These words covered him with shame, and he was silent.  I wished to withdraw, but he ordered me to keep my seat, and said, “It is a mark of the Divine mercy to meet with such as thou!” Afterwards, seeing that he swayed from side to side, and desired to sleep, I left him.  I had placed my sandals at the door, and could not find them again.  The Fakir Fadhill sought for them in the hall, and at last brought them to me.  His kindness embarrassed me, and I made apologies.  Thereupon he kissed my sandals, placed them upon his head, in token of respect, and said to me, “May God bless thee!  What thou hast said to our sultan, nobody else would have dared to say.  I hope it will make an impression on him!"’

Continuing his journey to Ispahan and Shiraz, he gives us, as usual, conscientious accounts of the mosques, priests, and holy men, but no hint whatever as to his manner of travel, or the character of the country through which he passed.  This portion of his work, however, contains many interesting historical fragments, relating to the reigns of the Mongol sultans of Persia, and the dissensions between the two Moslem sects.  After a stay of some length at Shiraz, he returned through Irak to the celebrated city of Cufa, and thence to Bagdad, which was then the residence of a simple Mongol prince.  Here he describes at length the mosques, colleges, mausoleums and baths, while Ibn Djozay takes occasion to introduce his favorite quotations from the poets.  The reader, we think, will find the following more picturesque than the somewhat formal descriptions of Ibn Batuta:—­

  ’Yea, Bagdad is a spacious place for him who’s gold, to spend,
  But for the poor it is the house of suffering without end: 
  I wander idly through its streets, as lost us if I were
  A Koran in an atheist’s house, which hath no welcome there.’ 
  ’A sigh, a sigh for Bagdad, a sigh for Irak’s land! 
  For all its lovely peacocks, and the splendors they expand: 
  They walk beside the Tigris, and the looks they turn on me
  Shine o’er the jeweled necklace, like moons above the sea!’

Our traveler, also, was the forerunner of Layard.  In visiting Mosul, he writes:  ’Near this place one sees the hill of Jonah, upon whom be blessing! and a mile distant from it the fountain which bears his name.  It is said that he commanded the people to purify themselves there; that afterwards they ascended the aforesaid hill; that he prayed, and they also, in such manner that God turned the chastisement from their heads.  In the neighborhood is a great ruin, and the people pretend that it is the remains of the city known under the name of Nineveh, the city of Jonah.  One perceives the vestiges of the wall which surrounded it, as well as the situation of its gates.  On the hill stands a large edifice, and a monastery, which contains numerous cells, apartments, places of purification, and fountains, all closed by a single gate.  In the middle of the monastery one sees a cell with a silken curtain, and a door encrusted with gold and precious stones.  This, they say, is the spot where Jonah dwelt; and they add that the choir of the mosque attached to the monastery covers the cell in which he prayed to God.’