The ʿUmra al-akamiyya

During the lesser pilgrimage in the month of Rajab, the traditional invocation "labbayka", meaning "Here I am to You" is shouted by the pilgrims.

وأهل مكة يحتفلون لعمرة رجب الاحتفال الذي لا يُعْهَد مِثْلُه، وهي متصلة ليلًا ونهارًا وأوقات الشهر كلها معمورة بالعبادة وخصوصًا أول يوم منه ويوم خمسة عشر والسابع والعشرين، فإنهم يستعدون لها قبل ذلك بأيام، شاهدتهم في ليلة السابع والعشرين منه وشوارع مكة قد غصت بالهوادج عليها كساء الحرير والكتان الرفيع كل أحد يفعل بقدر استطاعته، والجِمال مزيَّنة مُقَلّدة بقلائد الحرير، وأستار الهوادج ضافية تكاد تَمَسُّ الأرض فهي كالقباب المضروبة، ويخرجون إلى ميقات التنعيم فتسيل أباطح مكة بتلك الهوادج، والنيران مشعلة بجنبتي الطريق، والشمع والمشاعل أمام الهوادج، والجبال تجيب بصداها إهلال المُهَلّلِين، فترق النفوس وتنهمل الدموع، فإذا قضوا العمرة وطافوا بالبيت خرجوا إلى السعي بين الصفا والمروة بعد مضي شيء من الليل، والمسعى متقد السرج، غاصٌّ بالناس، والساعيات في هوادجهن، والمسجد الحرام يتلألأ نورًا، وهم يُسَمّون هذه العمرة بالعمرة الأكمية؛ لأنهم يُحْرِمُون بها من أكمةٍ أمام مسجد عائشة رضي لله عنها بمقدار غلوة على مقربة من المسجد المنسوب إلى علي رضيلله عنه. [ص. ١١٦]

The citizens of Mecca celebrate the ʿUmra of Rajab with a solemnity such as is not to be seen elsewhere. It goes on continuously night and day, and the whole space of the month is occupied with devotions, more especially its first, fifteenth, and twenty-seventh days, since they are engaged for some days beforehand in making preparations for these ceremonies. I witnessed their doings as a participant on the eve of the twenty-seventh of the month. The streets of Mecca were choked with howdahs, covered with cloths of silk and fine linen, everyone making a show to the measure of his means, and the camels were decorated, with silken collars on their necks, and long hangings of the howdahs that all but reached the ground, so that they looked like pitched tents. The whole gathering then goes out to the appointed place of Tanʿīm, so that the valleys of Mecca are [as it were] aflood with these howdahs. Fires are lighted on both sides of the road, and candles and torches [carried] in front of the howdahs. The hills answer with their echoes the cries of Labbaika raised by the worshippers, [and the scene so stirs the emotions] that men's hearts are softened and their eyes flow with tears. On completing the ʿUmra and making the circuit of the Holy House, they go out [of the Sanctuary] to make the course between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa when about a third of the night is past. The Mas'a is ablaze with lamps and choked with the mass of people and women making the ceremony of the course in their howdahs, and the Sacred Mosque also glows with light. The Meccans give to this ʿUmra the name of al-ʿUmra al-Akamiya [that is to say, the ʿUmrah of the Eminence] because they commence the rites of pilgrimage on this occasion from an eminence in front of the mosque of ʿĀʾisha (God be pleased with her) and at a distance [from it] of a bowshot, close to the mosque called by the name of ʿAlī (God be pleased with him).

234-235

1326 circa