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the Sakhra and the Masjidu-l-Aksá. At this time there were, between the pillars, pieces of wainscot (wood), six thousand compartments of wains coting, and therein fifty doors; and six hundred marble pillars, and therein seven galleries for announcing prayer; and for the candelabra four hundred chains, save fifteen; of these one hundred and thirty in the Mosque, and the rest in the Chapel of the Sakhrá; and the length of the chains was four thousand cubits, and their weight three-and-forty thousand Syrian pounds. Also five thousand candelabra; and there glittered in the candelabra a thousand wax tapers on the day of assembly, and on the middle of Rejib, and Shábán, and on the feast-nights. Moreover there were within the Mosque fifteen chapels (to match) to the Chapel of the Sakhrá. And upon the flat roof of the Mosque there were seven thousand seven hundred planks of lead, the weight of every piece seventy pounds, besides that upon the Chapel of the Sakhrá. All this was done in the time of Abdul-Málik-Ibn-Marwán. And he arranged in order for this work a fixed series of servants-three hundred servants-who were hired at the expense of five treasuries. Every one who died among them, his son occupied his place and rank, and his son, his (or some one of his

household.) Thus it went on for ever in successive generations. Of cisterns (or tanks) in the Mosque, there were four-and-twenty great ones; of minarets, four; three in a row on the west of the Mosque, and one over the Gate of the Longhaired (a tribe of Arabia, Al Ásbat); and of Jewish servants, from whom no tribute was taken, ten men (and these had sons, and so became twenty), for the purpose of sweeping away the filth accumulated on the feasts (days of the assemblage of pilgrims for Mecca) of the winter and summer, and for the sweeping up of the sacred ablution-water which was around the place of meeting. And in addition to these, there were ten Christian servants, who obtained this service by inheritance, to superintend the (beasts of burden, asses, &c.) and to sweep out the conduits (channels of supply, pipes, &c.) which flowed into the cisterns of the water, and to cleanse the cisterns also, and for other purposes besides that. And there were also five Jewish servants, to superintend the glass for the candelabra, and the cups, and the spitting-basins, and for other purposes, as necessity summoned them. No tribute was taken from them, nor from the persons who purveyed the combustibles for the burners of the candelabra, according to a composition with them

and their sons for ever, in successive generations, by the grant of Abdul-Málik-Ibn-Marwán, and his donation by way of wages.

We are traditionally informed also by Abdurrahman-Ibn-Muhammad-Ibn-Mansúr, on the authority of his father, who refers to his grandfather, That all the gates were furnished with broad plates of gold and silver in the days of the Khiláfat of Abdul-Málik-Ibn-Marwán, and when Abú-JafárAlmansúr-Al-Abbássí acceded to the throne, then the eastern side of the Mosque had fallen. Wherefore it was said to him, O Commander of the Faithful! the eastern side of the Mosque hath now fallen; and the western fell at the time of the earthquake, the year one hundred and thirty. Wilt thou not commission us to rebuild and restore it? But he said, I have no treasure whatever. And he then commanded to take off the plates of gold and silver which were upon the doors. And they took them down, and made them into dínárs and dirhems, and spent them upon the building until he had come to an end of them. Then there was a second earthquake, and the building which Abú-Jafár had commissioned to be rebuilt fell down. Then afterwards Al Mahadi acceded to the throne, and the Mosque was in ruins: which being reported to him, he commanded it to be rebuilt, and said, This Mosque was narrow and

long, and was deserted of men: diminish from its length, and augment its width. And it was finished in his Khilafat; and in the year 452 the vaulted (groined) roof of the Chapel of the Temple fell down, and with it 500 candelabra. When the Musalmáns then present beheld it, they said, There will be some great and extraordinary calamity in Islám. Again we learn from Atu, on his father's authority, The Jews purveyed the furniture (necessaries) for the Temple, but when Omar-Radh-Ullah-anhu-Ibn-Abdul-Aziz ascended the throne, he dismissed them, and placed therein some of the tribe of Khims (of Arabia Felix). And then came to him a man of the family of Khims, and said unto him, Give me some present. But he said, How can I give thee? for it thou shouldst strain thine eyes in staring. have not a single one of thy dog's hairs (to give).

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Abú says, The Holy City did not cease to be in the hands of the Musalmáns, from its surrender to Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattáb (with whom may God rest satisfied!) until the year 491 and in the year 492 the Franks besieged it more than fifty days. Then they became masters of it, on the dawn of the morning of the day of assembly (Friday) in the year 482, and killed therein a great number of Musalmáns for the space of seven

days. And it was said, that in the Mosque Al Aksá (they killed) more than seventy thousand; and they took from the Sakhrá vessels of gold and silver, wealth preserved in the strong boxes; and on this account the Musalmáns were agitated to the utmost degree of commotion, in every region; and Afdhál, commander of the armies, had received it from Sakmán-Ibn-Ortuk, on Friday, five days before the end of Ramadán, in the year 491 (it is said also, that this took place in Shabán, the year 489), and took the nominal government of it: but this governor had no power against the Franks, who therefore received it from him-yielded up to them.

Then the Franks obtained possession of many regions and shores in his days, and became masters of Jaffa in Shammál, the year 493, and Cæsarea in the year 494, and assumed the government over these regions and coasts, and over the castles and forts therein. And in these they ruled as princes; also over all the tracts of country, and productions of the soil, and fields therein, and received taxes from the fruits in the meadows of cities. And the devil impelled upon them their exactions, and the exhaustion these fiends made, and the injustice these vagabond tyrants com

* See Note.

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