16. Festivals and Observances
Festivals and Observances
Chapter VI
Daily Prayers By the Mohammedan law, the times of daily prayer are five; but from some obscurity in the precept, the number has been practically reduced to three, corresponding to the “three times a day,” or “the morning, noon, and night,” of Jewish devotion. The prayers, and the usages connected with them, are much the same as among other Muslims. Having performed the requisite ablutions, the worshipper goes through certain postures and prostrations, to each of which there is an appropriate prayer or declaration. The principal difference is in one of the postures—where the Sunni spreads forth his hands, but where the Shia folds his. The Sunni also places before him, as he kneels, a small pad or bag, containing a portion of the sacred soil of the Kaaba at Mecca, so that his forehead may rest thereon, when, in his prostrations, he brings it to the soil—giving the idea of worship upon holy ground. But for this the Shia is generally content to substitute a portion of the molding from the tombs of his martyrs, Hassan and Husayn, at Kerbelah. This practice has suggested to some an idea of the possible use to which Naaman, the Syrian, designed to apply “the two mules’ burden of earth,”[16] he desired to take with him to Damascus; namely, that he might worship the God of Israel upon a portion of the soil honored with His immediate presence. And this appears to us not unlikely, when we consider the ideas of the local presence of God, which were then usually entertained by the heathen, and which this man strongly indicated in his declaration—“Behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel,” 2 Kings 5:15-17.
Almsgiving
Almsgiving is very strongly enjoined upon all Mohammedans, who are taught to regard it as one of the principal means of working out their own salvation. And, as man is always eager to take upon himself the mighty task which needed the blood of God’s own Son, the precept is not badly fulfilled. The Muslims are very charitable; and, besides rendering to the poor the proportion of their increase which the law demands, they give and bequeath large sums upon charitable and pious foundations. It is not necessary to constitute the merit in almsgiving that the object should be directly religious, or that the recipients should be, in the Muslim sense, pious persons. The merit lies in the intention of the giver. There is not a moralist, a tale-teller, or a poet among the Persians, who does not extol lavish charity beyond all other virtues. One poet (Jamee) beautifully says, “Be ye like unto trees, laden with fruit, and planted by the roadside, which give shade and fruit to all, even to those who pelt them with stones;” which brings to mind the incomparable words of our Savior—“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:45. The ostentation which our Lord so severely reprimanded in the Pharisees of his day, is, however, more frequently than piety, the motive to the great acts of charity which the Orientals frequently perform. The good name which is accorded to munificent charities, is nowhere more highly valued than in Persia; and the people of that country think that their souls will, in the life to come, be materially benefited by the blessings of those who enjoy the advantage of their establishment. From a combination of such motives arises the important fact that most of the noble caravansaries in Persia, which afford to the traveler and his beast lodging and water without cost, as well as of the bridges, mosques, colleges, and baths, are of such charitable foundation.
Ramadan The ninth month of the year, called Ramadan, is a month of fasting to the Persians, as to other Muslims. This fasting does not, like that of the Romanists, consist in abstinence merely from one kind of food, but in abstinence from all food, from sunrise to sunset. As the months are lunar, the Ramadan runs through the different seasons, and falls in summer as well as in winter. It is then very hard upon the laboring classes, not only from the length of the day, but from the heat, as they cannot, like the rich, evade the real force of the obligation, by sitting up all the night, and sleeping the greater part of the day. Even the national luxury of smoking, is counted a breach of the fast; and this privation is, from the force of acquired habits above natural appetites, more sensibly felt by rich and poor than any other which the fast involves. It is with smoke that nearly all of them break their fast after this long abstinence. The pipes are filled and prepared, the fire is ready to be applied, and the moment after the sun has sunk below the horizon, a universal sigh of deep satisfaction arises throughout the land, as the first long draught of smoke is inhaled. From what has been said respecting the lax religious views of the Persians, it may be supposed that the fast is rather laxly observed. But it is not so. The eagerness with which men perversely seize all opportunities of presenting themselves before God in the filthy rags of their own righteousness, causes such institutions to be very strictly regarded, even by those who are careless of the high duties of judgment, mercy, and truth, and who, not the less, even during the Ramadan, “smite with the fist of wickedness,” Isaiah 58:4.
