and needy students from remote countries are often boarded and lodged gratuitously. It is said that the number of students is diminishing, and that British influence and institutions in Egypt are producing a perceptible effect.

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are treated as if they did not exist.

The number of students is

variously given from 9,000 to 10,000, and, to the credit of the Muslims be it said, no student is obliged to pay a piastre for his instruction. The professors frequently teach for nothing,

IV. The Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn was founded by Aḥmad ibn Tulûn in 876, and the building was finished in 879, and prayers were said in it that year. It is, as Mr. Lane-Poole says, the most interesting monument of Muḥammadan Egypt, and forms a landmark in the history of architecture; it is the oldest mosque, except that of 'Amr, in Cairo, and it is the

mosque without columns, and suggested that brick pillars and arches would last longer than marble; the total cost of the building is said to have been 120,000 dînârs, or about £63,000. The open court measures about 300 feet from side to side; three sides have two rows of pillars, but the east side has four rows (originally five). Arches and piers are coated with plaster, in which designs are worked by hand. Round the arches and windows are a knop-and-flower pattern and the arcades are roofed with planks of sycamore, which, a tradition says, came from Noah's Ark. The general form of the mosque is similar to that of 'Amr restored; the great square covers 3 acres of ground. The Lîwân, or Sanctuary, was repaired in 1077, and the mihrâb, or niche, was built in 1994, and the Mamluk Sulțân Lagîn restored it in 1296, and gave a pulpit to the building. The mosque has a tower, outside of which is a spiral staircase, but in the true sense of the term it has neither minaret nor dome. A similar spiral stairway is found on the mosque-tower called Malwîyah at Sâmarrâ, on the east bank of the Tigris about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The cupola over the niche was the work of Lagîn. The Kûfî inscriptions in wood are a purely Arab addition, and the geometric ornament of the open grilles is Byzantine.

V. The Mûristân Ķalâûn was built by the Mamlûk Sultân Kalâûn about 1285, and was intended to serve as a hospital; it stands, in a ruined state, near his mosque and tomb in the quarter of the metalworkers. It contained two courts, on each side of which were small rooms wherein diseases of every kind were treated, and at the sides of another quadrangle were lecture rooms, baths, a library, dispensary, and every appliance which the science of the day could suggest. The only qualification for admission was to be sick, and medical treatment was gratuitous, and readers of the Kur'ân and musicians were attached to the hospital. In a school close by 60 orphans were kept and educated at the expense of the institution. The building which contains the Tomb of Kalâûn is well worth a visit, and its mosaics and other ornamentations are very good. Here also are exhibited the clothes which Kalâûn wore, and sick Muslims believe that if they touch them they will be cured of their illnesses. The Mûristân was finished by Kalâûn's son, An-Nâşir, whose tomb is near his father's. Kalâûn decided to build the Mûristân after a serious illness which came upon him, and we can understand his care for the poor when we remember that his son An-Nâșir had a cataract in one eye and

was lame in one foot. Close by is a building of the Sulțân Barkûk, erected in 1384, in which one of his daughters is buried.

VI. The Mosque of Ḥasan was built by the Sulțân of this name, who reigned from 1347 to 1351, was deposed for three years, and then reigned from 1354 to 1361. It was built between 1356 and 1359, and the expenses connected with it are said to have been 1,000 dînârs a day. A legend says that when the work was done, Ḥasan had the architect's hand cut off to prevent him from making a duplicate of the building. The mosque is in the form of a cross, and consists of a central court and four deep transepts. The walls are