owes its present form.  As will be seen, he had every advantage of borrowing from Christian, Persian, and even Indian art.  From the first he took the dome, from the second the cloister-it might have been naturalised in Arabia before his time-and possibly from the third the minaret and the prayer-niche.  The latter appears to be a peculiarly Hindu feature in sacred buildings, intended to contain the idol, and to support the lamps, flowers, and other offerings placed before it. [FN#44] The reader will remember that in the sixth year of the Hijrah, after Mohammed’s marriage with Zaynab, his wives were secluded behind the Hijab, Pardah, or curtain.  A verse of the Koran directed the Moslems to converse with them behind this veil.  Hence the general practice of Al-Islam:  now it is considered highly disgraceful in any Moslem to make a Moslemah expose her face, and she will frequently found a threat upon the prejudice.  A battle has been prevented by this means, and occasionally an insurrection has been caused by it. [FN#45] Amongst which some authors enumerate the goblet and the mirror of Kisra. [FN#46] The outer wall, built by Al-Walid, remained till A.H. 550, when Jamal al-Din of Isafahan, Wazir to Nur al-Din Shahid Mahmud bin Zangi, supplied its place by a grating of open sandal woodwork, or, as others say, of iron.  About the same time, Sayyid Abu ’l Hayja sent from Egypt a sheet of white brocade, embroidered in red silk with the chapter Y.S., in order to cover the inner wall.  This was mounted on the accession of Al-Mustazi bi’llah, the Caliph, after which it became the custom for every Sultan to renew the offering.  And in A.H. 688, Kalaun of Egypt built the outer network of brass as it now is, and surmounted it with the Green Dome. [FN#47] The inner wall, erected by Al-Walid, seems to have resisted the fire which in A.H. 654 burnt the Mosque to the ground.  Also, in A.H. 886, when the building was consumed by lightning, the Hujrah was spared by the devouring element. [FN#48] After the Prophet’s death and burial, Ayishah continued to occupy the same room, without even a curtain between her and the tomb.  At last, vexed by the crowds of visitors, she partitioned off the hallowed spot with a wall.  She visited the grave unveiled as long as her father Abu Bakr only was placed behind the Prophet; but when Omar’s corpse was added, she always covered her face. [FN#49] One of these, the minaret at the Bab-al-Salam, was soon afterwards overthrown by Al-Walid’s brother Sulayman, because it shaded the house of Marwan, where he lodged during his visit to Al-Madinah in the cold season. [FN#50] The dinar (denarius) was a gold piece, a ducat, a sequin. [FN#51] I purpose to touch upon this event in a future chapter, when describing my route from Al-Madinah to Meccah. [FN#52] “On this occasion,” says Al-Samanhudi, quoted by Burckhardt, “the interior of the Hujrah was cleared, and three deep graves were found in the inside, full of rubbish, but the author of this history, who himself entered