Banks, Edgar J.

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$1.00 per Year AUGUST, 1910 Price, 10 CentsZhe ©pen CourtA MONTHLY MAGAZINE2)evoteo to tbe Science ot tReliaton, tbe IRelioion ot Science, ano tbeExtension ot tbe IReligious parliament floeaEditor: Dr. Paul Carus. Associates: {E. C. Hegeler.Mary Carus.THE HOLES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY.Which Mr. Theodore Cooper identifies with the "chambers of the south"mentioned in Job ix. See pages 500-504.Wac ©pen Court publishing CompanyCHICAGOLONDON: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., LtdPer copy, zo cents (sixpence). Yearly, $x.oo (in the U.P.U., 5s. 6d.).Entered as Second-Class Matter March 26, 1897, at the Post Office at Chicago, 111. under Act of March 3, 1879.Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 1910.$1.00 per Year AUGUST, 1910 Price, 10 CentsZhc ©pen CourtA MONTHLY MAGAZINE2)evoteo to tbe Science of IReliaion, tbe TReliQion of Science, ano tbeExtension of tbe IReligious parliament floeaEditor: Dr. Paul Carus. Jmm^j,*^. JE. C. HEGELER.Associates.{ MaryCarus.THE HOLES IN THE SOUTHERN SKY.Which Mr. Theodore Cooper identifies with the "chambers of the south'mentioned in Job ix. See pages 500-504.\Woe ©pen Court publishing CompanyCHICAGOLONDON: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.Per copy, xo cents (sixpence). Yearly, $x.oo (in the U.P.U., 5s. 6<L).Entered as Second-Class Matter March 26, 1897, at the Post Office at Chicago, 111. under Act of March 3, 1879.Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 1910.VOL. XXIV. (No. 8.) AUGUST, 1910. NO. 651.CONTENTS:PAGEFrontispiece. The Shrines of Hussein and Abbas at Kerbela.The Sacred Cities of Eastern Arabia (Illustrated). Edgar J. Banks 451Hasan and Husain: The Passion Play of Persia—A Contrast. BerthaJohnston 458The Muharram in Western India. Lucia C. G. Grieve 469Syria (With Illustrations) . Franz Cumont 476The Chambers of the South—Job, ix, 9 (Illustrated). Theodore Cooper ..500Tabi-utul-Bel, the Pious Sufferer. Editor 505The Cornplanter Medal and Wm. P. Letchworth (With Portrait). Frede-rick Starr 510Book Reviews and Notes 512The First Grammar of the LanguageSpoken by the Bontoc IgorotTA Mountain Tribe of North Luzon(Philippine Islands)By Dr. CARL WILHELM SEIDENADELHIS Grammar, the first of the hitherto unexplored idiom of die BontocIgorot, contains the results of a scholar's independent and uninfluencedresearch; it is based entirely upon material collected directly from thenatives' lips. An extensive Vocabulary (more than four thousand Igorot words)and Texts on Mythology, Folk Lore, Historical Episodes and Songs are includedin this book. It will be of particular interest to Linguists, Ethnologists andComparative Philologists to whom the author furnishes an abundance of reliablematerial and new theories about the structure of Philippine Languages in generalIn exnaustiveness this monumental work surpasses the Grammars of any otherPhilippine Idiom treated before.550 pages in Quarto. Illustrated. Edition limited to 1200 copies. Printedfrom type on fine paper and elegantly bound. #5.00 (20s).THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.378-388 Wabash Avenue, CHICAGOSendfor complete illustrated catalogue.The Open CourtA MONTHLY MAGAZINEDevoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, andthe Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.VOL. XXIV. (No. 8.) AUGUST, 1910. NO. 651.Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 1910.THE SACRED CITIES OF EASTERN ARABIA.UY EDGAR J. BANKS.IT is popularly supposed that in the Mohammedan world Meccais the one and only sacred city, yet the Moslems themselves countten sacred places to which they make their pilgrimages. Mecca theyplace foremost among them, for there the Prophet was born, andthere all Moslems, regardless of sect, flock to worship about thesacred Kaaba. It is the one best known to Christians, because thefew adventurers who have risked their lives to enter it, have giventhrilling accounts of their experiences. On the eastern side of thedesert, in the vicinity of the once glorious Bagdad, are three cities,Kazamieh, Kerbela and Nejef, which to the Shiah branch of Mos-lems—the Persians, Indians and several of the desert Arab tribes—are scarcely less sacred. In the winter of 1904-5, disguised as aTurk, and under the guidance of a faithful Moslem servant, I per-formed the pilgrimage, at least to the exterior of these three shrines.From whatever direction one approaches Bagdad, the eye isfirst attracted to the six lofty golden minarets of Kazamieh. Thecity, lying to the right of the Tigris four miles north of Bagdad,derived its name from Kazim, a nephew of Ali and an early Moslemsaint ; now his tomb has become a magnificent mosque in which theeastern Moslems love to worship and store their wealth. For severalyears an antiquated horse-railway has connected the city with Bag-dad, yet in spite of this representative of the West, the Christianwho enters Kazamieh, is met with angry glances and insults. Topass the gate-way of the shrine, or to glance in at the open court,is to endanger life. A few years ago, while stealing a forbiddenglance from the street, a British consul was fired upon, and later,as I was passing the open gate-way, an ancient Persian woman452 THE OPEN