(_By kind permission of M. Velazquez Bosco._)] PLATE 88 [Illustration: FIG. 1. Djebel Sindjâr, khân.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. Ḥasan Kaif, mosque.] PLATE 89 [Illustration: FIG. 1. Cairo, mosque of Ibn Ṭulûn.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. Mosque of Abû Dulaf.] PLATE 90 [Illustration: Diyârbekr, Ulu Djâmi’.] PLATE 91 [Illustration: FIG. 1. Cairo, mosque of Ibn Ṭulûn.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. Sâmarrâ, mosque.] PLATE 92 [Illustration: Mosque of Ṣalaḥ al-Dîn, Mayâfârqîn.] PLATE 93 [Illustration: FIG. 1. Diyârbekr, mosque, fragment of old wall.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. Mayâfârqîn, mosque.] FOOTNOTES: [1] _Travels into East India and Arabia Deserta_, London, 1665, p. 263. [2] _Travels from India to Italy by Land_, London, 1710. [3] _Les Six Voyages_, t. i, liv. 2, ch. 3, p. 136, Paris, 1681 [4] M. Saladin quotes Tavernier’s words in _L’Architecture Musulmane_, p. 327. [5] _Reisebeschreibung_, vol. ii, p. 225, note. [6] _Journey from India to Persia_, London, 1773. [7] _Travels from England to India_, vol. i, p. 243, London, 1779. [8] _Erdkunde_, vol. xi, pp. 956, 1039. [9] The height above sea-level is Sir W. Willcocks’s reduced level, arrived at by his own observations on the Persian Gulf. Sir W. Willcocks, _The Irrigation of Mesopotamia_, p. 15, Plate 2. [10] Professor Musil, early in 1912, visited Ukhaiḍir and continued his journey south, parallel with the ṭâr which he names ṭâr al-Ṣeihed. _Proceedings of the K. Akad. der Wiss. in Wien_, No. 1, 1913, p. 10. [11] When I was there in March 1911 many of the palm-trees had been killed, and the rest severely damaged by the snow which had fallen in January and February. In the memory of no living man had snow fallen in Shethâthâ, and the inhabitants, when they woke to find the ground covered with white, were at a loss to know what the strange substance could be. Some took it to be flour. Snow fell as far south as Nedjef, and in the desert round ‘Aṭshân, between Ukhaiḍir and the Kerbelâ-Nedjef road, it lay for some days. When I passed I saw each abandoned camping ground of the Bani Ḥasan marked by a ring of dead animals, donkeys, sheep, and goats, which had perished in the unwonted cold. [12] Ibn al-Athîr, ed. Tornberg, vol. ix, p. 423, ‘Shefâthâ w’al ‘ain.’ Shethâthâ is a colloquial corruption for Shefâthâ, and the official maps still spell it in the latter fashion. [13] Ed. de Goeje, p. 117. [14] Ed. Wüstenfeld, vol. iii, p. 759. [15] _Ocheïdir_, p. 12. [16] Dr. Reuther gives the square as 2·85 metres. In my first account of the palace I had described this dome as oval in plan, but, as I felt very doubtful on this point, on my second visit I took particular care to re-examine the whole tract between the north gate and the door of the great hall. My second measurements gave a square of 3·10 metres to the dome. The difference between us is, however, too small to be of much importance. [17] _Ocheïdir_, p. 3. [18] _Ocheïdir_, p. 21.