MECCA. 215 



be explained by the various disasters to which it 

 has been exposed. During the fire that occurred 

 in the time of Yezzid I. (A. D. 682),, the violent 

 heat split it into three pieces ; and when the frag- 

 ments were replaced, it was necessary to surround 

 them with a rim of silver, which is said to have 

 been renewed by Haroun al Raschid. It was in 

 two pieces when the Karmathians carried it away, 

 having been broken by a blow from a soldier during 

 the plunder of Mecca. Hakem, a mad sultan of 

 Egypt, in the llth century, endeavoured, while on 

 the pilgrimage, to destroy it with an iron club which 

 he had concealed under his clothes; but was prevent- 

 ed and slain by the populace. Since that accident it 

 remained unmolested until 1674, when it was found 

 one morning besmeared with dirt, so that every one 

 who kissed it returned with a sullied face. Though 

 suspicion fell on certain Persians, the authors of 

 this sacrilegious joke were never discovered. As 

 for the quality of the stone, it does not seem to 

 be accurately determined. Burckhardt says it ap- 

 peared to him like a lava, containing several small 

 extraneous particles of a whitish and a yellowish 

 substance. Ali Bey calls it a fragment of volcanic 

 basalt, sprinkled with small-pointed coloured crys- 

 tals, and varied with red feldspar upon a dark black 

 ground like coal, except one of its protuberances, which 

 is a little reddish. The millions of kisses and touches 

 impressed by the Faithful have worn the surface 

 uneven, and to a considerable depth. This mira- 

 culous block all orthodox Mussulmans believe to 

 have been originally a transparent hyacinth, brought 

 from heaven to Abraham by the angel Gabriel ; but 

 its substance, as well as its colour, have long been 



