therefore to be employed by the Caliph (i.e. the reigning Sultan) for the exigencies of the faith.  The amount is said to be enormous, which I doubt. [FN#48] And I might add, never having seen one who has seen it.  Niebuhr is utterly incorrect in his hearsay description of it.  It is not “enclosed within iron railings for fear lest the people might surreptitiously offer worship to the ashes of the Prophet.”  The tomb is not “of plain mason-work in the form of a chest,” nor does any one believe that it is “placed within or between two other tombs, in which rest the ashes of the first two Caliphs.”  The traveller appears to have lent a credulous ear to the eminent Arab merchant, who told him that a guard was placed over the tomb to prevent the populace scraping dirt from about it, and preserving it as a relic. [FN#49] Burckhardt writes this author’s name El Samhoudy, and in this he is followed by all our popular book-makers.  Moslems have three ways of spelling it:  1.  Al-Samhudi, 2.  Al-Samahnudi, and 3.  Al-Samanhudi.  I prefer the latter, believing that the learned Shaykh, Nur al-Din Ali bin Abdullah al-Hasini (or Al-Husayni) was originally from Samanhud in Egypt, the ancient Sebennitis.  He died in A.H. 911, and was buried in the Bakia cemetery. [FN#50] Burckhardt, however, must be in error when he says “The tombs are also covered with precious stuffs, and in the shape of catafalques, like that of Ibrahim in the great Mosque of Meccah.”  The eunuchs positively declare that no one ever approaches the tomb, and that he who ventured to do so would at once be blinded by the supernatural light.  Moreover the historians of Al-Madinah all quote tales of certain visions of the Apostle, directing his tomb to be cleared of dust that had fallen upon it from above, in which case some man celebrated for piety and purity was let through a hole in the roof, by cords, down to the tomb, with directions to wipe it with his beard.  This style of ingress is explained by another assertion of Al-Samanhudi, quoted by Burckhardt.  “In A.H. 892, when Kaid-Bey rebuilt the Mosque, which had been destroyed by lightning, three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish, but the author of this history, who himself entered it, saw no traces of tombs.  The original place of Mohammed’s tomb was ascertained with great difficulty; the walls of the Hujrah were then rebuilt, and the iron railing placed round it, which is now there.” [FN#51] Upon this point authors greatly disagree.  Ibn Jubayr, for instance, says that Abu Bakr’s head is opposite the Apostle’s feet, and that Omar’s face is on a level with Abu Bakr’s shoulder. [FN#52] The vulgar story of the suspended coffin has been explained in two ways.  Niebuhr supposes it to have arisen from the rude drawings sold to strangers.  Mr. William Bankes (Giovanni Finati, vol. ii., p. 289) believes that the mass of rock popularly described as hanging unsupported in the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem was confounded by Christians, who could not have seen