COURT.rushed at me so furiously that to avoid trouble I beat a hasty retreat.The shrines of all the sacred cities closely resemble each otherin construction. High walls, entirely lined within and partly withoutwith beautifully enameled Persian tiles, enclose a large rectangularcourt. Gate-ways on three sides of the enclosure lead into thecourt, while upon the fourth side is the mosque or shrine, decoratedwith all the barbaric splendor which the money wrung from thevisiting pilgrims can purchase. Before the mosque at Kazamiehis a colonnade of teak wood inlaid with mother of pearl. Sixminarets, all capped with gold, stand at the corners and at the cen-ters of the longer sides of the court, and a large golden dome risesDERVISHES WHO WANDER FROM ONE SACRED CITY TO ANOTHER.above them. Only the Kaaba at Mecca has a greater number ofminarets.In the mosque, directly beneath the dome, are the tombs of thesaints enclosed in a huge lattice-frame ; the walls about it are gor-geously decorated with tiling, precious stones and metals. Thisdescription applies in a general way also to the shrines of Kerbelaand Nejef, each of which is provided with but two minarets.The number of pilgrims visiting the sacred cities of Irak haveincreased so rapidly in recent years that a daily stage employingabout twenty carriages, each accomodating eight passengers, runsfrom Bagdad to them. Kerbela lying about forty miles from Bagdad,in the desert to the west of the Euphrates, has a population approxi-THE SACRED CITIES OF EASTERN ARABIA. 453mating fifty thousand, and it is said that the city is increasing atthe rate of a thousand houses a year. It has far outgrown theancient walls which are now but little more than an enclosure forthe shrines. The city is famous in Moslem history, for there Hus-sein, the son of Ali, was killed in the year 680 A. D.—an event whichgave rise to the grewsome festival of the month of Moharrem, whenall devout Shiahs beat and cut themselves in grief assumed for theoccasion. To enter Kerbela is no longer difficult for the Christian,CLAY BLOCKS USED IN PRAYER.That the heads of the moslems may rest upon them instead ofupon the ordinary dirt, during their prostrations. The clay isfrom the soil of the sacred city of Kerbela, and in it is supposedto be the blood of the martyred saints Hassan and Hussein.and Jews have long lived there. From the roof of the inn in whichI was lodged, I could look down upon the sacred shrines, yet it wasunsafe to attempt to approach the entrance.The graves of Hussein and of his younger brother Abbas havebeen the life of Kerbela. Thither the Shiah pilgrims flock by thou-sands, carrying with them their dead to bury in the sacred soil.Some come upon horse-back, with their dead wrapped in bundles454 THE OPEN COURT.of reeds or in rugs which they sell to meet the expense of thejourney, or jammed into saddle bags; others arrive by stage, car-rying as baggage a mysterious basket in which are the bones of abody exhumed to be transplanted in the sacred soil ; still others crossthe desert on foot, carrying upon their shoulders the few remainingbones which have not dropped out of their wrappings on the wayto lighten the burden. To the pious Shiah the chief aim in life is tobe buried in one of the sacred cities, and while dying, the promisewhich he extracts from his relatives, is that his body shall be takenthere, that he may rise with the saints on the resurrection day. Thepromise is generally fulfilled, though perhaps years later.The soil of Kerbela is more sacred than of any other city, forit drank the blood of the martyred saints ; now the priests mouldlittle pieces of the clay-like soil, stamp them with a design or withverses from the Koran, and sell them to the pilgrims. Thus thepilgrims may carry away with them a bit of Kerbela, which theyplace upon the ground before them whenever they prostrate them-selves in prayer, and thus in their distant homes they may alwayspray on sacred soil.Though Hussein is a saint of the greatest importance, Abbasis feared more than he is revered, and the people of the town relatestrange tales of his actions. Frequently, so they say, he rises fromhis grave and walks about the streets of the city to punish the un-just. He never slumbers, and as each pilgrim enters the mosque,he reads his most secret thoughts. Once when a proud soldierapproached his grave with drawn sword, Saint xVbbas was angered,and with invisible hand, he seized the sword, and severed the soldier'shead from the body ; then in the twinkling of an eye he fixed thehead in space in the vault of the dome above ; there within plainsight of all the people, both it and the sword are suspended together,without support, as a warning to all who enter. Once when a GreekChristian attempted to enter the mosque, the saint in his grave per-ceived that an infidel was approaching, and the Greek fell dead uponthe threshold. Similar stories without number are circulated by thepriests for the purpose of magnifying the power and the popularityof the saint.From Kerbela, a stage drawn by four mules abreast carries thepilgrims southward over the stony plains for sixty miles to thedesert city of Nejef. Long before the journey of ten hours is overthere appear upon the horizon the two golden minarets and thetall dome of the tomb of Ali, the first Moslem martyr, glitteringin the sunlight, then the duller roofs of the houses and the towersTHE SACRED CITIES OF EASTERN ARABIA. 