Kaaba Pilgrimage The only pilgrimage enjoined by the Mohammedan religion is to the Kaaba, or temple at Mecca, which is the central object of veneration to all the Muslim world. The Persians, however, are far from strict in the observance of precept. The great distance and many dangers of the journey, the fact that most of it lies through the country under the dominion of the Turks, whom they hate, and that the sacred place itself is in the hands of Sunnis, who regard them as heretics, and will not admit them to the sacred places without outward conformity to the prevailing system—altogether operate in preventing this duty from being discharged, except by a few persons of strong zeal, and whose means and health enable them to undertake the pilgrimage, without material damage to their families. Still, the great pilgrim caravan seldom leaves Damascus for Mecca, without a considerable number of Persians in it, distinguishable by their black lambskin caps and close-fitting dress. On their return, they usually pass through Hebron and Jerusalem, the former of which the Muslim holds sacred on account of his veneration for Abraham and the latter from the desire to visit the very sacred mosque built there by Omar, on the site of Solomon’s temple. Before reaching home, the pilgrim also, if possible, traverses the Arabian Iraq (Babylonia), and visits the sacred tombs of Ali and his son Husayn, at Kerbelah, near Baghdad. He who has performed his pilgrimage to Mecca, bears the honorable title of Hadjee, or “pilgrim,” for the rest of his life, a distinction highly esteemed by the Muslim world in general, though the Persians themselves have a saying, which implies that those who have this title are oftener the worst than the best of men.
Some perform this pilgrimage by deputy. There are to be found in Persia numbers of Arabs, who have already been to Mecca, or are ready to go there, and who are willing to transfer the distinction and advantage they derive from the pilgrimage to any one who will pay them well for it. In such cases, to prevent fraud, the employers require them to bring back or to produce the certificate granted to pilgrims by the sheriff of Mecca, the possession of which transfers to himself all the benefits of the particular pilgrimage to which it appertains.
Kufa Pilgrimage But the great body of the Persians satisfy their consciences with the personal performance of a less onerous pilgrimage than that to Mecca. The country of which Baghdad is the chief living, and Babylon the chief dead city, is the holy land of the sectaries of Ali. It was at Kufa, in this region, upon the Euphrates, some thirty miles south of the ruins of Babylon, that Ali established the seat of his government; it was in this region that he lost his life by the hand of an assassin; and it was here that the great struggle between the contending factions continued to rage long after his death. Here many illustrious members of Ali’s house fell victims to the dire contention; and this is the soil which drank their blood, and which covers their remains. Hence this locality is regarded by the Persians with a veneration almost equal to that with which the sacred soil of Mecca is contemplated. Hither they come on pilgrimages from all parts, to the tombs of their martyrs; and such as can afford to do so, bring with them their coffined dead, to lay them in the earth which covers the bones of those whose memory they cherish with such deep and superstitious veneration. The places of resort to the pilgrims in this region are four. The principal and most frequented is Kerbelah, or Meshid Husayn, where it is presumed that Husayn, the second son of Ali, is buried. This is a few miles to the northwest of the ruins of Babylon. About thirty miles south of this, and a few miles west of Kufa, is Nejiff or Meshid Ali, which is affirmed to be the resting-place of the caliph from whom the sect derives its name. Next is Kathem, distant about three miles from Baghdad, where is the mausoleum of the seventh imam, Mousa-el-Kathem, or the Patient, who was put to death by one of the caliphs, on suspicion of being engaged in a conspiracy against his throne. A splendid mosque has been raised at this spot, and others, hardly less magnificent, at Kerbelah and Meshid Ali. The fourth place in this quarter which the pilgrims visit is a cavern, not far from Baghdad, where the twelfth imam is believed, as before related (page 91), to have mysteriously disappeared. The mosques at Kerbelah, Meshid Ali, and Kathem, have been enriched to a wonderful degree by the gifts of pilgrims, and by costly presents from Persia and India. That at Kerbelah was, however, stripped of all its treasures, in 1801, by the Wahabees; while that of Meshid Ali was emptied of all its riches by the pasha of Baghdad, ostensibly to save it from the same fate; but this mattered little to the Shias, as the pasha neglected to return the treasures when the danger had passed away—so that all the difference lay in being plundered by the pasha instead of by the Arabs. The zeal of the worshippers is, however, likely ere long to repair these losses, and to restore the mosques to their original splendor. Mr. Southgate mentions, that while he was at Baghdad in 1839, the offering of an Indian prince for the shrine at Kerbelah arrived at that city. It was a kind of pavilion, intended to cover the tomb of Husayn. It consisted of a canopy of cloth, richly adorned with emeralds, and sustained by four pillars of solid gold, set with diamonds, and between which hung festoons of the finest pearls. Its value was estimated at £21,500.