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17th) for Saragossa, with Marcus in his train; and the latter was in high spirits, thinking he had ruined the Jews. But that night an aged man roused the servant of each synagogue, and told him how the king intended to surprise the rabbis. So when the noise of the king’s coming went abroad next morning, and they went out to meet him as usual, they were not unprepared. Alphonso did not return their greetings but, frowning, ordered the cases to be opened. His command was obeyed very cheerfully, and every case was found to contain its scroll of the Pentateuch. The king then turned his anger upon Marcus, who was hanged from the nearest tree.

To commemorate this event the Jews of Saragossa instituted an annual feast, observed even after subsequent persecutions had driven them from Spain, and still, as we have seen, celebrated by their descendants on the 17th of Shebat.

IX

On the southern wall inside the great Mesjid El Aksa at Jerusalem, which stands on the site of Justinian’s famous Church of St Mary, there hangs in a gilt frame a specimen of ornamental Arabic caligraphy. It is the well-known koranic text concerning Mohammed’s night-journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and the guardians of the sanctuary state that it was penned by Sultan Mahmûd, father of Sultan Abd