The omra begins at some point outside the Haram (or holy ter ritory), generally at Tanim, both for convenience sake and because Ayesha began the omra there in the year io of the Hegira. The pilgrim enters the Haram in the antique and scanty pilgrimage dress (ihram), consisting of two cloths wound round his person in a way prescribed by ritual. His devotion is expressed in shouts of "Labbeyka" (a word of obscure origin and meaning) ; he enters the great mosque, performs the tawaf and the and then has his head shaved and resumes his common dress. This ceremony is now generally combined with the hajj, or is performed by every stranger or traveller when he enters Mecca, and the ihram (which involves the acts of abstinence already referred to) is assumed at a considerable distance from the city. But it is also proper during one's residence in the holy city to perform at least one omra from Tanim in connection with a visit to the mosque of Ayesha there. The triviality of these rites is ill concealed by the legends of the of Hagar and of the tawaf being first performed by Adam in imitation of the circuit of the angels about the throne of God. There is a tradition that the Kelm was a temple of Saturn (Shah rastani, p. 43* perhaps the most distinctive feature of the shrine may be sought in the sacred doves which still enjoy the protection of the sanctuary. These recall the sacred doves of Ascalon (Philo vi. 200 of Richter's ed.), and suggests Venus worship as at least one element (cf. Herod i. 131, iii. 8; Ephr. Syr., op. Syr. ii. 457).
To the ordinary pilgrim the omra has become so much an epi sode of the hajj that it is described by some European pilgrims as a mere visit to the mosque of Ayesha; a better conception of its original significance is got from the Meccan feast of the seventh month (Rajab), described by Ibn Jubair from his observations in A.D. 1184. Rajab was one of the ancient sacred months, and the feast, which extended through the whole month and was a joyful season of hospitality and thanksgiving, no doubt represents the ancient feasts of Mecca more exactly than the ceremonies of the hajj, in which old usage has been overlaid by traditions and glosses of Islam. The omra was performed by crowds from day to day, especially at new and full moon. The new moon celebration was nocturnal; the road to Tanim, the Masta, and the mosque were brilliantly illuminated ; and the appearing of the moon was greeted with noisy music. An Arab market was held, where the Bedouins of the Yemen mountains came in thousands to barter their cattle and fruits for clothing, and deemed that to absent themselves would bring drought and cattle plague in their homes. Though ignorant of the legal ritual and prayers, they performed the tawaf with enthusiasm, throwing themselves against the Katba and clinging to its curtains. They also entered the Katba. The 29th of the month was the feast day of the Meccan women.
The central and essential ceremonies of the hajj or greater pil grimage are those of the day of Arafa, the 9th of the "pilgrimage month" (Dhutl Hijja), the last of the Arab year; and every Muslim who is his own master, and can command the necessary means, is bound to join in these once in his life, or to have them fulfilled by a substitute on his behalf and at his expense. Neglect of many other parts of the pilgrim ceremonial may be compen sated by offerings, but to miss the "stand" (woquf) at Arafa is to miss the pilgrimage. Arafa or Arafat is a space, artificially limited, round a small isolated hill called the Hill of Mercy, a little way outside the holy territory, on the road from Mecca to Taif. The road is first northwards along the Mecca valley and then turns eastward. It leads through the straggling village of
Mina, occupying a long narrow valley (Wadi Mina), two to three hours from Mecca, and thence by the mosque of Mozdalifa over a narrow pass opening out into the plain of Arafa, which is an expansion of the great Wadi Naman, through which the Taif road descends from Mount Kara. The lofty and rugged mountains of the Hodheyl tower over the plain on the north side and over shadow the little Hill of Mercy, which is one of those bosses of weathered granite so common in the Hejaz. Arafa lay quite near Dhul-Majaz, where, according to Arabian tradition, a great fair was held from the ist to the 8th of the pilgrimage month; and the ceremonies from which the bajj was derived were originally an appendix to this fair. Now, on the contrary, the pilgrim is expected to follow as closely as may be the movements of the prophet at his "farewell pilgrimage" in the year i o of the Hegira (A.D. 632). He therefore leaves Mecca in pilgrim garb on the 8th. of Dhu'l Hijja, called the day of tarwiya (an obscure and pre Islamic name), and, strictly speaking, should spend the night at Mina. It is now, however, customary to go right on and encamp at once at Arafa. The night should be spent in devotion, but the coffee booths do a lively trade, and songs are as common as prayers. In the afternoon of the next day the essential ceremony begins; it consists simply in "standing" on Arafa shouting "Lab beyka" and reciting prayers and texts till sunset. After the sun is down the vast assemblage breaks up, and a rush (technically if coda, dar, nafr) is made to Mozdalifa, where the night prayer is said and the night spent. Before sunrise next morning (the loth) a second "stand" like that on Arafa is made for a short time by torchlight round the mosque of Mozdalifa, but before the sun is fairly up all must be in motion in the second ifoda towards Mina. The day thus begun is the "day of sacrifice," and has four cere monies—(i) to pelt with seven stones a cairn (jamrat al taqaba) at the eastern end of W. Mina, (2) to slay a victim at Mina and hold a sacrificial meal, part of the flesh being also dried and so preserved, or given to the poor, (3) to be shaved and so terminate the ihreim, (4) to make the third if eicla, i.e., go to Mecca and per form the tawaf and (`omrat al-if acla), returning thereafter to Mina. The sacrifice and visit to Mecca may, however, be delayed till the 11th, 12th or 13th. These are the days of Mina, a fair and joyous feast, with no special ceremony except that each day the pilgrim is expected to throw seven stones at the jamrat al caqaba, and also at each of two similar cairns in the valley. The stones are thrown in the name of Allah, and are generally thought to be directed at the devil. This is, however, a custom older than Islam, and a tradition in Azraqi, p. represents it as an act of worship to idols at Mina. As the stones are thrown on the days of the fair, it is not unlikely that they have something to do with the old Arab mode of closing a sale by the purchaser throwing a stone (Biriani, p. 328). The pilgrims leave Mina on the 12th or i3th, and the hajj is then over. (See further ISLAM.) The statistics of the pilgrimage cannot be given with certainty and vary much from year to year. For a fatwa or judicial de cision may be obtained that it is not obligatory for the Muslim to journey to Mecca when the routes are in the hands of hostile forces. Estimates of the crowd vary from 5o,000 to 70,000. In these vast assemblies, with little sanitary accommodation, infectious diseases spread rapidly.