Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/380

326 as is evident from the hexangular belfry which is now converted into a minaret, and from the lower parts of the building. As in the case of the Great Mosque at Diarbekir, the nave of the church has been turned into a court-yard, in which a fountain has been introduced for the religious ablutions of the Mussulmans, and the southern wall of the church is now the northern wall of the mosque. The fountain is surmounted by a dome raised upon four Corinthian pillars taken from some more ancient building.

Issuing forth from the Bâk Kapoosi we took a stroll round the city. Directing our course southward we crossed the bridge over the Kara Koyoon, and entered the gardens, in the walls of which we observed many fragments of sculptures and a few very imperfect Greek inscriptions, apparently referable to the Byzantine period. Passing the Harrân gate on our right we walked towards the Bir-Ayyoob (Job's well), connected with which is a Ziyaret, or shrine, held in some repute by the Mussulmans, and tended by a few miserable looking creatures, who obtain a livelihood by begging from the visitors to the sacred enclosure. According to the Mohammedans this was the well from which Job used to drink, while the Christians believe it to be the place where the painter, who had been sent by Abgarus to take a likeness of the, dropped the napkin whereon had vouchsafed to bestow upon him a miraculous impression of His countenance. The common tradition of this occurrence is as follows: the painter, on receiving the napkin from our blessed , had been directed not to look behind him until he had delivered it into the hands of king Abgarus; but, on arriving at this well, he forgot the injunction, and suddenly the sound of an army in battle so terrified him, that he let fall the napkin on the spot, which was then a dry ditch, and immediately a spring burst forth bearing on its surface the mysterious image. The water of the well is believed both by Mohammedans and Christians to possess a miraculous property for curing certain cutaneous diseases, and mixed with a little clay is frequently sprinkled over fields of wheat and barley infested with a destructive insect very common in these districts.

From the well we walked to another Mohammedan shrine called Sheikh Maksood, situated to the south-west of the citadel,