Muezzin

(Mueddin) is the Arabic name of the Mohammedan official attached to a mosque, whose duty it is to summon the faithful to prayer at five different times of day and night. Stationed on one of the minarets, he chants in a peculiar manner the form of proclamation. Before doing so, however, the muezzin ought to repeat the following prayer: "O my God! give me piety; purify me: thou alone hast the power. Thou art my benefactor and my master, O Lord. Thou art towards me as I desire; may I be towards thee as thou desirest. My God! cause my interior to be better than my exterior. Direct all my actions to rectitude. O God! deign in thy mercy to direct my will towards that which is good. Grant me at the same time true honor and spiritual poverty, O thou, the most merciful of the merciful." His chant (Adan) consists of these words, repeated at intervals: "Allah is most great. I testify that there is no God but Allah. I testify that Mohammed is the apostle of Allah. Come to prayer. Come to security." ("Prayer is better than sleep" is added in the morning, at the Subh or Fegr.) "Allah is most great. There is no deity but Allah!" Besides these regular calls, two more are chanted during the night for those pious persons who wish to perform special nightly devotions. The first (Ula) continues, after the usual Adan, in this manner: "There is no deity but Allah! He hath no companion-to him belongeth the dominion-to him belongeth praise. He giveth life, and causeth death. And he is living, and shall never die. In his hand is blessing, and he is almighty," etc. The second of these night-calls (Ebed) takes place at an hour before daybreak, and begins as follows: "I extol the perfection of Allah, the Existing forever and ever: the perfection of Allah, the Desired, the Existing, the Single, the Supreme," etc. According to an Arab tradition, the office was instituted by Mohammed himself, and the words quoted for the morning prayer were added by the first muezzin on an occasion when the Prophet overslept himself. Mohammed. approved of them, and they were ever afterwards retained in the morning call. The office of a muezzin is generally intrusted to blind men only, lest they might, from their elevation, SEE MINARET, have too free a view over the surrounding terraces and harems. The harmonious and sonorous voices of the singers, together with the simplicity and solemnity of the melody, make a strikingly poetical impression upon the mind of the hearer in the daytime; much more, however, is this the case whenever the sacred chant resounds from the height of the mosque through the moonlit stillness of an Eastern night. See Trevor, India under Moh. Rule (see Index).