the Prophet’s Tomb, lay down fronting the Kiblah, placed her hand under her cheek, and said to her attendant, “I am pure and in a pure dress; now let no one uncover my body, but bury me where I lie!” When Ali returned he found his wife dead, and complied with her last wishes. Omar bin Abd al-Aziz believed this tradition, when he included the room in the Mosque; and generally in Al-Islam Fatimah is supposed to be buried in the Harim. Those who suppose the Prophet’s daughter to be buried in Al-Bakia rely upon a saying of the Imam Hasan, “If men will not allow me to sleep beside my grandsire, place me in Al-Bakia, by my mother.” They give the following account of his death and burial. His body was bathed and shrouded by Ali and Omar Salmah. Others say that Asma Bint Umays, the wife of Abu Bakr, was present with Fatimah, who at her last hour complained of being carried out, as was the custom of those days, to burial like a man. Asma promised to make her a covered bier, like a bride’s litter, of palm sticks, in shape like what she had seen in Abyssinia: whereupon Fatimah smiled for the first time after her father’s death, and exacted from her a promise to allow no one entrance as long as her corpse was in the house. Ayishah, shortly afterwards knocking at the door, was refused admittance by Asma; the former complained of this to her father, and declared that her stepmother had been making a bride’s litter to carry out the corpse. Abu Bakr went to the door, and when informed by his wife that all was the result of Fatimah’s orders, he returned home making no objection. The death of the Prophet’s daughter was concealed by her own desire from high and low; she was buried at night, and none accompanied her bier, or prayed at her grave, except Ali and a few relatives. The Shi’ahs found a charge of irreverence and disrespect against Abu Bakr for absence on this occasion. The third place which claims Fatimah’s honoured remains, is a small Mosque in Al-Bakia, South of the Sepulchre of Abbas. It was called Bayt al-Huzn—House of Mourning—because here the lady passed the end of her days, lamenting the loss of her father. Her tomb appears to have formerly been shown there. Now visitors pray, and pray only twice,—at the Harim, and in the Kubbat al-Abbasiyah. [FN#30] The other celebrities in Al-Bakia are:— Fatimah bint As’ad, mother of Ali. She was buried with great religious pomp. The Prophet shrouded her with his own garment (to prevent hell from touching her), dug her grave, lay down in it (that it might never squeeze or be narrow to her), assisted in carrying the bier, prayed over her, and proclaimed her certain of future felicity. Over her tomb was written, “The grave hath not closed upon one like Fatimah, daughter of As’ad.” Historians relate that Mohammed lay down in only four graves: 1. Khadijah’s, at Meccah. 2. Kasim’s, her son by him. 3. That of Umm Ruman, Ayishah’s mother. 4. That of Abdullah al-Mazni, a friend and companion.