tributed amongst the pious." And the Hâfiz, ibn-Asâkir,[1] says, "The Syrians considered el-Walîd as the best of their Khalîfahs. He built the mosque at Damascus; and he set apart a sufficiency for lepers, and said to cripples and to the blind, "Do not beg from other people, and I will give to each a servant or a guide.'"
And it is recorded that the sum total of what el-Walîd laid out in building the mosque of el-ʾUmmawy was four hundred chests, each chest containing eight-and-forty thousand dinârs; and six hundred chains of gold for the lamps. [But the building would not have been completed had not his brother Sulaimân, when he reigned over the Khalîfate, done many good deeds, and left behind him traces of excellence.] And yet, after all this, it is recorded by ʾOmar-ibn-ʾAbd-el-Azîz[2] that when el-Walîd was wrapt in his winding-sheet his hands were chained to his neck.[3]
- ↑ Abu-ʾl-Kâsim-ʾAly, commonly known by his surname of ibn-Asâkir, was the chief Hafiz, or Traditionist, of the age in which he lived. He was born A.H. 499, and died A.H. 571 (A.D. 1176).
- ↑ First cousin to el-Walîd and Sulaimân, and successor to the latter in the Khalîfate, A.H. 99 (A.D. 718).
- ↑ That is, that in spite of all his good deeds he chose to appear as a criminal at the Day of Resurrection.
