The city, and especially the Ḥaram, are described in this age by El Muḳaddasi (“the man of the very holy city”), who was a native Moslem, and a great admirer of his home. He wrote under El ’Azîz, the fifth Fâṭemite, in 985 A. D. He says that the Syrians lived in fear of the Greeks; for the new Armenian emperor of Byzantium also took advantage of the weakness of Islâm. Nicephorus Phocas had been murdered by Zemisces, who reigned as John I. Nicephorus had recovered Tarsus, Antioch, and Aleppo; and Zemisces took Damascus, and marched nearly to Baghdâd. Antioch, Cilicia, and Cyprus were retained by the Greeks till just before the first Crusade. El Muḳaddasi, as a devout Moslem, was much troubled by the independent manners of Jews and Christians in Jerusalem, but bears witness to the prosperity of the town. The city was celebrated for enormous grapes and incomparable peaches, for excellent apples, bananas, raisins, cheeses, and cotton, almonds, oranges, figs, dates, and nuts, “besides milk in plenty and honey and sugar.” “In Jerusalem there are all manner of learned men and doctors,” yet he adds, “you will not find baths more filthy than those of the Holy City, nor in any town are provisions dearer. Learned men [of Islâm] are few, and the Christians numerous, and the same are unmannerly in public places.... Everywhere the Christians and the Jews have the upper hand, and the mosque is void of either congregation or assembly of learned men.” He refers to El Mâmûn’s work on the Aḳṣa Mosque, and to a “colonnade supported on marble pillars lately erected by ’Abdallah, son of Ṭahir” (that is to say, nephew of El Mâmûn), as also to the fine dome and pitched roof. Cedar doors, covered with bronze, had been sent by the mother of Muḳtadir-bi-Allah--the eighteenth ’Abbaside khalîfah--shortly before the Egyptian conquest, for he reigned (at intervals) till 932 A. D. This writer gives a correct account of the Ḥaram buildings, and of the measurements of the surrounding walls. [Sidenote: EL ḤÂKIM] It was perhaps on account of the growing power and independence of the Christians that the successor of El ’Azîz determined to destroy the Holy Sepulchre Church; but the excuse was that the “holy fire” was a scandalous imposture. El Ḥakim-bi-amr-Allah was the sixth Fâṭemite khalîfah, and acceded in Cairo in 996 A. D. There seems to be no doubt that he was insane--driven mad probably by mysticism--and about 1005 A. D. his eccentricities disgusted all his subjects. He was finally strangled by order of his sister in 1021 A. D., and was succeeded by his son Ed Ḍâher-li-’azaz-Dîn-Allah, who was followed by his son El Mostanṣir-bi-Allah; both these khalifs are connected with Jerusalem history.