Each was regarded by some as a mystery full of divine meaning.
It is divided into thirty parts; and as each mosque has thirty
readers, it is read through once a day. These readers chant it in long
lines with rhythmical ending, and in the absence of definite vowels
they alone know the right pronunciation of the Koran.--Sale's
_Preliminary Dissertation_, p. 56.]
[Footnote 32: This is the _kaaba_ or _kebla_, a sacred stone in the
center of the temple at Mecca, over which is a lofty building, from
which the name is by some said to be derived--Caaba, high. Mr.
Ferguson, in his account of "The Holy Sepulcher," thus describes it:
"The precept of the Koran is, that all men, when they pray, shall turn
toward the _kaaba_, or holy house, at Mecca; and consequently
throughout the Moslem world, indicators have been put up to enable the
Faithful to fulfill this condition. In India they face west, in
Barbary east, in Syria south. It is true that when rich men, or kings,
built mosques, they frequently covered the face of this wall with
arcades, to shelter the worshiper from the sun or rain. They inclosed
it in a court that his meditations might not be disturbed by the
noises of the outside world. They provided it with fountains, that he
might perform the required ablutions before prayer. But still the
essential part of the mosques is the _mihrab_ or niche, which points
toward Mecca, and toward which, when he bows, the worshiper knows that
the _kaaba_ also is before him.
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