[17] [17] The U.S. dollar value of this would be around $3,000,000. That this sacred territory is in the possession of the Turks is a matter of much grief and annoyance to the Persians. But, notwithstanding the oppressions and insults to which they are subject, the numbers are vast which perform this pilgrimage year by year—and the traveler who passes to or from Baghdad by way of Kermanshah and Hamadan, is sure to encounter at all seasons, except the depth of winter, large parties of pilgrims. There is usually a great proportion of women and children—for it is not necessary that the pilgrimage should be a voluntary act, and one who has been taken to the shrine in his infancy enjoys, ever after, all the honors of a pilgrim. “We have sometimes tarried with such parties in the same caravansary, and have been startled at the great number of corpses, in rude oblong packing-cases, which were on such occasions seen strewed about the open yard, the odor from which was often overpowering to the unpracticed organs of Europeans, though it seemed to be altogether unheeded by the pilgrims, who upon the road also appeared to see and feel the coffins knocking about among them with perfect unconcern. The coffins are carried, two balancing each other upon the opposite sides of a horse or mule. The bodies are being taken to Kerbelah for interment in ground reputed holy—another of the miserable shifts, in seeking increase of safety in the world to come for those they love, to which those are driven who have not the happiness of knowing that comfortable rest, in the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, which those enjoy to whom the riches and fullness of his grace have been revealed.
Feast of Bayram The Persians, like other Muslims, observe the feast of Bayram, for six days after the fast of Ramadan. This is the great religious festival of the Mohammedans, and is celebrated with the more ardor, from its coming immediately after so long and trying a fast. Every Muslim nation adopts its own mode of testifying joy. But there is one common observance among all such as can afford it, of appearing in new clothes upon the first day of the feast. Mr. Morier thus describes the festivities, as he witnessed them at Bushire, on the Persian Gulf: “The Ramadan was now over. The moon which marks its termination was seen on the preceding evening just at sunset, when the ships at anchor fired their guns on the occasion; and on the morning of our visit the Bayram was announced by the discharge of cannon. A large concourse of people, headed by the Peish-namuz, went down to the seaside to pray; and when they had finished their prayers, more cannon were discharged. Just before we passed through the gates of the town, in returning from our visit, we rode through a crowd of men, women, and children, all in their best clothes, who, by merry-making of every kind, were celebrating the feast. Among their sports I discovered something like the roundabout of an English fair, except that it appeared of much ruder construction. It consisted of two rope seats, suspended in the form of a pair of scales, from a large stake fixed in the ground. In these were crowded full-grown men, who, like boys, enjoyed the continual twirl, in which the conductor of the sport, a poor Arab, was laboring with all his strength to keep the machine.”
Eyd e Qorban Festival The Eyd-e-Qorban, or festival of the sacrifice, is another celebration in honor of Abraham, who, out of the fullness of his obedience to the Almighty, would have offered in sacrifice his son Ishmael, whom the Arabs regard as their progenitor, and to whom the Koran transfers many of the circumstances which really belong to the history of Isaac.
“The day before the feast,” says the pious anonymous writer of an unpublished—though printed—Tour in Persia, “about four hundred camels are collected from the neighboring country; and the first that rises after resting is chosen as the victim, shot, and then speared. Mohammed Ali Khan was giving me this description before Seid Ali (Henry Martyn’s coadjutor in translating the New Testament), who rejoined to the latter sentence, expressive of putting the animal to death, ‘That is like your Great Sacrifice.’” “It is,” adds this writer, “a common practice with the people in Persia, to lead a sheep or goat round their bed, cut its throat, and give the meat to the poor. They think one life saves another. This is no doubt a remnant of some of the Jewish customs, of which traces are still to be seen in this country.” We now proceed to describe some striking annual celebrations which are peculiar to the Persians and the sectaries of Ali.
