[329] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the principal street of Cairo.
[330] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the suburbs or environ (ḍawáḥee) of Cairo—[The latest date in that work, as far as I am aware, is found in the account of the mosques, in two separate places. It is that of the year of the Flight 843 (in the edition recently printed at Cairo); and, as El-Maḳreezee died in the year 845, its occurrence is curious as shewing the likelihood that he continued the composition of his most celebrated work until very near his death. Indeed, it is probable that he never finished it; the seventh and last section, which is mentioned in the Preface, being wanting in all the MSS. This date, in each instance, may be an insertion by a later hand; but the author's History of the Sulṭáns of Egypt was brought down, it is said by himself, to the year preceding his death,—Ed.]
[331] Marginal note, in my copy of the original, by the sheykh Mohammad 'Eiyád.
[332] Marginal note, in my copy of the original, by the sheykh Moḥammad 'Eiyád.
[333] Idem.
[334] A specimen of this mode of chanting is given in my work on the Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. end of chap. v.
[335] El-Maḳreezee's "Khiṭaṭ;" account of the hospitals.
[336] Ḳur-án, ch. v. v. 49.
[337] "Modern Egyptians," vol. i. ch. xiii.
[338] It would not be necessary to remark on this explanation of a curious custom if it had not been lately contradicted. Mr. Lane derived his information from Arab authors, and from his friends in Cairo; but D'Ohsson, also, says, in his Tableau Général de l'Empire Othoman, Code Religieux, livre ii. ch. iv. (and the authority of the works from which he translated will hardly be questioned), that the Khaṭeeb "est même tenu de réciter tout le Khouthbé sur la chaire, Minnber, en s'appuyant de la main sur la garde d'un sabre, dans tous les temples qui ont été pris avec la ville par la force des armes." The writer alluded to thinks that the use of the sword at Mekkeh proves Mr. Lane to be in error; whereas the custom is observed at Mekkeh because it was taken in war; but not at El-Medeeneh because this city was not so taken.—Ed.