Mecca {Om Al-Kora, Mother of Cities), the birth- place of Mohammed, and therefore the central and most sacredly guarded and honored city of Arabia, is one of its oldest towns, the capital of the province of Hejaz. It is situated in 21° 30' N. lat., and 40° 8' E. long., 245 miles south of Medina (q. v.), and about 65 miles east of Jiddah, the well-known port on the Red Sea, in a nar- row, barren valley, surrounded by bare hills and sand}' plains, and watered by the brook Wady Al-Tarafeyn. The city is about 1500 paces long, and about 650 broad, and is divided into the Upper and Lower City, with twenty-five chief quarters. The streets are broad and rather regular, but unpaved ; excessively dusty in sum- mer, and muddy in the rainy season. The houses, three or four stories high, are built of brick or stone, orna- mented with paintings, and their windows open on the streets. The rooms are much more handsomely fur- nished, and altogether in a better state than is usual in the East, the inhabitants of Mecca making their living
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chiefly by letting them to the pilgrims who flock hither to visit the Beit Allah (House of God), or chief mosque, containing the Kaaba (q. v.). This mosque, capable of holding about 35,000 persons, is surromided by nineteen gates surmounted by seven minarets, and contains sev- eral rows of pillars, about twenty feet high, and about eighteen inches in diameter, of marble, granite, por- phyry, and common sandstone, which at certain dis- tances are surmounted by small domes. A great num- ber of people are attached to the mosque in some kind of ecclesiastical capacity, as katibs, muftis, mueddins, etc. Pilgrimages have very much decreased of late years, and in consequence the inhabitants of this city, at one time containing 100,000, now scarcely counts 40,000 regular residents. The age of the city of INIecca is not exactly known. We find that it was in quite a flourishing condition in the days of Ptolemy, under the name of Macorabu. Mohammed, who had been obliged to quit it quite precipitately in A.D. 622, returned to it in 627, forcing his entrance as conqueror. At first it belonged to the tribe of the Kosaites, later to the Ko- reish (q. v.). Within the course of the present century (1803) Mecca was taken by the Wahabies (q. v.), but given up again to the pacha of Egypt, Mehcnict Ali (1833), whose son Ibrahim was made sheik El-llaram — " of the Sacred Place." At present, however, IMecca is directly dependent on the sultan of Turkey. A cer- tain balm, tlie " Balm of IMecca," is made from a plant called Besem, which grows in abundance in the neigh- borhood of the city. Another chief article of manufact- ure, and a great source of income to the residents of Mecca, are the chajjlets for pious pilgrims. See Cham- bers, Cyclop, s. V. ; Der Christliche Apologete, 1872, Nov. 12.
Mechanic. The Hebrews appear to liave learned in Egypt the elements at least of all the forms of handi- craft practiced in that highly-civilized country, and later their neighbors the Phoenicians, famous in early times for their progress in the industrial arts, doubtless exerted a further influence upon them; nevertheless, down at least to the close of the period, of the judges, the skill of the Hebrews in manufactures was quite in- considerable (1 Sam. xiii, 20). Many of the handicrafts were practiced by the proprietor of the l?ouse (land- owner) himself (comp. Homer, Ochjss. v, 243), chiefly the coarser kinds of work (i. e. in wood), while other sorts fell to the female head of the family, such as baking (2 Sara, xiii, 8), weaving and embroidering (Exod. xxxv, 28 ; Prov. xxxi. 24), and the making up of garments, including those of the men (Prov. xxxi, 21 ; 1 Sam. ii, 19; Acts ix, 39). See Wojian, and comp. the Mishna, Kethuboth, v, 5. But all the varied forms of manufact- ure, which, being generally executed' by dint of actual manipulation, required a good degree of personal dex- terity, were carried on among the Hebrews by the own- ers themselves, who were not slaves. So in the Homeric poems several kinds of mechanic arts appear (Iliad, iv, 110, 485; xviii, 601; Odyss. iii, 425, 432; see Wachs- muth, Hellen. Alterth. II, i, 47 sq.).
Accordingly we find mention of the gold and silver smith {^'i'y^S, or Ti'^Sp, Judg. xvii, 4; Isa. xl, 19; Jen X, 14, etc.), Avho especially fabricated idols, or plated and ornamented them ; the apothecary (rii^l or H^'n.Exod. XXX, 35 ; comp. jivpiipoQ, Ecclus. xxxviii, 7) ; the ar- tificer ('■IJ'^n, Exod. xxxv, 35 ; Deut. xxvii, l5 ; 1 Sara, xiii, 19), a term inclusive of blacksmiths (s]"^? '^"'r^'^'^j Isa. xliv, 12; 2 Kings xxiv, 14; 1 Sam. xiii,19; Talm. ■JinS.a, Mishna, Chel. xiv, 3) and braziers (ndn3 "n, 1 Kings vii, 14 ; comp. xa^^i^^vQ, 2 Tim. iv, 14), as well as carpenters {y3 "n, 2 Sara, v, 11 ; Isa. xliv, 13 ; comp. TtKriuv, Matt.x iii, 55 ; Mark vi, 3 ; also cabinet-mak- ers, Mishna, Baba Kamma, ix, 3) and masons ("1^3'^H •Tip, 1 Chron. xiv, 1); the stone-sqiiarers Ci^X "^^sh, 2 Kings xii, 12), which was distinct from the last named,
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10
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Veneering nnd the Use of Glne. (Wilkinson.)