Honors to Ali and Husayn A solemn festival in honor of Ali is held on the 21st of the fast month, Ramadan. For this purpose a covered gallery is erected somewhere outside the town, where the chief men of the place take their station. In front of this gallery is a kind of pulpit, eight feet high, covered with cloth. Here the person appointed to pronounce the eulogium upon Ali reads for an hour or more from a book, called the Moctel Nameh, or Book of the Murder, containing a history of the death of Ali, chanting without intermission, in a loud and doleful voice. There are certain passages of which he pronounces only the first word, leaving the congregation to finish. At the end of each passage they repeat this imprecation—“May the curse of God be upon the murderer of Ali!” and all the people respond, “Rather more than less!” After the sermon, the people return in procession to the town, three camels bearing representations of the tombs of Ali and his two sons, Hassan and Husayn. These are followed by three chests, covered with blue cloth, containing the spiritual treatises which they are said to have written; horses carrying bows, turbans, and flags; and men bearing on their heads little boxes, covered with feathers and flowers, containing the Koran. The procession is closed by musicians and young men, performing a variety of dances—for the religious dances, even on sober occasions, to which there are some allusions in Scripture, are not yet extinct in the east.
More striking still are the solemnities of the first days of the month Muharram, which are devoted to a solemn mourning in memory of the death of Husayn, the son of Ali. During this period the Persians appear as mourners, put on all the outward appearances of grief, abstain from shaving their heads, from bathing, and even from changing their clothes. On the eve of the first of Muharram the mosques are hung with black. The next day, the pulpits are dressed in the same manner, the Akhond and Peish-namuz(inferior ministers of religion) ascend them, and narrate the particulars of the murder of Husayn, with all the inflexions of voice that are calculated to render them more pathetic. The congregation are soon worked up to a high pitch of emotion, waving their bodies to and fro, and smiting their breasts, ejaculating, “O Husayn!” “Alas, Husayn!” Parts of the history thus recited are in verse, and are chanted to a most doleful tune. Various episodes of the history are daily represented by itinerant minstrels (just as the circumstances of our Lord’s passion are represented in Roman Catholic countries), and banners, to which are fastened pictures relating to it, are carried about the streets, followed by crowds of men and boys, some representing the soldiers of Husayn, and some his enemies. The two parties sometimes come to blows, and these sham fights not seldom terminate in the death or serious injury of some of the combatants. It is difficult to find persons willing to personate the enemies of Husayn; and prisoners of war, slaves, and criminals, are therefore often compelled to take this part. The solemnities of this occasion in fact compose a kind of drama of two acts, occupying as many days, and representing the successive scenes of the catastrophe, commencing with the flight of Husayn from Medina, and terminating with his death on the plains of Kerbelah; and each daily representation is preceded by the reading, in the manner described, of a portion of the history, with an appropriate sermon or exhortation. The last part, which is reserved for the tenth day, called the Rooz Katl (the day of murder), or Rooz Husayn, comprises the events of the day on which he met his death, and is acted with great pomp before the king in the great square of the city. The enthusiasm with which the Persians dwell upon the character of Husayn, and every incident of the closing scenes of his life, is undiminished by lapse of time. Their strongest religious and national feelings are on this occasion brought into play. They execrate Yazid the usurper, and even Omar (whom other Muslims venerate), that it is necessary, as Mr. Morier has remarked, to have witnessed the scenes that are exhibited in their cities to judge of the degree of fanaticism which at this time possesses them.
“I have seen,” says this traveler, “some of the most violent of them, as they vociferated ‘Ya Husayn!’ walk about the streets almost naked, with only their loins covered, and their bodies streaming with blood from the cuts which they have voluntarily given to themselves, either of acts of love, anguish, or mortification,” such as, he rightly thinks, must have been the cuttings which were forbidden to the Israelites by Moses, Leviticus 19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1. And their extravagancies probably bear much resemblance to the practices of the priests of Baal, who “cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them,” 1 Kings 18:28. It even appears from Jeremiah 16:6-7, that these practices were retained as testimonials of grief by the Israelites, though forbidden by the law of Moses.
