When the ex-wazir Rudwan had been ten years in prison he contrived to bore his way out through the prison walls by the help, it is said, of a rusty nail, and, joined by many of his friends, went to Gizeh intending to seize the wazirate by force. There was a great ferment in Cairo; many persons went out to join themselves with him, whilst the Khalif’s guards prepared for defence. At the head of a large band of followers he forced his way across the Nile, defeated the Khalif’s army, and marched into Cairo where he made his headquarters in the Grey Mosque. There he was joined by many of the emirs who brought supplies of men, arms, and money. The Khalif assembled his negro troops, treated them to wine and then, in a half intoxicated state, they marched out and demanded the head of Rudwan. A great tumult ensued in which the emirs, frightened by the apparent ferocity of the negro guard, left Rudwan, and his supporters were scattered. Rudwan himself was alarmed and went out of the mosque intending to escape, but his horse which should have been at the gate was missing. A young guard offered his horse, and as the ex-wazir approached to avail himself of this offer, he cut him down. Very soon the negroes came up and finished him, then “the people of Misr share the morsels of his flesh which they eat to give themselves courage” (Derenbourg: _Vie d’Ousama_, p. 212). This took place in 543 and led to a period of general disorder, for the negro troops called out by the Khalif soon passed beyond his control, the streets became unsafe, and faction fights between the Rayhamites who were loyal to the Khalif and the Juyushites, Alexandrians, and Farhites once more broke out just as sixteen years before. Again the Juyushites were victorious, greatly to the annoyance of al-Hafiz who determined to revenge himself upon them. But this resolve he was not able to carry out as he died in 544. Al-Hafiz was an old man at the time of his decease, fully seventy-six years, and for some time had been in failing health suffering from colic. It is said that Shirmah the Daylamite, or else Musa an-Nasran, made for him a drum of seven metals, each welded at the moment when the appropriate planet was in the ascendant, and that this drum when beaten relieved the wind from which the Khalif suffered. After his death this drum was preserved in the treasury, but was incautiously tapped by a Turkish soldier at the time of Sala d-Din’s conquest, and that he, astonished at the surprising result produced, dropped it and it broke to pieces. The writer Abu Salih describes Hafiz as particularly well disposed towards the Christians, and especially fond of visiting the gardens of some of the monasteries near Cairo, where he showed his goodwill by many gifts and acts of kindness. He even visited the Christian churches, but was careful to enter backwards lest the stooping necessitated by the low door-ways might appear to be an act of reverence to the cross which stood within. XVI