is based, had probably all passages where this epithet or other objectionable remarks were used excised by the censor, and it will be seen that the passage before us, with reference to the grant of land by Mohammed, as well as that further on, referring to Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, do not appear in any of the printed editions.  Dr. Hirschfeld is of opinion that, on the one hand, the epithet is the translation of the Arabic majn[=u]n, a term against which Mohammed protested several times in the Koran, because it means he was possessed by a jinn, like a soothsayer.  On the other hand, the word was chosen having regard to Hosea ix. 7.  This was done long before Benjamin’s time, by Jafeth and others.]

     [Footnote 141:  See picture of the traditional tomb of
     Ezekiel in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol.  V, p. 315.]

     [Footnote 142:  The Talmud (Sabbath, II a) speaks of the
     destruction of Mata Mehasya.  Sura took its place as a centre
     of learning.]

     [Footnote 143:  See Berliner, pp. 45, 47, 54, and 57, for
     particulars derived from the Talmud and Midrash as to the
     several centres of Jewish learning in Babylonia.]

[Footnote 144:  This synagogue is repeatedly mentioned in the Talmud.  Zunz (Note 255) omits mentioning Aboda Zarah, 43 b, where Rashi explains that Shafjathib was a place in the district of Nehardea, and that Jeconiah and his followers brought the holy earth thither, giving effect to the words of the Psalmist:  “For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof” (Ps. cii. 14).]

[Footnote 145:  Benjamin visited the various seats of learning in the neighbourhood, and thus came again to Nehardea, which has been already mentioned on p. 34.  Rab Jehuda, not Rab, is there associated with Samuel.]

[Footnote 146:  Asher, at this stage of Benjamin’s narrative, has the following note:  “For the illustration of that portion of our text which treats of Arabia, we refer the reader to the Rev. S.L.  Rapoport’s paper, ’Independent Jews of Arabia,’ which will be found at the end of these notes.”  No such account appeared in the work, but in the Bikkure Haittim for the year 1824, p. 51, there appears an interesting essay in Hebrew on the subject by Rapoport, to which the reader is referred.  It is a matter of history that the powerful independent Jewish communities which were settled at Yathrib, afterwards called Medina, and in the volcanic highlands of Kheibar and Teima called the Harrah, were crushed by Mohammed.  Dr. Hirschfeld, in the Jewish Quarterly Review, vol.  XV, p. 170, gives us the translation of a letter found in the Cairo Genizah, addressed by Mohammed to the people of Kheibar and Maqna, granting them certain privileges from which the Jews, who were allowed to remain in their homes, benefited.  Omar, the second Caliph, broke