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 HOTEL AT HAMMAM RIRHA

Mosque of Sidi Bou Medine, not far from the Tlemçen of to-day. We make our way across vacant fields, once the site of a capital renowned for luxury and learning, to the tiny hamlet where, through many wars and conquests, has been preserved much of the grace and beauty of the old Arabic art and architecture. Arabic in more than architecture is that little detached quarter. It boasts the virtue of numbering not a single unbeliever among its inhabitants, while buried in its mosque are many saints of Islam, and in its ruined college the Koran is taught by an aged taleeb. Few know the history of Tlemçen, yet it is a subject worthy the song of an epic poet. Arabic historians tell us that proud Tlemçen had already undergone many sieges and assaults when Mulai Yakub, sultan of Fez, came to avenge a fancied wrong and to assert his power. He came prepared to achieve her conquest, cost what it might. His plan was most ambitious, including as it did the founding of a new city close at hand, where he and his court, his army and his people, might dwell in luxury while carrying on the