he sometimes said aloud, sometimes in silence. After repeating the first chapter of the Koran, he said, 'Amen,' which the congregation repeated after him. In two places of the prayers he would leave room for silence.

He opposed and forbade the protracting of the services; and when he was once told that an Imam had read out the long second Sura in the evening service, he became exceedingly angry, and said, 'Verily some of you cause the congregation to loathe the services: everyone who acts as Imam must make the service short; for in the assembly there are many sickly, weak, and needy ones.'

When he read from the Koran, he did so with distinctness, modulation, and expression, stopping at the end of every verse, and prolonging his voice. When he made the prostrations, he did not raise his hand, but first put his knees upon the ground, then his hands, and after that his forehead and nose. His arms he held far away from his chest, and put them on the ground, level with his shoulders, and his fingers he kept joined together. In sitting up for the confession of faith, he laid down his left foot and sat upon it; and planting his right foot, he put his right hand upon his right thigh, and his left hand upon his left thigh. But in the last of these sittings for confession, he put his left foot under the right, and sat on the ground.

It is narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas that during prayers the Prophet was looking from the corners of his eyes to the right and to the left. When he had finished the prayers following the confession, he said, 'Peace be upon you, and the mercy of God,' turning first to his right side, so that they who sat there could see his blessed cheek; and then to the left, saluting in the same way. And after the peace (i.e. at the close), he said three times, 'I ask pardon of the great God, besides whom there is no other God, the living, the eternal One; and I repent towards Him.'

Be it known that that Excellency read daily a certain portion from the Koran, besides the services, elucidating and explaining what he was reading. He read the Koran at all times, standing or sitting, after an ablution or without one; and nothing whatever prevented his reading, except cohabitation. He never finished the Koran in less than three days

and three nights.¹ When he heard the Koran read out by others, tears flowed from his blessed eyes. On journeys his custom was to shorten the services.

That prince observed Friday, on which day he performed a great many services, cleaned his clothes, and recommended the Friday-bath. When the people were assembled for prayers, on Friday, that prince went to mosque alone, without a chamberlain or servant; and on arriving, he first greeted those present; then he ascended the pulpit, and saluted again before sitting down. As soon as Bilal had finished his call to prayers, he rose up and delivered an address in which he praised God; confessed the Faith; exhorted and commanded the believers to fear and obey God, to loathe and despise the world, and to desire eternity; read a verse from the Koran, and prayed for the male and female believers. When he had finished the address, he leaned upon a bow or a staff, never upon a sword or a spear. But afterwards, when the pulpit was properly fitted up, this leaning upon a bow or a staff, was not continued. In his address he would also command the people to be near the Imam, and to keep silence during the address. If, after the Friday service, he returned to his house, he said four more genuflexions of prayers; if he prayed in the mosque, never more than two. He used to say, 'There is one short space of time on Friday: if any one knew that time and prayed in it, God would grant him all he asks for. That hour is not confined to the lifetime of the prophet, but recurs until the day of the resurrection.' The Ulemas entertain eleven different views as to which is that hour for acceptable prayer, of which the following two are the most probable: first, the time from the Imam's entering the desk to the conclusion of the service; secondly, the time between the afternoon prayers and sunset.

The festival service he performed outside Medina, in a place for prayer, except once, when the rain prevented their going outside the town, and the service had to be held in the mosque. On the day of the feast he put on his best garments,