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You are in the courtyard of Jumma Musjid (Great Mosque), the chief place of Moslem worship, in the centre of the city. These worshippers are more tolerant than Moslems in general. As a rule they regard a photographer's camera as an impertinence to be resented, but in this particular instance they are practicallly ignoring the infidel observer.
 A map of India would show that you are about 300 miles directly north of Bombay. These men are, of course, facing toward Mecca (in Arabia), while they say their prayers. You can judge for yourself with that fact in mind and then direction of the shadows to guide you, in what direction you yourself are looking and about what is the time of day.
 This is the great courtyard of the mosque proper; the building itself, with its prayer-niche, is, of course, at your left. Notice the men have punctiliously removed their shoes before praying. Their hands and feet have been washed ceremoniousally clean before offering their praises in the Prophet's name. Their use of these mats is, like the use of more beautiful rugs in other places, not so much a matter of personal luxury as one of the provisions for keeping ceremonially clean during the act of worship.
 The inscriptions over there on the wall correspond in function to the sculptures and paintings on the walls of a Christian church; they are pious texts and reminders to devotion. 
 Prince Karageorgeovitch in his "Enchanted India" tells of a visit to this very mosque.
 Consult books like James Freeman Clarke's "Ten Great Religions" for explanations of the origin and purport of this form of worship. Encyclopedia articles on "Mohammedansim" give essential facts. Sir Edwin Arnold's "Pearls of the Faith" gives an interesting insight into the best of Islamism. 
 From notes of Travel, No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.
Prayers in a mosque at Ahmedabad, India.
Prieres dans une mosquee a Ahmedabad Inde.
Gebete in einex Mofmee Uhmebalab, Jnbien.
Resando en una mezquita Ahmedabad, India.
Bon i en moske i Ahmedabad, Indien.