Some further idea of the manner in which this highly imaginative people are acted upon on such occasions, may be formed from the description which Mr. Morier gives of what he witnessed during the eighth night of the Moharram, in presence of the highest people of the land. “On entering the room, we found a large assembly of Persians, clad in dark-colored clothes, which, accompanied with their black caps, black beards, and their dismal faces, looked really as if they were ‘afflicting their souls.’ We observed that ‘no man did put on him his ornaments,’ Exodus 33:4. They wore neither their daggers nor any other part of their dress which they regard as ornamental. A mullah of high consideration sat next to the grand vizier, and kept him in serious conversation, while the remaining part of the company communicated with each other in whispers. After we had been seated some time, the windows of the room in which we were seated were thrown open, and we then discovered a priest, placed on a high chair, under the covering of a tent, surrounded by a crowd of the populace, the whole place being lighted up with candles. He commenced with an exordium, in which he reminded them of the great value of each tear shed for the sake of the Imam Husayn, which would be an atonement for a past life of wickedness; and also informed them, with much solemnity, that ‘whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among the people,’ Leviticus 23:29. He then began to read from a book, with a sort of nasal chant, that part of the tragic history of Husayn appointed for the day, which soon produced its effect upon his audience, for he had scarcely turned over three leaves, before the grand vizier began shaking his head to and fro, and to utter in a most piteous voice, the usual Persian exclamation of grief, ‘Wahi!wahi!wahi!’ both of which acts were followed, in a more or less violent manner, by the rest of the audience.
“The chanting of the priest lasted nearly an hour, and some parts of the story were indeed pathetic, and well calculated to rouse the feelings of a superstitious and lively people. In one part of it all the people stood up; and I observed that the grand vizier turned himself towards the wall, with his hand extended before him, and prayed. After the priest had finished, a company of actors appeared, some dressed as women, who chanted forth their parts from slips of paper, in a sort of recitative, that was not unpleasing even to our ears. In the very tragic parts most of the audience appeared to weep very unaffectedly; and as I sat near the grand vizier and his neighbor the priest, I was witness to many real tears that fell from them. In some of these mournful assemblies, it is the custom for a priest to go about to each person, in the height of his grief, with a piece of cotton, in his hand, with which he carefully collects the falling tears, and then squeezes it into a bottle, preserving them with the greatest caution. This practice illustrates that passage in Psalms 56:8, ‘Put thou my tears into thy bottle.’ Some Persians believe that in the agony of death, when all medicines have failed, a drop of the tears so collected, put into the mouth of a dying man, has been known to revive him. It is for this use they are collected.”
There is much matter for thought in this account. But to our mind there is one consideration that absorbs all others. Is not the deep emotion of these people in the sufferings and death of Husayn, a strong reproof to us for the comparative indifference with which we contemplate and speak of the sufferings and death of our Divine Lord? What is Husayn to them?—a man who was smitten down in the course of worldly adventure, as others have been smitten, and who strove all he could to avert and resist the doom which fell upon him; and whose death brought no gain, no ransom, no hope to any. And what is our Redeemer?—who freely laid aside a glory greater than that which kings and conquerors have died to win; who, from pure love to a fallen race, became “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;” and who, for our good, in delivering us from the wrath to come, endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, shrank not from shame and spitting, and bowed his head in death upon the cross. Here is a theme most worthy of our liveliest emotions—our sorrow, our sympathy, our gratitude; and yet how little do we habitually feel our obligations! Shall not the men of Persia, who mourn so intensely for Husayn, rise against us in the day of judgment, and condemn us—for lo, a greater than Husayn is here—has lived, has died for us, and we set not our hearts upon him? How would these poor benighted Shias feel, if they knew of Christ all we know of him! God, of his great mercy, grant that they may know Him soon; and that they may centre on him all those keen susceptibilities which now run to waste and evil among them!
