four miles (56? to the degree), and its depth about nine feet. It
flowed like a torrent with the waves of a sea; the rocks, melted by its
heat, stood up as a wall, and, for a time, it prevented the passage of
Badawin, who, coming from that direction, used to annoy the citizens.
Jamal Matari, one of the historians of Al-Madinah, relates that the
flames, which destroyed the stones, spared the trees; and he asserts
that some men, sent by the governor to inspect the fire, felt no heat;
also that the feathers of an arrow shot into it were burned whilst the
shaft remained whole. This he attributes to the sanctity of the trees
within the Harim. On the contrary, Al-Kistlani asserts the fire to have
been so vehement that no one could approach within two arrow-flights,
and that it melted the outer half of a rock beyond the limits of the
sanctuary, leaving the inner parts unscathed. The Kazi, the Governor,
and the citizens engaged in devotional exercises, and during the whole
length of the Thursday and the Friday nights, all, even the women and
children, with bare heads wept round the Prophet’s tomb. Then the lava
current turned northwards. (I remarked on the way to Ohod signs of a
lava-field.) This current ran, according to some, three entire months.
Al-Kistlani dates its beginning on Friday, 6 Jamadi al-Akhir, and its
cessation on Sunday, 27 Rajab: in this period of fifty-two days he
includes, it is supposed, the length of its extreme heat. That same
year (A.H. 654) is infamous in Al-Islam for other portents, such as the
inundation of Baghdad by the Tigris, and the burning of the Prophet’s
Mosque. In the next year first appeared the Tartars, who slew Al-Mu’tasim
Bi’llah, the Caliph, massacred the Moslems during more than a month,
destroyed their books, monuments, and tombs, and stabled their
war-steeds in the Mustansariyah College.
[FN#4] In this part of Al-Hijaz they have many names for a pass:—Nakb,
Saghrah, and Mazik are those best known.
[FN#5] This is the palm, capped with large fan-shaped leaves, described