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The Khalife El Mohdy added to the size of the mosque at two different periods; the last time, in A.H. 163, he bought the ground required for these additions from the Mekkawys, paying to them twenty-five dinars for every square pike. It was this Khalife who brought the columns from Egypt, as I have already observed. The improvements which he had begun, were completed by his son El Hady.
The walls were cased with marble variously adorned, and parts of them likewise gilt, and the whole building thus completely renewed. "About A.H. 160, the Khalife El Mohdy still further enlarged the enclosure, and made it two hundred and forty pikes in length; and in this state the mosque remained for several centuries.
On the lower side of Mekka are: Adjyad, or Djyad Ras el Insan, between the Djebel Kobeys and Adjyad Shab el Khatem, near Adjyad Djebel Khalife Djebel Orab Djebel Omar Ghadaf El Mokba El Lahdje El Kadfade Zat el Laha Zou Merah Es Selfeyn El Dokhadekh Zou el Shedyd Zat e' Selym Adhat el Nabt, so called from some Nabateans who resided there, and were sent by Mawya Ibn Aly Sofyan to make mortar at Mekka Om Kerdan.
He built fine houses at every station from Baghdad to Mekka, and caused them to be splendidly furnished; he also erected mile-stones along the whole route, and was the first Khalife who carried snow with him, to cool sherbet on the road, in which he was imitated by many of his successors.
The Khalife Haroun Raschid, making the same pilgrimage, met him upon the way and inquired after his welfare; the Sofi answered him with an Arabian quatrain, of which this is the meaning: "'We mend the rags of this worldly robe with the pieces of the robe of Religion, which we tear apart for this end; "'And we do our work so thoroughly that nothing remains of the latter,
The Khalife El Motaded, in A.H. 281, put the whole mosque into a complete state of repair: he rebuilt its walls; made new gates, assigning to them new names; and enlarged the building on the west It is said to have stood near the spot where the Makam el Hanefy is now placed. In A.H. 314, or, according to others, 301, Mekka and its temple experienced great disasters.
I mention this for the sake of future travellers, who, on discovering them, might perhaps consider them as the vestiges of some powerful Greek or Egyptian colony. The historians of Mekka remark, and not without astonishment, that the munificent Khalife Haroun er Rasheid, although he repeatedly visited the Kaaba, added nothing to the mosque, except a new pulpit, or mambar.
It is observable that none of the Othman Emperors of Constantinople ever performed the pilgrimage in person. The Khalife El Mohdy Abou Abdallah Mohammed expended on his pilgrimage in A.H. 160, thirty millions of dirhems. He carried with him an immense number of gowns to distribute as presents.
In A.H. 354, the Khalife El Mokteder built the vestibule near the gate of the mosque, called Bab Ibrahim, which projects beyond the straight line of the columns, and united in it two ancient gates, called From that time no further improvements were made for several centuries.
This accident was ascribed to the Persian sectaries of Beni Hosseyn, who were then the guardians of the tomb. In the following year its restoration was undertaken at the expense of the Khalife Mostasem Billah, Ibn el Montaser Billah, and the lord of Yemen, El Mothaffer Shams eddyn Yousef, and completed by El Dhaher Bybars, Sultan of Egypt, in A.H. 657. The dome over the tomb was erected in 678.
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