455of the old city walls, and finally a myriad of gilded domed tombswhich have been crowded into the desert outside the city, form apicture worthy of the days of the Arabian Nights. Nejef, with apopulation of about twenty thousand, is a city of fanatics, and theheadquarters of various sects of dervishes, and though a Turkishgarrison is now stationed there, the government has little controlover its over-religious subjects. During my visit to the city, I waslodged in the Turkish guardhouse, in a little chamber over the citygate, nor was I permitted to venture into the streets unless accom-panied by several armed soldiers.The city is still surrounded by its ancient crumbling walls, andthe streets are unusually narrow and filthy. The interior of theshrine, as far as I know, has never vet been seen by a Christian.TOMBS IN THE DESERT.Nejef in the distance to the right. In the center and to the leftare tombs outside the city.In architecture, the shrine resembles those of the other sacred cities,and as at Kerbela a square clock-tower with a chime of bells tostrike the hours, stands midway between the minarets and the tomb.The striking of the bells, though once forbidden by the Moslemsbecause employed by the Christians, to call them to worship, soundsout of place in the mosque yard, especially when it deadens thevoice of the muezzin in the minaret gallery singing the call toprayer.No shrine is more richly decorated than this supposed tomb ofAli. It is said that the gold covering its minarets and dome has thevalue of two and a quarter millions of dollars. Slabs of gold arelaid into the floor about the three graves ; a silver fence surrounds456 THE OPEN COURT.them, and the walls about are inlaid with precious stones. In thecentral and largest of the three graves within the enclosure formedby the silver fence, and directly beneath the center of the dome,lies Ali, who, so the Shiahs say, should have been the first successorof Mohammed. In the other two tombs Adam and Noah are saidto be buried.Nejef is particularly a city of the dead, for every nook andcorner has been used for burial purposes over and over again untilthe government has forbidden more bodies to be buried within thewalls. However, the faith in the sanctity of the soil of Nejef isstronger than the finnans of the Sultan, and the hundreds of bodieswhich arrive at the city daily, are smuggled through the breachesin the city wall, or are admitted by bribery through the gates, tofind a resting place near the shrine. The result is that the cellarsand court yards of the houses are filled with the dead ; the streetsare undermined ; holes are dug into the walls, and the decomposingbodies are stored away in dark rooms and upon the house tops toawait the great day and the resurrection of Ali. Beneath the mosqueis a deep pit into which the bones of those who have been buriedin the vicinity for twenty years or more, are thrown. For eachperson living in the city, there are probably a thousand dead, andthe living are waiting to die that they may be buried in the sacredsoil.Everything is expensive in Nejef. Bread is sold at double theBagdad price. House rent is made dear by the many wealthy In-dians who have come there to die on sacred soil, but to die is themost expensive thing of all. For permission to lie beneath the sandfar out of the city on the distant horizon, just within sight of thegolden tips of the minarets, where the jackals and hyenas are sureto devour the body before the first morning, the cost is never lessthan a Turkish lira ($4,40) ; the price of a grave nearer the sacredcenter depends upon the circumstances of the friends of the dead,and their ability to bargain. A wealthy Persian recently paid$44,000 for the privilege of being buried for twenty years in the base-ment of a mosque beneath the tomb of Ali ; at the end of that periodhis body was to be disinterred and thrown into the pit beneaththe shrine.The annual revenue of this small desert city, derived from thesale of graves alone, is said to amount to more than two milliondollars a year. In spite of the enormous income, the priests whoare always in attendance at the mosques to serve or to fleece thebearers of the dead, receive no salary, yet they grow wealthy andTHE SACRED CITIES OF EASTERN ARABIA. 457self-important upon the gifts which they extort from the pious faith-ful. When the treasury of the Turkish empire is empty, to replenishit, the sultan might but make an expedition to these sacred desertcities, for in their coffers are stored riches which have been accumu-lating for ages,—diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls without num-ber, gold coins of every age and country, silks and carpets of rarestdesign and workmanship. Nothing is too valuable for the ShiahMoslem to present to the shrine of AH, for thus he purchases aneternal home in Paradise, and smoothes the rough, thorny way overwhich he must travel to reach the crystal palace and the dark-eyedhouris of musk awaiting him there.

The Sacred Cities of Eastern Arabia (Illustrated).

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The Sacred Cities of Eastern Arabia (Illustrated).

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