the Koran. Here it is said the Prophet prayed for three days during the
Battle of the Moat, also called the affair “Al-Ahzab,” the last fought with
the Infidel Kuraysh under Abu Sufiyan. After three days of devotion, a
cold and violent blast arose, with rain

[p.48] and sleet, and discomfited the foe. The Prophet’s prayer having
here been granted, it is supposed by ardent Moslems that no petition
put up at the Mosque Al-Ahzab is ever neglected by Allah. The form of
supplication is differently quoted by different authors. When Al-Shafe’i
was in trouble and fear of Harun al-Rashid, by the virtue of this
formula he escaped all danger: I would willingly offer so valuable a
prophylactory to my readers, only it is of an unmanageable length. The
doctors of Al-Islam also greatly differ about the spot where the
Prophet stood on this occasion; most of them support the claims of the
Masjid al-Fath, the most elevated of the four, to that distinction.
Below, and to the South of the highest ground, is the Masjid Salman
al-Farsi, the Persian, from whose brain emanated the bright idea of the
Moat. At the mature age of two hundred and fifty, some say three
hundred and fifty, after spending his life in search of a religion,
from a Magus (fire-worshipper)[FN#38] becoming successively a Jew and a
Nazarene, he ended with being a Moslem, and a Companion of Mohammed.
During his eventful career he had been ten times sold into slavery.
Below Salman’s Mosque is the Masjid Ali, and the smallest building on the
South of the hill is called Masjid Abu Bakr. All these places owe their
existence to Al-Walid the Caliph: they were repaired at times by his
successors.

The Masjid al-Rayah—of the Banner—was originally built by Al-Walid upon a
place where the Prophet pitched his tent during the War of the Moat.
Others call it Al-Zubab, after a hill upon which it stands. Al-Rayah is