NOTE TO ABOVE.
El-Walîd was proclaimed Khalîfah the same day that his father died, A.H. 85. He died A.H.. 96 (A.D. 715), and was buried at Damascus, having reigned nine years and eight months. Historians differ much in their accounts of his character; those of Syria represent him as the greatest prince of the house of ʾOmeyyah, whereas Persian and other Muslim writers describe him as naturally cruel and violent, and subject to intemperate fits of passion. He is said to have had some skill in architecture, and expended large sums upon public buildings. El-Makîn's estimate of the sum laid out upon the mosque at Damascus, is, however, considerably less than that of the historian quoted in the text. The former reckons it at four hundred chests, each containing fourteen thousand, instead of forty-eight thousand, dinârs.
