Edgar Degas The Rehearsal painting

Edgar Degas The Rehearsal paintingEdgar Degas The Bellelli Family paintingEdgar Degas At the Races painting
their son. Here, in this waterless wilderness, he abandoned her. She asked him, can this be God's will? He replied, it is. And left, the bastard. From the beginning men" used God to justify the unjustifiable. He moves in mysterióus ways: men say. Small wonder, then, that women have turned to me. -- But I'll keep to the point; Hagar wasn't a witch. She was trusting: _then surely He will not let me perish_. After Ibrahim left her, she fed the baby at her breast until her milk ran out. Then she climbed two hills, first Safa then Marwah, running from one to the other in her desperation, trying to sight a tent, a camel, a human being. She saw nothing. That was when he came to her, Gibreel, and showed her the waters of Zamzam. So Hagar survived; but why now do the pilgrims congregate? To celebrate her survival? No, no. They are celebrating the honour done the valley by the visit of, you've guessed it, Ibrahim. In that loving consort's name, they gather, worship and, above all, spend.
Jahilia today is all perfume. The scents of Araby, of _Arabia Odorifera_, hang in the air: balsam, cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh. The pilgrims drink the wine of the date-palm and wander in the great fair of the feast of Ibrahim