satisfied himself as to the Jewish population he gives for this and the other places he tells of, till he comes to Egypt.  Up to this point the Traveller has always appeared to under-estimate the Jewish population.  Henceforth it will be found that he gives apparently exaggerated figures,—­and this lends colour to the view that Benjamin did not proceed beyond Ispahan, but found his way thence direct to Egypt.  The statements concerning the intervening places must therefore be taken to have been based upon hearsay information.  Pethachia’s remarks are significant:  “In the land of Cush and Babel are more than sixty myriads of Jews; as many are in the land of Persia.  But in Persia the Jews are subject to hard bondage and suffering.  Therefore Rabbi Pethachia visited only one city in Persia.”  (Dr. Benisch’s edition, p. 19.)]

[Footnote 123:  The Caliphs of the Abbaside Dynasty traced their descent from Mohammed.  Benjamin here refers to the Caliph El Mostanshed.  The Caliph is aptly compared to the Pope.  In addition to his temporal authority at Bagdad, he exercised as Leader of the Faithful—­Emir al-Muminin—­religious authority over all Mohammedans from Spain to India.  At a later time the vizier arrogated all authority to himself, and the Caliph spent his time either in the mosque or in the seraglio.]

[Footnote 124:  Lebrecht, p. 391, states that this was a scarf of black velvet, generally a portion of the hangings of the mosque of Mecca, which was suspended from a balcony of the Palace and was called the Sleeve of the Caliph.]

     [Footnote 125:  The statements here made are strangely
     contradictory; see a suggestive article by Dr. Goldziher in
     Z.D.P.G., 1905, p. 151.]

[Footnote 126:  A valuable work, Bagdad during the Abbaside Caliphate, from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources, appeared in 1900, written by Mr. Guy Le Strange, which helps to explain Benjamin’s account of the Moslem metropolis.  The Caliph Mansur in 762 selected it as the Capital of the Empire.  Numerous references in the Talmud prove that a Jewish settlement was there long before.  Mansur built a double-walled Round City two miles in diameter on the western side of the Tigris.  It formed the nucleus of suburbs, which spread over both banks of the Tigris.  A very fair idea of the metropolis may be obtained if we imagine the Round City as situated on the Surrey side of the Thames, having the “Elephant and Castle” for its centre.  At this spot stood the great Mosque of Mansur, where the Friday services were held, and where the Caliph took a prominent part in the service on the Bairam, at the close of the Ramazan fast.  The Round City being subject to periodical inundations, the government buildings were gradually transferred to the eastern side of the river.  The Royal Palaces, in the grounds called the Harim, which were fully three miles in extent, occupied the site similar to that