Among the incidents of the Moharram celebration, is the representation of the marriage of the young Kassem, the son of Hassan, with the daughter of his uncle Husayn. A young man acts the part of the bride, attired in a rich wedding-dress, and accompanied by her relatives, who sing a mournful elegy upon the death of the bridegroom, who was slain before the marriage was fully completed. At parting from his bride to go to the fight, Kassem takes a most affecting farewell of her; and with a presentiment of his fate, he gives her, in token of his love, a mourning robe which she puts on. At this moment, the people, transported with rage, rush upon the effigy representing the caliph Yazid, the destroyer of Ali’s family, and tear it in pieces. An incident which procures much good feeling towards the English at the feast of Moharram, is the represented intercession of a European ambassador with Yazid in behalf of Husayn. This ambassador they suppose to have been English! merely because the English are the Europeans from distant parts (the Russians being their neighbors) with whom they are best acquainted; but if the incident really occurred, the ambassador was probably from the Greek emperor. The man representing him invests himself as nearly as he can with the costume in which Englishmen appear at the present day in Persia—including that singular badge of European civilization, the hat; and he counts himself perfect in his part if he can pick up a few English or even French words, of any or no meaning, for the occasion. A missionary relates that he was once applied to by a young man who usually performed this part, and who had thought himself highly accomplished for it by the possession of a few words which an Englishman had taught him, and which he had been in the habit of pronouncing with a force and emphasis which his hearers much admired. But he had discovered lately that these words were mere unmeaning slang, and desired something better and more appropriate. To meet this want he was taught to pronounce the Lord’s Prayer in English—the propriety of which may be very much questioned, considering the purpose for which it was to be used, and the person to whom it was to be addressed. “We should not be surprised to learn that eventually, as taught by this man to others, the Lord’s Prayer in something like English, becomes the usual address of the mock ambassador on this great occasion. The Persians have also a very peculiar festival, of a vindictive nature, in commemoration of the death of the caliph Omar—being, as far as we know, the only anniversary of the world held in dishonor of the dead. A large platform is erected, on which is fixed an image, as much as possible disfigured and deformed, intended to represent the caliph. Addressing themselves to this image, the assembled people shower all manner of reviling upon it for having supplanted Ali, the lawful successor of the prophet. At length, having exhausted their powers of abuse, they attack the image with sticks and stones, till they have shattered it into pieces. The inside is hollow, and full of sweetmeats, which thus become dispersed, and are greedily devoured by the assembled mob.
Friday Sabbath
Friday, as is well known, is the Sabbath-day of the Muslim world. The reason which induced Mohammed to fix upon this day is not distinctly stated in the Koran. The most probable explanation is, that he borrowed the idea of a Sabbath, as he did of many other of his institutions, from the Jews and Christians, and fixed on Friday, that the day might distinguish his followers from them, and that the appearance of imitation might be avoided. The reason is, however, of little importance. The pretended apostle did actually give to that day by positive injunction, the same degree of religious observance which the Christians of that time, as known to him, were wont to practice upon the Lord’s-day. “O true believers,” he says, “when ye are called to prayer on the day of the assembly, hasten to the commemoration of God, and leave merchandizing. This will be better for you, if ye knew it. And when prayer is ended, then disperse yourselves through the land as ye list, and seek gain of the liberality of God.” In conformity with this injunction, the day is not regarded as one in which entire abstinence from work and ordinary business is required. It is commonly made a day of repose and of recreation. It is, however, by Muslims generally regarded as obligatory to listen to the call to prayer as Mohammed commanded, and to be present in the mosque at the noontide service. There is, therefore, no occasion—except at the great feasts and the fast—on which the mosques (though open and frequented every day) are generally so well attended as on Friday noon. The day itself is called by a name signifying the day of assembly. There is nothing peculiar in the devotions of the day, except that, in the great mosques, the Khouteb is repeated in conjunction with the usual prayers at noon. This consists of ascriptions of praise to the Almighty, and in supplications for Mohammed, the first four caliphs (but in Persia for Ali and his house), the reigning family, and the nation. A discourse in the high mosques usually follows, which in Persia is frequently tainted with the strong philosophical and poetical mysticism of the Sooffees, but in general dwells on points of moral and ceremonial duty. The observances of the day are in fact founded chiefly upon, not only the injunctions but the known practice of Mohammed, who was wont to conduct the public prayers on that occasion, and afterwards to address the people. The same custom was observed by the caliphs, and has descended to the present day: the duty now devolves upon the sultan of Turkey, in the regard of that great majority of the Muslim world who recognize in him the lawful successor of Mohammed in the caliphate. He does it, however, only by proxy, by vicars acting under the authority of his seal, though it is the custom for the sultan himself to be present, and it very rarely happens that he does not repair in state to the mosque on Friday at noon. The obligation is not, however, regarded in the same light by the Persians as by the Turks. The rightful successor of their “prophet,” having according to their belief disappeared, they have no caliph to direct the worship of Friday, and do not, therefore, regard themselves as bound to be present in the mosques on that day. They have, indeed, an Imam-i-Jumah, or Imam of the Assembly, who performs the service of Friday noon, but they consider his office as provisory merely, till the true Imam shall appear. Still, out of respect to the day, and the ancient usage of their religion, their attendance at the noon prayers of Friday is more full than on any other day of the week.
