_The sixth Siege._ In the year of the hijrah 160 (A.D. 777) Merván ibnu-l Hakem besieged Islámból with an army of 150,000 Moslims and a fleet of a thousand ships during six months, added three new districts and built a mosque in the Mahommedan part of the city, and compelled Mesendún, son of Herakíl (Heraclius), to pay a yearly tribute of 500,000 golden tekyánúses, (_i.e._ coins called Decianus). _The seventh Siege._ Seventy-four years after the peace made with Merván, in the year of the hijrah 239 (A.D. 853-4), after the conquest of Malatíyyah, Islámból was pillaged by the khalif Yahyá son of ’Ali, who returned to Kharrán (Charrhæ) after having smote 20,000 infidels with the edge of the sword. _The eighth Siege._ Sixteen years afterwards, A.H. 255 (A.D. 869), I’liyá (Elias) son of Herakíl being king (királ) of Islámból, Harúnu-r-rashíd marched from his paradisiacal abode at the head of 50,000 troops; but finding it difficult to effect the conquest of the city, he made peace on condition of receiving as much ground within the walls as a bulls hide would cover. He therefore cut the hide into strips, so as to enclose space enough in the district of Kójah Mustafá Páshá for building a strong castle, and he fixed the annual tribute at 50,000 fulúrí (florins). He then returned to Baghdád, having levied the tribute (kharáj) due for the last ten years. About this time the infidels, taking advantage of the dissensions which prevailed among the Muselmáns respecting the khalífat, massacred all those established in Islámból and Ghalatah, not however without great loss on their own side, the king and royal family being all slain; in consequence of which Ghirándó Mihál (Grando Michael), a grandson of Herakíl who had come from Firengistán, was made king; and on that very day Seyyid Bábá Ja’fer, one of the descendants of Imám Hoseïn, and Sheïkh Maksúd, one of the followers of Veïsu-l-Karní, sent by Hárúnu-r-rashíd as ambassadors, entered Islámból. They were attended by three hundred fakírs and three hundred followers, and were received by the new king with innumerable honours. The Sheïkh asked and obtained permission to bury the remains of the many thousand martyrs who had been slain in the late massacre, which lasted seven days and seven nights. He immediately set to work, and with the aid of his own three hundred fakírs and Bábá Ja’fer’s three hundred followers, buried those many thousand martyrs in the places where they had died. In the ancient burying ground behind the arsenal, there are large caverns and ancient vaults, where, from the time of ’Omar ibn ’Abdu-l-’azíz, some thousand companions (of the Prophet) had been buried. To that place Sheïkh Maksúd carried some thousand bodies of these martyrs, and buried them there, where, on a hewn stone, there is written in large and legible characters, so that it may be easily read, this inscription, said to be by the Sheïkh’s own blessed hand: