[244] By sending with a letter the silk strings of her hair, a lady testifies the most abject submission. The same meaning is conveyed in a more forcible manner by sending the hair itself. Thus when Cairo was besieged by the Franks in the year of the Flight 564 (A.D. 1168), El-´Áḍid, the last Fáṭimee Khaleefeh, sent letters to Noor-ed-Deen Maḥmood, Sulṭán of Syria, imploring succour, and with them sent his women's hair to show their subjection and his own. (Ibn Esh-Shihneh). [So too El-Maḳreezee, with a slight variation. It was in this siege that the old town now called erroneously Miṣr el-´aṭeeḳah was burnt by order of the Wezeer Sháwir, the conflagration lasting fifty-four days. (Khiṭaṭ, account of the ruin of El-Fusṭáṭ and reign of El-´Áḍid.) E. S. P.] [245] An engraving of a crown of this description, and another of one of a more common kind, may be seen in my work on the Modern Egyptians, Appendix A. [246] Kitáb el-´Onwán. [247] El-Imám El-Jara´ee, in his book entitled "Shir´at el-Islám." [248] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 2. [249] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, ii. 79. [250] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 1. [251] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 1. [252] By way of exception, however, on the woman's side, my sheykh [Moḥammad ´Eiyád Eṭ-Ṭantáwee] writes:--"Many persons reckon marrying a second time among the greatest of disgraceful actions. This opinion is most common in the country-towns and villages; and the relations of my mother are thus characterized, so that a woman of them, when her husband dieth while she is young, or divorceth her while she is young, passeth her life, however long it may be, in widowhood, and never marrieth a second time." [253] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil, section 1. [254] Mir-át ez-Zemán, events of the year above mentioned. [255] Idem, Proverbs of the Arabs; and my Lexicon, _voce_ "khaṭaba." [256] The izár, or eezár (for the word is written in two different ways), is a piece of drapery commonly worn by Arab women when they appear in public. It is about two yards or more in width (according to the height of the wearer), and three yards in length; one edge of it being drawn from behind, over the upper part of the head and forehead, and secured by a band sewed inside, the rest hangs down behind and on each side to the ground, or nearly so, and almost entirely envelops the person; the two ends being held so as nearly to meet in front. Thus it conceals every other part of the dress excepting a small portion of a very loose gown (which is another of the articles of walking or riding apparel), and the face-veil. It is now generally made of white calico, but a similar covering of black silk for the married, and of white silk for the unmarried, is now worn by women of the higher and middle classes, called a ḥabarah.