Something of this difference of view as to the service of the mosque may help to account for a remarkable difference in the practice as regards the admission of strangers to the mosques themselves. It has been seen that the Persians generally regard unbelievers of Islam so unclean that their contact pollutes that which they touch, and carry this notion to an extent unknown to the Turks. Yet the Turks will not admit Christians to their mosques; and the presence of one within their precincts (without a special order from the sultan), would certainly lead to a popular commotion, and very probably to his death. In fact, their feeling on this matter is analogous to that of the Jews with respect to their temple, into the sacred courts of which no Gentile might enter on pain of death. The reader will remember the commotion raised against Paul in the temple, under the notion that he had “brought Greeks into the temple,” and so “polluted the holy place,” Acts 21:28-29. It is very different with the Persians, who admit Europeans (but not native Christians) into their mosques without scruple—except perhaps a few to which a peculiar sanctity is ascribed on account of the tomb of some great saint or imam being enclosed within its walls. But it is rather as shrines than as mosques that they are accounted so sacred, and that access to them is difficult. We have known that in villages which afforded no other accommodation for travelers, the humble barn-like mosque has been devoted to the reception of parties of Europeans; and it has even happened that while under this arrangement we have been refreshing or reposing ourselves within the mosque, the villagers have assembled for morning and evening worship upon its flat roof. The mosques themselves of this country differ very materially from those of Turkey. The manner in which a Turkish town is aggrandized in the external view by the beautiful round towers, or minars, which shoot up in all directions, is almost entirely wanting in Persian cities, which, unless built on the side of a hill, exhibit a dull and level uniformity, broken only by the trees which rise with the city, unless by a dome here and there, rising to some extent above the dead uniformity, and unless a close inspection enables the eye to trace the long line of low domes which mark the situation of the covered bazaar. The Turks, as a people, may claim little merit in this elegant distinction of their cities, as they seem merely to have imitated and perpetuated the form of the Christian churches which the found in the fair lands which the providence of God has for a season subjected to their rule. All their principal mosques are on the model of that of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, and many of the old ones in Asia Minor, which are of the same form as those now built, bear manifest signs of having been once Christian churches. Thus in the Turkish mosque we may consider that we have the form of the churches which arose in the lands which first received the gospel of Christ; and that in fact the tidings of salvation to a ruined world, through a crucified Redeemer, were once set forth in many of the buildings which now witness the prostrations of a Christ-refusing people. In some of the principal cities, the domes of the principal mosques and mausoleums are of sufficient size to attract attention in a general view; but the effect is as nothing compared with the Turkish minars, of which there are often more than one to a single mosque, rising from a square base in one white cylindrical shaft into the sky, and the uniformity of their surface broken only by the small galleries from which the criers send forth the call to prayer. Of this appendage the Persian mosques are almost entirely destitute, in the shape described; but in some cases in great cities, round towers rise to no great height from the roof of the mosque, and are formed of bricks, the outer surfaces of which are glazed in variegated colors. They are designed only for ornamental effect, and are never applied to the same purpose as in Turkey, having indeed no galleries for the purpose, and the call to prayers being given from the roof. In other respects the Persian mosques are, in their exterior, altogether unlike those of Turkey. Instead of being the most conspicuous objects in a city, the traveler may often pass them without observing them, or hear the call to prayer close by without being able to discover the place from which it proceeds. The mosques sometimes open immediately upon the streets, and present the same low, bare, mud wall with the other buildings. The interior in these cases is corresponding; a low though spacious apartment, with a level ceiling, supported on plain pillars, and the whole without ornament or pretensions of any kind. The interior of a Turkish mosque, though generally plain enough according to European notions, is rich compared with those of Persia. There is no pulpit or furniture of any kind, excepting a straw mat, and a small seat for the preacher. There are no decorations, often not an inscription on the walls, a stone on which simply indicates the direction towards which the worshipper must turn in prayer.