portion of the railing, near the well, and one of the eunuchs is generally to be seen in it:  it is under the charge of the Mudir, or chief treasurer.  These gardens are not uncommon in Mosques, as the traveller who passes through Cairo can convince himself.  They form a pretty and an appropriate feature in a building erected for the worship of Him “Who spread the Earth with Carpets of Flowers and drew shady Trees from the dead Ground.”  A tradition of the Apostle also declares that “Acceptable is Devotion in the Garden and in the Orchard.”

[p.338] At the South-East angle of this enclosure, under a wooden roof supported by pillars of the same material, stands the Zemzem, generally called the Bir al-Nabi, or “the Apostle’s well.”  My predecessor declares that the brackishness of its produce has stood in the way of its reputation for holiness.  Yet a well-educated man told me that it was as “light” (wholesome) water[FN#78] as any in Al-Madinah,-a fact which he accounted for by supposing a subterraneous passage[FN#79] which connects it with the great Zemzem at Meccah.  Others, again, believe that it is filled by a vein of water springing directly under the Apostle’s grave:  generally, however, among the learned it is not more revered than our Lady’s Garden, nor is it ranked in books among the holy wells of Al-Madinah.

Between this Zemzem well and the Eastern Riwak is the Stoa, or Academia, of the Prophet’s city.  In the cool mornings and evenings the ground is strewed with professors, who teach the young idea, as an eminent orientalist hath it, to shout rather than to shoot.[FN#80] A few feet to the South of the palm garden is a moveable wooden planking painted green, and about three feet high; it serves to separate the congregation from the Imam when he prays here; and at the North-Eastern angle of the enclosure is a

[p.339] Shajar Kanadil, a large brass chandelier, which completes the furniture of the court.

After this inspection, the shadows of evening began to gather round us.  We left the Mosque, reverently taking care to issue forth with the left foot, and not to back out of it as is the Sunnat or practice derived from the Apostle, when taking leave of the Meccan Temple.

To conclude this long chapter.  Although every Moslem, learned and simple, firmly believes that Mohammed’s remains are interred in the Hujrah at Al-Madinah, I cannot help suspecting that the place is doubtful as that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.  It must be remembered that a tumult followed the announcement of the Apostle’s death, when the people, as often happens, believing him to be immortal,[FN#81] refused to credit the report, and even Omar threatened destruction to any one that asserted it.