Show CJ t did A k t 0 in not I 1 back uffer be me in anpo n ca r ne ln d re I 1 rny alea lin ALU hopi I 1 sul yott K ter con of w pr ate ar street scene in hedjazi P ibby y the Nut national ional geographic so 60 caty washington D C arl ng a way away tile the caliphate from kyj gives aves something of a shock to er 1 11 conceptions of tho the near E east ast ng ings 1 amme for nil all recent at ris ns have grown to think of the emilit ruler and tile mohammedan as inseparable but if wo we look ei ll 11 agh it into the past we find that hate has haa been cuffed about cost ost of the important rulers of arar nedan world in one way most appropriate that the t 0 I 1 lie he Ile hedjazi dJaz who has now been ed caliph by one section of the I 1 1 world V 0 r id should have this honor b C capital pital and residence la is mecca estion ed holy city and point of ge e for the whole mohammedan Mohammed nn rom roin natal to china and from froin to 0 sofia aby conspires with religion to edjar remote before the war on had been less lesa accurately and contat contained nod more undray aas reas than arabia this secle central arabia arises from t the he ert crt area far west I 1 or Is a hermitage for other ren rea here the mountain masses of granite and lava surfaces esembio it a newly plowed field y y rocks forestall travel and rold orald habitation ugh physically it Is C d 1 unattractive and numerically count less than souls religious point of view it Is important because it contains the st it venerated shrines of islam the he birthplace of If mahomet and a where the prophet prop liet Is burled it more ancient place of sepulcher less revered Is at jindall seaport though some sixty way where eves tomb Is ex to the credulous possession losses slon of these holy places ike ie hedjazi a position in the world where the of frequently did not hesitate to ge e the claim of the sultan at Q to be the commander Falth faithful ful and during the turin an war of repeated futile efforts were made by agents to induce the rise against the pre 61 1 mie tho allies succeeded where tho the ak failed arton irton told about mecca edjar though best known by ton on of 0 all arabia Is still far r en to the knowledge Isnow ledge of traveler r lent elit mecca its largest and a py ly city has always been held bidden ground for tile the foreign iid id as late as aa gibbons time it atly dismissed by that eminent fia n with the assertion that our of mecca must be drawn fro from in h lans blans as no unbeliever llover Is 0 enter the ity city our travelers 11 nt t 1 abon was in error marthelma Var thelma griese icse explorer was there as I 1 the sixteenth century and so 0 3 were his observations that 1 II 11 I serve for as do f pausanias Paus anlas for excavators excava tors tn in some goine two hundred years later itts tin an en english ft lad from exe er pressed by the barbary corsairs Cor errati en to the holy city whence he be ISM to write yelte a quaint record or of his ices but it remained for sir t bertou Bur tou that E english embody all the talents in the middle an lat M century to id set down for ma headers reno ers the whole story of the brines of arabia lk scholars have identified the people of tho the Ile hedjazi djaz with the 0 ites itea of the Scrip scripture and all that at whatever v er thel their descent tood Is pure pore their rel religion loon has as not passed so cleanly tt the he centuries though nt at me dina the Is held much moro more primitively anil and fanatically than ot at mecca where generations trained in procuring their livelihood from the pious pilgrims lime have lad had a corrupting influence As all roads led to great and splendid homo two millenniums ago now they lend lead to tho the rather tawdry capital of the set down in it bare dusty desert dinnien valley of western arabia more than people cherish the hope and indeed feel it to be their solemn religious duty to travel at least once the lusty dusty road to tile tho holy center of their falth probably of them mako make the trip annually about one halt half nt at one time during tile the period of tho hadj or great pilgrimage in tho the last month of t tho lie mohammedan year the moslem year changes in reference to our own because it Is a lunar year but just now the lie pilgrimage falls falla in our summer season though pilgrims on tile the flada descend upon mecca from every quarter 0 of f the globe they converge into some half dozen large caravans along as many routes for centuries the two principal groups have been those from damascus and cairo pilgrims now use railway one modern touch in the mecca pit grimage recently has been the use of the relatively new hedjazi railway southward from damascus passing east of the dead sea and paralleling the red sea to medina imagine the crusades conducted on tourist trains at special convention rates and you sense some something thag of the incongruity which attaches to the moslem throngs who make the steel rall rail pilgrimage to mecca at medina the falth faithful ful leave the modern coaches to proceed along the pilgrim trall trail to mecca all passengers other than molina medais must leave tile the railway trains tit at el EI maan and non moslems who enter hedjazi by steamer approach no nearer mecca than the holy altys port liddah the city of medina where the bones of the prophet are believed to repose also Is forbidden though visitors are not excluded from its environs nor Is it so jealously guarded as mecca the D damascus a al med medina ina rall railway way built to facilitate a religious tous ceremony but also as a strategic aid in maintaining the turkish empire enabled fehsal to throw off the turkish yoke along the red sea turning over the sovereignty thereto there to his fl fat ather lier the present ruler while lie he entered damascus ahead of allenby and now sits on we the throne of iraq the thousands of pilgrims who reach mecca over the several routes to take part in the annual hadj observances servi ser vances inces go through with ceremonies that seem rattler rather trifling to westerners before reaching mecca they prepare for what might very literally be balled alie tile exercises by bathing re pent bent edly and donning the ceremonial garb two pieces of seamless cloth wrapped about them in a prescribed way on reaching the holy city they go to the black draped baaba kiss the black stone set in its wall and then circle the structure seven times three times running and four times walking they must next run up and down nearby sacred hills on another day the pilgrims take a half days journey to mt bit arafat where the most important feature of the ceremonies Is observed they must stand on the little hill throughout tile the afternoon and repeat prayers and texts the tha following day they return toward mecca but stop nt at tile the village of allan to bac sacrifice a sheep goat or camel A very important t part of the observances at mina alna Is jhb alie casting of seven stones at each of several carns |