ey and equipage of Omar are described
(besides Ockley, vol. i. p. 250) by Murtadi, (Merveilles de l'Egypte, p.
200-202.)]

[Footnote 81: The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at Jerusalem,
and describing the name, the religion, and the person of Omar, the
future conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to have soothed the
pride of their foreign masters, Cyrus and Alexander, (Joseph. Ant. Jud.
l. xi c. 1, 8, p. 447, 579-582.)]

[Footnote 82: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 281. This prediction, which had
already served for Antiochus and the Romans, was again refitted for
the present occasion, by the economy of Sophronius, one of the deepest
theologians of the Monothelite controversy.]

[Footnote 83: According to the accurate survey of D'Anville,
(Dissertation sun l'ancienne Jerusalem, p. 42-54,) the mosch of Omar,
enlarged and embellished by succeeding caliphs, covered the ground of
the ancient temple, (says Phocas,) a length of 215, a breadth of 172,
toises. The Nubian geographer declares, that this magnificent structure
was second only in size and beauty to the great mosch of Cordova, (p.
113,) whose present state Mr. Swinburne has so elegantly represented,
(Travels into Spain, p. 296-302.)]

[Footnote 84: Of the many Arabic tarikhs or chronicles of Jerusalem,
(D'Herbelot, p. 867,) Ockley found one among the Pocock Mss. of Oxford,
(vol. i. p. 257,) which he has used to supply the defective narrative of
Al Wakidi.]

To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war the caliph had formed two
separate armies; a chosen detachment, under Amrou and Yezid, was left in
the camp of Palestine; while the larger division, under the standard
of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched away to the north against Antioch
and Aleppo. The latter of these, the Beraea of the Greeks, was not
yet illustrious as the capital of a province or a kingdom; and the
inhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading their
poverty, obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion.
But the castle of Aleppo, [85] distinct from the city, stood erect on
a lofty artificial mound the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and
faced with free-stone; and the breadth of the ditch might be filled with
water from the neighboring springs. After the loss of three thousand
men, the garrison was still equal to the defence; and Youkinna, their
valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, a holy monk,
for daring to pronounce the name of peace