A time-honoured Islamic ceremony has been spoilt by a quarrel
between the Egyptian Government and the King of the Hedjaz. It has long been the privilege of the ruler of Egypt to send yearly the Holy Carpet, or Mahmal, which covers the sacred black stone known -as the Kaaba, in the mosque at Mecca.. The departure of the carpet with its escort is attended with much cere- mony, and the mission has always been welcomed= at Mecca because it carries a handsome present of some £8,000 to the Sherif, as the King was called. This year, however, King Hussein objected to the Egyptian doctors who accompanied the mission and who, by all accounts, are much needed in the very insanitary city of Mecca. As the Egyptian Government would not recall the doctors and would not let the mission proceed without them, the Holy Carpet, with the subsidy, has been brought back to Suez. King Hussein disputes the Egyptian version of the affair. But it confirms the general belief that the ruler of Mecca is by no means popular with his fellow-Moslems.
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