[p.372]accounts of the Mosque; his pay is 1500, and under him is a Nakib or assistant upon 1000 piastres.  There are three Shaykhs of the eunuchs who receive from 700 to 1000 piastres a month each.  The eunuchs, about a hundred and twenty in number, are divided into three orders.  The Bawwabin, or porters, open the doors of the Mosque.  The Khubziyah sweep the purer parts of the temple, and the lowest order, popularly called “Battalin,” clean away all impurities, beat those found sleeping, and act as beadles, a duty here which involves considerable use of the cane.  These men receive as perquisites presents from each visitor when they offer him the usual congratulation, and for other small favours, such as permitting strangers to light the lamps,[FN#61] or to sweep the floor.  Their pay varies from 250 to 500 piastres a month:  they are looked upon as honourable men, and are, generally speaking, married, some of them indulging in three or four wives,-which would have aroused Juvenal’s bile.  The Agha’s character is curious and exceptional as his outward conformation.  Disconnected with humanity, he is cruel, fierce, brave, and capable of any villany.  His frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs, with high shoulders, protruding joints, and a face by contrast extraordinarily large; he is unusually expert in the use of weapons, and sitting well “home,” he rides to admiration, his hoarse, thick voice investing him with all the circumstances of command.

Besides the eunuchs, there are a number of free servants, called Farrashin, attached to the Mosque; almost all the middle and lower class of citizens belong to this order.  They are divided into parties of thirty each, and are changed every week, those on duty receiving a Ghazi or twenty-two piastres for their services.  Their business

[p.373]is to dust, and to spread the carpets, to put oil and wicks into the lamps which the eunuchs let down from the ceiling, and, generally speaking, diligently to do nothing.

Finally, the menial establishment of the Mosque consists of a Shaykh al-Sakka (chief of the water-carriers), under whom are from forty-five to fifty men who sprinkle the floors, water the garden, and, for a consideration, supply a cupful of brackish liquid to visitors.

The literary establishment is even more extensive than the executive and the menial.  There is a Kazi, or chief judge, sent every year from Constantinople.  After twelve months at Al-Madinah, he passes on to Meccah, and returns home after a similar term of service in the second Holy City.  Under him are three Muftis,[FN#62] of the Hanafi, the Shafe’i, and the Maliki schools; the fourth, or Hanbali, is not represented here or at Cairo.[FN#63] Each of these officers receives as pay about two hundred and fifty piastres a month.  The Ruasa,[FN#64] as the Mu’ezzins (prayer-callers) here call themselves, are extensively represented; there are forty-eight or forty-nine of the lowest order, presided over by six Kubar or Masters, and these again are under the Shaykh al-Ruasa, who alone has the privilege of calling to prayers from the Raisiyah minaret.  The Shaykh receives a hundred and fifty piastres, the chiefs about a hundred, and the common criers sixty; there are