In A.H. 654, the fifth Mosque was erected in consequence of a fire, which some authors attribute to a

[p.368]volcano that broke out close to the town in terrible eruption[FN#51]; others, with more fanaticism and less probability, to the schismatic Benu Husayn, then the guardians of the tomb.  On this occasion the Hujrah was saved, together with the old and venerable copies of the Koran there deposited, especially the Cufic MSS., written by Osman, the third Caliph.  The piety of three sovereigns, Al-Mustasim (last Caliph of Baghdad), Al-Muzaffar Shems al-Din Yusuf, chief of Al-Yaman, and Al-Zahir Beybars, Baharite Sultan of Egypt, completed the work in A.H. 688.  This building was enlarged and beautified by the princes of Egypt, and lasted upwards of two hundred years.

The sixth Mosque was built, almost as it now stands, by Kaid-Bey, nineteenth Sultan of the Circassian Mamluk kings of Egypt, in A.H. 888:  it is now therefore more than four centuries old.  Al-Mustasim’s Mosque had been struck by lightning during a storm; thirteen men were killed at prayers, and the destroying element spared nothing but the interior of the Hujrah.[FN#52] The railing and dome were restored; niches and a pulpit were sent from Cairo, and the gates and minarets were distributed as they are now.  Not content with this, Kaid-Bey established “Wakf” (bequests) and pensions, and introduced order among the attendants on the tomb.  In the tenth century, Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent paved with fine white marble the Rauzah or garden, which Kaid-Bey, not daring to alter, had left of earth, and erected the fine minaret that bears his name.

[p.369]During the dominion of the later Sultans, and of Mohammed Ali, a few trifling presents, of lamps, carpets, wax candles and chandeliers, and a few immaterial alterations, have been made.  The present head of Al-Islam is, as I have before said, rebuilding one of the minarets and the Northern colonnade of the temple.

Such is the history of the Mosque’s prosperity.

During the siege of Al-Madinah by the Wahhabis,[FN#53] the principal people seized and divided amongst themselves the treasures of the tomb, which must have been considerable.  When the town surrendered, Sa’ud, accompanied by his principal officers, entered the Hujrah, but, terrified by dreams, he did not penetrate behind the curtain, or attempt to see the tomb.  He plundered, however, the treasures in the passage, the “Kaukab al-Durri[FN#54]” (or pearl star), and the ornaments sent as presents from every part of Al-Islam.  Part of these he sold, it is said, for 150,000 Riyals (dollars), to Ghalib, Sharif of Meccah, and the rest he carried with him to Daraiyah, his capital.[FN#55] An accident prevented any further desecration of the building.  The greedy Wahhabis, allured by the appearance of the golden or gilt globes and crescents surmounting the green dome, attempted to throw down the latter.  Two of their number, it is said, were killed by falling