terior hung from chains of gold. There was praying space for twenty thousand men. Under the Moslems Ramleh and not Jerusalem had been the capital of Palestine, and Mukaddasi declared it needed only running water to make it " without compare the finest town in Islam." The houses were built of marble, white, green, red or blue, and most of them were beautifully sculptured and ornamented. Its chief mosque, called the White Mosque, well located in the market place, was one of the gems of Eastern architecture, rivalling that of Damascus. An emporium for the Egyptian trade, and an excellent commercial station for the two seas, with a mild climate and luscious fruits, it held a high place in the esteem of all the Moslems, even though the critical Mukaddasi has to add to his description of the people as being generous that they were " also rather foolish." As for Jerusalem, while its architects in all times had devoted their best efforts to giving expression to the religious significance of the sacred places, they had not neglected its general aspects. All the buildings were of stone and nowhere, according to both Moslem and Christian chronicle, could be found finer or more substantial construction. Surrounded by great walls, its streets paved with stone, it had large and well equipped bazaars, some of them covered with pierced stone roofs, after the Oriental manner, where the pilgrim as well as the in-dweller could supply all his wants. Before the Crusades it could boast of " all manner of learned men and doc