The theatre of events so important to Al-Islam could not be allowed-specially as no divine decree forbade the change-to remain in its pristine lowliness.  The first Caliph contented himself with merely restoring some of the palm pillars, which had fallen to the ground:  Omar, the second successor, surrounded the Hujrah, or Ayishah’s chamber, in which the Prophet was buried, with a mud wall; and in A.H. 17, he enlarged the Mosque to 140 cubits by 120, taking in ground on all sides except the Eastern, where stood the abodes of the “Mothers of the Moslems.[FN#38]” Outside the Northern wall he erected a Suffah, called Al-Batha-a raised bench of wood, earth, or stone, upon which the people might recreate themselves with conversation and quoting poetry, for the Mosque was now becoming [a] place of peculiar reverence to men.[FN#39]

The second Masjid was erected A.H. 29, by the third Caliph, Osman, who, regardless of the clamours of the people, overthrew the old walls and extended the building

[p.364]greatly towards the North, and a little towards the West; but he did not remove the Eastern limit on account of the private houses.  He made the roof of Indian teak,[FN#40] and the walls of hewn and carved stone.  These innovations caused some excitement, which he allayed by quoting a tradition of the Prophet, with one of which he appears perpetually to have been prepared.  The saying in question was, according to some, “Were this my Mosque extended to Safa"-a hill in Meccah-"it verily would still be my Mosque”; according to others, “Were the Prophet’s Mosque extended to Zu’l Halifah[FN#41] it would still be his.”  But Osman’s skill in the quotation of tradition did not prevent the new building being in part a cause of his death.  It was finished on the first Muharram, A.H. 30.

At length, Al-Islam, grown splendid and powerful, determined to surpass other nations in the magnificence of its public buildings.[FN#42] In A.H. 88, Al-Walid[FN#43] the First, twelfth Caliph of the Benu Ummayah race, after building, or rather restoring, the noble “Jami’ al-Ammawi” (cathedral of the Ommiades) at Damascus, determined to

[p.365]display his liberality at Al-Madinah.  The governor of the place, Umar bin Abd Al-Aziz, was directed to buy for seven thousand Dinars (ducats) all the hovels of raw brick that hedged in the Eastern side of the old Mosque.  They were inhabited by descendants of the Prophet and of the early Caliphs, and in more than one case, the ejection of the holy tenantry was effected with considerable difficulty.  Some of the women-ever the most obstinate on such occasions-refused to take money, and Omar was forced to the objectionable measure of turning them out of doors with exposed faces[FN#45] in full day.  The Greek Emperor, applied to by the magnificent Caliph, sent immense presents, silver lamp chains, valuable curiosities,[FN#46] forty loads of small cut stones for pietra-dura, and a sum of eighty thousand Dinars,