son of Mu’awiyah, whose cruelties to the descendants of the Prophet, and crimes and vices, have made him the Judas Iscariot of Al-Islam. I have heard Hanafi Moslems, especially Sayyids, revile him; but this is not, strictly speaking, correct. The Shi’ahs, of course, place no limits to their abuse of him. You first call a man “Omar,” then “Shimr,” (the slayer of Al-Hosayn), and lastly, “Yazid,” beyond which insult does not extend. [FN#25] Ukayl or Akil, as many write the name, died at Damascus, during the Caliphate of Al-Mu’awiyah. Some say he was buried there, others that his corpse was transplanted to Al-Madinah, and buried in a place where formerly his house, known as “Dar Ukayl,” stood. [FN#26] Some are of opinion that the ceremonies of Ziyarat formerly did, and still should begin here. But the order of visitation differs infinitely, and no two authors seem to agree. I was led by Shaykh Hamid, and indulged in no scruples. [FN#27] Burckhardt makes a series of mistakes upon this subject. “Hassan ibn Aly, whose trunk only lies buried here (in El Bakia), his head having been sent to Cairo, where it is preserved in the fine Mosque called El-Hassanya.” The Mosque Al-Hasanayn (the “two Hasans”) is supposed to contain only the head of Al-Hosayn, which, when the Crusaders took Ascalon, was brought from thence by Sultan Salih or Beybars, and conveyed to Cairo. As I have said before, the Persians in Egypt openly show their contempt of this tradition. It must be remembered that Al-Hasan died poisoned at Al-Madinah by his wife Ja’adah. Al-Hosayn, on the other hand, was slain and decapitated at Kerbela. According to the Shi’ahs, Zayn al-Abidin obtained from Yazid, after a space of forty days, his father’s head, and carried it back to Kerbela, for which reason the event is known to the Persians as “Chilleyeh sar o tan,” the “forty days of (separation between) the head and trunk.” They vehemently deny that the body lies at Kerbela, and the head at Cairo. Others, again, declare that Al-Hosayn’s head was sent by Yazid to Amir bin al-As, the governor of Al-Madinah, and was by him buried near Fatimah’s Tomb. Nor are they wanting who declare, that after Yazid’s death the head was found in his treasury, and was shrouded and buried at Damascus. Such is the uncertainty which hangs over the early history of Al-Islam[.] [FN#28] The names of the fifth and sixth Imams, Mohammed al-Bakia and Ja’afar al-Sadik, were omitted by Hamid, as doubtful whether they are really buried here or not. [FN#29] Moslem historians seem to delight in the obscurity which hangs over the lady’s last resting-place, as if it were an honour even for the receptacle of her ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Some place her in the Harim, relying upon this tradition: “Fatimah, feeling about to die, rose up joyfully, performed the greater ablution, dressed herself in pure garments, spread a mat upon the floor of her house near