234 THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 



The historian of Medina, Samhoudi, says, that the 

 coffin which contains the dust of Mohammed is 

 cased with silver and overlaid with a marble slab, 

 inscribed, Bismillai Allahumd Salli alei (In the name 

 of God bestow thy mercy upon him). Glass lamps 

 are suspended all round the curtain, which are kept 

 burning every night : the floor of this part of the 

 mosque is paved with various-coloured marbles in 

 Mosaic. The whole of this enclosure is surmounted 

 by a fine lofty cupola, rising far above the domes on 

 the roof of the colonnades, and visible at a great dis- 

 tance from the town ; it is covered with lead, and 

 has on the top a globe of considerable size and a 

 crescent, both glittering with gold. 



In the immediate neighbourhood are the tombs of 

 Fatima and other Mohammedan saints. Tradition 

 even alleges, that, when the last trumpet shall sound, 

 the Saviour of the Christians, after having announced 

 the great day of judgment, will die, and be buried by 

 the side of tlie Arabian apostle ; and that, when the 

 dead are raised from their graves, they shall both 

 ascend to heaven together. These and other fables 

 have been invented merely to confer an ideal im- 

 portance on the city and tomb of the Prophet. The 

 same may be said of the exaggerated accounts of its 

 wonders and riches, which have been long propa- 

 gated among strangers. It was in this sanctuary, 



two powerful magnets, was a ridiculous invention of the Greeks 

 and Latins, and is unknown in Arabia. The Moslem of the 

 present day smile at the credulity of foreigners who talk of these 

 marvels. The fable may easily be explained without the aid of 

 philosophy, and seems to have originated, as Niebuhr supposes, 

 from the rude drawing sold to strangers, in which ^^ 



the figures of three golden coffins were represented, ^^ 



not as lying horizontally, but placed one above the BB 

 other, to mark their position within the railing in the _|_ 

 annexed order. Chalcondyles (De Ken. Turc, lib. ^^ 

 iii. p. 66) ; Bayle (Diet. Art. Mahomet) ; Reland (De ReUg. Mah. 

 lib. ii. c. 19) ; Gagnier (Vie, lib. vi. c. 20) ; and Pococke (Sped 

 men, p. 180), will satisfy the curious student of the iron tomb. 



