"The Arabs of the time of Ignorance¹ used to do things which the religious law of Islam adopted; for they used not to wed their mothers or their daughters, and among them it was deemed a most detestable thing to marry two sisters; and they used to revile the man who married his father's wife . . . . . . ; and they used to make the Pilgrimage to the House" (the Ka'abah), "and visit holy places, and wear the Ihram,² and perform the Tawwaf,³ and run" (between the hills As Safa and Al Marwa), "and stand at all the Stations⁴ and cast stones" (at the devil in the valley of Mina); "and they were wont to intercalate a month every third year."⁵ The same writer goes on to say that

ceremonial washings, religious cleansing of the teeth, and circumcision were also in vogue among the Arabs long before Muhammad's time. In this he is supported by many other Muhammadan writers, among others by Ibn Ishaq.

The "Holy¹ Temple" or the "House of GOD," as the Ka'abah at Mecca was and is still called, was, as has already been said, the central shrine of the whole Arabian

The Ka'abah.

nation in ages long anterior to Muhammad,² just as it is the holiest of all the holy places visited by the pious Muhammadan of to-day. Then as now the reason stated for this was the supposed fact that Abraham and Ishmael had worshipped there and had built the first temple erected³ on that spot. Worship was offered to GOD (as well as to idols) within it; and one peculiar method of showing their devotion was by running round the shrine in a state of nudity.⁴ Muhammad retained this ceremony of Tawwaf, as it is called, but ordered the pilgrims to perform it when clad in the single garment, the