districts were absolutely denuded of population, and house after house lay empty. Meanwhile the Turkish mercenaries had drained the treasury, the works of art and valuables of all sorts in the palace were sold to satisfy their demands; often they themselves were the purchasers at merely nominal prices and sold the articles again at a profit. Emeralds valued at 300,000 dinars were bought by one Turkish general for 500 dinars, and in one fortnight of the year 460 articles to the value of 30,000,000 dinars were sold off to provide pay for the Turks. But this selling of the valuable collections accumulated in the palace was as nothing compared to the damage done wantonly by sheer mischief or unintentionally by carelessness. The precious library which had been rendered available to the public and was one of the objects for which many visited Cairo was scattered, the books were torn up, thrown away, or used to light fires. At length, after the Queen and her daughters had left Cairo, the Turks began fighting amongst themselves. Nasir ad-Dawla attacked the city which was defended by the rival faction of the Turkish guard and, after burning part of Fustat and defeating the defenders, entered as a conqueror. When he reached the palace he found the Khalif lodged in rooms which had been stripped bare, waited on by only three slaves, and subsisting on two loaves which were sent him daily by the charitable daughters of Ibn Babshad the grammarian. After this victory over the unhappy city Nasir ad-Dawla became so over-bearing and tyrannical in his conduct that he provoked even his own followers, and so at length he was assassinated in 466. But this only left the city in a worse condition than ever, for it was now at the mercy of the various Turkish factions which behaved no better than troops of brigands.