentions the effacement of the pictures in the Ka'ba, Bk. XXV, c. 54, LX, c. 8, and LXIV, c. 48; transl. of Houdas and Marçais, i, pp. 518-19; ü, p. 74; and üi, pp. 181-2; also Balādhurī, but without giving any details; p. 40, 11. 17-18; Hitti's transl., p. 66. Ahmad ibn Hanbal mentions the pictures of Ibrāhīm and Maryam;Musnad (Cairo, 1313 H.), i, p. 277, 11. 23–6Google Scholar; p. 334,11. 18-22; and p. 365, pp. 22-4.

page 100 note 1 Krencker, D., Ältere Denkmäler Nordabessiniens Archaeologia, xcii, pp. 6–13 and pls. 1-11. (Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, Band II), pp. 168-94Google Scholar.

page 100 note 2 ‘The Christian Antiquities of Northern Ethiopia’.

page 100 note 3 Loc. cit., p. 8.

page 101 note 1 The largest showed thirteen stories, the tallest still standing (70 ft.) has nine.

page 101 note 2 It was therefore longer than any Egyptian obelisk, the tallest of which, that of Queen Hatasu at Karnak, measures 108 ft. 10 in., or 33·17 m.

page 101 note 3 Rossini, Conti, Expéditions et possessions des Habašdt en Arabie, Journal Asiatique, IIme série, xviii, 35–6Google Scholar.

page 101 note 4 This invasion is attested by a long Greek inscription at Adulis, seen and copied by Cosmas Indicopleustes a little before A.D. 525; seeLittmann, , in the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, i, 42–4Google Scholar; andRossini, Conti, he. cit., pp. 18–25Google Scholar.

page 101 note 5 SeeGlaser, (Inscr. No. 618), Mitteilungen der Vordar-asiatischen Gesellschaft, 1897, No. 6, p. 42Google Scholar.

page 101 note 6 Loc. cit., i, p. 141, 11. 20-3.

page 101 note 7 For this famous church, see Azraqī, i, 88-9 (fullest description); Tabarl, Prima Series, p. 935; and Sālih, Abū, Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, Evetts' text, p. 138Google Scholar; transl., pp. 300-1; and Yāqüt.

page 102 note 1 Tanbīh, i, p. 146,1. 18-p. 147,1. 2.

page 102 note 2 Loc. cit., i, p. 89,11. 18-19.

page 102 note 3 Letters of 5th July and 3rd August 1949.