Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/107

Rh many pious Jews, at passing in or out, touch the gate-post lightly and reverently, and then kiss their fingers.

II TURBET BIRKET MAMILLA most conspicuous object in this cemetery is a small domed building marking the grave of the Amìr Ala ed din ’Aidi Ghadi ibn ’Abdallah el Kebkebi, who died 688 (= 1289), according to the inscription over the doorway. Inside the edifice is a remarkable cenotaph, the ornamentation of which leads one to suspect that it probably at one time stood over the tomb of some distinguished Crusader, a conjecture which seems to be strengthened by two traditions which contradict the statements of the above-mentioned inscription.

One affirms that the Amìr here buried was a black man of gigantic strength, who, on one occasion, when fighting the Christians, cleft his opponent in twain, with a single blow, from the crest of his helmet downwards. The other declares the mausoleum to be that of the person in whose charge Saladin left Jerusalem after wresting it from the Crusaders in 1187 The date of the inscription suggests the time of Beybars.

A third story is that the edifice covers the grave