The Carmates carried the stone to Hedjer, [Asamy says that the stone was carried to El Hassa, near the Persian Gulf, a town which had been recently built by Abou Dhaher. I find, in the Travels of Ibn Batouta, a town in the province of El Hassa, called Hedjer.] a fertile spot in the Desert, on the route of the Syrian caravan, north of Medina, which they had chosen as one of their abodes. They hoped that all the moslems would come to visit the stone, and that they should thus succeed to the riches which the pilgrims from every part of the world had brought to Mekka. Under this impression, Abou Dhaher refused an offer of fifty thousand dinars as a ransom for the stone; but after his death, the Carmates, in A.H. 339, voluntarily sent it back, having been convinced by experience that their expectations of wealth, from the possession of it, were ill founded, and that very few moslems came to Hedjer for the purpose of kissing it. At this time it was in two pieces, having been split by a blow from a Carmate during the plunder of Mekka. Seventy years after its restoration to its ancient seat, the stone [p.168] suffered another indignity: Hakem b’amr Illah, the mad king of Egypt, who had some intentions of claiming divine honours for himself, sent in A.H. 413, an Egyptian with the pilgrim caravan to Mekka, to destroy the stone. With an iron club concealed beneath his clothes, the man approached it, and exclaimed, “How long shall this stone be adored and kissed? There is neither Mohammed nor Aly to prevent me from doing this, and to-day I shall destroy this building!” He then struck it three times with his club. A party of horsemen, belonging to the caravan in which he had travelled from Egypt, were ready at the gates of the mosque to assist the lithoclast, as soon as he should have executed his task; but they were not able to protect him from the fury of the populace. He was slain by the dagger of a native of Yemen; the horsemen were pursued; and the whole Egyptian caravan was plundered on the occasion. Upon inspection, it was found that three small pieces, of the size of a man’s nail, had been knocked off by the blows; these were pulverised, and their dust kneaded into a cement, with which the fractures were filled up. Since that time, the stone has sustained no further misfortune, except in the year 1674, when it was found, one morning, besmeared with dirt, together with the door of the Kaaba; so that every one who kissed it, retired with a sullied face. The author of this sacrilegious joke was sought in vain; suspicion fell upon some Persians, but the fact could not be proved against them. [See Asamy for these details.]