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CHAP. XXIII.] COURT OF THE BElT ULLAH.
605
that it supplies a large portion of the consumption of the city. 1
Serving as an upper chamber to this structure is the Makam- Places of
es-Shafey, 8 and opposite to the remaining three sides of the prayer '
ka'bah are the makams of the other orthodox sects, viz., the
Hanefy, the Hanbaly, and Maleky. 3 Opposite the centre of
the ka bah, on the north side is the elegantly-formed mambar,
which is of pure white marble with sculptured ornaments,
and is surmounted by a gilt polygonal steeple resembling an
obelisk.
Except by its great extent the rest of the structure differs
but little from a first-rate mosque: the court is a parallelo
gram 250 paces long, by 200 paces broad, with 19 entrances
and seven minarehs within the enclosure.
The eastern side has four rows of pillars, and the others interior of the
only three ; each pillar is rather more than 20 feet high, and court '
from 18 to 23 inches diameter; but they are very irregular,
some being of white marble, others of granite or porphyry,
and the rest of common Mekkah stone. Every four of these
support a small dome, of which there are 154, all plastered
and whitewashed outside. Lamps are suspended from the
domes as well as in wreaths between the columns; some of
them are lighted every night, and the whole during the
ramadan. The floors of the colonnades are coarsely paved,
and seven causeways, nine inches above the ground, lead from
thence to the ka'bah, which, by some strange oversight, is not
quite in the centre of the Mesjid-el-Harim; and the whole
enclosure is several feet below the level of the surrounding
streets.
During the service the Imam takes his post near the gate Devotion and
of the ka'bah, and his genuflexions being imitated simul- profanatlori '
taneously by 7000 or 8000 persons from various parts of the
world, the effect is so striking, especially when the lamps are
lighted, that it cannot fail to impress the most indifferent with
some kind of awe. At other times boys play in the great
square, and porters cross with luggage when it is their nearest
route; but what is infinitely worse, the enclosure is often the
1 Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. I., pp. 258, 262.
2 Ibid., p. 259. 8 Ibid., p. 258.