[93] It is perhaps unnecessary to explain that the Shî’ahs regard ’Alî ibn abî Tâlib, who lies buried at Nejef, as the only lawful khalif. He and his eleven immediate heirs are known as the Twelve Imâms, the twelfth being Muḥammad III al Mahdî, who is credited with having been concealed in a cave at Sâmarrâ whence he will emerge at the end of days and re-establish the true faith.
[94] The whole argument is given by Le Strange, Baghdâd, p. 160 et seq., and pp. 351-2.
[95] From its relation to similar buildings (for instance at Ḥadîthah on the Euphrates and at Dûr on the Tigris) in places which probably flourished until the time of the Mongol invasion, i.e. towards the end of the thirteenth century, I should, however, place the tomb of Sitt Zobeideh earlier than 1200.
[96] See de Beylié: Prome et Samara, p. 34.
[97] Mr. Le Strange gives good reasons for believing that Mustanṣir did not found the mosque to which this minaret belongs, but that it is no other than the Jâmi’ el Ḳaṣr, built by the Khalif el Muktafî (A.D. 902) as a Friday Mosque adjoining the palace of his father Mu’taḍid. The palace was known as the Ḳaṣr et Tâj, the Palace of the Crown: Baghdâd, p. 269.
[98] These are exactly copied in the domes over the carrefours in the bazaars, which are certainly much later in date.
[99] I have been able to give an illustration of this system from Khân Khernîna; the chambers at Baghdâd were so dark that photography was almost impossible.
[100] Some admirable photographs of it are given by De Beylié, op. cit., p. 33 et seq.
[101] A good photograph has been given by Viollet: Le Palais de Al-Moutasim, Mémoires présentés à l’Acad. des Inscrip. et Belles-Lettres, Vol. XII. Part II. Viollet believes it to have come from a church. See too Herzfeld: “Die Genesis der islamischen Kunst,” in Der Islâm, Vol. I. Part I.
[102] De Beylié, op. cit., p. 30. He gives several illustrations.