Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/222

Rh amongst the pious." And the Hâfiz, ibn-Asâkir, 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 that when el-Walîd was wrapt in his winding-sheet his hands were chained to his neck.