Allah’s command, built by his assistant angels, and then visited by them in pilgrimage fully two thousand years before the creation of our Father Adam, who was buried there. Ibrahim el Khalil, En Nebi Daûd, and many other prophets and saints lived and died there; therefore Allah Himself loves the place and will punish all who hate it and would do it an injury. I advise thee, O Monarch of the Age, to put in hand some work that may improve the city.”
Struck by these words, the Sultan set out shortly on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and in the course of his stay there gave orders for the restoration of the Haram, and the rebuilding of the walls.
The work on the walls was entrusted to the superintendence of two brothers, who were architects. Each of them had his own party of workmen, and his sphere of labour. They both began at Bab el Asbat, one party working northwards and the other southwards. It took seven years[1] to complete the task. At the expiration of that time both working parties met again at Bab el Khalil. The architect who had been given the duty of enclosing the southern part of the city was however beheaded by the Sultan’s orders, because he had left the Coenaculum and adjoining buildings outside and unprotected by the new rampart. The lions at the Bab el Asbât were
- ↑ This statement that it took seven years is an orientalism. According to the inscriptions still to be seen, the work was begun A.D. 1536 on the north side of the city, and finished on the south side A.D. 1539.
